Eleven Great Vintage Stories and Overpopulation and Eco-Catastrophe

Eleven Great, Vintage Stories About Overpopulation and Eco-Catastrophe

Star Trek: 'The Mark of Gideon,' 1969

The 1960s and 1970s were the golden years in science fiction literature for stories about the horrors inherent in ecological collapse and overpopulation. In the interests of prompting people to take action, such stories often were provocative, even hectoring. 

Here is a list of some well-known, and lesser-known, stories on eco-catastrophe and overpopulation, all designed to make you think. And maybe bring a touch or two of nostalgia for those who are Baby Boomers ! 

[ Given the age of these stories, and the increasing costs of acquiring paperbacks first published some 50 or more years ago, I've tried to give multiple sources for these tales. Hopefully this makes it a little easier to access them. ]

[ I'll update this list as I go along, via remembering stories I've read, or encountering new stories, on this topic. ]

Billenium (1961), by J. G. Ballard: this Old School gem frequently has been anthologized, such as in the 1976 anthology 'The City: 2000 AD,' edited by Clem, Greenberg, and Olander, as well as 1962, eponymous compilation of Ballard tales. Despite the passage of the decades since its first appearance, ‘Billenium’s’ account of the street-level reality of overpopulation, where people are desperate to find another square yard of living space, remains one of the most powerful treatments of the topic ever to be published.

***

The Purple Child (1966), by Emilio Belaval: this tale can be found in the 1971 anthology 'Voyages: Scenarios for A Ship Called Earth.' It’s a particularly grim, but effective, account of poverty and childbearing in rural Central America. Belaval, a Puerto Rican author, offers a rebuke to those gringos who wonder, “why don’t those grubby peasants practice birth control ?”

***

The Vitanuls (1967) by John Brunner: This first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1967, and later in the 1972 Brunner anthology 'From This Day Forward.' An American MD stumbles across an unusual phenomenon when he tours a maternity hospital in India. The atmosphere of this story is somber and unsettling.

***

Eco-Catastrophe (1969) by Paul R. Ehrlich: Famous in his day for his bestselling book 'The Population Bomb,' Ehrlich crafts a convincing ‘what if’ story about a near-future world endangered because it didn’t follow the proscriptions outlined in 'Bomb.' This story is included in 'Best SF: 1969,' edited by Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison, and in 'Nightmare Age' (1970), edited by Frederik Pohl. 

***

Total Environment (1968), by Brian W. Aldiss: this first appeared in the February, 1968 issue of Galaxy magazine, and later in 'The City: 2000 AD' (1976). The ‘environment’ of the title is an arcology in which 500 young Indian couples are sequestered, and left to their own devices. It’s an experiment in social science, designed to see how humans cope with severe overcrowding. Aldiss clearly intended this story to explore the implications of the iconic 'behavioral sink' experiments on rodents conducted in the late 1960s at the National Institutes of Health, by zoologist John B. Calhoun.

***

Brian Aldiss also wrote Orgy of the Living and the Dying (1970), which is available in the 1970 anthology 'The Year 2000,' edited by Harry Harrison. ‘Orgy’ is set in an impoverished region of India in the midst of severe drought and famine. In this bleak and seemingly hopeless setting, the lead character (who is something of an Ugly European) is offered the chance to be an unlikely hero.

***

Population Control, 1986 (1970), by Horacio Paredes, is an interesting entry, first appearing in Atlas magazine in 1970, and later, in the 1971 Zero Population Growth anthology 'Voyages: Scenarios for A Ship Called Earth.' It’s a rare tale by a ‘third world’ writer (Paredes was a Filipino) about the Population Bomb. ‘Population Control’ is a brief, but competent, tale of drastic measures taken to curtail population growth in India and the Philippines.

***

And Watch the Smog Roll In (1971) by Barry Weissman: This was published in the 1971 anthology 'Protostars,' edited by David Gerrold. It’s a dark satire of a near-future California in the grip of overpopulation, severe pollution, and a dysfunctional bureaucracy gone amok (making this story, some might argue, rather uncomfortably predictive of our current reality).

***

A Happy Day in 2381 (1970), by Robert Silverberg: this story first saw print in the 1971 anthology 'Nova,' and later in 'The City: 2000 AD' (above). In the Future City, Earth's population of 75 billion live in arcologies three kilometers high. Mattern, an inhabitant of one such arcology, hosts a visitor whose remarks leave Mattern wondering about the wisdom of Unchecked Fecundity. Silverberg later would expand this story into his 1971 novel 'The World Inside,' about an overpopulated Earth where people live their entire lives indoors.

