Dangerous Visions 3 Edited by Harlan Ellison

Dangerous Visions 3
Edited by Harlan Ellison
Copyright 1969

New Introduction by Harlan Ellison
Ellison engages in a bit of self-congratulation in describing the success of the “vivisected” Dangerous Visions, of which this is the third volume. He says that he’s been working on a new volume to be titled Again, Dangerous Visions. He lists the new writers with breathless excitement.

If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? by Theodore Sturgeon
An explorer is determined to find a secret planet that is shunned by the rest of the universe. When he gets there, he falls in love with one of the natives, but learns the hard way why this planet is shunned by the rest of the universe.

I thought Sturgeon had a perfectly good short story going here until he brought it to an abrupt halt with an argument as to why incest should not be socially taboo. Then it got really boring and not a little repulsive.

What Happened to Auguste Clarot by Larry Eisenberg
A dogged reporter investigates the disappearance of a world renowned French chemist. When he eventually locates the chemist, he learns that he has used his knowledge and expertise to develop an entirely new means of supporting himself.

Some of the stories in this book I have not enjoyed for one reason or another. None of them left me thinking, so what? Until now.

Ersatz by Henry Slesar
A man in a post-apocalyptic war searches for an aid station where he might get some food and sleep. He finally finds one, attended by a man and young woman. He seeks comfort from the woman and gets more than he bargained for.

An absolutely pointless story which had the science fiction angle as something completely gratuitous. The twist is almost as old as sex itself which made for a thoroughly boring read.

Go, Go, Go, said the Bird by Sonya Dorman
In a dystopian society, a woman flees from pursuers who would eat her to stave off famine. As she runs, she reminisces about being a powerful leader in her tribe.

This one had a pretty good twist. And, who can’t help but like a story set in a cannibalistic dystopia?

The Happy Breed by John T. Sladek
In the late 1980s, the world and its population are controlled by a supercomputer that has removed all danger, all risk, and all excitement from life. Slowly, with the help of the computer, the world’s inhabitants regress to a near infantile intelligence and existence.

This is a powerful story that is as pertinent and relevant today as it was nearly 50 years ago. As our government and society strive to reduce dangerous behavior, control our diet, and remove danger and risk from our lives, they reduce our humanity.

Encounter with a Hick by Jonathan Brand
Is God the moral standard of the universe just because he created it? A space hippy encounters and unsophisticated traveler who claims to be all powerful.

The dialogue in this story hurt the eyes to read and the author tried too hard to be controversial and not hard enough to construct a meaningful plot. Dangerous? No. Annoying? Yes.

From the Government Printing Office by Kris Neville
A three year old feels mistreated by his parents who are raising him based on an instruction manual from the government that explains how to raise a future scientist.

This story started out very weak with no seeming rhyme or reason. When it becomes apparent that the storyteller is narrating the scattered thoughts of a three year old, it works.

Land of the Great Horses by R.A. Lafferty
Whatever happened to the homeland of the Romany? It is revealed when that small sliver of earth is returned by the aliens who took it for examination. They claim a new piece of land to study and create a new type of Gypsy.

This one started out very difficult to follow and seemingly without purpose or reason. But, as it gathered steam and the direction the author was headed became clear, it was quite interesting and quite clever.

The Recognition by J.G. Ballard
A strange circus comes to town and sets up in a remote, desolate part of town. It is operated by a dwarf and an ageless woman. A young man slips in to see the exhibits and finds the cages empty except for a familiar odor. Later, when a few obnoxious sailors stop by, they learn the true nature of the circus and its exhibits.

This story was wonderfully atmospheric, but a little short on plot. Darker than that most famous of haunted circus stories, Something Wicked This Way Comes, it lacks the compelling narrative.

Judas by John Brunner
A man enters a church and asks to speak to God himself. He is recognized as a former priest of this temple. A priest tries to restrain him and he kills him. He then goes to meet God – the God he created and the God he intends to destroy.

I initially thought this was a negative riff on Christianity and the story of Christ’s crucifixion and rebirth. But it seems to be a commentary on man’s reliance upon machinery to carry out daily tasks and man’s increasing dependence upon it.

Test to Destruction by Keith Laumer
A man undergoing interrogation is unknowingly tested by aliens who want to assess mankind’s mental stability. However, he turns the table on them and becomes the ultimate power in the universe.

