terror is not the answer: lessons from Jack L. Chalker’s G.O.D. Inc. series

I heard this amazing interview of the writer, Reza Aslan, on NPR the other day. He was talking about his new book, Tablet & Pen, an anthology of Middle Eastern writing over the past hundred years. The review on Amazon says, “This mammoth anthology goes a long way toward achieving its equally mammoth goal: to shift American views of the Middle East away ‘from the ubiquitous images of terrorists and fanatics.’” That is worthwhile. I’m looking forward to reading it soon.

let's all support our local universe together

Of course, I mention the book simply because it shook my thinking just enough to see the Jack Chalker series, G.O.D. Inc., in an intriguing new way. Published between 1987 and 1989, long before the War on Terror and all that, this trilogy of interrelated novels describes the private eye adventures of Sam and Brandy Horowitz as they first investigate then work for the elusive, General Ordering and Delivery Company, a front for a multi-dimensional corporation that colonizes and exploits alternate Earths under the noses of the “natives.”

Like all Chalker novels, there is a complex plot that, to me at least, is confusing at times. Basically the idea is that these two down-and-out PIs stumble upon the ‘case of a lifetime.’ This eventually leads them to the Company; the Labyrinth, which is the incredible device that the Company developed to allow physical passage through alternate Universes; and to fame and fortune.

The Company leadership is all based on the “Home World,” which is presumably an alternate Earth in an alternate Universe somewhere. Unlike here, this place is a kind of paradise. There everyone lives in good health for at least two hundred years. Technology is so advanced that the locals appear youthful for the bulk of their lives, they have an unspoiled planet, everyone is employed, etc. The down side is that their culture is very stratified and hierarchical. Essentially you have to be born into your position and forget it if you want to advance to the highest Company levels if you hail from an alternate world. It is fine to work for the man but you can never replace him.

These guys are rich and powerful because they control the Labyrinth and have a complex network of colonized worlds that they manage. This leads to some funny moments. For example, turns out that Ginzu knives are cheap versions of specialty weapons produced on another Earth. At one point the Company has the “Ginzu Master” evaluate the scene of a crime and we read him “hiss” about the knives, “Mere cheap imitations! Why they only even guarantee them a mere ten years! We have nothing to do with them.” I thought it was pretty funny.

On each colonized world, the Company sets up some representatives who are in the know about the whole thing, but most everybody that works for these planetary leaders have no idea about the other worlds, the Labyrinth etc. This means that Company operations are disguised behind front businesses like G.O.D Inc. or operate through criminal underworlds, or, mostly both.

The last of the three books, The Maze in the Mirror, has Sam Horowitz investigating a murder for a Company opposition group, really a kind of terrorist cell that is allegedly working for the downfall of the Company’s merciless domination of the Labyrinth and the multi-verse. Their plan is simple: destroy the Labyrinth. I won’t spoil the plot by saying more about that here. The book is excellent and I highly recommend it for any of you Chalker fans. The point, though, is that the methods employed by both the Company and the Opposition are highly problematic.

Here we are almost a decade after 9/11. It is hard not to interpret this series in light of recent events. I was working in Brooklyn on September 11, 2001. It was a Tuesday. The weather was sublime that day. I saw the planes strike the World Trade Center and the buildings collapse from the windows of my office. I’ll never forget that. I’m no politician, but it seems to me that we all benefit by attempting to work together in an open and honest way, especially when we disagree. Chalker makes a big point in the G.O.D. Inc. series about the huge number of alternate Earths that destroyed themselves through nuclear holocausts.

In these novels, we have a planet/nation that uses economic, technological and militaristic power unscrupulously to serve its own ends. Most of us have no idea that this is happening at all. A tiny few who actually do have been so grievously injured by the Company that they seek its total annihilation. Sound familiar? Chalker comes up with a creative solution to this conflict which is an extreme compromise, if you will.

Fanatical terrorism is not the answer. Though, neither is intentional, pigheaded ignorance nor blind, overzealous imperialism. We can all do better than that, people!