Essay by Ted Gioia
I could tell you that the anxiety-ridden hunt for human-like androids
in this book represents the queasy quest for authenticity of the late
1960s. I could tell you that the "othering" of the androids, who are
hunted and killed as threats to society, reflects
a critique of the Vietnam War from the perspective
of Berkeley, California—where the author lived in
1968, when Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
was published. I could even tell you that Philip K.
Dick wrote this novel for the money, anticipating
the sweet movie deal that would turn his book into
Blade Runner.
I could tell you this, and many other impressive
things about Mr. Dick and his most famous story.
But I'm not sure whether any of them would be true.
I've seen this book discussed in works of philosophy
and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, celebrated
as a high point of 1960s campy escapist entertain-
ment. For some, it is the harbinger of cyberpunk,
for others it anticipates Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra
and Simulation. Or perhaps Dick even inspired
Lionel Trilling's Norton lectures—suspiciously
written almost at the same time as the appearance
of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—
and later published under the intriguing title
Sincerity and Authenticity.
Who can say? Did anyone think to administer a Voigt-Kampf
Empathy Test—that ultimate measure of sincerity and authenticity
—to Professor Trilling?
See these related essays
VALIS by Philip K. Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
Ubik by Philip K.Dick
Alas, none of these grandiose claims has, I fear, much bearing on what
Philip K. Dick actually put into this book. We need to remind ourselves
that our esteemed author wrote his novel in a state of personal crisis,
and any obsessions he revealed about sincerity and authenticity
were personal ones, anxieties that Dick lived through each day,
and didn't need to find described in a book of philosophy or a
classroom lecture. The power and vibrancy of Dick’s work from this
period has little to do with the concepts at play (although many concepts
are at play), but derives from their immediacy, their felt reality no matter
how unreal the unfolding plots.
Of course, all of the high-flung praise came after the fact. After
Signet released a cheap paperback edition of Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? in 1971, a full 11 years passed before Ballentine
made the novel available again, although it was now dubbed Blade
Runner. Even at this stage, the book was hardly considered a literary
classic; rather part of the promotional efforts behind a big budget movie.
The rehabilitation of the novel as novel (not a movie tie-in) and its
emergence as a classic literary text came only gradually, over a
period of decades. Dick is now considered a seminal figure of the
1960s, but only with the benefit of hindsight.
Few writers experienced more vividly the long, strange trip of the
1960s than Philip K. Dick. Finding a suitable natural habitat in
Berkeley, the epicenter of the zeitgeist, he experienced altered
states of consciousness, some fueled by drugs others of his own
creation. Dr. Timothy Leary, the high priest of LSD, even made a
fan phone call to Dick in 1969, but the sci-fi author wasn't especially
loyal to acid. He was also familiar with the effects of mescaline,
pot, lithium, valium, stelazine, dexamyl, sodium pentothal and PCP
as well other active agents that came without brand labels or lists
of ingredients, but could be procured in the neighborhood.
Then there were dreams and visions. Around the time he was writing
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick "was working all night,"
according to his wife of the period Nancy Hackett (the fourth of five
spouses), "and when he came to bed he was talking like a different
person. He’d had some kind of experience while writing and thought
he was someone else or somewhere else."
This quest for clarifying the basic issues of identity and reality
emerged as the central theme in novel he was writing. The protagonist
Rick Deckard (even the name resonates with the same consonants
as the author's) must track a group of escaped androids and retire
—or kill, depending on your perspective—these fugitives from justice.
The latest generation of androids, the Nexus-6, are indistinguishable
from human beings, which makes their identification and elimination
challenging. Even the androids themselves might not be aware of
their true identity, perhaps believing that they are human beings.
The authorities, however, have developed a diagnostic tool, the
Voigt-Kampf Empathy Test, which can distinguish between real
and ersatz homo sapiens. So far, no android has been able to
pass the test.
The plot proceeds from this point along the familiar lines of the
police procedural, with the investigator tracking down the guilty
and meting out appropriate 'justice'. But the key milestones the
story are almost dwarfed by the eerie, unsettling atmospherics,
and subplots. The specifics of Deckard’s tense domestic life might
seem like throwaway details. And the same goes for he and his
wife's desire to own a real pet animal—which is thwarted because
of the prohibitive cost. After Deckard's real sheep died from tetanus
he was forced to settle for an electric one. These, and other elements
casually introduced into the narrative augment the pervasive sense of
dread that can be felt viscerally by the reader of this work.
Despite the unreal sense of techno noir that permeates these pages,
science is catching up with Dick's outlandish premise. The question of
whether machines can attain to the status of person-hood, and how that
leap can be tested and verified, might once have been issue left for
philosophers or, occasionally sci-fi writers. But this is increasingly
a matter for empirical testing and, perhaps soon enough, regulation
and litigation. When the Supreme Court eventually rules on android
rights, I fully expect that Dick's novel will be cited in decisions handed
down from the bench.