*** 

The Human Side of the Village Monster (1971), by Edward Bryant: appearing in Terry Carr's anthology 'Universe 1,' this story is set in a decrepit, near-future New York City where overpopulation has led to birth-control mandates, thus depriving a young couple of any hope of having a child. An effective portrayal of a grim and dystopian USA.

***

Triage (1976), by William Walling: this story first appeared in Analog in November, 1976. It later was included in the anthologies 'No Room for Man' (1979) edited by Clem, Greenberg, and Olander, and 'The Crash of Empire,' (1989) edited by Carr and Pournelle. In ‘Triage,’ a U.N. bureaucrat in charge of distributing food aid to the starving millions in third-world countries is forced to play God, a position in which no human being ever wants to find themselves.

Book Review: NYPD 2025

Book Review: 'NYPD 2025' by Hal Stryker

0 / 5 Stars

'NYPD 2025' (185 pp.) was published by Pinnacle Books in May, 1985. The cover art is by John Berkey. 

 

'Hal Stryker' apparently is a pseudonym, as the book is copyrighted by George H. Smith (1922 - 1996). According to his Wiki entry, Smith churned out more than 100 novels, in a variety of genres, for a variety of paperback publishers, making him a genuine 'Paperback Writer.'

So, how well does a forty year-old novel set in the 'future' predict what 2025 actually will be like ? The answer is, not very well. Indeed, 'NYPD 2025' essentially is an exercise in facetiousness.

As Stryker imagines it, the New York City of 2025 is like something out of 'Magnus, Robot Fighter,' or the film The Fifth Element. Meaning, 200-story skyscrapers, thousands of aircars buzzing though the skies, wall-sized TVs that transmit 3-D programs called 'solidios,' miraculous medical technologies, androids / robots, ray guns, colonies on Mars, communications devices wired directly into brain tissue, etc., etc.

The novel's opening chapters introduce us to the lead character, the square-jawed, rugged, All American man of action Zack Ward. A veteran of campaigns waged in Central America against the commies, Zack is in a spot of trouble, having been kidnapped by a team of anarchists. Led by the villainous Pablo and Kruger, the anarchists, trusting that the Media is the Message, want to abuse him for a solidio, this being the best vehicle to discredit Zack's anti-communist ideology and advance the cause of the Socialist International.

Luckily for Zack, he meets up with the eponymous NYPD 2025 unit Ten. This is a team of operatives, including the unfortunately named android 'Andy Jumbles,' who are led by the stunning Judge Portia van Wyck. The Ten are something of an extralegal unit, tasked with using all means at their disposal to combat the epidemic of crime loosed on the city, and the greater USA, by the ultra-liberal rule of President Buchanan.

Judge Portia sends Zack off on a mission to investigate leading silidio producer Dynamic Studios, whose hit show is a 'snuff' feature starring '...the Slasher of Slaughter Gulch, who has dismembered thirty-five victims so far in his demonic search for [the lubricious young woman] Foxxy [van Pelt].'

This sets Zack on a course for a fateful encounter with the Slasher, one sure to end in bloodshed and death - !

I picked up 'NYPD 2025' with the realization that it is a 'Men's Adventure' novel in a thin sci-fi coating. I wasn't expecting deathless prose, measured pacing, or in-depth characterization. 

But even when giving the novel wide leeway in evaluative terms, it comes up as a very, very lame entry in the genre. While author Stryker suffuses the book with sarcastic humor that takes aim at liberal and progressive idiocies, the constant stream of winking asides quickly grows tiring, as does the contrived nature of the action sequences and the inane dialogue. It's not difficult to see why, despite the cover blurb, no additional volumes in the series ever saw print.

Even dedicated fans of the Men's Adventure novel genre are going to find 'NYPD 2025' forgettable. I give it a Zero Star Rating. With prices for used copies starting at $23 on up, you're better off passing on this one !

Valerian: Ambassador of the Shadows

Valerian: Ambassador of the Shadows

by Jean-Claude Mezieres (art) and Pierre Cristin (story)

Dargaurd, 1981

'Valerian: Ambassador of the Shadows' (48 pp.) first was issued in 1975 as a serial in the French magazine Pilote, then later, an album des bande dessinee (Franco-Belgian comic book). 

It's one of a number of Valerian albums des bande dessinees that were translated into English and published in the United States by Dargaud during the early 1980s; 'Ambassador' was issued in 1981. That same year, it was serialized in Heavy Metal magazine.

