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Quicksand
"Brunner was a giant of sf, dealing at his best with lived-in futures combining extrapolative exhilaration & the nightmare of future shock. 'Stand on Zanzibar' ('68) with its focus on overpopulation was his recognized blockbuster. It slightly overshadows its companion volumes 'The Jagged Orbit' ('69), 'The Sheep Look Up' ('72)--a scarifying polemic against pollution which ends with the stench of all America burning--& 'The Shockwave Rider' ('75), prophetically mapping problems of information overload, computer viruses, rampant hacking & the net. John Brunner was cursed by sanity & a hatred of superstition & cant combined with wide-ranging erudition. His peace-activism & left-leaning political views were perhaps factors in his sometimes disappointing US sales."--Dave Langford.
"There are two particularly identifiable phases in his writing career. In the 50s & early 60s, he was turning out numerous competent space adventures. In the late 60s & early 70s, he was writing near-future socially-oriented fiction, referred to as dystopias. Many of these books are written under the shadow of the VietNam war."--Dani Zweig.
"The girl walked naked out of nowhere on a winter night & to psychiatrist Paul Fidler it was as if one of his own obsessive visions of disaster took human form, bringing nightmares to life. Tiny, appearing harmless, she had half killed a man who tried to assault her. Piquantly lovely, she belonged to no known racial type. Of high intelligence, she spoke a language no one could be found to understand. Most remarkable of all, commonplace objects like clothing & cars were a mystery to her. They called her "Urchin." Himself haunted by visions of unrealized disaster, irrationally terrified by things he might have done wrong but escaped by chance, threatened by the failure of his marriage & with it his career, Paul sees in her a victim of his own fears made real. Has she truly wandered out of her own familiar world & been cast adrift--the loneliest of all lonely people--in another branch of the universe? Inexorably, as he scrapes at the barriers of secrecy that surround Urchin, he finds his fate becoming linked to hers. His life collapses about him until at last he has nothing left but Urchin herself & the vision she has given him of a world far better than any he has ever known. But does he really have either? Quicksand is a novel of today about a lone man facing a fantastic crisis. It will move you to pity & sadness."
"There are two particularly identifiable phases in his writing career. In the 50s & early 60s, he was turning out numerous competent space adventures. In the late 60s & early 70s, he was writing near-future socially-oriented fiction, referred to as dystopias. Many of these books are written under the shadow of the VietNam war."--Dani Zweig.
"The girl walked naked out of nowhere on a winter night & to psychiatrist Paul Fidler it was as if one of his own obsessive visions of disaster took human form, bringing nightmares to life. Tiny, appearing harmless, she had half killed a man who tried to assault her. Piquantly lovely, she belonged to no known racial type. Of high intelligence, she spoke a language no one could be found to understand. Most remarkable of all, commonplace objects like clothing & cars were a mystery to her. They called her "Urchin." Himself haunted by visions of unrealized disaster, irrationally terrified by things he might have done wrong but escaped by chance, threatened by the failure of his marriage & with it his career, Paul sees in her a victim of his own fears made real. Has she truly wandered out of her own familiar world & been cast adrift--the loneliest of all lonely people--in another branch of the universe? Inexorably, as he scrapes at the barriers of secrecy that surround Urchin, he finds his fate becoming linked to hers. His life collapses about him until at last he has nothing left but Urchin herself & the vision she has given him of a world far better than any he has ever known. But does he really have either? Quicksand is a novel of today about a lone man facing a fantastic crisis. It will move you to pity & sadness."
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1967
1 person is currently reading
116 people want to read
About the author
John Brunner
572 books480 followersJohn Brunner was born in Preston Crowmarsh, near Wallingford in Oxfordshire, and went to school at St Andrew's Prep School, Pangbourne, then to Cheltenham College. He wrote his first novel, Galactic Storm, at 17, and published it under the pen-name Gill Hunt, but he did not start writing full-time until 1958. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force from 1953 to 1955, and married Marjorie Rosamond Sauer on 12 July 1958
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
At the beginning of his writing career Brunner wrote conventional space opera pulp science fiction. Brunner later began to experiment with the novel form. His 1968 novel "Stand on Zanzibar" exploits the fragmented organizational style John Dos Passos invented for his USA trilogy, but updates it in terms of the theory of media popularised by Marshall McLuhan.
"The Jagged Orbit" (1969) is set in a United States dominated by weapons proliferation and interracial violence, and has 100 numbered chapters varying in length from a single syllable to several pages in length. "The Sheep Look Up" (1972) depicts ecological catastrophe in America. Brunner is credited with coining the term "worm" and predicting the emergence of computer viruses in his 1975 novel "The Shockwave Rider", in which he used the term to describe software which reproduces itself across a computer network. Together with "Stand on Zanzibar", these novels have been called the "Club of Rome Quartet", named after the Club of Rome whose 1972 report The Limits to Growth warned of the dire effects of overpopulation.
Brunner's pen names include K. H. Brunner, Gill Hunt, John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Ellis Quick, Henry Crosstrees Jr., and Keith Woodcott.
In addition to his fiction, Brunner wrote poetry and many unpaid articles in a variety of publications, particularly fanzines, but also 13 letters to the New Scientist and an article about the educational relevance of science fiction in Physics Education. Brunner was an active member of the organisation Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and wrote the words to "The H-Bomb's Thunder", which was sung on the Aldermaston Marches.
