leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (07/07/85)
Colin Wilson, SPACE VAMPIRES, and LIFEFORCE
A review by Mark R. Leeper
The release of the film LIFEFORCE, based on the novel SPACE VAMPIRES by
Colin Wilson, has sparked some discussion of Wilson's science fiction.
Wilson's novels, like the film LIFEFORCE, are for rather specialized tastes
and are generally quite unpopular. They do, however, have some avid fans.
While I am not one, I did enjoy his novels and my defense of his writing
has, on occasion, given rise to scorn among local science fiction fans. Our
local science fiction society once voted his MIND PARASITES the second worst
of about fifty discussion books. Yet I still consider it to be at times one
of the most interesting science fiction books I remember reading, due in
large part to having the most unusual alien menace.
So who is Colin Wilson? He is usually considered to be a philosopher;
I think he wrote a book called THE OUTSIDER on the meaning of being a social
pariah. The book apparently achieved some popularity. Then one day he
noticed that H. P. Lovecraft had written a story called "The Outsider." He
read it and did not like it. August Derleth, a friend of Wilson's as well
as a big Lovecraft fan, suggested that Wilson try to write something better.
So Wilson wrote his first science fiction novel with the rather lurid title
THE MIND PARASITES. In it he said that human philosophy tended to be
optimistic up to a point, then it turned more pessimistic. You started
getting degenerate philosophies like that of the Marquis de Sade. It was
his claim that we had been attacked by some alien force that fed off of
negative human emotion like depression and sadism. He includes the most
amazing descriptions of battles with the aliens taking place, literally, but
not figuratively, in his mind. The aliens would attack and he would start
feeling rather dismal. Then suddenly he would hit them with a blast of pure
optimism, and they would scatter!
The premise of the story also says that we have involved to the point
where we really are telepathic and telekinetic, but the parasites sap off
the energy we need to use these faculties. In spite of the trashy title, I
found the story had several interesting ideas to chew on. The ideas were
the virtue of the story far more than the story line, but I find many people
who really detest the book for reasons I never understood. I have heard
people who recommend books with far weaker story lines complain that the
story line of this book is weak. The best I can tell is that there is just
something indefinable in the book that rubs people the wrong way.
Wilson's second science fiction novel is THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE. In
many ways it is much like the first novel, though it moves considerably more
slowly. The concept is that by special treatments involving the insertion
of a special electrical conductor, the brain can be made far more efficient.
Among other things, it allows the user to mentally time-travel, and in one
sequence a character places himself in Shakespeare's England, only to have
many of his cherished beliefs shattered. There is again some alien menace,
as I remember, but it is a theme that is not well dealt with. I can
remember liking this the best of the three science fiction novels that
Wilson has written, but it has been nine years or so since I read it so my
memory is weak.
The worst of the three is SPACE VAMPIRES. Inspired by the story
"Asylum" by A. E. Van Vogt, it concerns an alien life-form brought to Earth.
The creatures, who seem to be able to jump from body to body, suck up
lifeforce from people they come in contact with. The premise of the book,
unlike that of the film, is that the aliens are not really unique. We--all
of us--are lifeforce vampires. That's why fresh vegetables taste better to
us than stale ones; they retain lifeforce which we consume. Sex is (among
other things) a lifeforce transaction. Good sex will involve the trading of
lifeforce and each side will end up with more. In sadistic sex, one partner
gets more lifeforce by depleting the other.
That is one odd thing about SPACE VAMPIRES: it has sex, but it is the
least gratuitous sex of any novel I can think of. The explanations of
energy exchanges are all-important. We all understand what is going on when
there is sex in a Harold Robbins novel, but in this book there is more going
on as part and parcel of the sex act.
But the monsters of SPACE VAMPIRES go beyond the human sort of
vampirism. They accumulate lifeforce but, like a leaky tire, cannot hold on
to it and very soon need more. The film, incidentally, could have used this
explanation very nicely since it would explain why the victims seem to
collect lifeforce but they need more so soon. On the other hand, in many
ways the film is better than its source. The contagion of the vampirism in
the film makes the menace much more serious. The effect of the invasion in
the book would be to increase by two or three the number of sex maniacs in
the world. In the film we are dealing with possible world destruction. On
top of that, there is considerably more plot to the film than there was in
the book. The book has the plot of the first half hour of the film and an
incident or two that was in the film later. And then the book has two
sequences not in the film. One is a visit to a Swedish expert on vampirism
and one is a discussion with the Prime Minister. That and some discussion
is about all there is to the book. There is actually a lot more that
happens in the film. While the screenplay could have used more
explanations, in many ways it was an improvement on the book.
But of course, the strong suit of the book is its ideas. Wilson uses
his lifeforce premise to explain much about traditional vampires. I, for
one, enjoy the DARKER THAN YOU THINK or FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH sort of
story where the supernatural turns out to be scientific phenomena that have
been wrongly interpreted. The problem is that Wilson does not seem to know
much science. He starts including all sorts of already discredited ideas
(like Kirlian photography) as accepted scientific fact. That unfortunately
discredits much of his thinking.
Still, while this is the least enjoyable of the three Wilson novels, it
was an enjoyable read, particularly after having seen the film.
Mark R. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper