The Vance Fan
It has been observed that Vance fans, at least the ones that make themselves heard, are often remarkably like characters in a story by Vance. Specifically, minor villains in a story by Vance.
Jack Vance is a satirist who specializes in portraying human folly and pointless ritual. His non-hero characters are pompous, self-important fools who express themselves in stilted circumlution.
One might therefore think that the typical Vance enthusiast would be somebody who, like the author himself, has a somewhat skeptical view of the darker side of social convention and intercourse. But the reality is quite the reverse. The Vance fan delights in taking the ridiculous style of discourse of Vance’s petty inn-keepers and bureaucrats as the model for his own pronouncements. Is the intent, nevertheless, perhaps, as in Vance, to make fun of empty pretentiousness? Surely not when it goes on for hundreds of pages, as in the newsletter Cosmopolis of the Vance Integral Edition organization. (Well, it was the newsletter of the VIE; today the VIE appears not to want to be associated with it anymore. We shall have occasion to discuss this further in our planned essay on the history of the VIE, which hopefully will make things clearer.)
The description of societies locked into bizarre and dysfunctional customs, in particular as regards social status, is a recurring feature of Vance’s fiction. It is clear that the author means to provide us with a mirror of the less palatable aspects of the society we ourselves live in. But the Vance fan is just as likely to interpret these constructions as utopian recipes for social organization. Recently, a member of the Jack Vance Message Board proposed that a caste system, modeled on that in Vance's novel To Live Forever, be introduced on the board.
Jack Vance is a satirist who specializes in portraying human folly and pointless ritual. His non-hero characters are pompous, self-important fools who express themselves in stilted circumlution.
One might therefore think that the typical Vance enthusiast would be somebody who, like the author himself, has a somewhat skeptical view of the darker side of social convention and intercourse. But the reality is quite the reverse. The Vance fan delights in taking the ridiculous style of discourse of Vance’s petty inn-keepers and bureaucrats as the model for his own pronouncements. Is the intent, nevertheless, perhaps, as in Vance, to make fun of empty pretentiousness? Surely not when it goes on for hundreds of pages, as in the newsletter Cosmopolis of the Vance Integral Edition organization. (Well, it was the newsletter of the VIE; today the VIE appears not to want to be associated with it anymore. We shall have occasion to discuss this further in our planned essay on the history of the VIE, which hopefully will make things clearer.)
The description of societies locked into bizarre and dysfunctional customs, in particular as regards social status, is a recurring feature of Vance’s fiction. It is clear that the author means to provide us with a mirror of the less palatable aspects of the society we ourselves live in. But the Vance fan is just as likely to interpret these constructions as utopian recipes for social organization. Recently, a member of the Jack Vance Message Board proposed that a caste system, modeled on that in Vance's novel To Live Forever, be introduced on the board.
posted by Pulsifer | 9:49 AM
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