Brunner had an uneasy relationship with British new wave writers, who often considered him too American in his settings and themes. He attempted to shift to a more mainstream readership in the early 1980s, without success. Before his death, most of his books had fallen out of print. Brunner accused publishers of a conspiracy against him, although he was difficult to deal with (his wife had handled his publishing relations before she died).[2]
Brunner's health began to decline in the 1980s and worsened with the death of his wife in 1986. He remarried, to Li Yi Tan, on 27 September 1991. He died of a heart attack in Glasgow on 25 August 1995, while attending the World Science Fiction Convention there
aka
K H Brunner, Henry Crosstrees Jr, Gill Hunt (with Dennis Hughes and E C Tubb), John Loxmith, Trevor Staines, Keith Woodcott
Winner of the ESFS Awards in 1980 as "Best Author" and 1n 1984 as "Novelist"..
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 24, 2020
2.4⭐
One of those books I'd forgotten I'd read until I read the reviews and book description ( that tells you how memorable it was ). As much a psychological thriller/mystery as scifi, it plods along to a ( partly) predictable conclusion, although the protagonist's implied final action seems uncharacteristically cruel, selfish and inexplicable. Is he saving humanity or taking revenge for his own predicament?
Don't particularly reccomend this one unless you're a Brunner fan/completist.
One of those books I'd forgotten I'd read until I read the reviews and book description ( that tells you how memorable it was ). As much a psychological thriller/mystery as scifi, it plods along to a ( partly) predictable conclusion, although the protagonist's implied final action seems uncharacteristically cruel, selfish and inexplicable. Is he saving humanity or taking revenge for his own predicament?
Don't particularly reccomend this one unless you're a Brunner fan/completist.
June 15, 2011
The majority of the novel reads like a mainstream novel about a troubled psychiatrist trying to unravel the mystery behind a naked girl who was discovered wandering in the woods near a mental hospital. She speaks a language no one understands and doesn't seem to recognize commonplace items such as telephones or automobiles. As the novel progresses, the clues about her origin become more intriguing, even as the psychiatrist's personal life is falling apart. Interesting novel. The last 30 pages or so reads like a completely different novel. It seemed to me that Brunner had a cool idea, wrote up most of the cool idea into this novel, and then didn't know how to end it.
March 1, 2018
aggiornamento vecchio libro letto chissà quando
June 28, 2019
For a while during the late 1960s and early 1970s, John Brunner was a major force in SF, and, along with Brian Aldiss and Michael Moorcock, a leading figure in the British "New Wave." ( although Aldiss and Moorcock would never agree with that statement.) Starting with "The Whole Man" in 1965, Brunner produced a string of important works, including "The Squares of the City" and "The Productions of Time", and culminating in what has been known as his "dystopian quartet" - "Stand on Zanzibar", "The Jagged Orbit", "The Sheep Look Up", and "The Shockwave Rider." He also wrote several non-SF works, the most notable of which was "The Devil's Work."
"Quicksand", was written between "The Squares of the City" and "The Productions of Time", just before Brunner embarked on the experiment that would become his most famous novel, "Stand on Zanzibar." A peculiar hybrid of a mainstream, psychological study of obsession and a mysterious stranger thriller, "Quicksand" is marked by some of Brunner's best writing, subtlest character development, and most astute social observations. Unfortunately, at the time SF publishing in general and Doubleday in particular still insisted on a clearly "ScienceFiction-al" quality in order to market their product. Consequently, Brunner was pressured to make the book more marketable and ultimately had to come up with the somewhat awkward conclusion to the book in order to get it published. Brunner always was bitter about being labeled a "cop-out" who didn't stick to his convictions when in fact the changes in the book were a result of editorial order.
Nonetheless, "Quicksand" is a crucial work in the Brunner canon; it clearly shows him shedding his Ace-Double Space Opera roots and preparing for the major work that was to come.
"Quicksand", was written between "The Squares of the City" and "The Productions of Time", just before Brunner embarked on the experiment that would become his most famous novel, "Stand on Zanzibar." A peculiar hybrid of a mainstream, psychological study of obsession and a mysterious stranger thriller, "Quicksand" is marked by some of Brunner's best writing, subtlest character development, and most astute social observations. Unfortunately, at the time SF publishing in general and Doubleday in particular still insisted on a clearly "ScienceFiction-al" quality in order to market their product. Consequently, Brunner was pressured to make the book more marketable and ultimately had to come up with the somewhat awkward conclusion to the book in order to get it published. Brunner always was bitter about being labeled a "cop-out" who didn't stick to his convictions when in fact the changes in the book were a result of editorial order.
Nonetheless, "Quicksand" is a crucial work in the Brunner canon; it clearly shows him shedding his Ace-Double Space Opera roots and preparing for the major work that was to come.
August 28, 2023
Die Qualität von Brunners Werken schwankt sehr stark. Man kann auch nicht einfach sagen, dass die frühen Bücher Trash sind und er dann besser wurde.
Dieser Roman gehört zu den überdurchschnittlichen. Es ist fokussierter und stringenter als üblich. So richtig begeistern konnte es mich trotzdem nicht.
Im Zentrum steht der Psychologe Paul, der selber psychische Probleme hat (Klischee!). Er ist bei seiner Arbeit an einer Klinik ziemlich gestresst und seine Ehe mit einer hübschen, aber übermässig ehrgeizigen und statusbewussten Frau funktioniert auch nicht. Dann taucht ein Kerl auf, dem eine Frau im Wald einen Arm gebrochen hat. Man findet eine zierliche und nackte junge Frau, die kein Englisch kann, sie spricht eine unbekannte (Phantasie?-)Sprache. Ist sie eine Gefahr für die Öffentlichkeit? Sie wird in die Klinik eingeliefert, wo Paul arbeitet. Er beschäftigt sich mit ihr und verliebt sich schließlich. Und er kommt hinter ihr fantastisches Geheimnis.
