"Murray Leinster - The Best of Murray Leinster (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leinster Murray)

mere classroom exercises.
An admirer of Thomas Aquinas, Leinster believed that there is a natural
order in the universe. In "The Ethical Equations," for instance, he even
suggests the possibility of a natural moral order in the imagined
"mathematical proof that certain patterns of conduct increase the probability
of certain kinds of coincidences."
But he was never heavy-handed about presenting his philosophy in
fiction. One of, his Med Service stories, concerning a doctor who deals with
medical emergencies on far planets, quoted witty aphorisms from an imaginary
book called The Practice of Thinking, by Fitzgerald. Intrigued readers
pestered him for years afterward with inquiries about where they could obtain
the book.
Nor did he ever forget ordinary human touches. On his interstellar
ships, there are recorded sounds: "the sound of rain, and of traffic, and of
wind in treetops and voices too faint for the words to be distinguished, and
almost inaudible music-and sometimes laughter. The background tape carried no
information; only the assurance that there were still worlds with clouds and
people and creatures moving about on them."
Leinster saw no necessary conflict between reason and human emotional
needs, but he was fully aware of the irrational in man and the evil men do.
"Keyhole" is an emotional story, in which it is very fortunate for Butch and
his kind that they are able to offer men a "reason" for, leaving them in
peace. A convert to Catholicism, Leinster never mentioned religion in his sf,
never sought to preach-but the idea of sin is certainly there.
"First Contact" is the most famous of Leinster's stories of encounters
between men and aliens. Here he sees them sharing the same weaknesses-fear,
greed, and mistrust-but also the same strength of intelligent life everywhere:
the ability to use reason to overcome their own weaknesses as -well as the
problems of their environment. The story earned Leinster a place in The
Science Fiction Hall of Fame, a volume of stories voted the classics of all
time by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
"First Contact" also occasioned a minor ideological flap in 1959, when
Soviet sf writer Ivan Yefremov published "The Heart of the Serpent," a story
in which humans and aliens make friendly contact and don't have any problems
because they're all good Communists. A character in Yefremov's story speaks
disparagingly of "First Contact," and sees in its author "the heart of a
poisonous' snake." Characteristically modest and gentlemanly, Leinster refused
to be drawn into a debate, and on one occasion expressed more disturbance over
Yetremov's apparent prejudice against snakes than over any criticism of
himself.
It would take a very casua1 reader to suspect Leinster of xenophobia.
"Proxima Centauri" was as close as be came to the BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster) story
in which innocent humans are threatened by the monsters. And even in this
case, the aliens have a very specific-~and logical-reason for being a threat
to their human visitors. One might almost view the conflict as the unfortunate
by-product of a local environmental crisis.
In "The Lonely Planet," by contrast, the grim moments are all caused by
the ignorance, malice, greed, and downright stupidity of humans. Leinster's
sympathy for the world-brain of Alyx is characteristic of him-and of science
fiction generally for the last forty years. There are those, not too well