The Plot to Save Socrates (Sierra Waters Book 1)
Page 1
The Plot to Save Socrates
Praise for The Plot to Save Socrates
"...challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly
"Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News
"...a fun book to read" -- Dallas Morning News
"resonates with the current political climate . . . . heroine Sierra Waters is sexy as hell . . . . there's a bite to Levinson's wit" - Brian Charles Clark, Curled Up With A Good Book at curledup.com
"a journey through time that'll make you think as it thrills ... so accessible, even those generally put off by sci-fi should enjoy the trip." - Rod Lott, bookgasm.com
"Levinson spins a fascinating tale ... An intriguing premise with believable characters and attention to period detail make this an outstanding choice... Highly recommended." - Library Journal, *starred review
"Light, engaging time-travel yarn . . . neatly satisfies the circularity inherent in time travel, whose paradoxes Levinson links to Greek philosophy." - Publishers Weekly
"A thinking person's time travel story... I felt like I was there." - SF Signal
"This is a dazzling performance. . . .History as science fiction; science fiction as history." - Barry N. Malzberg
"... quick-to-read, entertaining treatment of the problems inherent in time travel with style and flair" - Booklist
"There's a delightfully old-fashioned feel to The Plot to Save Socrates. . . . Levinson's cool, spare style reminded me of the writing of Isaac Asimov. . ." - Colin Harvey, Strange Horizons
"Paul Levinson's new novel is both very different from anything he has done before and very satisfying. . . . This, I think, is the first of Levinson's novels to deserve to be called a tour de force. Watch for it on award ballots." - Tom Easton, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact
"it's exciting to see a book as daring with both its ideas and its approach to narrative structure as this one hit the shelves . . . It's an absolute treat to sit back and be wrapped up in a story that gives a retro SF premise like time travel such a brilliant new kick, and it's doubly delightful to find the story as fun and entertaining as it is thought-provoking." - SF Reviews.net
"proves that excellent entertainment can and ought to be intellectually respectable -- a glorious example to us all." - Brian Stableford
"...readers are sure to enjoy his take on the paradoxes of time travel" - BookPage
"Intricately and intriguingly woven, lots of fun, and extremely thought provoking." - Stanley Schmidt
"Paul Levinson has outdone himself: The Plot to Save Socrates is a philosophically rich gem full of big ideas and wonderful time-travel tricks." - Robert J. Sawyer
"as happens with Kurt Vonnegut's Billy Pilgrim . . . . the reader soon becomes unstuck in time . . . . Levinson presents one of the most unique books I've ever encountered. A highly recommended read." - Matt St. Amand
"Paul Levinson brings both intellectual heft and affection for his delightfully depicted characters to this highly original story of time travel . . . bringing all of its threads together in an ending that is emotionally satisfying and extremely moving. The Plot to Save Socrates will provoke thought long after readers have finished the book, at which point many may want to pick it up and read it again, to savor its twists and turns." - Pamela Sargent, SFWeekly
"The Plot to Save Socrates turns on its head Plato's report of Socrates' poisoning ..." - Gerry Elman, Esq., Stanford Alumni Blog
Also by Paul Levinson:
FICTION
Borrowed Tides (2001)
The Plot to Save Socrates (2006)
Dr. Phil D'Amato series
The Silk Code (1999) - Kindle (2012)
The Consciousness Plague (2002)
The Pixel Eye (2003)
NON-FICTION
Mind at Large: Knowing in the Technological Age (1988)
Electronic Chronicles (1992)
Learning Cyberspace (1995)
The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution (1997)
Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium (1999)
Realspace: The Fate of Physical Presence in the Digital Age, On and Off Planet (2003)
Cellphone: The World's Most Mobile Medium, and How It Has Transformed Everything (2004)
New New Media (2009)
The Plot to Save Socrates
by
Paul Levinson
JoSara MeDia
The Plot to Save Socrates
Copyright © 2006, 2012 by Paul Levinson
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
1st hardcover edition published by Tor Books, February 2006; 1st paperback edition published by Tor Books, February 2007
1st ebook edition published December 2012 by JoSara MeDia
An earlier version of Chapter 11 was published as “Unburning Alexandria” in Analog Magazine, November 2008
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Cover illustration by Joel Iskowitz
Map by Nicholas Frota
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Appendix
Copyright
Praise for The Plot to Save Socrates
Also By Paul Levinson
Other Titles by JoSara MeDia
Dedication
To Tina, who frequently plots to save me.
