Best SF Stories of Brian W. Aldiss - Stellar batch by one of my favorite SF authors since so much of his writing can be classified as New Age SF, as in Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock and Christopher Priest, as in a focus on inner space over outer space. As Brian Aldiss wrote in the book's Introduction: "The stories in this collection are meant, in their own way, to open gates to the mind." Open my mind and blow my mind, Brian! Special thanks to Goodreads friend Manny Rayner for bringing this outstanding SF collection to my attention.
Rather than highlighting the better known of the British author's SF tales, stories like Who Can Replace a Man? and Man in His Time , I'll spotlight two pieces not nearly as well known as they should be.
OUTSIDE
In his novel Nonstop, Brian Aldiss puts his main character, a hobbit-size hunter and member of the Green tribe, through a series of discoveries, each one requiring he shed all previously held notions of who he is and his place in the world. We as readers are right there with pint-size Roy Complain every step of the way, sharing Roy's progressively broader and more complete comprehension of his own personhood, his environment and his mission.
Aldiss' story Outside features a similar structure, only here we have one devastating revelation disclosed in the final scene. Although - and this is what makes Outside a fun read as well as a philosophical one - a handful of well-placed hints are sprinkled in along the way. Matter of fact, after you've read the story once, you'll want to go back and reread - the hints will pop out (drat! why didn't I catch that the first time?).
The story begins thusly: "They never went out of the house." As we learn quickly, "they" number six - four men, two women: Harley, Calvin, Jagger, Pief, Dapple, May - and the house is a substantial building with living rooms, billiard room, bedrooms, kitchen, corridors and a small room with a shelf where all their needed supplies - food, clean clothes, clean bedding - are restocked every morning, an arrangement accepted, never questioned.
One day, surprise, surprise, no supplies, not even food. Oh, well, they all decide to simply make due without; after all, they found a similar empty shelf some years back. Harley and Calvin walk off - the house has windows and doors but neither the windows nor doors have ever been opened; indeed, none of the six have ever been outside the house, at least according to memory.
Outside. Outside was merely a vast abstraction, a great unknown, although Harley has a vague recollection of four bits of knowledge: 1) Earth was at war with Nitity; 2) the Nititians could assume the appearance of humans here on Earth; 3) Nittitians could mingle in human society; 4) Earth was incapable of viewing Nititian civilization from the inside.
Inside. Outside. Baffling. What is really going on here? Like Harley, we as reader are left to wonder. Then one evening, perplexed beyond endurance, Harley decides to break routine and take action. We follow his every step, spooky Alfred Hitchcock music playing in the background, all leading up to . . . the stunning truth.
SF at its finest. With this yarn, Brian Aldiss proves himself master of the craft in two ways: 1) the story's construction is sheer perfection, every single sentence charged with significance - creating mood, framing action, conveying characters' thoughts and emotions - all driving the tale to its rousing climax, and 2) there's a second, minor SF trope contained within the major trope. What are these SF tropes? For a reader to uncover.
SWASTIKA!
It's 1965 and our narrator, a journalist living in Belgium, a chap by the name of Brian, interviews the former Führer of Germany, 75-year-old Geoffrey Bungelvester. Oh, yes, in order to save his skin, good ole what's his name had to take on an assumed name.
After exchanging some pleasantries, as pleasant as it gets with the likes of Geoff, Brian asks if he had any regrets, to which Geoff looks off in the distance and answers wistfully that he should have stuck with landscape painting since he always had an eye for pretty fields, mountains and trees.
After a deep breath (not a gasp as that might be taken for indiscreet), Brian asks if Geoff had any regrets regarding, well, military judgements? Geoff ask Brian, in turn, if he's being sarcastic. Brian assures him he most certainly is not. Then Geoff leans over the table, takes a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure nobody will overhear him and at this point we read:
"You are Aryan, aren't you?"
"I went to an English public school, if that's what you mean."
"That's good enough for me. Very fine unrivaled disciplinary system! Well, I apologize, I though you were trying to get at me for attempting to apply a final solution to the Jewish problem."
"It never entered my head, Geoff."
"Very well, only I'm a little touchy on that score, you see. I've been very unfairly criticized there ever since the Third Reich collapsed in 1945. You see, here was a much deeper intention behind the extermination of the Jews; that was little but a warming-up exercise to get the machinery going. The ultimate target - the course on which I was intending to embark by 1950 at the latest, before I was so rudely interrupted - was the extermination of the Negro race."
Did your jaw drop? The above is just for starters as it gets better and better. Considering unfolding world events between 1945 and 1965, Geoff declares psychological victory. And now with even greater and greater amounts of resource and money fueling war efforts across the globe . . .
A Brian Aldiss tale not to be missed.
British author Brian Aldiss, 1925 - 2017
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