Wilhelm, Kate: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976)
Written by: Kate Wilhelm
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 254 (Trade Paperback)
When I was at Seton Hill, it was my mission to read as much science fiction penned by women as possible. Bonus points if said books were award winners too, which is why I'm so perplexed that I missed this book during my graduate school years. It's science fiction, written by a woman, and it won the Hugo in 1977. In fact, the only reason I found it was because I was trolling for Hugo Winners that I owned for April's Book Club poll, and let's be honest: this is a compelling title that's hard to ignore.
The premise: ganked from BN.com: Before becoming one of today's most intriguing and innovative mystery writers, Kate Wilhelm was a leading writer of science fiction, acclaimed for classics like The Infinity Box and The Clewiston Test.
Now one of her most famous novels returns to print, the spellbinding story of an isolated post-holocaust community determined to preserve itself, through a perilous experiment in cloning. Sweeping, dramatic, rich with humanity, and rigorous in its science, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is widely regarded as a high point of both humanistic and "hard" SF, and won SF's Hugo Award and Locus Award on its first publication. It is as compelling today as it was then.
Review style: I thought it would be a short review, but it's not. :) I want to touch on the themes Wilhelm uses: individuality versus conformity, as well as discuss Wilhelm's take on sex and breeding. Spoilers? Yes, but not in a way that'd negatively impact your reading. Let's face it: some books spoilers will ruin, and some books aren't about the endings so much as they are about the journeys, and this is kind of about the journey.That said, if spoilers scare you, just skip to the "My Rating" section of the review, and you'll be fine. :)
I'm still befuddled over the fact that I've not noticed nor heard of this book before now. Aside from the reasons I list at the start of this review, Wilhelm was also the wife of Damon Knight, who's famous in the SF world for saying (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Science Fiction is what I point at and SAY is science fiction."
Knowing this kind of puts the reading of this book in perspective, because the books I've read, by women, from this time, have a different style and voice, with writing that's engaging on a deeper, almost emotional level. Wilhelm's style, not so much. It's not to say you aren't touched emotionally by time the book is over, but it's not the writing that does so. It's flat and serviceable and a product of its time. Nothing bad, but nothing that makes you want to put the book down and savor it either. It made getting through part one of this book a little difficult, because while Wilhelm showed me some very compelling scenes, I also felt left out when characters were figuring out what the hell was going on with the clones and weren't telling me a damn thing.
It's an odd example of where showing instead of telling doesn't do the reader too many favors, because the reader wants, and needs, to know RIGHT NOW, but it takes the WHOLE BOOK to show you what certain characters had already figured out in part one. And that made me feel a little stupid as a reader, and not in a way that I blame myself for.
In other words, I usually know when I'm missing the obvious. And then I know when the writer's just being coy, and this is more of the latter than it is the former. It also may be a case that what said characters were talking about was so damn obvious that it shouldn't need to be spelled out, but there's so little here in regards to tension that I felt I needed that. It would've had me invested more in the outcome of part one.
I do like the format: each part is generations removed from the previous. Well, parts two and three aren't that far removed at all, but enough time has passed that it's not a direct continuation of the events of part two. At any rate, this worked because it gave us different characters to focus on for each part, different characters to show us the situation at hand and to figure out the pros and cons of the situation. It was kind of fascinating, but I didn't get involved in the story until part two, and maybe that's because once we get the clones' POV, things become alien and different and I wanted to know more.
That said, I had an issue with time, at least in part one. Maybe I misunderstood the science behind the clones, but exactly how much time DOES pass during the course of part one? How quickly do the clones grow, and if they grow at a normal rate, that's all the more damning for part one's narrative, because it all feels like it's taking place immediately, within days and months of each other, and that added to my confusion.
Breeding had me disturbed on several levels. First, there's the taboo of incest. I got the impression that all of the clones were made from the family members who founded this little hideaway colony, which makes sense, but then the clones start breeding each other, and when I thought too hard about the issue, I squicked out a bit. My fault, totally, but it was one of those things I didn't want to think too hard about but sometimes did.
