Customer Reviews

Jack Faust

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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.

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.

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.

Maybe I came to this book with too many expectations -- Michael Swanwick is an author whose work I respect, and "Jack Faust" looked like an attempt to bring literary and moral values to the fantasy genre. The problem is that the story of Faust already has about as much moral and literary value as it is possible to have, thanks to Marlowe and Goethe. So what was Swanwick thinking?

The premise is eternally compelling, and Swanwick gives it a fun spin: what if Faust gains access to all the scientific knowledge in the universe, and is therefore able to compress every industrial and post-industrial revolution into a single generation, so that ultimately even atomic power will come to the 16th century. The joy of such alternate world stories is in the details: what are the political and social implications of the changes? What would the 16th century FEEL like with automobiles and mass production? Unfortunately, Swanwick is more concerned with keeping his plot moving, so the tale is a quick read but not a stimulating one. Swanwick shows us nothing we have not seen before, and by the second half of the book it is difficult to care about anything that is going on.

Even if you come to it with much lower expectations than I did, it would be hard to find "Jack Faust" any more than a mild entertainment disguised as an intellectual and literary exercise. For entertainment, read any of Swanwick's other works. For intellectual and literary exercise, try Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon". (Unlike Pynchon, Swanwick seems to have studied only the history of the era he chose to write about, not the literature. Despite the lugubriously descriptive writing in the first few pages, Swanwick's Wittenberg remains indistinct.) And if variations on the story of Faust are what most interest you, check out Klaus Mann's "Mephisto".

There is nothing wrong with science fiction and fantasy writers striving to be taken seriously as artists. Many have succeeded, including Swanwick. But "Jack Faust" is a specimen of such sloppy thought and construction that it doesn't deserve to be taken seriously as fantasy, never mind anything more.

Swanwick is an all-to-infrequently published author. However, "Jack Faust" is not his best work.

The story is well-written. Swanwick is an accomplished writer. Yet, I never felt any kinship with any of the book's characters. In addition, the pace of the story is very "choppy". You are required to wade through page after page of meta-mystical metaphores, before coming upon scenes that are like nuggets of gold.

If you have a hankering to read this author, pass this one up and read "Vacuum Flowers" instead.

The book starts with Faust burning his books. After years of study he now has a basis for critically examining the scholarship of the texts and realizes that science and knowledge has been filtered through religion and society and therefore it's mostly useless. He opens himself to any source that will give him true knowledge of science, the universe, and it's workings.

Great! I'm entranced. The fact that it's basically a re-working of Goethe's Faust just adds to my interest. It gets almost comic as he tries to interest his peers (the other university professors) in his newfound insights into the sciences. No one cares -- the only people he can get to listen to him are the merchants, the builders, and the actual 'doers' of society. But then it all falls apart.

Faust knows from the very beginning that the inter-dimensional creature who offers to instruct him only wants to be sure that humanity destroys itself. Faust singlemindedly developes everything he can and rails at the necessity to develop lower technologies in order to get the ones he wants. Never does he open his eyes and look at the results of the technology on the people, society, and environment. He doesn't think about whether he should develop the technology only about how to develope it.

The only evaluation of his creations and their impact comes from Margarete's view of her situation. But there is no depth and insight, just a few random comments on the place of women in society and the hopelessness of the workers.

After Margarete's suicide, Faust doesn't even stop to think about his own involvement in her death but determines to pay the world back for taking her from him.

This is Faust without the internal conflict of desire for knowledge balanced against moral responsibility. Swanwick has the skills to have made this a truly thought provoking novel with engaging characters. Instead we have an updated Faust but without the soul-searching -- an interesting premise but without depth.

Swanwick's earlier novels (Stations of the Tide, The Iron Dragon's Daughter) and his short stories (collected in Gravity's Angels) only hint at the scale, ambition, and power of Jack Faust. From the opening paragraphs, which introduce us to 16th century Wittenberg and hint ominously at the "pleasant suicidal fantasy of the spark that would come to liberate its timbers into explosive fire", Swanwick's meticulous, often metaphorical prose paints rich sensory portraits of Faust's time and place. That the plot follows the traditional lines of Goethe's Faust adds rather than detracts from the surprises Swanwick has in store. For hereMephistopheles is an extraterrestrial devil---a magnificent, protean being who accompanies Faust throughout his life, whether he wants company or not---and the pact Faust makes mirrors the compact humanity has made with 20th century technology. Thus Swanwick sets up a tale which ranges all over Europe and throughout Faust's life, culminating in as darkly nihilistic vision of the human prospect I've encountered in a long time. Unlike many SF authors who have explored similar territory, Swanwick never flinches from the implications of his novel's take on human nature and its infinite corruptibility. Lest I leave the impression that Jack Faust is a downer, let me add that the sheer pleasure of Swanwick's prose, sentence by sentence, page by page, makes this book a luxuriant, compelling read. And the wit and invention he brings to the problem of telling a story which necessarily must span several decades all but demands rereading, which the novel rewards handsomely. Best of all, this novel is about something: the nature of history, logic versus faith in a technological society, and above all the challenge that the runaway technological engine of the 20th century poses to all of us as that century seques into the next. Buy the hardcover; you'll want this one for your permanent collection.

Jack Faust was an incredibly ambitious story that, for me, was successful in avoiding the pitfalls that so much genre writing cannot. Michael Swanwick's re-telling the story of a man (and ultimately a society) corrupted by his desire for knowledge is not a slave to the common props and circumstances that frequent so much of recent genre fiction. The story and characters are the central issue here. This is a book that resists all classification, save one. Jack Faust is an important work. For me, the story possessed a real depth that provoked thinking and individual reflection. I look forward to re-reading it...after I finish the rest of Mr. Swanwick's work. I've even recommended Jack Faust to my mother. It doesn't get any better than that... :) Randy

Michael Swanwick = Mark Twain + Orson Scott Card + Hal Clement + Alfred Bester + Norman Spinrad + a twist on the rocks.

This is a book mined deep from the pure seam of the genre. Malzerbergian? Hommage?

Twain's Connecticut Yankee - the impact of modern tech and science on pre industrial Europe. Card's Ender's Game + Hal Clement [+ Stephen Baxter?] - visions from fast living aliens a long, long way away. A Besterian equation explaining what Mephistopheles really means (remember I = pi i^ e mu). And a Nuremberg rally with"just add water" war toys.

With this book you could play spot the reference and wear out your Clute - but you could just read and relish the satire that is Jack Faust.

jack faust is the best book in the markets toda from cover to cover it engrosses the reader in its marvel. i invite anyone who thinks otherwise to debate it with me.