Some of the contents of 'Ambassador' were incorporated into the 2017 feature film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.

The Dargaud editions measure 8 3/4 x 11 1/4 inches, which corresponds to the dimensions of the traditional bande dessinee. It's nice to see the artwork in the format in which it originally was published.

As 'Ambassador' opens, our heroes Valerian and Laureline are tasked with escorting the Galaxity ambassador to an important diplomatic conference on the massive artificial planet of Central Point.

Central Point, which has been in existence for hundreds of years, is home to envoys from all the civilized races of the galaxy; these are accommodated in neighborhoods custom-tailored for the physiologies of their inhabitants.

This being a French comic, the ambassador likely is a satirical depiction of an actual French politician from the mid-70s, but I confess to not knowing exactly who that French politician is..........

Soon after their arrival on Central Point, a group of assailants ambush the team and abduct the ambassador and Valerian. It is up to the resolute Laureline, accompanied by a reluctant Colonel Diol, a 'protocol officer' of cowardly bent.

The search for the ambassador and Valerian will takes Laureline all over Central Point, and involve encounters with all manner of strange alien races.

'Valerian: Ambassador of the Shadows' is another good episode in the Valerian Canon. The action is well-plotted by Cristin, who takes advantage of the sprawling nature of Central Point to introduce the characters into a new milieu every other page or so. This being a comic intended for a juvenile audience, there is no explicit violence or risque content, but there certainly is some satiric humor that will be understood on a 'adult' level.

As with other Valerian titles, there is a political subtext to Cristin's story, namely, Galaxity (a stand-in for Earth) is a less than noble entity, and the ambassador's mission has an underlying motive that belies Galaxity's outward appearance of cooperativity and mutual respect. 

Mezieres' artwork is very good, and the color schemes are arguably more advanced as compared to those appearing in the American comic books of the 1970s and 1980s.

If you're interested in getting a copy of 'Ambassador of the Shadows', copies of the Dargaud edition remain available for prices under $20. Also available is a smaller-dimension English version, released by UK's Cinebook in 2013. And, as the sixth book in the Valerian series, 'Ambasador of the Shadows' currently is included in Cinebook's 'Valerian: The Complete Collection' hardbound edition, Volume 3 (2017).

The Dreamer by William Hjortsberg

'The Dreamer' by William Hjortsberg

from Penthouse, February 1979

Here's a tale of proto-cyberpunk that went through some different incarnations in print media in the 1970s.

 

Hjortsberg (1941 - 2017) is perhaps best known for his 1978 horror novel 'Falling Angel,' which later was made into the 1987 film Angel Heart. His 1971 sci-fi novel 'Gray Matters,' which uses the brains-in-a-jar theme, is reviewed here. 

 

'The Dreamer,' which was published in the February, 1979 Penthouse, is an adaptation of a novelette Hjortsberg published, as a chapbook titled 'Symbiography,' in 1973.

'The Dreamer' benefits from a fine illustration from Don Ivan Punchatz:

As a spoiler-free summary, I'll say that 'The Dreamer' is set in the near future, after a catastrophe (probably nuclear war) has left much of the planet a wasteland, peopled by nomads whose lives are nasty, brutish, and short.

 

Civilization survives in the form of the City, a high-technology enclave run by a cadre of bureaucrats, who are in turn aided by sophisticated computers. Within the City, the populace take their pleasure in reliving the dreams of others, via the aid of specialized neurolink devices through which they can 'download' the dreams from the network.

 

Par Sondak is one of the small coterie of professional dreamers, whose dreams are recorded and then distributed - for profit - to the audience in the City. To enhance his dreaming experiences, Sondak resides in isolation in a well-guarded oasis of greenery in the midst of the wasteland.

 

As the novelette opens, Sondak is facing something of a crisis. Direct Experience Tapes, or DETs, are overtaking dreams as a commodity. DETs, a sort of GoPro technology as it might have been envisioned in the early 1970s, can feature all manner of experiences that are real, not dreams. And the lotus eaters in the City have a preference for DETs that feature explicit sex and violence.

 

Unless Sondak can come up with a way to compete with the DETs, his career (and its accompanying affluence) as a professional dreamer is in danger.

 

But a chance encounter with a wasteland nomad, 'Buick' of the Cincinnati clan, plants an idea in Sondak's head......

