About book Ingathering: The Complete People Stories Of Zenna Henderson (1995)
Considering that in Mormon theology, worthy patriarchs are rewarded with their own planet to populate, it is not surprising that Zenna Henderson, a former Mormon, would come to write a story cycle about deeply religious people from another planet after she left the Mormon faith. And it is perhaps also not surprising, that after leaving her religious home, her stories should be suffused with longing, loss, and a deep desire to find community. Her characters are often people with special abilities who feel alienated from or threatened by the people around them or are quite literally lost in this world, and seeking a home they can only incompletely recall.I know that these stories have been attacked as mawkishly sentimental, but I'm not sure that is fair. "Sentimental" in this sense suggests affected emotion. If you have never felt the longing for one place in this world where you feel you belong, if you have always been sure of who you were, if you know where your people come from and what it means to be one of them, then maybe it is hard to believe the feelings of Henderson's characters. I've had some of the same experiences as Henderson's characters (and Henderson herself) and felt some of the same sense of displacement and longing--enough, at least, to recognize the reality of the sentiments she describes.Sentimentality is also an unfair criticism because of the other kind of character that populates these stories: the observer or witness. Often a teacher (like Henderson) or an invalid, these characters are anything but sentimental, and are often rather hard-bitten. They are convinced only by empirical proof and even then are skeptical. They are aware of their need to believe and how misleading that need can be. These observer characters are what made the stories so much fun for me. Their skepticism gave me a kind of reader's permission to enjoy the miracles they witness in a way a straight-forward fantasy would not.The religion of the aliens in these stories is of the variety William James would have called "once-born": they consider morality to be self-evident and they aren't asking a lot of difficult questions to challenge their faith, such as why God would allow their home planet to be destroyed or why, if their God is the same one worshiped by human Christians, it is these same Christians who are so often responsible for their persecution? They have little ritual besides a vague hand-gesture and although they do pray, they seem to get more practical use and comfort from telepathy. It is hard to see what God (or as they say, The Presence) does for them, except serve as a placeholder for numinous feelings.Henderson spends a lot of time thinking about the interactions between humans and aliens. In this, she reminds me of Octavia Butler. The Outsiders in Henderson's stories (people born of Earth to the rest of us) cannot be saved from themselves by the aliens, although they can be helped. On the other hand, we Earthlings have abilities unknown to the aliens, and can assist them. The aliens in Henderson's stories who choose to live apart from humans seem to lose their humanity, so to speak, and the trend in her stories suggests that humans and aliens will have to save each other if either race is to fulfill its potential.The most important thing I got out of reading these stories, is the conviction that I don't have merely to suffer a longing for community, that longing can also spur action to create or contribute to community. The observer characters in Henderson's stories witness wonders they cannot always share. Rather than letting the comparison lead them to envy or inertia, they use it as inspiration to find their own way to make a bit of something wonderful. In my own life, I am sometimes sad that it is unlikely that I will ever have children of my own, for example, but that doesn't mean I can't be a good friend to the children of other people I know. I may not have any relatives of my own, but that does not mean I have to live alone. I've decided that when I someday leave my current situation, I'm going to join or create some effort toward intentional community among people with whom I am not biologically related. Perhaps my own path to belonging will involve making other people feel welcome.
