Re: (Tears) Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss

Titus G wrote:

 Don wrote:

William Hyde wrote:

Don wrote:

James Nicoll wrote:

Report on Probability A by Brian W. Aldiss
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A New Wave tale of observational recursion,
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https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/a-straight-a-student

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Thank you for the embedded link to _The Hireling Shepherd_. It's another
example where an artistic image's blatant symbolism clobbers me in the
head with the force of the stupid hammer.
     _The Hireling Shepherd_ brings to mind a similar sexual situation in
_Fifth Business_ (Davies). The author, apparently an aficionado of
Shakespeare, kindly defines Fifth Business in his preface. Perhaps you,
in your role of theater staff member, also recognize the phrase, James.
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     Fifth Business … Definition
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     Those roles which, being neither those of
     Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain,
     but which were none the less essential to
     bring about the Recognition or the dénouement
     were called the Fifth Business in drama
     and opera companies organized according
     to the old style; the player who acted these
     parts was often referred to as Fifth Business.
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     —Tho. Overskou, Den Danske Skueplads

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Davies invented the term, and this quotation.
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It's a very fine novel nonetheless.  I like it more each time I read it.

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It was thrown against the wall by me after its Stupidity Hammer hit
readers with hobo homosexual rape fantasies.

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The hobo did not commit rape but was a victim of a saint's beneficence.
There was perhaps rape of the youth by the fair worker though it was not
clear whether consent was granted. Minor details.
You have denied yourself a great read. If you haven't done so, I would
recommend you read one of his other trilogies which have nothing in
common with the Deptford IIRC.

Allow me to belated thank William for clarifying the origin of the
"Fifth Business." Lesson learned - epigraphs are every bit as
fictional as the rest of the story.
    Davies is gifted. He masterfully expresses himself. He excels
at symbolic imagery. Davies even magnanimously hints at how readers
can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps to become polymaths.
(Yeah, right?)

Does it surprise anyone at this point for Davies to now become anti-
grist for my Love-Hate mill?

Davies' Gnostic attitude about all denominations being more-or-less the
same ?snake oil? in different bottles rubs me the wrong way. Then
there's the tacit approval of a false face presented in public, passed
off as virtue.
    Here's his hobo homosexual fantasy:

    Funny how fierce it gets when the body is ill fed and
    ill used. Tramps are sodomites mostly. I was a young
    fellow, and it's the young ones and the real old ones
    that get used, because they can't fight as well. It's
    not kid-glove stuff, like that Englishman went to
    prison for; it's enough to kill you, you'd think,
    when a gang of tramps set on a young fellow. But it
    doesn't, you know. That's how I lost my hearing, most
    of it; I resisted a gang, and they beat me over the
    ears with my own boots till I couldn't resist any
    more. Do you know what they say? "Lots o' booze and
    buggery". they say.

For a moment, put yourself into my shoes. According to more than one
reader on the Inet, _Fifth Business_ allegedly contains a Roger Bacon
character.
    "Where's Roger Bacon?" my mind ponders when the above passage
gobsmacks me. It's been patiently waiting for Bacon a long time by
this point in the story. And all its patience is rewarded with the above
passage?!?
    It finally dawns on me how the Bacon character's a subverted
expectation. An illusory allusion or something.
    In the end, there's more than enough evil encountered by me in
real life. There's no need whatsoever for me to fantasize about it.

Danke,

--
Don.......My cat's  )\._.,--....,'``.     https://crcomp.net/reviews.php
telltale tall tail /,   _.. \   _\  (`._ ,.    Walk humbly with thy God.
tells tall tales.. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'    Make 1984 fiction again.