'The Dreamer' is a good mix of proto-cyberpunk with a 'Mad Max' sensibility. Its prose is clear and unadorned, the characterization of Per Sondak and his nomad acolyte adroidt, and its portrayal of a near-future society in keeping with the tenor of the early 1970s. I find 'The Dreamer' to be superior to 'Gray Matters.'

While both the 1973 chapbook 'Symbiography' and the 1979 Penthouse are not easy to come by nowadays, the novelette is included in the 2004 omnibus, 'Odd Corners: The Slip-Stream World of William Hjortsberg,' which is quite affordable. Those with an interest in proto-cyberpunk may want a copy.

Book Review: Blueschild Baby

Celebrating Black History Month 2025

 

'Blueschild Baby' by George Cain

 

4 / 5 Stars

 

Here at the PorPor Books Blog we like to celebrate Black History Month by reading and reviewing a book, fiction or nonfiction, that illuminates the Black Experience. For February 2025, we are reviewing 'Blueschild Baby' by George Cain.

 

'Blueschild Baby' first was published in hardback by McGraw-Hill in 1970. In January, 1972, Dell books issued a mass market paperback edition, copies of which can be rather pricey. This trade paperback edition (210 pp.) was issued by Ecco / Harper Collins in 2019 and is considerably more affordable. 

 

It features an Introduction by Leslie Jamison, an essayist who has written books about addiction. Jamison is a white liberal, and while her Introduction features insights into Cain garnered from his wife Jo Lynne Pool, Jamison steeps the Introduction in identity politics and grievance politics (it is structural racism fomented by the white power structure that drives People of Color to take up clandestine drug use, etc., etc.).

 

'Blueschild' is the first and only novel by Cain, and is autobiographical in nature. Born in 1943 with the name George Maurice Hopkins, he later converted to Islam and changed his surname to Cain. During the writing of the novel in the 1960s he would head into the ghetto with notebooks tucked under his arm, taking notes of the landscape from which he was scoring dope. While 'Blueschild' made him a rising star in the literary scene, he struggled with heroin addiction all his life, and despite assistance and encouragement from his editor, he never was able to write another book. Cain died in 2010 at age 66.

'Blueschild' is set in Harlem in the summer of 1967. The first-person narrator (also named George Cain) is only 23 years old, but a stone-cold junkie who must get a fix every day. In the opening chapters we are introduced to the lifestyle of the junkie, the process of scoring dope and shooting up, hustling for the next hit, staying one step ahead of the Man, and evading injury or death at the hands of Harlem's criminal element.

The first half of the novel chronicles Cain's misadventures in the back alleys and tenements of Harlem, and his fraught relationship with his family, who lecture him - to no avail - about the need to get cleaned up, if not for himself, then for his daughter Sabrina.

The crux of the narrative occurs about halfway through the book, when Cain decides to quit, cold-turkey, with the aid of his long-suffering girlfriend. The narrative then goes into flashbacks of his upbringing, and his efforts, often tortuous, to straddle the world of the streets and the world of upper-class society.

'Blueschild' uses a jive-influenced, clipped prose style, mingling stream-of-consciousness with introspection:

 

Take the bus downtown to Washington Square. Walking across the park see strange signs and omens. Young white beggars fill the streets, pawing and panhandling. Dirty and drugged. Everywhere gross acts and running obscenities. Bold, they exhibit their infirmities for sympathy and inspection, dead souls and lost minds. The cancer has found a fatter host, it began somewhere deep in my bowels and now consumes America. Tourists roam the place. Laughing and giving freely for what they think funny, not knowing it is their own death they're watching. 

 

Coming onto Thompson Street, go into my bag. I swagger and sneer at them. Italian women dressed in dumpy-black, hanging from the windows and stoops, cursing me in their foul tongue while counting beads and blessings.

 

George Cain is not a likeable character. He is self-centered, consumed with self-pity, often violent and abusive towards women, racist towards whites, and sometimes hateful towards other black people. He will betray anyone, if it gets him another fix and another day lost in euphoria.  

Along with its stark portrayal of the self-degradation of addiction, 'Blueschild' also is an observation of the conversion of John Lindsay's New York City into the hellhole it would be in the 1970s. The exploding numbers of addicts in Harlem are a foreshadowing of the spread of social disorder into the other boroughs of the city, and the advent of the pervasive decay to come.

Where 'Blueschild' falters is in its closing chapter, which, without disclosing spoilers, ends on an ambiguous note. It's something of a cop-out on the author's part.

Summing up, 'Blueschild Baby' succeeds as an insightful treatment of black life and times in the sixties, and is deserving of a Four Star Rating.