The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of
How Science Fiction Conquered the World
(amazon)Thomas M. Disch (View Bio)
Hardcover: The Free Press, 1998; Paperback: The Free Press, 2000.
"With pungency and wit, Disch explores the enormous impact that SF has had over the past century... a provocative account." — Publishers Weekly
"Sharp, provocative.... [Disch] has covered the vital aspects of the field in a highly readable book." — San Francisco Chronicle
"Lively and provocative.... Brilliant.... Disch's real subject is the cultural interaction between science fiction and society.... This sophisticated and cunning observer of our era loves science fiction, warts and all....This sprightly and unfailingly entertaining book shows us how it happened and what its effects on our culture have been." — Robert Silverberg, The Wall Street Journal
"Disch is one of the Secret Masters of science fiction: knowing, masterful, sly, hilarious, and profound." — John Clute, co-editor, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION
"Disch is an eloquent storyteller and polemicist.... Disch's book is consistently rewarding. Written by a caustic insider, it is both an exposé of science fiction writers' foibles and an example of how to write serious literary criticism about a genre that is seldom considered literary. Disch's appreciations of writers well known and less well known are unfailingly enlightening...Th[e] absorbing notebook of a convert and a skeptic." — The New York Times Book Review
"Brilliant, wonderfully eccentric.... It's a wonderful book, and no one who cares about science fiction, or about American culture, should miss reading it." — Frank McConnell, San Jose Mercury Morning News
"Although Disch hasn't published science fiction in ages, this nonpareil work of cultural more than literary criticism shows he hasn't stopped thinking about it. He is interested in how this pop literature that revels in calling itself visionary has affected the real world.... A rollicking thought-provoker of a book." — Booklist
"Absolutely fascinating...Disch combines wit and scholarship with a pointed critical impulse.... Disch will force you to give up your prejudices." — Forbes
"A superbly disturbing meditation on the triumph of science fiction over our expiring (or expired) culture." — Harold Bloom
"A gifted writer casts a critical eye on the genre that gave him birth. Disch, a novelist, poet, critic, first became known for his science fiction, including such classic novels as CAMP CONCENTRATION...[H]e writes with such keen insight and compulsive readability only the most blinkered SF fan will be able to reject his ideas outright. Disch's provocative, engrossing book may fan the flames of a number of simmering arguments in the SF community, but when the smoke clears we may all, as a result of this tonic work, see more clearly." — Kirkus Reviews
