The Dreamer As Sorcerer

 JACK VANCE's fiction

 
Vance  
      My first exposure in 1973 to Jack Vance's literary style was a dazzling experience for a teenager. Upon entry into the curious vault of his imagination, I found a whole series of other-worldly societies, all populated with extraordinarily peculiar beings. I was drawn into the undertow created by his prose, into a verisimilitude that provided sensual relief from an often boring everyday life in suburban Oklahoma. I was glad that Vance's work bore little resemblance to the technology-obsessed and sloppily-written trash most science-fiction writers were producing.
      Vance had obviously worked hard to assemble his ornamented word-structures, but there was a sense of delight; a sophisticated mischief in the characters and dialogue. Sometimes there was also violence that loomed just behind a pretense of politeness. As if civilization was a finely articulated veil across a brutish face.
      His illusions of alien cultures rely on a use of language patterns derived from baroque idioms. Vance also possesses a talent for inventing convincing-sounding character- and place-names and a finely-honed ironic wit.
      Despite Vance's imaginative wandering, there is continuity in many of his themes. One example: His recurring social climbers, religious nuts and narcissists make up the longest-running and most withering satire of human pompousness in contemporary fiction.
      Vance has actually enjoyed three careers as a writer, since he has also written successful fantasy (Lyonesse) under the same name and has earned critical acclaim for mysteries (The Fox Valley Murders) penned under the name John Holbrook.
   
 
  Vance
      Writers contemporary to Vance -- like Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. LeGuin and Gene Wolfe -- often garner more praise from critics. The reasons for this have a lot to do with personality types. Vance has a craftsman personality. That puts him a bit at variance with authors whose success in mainstream fiction is mostly due to their ambition to be perceived as artists, and definitely at odds with most critics, who are intellectuals. The story of Jack Vance is the story of the author as individualist. Vance's deliberate divergence from accepted tenets also constitutes a refusal to cooperate with the standardization of American fiction; a sameness that remains sadly apparent, and the main reason I quit reading science fiction, the genre in which Vance's writing is most often placed.
      Is it escapism? On a certain level, yes. The typical Vance hero suffers but always triumphs over hardship, is gifted with confidence, intelligence, useful skills, luck and acceptable looks. In real life, many people pour out their energy and receive nothing in return but disappointment. Vance's writing is therefore escapism on the level that such satisfying adventures are often wish fulfillment. If art educates and uplifts, and entertainment distracts and amuses, Vance is gracefully navigating a tightrope between the two.
      Jack Vance is one of those rare writers whose prose is absolutely recognizable within the first few paragraphs; an American original with an unmistakable literary voice.

Suggested reading: Emphyrio, The Moon Moth (short story), The Best of Jack Vance, The Blue World, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto The Marvellous, Maske: Thaery. His latest books are Night Lamp and Ports of Call.

More information (new windows):
the Vance Integral Edition
Is Vance a Science Fiction Author?
Vance, Magic and Wonder




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Copyright © 1998 by Keith Purtell. All rights reserved.