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Slan
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Slan: Do you know the way to Slan Trope-ez? (expect full spoilers)
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I can believe that a baby John might call himself Jommy instead of Johnny and the nickname stuck. I've heard of similar things happening.
So he's a Marty Sue ;-)
^You're likely right on the "most" but there is also a trend that way in SF. The monoliths of 2001, the underlying theme of Childhood's End plus the Overlords to see it to completion...okay, those are both Clarke, but the Ancient Aliens stuff seen in many books plus Kirby's "Eternals" comics also had it. And as I think about it, the Arisians of the Lensman series did a lot of intervention. Not sure if Brin's Uplift books would qualify, as it seems there every species BUT humans had an outside group bringing them to full intelligence.
Also, “evolution has a purpose” was just a given back then. It’s reflected in the language, such as “the pinnacle of evolution” or “the end result of”, etc. The famous drawing of apeman to full human was created in 1965, a full 25 years after Slan was written. The picture’s title is “A March to Progress.” Sure, the scientific literature showed that evolutionists knew it wasn’t a straightforward progression from primitive to modern, but no one reads the fine print. They see monkeys become men and read that title and boom! The idea is fixed in their brain.
We still can’t shake the idea of “the missing link”, even though we’ve been trying to dislodge that notion for 40 years now. There is no such thing, because we are each transitional species. We just can’t see it because this is normal to us.
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I can’t overstate how big “Fans are Slans” was back in the day. I think even Tom is just a bit too young to have experienced the full force of being in the sci-fi ghetto. After Star Wars and CE3K were huge hits in 1977, attitudes towards SF and its fans started to shift toward the positive a bit. By ‘86 it was completely reversed. SFdom was celebrated rather than persecuted.
But like any persecuted minority, regardless that in this case we were self-selected, SF fans closed ranks and declared that they were cool because they “got it.” That made us smarter than the norms. It didn’t hurt that in many cases SF fans actually were smarter than average, being overrepresented in technical jobs. Slans indeed.
Hidden Society of Supers: I guess this usually gets credited as one of the first SF stories to have this, and an inspiration for later similar concepts like the X-Men, the Tomorrow People, any urban fantasy with the complex societies of vampires, werewolves, fairies, wizards, et al. living among us whether hidden or out in the open, etc. I'll admit I was pleasantly surprised such an early work actually had rival factions within the hidden society. But on the other hand, Vogt was living in a time when minorities like Jews and gays who could most of the time "pass" among the majority were still being rounded up and persecuted and worse, and he has one of his hidden supers factions sporting a physiological difference they have difficulty hiding from humans. But I guess Jommy is the only Pure Slan we're aware of who's managed to stay hidden. Fridging: (view spoiler)
Milquetoast MC: Jommy's the least interesting character in this story. I found the early part of this book pretty entertaining, jumping between Granny's deviousness despite her clear dementia, and Kier Gray (view spoiler), and Kathleen's attempts to survive her situation. But all those elements are tossed aside in favour of Jommy's quest to get the thing before the tendrilless slan do, and then use the thing and I'm already bored.
You left out Good Guy secretly leads the bad guys, Which pops up a lot. Somehow it’s easy to hide in plain sight and take control from the bad guys.. the full Slans come close to being completely evil.
I have nothing to add other than I figured the..."unique" name of Jommy was combination of the nicknames for his first and middle names - Jonathan Thomas, John and Tommy. Of course, we don't find out that's his full name until fairly close to the end.
Regrettably, the Slan rock opera "Jommy" by The Whom never took off.
John (Taloni) wrote: "Regrettably, the Slan rock opera "Jommy" by The Whom never took off."This thread is over. We have a winner. Taloni by knockout.
The book is full of tropes, some good, some bad, some perhaps forgiveable given the time in which it was written. Which ones work or don't work for you? My list is below.
Purposeful Evolution: Evolution is a random walk, with mutation and natural selection. It does not have a purpose. Except, it can feel like it does to humans. Intelligence has been such a benefit to our survival that we selected for it and prospered because of that. Intelligence has grown from the glimmers of sentience in Cro-Magnons to modern humans. It's been a slow rise that seems purposeful.
There's also punctuated equilibrium. There is now some evidence that species change quickly once a beneficial mutation occurs. That is, a random mutation provides a benefit and therefore members of that species with it survive better. It's almost instantaneous in geologic time. In Slan the mutation seemed purposeful, with the Slan mutation occurring in multiple births, but the idea is similar.
"Slans are Fans:"SFF fandom felt a lot like the Slans in the book, a people apart. Serious SFF was books and the occasional media like 2001 or Star Trek, at that point just one series. Now there's endless Star Wars media, multiple SFF shows every week, and big budget SF movies that appear regularly. So SFF has broadened out and fans are less isolated. I can't explain the emotional pull to that idea to people who haven't experienced it, but this is a big part of why Slan won the retro Hugo.
Freaky Name:Jommy, really? As a nickname for "John?" Well, freaky names are still big in SF and Fantasy. I can live with it. But...Jommy? Had to suppress a giggle regularly.
Writing Format: Slan was originally published as a serial. This can be jarring when read as a novel. Vogt also wrote in 800-word segments, with some event significant to the story at the end.
I don't find the serial format any more jarring than other writing styles. Even looking out for it, I don't find it any worse than, say, Foundation, written as short stories. As for the 800-word segment idea, I find it interesting. It wouldn't be done today, but I can forgive it as a historical curiosity.
All The Women Love The MC:(view spoiler)[ Bleah bleah bleah. First there's Kathleen Layton, who falls in love with Jommy on first meeting. Then there's the...memory is dim on the name, but the tendrilless Slan who tries to take Jommy prisoner, then helps him on Mars. She's so attracted to him that *she* brings up the idea of being just one of the multiple partners that Jommy will have because he's just sooooo cool. It's just hurltastic. (hide spoiler)]