Book Review: Gray Matters

Book Review: 'Gray Matters' by William Hjortsberg

2 / 5 Stars

‘Gray Matters’ was first published in hardback in 1971. This Pocket Book edition (159 pp) was released in December 1972, with a cover illustration by Gene Szafran.

William Hjortsberg is best known for his novel ‘Falling Angel’, which became the basis for the 1987 film ‘Angel Heart’ with Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet.

‘Gray Matters’ is essentially another take on the traditional sf trope of 'brains-housed-in-aquariums'.

The story is set in the future, where, in a massive underground facility, the disembodied brains (‘cerebromorphs’) of millions of people lie in row upon row of small canisters. These canisters are filled with a nutritive fluid, and individually wired to a central computer bank, which allows the consciousness of the brain to experience a sort of early 70s version of Virtual Reality.

The narrative centers on four of the cerebromorphs: a movie star named Vera Mitlovic; a twelve year-old boy named Denton ‘Skeets’ Kalbfleischer, who in the early 70s became the first of the cerebromorphs; an African artist named Obu Itubi; and a hotshot former astronaut and pilot, named Philip Quarrels.

The opening chapters introduce us to these characters, and the VR scenarios that hold their attention. While the cerebromorphs are content to indulge in their fantasies, the AI that supervises the facility nags them to adopt a quasi-Bhuddist regimen of mental exercises and meditation in order to provoke their ‘ascension’ to a ‘higher order’.

Over time, Obu Itubi becomes increasingly irritated by the hectoring of the AI, and in a fit of rebellion, he decides to break free of the facility. This rash action sends him on a journey of discovery, one with profound implications for the fate of the cerebromorphs…..

‘Gray Matters’ starts off well enough, injecting sardonic humor into the life – if it can be called that – of the cerebromorphs. With Obu Itubi's escape attempt, the reader is induced to expect some major revelations about the strange world in which the human population is represented by their stored brains. 

Unfortunately, having set up this bizarre and disturbing world, author Hjortsberg is unable to follow through in terms of a denouement, and the second half of the book quickly loses momentum. It doesn't help matters that the author tries to maintain two separate plot threads, neither of which really engages the reader’s attention (despite the regular inclusion of softcore porn scenes - !).
 
The book ends on something of an inconclusive note, designed to tell us that things may not, after all, be well with the cerebromorph system.

In summary, ‘Gray Matters’ starts with promise, but loses focus courtesy of a meandering approach to plotting. In some fairness, it is true that the entire 'virtual reality / disembodied consciousness' sub-genre wouldn't really flower until the advent of the Cyberpunks in the early 80s. However, I can’t recommend this book to anyone, save the most dedicated readers of the ‘Disembodied Consciousness’ sub-genre of sf.

Hunter episode 4 from Eerie No. 55

'Hunter' from Eerie magazine (Warren)
episode 4
from Eerie No. 55,  March 1974

This episode, 'The Village', has a particularly downbeat tenor to it, as the race-war between the Demons and the Humans takes a particularly nasty turn.... 

The Complete Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination

'The Complete Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination' by Howard Chaykin and Byron Preiss

Bester's 'The Stars My Destination' is one of the few 'Old School' SF classics that really lives up to its 'classic' status. 

First published in 1956, the novel borrows its plot from 'The Count of Monte Cristo' :

In the aftermath of an unprovoked attack on the spaceship Nomad, crewman Gully Foyle survives among the floating ruins of his vessel by outfitting a storage locker as an emergency survival compartment. Foyle, clad in his spacesuit, desperately scavenges oxygen canisters and tins of food and water from the wreckage, hoping to survive long enough to be rescued. 

Foyle is in his 171st day aboard the Nomad, when he espies an approaching vessel. Rescue is within his reach...or so it seems....

'Stars' has a very 'modern' approach to its prose style, plotting, and characterization, which made it stand out from the wooden material being churned out in the late 50s by Arthur Clarke, James Blish, and Isaac Asimov (among others).

