Here we go.
I am going to start sending compilations of the old TPE threads, for use as
a final "Lurkers Guide to the Practice Effect."
JDG
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Chapter 1: Sooee Generis
By: Brett Coster
Also: Russell Chapman, Kat Feete, JD Giorgis, WT Goodall, Adam Lipscomb,
Ray Ludenia, Alberto Monteiro, Doug Pensinger, Gord Sellar, and Steve Sloan
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Introduction:
OK everyone, how about some Brin stuff. Something a bit more inclusive and
attractive to our lurkers (we don't know who you are!!) and something
vaguely Brinnish.
I'm proposing that we carry out an in depth review and critique of the
Brinworks, starting with The Practice Effect.
My reasons for choosing The Practice Effect are:
1. It's very early Brin
2. We haven't discussed much of the non-uplift work
3. It is fairly short, before the Brin got paid by the word
4. I like it and it's my idea
We review the style, the content, the ideas and the technology. Try and
identify the in-jokes, figure out the occasional infuriatingly obtuse word
the Brin throws in. See what it all means and why he done it. Finally
understand what-in-hell the chapter titles mean, that sort of stuff. Maybe
even get the author to justify ers.
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Gentlepeoples, Goddesses and other denizens of BRIN-L, start your mailers.
I declare the review of The Practice Effect open..........Now!
My copy of The Practice Effect is a Bantam/Spectra paperback dated April
1984. But as I bought it new only in about 1993 it must be a reprint: the
author photo is dated 1990 (Brin looking smug, resting against wall) and the
latest of the tearoffs in the back for other Bantam/Spectra goodies is dated
6/91.
OK, so chapter 1 is Sooee Generis. Some ramblings.
Title:
"Sooee" is a call made to get pigs to come eat, as seen in Greenacres,
Beverly Hillbillies and other cultural milestones of 1960s US TV. These TV
shows were based on the "fish out of water" situation of 1) a city bred
couple moving to outback USA (Greenacres) or 2) "hillbillies" suddenly
acquiring vast wealth and moving to the place to be - Beverly Hills "movie
stars, swimming pools..."
Is, therefore, this title referring to the theme of the story of Dennis Nuel
and the reader being this fish out of water in the world where entropy is
reversed? Or does it simply refer to the introduction of the flying pig
(pixolet) from Flasteria? Or does it go back to the general concept of the
Latin "sui generis = of its own kind = unique". If the latter, who is of
what kind? Is Dennis Nuel (our hero) the one who is unique? He is, I
thought, the everyman engineer/scientist. Or did he find his own kind in the
world of Flasteria?
On ther other hand, perhaps it's more "generis" in the sense of "kind" or
"type",
though yeah, the root "gen-" can also imply "creation" or "origin" . . .
but I think in this case it's as Erik put it, "a unique pig" . . . I don't
want to try to read too much into the titles, or else we'll be in for it at
chapter 7. *grin* - Gord Sellar
I probably misinterpreted the title, but I read "generis" as "generic."
Thus, the title is "just an ordinary pig call." That gives it a rather
ironic meaning. -JD Giorgis
I read it as, simply, a rather wicked corruption (with punnish overtones)
of "so generous." But I am simple minded. -Kat Feete
Characters:
Anyway, some of the characters introduced are:
Dennis Nuel, our hero, the recently deposed assistant director of the
Zievatron research team at Sahara Institute of Technology (SIT or Sahtech?)
