Science Fiction Book Club
Interview with Paul Levinson
(October 2024)
Our expert is Paul Levinson, a writer, singer-songwriter,
and professor of communications and media studies. Levinson has been
interviewed more than 500 times as a commentator on media, popular culture, and
science fiction. He wrote an essay “Knowing Hal,” for the collection “Hal's
Worlds: Stories and Essays in Memory of Hal Clement.”
Matt Taylor: How long after Mission of Gravity was published serially did Clement write the extended ending?
John G: I’m pinch hitting and answering some of the questions.
Matt and I figured it out. He has the 2002 Omnibus “Heavy Planet” which
features “Mission of Gravity” it’s sequel “Star Light” and a novella “Under”
(from 2000) which is an epilogue to Mission of Gravity. The omnibus also has “Lecture
Demonstration” another story that takes place on the planet Mesklin and “Whirligig
World” which is an essay Clement wrote about his approach to writing science
fiction.
John Grayshaw: How did his military service influence his
writing? Was he the only Science Fiction writer that witnessed a nuclear bomb detonation?
John G: During WWII Clement was a pilot and copilot of a
B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe. After the war, he
served in the United States Air Force Reserve and retired with the rank of
colonel.
In a 1996 interview with Warren Lapine, Clement talked in detail
about being at a test detonation of a nuclear bomb in 1953. He said, “I was an
instructor at the nuclear weapons school at Sandia Base. One of the courses I
was teaching was weapons effects. It occurred to some official that I ought to
go see what some of the effects were. So, there I was in a trench out in the
Nevada desert about four thousand yards from a tower with a forty kiloton
weapon mounted to it.”
And here is his description of after it went off. “I had figured out
the sort of things that I could expect to have happen. It would be ten or
twelve seconds before the sound wave got to me and that sort of stuff. I
watched my luminous watch and all of sudden I didn’t need the luminous part to
see it. Everything turned into daylight. If you’ve seen burning magnesium you
have a general idea of it. So, I knew the thing had gone off and I proceeded to
start counting down ten seconds or so before the sound wave got to me. I have
to admit that I was taken by surprise when I shouldn’t have been. I’d had a
perfectly good course in seismology a few years before. Between two and three
seconds the whole trench rocked back and forth as the seismic wave hit. I
figured out what had happened immediately, so I wasn’t panicked. Then I waited
for the rest of the count and the sound wave got to us. There is no real way to
describe it, all you can do is use words like extremely loud. I recognized
another phenomenon which no one had told me about before, but I should have
thought of. They tell you that in sound waves the motion of the air molecules
along the path of the wave is very very tiny. It’s the wave itself that does
most of the moving. This is true, if you’re not talking about a sound wave with
a period of more than a whole second. With something like that, the molecules
move quite a bit, so a wind came from the tower side of the trench and dumped
some dirt down my neck. Then the return wave, the low-pressure side of the wave
lasted a good deal longer because the high-pressure side could get up to two or
three or ten times atmospheric pressure, but there was no way for the lower
side to get below zero pressure. So the time had to stretch out, and there was
an even longer low-pressure phase and that swept a good deal of dirt from the
backside of the trench down my neck. After that the P.A. came on and they told
us we could get up. We went up and looked at the mushroom cloud. The stem was
just joining the head. It was as you’ve seen in pictures. The reddish brown of
oxides of nitrogen was quite visible and there was a blue ionization glow. It
was worth watching and I don’t think anyone said anything for quite a while as
it went on up. “
John Grayshaw: What makes Clement interesting from a critical
perspective?
Paul L: I would say Hal Clement is more than interesting
from a critical perspective – he and his work are crucially important to any
critical perspective. As an author
frequently published in Analog – more than 15 times – I frequently heard
the Editor, Stanley Schmidt, explain the kind of stories he was looking
for. In a word, they were stories in
which science itself was the essential bedrock and decisive structure of the
story. Hal Clement defined and excelled
in such narratives. Hal was a frequent contributor to Astounding, the
original name of Analog, and to Analog as well. Although he
wasn’t as well-known as Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke, Hal Clement was much more
of a nuts-and-bolts science fiction author.
John Grayshaw: What do you feel are Clement’s most significant works? And why?
Paul L: Mission of Gravity is the epitome of hard
science fiction – a fiction in which science plays a central, decisive role in
a story, or in the reader’s understanding of a story.
John Grayshaw: Do you have personal favorites of his work? And
why?
Paul L: It would have to be Mission of Gravity,
because, again, it’s such a perfect tableau of why science fiction is called science
fiction. It’s a great place to start reading Hal Clement, if you’re new to his
work.
John Grayshaw: What are some of Clement’s works that you feel should be better known than they
are?
Paul L: Again, Mission of Gravity should be read by
anyone who is interested in what the sub-genre of hard science fiction really
is. And, come to think of it, just about
anything written by Hal Clement.
John G: James Davis Nicoll talks about some of Clement’s
other stories in an article “Hal Clement at 100”
“Iceworld”- Sallman Ken a science teacher from the planet Sarr,
is recruited to assist law enforcement in tracking down the source of a
troublesome new narcotic plaguing galactic civilization. Very little is known
about the substance, save that it is highly addictive, and it has to be kept
under extreme refrigeration until use. Normal room temperature evaporates the
substance almost instantly.
