Lost worlds and ports of call
Amazing letter from 1981 written by Philip K. Dick predicting the impact of the movie version of his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Calling the movie “super-realism”, he raved about the movie to someone involved with it. Interesting, he also bemoaned the current staleness of the 1981 science fiction world, and that Blade Runner would breathe new life into science fiction. Which, probably is quite true, as it inspired the cyberpunks and so much other sf that followed.
Does Google Glass render privacy obsolete? The whole Glass issue reminds me of Charles Stross’s novel Accelerando. This may just be the beginning of a very interesting future.
Over at reason, Tom Jackson has a review of Cory Doctorow’s novel, Homeland. This novel is a sequel to Little Brother, and rife with current affairs in terms of computer, privacy, copyright, internet and other tech related matters. Jackson notes the protagonist]s occupation, which continues some of the main issues I found with the ending of Little Brother. Marcus Yallow, after being subjected to horrible persecution by government agents, still looked at reforming the system from within as an option. Yallow now “works for a politician, and he doesn’t give up on the democratic process, even after some difficult encounters with political reality.”
Interesting article at National Review, laying into sf movies and books with themes of the corporate as evil overload. Lists several books and movies with this theme, and then debunks the power of corporates. There is little coercive force behind corporations, but apologists of government force often splutter and come back with “but what about the evil influence of McDonalds or name-your-most-hated-company?” The power of the market is what they say they fear, but this really masks their distaste of popularity of things they don’t like.
The sequel to Kristen Simmons’ Article 5 novel is now available, and looks just as interesting as the first one.
Which one better predicted our future? A graphic face-off between George Orwell’s 1984 future and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World future. Being familiar with both, and I find the latter unlikely as a whole, but parts of it each seem very true. Neither one should be dismissed, as those who want control will seek it through any means.
Writer Anthony Pacheco has some thoughts on libertarianism and science fiction. I think there are a few more writers and books worth mentioning than the ones he covers.
Everybody compiles lists. These usually are of the “top 10” kind. I started compiling a personal list of individualist titles in the early 1990s. When author China Miéville published one entitled “Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read” in 2001, I started the following list along the same lines, but a different focus. Miéville and I have in common some titles and authors, but our reasons for picking these books probably differ greatly.
Some rules guiding me while compiling this list included: 1) no multiple books by the same writer; 2) the winners of the Prometheus Award do not automatically qualify; and, 3) there is no limit in terms of publication date. Not all of the listed works are true sf. The first qualification was the hardest, and I worked around this by mentioning other notable books in the brief notes. I mostly excluded shorts stories but included two plays, one of which appeared several thousand years ago. This is a personal list. As with any list there may be debate and questions of the compiler’s taste and sanity, etc. We read and enjoy fiction for a variety of reasons, but these books I believe are compelling for the spirit of liberty, which burns brightly within their pages.
Some of these books I last read decades ago, others very recently. They are ordered alphabetically by author, and mostly ignore the political beliefs of the author: the idea of liberty is one shared across the political spectrum. While some political philosophies clearly are at odds with individual liberty, names and labels change over time, and thus someone who considers themselves a socialist may end up writing a book that seems to counter certain views of socialism. Liberalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries is far closer to modern ideas of individualism than the idea of capitalism at that time.
Also, books have a life and soul of their own, often at odds with those of the author. Authors’ life experiences amidst certain world events also influence their fiction. As they fictionalize their experiences, thoughts and emotions bubble up into their fiction in ways they must see through to the end. Thus, you have the socialist writer George Orwell penning perhaps the greatest critique ever of socialism:Animal Farm. Once released into the wild, a book no longer belongs to the author, and must be judged on its own. Continue reading
Video interview with visionary sf writer Vernor Vinge. Nearly an hour long, touches on Ai, Singularity and other topics.
Wired weighs in with some thoughts on the future of book publishing.
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