What intelligent, insightful, and brilliantly written science fiction this story was! Laumer shows that you can

Carcinoma Angels by Norman Spinrad
A self-made billionaire who has never met a challenge he could not conquer learns that he has cancer. The cancer is deemed terminal. He will not accept that answer and sets out to cure or remove his own disease.

This story was written in a different time when most forms of cancer were death sentences. To get a cancer diagnosis instilled terror in the heart. However, Spinrad approaches the subject as a dark comedy and delivers a mildly funny, but exceptionally well-paced story that was a pleasure to read.

Auto-Da-Fe by Roger Zelazny
In the future, matadors will be replaced by mechanadors who do battle not with bulls, but with cars. The best mechanador of them all takes on a host of Buicks, Fords, and Pontiacs.

A surprisingly old sci-fi trope of taking something old and replacing it with something new or fictional works well in Zelazy’s tale.

Aye, and of Gomorrah by Samuel R. Delany
This is a story about Spacers who are eunuchs who work in space to repair satellites and equipment. Felks are the sexually deviant earth inhabitants that lust for Spacers. A spacer encounters a Felk in Instanbul who cannot pay him for his services. But it is not money that he wants.

I thought this was a rather vanilla tale with which to wrap up this anthology. I read with some anticipation to find out what a Spacer and a Felk were. Once I found out about halfway through the story, I lost interest.

Book to Movie: Damnation Alley (1977)

Book to Movie: Damnation Alley (1977)
Directed by Jack Smight
Screenplay by Alan Sharp based on the novel by Roger Zelazny

Roger Zelazy’s post apocalyptic novel of a transcontinental journey made the transition to film in 1977 – the same year Star Wars was released. It was panned by critics and when contrasted with the exciting, fun filled Star Wars, the sometimes dull, sometimes banal, Damnation Alley was found badly wanting.

I said in my review of the novel that I liked the movie when I first saw it and I did. I said I saw it again for the first time just a few years ago and liked it, and I did. I watched it again a few nights ago after having read the novel, and I like it a lot less now.

To say that it is loosely based on Zelazny’s novel is giving Zelazny too much credit (or blame ) for the film. There is a character named Tanner and he makes a cross country journey in an R.V. on steroids. There, the similarities end.

The movie begins with Air Force officers launching missiles and watching inbound missiles in what we can assume is World War III. Most of the United States is wiped out. With the United States as we know it gone, Tanner (played by Jan Michael Vincent) and his buddy, Keegan (played ably by Paul Warfield) drop out of the military, but still live on the base since it is the only inhabitable place in the desert.

There is a scene near the opening of the movie that is so bad that it had to put theater goers – especially those that had seen Star Wars – off their popcorn. Tanner is riding across the desert while Keegan, high atop a tower at the base watches him. As he rides in with a mannequin on the back of his bike, he is chased by giant scorpions. I know the director and screenwriter were trying to show us how dramatically the earth’s ecology had changed since the war, but the special effects are so bad and the scene so needless, the movie would have been better served to have just left it in an editing bay.

The idea for departure is set when an accidental fire starts inside the military base that detonates a bunch of explosives, killing everybody inside except for Tanner, Keegan, Lt. Perry (the expendable character) and Major Eugene Denton. Somewhere in the time between the apocalypse and the explosion, Denton and some of his people construct two Landmaster vehicles to drive across the country. Denton has plotted a course to Albany because Albany is the only city that has sent out a signal. He calls his course, Damnation Alley.

The two Landmasters set out from the California desert. Tanner is riding with Denton and Keegan with Perry. They soon encounter a storm and Perry is killed and their Landmaster damaged. Keegan transfers his gear aboard and joins Tanner and Denton. Perry and the second Landmaster were entirely extraneous and served no useful purpose in the plot.

Before long, they arrive in Las Vegas. The three start playing the slots and having fun in the deserted casinos when they find a woman – a former showgirl named Janice – who decides to join the party. With a woman aboard to make things more interesting, they head east from Vegas.

They arrive in an unnamed town where they try to find gasoline. Instead, they find giant, carnivorous cockroaches that devour the unfortunate Keegan. The rest of the party makes their escape.

