2-16-26
‘The Pastel City’ by M. John Harrison
I picked up the first novel of John Harrison’s Viroconium Sequence to put off finishing the last novel of his Kefahuchi Tract Discontinuity trilogy, the latter of which just may be the best series of fiction books I’ve ever read. The first book of the Kefahuchi series was my introduction to the author two years ago and it breathed new life into my love for science-fiction. Light inspired me to change how I thought about and approached science fiction writing. Harrison made me realize that it was possible to both distance a story from the high-science-fiction I usually gravitate towards and ground it in reality, while also leaning into the high-science of a world when needed, avoiding the impulse to constantly simplify the more complex (or convoluted) aspects of a story and instead trusting in the audience to be intelligent enough to follow the story regardless.
I thought The Pastel City was a good story, but his later series of novels - the final novel in the trilogy being published after he had already spent nearly fifty years on his craft - were so intimidatingly well-written and effortlessly read that the bar I had for Harrison’s writing was set unfairly high.
I have always rejected the idea that science-fiction, fantasy, action, adventure, etc. were mutually exclusive genres from great or classic literature; that all great stories, no matter how violent or how many action or chase sequences were involved, were doubtlessly only great because they were wrapped in a blanket of inspired prose. This preconception, for most people and for the most part, comes from soulless cash-grab action movies; but some of the blame is owed to pulp fiction authors, who too often can come up with a brilliant plotline and an imaginative setting for it to take place in, yet the prose that connects one plot-device to the next will come out stunted in comparison to how inspired the story is or the depth of the setting.
To my mind, out of all authors of the pulp-derived genres, John Harrison’s stories exemplify just how brilliant an idea for a genre-fiction can be without resting on the laurels of the plot and successfully delivering the idea without sacrificing prose.
The Pastel City was his second book, and it was published the same year he published his first book. The book and the series of stories are doubtlessly inspired, and populated with inventive peoples and landscapes, well-detailed vistas that are easily pictured in the reader’s mind - but so much of the dialogue seemed unnecessary and at times even grating. Harrison’s sophomore effort just lacked the cohesion to actually bridge the gap between.
What I discovered upon reflection was that, even in the gap of caliber between his first and his last books, The Pastel City had still inspired me, just not necessarily by the virtue of his gift for his craft as his other books had for me. In fact, the gap itself inspired me; that, if one of my favorite authors, one of the most original voices in genre-fiction can grow in his craft in such a way that even I notice it, then there is plenty of time for me to do the same. To put it succinctly, it humanized someone who I unquestioningly considered to be of another caliber of person past human.
As I finalize the draft for the last few chapters of my first high-genre-fiction, encyclopedic novel, I’ve become increasingly critical of my own work, I’ve been second guessing additions and whether or not I am even qualified to know what to add or cut from a story to make it believable, or appropriately paced. But, when I thought about it, and consented to the idea that I wasn’t good at writing, then remembered that I have (hopefully) fifty more years to draft and hone my craft - fifty years to create my own brilliantly layered and believed story. Whether or not any of my stories get published is ultimately of less importance than refining my own writing processes and hitting new personal goals therein.