The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World

This is a rambling book about the history of science fiction and, especially, how it's affected life in America, by a very good SF writer and poet and critic. It's kind of a bleak picture; Disch didn't see much promise in the current state of SF, and he thought the Strategic Defense Initiative and the Heaven's Gate suicides were inevitable results of the American style of fantasy. But what he loved, he told about well, especially when talking about the '60s and '70s since he was there. Whether or not you agree with his readings of particular authors (skeptical admiration for Philip Dick; impatience with the politics of Delany and Le Guin; less about Theodore Sturgeon's books than about his sex life), it's heady reading, especially when show more he gets mad. (In particular, the chapters about right-wing SF, from Robert Heinlein to Jerry Pournelle to Newt Gingrich, for all their calm detail, read as if Disch had to keep stopping to laugh hysterically and throw things at the wall.) show less

This is an unusual history, linking together grand ideas with the live of the author, who very much "was there, and did that." The first chapters stumble in the dark, as Disch tries to establish the links of science-fiction to the very American tradition of the Big Liar, the confidence man who is so outrageous that we go along with the swindle gladly out of a sense of fun. The mostly forgotten Ignatius L. Donnelly, who's books on Atlantis and ancient aliens prefigured the New Age, is the leading figure of this era, while the populist/trash writers Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne are its perfection. This history of SF is interesting, if not particularly well balanced or supported.

Once the book gets into the period when Disch was most show more active, the late 50s through the 80s, it really takes off. He is a cutting cultural critic of the work that SF has done in making the atomic Armageddon livable, supporting the indefinite expansion of the military-industrial critic into space, and normalizing and familiarizating the 'office of the future', as epitomized by Star Trek. Sex, consumerism, war, and death are the major themes of the book. There isn't much on the Campbellian Golden Age, or on the Cyberpunk Movement, but other people have written about that. A fascinating, if partial look at my favorite genre. show less

... of course it's dour. Of course it's sometimes scabrous. It's Thomas M. Disch! Disch was a wonderful, intelligent writer in (at least, most often in) a genre that, untrue to appearances, often didn't value things like intelligence or -- especially -- good writing. He took his own life in 2008. *The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of* is not precisely a love-song to science fiction ... as others have pointed out, it's way too judgmental and opinionated and cranky for that ... but if you *really* think Disch is dismissive of what sf can do, read what he says about Clement's *Mission of Gravity*.

Sure, it pissed me off in spots. I think Disch meant it to piss people off. I also read it in two days, transfixed. You are missed, TMD, at least by show more some of us.

I wish I didn't have to add that I heap scorn on Free Press for apparently not bothering with fact-checking or proofreading, because this book (as so many these days) is bursting with embarrassing and needless errors / typos. The author of *Last and First Men* and *Star Maker* is Olaf Stapledon, NOT Olaf Stapleton. Gene Wolfe's name is given correctly in a couple of places but mysteriously warps into "Gene Worle" at least once. And while I know this is a common gaffe (my own mother committed it sometimes), the First Officer in the original *Star Trek* series is named Spock -- sometimes "Mr." Spock but NEVER "Dr. Spock." Dr. Spock's first name was Benjamin, and he was a popular 1960s figure alongside the character played by Leonard Nimoy. C'mon Free Press, wtf? Authors deserve better than this. show less

I started reading this book as research for the sci-fi class I am teaching this semester, but I kept reading it because Tom Disch's writing is delightful. Erudite and opinionated, Disch had me laughing and nodding at some of the oddest things -- his perspective on Scientology is sharp and brilliant, for example, and his attitude towards Star Wars is something I can relate to. I did not agree with everything he had to say -- he harshes on some classics and some favorites -- but even when I found myself disagreeing, I thought his points were fair. Some were even enlightening. For anyone interested not only in science fiction, but in the impact of SF on the rest of the world, this is worth your time.

This is the first, but hopefully not the last, Thomas M. Disch book that I have read. I happened upon it in the literature section of my small public library by serendipity. I have only read a handful of science fiction books in the last 20 years or so, so my opinions are not those of a "fan". This is a book of one man's opinions and insights, smart and sassy. Disch is quite the cultural critic, and his vision is far reaching. The title may be a bit misleading, as Disch actually discusses SF via a broad pallet of cultural "fictions" that are loosely based on science ideas. As the cover states, this is "much more than a history of the genre". He rambles between subjects as far wide as celebrity lying to UFO cults to mass murder to the show more SDI of the 80's to feminism and so on, always citing specific people and events (mainly from America in the latter half of the 20th century) with the intention of relating these events to the subtexts of specific SF works. I can see why some reviewers disliked his analysis of the politically conservative subtexts in Robert Heinlien's work, but I found Disch's opinions very enlightening. I guess I have been one of those people who sometimes when reading a book get so caught up in the action that the underlying subtext doesn't immediately register in my conscious mind, but later I feel something unnamed was bothering me - like the racism in Lucifer's Hammer or the conformism inherent in Star Trek. A book is just a book, but Disch reminds us that stories reveal our hope and dreams, our fears and our political agendas. Is this a diatribe as one reviewer says? Well maybe. But though I didn't agree with everything Disch says, I for one like to have my ideas informed and challenged by the writing of a sharp and gifted thinker, and more so when the writing is both unflinching and humorous. show less

By turns, acerbic, witty, thoughtful, arrogant, vicious and sympathetic, this book is really more a collection of essays about various themes and issues related to the genre that Disch wants to talk about rather than a very coherent look at how science fiction has impacted the modern world. One doesn't always agree with what he is saying, and one can even be offended by some of his rather cutting remarks, and his tendency to be rather reductive in the way he presents a particular work, person or agenda that he has it in for, but at the same time, this can also be an engaging, entertaining and even insightful read.

Well, I've read Aldiss, Delany, Le Guin, Dick and others (Ellison, Moskowitz, Amis) on SF Lit/Crit and Analysis. Disch had the advantage of writing after all the above, but this is the most well reasoned, insightful and enjoyable one I've read. Feminists beware. Disch does not pull his punches.