| Article: 535
From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Humphrey Aaron V)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: Retrograde Reviews--Theodore Sturgeon:E Pluribus Unicorn
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 15:50:29 GMT
Organization: not specified
Theodore Sturgeon: E Pluribus Unicorn
A Retrograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey
Theodore Sturgeon was one of the great SF short story writers. (I use
the past tense because he's dead, not because his stories have ceased
to be good.) E Pluribus Unicorn is a collection of stories from the
late 1940s and early 1950s, a fact I find amazing on reading, because
they seem timeless. Or, rather,they seem to have something which some
other early stories are lacking--a frank understanding of all kinds of
human nature.
Some of the stories are definite classics--"Bianca's Hands", for
instance: the story of a dull-witted girl whose beautiful hands have
an intelligence of their own, and of the man who was entrapped by
them. Or "Die, Maestro, Die", about a man who despised Lutch
Crawford, the bandleader he worked for, and was eventually driven to
destroy him and his music. Or "Cellmate", a story of the most bizarre
pair of Siamese twins you've ever seen, and what happened when they
went to jail.
But those short summaries can't convey the style and voice of the
stories. In each case the voice is completely genuine-- both the
viewpoint characters and the rest, even the minor characters, ring
true. The choice of stories for this book is perhaps unfortunate,
because you can see some ideas used more than once, the most notable
being "syzygy" (apparently, a biological term for the sharing of
genetic material between parthenogenetically reproducing creatures, or
something like that), as well as Siamese twins. But, goddamnit, the
people are real.
Sturgeon is always good. This book is no different.
%A Sturgeon, Theodore
%T E Pluribus Unicorn
%I Pocket
%C New York
%D Copyright 1953
%G ISBN 0-671-50223-9
%P 211 pp.
%O Paperback, US$2.95
--
--Alfvaen(Editor of Communique)
Current Album--The Nits:Hat
Current Read--Robert Reed:The Remarkables
"curious george swung down the gorge/the ants took him apart" --billbill
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| re .2
>the most notable being "syzygy" (apparently, a biological term for the
>sharing of genetic material between parthenogenetically reproducing
>creatures, or something like that)
That's a new one on me...
According to my dictionary "syzygy" (pron siz'i-ji i.e. like synergy)
means "conjunction or opposition", "the period of new or full moon", "a
dipody". The questionable definition caught my eye because of a forgettable
science fiction novel of that name by Michael G. Coney that I once, a
long time ago, read.
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