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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Creative Reworking of the Faust Legend,
By "netchild" (Lubbock, TX. United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jack Faust (Hardcover)
While Swanwick may not ever achieve the status of a Thomas Mann, he has penned a quite creative reworking of the traditional Faustian myth. Casting his vision on the template of science fiction, Swanwick adds interesting dimensions to the already complex Faustian characters. Mephistopheles appears as an alien force; as arrogant and manipulative an extraterrestrial as he ever was a demon. Margarete still appears as the innocent caught in the crossfire of evil and eviler. Wagner, the fanatic sycophant, who never realizes that not only is he a pawn, but he's a pawn that neither side cares enough to either advance or gambit. And Faust, the perpetual megalomaniac. His desire to master thoughts ends up making thoughts his master. He creates and creates but with no purpose except the creation, much like a pathogen. Ultimately the purpose, as in the traditional legend, serves those who gave him the tools to create.And in all this richness, Swanwick adds. This is a message to the future, our future, which is nightmarishly similar to Faust's reality. Ushering in an UltraIndustrial revolution, Faust overwhelms too many with too much and as Mehpistopheles knows, the gifts that mechanization brings to fruition are never used for benefit. For example, one of the first films produced after the invention of film (in the book) is no less than a pornographic movie (the title being a colorful four letter word starting with "f"). And in this uncontrollable momentum, this Newtonian nightmare, no end is in sight. Indeed, no end is possible. Like a vehicle out of control people will die because of the chaos. Mephistopheles is counting on the entire world to die. And he is not disappointed. Swanwicks reason for the reworking. Knowledge doesn't make us more certain of a future. It could very well be the opposite. What makes us certain of a future is knowledge used properly. Knowledge used without greed, without vanity; knowledge used with humanity, with compassion. Creation for a higher purpose. Faust was like a child who desired a toy and once that toy was possessed, only desired another which he did not have. It is not how much one knows, but how one uses that knowledge which they already possess . . . to help others. All this can be gathered from the classical workings of the myth. What Swanwick adds is a slight, but significant twist. In giving Jack Faust the knowledge to create scientific wonders without end, Mephistopheles knew that WE, as a people, would misuse them, regardless of if Faust misused them or not (he did). And that is the beauty, that is the addition Swanwick gives us to the Faust legend. We are all Faust. We are all culpable. Because we all had a hand in our own damnation. And consequently, if we are all Faust, we can all stop this damanation. We have a choice to stop the "death instinct", as Freud called it. But guilty or innocent we will drag each other down or lift each other up. It is, in the end, a simple matter of choice.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The blind pursuit of knowledge leads to disaster,
By
This review is from: Jack Faust (Hardcover)
Medieval scholar Johannes Faust is frustrated, having gone as far as he can in his pursuit of knowledge. Enraged by his situation, he begins destroying his library, consigning dozens of precious tomes to the flames. He prays for release from his torment, pledging his soul in return for knowledge.
Enter Mephistopheles, a being from another dimension, who promises Faust the knowledge he longs for, requiring only that Faust must be attentive to his teachings, and that he accept the consequences of his newly gained intellectual wealth. Even after being told that his knowledge will bring mankind to ruin, Faust concludes Mephistopheles has to be wrong (how could knowledge be bad, after all?) and begs him for his insights. The devil/alien grants Faust's wish and tragedy ensues. Faust's initial attempts to share his scientific advances with his fellow scholars are met with derision and scorn. It is only after he finds practical uses for them (like creating weapons of mass destruction) that people take notice. The increasingly misanthropic Faust ushers in the advances of the Industrial Age hundreds of years early, and, by book's end, seems destined to fulfill Mephistopheles dire predictions. This dark, witty, sarcastic book was one of the best reads of 1997, a well written, engrossing alternate history/fantasy. While exploring his own themes, Swanwick also makes the point that Jack Dann made in his excellent novel The Memory Cathedral: that man, by nature, is a brutal creature, who, given a choice, will pervert the wonders of science. Unlike Dann's protagonist (Leonardo da Vinci), Swanwick's Faust is virtually blind to the mayhem he's created, and becomes the prime mover in humanity's inexorable march to extinction. Faust seeks to lift humanity out of the dark ages, but only hastens its descent. Swanwick seems to be reminding readers of the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it." Doing so, he provides a valuable, and extremely winning entertainment.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling, if rather melancholy story.,
By
This review is from: Jack Faust (Hardcover)
Few science fiction novels are set in pre-renaissance Europe. In fact, I can think of none besides "Jack Faust". I see this book largely as an allegory for the present day, in which we invent new technologies--often astonishingly powerful ones, with far reaching effects--faster than society can come up with new mores and social structures for dealing with them. As such, the author does a good job of presenting his warning to us by means of a fictional history whose events seem as obvious and unavoidable as tomorrow's dawn once they are set into motion. And yet he does so in a way that kept me turning pages one after the other.As a whole, however, I found certain aspects of the book somewhat disturbing. More so because I cannot tell whether they come from the author himself or are natural artifacts of the story and the characters' evolutions. If you do purchase this book (and don't get me wrong; I'm not sorry I bought a copy), be prepared to confront some subtle mysogynies, racist attitudes, and the like. But as I say, I cannot tell whether these are the author's own beliefs or simply reflections of the times in which the novel is set.
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