Chapter 17 Several Important Science Fiction Novels of Silverberg

(one) Robert Silverberg [Editor's Note: Current translation of Robert Silverberg, the same below. ]'s creation entered the most mature period from the end of the 1960s to the mid-1970s, when he got rid of commercial writing and began to write science fiction with a serious attitude.Several novels of science fiction created by him during this period established his position in the field of science fiction.However, Sifberg's novels during this period far surpassed ordinary science fiction in terms of literary skills, and some of them were already serious works belonging to "mainstream literature", but readers who were accustomed to vulgar works did not easily identify with them and felt Not easy to read, with distance.However, critics of serious literature turned a blind eye to these science fiction novels, which made Schifferborg quite unflattering. No wonder he said in 1975 when he announced that he was closing his pen (temporarily, of course) that he stopped writing because It was because he felt that he had nothing to say, and that what he had written was not satisfactory to him or to the reader.Undoubtedly, these novels of Sifburg are jewels in science fiction literature, which have raised the level of science fiction literature a lot and become a bridge between science fiction literature and mainstream literature.

There was once a popular method in the field of literary criticism, advocating that readers only talk about works in terms of works, regardless of the author. This method undoubtedly has its advantages, especially to guide readers to trace the literary patterns in individual works, so as to understand all the works of the author. explore, but in this way, another extreme will be produced, that is, the personal characteristics of the author are ignored. Each author has different personal experiences and has his own understanding and experience, so it is difficult to explore his literary model. Separate the author's personality and experience from the work.

Let us take 1969 as a boundary, the year in which a major event occurred in Schifferborg's life, namely the burning of his house in New York, which hit him hard.Before that, he had written works of millions of words, and even wrote such works as "To See the Invisible Man", "Thorns", "Flies", "In the Labyrinth". "The Man in The Maze", "Passengers", (Sun Dance) and other works, but the truly mature masterpieces should be produced after the fire.This fire made his creativity not as good as before, and he often had to revise again and again to write a work, which is no longer as good as writing a thousand words in the past.

(two) (Nightwings) is the first novel published after the fire. In fact, the first part was published as a novella in 1968 and won the Hugo Award, but he wrote the last two parts and will develop into a novel. Long science fiction. The story describes the world in the distant future, when human society has entered the third ring.The first ring is the period when human beings entered civilization from barbarism; the second ring is the period when human science and technology civilization is developing by leaps and bounds; the third ring is the period when human civilization is declining. Due to the disaster of self-destruction, human beings have been devastated, confused and confused, and have no clue. , although technology is still used in many ways, the society has lost its stability.The human society in the third ring is composed of a series of professional guilds, each person determines his status in the society by his duties, and regulates his behavior and opportunities accordingly.At the beginning of the novel, it is introduced that the protagonist is a member of the watchman guild. His duty is to use an instrument to detect invaders outside the solar system. The alien invasion has been predicted long ago, but most people do not take it seriously. thing.According to the rules of the guild, the watchman is anonymous, but we know that the protagonist is named Huyerik in the novel, and later named Dumishi in the second part.There are two people with him, one is the flying person Avluna, the flying person is the second ring, using genetic engineering to make this kind of person grow insect-like wings, but this kind of wings can only be seen at night. There is no pressure from the sun to fly.The other is also the product of the second-ring genetic engineering experiment, but it is a deformity, known as a shapeshifter.Shapeshifters are monsters and are regarded as low-level human beings. They once had a guild, but because they staged an abortive coup and temporarily occupied the most important holy city of mankind, Joslon, the guild was disbanded. Become an inferior person with no status in society.

The first part of the novel describes that the three people arrived in Roma city, but they couldn’t find a place to live, so they asked to see the grand duke of Roma city. stay.The shapeshifter Gormon was very angry. He admitted to the watchman that he was Avluna's lover. Of course, this kind of love is absolutely forbidden among the guild classes. He also vowed to blind the Grand Duke's eyes in the future for revenge. In fact, Gormon is not a shapeshifter, but a spy sent by aliens, as a military observer to prepare for the alien invasion fleet.The watchman heard the information about the alien invasion and issued an alarm, so the whole world prepared to defend against the invasion, but the defense force of the earth people could not resist the invasion at all, and they were soon conquered by the aliens.