Even so, the essence of this book will always remain beyond the
realm of science, no matter how broadly defined. With Dick’s work
of this period, there is always the story at hand (in this instance, a
hunt for androids), and the larger story that is always knocking at
the door. That larger story can be summarized in five words: nothing
is what it seems. This is a concept that tends to resist novelization,
can never be described concretely, because it is the opposite of the
concrete. Yet give credit to Dick for tackling it again and again, and
living up to its conceptual demands. Indeed, what image does a better
job of conveying unreality than that of an android's dream? There,
where the unreal meets the even more unreal, you find the intersection
at which Philip K. Dick repeatedly asserted his squatter’s rights. He owns
this type of story…and for the worst possible reason: he was forced to
live it.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
I could tell you that the anxiety-ridden hunt for human-like androids
in this book represents the queasy quest for authenticity of the late
1960s. I could tell you that the "othering" of the androids, who are
hunted and killed as threats to society, reflects
a critique of the Vietnam War from the perspective
of Berkeley, California—where the author lived in
1968, when Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
was published. I could even tell you that Philip K.
Dick wrote this novel for the money, anticipating
the sweet movie deal that would turn his book into
Blade Runner.
I could tell you this, and many other impressive
things about Mr. Dick and his most famous story.
But I'm not sure whether any of them would be true.
I've seen this book discussed in works of philosophy
and, at the opposite end of the spectrum, celebrated
as a high point of 1960s campy escapist entertain-
ment. For some, it is the harbinger of cyberpunk,
for others it anticipates Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra
and Simulation. Or perhaps Dick even inspired
Lionel Trilling's Norton lectures—suspiciously
written almost at the same time as the appearance
of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?—
and later published under the intriguing title
Sincerity and Authenticity.
Who can say? Did anyone think to administer a Voigt-Kampf
Empathy Test—that ultimate measure of sincerity and authenticity
—to Professor Trilling?
See these related essays
VALIS by Philip K. Dick
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
Ubik by Philip K.Dick
Alas, none of these grandiose claims has, I fear, much bearing on what
Philip K. Dick actually put into this book. We need to remind ourselves
that our esteemed author wrote his novel in a state of personal crisis,
and any obsessions he revealed about sincerity and authenticity
were personal ones, anxieties that Dick lived through each day,
and didn't need to find described in a book of philosophy or a
classroom lecture. The power and vibrancy of Dick’s work from this
period has little to do with the concepts at play (although many concepts
are at play), but derives from their immediacy, their felt reality no matter
how unreal the unfolding plots.
Of course, all of the high-flung praise came after the fact. After
Signet released a cheap paperback edition of Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? in 1971, a full 11 years passed before Ballentine
made the novel available again, although it was now dubbed Blade
Runner. Even at this stage, the book was hardly considered a literary
classic; rather part of the promotional efforts behind a big budget movie.
The rehabilitation of the novel as novel (not a movie tie-in) and its
emergence as a classic literary text came only gradually, over a
period of decades. Dick is now considered a seminal figure of the
1960s, but only with the benefit of hindsight.
Few writers experienced more vividly the long, strange trip of the
1960s than Philip K. Dick. Finding a suitable natural habitat in
Berkeley, the epicenter of the zeitgeist, he experienced altered
states of consciousness, some fueled by drugs others of his own
creation. Dr. Timothy Leary, the high priest of LSD, even made a
fan phone call to Dick in 1969, but the sci-fi author wasn't especially
loyal to acid. He was also familiar with the effects of mescaline,
pot, lithium, valium, stelazine, dexamyl, sodium pentothal and PCP
as well other active agents that came without brand labels or lists
of ingredients, but could be procured in the neighborhood.
Then there were dreams and visions. Around the time he was writing
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Dick "was working all night,"
according to his wife of the period Nancy Hackett (the fourth of five
spouses), "and when he came to bed he was talking like a different
person. He’d had some kind of experience while writing and thought
he was someone else or somewhere else."
This quest for clarifying the basic issues of identity and reality
emerged as the central theme in novel he was writing. The protagonist
Rick Deckard (even the name resonates with the same consonants
as the author's) must track a group of escaped androids and retire
—or kill, depending on your perspective—these fugitives from justice.
The latest generation of androids, the Nexus-6, are indistinguishable
from human beings, which makes their identification and elimination
challenging. Even the androids themselves might not be aware of
their true identity, perhaps believing that they are human beings.
The authorities, however, have developed a diagnostic tool, the
Voigt-Kampf Empathy Test, which can distinguish between real
and ersatz homo sapiens. So far, no android has been able to
pass the test.
The plot proceeds from this point along the familiar lines of the
police procedural, with the investigator tracking down the guilty
and meting out appropriate 'justice'. But the key milestones the
story are almost dwarfed by the eerie, unsettling atmospherics,
and subplots. The specifics of Deckard’s tense domestic life might
seem like throwaway details. And the same goes for he and his
wife's desire to own a real pet animal—which is thwarted because
of the prohibitive cost. After Deckard's real sheep died from tetanus
he was forced to settle for an electric one. These, and other elements
casually introduced into the narrative augment the pervasive sense of
dread that can be felt viscerally by the reader of this work.
