The World of Null-A
by A. E. van Vogt
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Book Reviews of The World of Null-A
Book Review: Gosseyn or Go Home
Summary: 3 Stars
The World of Null-A by A. E. Van Vogt is a classic Sci-Fi novel. It was awarded a Retro Hugo Nominee and is considered one of the founding books of the golden age. Van Vogt is a master of the genre and wrote another classic Sci-Fi novel, Slan. He does so many things so well. The novel was published in 1945 in one of the pulp magazines. For 19-freaking-45, the novel is in so many ways ahead of the curve. However, the book also suffers from major flaws that severely denigrate the overall health of the plot and the novel.
The plot revolves around one Gilbert Gosseyn (pronounced Go-Sane) who is a practitioner of Null-A (or non-aristolean thinking). He is on earth and in the city of the machine in the hopes that he can make a move to Venus, a utopian-like world where everyone who lives there practices Null-A and thus makes sane, logical decisions that reinforce the utopia. I will briefly point out one the considerable flaws in the novel; we are never given a handle on what the philosophy of Null-A is and thus have a difficult time understanding why it is so essential to the novel. More on this point to come.
While in the city Gosseyn learns that he isn't the person who thought he was. The machine confirms this and sets Gosseyn off in trying to figure out who he is and why he doesn't know his own identity. We are introduced to diabolical characters whose basic intentions are to take over Earth as well as Venus. Gosseyn is central to this evil plot. Muahhahahahahah! For those who are going to read this one I don't want to give away too much of the plot for fear of spoiling the journey so I will stop the description of the plot here.
Let us now focus on what is wonderful and good about this classic. Van Vogt is a master at projecting very cool, very futuristic set pieces. The novel occurs in the year 2650. His descriptions of RoboPlanes, a machine (The MACHINE) that determines your place in society, and getting from one place to another instantaneously are so 2650 and seem to me a little Brave New Worldish. The descriptions of Venus with it's skyscraper-like trees with whole mansions carved in the root system and the concept of moving and killing with your mind are incredibly imaginative. Van Vogt shines in his intense and pin-point descriptions. Reading the book, I really felt connected to the vistas he creates. These descriptions are the base that so many future Science Fiction authors stand on.
Another strong point of the novel is the philosophical discussion through out. Despite the fact that there is no description of Null-A, there are themes in the book that make us ponder the basic question of who is human and who is not. Gosseyn's character drags us into discussions about the definition of consciousness and even the possibility of cheating death (which Gosseyn does literally and physically again and again). There is also a compelling side-plot about how memory determines how we process reality. How would you react if you remember being married to some one but then discover that the person is actually the president's daughter and certainly not your wife. This question is totally Philip K. Dick before Phillip K. Dick graduated from high school. It is very easy to see why this book is so influential.
I also loved the way that Van Vogt finishes this one up. We are left with a cliff-hanger that at the same time wraps the novel perfectly. The payoff of last paragraph alone probably makes the book worthwhile reading.
Now moving on to a little criticism. As I continued reading the book, the thought kept popping in my head, "Man, the dude who wrote this was ADHD." Following the plot and interaction between characters is like being strapped to a chair and being forced to watch a movie on fast-forward and cut by a monkey on amphetamines. Random and more random. The plot bounces between Earth and Venus and back to Earth and, boom, back to Venus. If all this movement drove the story forward I can probably accept it. But it doesn't. All it is is a change of scenery for changes sake.
Gosseyn gets captured and escapes. And.... Gosseyn gets captured again. Bet you can't guess what happens next. Winner! He escapes again. This repetittion occurs again and again. This is a major problem with the novel. They don't drive the plot and they certainly don't enhance character building.
The biggest problem I had with the novel, and I hope that this is not due to any mental defect I have, is that one of the most crucial aspects of the novel is left totally unexplained; NULL-A. What is it? I am still not sure. I gathered that it was a new way of thinking, different then the way humans have evolved to normally think. But I certainly don't understand how it is different or what that difference means. A majority of the plot is driven by this concept. It is hard to accept major plot points centering around Null-A without understanding why it is so damned important.
Overall, I liked the book. It had great action without the crappy dialogue and production problems that plagued the film industry during this period. It's not campy, thank Jah. The influence that this book alone has had on Sci-Fi makes it important to read if you want to know the history of the genre. One of my favorite authors, Phillip K. Dick, stands on the back of Van Vogt so I am grateful that I was able to read this one.
[...]
Book Review: A worthwhile yet flawed classic by van Vogt
Summary: 4 Stars
Earth is ruled by a large machine. The Machine runs games which select members of Earth society for emigration to Venus, which has been terraformed. The games test the people's philosophical understanding of the tenants of Null-A (non-Aristotelian logic) -- think Vulcans controlling their emotions.
Gilbert Gosseyn discovers, when attempting to take a test at the Machine, that he is not who he seems and that his life appears to have been completely different than he remembers- the other applicants claim that his story is completely fabricated... And most shocking, his wife is not his wife but the daughter of the president.
He soon discovers after he "wakes-up" after he dies that his mind can transfer to different bodies. And of course, there's a great cosmic chess player at work manipulating the entire situation.
