Empire Star
Encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Empire Star (disambiguation)Empire Star (disambiguation)Empire Star is the name of*Empire Star, a 1966 book by Samuel R. Delany*BSA Empire Star, a motorbike*MV Empire Star, a ship...
Empire Star is a 1966 science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Samuel R. Delany
Samuel R. Delany
Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., also known as "Chip" is an American author, professor and literary critic. His work includes a number of novels, many in the science fiction genre, as well as memoir, criticism, and essays on sexuality and society.His science fiction novels include Babel-17, The Einstein...
. It is often published together with another book, most frequently (three times) with The Ballad of Beta-2
The Ballad of Beta-2
The Ballad of Beta-2 is a 1965 science fiction novel by Samuel R. DelanyThe book was originally published as Ace Double M-121, together with Alpha Yes, Terra No! by Emil Petaja...
. Delany hoped to have it first published as part of an Ace Double
Ace Books
Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
with Babel-17
Babel-17
Babel-17 is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany in which the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis plays an important part...
, but instead it was published with Tree Lord of Imeten by Tom Purdom
Tom Purdom
Thomas Edward Purdom is a US writer best known for science fiction and nonfiction. His story Fossil Game was a nominee for the Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 2000. He has also done music criticism since 1988. His works have been translated into German, Chinese, Burmese, Russian, and Czech...
. It was finally bundled with Babel-17 in a 2001 reprint.
The story revolves around the protagonist, Comet Jo, and a narrator
Narrator
A narrator is, within any story , the fictional or non-fictional, personal or impersonal entity who tells the story to the audience. When the narrator is also a character within the story, he or she is sometimes known as the viewpoint character. The narrator is one of three entities responsible for...
named Jewel. Nominally a tale of Comet Jo’s coming-of-age, his education into galactic society (and as such can be considered a mini-Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
), his efforts to deliver an important message to Empire Star, and the attempt to bring an end to slavery, the story has several layered loops of events which run back upon themselves—and the concepts, layering, and ordering of the events are as important as the story itself.
Plot summary
As the narrative opens, we meet Comet Jo at eighteen years of age. He has spent his entire life in a "simplex" society on Rhys, a satellite of a JovianGas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
planet orbiting Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti
Tau Ceti is a star in the constellation Cetus that is spectrally similar to the Sun, although it has only about 78% of the Sun's mass. At a distance of just under 12 light-years from the Solar System, it is a relatively close star. Tau Ceti is metal-deficient and so is thought to be less likely to...
. (At first the reader assumes that "simplex" is a synonym for "simple," but after Jo's encounter with the "Geodessic Survey Station," Jo and the reader both realize that even "simplex" has some "complex" and even "multiplex" aspects to it.) Jo comes upon the wreckage of a spacecraft and encounters two survivors. The first is quickly dying and asks Jo to bring an important message to Empire Star moments before passing away. The other is a lifeform known as Jewel. Jewel is a tritovian in crystallized form, and in that state can easily view situations from several points of view, thus enabling narration from the point of view
Point of view (literature)
The narrative mode is the set of methods the author of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical story uses to convey the plot to the audience. Narration, the process of presenting the narrative, occurs because of the narrative mode...
of the omniscient observer.
Jo quickly leaves Rhys in an attempt to deliver the message to Empire Star, and on his journey he meets several other characters along with a race of creatures known as the Lll. The Lll are incredible builders—not merely of structures, but of ecosystems, societies, and ethical systems. As such, they have been enslaved. However, in order to protect the Lll, the Empire has created a phenomenon known as “the sadness of the Lll”—any being who owns the Lll suffers from a constant, overpowering sadness. This sadness increases geometrically with each Lll owned and with how much each Lll builds, so it is only possible to own a few Lll at a time. Indeed, just being in the presence of the Lll is a heartbreaking experience for even non-owners, a lesson that Jo learns early in his travels.
