The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of | |||||||||||||||
Thomas M. Disch | |||||||||||||||
Simon and Shuster, 320 pages | |||||||||||||||
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A review by David Soyka
The author himself was one of the Young Turks of the New Wave, so you also get an insider's look at many of the
personalities that helped perpetrate the cultural crimes and misdemeanors Disch charges to SF. I suspect I share with many my excitement in seeing Disch returning
to SF, even if in a work of non-fiction (since the early 80s he's published mostly poetry, gothic horror and
criticism, as well as plays and interactive software).
For those needing
a bit of background, however,
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, Groiler CD version) has this to say:
Though Disch claims he did not set out to write a history of SF, it nonetheless provides a handy overview,
albeit with Disch's pointed emphasis on the commercial, as opposed to literary, works which he believes have
had the most cultural impact. For this reason, Disch makes a most persuasive case for Edgar Allan Poe -- not
the more erudite Mary Shelley's Frankenstein -- as the source from which contemporary SF springs. It also
buttresses his arguments that SF, with a few obvious exceptions (Verne, Wells), is a distinctly American
phenomenon in which many of the major practitioners are still alive (Bradbury, Bova) or relatively recently
deceased (Asimov, Heinlein). Disch does, however, discuss two movements that have had significant popular
repercussions despite being more literary forms: the 60s' couterculturism of the New Wave and the concurrent
emergence of Feminist SF. And although Disch was in the thick of this fray, there is little insider "dirt,"
although there are hints that Disch has some to dish out, but refrains out of respect for the still living or
the memory of the dearly departed. The most intimate description Disch provides is that of J.G. Ballard,
"genius in residence" of the New Wave, while he has some fun at the expense of Ursula Le Guin's political
correctness (I suspect the two probably avoid each other at parties).
His most pointed words, however, are reserved for hacks, the L. Ron Hubbards and Whitley Streibers
(although categorized as "non-fiction," Disch thinks his books more rightly belong to SF), whose lack of craft
is secondary to their inspiration of pseudo-religious cults. Conversely, Disch's admiration for genuine
storytelling talent overcomes his disdain for an author's religious or political beliefs, as is the case with
Orson Scott Card or, most notably, SF Grandmaster Robert Heinlein, who has captured the attention of disparate
zanies from Charles Manson to Newt Gingrich.
Although Disch is concerned primarily with written SF, he concedes that by far the most influential form is
visual (yes, Virginia, incredible as it sounds, some people really do think Star Trek is science fiction). The
impact of the visual poses a dilemma for the future of the commercial SF book industry, which today is mostly
TV/movie spin-offs and serializations. Disch argues that this has led not only to a restricted market for
worthwhile new SF, but the backlist deletion of many major books (indeed, Disch's own seminal works,
Camp Concentration and 334, are currently out-of-print). The one glimmer of hope he sees is cyberpunk and
its various offshoots, which he terms the "one significant evolutionary event in the field in the past 15 years."
These dire straits notwithstanding, Disch believes that science fiction, for good or bad, remains the best
venue in which to dissect the peculiarities of our modern culture:
David Soyka is a former journalist and college teacher who writes the occasional short story and freelance article. He makes a living writing corporate marketing communications, which is a kind of fiction without the art. |
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