Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
Free Press (1998), Edition: 1st Ed., 272 pages
Description
From science fiction writer Thomas M. Disch comes The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, a perceptive account of the impact science fiction has had on American culture. Disch provides a view of this world and its inhabitants, tracing science fiction's phenomenal growth into the multibillion-dollar global entertainment industry it is today. From the protoscience-fiction tales of Edgar Allan Poe, to the utopian dreams and technological nightmares of European writers H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and J. G. Ballard, to American conservatives Robert Heinlein and Jerry Pournelle, liberals Joe Haldemann and Ursula le Guin, flakes William Burroughs and Philip K. Dick, and outright charlatans Ignatius Donnelly and various UFO "witnesses," Disch emphasizes science fiction's cultural role as both a lens and a medium for the very rapid changes driven by modern technology, highlighting its powers of prediction and prevarication.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member Farree
Well, I've read Aldiss, Delany, LeGuin, Dick and others (Ellison, Moskowitz, Amis) on SF Lit/Crit and Analysis. Disch had the advantage of writing after all the above, but this is the most well reasoned, insightful and enjoyable one I've read. Feminists beware. Disch does not pull his punches.
LibraryThing member beserene
I started reading this book as research for the sci-fi class I am teaching this semester, but I kept reading it because Tom Disch's writing is delightful. Erudite and opinionated, Disch had me laughing and nodding at some of the oddest things -- his perspective on Scientology is sharp and
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brilliant, for example, and his attitude towards Star Wars is something I can relate to. I did not agree with everything he had to say -- he harshes on some classics and some favorites -- but even when I found myself disagreeing, I thought his points were fair. Some were even enlightening. For anyone interested not only in science fiction, but in the impact of SF on the rest of the world, this is worth your time. Show Less
LibraryThing member cannellfan
This 1999 Hugo-Award winning non-fiction book takes an interesting look at science fiction's influence on American society. Disch, who committed suicide in early July, has an extremely confrontational manner of presenting his arguments, but the book presents a nicely conversational tone that makes
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for easy reading. Speculative Fiction enthusiasts may have a few bones to pick with Disch over his opinions here, but casual science readers and those interested in the influences of popular culture should find this one to be right up their alley. No Show Less
LibraryThing member Aerrin99
Despite a fantastic title, a promising subject matter (the impact of Science Fiction on the world we live in), and a fairly cool cover, this book was a solid disappointment.
I was frustrated in the early chapters, which were more of a rambling history of some aspect of science fiction with which he
The one section that stood out as interesting to me discussed Star Trek as a sort of sneakily utopian science fiction which, although it had its own issues, did the world a service in presenting what a workplace with no official recognition of gender or racial differences might look like.
Unfortunately, this was a small section, and by the time I'd reached the chapter titled 'Can Girls Play Too? Feminizing Sci Fi', I was done.
Most of the chapter is devoted not to the changing role of women in science fiction, both as subject and author, but to complaining about particular female authors, in particular LeGuin, whose efforts at inclusiveness the author finds distasteful in the extreme. At one point, I nearly threw the book.
The book does a lot of rambling, very little point making, and almost none of the connection-creating I'd hoped for. I stopped about 3/4 of the way through, which is unusual for me, but by that point I'd realized that not only was I not learning much about the actual impact of Sci Fi, but I was being actively irritated in the process.
I was frustrated in the early chapters, which were more of a rambling history of some aspect of science fiction with which he
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was familiar (and no real solid evidence as to why that aspect was /important/). Most of the book is like that - a lot of history, some rambling, but no ability to pull it all together and match it up with real world events or societal and technological changes.The one section that stood out as interesting to me discussed Star Trek as a sort of sneakily utopian science fiction which, although it had its own issues, did the world a service in presenting what a workplace with no official recognition of gender or racial differences might look like.
Unfortunately, this was a small section, and by the time I'd reached the chapter titled 'Can Girls Play Too? Feminizing Sci Fi', I was done.
Most of the chapter is devoted not to the changing role of women in science fiction, both as subject and author, but to complaining about particular female authors, in particular LeGuin, whose efforts at inclusiveness the author finds distasteful in the extreme. At one point, I nearly threw the book.
The book does a lot of rambling, very little point making, and almost none of the connection-creating I'd hoped for. I stopped about 3/4 of the way through, which is unusual for me, but by that point I'd realized that not only was I not learning much about the actual impact of Sci Fi, but I was being actively irritated in the process.
