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De vruchten van de waanzin (1968)

door John Brunner

Andere auteurs: Zie de sectie andere auteurs.

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Everything about the planet revolving about Sigma Draconis seemed to indicate that here was a world that could be made into a second Earth. It was fertile and lacked native inhabitants and dangerous beasts. Then what was troubling the pioneer colony that had landed and set up shop there? Was it really possible just to create a new Earth on any vacant world waiting a landing? Or was there a lot more to planetary ecologies than humanity realized?… (meer)
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Toon 4 van 4
The "Tom-o-Bedlam" poems at the beginning of every chapter are...weird.

When the six "test subjects" ate the native plants of Asgard, and had their hallucinatory experiences, (after Dennis Malone had his), they all "dreamed" myths of Earth. I liked the one from Kitty Minakis.
P.96:
"they're in the Grove of Persephone the mini headed dog Cerberus came fawning, to lick the feet of the new arrivals, wagging his horrid tail. But let him once get the scent of death from a passerby, and from then on forever that person should not pass again. Seeing the fearful hound who blocked the way back to the sweets & delights of Earth, the dead drank get gladly of the Waters of Lethe, and forgot."

I liked the way the main character got the discouraged and apathetic colonists going after the six leaders trashed the dam, the biolab, the kitchen...
P.117:
" 'here--take these and get out there with everyone else!' he ordered. 'you seem to have been more or less running things lately, and what's happened as a result is a downright disgrace.'
stunned, the two men simply stared at him, making no move to take the chairs.
'don't you agree?' Dennis threw at the audience. 'look at yourself! You're filthy! You stink! You've behaved more like primitives out of the Dark ages than civilized people - going and jeering at lunatics for a Sunday outing!'....
'well, when Dan broke the dam--' tibor began defensively.
'stuff that immediately,' Dennis cut in, taking malicious pleasure in throwing Tibor's own phrase back at him. 'how many dams did Dan build on other islands? I've been away from pipes and purified water for almost 4 weeks. I didn't even have buckets and tanks - I used the cushionfoils' inflatable dinghy for a bathtub! First thing after this meeting, the whole gang of us is going to the stream with soap and disinfectant. Steve, keep that painted rope handy -- and watch out particularly for the mess hall staff! I never expected to see anyone handling food with black-edged fingernails in my lifetime!'

A book about a group of Earth colonists who build a settlement on a planet they name Asgard. They have a really rough time of it when some bacteria in their stomachs eat up all the ascorbic acid, leaving them with scurvy. They have to learn to be Asgard-lings, instead of Earth-lings. ( )
  burritapal | Oct 23, 2022 |
review of
John Brunner's Bedlam Planet
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 14, 2013

The bio opposite the title p tells us that Brunner's "interest in science fiction began at the age of six when "someone misguidedly left a copy of the War of the Worlds in the nursery." He sold his first sf paperback at the age of 17 and made his first sales to U.S. magazines before his 18th birthday." Impressive.

The Author's Note on p 4 informs us that: "In writing this novel I have made extensive use of the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology (the English version of Larousse Mythologie General) and am in consequence indebted to its compilers, editors and translators."

The hints of subtle differences on a new planet are effective: "Relying on the contact of his skin and his mattress, he gained sufficient control to swing his legs to the floor and tried not to realize that the smooth planks on which he placed his soles had been peeled from the layered bulk of a thing more like a vegetable carbuncle than an honest upright tree. It was wood . . . of a sort." (p 6) "Even in the womb-like dark of his room at night, there was still the indefinably wrong smell of Asgard to remind him." (p 19)

Colonists on this new planet have had one of their spaceships destroyed upon arrival & are, therefore, working under worse conditions than their careful planning wd've had otherwise. Nonetheless, the planet is astonishingly habitable. Subconsciously, however, "What armour do I wear against reason? We calculate, we analyze, we deduce, and think we have planned for all eventualities. But what impulses lurk below the surface of the mind, which never could be allowed for in advance because it took the impact of an alien planet to trigger them?" (p 8)

Ancient seafarers w/ inadequate supplies of vitamin C are evoked: "["]Anybody here not know what scurvy is?"" (p 28) ""Remember we had epidemic diarrhoea on our first arrival—a kind of interplanetary turismo? Well, as you know, most of the bacteria here are used to protoplasm in their hosts which is different enough from ours to mean we can't fall sick from them. However, we always carry around with us certain bacteria from which we don't fall ill, but actually derive benefit. And from analyzing and culturing stool-samples we've found that since we got over that diarrhoea epidemic all of us have been carrying around a variety of local bugs which like the hospitable environment of the human bowel. They don't cause any trouble so we needn't bother about them, bar one crucial factor. One of them tends to make ascorbic acid metabolically inaccessible to us. It knocks the molecule about in a way which our bodies aren't accustomed to. So in spite of eating a balanced diet we're developing a deficiency."" (pp 28-29)

It's largely the psychology of adjusting to a new planet that seems to concern Brunner here & his extensive use of mythology relates to that: "We don't know precisely what kind of cultural frame a human being needs to keep his sanity. At best we can make enlightened guesses. That's why we brought as much personal contact with as many areas of Earthly tradition as we could arrange." (p 41)

Section Four's entitled "The Moon's My Mistress" wch makes me think of Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress wch I reckon Heinlein's publisher (or whomever) might've taken from a famous poem or some such. Epigraphs from "Tom o' Bedlam's Song" appear at the beginning of each of the sections. According to Wikipedia,

""Tom O' Bedlam" is the name of a critically acclaimed anonymous poem written circa 1600 (it can be definitely dated back to 1634) about a Bedlamite.

