Rhythm and Melody in the prose of Jack Vance...
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 01, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel
VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: Forgetting for one moment the Venezuelan situation let me share with you information on a superb writer you might want to try...When my son gave me Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" as presents, back in the 80s, I developed an interest for science fiction/fantasy literature and started mining what turned out to be a gigantic reservoir of human imagination.
For a while my favorite science fiction writer became Arthur Clarke, on the strength of "Chilhood's End" and "Rendevouz with Rama". One day, however, I chose at random a book by Jack Vance and I was hooked for life. The book was "The Anome" and was the first volume of the Durdane trilogy. This was serendipitous, as science fiction readers are familiar with the enormous offering of this type of literature in the shelves of bookstores, not all of acceptable quality, I must say. In this lottery type of random choice I won first prize.
The Durdane trilogy proved to be totally enjoyable in three levels: the description of the world and regions where the stories took place. The stories themselves and, best of all, the wonderful language employed by Vance. For those who love words and phrases, Vance's work is a source of endless delight. A very apt comment by "Locus" says that Vance's characters "dwell whitin elaborate structures of social and linguistic artifice, in societies as intricately elegant as Faberge eggs...". Vance's prose is pure music, both rythmic and melodic. His prose is to, say, Asimov's what Tchaikovsky's music is to, say, Elgar's...
While Elgar based his second symphony practically on a single, beautiful theme intensely utilized, Tchaikovsky keeps bombarding us with wonderful melodies, one after the other, without expanding much on any one, like telling us: "there are many others where this one came from..."
In "The Anome," the action takes place in Shant, described by Vance as "made up of cantons only alike in their mutual distrust. Each regarded as Universal Principle its own customs, costumes, jargons and mannerisms and considered all else eccentricity". The ruler of Shant was The Anome, the faceless man. His authority derived from the torc which everybody carried around the neck. It contained an explosive which could detonate by remote control. Whoever broke the law of The Anome would lose his, her head...
The story of the trilogy has to do with the transformation of this reign of terror into a society of free men, a transformation led by a young musician called Etzwane, assisted by an envoy from Old Earth. The story is reminiscent of "The Lord of the Rings" in the sense of showing how a small and inexperienced, but determined company can change the course of history.
I became addicted to Vance. I read the Durdane trilogy, "The Gray Prince," "Big Planet," "To Live Forever," "The Dying Earth" and his relatively recent trilogy "The Cadwal Chronicles," besides other lesser work. Here is the starting paragraph in "Throy," book three of "The Cadwal Chronicles":
"Halfway along the Perseid Arm, near the edge of the Gaean Reach, a capricious swirl of galactic gravitation has caught up ten thousand stars and sent them streaming off at a veer, with a curl and a flourish at the tip. This strand of stars is Mircea´s wisp". How is this for melody and rhythm?. Pure Tchaikovsky, I would say., complete with drums and trumpets and background violins.
Some local girls in "Araminta Station," book one of the chronicles are described in this manner:
"The Yip girls are known for their docility... and also for their absolute chastity unless they are paid an appropriate fee....".
A business visit goes like this in "Throy":
" Mr. Yoder will see you now. His category is 3b. No doubt you will recognize this and conduct yourselves with decorum....."
A tall, gaunt gentleman entered the room... spoke in a flat metallic voice: May I inquire your identities?
"I am Commander Glawen Clattuc and this is Commander Chilke of the Cadwal Constabulary... Our status is high."
"Cadwal? I have never heard of the place...
Sir, it is well known to educated persons...
From "The Eyes of the Overworld", a volume which deals with the adventures of the picaresque Cugel we read:
"Cugel pushed the heavy iron-bound door and entered the inn. He stood in a vestibule. To either side were diamond-pane casements, burnt lavender with age, where the setting sun scattered a thousand reflections. From the common room came the cheerful hum of voices, the clank of pottery and glass, the smell of ancient wood...
The landlord stood behind a counter.. his expression was as placid and calm as the flow of the river..
"I strongly desire a private chamber with a couch of good quality, a window overlooking the river, a heavy carpet to muffle the songs and slogans of the pot-room...
The landlord replied: "I fear you will be dissapointed... the single chamber of this description is already occupied by that man with the yellow beard sitting yonder... Lodermulch..
"Perhaps, on the plea of emergency, you might persuade him to vacate the chamber...
"I doubt he is capable of such abnegation... but, why not put the inquiry yourself?. I, frankly, do not wish to broach the subject...
Cugel, surveying Lodermulch's strongly marked features, his muscular arms and his disdainful manner ... was inclined to join the innkeeper in his assessment of Lodermulch's character. "It seems," he said, "that I must occupy the pallet."
In "Big Planet" Vance describes a group of travelers arriving at a city called Kirstendale, "where everybody is a millionaire..." The inhabitants walk around dressed in garments of remarkable complexity and elegance... The city had been settled by a group of some 30 families with their servants. Even the servants behaved with great dignity and sophistication. The city was "clean as new paper, bright with polished stone and glass, gay with flowers."
The travelers are invited to stay at the villa of Sir Walden Munchion, where they are treated and fed like kings. The day of their departure Sir Walden excuses himself from seeing them off since he will be occupied... They are taken to the Monoline station where the porter who brings their suitcases to the cabin is ... Sir Walden. The secret of the city is revealed. "For every hour of swanking around as an aristocrat, everybody puts in two working in the shops and homes and other tasks". Instead of one life they live two...
I hope that you will try Vance some time. You would encounter wonderful worlds, heroes of every description, truants, noble deeds, sorcerers, quirky characters, crisp dialogue like the best champagne brut.
Vance is already in his middle 80s. He likes to play jazz, is an amateur carpenter and a mining engineer. He lives in Oakland. Jerry Pourcelle says that "Jack Vance has perfected the trick of creating new worlds so deceptively real that after a while your own home seems imaginary...."
In Venezuela this is a very useful writer to have in your desk at all times ... and I do!
Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983. In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement on the Caribbean island of Margarita where he runs a leading Hotel-Resort. You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com