More Than Human
by Theodore Sturgeon
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The knock on 1950s-era science fiction is that it is poorly written, all
plot and platitudes (sounds like a Jane Austen title, huh?) with too little
sense and sensibility. Characters are as thin as the pulp paper they
inhabit; the prose is functional, relentlessly pushing the storyline
forward, without elegance or subtlety; and everything in the tale
operates at the surface level, with nothing to grapple with beyond the
gutsiness of the technological vision.
In truth, there are countless sci-fi novels that fit
this depressing description. Theodore Sturgeon
put it best in the formulation that has come to be
known as “Sturgeon’s Law.” “Ninety percent of
science fiction is crap,” he proclaimed. “But then,”
he added, “ninety percent of everything is crap.”
All the more reason to pity the ten percent of sci-
fi writers who aspire to something better, who
deliver works of artistic merit, yet find few paying
attention. The adolescents, teens and grown-ups
with arrested development who (supposedly)
make up the core market for these books positively
dislike more stylized writing, while the discerning
readers who might enjoy these more ambitious
sci-fi works never even consider reading them in the first place. The
covers alone are enough to warn them off.
Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was clearly a member of the talented
tenth, or—to be more fair—the talented tenth of one percent. He wrote
genre fiction that could withstand comparison with the better literary
fiction of his era. He took chances, and not just with bold story lines,
but also with his narrative construction, his style of his writing, and his
willingness to incorporate multiple levels of signification into his books.
He challenged his readers, in various ways, and rejected the
conventional time and time again.
Take for example Sturgeon's most famous book, More Than Human.
The first hundred pages set up a series of puzzles, built around isolated
characters with fragmentary personal histories and anomalous
behavior patterns. And just when the reader feels that a specific
situation is beginning to clarify itself, Sturgeon shifts scenes
completely, abandons everything he has already presented, and starts
again with another puzzle.
What strange ingredients! An idiot who is destined for greatness no
human has previously achieved? A neurotic recluse who commits
suicide for no apparent reason? Twin girls who seem to be able to
appear anywhere at anytime. An orphan who is eminently forgettable—
as long you don’t look into his eyes. An only child so uncanny her
mother is afraid of her. At first, each of these characters is presented in
isolation—none of them know each other, and the reader is left
wondering whether Sturgeon has really written a novel, or simply
thrown together random pages from different stories. Where is the
connection?
Sturgeon was a prolific writer of short stories in the years leading up to
More Than Human—Samuel R. Delany called him “the American short
story writer,” and at one point in the 1950s Sturgeon was reportedly the
most anthologized living author on the planet. Readers of this novel can
see the impact of this focus on shorter forms; Sturgeon’s method of
shaping it is atomistic. Each major character possesses a singular story,
and the elements of that tale define the personality in question.
Eventually the characters and stories do connect, but our author is
remarkably patient in constructing his book, and demands equal
patience from the reader. Like a skilled poker player, he keeps his hole
cards hidden until he is absolutely forced to show them.
One might describe this novel as a type of gestalt—an interpretation
that is all the more fitting given the fact that the concept of gestalt
comes to play a significant role in the plot. Sturgeon challenges the very
concept of individuality in More Than Human and forces us to
comprehend the odd alliance of the individual outcasts in his story as a
new type of collective, a next stage in human evolution that replaces
the person with a pseudo-team. Like many sci-fi writers of this era,
Sturgeon was fascinated with socio-psychological models drawn from
Darwin, Freud and other grand theorists of the human condition. Yet
where his peers were often clumsy and schematic in their adaptation of
these ideas, Sturgeon develops his themes with both subtlety and
poetry.
Until the final pages, that is. If there is a flaw to More Than Human, it
comes from the writer’s desire to achieve more than fiction. If you
think that sci-fi books don’t pay attention to deep inner meanings, you
will be surprised by the conclusion to this work, in which Sturgeon
reaches for something bigger than a story of this scale can deliver.
