Melancholy Elephants

by Spider Robinson

Contents:
Melancholy Elephants (1982)
Half an Oaf (1976)
High Infidelity (1984)
Antinomy (1978)
In the Olden Days (1984)
Chronic Offender (1981)
No Renewal (1977)
Common Sense (1985)
Rubber Soul (1982)
Concordiat to "Rubber Soul" (1985) essay
Father Paradox (1985)
True Minds (1984)
Satan's Children (1979)
Not Fade Away (1982)

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1984

About the author

Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author. He was born in the USA, but chose to live in Canada, and gained citizenship in his adopted country in 2002.

Robinson's writing career began in 1972 with a sale to Analog Science Fiction magazine of a story entitled, The Guy With The Eyes. His writing proved popular, and his first novel saw print in 1976, Telempath. Since then he has averaged a novel (or collection) a year. His most well known stories are the Callahan saloon series.

Reviews

[Algernon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Science fiction? You mean rocketships and rayguns and the li'l robots? Alien monsters, evil computers, expensive special effects?
Well, no. You won't find any of that here. You're confusing modern science fiction with sci-fi - a perfectly understandable error. Sci-fi - the plural of "scum fum" - refers to certain very bad films made by Hollywood and/or Canadian dentists in need of tax shelters. Sf, on the other hand, (lower case) is the correct abbreviation for science fiction, the 'literature' of speculative entertainment; deprived of novel visual effects, we try to substitute novel 'ideas'. Our only connection with the movies is that they feel free to steal our ideas whenever the special effects budget falls short.

Who says the Golden Age of 'sf' is gone? The flame kindled by Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke is still burning brightly, carried forward by the likes of Ken Liu and Spider Robinson. In a passionate introduction to this collection covering more than two decades of his writings, Mr. Robinson makes the case that science fiction is not only the place where new ideas are tried out for size by humanity, but also a lot of FUN! Smart entertainment being what we really need in order to pick ourselves up from the grimdark pit we have dug for ourselves. Here's another quote from the introductory essay:

Sf mediates between the scientist and the poet, between those who observe and measure and those who dream. It stands midway between objective truth and subjective truth, seeking perpetually to reconcile the two, because this is essential to the continual survival of the human race and because it pays good money, and because, as I mentioned earlier, it turns out to be fun.
That is why I write sf. Because I am a grownup artist and a fair entertainer, and morale on Starship Earth has been pretty rotten lately. And because I enjoy it.

The passion for the genre and for word games, the laidback atitude and (generally) optimistic predictions for the future make this collection one of my personal favorites, to be added to the couple of other irreverent and friendly stories I heard over the bar at "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" [Time Travellers Strictly Cash!] . Robinson pays homage to Heinlein by name in a couple of the stories included, but for me his style and his engagement are closer to another favorite from the Golden Age, Ray Bradbury, and to one of his most memorable quoets:

People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.

>><<>><<>><<

Melancholy Elephants the title story and the opening salvo in the battle for the future of humanity, paints a rather bleak future. Senators are still willing to be bought and to sponsor legislation written by corporate lobbyists. One such anti-consumer bill spells nothing less than our common extinction, at least according to a union negotiator who tries to argue against extending copyright on artistic works in perpetuity.

Don't you see what perpetual copyright implies? It is perpetual racial memory! That bill will give the human race an elephant's memory. Have you ever seen a cheerful elephant?

I will not repeat the arguments in my review, but I think the story is well chosen to illustrate the way ideas matter and why any law that stifles innovation and imagination spells trouble for our survival.

Antinomy - explores the interpersonal complications that arise from radical medical breakthroughs. A powerful tycoon is frozen after she is diagnosed with an untreatable cancer. She falls in love with her doctor just before being put to sleep, but when she is defrosted she remembers nothing of her last months, including her romance. Now she has to adjust to a future world where another man expresses his affectionate interest. What is the right choice for her, between the man who grew old, sacrificing his life to find a cure for her, and the younger man who is closer now to her age?

antinomy = contradiction between two propositions which seem equally urgent and necessary.

Half an Oaf : the future is so bleak that some people would buy cheap replicas of time machines from the black market in order to escape back to Brooklyn in the 80's. When the device malfunctions hilarity ensues and the irate time-traveller needs to rely on a teenage urchin named Spud to save his bacon.

Satan's Children is one of my favorites in this collection and brings sf into the "sex, drugs and rock'n roll" sphere. A young folk singer does small recitals in an underground bar for the connoiseurs ( Any serious musician will sell his or her soul for an intelligent, sensitive, 'listening' audience. ) , singing mostly about his love for his girlfriend, also a singer. One night they witness a drama that might change the world, if only they are smart enough and courageous enough. An old man is killed in front of their eyes by a secret agent, but before he dies he manages to give them the secret formula for a new drug - a drug that makes people tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

All right, children, into your hands I place the fate of modern civilization. I bring you Truth, and I think that the truth shall make you flee.

