The persistence of vision

by John Varley

Other authorsJim Burns (Cover artist)

Hardcover, 1978

Status

Available

Publication

New York : Dial Press/J. Wade, 1978.

Description

A collection of short stories from "the wildest and most original science fictional mind" (George R.R. Martin) of Hugo and Nebula award-winning author John Varley. The Persistance of Vision collects nine amazing fiction stories--including the Hugo and Nebula award-winning title novella--that could only come from the mesmerizing imagination of one of science fiction's most renowned and respected writers.

User reviews

LibraryThing member revslick

prepared to be carried away as Varley's science fiction short stories quickly whirl you into magical future which reveal the answer to some is Now! and in others it is the words of Buckaroo Banzai 'the future isn't what it used to be..."

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LibraryThing member isabelx

The majority of the short stories in this book are set in a future where man has spread out into the solar system with the help of advanced technology, which allows humans to enhance themselves to exist even in the hostile heat and atmospheric pressure of Venus. Just about anything about the the

human body can be changed quickly and easily by the medicos. A change of sex can be done on a whim and is hardly even worth commenting on in Varley's future. Although their world is so different from our own, the protagonists are still very much human and easy to identify with. The title story which ends the book, is very different, the thought-provokingstory of a man's stay in a community of deaf-blind people and their new methods of communication.

I especially liked "The Phantom of Kansas"and "The Black Hole Passes". The only story that I have definitely read before is "In the Bowl", although I may have read "The Phantom of Kansas" before, as it seemed vaguely familiar at times.

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LibraryThing member Kat_Hooper

In a post-apocalyptic near-future, a middle-aged drifter roams from commune to commune in the Southwest United States. Each of these groups has its own culture and he stays a while at each, doing whatever he needs (e.g., going nude, praying, chanting “Hare Krishna”) to fit in while he’s

there. This works well for him — he stays fed and sheltered and moves on when he’s ready for a change of scenery.

But when he comes across a walled-in settlement in the middle of Native American land, he finds that he can never fit in because the group who lives there are the adult descendents of women who contracted rubella while pregnant. All of these adults are both deaf and blind, though their children are not. At first the drifter is fascinated by the ways they’ve developed to get around their “handicap,” but soon he learns that, in their community, he’s the one with the disability because he will never be able to understand their language — a language that is a lot deeper than mere spoken words could ever be.

As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about perception, I was fascinated by a culture that can’t see or hear, and I enjoyed the parts of the story that dealt with how the group overcame their obstacles. Also, the idea that communication without the masks of fake facial expressions and deceptive body language could be more informative than the “normal” methods is appealing. We get a lot of information about someone’s internal state through visual and auditory cues and it’s hard to imagine that tactile methods could compensate for missing this input, but John Varley is suggesting that people who are born blind and deaf might develop these sorts of paranormal abilities when normal sensory input is lacking. It is true that some people who are blind or deaf have sensory abilities that seeing and hearing people don’t have, or at least never realized they have (e.g., blindsight, echolocation). Perhaps Varley’s idea isn’t so far-fetched.

The Persistence of Vision, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, will make you think. It will make you consider what kinds of wonderful abilities might be unmasked if you lost some of your “normal” abilities. Would it be worth the price?

I listened to Peter Ganim narrate the audio version produced by Audible Frontiers. It was a great production and I’m pleased to see so many Hugo- and Nebula-awarded stories in their catalog.

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LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV

I'm confident I've never read this anthology before, but all the stories seemed familiar. Is it because they've been anthologized so much? Is it because they each have a lot in common with each other? I dunno. They are brilliant, and innovative for their time. But I got tired of tallying

all the different kinds of sex & gender explorations that Varley was so very fascinated by. Should be called 'The Visions of Future Sex' or something. Worth reading if you like concept-driven influential SF, but not if you're just looking for an adventure, or for literature, for that matter.

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LibraryThing member TheDivineOomba

Why oh why do these well written short fiction have to be ruined by child marriage! It seem like many male authors, writing in the late 70's have this issue. And, its never women marrying young boys, its always men marrying young girls, all in the name of sexual freedom.

The stories themselves are

for the most part, well written. A few odd ideas that seem to pervade stories from this time period, and always in collections, some stories are better than others.

Unfortunately, this was a 4 star rating, until the last story, which had an adult man contemplating marriage (or adoption) to a 12 year old.

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LibraryThing member stephkaye

The collection Persistence of Vision contains some of Varley's very best short stories. Even over 30 years later, they are still mind-blowingly original.

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