The watchman has lost his professional status because he has no need to watch. He decides to leave the city of Roma and go to the city of Bellis, hoping to join the guild of the memory people. The memory people are an industry responsible for supervising the history of the earth.On the road, he was accompanied by another blind pilgrim, but this pilgrim was wearing a mask to hide his true face. Although he was dressed as a pilgrim, he did not have the "star stone" that a pilgrim should have. Star stone is a kind of gem , the real pilgrims use it to communicate with the soul of God.This pilgrim is actually the fugitive Grand Duke.When they left the city of Roma, they saw that Avruna could fly in the daytime, and Gormon supported her to fly in the sky.

The second part of the novel describes that the two fugitives arrived in Bailishi City and were taken in by the memory men's guild. At this time, the watchman used the name of Dumishi and engaged in historical exploration with the support of a female memory man Omeni.He finally found the "image record" and learned that the ancestors of the invading aliens had been kept in the zoo as rare animals by the earth people in the second ring, so he aroused the wrath of God and decided to destroy the civilization of the second ring .In the distant past, the invaders vowed to take revenge on human beings, and to conquer the earth this time is to humiliate human beings.The aliens are eager to retrieve and destroy this "image record", but this "image record" is guarded by the memory man's secret treasury.Because the Grand Duke had an affair with Omeini, her husband Aili Geluo was angered. Aili Geluo wanted to report the Grand Duke to the aliens. In order to save the Grand Duke, Du Mishi betrayed the secret of the "image record" to Aliens in order to obtain the Grand Duke's amnesty, but when the amnesty came down, Eligro had murdered the Grand Duke, and Omeni had killed his own husband.

The third part of the novel depicts that both Dumishi and Omeni became pilgrims and went to the holy city of Joslon, hoping to join the ranks of rehabilitated people.Not everyone will be accepted as a rehabilitated person. If they do not meet the requirements spiritually, they will be rejected.On the way to Joshcolm, they met a doctor who told them that the alien invasion was not only a sign of God's punishment for human arrogance, but also a sign that the time for human renewal was ripe.When Dumishi arrived in Joshcolm, he found that a new guild, the Redeemer, had appeared, which accepted members of various guilds, even shapeshifters.He meets Avliona again, already a member of the new guild.

Both Du Mishi and Omeni were accepted for rehabilitative treatment, and Du Mishi was able to regain his youth, but Omeni died because he was a paranoid, jealous and extremely selfish woman who could not adapt to the rehabilitative treatment.The so-called rebirth treatment is to reconcile the mind, which is to use the instrument used by the watchman in the past and the star stone of the pilgrim to make people's hearts communicate with each other, so that all people, including all guilds and even aliens Connected as one, aliens are no longer invaders, shapeshifters are no longer scapegoats, and invasion loses its true meaning, as pointed out in the novel: When all human beings are united, there is no conquest Now, when each of us is a part of every other, our suffering is over, and we have no need to rebel against the conquerors, for we have merged them in our rebirth.

This novel is very important to Schifferberg. As he said in his autobiography, the fire incident was a trauma for him, and it also made him regret that he was too lucky in the past and lived too much in life. Such a trial for him brought his life into balance again.In a book, he reveals his deep personal feelings and has obvious personal characteristics. Rebirth is a symbolic technique. There is no doubt that after this allegory, the emotions that are of great significance to him are clearly expressed, and it also reflects the his personal experience.He traveled to Europe in the 1960s, and he made a special trip to Jerusalem. Isn’t the holy city of Joshram in the book a symbol of Jerusalem?

