Northwest of Earth is a collection first published in 1954 containing most of the stories about Northwest Smith. Nearly a century after they were first printed it is a fascinating read. Eschewing any contemporary knowledge of the solar system, she populates Mars, Venus and the other planets with steamy jungles, deserts filled with civilisation and moons and other planets filled with weird and wonderful people. The solar system is filled with civilisations, all of whom are human, but all with their distinct characteristics. The spaceports are filled with smugglers, criminals, dodgy bars and sex workers. And beautiful women.
The latter are, of course, a staple of the science fiction genre. Heroic spacemen blast the baddies/aliens and get the "girl". "Tell me," says one character to Smith "do you have such girls on Earth". Except in Moore's stories it is usually the woman who leads Northwest down a dangerous path. Almost invariably when he meets a female from Mars, Venus or anywhere else she is asking him to accomplish a dangerous task, and often lying through her teeth. It is a neat inversion and Moore deserves a little more credit for her female characters.
Because this isn't really science-fiction. This is Weird fiction. There is much of Lovecraftian work here, tentacles, and dark, dank, misty places. A touch of magic and scary scenarios. C.L. Moore's solar system isn't filled with shiny spacecraft, but with weird tentacled things and slide and slither. Invariably Northwest gets away, usually firing his flame or ray gun (the technology varies from story to story) and cuts his way out.
So these are unusual stories, and the language takes a bit of getting used to. In fact, Moore shares a tendancy to overwrite a little and sometimes the stories' language betrays their origin in pulp magazines. One story, Dust of Gods, has the opening line: "'Pass the whisky, MW' said Yarol the Venusian persuasively."
No comments:
Post a Comment