Leider gibt es in dem Buch recht schwafelige Passagen. In den ersten 45 Seiten passiert kaum etwas Interessantes. Auch zwischendurch habe ich Abschnitte übersprungen. Das Geheimnis um die junge Frau hielt mich bei der Stange. Und zum Schluss kommt dann noch eine Wendung, die zwar nicht 100% überzeugend war, mich aber doch soweit geflasht hat, dass ich ihm doch einen Punkt mehr geben will, als ich erst beabsichtigt habe.
Dieser Roman gehört zu den überdurchschnittlichen. Es ist fokussierter und stringenter als üblich. So richtig begeistern konnte es mich trotzdem nicht.
Im Zentrum steht der Psychologe Paul, der selber psychische Probleme hat (Klischee!). Er ist bei seiner Arbeit an einer Klinik ziemlich gestresst und seine Ehe mit einer hübschen, aber übermässig ehrgeizigen und statusbewussten Frau funktioniert auch nicht. Dann taucht ein Kerl auf, dem eine Frau im Wald einen Arm gebrochen hat. Man findet eine zierliche und nackte junge Frau, die kein Englisch kann, sie spricht eine unbekannte (Phantasie?-)Sprache. Ist sie eine Gefahr für die Öffentlichkeit? Sie wird in die Klinik eingeliefert, wo Paul arbeitet. Er beschäftigt sich mit ihr und verliebt sich schließlich. Und er kommt hinter ihr fantastisches Geheimnis.
Leider gibt es in dem Buch recht schwafelige Passagen. In den ersten 45 Seiten passiert kaum etwas Interessantes. Auch zwischendurch habe ich Abschnitte übersprungen. Das Geheimnis um die junge Frau hielt mich bei der Stange. Und zum Schluss kommt dann noch eine Wendung, die zwar nicht 100% überzeugend war, mich aber doch soweit geflasht hat, dass ich ihm doch einen Punkt mehr geben will, als ich erst beabsichtigt habe.
May 4, 2021
A whole lot of no fun.
I enjoyed several other John Brunner novels I've read lately, so I picked this one up when I saw it. This is very different than Brunner's other novels and I found it boring, frustrating, and depressing. It's one of those books where you can't really identify with anyone because the protagonist is so disagreeable. A psychiatrist named Paul, our lead character is a lot like Arnold J. Rimmer of Red Dwarf. He's great at making the wrong decision at every turn, he's constantly getting himself into trouble that could be easily avoided, he's cowardly and full of anxieties about things that never happen.
He comes across a new patient in the form of a naked girl found in a nearby forest. She speaks no known language and is unfamiliar with everyday things like cars and telephones. Paul somehow manages to solve the mystery of her origin as his own life is falling apart. Everything seems pointed to a potentially happy ending if only Paul can see it and grasp it.
Honestly, instead of reading this book, go watch the very old Red Dwarf episode "Better than Life" - you'll have more fun watching Arnold Rimmer destroy his own and everyone else's life than you'll have reading about Paul doing it in this book.
I enjoyed several other John Brunner novels I've read lately, so I picked this one up when I saw it. This is very different than Brunner's other novels and I found it boring, frustrating, and depressing. It's one of those books where you can't really identify with anyone because the protagonist is so disagreeable. A psychiatrist named Paul, our lead character is a lot like Arnold J. Rimmer of Red Dwarf. He's great at making the wrong decision at every turn, he's constantly getting himself into trouble that could be easily avoided, he's cowardly and full of anxieties about things that never happen.
He comes across a new patient in the form of a naked girl found in a nearby forest. She speaks no known language and is unfamiliar with everyday things like cars and telephones. Paul somehow manages to solve the mystery of her origin as his own life is falling apart. Everything seems pointed to a potentially happy ending if only Paul can see it and grasp it.
Honestly, instead of reading this book, go watch the very old Red Dwarf episode "Better than Life" - you'll have more fun watching Arnold Rimmer destroy his own and everyone else's life than you'll have reading about Paul doing it in this book.
August 30, 2013
review of
John Brunner's Quicksand
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 29, 2013
This is the 13th Brunner bk I've read & reviewed & I'm more than convinced of his genius by now. As I've often noted in other reviews, I'm reluctant to give a 5 star review to any writing that doesn't have formal experimentation.. but then I make exceptions & Brunner's a stunning one.
Quicksand is yet-another novel of his to use hypnosis. The others that I've read so far being The Stardroppers, The Evil That Men Do, & The Productions of Time.
""Urchin?" he said idiotically.
"She said something in her own language, but no part of her body except her lips stirred. Alarmed, he stepped to her side and was about to touch her when a great light dawned. He followed the direction of her gaze, and saw that a bright gleam from the window was caught on the oscillating scythe of the clock, sliding back and forth like a metronome." - pp 128-129
To another writer, I might begrudge this repetition but I don't w/ Brunner - there's just too much variety otherwise. Brunner also repeats the trope of a society that develops time travel instead of other technologies that he used in Times Without Number.. but there the similarities cease.
""Literally, promise you, there are no words to say in this language. In my language there are no words to say engine, rocket, spaceman, which I see on television—no word for television either. Is all different. We learned different things to do, studied different problems."
"—A society that somehow diverged from ours, concentrating on time-travel as its ultimate achievement while ours is in jet airplanes and sending rockets to the moon. Did she have this moment in mind the night I first met her, when she went around the cars staring and touching them as though she had never seen anything of the kind before?" - p 154
Quicksand is much more of a psychological human drama. Yeah, it's SciFi but Brunner pulls his SF punches more-or-less until the end (ok, ok, in that respect it's a bit like The Productions of Time).
The main character is a dr in a mental hospital who's undergoing his own personal trials & tribs: drinking too much, dissatisfied w/ his marriage, worried about his own past nervous breakdown, dislike of his boss & coworkers. Brunner sets the mood of his being on edge very convincingly:
"On the side-table, a little hand-bell. He picked it up and gave it a shake. Simultaneous to the tenth of a second, the lock in the tower overhead ground towards striking, and he cringed. For most of the day he'd managed to avoid noticing it, but last night, during his turn of duty . . .
