On Sat, 22 Feb 2003, Kent williams wrote: > Coming off the stunningly beside-the-point thread on IDM about gay electronica > in which I just participated, here's another one: > > I read science fiction novels all the time, always have, probably always > will. It's up there on my list of grand obsessions along with electronic > music. In fact I frequently put on techno and read sci fi. Both techno > and sci fi are redolent of the same sort of inverted nostalgia for the > future: We're in the future now, and it has both surpassed the Sci Fi > I was reading 30 years ago, and come out a lot meaner and sadder.
I don't think this is off-topic at all. Given the explicit sf themes that are present in techno...and the sf milieu detroiters grew up in it is appropos. (When I talk about the sf milieu i'm not talking about the bladerunner vision of detroit that people have, but rather GIANT ROBOT, ULTRAMAN, MONSTER WEEK at the 4pm movies, the Electrifying Mojo, etc.) I've often fused Detroit techno with William Gibson's fiction. (Kent your point about the future--THE FUTURE IS HERE--in relation to sf is on point given that gibson's latest novel is set in the present.) We've touched on the sf context of detroit before...i think carl craig talked about all the pop culture stuff we grew up on. I don't think techno exists without Giant Robot. > Anyways, I've read a couple of books lately that touch on Detroit: > > "The Impossible Birds" Patrick O'Leary > http://www.bordersstores.com/search/title_detail.jsp?id=52798875 > > I won't synopsize because synpopses of Sci Fi novels always sound absurd > and dorky, but it is concerned with a weird virtual-reality afterlife > brought about by aliens who appear as hummingbirds. The end of the book > takes place in and around Detroit, including Greektown and the RenCen. > A pivotal character lives in a house out in the burbs that for some > strange reason reminded me of Ron Murphy's old place. I'm going to have to check this out. > "Accidental Creatures" Anne Harris > http://www.epiphyte.net/SF/accidental-creatures.html > > Just getting into this. Pretty wicked kinda post-cyberpunk dystopia > set in Detroit. The Fisher Building plays a large role, and the pitting > of a large corporation against a disenfranchised population is a > not-too-subtle > allegory for Detroit and the auto industry. Let me know what you think when you finish it. I picked it up largely because I was interested in reading about detroit as a sf setting. Was disappointed. peace lks
