Richard Cowper isn’t a very accessible author, something which you
could say of many 1970’s and 1980’s authors whose novels and collections print any more, like this one-time publication collection. Regardless,
my exposure to Cowper has been favorable, the novels I’m combed having been of
rich diversity from humor (Profundis [1979]), to shades of science
fiction (The Road to Corlay [1978]), and fictional historical revival (ATapestry of Time [1982]). When I found a copy of Cowper short stories, I
was eager to see this diversity shown throughout. True to form, exhibiting his
multiple talents of humor, science fiction, and history, Out There Where the
Big Ships Go is a small tour of what Cowper is capable of: bringing
laughter (“Paradise Beach”), bringing heartache (“The Hertford Manuscript”),
but also serving up a large dose of boredom (“The Web of the Magi”). I’ve had
better experience with his novels, but there may still be gems of his out there
with one other collection, The Tithonian Factor and Other Stories
(1984).
------------
Out There Where the Big Ships Go (1979, novelette) – 3/5 – (29 pages)
The crew of The Icarus was sent beyond the planet Eridanus to a “planet
that they called ‘Dectire III’” (26). Inhabiting that planet were the humanoid
Eidotheans and the wondrous game they called Kalire, or The Game. While the
crew remained on the planet, the captain, Peter Henderson, being the most
proficient in the Game, was sent back to Earth so that they too could learn of
its exquisite delights. The one hundred forty-four squared board, “each of
which has its own name and ideogram” (27), is played with one hundred
forty-three pieces of double-sided coins: red and blue. The game mimics the
Eidotheans’ belief in the dichotomous struggle of the galaxy between the two
heavenly sisters of Kalirinos and Arimanos.
Having hardly aged a year since his departure, the still youthful
captain returned to an Earth two hundreds older than when he left. The world
was ripe for the introduction of The Game, with the Japanese “and their long
tradition of Zen and Go” (27) allowing them to understand The Game more clearly
than other early competitors. Later, the Russians and Chinese would come to
understand The Game, but still, Peter Henderson remained The Master.
At a tourney in the Caribbean, young Roger
Herzheim’s mother is attending The Game as a competitor thought nowhere near
the highly ranked Master, Peter Henderson. At breakfast, Roger spies the famous
man in the corner. Staying at the same hotel, the two later serendipitously
meet. Peter offers advice: What’s red for you may be blue for me. “You only say
it’s red because you’ve been told that’s what red is. For you blue is something
else again. But get enough people to say that’s blue, and it is blue”
(22).
Roger extends this kernel of insight to another man on the beach, the
same man who’s the competitor of Peter—Guilio Amato. Guilio interprets this to
mean that the names for things aren’t the things themselves; rather, the names
are ideas and the thing is the thing itself. Using this semantic device to his
advantage, Guilio enters the competition.
------------
The Custodians (1975, novelette) – 5/5 – (36 pages)
In a Persian valley rests the monastery Hautaire, a sanctuary once
visited by Meister Sternwärts in 1273
A.D. Having visited the mysteries of the East, Peter Sternwärts convalesces in the monastery and pursues
a personal interest in ocular focus of the ancient Apollonius. The
paradoxographical literature convinces Peter to locate the ocular focus within
the grounds of the temple and building the site himself. From the visions
within, Peter creates his work entitled Praemonitiones.
Much later in 1917 A.D., a doctoral student comes to the monastery
after being interested in the figure of Peter and his Biographia. Once
in the sanctuary, Brother Roderigo curates the ancient manuscripts to the young
Spindrift. When Brother Roderigo dies only days later, Spindrift is left with
the early works of 13th Century Peter Sternwärts, and within contains predicts setout by the scholar.
Another young student of life comes to the monastery in pursuit of
further knowledge regarding the ancient, enigmatic Peter Sternwärts. Now 1981 A.D., Spindrift has remained in
the sanctuary replacing the Brother Roderigo as the contemporary of Peter
Sternwärts from six hundred years ago.
