Van Vogt's Supermind, or, It's Funny How Things Go

I don’t remember when I did it, but at some point in my childhood I gave Dad a book by A.E. van Vogt with a fuzzy green shape on the cover. For years I thought it was called The Green Brain and I carried an inexplicable pride in having given it to him. Mum had probably chosen it and she definitely paid for it, but it was my gift to Dad. He had five van Vogt novels, including that one, and somehow that name became a magnet to me so that when I had disposable income and easy access to second-hand bookstores I began building up my collection of his works. I’ve probably read more books by him than any other SF author, possibly any author, even P.K. Dick who I consider my favourite. Until last week, however, I hadn’t read The Green Brain.

Actually, I still haven’t since there is no A.E. van Vogt novel of that name. The real title is Supermind and it explores a galaxy where humans are a low-level species under the protection of the vastly superior Great Galactics, and under threat from the Dreeghs, a race of “space vampires” who can only survive a mysterious illness by draining the blood and life energy of others.

In typical van Vogt fashion the novel is a “fix-up” where he patched three shorter works together into one. The seams are distinct but he “fixed” it so they seem like logical progressions of one narrative. It would be interesting to read the originals to see how much he had to fix/change. There are some clashes, the first and third parts feature the Great Galactics while the second part declares that they don’t exist per se but are a freaks of the moment, but there are ways to forgive that and move on with the story.

I’d be overstating it if I called van Vogt a great writer, but he never fails to draw me in. The stories are simple, the characters forever trapped in the 1950s despite their futuristic settings, and the ideas can be a tad whacky, but he pulls them all together into a readable and fun package.

I doubt my dad, who loves the hard SF of Asimov and Clarke, was that into it – he did just give me all five of his van Vogt books – but somehow, this book, or its cover, combined with the childish joy of having given it to him myself, led me to read many books by someone I may not otherwise have read at all. Then I would never have travelled on the Space Beagle, visited the Weapon Shops, or marvelled at the many possibilities of the Reflected Men. And if I hadn’t read those books, what other authors might I have not read? Somewhere out there is a reflected version of me who never read any SF, and that is not the best possible me, of that I am sure.

Keep dreaming!

The Silkie by A.E Van Vogt

Years ago there was a shop called Lazy Daze in Penrith. It sold second-hand CDs and books and I loved it. The owner had a terrible head for business though, whenever I bought things he'd do a rough adding up then round it down, sometimes quite a lot. I guess he hated giving change. And the stock was under-priced to start with. But he had some good stock, I got a lot of stuff from Lazy Daze.

One such find was The Silkie, one of A.E Van Vogt's short novels, it cost me $2. At the time I'd buy pretty much any Van Vogt novel Lazy Daze had. I read most of them years ago, The Weapon Makers, The Moon Beast, The Voyage of the Space Beagle ... but when I tried The Silkie, for some reason I just didn't get into it. I stopped reading it not long after the prologue I think. So, I finally got around to reading the whole thing (all 156 pages).

I'm not surprised the prologue put me off, for one thing there doesn't seem much point to it. We have this character who has a quest, it seems like that quest is about to start when she meets a new character. End the prologue, flash forward a couple of centuries ... never go back besides some historical references the actual main character makes. I suspect it shows a change in idea or something like that as this reads like one of Van Vogt's stitch-ups. He was very good at taking a number of short works on a theme or centred on a character and putting them into novel form. And The Silkie reads like three short stories put together, so I presume it really is.

In this case the stories follow the life of Nat-Cemp, a Silkie, which is a species which can shapeshift to human-like being, underwater breather or the space dwelling Silkie shape which can live in the vacuum of space and has hugely advanced mental powers and perceptions. The three episodes set Cemp up against three beings of even higher abilities, thus escalating the risks but also the ideas Van Vogt is throwing around.

In that respect it reminded me of The Voyage of the Space Beagle, which is a series of encounters made by the scientific exploratory ship whereby the hero can demonstrate the wonders of his super-science which bridges every field of science into one. That may not sound terribly exciting the way I've put it but it actually is an enjoyable read with some intriguing situations thrown up. The Silkie however didn't, in my estimation, come close to succeeding on the same level.

While the episodes see some escalation they still seem somewhat same-same, although the history of the silkie species makes for a diversion in one of them. Moreover, the ideas being explored are very hard to connect with. It's all a question of higher perceptions beyond the human and the mental 'weapon' of 'logic of levels', where a mentally planted suggestion causes the body to follow through the logical succession of events to that suggestion/perception. It's airy-fairy and treated in a somewhat rambling way. And Cemp is so unemotional himself it's impossible to really care about him - which is the main issue with Space Beagle, but here it's worse.

Not A.E Van Vogt's best by a long shot.

Keep dreaming!