Acknowledgments
I thank David Hartwell and Moshe Feder for detailed and in-depth editorial suggestions regarding the original edition of this novel, published by Tor Books in hardcover in 2006 and in trade paperback in 2007. Thanks also to Larry Ketchersid of JoSara MeDia, for technical help and encouragement in preparation of this ebook. It is an "author's cut" of the novel, in which I have restored not only some original wording, but an extended ending.
Special thanks, as well, to Joel Iskowitz for the cover illustration, and Nicholas Frota, for drawing the map. Both did their exemplary work on short notice.
Henry Magid (1917-1979), my philosophy professor at the City College of New York when I was a freshman in 1963, first provoked my interest in Socrates and Plato, and my enduring love of the ancient world. I have been thinking about stories of Socrates in one way or another ever since.
Even in this age of the Internet, there are some things you can find only on physical bookshelves. Fordham University's Walsh Library had on one such bookshelf an early edition of Smith's 1849 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, which proved to be valuable background reading when I was writing this novel. In addition, I. F. Stone's The Trial of Socrates, which I've had on my own library shelf since it was first published in 1988, was especially enlightening and useful.
But the most thanks go to my wife, Tina Vozick, and our children, Simon and Molly, and their spouses Sarah and Carlos, for their continued conversation and inspiration for this digital edition.
Chapter One
[Athens, 2042 AD]
She ripped the paper in half, then ripped the halves, then ripped what was left, again, into bits and pieces of history that could have been....
>
Sierra Waters had read once that, years ago, it was thought that men made love for the thrill, while women made love for the sense of connection it gave them. Sierra had always done everything for the thrill. She had no sense of connection, except to her work. Which should have made her an ideal person for this job.
Still ... an ideal person would have followed the plan. It was written on the only substance which could survive decades, maybe longer, without batteries, which required only the light of the sun to be read, or the moon on a good night, or a flickering flame when there was no moon. Paper. A marvelous invention. Thin and durable. And she had just torn it into pieces, opened her palm, and given it to the wind to disperse in irreparable directions.
* * *
[earlier, New York City, 2042 AD]
Sierra was a doctoral student at the Old School, in the heart of Manhattan. Her specialty was ancient Athens, or, more precisely, the adoption of the Ionic phonetic alphabet by Athens around 400 BC -- the sprouting of the teeth of Cadmus, as Marshall McLuhan had put it -- and its impact on the future of the world. "A nice, tidy, manageable little topic," Thomas O'Leary, a member of her doctoral committee, had commented, testily. But he had agreed to help her, anyway. He was accustomed to unusual pursuits. He was an odd-ball, himself, an independent scholar with no university affiliation. The Old School had a tradition of allowing one such outside expert on its doctoral committees.
Sierra was making good progress on the dissertation -- 72 out of a projected 250-page document, written in under half a year's time -- when Thomas called her down to his office, just off Fifth Avenue and 18th Street, on a wet November evening. He had a copy of a slim manuscript, just a few pages in a worn manila folder. He hefted it, as if to assess its intellectual weight. By the expression on his face, it looked to be quite important. He slid it across his pitted oak desk to Sierra. She had mixed feelings about this -- it was no doubt an article of some sort that Thomas had come across and deemed relevant to her dissertation. Sierra hated the thought of having to rethink and rewrite any of her work at this point. On the other hand, she relished uncovering new information. It made her heart jump.
She opened the folder. She looked up at Thomas, who was carefully regarding her, his mouth slightly pursed, a long pen of some sort dangling from his fingers like a plastic cigarette. "It's apparently been kicking around for a while, at least since the 20s," he said. "It surfaced recently at the Millennium Club up on 49th Street -- their librarian spotted it in an old bookcase, sandwiched between the usual stuff."
"The 2020s?" Sierra asked.
Thomas smiled. "Well, could have been the 1920s, as far as the club goes -- it was founded in the 1870s. But the librarian is sure it wasn't there before 2023 -- that was the last time they did a thorough inventory of their holdings -- and the Preface says something about carbon-dating the original."
"So it's not an obvious forgery. Otherwise, you wouldn't be showing it to me, right?"
Thomas nodded. "So far, it looks damn good."
Sierra looked back down at the document. It was ancient Greek on the left side, English translation on the right. That was the logical assumption -- that Greek was the original, and English the translation, not the other way around. Not only because the Greek was ancient. But also because the words in front of her were apparently a fragment of a Platonic dialog, featuring his mentor, Socrates. "I've never seen this before," Sierra said.
Thomas nodded again. "Apparently neither has most of the rest of the world."
