Roger
Zelazny’s 1966 This Immortal is a
post-apocalyptic story which puts humanity on the stand and adjudges its value. Dashes of comic book violence tossed in to
spice up the noir mood, the novel displayed multiple facets of the genre. Taking precisely the same idea yet shading
the sensationalism with symbolism, Michael Bishop’s 1973 novella The White Otters of Childhood is
likewise a quality read that critiques humanity’s worth.
The
year 5309, mankind has somehow survived a second holocaust, its 2 million
remaining souls living on the island of Guardian's Loop in the Caribbean. An alien group called the Parfects, aloof of
human concerns, live beyond the seas silently watching and ensuring humanity
does not extend beyond the island.
Markcrier Rains, employee of the Sunken Library, is called upon to be an
ambassador amongst the Parfects for a year.
But it’s upon his return to the island that the story really starts. Falling in love with a friend’s daughter, he
does so in the knowledge the island’s Navarch, a hairy man called Fearing
Serenos, is likewise in love with the beautiful, disfigured woman. Rivalry, hatred, scorn, and revenge unraveling in the aftermath of the wedding, the island of Guardian’s Loop is
never the same, the Parfects overseeing all.
Beyond the
the vicious cycle of violence, Bishop utilizes the idea of biological
modification—something easier to swallow given so many of the island’s
inhabitants are less than physically perfect specimens in the aftermath of the
second holocaust—to express a fundamental part of mankind’s behavior. Something of H.G. Wells Island of Dr. Moreau interwoven into the proceedings, on the
surface the surgeries feel cheesy, yet do possess a symbolic sub-text that
links to wider ranging ideas.
The White Otters of
Childhood
is not an uplifting story, for lack of a better expression. Criticizing humanity’s repeated failure to
see beyond its own nose, Bishop, like Zelazny (and Gene Wolfe in the Book of the New Sun for that matter),
utilizes aliens as objective overseers—a proverbial eye in the sky—capable of
determining our species fitness for civilized existence. Not overdone, the Parfects play little role
in the story. The evolution of the
anti-hero Markcrier’s character playing the strongest role, it is in the
contrast of the denouement that the reader finds the novella’s message - a slingshot as it were.
In
the end, The White Otters of Childhood
is more quality literature from Michael Bishop.
One of science fiction’s most quality writers of short fiction, this is
a strong novella exposing the darker side of human nature in mimetic and
symbolic fashion. Given the motif of
revenge in a strange, futuristic environment where not all is lasers and space
ships, the plot bears strong semblance to a Jack Vance story, whereas
thematically and metaphorically, it is more in line with the work of Brian Aldiss, Zelazny, Wolfe,
or Wells—the culmination resulting in great material that can be read more than
once.
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