Hellhounds of the Cosmos, Clifford Donald Simak

This is the third story of Clifford Donald Simak's (1904-1988) I've read. "Hellhounds of the Cosmos" (1932) wasn't nearly as good as the other two I have already read of his. There is not much to say about it. It's available freely at Gutenberg.org. It was a bit painful to read. I don't know why I read until the end. I guess I was hoping for something interesting at the end, and it really didn't take long to finish it.

Essentially, the fourth dimension is attacking the third dimension. A scientist figures out how to send people to the fourth dimension to attack the attacker. All the people who are sent fill the creature that champions for them against the other. Eventually, it wins, but the scientist is unable to bring them back. I could dig around for the names to make a better blog entry, but the story sucks. I feel like I've already wasted my time. And, I think I've read enough science fiction for a little while at least.

There's the end of the world motif; us vs. them. Maybe there's a relationship between hell and the fourth dimension. But there's little to go by to verify the statement.

The other stories were quite good. So, I will definitely have to read a few more of his stories.

The World That Couldn't Be, Clifford Donald Simak

This is the second piece, though this time a solo, of Clifford Donald Simak's (1904-1988) that I have read. I am growing impressed with his stories. "The World That Couldn't Be" (© 1958) is available freely on Gutenberg.org.

This is an action-science fiction tale, well told and an easy read. It is worth reading.

Here is the motif of the colonizer on another planet. Like many other science-fiction tales I have read, the protagonist, Gavin Duncan, is trying to grow a valuable plant called vua, which is also a medicine. A kind of animal called the Cytha has eaten it, and it's his intention to hunt it down so it doesn't eat the crop again.

The native population begs him not to hunt the animal, but he ignores their advice. They are an inferior people whom he has basically enslaved to make him rich. The natives also have a unique attribute: they are sexless. There are neither males nor females. They do not have sex to procreate.

While with Andre Norton, I got a sense of how the non-white characters are inherently inferior, with Simak that sense is that the protagonist may think this, but Simak does not. Thus, "the good and faithful hound" (ch. 3) seems the character's thoughts, and not the author's. Eventually the native tracker that he enlists to hunt the Cytha kills himself by slashing his own throat, probably in an effort to strand him at the mercy of the Cytha he tracks.

The Cytha that Gavin sets out to hunt is not like most creatures, or even monsters in fiction. It's not until the finale that Gavin understands that the creature known as Cytha is not really a single organism, but rather an assembly of lesser organisms: young Native children, predators, etc. Thus, when he shoots it in the neck, it is not dead as a whole, but rather just some parts. The composition of the creature comes out when he has gotten his ankle stuck in a tree after a storm has blown through, while Cytha has fallen into a pit. Gavin helps the Cytha out of the pit, and the Cytha helps save him from predators and rescues him from the tree which trapped him. The Cytha is described as it tries to escape its own trap--a pit dug into the ground,

It was coming all apart... the Cytha broke down into a thousand lumps of motion that scurried in the pit and tried to scramble up its side, only to fall back in tiny showers of sand... There were tiny screamers (a predator reminding me of hyena) and some donovans (an elephant sized bear/tiger) and sawmill birds and a bevy of wild-devils and something else as well. (chapter 5)

Later it is indicated that the native population that he had enlisted to help with the work on the farm are also born of this creature. Thus, the tracker killing himself rather than helping to kill the Cytha would be like a human refusing to kill a baby (albeit a baby of superhuman abilities).

After helping the Cytha out of the pit, Cytha brings Gavin back to his home. They agree to not infringe on each other: Cytha not to eat of the vua, and Gavin not to hunt Cytha. Does this Cytha speak for all the other Cytha I wonder. If this is a small one, what would the hunter do when going after a big one? This question is neither asked nor answered.

The great thing about stories like this is that they are still relevant today.

The Street that wasn't There, Clifford Donald Simak and Carl Richard Jacobi

I'm not very familiar with Clifford Donald Simak (1908-1988) or Carl Richard Jacobi (1908-1997). A little research on Simak reveals a prolific and successful writer. Jacobi was a writer of short fiction for Weird Fiction among other pulp magazines. "The Street That Wasn't There" is a short story available at Gutenberg.org.

Jonathon Chambers is a recluse. He wrote a book long ago that disgraced him and basically ruined his career as a professor. His theory was that perception created reality and the world.

There have been many wars and plagues decimating the population of earth. There are few people left to perceive reality. As a result, reality is slipping away. "There were not sufficient minds in existence to retain the material world in its mundane form. Some other power from another dimension was fighting to supersede man's control and take his universe into its own plane!"

In some ways, this is an extension of religion that suggests that the universe was created for the benefit of men by a deity for whatever reason. If men are therefore mostly wiped away, what is there left to perceive, and if there is no perception, how does it continue to really exist? This is a very good question--one that I have asked myself, but on a more personal level. That is to say, if I cease to exist, then so too does the universe from my perception. It's my perception of reality that gives reality an existence. We cohabitate with one another. I'm sure anyone can say the same thing: once they are dead or cease to perceive, what exists at all? If a tree falls in the forest, but no one can hear it, does it make a sound? Take it another step forward: if a tree falls in the forest, but I cannot hear it, does it make a sound? The obvious answer is, yes, of course.

Simak-Jacobi mention another city of futuristic and fantastic proportion trying to supplant the old. But it is never truly explained: are people disappearing and populating the new city, or are they simply ceasing to exist and a new people taking over? Is it alien? Is it some deity replacing a species too violent to exist?

This short story, like most superior literature, begs great metaphysical questions, it does not give answers.