As they continue their cross country odyssey, they find an adolescent boy who is living alone after his father died in a fall. He first attacks them with rocks, but ends up joining them. Now, the female gets to be a mother figure since she’s never really assigned to be anyone’s love interest. They are once again a party of four.

At yet another fateful stop for gasoline, the party encounters a group of depraved renegades who want to steal their supplies and rape their women. Billy plays a clever trick on the leader of the group and they are able to escape.

As they near Detroit, the transmission in their vehicle starts to grind. So, finding Detroit to be one big junkyard (how prescient) they decide to stop there to try to find parts to make repairs. While there, a giant storm causes Lake St. Claire to flood the city and the vehicle (which is also amphibious) takes to the sea. They eventually make landfall and continue east where they discover signs of life.

Finally, while camped out in a wooded area, they hear on the radio music being broadcast from Albany. They make contact with the people of Albany and head off to join civilization.

The movie’s special effects were dated when the movie was made, but still lend themselves to creating the feeling of desolation in a post apocalyptic world. Some of the 70s kitsch in the movie is cool such as Jan Michael Vincent’s haircut. But the C.B. culture that was coming to and end at about this time is nauseating.

The weakest point of the movie is its seeming lack of focus or real goal. They leave the desert for no apparent reason. They go to Albany and in between a bunch of unrelated events transpire. The characters have no real chemistry. It tried early in the film to develop some tension between Tanner and Denton with Denton playing the strict military type and Tanner as the renegade, care free spirit. But the director didn’t develop this at all beyond some obligatory opening scenes.

As in most cases, the movie was not nearly as good as the book. It could have been better had the screenwriter used Zelazny’s characters and his motivation for them. Instead, they took Zelazny’s idea of a post apocalyptic crossing of the continent and tried to tell a different story. Zelazny’s story was much better. According to IMDB, Mr. Zelazny approved the original script, but the shooting script was much different and he was not too pleased with the final product. It’s not difficult to discern why.

Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny

Damnation Alley
By Roger Zelazny
Copyright 1968

In an undefined time, much of the United States has been decimated my nuclear war. Civilization exists on the west coast and in parts of the eastern United States. What lies between is radioactive waste. That radioactive wasteland is beset by storms of rain, rocks, and cyclones. It is this stretch of land from Nevada to Massachusetts that Hell Tanner must cross.

Hell Tanner, aptly named, is an outlaw. The leader of a biker gang that terrorizes the Barbary Coast of California, he is finally arrested at a serendipitous time. Shortly after his arrest, the forces of the law wipe out his gang.

Hell Tanner is also one hell of a driver and his services are needed by what’s left of American civilization. A man has crossed the vast wasteland of middle America known as Damnation Alley to tell the nation of California that the nation of Boston is being attacked by a plague. The only known serum for the plague is in California. It must get through to Boston if that half of the continent is going to survive.

Nuclear war has dramatically altered the climate and weather patterns of the world. Where aircraft once flew routinely, there are constant winds of hundreds of miles per hour, carrying in them sand, rocks, boulders, and other debris, making flight impossible. The only way to travel in this post-nuclear world is by ground transportation.

Tanner is offered a full pardon for all of the crimes and debauchery he has committed in a life dedicated to crime and debauchery. In exchange for this pardon, he will traverse Damnation Alley with the vaccine and deliver it safely to Boston. With his gang wiped out and facing a life of imprisonment, he readily agrees.

Three R.V. type vehicles set out east from Los Angeles to make the delivery to Boston. These are not your ordinary recreational vehicles. They run on an octet of tires. They are equipped with flame throwers, 50 millimeter guns, grenade launchers, and heavy cannons with which to do battle with the giant bats, gila monsters, and other mutant creatures that inhabit Damnation Alley.

The three vehicles, each manned with two man crews, sets out from California. It’s not long before one is lost in a storm. The other simply disappears later, leaving Tanner and his partner, Greg, to make the trek alone.

They arrive in an oasis in the waste near what was Salt Lake City. There, they make repairs, enjoy a meal, and meet the president of Salt Lake City. They learn that the man who delivered the message from Boston had passed that way also and had come across the country on the ruins of U.S. 40. Tanner decides to take that route.