But the incest factor does raise an issue, if I'm right in my interpretation: the clones breed themselves into what essentially amounts to very smart dogs, but they have no initiative, no creativity, no imagination. Could this be a result of inbreeding as much as it is the devolving generations or cloning? It's worth considering, especially when it's obvious that Wilhelm is arguing that the cloning process, which in her world leads to a specific kind of conformity, will wipe out the human race completely. In other words, conformity equals death. I hadn't thought of this while reading, but I read a review that reminded me of the time period this was written, so with that reminder, it's easy to see this book being, in some ways, a strike out against communism.
But back to the breeding, the implied incest isn't nearly as creepy as what the clones do to fertile females. Jesus, it made me want to close my legs and run away screaming. And that's a good thing. While the clones are made out to be the bad guys of the story, it should be easy to understand why they make the decisions they do, and they're so far removed from the humanity that created them they don't know what's right and wrong in terms of sexual independence. Some characters discover it to their benefit, but the breeding program certainly colors the narrative in such a way that it should make you very uncomfortable. I know I asked myself more than once why breeding is treated the way it is, and I don't know if it's a question I should keep asking or something to just accept. I didn't think of it at the time of reading, but upon reflection, Wilhelm was making the clones out to be bad guys, and what better way to do that than repulsive sexual practices?
But that leads to something else: what about the mats, and the clone units' freedom of pleasuring themselves and other clone units (unit: probably the wrong word to use in a discussion about sex). There's obviously homosexuality involved here, and if Wilhelm is making the clones out to be bad, what is she saying about same-sex intercourse?
If she did intend the negative, I never read it that way, and only now thought of it due to the later assertion from a separate review that clones were meant to be bad in the villainous sense. At any rate, I saw the clones and kind of innocent, naive, and free in a sexual way that some people could only dream of. So their sexual practices (NOT the breeding), didn't bother me at all (unless I thought of the incest squick factor), but I did feel sorry for Mark, having to deal with the practicalities of loving a clone member when he himself was only a singleton.
I do rather like the explanation for the common consciousness of the clones versus what make individuality form. I found that fascinating and probable, though given the time period that this was written, the logic might be completely off base, considering how much research has occurred between 1976 and now. :)
But there's a monologue on page 149, where Molly is explaining what makes Mark special and why he can hold on to it, and I found that fascinating, and even applicable to today's society. Translation being that we're so overwhelmed by all kinds of sensory input that it's easy to become a drone instead of getting away and focusing on ourselves and our individuality (which I mean to be very different from the me-me-me culture we live in today, which is very material driven and all selfish). It's about knowing who we are as an individual, not who we are as defined by society.
Again, the communist comparison is starkly obvious. I can't believe I missed it while reading.
But the clones aren't all bad: we learn that they're a people without violence in their history, that physical punishment is something unthought of because hurting a member of a unit would hurt the whole unit, and why would you do that? It's a concept near and dear to my heart, something that influenced the world-building of my thesis novel, that I'd worried was a pipe dream. After reading this, I don't think it is anymore, given certain societal givens, and it's a fascinating concept to explore.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: classic SF doesn't always sit well with me, because more often than not I've seen what the classics have inspired, so the classics themselves don't really inspire me. However, while I had some issues getting into this book, I found it to be a fascinating study of individualism and creativity versus conformity and the death of imagination and what all of it leads to. I can see why Wilhelm won the Hugo, and while the writing style does fee a wee bit dated, I think it's worth reading for anyone who either has an interesting in cloning in SF and/or who's like me and makes it a point to read SF written by women. Here, you've got an award winner, and it's worth checking out. Just be patient with part one. :)
Cover Commentary: Pretty nice cover, actually. I like the great columns and the green shows in lovely contrast. It adds an epic, otherworldly feel to the book, and that's just lovely. But how sad is it that up until now, I thought the title of this book was Where THE LATE Sweet Birds Sang and not the actual title, Where LATE THE Sweet Birds Sang? Oy, sometimes I wonder about myself!
Next up: A Betrayal in Winter by Daniel Abraham
Edit: I still can't believe I didn't recognize this author's name. I've read a short story of hers here, and it was a very compelling story! Shame on me for not seeking out more of her work!