I’ve said
it before, and I’ll say it again: one of the aspects that sets science fiction
apart from other genres is its continued heritage of short fiction. A myriad of stories that approach life from
all—literally all—manner of perspectives, the heritage is as dynamic as it is
varied, and is truly a treasure just waiting to be explored by readers of only
novel-length work. And James Patrick
Kelly is one of the best in short form.
Seeing his name the exposed reader knows they will be getting a
well-thought out story written in effective prose that probes some of the
bigger issues mankind confronts, almost always from a humanist point of view
despite the window dressing. Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories
(1997), Kelly’s second published collection, is a perfect example of this
outlay, and one of the reasons why science fiction in short form is as vigorous
as it is.
Starting
things off with a metaphysical slap is the title story “Think Like a
Dinosaur.” The mind possible to be
separated from the body and shot light years into space, the novelette is the
story of Michael Burr, a handler of humans on behalf of an alien group
nicknamed ‘dinos’ due to their appearance who have gifted the technology to
Earth. A clone body receiving the psyche
at the other end, the body that remains must be disposed of, hence Michael’s
job as ‘handler’. Unfortunately for
Michael, his job doesn’t go as planned one day.
Presented a scenario both ethically and existentially challenging, its
twist on reality etches abstract consequences in the reader’s thoughts. Another story using a sacrifice theme is
“Breakaway, Breakdown”; after spending months in orbit; a person faces the
choice, literally of a lifetime. The physical effects of life in space often
glossed over in favor of laser guns and space ships, the story proves humanity
will have a lot more on its mind when looking to live among the stars than just
how to build a spaceship or alien invasion.
There was
some talk in the eighties and nineties whether Kelly’s writing was cyberpunk or
humanist. The distinction meaningless,
what the reader gets in his fiction is an effectual mix. “Mr. Boy,” the strong novella which closes
the collection, possesses a strong flavor of cyberpunk. Real and virtual existences, body
biomodifications, synthetic drugs, economics out of balance, powerful
information systems, etc. are featured, but at its heart is the story of a
young man coming to terms with existence.
Rich and living the life, Mr. Boy—as he has legally changed his name
to—is a twenty-five year old man living in the body of a twelve year old
boy. Smash parties, net raids, and
unlimited credit, he eventually gets himself into trouble with a small but
desired bit of media. Eventually having
to face the real world, the story amalgamates everything one expects from
humanism and cyberpunk.
“Big Guy”
is another entry with a foot on each side of line. The story of a lonely security worker, the
few breaks he’s granted from watching monitors are spent in virtual reality
chasing sex fetishes in his avatar, the titular Big Guy. Kelly able to invoke both disgust and
sympathy for the slovenly man, Murph’s yearning for more than virtual life, and
the conditions of society around him, are to be pitied and feared. Another piece which evokes dual emotions is
“Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy”. The
story of a lazy, convicted druggie named Chip who somehow has acquired an
expensive personal micro-computer (the titular Mr. Jimmy), at the start of the
story he is headed to a meeting with his parole officer. Face to face with the cold woman, Chip gets
some bad news thrust upon his bad attitude.
Written in a nice, cutting style, Chip’s existence is not to be envied,
but does come to some better state by the end.
A third story featuring a dichotomous main character is “Monster”. Henry West, who works as a quiet, reserved
dry cleaner, has a home life to shock.
Keeping a shrine to violence and rock and roll, he massages his pistol
at home while maintaining anormal enough appearance at work. But when a co-worker is fired one day, events
evolve in a manner he is powerless to stop.
Holding to
realism is the wonderful story “Faith.”
A piece of hope for nerds everywhere, it is the story of a new divorcee
named Faith and the tough time she has adapting to and dealing with single life
with a 13 year old son. Kelly walks a
delicate line of humor and mature emotion telling the woman’s story all the way
to the poignant conclusion. An age old
dilemma (pun intended) located in a mild science fiction conceit, “Pogrom” is
the story of Ruth, an elderly woman living in a world significantly downtrodden
from that which we know. The
environmental and social changes largely pushed to the background, Kelly
focuses on Ruth’s perception of youth as they try to cut out a life in the
scraps of civilization that remain.
Scared to death of them, Ruth has trouble even making a simple visit to
a friend without letting paranoia take over at the danger she perceives in the
youth. Witnessing their jargon and
manners, she clutches her mace ever tighter. The elderly generally portrayed as
bastions of wisdom, Kelly takes them to task in this interesting story for the
manner in which their decisions damage the world for future generations—few
jobs, little education, resource shortages, etc. “Heroics,” like “Faith,” more than makes up
for itself in its innate humanity what it lacks in speculative elements. The story of an everyday man suddenly faced
with an extraordinary situation, Kelly brings the definition of hero a little
closer to home.
With
echoes of Brian Aldiss’ fine story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long”, “Itsy Bitsy
Spider” is the story of a middle-aged woman returning to her father’s house, a
man she has a troubled relationship with, to discover he has bought an android
child and uploaded her memories into it.
The conversation between the younger and older self, later added to by
the father himself, is fully human despite the science fiction conceit. A partial re-working of one of the themes
from the prior Kelly novella “Solstice,” it hones in on the value of history
and memory with age. An effective,
touching piece.
And “Rat”,
what can I say about it? A superb
exercise in style, it captures a franticness, a sleeziness, a certain
unidentifiable science-fiction-something that can’t be denied. An itch that requires scratching, the few
hours in the life of a drug dealer the reader is privy to is wholly cyberpunk
and wholly surreal. It grabs the reader
by the scruff of the neck and drags them all the way to rat’s nest. The subtext endowed with layers of mood and
atmosphere rather than theme, “Rat” is eye-candy of the most dynamic
despicable. The evil continuing,
“Dancing with Chairs” is the classic devil on the shoulder story spun
quotidian. About a man cheating on his
wife and contemplating leaving her, a chance meeting in a restaurant bathroom
changes everything. Funky and bizarre,
“The First Law of Thermodynamics” is one of the best stories in the
collection. About a young man tripping
on LSD in in the 60s, he has a surreal experience with Roger Maris that puts
into the spotlight hippy ideology and what it meant to the generation.
In the
end, Think Like a Dinosaur and Other
Stories is a good, quality collection of short stories, novelettes, and
novellas from one of the undeservingly unheralded writers in modern science
fiction. Regardless cyberpunk or humanist,
far future to near-future, Kelly keeps his stories grounded in a sense of
realism relevant to the human condition.
His science fiction imagination very active, the stories are written in
a range of complementary styles featuring post-apocalypse, mature romance,
virtual lives, character studies, mind/body dualisms, social malcontents,
cyberpunk scenes, urban decay, surrealism, and the difficult choices humanity
may face as technology advances. There are bits of satire, cynicism, realism,
futurism, but above all, it remains humanism, and is why Kelly is one of the
best writers of short stories writing today.
Published
between 1984 and 1997, the following is the collection’s table of contents:
“Think
Like a Dinosaur”
“Heroics”
“Pogrom”
“Faith”
“Big Guy”
“Dancing
With Chairs”
“Rat”
“The First
Law of Thermodynaimcs”
“Breakaway,
Breakdown”
“Standing
in Line with Mr. Jimmy”
“Crow”
“Monster”
“Itsy-Bitsy
Spider”
“Mr. Boy”
No comments:
Post a Comment