A cross between Philip K. Dick New Wave SF and an episode from Looney Tunes Cartoons - if you don't like funny, don't read this book.
Mindswap, classic SF novel where author Robert Sheckley takes the time to explore a number of provocative ideas relating to mathematics, physics, psychology, sociology and philosophy but the whole madcap tale of Marvin Flynn inhabiting a string of cartoonish bodies from other planets is right up there with Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian. Come to think of it, maybe Sheckley hit on the name for his main character after watching a few of those Marvin the Martian cartoons.
Marvin Flynn's true love is travel. But, alas, thirty-one year old, dirt poor Marvin lacks the big bucks necessary to take advantage of trips to other planets. Oh, how Marvin dreads the prospect of being stuck in his job as engineer for a toy manufacturer all his life. Damn! Even with his college education, coming from a small town in upstate New York and from a family one notch above poverty-stricken, Marvin's extraterrestrial travel prospects appear to be doomed.
Then one day Marvin reads his local paper: a Martian wishes to swap minds with a mentally and physically sound Earthling. Zounds! Marvin's big chance to travel to Mars to experience the Red Planet the way it should be experienced, through the body of an actual inhabitant.
After discussing his mindswapping prospect with best friend Billy Hake at the local soda fountain while Billy sips his LSD-frappé (the affordable, socially acceptable way poor people zoom off to other worlds), Marvin meets up with a Mr Blanders, the lawyer/broker in charge of making arrangements for swapping minds.
Mr. Blanders shows Marvin a photograph of a male Martian with a barrel chest, thin legs, slightly thicker arms, and a small head with an extremely long nose. No problem for Marvin. Following several preparatory remarks and the signing of papers, Marvin is taken to a special room, the Transfer Room, where he sits in a chair that looks eerily like an old electric chair. Straps fastened, knockout drops administered and the next thing Marvin Flynn knows he's a long-nosed Martian on Mars who speaks with a lisp.
Can Marvin now enjoy a leisurely tour of Mars? Unfortunately not since Kraggash the mindswapping Martian pulled a swindle, taking money from more than one non-Martian for the use of his body. The consequence: Martian law demands Marvin surrender his Martian body, long nose, lisp and all, in six hours. Six hours! To avoid death, Marvin must act fast to get himself another body via another mindswap.
Marvin does a second mindswap but our mild-mannered hero is not exactly a lucky kind of guy - there's problems aplenty with his next body on the next far-distant planet. And Robert Sheckley's Loony Tunes story soars on from there.
Recall I mentioned Mindswap is New Wave SF complete with its share of tantalizing ideas. Here's a bunch you can ponder:
Panzaism - Here's one of Mr Blanders' remarks to prepare Marvin for his mindswap: "'However, under the continued and unremitting impact of the unknown, even the analogizing faculty can become distorted. Unable to handle the flood of data by the normal process of conceptual analogizing, the subject becomes victim to perceptual analogizing. This state is what we call "metaphoric deformation". The process is also known as "Panzaism". Does that make it clear?'
'No,' Marvin said. 'Why is it called "Panzaism"?'
'The concept is self-explanatory,' Blanders said. 'Don Quijote thinks the windmill is a giant, whereas Panza thinks the giant is a windmill. Quijotism may be defined as the perception of everyday things as rare entities. The reverse of that is Panzaism, which is the perception of rare entities as everyday things.'"
Sidebar: I think the majority of people are prone to Panzaism, reducing the richness and sumptuousness of life down to digestible little bite-sized bits. Reflect on all the times you've heard people say "just" - as in "it's just this or it's just that." Also, how easily many people become bored.
Automatic Education - One advantage of mindswapping - you not only take on the body of another but you also receive the benefit of the personal memories of the other - thus you are empowered to easily navigate your new extraterrestrial world.
Mind in Cold Storage - One way to delay delay death - put your mind in deep freeze. Any takers?
Thought-to-Print - One advantage of this future world is a writer need only think of what she/he wishes to write and the words will be instantly converted to print. If nothing else, this method surely saves time.
Paradox - One would-be helper tells Marvin: 'You see, any displacement of bodies during an artificial induced temporal stoppage (which is what this is) could result in a Paradox, which is forbidden since it might result in a temporal implosion which might conceivably have the result of warping the structure-lines of our continuum and thus destroy the universe. Because of this, any displacement is punishable by a prison sentence of one year and a fine of one thousand credits." This is but one of the many paradoxes poor Marvin must wrestle with.
Mindswap #3 - Marvin takes on yet another body. He settles down in a chair to read a novel but decides to look in the mirror. What he sees staring back at him is the face pictured above. By the way, that nose ring contains a ticking time bomb that can blow his head off at any moment. Is it any wonder when Marvin returns to his book, he has difficulty concentrating?
Theory of Searches - Marvin meets up with a detective who uses a mathematical theory as a way to find Marvin's lost lover. Would you trust a detective who's more Johnny von Neumann than Philip Marlowe?
The Twisted World, One - "The Twisted World may conveniently, (but incorrectly) be thought of as a reversed world of Maya, of illusion. You may find that the shapes around you are real, while You, the examining consciousness, are illusion. Such a discovery is enlightening, albeit mortifying." Whoa, baby! So much for any conventional notions of enlightenment.
The Twisted World, Two - "A wise man once asked, 'What would happen if I could enter the Twisted World without preconceptions?' A final answer to his question is impossible; but we would hazard that he would have some preconceptions by the time he came out. Lack of opinion is not armour." Ha! So even if we humans could enter The Twisted World with a tabula rasa, once inside, the Twisted World would exert its twisted power. Would anyone care to hazard a guess what direction our minds would take?
Robert Sheckley offers another twenty (20!) ways the Twisted World twists. I encourage you to read Mindswap for yourself to discover the details of this and the many other Chinese box puzzles the author conjures up throughout his Looney Tunes novel.
Special thanks to Goodreads friend Manny Rayner for bringing this overlooked SF classic to my attention.
American SF author Robert Sheckley, 1928-2005
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