The plot balloons outward (back and forth between Earth and Venus) from Gilbert Gosseyn trying to understand his own situation to the machinations of a great galactic empire attempting to wipe out the followers of Null-A.
Tens of underdeveloped faceless characters betray each other and collude with others and betray each-other again. No one is who they seem to be... And of course, there's Gilbert Gosseyn and his strange mind...
Final Thoughts
Two things really impressed me about the work. First, A. E. van Vogt's utilization of a Philip K. Dick sort of "basic motivating problem" -- the question of identity. Gilbert Gosseyn's actions throughout the entire work are entirely motivated by his overwhelming desire to understand his role in the world -- why is his brain unusual? Why does he appear to be immortal? What is his "real" past? Do memories construct self? What is the role of the body in understanding/constructing the self? Gosseyn's motives are fully realized. He's a peculiar character for his mindless pursuit of understanding and thus, a very appealing one.
Second, Gilbert Gosseyn always REACTS to the situation and never (except, one could argue at the end) directly influences the situation himself. The external forces (the numerous other names which enter and exit willy-nilly from the narrative) are the only actors. Gosseyn's decisions are rarely decisions but impulsive reactions against these forces. If he does act his action is usually immediately shut down and he's presented with one or two choices which aren't really choices...
These two points highlight the plight of Gilbert Gosseyn and make him (at least to me) a sympathetic character. However, this could be very frustrating to many readers used to sci-fi characters acting, changing the world, and going against what is expected. Gilbert Gosseyn tries, often valiantly, but always follows the expected path or a path laid out for him.
The problems are manifold and manifest. The characters other than Gilbert Gosseyn are non-entities. Damon Knight, a famous critic of the work, counts 12 points where betrayals happen. One feels that the secondary characters exist solely to spice up a narrative where nothing is actually known. Another plot ploy is equally annoying, at least five or six times secondary characters say, "Oh, I thought you knew your role in things." As a result, it's virtually impossible to keep them straight. I stopped trying and mentally categorized them as "____ = interchangeable name which usually stands for malevolent external forces."
The galactic empire bit reduces the power of the world and mutes the hard-boiled qualities of the narrative.
I'm still shocked that the work was published in the 40s -- I would have guessed the the early 60s or really late 50s. The work rarely feels horribly outdated.
The World of Null-A is a worthwhile read especially for its integration of philosophical concepts and themes about self and memory. However, the exact concept of Null-A philosophy is never concisely defined. A regular reader of sci-fi will easily predict the end -- however, all the twists and turns in the middle are beyond comprehension since most of them occur in a rather muddled manner... The first quarter and the last quarter are very well done. And how many times does a main character die one third of the way through?
Book Review: A Man Who Doesn't Exist
Summary: 5 Stars
The World of Null-A (1948) is the first SF novel in the Null-A series. The Earth has been gradually influenced by the principles of General Semantics over several centuries under the direction of the Semantic Institute and the Games Machine. Those who show the greatest comprehension of these principles are transported to Venus to live in a Non-Aristotelian society. Those who don't score high enough to be allowed on Venus are awarded with high offices on Earth.
In this novel, Gilbert Gosseyn has traveled to the city of the Machine to participate in the annual Games. Joining the local self-protection group, his identity is challenged by a resident of his home town. A lie detector confirms that he is not Gilbert Gosseyn, but states that his true identity is not known within his mind.
Ejected by the hotel staff into the crime filled night, Gilbert is bewildered by these events. Without any warning, a young woman runs into him and almost knocks them both off their feet. The woman claims to be pursued by two men, but Gilbert doesn't see them.
Teresa Clark tells him that she has been evicted from her boarding house and lacks a place to spend the night. Gilbert finds them a vacant lot and they settle down amidst the bushes. During their discussion, various things she says and does contradict her story. The next day, he learns that she is actually Patricia Hardie, the woman that he had believed to be his dead wife.
In this story, Gilbert meets various members of a group that has taken over the government of Earth and Venus. Patricia's father is the President of Earth. Thorson is the personal representative of the leader of the Greatest Empire. Elred Crang is the commander of the local Greatest Empire forces and John Prescott is his vice-commander. Dr. 'X' is a gravely injured Earth scientist whose personality has been distorted toward megalomania.
They all seem to be interested in his brain. After his interrogation and examination, Gilbert is carried down, still bound to his chair, into a dungeon and locked up. Later, Patricia releases him and they escape to her room. Then guards come searching for him and he slips out the window. As he is approaching the Games Machine, cars come out of the trees and attack him. He is shot by projectile weapons and burned by energy guns, quickly passing out from the blood loss.
Later, Gilbert wakes up on Venus. He doesn't have any scars or other signs of the wounds and burns, but he still has all his memories, including those of extreme pain. He visits the house of Prescott and Crang, but is then captured and returned to Earth. There he is shown the corpse of Gosseyn I. Apparently he is Gosseyn II, alive and well after the death of his previous body.
This story has several themes, one of which is the practice of General Semantics. This approach to mental discipline, based upon the theories of Alfred Korzybski, is claimed to provide greatly stability and adaptation to change. An introduction to this approach can be found within Science and Sanity, first published in 1933.
Another theme is the transportation of objects by causing them to become similar to within twenty decimal places. Supposedly, such similarity will cause the greater to bridge space to the lesser. Although such transits take finite time, the bridging occurs at speeds much greater than lightspeed. Thus, this principle provides a practical way to travel among the stars.
This novel is first of three in the series. The next volume is The Pawns of Null-A (also entitled The Players of Null-A). Enjoy.
Highly recommended for van Vogt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, political intrigue, and strange talents.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Book Review: Not Sure Yet
Summary: 3 Stars
Read the book to see origins of Dick, Laumer, Bester. etc. Still reading
as of this moment...One amusing feature so far is the HUGE number of
ridiculous anachronisms...No mention of computers...Mail is still delivered...
books are common...."cars" and "helicopters" still are used....Venus is an
hospitable place to live...newspapers are sold on the street...no mention
of satellite communication (global positioning?), books still exist...tele-
phones and phone numbers are still used in communication...no mention of
details of DNA and envionment in the determination of "mind"...all of this
in the year 2600 more or less? The main ideas (I will leave you to discover
them. Most of the reviewers on this page seem to have missed them almost
entirely) I have already read about in one form or another, especially in ZEN
AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE, CHILDHOOD"S END, etc. We are all
bothered by the matter of our personal demise....we cannot imagine are own
nonexistence...so, religions and other forms of speculation come to our rescue.
As van Vogt points out, we like the calming effect of explanations. On just
finishing NULL-A, did I have a positive reaction? "YES"! But shortly thereafter,
I read in the New Scientist an article about Godel's Incompleteness Theorem,
and other gaps being discovered in the Peano's Rules of Arithmetic. Here,
mathematicians have tried to fill these gaps with (fictional?) Cardinal
Infinities, with which many other mathematicians are quite uncomfortable.
INFINITY is described by some of these as not even "wrong". but "complete
nomsense". I am not in a position to know, about these matters - but they
do cause me to be cautious about van Vogt's speculations. Someone has written,
"Nothing is more appealing to the human mind than complex nonsense." The
Hadron Collider is looking for the carriers of mass to explain the
behavior of Vector Bosons. Hawkings has placed a $100.00 bet they do not exist.
Other physicists have bet thousands of dollars on the matter. Dark Matter has
been fudged into Cosmology to explain the rate at which Galaxies revolve
around ane another. So far, dark matter remains a fiction. van Vogt's mention
of measurements (to nth decimals) may be meaningless, his vague use of
"similarities" might be similarly meaningless. Van Vogt does not seem to
distinguish "energy" "information" "entropy" "transfer" "thought" at all well.
The transfer of "mind" and the matters involved is swept away with a few vague
phrases. Of what value are his speculations? His ideas are "appealing" but
we need to know "Why?". As Feyhnman has stated, "It doesn't hurt a mystery to
know a little about it." E.0. Wilson in his writings often inserts, "Of course,
I could be wrong!" Also, the same writer cautions about withdrawing into
the securities of subjectivism. In short, I do not know if I have benefitted
from reading this novel or not. I enjoyed it, though as the execution could
and been better. The density of ideas in Orwell's BRAVE NEW WORLD is much
greater amd ideas are better executed in the action.
Book Review: The most unforgettable book I have ever read
Summary: 5 Stars
It is difficult to review the books of A.E. van Vogt. In fact, even during his time, he was difficult to review by the professional reviewers. His books, I think it can be said, are different from anyone else's. There wasn't anyone like him during his prime years (the 1940's), nor has there been anyone like him since.
He is not everyone's cup of tea. His stories are often illogical and are filled with loose-ends that do not get tied up. They have often been described as dreamlike, and there is the paradox. For their power lies in their dreamlike intensity, wild ideas and concepts, and roller-coaster plots. If they were more logical, and more carefully plotted and constructed, they would lose much of their power and intensity.
Of all of his books, this is the one that is the most powerful and the most memorable, in my opinion. In fact, 30 years after reading it for the first time, I still consider it the most unforgettable book I have ever read. You are hooked from the outset, and you must find out - as the main character must find out - who is Gilbert Gosseyn? It is exciting, spell-binding, confusing, mind-bending and totally absorbing. And along the way, you will be introduced to this thing called General Semantics. If you are like me, you will have to know more about it, too.
The sequel, The Players of Null-A, is also a great read. Together, these two books are among my two favorite series of all-time, rivaled only by Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Endymion books.
Although van Vogt returned to Null-A with a third book in the 1980's (Null-A Three), this third book is a weak entry and does not really continue the story in a meaningful way. For a better return to the Null-A universe, try John C. Wright's Null-A Continuum (published in 2008). Wright does something I thought impossible - he emulates van Vogt's style - not just in the way he uses the language, but also by the roller-coaster plot and the vastness of the ideas and concepts. In some ways, Wright's book becomes almost incomprehensible - but, then, so do many of van Vogt's books! Wright's ending is great, as it takes the books full circle, right back to where it all began...with the World of Null-A.