In addition, it should be pointed out that Sifberg has reversed the style of previous works from this novel. Most of the science fiction written for popular magazines in the past was violence and heroes, but in this novel, it is a different kind of value, emphasizing Compassion and serene and peaceful moral qualities.In several of his novels in the future, this theme will reappear again and again, treating the alienation of the human mind, and using the unity of the mind to reconcile and communicate, so as to obtain new life.Compared with his later works, it is not a good work, but it is undoubtedly one of his most important works, and it is because of it that he can write "Downward to the Earth", "Glass Tower of Glass, A Time of Changes, Dying Inside, etc. (three) The theme of "Falling to the Earth" is the contact between human beings and alien intelligent creatures, and the pursuit of eternal life and redemption.During this period, Sifberg's creation has surpassed his early themes of pain, loneliness and alienation. This period was not long, but he wrote many outstanding works, which became variables of science fiction, focusing on symbolic Insight to analyze the inner world of modern people in the twentieth century.These science fiction novels focus on the exploration of the heart, and are close to the serious works of mainstream literature. "Falling to the Earth" is undoubtedly the same as the mainstream literature works, in terms of human anatomy, it has the same goal through different routes. Sifburg once traveled to Africa, and this trip inspired him. The actions of Western colonialism in Africa made him strongly feel that human beings should have a conscience of the universe.This novel does not have the phenomenon of piling up plots like ordinary science fiction novels, but focuses on exploring the conscience of the protagonist's inner world.Sifberg admitted more than once that his novel was deeply influenced by Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". The encounters of Europeans in Africa described by Germany in "Heart of Darkness" are similar in purpose. The protagonist, Edmund Gentsson, was once a high-ranking colonial officer sent to Bezagor. After eight years of leaving his post, he returned to this alien planet. At this time, Bezagor was no longer a colony. The Empire of Earth has ended the long period of imperialism and returned the occupied alien planets to alien intelligent beings.This is the same as when colonies around the world became independent after World War II.The original inhabitants of Bezagor are the Elephant Man and the Orangutan. The Elephant Man looks like an elephant, and the Orangutan is like a baboon. These two intelligent creatures have a very close relationship.Planet Bezagor has a warm climate and no industry, and the aliens live an idyllic life.Gentsson returned to the alien world this time with a sense of guilt. He once enslaved humans as slaves, and he hoped to atone for his sins.One thing he regrets the most is that when a dam collapsed accidentally, he forced seven elephant men to work and forbade them to go to the country of fog to participate in the religious ceremony of rebirth. They cannot resist the urge to perform this regeneration, and if they miss this opportunity, they will not know when and where they will be called again.Ghentsson conscripted the elephants into labor, threatening to kill them if they did not work for him. One of the elephants only said that he felt sorry for him, and Ghentsson burned him with a polynuclear gun.Ghentsson now feels very regretful and hopes to make amends. Gentsson's crimes were nothing compared to those committed by the European colonialists in Africa, but he, like all colonists, had a deep-rooted sense of superiority and arrogance that he simply could not Treat elephants as equals and treat them as beasts.His sense of atonement is only from the point of view of seeking his own peace of mind, and he does not really treat other intelligent creatures equally, but always treats elephant humans with a sense of superiority.But the Elephant Man repaid his grievances with kindness and allowed him to go to the Wu Country to participate in the religious ceremony of rebirth. Here Sifburg shows the insignificant image of human beings in front of the Elephant Man, which reminds us of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" The degenerate mentality of Europeans in the conflict between civilization and primitiveness.However, there is an essential difference between Silverberg and Konrad. Ghentsson finally got enlightenment, surpassed himself, and thus gained a new life. When Ghentsong was on his way to the country of fog, he met his former girlfriend Shi Na at the Shangri-La Waterfall. A jelly-like creature had been parasitized under her belly. Then squeeze the venom of vipers to feed the Elephant Man, and even let Gentsong drink it. This venom can cause hallucinations, but it is also used in regeneration rituals.As Guttz desecrated the Elephant Man's religious ritual, which he used as a form of sport and entertainment, he turned into a monster when he tried to pass the reincarnation process. Gentsong witnessed Gu Tezi turned into a monster, and Shi Na also advised him not to participate in the regeneration ceremony, because it would dehumanize him, but Gentsong was still determined to atone for his sins, and finally he was able to harmoniously combine with the elephant man and the orangutan to obtain eternal life .In the process of participating in the ceremony, he also learned that the elephant man and the orangutan are closely related because they transform each other, the entire universe is a continuous cycle, and each individual absorbs wisdom from all existence. This novel is basically a work of exploring the inner world, lacking in action plots and exploring in philosophy, which makes some readers feel that it does not feel like a science fiction novel, but Schifferberg's inner world in Ghentsson In terms of exploration, it has reached a considerable depth. In science fiction, no one has been able to create such a profound character.More importantly, this novel expresses Silverberg's philosophy, that is, all