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A review by myxomycetes
The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
4.0
I can’t help but read this as “The Languages of POW!”.
Vance has fun in this novel playing with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, but really that’s the side attraction to the usual Vancian loopiness where everything important gets done with “punctilio”. Also present are the standard “elite of amoral supermen” that were so popular in 1950s SF. Vance deflates his supermen, making them rather silly, kind of like Gandalf by way of Hugh Hefner. (I’d posit that Hugh Hefner was a huge influence on 1950s and 60s SF.) Also short. Have I mentioned how much I miss the 50,000 word novel?
Vance has fun in this novel playing with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, but really that’s the side attraction to the usual Vancian loopiness where everything important gets done with “punctilio”. Also present are the standard “elite of amoral supermen” that were so popular in 1950s SF. Vance deflates his supermen, making them rather silly, kind of like Gandalf by way of Hugh Hefner. (I’d posit that Hugh Hefner was a huge influence on 1950s and 60s SF.) Also short. Have I mentioned how much I miss the 50,000 word novel?