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LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
By turns, acerbic, witty, thoughtful, arrogant, vicious and sympathetic, this book is really more a collection of essays about various themes and issues related to the genre that Disch wants to talk about rather than a very coherent look at how science fiction has impacted the modern world. One
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doesn't always agree with what he is saying, and one can even be offended by some of his rather cutting remarks, and his tendency to be rather reductive in the way he presents a particular work, person or agenda that he has it in for, but at the same time, this can also be an engaging, entertaining and even insightful read. Show Less
LibraryThing member Kellswitch
I am a bit mixed on this one. On one hand, it was well written and informative and I found many of his points interesting even if I didn't agree with them. On the other hand, well I don't think Thomas Disch really enjoyed science fiction and it's culture all that much. He spent a lot of time
The book was writing in 1998 and a lot has changed in science fiction since he wrote it, and it felt dated many times but I found myself wondering a lot how his perspective may have changed had he be able to up date in today’s world, sadly not a possibility anymore.
His insiders view of the earlier days of science fiction, and of the culture of the time, were fascinating and there were more than a few things I had never heard before from anyone else and overall I found this book interesting and worth reading, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting from the title.
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pointing the more negative aspects of science fiction, and working really, really hard to create some that I didn't feel actually had anything to do with science fiction in the first place. He also seemed to have an occasional ax to grind and grudges to express though he never really slipped all the way over in to bitterness or meanness. And I have no idea what Oliver North has to do with any of this. The book was writing in 1998 and a lot has changed in science fiction since he wrote it, and it felt dated many times but I found myself wondering a lot how his perspective may have changed had he be able to up date in today’s world, sadly not a possibility anymore.
His insiders view of the earlier days of science fiction, and of the culture of the time, were fascinating and there were more than a few things I had never heard before from anyone else and overall I found this book interesting and worth reading, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting from the title.
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LibraryThing member tungsten_peerts
... of course it's dour. Of course it's sometimes scabrous. It's Thomas M. Disch! Disch was a wonderful, intelligent writer in (at least, most often in) a genre that, untrue to appearances, often didn't value things like intelligence or -- especially -- good writing. He took his own life in 2008.
Sure, it pissed me off in spots. I think Disch meant it to piss people off. I also read it in two days, transfixed. You are missed, TMD, at least by some of us.
I wish I didn't have to add that I heap scorn on Free Press for apparently not bothering with fact-checking or proofreading, because this book (as so many these days) is bursting with embarrassing and needless errors / typos. The author of *Last and First Men* and *Star Maker* is Olaf Stapledon, NOT Olaf Stapleton. Gene Wolfe's name is given correctly in a couple of places but mysteriously warps into "Gene Worle" at least once. And while I know this is a common gaffe (my own mother committed it sometimes), the First Officer in the original *Star Trek* series is named Spock -- sometimes "Mr." Spock but NEVER "Dr. Spock." Dr. Spock's first name was Benjamin, and he was a popular 1960s figure alongside the character played by Leonard Nimoy. C'mon Free Press, wtf? Authors deserve better than this.
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*The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of* is not precisely a love-song to science fiction ... as others have pointed out, it's way too judgmental and opinionated and cranky for that ... but if you *really* think Disch is dismissive of what sf can do, read what he says about Clement's *Mission of Gravity*.Sure, it pissed me off in spots. I think Disch meant it to piss people off. I also read it in two days, transfixed. You are missed, TMD, at least by some of us.
I wish I didn't have to add that I heap scorn on Free Press for apparently not bothering with fact-checking or proofreading, because this book (as so many these days) is bursting with embarrassing and needless errors / typos. The author of *Last and First Men* and *Star Maker* is Olaf Stapledon, NOT Olaf Stapleton. Gene Wolfe's name is given correctly in a couple of places but mysteriously warps into "Gene Worle" at least once. And while I know this is a common gaffe (my own mother committed it sometimes), the First Officer in the original *Star Trek* series is named Spock -- sometimes "Mr." Spock but NEVER "Dr. Spock." Dr. Spock's first name was Benjamin, and he was a popular 1960s figure alongside the character played by Leonard Nimoy. C'mon Free Press, wtf? Authors deserve better than this.
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Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — 1999)
Locus Award (Finalist — Non-Fiction — 1999)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1998
ISBN
0684824051 / 9780684824055