Fizzy with ideas and brimming with American idealism, James Blish was widely recognized during the Golden Age of science fiction as a major writer.
One of his best novels, in my view, is The Star Dwellers, first published in 1961 and now nominated for the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for Best Classic Fiction.
Relatively short at 128 pages in the Avon Books paperback and clearly written as a so-called “SF juvenile” yet still rich with insights, Blish’s novel revolves around a fraught “second contact” between humans and an ancient, extremely advanced alien species.
Highlighted at the story’s center are the closely linked concepts of consent and contract – two of the most fundamental ideas at the foundation of both libertarianism and classical liberalism.
Powerfully but simply dramatizing how an agreement or deal or voluntary exchange benefits both parties, Blish’s novel dramatizes the morality, practicality and legitimacy of a breakthrough in understanding that leads to a historic agreement between humans and the “star dwellers.”
In particular, the novel shows how consent is not only mutually beneficial but also promotes peace and an end to violence. Blish zeroes in on the benevolent goals and beneficial consequences of voluntary interaction, especially compared to the coercion inherent in war and much State action.
AN IDEALISTIC FIRST CONTACT
Reflecting the expansive spirit of America’s early-1960s “new frontiers” idealism, The Star Dwellers revolves around a young space cadet Jack Loftus, who finds himself at the center of a pivotal moment in Earth history.
Serving on a small scout starship under the command of Captain Langer and alongside a more-experienced young crew member, nicknamed Sandbag, Jack unexpectedly finds himself alone when the other two men depart on a critical mission. Suddenly its Jack who faces the responsibility to try to communicate with the ancient energy beings that live inside stars.
Nicknamed “Angels” by the humans for their shimmering brilliance and resemblance to fluctuating miniature nebulas or plasma fields, the non-corporeal creatures are highly intelligent, playful and peaceful.
Jack forges a friendship with Hesperus, one of the youngest Angels at only four million years old – basically still a kid compared to his elders, some of who may have been around for the First Cause that gave birth to the universe.
That human-“angel” friendship between the two relative “youngsters” becomes the kernel of later negotiations and encounters between Earth leaders and the star dwellers, ultimately leading to a historic treaty of cooperation and peaceful co-existence.
When Jack and Hesperus interact with an elder representative of the Angels, Jack receives an apology about the human race that broadens into a revelatory explanation about how civilization itself is based on making “deals.”
“We misjudged you,” (the elder Angel) says slowly.
“We had concluded that no race as ephemeral as yours could have had time to develop a sense of justice.”
Hesperus adds: “I did not perceive this essential distinction either, First-Born…I was only practicing a concept that Jack taught me, called a deal.”
“Nevertheless, you were its agent. Jack, what is the nature of this concept?”
“It’s a kind of agreement in which each party gives something to the other,” Jack said.
“We regard it as fair only when each party feels that what he has received is as valuable, or more valuable, than what he has given.”
… Between individuals, this process is called bargaining. When it is done between races or nations, it is called making a treaty. And the major part of my mission to your nest is to make a treaty between your race and mine.”
BLISH’S CLUSTER OF POLITICAL INSIGHTS – ALL “LIBERTARIAN”
Like many of the best 1950s-1960s SF writers, Blish combined his positive view of individual liberty, consent and contract with a somewhat cynical realism about government regulations and bureaucracy.
Woven into the coming-of-age tale are several secondary libertarian themes – including support for free speech and opposition to censorship, and, perhaps most impressively for a 1960s author, explicit support for drug legalization that reveals Blish’s ahead-of-his-era understanding of the dangers of the War on Drugs and the counterproductive social and economic effects of Prohibition of any kind.
Somewhat matter of factly, Blish makes clear that profits and private enterprise are not dirty words. The story explicitly affirms early on that the spaceship is private that will end up making history.
“Well then, gentlemen, I ought to start by reminding you that Squadron Surgeon – the Probe and her companion vessels – is privately owned,” Langer says.
“They belong to McCrary Engineering, which is one of four large stockholder corporations specifically organized to exploit space travel and its by-products – expected and unexpected – for profit. The government has acknowledged our right to do so, and blessed it; it rightly recognizes that unless space travel eventually produces income of some kind, it will die of its inherently huge costliness.”
Such a pragmatic recognition of reality is reinforced by the response of the Earth Secretary for Space, to whom Langer is speaking.
“No argument there,” Secretary Hart said.