This is some of the best science fiction I've ever read. Eschewing the conventional sci-fi obsession with technology, the focus is on community and faith, with Biblical references both subtle and overt. Instead of a futuristic city or bleak dystopian landscape, the setting is rural, pastoral. The emotions of the characters are fully realized and the stories are almost sentimental with themes of loss, alienation, compassion, wonder, and hope.Zenna Henderson wrote and published the People Stories over several decades, beginning in the 1950s, but this collection of short stories still jumps off the page today. This article aptly summarizes some her ground-breaking contributions as a writer:Henderson became a pioneer in many areas of science fiction literature. She was one of the first female science fiction writers, and was one of an even smaller number who wrote openly as a woman, without using male-sounding pseudonyms or initials...In a time during which science fiction was often marked by unquestioned rationalism and pragmatism in which spiritual elements were often a taboo, unprintable subject, Henderson was also a pioneer in spiritual/religious science fiction. The People were a deeply spiritual and openly religious culture... Some of today's top science fiction writers who are known for the realistic positive portrayals of religious people in their literature, such as Kathy Tyers and Orson Scott Card, specifically cite Zenna Henderson as an important early influence on their careers.One interesting aspect about the People stories is the strong degree to which very different groups of people identify with it: Christians (including such different camps as Evangelicals, Catholics and Latter-day Saints), GLBT, Wiccans, and Jews have all recommended Henderson's People stories. The stories, with their exclusivity and isolation from the broader culture combined with extreme inclusivity and compassion for one's own tribe, have struck a chord with many people who feel pulled by two different worlds...Finally, Henderson was one of the first in science fiction to truly take young people seriously and write expressive, mature stories from their point of view. She drew on her experience as a teacher of young people, and was able to bring a rare level of insight to her use of young characters. Henderson's youthful protagonists are neither adults forced into young bodies, nor are they frivolous caricatures. They are very human, complete souls, yet marked by authentic signs of youth and innocence.Honestly, the People Stories caught me off guard with their poignancy. They evoke the type of inconsolable longing that C.S. Lewis describes. I am proudly rational and often cynical, but in the pages of this book, I was shown reminded that I, too, miss the Home.
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A genre classic, Henderson's corpus of People stories were mostly written in the 1950s and 60s; they're all collected here, along with the bridging material she wrote for the two partial collections published in her lifetime. Resembling humans physically, and able to intermarry with humans, the People are an alien race who fled their planet around 1890 (the anthology editors' guess, in their appended chronology, is 1900) when their sun went nova; some of them crash-landed in the wilds of Henderson's native Arizona. Scattered when they landed, and persecuted by cultists who believed them to be witches, they made lives for themselves and their children, either as individuals hiding among the Outsiders, or in small communal groups in out-of-the-way mountain settlements, using their formidable array of psychic and telekinetic powers to help those in need.In a low-key way, the author, a lifelong Methodist, reflects her strong Christian faith in these stories. Though not an unfallen race, the People as a whole live life in joyful trust and obedience to "the Presence, the Name, and the Power" (known to earthlings as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Because of this, life has purpose even in the face of suffering, death is a solemn but glorious calling to the Presence, and help is to be given to others wherever "there's Need." These stories are a powerful and welcome counterweight to the existential pessimism and moral nihilism that permeates so much of modern literature.
—Werner
As a child, I read Zenna Henderson's short story collections, The Pilgrimage and The People: No Different Flesh, from my parents' bookshelves. I didn't realize then how unusual the stories were--Christian science fiction from a female perspective uncommon in the 1950s & 60s. I reread certain stories as a teenager and young adult, but not the whole canon until last week, when I borrowed Ingathering (a reprinted compilation) from my father, to whom I gave it for Christmas 2010. Anyway, Ingathering drew me in and swept me up all over again. Not every story is outstanding, but the whole experience is 5 stars for me. Henderson writes about the other, about individuality and yearning to belong, about faith and fear and wonder. Some have criticized her writing as sentimental, but to me the emotions are genuine and appropriate. The descriptions are vivid, the voice is strong, and the characters are very human (extra-terrestrial or not!). I love the People stories. They help me remember the Home.My favorites: "Ararat," "Gilead," "Pottage," "Captivity," "Deluge," "Angels Unawares," "Troubling of the Water," "The Indelible Kind," and the Mark & Meris frame story.*For LDS readers, Henderson was raised in a Mormon family although she was not active as an adult. Still, the spiritual subtext feels familiar. :)
—Wendy
I first came across the stories of the People about 45 years ago, and what unhappy teenager wouldn’t be drawn to stories of a group of aliens with magical powers, right? And Christian science fiction from a female perspective was VERY uncommon in the 1950s & 60s! The People are remnants of a group of aliens, outwardly indistinguishable from humans, who crash-landed on Earth around the beginning of the 20th century after disasters made their home world uninhabitable. Zenna Henderson wrote “non-preachy” stories about loss, bigotry, alienation, isolation, compassion, wonder, and hope. The paperback books traveled around the world with me, growing tattier and tattier, until (Oh, frabjous day!) I discovered this omnibus edition in the late 90s.This is still on my bookshelf, and comes out for an airing every two or three years. Another reviewer put it perfectly – “Books come and books go but this one stays forever.”
—Marion Granigan
