A swashbuckling classic of elevated pulp, steeped in Einstein’s physics and the historical theories of Arnold J. Toynbee.
Born in Texas, Charles L. Harness (1915 - 2005) had an unusual, stop-start career in science fiction. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s he published just one novel per decade while also working as a patent lawyer. He is described by the science fiction encyclopedia (SFE) as a victim of “relative neglect”, and his work was quite unrecognised until towards the end of his life. However, Harness’ first novel The Paradox Men has earned some degree of fame, often due to its fond reception in the UK. It was praised in an introduction by Brian Aldiss, and it is included in David Pringle’s landmark book Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels. There, it is memorably described as “one of the shlock classics of US magazine SF”. The Paradox Men is a dizzyingly fast-moving example of elevated pulp, called “shamelessly melodramatic” by the SFE and packed full of outrageous ideas, outlandish plot devices, and swordfights in outer space.
Harness’ SF career began with stories published in Astounding and Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1948. In May of 1949, Startling Stories published his first (short) novel-length work under the title Flight Into Yesterday. It was republished in book form under the same title in 1953, but when editor Donald A. Wollheim picked it up to form half of an Ace Double in 1955, he had the title changed - to The Paradox Men. It is this title that stuck.
The story is set in the 2270s. By this time, the old governments have fallen away and the world is split into competing power blocs. One of these, America Imperial, is a dynastic empire that encompasses all of North, Central, and South America. It is a cruel police state in which slavery has been reintroduced, operating alongside fanciful advanced technology. Notably, specialised platforms called solarions operate around the sun, harvesting a new element and power source named muirium. The new element is named for Kennicot Muir, who turned against the Imperial regime and founded the Society of Thieves. This secret organisation uses elaborate heists to secure the freedom of slaves, and plots to overthrow the whole system. They have specialised energy shields, which provide protection from firearms - this has encouraged the development of a culture of duelling with swords. This idea was of course lifted by Frank Herbert, for his ponderous later novel Dune (1965). The protagonist is Alar, a talented Thief with a mysterious background. He suffers from amnesia, and was found wandering near a spacecraft that crashed into the Ohio River five years before the novel begins. Early on, Harness sets up a series of related mysteries: about Alar’s past, the identity of the scarred and super-intelligent “Microfilm Mind”, the origin of a strange pet possessed by a key villain, the whereabouts of Muir, and what will become of an upcoming space mission. Harness develops these puzzles intriguingly, right up to the finale.
The hectic pace, often dubious science, and thin characters of The Paradox Men reflect its pulp origins but it transcends these humble beginnings. Harness imbues his story with real forward momentum - no idea is lingered on for too long and new revelations are always just around the corner.
The novel also traffics in some intriguing ideas drawn from diverse disciplines. A faction within the story are strongly influenced by cyclical theories of history proposed by the British historian Arnold J. Toynbee. His work was also influential on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, which is much better known but far clunkier and more dated than Harness’ energetic tale. The other principal influence on the novel’s plot is Harness’ understanding of Einsteinian physics. This helps the author give a veneer of credibility to inadvertent time travel on which the explanations ultimately depend. A key plot point relates to the possibility that if faster than light travel was used to reach the edge of a finite universe, the traveller could loop back on themselves. Perhaps surprisingly for a novel that is 75 years old, some of Harness’ speculations chime with certain ongoing theoretical work on the topology of the universe.
The Paradox Men combines influences from Einstein, Toynbee, and the Canadian SF writer A.E. van Vogt (1912 - 2000) into a perhaps surprisingly compelling whole. Its clever conclusion retroactively changes our understanding of the story’s earlier phases, and is one of the aspects that shows that Harness could write pulp on a higher level. Aldiss memorably described the style as “widescreen baroque”, an approach the SFE describes as “apt to leave the susceptible reader alternating between gasps of amazement and gasps of disbelief.” It is a fair description of The Paradox Men.
Harness would not publish another novel until The Ring of Ritornel in 1968. By then, his style is generally felt to have become dated and he continued to publish only intermittently. But with The Paradox Men, Harness presented a unique view and secured for himself a special position in the history of fast-paced, pulp SF.
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Weekly blog exploring classic science fiction, with a focus on the 1950s to the 1990s. |