Book Review: Rule-18 by Clifford D. Simak

 

Rule-18 by Clifford D. Simak

First published July 1, 1938 in Astounding magazine.

In Science Fiction there are few voices that are more old school than Clifford Simak. Known for blending Science Fiction concepts with a pastoral feeling Simak’s novels can feel timeless and dated simultaneously. His life as a small-town midwestern newspaperman made him out of date in a sense as he started writing Science Fiction in the 1930s.  His 1964 novel Way Station won the Hugo and it has that balance of breezy midwestern fields and a story out of joint with Space and Time itself.

Simak was not a huge fan of hard realistic Science Fiction as he thought that handcuffed or limited the imagination of writers. That is the main reason to read Simak, the ideas, and the staggering imagination. His masterwork in my mind is the fix-up novel City which was written in the late 40s and early 50s.

This story was Simak’s first attempt to sell a story to Astounding and John W. Campbell. All his work had been in Wonder Stories before that. This would not be a great story to judge Simak’s career by because it is not a common theme or style. First off the story is a comedy tale, it is meant to be funny even if it ends on a darker (and offensive) note.

The story is one Simak avoided re-printing, and despite winning a retro Hugo, it is remembered for a tangential reason. It is not the Hugo, which seems off as it was published one month before the superior Who Goes There? I know Campbell would not be a popular vote, but Who goes There is still having an impact.

I suppose an argument could be made that Rule-18 is still having an impact as long Asimov is being read, or Foundation is streaming on AppleTV. We might not have an Issac Asimov canon if not for his annoyance at Rule-18, which he wrote to Astounding  and said "I can't help sticking out my neck, so here goes a violent knock at Clifford D. Simak's story, 'Rule 18.' Aside from its general incoherence, I don't think sports and science mix.”

Now putting aside that as a modern football fan I imagine a young Asimov who probably had seen very little football was put off by all the sports jock talk. Simak on the other hand was a newspaperman who was probably covering football games. The Packers were already a thing in the area and he makes references to Minnesota playing Wisconsin.  The idea of a Mars vs Earth football game is really funny. Simak plays with the idea that he understood Mars might not have life, he is aware of the science of the time, but it is more fun for him to imagine the same type of Martian drylander that Edgar Rice Burroughs, CL Moore, and Leigh Brackett wrote about.

The hilarious concept was this, A rule you know the one, that players have to be native to the world they represent. For this reason, Mars is dominating like the Patriots in AFC east during the Brady years. You know Earth only breeds weak button-pushing computer jockeys. So how does Coach Snelling get around these rules?  Time tunnel baby!

This story is hilarious, the thing that challenged a teenage Asimov, the story features a variety of characters, and doesn’t stick with one completely. The reporter trying to get the scoop for the paper with the visaglass pictures is Hap Falsworth.

The story is a funny time capsule of the time and ends with a dark twist that is more than a little offensive and racist (albeit the POV of the character – not the author) nonetheless. The lasting impact is that Clifford Simak saw Asimov’s address in the magazine and wrote him to ask, hey what is your problem with my story – he wanted feedback.

Re-reading the story to write the letter was a revelation to Asimov he even wrote about it in his memoir. A friendship over letters and conventions happened and loose mentorship let to the dude who in a few years was writing Foundation.  

Rule-18 divorced from the Asimov impact is not exactly a story that needs to be canon, although the role it played in the history of the genre makes it canon. I mean the story is funny, I laughed many times reading it. It is not just the silly out-date 30s SF stuff like Visa-a-glass newspapers, Vensus weed cigars, it has some funny observations about football and SF. It also marks the first Astounding appearance of a major voice in the genre.

The story is free here:
Read here

If you want more details and commentary stay tuned for an episode of my podcast devoted to this story featuring SF historian Alec Nevala-Lee and SF podcaster Seth Healsey.  Coming soon. Follow Poastcards from a Dying World on your podcatcher...