Leiber shoots…He…wait…where’d it go?
This story eludes me. Just when I think I can try and pin it down, even towards a coherent interpretation of it, as wrong minded though it might be, it continues to slip through the fingers, as it were.
Gott, in his interactions with (by my understanding) his own creations and therefore self, exhibits a disturbing penchant for focusing on the more negative aspects of his own person. Although, the words spoken by the Jester elude to a balanced creation of ‘beings’, a good and bad, a white and black, and a breath and fart, the Man in the Black Flannel, supposedly the ‘good’ is also focusing on the negative. Beyond promises of greatness, his qualifications for entering the Inner Circle are abhorrent. The Jester is plainly the ‘black’ in this duo, with his focus on Gott’s obvious failings (weakened eyes and ears, weight, sex issues). The Black Girl focuses on Gott’s lustful aspects and, again, there’s not a true yin-yang relationship between the Black Crone and the Black Girl. This seems to say that he’s a slave to his own lustful impulses (the Crone told him he was a slave to the girls) The final duo offer no pretense of opposition in anything other than name. Death trotts out Gott’s suicidal tendencies while the Philosopher remains almost absolutely silent. The true dualism seems to reside with Gott and Jane. While Gott is losing himself in his morbid musings Jane is busy creating a cheery picture. For everything that Gott says/does Jane seems to provide a relief. Heine seems to float, the darker Gott gets the more affected Heine is. Finally ,Gott must pull himself from his self- imposed exile and darkness in order to save his son.
While all this is very well and interesting, it doesn’t address much of what is asked. Quesitons such as: Why is this considered sci-fi? I’ll accept it as such mainly because I can see some aspects that lend more to sci-fi than fantasy, but I cannot commit it be sci-fi in my limited understandning of it…then again, that’s why I’m here. What is the true nature of this piece? I have no clue. Hopefully, I’ll be enlightened during class.
I think that the dualism of the black figures is a matter of self-gratification. One of the black figures always seems to offer Gott exactly what he wants (the promise of intrigue and adventure, or sexual gratification), while the other black figure is like a little slice of reality, bringing him back to earth.
And I agree that the story doesn’t really seem to be very sci-fi (or fantasy, for that matter). It seems more like a psychological study on the effects of LSD.
Love the joker card.
Good graphic: a combination of two of the black-blob characters.
Several of you have questioned this story as SF. It will be an interesting discussion in class.