If it is true that the test of a first-rate mind is its ability to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time, then we live in a century when it takes a first-rate mind just to get through the day. We have unprecedented access to information; cognitive dissonance is a banner headline in our morning papers and radiates silently from our computer screens. Slipstream, poised between literature and popular culture, embraces the dissonance.
These ambitious stories of visionary strangeness defy the conventions of science fiction. Tales by Michael Chabon, Karen Joy Fowler, Jonathan Lethem, Carol Emshwiller, George Saunders, and others pull the reader into a vivid dreamspace and embrace the knowledge that life today is increasingly surreal.
Contents
Introduction by John Kessel and Jim Patrick Kelly
"Al" by Carol Emshwiller
"The Little Magic Shop" by Bruce Sterling
"The Healer" by Aimee Bender
"The Specialist's Hat" by Kelly Link
"Light and the Sufferer" by Jonathan Lethem
"Sea Oak" by George Saunders
"Exhibit H: Torn Pages Discovered in the Vest Pocket of an Unidentified Tourist" by Jeff VanderMeer
"Hell is the Absence of God" by Ted Chiang
"Lieserl" by Karen Joy Fowler
"Bright Morning" by Jeffrey Ford
Biographical Notes to "A Discourse on the Nature of Causality, with Air-planes" by Benjamin Rosenbaum
"The God of Dark Laughter" by Michael Chabon
"The Rose in Twelve Petals" by Theodora Goss
"The Lions Are Asleep This Night" by Howard Waldrop
"You Have Never Been Here" by M. Rickert
"I Want My 20th-Century Schizoid Art" I-IV (various contributors)

James Patrick Kelly; John Kessel; Karen Joy Fowler; Jeffrey Ford; Benjamin Rosenbaum; Michael Chabon; Theodora Goss; Howard Waldrop; M. Rickert; Carol Emshwiller; Bruce Sterling; Aimee Bender; Kelly Link; Jonathan Lethem; George Saunders; Jeff VanderMeer; Ted Chiang

Kelly, James P. (James Patrick); Kessel, John

1st ed., San Francisco, California, 2006

United States, United States of America

First edition, San Francisco, 2006

July 15, 2006

obscured text on front cover
some text skewed

xv, 288 p. ; 22 cm
Al / Carol Emshwiller -- The Little Magic Shop / Bruce Sterling -- The healer / Aimee Bender -- The specialist's hat / Kelly Link -- Light and the sufferer / Jonathan Lethem -- Sea oak / George Saunders -- Exhibit H: torn pages discovered in the vest pocket of an unidentified tourist / Jeff VanderMeer -- Hell is the absence of God / Ted Chiang -- Lieserl / Karen Joy Fowler -- Bright morning / Jeffrey Ford -- Biographical notes to "A discourse on the nature of causality, with air-planes," by Benjamin Rosenbaum / Benjamin Rosenbaum -- The god of dark laughter / Michael Chabon -- The rose in twelve petals / Theodora Goss -- The lions are asleep this night / Howard Waldrop -- You have never been here / M. Rickert

<p><P>Intending to establish a canon for the controversial slipstream science-fiction subgenre, the editors of this anthology have brought together a group of convention-defying tales set in vivid and disorienting dreamscapes that offer no distinction between reality and hallucination. A cross between the literary surrealism of Franz Kafka and escapist-popular-fiction, this ambitious new species&#8212;sometimes also called interstitial fiction&#8212;is exemplified here in stories by Carol Emshwiller, Karen Joy Fowler, Jonathan Lethem, and George Saunders.<br></p><h3>Science Fiction Studies</h3><p>You will actually have a non-linear, information-building, increasingly exhilarating experience.</p>

2023-10-09