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The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton (Alternatives)
The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton - Alternatives Author:Mark Clifton, Barry N. Malzberg (Editor), Martin H. Greenberg (Editor) Mark Clifton published only 20 stories and 3 novels, but because he peopled his fiction with fully rounded characters, pierced idiocy and timid complacency with sardonic wit, and observed the human animal with compassion and irony, he altered forever the face of science fiction. — An innovator of the early 1950s, Clifton was one of the first to e... more »tch lines of wisdom and maturity into the youthful visage of commercial science fiction. His subjects were common enough - alien invasion, expanding technology, revolution against political theocracy, space colonization.
Even the most fantastic of Clifton's stories succeed because the first-person narrator always inspires trust. Whether he speaks of poltergeists, alien beings, ESP, or travel through space and time without spaceship, the narrator seems sane, believable. In 5 of the 11 stories the narrator follows Clifton's profession of 20 years - industrial personnel specialist. A clue to the credibility of his fiction emerges from his approach to that job.
Clifton scorns those who deny phenomena they cannot experience. Through his fiction runs the idea that extraordinary people must pretend to be average lest the average rise up and smite them. In "Clerical Error" scientists must shape their opinions to suit loyalty boards and justice departments. The narrator in "Star Bright" feels he must teach his daughter to hide her immense intelligence - but fortunately she is bright enough to escape into another dimensions before the "Stupids" harm her.
"Hide! Hide! Witch!" tells the Frankenstein legend anew - with one crucial difference; Clifton is not on the side of the ignorant and superstitious who would burn the witch for seeking hidden knowledge. Like Prometheus, Clifton would risk his liver to bring light; like Eve he would have knowledge, would face eviction rather than dwell in mindless paradise. Clifton is serious, but humorous, too. This particular monster, called Bossy, is a machine that functions as a human and looks vaguely like a cow. And one bureaucrat can say, "I merely see to it that you teachers say nothing which threatens our freedom of speech."
A chief object of Clifton's derision, in fact, is the foolish bureaucrat who hampers those who might break through existing limitations. Bureaucrats create the Poltergeist Division at the Pentagon, just as they initiate an investigation into the one factory that meets both government deadlines and cost estimates. The typical bureaucrat is Dr. Moss of "Clerical Error." Dr. Moss lacks all creative intuition. His work is technically correct, but incomplete. His case history of a supposedly mad scientist lists the details, but no human being emerges: "Men with minds of clerks could only understand error on a clerical level." Although he grew increasingly bitter near the end of his career, Clifton believed that at least some could move beyond the clerical level. He wrote for those.
Contents:Memoir and appreciation / Judith Merril. What have I done? --