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/lit/ - Literature

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22268043 No.22268043 [Reply] [Original]

Post any weird science fiction books here that try to challenge the reader in presenting really alien futures where a lot things are unrecognizable, especially if it's a pseudo-utopian future that nonetheless involves Faustian bargains to trade peace and prosperity for humanity

>> No.22268056

>>22268043
>on par with Neal Stephenson
dropped

>> No.22268164

>>22268056
I know. I wonder if the author gets to decide this type of thing. I would sue the publisher if they put Stephenson's name anywhere on my book. An instant nope.

>> No.22269442

>>22268043
Dhalgren was probably the weirdest scifi I read but I had to drop it because of the extreme faggotry. Utterly disgusting fag shit every other paragraph, but it is good otherwise if you can tolerate the gross gayness.

>> No.22269459

>>22268043
On The Uses Of Torture
by Piers Anthony

>> No.22270348
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22270348

If you're not already reading Philip K. Dick, stop what you're doing and partake.
He's my favorite author of all time, and is all about weird sci-fi.
His short story anthologies are kino.
Perhaps start with "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep"; one of its 4 plot lines became the basis for the movie "Blade Runner".
If you like horror, try "The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch".
If you want to go straight for ultimate weird, try "Ubik".

>> No.22270354

>>22268056
So you didn't like the worldbuilding in "The Diamond Age"?

>> No.22270428

>>22268056
>>22268164
What's wrong with Stephenson?

>> No.22270771

>>22270428
He's the author I would recommend if someone wanted to get into sci-fi and I wanted them to get immediately out again.

>> No.22270778

>>22270771
Why? Because of the filler or his reddit-like sensibilities/tone? Or prose? He had some interesting ideas, arguably.

>> No.22270785

>>22270428
Poor man's Pynchon

>> No.22270812

>>22270778
He's Pynchon but for low iq individuals

>> No.22270819

>>22270778
Because he's like a parody of a sci-fi author. If you're going to take the license to make up funny words and concepts, at least give them a function or insert them in a way that promotes some fluidity for the reader. I remember closing Anathema over and over again thinking "Did someone tell him this is how a sci-fi author should write without telling him it has to work?"

The same goes for large philosophical ideas and the craving for some subtlety. Its one thing to have interesting ideas, I have interesting ideas, but I can't write, and neither can Stephenson, but that doesn't stop him.

>> No.22270823

>>22270785
>>22270812
>>22270819
Ah, thanks. I tried reading Pynchon but i was overwhelmed so i suppose you guys actually get it. Sucks being a low IQ fag. >>22270819 thanks for your detailed explanation too.

>> No.22270827

>>22270348
Second his short story anthologies. Minority Report and War Game are among my favourite of his shorts.

>> No.22270830

>>22270823
>Sucks being a low IQ fag.
This is literally why the Rick and Morty copypasta exists. If something is bad it might not be because you don't "get it," its probably because its bad. People tried to pull this with me and shows like Arrested Development or The Big Bang theory. Turns out they were just really bad.

>> No.22271001

>>22270830
Your point makes a lot of sense but then what does one do? How do i know whether Pynchon is really the greatest author writing in the postmdern age or a masturbatory, glorified hack who put out an overwritten sci-fi novel. When it's an open-and -shut case like TBBT or Arrested development you can sort of see that. But, when you're judging more ambitious and prestigious works, do you just submit to the prevailing dogma? Sorry if I'm being repetitive or plain foolish.

>> No.22271056

>>22270778
>>22270819
I've only read 80% of Snow Crash but it read like something Ernest Cline would write (without all the references).

>> No.22271083

>>22268043
Sisyphean by Torishima Dempow

>> No.22271239

>>22269442
Seconded on Dhalgren, I dropped it too but I still think about it more often than books I've actually enjoyed. I think the faggotry was very intentionally disgusting. I would like to know where the author stood politically, because it seems like the entire book is like a metaphor for hell being a city in America; with the city constantly burning for decades, populated by gays and hippies, patrolled by gangs of thugs who disguise themselves as demons via holograms. Fucking bizarre book, I should actually finish it.

>> No.22271913

A voyage to arcturus. Feels like a synthesia experience

>> No.22271945

>>22271239
Delany is a gay light-skinned black man but his politics aren't cut and dry, I'd say he approaches the entire matter with common sense and a level head, at least from the interviews I've read.