the rediscovery of man by cordwainer smith

Soon Luci offers to play some new “smell recordings,” including one of a lamb chop, and asks Martel to identify it.

(I loved the SFnal reference to a “germ-burner.”) He also loves the sounds – he sings a Scanner song, delights in the swishing of Luci’s dress. The crisp freshness of the germ-burner, the odor of the dinner they had just eaten, the smells of clothes, furniture, of people themselves… Martel revels in his senses, especially smell (a Proustian touch?): Luci deploys the Cranching Wire after Martel asks her by writing with his “Talking Nail.” Now Martel can hear and feel and smell.

What follows is a sweet domestic scene, interlaid with more hints of future strangeness. Science and Sorcery (Fantasy Publishing, 1953), first reprint of “Scanners.” Cover art by Crozetti and Walter To feel again…” Alas, it is dangerous to cranch too often, and Martel has recently cranched. The next line introduces the first actual new word: “I tell you, I must cranch.” (The word has become a part of the vocabulary of some SF readers!) “Cranching,” we learn, is a process by which a Scanner temporarily regains access to his sensorium - as Martel puts it “to be a man again, hearing your voice, smelling smoke. And that a Scanner can talk but can’t hear himself talk, and thus his voice is unpleasant to other people – in Martel’s case particularly his wife Luci. The paragraph quickly makes it clear that Martel can see but not hear: “he… could tell by the expression on Luci’s face that the table must have made a loud crash ” and that he cannot feel his own body, or feel pain: “he looked down to see if his leg was broken.” And we learn that Martel is a Scanner, and that a Scanner scans instruments in his “Chestbox” to confirm his health. That second sentence is beautiful SF “incluing” (to use Jo Walton’s wonderful coinage): showing us within the text something strange about this future. He did not even adjust his blood away from anger.

“Scanners Live in Vain” opens with a famous pair of sentences: As ever in these essays, the discussion will be rife with spoilers. So I’ll discuss the story first, and then go over the history of its publication, and its author’s career. In this series I often discuss the background details of a story’s publication history, and of its author, first - and these are especially interesting in the case of this story but I don’t want to bury the lede either. It is a truly great SF story and I want to take a close look at what makes it work. I recently had occasion to reread Cordwainer Smith’s Science Fiction Hall of Fame story “Scanners Live in Vain.” This was probably my fifth rereading over the years (soon followed by a sixth!) - it’s a story I’ve always loved, but for some reason this time through it struck me even more strongly. “Scanners Live in Vain” by Cordwainer Smith.

The rediscovery of man by cordwainer smith