Teaching some PKD

[this_monster_is]

Well, the prof. I'm working with this semester went for my idea of inserting PKD's "The Electric Ant" into the syllabus . . . now he wants me to teach it, which is pretty cool. He also wants me to teach "A Hunger Artist" and "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings." I'm actually quite happy about the whole thing. One of my favorite stories by Dick

Comments

[danschank]

i almost bought an alfred bester novel today (golem, i think), but i chickened out when it had a silly monster on the cover gearing up to attack an afro-future-babe, not unlike chuck's heston's ladyfriend from the omega man.

on second thought, why didn't i buy that????

[this_monster_is]

The way to go with Bester would be "The Stars My Destination." Basically, it's considered proto-cyberpunk. And hell yes, always go with cover art like that. I'm reading a really good book - Modern Science Fiction and the American Literary Community. It traces the origins and growth of science fiction up to 1976. Very research driven and exhaustive study of how and why the pulp market, national economics, the atom bomb, the cold war, etc. influenced the publics reception and view of science fiction in America. Mostly, it stays with literature (obviously), but it does take an interesting look at movies during the same period. This is something most people wouldn't find fascinating, but if your at all interested in how the whole thing came about - it's a good start; plus it has some really great source material (ie - names of old stories and serialized novels, as well as 60's and 70's critical theory on it - which can be more telling than the actual stories half the time).