"Band boom clink. Pause. Boom clink bang. Pause.
"—Christ doesn't it get on anyone's nerves but mine?" - p 6
I'm reminded of a Scientific American Article on environmental noise that begins thusly:
"In a 2011 publication, "Burden of disease from environmental noise," a WHO [World HealthOrganization]-led research team analyzed data from numerous large-scale epidemiological studies of environmental noise in Western European countries within the past 10 years. The studies looked closely at planes grumbling, trains whooshing and whistling, and automobiles bleeping, and then traced links to cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in children, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, and relentless annoyance. Poring over these data, the WHO team calculated the disability-adjusted life-years or DALYs-in essence, healthy years of life-lost to "unwanted," human-induced dissonance. The toll: not counting industrial workplaces, at least one million DALYs each year. "There is overwhelming evidence," they conclude, "that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population.""
& Brunner makes his character totally believable. Consider this internal rumination:
"—Relating to other people: a jargon phrase we use to blanket the spectrum love-to-hate. But human beings don't follow tidy lines on graphs. They diverge at odd angles into n dimensions. Where can one plot the location of indifference? Somewhere in mid-air above the surface of the paper? It lends neither to affection nor to detestation. It's a point in a void." - p 10
Brunner's great at character development. There're many characters, deftly depicted. The protagonist's nemesis:
"She came briskly in, demanding in her booming baritone what the blazes was going on, was told, and nodded vigorously. Armed with the bare bones of third-hand information, she approached Paul and addressed him in the patronizing tone appropriate to a mere grammar-school product of only twenty-eight.
""I hear one of your . . . ah . . . charges has gone over the hill. If you can tell me exactly where she attacked this unfortunate chap, I'll bring my hounds along. Soon root her out of cover, I can promise you."" - p 21
Quicksand is as much a study of hospitals in general as it is a novel about the experiences of a particular man:
"First there was a rather saddening new admission: and old woman referred from Blickham General where she had been treated for a broken right hip. The long stay in hospital, as all too often happened, had wasted what little remained of her independence: day by day her personality had degraded until after postponing discharge to the last possible moment Blickham General diagnosed irreversible senile dementia and contacted Chent." - p 63
The main male character, Paul, has a patient, nicknamed "Urchin" b/c no other identity has been established for her, of uncertain legal status, who doesn't initially speak any know language. I've heard tell of a woman being admitted into a mental institution & staying there b/c she didn't speak the language of the area & was assumed 'insane' as a result - only to have it be discovered, decades later, that she was simply an immigrant. A friend of mine's mom gave permission to a dr at a mental hospital to give her sister a lobotomy b/c she didn't understand what the dr was talking about when he asked for it. Such things are not as uncommon as they shd be. Brunner must've had this sort of thing in mind. But, of course, Brunner far from stops there.
In attempts to locate Urchin's language, a bk is consulted: "["]I] went all the way through Diringer's book The Alphabet, which is pretty much the standard work, and I drew a complete blank."" (p 102) Hence I became intrigued, it seems like a bk I shd have in my library so I looked it up online: David Diringer's The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind. Alas, I can barely afford to eat right now (in fact, I'm on the 5th day of a fast) so I won't be buying it anytime soon.
There's no particularly good reason for Urchin to be in a mental hospital, it's just the 'best' that the society can figure out what to do w/ someone who 'doesn't fit in'. "—Could she have been raised in total isolation, Kaspar Hauser fashion, by some lunatic genius who taught her a language he, not she, had invented . . . ?" (p 119) It's noteworthy that Brunner's novel is from 1967, & that Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser wasn't until 1974 & that Paul Auster's City of Glass wasn't until 1985. Brunner was, as always, ahead of the curve.
Paul starts taking pills, taking advantage of their ready availability to him as a dr, wch probably doesn't help w/ his decision-making process - altho the alcohol seems worse in that regard. Brunner takes an interesting contemplative tangent to introduce his usage:
"—A cupboardful of miracles, this! Powdered sleep, tablet sleep, liquid sleep; energy in pills, in vials, in disposable syringes; drugs to suppress hunger and stimulate appetite, to relieve pain and to cause convulsions . . . Will the day come when a descendant of mine stands in a dispensary and selects a tablet labelled Instant Sanity, adult schizoid female Caucasian 40-50 kilograms? Christ, I hope not. Because—
"The anticipated burp arrived. Since he had momentarily forgotten that was why he was standing here, it erupted with maximum noise, and the pharmacist turned his head and grinned. Sheepishly Paul moved away.
"—Because long before we get to the Instant Sanity pill dreadful things will have happened to us. Drugs to keep the masses happy, like opium in last-century China and the British hashish monopoly in India; drugs for political conformism ("AntiKommi for those left-wing twinges"), for sexual conformism ("Straighten up and fly right with OrthoHetero twice a day"), for petty criminals, for deviates, for anyone you don't like. Pills for bosses to give their workers, pills for wives to give their husbands . . ." - pp 126-127
One might add: "Ritalin to try to control energetic kids in school..'
Note the middle paragraph in the above 3 paragraph quote: Brunner always keeps things moving - even in a borderline discursive passage of drugs he interrupts w/ a relevant narrative aside.
Paul gets sucked into his patient's description of her world. He doesn't know whether its fantasy or, defying his 'reality', somehow 'real':
""In Llanraw marriage consists in a vow taken before the assembled community that the couple will accept the responsibility of bearing and raising children and remain their best friends for as long as they live, to whom they may always turn for help and advice. Conception without such previous public pledges is regarded as offensive to the unborn child and the administration of an abortifacient is compulsory. Owing to the seriousness with which parenthood is undertaken, there is no excess population pressure, nor any social pressure on young people to marry and bear children as frequently happens in our world, thus ensuring that too many children are subconsciously resented by their parents."" - p 159
Brunner was highly successful in manipulating this reader, at least, into rooting for Paul to act against the conventions of his hospital world. How that turns out is a spoiler I won't provide here.