The story then follows Jo over the next few months. Once he reaches a certain point in his maturity, knowledge, and ability to perceive events around him, the linear narrative stops and the reader is left with a few pages of important events not arranged in a strict order; by this point, the reader may have learned enough to sort out the tangle.
Along the way, several questions are raised, either explicitly or implicitly. What is the message that Comet Jo must deliver? Who is coming to free the Lll? Will the Lll ever actually be freed? Is the story a closed loop, or is there indeed an end (or at least a point at which events move on past the ones mentioned in the story)? Who, exactly, entered the Empire Star? How many of the events of the story are arranged by those people?
Characters in "Empire Star"
- Comet Jo: Eighteen years old, the product of a simplex culture.
- Jewel: A tritovian (presumably a non-human life form) who spends most of the story in a passive, crystallized form. Jewel is also the narrator of the tale.
- Charona: The guardian of the gate to the spaceport, Charona and her pet 3-Dog are quite obviously a mythological reference to Charon and Cerberus. Charona is the first person in Empire Star to tell Jo about the concept of simplex/complex/multiplex.
- San Severina: Owner of seven Lll—far more than any being has ever owned before—who must rebuild eight worlds (along with fifty-two civilizations and thirty-two thousand three hundred and fifty-seven complete and distinct ethical systems) ravaged by war. San Severina is Jo's first tutor in the ways of galactic society. She helps Jo to move past his simplex upbringing and sets him on the path to becoming a multiplex being.
- Oscar/The Lump: Short for Linguistic Ubiquitous Multiplex, Lump is an artificial lifeform with a Lll-based consciousness and is Comet Jo's companion for much of the text. Towards the end of the story we learn that the Lll whose consciousness Lump is based on is none other than Muels Aranlyde. ("Muels Aranlyde" is an anagram of "Samuel R. Delany".) The LUMp said his use of "Oscar" was a literary allusion and since the person he originally claimed to be waiting for was Alfred Douglas, he is alluding to Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Douglas's friend and lover. - Ni Ty Lee: A young poet who seems to have experienced all that Jo, or anyone else for that matter, has experienced.
- The Princess: Stowaway on a military vessel headed for Empire Star. She is two years younger than Jo when they first meet, but she turns out to be a young San Severina.
Major themes
Empire Star shares themes and certain imagery with many of Delany’s other works – perception being the prime theme of this novella. While his Fall of the Towers trilogy (Captives of the FlameCaptives of the Flame
Captives of the Flame is a 1963 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany, and is the first novel in the "Fall of the Towers" trilogy. The novel was originally published as Ace Double F-199 together with The Psionic Menace by Keith Woodcott...
[Out of the Dead City, Delany's original and preferred title], The Towers of Toron
The Towers of Toron
The Towers of Toron is a 1964 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany, and is the second novel in the "Fall of the Towers" trilogy.. The novel was originally published as Ace Double F-261, together with The Lunar Eye by Robert Moore Williams...
, and City of a Thousand Suns
City of a Thousand Suns
City of a Thousand Suns is a 1965 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany, and is the final novel in the Fall of the Towers trilogy....
) brought perception into play, Empire Star embraces it as central to the work in the concept of simplex/complex/multiplex: three different ways for an individual to perceive and order events. In following Comet Jo’s experiences over the course of a few months, what the reader perceives to be the order of events is not necessarily the order that would be perceived by other characters or entities, depending on their frame of reference and whether they view things "simplexually," "complexually," or "multiplexually." In our frame of reference, consequences of events sometimes impinge on the characters before the actual events seem to have occurred. Conversely, events are mentioned as having occurred, while the actual results of those events do not seem to effect characters who are chronologically older than they were at the time the events happened. Similarly, characters are introduced and then later appear as younger versions of themselves.
Towards the end of the story we learn that Empire Star itself is a small region in space-time that is under such incredible stress that it is likely one will exit at a vastly different time and place in relation to the point of entry. While not time travel in the classical sense, visitors to Empire Star become subject to time paradoxes. The tale we read in Empire Star is but one arc in the many loops that we can only infer must make up the entire story.
Mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
, another theme that finds its way into much of Delany's work, plays a small part here, as well. There is also a strong literary theme. One character is a writer, another is a poet, and there are many literary allusions (some explicitly mentioned) scattered throughout the novella. In much the way Alfred Bester's
Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books...
Stars My Destination (1957) is based on Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, père
Alexandre Dumas, , born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
's The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...
, Delany's Empire Star is based on Stendhal's
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
The Charterhouse of Parma
The Charterhouse of Parma
The Charterhouse of Parma is a novel published in 1839 by Stendhal.-Plot summary:The Charterhouse of Parma tells the story of the young Italian nobleman Fabrice del Dongo and his adventures from his birth in 1798 to his death...
(1839). Stendhal's novel tells of the political and social education of the naive young Italian Fabrice del Dongo by the Duchess Sanseverina and Count Mosca over a number of years. Delany has taken from Standhal's famous work the name Sanseverina (and "Oscar" is a slant rhyme for "Mosca") as well as the basic bildungsroman structure for his novella.
Empire Star also contains images and characteristics that Delany uses in several other works, notably in regards to Comet Jo. His brass claws can easily be seen as precursors to the "orchids" worn by the Scorpions in Dhalgren
Dhalgren
Dhalgren is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. The story begins with a cryptic passage:to wound the autumnal city.So howled out for the world to give him a name.The in-dark answered with wind....
and, like characters throughout Delany's work, it is mentioned (though very much in passing) that Jo bites his fingernails on his non-clawed hand. Additionally, like blind Dan from Nova
Nova (novel)
Nova is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. Nominally space opera, it explores the politics and culture of a future where cyborg technology is universal, yet major decisions can involve using tarot cards. It has strong mythological overtones, relating to both the Grail Quest and Jason's...
, the shuttle bums of Empire Star are described as wearing pants held on with rope belts.
Empire Star is considered to be an important precursor to later Delany works. The apparent circular/cyclic nature of the text is a concept further explored in Dhalgren
Dhalgren
Dhalgren is a science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany. The story begins with a cryptic passage:to wound the autumnal city.So howled out for the world to give him a name.The in-dark answered with wind....
and —in a very different way— the Return to Nevèrÿon
Return to Nevèrÿon (series)
Return to Nevèrÿon is a series of eleven “sword and sorcery” stories by Samuel R. Delany, originally published in four volumes during the years 1979-1987...
series. Additionally, upon reading Babel-17
Babel-17
Babel-17 is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Samuel R. Delany in which the Sapir–Whorf Hypothesis plays an important part...
, it is learned that Empire Star was supposedly written by a deceased husband of Rydra Wong, the protagonist of that novel. The husband's name is Muels Aranlyde. It is stated that he always writes himself as a character in his books, but typically not as a human. More often than not he is a computer—as in Empire Star. While spread over two books, it was always Delany's intention to have Empire Star published as a double novel with Babel-17. This, therefore, is a forerunner to the "text-within-a-text" style found in later works such as Dhalgren and Phallos
Phallos (novella)
Phallos is a short novel — or novella — by Samuel R. Delany, published by Bamberger Books.Phallos takes the form of a modern online essay recounting the history and giving a synopsis of a nonexistent novel also called Phallos, set in the Mediterranean during the reign of the Emperor...
. In fact, the link to Phallos is even stronger: In Delany's 2007 novel Dark Reflections
Dark Reflections
Dark Reflections is a novel by Samuel R. Delany, published in 2007 by Carroll & Graf, an imprint of Avalon Publishing Group. In 2008 it received a Stonewall Book Award and was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men's Fiction.-Plot:...
, the careful reader learns that Arnold Hawley —the main protagonist of Dark Reflections— was actually the anonymous author of Phallos (the fictional novel discussed and quoted inside Delany's novel of the same name).