New Weird Science Fiction
June 14, 2007
Subscribing to some of these automated consumer-tracker things from amazon and have received a slew of reccomendations based on my “reading history”… hey! get the hell outta my history! which say I would apparently like this what-seems-to-me-evil-marketing-ploy-term, the New Weird. Ok, please. lets just stick with Fantasy or Sci Fi. Seems like a lot of hogwash. There is only One True God, of course, and that is Philip K. Dick. Ive read The Scar by China Mieville but didnt like it, not a big fan of fantasy stuff. Hes got a new one out Un Lun Dun but dont know if i’ll try it, might wait for the library circuit. Also read A.K. Otterness and thought it was pretty good, though I dont know why it was listed under new weird. Its definately sci-fi. Never heard of the author before but guess an old magazine sci fi writer. The writing was kinda like reading those Dick stories where he just spews stuff out, but still holds it together. Not bad. Also, Ray Bradbury has a new one out, about dragons. I wish theyd leave off this fantasy. clue: Fantasy->escapism. Science Fiction->save-the-world-truth. Yep. Time for a swibble hit.
February 18, 2007 at 3:55 am
yeah whatever. you complain too much.
February 18, 2007 at 3:57 am
Thank you! Finally some perspective on this stuff. What with global warming, asteroids, biochemical warfare, doom and apocalypse science fiction should be about FACTS. All this fantasy is escapism PAS. you can carbon copy me on that.
February 18, 2007 at 4:03 am
well, I dont have that strong an opinion about it actually. I love Ray Bradbury and hes kind of fantasy.
September 7, 2008 at 4:20 am
it turns out that Phil Dick lives on a busy 25th street in San Francisco, one or two houses down from a place where i used to live. it feels like summer, hot & greasy; i spend a lot of time at his ground-level apartment just talking, hanging out with whoever stops by– there are folks coming and going, some of them regulars– and looking at his things.
we don’t talk about anything in particular, just that i’m welcome there. i look at a large plaster wall hanging with an intricate network printed in relief. it hangs on a hollow plywood door, a gift from his daughters. it looks really abstract and i love it– there are print versions of it. too– i realized it was a map of London, or something like that, but at the same time, not. PKD watches me study his shit from the couch in the living room.
i go out once in a while to do laundry down the block where i meet some nice people. we watch TV coverage of semi-Olympic sports being performed by writers and intellectuals. everyone in the place falls into these categories so we all laugh. eventually one guy gets it out of me that i’m hanging out with PKD, and he later has other dudes follow me as i go back to his apartment. everything gets complicated. i like them…