Chauvinism further mars the mediocrity (3/5)
John Jakes piqued my
interest after I picked up and read Secrets of Stardeep (1969) and On
Wheels (1973) on a whim. The latter novel is a satisfying satire on
American’s obsession with cars yet follows a fairly typical plot line with a
predictable finish—3/5 stars in my opinion with 2/5 stars for the former novel.
John Jakes was a “bestselling author”, as the cover exclaims, of historical
novels with the Kent Family Chronicles of the Civil War era, not speculative
fiction. And much like the civil war, this collection is spiced with chauvinism
of gender and race. As a bestselling author, one would expect the stories that
could plumb the depths of human existence or touch the hearts of many; rather,
it’s completely white-male dominated.
This mini-theme starts
in the first story—“Machine”—where the only female character is a whiney,
concerning housewife, followed by “Political Machine” where only men dominate
the political arena and the sole women are, of course, schoolteachers or
secretaries. Females as secretaries, models, and victims make an appearance in
“The Sellers of Dreams” in which females are naturally so self-conscious of
fashion that they are all willing to change their entire person and persona
based on the season’s whims… and because men, naturally wouldn’t do that.
In “The Highest Form
of Life”, the only female is a reporter who has a “grating female voice”
(91)—thus, this story should be the title for the entire collection: White
Men: The Highest Form of Life. From this story on, the female and minority
roles take a plummet. “One Race Show”—another apt title for the collection—hosts
another whiney wife.
This is all taken to
another level in “Love is a Punch in the Nose” where the misogyny is obvious
yet veiled in satire. When a man punches and hits his wife to make himself feel
better, it reeks of something wrong, regardless of the twist ending. But what’s
worse than being a woman?—being Asian. When the man finds that it was, after
all, OK to hit his wife, he sees another woman—someone lower on the totem pole
than himself—take up with a “refugee and freedom fighter from Japkor… [who had]
escaped through the Com Chin barricades” (139). He believes the woman
victimizes him out of scorn.
Another apt title:
“There’s No Vinism Like Chauvinism”. Here, men take the domineering roles and
just once it looked like a female would play the leading role in the
revolution, but it turns out she’s just a victim, too, as in “The Sellers of
Dreams” and “Love is a Punch in the Nose”. Then there’s “Recidivism Preferred”
in which the kidnappers plan to free a “sex degenerate” in order to “teach
those bureaucrats” of the government for the sake of “free enterprise” (196).
Ah, free love is rough love.
The last story—“Here is
Thy Sting”—is quite good but, again, chauvinism rears its head. While Cassius
is a seriously driven man with the noble goal of writing his own history book,
his female partner has a flighty mind bent on whimsical topics for her nitwitted
editorial job. And like “Love is a Punch
in the Nose”, Asians are the lowest in the rung of humans: Cassius writes about
how the Chinese were the defeated aggressors in a fictional Puerto Rican war;
another character has a book entitled Alert! The Yellow Underground is Attacking;
some “yellow-cheeked bootboy” (217) dies in an brief and unnecessary scene, and
Dolly Sue Wei dies in violence stemming from her being “the first non-American
ever to register at the University of Levittown” and who was buried “in a free
cemetery in Manhattan’s Oriental ghetto” (223). “Here is Thy Sting” scores one
point for having a famous female musician, but even she is prone to emotional…
the same unsettling, disastrous emotion which affects Cassius in the end.
All this chauvinism
could (1) be the result of market demand as the stories were written between
1952 and 1968 yet are distinctly not New Wave, progressive stories of which
often assume different sex and race roles. It could also (2) be a symptom of
the editors’ hand-picking of Jakes’ 72 published SF stories: Martin Harry
Greenberg (noted for over thirty years as an editor and anthologist) and Joseph
D. Olander (noted for his anthologies in the 1970s). It could also (3) be just
part of the author’s repertoire as he also has machismo novels as Brak the
Barbarian (1968).
