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Sanity And The Lady by Brian Aldiss
01/02/2006 . Source: Paul Skevington 
pub: PS Publishing. 218 page limited edition book. Hardback: Price: £25.00 (UK), $45.00 (US). ISBN: 1-904619-24-X. Deluxe skipcased hardback: Price: £60.00 (UK), $90.00 (US). ISBN: 1-904619-28-8). Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.pspublishing.co.uk
Brian Aldiss' new book is an interesting mix of elements. Like a wrestler on steroids, this makes it very difficult to pin down.
The plot centres on one family's visitation by disembodied entities that speak to them in their heads, sometimes taking direct control of their host in the process. These little puppeteers gain the nickname 'Emperors', after the piece of music Sir Edgar Laurence was playing when he became the first person to experience their attentions. Edgar is, of course, the patriarchal head of the aforementioned family.
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The Emperors' prime characteristic is an incurable need to understand the human condition. They attempt to do this by questioning the thoughts, emotions and desires of the people that they are lodging within. Each family member reacts differently to this incursion. Laura Broughton, a middle-aged fiction writer, learns to love hers, using its presence as an opportunity to re-examine her own motivations and convictions, resulting in her belief that the Emperors visit to Earth will be beneficial for the human race. Others, such as Polly Sloboda, an angry and depressed individual, react extremely negatively to them.
On top of this, the rest of the world who have not experienced contact with the Emperors, react with varying degrees of interest and hostility. Groups quickly form across entirely disparate lines of thought. Some favour the nurturing and further study of the entities, whilst others are keen to see the total annihilation of the unwanted guests. Events spiral upwards to a climax with quite literally world altering effects.
It's a premise that leads to the creation of a novel more interested in the dynamics of the thought experiment it is conducting than in the establishment of a 'real' world or the inducement of any false sense of verisimilitude in the reader. Readers are invited to question their own actions as the characters do, peeling layers off of themselves until nothing is left but the uncomfortably chewy truth lying raw and exposed in the hand.
The Lawrence family, who undergo this process of self-analysis, are the epitome of English middle-class contentment. They live on a large estate, obviously have vast amounts of cash and generally have extremely successful careers in the arts and other areas. They even have a butler! This situation is ideal for a book centred on the exploration of thought processes, as the family are able to gate themselves off from the rest of the world, separating themselves from any unwanted external influences. It is only the wealthy that can afford true independence. Whilst I appreciate that this is useful for the structure of the novel, it is also the source of my slight discomfort with it. The book can sometimes feel dated, as if the interior of the Lawrence's household is caught in a time warp to a period when the rich were seen as being somehow inherently superior. The depiction of the butler also gave me some cause for concern, appearing to be simultaneously obsequiously subservient and also slightly malicious. Other working class characters (such as there are) do not fare much better. I do not believe there is any intention on the author's part to promote this worldview though. For instance, when the Emperors observe the painting 'The Fall Of The Rebel Angels', which Ron the butler sees as being a depiction of the upper classes attacking the lower orders, they express their thorough dislike for it. I merely posit that the book's position on this matter can sometimes appear to be uncomfortably nebulous.
These are only minor reservations of a book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The depiction of the different factions formed by the reactions to the Emperors' presence is a funhouse reflection of recent political events. Chief player in the camp for their extermination is the elected leader of the USA who sees them as a hostile alien threat. As one character states, 'It seems President Bernes thinks terrorism all the time.' Diametrically opposed to them are other nations such as France, who believe the visitation to be benign. As the Americans take increasingly outrageous steps to stamp out the Emperors' presence, relationships between the two sides become increasingly hostile.
There are several references to H.G. Wells' 'The War Of The Worlds', whose tale of destructive extra-terrestrials is cast in comparison to the much less aggressive characteristics of this novel's beings. Indeed, the true nature of the Emperors themselves is continually being discussed. Initially, they are thought of as being a mental illness, then a virus. Much later, we are introduced to the idea that they may be unimaginably old, which lends a beautiful irony to their attempts to understand a creature much younger than themselves, attempts which fail so spectacularly.
The central character, Laura, always proves interesting. Her career as a writer provides some excellent material for the Emperors to work on as they try to understand the nature of fiction and the fact that the characters Laura writes about are not actually real.
The finale of the novel, which I will not divulge here, is certainly thought-provoking. It's message slightly ambiguous, leaving room for further debate beyond the point of closure.
This book is very different to much of the work being produced in the genre at the moment. It's a highly self-reflective form of literature and I recommend it for this very reason.
Paul Skevington
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