“It’s not a proper function of government to seek profits, or to tax citizens for red-ink operations like interstellar flight when there’s no return visible.”
While these various points and elements may at first seem disconnected from the rest of the novel, perhaps simply Blish weaving in some of his own views, they actually are tied together and extend the core libertarian theme to related issues.
A NOVEL OF ITS ERA BUT ALSO AHEAD OF ITS TIME
Roughly two decades before Steven Spielberg brought the idea of benevolent and advanced aliens to the screen and wider popular consciousness in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blish was already countering the then-common trope of “invaders from Mars” and other alien menaces with a more positive vision of intelligent aliens.
Today, more than six decades after its publication, the story and characters remain believable enough to hold up during the well-paced story. That’s true even though some of the “science” extrapolations and tropes common to 1950s-era SF now appear outmoded, as are several of the naive assumptions about the United Nations and the relatively one-dimensional and brief characterizations of Earth’s political leaders – all pretty much standard boiler plate for mid-20th-century science fiction.
Although some aspects of Blish’s world-building inevitably now seem dated, this charming underdog-triumphs novel still works pretty well, especially for younger generations who may not yet have been introduced to the ethical ideals implicit in voluntary exchange, free trade and free markets.
One asset of this sadly overlooked juvenile-SF classic is its sure-fire approach to gratifying younger readers by appealing directly to their hopes, dreams and ideals. In particular, The Star Dweller easily invites identification by adolescents and teenagers with its central character, a likable young man who manages to save the day.
As a juvenile SF novel, The Star Dwellers is simplified in its story, characterizations and themes. Intentionally so. That actually gives it more impact with its target audience of young readers. I know it had a major impact on me as a boy, introducing me for the first time to the radical notion that making a deal – or any voluntary exchange in a free market and free society – is ethical, beneficial to both sides and embodies both idealistic and spiritual dimensions to promote human flourishing.
Known during his heyday for stories that brim with ideas and ideals, Blish can come across as a bit preachy. But the brisk pace and concise structure of his tale makes it both engaging and ultimately endearing – for young and old.
THE KEY PASSAGE IS ILLUMINATING AND INSPIRING
The key passage in the novel, in my view, is simple but powerful, illuminating a basic but important truth that all too many people (including adults) still don’t understand.
When Jack tries to communicate with Hesperus, and struggles to overcome their radically different cultures and assumptions, the stakes are high. His fellow starship crew members, who left the ship on a high-risk mission, may now be stranded, lost and in danger of dying. So Jack desperately asks Hesperus to help him find his “two friends.”
And when Hesperus makes clear that he knows the “egg” (surrounding space capsule) where Jack’s friends Langer and Sandbag are, Jack asks the crucial question:
“Will you lead me to it?”
There’s a pregnant pause, made all the more significant by the fact that the star dwellers think “lightning-fast,” suggesting that the question sparked complex concerns and making “the wait” seem endless.
Finally, Hesperus responds:
“Will you take me to Earth with you?”
Clenching his teeth, Jack wrestles with the implications of that request, recognizing that “the strayed young Angel had grasped the concept of making a treaty” – while demanding a “frightening” price (i.e. the dangers of bringing the poorly understood aliens to Earth, after they’d already blown up a human starship by accident).
Finally, Jack makes the pivotal decision on which the fate of humanity ultimately will rest:
“All right, Hesperus… You’ve bought yourself a deal. Lead on.”
“I do not understand the words,” Hesperus responds.
Further conversation leads to understanding, and Jack recognizes his progress:
“He had educated one Angel in the concept of negotiation, at least… He had taught Hesperus the essence of making a deal.”
In fact, respecting the choices of consenting adults is a necessity in any free society, while contrary to many currents in modern culture, “capitalism” is not a dirty word. Nor is economics a purely materialistic subject based on greed, but is rather a normative science that recognizes that people interact, produce and trade to benefit themselves, their families and societies in multiple ways that are both material and spiritual.
“Civilization begins with the first voluntary act, and ends with the last,” as the bestselling 20th-century popular-history writers Will and Ariel Durant warned during their world-war-bracketed era’s disturbing trends toward collectivism, statism, communism, socialism, national socialism, fascism and other forms of authoritarianism.
That’s not civilized, but relying on voluntary exchange, free trade, consent and contracts is – a key libertarian insight that The Star Dwellers illuminates more than almost any other sf juvenile of its era or today.
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