Path: ...!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!news.mixmin.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Dudley Brooks <dbrooks@runforyourlife.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (Tears) Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2024 13:51:26 -0700
Organization: Run For Your Life! ... it's a dance company
Lines: 72
Message-ID: <v454kh$3pkkn$1@dont-email.me>
References: <v448ev$j27$1@reader1.panix.com> <20240609a@crcomp.net>
Reply-To: dbrooks@runforyourlife.org
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Sun, 09 Jun 2024 22:51:30 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="507c1c06ed6a7200deec16c0bb4cfb62";
	logging-data="3986071"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18mzuGXz6ia3TFTbEb3oO8W+vvQvBp60n8="
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.13; rv:60.0)
 Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.9.1
Cancel-Lock: sha1:MwZBRgpBTt3gzVwxkoP8F/1OI0U=
In-Reply-To: <20240609a@crcomp.net>
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 4388

On 6/9/24 9:19 AM, Don wrote:

> James Nicoll wrote:

<snip - discussion of Robertson Davies's "Fifth Business">

> Here's an excerpt from Davies' speculative stream-of-consciousness story
> simulacrum - whose pointless plotlessness makes it merely a wannabe
> story despite all of its fine wordmanship. Its anti-Christian narrative
> hits me square between the eyes with the stupid hammer.
> 
>      He shot the beam of his flashlight into the scrub, and in
>      that bleak, flat light we saw a tramp and a woman in the
>      act of copulation. The tramp rolled over and gaped at us
>      in terror; the woman was Mrs Dempster.
> 
>      It was Hainey who gave a shout, and in no time all the men
>      were with us, and Jim Warren was pointing a pistol at the
>      tramp, ordering him to put his hands up. He repeated the
>      words two or three times, and then Mrs Dempster spoke.
> 
>      "You'll have to speak very loudly to him, Mr Warren," she
>      said, "he's hard of hearing."
> 
>      I don't think any of us knew where to look when she spoke,
>      pulling her skirts down but remaining on the ground. It was
>      at that moment that the Reverend Amasa Dempster joined us;
>      I had not noticed him when the hunt began, though he must
>      have been there. He behaved with great dignity, leaning
>      forward to help his wife rise with the same sort of
>      protective love I had seen in him the night Paul was born.
>      But he was not able to keep back his question.
> 
>      "Mary, what made you do it?"
> 
>      She looked him honestly in the face and gave the answer that
>      became famous in Deptford: "He was very civil, 'Masa. And he
>      wanted it so badly."

"speculative stream-of-consciousness story simulacrum - whose pointless 
plotlessness makes it merely a wannabe story"

The Deptford Trilogy, from which "Fifth Business" comes, is the only 
(three) thing(s) by Davies that I've ever read.  But I find this 
characterization very surprising.

Davies's writing seems to me to be quite conventional old-fashioned 
storytelling.  Not experimental at all.  First-person narrative is not 
stream-of-consciousness.  I feel the novels have plots: 
beginning/middle/end, setup/conflict/resolution, mystery/revelation, 
whatever.

"Conventional" and the rest of what I have said above is intended as 
neither praise nor condemnation; simply a statement of how it appears to me.

Likewise, this comment is not intended as a conemnation of your 
characterization or opinion.  The only thing I'm willing to say with 
absolute conviction is that "different people read things differently". 
But its great difference from my reading did surprise me.

"Its anti-Christian narrative hits me square between the eyes with the 
stupid hammer."

Could be.  C.S. Lewis's pro-Christian anti-science Space Trilogy 
certainly hit me between the eyes with ... well, I'll tone it down a 
little and simply say that, as a non-Christian, I found the militancy to 
be very offensive.

-- 
Dudley Brooks, Artistic Director
Run For Your Life! ... it's a dance company!
San Francisco