Anti-War
The primary theme of this novel is expressed quietly and through various means. It is not an anti-war story in the sense of knocking the reader upside the head with the message. In fact, the one of the subtleties of how it approaches this theme is the duh! factor: of course, it is an anti-war novel because why would anyone write a pro-war novel? Then there is the fact that the first thing we learn about the protagonist is that he was a soldier in the Civil War. And that is the last of his soldier heroics. What is significant is not so much what he does as what he doesn’t do: put his military experience to work fighting against alien invaders.
Not Allowed at the Adult Table
This novel was published in late 1963 and went on to win the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1964. That just so happens to also be the same year that film director Stanley Kubrick began collaborating with science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke on the screenplay that would eventually become 2001: A Space Odyssey. Central to that film is the theme of the evolutionary progress of mankind and central to that theme is the discovery of a beacon left buried on the moon by alien intelligence which sent a signal that indicating that our species had evolved enough to engage in space travel.
Considering that Kubrick is infamous for being a voracious reader on a subject that captured his imagination, it seems statistically impossible that at some point he didn’t come across Simak’s story. A story which also pursues the theme that the evolution of humans has not yet reached the point where ancient civilization that were zooming around in space when we were indistinct from apes. A story which explores that theme through the conceit of setting up a way station to keep an eye on us while we slowly continue to inch forward to the point when we are allowed to sit at the adult table.
Coffee, Not Weapons
What do most aliens who make it successfully to earth find waiting for them? Unless it’s a Spielberg movie, the answer is weapons and suspicion. This is our go-to reaction to aliens from another galaxy because it reflects the reality of history in which foreigners from another country have consistently been greeted with weapons and suspicion. The novel’s protagonist, Enoch Wallace, is in charge of the way station through various alien races come and go and he usually greets them with coffee and curiosity. An amazing assortment of alien life passes through the way station and some are friendlier than others, but Enoch never treats them the expectation that they are only here to kill us all. Admittedly, this laissez faire develops partially due to the fact that it becomes increasingly clear to Enoch over the decades that none of these visitors consider humans or earth to be dangerous enough to wipe out or significant enough to take over, but even so.
