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Loading... The Dreaming Jewels (original 1950; edition 1999)by Theodore Sturgeon
Work InformationThe Dreaming Jewels by Theodore Sturgeon (1950)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. F/SF Piccolo capolavoro della fantascienza, quella bella della golden age degli anni 50, ma potrebbe anche essere catalogato nel genere fantastico, visto che evita sapientemente gli stereotipi classici degli alieni umanoidi verdi con gli occhi grandi su una faccia triangolare così come quelli delle astronavi e dei pianeti sconosciuti. Scrittura scorrevole e piacevole, si divora in pochissimo tempo; la storia si svolge tutta sulla terra e parla essenzialmente di "umanità", toccando con delicatezza e sensibilità i temi dell'accettazione del diverso e dei freaks e rendendo di fatto questo libro un piccolo gioiello. The original cover is incredibly pulpy. I love it so much. The way this book unfolds is so subtly scifi and I love it. There’s no robots, no space travel (except implied), no aliens trying to take over (intentionally). Just aliens that aren’t intednding to impact humanity at all. Theodore Sturgeon builds a word that has one foot in the mundane and one in the unusual. The introduction of carnies will tend to do that. For some reason I can’t explain, Sturgeon’s world works incredibly effectively even when logical leaps are made that I just can’t make. It all seems totally consistent. When another character says “wait that doesn’t make any sense”, the first says “of course it doesn’t!” and the narrative powers on. This sounds negative, but it isn’t! I think this may be due to Sturgeon’s sparse, efficient style and not at all the author trying to skim over something he hasn’t fully thought out. You get the feeling that Sturgeon has sat on this one for quite a while, and thought about this from every angle. Just because it’s sparse doesn’t mean it isn’t memorable. Horty, the midgets of the carnival, and the Snidely Whiplash-esque Maneater (née Monetre) all seem fully-realized, which is kind of remarkable of a feat in a story as short as this. As the book progresses, Horty learns what it is to be human on the inside and the outside, and sometimes being biologically human doesn’t mean your mind is. Interestingly, my next Sturgeon book to read is More Than Human. With where this book goes, and knowing what I know about Sturgeon’s Vulcan work on Star Trek, I’m starting to think that might be a theme of his career. If I was underlining in this book (I can’t, it’s Lauren’s), I would have underlined… - I used to think everybody had something like that. Something they'd be sick if they lost it, like. I never thought to ask anyone about it, even. - There was something in this man, with his frightening changes of voice and his treacherous humor, his kindness and his cruel aura, which the boy found deeply appealing. - But a man with [an attitude of disgust and hatred] is like a child with a whip–or a nation with battleships. For a while it is sufficient to stand in the sun, with one's power in sight for all to see. Soon, however, the whip must whistle and crack, and rifles must thunder, the man must take more than a stand; he must take action. - You don't know what you think until you tell someone else about it. - Human affairs refuse to be simple... human goals refuse to be clear. - There are two ways of hurting people–outside, where it shows, and inside, in the mind, where it scars and festers. - There are things a man can do, and things he can't. When he does something, what's the point of wondering whether or not he's actually done it? Don't you think he knows? Theodore Sturgeon sold his first short story in 1938, but The Dreaming Jewels (retitled The Synthetic Man in a 1957 reprint) did not appear until 1950. It was an impressive launch for Sturgeon’s career as a novelist. In only 160 pages, it builds a nuanced world with a tense narrative and edgy characters. Horty, an abused 8-year-old orphan, runs away from his adoptive family with only Junky, a battered, beloved jack-in-the-box with jewels for eyes. He is taken in by some warmhearted carnies who disguise him as a girl and put him in their show as a midget singer and protect him from the carnival’s tyrannical owner. No one in the cast, including Junky, is quite what they seem. A key to what Sturgeon is up to may be in the assertion that one of the little people at the carnival “worshipped Charles Fort, who refused to believe that any answer was the only answer.” These carnies are all the sort of paranormal anomalies that would have made fine entries in Fort’s Book of the Damned. The Dreaming Jewels deserved its 2001 Retro Hugo nomination. 4 stars. no reviews | add a review
Awards
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Life Achievement Awards "One of the masters of modern science fiction."--The Washington Post Book World Eight-year-old Horty Bluett has never known love. His adoptive parents are violent; his classmates are cruel. So he runs away from home and joins a carnival. Performing alongside the fireaters, snakemen and "little people," Horty is accepted. But he is not safe. For when he loses three fingers in an accident and they grow back, it becomes clear that Horty is not like other boys. And it is a difference some people might want to use. But his difference risks not only his own life but the lives of the outcasts who provided for him, for so many years, with a place to call home. In The Dreaming Jewels, Theodore Sturgeon renders the multiple wounds of loneliness, fear, and persecution with uncanny precision. Vividly drawn, expertly plotted, The Dreaming Jewels is a Sturgeon masterpiece. "An intensely written novel and very moving novel of love and retribution."--Washington Star No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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