Editing Cordwainer Smith (section)

==Literary style==
According to [[Frederik Pohl]]:
{{blockquote|In his stories, which were a wonderful and inimitable blend of a strange, raucous poetry and a detailed technological scene, we begin to read of human beings in worlds so far from our own in space in time that they were no longer quite Earth (even when they were the third planet out from Sol), and the people were no longer quite human, but something perhaps better, certainly different.{{r|pohl196612}}}}

Linebarger's identity as "Cordwainer Smith" was secret until his death.<ref name="pohl196612">{{Cite magazine |last=Pohl |first=Frederik |date=December 1966 |title=Cordwainer Smith |department=Editorial |url=https://archive.org/stream/Galaxy_v25n02_1966-12_modified#page/n5/mode/2up |magazine=Galaxy Science Fiction |page=6 }}</ref>  ("Cordwainer" is an archaic word for "a worker in cordwain or [[Shell cordovan|cordovan]] leather; a [[shoemaker]]",<ref name=OED>[[Oxford English Dictionary]]</ref> and a "smith" is "one who works in [[iron]] or other metals; esp. a [[blacksmith]] or [[farrier]]":<ref name=OED/> two kinds of skilled workers with traditional materials.)
Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller ''[[Atomsk (novel)|Atomsk]]''), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C. Forrest" (for the novels ''Ria'' and ''Carola'').

Some of Smith's stories are written in narrative styles closer to traditional [[Chinese literature|Chinese stories]] than to most English-language fiction, as well as reminiscent of the [[Hikaru Genji|Genji]] tales of [[Lady Murasaki]]. The total volume of his science fiction output is relatively small, because of his time-consuming profession and his early death.

Smith's works consist of one novel, originally published in two volumes in edited form as ''The Planet Buyer'', also known as ''The Boy Who Bought Old Earth'' (1964), and ''The Underpeople'' (1968), and later restored to its original form as ''[[Norstrilia]]'' (1975); and 32 short stories (collected in ''[[The Rediscovery of Man]]'' (1993), including two versions of the short story "War No. 81-Q").

Linebarger's cultural links to China are partially expressed in the pseudonym "Felix C. Forrest", which he used in addition to "Cordwainer Smith". His godfather [[Sun Yat-Sen]] suggested to Linebarger that he adopt the Chinese name "Lin Bai-lo" ({{zh|t=林白樂|s=林白乐|p=Lín Báilè}}), which may be roughly translated as "Forest of Incandescent Bliss"; "Felix" is Latin for "happy". In his later years, Linebarger proudly wore a tie with the Chinese characters for this name embroidered on it.

As an expert in psychological warfare, Linebarger was very interested in the newly developing fields of [[psychology]] and [[psychiatry]]. He used many of their concepts in his fiction. His fiction often has religious overtones or motifs, particularly evident in characters who have no control over their actions. James B. Jordan argued for the importance of [[Anglicanism]] to Smith's works back to 1949.<ref>{{Cite web|title=日韩精品香蕉久久夜夜嗨蜜臀,亚洲老熟女乱女一区二区,五月伊人网,熟妇人妻系列AV无码一区二区|url=http://www.sunpopblue.com/Music-Art-Books/Cordwainer-Smith.html|access-date=2023-02-03|website=sunpopblue.com}}</ref> But Linebarger's daughter Rosana Hart has indicated that he did not become an Anglican until 1950, and was not strongly interested in religion until later still.<ref>{{Cite web|title=A Daughter's Memories|url=http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/remember.htm|access-date=2023-02-03|website=cordwainer-smith.com}}</ref> The introduction to the collection ''Rediscovery of Man'' notes that from around 1960 Linebarger became more devout and expressed this in his writing. Linebarger's works are sometimes included in analyses of Christianity in fiction, along with the works of authors such as [[C. S. Lewis]] and [[J.R.R. Tolkien]].