As they near the middle of country in the vicinity of St. Louis, Greg becomes increasingly agitated and anxious. They have reached the point where there will soon be no option of return. Their craft has weathered the showers of rocks and boulders that fall from the pink, murky, sky. They have defeated or avoided the monsters that haunt the land. But Greg can’t deal with crossing the “Mighty Missus Hip” and being left without the option of turning back. Tanner is forced to beat him into unconsciousness and bind him. Tanner is now left alone to drive the second half of Damnation Alley.

The missiles of the enemy rained down upon the large cities in the Midwest and Tanner assiduously avoids St. Louis and Dayton. Large craters occasionally pock the landscape, revealing ground zero of the missiles as they hit terra firma. He is forced to go miles out of his way to avoid these craters, using precious fuel.

For my friends who grew up in southeastern Ohio, it is the bridge that spans the Ohio River from Belpre, OH to Parkersburg, WV, that Tanner utilizes to cross over the Ohio. I wonder if he paid the toll. . .

Tanner is caught in a particularly bad storm near Albany, New York and decides to wait it out. When the storm is over, he finds that his vehicle is stuck in mud. Fortunately, he encounters a farmer who offers to help him free up the vehicle. Tanner, worried about Greg who has been unconscious for several days, asks if there is medical help available. The farmer and his sons transport Tanner and Greg to a small town nearby where they live. There, Tanner the outlaw gangster and killer, enjoys a few days of genuine Midwestern hospitality.

Greg is left in the care of a country doctor who tells Tanner he’s given Greg a pretty severe concussion and possibly a skull fracture. Tanner is left to go it alone. He is warned the road between Albany and Boston is terrorized by various gangs and marauders who prey on those fleeing the plague stricken Boston. Tanner, with his vehicle free of the muck that held it, sets off on the last leg of Damnation Alley to deliver the vaccine and earn his pardon.

It’s not long before a gang of motorcyclists attacks him, not realizing the mighty firepower contained within the post apocalyptic R.V. With a couple grenades and strafes of machine gun fire, he wipes out the gang. He stops to survey the carnage and notices that one is left alive. Upon closer inspection, he finds out that it is a woman who has survived his barrage. Apparently as bereft of human feeling and loyalty as Hell Tanner himself, she dispassionately leaves behind her dead comrades and joins Tanner on the last leg of his journey.

Tanner finds that he has missed human company since leaving his partner behind in the small town outside of Albany. He and Cornelia pass the time amiably; two outlaw free spirits miscast as saviors of the eastern United States. For the first time in his life, Tanner feels the dim stirrings of love.

Less than 100 miles outside of Boston, Tanner and Cornelia are pursued by a gang of more than 100 well armed motorcyclists who are adept at shooting out the tires of Tanners vehicle. Tanner unleashes the full firepower of the vast weaponry at his disposal. Despite all the weaponry he unloads on them, they still persist and manage to deflate several of his tires. They soon run into a storm that drops upon them several large boulders, damaging the armor on their vehicle. Low on fuel, their ammunition spent, and their vehicle unable to advance, they abandon it and head east on motorcycles with the carton carrying the vaccine strapped to Tanner’s bike.

Just 50 miles outside of Boston, the roads begin to improve. They pass several vehicles carrying families fleeing Boston, heading west to anywhere where there was not plague. As they are cruising the highway toward Boston, a single sniper shot rings out and Cordelia falls dead with a gunshot to the chest. Tanner returns fire with a grenade and blows up their assailant. He pauses to bury Cordelia the best he can with his bare hands. He parks her bike atop her makeshift grave and inscribes in the paint on the gas tank, Her name was Cordelia. I don’t know how old she was or where she came from, but she was Hell Tanner’s girl and I loved her.

Here, Zelazny pauses in his narrative to ask his reader to imagine setting without plot or characters. He describes the altered geological processes of the earth that lift water, fish, coral, rocks and debris from the surface of the earth and transport them high into the air, to be dropped on Damnation Alley. As the story draws to its climax, we learn what makes Damnation Alley the most dangerous place in the world.

Just a few miles outside of Boston, Tanner is met by another gang. Outgunned and out manned, Tanner is taken. His bike is driven by a gang member approximately half a mile up the road and parked. As well armed men line the road waiting for him, Tanner is ordered to try to get his bike.

