{"id":925,"date":"2019-09-20T00:05:44","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T05:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=925"},"modified":"2025-05-05T23:09:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T04:09:47","slug":"40th-anniversary-prometheus-celebration-an-appreciation-of-f-paul-wilsons-wheels-within-wheels-the-first-award-winner-in-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/40th-anniversary-prometheus-celebration-an-appreciation-of-f-paul-wilsons-wheels-within-wheels-the-first-award-winner-in-1979\/","title":{"rendered":"Galactic intrigue and how markets can reduce inequality and bigotry: An Appreciation of F. Paul Wilson\u2019s Wheels within Wheels, the first Prometheus award winner in 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction: To highlight the four-decade history of the Prometheus Awards, which the Libertarian Futurist Society is celebrating in 2019, we are posting a series of weekly Appreciations of past Prometheus Award-winners, starting with our earliest Best Novel awards.
\nHere\u2019s the first Appreciation for F. Paul Wilson\u2019s Wheels within Wheels,<\/em> which won the first Prometheus Award in 1979.
\nAt the end, we also include a few recent comments by Wilson, looking back 40 years at the very-different era and context in which he wrote his novel.<\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0An sf murder mystery hailed by the Library Journal\u00a0<\/em>for its \u201ccleverly planted clues\u201d and \u201call the satisfaction of a good Agatha Christie,\u201d this 1978 novel was the first work of fiction to receive the Prometheus Award, initially established by writer L. Neil Smith to recognize more libertarian sf fiction.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With the benefit of hindsight, looking back at Wilson\u2019s work from the perspective of the 40th<\/sup>anniversary of the Prometheus Awards in 2019, one appreciates this novel even more as part of a fascinating larger whole: Wilson\u2019s LaNague Federation series, set in an interstellar future in which an imperialist central State is toppled by a decentralized libertarian social order that unleashes an era of peace, prosperity, progress and broad respect for individual rights.<\/p>\n


\nAt the center of Wheels within Wheels\u00a0<\/em>is a conspiracy threatening the freedoms guaranteed for Federation planets by the LaNague Charter, intertwined with a mystery about the Vanek, gentle pacifistic people who, contrary to logic, claim to have murdered the father of Jo, a woman who\u2019s the CEO of a multi-planetary company.<\/p>\n

Jo joins forces with mysterious Old Peter to counter the devious efforts of a shrewd Federation politician. The pair is threatened by dangerous psionic forces in a fast-paced story with clever twists that interweaves sophisticated insights about free-market economics and business with political intrigue, war and plausible sf tropes.<\/p>\n

One example, part of Jo\u2019s interior monologue, underlines the libertarian view that the market economy is really only one dimension of freedom, more broadly and properly viewed as a humanistic nexus embracing both physical and spiritual dimensions:
\n\u00a0 \u00a0The market. To some people it was the place where stocks and bonds were traded; to others it was the local food store. But these formed only a miniscule part of the market,\u201d <\/em>Jo thought.
\n\u201cFor the market was life itself, and the free market was free life, the active expression of volitional existence… every interaction and transaction \u2013 be it social, moral or monetary.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although a power-mad villain and leader of the statist Restructurist movement, the politician has a high level of self-awareness coupled with arrogance, revealed in an interior monologue:
\n\u00a0 \u00a0He\u2019d also have to contend with that other breed of nay-sayer: the ones who would point to history and say that economics and societies controlled from the top have never succeeded; that the impetus for a society must come from within, not from above. But he knew that no society in history had ever had a man such as (him) at its helm. Where others have failed, he could succeed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Old Peter warns Jo:
\n\u00a0 \u00a0If you look at the history of old Earth, you\u2019ll find that very seldom, if ever, is any increase in government power temporary…. Your grandfather and I were able to make IBA <\/em>[a successful interstellar enterprise]\u00a0a going concern because of the Fed\u2019s hands-off policy toward any voluntary transactions. It\u2019s my personal belief that we Terrans have come as far as we have in the last couple of centuries because of that policy… I don\u2019t want to see the Federation regress toward empire \u2013 it arose from the ashes of another empire \u2013 but I see it looming in the future if the Restructurists have their way.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most reviews and discussions of the novel don\u2019t highlight enough how Wilson\u2019s libertarian vision condemns bigotry and racism (against the Vanek) while also affirming the empowerment of women.<\/p>\n