Most of Smith's stories are set in the far future, between 4,000 and 14,000 years from now.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Best of Cordwainer Smith| url=https://archive.org/details/bestofcordwainer0000smit| url-access=registration| last=Smith| first=Cordwainer| editor1-last=Pierce| editor1-first=J.J.| publisher=Nelson Doubleday, Inc.| date=1975}}</ref> After the Ancient Wars devastate Earth, humans, ruled by the [[Instrumentality of Mankind]], rebuild and expand to the stars in the Second Age of Space around 6000 AD. Over the next few thousand years, mankind spreads to thousands of worlds and human life becomes safe but sterile, as robots and the animal-derived Underpeople take over many human jobs and humans themselves are genetically programmed as embryos for specified duties. Towards the end of this period, the Instrumentality attempts to revive old cultures and languages in a process known as the Rediscovery of Man, where humans emerge from their mundane utopia and Underpeople are freed from slavery.

For years, Linebarger had a pocket notebook which he had filled with ideas about The Instrumentality and additional stories in the series. But while in a small boat in a lake or bay in the mid 60s, he leaned over the side, and his notebook fell out of his breast pocket into the water, where it was lost forever. Another story claims that he accidentally left the notebook in a restaurant in [[Rhodes]] in 1965. With the book gone, he felt empty of ideas, and decided to start a new series which was an allegory of Mid-Eastern politics.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/12/cordwainer-smith-the-ballad-of-lost-linebarger-part-2/ |title=Cordwainer Smith: The Ballad of Lost Linebarger, Part 2 |access-date=June 13, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617114317/http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/2010/12/cordwainer-smith-the-ballad-of-lost-linebarger-part-2/ |archive-date=June 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://worldtracker.org/media/library/English%20Literature/S/Smith,%20Cordwainer/Smith,%20Cordwainer%20-%20The%20Rediscovery%20of%20Man.html |title=Cordwainer Smith - The Rediscovery of Man |access-date=October 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006220227/http://worldtracker.org/media/library/English%20Literature/S/Smith,%20Cordwainer/Smith,%20Cordwainer%20-%20The%20Rediscovery%20of%20Man.html |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Smith's stories describe a long [[future history]] of Earth. The settings range from a [[postapocalyptic]] landscape with [[walled cities]], defended by agents of the Instrumentality, to a state of sterile utopia, in which freedom can be found only deep below the surface, in long-forgotten and buried [[human impact on the environment|anthropogenic]] strata. These features may place Smith's works within the [[Dying Earth subgenre]] of science fiction, but they are ultimately more optimistic and distinctive.

Smith's most celebrated short story is his first-published, "[[Scanners Live in Vain]]", which led many of its earliest readers to assume that "Cordwainer Smith" was a new pen name for one of the established giants of the genre. It was selected as one of the best science fiction short stories of the pre-[[Nebula Award]] period by the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]], appearing in ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964]]''.  "[[The Ballad of Lost C'Mell]]" was similarly honored, appearing in ''[[The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two]]''.

