Scan barcode
A review by mburnamfink
The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas M. Disch
4.0
This is an unusual history, linking together grand ideas with the live of the author, who very much "was there, and did that." The first chapters stumble in the dark, as Disch tries to establish the links of science-fiction to the very American tradition of the Big Liar, the confidence man who is so outrageous that we go along with the swindle gladly out of a sense of fun. The mostly forgotten Ignatius L. Donnelly, who's books on Atlantis and ancient aliens prefigured the New Age, is the leading figure of this era, while the populist/trash writers Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne are its perfection. This history of SF is interesting, if not particularly well balanced or supported.
Once the book gets into the period when Disch was most active, the late 50s through the 80s, it really takes off. He is a cutting cultural critic of the work that SF has done in making the atomic Armageddon livable, supporting the indefinite expansion of the military-industrial critic into space, and normalizing and familiarizating the 'office of the future', as epitomized by Star Trek. Sex, consumerism, war, and death are the major themes of the book. There isn't much on the Campbellian Golden Age, or on the Cyberpunk Movement, but other people have written about that. A fascinating, if partial look at my favorite genre.
Once the book gets into the period when Disch was most active, the late 50s through the 80s, it really takes off. He is a cutting cultural critic of the work that SF has done in making the atomic Armageddon livable, supporting the indefinite expansion of the military-industrial critic into space, and normalizing and familiarizating the 'office of the future', as epitomized by Star Trek. Sex, consumerism, war, and death are the major themes of the book. There isn't much on the Campbellian Golden Age, or on the Cyberpunk Movement, but other people have written about that. A fascinating, if partial look at my favorite genre.