Clifford
Simak’s work puts such a debate into my mind: where to draw the line between
good intentions and overly-simplistic outlay?
If writers were judged on the sentiment of their work and its
relationship to humanity’s future, Simak would rank among the most concerned. Much of his fiction, for example his major
novel Way Station, caution us against
short-sighted views and champion a mindset which has nature and universal
respect at its core. What greater vision
could a reader ask for? But there is
also much of his fiction caught up in unsophisticated ideas that scan at a
quick glance, but upon any deeper examination, crumble into plainness, mindlessness,
even cheesiness. City (1952), perhaps Simak’s most famous work, only heightens the
debate.
Extrapolating
upon the direction Simak perceived society and technology to be moving
post-WWII in the US, City is a series
of eight stories (nine, depending on the version) presenting a chronological
sequence of views of said extrapolation.
Positing humanity incapable of getting out of its own way, he portrays a
future wherein dogs, after a jump in sentience, rise to the peak of
civilization—not through the deft use of cunning or brute force, rather by
stepping into a vacancy afforded by humanity’s mismanagement of its own
affairs. Self-interest and poor decisions
deflating civilization, in an ironic utopia it’s canines who bring peace to
Earth.
