Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > rec.arts.sf.written > #491733

Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books"

Show all headers | View raw

Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
> On 04/05/18 17:44, D B Davis wrote:
>> Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>> On 04/05/18 15:08, D B Davis wrote: snip
>>>>
>>>> _Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said_ (PKD) appears on the list. It
>>>> was recently read by me. It was my fondest hope for it to be The
>>>> One, the most dystopic of them all, according to me.
>>>
>>> Was the real world as described in "A Scanner Darkly" a contender?

<snip>

>> _A Scanner Darkly_ (PKD) isn't mentioned in the OP's linked list of
>> 96 Dystopian Science Fiction Books. Perhaps my followup confuses you?
>> Allow me to explain. Sometimes "bad" means "good:"
>>
>> In slang usage, the adjective "bad" means "good," as we mentioned in
>> a post we wrote some time ago about the influence of African-American
>> slang on English.
>>
>> The surprising thing about this use of "bad"-apart from the reversed
>> meaning-is that it's not recent. It dates back to the 19th century,
>> as we'll explain later. ...
>>
>> https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2015/12/bad.html
>>
>> So "bad" means "good" and "worst" means "best" in my followup.
>
> Yes, that was my understanding when I read your post. Sorry for my
> confusing reply. That was an attempt at humour in the sense that for
> Dick, the protagonist in Scanner, there could be no worse (or best :-)),
> dystopia, than his own paranoia.

<snip>

That's a great PKD paranoia aphorism. Given how it apparently fell into
the hole in my memory, it looks like it's time for yet another re-read 
of _Scanner Darkly_. (That's how re-reads happen in /my/ world. YMMV.)
    Fair warning. This thread's about to take a turn for the worse. 
Decent folk will find little of wholesome value beneath this point.



    Still with me? Hitchcock movie fans owe it to themselves to see the
2012 biopic _Hitchcock_. The biopic tells the story of how Hitch makes
the movie about the eponymous _Psycho_ (Block).
    Early on Hitch decides to purchase all available copies of the Block
in order to deny people the opportunity to read it for themselves. Both 
the Block and the movie are based upon a sick, twisted, piece-of-work 
named Ed Gein. [1] You need to know a little about Gein before we
proceed so you may want to take a quick peek at his Wikipedia bio if you
never heard of Gein before.  
    In the biopic Hitch hosts a kaffeeklatsch presser to announce his 
intentions for _Psycho_ the movie. He passes around some Ed Gein crime 
scene photos. A general consensus of disgust registers on all of the 
faces in the room. They hate it. But, as Hitch wryly notes, "They can't 
take their eyes off of it, can they?"
    That's sort of how dystopic literature grabs me. It's hard for me to
take my eyes off of it.  
    Joss #himtoo Whedon tells viewers to "bring your own subtext" when 
they watch a Whedon movie. It seems that PKD more-or-less tells readers 
to "bring your own paranoia" when you read his dystopic fiction.

Note.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Gein
   
✍

Thank you,

-- 
Don

Back to rec.arts.sf.written | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

"19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-02 17:28 -0500
  "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> - 2018-05-02 16:40 -0700
    Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-03 03:21 +0000
  Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Moriarty <blues95@ivillage.com> - 2018-05-02 16:45 -0700
  Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" "artyw2@yahoo.com" <artyw2@yahoo.com> - 2018-05-02 18:42 -0700
  Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" David DeLaney <daviddelaney@earthlink.net> - 2018-05-03 05:22 -0500
  Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-05-03 13:56 +0000
    Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-03 16:40 -0500
      Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Jibini Kula Tumbili Kujisalimisha <taustinca@gmail.com> - 2018-05-03 14:53 -0700
        Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-03 17:07 -0500
        Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Moriarty <blues95@ivillage.com> - 2018-05-03 15:10 -0700
          Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-03 19:04 -0500
            Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-05-04 04:49 -0700
          Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-03 19:46 -0500
            Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-04 03:08 +0000
              Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2018-05-04 15:56 +1200
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-04 05:44 +0000
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> - 2018-05-04 19:38 +1200
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-04 19:41 +0000
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Lawrence Watt-Evans <misenchantedpress@gmail.com> - 2018-05-04 23:51 -0400
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-05 14:12 +0000
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-05 10:09 -0700
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> - 2018-05-07 14:23 -0500
                Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2018-05-04 06:47 -0700
        Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J Heydt) - 2018-05-03 22:07 +0000
          Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> - 2018-05-05 14:11 -0700
        Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" Juho Julkunen <giaotanj@hotmail.com> - 2018-05-04 16:48 +0300
    Re: "19 Best Science Fiction Horror Books" David Johnston <davidjohnston29@yahoo.com> - 2018-05-03 20:21 -0600

csiph-web