Gun, with Occasional Music
Encyclopedia
Gun, with Occasional Music is a 1994
novel
by Jonathan Lethem
. It blends science fiction
and hardboiled
detective fiction
. It was nominated for the Nebula Award
for Best Novel
in 1994.
and Oakland
, California
. Metcalf is hired by a man who claims that he's being framed for the murder of a prominent urologist
. Metcalf quickly discovers that nobody wants the case solved: not the victim's ex-wife, not the police, and certainly not the gun-toting kangaroo
who works for the local mafia
boss.
explored previously by David Brin
in his Uplift
novels and Roger Zelazny
in The Dream Master
. Lethem's animals stand midway between these two; like Brin's, they have clearly delineated and delimited rights; like Zelazny's, however, they are part of a darker symbolism. It is not considered bestiality when one has a sexual relationship with an evolved animal in this world, and humans may also adopt younger evolved animals.
Lethem also envisions nerve-swapping technology. Couples trade erogenous zones for the purpose of sexual experimentation. Metcalf previously underwent such a procedure, and is now trapped with a woman's neuro-sexual apparatus because his girlfriend skipped town with his male one.
There are other incidental touches. For an unexplained reason, psychology
is no longer viewed as a science
, and psychologists behave like Jehovah's Witnesses
, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other itinerant proselytizing religions. One such couple asks Metcalf if he'd like to listen to selections from Sigmund Freud
's Civilization and Its Discontents
. In this future, television
is now an abstract art
form, and has abandoned linear narrative
sequence genres.
People are more easily disconcerted in Lethem's future. Asking questions is considered astonishingly rude, making detectives (or "inquisitors", as they are known), whose job involves prying, social pariahs. Rather than broadcast bad news to squeamish listeners, the radio plays ominous music instead. (Handgun
s also come with threatening violin soundtracks.) And everyone is "on the make"--make being a snortable drug
available in a dozen different blends (Acceptol, Avoidol, Forgettol) in stores called makeries. But substance abuse
still exists in this future- there is a lucrative black market in blanketrol, an earlier version of forgettol and addictol, but highly addictive nevertheless. Pansy Greenleaf is initially addicted to it.
Karma
is also subject to transactions
through portable debit cards. Once someone's karma reaches zero, they are sentenced to specific periods of cryogenic respite until they "work off" their karmic "debt". Lethem went on to further explore this idea in his later novel Amnesia Moon
, in which "luck
ratings" served a similar role to Guns karma. However, unscrupulous criminal elements in this society have developed "slaveboxes", neural implants which activate the inert central nervous system
s of the sleepers, using their bodies for prostitution
or slave labour while unconscious.
Metcalf himself is frozen late in the book. After six years, he is thawed out, only to find that memory
retention has become a social taboo
, and people now have prompters installed to provide retrospective commentary about past events in their lives. As a result, "makeries" only supply one standardized blend, with forgettol paramount. Private investigation is also illegal.
1994 in literature
The year 1994 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Kevin J. Anderson - Champions of the Force, Dark Apprentice and Jedi Search*Reed Arvin - The Wind in the Wheat*Greg Bear - Songs of Earth and Power...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Lethem
Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. It was followed by three more science fiction novels...
. It blends science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and hardboiled
Hardboiled
Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex. The style was pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined...
detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
. It was nominated for the Nebula Award
Nebula Award
The Nebula Award is given each year by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , for the best science fiction/fantasy fiction published in the United States during the previous year...
for Best Novel
Nebula Award for Best Novel
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.- Winners and other nominees :...
in 1994.
Plot
The novel follows the adventures of Conrad Metcalf, a tough guy private detective and a wiseass, through a futuristic version of San FranciscoSan Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Metcalf is hired by a man who claims that he's being framed for the murder of a prominent urologist
Urology
Urology is the medical and surgical specialty that focuses on the urinary tracts of males and females, and on the reproductive system of males. Medical professionals specializing in the field of urology are called urologists and are trained to diagnose, treat, and manage patients with urological...
. Metcalf quickly discovers that nobody wants the case solved: not the victim's ex-wife, not the police, and certainly not the gun-toting kangaroo
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
who works for the local mafia
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
boss.
Characters
- Conrad Metcalf – Hardboiled private "inquisitor".
- Maynard Stanhunt – Doctor who is murdered before the novel begins.
- Orton Angwine – Man accused of murdering Maynard Stanhunt.
- Delia Limetree – Woman who switched sexual nerve endings with Metcalf; mentioned only once.
- Theodore Twostrand – Scientist who invented evolution therapy; mentioned only once.
- Celeste Stanhunt – Dr. Stanhunt's widow
- Sasha – Kitten whose brain has been accelerated by evolution therapy, known as an "evolved" kitten
- Grover Testafer – Doctor who shared a practice with Maynard Stanhunt
- Morgenlander – An inquisitor for "The Office"
- Kornfeld – An inquisitor for The Office
- Shand – Human clerk at the Vistamont Hotel
- Danny Phoneblum – A local gangster
- Joey Castle – an evolved kangaroo (and thug) employed by Phoneblum
- Pansy Greenleaf – Blanketrol-addicted woman with whom Celeste Stanhunt lives
- Dulcie – An evolved ewe employed by Testafer.