Both in the intricate plot and its realistic but noble themes, Wilson dramatizes how the spread of free-market capitalism, and the technological innovations it unleashes, tends to promote greater functional social equality, the liberation of women and a reduction in racist behavior by making bigotry more costly and unprofitable through competition (or boycotts) in the marketplace.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"<\/a>Driving the complex plot are subtle but powerful economic and political forces that Wilson both dramatizes and explains with fresh insights, often through leading characters\u2019 thoughts:<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 The free market was neither good nor evil, selfish nor generous, moral nor immoral…. It played no favorites and bore no grudges. It had its own ecology, regulated by the inexorable laws of supply and demand, which were in turn determined by the day-to-day activities of every intelligent creature who interacted with another intelligent creature… The market\u2019s urge toward a balanced ecology was indomitable. It could be warped, skewed, stretched, contracted, puffed up, and deflated by those who wanted to control it, and thereby control its participants; but not for too long. It always sought and found its own level. And if manipulators \u2013 invariably governmental \u2013 prevented it from finding its true level for too long, a great mass of people suffered when it finally burst through the dams erected against it. LaNague had taught the outworlds that bitter lesson.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
F. Paul Wilson (Creative Commons Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A final observation for historic perspective:<\/strong> Much has changed in the half-century since the mid-1970s, when Wilson was writing his early novel.<\/p>\n

Looking back recently at his early effort, Wilson offered these comments about why he felt then that it was necessary to include some \u201cdidactic\u201d aspects in his novel (such as the interior-monologue excerpts quoted above):
\n\u201cWheels\u00a0<\/em>was written through 1976, sold in 1977, and pubbed in 1978.\u00a0 People these days don’t realize (or have forgotten) that talk radio, as it is today, didn’t exist.\u00a0Today you hear hosts discussing market forces and such all the time.\u00a0 Back then it was never mentioned,\u201d Wilson wrote in an e-mail.
\n\u201cBack in the mid-70s we’d just come off years of Nixon’s price controls and his disallowing further conversion of dollars into gold.\u00a0 Inflation in 1974 was 11%! (and 9% in ’75) from the government fucking with the economy.\u00a0\u00a0Free-market capitalism was an alien concept back then, and where better to introduce an alien concept than SF?\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0<\/strong>Wilson\u2019s LaNague Federation series can be read in any order, and includes Healer\u00a0<\/em>(the 1990 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner); An Enemy of the State\u00a0<\/em>(the 1991 Hall of Fame winner); Dydeetown World; <\/em>and several related stories. Wilson also won a Prometheus Award for Best Novel for Sims<\/em> in 2004 and a Special Prometheus Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015.<\/p>\n

* See the LFS interview<\/strong><\/a> with F. Paul Wilson (from the Volume 29, Number 3 Spring 2011 issue of the old Prometheus print quarterly)<\/p>\n

* Up next in this 40th Anniversary Prometheus Awards Appreciation series:\u00a0<\/strong>A 40th\u00a0<\/sup>Anniversary Celebration appreciation of the second novel to be recognized with a Prometheus Award: \u00a0L. Neil Smith\u2019s The Probability Broach, <\/em>the 1982 winner for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

* See related introductory essay<\/a> about the LFS\u2019 40th<\/sup>anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards\u2019 four-decade history.<\/p>\n

* Other Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For a full list of winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the Prometheus Awards honor-roll page<\/a> of the LFS website.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists believe cultural change is as vital as political change (and often more fun!) in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: To highlight the four-decade history of the Prometheus Awards, which the Libertarian Futurist Society is celebrating in 2019, we are posting a series of weekly Appreciations of past Prometheus Award-winners, starting with our earliest Best Novel awards. Here\u2019s the first Appreciation for F. Paul Wilson\u2019s Wheels within Wheels, which won the first Prometheus Award … Continue reading Galactic intrigue and how markets can reduce inequality and bigotry: An Appreciation of F. Paul Wilson\u2019s Wheels within Wheels, the first Prometheus award winner in 1979<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,159,2353,1910,8,35,2605,37],"tags":[74,71,70,73,16,72],"class_list":["post-925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-book-reviews","category-f-paul-wilson","category-review","category-selected-book-reviews","category-sequels","category-memorial-tributes","tag-an-enemy-of-the-state","tag-dydeetown-world","tag-f-paul-wilson","tag-healer","tag-prometheus-award","tag-wheels-within-wheels"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-eV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7582,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925\/revisions\/7582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}