"Eutopia" (1967)

Poul Anderson's story for the Harlan Ellison collection is high on concept and low on plot interest. The concept, if I'm understanding it right, is pretty nifty, but it's still undermined by the lame story. It appears to be taking place in a reality of multiple dimensions, perhaps based on string theory, which was starting to get kicked around in the late '60s. Apparently new universes are spawned at every branch of reality that may go a different way, which effectively means they are infinite. Our home universe / reality has figured out a way to traverse and explore these other dimensions. What we find is a cacophony of human culture and scientific development, with different peoples rising to dominance. I could never tell where our hero, Iason Philippou, was located—central Europe seems most likely, though it might be North America. The region is divided into dozens or hundreds of separate small states with jealous and complicated relations. Philippou is on the run because he has committed a transgression. He excuses it to himself as a matter of ignorance about local customs. But his bad deed is actually pretty bad, kept secret until the end of the story and then revealed only obliquely. I had to look it up on the internet for further clarity. So the story is about his escape and being chased and returning home and then the reveal of his offense. But it is mostly busy with its concept, attempting to "show not tell" the details. That's the kind of thing you spend most of your time reading: "He didn't know if these words had ever been logged. Perhaps so, when white men first sailed through the Pentalimne (calling them the Five Seas) to found Ernvik where Duluth stood in America and Lykopolis in Eutopia.... But then came wars with Dakotas and Magyars." Aiyiyi—so many proper nouns, used so confusingly. For me, this is a type of science fiction writing that is mostly a chore to read—Philip Jose Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage" is worse only because it's four times longer. The story is an uninspired framework on which to hang the drapery of concept, which can indeed be mesmerizing visions when pulled off properly. So, yeah, multiple dimensions, that torques my head right around with the possibilities—consider the wrinkling together of dimensions across the short time plane of Cubs and Indians, Trump and Clinton, Moonlight and La La Land, Patriots and Falcons. But the chase and the crime motivating it? Really? You can read that anywhere and it's better as true-crime. This should have been a novel, with adequate space to explain itself, or nothing at all.

Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison