The
more of M. John Harrison I read, the more I begin to believe he emerged from
the chrysalis fully fledged. Even his
first published stories display a maturity, a poise that the majority of
writers seek but can never find. That
emergence is captured in Machine in Shaft
Ten and Other Stories (1975). Like
an artist’s preliminary sketches, many of the stories would later be developed
into Harrison’s novel length work, notably the Viriconium sequence and The
Centauri Device. Bleak visions
tattooed onto vivid wastelands and fantastical landscapes, Harrison’s awareness
of the written word is bar none.
The
collection opens with its most incongruous tale, the eponymous “Machine in
Shaft Ten.” In fact a Jerry Cornelius story that (intentionally and perfectly)
smacks of Moorcock’s style, which in turn smacks of the classic British
gentleman story caught up in events over his head, it looks into a giant
emotion converter discovered at the Earth’s core. The second story, “The Lamia and Lord
Cromis,” is likewise classic, but only in feel.
One of the most dynamically realized settings in the collection, it
tells of the sword-and-sorcery anti-hero, Lord Cromis “who imagined himself to be a better poet than a swordsman” as he
hunts a beast through wilds of Viriconium with the dwarf Rotgob. The final showdown is the opposite of classic
but fitting.
While
seemingly the mad tale of patients at a mental asylum, the third story “The
Bait Principle” opens wide the gates of language and structure. Atypical beginning to describe it, by the
time one gets to “The Orgasm Band” they must be ready for anything. Seeming to borrow something of J.G. Ballard’s
The Atrocity Exhibition, it presents
a collage of images and scenes that may or may not reflect the dirt reality of
a rock band, but certainly is rendered in a rhythm of language that digs at
meaning imperceptible on the surface.
“…At these times, Mayer would make a small ankh-mark
on the sheet music above the appropriate bar. The mixing engineers could later
smooth the performance off. ‘Please don’t go,’ she said, ‘…unh.’ He remembered that the stripper on that
gig had been French Modesty. Blasé, he
had refused to take her with his boots on, preferring to avoid the implied link
with Lady Hamilton. ‘I have to go out for some cigarettes…’
Likewise
garnering a subterranean emotional response from seemingly detached language in
the Ballardian mode is “Vision of Monad.”
The ennui of art artfully expressed, it feels more meditation than
story, much the same as “Ring of Pain” and its tale of a man and his mannequin
wandering a destroyed city.
By
far the longest piece in the collection, “Running Down” tells of a man haunted
by another who always seems to be in the right place at the right time to
destroy yet another aspect of his life.
The piece a reflection on the state of Britain at the time, Harrison’s states
in his own words that it“is where the
chap is conceived to be so cynical, unpleasant, and miserable, that his own
self-disgust affects his environment.” Entropy it is then.
An
obvious precursor to A Storm of Wings is
“London Melancholy.” Giant dragonflies
haunting human flyers above a derelict London, the imagery and mood fade
perfectly into the novel. Locating a
schism in space-time, “Events Witnessed from a City” finds the mad dwarf
Choplogic looking over a city wherein Lord Cromis of The Pastel City and Dr. Grishkin of The Centauri Device go about their own mad business. Feeling as apocalyptic, “The Causeway” tells
of a sapper setting bombs in a war.
Having turned his back on the sane world, his actions ripple through the
lives of others. The post-apocalytic
feel continuing, “The Bringer with the Window” sees the demented Dr. Grishkin
guiding two people to the Ash Flats of Wisdom, there to grant their
wishes. They get what they
deserved. A man on the run from a labor
prison, “Coming from Behind” tells of the hopeless fate he encounters, and
closes the collection on a suitable, recursive note.
In
the end, The Machine in Shaft Ten and
Other Stories is a collection so varied in style and content that at times
it feels like an anthology—a remarkable feat considering a handful of the
stories can be considered radial to extent Harrison novels. Each word placed with care, it proves that
from the very beginning of his career Harrison is one of the top stylists.
Published
between 1968 and 1973, the following are the twelve stories collected in Machine in Shaft Ten and Other Stories:
The
Machine in Shaft Ten
The
Lamia and Lord Cromis
The
Bait Principle
Running
Down
The
Orgasm Band
Visions
of Monad
Events
Witnessed From a City
London
Melancholy
Ring
of Pain
The
Causeway
The
Bringer with the Window
Coming
from Behind
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