Time Is the Simplest Thing

What starts off as an intriguing novel about encountering an ineffable alien intelligence ("the Pinkness") soon degenerates into an ode to paranormal humans that attempts a naive examination of bigotry.

There was, in the sixties, an over-earnest interest in the paranormal (ESP, telekinesis, etc) among sci-fi writers. Normally, when paranormal abilities are part of a narrative, they are a simple fact: this person can do X, that person can do Y, nobody can explain it (hence it is para-normal) but that's the way it is. In novels such as this, however, paranormal abilities are presented as the next step in human evolution, and the people with paranormal powers in general are endowed as well with traits such as intelligence, compassion, and show more tolerance that are considered characteristic of homo enlighticus and absent from its predecessor, homo hillbillicus.

This is compounded in Simak's novel by the rather crude caricature of people who aren't paranormal. There is no subtlelty here: your typical bigot will be loud, unreasonable, cowardly, smelly, unable to stand upright or to project competence and honesty. That can work fine in, say, a fairy tale, where you do not want to explain to a child that well, the world is complicated, and that witch has a mortgage to pay and her daughter has been kidnapped for sexual slavery so maybe, you know, maybe those two kids are holding a match to a powder keg when they start eating her house. If what you want is a fairy tale, then okay, this is a fine one; as a novel, well, it's a bit lop-sided. show less

When space flight proved impossible for humans, they discovered a new way to travel to the stars. By projecting their minds and teleporting their equipment the psychic explorers of Fishhook have been bring back alien ideas, technology and trade goods back from alien worlds and beings for a century. Fishhook headquarters in northern Mexico have become the center of interstellar trade. Shepherd Blaine was one of those explorers until the final seconds of his last voyage right up to the time he encountered a twelve foot high, twenty foot wide telepathic pink creature that greeted him, “Hi pal, I trade with you my mind.”

How do you deal with the being that doesn’t think like you is the theme of Simak’s 1961 tale. It’s not just the show more alien mind that Shep Blaine now shares, it’s the way the rest of the world deals with “parries,” humans with paranormal abilities. In northern Mexico they’re the elite, and Fishhook plans to keep it that way, but north of the border in the United States they’re a feared and persecuted minority. Preachers preach against them, and people stay at home after dark and cover their houses with hex signs out of fears of them. Shep Blaine narrowly escapes being lynched by a mob after he crosses the border. Ironically, it’s the alien part of his mind that both gives him away and saves him. Simak’s theme is the folly of narrow-minded bigotry told as a very enjoyable science fiction tale that speaks to the time of its composition and to the present day. show less

Overall, this is a good novel. Readers expecting any pulpy alien-adventure will be disappointed. This one looks at humanity’s fear of the Other, the use and misuse of technology, the fear that ignorance breeds, the juxtaposition of persecutor and persecuted, and the control-factor of corporations/capital. The main character is fairly likeable, if a bit robotic. Readers who love vintage science fiction and who would like to read good 1960s offerings will enjoy this one.

Not my favorite Simak. Hotbeds of activity are over the border in Mexico, and then Pierre, South Dakota, really? And what does the man have against contractions (like won't instead of will not)? Still, interesting ideas, terrific exploration of human nature in regards to things we don't understand and to which we develop a fear.

"For it was authority that made men suspicious and stern-faced. Authority and responsibility which made them not themselves, but a sort of corporate body rather than a person."

Give me Simak over Heinlein any day.

Simak, Clifford D. Time Is the Simplest Thing. 1961. Open Road, 2015.
It is a pity that Clifford D. Simak never became as famous as Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, or Isaac Asimov. Yes, he was the third SFWA grandmaster, and his 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing was nominated for a Hugo Award, but it never became a cultural icon like Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, published the same year. Simak kept his day job as a Minnesota journalist and imbued his stories with a sense of American communities and landscape that resembles Bradbury at his best. Simak also gives Time Is the Simplest Thing a science news hook that would be right at home in a story by Asimov. The newly discovered Van Allen radiation belt is a harbinger of show more dangers inherent in space flight. The failure of crewed space flight spurs research in out-of-body travel and other paranormal abilities. We begin to explore extraterrestrial life with mental powers augmented by machines. Our hero, Shepherd Blaine, comes home from one such mission with an alien consciousness resident in his mind. His discovery makes him a dangerous outcast and sends him on an odyssey through the nation’s paranormal hinterlands. show less

I will always give Simak novels a try but this one annoyed me. It took ideas that could be used in three or more novels and threw them together. Spoiler alert!

1. Telepathic space exploration with the danger of meeting superior alien minds that can take you over and make you a danger to mankind or superman. Great idea and well done beginning of book. This could have won a Hugo but it de-solved into another novel.

2. In future world some people have become super psychic. Some can project their minds. Others can read minds. Others can levitate objects or themselves and fly. the rest of America has become afraid that all of the Halloween characters are now real and try to kill the super brains.

3. Giant corporation controls it's employees show more and hunts them down if they escape. Harmless individuals on the run with secrets. Kill or be killed.

Every one of these could have made a good novel. Instead he mashed them all together and never resolved any of them. No real ending. Maybe he needed another book and he used some unfinished ideas. show less

Shepherd Blaine telepathically travels to other planets, working for a corporation called Fishhook. Fishhook has a monopoly on this means of travel, and thereby a monopoly on all the goods and information brought back to Earth. The general public fears and distrusts Fishhook, but still buys their products, and resents the hell out of the whole thing. Other paranormals, or "parries" not working for (and protected by) Fishhook are hunted and killed like witches in the 16th century. When Blaine encounters an alien consciousness and melds with it, he is forced to leave Fishhook and go on the run. Encountering parry hunters, reformers, and always one step ahead of Fishhook agents, he grapples with this new alien side of himself and what his show more new purpose is in life.
Interestingly, the only other book by Simak I have read featured folks who telepathically traveled to the stars as well. I wonder if this is a common theme with him. Also similarly to that other book [A Choice of Gods], this novel is short on action and long on philosophical musings. The action parts are quite suspenseful and well written, which makes me wish there were more of them. The philosophy is thought-provoking, but largely moot, and relates only to this fictional society. It points out some interesting things about religion, fear, and the power of backlash, but ultimately, irrelevant.
I also have a bone to pick with the cover. I don't think the illustrator even read the book because it contained no scene remotely like the man on a barren planet with a space suit, facing down a spherical alien craft. No one even bodily traveled to another world, or encountered any aliens in battle. It's terribly misleading.
I don't mean to be overly critical, because I very much enjoyed reading it. I would recommend this more for people who like to muse about the great 'what ifs' and not for those who like a tight, action-packed space opera (which is what the cover implies). show less