Alan Zendell's Blog: It's About Time - Posts Tagged "piper"
Sci-fi/Fantasy as Relevant Social Commentary
I published this on my writers' group blog (http://marylanddreamweavers.wordpress...) yesterday. It has already generated one very angry response from someone who accused me of being biased. Really? I can't imagine why.
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Long slandered as lacking in anything but escapism, science fiction and fantasy provide a virtually limitless tableau on which to build a story. As such they are ideal genres for satire and social/political commentary. Jonathan Swift used it three hundred years ago. H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs used it one hundred years ago. And in the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Philip Wylie, Robert Heinlein, and John Brunner (to name a few) used it to warn against the dangers of unbridled industrialization, political extremism, bigotry, and social elitism.
Add to this list H. Beam Piper who is best known today for introducing the world to Fuzzies. When my book group selected "Little Fuzzy" I recalled a cute fifty-year-old story about some playful, lovable mammals from a mining planet six hundred light years from Earth. When they are discovered by a prospector who adopts them, the reader settles in for a delightful diversion. But when old Jack realizes that they are far more than pets, he sets off a pitched battle that was a powerful allegory for the civil rights movement of the 1960s. On one side are Jack and his friends who believe the Fuzzies are sapient beings entitled to the same basic rights as the humans who have taken control of their planet. On the other is the big, bad Company that stands to lose its monopoly to exploit the planet's natural resources unless it can prove that the Fuzzies are mere animals.
Oddly, though it was also written during the heyday of the feminist movement, "Little Fuzzy" treats women rather gratuitously, except for one who acts heroically and actually turns the tide of the battle, which was typical of the way Negroes were portrayed in the books and movies of the previous decades. But give Piper his due. "Little Fuzzy" was a courageous, outspoken commentary on the American values of the time that inspired many other writers after his death.
It may be just coincidence, but as I was reading "Little Fuzzy" last week, the Attorney General of the United States announced that the Justice Department was entering the fight against reactionary forces that were attempting to deny ethnic and racial minorities their basic right to vote.
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Long slandered as lacking in anything but escapism, science fiction and fantasy provide a virtually limitless tableau on which to build a story. As such they are ideal genres for satire and social/political commentary. Jonathan Swift used it three hundred years ago. H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs used it one hundred years ago. And in the twentieth century, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Philip Wylie, Robert Heinlein, and John Brunner (to name a few) used it to warn against the dangers of unbridled industrialization, political extremism, bigotry, and social elitism.
Add to this list H. Beam Piper who is best known today for introducing the world to Fuzzies. When my book group selected "Little Fuzzy" I recalled a cute fifty-year-old story about some playful, lovable mammals from a mining planet six hundred light years from Earth. When they are discovered by a prospector who adopts them, the reader settles in for a delightful diversion. But when old Jack realizes that they are far more than pets, he sets off a pitched battle that was a powerful allegory for the civil rights movement of the 1960s. On one side are Jack and his friends who believe the Fuzzies are sapient beings entitled to the same basic rights as the humans who have taken control of their planet. On the other is the big, bad Company that stands to lose its monopoly to exploit the planet's natural resources unless it can prove that the Fuzzies are mere animals.
Oddly, though it was also written during the heyday of the feminist movement, "Little Fuzzy" treats women rather gratuitously, except for one who acts heroically and actually turns the tide of the battle, which was typical of the way Negroes were portrayed in the books and movies of the previous decades. But give Piper his due. "Little Fuzzy" was a courageous, outspoken commentary on the American values of the time that inspired many other writers after his death.
It may be just coincidence, but as I was reading "Little Fuzzy" last week, the Attorney General of the United States announced that the Justice Department was entering the fight against reactionary forces that were attempting to deny ethnic and racial minorities their basic right to vote.
Re-imagining a Good Story: "Fuzzy Nation" vs "Little Fuzzy"
Fuzzy Nation by John ScalziMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Looked at by itself, "Fuzzy Nation" is really fun. Scalzi writes with the easy-to-read style and roguish insolence we've missed since we lost Robert Heinlein. It's head is in the right place, too, sticking up for the rights of the defenseless against corporate greed.
I read "Fuzzy Nation" because my reading group selected it to be read together with H. Beam Piper's "Little Fuzzy". Having already given "Little Fuzzy" a thumbs-up review, it's impossible to discuss "Fuzzy Nation" without comparing them, which raises the question: why re-write a story someone else has already written and written well?
Scalzi himself calls "Fuzzy Nation" a re-imagination of Piper's story. But why do that unless you plan to bring something new to the table? Perhaps to update its message in a more modern context?
If you saw my review of "Little Fuzzy" you know that my only real complaint, and it was a mild one, was that Piper, in allegorizing the civil rights movement of the 1960s, inexplicably treated women much as previous generations had represented the very minorities he was indirectly supporting. Scalzi corrected that omission, handsomely. The women in "Fuzzy Nation" aren't all nice, but they're all very much the equals of the men in the story. So the incongruency that troubled me in "Little Fuzzy" wasn't there in "Fuzzy Nation". Scalzi also made the main character, Jack Holloway, more of an asshole (Scalzi's word, not mine) than he was in "Little Fuzzy". I'm not sure that was necessary -- I actually didn't like him as well in "Fuzzy Nation". But Jack's swashbuckling approach to life gave the story the endearing character of a fairy tale, since we all know that characters like Jack only win in our dreams and fantasies.
As far as the Fuzzies are concerned, Scalzi didn't do anything that Piper didn't do. Both stories are cleverly wrought, and both get their basic message across. So the best I can say to anyone who is interested, is read both books. They're both worth some time.
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