The term "Tom O' Bedlam" was used in Early Modern Britain and later to describe beggars and vagrants who had or feigned mental illness (see also Abraham-men). They claimed, or were assumed, to have been former inmates at the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bedlam)."

The colonists are careful to avoid direct contact w/ their new environment - they don't swim in the sea, they don't eat the food, etc.. - but the main character recklessly swims in the sea & gets stung by a sea creature. He becomes delirious & hallucinates in terms of traditional mythology from his ethnic group ancestors:

"Therefore the hero mused, and spoke at last of envy poison-deep in his heart, to go among the Blest and match his strength to Nuada Argatlam, to play at chess with Finn the son of Cool and bait Cú Chulainn til he turned around within his skin and the hairs of his head glowed red with fire and blood." (p 69) I was able to recognize this as irish mythology partially b/c a reference to "Manannán's pigs" (p 70) reminded me of Henry Cowell's 1914 tone-cluster piano piece "Tides of Manaunaun".

My new (or, more likely, forgotten) word gleaned from this on p 74: "his left hand being thrust into the burrow of some sand-living creature, to be withdrawn with a moue" - "moue" = a pout, a little grimace (thank you: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moue ).

Essentially, Bedlam Planet explores the idea of when does someone stop being a colonist & start being a native? The main character becomes transformed:

"I ought to be hungry.

"He switched off the power and sat shivering as a vivid, revolting memory came clear in his mind. He had vomited, and spewed a great gout of liquid all over himself. What had been in him, that his stomach rejected so violently? And more alarming still: what was in him now, that he did not feel hungry despite not touching his packaged stores for ten mortal days . . . ?" - p 78

To avoid spoiling too much I'll just say that the transformation involves the mythology that Brunner expresses his gratitude for at the beginning of the bk. One bit of slightly off-the-beaten-track (plot-wise) mythology that occurs here also occurs in Brunner's novella Father of Lies: ""Okay, we'll keep these chairs here as a sort of Siege Perilous," (p 117): "In Arthurian legend, a seat at King Arthur's Round Table kept for the knight destined to find the Holy Grail and fatal for any other occupant." ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Siege Perilous )

Brunner explores the possibility of instinctual attraction to the appropriate nutritive source: "Somewhere in with the rest he had been told about one of the pioneer round-the-world trips by a nuclear submarine, following which the crew came ashore with an inexplicable need to eat cottage cheese. A check showed that they were short of calcium, and their bodies knew what they consciously did not: that this was the quickest way to replenish their supply." (p 135)

This made me think of dogs going after particular plants when they're sick or just out for a walk &, sure enuf, 4 pp later: ""Did you ever keep a dog?" she said after a moment for thought. "Did you ever see one drag itself across country when it was so sick it could barely stand, in search of a special kind of grass which would make its belly reject the poison it had swallowed? We've got to be our own dogs, as it were. Our bodies know things which our minds never can.["]" (p 139) & then: "Your body is wiser than your mind; its been around longer, and it carries memories in its cells which we've barely begun to guess at."" (p 147) Exactly. & it's Brunner's exploration of this notion that made this interesting for me. ( )
  tENTATIVELY | Apr 3, 2022 |
I wasn't expecting much from Bedlam Planet, but ended up enjoying this short book quite a bit. If you are looking for action adventure science fiction, this certainly isn't for you. It was more of a cerebral read, with some surprising events that took place with this band of adventurers from earth trying to settle on a different planet. ( )
  Ed_Gosney | Jan 16, 2010 |
The story is about a space colony working to fit into an alien ecology. Most of the beginning of the book is about the problems of the one member of the colony who had intended to go back to Earth, but is stuck on the colony for various reasons. Then Brunner finally gets around to the meat of the problem: how do you really adapt to life on a different planet? He has some interesting things to say on this subject, but the solution is very compressed and mythopoetic, and once you "get" it, there's not much to keep you reading. Not one of his best. ( )
  aulsmith | Apr 24, 2008 |
Toon 4 van 4
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» Andere auteurs toevoegen (2 mogelijk)

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
John Brunnerprimaire auteuralle editiesberekend
Jones, JeffArtiest omslagafbeeldingSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd
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Everything about the planet revolving about Sigma Draconis seemed to indicate that here was a world that could be made into a second Earth. It was fertile and lacked native inhabitants and dangerous beasts. Then what was troubling the pioneer colony that had landed and set up shop there? Was it really possible just to create a new Earth on any vacant world waiting a landing? Or was there a lot more to planetary ecologies than humanity realized?

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