Reader discussion: Scanners live in vain

Public reader discussion about Scanners live in vain in the WeRead Catalog by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger.

Cordwainer Smith, anyone?

By folio-needle

I think we tend to throw Reverend Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (aka Cordwainer Smith) into Golden Age sci-fi just because he’s got all the space stuff going on, and there’s genetic engineering and his settings are like tens of thousands of years ahead. But honestly, has anyone actually read him? To me it doesn’t feel “science-y” at all. Most of what he’s doing is really about human relationships—what could happen between people and all the possible variations—inside this super layered, post-collapse caste society he calls the Instrumentality of Man, especially around that The Rediscovery of Man period. And yeah, there are characters that are basically made into humans from animals (cat girls, dog men, turtle girls, etc). It’s mostly short stories, with Norstrilia being the big exception. Also it’s really self-referential in a pretty cool, kind of fantastic way. He’s one of my favorite authors, partly because he’s just… weird in a good way, and partly because it’s so meta you almost notice it happening. Like his first story, Scanners Live In Vain, has nods to events and characters that weren’t written yet. And it’s genuinely engaging, too—it grabs you and doesn’t let go. Anyone else show some love for Cordwainer Smith?

Cordwainer Smith - Has anyone read his books?

By green-marble

I came across Cordwainer Smith from a Goodreads rec and started with the online short stories, then grabbed the other ones from one of the Baen collections, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve read anyone else quite like him. Even the stories that look kind of playful or odd on the surface still have this pretty cynical edge and a lot of dark humor, mostly in a sarcastic kind of way. I’m not totally sure what it is that pulled me in so much, if it was the writing, the worldbuilding, or the sneaky social commentary. Maybe someone else who’s read them can say what it is? For anyone who hasn’t, most of the stories are in the Instrumentality of Mankind setting, this bizarre future history stretching way out from our own time to a future where humanity gets worn down by conditioning and eugenics, and then later shakes that off in a sort of comeback called “The Rediscovery of Man.” There’s animal-based underpeople, criminals remade into cyborgs (habermen), their distant masters running the star-sail ships to colony worlds, and telepathic humans joined with “other beings” to protect a pretty decadent humanity from the horrors out in the Up and Out, all under the Lords and Ladies of the Instrumentality, which Wikipedia describes something like this: Even though the Instrumentality doesn’t run every planet directly, it still claims the final say over humanity’s future. One example is that it forbids exporting religion from one planet to another. The Lords and Ladies are basically all-powerful and can be pretty cold and arbitrary, but even if their reasons are good, they’ll still use brutal methods when survival is on the line. If you want to check him out, I put together how to find his stuff below: Hardcopy: All the short stories are in The Rediscovery of Man, not the SF Masterworks one with only 12 stories, and he only wrote one novel, Norstrilia. Electronic: A lot of the stories are free online, and the rest, including the novel, are in just two cheap DRM-free Baen collections, When the People Fell and We the Underpeople, listed here: Novel Norstrilia (in We the Underpeople from Baen, and later in the timeline) Short Stories of the Instrumentality of Mankind (chronological order) 1 No, No, Not Rogov! 2 War No. 81-Q 3 Mark Elf 4 The Queen of the Afternoon 5 Scanners Live in Vain 6 The Lady Who Sailed The Soul 7 When the People Fell 8 Think Blue, Count Two (in When the People Fell from Baen) 9 The Colonel Came Back from Nothing-at-All (in When the People Fell from Baen) 10 The Game of Rat and Dragon 11 The Burning of the Brain (in When the People Fell from Baen) 12 From Gustible’s Planet (in When the People Fell from Baen) 13 Himself in Anachron (in When the People Fell from Baen) 14 The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal (in When the People Fell from Baen) 15 Golden the Ship Was— Oh! Oh! Oh! (in When the People Fell from Baen) 16 The Dead Lady of Clown Town 17 Under Old Earth 18 Drunkboat (in When the People Fell from Baen) 19 Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons 20 Alpha Ralpha Boulevard (in We the Underpeople from Baen) 21 The Ballad of Lost C’Mell (in We the Underpeople from Baen) 22 A Planet Named Shayol (in When the People Fell from Baen) 23 On the Gem Planet [Casher O’Neill] (in When the People Fell from Baen) 24 On the Storm Planet [Casher O’Neill] (in When the People Fell from Baen) 25 On the Sand Planet [Casher O’Neill] (in When the People Fell from Baen) 26 Three to a Given Star [Casher O’Neill] (in When the People Fell from Baen) 27 Down to a Sunless Sea (in When the People Fell from Baen) Other Stories 28 War No. 81-Q (original) (in When the People Fell from Baen) 29 Western Science Is So Wonderful (in When the People Fell from Baen) 30 Nancy (in When the People Fell from Baen) 31 The Fife of Bodidharma (in When the People Fell from Baen) 32 Angerhelm (in When the People Fell from Baen) 33 The Good Friends (in When the People Fell from Baen)

Why aren't Cordwainer Smith's works more known and shared?

By Eclipse_Imber

I picked up this really nice full edition of his *Instrumentality of Mankind* stuff recently. I’m only about a hundred pages in, but… I honestly don’t get why people don’t recommend it more. It’s definitely weird. It reads like sci-fi, but it’s wrapped up like stories—strange ideas, and sometimes the voice feels almost kind of innocent. There’s this poetic vibe in the writing too. And it’s basically a bunch of short stories all happening in the same universe, each one adding another piece to the bigger picture. A lot of the chapters have a moral angle: like the animal-people trying to get away from the robots that just kill without thinking, while the “heroes” come up with this pretty simple, naive plan to deal with the ruling class… and it actually works. The good guys win, but it’s not like the book is all cheerful either—there’s still death and violence, it’s just less bleak than it could be. That part feels really refreshing. Also, the edition itself is gorgeous, and the stories are pretty gripping and easy to get through. At least in French it reads smoothly, and from what I saw, the English originals probably have the same feel. And the coolest thing is that I keep noticing ideas that show up in later stuff—like the Gothic/German “mecha” vibe (you can almost see the *Menschenjäger* energy from Warhammer 40k), the whole “what if the Nazis won and shaped the world that way” alternate-history trope, the idea that space travel kinda pulls us away from being human, like tech tearing people apart instead of bringing them together. There are a bunch more I can’t remember right now, but I’m sure I’ll spot plenty as I keep going. Maybe I’m just seeing connections where there aren’t any, though. So yeah—any other readers here? Let’s try not to spoil anything, but I really think these stories deserve way more attention. They’ve been making me think about ourselves as humans, which is a good sign.

Where to start with Cordwainer Smith?

By aquapanda

I’ve been seeing a bunch of different takes on Cordwainer Smith’s stuff and it’s made me curious. I really like having actual physical books—no interest in e-books, and I’m not going to do audiobooks either. Where should I start with him?