Gabriella Versgo, femme grievous bodily harm, a catalyst in getting Dennis
back into his zievatron research
Bernald Brady, Dennis' antagonist at SIT, who is playing the political game
of ladder climbing at SIT and is intent on doing so by lowering Nuel's
influence
Dr Marcel Flaster, the portly, grey haired director of SIT angling for a job
in the new Government and so needing
Richard Schwall, a technician in the zievatron team. Sceptical, or maybe
cynical, of the way the team had been run in Dennis' absence
Boona Calumny, a perfectly named government official, never to be heard of
after Chapter 1
Pixolet, the Flasterian flying pig that Nuel alone was able to tame
Analysis:
TPE is most definitely a different genre than the rest of
DB's stuff. From Dennis using his cummerbund as a makeshift
sling to bring down an alien creature and taking an
"explorer like stance" prior to opening the hatch to
Gabriella hip checking someone that gets in her way to
Schwall's comment about Lady Macbeth, etc. etc., it's got a
light, humorous feel to it. The science is tongue in cheek
too. Stuff like psychophysicist and "a psychosomatic
reality anomaly", not to mention the whole zievatron idea. -Doug Pensinger
In fact, I think using a flying pig ("when pigs fly") is
intentionally written as a clue that this story is supposed
to be light-hearted and not very plausible. Kinda what they
used to call a "shaggy dog story." -Steve Sloan
This book is also in part a tribute to Role Playing Games (RPG's, ala
Dungeons and Dragons or GURPS) and seems based in part on the RPG
tradition. It's less pronounced in the first chapter and gets more so as
Nuel proceeds on
his "adventure", but there are some very definite nuances there. Part of it
was just the way the story progresses, the way hints are doled out and the
way Nuel engaged with them even in Chapter One. Part of it is the way the
characters are written . . . I kept thinking of certain characters as PCs
and others as NPCs (er, for those of you who don't use gamer-talk, that's
player-characters and non-player-characters... that
is, characters run by players versus characters run by the gamemaster). But
that increases later, and in one way Nuel seems like the only PC all the
way through, and Brin (as the author) is stringing him along like the
nastiest of GMs. Anyway, I wouldn't make an issue out of that except that I
find it interesting that Brin *did* used to play RPGs (he writes as much in
his intro to Stefan's GURPS Uplift and I think it would be interesting to
consider how much that impacted on his early writing. [I also got this
RPG-esque sense of _Sundiver_ when I read it, though I don't get it much
from Brin's later works. I may be personally interested in this since
RPGing is what I credit with getting me writing fiction, and I'm curious
about the dynamic. But this is all speculation, beyond a certain point.]
-Gord Sellar
Also, the story is very clearly an homage to a style of 50's
adventure sf. -WT Goodall
Nuel is a bit idealized, but what about Sahara Tech? Interesting, the kind
of undercover political infighting and jockeying for funds and status and
positions. Probably the scientists and businesspeople here know all about
it, and even I have heard a little bit about such competition and stuff,
but it's interesting for those of us who aren't in that world, or have not
experienced it, to see it in a comedic setting. It's hard to guess how much
is exaggeration and how much is actually realistic, so the choice of humor
as a way to discuss such an issue -- the role of politics and buttkissing
in the business of science research -- is interesting. -Gord Sellar
At this part of the book all the characters are black and white. Maybe
it's Dennis' vision? Or is it just part of the satire? -Brett Coster
The simplicity of the charcters is accentuated by Brin's choice of names.
"Flaster" sounds kinda flatulent to me, and looks kinda Latinate. Could be
a word, let's see. The closest I can find is Latin roots for "flatulent" -
"flatus" (to have wind). Probably a
Latin joke in there. Calumny is also a joke, the word means "slanders,
accusations,
abuses, and such." "Boona" might mean something or not. The closest in
English s "boon", which could be either a request/prayer, or a gift (most
often in fantasy lit it's used as a gift or a request for a favour: "I wish
to request a boon, good sirrah."). Boon'a Calumny? I dunno, probably too
far. I think just Calumny by itself is a hilarious last name for a
political person. :) -Gord Sellar
Actually, the whole name is perfect for a politician: Boona equals gifts and
good, Calumny equals slander, abuse etc. Part of David,s view of politics,
that we get both good and bad. Boona must be a real left-hand/right-hand
person. -Brett Coster
Gabi, too is similar to "gabby", as in "talkative." -JD Giorgis
Gabi, when telling Dennis to settle down in Flaster's
lecture, tells him (on page 2) "Will you sit still? You have the attention
span of a cranky otter! ..." Just which animals are David's favourites, I
wonder. -Brett Coster
In terms of personality and the style DB uses to write about
him, he seems like an early prototype for Mudfoot. -Steve Sloan
Having just finished reading the Uplift Trilogy last week, I must agree
with this. At times I think I was unconsciously equating the two, though
less so towards the end of the book as Pixolet's role became more
obvious and defined. Prototype perhaps, but in many ways I found Pixolet
better developed than Mudfoot was. -Ray Ludenia
I was intersted in Dr. Brin's mocking of legends on
pg.13. He writes:
"It was just the sort of thing that could become a legend.
