Rambling Comments #5

It’s been almost four years since I did one of these columns...today’s the day. I’m going to tell you about a 63 page short story that I just read. This is not a review. You will not find this on Amazon.com, or Goodreads.com...not anywhere but here. I’m gonna tell you all about it because chances are (that) you will never read it. If you are going to read it...stop right here. It was written in 1940 by a little known author, Harry Bates. This story is significant because it spawned one of the most impactful science fiction movies of all time. It gave birth to the 1951 black and white movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, starring Michael Rennie (as Klaatu), Patricia Neal, Billy Gray, Hugh Marlowe and Sam Jaffe (as the professor). I’m not going to talk about that stupid 2008 remake starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu. It was an embarrassment. Quoting sci-fi writer, Dennis Herrick, “The theme is the major difference between the short story and the movie. The atomic bomb had not been invented yet when Bates wrote the short story. The story was published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding, a science fiction stories magazine.” Once I start telling you the story, you will realize that other than the ship landing in Washington D.C (even that is dissimilar because in Bate’s short story the ship just appears out of nowhere) and the two time travelers having the same name (Klaatu), it’s a totally different scenario. Even the eight foot tall robot’s name is not Gort, but Gnut. Bates calls Klaatu a time traveler because the ship just materialized like it passed through a wormhole. Anyway, Dennis Herrick further states, “Bates’s Farewell to the Master went against the grain of most sci-fi stories of the time, aliens were usually described as menacing, aggressive, and murderous. In Bates’s story, aliens possess good moral character. The alien Klaatu looked like a benign god. The giant alien robot Gnut is immensely powerful but also capable of sadness and gentleness.” This commentary might take awhile, so if you have to go to the bathroom...go now. By the way (in the movie) Klaatu tells Helen (Patricia Neal) that should anything happen to him, she must go to Gort and say, Klaatu Barada Nikto. That line never appears in Bates’s story.

It appeared in a blink of the eye. “The ship appeared and just sat here. No one emerged, and there was no sign that it contained life of any kind. That, as much as any single thing, caused excitement to skyrocket. Who, or what, was inside? Were the visitors hostile or friendly? Where did the ship come from? How did it arrive so suddenly on this spot without dropping from the sky?” It sat there for two days. “And where was the ship’s entrance port? Men who dared go look reported that none could be found. No slightest break or crack marred the perfect smoothness of the ship’s curving ovoid surface. And a delegation of high-ranking officials who visited the ship could not, by knocking, elicit from its occupants any sign that they had been heard.” Is this an exciting story or what? Especially since I told you that it’s not the same as the movie. “At last, after exactly two days, in full view of tens of thousands of persons assembled and standing well back, and under the muzzles of scores of the army’s most powerful guns and ray projectors, an opening appeared in the wall of the ship, and a ramp slid down. And out stepped a man, godlike in appearance and human in form, closely followed by a giant robot. And when they touched the ground the ramp slid back and the entrance closed as before.” The stranger appeared to be friendly to the assembled thousands who witnessed what happened. As a large group of high-ranking government officials and army officers approached the alien, he said in perfect English, “I am Klaatu and this is Gnut.” And then from a treetop a hundred yards away, a shot rang out. Klaatu was dead, “The police pulled the slayer of Klaatu out of the tree. They found him mentally unbalanced.” Gnut was behind his master when Klaatu was killed. Gnut slowly turned his body towards him, moved his head twice, and then stood still. Klaatu was buried in a mausoleum in the Tidal Basin, and the Smithsonian Institution built a new wing around the ship and robot and started giving tours. The robot and ship were too heavy to be moved. All of our best metallurgists failed to break into the ship and they couldn’t find anyway to penetrate Gnut’s internals.

