The Vance Integral Edition: What Is It?

Some time ago, I, Pulsifer, ran into an old acquaintance from the days before I was forcibly thrown out of SF fandom. We found that neither one of us had any connection with that business anymore.

But I admitted to having kept an eye on the recently emerged international Vance network, arguably the culmination of military experiments with hooking up computers starting in the 1960s. Did my friend know that a rather large group of Vance fans world-wide had cooperated on producing a standard edition of the author’s work, in 44 volumes? No, he did not, but he thought it sounded like a splendid initiative. Did he know that although the original intention had been to create an affordable set of books, it had eventually been decided to utilize costly, luxurious materials that put the price of the work beyond what most of the original volunteers in the project could afford? No, he was unaware of this. Did he know that it was at some point concluded that no existing typeface was suitable for conveying Vance’s prose, and that hence a new one had to be designed, by people who had no training in typography? No, this was not known to him, and furthermore he did not particularly want to hear any more about it. “But the illustrations! You must let me tell you about the illustrations!” I shouted at his retreating back.

I think that, like my long-lost friend, we can all agree that the original Vance Integral Edition (henceforth, VIE) concept was a glorious one. And imagine the delight Vance himself must have felt on learning of these plans! Although in his infrequent interviews he always likes to suggest that he is indifferent to the world and its opinion of him, it is equally clear, if you can read between the lines, that he feels he has been somewhat underappreciated. What a welcome vindication, in his old age, to get to see a handsome, complete edition of his works, produced by his many admirers!

Well, not literally see, of course. For Jack Vance is blind since many years. And herein, I think, lies one key to what eventually transpired. Feast your eyes on the finished product:



No group of twelve-year-olds attempting to implement their idea of what books looked like in the 19th century could have done a better design job. In this form, the “Reader’s Edition,” it cost a paltry $1,500 or so. The subscriptions had been paid for, naturally, long before the design decisions were made and publicized. Disappointed customers who finally studied the details of the agreement they had signed with the VIE organization found that, technically, they had not actually bought a set of books that could be returned for a refund---they had instead made donations to a non-profit corporation.

Watch for our upcoming, more comprehensive, history of the VIE, which will differ markedly, at least in its focus, from, e.g., the one found here.

Jack Vance Saved My Life, Possibly: A Personal Reminiscence

As today is Jack Vance’s 90th birthday, I, Pulsifer, thought I should share with you the memory of our one and only meeting. It was many decades ago; I was a young teenager and Vance was a guest of honor at an SF convention. At this point I had read not a single word of his work. But I had seen it stated somewhere that he admitted to being influenced by Clark Ashton Smith. (This influence, which to me is obvious, today is often down-played or not mentioned at all, and Vance himself now seems not to remember having been influenced by any other authors at all.)

Since I was very enthusiastic about Smith, but normally had nobody to talk to about it, I seized the opportunity. I followed him around for several days, babbling about Smith, to the extent that few other people ever had a chance to speak with him. I followed him into the bathroom, babbling about Smith. But I believe that, horrible little pest that I undoubtedly was, Vance was nevertheless actually happy not to have to talk about his own writing.

At one point, we were inadvertently locked inside the broom closet or something that I had followed him into (I will admit that by now he may have been desperate to escape me). But Vance forced the door open with a pocket-knife. Thanks, Jack (if I may), and Happy Birthday! We could easily have ended up starving to death in there.

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.

Introduction

This is the beginning of an attempt to record important events in that most exclusive of circles: Jack Vance fandom. Since it is often difficult for the novice to disentangle the complex web of relationships and motivations that ultimately underlie what is observed publicly, we hope to provide explanatory commentary that makes everything easy to understand.