Global InformationAlpha Ralpha Boulevard information
| "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Cordwainer Smith | |||
| Country |  USA | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | Science fiction | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction | ||
| Publication type | Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) | ||
| Publisher | Mercury Press | ||
| Publication date | June 1961 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| Series | Instrumentality of Mankind | ||
| |||
"Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" is a science fiction story by American writer Cordwainer Smith, set in his Instrumentality of Mankind universe, concerning the opening days of a sudden radical shift from a controlling, benevolent, but sterile society, to one with individuality, danger and excitement. The story has been reprinted a number of times, including in The Best of Cordwainer Smith and The Rediscovery of Man[1] collections.
Ursula K. Le Guin said that " 'Alpha Ralpha Boulevard' (...) was as important to me as reading Pasternak for the first time."[2]
"Alpha Ralpha Boulevard" was inspired in part by a painting from Smith's childhood, The Storm by Pierre-Auguste Cot, of two young lovers fleeing along a darkening path. Additionally, the names of the two principal characters, together with the conscious attempt to revive a French culture, recall the 18th century French novel Paul et Virginie. According to his widow and second wife, it was also partly about his first wife's attraction to another man.[3]: 107 [4] The name of the story is likely derived from that of Ralph Alpher, who himself was convinced of the connection.[5][6]
The ancient computer in the story is called the Abba-dingo, which some Smith scholars have speculated may mean "Father of Lies";[3][7][8] others have noted similarities to "the French phrase 'l’abbé dingo', or 'mad priest'".[9] It is also evocative of Abednego, who, along with Shadrach and Mesach, survived the Biblical “fiery furnace” in Daniel 3.
- ^ Smith, Cordwainer (1993). Mann, James A. (ed.). The Rediscovery of Man: The Complete Short Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith (First ed.). Framingham, Mass., USA: NESFA Press. ISBN 978-0915368563.
- ^ MacCaffery, Larry and Gregory, Sinda, Alive and Writing: Interviews with American Authors of the 1980s, p. 177, University of Illinois Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0252060113
- ^ a b Hellekson, Karen L. (September 2001). The Science Fiction of Cordwainer Smith. Jefferson, North Carolina, USA: McFarland. p. 107. ISBN 978-0786411498.
- ^ Elms, Alan C., Uncovering Lives: The Uneasy Alliance of Biography and Psychology, p. 26, University of Oxford Press, 1994. ISBN 978-0195082876
- ^ Elms, "Building Alpha Ralpha Boulevard":
• "Linebarger, in addition to his long-established interest in astronomy, was privy to a good deal of academic gossip, and he greatly enjoyed wordplay. It seems likely that he not only read about Alpher’s discovery in the Washington Post but heard about—if he didn’t actually read—the Physical Review paper that equated Alpher’s name with the letter 'Alpha'. ["Alpher, Bethe, Gamow, sounding roughly like the beginning of the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma."] Looking up Alpher’s name in a university directory or in the local telephone book, he would have found it listed as 'Alpher, Ralph A.'"
• [Adams's note 7] "Alpher’s own judgment was: 'It would be difficult to accept the notion that the title is pure coincidence. Linebarger must have constructed it from my name' (personal communication, 23 May 1984). Alpher notes that when he was younger, some friends nicknamed him 'Alpher Ralpher,' others called him 'Alphalpher,' and still others simply 'Ralpher'—though he does not suggest that Linebarger had any way of knowing these nicknames." - ^ Rosana Hart, Smith's daughter and the webmaster of the official website Cordwainer-Smith.com, personal communication, July 20, 2015: "Knowing my father, he never missed a chance to make a pun on names, but I don't know if this one was."
- ^ Lewis, Anthony R. (September 2000). "A". Concordance to Cordwainer Smith : A (Third, revised, 2000 ed.). Framingham, Massachusetts, USA: NESFA Press. ISBN 1-886778-25-6. Archived from the original on 2013-01-09. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
Abba (Aramaic) father + dingo (Australian slang) to betray = father of lies? less possible: from Abed-nego = worshipper of nebo (lofty place)
- ^ Smith, Cordwainer (1975). Pierce, J.J. (ed.). The Best of Cordwainer Smith. Ballantine. p. 283. ISBN 978-0345245816.
bastardized Semitic-cum-Aussie slang for 'Father of Lies' [editor's analysis]
Cited in Hellekson, p.107. - ^ Elms, "Building Alpha Ralpha Boulevard": "Given the Abba-dingo’s unpredictability and its godlike status among the Underpeople, I suspect that Smith derived the name instead from the French phrase 'l’abbé dingo,' or 'mad priest.' A quasi-omniscient character in another of Linebarger’s favorite French novels, Alexandre Dumas’s Count of Monte Cristo (1844-45), is nicknamed 'the mad priest', though Dumas used a less colloquial phrase with the same meaning, 'l’abbé fou'."