User:JerryFriedman/E for Effort

"E for Effort" is a science-fiction novelette by T. L. Sherred, first published in 1947, about the consequences of a time viewer, a machine that projects images of the past. It has been reprinted many times, including in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Publication
The story was Sherred's first science-fiction publication. Algis Budrys said that it "deranged" the spirit of Astounding Science Fiction, where it appeared, and that it "dismissed" the "bourgeois aspirations" of ASF's editor, John W. Campbell, Jr. It is said that the story was accepted in Campbell's absence by L. Jerome Stanton, who for a short time acted "heretically" as Campbell's assistant.

Setting
"E for Effort" takes place in the United States except for a brief scene in which the main characters are hiding in Mexico. It occurs some years after the publication date, when nuclear missiles are common.

Synopsis
The story is briefly framed as a manuscript delivered to a civilian by the military under circumstances of great tension.

The manuscript is a long letter to "Joe", apparently a bartender, by Edward Lefkowicz, who goes by "Ed Lefko". He describes seeing a silent but color movie aimed at Mexican-Americans in a run-down theater in Detroit. The movie recounts Cortés's conquest of Mexico with remarkably realistic sets and acting and a huge cast. The projectionist, a Mexican-American World War II veteran named Miguel "Mike" Laviada, tells Ed that he made the movie using a time viewer he invented, which he demonstrates. However, Mike has not been able to raise the capital needed to shoot the picture on high-quality film, add sound and other improvements, and get it distributed and advertised. He and Ed become partners, and at Ed's suggestion, they raise money by using the machine to blackmail wealthy people.

They spend a year making most of a new film out of time-viewed footage of Alexander the Great. They take it to Hollywood, where the high quality of the film easily convinces a producer and his associates to finish and it, including using actors for scenes that appear in Alexander's biographies but did not really happen, and market it. The film is a great success with critics and viewers.

Mike and Ed produce more films, first one on the Roman Empire, then one on the French Revolution. Both are successful, but the second arouses some controversy because of differences from widely believed myths. Through Mike's influence, Ed becomes less greedy and joins Mike in his plan to use the films against war. The next film, on the American Revolution, and the next, on the American Civil War, are banned in many places but still earn huge amounts of money.

The next film is about the First and Second World Wars. Ed and Mike admit the machine's existence to their associates and persuade them to join in their plan to expose the corruption of many famous people involved in the wars. The film causes riots in many countries and greatly increases international hostility.

Ed, Mike, and their associates are arrested for incitement to riot and other crimes. In their trial, they demonstrate the machine. They are acquitted, but the Army secretly takes them into "protective custody" and confiscates the machine. Mike's and Ed's plan was to make war impossible by disseminating plans for the machine so every government and military could be watched. However, as the U.S. Army has the only machine, Ed expects other powers will attack pre-emptively before America can use its decisive advantage. He pleads with Joe to retrieve letters containing plans for the machine from their safe-deposit box—he has left Joe a key—and send them to their addressees around the world.

The story ends with military dispatches showing that Ed and Mike are dead, the bank and its contents have been destroyed by a direct hit with a nuclear weapon, and Washington has been attacked with nuclear weapons.

Criticism
Fletcher Pratt cited it as an example of "a brilliantly original concept" with "no story at all... the science is dandy, but there is no fiction," so a reader would not reread it and would give it no more than a qualified recommendation.

Algis Budrys called the story "coherent, logical, entertaining, believable". He said it was the first to disturb "the National Guard armory that science fiction had become", as it involved a struggle "between Man and the Establishment", showed a man of Mexican ancestry as a brilliant and idealistic engineer rather than an exotic villain, and saw something better for engineers than a safe, lucrative career.

Jerry Pournelle said in 1985 that it was the only important story in modern science fiction, outside the work of Jack Williamson, that had "an easy, sophisticated view of international and corporate realpolitik" reminiscent of Eric Ambler and Grahame Greene.

Brian Stableford called it "perhaps the most perfect ironic fantasy" on the theme that the privileged will not permit new technology to undermine their privilege.

James Gunn noted that Isaac Asimov's story "The Dead Past" is in dialogue with "E for Effort".