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STUFF_UP_THE_CRACKS

                                          Feb 11 2001      
Disch is at it again, in book
length form this time:
"The Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of":
                  
   I've tried to write a review of
   this book off and on over the
   last year, but every time I get
   bogged down in sorting out the
   tremendous number of inaccuries
   and snide cheapshots it's
   weighted down with.
                  
   Just to pick one: Disch asserts
   that the Delany novel "The
   Madman" is devoted to the thesis
   that HIV does not cause
   AIDS. This is a completely
   insane reaction to the novel:
   nowhere in it is anything like          Most simply: "The Madman" is
   this thesis stated (many others         about how the meaning of texts    
   are however), and nothing in the        rely on contexts, and your
   events of the story contradict          perception of the world is
   the HIV hypothesis. If Disch can        filtered by what you're   
   get something *this* far wrong,         ready to see.             
   nothing else he says can be                                       
   trusted.                                               SYSTEMS_OF_THE_MADMAN
                  
   Disch asserts that
   science fiction is                           
   largely based on a                           
   worship of Big Ideas,                                     
   i.e. grand theories          
   about how the world          (SF would be much                
   works.                       more interesting             
                                if this were really 
                                the case.) 
                                
                                
   Disch's take is that no one  
   rational system can encompass
   the whole world.  Believing that       For an SF writer
   one can is sophomoric, childish,       he has a very   
   hence the idea that science            mundane outlook 
   fiction is a branch of                 on life.                
   children's literature, and                
   so on.                                 His bullshit filter          
                                          screens out psionics,
                                          UFOs and scientology;
                                          but also cryonics and
                                          interstellar travel. 
                                          
                                             
   It's difficult to state the main          
   thesis of this book, because              
   Disch has a way of backtracking           
   to cover himself. Roughly, he 
   points out that ideas from SF             
   have a way of leaking out into            
   the real world, in sometimes              
   unsavory contexts. He keeps               
   stabbing in the direction of              
   saying that science fiction is            
   immoral because it encourages             
   people to believe in things that          
   turn out to be destructive (as            
   he quotes several times, "in              
   dreams begin responsibilities")           
                                             
   He is, however, not quite                 
   willing to go as far as                   
   to, say, blame Charles                     
   Manson on Robert                           
   Heinlein... because if he                 "Asimov cannot be
   did it would be obvious                   blamed for Shoko 
   that his thesis is                        Asahara'a        
   ridiculous: Why not blame                 megalomania any  
   Manson on John Lennon?                    more than Heinlein
   And blame Hitler on                       can be held      
   Nietzsche and Wagner                      responsible for  
   while you're at it.                       the deeds of one 
                                             of his many      
                                             admirers, Charles
                                             Manson." p. 143-3
                                             
      The closing quote:                     
                                             
         "Delmore Schwartz had half of it right:
       in dreams begin responsibilities.  But
       it's no less true that in dreams begin
       irresponsibilities.  The menu, in terms of
       our possibilities in both those respects,
       is well-nigh infinite.                
        "Science Fiction is that menu."   



                                             
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