Meme answers
Jul. 25th, 2005 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alixtiiFor the first lines no one was able to guess in my favorite books meme, here are the answers:
3. “The Great Diaspora of the Human Race which started more than two millennia ago when the Libby-Sheffield Drive was disclosed, and which continues to this day and shows no sign of slowing, made the writing of history as a single narrative—or even many compatible narratives—impossible.” My current favorite book*, Time Enough for Love, by Robert A. Heinlein, "the dean of science fiction" and my favorite novelist. This is the millenia-spanning epic of Lazarus Long, one of Heinlein's best-loved characters. This is the start of what is generally called "the later Heinlein" when R.A.H. let his philosophical musings, his social liberalism, and his self-indulgence get the better of him. For those who like that sort of thing--and I do!--this book cannot be beat. It also introduced my favorite Heinlein characters, Lazarus' twin female clones, Lapus Lazuli and Lorelai Lee, the subjects of my fanfic Adventure. And Heinlein, generally considered as one of the greatest science fiction writers ever, on par with Asimov and Clarke (whom I have to admit I find far inferior, since they both have far less sex and far less philosophy, being more concerned with silly things like plot, and just don't have Heinlein's flare for interesting narration), as always is a delight to read.
5. “Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith." Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. While I'm far too young to appreciate it's importance in history, I do know it merits a mention in "We Didn't Start the Fire." While earlier chronologically, this work, at a once a leisurely philosophical dialogue, a fun anti-establishment exploration of free love, and a deliberate Christ-parallel of mythic proportions, reads like much of the later Heinlein. Heinlein is never uninteresting, and he is always careful to throw plenty of sex in with his philosophy. What else does a book need?
8. “It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton.” Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's cult classic (in more ways than one!) The ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy. Sort of what one would have gotten if James Joyce had written The Da Vinci Code, with plenty of references to Discordianism and the Principia Discordia thrown in.
10. “Even in high summer, Tintagel was a haunted place; Igraine, Lady of Duke Gorlois, looked out over the sea from the headland.” Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon will always have a special place in my heart, as I'm working on my own Morgan-as-hero Arthurian novel, but I think by pretty much any standard this a wondrous book. And if this book alone isn't enough to secure MZB's reputation as one of the late 20th century's great speculative fiction writers, then her Darkover series is sure to do so.
11. “The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupidly triumphant.” John Gardner's Grendel. Another wonderfully philosophical book, with a dragon who sounds like he's right out of Sartre. As if there weren't enough existential angst in the original Beowulf as it was.
*Before Time Enough for Love, my favorite book was Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (guessed by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
karabair), another book with its share of philosophy and a healthy helping of sex. Before that, The Secret Garden (guessed by wisdomeagle), which did have a little bit of philosophy even though there wasn't any sex.
Hmm. I wonder if it means anything that 10 and 11 (as well as much of Heinlein's late work, after he introduced the concept of Pantheistic Eschatological Multiple-Ego Solipsism, or World-as-Myth, in The Number of the Beast) would be considered professional fanfic by many ficcers.
3. “The Great Diaspora of the Human Race which started more than two millennia ago when the Libby-Sheffield Drive was disclosed, and which continues to this day and shows no sign of slowing, made the writing of history as a single narrative—or even many compatible narratives—impossible.” My current favorite book*, Time Enough for Love, by Robert A. Heinlein, "the dean of science fiction" and my favorite novelist. This is the millenia-spanning epic of Lazarus Long, one of Heinlein's best-loved characters. This is the start of what is generally called "the later Heinlein" when R.A.H. let his philosophical musings, his social liberalism, and his self-indulgence get the better of him. For those who like that sort of thing--and I do!--this book cannot be beat. It also introduced my favorite Heinlein characters, Lazarus' twin female clones, Lapus Lazuli and Lorelai Lee, the subjects of my fanfic Adventure. And Heinlein, generally considered as one of the greatest science fiction writers ever, on par with Asimov and Clarke (whom I have to admit I find far inferior, since they both have far less sex and far less philosophy, being more concerned with silly things like plot, and just don't have Heinlein's flare for interesting narration), as always is a delight to read.
5. “Once upon a time when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith." Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. While I'm far too young to appreciate it's importance in history, I do know it merits a mention in "We Didn't Start the Fire." While earlier chronologically, this work, at a once a leisurely philosophical dialogue, a fun anti-establishment exploration of free love, and a deliberate Christ-parallel of mythic proportions, reads like much of the later Heinlein. Heinlein is never uninteresting, and he is always careful to throw plenty of sex in with his philosophy. What else does a book need?
8. “It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton.” Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson's cult classic (in more ways than one!) The ILLUMINATUS! Trilogy. Sort of what one would have gotten if James Joyce had written The Da Vinci Code, with plenty of references to Discordianism and the Principia Discordia thrown in.
10. “Even in high summer, Tintagel was a haunted place; Igraine, Lady of Duke Gorlois, looked out over the sea from the headland.” Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon will always have a special place in my heart, as I'm working on my own Morgan-as-hero Arthurian novel, but I think by pretty much any standard this a wondrous book. And if this book alone isn't enough to secure MZB's reputation as one of the late 20th century's great speculative fiction writers, then her Darkover series is sure to do so.
11. “The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupidly triumphant.” John Gardner's Grendel. Another wonderfully philosophical book, with a dragon who sounds like he's right out of Sartre. As if there weren't enough existential angst in the original Beowulf as it was.
*Before Time Enough for Love, my favorite book was Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (guessed by
karabair), another book with its share of philosophy and a healthy helping of sex. Before that, The Secret Garden (guessed by wisdomeagle), which did have a little bit of philosophy even though there wasn't any sex.Hmm. I wonder if it means anything that 10 and 11 (as well as much of Heinlein's late work, after he introduced the concept of Pantheistic Eschatological Multiple-Ego Solipsism, or World-as-Myth, in The Number of the Beast) would be considered professional fanfic by many ficcers.