John Brunner's Quicksand
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 29, 2013
This is the 13th Brunner bk I've read & reviewed & I'm more than convinced of his genius by now. As I've often noted in other reviews, I'm reluctant to give a 5 star review to any writing that doesn't have formal experimentation.. but then I make exceptions & Brunner's a stunning one.
Quicksand is yet-another novel of his to use hypnosis. The others that I've read so far being The Stardroppers, The Evil That Men Do, & The Productions of Time.
""Urchin?" he said idiotically.
"She said something in her own language, but no part of her body except her lips stirred. Alarmed, he stepped to her side and was about to touch her when a great light dawned. He followed the direction of her gaze, and saw that a bright gleam from the window was caught on the oscillating scythe of the clock, sliding back and forth like a metronome." - pp 128-129
To another writer, I might begrudge this repetition but I don't w/ Brunner - there's just too much variety otherwise. Brunner also repeats the trope of a society that develops time travel instead of other technologies that he used in Times Without Number.. but there the similarities cease.
""Literally, promise you, there are no words to say in this language. In my language there are no words to say engine, rocket, spaceman, which I see on television—no word for television either. Is all different. We learned different things to do, studied different problems."
"—A society that somehow diverged from ours, concentrating on time-travel as its ultimate achievement while ours is in jet airplanes and sending rockets to the moon. Did she have this moment in mind the night I first met her, when she went around the cars staring and touching them as though she had never seen anything of the kind before?" - p 154
Quicksand is much more of a psychological human drama. Yeah, it's SciFi but Brunner pulls his SF punches more-or-less until the end (ok, ok, in that respect it's a bit like The Productions of Time).
The main character is a dr in a mental hospital who's undergoing his own personal trials & tribs: drinking too much, dissatisfied w/ his marriage, worried about his own past nervous breakdown, dislike of his boss & coworkers. Brunner sets the mood of his being on edge very convincingly:
"On the side-table, a little hand-bell. He picked it up and gave it a shake. Simultaneous to the tenth of a second, the lock in the tower overhead ground towards striking, and he cringed. For most of the day he'd managed to avoid noticing it, but last night, during his turn of duty . . .
"Band boom clink. Pause. Boom clink bang. Pause.
"—Christ doesn't it get on anyone's nerves but mine?" - p 6
I'm reminded of a Scientific American Article on environmental noise that begins thusly:
"In a 2011 publication, "Burden of disease from environmental noise," a WHO [World HealthOrganization]-led research team analyzed data from numerous large-scale epidemiological studies of environmental noise in Western European countries within the past 10 years. The studies looked closely at planes grumbling, trains whooshing and whistling, and automobiles bleeping, and then traced links to cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in children, sleep disturbance, tinnitus, and relentless annoyance. Poring over these data, the WHO team calculated the disability-adjusted life-years or DALYs-in essence, healthy years of life-lost to "unwanted," human-induced dissonance. The toll: not counting industrial workplaces, at least one million DALYs each year. "There is overwhelming evidence," they conclude, "that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population.""
& Brunner makes his character totally believable. Consider this internal rumination:
"—Relating to other people: a jargon phrase we use to blanket the spectrum love-to-hate. But human beings don't follow tidy lines on graphs. They diverge at odd angles into n dimensions. Where can one plot the location of indifference? Somewhere in mid-air above the surface of the paper? It lends neither to affection nor to detestation. It's a point in a void." - p 10
Brunner's great at character development. There're many characters, deftly depicted. The protagonist's nemesis:
"She came briskly in, demanding in her booming baritone what the blazes was going on, was told, and nodded vigorously. Armed with the bare bones of third-hand information, she approached Paul and addressed him in the patronizing tone appropriate to a mere grammar-school product of only twenty-eight.
""I hear one of your . . . ah . . . charges has gone over the hill. If you can tell me exactly where she attacked this unfortunate chap, I'll bring my hounds along. Soon root her out of cover, I can promise you."" - p 21
Quicksand is as much a study of hospitals in general as it is a novel about the experiences of a particular man:
"First there was a rather saddening new admission: and old woman referred from Blickham General where she had been treated for a broken right hip. The long stay in hospital, as all too often happened, had wasted what little remained of her independence: day by day her personality had degraded until after postponing discharge to the last possible moment Blickham General diagnosed irreversible senile dementia and contacted Chent." - p 63
The main male character, Paul, has a patient, nicknamed "Urchin" b/c no other identity has been established for her, of uncertain legal status, who doesn't initially speak any know language. I've heard tell of a woman being admitted into a mental institution & staying there b/c she didn't speak the language of the area & was assumed 'insane' as a result - only to have it be discovered, decades later, that she was simply an immigrant. A friend of mine's mom gave permission to a dr at a mental hospital to give her sister a lobotomy b/c she didn't understand what the dr was talking about when he asked for it. Such things are not as uncommon as they shd be. Brunner must've had this sort of thing in mind. But, of course, Brunner far from stops there.
In attempts to locate Urchin's language, a bk is consulted: "["]I] went all the way through Diringer's book The Alphabet, which is pretty much the standard work, and I drew a complete blank."" (p 102) Hence I became intrigued, it seems like a bk I shd have in my library so I looked it up online: David Diringer's The Alphabet: A Key to the History of Mankind. Alas, I can barely afford to eat right now (in fact, I'm on the 5th day of a fast) so I won't be buying it anytime soon.
