New Wave Sci-Fi 75 (44)
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August 5, 2018
One in a series of posts about the 75 best science fiction novels published during the genre’s New Wave era (from 1964–1983, according to HILOBROW’s periodization schema). For Josh Glenn’s complete New Wave Sci-Fi 75 list, click here.
Robert Silverberg’s Dying Inside (1972).
This brilliantly written sci-fi yarn/bildungsroman set in (then-)present-day New York concerns David Selig, a middle-aged telepath who has squandered his abilities. He’s spent his life prying into other people’s hearts and minds, probing their secrets for his own pleasure; and also for (minor) profit: he reads the minds of college students so that he can ghost-write reports on their behalf. Now, Selig’s power is beginning to fade. Silverberg imaginatively depicts what the lived experience of telepathy might be like, for better or worse; in the tradition of Radium Age sci-fi telepath stories, it’s mostly worse. Selig has failed to develop meaningful relationships, or to carve a purposeful place for himself in society. The novel’s plot is beside the point; and Selig is a loser — not only neurotic and directionless, but prejudiced. Stick around for wild scenarios, including a telepath’s vicarious experience of: his girlfriend’s acid trip, a young couple having sex, a hen laying an egg… and a very spiritual farmer.
Fun facts: Silverberg is perhaps most famous today for his science-fantasy Majipoor series, beginning with Lord Valentine’s Castle (1980). But I’m more a fan of his New Wave sci-fi, including Thorns (1967), To Open the Sky (1967), The Masks of Time (1968), To Live Again (1969), Downward to the Earth (1970), and The World Inside (1971).
NEW WAVE SCI-FI at HILOBROW: 75 Best New Wave (1964–1983) Sci-Fi Novels | Back to Utopia: Fredric Jameson’s theorizing about New Wave sci-fi | Douglas Adams | Poul Anderson | J.G. Ballard | John Brunner | William Burroughs | Octavia E. Butler | Samuel R. Delany | Philip K. Dick | Frank Herbert | Ursula K. Le Guin | Barry N. Malzberg | Moebius (Jean Giraud) | Michael Moorcock | Alan Moore | Gary Panter | Walker Percy | Thomas Pynchon | Joanna Russ | James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Sheldon) | Kurt Vonnegut | PLUS: Jack Kirby’s Golden Age and New Wave science fiction comics.
JOSH GLENN’S *BEST ADVENTURES* LISTS: BEST 250 ADVENTURES OF THE 20TH CENTURY | 100 BEST OUGHTS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST RADIUM AGE (PROTO-)SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TEENS ADVENTURES | 100 BEST TWENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST THIRTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST GOLDEN AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FORTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST FIFTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SIXTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST NEW WAVE SCI FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST SEVENTIES ADVENTURES | 100 BEST EIGHTIES ADVENTURES | 75 BEST DIAMOND AGE SCI-FI ADVENTURES | 100 BEST NINETIES ADVENTURES (in progress) | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | NOTES ON 21st-CENTURY ADVENTURES.