fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2540 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2540 ⌋

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Bit obvious, but Stranger in a Strange Land. (Heinlein) Although...that's not as "weird" as it was viewed, back when it was written. Also The Lathe of Heaven (LeGuin) for brain-bendy goodness. (Do NOT, I implore you, watch ANY of the movie adaptations of that novel. They ALL suck.) Also Cat's Cradle and Galapagos (both by Vonnegut). I have read Cat's Cradle a dozen times over the years, but Galapagos still sits unfinished, mocking me. (Guess which one is the ebook.) :-P

PKD (AKA Philip K. Dick) is your beginner-level go-to for "weird." His short stories are really much better than his longer works (I was not a fan of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, in that case, the movie really IS better), but VALIS and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are readable enough, with just the right balance of plot to weird ratios. Pynchon (Thomas) is intermediate-level weird (Which reminds me, I've picked up The Crying of Lot 49 a half-dozen times, but just can't get it started.), but let me recommend to you Borges, sarillia. Jorge Luis Borges is your straight-up source for top-level fills-all-your-needs-for-the-weird-that-you-never-knew-existed.

Need an example? Exhibit A: http://www.class.uh.edu/mcl/faculty/armstrong/cityofdreams/texts/babylon.html

I like Borges and Kurt Vonnegut and Pynchon and LeGuin and Heinlein. Unfortunately I haven't gotten to Philip K. Dick yet even though I'm sure I would love his work. A lot of what I've read is based on what I've picked up at used book sales and I haven't come across much of him. I'll have to put him on my list of authors I'll splurge on and spend more than a dollar on a book.

You can find PKD paperbacks for very cheap (in middling to poor condition) in most used bookstores that have a sizable SFF section. Best place to start would be one of the short story anthologies. Probably the one with Minority Report in it, but I am blanking on the title rn, and I think they marketed at least one version of that anthology as a movie tie-in to that Tom Cruise abomination.

If you're up for tackling the longer works first (they're not that long), VALIS and/or The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch are good places to start with PKD. (It has "Eldritch" in the title, what more do you need??) Also, if you want to whet your appetite before you start reading PKD, try and get a copy of the movie Through a Scanner Darkly. Done very well, and actually quite close to the source text.

I have seen Through a Scanner Darkly (though if I'm remembering right the movie was just called A Scanner Darkly) and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for the recs!

YVW, enjoy! (The title of the original story was Through a Scanner Darkly, IIRC.) Since you liked the movie, I definitely think you'll appreciate his writing. He has a (morbidly) fascinating biography, as well.

Borges is amazing, though I'm not sure the English translations do him justice (but what can you do? Traduttore traditore est). I heartfully rec "The Aleph and Other Stories" anthology. Though the anthology "Ficciones" has two of my favourites (besides The Library of Babel): "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" and "The Secret Miracle". The last one was the first Borges story I ever read, when I was a kid :3

Edited (Sorry for all the edits, I had to check if my translations of the titles were accurate ^^;;) 2013-12-17 04:45 (UTC)

Borges is magnificent. My favorite in "Ficciones" is "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote". Blew my mind in the best way possible.

Another rec: Mark Helprin's "A Winter's Tale" has stuck with me for years. Alternate early New York. Probably would be considered alternate history/fantasy but it seems to transcend genre.

John Crowley's "Little, Big" is another one that had a somewhat similar feel.

[ SECRET POST #2540 ]

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