There's no particularly good reason for Urchin to be in a mental hospital, it's just the 'best' that the society can figure out what to do w/ someone who 'doesn't fit in'. "—Could she have been raised in total isolation, Kaspar Hauser fashion, by some lunatic genius who taught her a language he, not she, had invented . . . ?" (p 119) It's noteworthy that Brunner's novel is from 1967, & that Herzog's The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser wasn't until 1974 & that Paul Auster's City of Glass wasn't until 1985. Brunner was, as always, ahead of the curve.
Paul starts taking pills, taking advantage of their ready availability to him as a dr, wch probably doesn't help w/ his decision-making process - altho the alcohol seems worse in that regard. Brunner takes an interesting contemplative tangent to introduce his usage:
"—A cupboardful of miracles, this! Powdered sleep, tablet sleep, liquid sleep; energy in pills, in vials, in disposable syringes; drugs to suppress hunger and stimulate appetite, to relieve pain and to cause convulsions . . . Will the day come when a descendant of mine stands in a dispensary and selects a tablet labelled Instant Sanity, adult schizoid female Caucasian 40-50 kilograms? Christ, I hope not. Because—
"The anticipated burp arrived. Since he had momentarily forgotten that was why he was standing here, it erupted with maximum noise, and the pharmacist turned his head and grinned. Sheepishly Paul moved away.
"—Because long before we get to the Instant Sanity pill dreadful things will have happened to us. Drugs to keep the masses happy, like opium in last-century China and the British hashish monopoly in India; drugs for political conformism ("AntiKommi for those left-wing twinges"), for sexual conformism ("Straighten up and fly right with OrthoHetero twice a day"), for petty criminals, for deviates, for anyone you don't like. Pills for bosses to give their workers, pills for wives to give their husbands . . ." - pp 126-127
One might add: "Ritalin to try to control energetic kids in school..'
Note the middle paragraph in the above 3 paragraph quote: Brunner always keeps things moving - even in a borderline discursive passage of drugs he interrupts w/ a relevant narrative aside.
Paul gets sucked into his patient's description of her world. He doesn't know whether its fantasy or, defying his 'reality', somehow 'real':
""In Llanraw marriage consists in a vow taken before the assembled community that the couple will accept the responsibility of bearing and raising children and remain their best friends for as long as they live, to whom they may always turn for help and advice. Conception without such previous public pledges is regarded as offensive to the unborn child and the administration of an abortifacient is compulsory. Owing to the seriousness with which parenthood is undertaken, there is no excess population pressure, nor any social pressure on young people to marry and bear children as frequently happens in our world, thus ensuring that too many children are subconsciously resented by their parents."" - p 159
Brunner was highly successful in manipulating this reader, at least, into rooting for Paul to act against the conventions of his hospital world. How that turns out is a spoiler I won't provide here.
July 25, 2022
Книжка дуже нагадує "Планету Ка-Пекс" Джин Брюєр і написана пізніше. Видається імовірним, що Джон Бруннер нею надихнувся, проте "Пісок" сподобався мені значно менше.
Книга не стільки про дивовижну дівчину, скільки про внутрішні конфлікти самого психіатра і взагалі його повну профнепридатність.
Розв'язка досить неочікувана, але швидше дивна, з логікою "Ка-Пекс" не порівняти. В цілому непогано, але на один раз і навряд надовго запам'ятається.
Книга не стільки про дивовижну дівчину, скільки про внутрішні конфлікти самого психіатра і взагалі його повну профнепридатність.
Розв'язка досить неочікувана, але швидше дивна, з логікою "Ка-Пекс" не порівняти. В цілому непогано, але на один раз і навряд надовго запам'ятається.
November 25, 2024
A decent story of a strange naked woman appearing out of nowhere and taking in with a psychiatrist at a mental hospital. She speaks no English, but slowly learns to speak it while she is at the hospital. During this time the man becomes rather obsessed with this woman's case and loses his wife and becomes very wrapped up in what world she comes from.
It's a decent story, but not Brunner's best.
It's a decent story, but not Brunner's best.
August 25, 2019
I read a LOT of sci-fi in my tweens and early teens. I probably picked this based on the cover plus the premise (naked girl shows up out of nowhere and doesn't seem familiar with things like automobiles).
October 27, 2014
The description of this novel in David Pringle’s Ultimate Guide to SF intrigued me, so I put this ahead of other Brunner, The Shockwave Rider, Stand On Zanzibar, The Squares of the City and Times Without Number that I intend to read. I was surprised to find that this is barely SF at all – the 1968 Bantam edition I have identifies it only as a “Novel” on the spine and the cover illustration and text present it as an erotic thriller (“WHO WAS SHE WHO WALKED NAKED OUT OF NOWHERE???”).
This book can for the most part be read as a serio-comic, realistic British novel of the time, following the unsteady professional life of Dr. Paul Fidler, a resident psychiatrist at a Victorian mansion turned mental institution, who becomes obsessed with a new patient, an unidentified woman found wandering naked in the woods on a February evening. This woman has unusual racial features, is five feet tall, speaks an unidentifiable language and writes in a Rune-like alphabet. The piecing out of her mystery is the main narrative engine, but there are numerous sub-plots: Fidler’s shaky relations with his superiors, his collapsing marriage, his secret past, and the doings of various patients and colleagues.
It seems that most SF is written in a way which plunges the reader into an unfamiliar reality. On the opening pages, one is not sure where in the universe or possible universes the action takes place, whether the protagonist is human in any sense of the word, and even the meanings of some of the words, coinages or resurrections meant to label things or concepts hitherto unknown. I have a fondness for SF which starts by grounding itself in the quotidian and introduces the fantastic gradually. Most of Wells’ celebrated novels do this, and I think it is this approach which makes Wyndham’s catastrophes “cozy”; this preference is also probably why I prefer Time Out of Joint to Martian Time-Slip however much I am assured that the latter is the superior work. Quicksand is the most extreme example of this approach I have encountered, and the reader in the end does not need to accept the work as SF at all, much as one can reject the objective reality of the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw.
