I thought Gene Wolfe had died. For a moment, when I saw the cover: his face, and the word “Memorare,” which my mind first read as “In Memoriam.” Happily, the event was just the publication of a new novella.
March Wildspring is a documentary filmmaker whose project takes him to Jupiter, where he investigates memorials and crypts constructed within hollowed-out asteroids, some of which are deathtraps where unwary tourists join the deceased’s entourage through eternity.
In a future where people go RVing through the Solar System it may not be surprising that a television celebrity’s most conservative outfit consists of lingerie. Or that when she catches up with March, who persists in asking her to marry him, she brings his ex-wife with her. Or that the ex-wife’s new husband, a classic wife-beater, shows up soon after.
This trashy trailer-park-style reunion would do for a sit-com, but Wolfe’s characters are always worth caring about, and if the situation weren’t enough for character development, we also get to explore March Wildspring as he and his companions enter a memorial planetoid that demonstrates just how small a distance can separate heaven and hell.
I’m afraid I’m making it sound stupid. It being Wolfe, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Michael Swanwick offers an interpretation, but I’m not sure I buy it, at least not so literally. In any case it’s a great story, which–typical Wolfe–operates on multiple levels. It inspired me to finally read The Book of the New Sun, for which I’m doubly grateful.
“Memorare” and several tributes to Wolfe occupy half the April 2007 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Lucius Shepard reviews Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, which he likes less than I do. Like Shepard I’m not sure how fertile the ground is beneath all the mood and splendor, but I’ve felt the same about Andrei Tarkovsky, whose Solaris (1,2) The Fountain reminds me of. That’s good company.
There are also two short stories I like. Donald Mead’s “A Thing Forbidden” examines the nonplussing Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation in the context of the infamous Donner Party. There are a thousand directions he could take this juxtaposition, just about all of them interesting, and what he ends up with, despite the dialogue’s failure to support the time-setting, is a high-quality finishing twist.
I was delighted with David D. Levine’s “Titanium Mike Saves the Day,” a reverse tour through the evolution of a space age tall tale. I’m a sucker for folktales generally, and this gave the final frontier a bit of frontier culture I haven’t seen elsewhere, with the same kernel of goodness that gives any legend permanence.
