Science fiction recommendations
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Thirded. I hate the way she tries to distance herself from the sci-fi label, but whatever; I find myself thinking about it nearly every day. The Handmaid's Tale is great too.
Brian Aldiss is also great. Super-Toys Last All Summer Long is one of my favourite short stories of all time, regardless of genre. Don't let AI put you off - it's truly touching.
Given that you weren't really feeling Snowcrash you might feel otherwise, swears, but I'd say Stehphenson's worth another look. Try The Diamond Age - really amazing, one of those books in which you can properly lose yourself. And while they're not "sci-fi" proper, Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are breathtaking - and the latter even has a proper ending
Given that you weren't really feeling Snowcrash you might feel otherwise, swears, but I'd say Stehphenson's worth another look. Try The Diamond Age - really amazing, one of those books in which you can properly lose yourself. And while they're not "sci-fi" proper, Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle are breathtaking - and the latter even has a proper ending
Seconded, those two (or three, in the case of the Baroque cycle) are incredible and such wonderfully drawn worlds that you can lose yourself in for weeks.
Never read any Atwood (I'm a terrible Canadian apparently), but I'm really looking forward to it after all the positive mentions in this thread.
DigitalDjigit
Honky Tonk Woman
But why? Diamond Age is Snowcrash Part 2 with nanotechnology in place of virtual reality.
I don't remember if we mentioned Bruce Sterling yet (that other cyberpunk author). I like him. He is really dense and intense. Hundreds of little nuggets to chew on sprinkled in the stories. He really takes the time to create a cohesive world.
The one I read most recently was "Schizmatrix" and that's a good place to start.
I think the central propositions - how does mankind behave in a world of material abundance? how does capitalism adapt to such a situation? how do individuals relate to wider society, and vice versa? - are quite different.
And quite aside from that, on the level of pure craft, I think it's a much more sophisticated piece of storytelling, with a stronger structure and real characters as opposed to pop cultural ciphers.
I've only read Heavy Weather, which I enjoyed immensely. Oh, and the one he did with Gibson (The Difference Engine?), which I couldn't really get into. But I used to love his blog from the future stuff. He very smart.
Any recommendations gratefully received
After a friend finally got me to watch Ghost in the Shell recently, I've kind of become hooked on cyberpunk-themed anime. I was never really much of an anime-fan before, but a lot of this stuff is loaded with philisophical themes and interesting metaphors for (post)modern life and what have you...
There's lot's of ghost imagery in this stuff too, which recalls a lot of last year's hauntology discussions...
My favorite series that I've found so far is Serial Experiments Lain, which you can watch all of the episodes of at this link. It's a really weird series, kind of a mix of cyberpunk and philosophical themes but in a more current setting, but with like, electronic ghosts and disembodied spirits on the internet and fun stuff like that. I won't give away any of the plot, but I highly recommend it. Just ignore the bad 90's alternarock theme-song...
There's lot's of ghost imagery in this stuff too, which recalls a lot of last year's hauntology discussions...
My favorite series that I've found so far is Serial Experiments Lain, which you can watch all of the episodes of at this link. It's a really weird series, kind of a mix of cyberpunk and philosophical themes but in a more current setting, but with like, electronic ghosts and disembodied spirits on the internet and fun stuff like that. I won't give away any of the plot, but I highly recommend it. Just ignore the bad 90's alternarock theme-song...
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Nice! I love ghost in the shell. i've been watching the GOTS tv series they've put out recently and it's pretty good too. and talk about post-modern influence, in one episode there was a brief clip of one of their semi-autonomous robots (the tachikomas!) reading Anti-Oedipus for godsakes! Lot's of really weird/interesting stuff about simulacra, rhizomatic terrorist cells, stuff like that...there's only one big issue though: why the hell doesn't the major wear pants??
will have to check out those serial experiments lain links, have been wanting to watch that for a while.