intelligent creatures have equal status in the universe and should be united. (Four) "Glass Tower" is a typical sci-fi novel, it has almost all the props of sci-fi novels, such as receiving alien information, artificial man, huge communication tower, spaceship for interstellar navigation, and even inner displacement, etc. too busy to give. The novel describes the 23rd century, when the world experienced great wars, anarchy, famine, social pressure and artificial contraception, the population of the world has been greatly reduced, machines have replaced people to do all the labor, and the working class has long been The society has become more convenient due to the travel of material transfers. Everyone speaks a language and lives a very leisurely life. The protagonist, Simian Krueger, is a rich inventor. He invented the artificial man, which only takes two years to grow up. With one to four years of education, one can be competent for the designated work. The artificial man meets the needs of the whole world. Human beings no longer need to work, and all the work is done by artificial man.The artificial man is just like Huxley described in "Brave New World", the difference is that the artificial man in Sifburg is completely artificially produced slaves.In "The Glass Tower," the relationship between artificial humans and their creators is less a social issue than a metaphor. A series of messages came from distant alien planets, these are some regular radio waves, and the numbers 2-4-1, 2-5-1, 3-1 are always sent out one long and one short, which is very It was obviously a telegram from an intelligent creature, but no one could figure out what it meant.Out of curiosity, Krueger vowed to contact this extraterrestrial intelligence. He built a giant glass launch tower on the Canadian arctic tundra to emit a ray faster than light in an attempt to communicate with aliens.This glass tower is 1,500 meters high, why is it built with glass?It is not only out of scientific needs, but also an aesthetic expression, right? This glass tower was built by a high-level android named Afa Dur Wajman commanding other androids.It is true that artificial humans have undergone education and training, entered programs, and acted obediently as slaves, but there may still be some human factors in the genetic engineering. Some artificial humans demand political rights, hoping to get rid of the status of slaves, and human beings. On an equal footing.Some of them, including Wagemans and Afa Lilith Mason, worshiped their creator Kruger as a god, and they had a secret religious belief that Kruger would one day make him a god. They were elevated to human beings and had equal rights as humans.Krueger's son, Manuel, is a gentle and kind person. He fell in love with the artificial human Lilith. Lilith seduced him on purpose, hoping that Manuel could contribute to the struggle for equal rights for artificial humans.Therefore, Manuel followed her to participate in the worship of underground religions, and knew the requirements of artificial humans.Under the urging of Lilith, Manuel plucked up the courage to speak out to his father for the artificial man, and told him that the underground religion of the artificial man regarded him as a god.Kruger was furious when he heard this. He couldn't understand how these slaves could want to be equal to humans. He refused to be their god and refused to help them get equal rights.However, in order to understand what the artificial man is going to do, Kruger and Afa Wajman carried out inner transposition, that is, exchanged minds with each other. He used Wajman's mind to detect the activities of the artificial man, but at the same time Germain sees the world with Kruger's mind, and also finds out that Kruger will never promise to give artificial humans an equal status.After the artificial man knew this situation, anger and despair caused riots, slaves rose up and killed their masters, property was destroyed, civilization fell into chaos, even Kruger's glass tower was destroyed by Vajman, and the world was bathed in blood and fire In the novel, Kruger finally escaped on his starship, left the earth, and flew to the NGC7293 nebula to start a journey of 300 light years. The ending of this novel leaves many unanswered questions. What is the meaning of the messages from the aliens?Does it come from the NGC7293 nebula?Can Kruger get there?What will you encounter when you get there?Anyway, this is an open ending, leaving a lot of room for readers to imagine. This novel is rich in thought, weaving so that readers are dazzled, and it is quite successful in portraying the characters, such as Kruger's stubbornness and energy; Manuel's gentleness and kindness; The piety of their religion is very personal, which is beyond the reach of ordinary science fiction novels.In terms of language, Sifburg is indeed a magician of words. His writing is colorful, vivid and powerful, and he has indeed made a careful choice of words and sentences.In science fiction, it is Schifferberg's outstanding achievement to portray ideas and characters so vividly. (Fives) "Dying Inside" is Schifferberg's work in 1972, and it can also be said to be a peak work of his creation.As a new wave of science fiction, this work is a bridge that makes the distance between science fiction and mainstream literature disappear.In the past, most American science fiction writers focused on popular magazines. Most of their writing catered to the needs of readers. They seldom considered themselves part of the cultural tradition. They just made a living with words.They are keen on all kinds of scientific props, but ignore the development of modern western literature. They simply ignore the new development of writers such as Joyce and DH Lawrence, and they do not pay attention to the psychology of Freud and Jung They also ignored Hemingway's innovation in concise and quick writing style, let alone Faulkner's depth in exploring human nature.The new wave of sci-fi undoubtedly sensed this distance and began to differ from past sci-fi creation methods. Writers such as Philip Dick and Sifburg began to explore the inner world and describe human psychology, subconsciousness, and