Like
many science fiction writers, Peter Watts pays the bills working as a real
scientist, and in his free time, taps away at a keyboard, penning stories of his
true imaginative interests. Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes, the 2001
collection which collates the first nine short stories Watts published, bucks
the scientist-as-writer stereotype in one significant way: Watts is interested
in style and voice as much as ideas. Unlike many of his contemporaries—Alastair Reynolds, Geoffrey Landis, Vernor Vinge, etc.—Watts can actually write. His
prose a strong point, the ideas embedded, and the stories as a whole are all
the more successful for it.
Dense,
minimalist, and openly in admiration of one of the genre’s most superb
stylists, Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes,
though an early effort, shows ever sign of the spit and polish of William
Gibson’s Burning Chrome. Watts heads in a different direction from a character,
setting, and method point of view, but for the sharp-edged, visceral sense of
mood and style, there is some resemblance.
As
disparate as the stories seem on the exterior, there are several key themes
tying Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes
together. Most are told from a
first-person perspective, as well as by a character that is not intended to be
empathized with. Watts forcing the
reader to examine the characters from a distance based on the friction their
actions create, the scientist in “Fractals”, the fading researcher in
“Bethlehem”, the grieving father of “Nimbus”, and the self-loathing researcher
of “Flesh Made Word” will not be immediately likeable, and will require some
ciphering to fit within their situation.
Most likewise possessing a post-human element, the characters only
becomes more abstract. The ocean walker
of “Home”, the woman of “The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald”, and the
manner in which Lenia Clarke handles her underwater adaptations in “A Niche” are
very personal perspectives that likewise require imagination for the
modification—biological, mechanical, etc.—that they have undergone.
The
ocean (and its parallels) are likewise repeating motifs. “Bulk Food” is a highly cynical take on
Watts’ view that marine biology is an aspect of the research community bogged
down with political and ulterior interest.
“Home” is a brief, eerie tale of a person wandering the ocean
floor. Coming in contact with something
familiar in what is otherwise a sensory deprived environment, they are forced
to make a significant choice. In “A
Niche”—a precursor to the Starfish
novels—two women, uncoincidentally named Clarke and Ballard, are forced to
survive together in the damp confines of an underwater research station. One of the strongest in the collection, the
psychological odds of the two perfectly compliments the unforgiving environment
they live within. And “Ambassador”,
though set in space, has all the feel of an underwater chase.
Dystopia
a motif popular still today, Ten Monkeys,
Ten Minutes contains its share.
Though (properly) relegated to the background so the human side can take
center stage, “Nimbus”, “Bethlehem”, “The Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald”,
and “Flesh Made Word” all, to some degree, throw in a crumbled aspect of
society to enhance the exigencies at stake and the emotional stakes. In one an
ecological disaster has changed society, while in the others economic and
political collapses have reverted society to scenarios semi-wild west in
fashion.
But
the thread which binds Ten Monkeys, Ten
Minutes together is the harshness, the darkness, the disassociating feel of
life under Watts’ pen. None of the
characters living in enviable circumstances, nor dealing with easy situations,
there is a post-modern cloud of cynicism that hangs over the stories, punctuated
by a silver lining at the end. With
Gibson this feeling likewise exists, but hangs on the margins. With Watts, it’s in your face. Dealing with racism, fanaticism, self-doubt,
and the blanket of equivocality science and the modern perspective muffle life
with, “Bethlehem”, “Flesh Made Word”, “Home”, and “Fractals” are not easy
reads. “A Niche”, “Bulk Food”, and “The
Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald” are more conventional stories, but they
too have a cloud hanging over them, turning the mood from b&w to gray.
In
the end, Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes is
a first collection, but a better first collection than the majority of science
fiction today—particularly from the group of scientists masquerading as writers. Watts letting science take a backseat or work
in parallel to the social and individual themes being driven towards, most
readers will be surprised at his day job.
The prose accomplished, the reader is all too easily lulled into a
post-modern dystopia of fragmented dimensions. Those who like Ted Chiang, William Gibson, and
Greg Egan will most appreciate the collection.
Published
between 1990 and 2000, the following stories are collected in Ten Monkeys, Ten Minutes:
“A
Niche”
“Fractals”
“The
Second Coming of Jasmine Fitzgerald”
“Bulk
Food” (w/ Laurie Channer)
“Nimbus”
“Flesh
Made Word”
“Ambassador”
“Bethlehem”
“Home"As to the significance of the title, I'm stumped...
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