Letter to a Phoenix

Comfort for the Insane

Fredric Brown (1906 – 1972) was a master of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mystery/detective stories during the middle of the 20^th century. He also pioneered the field of microfiction. Brown could tell a wry tale as well as a dark one and if you asked me which of his stories was my favorite I’d have to give you a list.

Today Space Explorers, I want to tell you about one of his short stories called, “Letter to a Phoenix” which I think is brilliant. It’s been reprinted many times but first came out in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in August of 1949. Here is a list of all the places it was printed or reprinted.

Often, pulp writers tell stories which either border on the mystical or actually cross over into it. And I’m not just talking about Lovecraftian horrors, or even fantasy stories concerning magic and witches. No, I’m talking about tales that could easily fit onto the shelves of esoteric bookshops. Or perhaps onto “conspiracy theory” websites. Certainly many of Richard Shaver’s “Mysteries” fall into the latter category.

Starting in the mid-1940’s atomic war became very real and scary for the world. Many science fiction stories were written about it and “Letter to a Phoenix” is one of them. The story is more thoughtful than most and deeper than it seems. Its purpose is to let us know that man is great because he is insane. This is Brown’s wry thinking but considering current world politics, seems quite accurate.

The short story takes the form of a letter from a man who’s lived for 180,000 years, since the first great atomic war. We do not know when this event occurred and may assume (at first) that the war happened during our own era. The writer of the letter does not give his name, in fact he cannot remember his original name, nor the names of his parents. He has had at least a thousand names, just has he has had a multitude of wives and children. He describes wanting to fight in the war when he was 21 but because of a Pituitary disease which made him overweight and gave him little stamina, was rejected for service. Two years later the army was desperate for men. He joined up at 23 when the war was winding down due to lack of resources on both sides. He’s caught in the blast of a small bomb some miles away and wakes up two weeks later in a base hospital. He explains that this was a small atomic war, where only one quarter to one fifth of mankind was killed, unlike a “big blow-up” where 9/10 or more of the world population dies and the rest are blasted back to stone-age savagery.

He has massive burns and he says he remembers being in pain for a long time because there were no anesthetics. Eventually, he does recover but he has stopped sleeping by then. The doctors are too busy to notice or if he tells them, they don’t believe. He doesn’t sleep again until long after he is cured of his wounds and, incidentally, also of the Pituitary disease which had made him fat. He is now of a normal weight and very healthy. But he doesn’t sleep again for 30 years. And when he does, it’s for 16 years. At the end of this 46-year period he still looks 23.

The radiation has drastically changed how his Pituitary gland functions. He spends decades looking into the matter and realizes that his aging has slowed so that he only ages one day for every 45 years. Over 180,000 years he’s only aged eleven years. He says he takes great care to prepare a place for his regular 15 year sleeps, so that he will be undisturbed.

He relates that he has seen seven major atomic and super atomic wars which have reduced the world’s population to a few savages around campfires in the remaining habitable areas. Other times, he’s visited five galaxies besides our own.

At this point we have a wide vista of the man’s life. We hear that he’s been almost everything over his 4,000 lifetimes, except for a leader. He’s never wanted that. He has been thought of as a god by savages who needed basic survival guidance but he has never directed their development in other ways.

Now we get to the crux of the tale. He says he knows he’s not immortal because there is only one immortal organic organism in the universe. He tells us that there have been other races throughout the universe but they have either died or will die. Once they reach the peak of civilization they begin to slide down towards death. This is natural for any rational society he tells us. Life is dynamic and cannot be static. (Here I must add an aside. During the pulp era this was a common sentiment—there is no static culture. Today, many are trying hard to get our world back to “safe and secure” but this is static.)

The writer then says that there is only one race which periodically destroys itself and goes back to the beginning. Only one which can survive more than say, 60,000 years of intelligent life. He explains that only the human race has reached a high level of intelligence without also reaching a high level of sanity. Yes, sanity. He adds that man has, at times, had glimmerings of the fact that humans are not sane. But it is only at high levels of civilization when we realize that mankind is collectively insane. If he fights against this fact he will destroy himself, and rise again from the ashes, renewed. He says that the mythical phoenix is only metaphorically a myth. That it exists and you are it. He relates that nothing will destroy you as your seeds are scattered on planets of a 1000 suns in a 100 galaxies. He realizes that his small blow-up might not have been the first, there might have been many more before his birth. And here we find out that he was originally from Atlantis.

He says that he’s telling us all of this so that we will never be afraid again. (Another aside—if we knew whether Brown believed in reincarnation it would be a bit more comforting—to me, anyway.) He tells us that he hopes to live the rest of his mortal lifetime on Earth, if it lasts that long. But even if the planet doesn’t, the race will. For mankind will never be sane and only the insane are divine. He ends with this thought, “Only the mad destroy themselves and all they have wrought. Only the phoenix lasts forever.”

One wonders what a lifespan as long as his has done to his mind. Has it made him more sane, or less?

I believe that this story suits our world perhaps better than it did the world of 1949. Events of 2023 grow more insane by the hour. Where will it all lead? Perhaps our “blow-up” will be of a different nature when it finally comes. Maybe, instead of actual bombs, ours is a propaganda war. And maybe it’s in process now.

This is the Rocketeer signing off for today.