So You Hate Science Fiction
It’s okay. I don’t hate you for it. But if what you really don’t like about genre fiction is spaceships with virile star captains, tribal women ready to seduce them, and neologisms like “the planet Xantos V” or “the deadly Zwarkroks of Mmmpff,” then let me suggest a couple titles that might let you reevaluate speculative writing.
Philip K. Dick – A Scanner Darkly. Dick is the writer a lot of literary folks start with when wishing to slum it in the genre ghetto, and this novel might be the easiest for someone like that to digest. In some ways it’s barely even science fiction, rather a novel about the drug culture of the 1970s and its toll on human lives. But it’s also (like almost everything Dick wrote) a novel about paranoia. The main character, Bob Arctor, is an undercover drug officer called “Fred” who is investigating a major drug user/dealer named Bob Arctor. Yikes! By the way, all your indie friends will see the Richard Linklater film based on the novel that’s coming out later this summer, so why not have a leg up on those folks.
Richard Matheson – I Am Legend. Matheson is a veteran of The Twilight Zone and mid-century pulp magazines, but don’t let that make you think he’s a dimestore hack. Though this novel came out in 1954, it still influences vampire fiction and film today (28 Days Later for example). Robert Neville is the last man on earth. Everyone else is a vampire, long infected by a virus that spread rapidly through the human population. Neville is hold up in his house, only able to venture out during the daylight hours to forage for goods and necessities. At night he is kept awake by the beckoning calls of his former neighbors, friends, and associates—“Neville. Neville. Come out, Neville.” He occupies his mind with music, literature, and the scientific examination of the vampire virus. But he is haunted with the purposelessness of being the only human in a vampire world. If there was just another…
Mary Doria Russell – The Sparrow. The good news? SETI works! The bad news? The messages it’s receiving are some sort of indecipherable music. The good news? The Society of Jesus will send a scientific expedition led by freethinker and gentle soul Father Emilio Sandoz. The bad news? What they find will corrupt his faith. The good news? There’s a peaceful and intriguing sentient species on the planet. The bad news? They’re cattle for the planet’s dominant species. The good news? This is a fantastic novel. The bad news? You haven’t read it yet.
--Jason
posted by Subterranean Books @ 12:13 PM
6 Comments:
I remember Philip K. Dick's work from the movie, "Total Recall" with Arnold. whose name I won't bother to spell. The Austrian body-builder's last name, but it was a box office smash. I don't know how faithful the movie was to the book, but it was an interesting premise-- the nature of memory vs. artificial memory, and deciding for ourselves the true distance between reality and fantasy. It was pretty dense stuff for an action movie, but made up for it with copious amounts of blood-drenched violence. Philip K. Dick struck me as a pretty paranoid old codger, but he was brillaint on some squirrly level or another. He thought that he had made contact with a divine extraterrestiral force, so I don't really know what to say to that. . . . .
Jason, you're totally correct. Matheson's book is underrated. (Perhaps it's because Charlton Heston starred in the so-bad-it's-great film perversion of this book, "Omega Man.") And I'm with you on PK Dick, as well. What are your thoughts on William Gibson? I love his early stuff, but his newer works are even better. Gibson has a little less reliance on the cyber element, and a little more effort put into the people element, which has vastly improved his already great writing. "Idoru" was pretty swell, I thought. I have "All Tomorrow's Parties" lined up in the queue for later this year.
And I hear good things about Neal Stephenson's stuff, but I haven't read it. Anyone out there read his work?
Paul from across the street
Neal Stephenson is fantastic. Most of his novels are extremely developed with intricately intertwined plots. Cryptonomicon is my favorite. The novel bounces between modern day (2000ish) and WWII. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out. The Baroque Cycle is a three-volume monster around 3,000 pages (each volume is a separate novel) that takes place between the years 1650 and 1750 and on four different continents. For more: http://www.nealstephenson.com/
Good work transcends genre. I'm not a science fiction fan but I love Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and William Gibson's Neuromancer.
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Also, Steve Erickson, if you can find any of his stuff, is fantastic. Also, barely science fiction, but very intricate and fantastical. A great find. If I met the man on the street and he wanted a kiss - a brief one - i'd do it.
I haven't read the newer Gibson stuff, though it stares at me from my "to read soon" shelf. As does Snow Crash.
K - speaking of Steve Erickson, our friend L is going to be in an upcoming issue of Black Clock, which he edits. But don't tell anyone.
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