Subject: Review: "10,000 Lightyears from Home" by James Tiptree Jr.

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:37:34 GMT

"10,000 Lightyears from Home" by James Tiptree Jr
		A Postview, copyright 1996 p-m agapow

A short story collection featuring "Faithful to thee, Terra, in our fashion"
where a harassed bureaucrat attempts to manage a racetrack frequented by
aliens from thousands of worlds; "Mama come home" where a group of
intelligence analysts come to grips with a strangely emasculating First
Contact; "And I awoke and found me here on the cold hill's side" where human
are placed in the role of natives paddling out to the ships of a strange and
more advanced world outside; and more.

When Alice Sheldon, psychologist and one-time CIA employee, took it upon
herself in 1987 to commit suicide, it also destroyed her literary alter ego
James Tiptree Jr.  Any suicide is sad, and the sorrow surrounding Sheldon/
Tiptree's is extended by watching her work slip slowly out of print and into
oblivion.  After searching nearly a dozen worthwhile bookstores in recent
weeks, i came up with only two worn second-hand volumes.  Hopefully, as with
the recent re-issue of Alfred Bester's work, someone will take it onto
themselves to rerelease the Tiptree canon.  In the mean time you may be
fortunate enough to find "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever" edited by James Turner,
a good solid collection.

"10,000 Lightyears" collects about a dozen stories from the early 70s.
There's a rare quality to many of them, that makes you envious that you
hadn't written them.  After finishing some stories, you wish there was more
to go on reading.  Sometimes Tiptree was effortlessly talented, giving depth
and verisimilitude as well as a great deal of humour to scenarios that were
in many ways ridiculous: the giant uber-female aliens of "Mama come home,"
the pan-galactic races of "Faithful to thee Terra."

	"The [aliens] had been in our system exactly thirteen hours,
	 during which the united brains of Earth had demonstrated all
	 the initiative of a shocked opossum."

There's a bleakness here, too, that in the hands of lesser authors -- and
unfortunately in her later work -- would consume and nullify the story.
"And I awoke" and "The man who walked home," about a time traveller heading
back in time to the point of global destruction, are both about deeply
hopeless situations, yet they don't wallow in this and deter you from
reading on.

Truthfully some stories do not work as well as others.  Several (e.g "I'm
too big but I love to play") smack too much of early 70's self-absorption
and the issues of the time to age well.  And occasionally Tiptree carries a
story far, too far, on the basis of a clever analogy or punchline.  But
these are minor quibbles, and the collection can only be recommended.  Once
again, let's hope Tiptree gets back into print, soon.  [***/interesting] and
Charlie Parker on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A James Tiptree Jr.
%B 10,000 Lightyears from Home
%D 1973

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
[archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/]