Aldiss: Benkoelen
Jul. 3rd, 2011 03:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blatherskiteBenkoelen is a small, rocky island off the coast of Sumatra, increasingly difficult to reach due to the rising sea levels and intense waves created by global warming. We meet the island through the arrival of Coyne, son of western and Asian parents, who has arrived bearing a message for his sister, who runs a sanctuary for endangered great apes (chimps and orangutans) on the island: Coyne’s former lover, who owns the island and has funded the sanctuary, is withdrawing her funding and will close down the sanctuary.
Unfortunately, that’s all there is to “Benkoelen”: this is a vignette, and a shallow one at that, not a story. We learn little of the characters, they do not change in any significant way during the course of the story, and there is no conflict that is initiated or resolved. The result reads like a good first draft of what will eventually become a chapter in a novel or section midway through a novella. The theme of this anthology (global warming) is entirely irrelevant to the story, since the tale would not need to change in any significant way if Aldiss removed all mention of global warming.
Aldiss is a pro, so he does some things well despite the aforementioned drawbacks. Coyne, for instance, emerges in the space of a few short pages as a self-involved and mercenary character who is entirely heedless of others (after a clumsy attempt at comfort, he entirely dismisses his sister’s pain over the death of one of her beloved orangs). He seems misanthropic and pessimistic about humanity’s chances, and there are hints of a certain sense of British “stiff upper lip” combined with the decadence of an extremely rich society fiddling while Rome burns. But the dialogue struck me as clumsy and the descriptions perfunctory. On the whole, “Benkoelen” is a disappointing choice for inclusion in this volume and a particularly disappointing choice for lead position, where an uninspired tale like this one might scare away potential readers. Aldiss can do much better, and should have. Fortunately, the next story is a great improvement.
Unfortunately, that’s all there is to “Benkoelen”: this is a vignette, and a shallow one at that, not a story. We learn little of the characters, they do not change in any significant way during the course of the story, and there is no conflict that is initiated or resolved. The result reads like a good first draft of what will eventually become a chapter in a novel or section midway through a novella. The theme of this anthology (global warming) is entirely irrelevant to the story, since the tale would not need to change in any significant way if Aldiss removed all mention of global warming.
Aldiss is a pro, so he does some things well despite the aforementioned drawbacks. Coyne, for instance, emerges in the space of a few short pages as a self-involved and mercenary character who is entirely heedless of others (after a clumsy attempt at comfort, he entirely dismisses his sister’s pain over the death of one of her beloved orangs). He seems misanthropic and pessimistic about humanity’s chances, and there are hints of a certain sense of British “stiff upper lip” combined with the decadence of an extremely rich society fiddling while Rome burns. But the dialogue struck me as clumsy and the descriptions perfunctory. On the whole, “Benkoelen” is a disappointing choice for inclusion in this volume and a particularly disappointing choice for lead position, where an uninspired tale like this one might scare away potential readers. Aldiss can do much better, and should have. Fortunately, the next story is a great improvement.