R P Mills' Decade of F&SF: M W Wellman, R E Banks and A Davidson

Robert P. Mills edited Venture and F&SF in the late Fifties and early Sixties, and also edited a bunch of F&SF-related anthologies.  Let's check out some stories from his 1960 book A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which has a sort of abstract cover by Mel Hunter, a realistic work of whose I recently saw during one of my regular explorations of magazines at antique stores.

Of A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction's contents, we've already read John Ciardi's "The Hypnoglyph," Theodore Sturgeon's "Fear is a Business," and Mildred Clingerman's "First Lesson."  Today we'll attack stories from this anthology, all of which debuted in F&SF, by Manly Wade Wellman, Raymond E.  Banks, and Avram Davidson.  We'll probably investigate three more tales from the book in a future blog post.

Nota bene: I am reading all these stories in a scan of A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction, but if something looks fishy I will consult scans of the original magazines.

"Walk Like a Mountain" by Manly Wade Wellman (1955)

This John the Balladeer story first saw print in an issue of F&SF that also included Damon Knight's "You're Another," a story I took to task at great length in a blog post which also serves as one component of my defense of A. E. van Vogt against the Knight groupies.  This ish also offers stories by Chad Oliver, Evelyn E. Smith and Charles Beaumont I haven't read yet but may read in the near future.  Who knows what paths I will tread?

It is pretty common for SF stories to find inspiration in, and to directly invoke as a means of creating a mood or painting an image for the reader, elements of Greek and Roman or Norse mythology, or 19th-century British novels like Frankenstein or Dracula.  Here in "Walk Like a Mountain," Wellman changes things up a little, piling on references to the Bible and to American tall tales like those of Paul Bunyan and John Henry.  This not only feels like a refreshing change of pace, but makes sense for the milieu Wellman always sets his Silver John stories in--the rural South--and the characters who inhabit them--hillbillies, not the scientists, college professors, urban nerds and aristocrats who populate so many of the SF stories we read.

John has taken up the task of bringing to an old friend some money due to him from an inheritance.  This old friend now lives near the top of a mountain, in a little village of like five houses.  Above the little village, atop the mountain, is a sixth house, home of a man eight feet tall who is said to have the power to summon rainstorms and control lightning.  Up on the plateau where sits this giant's shack is the stream and pond that feed the waterfall that rushes past the village.

When John arrives at the village, he finds the place in turmoil.  The giant has kidnapped John's pal's beautiful daughter, a woman over six feet tall.  The villagers are of course scared to confront the giant, who, besides being hugely muscled sorcerer, can only be reached via a treacherous climb, during which the climber will be very vulnerable.

John volunteers to try to talk sense into the giant.  The silver-tongued bard uses his ability to sing and play his silver-stringed guitar, his knowledge of the Bible and folklore, and his natural cleverness and neighborliness to get in good with the giant.  After climbing up the cliff, John learns from the giant that the village is doomed--a big rainstorm is coming and it will swell the waterfall to the point it will wash away the village and its inhabitants--the giant carried off the beautiful girl to save her from this disaster.  The giant is in love with this tall woman, who besides being beautiful is brave and resourceful, but he couldn't care less about the other villagers, whom he suspects think him a freak.  With the woman's help, John uses psychology to persuade the giant to put his super strength and magical powers to the job of altering the shape of the pond so that water from the terrific storm will drain on another side of the mountain and not destroy the village.  This act of redemption wins the giant the hand of the beauty in marriage.

An entertaining story, Wellman rendering the images and ideas skillfully and making all the characters sympathetic--thumbs up!  "Walk Like a Mountain" has been reprinted in numerous Wellman collections and several anthologies.

"Rabbits to the Moon" by Raymond E. Banks (1959)

Here we have a dead pan, straight-faced, humor story.  While it isn't actually funny, the story is clever, even sophisticated at times, and the humor doesn't get in the way of the more serious character and speculative elements of Banks' story.  For example, I found Banks' depiction of a once-vital man going senile, and how those around him react to his decay, very convincing, even sad.  "Rabbits to the Moon"'s plot is also well-constructed; the disparate pieces operate smoothly so the story has plot twists and a compelling complexity but is not hard to follow or to credit, and Banks' wild science fiction speculations are not simply window dressing but are actually fully integrated into the plot.  Thumbs up!

