This is a great idea. I especially like starting with a short story, as I have always enjoyed them. Growing up, I devoured all of the Sci-Fi books and short story compilations I could find.
I'm getting ready to leave for an autocross, I'll be back here to comment on the story later.
In reply to Toyman! :
You put it well, the masterful creation of the mental image of the bar is brilliant. With very few actual details, the descriptions of the characters were similarly distinctive, and provided an additional air of familiarity with the atmosphere and culture of the place and time.
Although the details of the way that the noise cancelling technology is portrayed doesn't survive our modern perspective, it's use still feels quite innovative and prescient.
Excellent choice, David.
Ooh! Just remembered!
5) (or was I still on #4?) There was an X-Files story that used the destructive wave principle as well. Character wanted "to silence the voices he kept hearing" or some such.
At a certain point you wonder if they just hire scientists/engineers as writers, or just well-read writers.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you and glad that you enjoyed it. Yeah, sometimes you have to just roll past the early technology. A few times I have caught Clarke describing advanced technology that uses tubes. Just substitute something like "plasma spheres" and keep reading, right? (And now I wonder, at some point, will our microchips and SSD drives seems just as archaic?)
Will our microchips and SSD drives be replaced by Asimov's Positronic Brain?
Haven't read this one in a long time.. maybe 25 yrs. Happy you dusted it off and now I'll have to read the whole gd collection again!
Super excited our noise canceling head phones don't make heads explode (mostly).
Just read through it, and yeah, the oiled wood and leather smell of the pub seems to be lingering in my office now. What a master class in visualization.
On the question of if the tech would work as presented, that's beside the point really, but it is amazing how close it is to how noise canceling technology does work, while being written in the 1950s.
In reply to dculberson :
"The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke" contains this related little forward:
It is interesting that the story about total silence is from the premises of an "Invisible" pub; white being an absence of color and silence being an absence of noise also works for me as a matter of interest.
The description of the noise canceling theory was on par with what I might have followed and believed prior to my exposure to electrical signals analysis class way back when I did freshman EE. Unfortunately this also ruined the end in that the conservation of energy bit does not work as described.
A trick that I used to great effect when doing English Lit essays was to do a background check of the relevant history and politics of the time when the book was written. It is a rare writer that is not taking the piss out of some local politician or ruler or societal fad. I would not be surprised if, upon further analysis. this light vignette is a lot denser in scope than it appears.
The use of the word "Hart" instead of the more common "Stag" has stuck in my craw for some reason. Ever hunt deer? They are nearly invisible in their domain and very silent animals.
I started rereading Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land over the weekend.
Comparing it to Mixon's Empire of Bones Saga, my last read, is like comparing a Ph.D. dissertation to a book report written by a 5th grader. It's not that the 5th grade book report is bad, it's just that the dissertation is so much more.
I have to wonder if that doesn't happen during the editing process. Modern books seem so sterile. The story is there, it's just a little 2 dimensional and I seem to have to work at getting involved in it.
Clarke has a conversational way of writing that to me, conveys imagery better. Or possibly encourages the reader to step into the story and imagine what is happening.
The first line of Silence Please.
You come upon the "White Hart" quite unexpectedly in one of these anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment.
The first line of Mixon's book.
Commander Jared Mertz, captain of the Fleet destroyer Athena, looked up from his console when his tactical officer spoke. “Contacts bearing two-five-zero by three-three-zero. Gravitic scanners show at least three ships under power and on a slow course toward Orbital One.”
Granted, one is a space opera and the other is not. But reading the two lines, I know exactly what an anonymous little lane looks like and can picture it in my head. With those few words, Clarke has led you down into the forgotten bowels of a city. By the end of the first paragraph, you are fully involved. Mixon's first line reads like an outline. There is no invitation to imagine more. It's just a statement.
Another interesting point. Mixon's Empire of Bones saga is 14 books. It's pretty obvious that it probably should have been 3-5 books. He strains to fill the pages and uses bizarre plot twists to stretch out the story. It makes for a rather disjointed series. I made it about 10 books in and gave up.
There seems a strong trend in the last couple of decades for writers to write unneccesarily long books. Not sure if it is to create a series? There may be both commercial and creative reasons.
However, it seems a very strong contrast with our society's apparently dramatically shortening attention spans.
I'm commenting in response to Toyman's post about Mixon's books (which I don't know). But I also think you'd be hard-pressed to find anything in the last decade with the brevity, and especially with the strength of imagery, of the Clarke short story.
In reply to Toyman! :
Wow, that lead of the Mixon book is, well, full. Does it need all those names and numbers? Does it matter if the heading is two-five-zero by three-three-zero or two-five-one by three-three-two?
How about something simple:
Commander Jared Mertz looked up from his console when his tactical officer spoke. The news was not good.
In reply to Toyman! :
Things that are othoganal are pretty much invisible.
To a good writer, words are three, rather than two, dimensional. It is almost the same magic that gives weight to gold over plain pretty rocks.
I read this as a total wind-up towards both the reader and the audience in the bar. The previously unknown storyteller dropped a silenced tale of a technological silencer on a willing audience(s). This is a witty quick wink from Clarke. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Glad to hear that so many enjoyed Silence Please.
Like others noted, it had me at hello, immediately painting a picture that had me wanting more. You could smell the smoke, the alcohol, the breath of the patrons.
Once the narrator took over, then the ride really began.
I'm reading Clarke's short stories in chronological order, and this one takes a break from aliens, the world ending, etc., so that was refreshing as well. (I was going to start with History Lesson but felt that might be too depressing yet silly at the same time.)
Could the Fenton Silencer work as described? That doesn't bug me. It's kinda the MacGuffin that keeps the story on task.
And if anyone wants to discuss History Lesson, LMK. Do we like the ending? Too brutal? Too silly?
Toyman! said:My take, without giving away the story.
The early science fiction writers were brilliant in ways many new writers just can't duplicate.
Clark, Heinlein, Verne, Wells, and Asimov, all had a way of writing that was profound in how they communicated their story. Every word was a brush stroke on a painting that came to life as they put words to paper. In 4400 words he has conveyed an entire world to you and drawn you into the story in a way many modern writers struggle to. You can picture that bar in your mind and even the crowd that is in it. I would almost bet you know where in the bar you were sitting while this story was being told. There was no fluff or fill, or words just for the sake of words. If a story was short, that's what it was and they left it there. Just brilliant.
I'm going to have to go back are reread some of the classics.
I agree with this a lot, and I'll add Harry Harrison to your list too.
My uncle actually lived next door to Heinlein years back, but I never got to meet him
In reply to Antihero :
You just described why Gold an Gravel are not the same thing.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I'm in. I'll give it a read today.
David S. Wallens said:And if anyone wants to discuss History Lesson, LMK. Do we like the ending? Too brutal? Too silly?
We gonna discuss it here? Another thread?
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I can start another thread.
Moved to the new thread.
I just got my hold of Dune and the first page put me to sleep. There is just something so engaging about the simple start if this story.
In reply to Paul_VR6 (Forum Supporter) :
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....
NOHOME said:In reply to Antihero :
You just described why Gold an Gravel are not the same thing.
I'm not sure I understand the meaning behind this?
To be fair I'm quite sick at the moment and high on cold meds
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