The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth

Last updated
"The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth"
Short story by Roger Zelazny
Doors of His Face FSF 0166.jpg
CountryFlag of the United States.svg  USA
Language English
Genre(s) Science fiction
Publication
Published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
Publication typePeriodical
Publisher Mercury Publications
Media typeMagazine
Publication dateMarch 1965

"The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" is a science fiction novelette by Roger Zelazny. Originally published in the March 1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , it won the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Novelette [1] and was nominated for the 1966 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction. [2]

Contents

Writing in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction , John Clute found that Zelazny's story "intoxicatingly dashes together myth and literary assonances—in this case Herman Melville's Moby-Dick—and sex". [3] Gardner Dozois opined that "Doors of His Face" was inspired by "a loving nostalgia for the era of the pulp adventure story that was then widely supposed to be ending". [4]

In the introduction to the novelette in Nebula Award Stories 1965, editor Damon Knight noted that not only did the story receive more votes than the other nominees in its category, but that it received more votes than all of the others combined. [5]

The story has been seen as engaging in New Wave stylistics via its onomastics, metaphors and similes. [6] The title is based on verses from the Book of Job in the King James Version of the Bible, chapter 41 verses 14 and 19, which are part of the description of the Leviathan: "Who can open the doors of his face?" and "Out of his mouth go burning lamps". [7]

Plot summary

The story is set on Venus at a time when mankind has achieved routine travel to the various planets of the solar system. Unlike the actual planet, Zelazny's Venus is Earth-like, offering breathable air, water-filled oceans and native fauna, one of which is the fictional Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus, a 300-foot-long denizen of the Venusian oceans commonly called "Ikky". It has never been caught, despite numerous attempts to do so.

The story's two main protagonists are Jean Luharich and Carlton Davits. Luharich is a successful businesswoman and media celebrity who is financing, and commanding, an expedition to capture an Ikky. The ship used is known as Tensquare, a nuclear powered platform designed by a rich entrepreneur who went broke looking for Ikky. Davits is a work-for-hire seaman who has been on the crew of several earlier attempts, and in fact had once been in Luharich's position: a playboy sportsman who hired Tensquare to catch an Ikky, until he was injured in a disastrous try whose failure he blames on himself. Davits and Luharich were previously involved in a brief romantic relationship which ended years before the story begins. Both are fiercely competitive and excellent swimmers. Davits hires on with the condition that he stays sober.

Davits has been hired on as a "baitman"—the crewmember who is tasked with diving to the end of a submerged cable so as to attach and activate an electronic lure. Because the lure is deployed only when an Ikky has been detected in close proximity to the ship, the baitman can find himself dangerously close to the Ikky. This happens to Davits. He manages to safely return to the ship, where he assists Luharich in a successful capture, for which she has to overcome the same primal fears that caused Davits to fail in his attempt, when he saw the face of the Leviathan.

Zelazny's conception of Venus

John Clute described Zelazny's Venus as "fantastical, densely described" and "almost entirely 'unscientific'". [3] Gardner Dozois believed that Zelazny certainly knew that the Venus of "Doors of His Face" was not the actual Venus. Instead, Dozois saw Zelazny's Venus as "an homage, a deliberate act of retro nostalgia" for the "lushly romantic pulp version ... that had been popularized in tales from Planet Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories decades before". [4]

Zelazny himself explained his conception of Venus as one intentionally written before such a story was made no longer possibly by scientific discovery. "By late 1961 we already had fly-by photos which indicated what the surface of Mars and Venus were really like. But the knowledge was not yet so disseminated to the public, and so one could still get away with a story of the older variety... That was it. I could never do another story of that sort again. They [The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth and A Rose for Ecclesiastes] were both my tribute to a phase in the genre’s history which was closed forever." [8]

Publication history

In addition to its original appearance in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, "The Doors of His Face ..." appeared in two best-of-the-year anthologies—The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction (15th Series, 1966) and Nebula Award Stories 1965 (1966).

Since then, it has been anthologized at least twelve times, including translations into French, German and Italian. The story also appears in eight collections devoted to Zelazny's work, including translations into Dutch and Lithuanian. In 1991, it was published as a chapbook by Pulphouse Publishing.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Zelazny</span> U.S. science fiction and fantasy writer and poet (1937–1995)

Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American poet and writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times and the Hugo Award six times, including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966) and then the novel Lord of Light (1967).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gordon R. Dickson</span> Canadian-American science fiction writer (1923–2001)

Gordon Rupert Dickson was a Canadian-American science fiction writer. He was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardner Dozois</span> American science fiction author and editor (1947–2018)

Gardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (1986–2004), garnering multiple Hugo and Locus Awards for those works almost every year. He also won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story twice. He was inducted to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011.

<i>Interzone</i> (magazine) British fantasy and science fiction magazine

Interzone is a British fantasy and science fiction magazine. Published since 1982, Interzone is the eighth-longest-running English language science fiction magazine in history, and the longest-running British science fiction (SF) magazine. Stories published in Interzone have been finalists for the Hugo Awards and have won a Nebula Award and numerous British Science Fiction Awards.

Michael Lawson Bishop was an American author. Over five decades and in more than thirty books, he created what has been called a "body of work that stands among the most admired and influential in modern science fiction and fantasy literature."

