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Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
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The Last Flight of Doctor Ain
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This first story in the collection looks to be the oldest, I think it's the shortest as well, and it's Tiptree's first award nomination (Nebula Award, 1969.)
The story chronicles the final journey of Doctor Ain, who apparently went from Omaha to a conference in Moscow, via long route, and then home again by completing the circuit around the globe. It's written in the form of some sort of investigative report, with a touch of omniscience. The narration also acknowledges the "presence" of an unseen lady accompanying him.
A dark story.
(view spoiler)
There's only one character in the story, and he's not exactly overdeveloped. Ain seems to hate everybody he makes eye contact with, returning the same hostile glare. At first I thought that was because he was being furtive and didn't want to be recognized or even noticed, but eventually I decided he just hated everyone. (Good strategy, saves time.)
***
The story chronicles the final journey of Doctor Ain, who apparently went from Omaha to a conference in Moscow, via long route, and then home again by completing the circuit around the globe. It's written in the form of some sort of investigative report, with a touch of omniscience. The narration also acknowledges the "presence" of an unseen lady accompanying him.
A dark story.
(view spoiler)
There's only one character in the story, and he's not exactly overdeveloped. Ain seems to hate everybody he makes eye contact with, returning the same hostile glare. At first I thought that was because he was being furtive and didn't want to be recognized or even noticed, but eventually I decided he just hated everyone. (Good strategy, saves time.)
***
Interesting, I didn't really think too much about identifying the point of view here -- "omniscient narrator" seems like a common enough fiction trope, although the way the narrator reports the interrogation of the witnesses (did they see Dr. Ain? how about the woman?) might imply lack of omniscience. (view spoiler)
SPOILERS
Hillary wrote: "but the pov with its description of questioning the witnesses afterward almost convinced me that they were going to survive contact with him...."
The questioning of those witnesses might have been carried out on some of the early patients while they were still alive, by some sort of CDC-like investigator.
Hillary wrote: "I didn't really think too much about identifying the point of view here -- "omniscient narrator" seems like a common enough fiction trope, although the way the narrator reports the interrogation of the witnesses..."
In most ways, the story is meant to resemble some sort of after-the-fact report. But from time to time it made assertions it couldn't justify by facts placed in evidence. The mysterious woman is probably the most glaring, since there is no woman. Why does the report's author even refer to a woman without any evidence she exists?
The unseen "woman" is even described several times, first as being, "wounded, dying woman." Later, "women was weaker now," and later she is described as getting better. All observations reported without any actual witness.
Late in the story were told about Ain's final actions & words when he's been left alone and forgotten in a hospital room.
And there's the early remark, "Ain was not identified en route to New York, but a 240 get carried an ‘Ames’ on the checklist, which was thought to be a misspelling of Ain. It was. The plane had circled for an hour while Ain watched the smokey seaboard monotonously tilt, straighten, and tilt again." Explicitly stating there were no witnesses yet reporting knowledge of Ain's actions.
So there is a hint of omniscience behind the report, despite its also reporting specific witness accounts. It sort of drops in some omniscience whenever it's convenient.
In some ways Ain's PoV reminded me of a sci-fi story I either watched or read somewhere that reported the Earth was a very nice planet except for a thin layer of biological scum on the surface. (Sadly, I have no idea where I'm remembering that from.)
Hillary wrote: "but the pov with its description of questioning the witnesses afterward almost convinced me that they were going to survive contact with him...."
The questioning of those witnesses might have been carried out on some of the early patients while they were still alive, by some sort of CDC-like investigator.
Hillary wrote: "I didn't really think too much about identifying the point of view here -- "omniscient narrator" seems like a common enough fiction trope, although the way the narrator reports the interrogation of the witnesses..."
In most ways, the story is meant to resemble some sort of after-the-fact report. But from time to time it made assertions it couldn't justify by facts placed in evidence. The mysterious woman is probably the most glaring, since there is no woman. Why does the report's author even refer to a woman without any evidence she exists?
The unseen "woman" is even described several times, first as being, "wounded, dying woman." Later, "women was weaker now," and later she is described as getting better. All observations reported without any actual witness.
Late in the story were told about Ain's final actions & words when he's been left alone and forgotten in a hospital room.
And there's the early remark, "Ain was not identified en route to New York, but a 240 get carried an ‘Ames’ on the checklist, which was thought to be a misspelling of Ain. It was. The plane had circled for an hour while Ain watched the smokey seaboard monotonously tilt, straighten, and tilt again." Explicitly stating there were no witnesses yet reporting knowledge of Ain's actions.
So there is a hint of omniscience behind the report, despite its also reporting specific witness accounts. It sort of drops in some omniscience whenever it's convenient.
In some ways Ain's PoV reminded me of a sci-fi story I either watched or read somewhere that reported the Earth was a very nice planet except for a thin layer of biological scum on the surface. (Sadly, I have no idea where I'm remembering that from.)
continuing the spoilersG33z3r wrote: The questioning of those witnesses might have been carried out on some of the early patients while they were still alive, by some sort of CDC-like investigator.
Yes, ultimately I think I err on the side of "omniscient author" POV who knows about such investigations & about Ain's perceptions/hallucinations. However, if we "trust" the narrator, the opening description of the woman as wounded and dying makes me wonder if Ain's "cure" has come too late.
G33z3r wrote: "The mysterious woman is probably the most glaring, since there is no woman."Just a guess: I read most reference to the woman as "mother earth (gaia)".
Andreas wrote: "G33z3r wrote: "The mysterious woman is probably the most glaring, since there is no woman."
Just a guess: I read most reference to the woman as "mother earth (gaia)"."
Yeah, I get that. My point was that since the woman isn't real (physically manifest), a CDC/FBI/Interpol investigative report that mentions the woman makes no sense, precisely because she's not really there (Consistently, no witnesses saw a woman, though the report keeps talking about the woman.) She's all in Dr. Ain's head. It especially makes no sense that whoever the mysterious author of this report is can describe the woman's condition at various times; again, since she doesn't exist. Even if you assume the report's author had some unrevealed information to cause him/her to look for a woman, since they never found one, they could hardly comment on her appearance. So the author of the report is someone who has imitated the format of a investigative report, and supplemented it with omniscient information from inside Dr. Ain's mind, Or at least shares a delusion with Ain.
Just a guess: I read most reference to the woman as "mother earth (gaia)"."
Yeah, I get that. My point was that since the woman isn't real (physically manifest), a CDC/FBI/Interpol investigative report that mentions the woman makes no sense, precisely because she's not really there (Consistently, no witnesses saw a woman, though the report keeps talking about the woman.) She's all in Dr. Ain's head. It especially makes no sense that whoever the mysterious author of this report is can describe the woman's condition at various times; again, since she doesn't exist. Even if you assume the report's author had some unrevealed information to cause him/her to look for a woman, since they never found one, they could hardly comment on her appearance. So the author of the report is someone who has imitated the format of a investigative report, and supplemented it with omniscient information from inside Dr. Ain's mind, Or at least shares a delusion with Ain.
I also wondered about the narrator's role. The story reads like a CIA operative report – given Alice Sheldon’s background as a founding member of the CIA, it feels authentic. But I didn’t understand who was investigating, because humanity will have been whiped out, and nobody would care about the threat report. A dense, dark story.
This one reminded me of the movie 12 Monkeys. Also, wonder if there was significance to the name "C. Ain"?
The Last Flight of Doctor Ain by James Tiptree Jr.
This story is part of the group discussion of James Tiptree Jr.'s short story collection Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. (See the discussion hub topic for more info.)