Robinson is at his best when he talks about the subjects he cares about the most - in this story music, puns, friends and free love [and drugs :-)]. If a little pill can make you a better person, why should governments and police and religious zealots all get their pants in a twist?

I think the biggest single problem in the world, for almost the last two decades, has been morale. Despairing people solve no problems.

No Renewal is one of the saddest stories in this collection. I cannot put a positive spin on it : the future is grim, and the planet is exhausted. When oil reserves are depleted , corporations turn to the industrial exploitation of clay, destroying in the process an iddylic piece of agricultural land. A single old man survives, surrounded by factories, in a derelict shack, picking over old photographs on his 90th anniversary.

If a farm surrounded by wasteland cannot survive, how then shall a man?

In the Olden Days is a variant / a riff on the same theme. We all know that people as they get older are prone to drone endlessly about their good old days. But what if they are actually telling the truth?

Not Fade Away is for me a short and sweet Bradbury kind of story. Two entities meet in the emptiness of galactic space, transhumans evolved over millenia. One of them is the last Warrior, unemployed for countless years after humans and aliens develop telepathic powers that make wars impossible. The other is ... something else. The question posed here is : Can we live without our reptile brain and without individual identity / privacy?

True Minds is a love story with a scientific twist. A writer becomes world famous for writing the most insightful and the most heartfelt love stories ever published. How does an author gain such knowledge, such empathy?

Love rides his back like a goblin. It lives in his belly like a cancer. He wears it like a spacesuit in a hostile environment. It wears him like a brake drum wears shoes. I can't tell whether he generates love or the other way around.

He is a recluse, avoiding all contact with the press or with the fans, yet 'groupies' keep trying to throw themselves at his feet. Some of them have so much power and money that they cannot be avoidedd. Or can they?
The story is dedicated to Heinlein, whose definition of love, 'as opposed to lust or affection or need or any of a dozen other cousins' is used as the anchor to the story:

'That condition in which the welfare and happiness of another are essential to your own'

Chronic Offender is one of the best examples of writing for fun and profit. Subversive time traveller stories are something of a specialty for Robinson, and here we have a tourist from the past we are better of without. Harry the Horse is a mob hitman from Harlem in the 1930's. Somehow he gets his paws on a brand new time machine and comes to Harlem in the early 90's to get precious info on horse races and baseball scores, to be used for profit when he gets back to his timeline. In the future he tries to rob one of his old pals apartments, only to find the old timer still alive. Old slang dialogue mixes with some rather bloody minded tempers to ask us whether time travel really is a good thing, after all. A nod to one of the greates comedians from the era is included:

"I like a gal with a strong will. Or at least a weak won't." [Groucho Marx]

It's a Sunny Day is the story that made me buy the whole collection after I came across it online. It's about a future that is both depressing and uplifting. And about the important things in life.

They tell me you can read a page at a glance, Basic English and Fortran, and remember it a decade from now, letter-perfect in a cafe with the band playing. You know enough to converse intelligently with experts in a hundred specialized disciplines, and direct their work for maximum efficiency. They trained and sleep-taught and indoctrinated you in logical and non-logical analysis until you were eight, stuffed you with data until you were twelve, gave you four years to integrate it and then put you to work at sixteen. Only you didn't work.

Genetic manipulation allows future governments to create super-intelligent individuals in a test tube. The goal is to find solutions for over-population and exhausted natural resources. When the project fails, the teenage genius is sent to a holiday on a backwards, underdeveloped planet. I might point out here that the author has chosen to move from New York to Canada in the seventies, turning his back in his own way to a consumerist society.

High Infidelity is another subversive take on love, this time with a kinky twist, not only a scientific one. Prepare to be scandalized about role-playing between the sheets... or not! The title may be a play on words about one of my favorite books and movies by Nick Hornby.

Rubber Soul is weird and it's somehow connected to the Beatles song of the same name! I think I better leave it like this, unreviewed, and segue into the soundtrack listing that the collection prompted me to compile:

- The Beatles - "Norwegian Wood" (discussed in the story "True Minds": There's an old John Lennon song, 'Norwegian Wood.' I've always felt that he changed the title to avoid censorship. I think the song is about the nicest compliment a man can receive from a woman. Isn't it good? : 'knowing she would'. )
- The Beatles - "Happiness is a Warm Gun"
- The Lovin' Spoonful - "Daydream"
- The 5th Dimension - "Aquarius, Let the Sunshine In"
- Melanie - "Brand New Key"
- Barry McGuire - "Eve of Destruction"
- Marvin Gaye - "Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)"
- Edison Lighthouse - "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)"
- Arlo Guthrie - " Alice's Rock'n Roll Restaurant"

The last song is also an invitation to go visit Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and buy the author a beer if you happen to be in the neighborhood.
Cheers!