"...Yes, boy. I was there the day ol' Director Nuel tamed a savage
alien critter that had him by the eyeballs."
I think this is a very interesting contrast to Niss's articulation of
legends in Heaven's Reach, identifying just how important Streaker's story
was to Gillian. Then again, it is clear that *everything* is up for
spoofing in this book. - JD Giorgis
Notes:
-The language and structure of TPE thus far suggests it was meant for an
educated audience. Many of Brin's books make heavy use of rarely seen
words, but any book which has someone pontificating ponderously in the very
first sentence is going to
have a few. Be sure to keep a dictionary handy. -Russell Chapman
-DB's abbreviation of Sahara Institute of Technology as S.I.T. reminds me
that we used to have "Institutes of Technology" here, as in Swinburn
Institute of Technology. Didn't work too well for Swan Hill :-) - Ray Ludenia
-The zievatron creates a *sieve* in reality. Slip through
the holes and travel between worlds!
-Dennis is not a sensitive new age guy (SNAG). He condescendingly
concedes that (Page 5) "Gabbie was a competent scientist in her own right,
of course." But then says she was "too tenacious" for Dennis to relax with.
Sounds almost like he doesn't want a modern girl, but maybe be fairy
princess? -Brett Coster
-There is a reference to a short story right near the end of chapter 1,
about increased conductivity of electricity resulting in tenfold increase
in human intelligence? I don't know of such a story, but Brin makes plenty
of references to other stories throughout and it might be something we want
to pay attention to, if we're really pulling the novel apart for
analysis.-Gord Sellar
-There are lots of interesting "places" mentioned as throwaways, and the
Vanilla Needle is just one. Mediterranea -- a new pan-state on the
Mediterranean? Neat. And page 1: Mt. Feynman. :) Also Atlas Mountains
Coffee, based on the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. -Gord Sellar
-I noticed the throwaway reference to "cigars from New Havanna on Venus,"
and I thought it was interesting that Brin would extend logically that any
civilization with the knowhow to terrarform *Venus* would probably have
terriformed the Sahara. I suspect that in this book, the Sahara is
probably an incredibly fertile and green place. (But there is also a
reference to someone being sent to the "Qattara Depression to count sand
grains," which belies my theory. The Depression may have resisted the
terraforming of the desert, however.) -JD Giorgis
-The Qattara Depression is Northwest of Cairo. It's a basin in the Western
desert of
about 26,000 km², the floor of which is 120 m below sea level. - Adam Lipscomb
-The reference to the "Vanilla Needle" puts this novel in the "Gorilla My
Dreams"
universe -- the sillier parallel version of the Uplift Universe. -Steve Sloan
-There is also a holotank used as a display device. Is my memory failing or
is the uplift
universe the only other place we see holotank VDUs? -Russell Chapman
- The "weapon of choice" is the needler, same as in the Uplift Univers.
-Alberto Monteiro
-I think the context of the Vanilla Needle is most interesting.... A
techie named Richard Schwall is doing skethes on a "portable electronic
drafting tool," and is suddenly doing very well. This likely makes Mr.
Schwall the first Terran to experience the Practice Effect. -JD Giorgis
-The strange bird that disrupts the meeting will have important
implications at the end of the story. -JD Giorgis
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"The point of living in a Republic after all, is that we do not live by
majority rule. We live by laws and a variety of isntitutions designed
to check each other." -Andrew Sullivan 01/29/01