unconsciousness. Dying Within can be said to be a wonderful masterpiece written under the direct or indirect influence of writers like Joyce and Lawrence. In a certain sense, "Dying Within" is not a science fiction novel, but a serious work belonging to mainstream literature. However, this is a new development of science fiction, which makes it difficult to define. props, but also a work exploring human nature.There is only one sci-fi gimmick that Silverberg employs in Dying Inwardly, and that's telepathy.The novel describes how the protagonist David Seelig gradually loses the ability of telepathy, but the novel does not focus on the telepathy itself, but describes the blindness and darkness in his heart when he loses this ability. Feeling hesitant and sad, lost and hopeless.Schiffberg himself once claimed that "Dying Inside" was not written as a science fiction novel, but a serious literary work. From another point of view, "Dying Inside" does abandon many creative methods like "hard science fiction", and is closer to psychological novels, but isn't exploring the inner world an important part of "soft science fiction"?Seelig in this novel has the ability that ordinary people (the vast majority of human beings) do not have, and this ability is precisely a disability that makes him feel extremely disadvantaged.It is the complex changes in such a person's inner world that Sifburg wants to explore. The novel "Dying Inside" does not just explore the inner world, it also contains extremely rich ideological content. The character of Xilig has a profound personality. A distorted, distressed personality is also typical.This little man is an unknown person in the society. He always feels that he is an outsider in this society. He once said in the novel: "The problem is that I feel isolated from other people." Although he lives in tens of millions of people New York, even has the ability to read people's hearts, but he is always a lonely person. At the age of forty-one, Seelig felt that his senses had become numb.He used to make a living by writing papers for Columbia University students. His mental stress enabled him to see through the requirements of the professor and the abilities of the students. He would surely be able to come up with a paper that satisfied both of them. Gunner, he charges three and a half yuan per page, and even guarantees to get a B+ grade, if the score is lower than this, he will not charge money.But once his abilities waned, it was difficult for him to earn a living. After the novel explained the dilemma of Xilig, the author explained the cause of the dilemma, and he focused on the darkness and emptiness in Xilig's heart.Silverberg uses Joyce's stream-of-consciousness method to flashback, through a series of fragments, and even uses a whole chapter to make Slig's inner monologue, so as to show the essence of Slig's blindness.At the same time, it also explores the interpersonal relationship of Seelig, including his relationship with his parents, step-sister, and multiple lovers.Although he has the ability to read people's hearts, he is actually unable to communicate with people.Nyquist, another telepathic character, appeared in the novel, and Seelig could not communicate with him either.Nyquist only sees the pain and loneliness of Xilig. Xilig envies that Nyquist can live a balanced and regular life, and always wonders where he hides the pain and loneliness in his heart. He couldn't actually see that Nyquist was abusing telepathy at all, and he didn't intend to share it with anyone.In other words, Nyquist is extremely selfish. From "Dying Inside", we can see that Silverberg was deeply influenced by modernist novels. "Dying Inside" is a new interpretation of Joyce's short story "The Dead". The protagonist in the novel of mourning always lives in the shadow of his wife's dead first love, and can never be reborn, but Xilig has hope. His spiritual force dies in his heart, but he can be reborn among human beings. Be a normal human being. Life and death, rebirth, this theme covers the whole novel, Sifburg's novel, like Joyce's "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" and DH Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers", is a book of growth, development, abandonment and so on. A novel of rejection and maturity, it describes a person's inner contradictions and how to surpass himself. The fourth chapter of the novel uses a whole chapter to describe the thesis written by Schilliger for a student of Columbia University. It is a thesis on Kafka's novels, which makes people suspect that it was written by Sifberg when he was in college. a dissertation.Kafka is a writer who pays attention to human pain and alienation. From this point, it can be seen that Schifferborg was deeply influenced by Kafka.On the surface, "Dying Inside" is not a tragedy, but a personal sorrow, which does not affect all human beings. The loss of Silig is only his personal problem, but Sifberg uses this little character in this novel to reflect modern times. Due to the increasing development of science and technology, the society is constantly dehumanized, and the human beings living in this society feel the pain, weakness, terror, tension and helplessness, so in a sense, Seelig’s personal tragedy is not just his own. , but the problem of the whole society. The reason why Sifburg can successfully create a small character with typical significance is that he has read a lot of serious literary works, especially modernist literary works, and also because of his extensive reading of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. related.So "Dying Inside" is not so much a science fiction novel as it is a serious work of mainstream literature. In other words, Silverberg has built a bridge of communication between science fiction and serious literature. Of course, Sifburg has written a lot of works recently, including the historical novel "King Gilgamesh" based on Babylonian legends, the fantasy epic "Sir Valentine's Castle", etc., but I personally think that he wrote in the 1970s The creation of science fiction has reached its peak, so the later creation will not be discussed. April 1993 in Toronto Author: Du Jian