This was a selection of the Science Fiction Book club, but I cannot believe that it was very satisfactory to most SF readers. There is some “sense of wonder” but it is qualified by being the possible result of a mental disease rather than an otherworldly reality. What the novel does have in quantity is a realistic milieu, well drawn characters, and engagement with the real world and its social structure, strengths of the “mainstream” and often absent from SF. Like Queen Victoria’s Bomb, this seems to represent one of SF’s “roads not taken”, a mainstream novel that makes its SF elements subservient to character and theme rather than concerning itself primarily with their development and elaboration.
This book can for the most part be read as a serio-comic, realistic British novel of the time, following the unsteady professional life of Dr. Paul Fidler, a resident psychiatrist at a Victorian mansion turned mental institution, who becomes obsessed with a new patient, an unidentified woman found wandering naked in the woods on a February evening. This woman has unusual racial features, is five feet tall, speaks an unidentifiable language and writes in a Rune-like alphabet. The piecing out of her mystery is the main narrative engine, but there are numerous sub-plots: Fidler’s shaky relations with his superiors, his collapsing marriage, his secret past, and the doings of various patients and colleagues.
It seems that most SF is written in a way which plunges the reader into an unfamiliar reality. On the opening pages, one is not sure where in the universe or possible universes the action takes place, whether the protagonist is human in any sense of the word, and even the meanings of some of the words, coinages or resurrections meant to label things or concepts hitherto unknown. I have a fondness for SF which starts by grounding itself in the quotidian and introduces the fantastic gradually. Most of Wells’ celebrated novels do this, and I think it is this approach which makes Wyndham’s catastrophes “cozy”; this preference is also probably why I prefer Time Out of Joint to Martian Time-Slip however much I am assured that the latter is the superior work. Quicksand is the most extreme example of this approach I have encountered, and the reader in the end does not need to accept the work as SF at all, much as one can reject the objective reality of the ghosts in The Turn of the Screw.
This was a selection of the Science Fiction Book club, but I cannot believe that it was very satisfactory to most SF readers. There is some “sense of wonder” but it is qualified by being the possible result of a mental disease rather than an otherworldly reality. What the novel does have in quantity is a realistic milieu, well drawn characters, and engagement with the real world and its social structure, strengths of the “mainstream” and often absent from SF. Like Queen Victoria’s Bomb, this seems to represent one of SF’s “roads not taken”, a mainstream novel that makes its SF elements subservient to character and theme rather than concerning itself primarily with their development and elaboration.
February 22, 2025
Dans ce roman, John Brunner nous narre la lente et pernicieuse descente aux enfers d’un psychiatre qui souhaite, pour des raisons avouables (ou non), guérir une patiente.
L’un des points fondamentaux de ce roman étant qu’à aucun moment le lecteur ou le personnage ne peuvent déterminer si cette patiente est une malade mentale ou une anthentique étrangère. Sans vouloir diminuer le talent certain de Brunner, on sait depuis au moins Lovecraft que les asiles font partie des lieux où la réalité se délite le plus facilement(1). Alors, où se trouve la touche unique qui permet de distinguer cette oeuvre des innombrables autres ? Sans doute dans la construction très introspective de ce récit, où les seules pensées auxquelles on accède sont celles de ce psychiatre, jusques et y compris ses fantasmes et cauchemars. Sans doute aussi (je dirais même évidement) dans le choix de la patiente, à peine nubile, manifestement perdue, répondant avec beaucoup de grâce et de naturel aux psychoses de ce médecin qui court toujours le risque de devenir un malade dans son propre hopital. Sans doute enfin grâce au style Brunner, tout en césures, en changements de tons et de rythme, qui ne peuvent que pousser le lecteur à une identification complète avec le personnage.
Mais le vrai génie de ce roman n’est pas là.
Il est dans le fait que, du début à la fin de l’histoire, il est impossible au lecteur de décider si, oui ou non, cette patiente est réellement l’envoyée du futur qu’elle prétend être. J’en veux pour preuve les derniers aveux qui lui sont arrachés, mais qu ne suffisent pas, sauf pour ce psychiatre complètement désorienté, à se faire une opinion réelle sur sa santé mentale(2). Bref, c’est un très bon roman, même s’il ne peut pas prétendre à figurer au mileu de l’espèce science-fictive. il fait en fait partie de cette immense cohorte d’oeuvres rodant dans les ombres entre la science-fiction, le fantastique, le polar et d’autres genres parfois moins honnêtes, et qui donnent justement toute sa richesse et son foisonnement au genre. Et du coup, c’est une oeuvre à lire, même s’il ne s’agit pas d’un des indispensables (enfin, pour moi).
(1) A un point tel qu’ l’immense majorité des scénarios pour le jeu de rôle L’appel de Cthulu se situent en de tels lieux, et en particulier à l’asile d’Arkham de sinistre renom.
(2) Il s’agit ici de la santé mentale de la patiente, mais ça pourrait aussi être celle du psychiatre, qui s’effondre de plus en plus vite.