After "Scanners Live in Vain", Smith's next story did not appear for several years, but from 1955 until his death in 1966 his stories appeared regularly, for the most part in ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]''.{{r|pohl196612}} His universe featured creations such as:
* The planet Norstrilia (Old North Australia), a semi-arid planet where an immortality drug called ''{{Not a typo|stroon}}'' is harvested from gigantic, virus-infected sheep each weighing more than 100 tons. Norstrilians are nominally the richest people in the galaxy and defend their immensely valuable {{Not a typo|stroon}} with sophisticated weapons (as shown in the story "[[Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons]]"). However, extremely high taxes ensure that everyone on the planet lives a frugal, rural life, like the farmers of old Australia, to keep the Norstrilians tough.
* The punishment world Shayol (cf. [[Sheol]]), where criminals are punished by the regrowth and harvesting of their organs for transplanting
* ''Planoforming'' [[spacecraft]], which are crewed by humans telepathically linked with cats to defend against the attacks of malevolent entities in space, which are perceived by the humans as dragons, and by the cats as gigantic rats, in "[[The Game of Rat and Dragon]]".
* The ''Underpeople'', animals modified into human form and intelligence to fulfill servile roles, and treated as property. Several stories feature clandestine efforts to liberate the Underpeople and grant them [[civil rights]]. They are seen everywhere throughout regions controlled by the Instrumentality. Names of Underpeople have a single-letter prefix based on their animal species. Thus C'Mell ("The Ballad of Lost C'Mell") is cat-derived; D'Joan ("[[The Dead Lady of Clown Town]]"), a [[Joan of Arc]] figure, is descended from dogs; and B'dikkat ("[[A Planet Named Shayol]]") has bovine ancestors.
* ''Habermans'' and their supervisors, ''Scanners'', who are essential for space travel, but at the cost of having their sensory [[nerve]]s cut to block the "pain of space", and who perceive only by vision and various life-support implants. A technological breakthrough removes the need for the treatment, but resistance among the Scanners to their perceived loss of status ensues, forming the basis of the story "Scanners Live in Vain".
* Early works in the timeline include [[neologism]]s which are not explained to any great extent, but serve to produce an atmosphere of strangeness. These words are usually derived from non-English words. For instance, ''manshonyagger'' derives from the German words "menschen" meaning, in some senses, "men" or "mankind", and "jäger", meaning a hunter, and refers to war machines that roam the wild lands between the walled cities and prey on men, except for those they can identify as Germans. Another example is "Meeya Meefla", the only city to have preserved its name from the pre-atomic era: evidently Miami, Florida, from its abbreviated form (as on road signs) "MIAMI FLA".
* Character names in the stories often derive from words in languages other than English. Smith seemed particularly fond of using numbers for this purpose. For instance, the name "Lord Sto Odin" in the story "Under Old Earth" is derived from the Russian words for "One hundred and one", сто один; it also suggests the name of the Norse god [[Odin]]. Quite a few of the names mean "five-six" in different languages, including both the robot Fisi (fi[ve]-si[x]), the dead Lady Panc Ashash (in Sanskrit "pañcha" [पञ्च] is "five" and "ṣaṣ" [षष्] is "six"), Limaono ([[wikt:lima#Hawaiian|lima]]-[[wikt:ono#Hawaiian|ono]], Hawaiian and/or Fijian), Englok (ng<sup>5</sup>-luk<sup>6</sup> <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[wikt:五#Cantonese|五]]-[[wikt:六#Cantonese|六]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, in Cantonese), Goroke (go-roku <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[wikt:五#Japanese|五]]-[[wikt:六#Japanese|六]]<nowiki>]</nowiki>, Japanese) and Femtiosex ("[[wikt:femtio|fifty]]-[[wikt:sex#Swedish|six]]" in Swedish) in "The Dead Lady of Clown Town" as well as the main character in "[[Think Blue, Count Two]]", Veesey-koosey, which is an English transcription of the Finnish words "[[wikt:viisi|viisi]]" (five) and "[[wikt:kuusi|kuusi]]" (six). Four of the characters in "Think Blue, Count Two" are called "Thirteen" in different languages: Tiga-belas (both in [[:id:13 (angka)|Indonesian]] and [[:ms:13 (nombor)|Malay]]), Trece ([[wikt:trece|Spanish]]), Talatashar (based on an Arabic dialect form <big>ثلاث عشر</big>, ''thalāth ʿashar'') and Sh'san (based on Mandarin 十三, ''shísān'', where the "í" is never pronounced). Other names, notably that of Lord Jestocost (Russian Жестокость, Cruelty), are non-English but not numbers.
* Remnants of modern culture accordingly appear as valued antiquities or sometimes just as unrecognized survivals, lending a rare feeling of nostalgia for the present to the stories.