What do You think about The World Of Null-A (2002)?
An extremely strange occurrence. Many years ago, when I was in my early teens, I read A.E. van Vogt's World of Null-A, which is about as good as most of A.E. van Vogt's oeuvre - that is to say, not very good at all. I was however struck by his preface, where he boasted that this novel, all by itself, had more or less established the French SF market. Even at age 14, I was puzzled. Why?Much later, I discovered that van Vogt's unimpressive book had in fact been translated by Boris Vian, author of the immortal L'Ecume des Jours, and a friend of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. Perhaps some Vian scholar has found out why he did it (money trouble?) and if so I would be interested to hear the story! Whatever the explanation, this is one of those very rare occurrences where the translation is better than the original - the writing is perfectly OK, and even goodish in places. Since the original plot was in fact quite interesting (A.E. van Vogt always had ideas, he just couldn't write them down), the final result is a decent piece of work, and my 35 year old curiosity about how this could have been such a success was finally satisfied.Vian had a wicked sense of humour, and loved teasing people. It's little short of miraculous that Sartre, at least according to what I've read, wasn't offended by the "Jean-Sol Partre" character in L'Ecume des Jours and appreciated the joke. I have this fantasy of Vian giving his translation of van Vogt to some lion of the French literary world as a Christmas present, just to see how they would react. "Here you are, Albert, I thought you would like it!" "Oh, thank you, it's... ah... quite different from the things I usually read, but I'm sure I will!" Probably never happened though :)_________________________________For people (I am a typical example of the species) who require at least one bit of useless trivia each day, I will reveal that this book is referenced in Georges Perec's La Disparition, under a transparent pseudonym. Page 220 of the French edition:Un roman? Anton Voyl n'avait-il pas dit un jour qu'un roman donnait la solution? Un flot brouillon, tourbouillonant d'imaginations s'imposa soudain à lui: Moby Dick? Malcolm Lowry? La Saga du Non-A, par Van Vogt?La Saga du Non-A... geddit?
—Manny
The book brings back to me the 1950s. Names like Eldred Crang and Hari Seldon (this from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series), Intergalactic wars. Highly advanced devices with tubes like an old Emerson TV set. Planets in our solar system that could sustain life. Take, for instance, this description of Venus:Gosseyn said, "Doctor, what is Venus like -- the cities, I mean?"The doctor rolled his head sideways to look at Gosseyn, but did not move his body."Oh, much like earth cities, but suited to the perpetually mild climate. Because of the high clouds, it never gets too hot. And it never rains except in the mountains. But every night on the great verdant plains, there's a heavy dew. And UI mean heavy enough to look after all the luxuriant growth...."One of the side-effects of space exploration is the death of dreams of life on the Moon, on Mars, and on Venus. As a teeneager, I loved A E Van Vogt, and I loved novels like The World of Null-A, Slan, The Empire of the Atom, and The War Against the Rull. I do plan to re-read more of him, because I could see the young me at every turn, following the story with rapt attention and belief.Now the belief is gone, but what remains is a well written and conceived story. The fact that I could never quite believe, however, does remove a star or two from my rating. No matter. I am rediscovering myself and rather enjoy the experience.
—Jim
I'm inclined to give Vogt the benefit of the doubt because he's written such classics as Slan, and Voyage of the Space Beagle was ripped off not once but twice for James Cameron movies (the alien and the T-1000 terminator.) This book is a classic in the sense that it was popular during the heyday of SF in the 1940s, but is very dated today.The book covers the idea that humanity can develop superhuman powers of concentration and ability through development of non-Aristotelian thought - that is, examining the meaning behind words and a person's own thoughts. It's amusing to see how this basically Buddhist idea took root in several forms in Western society, and this book is one example. It gets a little less amusing to think that ideas such as this led to the rise of weird ideas like Scientology.The plot is decent enough for the 40s, following a person whose identity is not tied to any specific body. It's not particularly interesting, though, and General Semantics did not achieve the breakthrough Vogt foresaw, so it takes on the feel of an extended diatribe. I started calling it "World of Dull-A" halfway through the book.Damon Knight attacked Vogt over this, and spent a good deal of time savaging Vogt's writing. I find that really unnecessary. SF/F is about ideas and they deserve expression in the marketplace of ideas. We're all adults and don't need ideas suppressed by other writers. For that reason alone it can be worth reading World of Null-A, to see what the fuss was about. In the end, there's nothing really objectionable about the book, so it seems Knight's vitriol was wasted. It just wasn't all that great a book either. Choose Slan and Voyage of the Space Beagle first. Also, note that this book is a cliffhanger, and the followup book gets even stranger.
—John (Taloni) Taloni
