The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World

This is the first, but hopefully not the last, Thomas M. Disch book that I have read. I happened upon it in the literature section of my small public library by serendipity. I have only read a handful of science fiction books in the last 20 years or so, so my opinions are not those of a "fan". This is a book of one man's opinions and insights, smart and sassy. Disch is quite the cultural critic, and his vision is far reaching. The title may be a bit misleading, as Disch actually discusses SF via a broad pallet of cultural "fictions" that are loosely based on science ideas. As the cover states, this is "much more than a history of the genre". He rambles between subjects as far wide as celebrity lying to UFO cults to mass murder to the SDI of the 80's to feminism and so on, always citing specific people and events (mainly from America in the latter half of the 20th century) with the intention of relating these events to the subtexts of specific SF works. I can see why some reviewers disliked his analysis of the politically conservative subtexts in Robert Heinlien's work, but I found Disch's opinions very enlightening. I guess I have been one of those people who sometimes when reading a book get so caught up in the action that the underlying subtext doesn't immediately register in my conscious mind, but later I feel something unnamed was bothering me - like the racism in Lucifer's Hammer or the conformism inherent in Star Trek. A book is just a book, but Disch reminds us that stories reveal our hope and dreams, our fears and our political agendas. Is this a diatribe as one reviewer says? Well maybe. But though I didn't agree with everything Disch says, I for one like to have my ideas informed and challenged by the writing of a sharp and gifted thinker, and more so when the writing is both unflinching and humorous.

Thomas Disch's "The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of" is an intensely personal and opinionated exploration of the SF genre and its connection with popular culture. Its scope is enormous; Disch begins at the historical roots of the genre, moves on through the Golden Age of the 40s and 50s, travels towards mainstream literature on the New Wave of the 60s, visits the feminist movement of the 70s, and finally arrives at a bleak, unhappy present- remaining entertaining throughout, an applaudable feat.Disch's unorthodoxy manifests early, when he proclaims Edgar Allan Poe the founder of SF, rather than the usual honorand Mary Shelley. His justifications for this decision are not compelling; his claim that Shelley's "Frankenstein" is unread is not proven, and his complaint that Shelley dodges providing a scientific rationale for Frankenstein's creation could be equally applied to the hypotheses of many acclaimed New Wave novels of the 60s, notably those of Samuel Delany and Roger Zelazny. A great degree of scientific fuzziness is present in all but the hardest SF.Disch's bias surfaces elsewhere. His politics lean to the left, as do those of many SF writers, and help shape the list of authors he chooses to condemn. He cannot resist indulging in the occasional Heinlein bashing, although he usually keeps a tight leash on the savagery of his attacks. He devotes an entire chapter to the "military SF" subgenre of Jerry Pournelle and associates, relegating it, unfairly, to the same trash bin he reserves for right-wing milita literature of the sort publicized by Timothy McVeigh. To his credit, however, he also rebukes those leftist SF authors whose writings serve as thin masks for the promotion of their particular utopias. His exposition of how Ursula K. LeGuin abuses the editorial responsibilities her fame has garnered for her, of how she uses the anthologies she compiles to revise the history of SF to promote her PC matriarchal vision of the future, is as dead-on target as a critique can possibly be.(...) One final thought. Disch paints a morbid picture of the current and future status of the SF genre, unveiling a landscape of Star Trek serializations and Tolkien-clone trilogies resembling Huxley's legions of Gammas and Epsilons. Whether the past was as rosy as he claims is debatable; my local used bookstore is filled to the brim with Edgar Rice Burroughs clones, Asimov imitators, and similar chaff from the supposed Golden Age. Time will sift through the current crop and find the classics, as it as always done. Or so those who love SF hope.

Reading this made me want to read SF books (not randomly but selectively). I assume this was Mr. Disch's goal. I have always enjoyed SF movies but was never a big SF book fan. Mr. Disch makes lucid and even handed statements, and his prose is finely polished and a joy to read. He is funny and I flew through this book. I have never enjoyed reading literary history so much. A good mind with good ideas. Mr. Disch is very modest; barely mentioning his own books. If you decide to explore his SF stuff, check out The Genocides, my personal favorite. Mr. Disch doesn't see a bright future for the genre, and hurls a few lighthearted barbs at deserving targets. He comes off as a true wisdom figure. Mr. Disch praises Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity and Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Looking back on the history of SF books, Mr. Disch describes thematic streams, recurring metaphors and tropes, and his judgments are sound and even-handed, but never bland. He admires SF writers who are not lazy about the science they inject into their plots. The analysis of Star Trek is truly original and biting. He sees the Enterprise crew as a bunch of pajama clad office workers who live in a morally transparent universe. Mr. Disch has this to say about good SF writing: "To my mind a "realism of the future" has been the ambition of most good SF writers. The worlds they describe and the events they narrate may have a surreal quality at first glance, but as the story unfolds such surrealities come to have a naturalistic basis in an altered but real world." (Disch p.218)

The first thing to say about Thomas M. Disch's The Dreams our Stuff is Made Of (How Science Fiction Conquered the World) is just how flat out entertaining this crazy quilt history of science fiction writing truly is. It is also wonderfully opinionated and sure to upset many science fiction readers, or readers of any kind, beginning with some outrageous and thought provoking words about about dear Edgar Allan Poe and working its controversial way towards the millenium. This book should make one question one's assumptions about why and how one reads a book and that is a good thing. This clever read should also send the reader out to read and re-read some science fiction classics and trash to evaluate for oneself the statements made by Mr. Disch. A wonderful cock-eyed look at science fiction to be avoided only by those afraid of strong opinions and smart writing.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes not only science fiction, but the idea of science fiction. It is a bleak look at the genre, and utterly infuriating at times. The arrogance of Disch's tone in attacking the value of writers from Mary Shelley to Robert Heinlein to Ursula LeGuin will leave many readers shaking in anger.I think you'll love it, too.It is a book that begs an argument on nearly every page. Disch clearly has favorites, and he happily ignores good books from writers he's busy bashing - LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" gets passing mention, while he denigrates "Always Coming Home" repeatedly. Same for Heinlein - few of his juvenile books, almost universally considered his best, are in evidence.But while Disch's biases are pretty clear, the strength of his arguments, particularly on the popularization of the genre through Star Trek and the UFO mythology, are tough to refute. What makes this book so very different from others on the genre is its willingness to see what science fiction means to people in general, not just a small elite who read the "literary-quality" science fiction. It's a refreshing change from the books that try frantically to justify the genre, all the time preaching to the choir.Disch almost goes a little too far from time to time - apparently, for example, if you don't like Hal Clement's scientific explanations, you're just another idiot who should go back to watching Star Trek. But I promise you, this book will make you think. And who doesn't love a good fight?