“Close to Critical”- Humans and aliens have been content to
monitor the planet Tenebra from orbit. Almost 30 times as massive as Earth,
with surface temperatures almost 400 degrees Celsius and air pressure hundreds
of times that of Earth’s, the planet would kill any exposed human instantly.
Even an advanced bathyscaphe would only preserve life for a time. This is not
theoretical consideration, for young Aminadorneldo, the son of the ambassador
from planet Droom, and his Terran friend Easy Rich, who through a series of
misadventures, become marooned on Tenebra’s surface in such a bathyscaphe.
“Noise”- Lit by Twin red dwarf stars, the close-orbiting worlds
Kainui and Kaihapa are home to oceans 2700 kilometres deep. There is no land.
No life ever evolved in the twins’ acidic oceans. And yet human settlers were
able to survive on the planet but they have been content to ignore the rest of
the galaxy. Terran linguist Mike Hoani arrives, determined to document Kainui’s
languages. His mission will require him to live as the locals do and if he is
foolish or unlucky, to die as the locals do.
And I would add one of my favorites to the list “Needle”- the
Hunter, an alien lifeform (when not inside another being, resembling a
four-pound green jellyfish ) with the ability to live in symbiosis with and
within another creature, is in hot pursuit of another of his kind. Both crash
their ships into Earth, in the Pacific Ocean, and both survive the crashes. The
Hunter makes its way to shore (its erstwhile host having been killed in the
crash) and take up residence in the nearest human being it can find who turns
out to be a fifteen-year-old boy.
John Grayshaw: Who were some of the writers Clement grew up
reading?
Paul L: I’m not sure I ever talked to Hal specifically
about that, but H. G. Wells, and Jules Verne, for sure.
John G: I found a 12-page interview with Hal Clement about
A.E. van Vogt. So, he was certainly one Clement read as well.
John Grayshaw: Clement said in an interview “Students
occasionally brought in my stuff for autographing. My writing was common
knowledge, reaction ranging from near-disbelief to a shrugged-at ‘everyone’s
old man does something!’” Was Clement always so nonchalant about his writing?
Paul L: Yes, Hal Clement was the most nonchalant master of
science fiction I’ve ever seen or gotten to know. He had a smile, a warmth, that instantly put
you at ease.
John Grayshaw: What kind of research did Clement do for his
books?
Paul L: I don’t know this for sure, but, as far as I know,
Hal didn’t do much research. He was
already very well versed in the science that was the backbone of his science
fiction.
John G: In the 1996 interview with Warren Lapine, Clement
was asked how he kept up with technological advances and he said “With difficulty.
I subscribe to Scientific American, and I’m a member of the New England Science
Museum and I get their publications. I keep my ears open at conventions which
are attended by a fair number of competent scientists. Of course, a fair number
of people try to sound out their new theories on me. I get a great deal of fun
out of trying to decide how these jibe with what we already think we know.”
John Grayshaw: Any stories about Clement attending
conventions?
Paul L: Yes, I brought my daughter, around 9-10 years old,
to a Boskone. Would’ve been in the
1990s. I went downstairs from our room
to get some snacks, and there was fire alarm. I was on the ground floor, our
room was up on the 8th floor, and the elevators weren’t
working. I didn’t have a cellphone
then. The fire alarm turned out to be a
false alarm, the elevators started working again, and I hurried back up to my
room. My daughter told me that she had
walked out in the hall, and Hal was in the hall, too. I had earlier introduced her to Hal, when we
first got to the convention. So, when
she saw Hal in the hall, she asked him if he knew where I was. She told me, he replied, “Oh, if I know your
father, he’s probably downstairs selling his books.” And that instantly made her feel better.
John Grayshaw: What are some of the most interesting things
you’ve
found in your research of Clement?
Paul L: Not from my research, but Hal once told me that
his wife told him she was ok with him spending money, if necessary, to attend
science fiction conventions, etc., as long as that money came from his previous
earnings from selling science fiction stories, advances for novels, etc.
John Grayshaw: Are any of Clement’s works under option for movies or TV?
Paul L: None that I know of, and none listed on IMDb as up
and coming. Which is unfortunate – Hal’s
stories would make excellent movies.
John Grayshaw: Did Clement have any particular writing habits
or routines he stuck with?
John G: In a 1999 article with H.L. Drake, Drake asks him
if he’s someone that has a set schedule every day and Clement answers, “No. I
am one of the least organized people you could ever find. In the morning, I get
up and putter around and do things that have to be done in the house or outside
the house, like mowing the lawn. Then, I’m commonly thinking off and on, even
then of what’s going to be written. In the afternoon, I gradually start
building up my firmness to get upstairs to the computer and by evening I
usually manage.” Then he goes into more detail about his computer, “Yes, I
bought the computer after five or six months of investigation in 1984, and I’m
still using the same one.”
John Grayshaw: What is Clement’s legacy? Why was his work significant at the time? And
why is it still important today?
Paul L: His legacy is there’s a need and a thirst for hard
science fiction. There are many people
out there with a love of science, but for one reason or another, they don’t end
up pursuing that love in their life’s work.
Hard science fiction is especially satisfying to them, as well as to
working scientists. It’s a great way of
educating people in science. And Hal
Clement’s work has inspired some important current writers, such as John Stith,
whose novel Redshift Rendezvous hinges on a scientific understanding
about how travelling faster than the speed of light could change the way people
move and live (and die) on such a fast-traveling vessel.
