Roger Zelazny Book Review: He Who Shapes

Wow, this almost wound up as a proper review, rather than the "Hey, a Roger Zelazny story! I liked/didn't like it! Here are some quotes I thought were neat!" format that my reviews tend to take.

I mentioned in my Inception review that, while there are certain parallels between the two works, such as time dilation and the implanting of an idea, that's only because they deal with similar subject matter. They didn't have nearly in much as common as I was suspecting.

I can't decide if I like He Who Shapes better than the Dream Master. In his introduction to the short story, Zelazny writes:

The novel contains some material which I am very happy to have written, but reflecting upon things after the passage of all this time I find that I prefer this, the shorter version. It is more streamlined and as such comes closer to the quasi-Classical notions I had in mind, in terms of economy and directness, in describing a great man with a flaw.

Part of what I admired about Zelazny's works is how short they each tend to be. I'm sure part of that is due to the era when he produced the bulk of it, as books were just shorter then. As much as I like his novels, I think his short stories are where he produced his best material. (In general. Lord of Light is probably the best thing he wrote, and the among the best genre works anybody wrote. I also like Donnerjack quite a bit, though I'm not sure that counts, because it was created by mashing up three books originally intended as a trilogy.) That's why I'll be looking at He Who Shapes rather than The Dream Master. Also, in rereading both in preparation for this, the parts I like most were already present in He Who Shapes, so no point in going for the longer one.

Charles Render is a neuroparticipant therapist, a "Shaper", which is a kind of therapist who guides the dreams of his subjects and provides analysis in this fashion. He's also kind of an asshole. I could see George Clooney as Render, just playing his character from Up in the Air.

The other main character is Elaine Shallot, "somewhere in the vicinity of her early thirties with low bronze bangs." Hmmm...since I'm casting people in this review, who would I like to see in the part? That's a tough one. It seems like so many actresses are too young or too ephemeral for the part. Err...Let's just go with Felicity Huffman, because I can't think of anyone better off the top of my head. Elaine is okay, but the character I like is her seeing eye dog, Sigmund.

Sigmund a mutie Shepherd (though I always imagine him as a Saint Bernard, for some reason), a genetically altered dog with the intelligence of a chimp and a vocabulary of about four hundred words. I'm not a dog person, but I like Sigmund and his loyalty to his mistress.

He stared in at Render in a very un-doglike way and made a growling noise which sounded too much like, "Hello, doctor," to have been an accident.

Render nodded and stood.

"Hello, Sigmund," he said. "Come in."

The dog turned his head, sniffing the air of the room— as though deciding whether or not to trust his ward within its confines. Then he returned his stare to Render, dipped his head in an affirmative, and shouldered the door open. Perhaps the entire encounter had taken only one disconcerting second.

Eileen followed him, holding lightly to the double- leashed harness. The dog padded soundlessly across the thick rug—head low, as though he were stalking some- thing. His eyes never left Render's.

I like Sigmund. Render and Elaine are interesting characters, but each of them so intense (Render is a "granite-willed,ultra-stable outsider—tough enough to weather the basilisk gaze of a fixation, walk unscathed amidst the chimarae of perversions, force dark Mother Medusa to close her eyes before the caduceus of his art" and Elaine "has a will of ten-point steel and the emotional control of an ascetic as well—") that like I can't really bring myself to like them.

"I can't restore her sight," he explained. "I'm just going to transfer her some sight-abstractions—sort of lend her my eyes for a short time. Savvy?"

"No," said the dog. "Take mine."

I've mentioned my friend Greg, the professor of Mordred Studies if he thought Elaine Shallot might be a reference to Tennyson's "Lady of Shalott."

I forget exactly what he said, but his answer amounted to "Well, obviously. What's your next epiphany, that her dog was named after Freud?"

I quite like the poem, by the way. Loreena McKennitt set it to music, and sometimes I'll listen to it if I have a free half-hour. The Lady of Shallot is based on the legend of Elaine of Astolat so the aptronym of Elaine Shallot is a rather uncharacteristic bit of prophetic naming.

Jill DeVille is an interesting character with a great name. She's a lot smarter than she lets on, as evinced by her conversation with Bartelmetz.

"Have you seen Charles today?"

"Alas, I have not," he gestured, open-handed, "and I wanted to continue our discussion while his mind was still in the early stages of wakefulness and somewhat malleable. Unfortunately," he took a sip of coffee, "he who sleeps well enters the day somewhere in the middle of its second act."

"Myself, I usually come in around intermission and ask someone for a synopsis," she explained. "So why not continue the discussion with me?—I'm always malleable and my skandhas are in good shape."

Their eyes met, and he took a bite of toast. "Aye," he said, at length, "I had guessed as much. Well—good. What do you know of Render's work?" She adjusted herself in the chair.

"Mm. He being a special specialist in a highly specialized area, I find it difficult to appreciate the few things he does say about it.

Casting her, I want to go with Lauren Graham, though I think she's just slightly too old. Maybe Zooey Deschanel. But I like Jill. She's smart enough, but she lacks the specialized training that would allow her to converse with Render about his work in any meaningful way.

There is the persistent theme of suicide to escape this society of strangers and maybe that's where Zelazny critics get the idea that his works often contain the theme of suicide. I can almost see that here, because it is made so explicit, but I think that Render's final act is, like so many of Zelazny's heroes, one of self-destuction, rather than of suicide. With suicide, the death of the self is the goal. With self-destruction, it is an inevitable, but incidental consequence. I think it's an important distinction

Okay, this wouldn't be a Josh review without me saying, "Hey! Here are some quotes I thought were neat!" In that spirit:

• "The universe did not invent justice. Man did. Unfortunately, man must reside in the universe."
• "—And if something that strong should break, in a timeless moment of anxiety." smiled Barlelmetz sadly, "may the shades of Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung walk by your side in the valley of darkness.

Final word? It's wonderful. I never get tired of the Greek hero, the noble man doomed by his single, defining flaw. It is Render's nature to be what he is. And I don't like the tautology contained in that statement, but it's true. He is Render, the Shaper. To think of himself as something else is to become that thing.