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of a bakers' dozen of Robinson's short fiction, much of which was previously collected in Antinomy. The award-winning title story is an interesting look at copyright, and they're fun stories, laced with sentiment and puns, and a couple of scenes with surprisingly graphic sex. I particularly like the Jill Bauman cover. My favorite story is Rubber Soul, heartily recommended to Beatles fans.

[Foxthyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something about Spider's writing that always gets me. His characters actually love and care about each other. Took me a while to realize how uncommon this is in most literary, fiction, sf, f, or spec writing.

Plus he's got some twisted stories in this collection.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll never forget January 1986. I had my first observing run on Mauna Kea better 19 and 24 January, with the last 5 clear nights of successfully data acquisition forming the basis for my PhD thesis. (The first night was lost to high humidity - I didn't sleep much after that first night worrying about what would happen if my entire run was weathered out!)

At the encouragement of my thesis advisor, after coming down the mountain I took a few days off to explore the Big Island. After driving around the Island twice on consecutive days (in opposite directions), I remember thinking how cool it would be to work and live there. Six years later I was lucky enough to do just that for more than 4 years.

Finally, after the overnight flight from Honolulu to Toronto via Denver I walked into the Denver terminal between flights to see news of the Challenger space shuttle disaster.

And for some reason I remember reading this collection of short stories in the Waimea hotel the night I came down from the 14,000-foot summit. Likely in one sitting since I probably couldn't sleep because of all of the oxygen closer to sea level. The title story and Rubber Soul always stuck with me and it was fun revisiting these stories (yikes!) 36 years later.

My other memorable Big Island trip? Coming down from the summit late in the day on 9/10/2001 after another observing run in anticipation of a morning flight back to Victoria on 9/11...

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title piece, the Hugo award winning (1983) short story Melancholy Elephants, is quite an interesting view on copyrighting and it's impact on art and creativity in a future where, due to technology and automation, more and more of humanity is free to pursue careers as artists.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd been wanting to re-read something by Spider for a while, so picked Melancholy Elephants off the bookshelf.

These stories are perhaps more thought-provoking than his best known series: Callahan's. The titular story examines how perpetual copyright may impoverish the human spirit, while the last story, "Satan's Children" discusses the effects of an actual truth serum. "Half an Oaf" and "Chronic Offender" provide the humour that leavens this collection; however, I think "Rubber Soul" is perhaps my favorite of the collection, if not of all his short stories... and the one I wish most that were true.

Recommended to SR fans looking for something beyond Callahan's bar.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories dated and lose their impact.

[Jon]

Melancholy Elephants is a collection of Spider's short stories, mostly reprinted from his earlier collection, Antinomy. The title story is a cautionary tale about the dangers of legislating eternal copyrights for creators. The premise is that there are a finite number of stories that can be told, or melodies composed, and that when those are all used up, the human race could suffer from fatal depression. There's several tongue-in-cheek time travel stories, Half an Oaf, Chronic Offender and Father Paradox.

Robinson also includes a in-joke type of story for all you Beatles fans out there, Rubber Soul, about John Lennon being resurrected someday. High Infidelity, a story about one human aspect of brain transplant technology, contains some rather racy scenes. Spider also returns to a theme he finds fascinating in Satan's Children. An Abby Hoffman-like figure creates a drug that is the ultimate truth serum. What happens to the world when it is widely dispersed becomes another singularity event. From that tale,

"Even those of us who pay only lip service to the truth know what it is, deep down in our hearts. And we all believe in it, and know it when we see it. Even the best rationalization can fool only the surface mind that manufactures it; there is something beneath, call it the heart or the conscience, that knows better. It tenses up like a stiff neck muscle when you lie, in proportion to the size of the lie, and if it stiffens enough it can kill you for revenge...Most people seem to me, in my cynical moments, to keep things stabilized at about the discomfort of a dislocated shoulder or a tooth about to abscess. They trade honesty off in small chunks for pleasurem and wonder that their lives hold so little joy."

Robinson occasionally approaches truth in his writing, and this books is a joy to read, for the most part.

[Kenya Starflight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd never read anything by Spider Robinson before spotting this book, though I'd heard he was a noted author in the science fiction genre. But with a name like Spider Robinson -- and a collection titled "Melancholy Elephants" -- how could I not be intrigued. And this collection is a fascinating and thoughtful assembly of science fiction stories, ranging from traditional space opera to time travel to hypothetical futures... some funny, some heartbreaking, and all entertaining.

Robinson's stories tend to be slower-paced than one might expect from science fiction -- his stories have a thoughtful tone to them, musing over the possibilities of their speculative scenarios and the questions they offer the reader. The title story gives us a future where a misguided copyright law could potentially destroy human creativity as we know it. "Half an Oaf" is a hilarious twist on time travel stories, while "In the Olden Days" is a frighteningly relevant story about how trying to resurrect the "good old days" could end up backfiring horribly. And while not every story is a winner ("High Infidelity" feels like an excuse to write smut), for the most part they're unique and interesting.