But Tanner has a few tricks left. He tosses two grenades that take out a bulk of the gang lining the road. But a few men (quite pissed now) remain, and they put a bullet into him. As he lies bleeding in the road, they torment him by riding circles around him, running over his hands and kicking at him. As one of the bikes passes him, a foot peg catches his clothing and starts to drag him along the street. Bereft of firearms and grenades, he has but a boot knife and a lighter with which to fight for his life. He uses the dagger to puncture a hole in the gas tank of the bike and the lighter to set afire the fuel that flows from it, killing his assailant.

Now wounded by a bullet and burned from the conflagration of the burning bike, a beaten and battered Tanner tries to traverse the last ten miles of road that lie between him and Boston. He is delirious with pain and exhaustion. He drives for a little while and finally pulls off to the side and falls in a heap of exhaustion.

As he sleeps, he dreams of a priest, who has come from Albany to pray for the salvation of Albany. He asks to pray for Hell Tanner, if he will only reveal his name. Tanner will not. Tanner says he drives. He drives even though he is afraid. He drives because he has become part of his machine. He drives not for the people of Boston. He will not tell the priest his name. The priest tells him he cannot pray for him if he knows not his name.

Tanner awakens from his dream disoriented, recalling the horrible events of his cross country odyssey through Damnation Alley. Weakened by his wound and the physical and mental demands of his journey, he pushes the bike to the road for the final push toward Boston.

He finally arrives on the outskirts of Boston and it occurs to him he has no idea where he is supposed to take the vaccine once he gets there. The city appears all but deserted with just a few buildings lit. He stops his bike and attempts to enter one. A bullet strikes the building, just missing him and police officers warn him not to move and tell him he is under arrest for looting. He puts his hands up as instructed. But before doing so, he pulls the pin on his remaining grenade. The cops realize that they can’t shoot him or he will blow them up. He presents his pardon papers and shows them the vaccine. His hand is weakening and it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to hold the trigger of the grenade.

The cops toss him into the car and rush him toward the hospital. As they cross the River Charles, Tanner tosses his last grenade which explodes harmlessly in the water below. He arrives and delivers the vaccine. His pardon is final and complete.

The book closes with a statue of Hell Tanner erected in Boston Common. Soon after it is placed, it is vandalized and there is little doubt as to who has committed the defacing act. An anti-hero must remain and anti-hero. Tanner sets out for parts unknown, leaving no forwarding address. The majestic statue of Hell Tanner astride a great Harley Davidson stands on Boston Common to present hope for posterity, subjected to the indignities of a climate made inhospitable by humankind’s inhumanity.

Damnation Alley might best be termed bubblegum science fiction. The creatures that inhabit Damnation Alley are straight out of B-movie material. The story is bereft of subplots. Hell Tanner is not a man given to flights of introspection. He has no character arc. Other than a few days of love for a woman whom he did not take the time to learn anything about, Tanner remained a passionless person, driven only by his desire to be free and his desire to drive.

Zelazny’s prose is sparse. Except for the description of the earth’s new climate and geological changes and the dream sequence with the priest, Zelazny is not given to rhetorical fancy. Except for a few, seemingly randomly placed vignettes that describe events in crisis panicked Boston, the story is straight forward with no subplots. The characters are unrefined and have just enough backstory and development to tell the story.

One of the axioms of fictional writing is that your main character must go through some sort of change to make a story successful – what professional writers of books and screenplays call the character arc. Tanner has no character arc. He leaves Boston the same man he was when he left California. One can’t help but admire a writer who breaks the fundamental rules of the craft and successfully tells an interesting tale.

Like bubblegum, the tale was sweet and pleasurable to sink your teeth into. The book was fun to read. With a plot that is well paced and an anti-hero that is likable, yet despicable, Damnation Alley is worthy of being mentioned with some of the better works of science fiction. One can't help but think that perhaps the highly regarded Mad Max trilogy was not inspired somewhat by Zelazny's tale.

The novel was made into a movie starring Jan-Michael Vincent. It is only loosely based on Zelazny’s tale. Most fans of science fiction cinema seem to despise it. I saw it when it first came out in 1977 when I was just 11 years old and I liked it. I saw it a second time just a few years ago and I liked it again. I would not call it a great movie, but I have seen movies deemed great by critics and science fiction aficionados That I’ve enjoyed less.