Mltezem Boyda/080201009

BILL BROWN AND THE STAR DUCKS

William L. Brown or Bill Brown as his pen name, was born on April 5, 1910, in Oregon of USA. He was the son of Louis E. Brown, who worked in a life insurance company, and Viola May Brown. He married Gertrude E. Moore, who was an author. They had three children, Deborah Ann, Celia Jeanne, and Camas Eve. Brown was educated at the University of Oregon from 1930-1931, and Mexico City College in 1950. Brown first worked as a reporter for the Coos Bay World in Coos Bay, Oregon, from 1934-1938. During this time, from 1936-1937, he participated in a small boat voyage to the South Seas. He then worked as an editor of the 300 Magazine in San Francisco, California, from 1940-1942. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces, where he served until 1944, becoming a sergeant. During his years of service he was stationed in India and Burma. In 1953 he joined the California Division of Beaches and Parks in Lagunitas and worked as a park ranger, remaining there until 1964. From 1960-1962, he was a member of the Fairfax City Park Commission. He also spent some time teaching creative writing in an adult education program in Marin County and Sonoma County, California. Brown used his experiences in the South Seas, India, and Burma to support ideas for adventure stories. Under the name Bill Brown, he wrote four books: Roaring River (1953), which won the Commonwealth Club of California's silver medal for Best youth Book. The other 3 are Uncharted Voyage (1955), People of the Many Islands (1958) and The Rain Forest (1962).

The Star Ducks which is a science fiction short story of Bill Brown, was published in 1950 in the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction. Before beginnig my critisim of the story, Id like to First of all, define Science Fiction as a literary genre. Science Fiction is literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science fiction is a form of fantastic literature, many of the events recounted are within the realm of future possibility and somehow plausible, such as, robots, space travel, interplanetary war, invasions and visits from outer space. In The Star Ducks we are dealing with a visitation of other forms of living beings from another planet and galaxy. Jennifer Basset has adequately put in her commentation about the story in her book A Window On The Universe, which reads: There is no reason to suppose that Earth is the only planet in the universe capable of supporting life in some form or other. Until we can communicate with other galaxies, however, we can only speculate and imagine. Science fiction offers us a rich range of alien life form from the sublime to the ridiculous, and at the same time often shows humankind from a new, and sometimes unflattering, angle. (Basset, 24) Basset in my opinion is quite right. When we think of the entire universe which enlarges day by day, a fact that has been proven by scientific experiments, Earth being the only planet that preserves life is just illogical. It would be disturbing even if we think of this matter in religious terms. Supposing that the earth is the only life preserving planet in the entire universe, one cannot help asking himself that why is the universe so large if we are alone? The earth is like a tiny little drop of sand in a coast. It is true that these are only speculations and imaginations since we didnt receive any proper or official connection from the outer space but we cannot deny that mysterious events depicting other civilizations in space happen on earth such as Roswell incident and many others. Another fact that bothers me is the outer appearance

of the supposed aliens that the film or cartoon makers use. Is it just coincidence or is it an already known fact of those people? The Star Ducks takes place in a farm in USA which is something common in alien based stories or movies. Our main hero Ward Rafferty is the top reporter of The Times press. He somehow gets a tip of an aircraft crash in the Alsop farm. So, he comes by this place and asks Mr. Alsop about the incident. Rafferty first says an airplane crash but gets a negative response from Mr. Alsop but when he describes the incident as he had it from the tipster, the Alsop family understands that he is asking about the contraption that they hold in their barn. Mr. Alsop takes Rafferty to his barn. On their way Mr. Alsop tells him about the nice flocks of chicken that he made and asks Rafferty what good are the chickens up on a star which is the first clue to readers of alien visitation. When the two enter the barn, Rafferty sees a balloon shaped craft which is globular on top and flat at the bottom. I am surprised with Bill Browns use of different looking alien craft from the usual ones. To be honest, I myself, expected something like a disk shaped craft or . This is probably a reaction of what we are taught about the aliens by the media for tens of years. Nonetheless, I find Browns idea quite plausible, since there can be lots of different shaped alien crafts in reality. What is more interesting to me is that the craft has an invisible shield as Rafferty hurts himself by hitting it while he was trying to get near to it. Assuming that the aliens are much more advanced in terms of technology, something like an invisible shield is again quite plausible to me. Later on, Mr. Alsop says that his friends were using this craft and that they have come from a long distance when Rafferty asks for a logical explaining. The comfortable behaviors in front of an alien visitation here of the Alsop family somehow disturbed me at first, but later on throughout the story we are given the information that the family in fact was visited again 6

