Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

On offer are two novellas this month. I'm feeling ambitious. This one is The Persistence of Vision by John Varley. It took the science fiction world by storm when it appeared and won multiple awards including the 1979 Hugo for Best Novella, the 1979 Locus for Best Novella, and was the 1979 Nebula winner in the Novella category. If you haven't heard of him, it's probably because he made a big splash in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but has not published prolifically since then. That does not diminish the power of this novella.

If you're curious about this novella, Wikipedia offers the following plot summary: (view spoiler)[A hitchhiker discovers the town of Keller, a commune whose adult inhabitants are all deafblind. He gradually explores the increasingly sophisticated levels of communication the inhabitants of the town have created, eventually realizing that he will never be able to fully attain the highest levels of communication. Unable to cope with this reality, he leaves the commune for the increasingly decrepit outside world. On New Year's Eve of 2000, he decides to return to Keller, where he discovers the adults have all vanished through some uncommunicable means. The remaining children have blinded and deafened themselves to remove the obstacles to comprehension, and the narrator soon chooses to join them (hide spoiler)].

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1978, I have not read this: an oversight I plan to correct shortly. Are you with me?

The Persistence of Vision (1978) ★★★★

What a wonderful story! It is possible to acquire it for free. The story appeared in anthologies one can "borrow" at the Internet Library. Just search on the story title and author name. I instead chose to purchase Varley's short story collection at Amazon for $4.99, and I am glad I did. For that price one gets a large collection: six novelettes (clearly Varley's preferred form), two novellas, and a short story. The novella we are reading for our group is the last one in the collection. But I suspect the other stories will be well worth reading some day too.

It's easy to see how this novella won so many awards in 1979. The concepts are startlingly original, yet completely reasonable if one considers the starting premises out to their logical conclusion. I debated, but have decided not to in any way spoil the story by indicating much about Varley's starting premise. You can read about the premise somewhat in other reviews, but I don't recommend it. Just start reading the story.

I do need to provide one caveat. The story takes a surprisingly long time to get started. I didn't like this story in the beginning. It starts out like a social studies text of a late twentieth century dystopia that Varley got completely wrong. The late twentieth century was nowhere near as dismal as Varley thought it would be. If you were alive and socially aware in 1979 you might remember the number one album of the year was the drive-one-to-commit-suicide Pink Floyd's The Wall. In the early 1980s we all anticipated being blown up in a worldwide nuclear catastrophe that would bring on Nuclear Winter for the unlucky survivors, if there were any. We had dwindling natural resources, gasoline would be all out by 2005 at the latest, runaway double-digit inflation, twenty percent unemployment in many communities, drugs everywhere, race riots, and a president wearing rose-tinted lenses for his world view. It was grim times and Varley is writing amidst these.

The story plot starts out as a depressing reminder of this 1979 world. However, once the protagonist reaches the commune in which the story takes place, it shifts gears and becomes a story well worth taking the time to read. You'll never read another like it. Highly recommended.