The story’s narrator, Cliff Sutherland, a freelance picture reporter, tells the readers that the site became a tourist attraction. A Mr. Stillwell recorded the info presentation that blared through the speakers to the visitors. At the end of the tour, the recorded voice would say, “You will be allowed to remain five minutes longer, and then, when the gong sounds, you will please leave promptly. The robot attendants along the wall will answer any questions you may have.” Since Cliff (from viewing his previous photos) thought that Gnut had somehow moved a fraction from the previous day, he hid in the building until closing time. As darkness set in, Cliff felt that Gnut’s red eyes followed him no matter where he went. Cliff settled in for a period of waiting. “And so it was that when Gnut did move Cliff was scared almost out of his wits. Dull and a little bored, he suddenly found the robot out on the floor, halfway in his direction.” The frightening thing was that he didn’t catch him moving! “For a moment Cliff all but fainted, and when he recovered, there was Gnut towering over him, legs almost within reach. He was bending slightly, burning his terrible eyes right into his own!” Cliff waited to be squashed like a bug. “And then suddenly and unexpectedly it was over. Gnut’s body straightened and he stepped back. He turned. And then, with the almost jerkless rhythm which only he among robots possessed, he started back toward the place from which he came.” Gnut went to the ship (the author calls the ship, the traveler) and utters some curious sounds and a doorway opens and a ramp slides down. Gnut goes into the traveler, and then the opening closes. Cliff was so scared that he forgot to take pictures. So he positions his camera to take a picture of the ramp connecting with the opened door when Gnut comes out of the ship. Hours passed. What’s he doing in there? “More time passed, and then, some time after two o’clock in the morning, a simple homely thing happened, but a thing so unexpected that for a moment it quite destroyed Cliff’s equilibrium...there was a faint whir of wings, soon followed by the piercing, sweet voice of a bird. A mockingbird.” How did the mockingbird get into this museum? It’s December, not spring.

Cliff didn’t notice, but Gnut was now out of the ship. The mockingbird fell out of the sky. It was dead. Gnut picked it up and went back in the ship. “Hours passed while Cliff waited for some sequel to this surprising happening.” Once again he failed to take a picture of Gnut moving around. Cliff took off his shoes and quitely hid behind one of the six robot attendants. The next thing Cliff saw was a dark shape that bounded out of the port quickly followed by Gnut. It was a gorilla! The gorilla and Gnut fought. The gorilla began tearing the robot attendants apart, one by one. Still Cliff is forgetting to take any pictures. Before the gorilla could come to the robot attendant that Cliff was hiding behind, “It dropped heavily on one side, rocked back and forth a few times, and fell twitching. Then it lay still and did not move again. As dawn crept into the room, Gnut’s heavy greenish features displayed a thoughtful, grieving expression towards the dead gorilla. He gently picked up the gorilla and brought it inside the ship." Cliff hid until 8:30 in the morning when, “there were noises at the entrance, and the good sound of human voices came to his ears.” He heard running feet, as he stealthily sneaked out, he looked back and Gnut was standing in his accustomed place, in the identical pose he had taken at the death of his master. Later, safe in his hotel room, he staggered over to the bed. “He did not wake up til mid-afternoon.” After he woke up, he went to a nearby restaurant patronized by newsmen. There he heard what he knew he would hear...the shit hit the fan at the museum. Cliff went back to the museum, showed his press credentials, and gained admission. They were cleaning up the mess, piling the broken robot attendants along the wall. Another reporter told Cliff that they found a number of short dark brown hairs. “Those hairs came off a large male gorilla...most of them were found on the robot attendants...and that’s blood, diluted-gorilla blood. It was found on Gnut’s arms.” Cliff realized that he had only two still photos, none involving any action. He decided that he had to go back for a second night.

If this recapitulation is too long, take a break and come back tomorrow for the surprise ending! Once again, I would like to reiterate that this is not a review. I’m telling the story. Did you notice there isn’t a professor (Sam Jaffe), or a potential love interest (Patricia Neal)? That’s because Bates killed off Klaatu as soon as he got off the spaceship. I wonder if George R. R. Martin, author of A Game of Thrones, got his “surprise kill” ideas from Bates. Oh, well.

                                                          

So Cliff snuck back into the museum the next night with the intention of getting some action photos. This time, besides his camera, he brought along a Mikton ray gun in case he ran into anymore gorillas. Once again, Cliff hid under the table of supplies in the laboratory. “He settled down to wait, keeping Gnut in full sight every minute. Hours slowly passed. From time to time he heard slight noises at the entrance. At about nine o’clock he saw Gnut move.” Like last night, Gnut walked over to Cliff and stared at him with bright red eyes. Cliff trembled all over, “You would not hurt me”, he pleaded. “I was only curious to see what’s going on. It’s my job. Can you understand me? I would not harm or bother you. I...I couldn’t if I wanted to. Please!” Cliff doesn’t know if the giant robot heard him or understood him. Gnut reached down and took something from a drawer of the table that Cliff was hiding behind. Gnut turned around and went into the ship. Cliff was in the dark for two hours while the robot was in the ship. Suddenly, Cliff heard muffled sounds from inside the ship...very familiar words. “Gentlemen,” was the first, and then there was a very slight pause. “The Smithsonian Institution welcomes you to its new Interplanetary Wing and to the marvelous exhibits at this moment before you.” My God, it was Stillwell’s voice, the man who recorded the exhibit’s tour. “For just a moment there was silence. Then came a scream, a hoarse man’s scream, muffled, from somewhere within the heart of the ship.” Abruptly, Stillwell flew out of the ship and stumbled towards Cliff with Gnut right behind him. Stillwell asked Cliff where he was and how did he get here. He told Cliff, “I was making a lecture recording when suddenly I found myself here.” Stillwell said he felt weak, then he fell on the floor...and then he died. Gnut looked sad, picked up Stillwell and laid him by the wall where he had stacked the dismembered pieces of the robot attendants the night before. Then he went back into the ship.

