#john sladek

[fromthedust]

Alan Magee (American, b.1947)

The Best of John Sladek - archival inkjet print - 1981

John Sladek (1937-2000) was an American science fiction author, known for his satirical and surreal novels.  The Best of John Sladek, collecting many of his wittiest stories, was published in 1981.

[anamon-book]

遊星よりの昆虫軍X ジョン・スラデック、柳下毅一郎＝訳 ハヤカワ文庫 カバー＝水玉蛍之丞

[humanoidhistory]

Tim White cover art for Alien Accounts by John Sladek, 1982.

[rosewind2007]

I am reminded this morning that Carl Sagan said in Broca's Brain (1979):

The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

As always I have to point to John Sladek* who put it five years earlier in 1974:

"They laughed at Galileo, they laughed at Darwin, they laughed at Edison … and they laughed at Punch and Judy."

*the man’s surname is an anagram of Daleks!

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Thom Demijohn (aka Thomas M. Disch & John Sladek) - Black Alice - Avon - 1970

[beyondthespheres]

cover art by Rian Hughes

[books0977]

Roderick, or The Education of a Young Machine. John Sladek. London, Toronto, Sydney, New York: Granada, [1980]. First edition. Original dust jacket.

The title character is an intelligent robot, the first to be invented. The opening chapters describe the creation of Roderick and show his mind (at first consisting of a bodiless computer program) developing through several stages of awareness. Finally, Roderick is given a rudimentary body and, through a series of misadventures, finds himself alone in the world. Due to his sketchy understanding of human customs, and intrigues surrounding the project that created him, he unwittingly becomes the center of various criminal schemes and other unfortunate events.

[olde-paperbacks]

safe to say star wars would have been much better had C-3PO looked like this