Resolving the plot is not enough for him; he wants to resolve humanity
along the way. But you can forgive over-reaching in this situation;
especially after you have read the works of so many of Sturgeon
contemporaries who hardly dared to reach beyond the rudiments of a
story well told. Then again, I guess that is just Sturgeon’s law at work.
by Theodore Sturgeon
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
The knock on 1950s-era science fiction is that it is poorly written, all
plot and platitudes (sounds like a Jane Austen title, huh?) with too little
sense and sensibility. Characters are as thin as the pulp paper they
inhabit; the prose is functional, relentlessly pushing the storyline
forward, without elegance or subtlety; and everything in the tale
operates at the surface level, with nothing to grapple with beyond the
gutsiness of the technological vision.
In truth, there are countless sci-fi novels that fit
this depressing description. Theodore Sturgeon
put it best in the formulation that has come to be
known as “Sturgeon’s Law.” “Ninety percent of
science fiction is crap,” he proclaimed. “But then,”
he added, “ninety percent of everything is crap.”
All the more reason to pity the ten percent of sci-
fi writers who aspire to something better, who
deliver works of artistic merit, yet find few paying
attention. The adolescents, teens and grown-ups
with arrested development who (supposedly)
make up the core market for these books positively
dislike more stylized writing, while the discerning
readers who might enjoy these more ambitious
sci-fi works never even consider reading them in the first place. The
covers alone are enough to warn them off.
Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was clearly a member of the talented
tenth, or—to be more fair—the talented tenth of one percent. He wrote
genre fiction that could withstand comparison with the better literary
fiction of his era. He took chances, and not just with bold story lines,
but also with his narrative construction, his style of his writing, and his
willingness to incorporate multiple levels of signification into his books.
He challenged his readers, in various ways, and rejected the
conventional time and time again.
Take for example Sturgeon's most famous book, More Than Human.
The first hundred pages set up a series of puzzles, built around isolated
characters with fragmentary personal histories and anomalous
behavior patterns. And just when the reader feels that a specific
situation is beginning to clarify itself, Sturgeon shifts scenes
completely, abandons everything he has already presented, and starts
again with another puzzle.
What strange ingredients! An idiot who is destined for greatness no
human has previously achieved? A neurotic recluse who commits
suicide for no apparent reason? Twin girls who seem to be able to
appear anywhere at anytime. An orphan who is eminently forgettable—
as long you don’t look into his eyes. An only child so uncanny her
mother is afraid of her. At first, each of these characters is presented in
isolation—none of them know each other, and the reader is left
wondering whether Sturgeon has really written a novel, or simply
thrown together random pages from different stories. Where is the
connection?
Sturgeon was a prolific writer of short stories in the years leading up to
More Than Human—Samuel R. Delany called him “the American short
story writer,” and at one point in the 1950s Sturgeon was reportedly the
most anthologized living author on the planet. Readers of this novel can
see the impact of this focus on shorter forms; Sturgeon’s method of
shaping it is atomistic. Each major character possesses a singular story,
and the elements of that tale define the personality in question.
Eventually the characters and stories do connect, but our author is
remarkably patient in constructing his book, and demands equal
patience from the reader. Like a skilled poker player, he keeps his hole
cards hidden until he is absolutely forced to show them.
One might describe this novel as a type of gestalt—an interpretation
that is all the more fitting given the fact that the concept of gestalt
comes to play a significant role in the plot. Sturgeon challenges the very
concept of individuality in More Than Human and forces us to
comprehend the odd alliance of the individual outcasts in his story as a
new type of collective, a next stage in human evolution that replaces
the person with a pseudo-team. Like many sci-fi writers of this era,
Sturgeon was fascinated with socio-psychological models drawn from
Darwin, Freud and other grand theorists of the human condition. Yet
where his peers were often clumsy and schematic in their adaptation of
these ideas, Sturgeon develops his themes with both subtlety and
poetry.
Until the final pages, that is. If there is a flaw to More Than Human, it
comes from the writer’s desire to achieve more than fiction. If you
think that sci-fi books don’t pay attention to deep inner meanings, you
will be surprised by the conclusion to this work, in which Sturgeon
reaches for something bigger than a story of this scale can deliver.
Resolving the plot is not enough for him; he wants to resolve humanity
along the way. But you can forgive over-reaching in this situation;
especially after you have read the works of so many of Sturgeon
contemporaries who hardly dared to reach beyond the rudiments of a
story well told. Then again, I guess that is just Sturgeon’s law at work.
| conceptual fiction |
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The New Canon
Great literary works published
since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of
mystery & suspense
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and
its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
from publishers, authors, publicists
or other parties.