That's great! And it totally doesn't surprise me, considering some of the themes touched on these shows. I'll have to check out that Ghost in the Shell tv series next...
nomos
Administrator
On the anime front, I'd highly recommend renting Neon Genesis Evangelion in its entirety. I haven't watched loads of anime myself but I've watched this one through twice. It's set in 2013, Earth's population has been decimated outside of Japan and Germany. God is sending angels to destroy humanity which has devised a means of defence involving (of course) giant, genetically engineered robots which (of course) can only be piloted by 13 year old children. It would be easy to make another run of the mill neo-Tokyo series with those elements and, at times, it's clunky, but it also deftly weaves in East/West tensions, psychoanalytic themes, competing religious perspectives, and biotech debates. It becomes increasingly gripping as the links between the children, angels and robots (EVAs) becomes more apparent, and the layers of bureaucracy and black ops intervention become evermore murky.
DigitalDjigit
Honky Tonk Woman
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/
Good website for finding sci-fi movies. He lists a lot of anime too.
Good website for finding sci-fi movies. He lists a lot of anime too.
Ulysses
Not a half-steppah
Few months ago I read Neil Stephenson's 'Baroque Cycle', while its more like historical fiction, it fits into the larger body of his sci-fi books like 'Cryptonomicon'. Also recently read Samuel Delany's 'Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand' which was really rich, funky. It's a lot easier to read than 'Dhalgren', which is generally considered his opus. Im trying to get into some Ben Bova, reading 'Mercury' and 'Jupiter', parts of a series. Not crazy about it, but it passes the time. Totally agree with previous poster, Neon Genesis might be one of the most important sci-fi works of the 20th century imo. Watch the whole series if you can. The movies are decent, but aren't as heavy in total.
jack throb
Member
I agree. It got made into Bladerunner. Also try some of my all-time favourites, most of them are very short:
All You Zombies -Robert Heinlein
Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes(never been out of print apparently)
The Gold at Starbows End -Fred Pohl
Jefty is Five- Harlan Ellison I think
The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathon Hoag - Heinlein again.
The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out
The Last Question - Asimov (the only one I like by him)
One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts -Shirley Jackson
The Black Abbott of Puthuum -Clark Ashton Smith (not SF but other-worldly) Get the dictionary out for any of Smith's stuff and enrich your vocab.
My top two are the top two!
J
johnny_yen
Guest
If you're into Tetsuo and Soft Machine-era Burroughs,you might like Kenji Siratori. His work is pretty much incomprehensible from a semantic standpoint, but he has a unique and sort of overpowering aesthetic. Here's a sample, from "Industrial Boy":
"The boy machine plug: the gimmick universe of the gene war/REC ant that TOKAGE that the digital=apocalypse: cyber murder: the brain of myself does the body that the drug embryo was distorted the game was transplanted to the brain of myself that dash toward the clonic suicide line of the artificial sun did the soul-machine of myself junk! Control the womb area artificial sun: the synapse: the future tissue of ADAM doll fuck: the body fluid of the ant pattern of the gin high sun incubates the apoptosis grief of clone boys"
Yeah!
(but seriously, read this before going to sleep, you will have some wacky dreams, I promise)
Also anything by Mark Leyner, not sure if he was mentioned earlier in the thread.
"The boy machine plug: the gimmick universe of the gene war/REC ant that TOKAGE that the digital=apocalypse: cyber murder: the brain of myself does the body that the drug embryo was distorted the game was transplanted to the brain of myself that dash toward the clonic suicide line of the artificial sun did the soul-machine of myself junk! Control the womb area artificial sun: the synapse: the future tissue of ADAM doll fuck: the body fluid of the ant pattern of the gin high sun incubates the apoptosis grief of clone boys"
Yeah!
(but seriously, read this before going to sleep, you will have some wacky dreams, I promise)
Also anything by Mark Leyner, not sure if he was mentioned earlier in the thread.
I never watched the whole series, but back in 1998/99 I rented the End of Eva movie that bookends and was just blown away. Those snarling white angel things are pure nightmare archetypes?!!?! Plenty of other wtf moments as well. Basically the most avant-garde treatment of anime/sci-fi I had ever seen. I basically stopped checking anime after it because everything else seemed so silly and childish.
If anyone has seen anything on that level please let me know. I tried to follow Lain but it's a sedative to me. Cowboy Bebop was fun though...
nomos
Administrator
I still haven't seen the End of Eva. Crazy since I loved the series. Maybe I'll look for the movie this week.