What is Gnut experimenting with in the ship that enabled him to bring a bird, gorilla and now a man into this complex? And why did they promptly die? One by one, Gnut brought out the bodies of the gorilla and the mockingbird, and laid them in the pile by the wall. Gnut was obviously cleaning house in his ship. Finally, Cliff went over to the pile to see the bodies of the gorilla, the mockingbird and the one of Stillwell, but wait there was a fourth body. “What he saw made him catch his breath. Impossible, he thought. There was some confusion in his directions. He brought his face back, close to the first body. Then his blood ran cold. The first body was that of Stillwell, but the last in the row was Stillwell, too. There were two bodies of Stillwell, both exactly alike, both dead.” What is going on? “Cliff backed away with a cry, and then panic took him and he ran down the room away from Gnut and yelled and beat wildly on the door. There was a noise on the outside.” “Let me out!” he yelled in terror. “Let me out! Let me out! Oh, hurry!” The door opened and Cliff ran out like a wild animal and then stopped and looked at the building. “As he looked, the grounds about the building came to life. Several people collected at the door of the wing. Above sounded the siren of a police copter, then in the distance another, and from all sides people came running, a few at first, then more and more. The police planes landed on the lawn just outside the door of the wing, and he thought he could see the officers peeping inside. Then suddenly the lights of the wing flooded on. In control of himself now, Cliff went back.” Of course Gnut was standing motionless in his usual spot. “The ship’s door was closed, and the ramp gone. But the bodies, the four strangely assorted bodies, were still lying by the demolished robot attendants where he had left them in the dark.” Then Cliff was recognized, “This is the man!” the guard shouted. “When I opened the door this man forced his way out and ran like the devil.”

“The police officers converged on Cliff.” At this point, Cliff is the only witness to what happened the last two nights in the compound, even though he had little pictorial evidence. But everybody knows that something “out of this world” happened. Will he cooperate with the police? Yes and no. Yes he will, but not till he makes a lot of money from his eye witness account. “What were you doing?” the officer asked, eyeing him. “And where did these bodies come from?” “Gentlemen, I’d tell you gladly -only business first,” Cliff answered. “There’s been some fantastic goings-on in this room, and I saw them and have the story, but - ” he smiled, - "I must decline to answer without advice of counsel until I’ve sold my story to one of the news syndicates. You know how it is. If you’ll allow me the use of the radio in your plane - just for a moment, gentlemen - you’ll have the whole story afterward. Say in half an hour, when the television men broadcast it. Meanwhile, believe me, there’s nothing for you to do, and there’ll be no loss by the delay.” Cliff made a deal with a news syndicate that paid him a lot of money...then he told his story to the world. Afterwards, he spent the night in jail before being released. Then a Federal agent grabbed him and said, “You’re wanted for further questioning over at the Continental Bureau of Investigation.” Cliff had no choice but to go with the agent. Thirty-five high ranking officials were at the meeting. After listening to Cliff’s story again, they decided to encase Gnut in a transparent block of glasstex. Cliff then learns that Stillwell is alive and that the two others at the museum were copies. Cliff was allowed to watch the pouring of glasstex on Gnut, while he sat alone fifteen feet above the ground in a tree outside the compound. He commanded a clear view of Gnut through a museum window. Cliff is armed with his infrared viewing magnifier, a radio mike and a infrared TV eye with sound pickup. Hours passed. The moon came out. Gnut is still stationary in his block of plastic.