<i>The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories</i>

The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth, and Other Stories is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Roger Zelazny. It was published in 1971 by Doubleday.

Janet Kagan was an American author. Her works include two science fiction novels and two science fiction collections, plus numerous science fiction and fantasy short stories that appeared in publications such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact and Asimov's Science Fiction. Her story "The Nutcracker Coup" was nominated for both the Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the Nebula Award for Best Novelette, winning the Hugo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Eisenstein</span> American author (1946–2020)

Phyllis Eisenstein was an American author of science fiction and fantasy short stories as well as novels. Her work was nominated for both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award.

<i>Terry Carrs Best Science Fiction of the Year</i>

Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the fourteenth volume in a series of sixteen. It was first published in paperback by Tor Books in July 1985, and in hardcover and trade paperback by Gollancz in October of the same year, under the alternate title Best SF of the Year #14.

<i>The 1986 Annual Worlds Best SF</i>

The 1986 Annual World's Best SF is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, the fourteenth volume in a series of nineteen. It was first published in paperback by DAW Books in June 1986, followed by a hardcover edition issued in August of the same year by the same publisher as a selection of the Science Fiction Book Club. For the hardcover edition the original cover art by Vincent Di Fate was replaced by a new cover painting by Ron Walotsky.

"The Coon Rolled Down and Ruptured his Larinks, a Squeezed Novel by Mr. Skunk" is a 1990 science fiction novelette by American writer Dafydd ab Hugh.

<i>Four for Tomorrow</i>

Four for Tomorrow is the first story collection by Roger Zelazny, published in paperback by Ace Books in 1967. British hardcover and paperback editions followed in 1969, under the title A Rose for Ecclesiastes. The first American hardcover was issued in the Garland Library of Science Fiction in 1975. A French translation appeared in 1980. Paperback reissues continued from Ace and later from Baen Books into the 1990s.

<i>The Good Old Stuff</i> Collection of science fiction short stories by Gardner Dozois

The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Gardner Dozois. It was first published in trade paperback by St. Martin's Griffin in December 1998, with an ebook following from the same publisher in December 2013. It was combined with its companion anthology The Good New Stuff in the omnibus edition The Good Stuff, issued by the Science Fiction Book Club in January 1999. It has also been translated into Italian.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase</i> Series of annual science fiction and fantasy anthologies

Nebula Award Showcase is a series of annual science fiction and fantasy anthologies collecting stories that have won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA), a nonprofit association of professional science fiction and fantasy writers founded in 1965 by Damon Knight as the Science Fiction Writers of America.

<i>Nebula Award Stories 7</i>

Nebula Award Stories 7 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Lloyd Biggle, Jr. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1972. The first American edition was published by Harper & Row in January 1973; a Science Fiction Book Club edition, also in hardcover, followed in March of the same year. Paperback editions followed from Harrow Books in the U.S. in 1973, and Panther in the U.K. in December 1974. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Seven. The book has also been published in German.

<i>Nebula Award Stories 11</i>

Nebula Award Stories 11 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was first published in the United Kingdom in hardcover by Gollancz in November 1976. The first American edition was published in hardcover by Harper & Row in February 1977. Paperback editions followed from Corgi in the U.K. in July 1978, and Bantam Books in the U.S. in August 1978. The American editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories Eleven.

<i>Nebula Award Stories 1965</i>

Nebula Award Stories 1965 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Damon Knight. It was first published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1966, with a Science Fiction Book Club edition following in October of the same year. The first British edition was published by Gollancz in 1967. Paperback editions followed from Pocket Books in the U.S. in November 1967, and New English Library in the U.K. in April 1969. The U.K. and paperback editions bore the variant title Nebula Award Stories 1. The book was more recently reissued by Stealth Press in hardcover in February 2001. It has also been published in German.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2003</i>

Nebula Awards Showcase 2003 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Nancy Kress. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in April 2003.

<i>Nebula Awards Showcase 2002</i>

Nebula Awards Showcase 2002 is an anthology of award-winning science fiction short works edited by Kim Stanley Robinson. It was first published in trade paperback by Roc/New American Library in April 2002.

"Unicorn Variation" is a 1981 fantasy story by American writer Roger Zelazny. It was first published in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

References

  1. ↑ "1966 Nebula Awards". Locus . Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
  2. ↑ "1966 Hugo Awards". World Science Fiction Society. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
  3. 1 2 Clute, John (May 14, 2015). "Roger Zelazny". sf-encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
  4. 1 2 Gardner Dozois, ed. (1998). The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition . New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 376. ISBN   0-312-19275-4.
  5. ↑ Damon Knight, ed. (1966). Nebula Award Stories 1965. Garden City (New York): Doubleday. p. 1.
  6. ↑ Taylor, John W. (1990). "From Pulpstyle to Innerspace: The Stylistics of American New-Wave SF". Style. 24 (4): 611–627. ISSN   0039-4238. JSTOR   42946165.
  7. ↑ "Job Chapter 41, KJV". Bible Hub.
  8. ↑ Krulik, Theodore. "A Few Words from Roger Zelazny, Part Five: Space Travel, Cybernetics, and the SF Mystery". tor.com. TOR. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.