Yesterday, after perusing his biography, I mourned that I
had not read more of Harry Harrison’s novels. Today, a revelation lifted my
spirits. Even if I hadn’t read
everything Harrison wrote, I had read enough to understand those issues closest to his heart. Allow me to explain.
According to HarryHarrison.com, in the critical journal
Extrapolation, Steven R. Carter quotes Slippery Jim DiGriz as saying,
“Cold-blooded killing is not my thing.” Carter
listed examples of how Harrison expressed his views in his books: the
brutalizing effects of war (Bill, the Galactic Hero), the dangers of
superstition and overreliance on authority figures (Captive Universe), and the
need for international co-operation to solve the worldwide problems of
overpopulation, poverty, and dwindling resources (as in Make Room! Make Room! and Skyfall).
As I mentioned in the last blog, with a few notable
exceptions, I’ve mainly read The Stainless Steel Rat series. Yet, after perusing Harrison’s biography a
second time, several themes emerged: a love of Esperanto, a hatred of war and a
loathing of the military, his distrust of religion and political figures, and
his interest in world travel. In several
Rat novels, Jim works to prevent war on a global or interplanetary scale. The website’s synopsis for The Stainless Steel
Rat Gets Drafted states that the same Sergeants (and underlying philosophy) portrayed
in Bill, the Galactic Hero are present in this novel. In The Stainless Steel Rat For President,
Harrison parodies politicians and the election process. The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell utilizes
a villain who preys on people’s religious beliefs, and in The Stainless Steel
Rat Returns (which I’m reading now), Jim lands on Floridora, where two religious
societies view the other as evil. While
one initially seems Good and the other Evil, Jim soon realizes that both are
equally intolerant.
I’ve read Skyfall, and seen “Soylent Green” (the film
adapted from Make Room! Make Room!). My
recollection is that both stories were bleak portrayals of human foibles. Yes, world leaders may get together to solve
problems, but only at the last minute.
Personally, I see more hope, and more application for our lives, in The
Stainless Steel Rat series, where Jim is usually acting alone to solve a
problem that threatens to tear society apart.
Another thread in his novels, which speaks to the desire to unite
mankind, is Jim’s (and Harrison’s) love of Esperanto, the language created and
promoted as a universal language. Even
if English has become the de facto language in most of the world, its creators
had their hearts in the right places.
Of course, there’s still Harrison’s love of travel to be
addressed, but that’s clearly presented in The Stainless Steel Rat. In each novel, Jim travels to another planet
and learns about different cultures and societies. This draws on Harrison’s life: he lived on
both coasts of the United States, Mexico, England, Denmark, and Italy, until he
and his wife eventually settled in Ireland.
Someday I’d like to read Vendetta For The Saint, a novel he ghost
authored for Leslie Charteris early in his literary career. The novel was set in Italy, and I can imagine
that the time Harrison lived there added depth and interest to the story. But for now, I’m satisfied. For even though I haven’t read all of his
novels, and even if I never had the honor of meeting him, I’m confident that
everything I really need to know about Harry Harrison can be found in The
Stainless Steel Rat series. And for any
of you out there who refuse to believe that humorous novels can contain
significant meaning, I’ll leave you with this quote from the great man himself:
“I have found that an action story with two or three levels
of intellectual content below the surface enables me to say what I want to
say. I have also found that humor—and
black humor—can carry ideas that can be expressed in no other way.”
Remembering a literary icon,
Dragon Dave
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