This collection has made me curious about other works by Spider Robinson, and seems to serve as a nice introduction to his work. I'll probably check out his longer novels now.

[Cynthia Egbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love short stories and I really love sci-fi short stories and these are great. I would rate this as 3.5 stars. The two best stories are the title story as well as Satan's Children. Warning, there are a couple of them that are sexual in nature, one graphically so, and there is no doubt that the stories are dated but I still loved them. They made me think and that is why I love science fiction. I mean, the loss of art because we hold copyrights too long and then litigate ourselves out of allowing any original thought. COOL STUFF! Glad I found this collection.

[D0bri K0vachev · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant exploration of human limitations, brilliantly depicting the finite nature of our senses and the constraints of interpreting information within our grasp, limited to binary comprehension. The story beautifully delves into the boundaries of human nature, seamlessly intertwining the discourse on copyright law with thought-provoking insights into our cognitive confines. It's a compelling narrative that eloquently captures the essence of our existential boundaries while advocating for a deeper understanding of the human condition within a digital age.

[Joel Hacker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I'm too hooked on Callahan's, maybe I just too recently read a Callahan, but this didn't hit the same way. Don't get me wrong, these have the expected Spider level of funny, ironic twist endings (a few puns), a focus on feelings and emotions of our characters as the focal point with the genre trappings as just framing devices. Still a solid collection, but just wasn't scratching the itch quite the same.
I think the only thing I didn't particularly enjoy was the weird two part story about the Beatles and out of body experiences.

[Wetdryvac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, seriously good shorts, though it duplicates many of the stories in another collection or two.

[Johny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the best stories:
Melancholy elephants
Antimony
Satan's Children
It's a sunny day
High Infidelity

[Jigme Datse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of "different" stories. Oddly, I found that the different stories were quite different. I just kind of liked that.

[Lucas · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it through three and a half stories filled with unsympathetic characters in unimaginative situations before abandoning this book.

[Jeremy Preacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of things I like about Spider Robinson's shorts. He's got a sympathetic way of looking at the world and human nature, in general, and he does some clever things. I particularly enjoy his willingness to write about sex frankly and with joy rather than disapproval - I was quite surprised by the couple of stories here that involve explicit sex, but they're well-handled in general.

It is writing of a very different era, though, and that creates some bumps for me. The more minor one is the set of cultural assumptions I just don't share. His "Concordiat to Rubber Soul" was not quite necessary for me - I figured out the basics of the story on my own - but I would never have caught 80% of the Beatles references it explains. There are also some distinctly early-80s attitudes towards race relations, New York City, and the general direction in which everything is heading in a handbasket that seem jarring at best.

The larger issue, for me, is that I just can't trust the work not to be wildly offensive to my modern sensibilities. "Chronic Offender," for example, is a) a clever time-travel story b) written in a stunty present-or-future-tense-only style c) and entirely in Guys and Dolls-era period slang d) including period-appropriate racial slurs. I am totally fine with a-c, and while b is, I think, unsuccessful, it's not terrible, but d kind of kills the story for me. Most of the gender issues are minor, and frankly vastly better than a lot of stuff of this era. but they're the sort of microaggression-style jabs that just make the whole piece feel like sandpaper.

So, short version, Robinson does what he does very well, but I have less of a taste for what he does these days.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories in this collection were outstanding. I thought that he got too cutesy in the one Beatles-themed story. Yes, Spider, the references were too obscure in a few cases, and the Concordance was needed, even for those of us who grew up on The Beatles.

The other story which was a bit weak was a time-travel story with an obvious punchline. The overall collection, though, was well worth reading, and included some imaginative twists on a variety of SF themes.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend read this story to me freshman year of college. Since then I've sought it out several more times, and recommended to numerous friends.

I think it's a better story when read without any spoilers or descriptions at all - so I'll leave you with the admonition to find and read Melancholy Elephants, and hope you trust me that it will be well worth your time.

[Stasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains an excellent story on the Copyright Legislation that is still being fought...

[QuoththeRaven · Rating 4 out of 5]

More short stories.

[bluetyson]

Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson (1985)

[Isblue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spider is an excellent short story writer. In my opinion, that's where he shines as a writer. This collection, like his others, is well worth tracking down.

[Jeff Yoak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice little story about the consequences of growing copyright in the future as lifespans (and artist count) increases. Enjoyable!

[Thing One · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spider writes with depth & compassion. Some of my favourite stories ever are in this ( or at least the Canadian Penguin version)

[Cynthia Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an essay on copyright wrapped in a short story and it made me cry.