Despite the unreal sense of techno noir that permeates these pages,
science is catching up with Dick's outlandish premise. The question of
whether machines can attain to the status of person-hood, and how that
leap can be tested and verified, might once have been issue left for
philosophers or, occasionally sci-fi writers. But this is increasingly
a matter for empirical testing and, perhaps soon enough, regulation
and litigation. When the Supreme Court eventually rules on android
rights, I fully expect that Dick's novel will be cited in decisions handed
down from the bench.
Even so, the essence of this book will always remain beyond the
realm of science, no matter how broadly defined. With Dick’s work
of this period, there is always the story at hand (in this instance, a
hunt for androids), and the larger story that is always knocking at
the door. That larger story can be summarized in five words: nothing
is what it seems. This is a concept that tends to resist novelization,
can never be described concretely, because it is the opposite of the
concrete. Yet give credit to Dick for tackling it again and again, and
living up to its conceptual demands. Indeed, what image does a better
job of conveying unreality than that of an android's dream? There,
where the unreal meets the even more unreal, you find the intersection
at which Philip K. Dick repeatedly asserted his squatter’s rights. He owns
this type of story…and for the worst possible reason: he was forced to
live it.
Ted Gioia writes about music, literature and pop culture. His next book,
a history of love songs, is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
Publication Date: September 16, 2014
| conceptual fiction Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick |
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Great literary works published
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Reviews of current books
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Experimental works of mystery
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Radical and unconventional
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Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Moorcock, Michael
Behold the Man
Moorcock, Michael
The Final Programme
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Murakami, Haruki
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the
End of the World
Nabokov, Vladimir
Ada, or Ardor
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
O'Brien, Flann
At Swim-Two-Birds
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Percy, Walker
Love in the Ruins
Poe, Edgar Allan
Tales of Mystery & Imagination
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pratchett, Terry
The Color of Magic
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Russ, Joanna
The Female Man
Saramago, José
Blindness
Sheckley, Robert
Dimension of Miracles
Sheckley, Robert
Mindswap
Sheckley, Robert
Store of the Worlds
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert
The World Inside
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Swift, Jonathan
Gulliver's Travels
Thomas, D.M.
The White Hotel
Tiptree, Jr., James
Warm Worlds and Otherwise
Tolkien, J.R.R.
The Hobbit
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Walpole, Horace
Hieroglyphic Tales
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Wilson, Robert Anton & Robert Shea
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Winton, Tim
Cloudstreet
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Zabor, Rafi
The Bear Comes Home
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Zelazny, Roger
This Immortal
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
My Year of Horrible Reading
When Science Fiction Grew Up
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
A Tribute to Richard Matheson
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
The Most Secretive Sci-Fi Author
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
The Puzzling Case of Robert Sheckley
The Avant-Garde Sci-Fi of Brian Aldiss
Science Fiction 1958-1975: A Reading List
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Fractious Fiction
Ted Gioia's web site
Ted Gioia on Twitter
_____
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
The Millions
Big Dumb Object
SF Novelists
More Words, Deeper Hole
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Tor blog
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and its sister sites may receive review
copies and promotional materials
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All rights reserved.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to essays on each work)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Aldiss, Brian
Barefoot in the Head
Aldiss, Brian
Hothouse
Aldiss, Brian
Report on Probability A
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amado, Jorge
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Ballard, J.G.
The Drowned World
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Blish, James
A Case of Conscience
Borges, Jorge Luis
Ficciones
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Brockmeier, Kevin
The View from the Seventh Layer
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Carpentier, Alejo
The Kingdom of This World
Carroll, Lewis
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Crowley, John
Little, Big
Danielewski, Mark Z.
The Fifty Year Sword
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Davies, Robertson
Fifth Business
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Delany, Samuel R.
Nova
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Dick, Philip K.
VALIS
Disch, Thomas M.
Camp Concentration
Disch, Thomas M.
The Genocides
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Donoso, José
The Obscene Bird of Night
Ellison, Harlan (editor)
Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan
I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Farmer, Philip José
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
Fowles, John
A Maggot
Fuentes, Carlos
Aura
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gaiman, Neil
Neverwhere
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Greene, Graham
The End of the Affair
Grossman, Lev
The Magicians
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
The Centauri Device
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Kunzru, Hari
Gods Without Men
Lafferty, R.A.
Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Dispossessed
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Malzberg, Barry N.
Herovit's World
Mandel, Emily St. John
Station Eleven
Mann, Thomas
Doctor Faustus
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
Markson, David
Wittgenstein's Mistress
Matheson, Richard
Hell House
Matheson, Richard
What Dreams May Come
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
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Lord of Light
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