Throughout the 70s, editor and author Byron Preiss (1953 - 2005) was active in publishing illustrated editions of sf mass-market and trade paperbacks. One of his ventures involved a small New York City publisher named Baronet, who in the late 70s released 'The Illustrated Harlan Ellison' and 'The Illustrated Roger Zelazny', as well as the illustrated 'The Stars My Destination'.

The publication history of 'Stars' is complicated. In July 1979 Baronet released 'The Stars My Destination, Volume One: The Graphic Story Adaptation' as a trade paperback and as a deluxe-edition hardcover in a slipcase, with an empty slot preserved as a space for the planned volume 2. 

Excerpts of Volume One and Volume Two were published in Heavy Metal magazine; the November 1979 issue featured the first chapter of Volume Two, which I've posted below.

Unfortunately, Baronet went out of business soon after releasing Volume One, and the draft of Volume Two sat in a warehouse in Queens, New York, for 12 years until Carl Potts, editor of Marvel's 'Epic Illustrated' magazine, expressed an interest in publishing a complete edition of the book.

After further labors by Preiss, the Complete Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination'  was released in 1992 by Epic.

 

Readers interested in picking up a copy can find it at amazon.com and eBay  for affordable prices, but take care that you purchase the 'Complete' version, as opposed to Volume One (which shares the same cover).

If you've never read Bester's novel, the Chaykin / Preiss edition is probably the best way to take it in. While the graphic story is abridged, the quantity of excised text is very minor, and the full flavor of the novel is well retained. 

Chaykin's illustrations are an able interpretation of the visual images described in the text. Their variety and quantity are impressive, particularly in light of the fact that they were done in the era prior to the advent of computer - assisted graphics.

Book Review: 'The Slaves of Heaven' by Edmund Cooper

2 / 5 Stars

'The Slaves of Heaven’ was first published in 1974; this Berkley paperback (156 pp) was issued in April 1975. The striking cover artwork is by Paul Lehr.

The novel opens with an entirely gratuitous sex scene (!) that will probably generate unease, even queasiness, among those modern-day readers unprepared for the more…. liberal …..standards for such material that existed in the 60s and 70s.

The narrative is set on Earth, centuries after WW III has destroyed civilization. Mankind is reduced to nomadic bands of stone-age tribesman, who regularly engage in combat for prime real estate, and access to females.

Berry is Chieftain of the Landos tribe, and unusually bright. When Berry hears rumors of a strange tribe called the Night Comers, who abduct women from sleeping campsites during the nighttime hours, he decides to set up a primitive alarm system around the confines of his camp. As far as Berry is concerned, should the Night Comers target the Landos tribe, they will be met with violence.

On a frosty night, the Night Comers do indeed visit the Landos tribe, and Berry’s preparations are for naught, as the Night Comers are seemingly invincible. 

Stunned and disheartened, Berry pursues the kidnappers and their female captives.

When Berry discovers the origins of the Night Comers, what seems to be an unusual act of kidnapping morphs into something much more profound....and a savage tribesman from the wastelands of Earth will find the fate of Mankind in his hands….

Edmund Cooper wrote quite a few sf novels during the 70s. Some of these were well-written (The Cloud Walker comes readily to mind), and can well stand alongside the more lauded novels of the era.

Others were simple pulp fictions, designed to earn the author a living. ‘Slaves of Heaven’ falls into the latter category. Cooper (like his US contemporary, Robert Silverberg) regularly wrote softcore porn novels to supplement his income, and ‘Slaves’ comes across as one of these novels, given a hasty re-working for the sf market.

The novel is suffused with a sly, almost self-parodic air. Berry, being a barbarian, uses a determinedly stilted manner of speaking, a manner of speaking that is devoid of the use of contractions. To top it off, Beery can’t help couching most of his dialogue in the form of aphorisms and platitudes, straight out of a script for a Kung Fu episode. Readers will need to prepare themselves for a steady diet of passages such as these:

“Chief, a wise man does not seek death unless he is in great pain. Only fools seek death to solve their problems.”

