Date: 9 May 84 08:32 PDT From: Tom Perrine Subject: Libertarian SF Does anyone have a list (or an interest in) SF with a Libertarian theme? I am speaking of such books as : "Alongside Night" - J. Neil Schulman "An Enemy of the State" - F. Paul Wilson "The Probability Broach" (and its sequels) - L. Neil Smith Does anyone know any other books by these authors? By the way, I heartily recommend all of these books, especially "Alongside Night". Tom Perrine {tom@LOGICON.ARPA} Date: Wed 23 May 84 00:45:08-EDT From: Peter G. Trei Subject: Libertarian SF Some one was recently asking about 'libertarian sf'. This is an interest of mine, so here are some in that vein. First: Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on the idea that it is wrong to interfere in the freedom of others, save to preserve ones own freedom. This is not the place to justify or explore this; if you think of libertarians as anarcho-capitalists you will get some of the flavor. For more details, contact me directly. Second: It is difficult to decide whether many books are 'libertarian-sf' or not. Books in favor of freedom and critical of big government are a dime a dozen in sf; but those which take freedom to its logical conclusion (ie, absence of government) are less frequent. I will try to list books which libertarians and others who love liberty might enjoy. WE by Yevgeny Zamatyin This book was written by a Russian dissident about 1920. It describes a far-future, totally regimented society, and one mans gradual revolt against the system. This is the earliest sf work I know of with a distinctly libertarian flavor. It was recently reprinted by Avon/Bard. Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand's books are EXTREMELY polemical. Through her works she tried to expound and disseminate her personal philosophy of Objectivism, with its emphasis on personal integrity and excellence. As literature, her works tend to be rather turgid, but if the philosophy rings a resonant chord in your soul, you'll be utterly hooked. Ayn Rand's works have probably turned more people on to libertarian thought than any others. They seem to effect the young most strongly; if you have no time for idealism you will proabably dislike her. If you are curious about the ideals to which libertarians aspire, I could do little better than suggest that you try reading THE FOUNTAINHEAD, one of her non-sf novels. Two of her other works have sf elements: ANTHEM One of her shortest books, and based very heavily on the above mentioned WE. It is rather more dramatic than its model, but Rand is probably not as good a writer as Zamyatin. ATLAS SHRUGGED This has very marginal sf elements, but they exist. As America slowly sinks under a tide of mediocrity and incompetence, Dagny Taggart singlehandly holds together the last remaining railway network. The main thrust of the book is finding out where all the other competent people have hidden themselves, and why. ATLAS SHRUGGED is Rand's magnum opus; it is extremely long, and moving the plot forward takes back seat to explaining what is wrong with the world and why people should accept her philosophy. Despite the sf trappings, the world of AS feels to be circa 1928. I dont reccomend AS as a first book on libertarianism or as light reading, but if you are already interested, you might try reading it after THE FOUNTAINHEAD. The following are recent sf novels with an obvious libertarian slant: ALONGSIDE NIGHT by J Neil Schulman In a future, hyper-inflationary America, the youthful protagonist gets mixed up in a (literally) underground libertarian black market cum revolutionary movement, which stages a revolt against the totalitarian government the US has fallen into the hands of. Its been a while since I've read this and the details are hazy, but I remember liking it much. THE PROBABILITY BROACH THE VENUS BELT THE NAGASAKI VECTOR all by L Neil Smith These take place in the same alternative universe, and though they share characters, they can be read out of sequence. They are probably a little more far out than the other books I mention, since a large part of the action takes place in totally libertarian communities. Smith has not worked out the facets of such a society to the point of convincing me , but they remain fun action-adventures. Smith has one other (non-political) book out. THEIR MAJESTIES BUCKETEERS appears to have been written to answer the burning question; "Is it possible to write a good victorian murder mystery where all the characters are tri-symmetric, trisexual tripods?" The answer is a resounding NO! This is one of the worst books I have read in years. AN ENEMY OF THE STATE by F Paul Wilson Just started this, it appears to be pretty decent, though heavy on the propaganda. All of the above modern sf novels are self-conscious propaganda; they push a certain point of veiw, and the authors knew they were doing so. In general, I have found that 'novels with a message' tend to be less successful as entertainment than those without such pretensions. This is not surprising: unless the author is a perfect master in the skill of imparting information on the fly, the plot screeches to a halt every few pages while THE MESSAGE gets beamed at you. SF has this problem already: in half the sf books I have read, around page 5 someone says "Tell me professor, how does our society work?" and then you have a page or two of straight explanation. Some authors are good at this, others less so. When the author has a MESSAGE apart from his or her sf story, you get the problem squared. I do enjoy polemical novels, but only if they are pandering to predjudices I already possess. Other peoples propaganda is usually boring. The few authors who can hold you captivated with their story while slipping a heavy message into your brain are possessed of a powerfull skill indeed. I cannot close without recommending a non-partisan (?), non-propagandistic anthology of stories on the subject of freedom; its consequences, problems, and abuses and advantages. The book is THE SURVIVAL OF FREEDOM, a multi-author anthology edited by Jerry Pournelle, published in paperback by Fawcett. Peter Trei oc.trei%cu20b@columbia-20.arpa Date: 24 May 1984 22:43-EDT From: James A. Cox Subject: The Probability Broach After seeing "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith recommended as an example of libertarian SF, I ran right out to my favorite bookstore and bought a copy. Of course I've read a number of books with libertarian angles, including some by Heinlein, H. Beam Piper, Lee Correy, and even James P. Hogan but I don't think I've ever read anything which carried laudatory blurbs from "Libertarian Review" and "Reason" as this book does. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the book, for two reasons. First, the book makes a good many errors about the history of the American Revolution, and to someone who knows anything about that event, those errors are every bit as Qglaring as the errors of science in "V." Second, the book is preachy about libertarianism. Of course I expected that, but what I didn't expect was that its preaching would be unconvincing! Maybe I'm spoiled having read persuasive libertarian arguments in Poli-Sci for the past few years.... The premise of the book is the existence of an alternative universe in which the United States has developed into a libertarian "North American Confederacy." The history of the two universes was the same up until 1794, when in the alternative universe George Washington was killed by Albert Gallatin during the Whisky Rebellion. Gallatin (who in "our" universe was an unspectacular Secretary of the Treasury in the Jefferson administration) led the attack against the Federalists and "their" Constitution, which was declared "null and void." The Articles of Confederation were reinstated and Gallatin was proclaimed President. Shortly thereafter he was confirmed by Congress, which proceeded to abolish all taxes and restore seized property to the Loyalists and Federalists. In 1797, the Articles of Confederation were revised, binding the United States and the states to respect the civil and political rights of all citizens. From that point on, the government proceeded to gradually wither away, leaving Americans to enjoy their blissful anarcho-capitalist paradise. The most obvious historical error is that Gallatin could not have been "proclaimed" President after the Articles of Confederation were reinstated, because THERE WAS NO SUCH OFFICE UNDER THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION! It got worse from that point on. Smith's made-up history has all sorts of unlikely people being elected president through history, including Albert Jay Nock, H.L. Mencken, and Ayn Rand (imagine the oh-so-dignified Ms. Rand out "stumping," eating ethnic dishes and making speeches!). The libertarianism is, as I said, not very convincing. The basic plot has a few concerned individuals trying to stop a "Federalist" conspiracy to restore the Constitution and do other evil things to the free people of the Confederation. (It's not very difficult to spot the Federalists because they all wear insignia of an eye-in-a-pyramid [you know, like on the back of a one dollar bill]). In one scene, the main character has just captured an assasin, sent to kill him by the number one baddie. It turns out that Confederacy "custom" prohibits the guy from threatening the assasin in order to make him reveal the name of his boss. Come on! That sounds like they let Earl Warren write the criminal rules in both universes. In MY libertarian paradise, that man just forfeited ALL rights by attempting murder. Once force is used against me, I ought to have the right to respond with whatever degree of force I deem necessary in order to insure that those who violated my rights once cannot do so again. The characterizations are little better. "The Probability Broach" reads as though L. Neil Smith neglected to make up new characters of his own, and just appropriated ones from the "Lensman" series of another Smith: E.E. "Doc". Only the plot is of any rudimentary interest; I was interested in whether Smith let the Federalists win in the end--but the book's faults almost had me turning to the last chapter directly, skipping the rest. All in all, I do not recommend the book. - James Cox Date: 22 May 84 13:59:40-PDT (Tue) From: decvax!mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!usceast!ted @ Ucb-Vax Subject: re: libertarian sf Someone was asking for libertarian sf stories a while back, and I have yet to see one of my favorites mentioned: "And Then There Were None" by Eric Frank Russel I know this has been collected at least a couple times, once in a book by Russel called The Great Explosion (I think). At any rate, it was, like much of Russel's work very funny as well as making a point. On the subject of Libertarian sf, was anyone else disturbed by the destruction of Venus in L Neil Smith's The Venus Belt? I am generally (though not completely) sympathetic to the libertarian cause , but this seemed like going beyond the pale. PS : if I've not spelled Russel correctly, sorry Ted Nolan usceast!ted 6536 Brookside Circle Columbia, SC 29206 (feather the rast!) From: muffy@lll-crg.ARPA (Muffy Barkocy) Subject: Re: Ellison & Smith Date: Sat, 1 Dec 84 12:10:56 MST I was wondering if anyone around here had read anything by L. Neil Smith (no, *besides* the "Lando Calrissian" books). I have read all five of his books (I don't count the ones mentioned above). One that I would recommend is "Their Majesties' Bucketeers," which is basically a detective novel, even a Sherlock Holmes-type, except for a couple of things: 1) The detective doesn't know how to detect, but he's learning. 2) The detective, his sidekick, the murderer, the murdered, and, in fact, all of the people in the book are aliens. They are built on the base of three. Brain divided into thirds, three eyes, three limbs, each divided into three more, three sexes, etc. There is a nice picture of what they look like on the cover of the book.