TRP and the Science Fiction Connection

[Oliver Xymoron]

On Tue, 1 Aug 1995 WKLJAZZ at aol.com wrote:

> There have been several comments in recent postings about Pynchon and science
> fiction ("SF") or science AND fiction. In the reference to a conference about
> "science in fiction," the writer quickly noted that the conference wasn't
> about "science fiction."  I understand this quick clarification because,
> though I have done my best to read some of the better SF, I can only find a
> small portion that seems even vaguely nourishing.  (And, sorry Oxymoron, but
> Asimov's "Foundation" books are written in so leaden a style as to sink the
> QEII.)

I would have to second that. I'd also have to say that his stuff went 
downhill from there. I probably should have added a justification to my 
selection of Foundation and Dune - though Asimov and Herbert's writing is 
not much by itself (compare to Gibson), the universes(!) they created 
were of impressive clarity and complexity. To me, they are the 
archetypical SF books. If someone can point me to some hard-core SF 
that's also well-written, I'd be much obliged.

>  The clarification was also quick, I'd bet, because it seems that TRP
> is often enough referred to as having been a significant influence on certain
> SF authors, most notably the so-called "cyberpunk" authors (chiefly William
> Gibson who wrote NEOROMANCER) -- indeed, I think Pynchon or GR (or something)
> has been called the "Granddaddy" of cyberpunk.

I've seen this thrown around a bit and I assumed people were talking 
about V. Think about our heroine's undoing. A couple other passages come 
to mind as I write this: in GR, the passage where Slothrop talks to his 
son about plugging in, the inorganic<>organic chemistry dreams of Jamf, 
not to mention Imipolex (nanotech and material science and basic 
ingredients of cyberpunk).

What also occurs to me is that TRP has a lot more in common with writers 
of the SF genre than most other literate folks: he has an impressive 
technical background and lets it show. A good percentage of GR is devoted 
to meanderings on scientific and mathematical matters and their effects 
on the psyche, with a familiarity that should have folks like Michael 
Chriton (sp?) burning with envy. He's a geek. Geek = sci-fi?


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