 Cordwainer
Smith's writing is so filled with literary puns, obscure references,
and bizarre names, that you'd never know what they all mean. Some
of them turn up in multiple stories, and you may not remember
exactly how they were used in something you read a while ago...
Luckily,
Tony Lewis' 190-page paperback, Concordance
to Cordwainer Smith, solves many mysteries. (Clicking
on the title or the image will open a new window at Amazon's page
for the book.)
Hundreds of
entries, arranged alphabetically, answer such questions as:
- What characters,
besides the famous girlygirl C'Mell and the heroine D'Joan, have
names beginning with C' or D'?
- Who is the
E-telekeli and why is his name not said aloud?
- What did
Lord Jestocost do, and in what language does his name mean "cruelty?
- How is "Scanners
Live in Vain" related to an Anglican hymn?
I could have
fun making up a lengthy trivia quiz... the book is a delight to
browse... but you get the drift. I keep my copy handy next to the
stories.
Tony Lewis
began compiling Concordance to Cordwainer Smith in 1968,
and he's been at it (off and on) ever since. In his words, the book
"is the attempt to bring together all the people, places, things,
and concepts in the science fiction works of Cordwainer Smith together
with exegetical—in some cases, highly speculative—comments."
I like his
remark, "Where dates or comments are in contradiction, I have
selected those which best serve my theories. Go Thou, and do likewise."
Lewis invites readers to contribute their thoughts for future editions.
(The current edition is the third, published in 2000, and nominated
for a Hugo that year.)
To give you
the flavor of the book, here is one entry. (Many are shorter, some
are longer.) The letters in brackets are codes for the stories.
Abba-Dingo
An obsolete computer part way up in Earthport on Alpha Ralpha
Boulevard. The words written on its doors are in English (possible
dating?). It is a prediction machine and always works if you go
up on the northern side. The Underpeople treated it as a god.
It knew Paul and Virginia 12 years before they came into being.
[AR] Lord Jestocost had a direct connection to this machine. [PB]
Abba (Aramaic)
father + dingo (Australian slang) to betray = father of lies?
less possible: from Abed-nego = worshipper of nebo (lofty place)
The book is
useful in other ways, too:
- You can
look up any story by its title for a brief plot summary and other
comments.
- There is
a chronology of the Instrumentality, updated from the one that
J.J. Pierce produced for The Best of Cordwainer Smith.
- There is
also a bibliography of the fiction of Paul M. A. Linebarger, his
science fiction as Cordwainer Smith and his other fiction. Lewis
calls it incomplete, but at 13 pages of small print, it can't
be missing much!
What others
have said about earlier editions:
"One of
the most entertaining reference books around. It should delight
all Smith's fans." — Locus
"It impelled
this reviewer to immediately reread all of Smith's stories, and
if it does so for others it's a most valuable book indeed."
— Steve Carper, Fantasy Review
"Fun for
other dedicated Cordwainer Smith fans and helpful to dedicated Cordwainer
Smith scholars." — Alan C. Elms, Science Fiction Studies
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