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Bezig met laden... The Stars My Destination (origineel 1957; editie 1996)door Alfred Bester (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkTijger! Tijger! door Alfred Bester (1957)
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I read it in my school years. And it was crazy. And remains like this just trying to remember it. I can safely say that this book set a certain standard in world craziness from which I measure every other such book. It just came to me crushing and smashing every perspective on world and what can be done to change it. Good or bad... I don't know and don't remember. Maybe I re-read it one day, maybe not. But I sure never forget it. I intensely disliked main character, Gulliver Foyle, as an individual and really wasn't sure I wanted to keep reading, but about a third through I started thinking of him as a personification of the struggle of the lumpenproletariat to achieve class consciousness, and that seemed to work for me, though I wasn't sure if that was Bester's intention. Ultimately, it did work that way for me, and the story is, if imperfectly, a dramatised sci-fi setting of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the "cosmic" ending symbolising Foyle's awakening to his potential as a revolutionary liberationist figurehead. It was worth sticking with. A couple of the names struck me as being symbolic, though I'm struggling to fully integrate them, so maybe I'm pareidolically seeing what's not there: • Gulliver Foyle - Gullible Foil - Gullible Fool • Presteign - Pristine - Prestige - Priest-Stain Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)Delta Science Fiction (105) Gallimard, Folio SF (413) — 11 meer Is opgenomen inA Treasury of Great Science Fiction [2-volume set] door Anthony Boucher (indirect) Heeft de bewerkingWerd geïnspireerd doorPrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
Marooned in outer space after an attack on his ship, Nomad, Gulliver Foyle lives to obsessively pursue the crew of a rescue vessel that had intended to leave him to die. When it comes to pop culture, Alfred Bester (1913-1987) is something of an unsung hero. He wrote radio scripts, screenplays, and comic books (in which capacity he created the original Green Lantern Oath). But Bester is best known for his science fiction novels, and The Stars My Destination may be his finest creation. With its sly potshotting at corporate skullduggery, The Stars My Destination seems utterly contemporary, and has maintained its status as an underground classic for over fifty years. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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First the good things. This is an action psychedelic story that I would (to be honest) expect from Philip K Dick. Story is set in far future where humans have evolved in a way they are capable of physically jaunting - jumping to remote location using mere thought. This transformed the entire world in a way that for example actual locations of buildings are no longer relevant so buildings just pop up wherever builders want it. With this you would think that society is also advanced, right? Well, it is not. World is pretty much the same. Corporations are de facto rulers of the world and those that do not fit are left wandering space in hippy-like communes, left alone until they find themselves on the path of corpo's. Rich and influential enjoy in the old technology (hipsters anyone?) because jaunting and entire moderna is soooo boring. Of course they use every means of protection available (personal armies and armed ships) but they like to enjoy in the sophisticated things of the past. This is also time where soldiers and mercenaries get sub-dermal enhancements, cybernetic implants and get hypno-therapy conditioning to act as sleeping agents. People are very deadly in this future and depending on the situation sleeping agents are all around just waiting for key words to get triggered (Treadstone anyone?). So as you can see this is very rich world, miles away from our own and yet so close and familiar. People still hunger for power and they are ready to do anything to rule over others.
Now the weird. Main character, Gully Foyle is a complete anachronism in his time. In all honesty he would be anachronism in any time outside the early Medieval times. He is so low in society that he is basically just barely alive. No initiative, no ambition, nothing but sheer physical strength but even this is powered down that for everyone else Gully is a person so bland and unremarkable that you would not give him any notice, shadow, grey man. Stuck doing a very arduous job he gets fired up by that ancient, ever present and potent force - thirst for revenge. This most base force will force him to change, to improve himself and bring his vengeance to people responsible. Foyle's very evolution from a drag of society to becoming "illuminated" human, maybe first of many to follow, trailblazer, is what the book is actually about. Foyle does some horrible things, leaves his friends behind, does not care what happens to others as long they are useful for him. But he evolves and becomes better, he transcends his limitations and finally manages to see the future, what in Dune would be called the Golden Path. Now some would find this offending (in this age of never forget and Foyle truly has a record) but last few pages of the novel are very interesting. Should majority be treated like kids and mindless mob by the selected few (kinds sounds contemporary, right?) or left to chose its own path, provided with enough knowledge and facts (now this sounds like utopia, right? imagine world without all the media houses serving the news :) toouuuggghh). Is the future of mankind actual merge of savage and knowledge, man that goes (in a similar way as his biological changes before and after birth) through entire cycle of his social development - from aggressive, barely speaking savage to illuminated human.
And now the not so good. I wont say bad because of the fact that this is 1950's book and majority of SF from that time is inspired by hallucinogenics and drugs and all works from that time in history have that trippy feeling. To say that story line is basically a collection of several story lines running in very weird relative directions is to say the least. Story holes become so obvious at time that characters are unrecognizable just going from one page to next. There is no transition, no interlude, nothing just wham, X is now completely different person. If you are persistent person this can be easily overcome but for others this will be a rather difficult book to read. Weirdly though story is rather fluid even with this structure. Author truly knows how to write.
All in all very interesting book, that raises some of the old (and eternal) questions on how should humanity move forward. Whether we like it or not we come across these even today (this year especially).
Recommended to all fans of SF and revenge stories. ( )