"The Escaping" (1967)

David R. Bunch's second story in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions collection is basically more of same, a very short story set on the war planet version of Earth called Moderan. For whatever reason, it did not make it into the recent republication of Bunch's 1971 Moderan collection (though I'm not sure it was in the original either). I have to say I'm never really sure what's going on in this story, which might be the reason. It's also not included on the comprehensive list of Bunch's stories at Wikipedia. "The Escaping" features a first-person narrator, and he seems to be pondering work, but it's also possible he is undergoing punishment, or some treatment, and/or remembering his work or a former life. Any or all of the above. On another level it's not that hard to understand—it's about a kind of dissociative state that can be achieved (see title), which helps in dealing with the privations of this culture. Moderan prizes and loves hatred above all else. These eternal soldiers are less like noble warriors such as Crazy Horse or King Arthur's bunch, and more like the monsters of varying skill you encounter in RPGs. The language is difficult—I'm not surprised Bunch was also a poet!—and if the vision is dangerous it is also maddeningly undetailed. In many of the stories in this collection the "dangerous vision," as such, involves collapses of enlightened democracies into immoral autocratic societies. In Bunch's Moderan, I have the impression you can forget the foregoing enlightenment, even if it is Earth. Arguably our enlightenment has been feeble. War and hatred are all that has ever been known. Further clarity may lay in Bunch's Moderan collection, either the 1971 version or the 2018 version, which both have dozens more stories. But I'm not inclined to push much further myself. I'd almost just rather read the screenplay treatment versions of stories like this, with these flimsy narratives thrown like loose scarves around them. For every time my mind is well and truly blown by SF concept there are 10 or 20 more where I'm only confused and impatient. Maybe somebody else will have better luck with this one. Bunch has been remarkably obscure, at least until the recent republication of Moderan, which might change that. You never know.

Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison

"Incident in Moderan" (1967)

David R. Bunch is the only writer in the Dangerous Visions anthology to get two stories, probably because they're so short, but it's interesting partly because it's not a name I know at all. Bunch published mainly in the speculative genres but pursued a PhD in English and also wrote and published poetry and more traditional literary work. He remained obscure all his life and after, for the most part. He died in 2000. "Incident in Moderan" later became part of a 1971 cycle of Bunch stories, Moderan, which is now considered a significant influence on cyberpunk SF (and was actually republished in a reworked edition just last month). This very short story presents a dystopic vision of future Earth with the planet covered in plastic, a cyborg technology that has made great advances, and perpetual war. It takes place during a rare break in the war, enabling one side to repair its defenses. The first-person narrator is a cyborg, which we learn eventually through inference. The story involves an encounter with "mutant forms," which appear to be humans who have rejected cyborg technology, though they may be mutants and not human as we think of it now. Again, learned by inference, through the blizzard of oblique conceptual detail given as scenes unfold. This is how the narrator perceives one of the mutant forms talking: "Blue soft lips parted and a yellow-pink piece of gristly meat jigged up and down in wet slop ... [a] somewhat vulgar performance of meat and air." I have to admit I'm probably more fascinated now by Bunch's obscurity than his stories. He published a fair amount in his life—albeit a share of that at the level of fanzines—but his two stories in this collection were basically all that was in print until the recent rerelease of Moderan. If "Incident in Moderan" did not make much impression on me, it could be a problem like I had with Poul Anderson's story last time, just too much concept for the in media res treatment within the confines of a short story (or, indeed, short short, as this very nearly is). But Bunch's language certainly has a nice sheen of clarity, and that element of cruelty which editor Harlan Ellison has shown a consistent taste for is present as well. The story is almost very good. Looking forward to Bunch's second bite at the apple next week.

Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison