At some point we had to say "STOP!" and wrap this project up. What follows is a selection of other books, movies, and publications that may be of interest to you.
(Gareth Branwyn)
Non-Fiction and Reference
"The Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction"
David Pringle
Pharos Books, 1990, 407 pgs., pb, $14.95
(Over 3,000 rated listings of science fiction literature.)
"Across the Wounded Galaxy"
Interviews with Contemporary Science Fiction Writers
compiled by Larry McCaffery
1990, 267 pgs., pb, $12.95
(McCaffery is one of the best interviewers of SF and fiction authors. This is a very impressive collection)
"The Soft Machine: Cybernetic Fiction"
David Porush
University Paperbacks, 1985, $12.95(A pre-cyberpunk exploration of machine-human narratives in modern fiction.)
"Psychedelics Encyclopedia"
Peter Stafford
Tarcher Press
420 pgs., pb, $12.95
(Better living through psychedelic chemistry.)
"An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism"
Madan Sarup
University of Georgia Press
171 pgs., pb.(A good critical guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism.)
"Reality Isn't What It Used To Be:
Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern World"
Walter Truett Anderson
Harper & Row, 288 pgs, HB, $18.95
(A very readable book on the effects that various postmodern developments such as deconstructionism, constructivism, the new sciences, globalism, and decentralized belief systems are having on our societies and values. A great book to give to someone who wants to know what all this "pomo" stuff is about.)
"Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William Burroughs"
Ted Morgan
Avon Books, 1988
659 pgs., pb, $12.95
(A very thorough and engaging biography.)
"The Medium is the Massage"
Marshall McLuhan
1967, Random House
(Any discussion of futurism and techno-culture would be remiss in not mentioning the significant contribution of Marshall McLuhan.)
"Future Shock"
Alvin Toffler
1970, Random House
(Ditto above.)
Fiction
"Radix"
"Arc of the Dream"
A.A. Attanasio
"The Demolished Man" and "The Stars My Destination"
Alfred Bester
(often cited as proto-c-punk SF.)
"Naked Lunch"
"Nova Express"
"The Soft Machine"
"The Ticket That Exploded"
"The Wild Boys"
William Burroughs
1962,1964, 1966, 1967, 1971 Grove Press.
(William Burroughs has influenced legions of artists, musicians, and writers, both with the content of his work and his hallucinatory style and experimental writing techniques.)
"Patterns"
"Synners"
Pat Cadigan
"The Big Sleep"
Raymond Chandler
1939, Random House
(The gaslight, gumshoe world of private dicks. A big influence on c-punk style.)
"Babel 17","Dahlgren",
"Triton"
Samuel Delany
"Martian Time-Slip"
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
"Ubik"
"A Scanner Darkly"
Philip K. Dick
1964 Ballantine, 1968 Ballantine, 1969 Doubleday.
"Camp Concentration"
Thomas Disch
"Frontera"
Lewis Shiner
1984, Pocket Books
(This book, being a ground-breaker in c-punk, should have been reviewed in the stack. Sadly, no one chose to review it.)
"Agents of Chaos"
Norman Spinrad
Popular Library, 222 pgs., pb, $1.50 (out of print)
(An overlooked classic about the downsides of utopia and the upside of generating culture chaos. Definitely ahead of its time.)
"Little Heroes"
Norman Spinrad
1987
(21st Century rock and roll cyborg -- and Spinrad -- style.)
"Last and First Men"
"Star Maker"
Olaf Stapleton
"Press Enter"
John Varley
Tor, 1984, 98 pgs., $3.95
"Limbo"
Bernard Wolfe
Carrol and Graf, 1952
Slipstream Fiction
Slipstream is a term for mutant strands within recent "mainstream" American fiction which have appropriated and explored themes and motifs formerly restricted to (and dismissed as) science fiction (e.g. futurism, fantastic, apocalyptic historical scenarios and speculative technologies, psychologies, sexualities and politics. The writing of many cyberpunk authors has been as strongly influenced by these experimentalists as by classic and new wave SF.
(Phil Leggiere)
[Editor's Note: "Slipstream" was coined by Bruce Sterling and Richard Dorsett]
"The Wasp Factory"
"The Bridge"
Iain Banks
"The Dead Father"
"Snow White"
Donald Barthelme
"Whistling Song"
Stephen Beachy
"The Washington Square Ensemble"
"Waiting for the End of the World"
Madison Smartt Bell
"Generation X"
Doug Coupland
"The Public Burning"
"Pricksongs and Descants"
Robert Coover
"Lucy Amarillo Stories"
Constance DeJong
"Ratner's Star"
"White Noise"
"The Names"
Don DeLillo
"Stone Junction"
Jim Dodge
"Tours of the Black Clock"
Steve Erickson
"Carpenter's Gothic"
"JR"
William Gaddis
"Gojiro"
Mark Jacobson
"Fiskadoro"
Denis Johnson
"The Sinking of Odradek Station"
Harry Mathews"Plus"
"Women and Men"
Joseph McElroy
"Spider"
Patrick McGrath
"Come Sunday"
"Almanac Branch"
Bradford Morrow
"Easy Travel to Other Planets"
"Music and Laughter"
Ted Mooney
"Goodman 2020"
Fred Pfiel
"Making History"
Carolyn See
"Dog Soldiers"
Robert Stone
"Absence Makes the Heart"
Lynne Tillman
"You Bright and Risen Angels"
William Vollman
"The Broom of the System"
"The Girl with Curious Hair"
David Foster Wallace
"Close to the Knives"
David Wojnarowicz
"Richard A"
Sol Yurick
Comics (Picto-Fiction):
"1994" magazine
"2000 AD"
"Appleseed" by Masamune Shirow
"Bell's Theorem" by Mathias Schultheiss
"Cages" by Dave McKean
"Cerebus" by Dave Sim
"CPU Wars"
"The Crow" by James O'Barr
"Deadbone" by Vaughn Bode'
"Dirty Pair" by T. Smith & Warren "Epic" magazine
"Exquisite Corpse" by the Panter ÊÊBrothers
"Exterminator 17" by Enki Bilal
"Heavy Metal" magazine
"Marshall Law" by O'Neill, Mills
"Metalzoic" by O'Neill, Mills
"Moonshadow" by Jon J. Muth
"Panorama of Hell" by Hideshi Hino
"Plastic Forks" by Ted McKeever
"Sinner" by Munoz and Sampayo
"Starstruck" by Michael Kaluta and ÊElaine Lee
"Stray Toasters" by Bill Sienkiewicz
"Video Clips" and "Ranxerox" by ÊÊLiberatore
Movies:
"Cherry 2000"
(Melanie Griffith stars in this Mad Max-like tale of mercenaries, desert psychos, and cyborgs.)
"Cyborg"
(A slice-and-dice action film dressed up in black leather and microchips. Starring the wanna- be-rich-like-Schwarzenegger
Jean-Claude Van Damme)
"Liquid Sky"
(A brilliant film by Polish director Slava Tsukerman. "Liquid Sky" looks at the nihilo-decadence of the NY art scene through the eyes of an alien entity who lives vampirically off the chemicals released during orgasms. Great opiated atmospherics.)
"Metropolis"
(1926 SF classic by Fritz Lang. The special effects were years ahead of their time.)
"Wired to Kill"
(Post-apocalyptic victim script where the goodly survivors are attached by drug-crazed street gangs.)
Zines:
"Cheap Truth"
(Cheap Truth was a fanzine produced in the 1980's by one Vincent Omniaveritas (a pseudonym). It was often described as the "house organ" of the Cyberpunk movement. There were sixteen "regular" issues along with two specials - "The Last Cheap Truth" and "Teen Suicide". Copies of "Cheap Truth" are still floating around on computer nets.)
"Further State(s) of the Art"
A Critical Catalogue of New American Fiction
edited by Phil Leggiere
100 Manhattan Ave. Suite 1210
Union City, NJ 07087 $2.50/issue
(An excellent quarterly fiction review edited by one of the contributors to "Beyond Cyberpunk.")
"The New York Review of
Science Fiction"
edited by Gordon Van Gelder
Dragon Press
PO Box 78
Pleasantville, NY 10570
$24/yr.
(A monthly critical review of science fiction and fantasy.)
Socialist Review
2940 16th St. Suite 102
San Francisco, CA 94103
$7/each
(Two special issues are relevant here: "Post-Fordism" and "Radical Experiments." They look at cyberpunk, futurology and the left, technoscience and the politics of knowledge.)