L’un des points fondamentaux de ce roman étant qu’à aucun moment le lecteur ou le personnage ne peuvent déterminer si cette patiente est une malade mentale ou une anthentique étrangère. Sans vouloir diminuer le talent certain de Brunner, on sait depuis au moins Lovecraft que les asiles font partie des lieux où la réalité se délite le plus facilement(1). Alors, où se trouve la touche unique qui permet de distinguer cette oeuvre des innombrables autres ? Sans doute dans la construction très introspective de ce récit, où les seules pensées auxquelles on accède sont celles de ce psychiatre, jusques et y compris ses fantasmes et cauchemars. Sans doute aussi (je dirais même évidement) dans le choix de la patiente, à peine nubile, manifestement perdue, répondant avec beaucoup de grâce et de naturel aux psychoses de ce médecin qui court toujours le risque de devenir un malade dans son propre hopital. Sans doute enfin grâce au style Brunner, tout en césures, en changements de tons et de rythme, qui ne peuvent que pousser le lecteur à une identification complète avec le personnage.
Mais le vrai génie de ce roman n’est pas là.
Il est dans le fait que, du début à la fin de l’histoire, il est impossible au lecteur de décider si, oui ou non, cette patiente est réellement l’envoyée du futur qu’elle prétend être. J’en veux pour preuve les derniers aveux qui lui sont arrachés, mais qu ne suffisent pas, sauf pour ce psychiatre complètement désorienté, à se faire une opinion réelle sur sa santé mentale(2). Bref, c’est un très bon roman, même s’il ne peut pas prétendre à figurer au mileu de l’espèce science-fictive. il fait en fait partie de cette immense cohorte d’oeuvres rodant dans les ombres entre la science-fiction, le fantastique, le polar et d’autres genres parfois moins honnêtes, et qui donnent justement toute sa richesse et son foisonnement au genre. Et du coup, c’est une oeuvre à lire, même s’il ne s’agit pas d’un des indispensables (enfin, pour moi).
(1) A un point tel qu’ l’immense majorité des scénarios pour le jeu de rôle L’appel de Cthulu se situent en de tels lieux, et en particulier à l’asile d’Arkham de sinistre renom.
(2) Il s’agit ici de la santé mentale de la patiente, mais ça pourrait aussi être celle du psychiatre, qui s’effondre de plus en plus vite.
February 12, 2017
An interesting glimpse into life in 1960s Britain as a psychiatrist in dire need of some of his own medicine takes on a mysterious new patient he finds wandering naked in the woods. Is it really science fiction? We assume it is because of Brunner's other more famous work in this genre, but this could just as easily be classified as a mystery story. Ultimately it falls a little short in my opinion by failing to deliver in either camp. But it is concise, original and very well written, and so worth a read for curiosity value.
April 7, 2015
Quicksand (1967) 221 pages by John Brunner.
Paul Fiddler is a psychiatrist at the mental hospital in Chent. On his way home from work he stops by the local pub. A injured man comes in, saying he was attacked by a naked woman. With the mental hospital being near there is speculation that it is an escapee. It's not. The sheriff and Paul find the woman, not an escapee, but she doesn't speak English so they take her to the mental hospital.
The story follows Paul the entire way. He's mildly successful, but has to work hard, not enough respect from his boss, he has problems with his wife, and is generally unhappy. The science fiction part of the story is who is the girl, Arzheen/Urchin, and where did she come from. Paul has sessions with Urchin. In short order she learns English, and the sessions become more informative.
Instead of a lot of questioning of where did Urchin come from, how is it going to affect our world, and that sort of thing, the story is more how is this affecting Paul, what is Paul going to do. It's a psychological novel. Then at the end we get a little explanation of what has happened.
It was intriguing, kept my interest. The scenes with Paul and Urchin were the most fun to read, and constituted a major portion of the novel. I'm glad I picked this book off the shelf.
Paul Fiddler is a psychiatrist at the mental hospital in Chent. On his way home from work he stops by the local pub. A injured man comes in, saying he was attacked by a naked woman. With the mental hospital being near there is speculation that it is an escapee. It's not. The sheriff and Paul find the woman, not an escapee, but she doesn't speak English so they take her to the mental hospital.
The story follows Paul the entire way. He's mildly successful, but has to work hard, not enough respect from his boss, he has problems with his wife, and is generally unhappy. The science fiction part of the story is who is the girl, Arzheen/Urchin, and where did she come from. Paul has sessions with Urchin. In short order she learns English, and the sessions become more informative.
Instead of a lot of questioning of where did Urchin come from, how is it going to affect our world, and that sort of thing, the story is more how is this affecting Paul, what is Paul going to do. It's a psychological novel. Then at the end we get a little explanation of what has happened.
It was intriguing, kept my interest. The scenes with Paul and Urchin were the most fun to read, and constituted a major portion of the novel. I'm glad I picked this book off the shelf.
April 2, 2009
Standard quasi-okay Brunner book. Mostly not very science-fictiony at all. I wish there had been a little more, uh, exploitation of the obviousness of the main character's insanity, but there wasn't. Some parts--the occasional time forking--were very well done, but I really feel like there was some meat to the book that Brunner missed. Could have been better, was much much better than say Children of the Thunder.
August 1, 2013
Fine little quasi-sci-fi novel with a horribly deceptive and inaccurate cover. Story of a mysterious woman that appears near a mental hospital with no memory, no knowledge of the world, and no language ability. A slow process of discovery between her and her doctor proves engaging and gives more insight into the troubled doctor's mind than hers, ultimately. More psycho-mystery than sci-fi, but enjoyable nonetheless.
March 4, 2013
My first Sci-Fi in ten to twenty years---but not much Sci-Fi. With a psychology minor made it fun, as it was written from the 'Shrink's' position. Paul's life was full of failures and Brunner had difficulty finishing the tale. But I did enjoy character interplays.
July 20, 2009
Not one of John Brunner's best science fiction novels--an intriguing premise, a disappointing conclusion.
March 12, 2011
Grade D-
May 14, 2012
There are some interesting parallels with Lilith, I should reread this.
March 15, 2014
Superb on many levels -- including a portrayal of the craziness of a bad psychiatric hospital so vivid that my psych friends felt they had worked there.
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