blacknorth
Stuck Inside a Cloud
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- Jun 14, 2009
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The Long Way Back is an obscure sf entry by non-genre writer Margot Bennett. Published by The Bodley Head in 1954, it was reissued by the Science Fiction Book Club (# 25) and has been out of print since. Which is rather unfair, because it's a splendid novel, with a post-modern flourish that most of today's authors could only dream about. Dream on...
The novel follows the adventures of Grame, Valya and Hep, sent from the civilised and atomic continent of Africa on a doomed expedition to find out why Europe, and specifically Britain, sank into barbarism so many years before. Yes, it's set in the far future, but not our future - the Britain it describes reads like a distant descendent of Airstrip One, an impression gained mostly through the novel's relentless anti-nuclear theme (of course, it's a book of its time), the quality of its paper and the austerity of its prose.
The party arrive in Britain to a relentless assault from savage inhabitants, wild-life, even trees and flowers; throughout the text they are harried by almost everything and everyone they encounter. The natives have sunk into an almost wilful ignorance, one typical of so many post-apocalypse novels. Their skills are primitive, but remain skills; their beliefs are absurd, but remain beliefs; their Gods are cruel and remain cruel. The party make a connection with only one native, Brown, to whom they teach reading, writing, geometry, house-building; but when the other natives turn against them and tear the house down, Brown is also cast out, so his knowledge is lost.
Brown leads them on through the text, towards a mysterious city and through a forest which aches and scratches at their presence. Bennett establishes notions of 'city' and 'forest' that are well ahead of their time; Her city, when it is revealed, is a landscape glazed to the horizon, but not with steel and glass. Her forest is getting to be our forest, and makes an interesting and rather apt comparison with Caryl Churchill's dystopian nature in 'Far Away' -
The dogs are savage beasts. The little birds suck our blood. The flies are half the size of birds. The bats have changed into butterflies or the butterflies into bats, just as you please. The cats are no bigger than mice and birds eat them. The mice have probably changed into lions. Why should you expect the bacteria to be tame and die at the touch of our drops? They probably eat steel.
It's a future of alliances and coalitions - even nature has evolved artificial biological constructs as a defence against man's destructive powers, just as the natives use superstition to ward off ignorance. It's reverse evolution at missile speed, and the party leave Britain to an uncertain future, knowing civilised Africa has just entered an arms race against the Americas.
The Long Way Back is an essential part of any post-war British sf library. So find a copy and read it - you won't regret it.
The novel follows the adventures of Grame, Valya and Hep, sent from the civilised and atomic continent of Africa on a doomed expedition to find out why Europe, and specifically Britain, sank into barbarism so many years before. Yes, it's set in the far future, but not our future - the Britain it describes reads like a distant descendent of Airstrip One, an impression gained mostly through the novel's relentless anti-nuclear theme (of course, it's a book of its time), the quality of its paper and the austerity of its prose.
The party arrive in Britain to a relentless assault from savage inhabitants, wild-life, even trees and flowers; throughout the text they are harried by almost everything and everyone they encounter. The natives have sunk into an almost wilful ignorance, one typical of so many post-apocalypse novels. Their skills are primitive, but remain skills; their beliefs are absurd, but remain beliefs; their Gods are cruel and remain cruel. The party make a connection with only one native, Brown, to whom they teach reading, writing, geometry, house-building; but when the other natives turn against them and tear the house down, Brown is also cast out, so his knowledge is lost.
Brown leads them on through the text, towards a mysterious city and through a forest which aches and scratches at their presence. Bennett establishes notions of 'city' and 'forest' that are well ahead of their time; Her city, when it is revealed, is a landscape glazed to the horizon, but not with steel and glass. Her forest is getting to be our forest, and makes an interesting and rather apt comparison with Caryl Churchill's dystopian nature in 'Far Away' -
The dogs are savage beasts. The little birds suck our blood. The flies are half the size of birds. The bats have changed into butterflies or the butterflies into bats, just as you please. The cats are no bigger than mice and birds eat them. The mice have probably changed into lions. Why should you expect the bacteria to be tame and die at the touch of our drops? They probably eat steel.
It's a future of alliances and coalitions - even nature has evolved artificial biological constructs as a defence against man's destructive powers, just as the natives use superstition to ward off ignorance. It's reverse evolution at missile speed, and the party leave Britain to an uncertain future, knowing civilised Africa has just entered an arms race against the Americas.
The Long Way Back is an essential part of any post-war British sf library. So find a copy and read it - you won't regret it.
