Reviewed by Ted Gioia
A certain imaginative excess characterizes the best
science fiction and fantasy. For better or worse, the
masters of these genres are rarely known for their
nuances and subtleties; rather, they stand out for the
sheer extravagance of their visions, their willingness to
"go all in" (as the poker players describe it) no matter
what the consequences.
But even by sci-fi standards, Cordwainer Smith grabs our
attention for the lavishness of his
imagination and the risk-taking of
his storylines. Other, more sober
authors might hesitate before em-
bracing the over-the-top plots that
were a trademark of Smith’s fiction,
and his sole sci-fi novel Norstrilia is
no exception. On the very first
page, Cordwainer Smith makes sure
you know he does nothing by halves.
"The story is simple," he writes.
"There was a boy who bought the
planet Earth." And before the first
chapter is over, readers may not
understand why or how this hap-
pened, but they have further
learned that our hero "also bought
one million women, far too many
for any one boy to put to practical
use, but it is not altogether certain, reader, that you will be
told what he did with them."
Then in a throwaway line, Smith adds: "But he didn't want
girls. He wanted postage stamps."
Related Reviews
The Rediscovery of Man by Cordwainer Smith
Welcome to the world of Cordwainer Smith—a pseudonym:
our author was born as Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger in
1913—a man whose narratives travel so far beyond the
conventional that, if you pushed them any further, they might
come across as psychedelic visions rather than coherent tales.
Remember that this was the same author whose best known
short story, "Scanners Live in Vain," was rejected by editor-
guru John Campbell as "too extreme"—quite a verdict coming
from Campbell, who published a story describing how to make
an atom bomb in the pages of Astounding more than a year
before Hiroshima, attracting a swarm of FBI agents to his
office, who tried to get the magazine pulled off the
newsstands. Recipes for nuclear bombs might have been
okay for Campbell, but when Cordwainer Smith submitted a
story to him the following year, that’s where he drew the line.
Smith himself led a life of extremes. He was a brilliant
thinker, holding a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins and able to
speak a half-dozen languages. Even if he had never written
any sci-fi works, he would be remembered for his book on
psychological warfare, and his expertise found him called
upon by important parties—the U.S. Army, the British
military, the CIA, even President John F. Kennedy—for advice
and guidance. Yet, according to some accounts, Smith also
served as the inspiration for a un-
settling case study, published by
Dr. Robert Lindner in 1955, which
describes a strange government
worker who had intense visions in
which he thought he was living in
outer space. As Lindner describes
it his patient told him about being
"Lord of a planet in an inter-
planetary empire in a distant uni-
verse, garbed in the robes of his
exalted office." When challenged
on these hallucinations, the subject simply replied: "I knew
the experience was real."
If this account is actually based on the historical figure of Paul
Linebarger, we can perhaps better understand the intense
visionary quality of the sci-fi fiction he wrote under the name
Cordwainer Smith. And if it is "too extreme," the reason may
be that he experienced his stories to a degree that no other
science fiction author, before or since, could match.
Smith himself was not unaware of the psychologically
disturbing aspects of his storytelling. How revealing that the
author’s original title for the work that became Norstrilia was
Star-Craving Mad. From the very opening of the book, we
are told that the protagonist, Roderick Frederick Ronald
Arnold William MacArthur McBan the 151st (even the
character’s name suggests a confusion of identity), has
something wrong with his head. He is almost exterminated
by the government at the start of the novel, for lacking the
required telepathic skills that everyone else has in his society,
and a revealing later interlude in the book describes his
mental reworking by a humanized cat who is also the last
clinical psychologist on Earth. Even given the very strange
elements in the story, we can perceive linkages to first-hand
experiences with psychoanalysis, as well as to a plausibly
autobiographical account of a rich inner life beyond the
normal or conventional.
Rod McBan lives on the planet Norstrilia (an abbreviation of
Old North Australia) where a shrewd rustic population has
accumulated great wealth by dealing in a life-extending
product known as stroon. But even by Norstrilian standards,
McBan reaps windfall profits in what would today be called an
“online trading scheme.” Overnight he has become the
wealthiest man in the universe, and he uses his new-found
riches to buy out the original home of mankind, the planet
Earth.
As if this story isn't dramatic enough, Cordwainer Smith
incorporates a half-dozen or so other fanciful subplots—these
involve the liberation of intelligent animals, intrigues in
intergalactic politics, two romances involving our protagonist
(but neither featuring the one million women mentioned
above), a murderous lunatic from an aquatic planet, a sex
change operation on Mars, and almost every other kind of sci-
fi storyline you could cram into a two hundred page book.
If you haven’t read Smith’s short stories—gathered together
in the large one-volume collection The Rediscovery of Man—
you will be left puzzled at many passing references and half-
explained backstory. You will simply scratch your head when
characters tremble at the thought of "Mother Hitton's Littul
Kittons" or extol the great "teaching of Joan"—matters that
are elaborated elsewhere in Smith’s oeuvre, but just left
hanging here. In general, readers who are new to this author
should start with the shorter fiction, and only come to
Norstrilia after familiarizing themselves with Smith’s
cosmogony and worldview.
As you will come to learn, almost everything in Smith’s science
fiction can be made to fit together into single grand scheme.
By the same token, the scheme is maddeningly intricate, a
literary house of mirrors where even adepts can lose their
way. Norstrilia always seems to teeter on the edge of chaos,
and while Smith manages to tie up the story and resolve the
key conflicts in the final pages, the book will still strike most
readers as messy and almost bizarre in its excesses.
From one perspective, Cordwainer Smith was very much a
product of 1950s culture—with his Cold War obsessions and
psychoanalytical positivism. Yet I sometimes wonder what
would have happened to this author’s writings had he not
died, at the age 53, in 1966. His late works seem to anticipate
aspects of the psychedelic ‘Summer of Love’ counterculture
that would take center stage in American culture in the
months following his passing. I have a hunch that this author
would have produced a seminal book---akin to Heinlein’s
Stranger in a Strange Land or Herbert’s Dune—that would
have shaken people up and reached a new generation seeking
just the kind of extravagantly liberating stories that were this
author’s bread and butter.
Norstrilia, alas, is not that great novel. But in its zany energy
and wild development, it gives us some sense of the angles and
concepts that Smith’s never-written masterpiece might have
broached. Then again, many of this author’s detailed
notebooks have never surface—so perhaps there is something
grand out there, waiting for (to borrow a word this author so
loved) "rediscovery." Yet even on the basis of the surviving
works, Cordwainer Smith is a must-read author from science
fiction’s golden age and a role model for other writers who
want to push their fantasies to the brink.
| conceptual fiction |
| Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith |
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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.
The Atrocity Exhibition
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
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
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.
The Fifty Year Sword
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
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas
Camp Concentration
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
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
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
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
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
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
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
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
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
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
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
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
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
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
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Fractious Fiction
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io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
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.
The Atrocity Exhibition
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
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
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.
The Fifty Year Sword
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
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas
Camp Concentration
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
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
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
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
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
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
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
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
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
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
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
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
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
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
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
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
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
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.
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