It is the future of air cars and routine travel between Earth and the little colony of domed scientific facilities on the moon.  Reginald Goom is a wealthy businessman, head of Goom Looms, a boutique clothing manufacturer.  For generations, Goom Looms has been a small firm that trades in the finest attire for fashionable men, each article it produces and sells a work of art.  But today the company has an opportunity to get a huge contract, for space suit components, and expand its operations and profits radically.  Reginald Goom doesn't want his company to get into mass production, to abandon its essential nature; of course, most everybody else who has shares in the company wants to seize this opportunity to make stacks of money.  These people who care more about profits than tradition and quality can outvote Reginald Goom because, at the moment, they have more voting shares than he does; you see, Reginald's cousin Dick Mullen usually sends a proxy to Reginald so Reginald can vote his shares, but cuz is currently on the moon and the proxy won't arrive in time for the vote.

Reginald is one of the two surviving Gooms; the other is his niece, who is married to a scientist who is secretly working on a teleporter.  This scientist has been teleporting rabbits to the moon, but hasn't got all the kinks out of the process yet, so is scared to send a human being.  When Reginald Goon finds out about the teleporter he jumps into it when the inventor isn't looking, thinking this way he can get to Luna ad get his hands on the proxy in time to save his company from expansion.  When Reginald arrives on the moon he is like a blob--the teleporter transmits soft tissues and bones at different speeds, and his bones haven't arrived yet, and won't for a week or so.  Amazingly, life as a blob ain't so bad!  As a blob, your cells become pretty plastic, and you can devote additional cells to the brain to increase your intelligence (a cure for senility!) or to your muscles to increase strength, maybe even form wings and glide around.       

With the help of his clever, manipulative niece, Reginald Goom triumphs.  With the proxy from cousin Dick Mullen, he can vote down acceptance of the space suit contract, a contract no longer valuable anyway, because the success of the teleporter renders space suits obsolete.  Increased profits that can satisfy the shareholders are still available, however--separating yourself from your bones is going to become very popular among the fashionable set, and Goom Looms can get into the business of making the most stylish of exoskeletons for those who prefer to walk around instead of slither and ooze from place to place.  

I find this story unusual and entertaining, but it hasn't been reprinted much beyond the various editions of A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  Here in "Rabbits to the Moon" Banks demonstrates the ability to construct a satisfying plot, develop science fiction speculations, and write likable and interesting characters, but it seems he never wrote a respectable science fiction novel, just goofy porn novels and hard-boiled detective novels which wikipedia says did not sell.  Sad!    

"The Certificate" by Avram Davidson (1959)

Here we have a brief and pungent horror story about life on Earth fifty years after the conquest of humanity by inexplicable and invincible space aliens.  These alien bastards destroyed most of what was on the Earth's surface in their irresistible attack, including most of the people, and the human survivors are maintained as slaves, put to work at jobs they don't even understand, pulling levers twelve hours a day that do they know not what, sleeping the rest of the day in poorly heated dormitories.

The aliens spare little for the humans, so that people's clothes wear out, for example.  Once a year you can petition the aliens for some boon by forgoing sleep and waiting in line on your off hours; if you make it to the head of the line before it is time to report for work you then fill out the request forms; lots of people ask for new clothes or for permission to visit relatives or friends they knew fifty years ago, before the invasion.

People like our protagonist are still able to work twelve hours a day fifty years after the conquest because the aliens have instituted a comprehensive system of socialized medicine.  All humans have had something implanted in them that immediately cures them of any disease they might contract or heals any possible injury in a matter of moments.  This system also serves as law enforcement--anybody who is late for work or otherwise misbehaves suffers horrendous physical and psychological torture which leaves no permanent damage.

This implant makes people almost immortal, and also makes suicide almost impossible.  And on the fifth and final page of "The Certificate" we learn what the main character has been waiting in line, scurrying from one office to another, and filling out forms to request--permission to die.

Thumbs up.  

After its debut in an "All Star" issue of F&SF, "The Certificate" was reprinted in several Davidson collections and various anthologies.

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Robert P. Mills did us a solid recommending to us these three stories, all of which are somewhat unusual and all of which hold the attention and generate real human feeling in the reader by depicting characters who face challenges and pursue goals that resonate with the reader and who evolve in response to changing circumstances.  Let's hope that the next time we open up A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction that the stories will be equally satisfying.