Written by Mark LaBorde
I’m a really big fan of all things fantasy and science fiction, and I was recently wondering if any Penn Staters had written any notable fantasy or sci-fi. A few Google searches led me to someone I had never heard of, but apparently has quite the legacy–William Tenn.
Turns out, this man had been a very prolific writer going all the way back to the 1950s, the golden age of classic science fiction. However, he also taught English here at Penn State, presumably going by his real name, Phillip Klass.
Looking through his page on Goodreads, I found over 200 works to his name. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by this huge library, so I purchased a collection of his works (“Venus is a Man’s World and Three More Stories”) and started reading out of it.
I’d like to take a look at a couple of the stories in it, and the stories I’m looking at are both available on Project Gutenberg for free if you want to read along with me.
The flagship story, right in the name of the collection. It’s quite an interesting story that takes place in a future where, after the disastrous wars of the 20th century, men were deemed too emotional for politics and so were “de-suffraged,” leaving the world to be governed by women, who were more logical, rational, and fit for rulership.
This is a fascinating premise, not only as a satire of gender roles but also as a look into 1950s attitudes towards gender. The story follows Ferdinand, a young boy, along with his older sister as they immigrate to Venus. While exploring the ship, Ferdinand finds Butt Lee Brown, a male stowaway from Venus trying to get back home. Butt, being from Venus, is much too “masculinist” for Earth, and this causes much trouble with the woman-dominated authorities.
To be honest, I’m not really sure how to read this story. By inverting gender roles, is it saying “Look how ridiculous having gender-based authority is,” or is it saying “Look at this Feminist dystopia”? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
The second story I read is about a secret mission to the moon. I almost don’t want to spoil it, but it’s only 15 pages long so you should go read it right now.
Done? Great.
If not, I’ll walk you through it. We see a team from the US government sent on a super secret mission to establish a base on the moon. They notice, though, that someone got there before them. They conclude it could be two things, neither of them good: an enemy nation or aliens. They decide to send a scout to go gather information on them, and they choose Monroe, because… he’s Native American. One-fourth Arapahoe, that is, and so a natural scout. I’m not exactly sure that follows, and Monroe doesn’t really buy it either, but he agrees to go and try his best anyway. They lose contact with him shortly afterwards.
Flash-forward: Monroe miraculously returns. At this point he reveals that the mysterious co-colonizers of the moon are none other than the United States Navy. That’s right, two different branches of the military had top-secret projects to colonize the moon, and neither knew about the other.
That ending really got me; it’s something I can easily imagine happening in real life. That’s the hazard of ultra-secret government projects! But on the other hand, what’s the alternative? In such a complex world? Is bureaucracy fixable, or is it a side effect of modernity?
Overall, I feel these were pretty enjoyable stories. Because some of William Tenn’s work is in the public domain, you can read more of his sci-fi works for free from Project Gutenberg. If you read along, thank you, and I hope you enjoyed yourself as well.
By: Mark LaBorde, Web Designer
Mark LaBorde is in his junior year at Penn State studying English and IST. He grew up here in State College, so attending Penn State for university was only natural. Mark is interested in all things creative, including art and writing. He has a fondness for reading and writing Fantasy, in particular. In addition to this, he is fascinated by technology and its intersection with art, so whenever he has time he does game development for a hobby.
published 3-31-21