“The fire-talk is ended,” said Berry. “I command you to take the body of Oris to lie with those who died this day in defense of the clan. Tomorrow- whatever the day brings forth – we shall travel. I have spoken.”

‘Slaves of Heaven’ is a fast-moving and reasonably engaging adventure novel, but nothing more than that.

Heavy Metal magazine September 1982

'Heavy Metal' magazine September 1982

It’s September 1982, and on FM radio, Pete Townshend’s solo album ‘All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes’ is in heavy rotation.

The single ‘Slit Skirts’, still one of Townshend’s best songs, gets the video treatment on MTV. It’s a welcome relief from all the Joan Jett and Toni Basil videos…..and it's a great video, with plenty of New Wave visual style, including the noir-ish lighting effects, and the tee shirts with Asian ideographs printed on them worn by some of the band members. 

Also noteworthy is the video from another 'Chinese Eyes' track, 'Face Dances Part 2'. The crude animatronics featured in the video are genuinely........ disturbing....

The September issue of Heavy Metal is on the stands, featuring a front cover by Michael Gross, and a back cover by Berni Wrightson.

This is one of the better HM issues of the year.

The Dossier features the usual opinionated content…. Lou Stathis, in his ‘Rok Music’ review, takes aim at guitar-centered performers, with some praise for Tom Verlaine, Ritchie Blackmore, Phil Manzanera, and the San Francisco band ‘Toiling Midgets’. There are some Midgets songs available at YouTube; standard-issue L.A. region punk tunes.

Other Rok critics in the Dossier: Jon Tiven castigates Van Halen, declaring them already washed up with the release of Diver Down. And Merle Ginsberg waxes enthusiastic over 'dissonant' art-rock, typified by newcomers Sonic Youth, and their '...urban mutant sound', and a group called Red Decade, founded by an artiste named Jules Baptiste. 

HM editorial staffer Brad Balfour demonstrates he can write as badly as Stathis, Tiven, and Ginsberg, declaring that the group Material "....is more assiduously steeped in a proto-apocalyptic ethos." What exactly this means, is not at all clear, but hey, it sounds very knowledgeable......

There is a brief but very readable interview with sf author Thomas M Disch, who looks suspiciously similar to Robin Leach.

And a laudatory examination of the artwork of the video game ‘Tempest’: my favorite game of the arcade era, in fact. 

The comics section of the September issue provides continuing installments of Corben’s ‘Den II’, Wrightson and Jones’s ‘Freak Show’, Duillet’s ‘Yragael’, ‘Zora’ by Fernandez, and ‘The Voyage of Those Forgotten’ by Christin and Bilal.

Richard Lupoff contributes an essay, ‘Barsoom !’ that examines the continued success of Burroughs’s ‘Mars’ novels on the pop culture consciousness. Ably illustrated by Clyde Caldwell, whose artwork verges on just the right note of self-parody, this essay is enjoyable reading.

There is also another installment of Jeff Jones’s ‘I’m Age’, a strange, one-page-at-a-time series that features a nude woman talking to herself, as well as to the flowers. Why editor Julie Simmons-Lynch persists in running this strip is not at all clear; ‘I’m Age’ is too creepy to be titillating fodder for the stoners making up most of the Readership. Revelations about the underlying psychology of ‘I’m Age’ came later, in the late 90s, when Jones decided to undergo a sex change operation to become a woman (‘Catherine Jones’)… !

Perhaps the best piece in the September issue is ‘Object’, a black and white contribution from New Zealand’s Mike Hinge (1931 – 2003). I’ve posted it below.

I have previously posted one of Hinge’s amazing color comics, ‘….Rears Its Ugly Green Head’, a collaboration with Neal Adams, from the July 1979 issue of HM. ‘Objects’ is just as distinctive and imaginative.

Unfortunately, the bulk of Hinge’s graphics work has never been compiled, save for the 1973 volume ‘1 Hinge: The Mike Hinge Experience’, copies of which sell for a starting price of $75. A new book, compiling his entire corpus, would be ideal…..

Information about Mike Hinge is available at the Onyx Cube blog.