"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

My idol Karen Ellis did a review of Cordwainer Smith's The Rediscovery of Man. It wasn't so much that she made it sound interesting... but she was so enthusiastic about it that I borrowed it from the Boston Public Library.

Admittedly, the collection is dated. References to the Cold War and to World War Two. Still, the first few stories blew my mind. They were so unexpected. As I read, I was astonished that they haven't been made into movies, although I think I see why.

Two of the stories, "Mark Elf" and "Queen of an Afternoon" are interesting enough in themselves, but they suggest an entire world outside of what you see and experience in the story. You witness a turning point in human history, but you infer what went before; you imagine how it went.

In one story, "Scanners Live in Vain" he talks about these modified humans: scanners and habermans, but he never describes them.  Even slightly.   So you come up with something... maybe without realizing.

I once took apart an Agatha Christie novel in every way I could, and one thing I did was to make a map based only on what was in the book. I was astonished to find that all I could know was that the house had a front door, a large entry hall, and stairs opposite the door. Nothing else was described, not even in passing. Yet we know there was a roof and at least two floors, rooms and furniture. You don't even notice yourself carrying the armchairs and the dark walls into your reading.

Of course, Dame Agatha writes about a world we all know... we don't have to guess at what a house looks like, or a beach, or even a dead body.  Still, the effort of making an Agatha Christie movie is not in creating a look.  With Cordwainer Smith, on the other hand, most of the work would be right there.  A filmmaker would need a rather comprehensive picture of the future to set these stories into.

Here's a little sample (a sample of his writing, not a sample of what I'm talking about):

Her gaiety still forced, she said: "Come on, darling, let's have a good time.  I have almost everything there is in the icebox -- all your favorite tastes.  And I have two new records just full of smells..."

"Which one did you like, on the record?"

"Well-l-l," she said judiciously, "there were some lamb chops that were the strangest things--"

He interrupted: "What are lambtchots?"

"Wait till you smell them.  Then guess.  I'll tell you this much.  It's a smell hundred and hundreds of years old.  They found about it in the old books."

"Is a lambtchot a Beast?"

"I won't tell you.  You've got to wait," she laughed....

So, if you're looking for a big, fat book to read (with lambtchots), give this one a try.