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“Machine”
(shortstory, 1952) – 3/5
Charlie swears at and
damns the very toaster that’s burned him, claiming it to have a mind of its
own. His wife Helen looks on with mild amusement mixed with topical worry. Charlie’s
pet hate for all machines good and bad affects his daily life as he forsakes
cars in favor of the streetcar, yet at home, he continuously eyes the kitchen
toaster. When his wife is away, he follows through with his mechan-icidal plan,
but both his wife and the toaster know that he’s up to no good. 4 pages
“Political Machine”
(shortstory, 1961) – 3/5
In the American
capitol sits the Combined Congressional Building; in that massive complex sits
one of many similar machines that perfectly pass laws through rigorous logic:
the Illinois Chamber. To facilitate the machine, one man was elected as the
Populist Custodian: Elwood Everett Swigg. Behind the man made of metal and
flesh is an even bigger mover who commands keywords to Swigg so that he stops and
goes as he pleases: Buster Poole. And behind him is the good doctor. Above them
all sits a debate, which could unravel them all. 17 pages
“The Sellers of the
Dream” (novelette, 1963) – 3/5
TTIC and G/S are the
competing companies who drive the future of consumerism, where even
personalities and body modifications can change with the season. For G/S to
grab a larger part of the upcoming female modification, they send their mole
Finian Smith to view the initial unveiling. What he sees astonishes him: the model
is a girl he once loved. Having been caught and ousted from TTIC, his boss of
G/S sees him and fires him, but not before Finian catches a glimpse of a bigger
mystery. Jobless, Finian sets out to find his girl and unravel the mystery. 39
pages
“The Highest Form
of Life” (shortstory, 1961) – 3/5
The U.S.S.
Sharkbait sits throttling at pier ready to take its scientific journey to
the depths of the water in order to communicate with Tursiops truncates—the
bottle-nosed dolphin. But just off shore sits the Nikolai Fernoyn, the
presence of which seems to indicate that their dolphin communication research
is either false or penetrated. Regardless, the Americans feel confident as
they’ve already been contacted by an alien race and their translation systems
seem legit… only the dolphins don’t want to return communication. 12 pages
“One Race Show”
(novelette, 1962) – 4/5
Rhinelander owns a
gallery and an estate—actually, his wealthy wife owns the latter, a fact that
miffs him. His gallery, however, isn’t the talk of the town as that accolade
goes to Swallows, who has received five original painting from an unknown
artist named Joe Caul. Morose yet intrigued by the popularity, Rhinelander
visits the gallery himself and is hypnotized by the dark, hellish portraits. Caul’s
location is a mystery, so Rhinelander becomes determined to hunt him down, but
what he finds confuses then disturbs him… and everyone. 28 pages
“Love is a Punch in
the Nose” (shortstory, 1966) – 1/5
After Charles heard
that he had been passed over on a promotion, his angered compelled him to
strike the very thing he loved most: his wife Shirley. Once struck, she forgave
him; Charles felt like a new man—his anger relieved and his wife obedient. The
coming months saw his fierceness increase as he continued to strike her for
insecure insinuations after she had spoken. When he plunged a knife into her
chest, his life changed. He was soon learns that his misogyny is only eclipsed
by racism in terms of degradation. 11 pages
“There’s No Vinism
Like Chauvinism” (novelette, 1965) – 2/5
“[T]hree hundred
million Americans who, in these packed vertical cities, found release in the
emotional catharsis if fierce partisanship with the armies on either side of
the various commercial wars which had uncontrollably wracked the US … for more
than twenty years” (151). The wars, however, are carefully scripted from
Washington with actors participating in the wars, the multitude of which is
under hypnosis. When a real bullet kills a real cow, the unscripted action
unveils a cascade of revolution. 44 pages
“Recidivism
Preferred” (shortstory, 1962) – 3/5
“Randolf Mellors was a
soulless hulk of his former conniving self” (185) as he sits behind the counter
of a bumpkin goods ship. He’s polite yet deferring, shy yet competent; his only
fault is the one thing haunts him: three words: Acme Lead Works. His day-to-day
monotony breaks when a well-to-do trio enters the store, first innocuously then
aggressively as they attempt to kidnap him. His reflexes kick in but their
planning snares him as he continues to plead his innocence. News reporting,
psychology, and crime all clash as Randolf struggles to free himself. 13 pages
“Here is Thy Sting”
(novelette, 1968) – 4/5
When Cassius goes to
retrieve the casket of his brother who died as a bystander in a knife fight, on
the moon, he’s frustrated that someone else had already picked it up. Phone
calls and visits to the officials produce no leads as to there his brother’s
body may have gone. Meanwhile haunted by a dream in which a savage dog chases
him, Cassius sees the world around him full of stagnation and mediocrity. With
his own flame of inspiration lit, he begins his long search for his brother,
but answers are dangerous. 50 pages
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