VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM (8)
By:
July 28, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of science fiction novels and comics from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Josh Glenn.
THE HYPERION CANTOS | DAN SIMMONS | 1989–1990
Dan Simmons’ Hyperion (1989) and The Fall of Hyperion (1990) form a single novel, a space opera with an unexpected richness and depth that largely arises from the breadth of cultural and literary allusions that are woven throughout. Zen koans, quantum physics, and flying carpets all make an appearance, as does the Shrike, a terrifying creature of metal blades who impales his victims on a huge tree. The first book borrows its structure from the Canterbury Tales, in which a group of pilgrims take turns telling their individual stories, the threads of which come together in the second book. The eponymous unfinished Keats epic poem, about the replacement of gods by their children, serves as a metaphor for the relationship between humans and godlike AIs.
In the world of the Hyperion Cantos, the largest political entity is the Hegemony, made up of billions of people living on scores of planets. Humans continue to spread throughout space, colonizing new worlds by eradicating any indigenous lifeforms and terraforming them — that is, by systematically destroying and remaking entire planetary ecosystems.
The citizens of the Hegemony use “farcasters” — portals that allow instantaneous transit between points on the network, however vast the gulf of space that separates them — for daily trips to work or socialize, traveling between planets as simply as taking the subway across town. But then, at the climax of Simmons’ story, the leader of the Hegemony — who has realized that the web of connections between the portals is home to a faction of AIs bent on the destruction of humanity — shuts down the farcaster network. Families that waved goodbye to each other in the morning, expecting to be home for dinner, are now separated by light-years of space and months or even years of travel time.
As an immigrant and a child of immigrants, and as an educator and researcher embedded in a global scholarly community, my loved ones, friends, and colleagues are spread across the world. Easy, inexpensive plane travel has allowed me to connect with places and people that would otherwise be impossibly far. And then, in March 2020, the civil aviation network was effectively shut down. For fifteen months – by far the longest stretch of my adult life – I didn’t get on a plane, which meant I didn’t see any of the people closest to me except on a screen.
Simmons has written that the seed of the Hyperion Cantos was a short story about a rebellion against colonization by the Hegemony on the beautiful oceanic planet of Maui-Covenant. The resistance movement fails, and their worst fears are realized. While the opening of the farcaster portals means that the people of Maui-Covenant themselves have full access to the myriad worlds of the Hegemony, their home is soon overrun by tourism and extractive industry, resulting in the destruction of the unique human cultures and ecosystems of the islands . A parable — and a sobering reminder — of the costs of our own networks.
VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Josh Glenn | Mark Kingwell on SNOW CRASH | Mandy Keifetz on THE GENOCIDAL HEALER | Matthew De Abaitua on SWAMP THING | Carlo Rotella on THE PLAYER OF GAMES | Lynn Peril on GEEK LOVE | Stephanie Burt on THE CARPATHIANS | Josh Glenn on DAL TOKYO | Deb Chachra on THE HYPERION CANTOS | Adam McGovern on KID ETERNITY | Nikhil Singh on THE RIDDLING REAVER | Judith Zissman on RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE | Ramona Lyons on PARABLE OF THE SOWER | Jessamyn West on the MARS TRILOGY | Flourish Klink on DOOMSDAY BOOK | Matthew Battles on THE INTEGRAL TREES | Tom Nealon on CLAY’S ARK | Sara Ryan on SARAH CANARY | Gordon Dahlquist on CONSIDER PHLEBAS | Alex Brook Lynn on VURT | Miranda Mellis on STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND | Nicholas Rombes on RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH | Adelina Vaca on NEUROMANCER | Marc Weidenbaum on AMERICAN FLAGG! | Peggy Nelson on VIRTUAL LIGHT | Michael Grasso on WILD PALMS.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!