years before. Mr. Alsop then takes Rafferty in to his house to have a look at his alien friends. Rafferty stepped in and saw Mrs. Alsop and the two aliens side by side on the sofa. Browns display of the aliens this time is closer to the usual appreciation of the aliens. Long waving antennas, lavender faces that had no expression and round black eyes. When Rafferty asks the family their names, Mrs. Alsop says that they dont talk but make you think of what they think themselves. She says that all she saw in her head when she asked their names once is that a man hammering some iron on an anvil. This telepathy power of the aliens is also another fact that draws my attention. They point their antennas to Mrs. Alsop 6 years ago and show her their names. Man-Who-BendsIron. Normally, in other stories the aliens somehow have the ability to speak earth language which is in my opinion, a complete failure. Here, I appreciate Browns use of telepathy as the communication tool of the aliens. Rafferty piles up his courage and asks where they have come from and sees 2 pair antennas pointed at him. Soon after, he realizes that his brain is somehow controlled by some other power and sees himself travelling in space as the stars and meteor whizzed by. Rafferty, after this experience rushes to find a phone to call for equipment and stuff to document the biggest event in the worlds history. However, he fails in his attempts since there is no phone in the Alsop farm. He asks for a camera but until Mr. Alsop find his camera, the aliens rushed in a hurry and flew away in to the sky. The reader here may think that why did these alien left in a hurry? Did they want to escape from being documented? Bill Brown doesnt let the readers wonder too much as he gives the explanation of the aliens quick departure. When Rafferty says that they cant leave in a few minutes like that, Mr. Alsop says that they got the chicken eggs and the brooder (the aliens needed it because their journey home took 6 years and the eggs had to be raised on the way) on board, so they had nothing else to do but to go in a hurry. Mr. Alsop also adds that their departure in a hurry is also related to the position of the

moon; the aliens needed to catch the tide or something like that. So, with Mr. Alsops explanation, Brown leaves no gap in the readers mind as well making the story very plausible indeed. While Rafferty was thinking about ways solution, he found out the names of the aliens. The image of Man who bends iron on an anvil is a blacksmith. So, these aliens must be Mr. and Mrs. Smith said Rafferty to himself. Then He thinks of his heading that would be pressed right away. After a while Rafferty tries to find some evidence that could prove the aliens existence by asking Mr. Alsop if the aliens pay him something in exchange of the eggs hoping to find some alien money. However, Mr. Alsop says that the aliens paid him with alien eggs. He describes the creatures that came out of the eggs. He says that they had 6 legs and had the look of a little hippopotamus and swallow. He says that he called them star ducks. At the end of his statements Mr. Alsop says that they ate them up already. Rafferty doesnt loose his ambition and asks if Mr. Alsop knows where the bones of the creatures are. However, as soon as Rafferty gets a negative answer he becomes totally disappointed and torn apart. After all, he lost the opportunity to become the worlds most famous reporter. In conclusion, I believe that Bill Brown has written a very plausible short story of science fiction by giving place to excellent details such as the aliens way of communication, their aircraft, the way they look, their eggs exchange in order to examine earth life forms and the use of time and technical information as the aliens had to leave before the moons position changed against them. So, Bill Brown has filled in every gap of questioning in his story. It seems that he had also been very interested in the existence of alien life forms as well as me. I believe that the humans are not alone in this universe. Even the holy book of Islam indirectly states that there are life forms up on the sky. The job is just left to our own efforts of finding and communicating them. I cant wait to see the alliance of the planets in the future

Bibliography

1- Bassett, Jennifer. A Window On The Universe, NewYork, Oxford Universtiy press,1995. 2- http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/nwda-search/fstyle.aspx?doc=OrUAx_424.xml&t=k&q= (28-05-2010).