Spindrifts own visions within the ocular focus have been hazy but, like his
predecessors for centuries before him, he has added his visions to the
prophetic tome of Illuminatum. Now a young man, J.S. Harland, has come
to explore the spiritual wealth of Peter Sternwärts,
but Spindrift’s vision calls for the coming of a young woman. During prayers,
the two are in attendance with the Abbot who announces a war breaking out in
the Middle East. This devastating news can
only be reaffirmed by contrasting Spindrift’s own foresight with J.S. Harland’s
foreboding within the ocular focus.
------------
Paradise Beach (1976, novelette) – 4/5 – (19
pages)
The sybaritic wife, Zeyphr, of a wealthy banker is drowned in her
exclusion from her husband’s recent art purchase: a ten-square meter anamorphic
landscape of a Caribbean beach where each
viewer of the piece projects their own stories onto the landscape. When her
husband moves the framed piece to his personal study, a series of odd
discoveries jostles her womanly intuition.
Zeyphr’s friend Margot consoles her, Zephyr proclaims to have made a
copy of the study key. The duo make their way up to the room where the
anamorphic landscape is placed in front of a darkened window. The image in
hauntingly realistic, but surely not realistic enough for her husband to
scatter sand through the study, or track seaweed into the shower, or sop
seawater onto his robe.
Margot is later contacted by the police regarding Zephyr’s 100-meter
suicide dive in a bikini from the study’s blackened window. Alcohol may have
had something to do with it.
------------
The Hertford Manuscript (1976, novelette) – 5/5 – (34 pages)
A curious manuscript bound in a 1665 book, but with paper produced two
centuries after this time, comes into the ownership of a man. His great-aunt
having bequeathed the book to him along with the story of having known both
H.G. Wells and Aldous Huxley, continues with having known the original Dr.
Pensley, or The Time Machine fame. His curious real-life disappearance
enthralled both H.G. Wells and his great-aunt, as it confirmed their suspicions
of having truly traveled time.
The manuscript, a diary penned by none other than Dr. Pensley himself,
begins on an August day when the doctor becomes stranded in time due to two
cracked crystals. He soon finds that the year is 1665 and the bubonic plague
has smitten the city of London
during months prior to his unfortunate August arrival. Determined to return to
his proper era, Dr. Pensley braves the “evil miasma” (116) and sulphurous air
of London to
find a lens grinder so that he may craft the octagonal prisms. With the
services found and payment agreed upon, Dr. Pensley settles into the city for a
week until the prisms can be properly crafted.
Still suspecting the manuscript as a forge, the man turns to experts to
verify its physical authenticity, the author’s comparative penmanship, and the
relevant historical accuracies.
------------
The Web of the Magi (1980, novella) – 0/5 – (65 pages)
A man Her Majesty’s service during WWII is encamped in Persia where he
is detailing the geographic plans to lay cable. His two Persian guides are
hesitant to continue their journey into djinn territory, but the man scoffs at
their meek sense of adventure. On the next day, the man sees a natural cataract
through his telescope and sets off to crest the ridge while leaving the two
guides behind. One upon the ridge, he ascends to a plateau in which rests a
valley unseen to modern man.
Reveling in his discovery, the man descends to gather his guides, but
they seem to have left camp, leaving the man to once again scale the cataract
alone and to uncover its mystery by himself. Traversing the face of the
cataract with his mule and coming to the crest of the plateau, the man is greeted
by four faceless robed figures who lead him to the Petra-esque cave sanctuary
at the end of the plain of irrigated olive trees.
Therein, the man is treated to the womanly company of Amazonian
concubines and the piqued interest of Anahita, whose surreal aura casts the
man’s reality into uncertainty. The plateau’s valley being their home without
chance for leaving, the man is a true outsider among hermetic insiders.
Revelations of their reality slowly unfolds itself… and by slowly I mean I
skimmed that last 45 pages of the 63 page novella.
No comments:
Post a Comment