- Barry Greenleaf – An evolved child, otherwise known as a "baby-head"
- Catherine Teleprompter – An inquisitor for "The Office"
- Maker – Not a name, but a job title; scientist who makes "blends" of make at a makery
- Cole Bayzwaite – Architect
- Walter Surface – Private "inquisitor" and evolved ape.
- Nancy – Surface's companion
- Woofer – A baby-head
- Tweeter – A baby-head
- Overholt – Works for Phoneblum out of a bar called the Fickle Muse
Lethem's future
Thanks to technology, children can become smarter and more cynical than adults; such children are known as baby-heads. "Baby-heads" have their own subculture and bars, and can drink alcohol. Animals, too, can be given the intelligence of a human being through bioscientific techniques, a conceptBiological uplift
In science fiction, uplift is the development or transformation of animals into an intelligent race by other, already-intelligent beings. The concept appears in David Brin's Uplift series and other science fiction works.-History of the concept:...
explored previously by David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
in his Uplift
Uplift Universe
The Uplift Universe is a fictional universe created by science fiction writer David Brin. A central feature in this universe is the process of biological uplift.His books which take place in this universe:* Sundiver...
novels and Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
in The Dream Master
The Dream Master
The Dream Master , originally published as a novella titled He Who Shapes, is a science-fiction novel by Roger Zelazny. Zelazny's originally intended title for it was The Ides of Octember...
. Lethem's animals stand midway between these two; like Brin's, they have clearly delineated and delimited rights; like Zelazny's, however, they are part of a darker symbolism. It is not considered bestiality when one has a sexual relationship with an evolved animal in this world, and humans may also adopt younger evolved animals.
Lethem also envisions nerve-swapping technology. Couples trade erogenous zones for the purpose of sexual experimentation. Metcalf previously underwent such a procedure, and is now trapped with a woman's neuro-sexual apparatus because his girlfriend skipped town with his male one.
There are other incidental touches. For an unexplained reason, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
is no longer viewed as a science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, and psychologists behave like Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other itinerant proselytizing religions. One such couple asks Metcalf if he'd like to listen to selections from Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
's Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents is a book by Sigmund Freud. Written in 1929, and first published in German in 1930 as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , it is considered one of Freud's most important and widely read works....
. In this future, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
is now an abstract art
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
form, and has abandoned linear narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
sequence genres.
People are more easily disconcerted in Lethem's future. Asking questions is considered astonishingly rude, making detectives (or "inquisitors", as they are known), whose job involves prying, social pariahs. Rather than broadcast bad news to squeamish listeners, the radio plays ominous music instead. (Handgun
Handgun
A handgun is a firearm designed to be held and operated by one hand. This characteristic differentiates handguns as a general class of firearms from long guns such as rifles and shotguns ....
s also come with threatening violin soundtracks.) And everyone is "on the make"--make being a snortable drug
Psychoactive drug
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it affects brain function, resulting in changes in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, and behavior...
available in a dozen different blends (Acceptol, Avoidol, Forgettol) in stores called makeries. But substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
still exists in this future- there is a lucrative black market in blanketrol, an earlier version of forgettol and addictol, but highly addictive nevertheless. Pansy Greenleaf is initially addicted to it.
Karma
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
is also subject to transactions
Financial transaction
A financial transaction is an event or condition under the contract between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment. It involves a change in the status of the finances of two or more businesses or individuals.-History:...
through portable debit cards. Once someone's karma reaches zero, they are sentenced to specific periods of cryogenic respite until they "work off" their karmic "debt". Lethem went on to further explore this idea in his later novel Amnesia Moon
Amnesia Moon
Amnesia Moon is a 1995 novel by Jonathan Lethem. Lethem adapted the novel from several unpublished short stories he had written, all about catastrophic, apocalyptic events. In finished form Amnesia Moon bears homage to Philip K. Dick. In fact, during a party scene, one guest describes a battle of...
, in which "luck
Luck
Luck or fortuity is good fortune which occurs beyond one's control, without regard to one's will, intention, or desired result. There are at least two senses people usually mean when they use the term, the prescriptive sense and the descriptive sense...
ratings" served a similar role to Guns karma. However, unscrupulous criminal elements in this society have developed "slaveboxes", neural implants which activate the inert central nervous system
Central nervous system
The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...
s of the sleepers, using their bodies for prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
or slave labour while unconscious.
Metcalf himself is frozen late in the book. After six years, he is thawed out, only to find that memory
Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
retention has become a social taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
, and people now have prompters installed to provide retrospective commentary about past events in their lives. As a result, "makeries" only supply one standardized blend, with forgettol paramount. Private investigation is also illegal.
Release details
- 1994, U.S., Harcourt, ISBN 0-15-136458-3, Pub date 1 March 1994, Hardcover
- 1995, U.S., Tor, ISBN 0-312-85878-7, Pub date 1 March 1995, Paperback
- 2003, U.S., Harvest, ISBN 0-15-602897-2, Pub date 1 September 2003, Paperback
Sources, references, external links, quotations
- Review of the novel by Steven SilverSteven H SilverSteven H Silver is an American science fiction fan and bibliographer, publisher, and editor. He has been nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer ten times and Best Fanzine three times without winning....
- Drug References in Science Fiction