“Then, suddenly, Cliff saw something and quickly bent his eye to the viewing magnifier. Gnut’s eyes were moving, at least the intensity of the light emanating from them varied. It was as if two tiny red flashlights were turned from side to side, their beams at each motion crossing Cliff’s eyes.” Was Gnut making an attempt to break out of his block of plastic? “A faint red glow was spreading over the robot’s body. With trembling fingers he readjusted the lens of the television eye, but even as he did so the glow grew in intensity. It looked as if Gnut’s body was being heated to incandescence!” This particular section of the book was Harry Bates best as far as displaying his ability to create tension. He is obviously a sci-fi writer that fell through the cracks because he got very little credit for any of his writings during his lifetime. “He had within himself somehow the means to raise his own body temperature, and was exploiting the limitation of the plastic in which he was locked. For glasstex, Cliff now remembered, was a thermoplastic material, one that set by cooling and conversely would soften again with heat. Gnut was melting his way out!” “The robot became cherry-red...the whole structure began to sag...the robots body moved more wildly.” The plastic melted away. The transition happened quickly. “His body was free! And then, still cherry-red, he moved forward out of sight!” “Several minutes passed. There was a sharp, ringing crack. The metal doors of the wing flew open, and out step the metal giant, glowing no longer. He stood stock-still, and his red eyes pierced from side to side through the darkness.” Then chaos erupted as the waiting army’s tank fired its shell into the giant robot. Cliff’s tree swayed side to side, the area where the robot had previously stood was covered in a cloud of dust and smoke. Did the army destroy Gnut? Cliff had to wait for the haze to clear. He was sure the robot had taken a direct hit.

When the haze cleared, Cliff saw Gnut get up and head for the tank. Before the tank could maneuver it’s barrel, Gnut destroyed the breech with one mighty wallop. The crew scattered to safety. “And then he turned and looked right at Cliff. He moved toward him, and in a moment was under the tree. Cliff climber higher. Gnut put his two arms around the tree and gave a lifting push, and the tree tore out at the roots and fell crashing to its side. Before Cliff could scramble away, the robot had lifted him in his metal hands.” Strangely, the giant robot put Cliff on his shoulder, stabilized him by putting his hand on Cliff’s ankle, and then marched off towards the Tidal Basin where Klaatu’s body was buried. “His neck and shoulders made Cliff a seat hard as steel, but with the difference that their underlying muscles with each movement flexed, just as those of a human being. To Cliff, this metal musculature became a vivid wonder.” Thousands of people followed; above droned copters and planes, and on the ground police cars followed with their annoying sirens blaring. Gnut navigated through water up to his waist before he arrived on the land where the mausoleum that housed Klaatu’s tomb was. “In a moment they were at the top, on the narrow platform in the middle of which rested the simple oblong tomb.” “The giant robot walked once around it, then, bending, he braced himself and gave a mighty push against the top. The marble cracked. The thick cover slipped askew and broke with a loud noise on the far side. Inside...lay a transparent plastic coffin, thick walled and sealed against centuries, and containing all that was mortal to Klaatu, unspoken visitor from the great unknown.” Also inside was a sealed box that contained all the records of Klaatu’s very short visit along with a little roll of film that caught the sight and sound of Klaatu’s short visit. “Gnut paid final respect to his beautiful and adored master. Suddenly then it was over. Gnut reached out and took the little box of records, rose to his feet and started down the steps.” Gnut with Cliff still on his shoulder, and the little box of records in his hand, went back the same way he came and then entered his ship with Cliff on his shoulder.

Once inside, “He set Cliff down and stood looking at him. The young man already regretted his rash action, but the robot, except for his always unfathomable eyes, did not seem angry. He pointed to a stool in one corner of the room. Cliff quickly obeyed this time and sat meekly, for a while not even venturing to look around.” Cliff eventually noticed that he was in a laboratory of some kind. None of the equipment looked even vaguely familiar. “Dominating the center of the room was a long metal table on whose top lay a large box, much like a coffin on the outside, connected by many wires to a complicated apparatus at the far end.” He was also wondering why there was what appeared to be an Earthman’s briefcase on a nearby table...it seemed out of place. “Gnut paid him no attention, but at once, with the narrow edge of a thick tool, sliced the lid off the little box of records. He lifted out the strip of sight-and-sound film and spent fully half an hour adjusting it with the apparatus at the end of the big table...this done, Gnut worked a long time over some accessory apparatus on an adjoining table. Then he paused thoughtfully a moment and pushed inward a long rod. A voice came out of the coffinlike box - the voice of the slain ambassador.” Wow, what’s going on? “I am Klaatu,” it said, “and this is Gnut.” It flashed through Cliff’s mind, those were the only words the ambassador uttered! Then Cliff realized there was a man in the box...he sat up! It was Klaatu! “Klaatu appeared somewhat surprised and spoke quickly in an unknown tongue to Gnut. And Gnut, for the first time in Cliff’s experience, spoke himself in answer. They talked for several minutes.” Klaatu seemed to be tired and was going to lay down, but he changed his mind when he noticed Cliff sitting there. He once again talked to Gnut, this time at length. Then he said to Cliff, “Gnut told me everything.” Cliff had a hundred questions to ask, but for a moment hardly dared open his mouth. “But you,” he began at last - very respectfully, but with an escaping excitement - “You are not the Klaatu that was in the tomb?” “No.”