* * *
Sierra stepped out of the hot shower, slipped into her terrycloth robe, and cuddled up with a spiced tea and the new Socratic dialog on her sofa. It had no title, no translator listed, but it read a lot like Benjamin Jowett, the great Oxford Victorian who had rendered so much of Plato into English. She had read it at least five times, already.
The first page contained a Preface, signed only "Ed," which was almost certainly short for "Editor," not Edward, Edwin, or Edmond: "The following is a translation of a manuscript self-identified as written by Plato. Carbon-14 dating (enhanced mode) situates the papyrus and the ink upon it as approximately 400 CE -- the date of this manuscript's creation, not the date of the original writing (which, if Plato was indeed its author, would be much earlier). The manuscript was unearthed in excavations near Alexandria, Egypt, in the first decade of the 21st century."
Sierra pressed her face against the warm tea cup, and her back and neck into the sofa. It wrapped around her, felt so good, so comforting, and-- No, it was still on sleep mode, from last night, and Sierra didn't want to feel quite so relaxed right now. She ran her hand on the side, and flicked the "read" control. The contours subtly adjusted. She felt energized, strong. She turned the page.
Persons of the Dialogue: Socrates; Andros, a visitor
Scene: The Prison of Socrates
=============================
Socrates. What time is it?
Andros. The dawn broke a little while ago.
Soc. I must have been dozing. I did not see you enter.
Andr. You were indeed dozing when I arrived.
Soc. You have come to take me to my destiny? I am more than willing. But I thought I would be allowed another day or two.
Andr. I am here to take you to your destiny. If indeed you are willing.
Soc. I just said that I was. I may criticize the state, but I do not presume to place myself above it.
Andr. The destiny I am here to offer you may be different from the one you suppose.
Soc. Different? I would never accept a life that prevented me from praising good and denouncing evil. And placing myself beyond the state would put me in just such a compromised position.
Andr. Yet you would accept death, and via hands you know are unjust.
Soc. Ah, so you are indeed here to try to persuade me against death. This is the destiny you wish me to avoid?
Andr. Yes.
Soc. You are not the first suitor to make that proposition.
Andr. I know.
Soc. Such a proposition obviously has much to commend it.
Andr. Yes.
Soc. But I would tell you what I tell all such noble souls: attractive as such a proposition is to me, I cannot accept it. For such would entail my commission of an evil at least as great as that of those who wish to end my life. It would say that I was lying when previously I maintained that criticism of the state, to be taken seriously, required an ultimate acceptance of the authority of the state, flawed as it may be. My fleeing now, evading this authority, would make all of that a lie.
Andr. Suppose I were to tell you that you could leave this prison, and live, without flouting the authority of the state?
Soc. I would say you are dreaming, and you are wrong to tempt an old man with an impossible dream. How could I possibly leave here, and not show contempt for the decision of the state that I must die here?
Andr. What if your body did die here, but you did not?
Soc. You mean my soul would live, but my material essence would die? There are those who claim that the two -- soul and body -- are inseparable. And when one dies, so must the other. Do you deny that?
Andr. I mean to say, your material essence and your soul would be saved, and would live. And another material essence of you would die here, absent any spirit.
Soc. How could that be? Are you suggesting my soul will inhabit another body?
Andr: No. I am saying both bodies -- the one with your soul, the other without -- would be yours.
Soc. As far as I know, my material body is unique -- there is but one of me, not two.
Andr. Have you ever seen twins?
Soc. Yes. They do seem to have the same physical body at birth, I grant you. Are you telling me that there is a twin of me, whom I do not know of? Even so, by this age -- my age -- we would likely not look exactly the same. The world wears our bodies in different ways.
Andr. No, as far as I know, your mother did not bear you and a twin. But are you seein
g where this may lead?
Soc. No, am I not. For even if I had a twin, and even if he were willing to trade places with me here at this late hour, and die in my stead, when the ship from Delos arrives, it would not be right for me to allow that to happen. It would be an unspeakable act of cowardice for me, an act of evil upon the body and soul of my brother. That would be far worse than the evil of my simply escaping.
Andr. Yes, it certainly would be. But what if it were only his body that was left in your place? And what if he were not truly your brother -- not born of your mother? And what if he were not truly alive -- just a perfect copy of your body, in every way but one? What if it had no soul? It would then not be truly intelligent, not fully alive.
Soc. Leaving aside, for a moment, the impossibility of what you are proposing, where would you take me?
Andr. Somewhere close to Ithaca and Syracuse.
Soc. But those places are not close to one other. How can a third place -- your destination -- be close to both?
Andr. In my world, they are close.
Soc. Yet you are in my world, where Ithaca and Syracuse are not close.