“I am dying,” he announced simply, as if repeating his words for the Earthman. Again to his face came the faint, tired smile.” Cliff didn’t have a clue what was happening. “I see you don’t understand,” he said. “Although unlike us, Gnut has great powers. When the wing was built and the lectures began, there came to him a striking inspiration. Acting on it at once, in the night, he assembled this apparatus...and now he has made me again, from my voice, as recorded by your people. As you must know, a given body makes a characteristic sound. He constructed an apparatus which reversed the recording process, and from the given sound made the characteristic body.” Now it dawned on Cliff, during those two nights that he spent observing, Gnut was in the ship experimenting. First with the mockingbird, then the gorilla and finally with the two Stillwells. Cliff said to Klaatu, “But you needn’t die!” Klaatu said, “You don’t understand...your recordings had imperfections. Perhaps very slight ones, but they doom the product. All of Gnut’s experiments died in a few minutes, he tells me, and so must I.” Cliff thought about what he has just learned and, “Suddenly, then, Cliff understood the origin of the experiments. He remembered that on the day the wing opened a Smithsonian official had lost a briefcase containing filmstrips of various world fauna. There, on the table, was a briefcase. And the Stillwells must have been made from strips kept in the table drawer.” Cliff didn’t want Klaatu to die and slowly an idea popped into his head. “You say the recording was imperfect, and of course it was. But the cause of that lay in the use of an imperfect recording apparatus. So if Gnut, in his reversal process, had used exactly the same pieces of apparatus that your voice was recorded with, the imperfections could be studied, canceled out, and you’d live, and not die!”

Then something truly unexpected happened, Gnut whipped around like a cat and gripped Cliff tight. An excitement was was shining in the metal muscles of his face and he (yes, that’s right, Gnut) said in perfect English, “Get me that apparatus!” It never dawned on me that he could talk. After all, he never talked in the movie. Anyway, Klaatu said, “There is no hurry, it’s too late for me...stay with me to the end." Shortly thereafter, he died. Then Cliff said, “ Gnut, I’ll get the original apparatus. I’ll get it. Every piece of it, the exact same things.” Gnut let Cliff out of the ship, a huge crowd was around the ship when Cliff stepped down the ramp. He told his story to the authorities in charge, but “He told only part of his story. He was believed. He waited quietly while all the pressure which the highest officials in the land could exert was directed toward obtaining for him the apparatus the robot had demanded.” When the hatch of the spaceship opened, Gnut handed Cliff the body of the second Klaatu and Gnut received the apparatus he needed. Cliff said, "Gnut, you must do one thing for me. Listen carefully. I want you to tell your master - the master yet to come - that what happened to the first Klaatu was an accident, for which all Earth is immeasurably sorry. Will you do that?” “I have known it,” the robot answered gently. “But will you promise to tell your master - just those words - as soon as he is arrived?” “You misunderstand,” said Gnut, still gently, and quietly spoke four more words. What Gnut said made Cliff’s body go numb and teared his eyes. Wow, what were Gnut’s final four words? Are you ready? Gnut said to Cliff, “You misunderstand...I am the Master.

Rick O 2/3/2018

Comment: This column was a experiment that I will not repeat (too hard). It all started when I remembered a magazine type publication I used to read when I was a kid. For the life of me, I can’t remember the publication’s name. Anyway, this publication would do classic novels in an abbreviated form. I wanted to do one, but I needed a short story to abbreviate. Then I found this 63 page classic, Farewell to the Master. Whala! I had my story to shorten, but let me tell you that it was not easy. I had to shorten 63 pages down to 7 including all my commentary without losing the gist of Harry Bates’s novel. Did I succeed?