Margaret Atwood wants you to know that she doesn’t write science fiction.
No, she won’t give back the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her 1985 novel The
Handmaid’s Tale. But she does want to clarify matters. She will admit to writing
speculative fiction, but not crass sci-fi. What’s the difference? "Science fiction
has monsters and spaceships," Atwood explains; "speculative fiction could
really happen." Frankly, I am a bit confused by this posture. Am I to conclude
that spaceships can’t really happen? Hello Ms. Atwood, have you heard
about the Space Shuttle? How about Apollo 11?
But even if I grant Atwood her spurious distinction,
I am still left puzzled. Because right in the midst of
her ambitious 2000 novel, The Blind Assassin,
Atwood is caught red-handed describing monsters
and spaceships. For good measure, she adds the
scandalous and bloody rites of the God of the Three
Suns and the Goddess of the Five Moons on the
planet Zycron—where blind child assassins kill
tongue-less virgin sacrificial victims and "voracious
undead female inhabitants" haunt the crumbling tombs.
Can it really be true? Did Margaret Atwood write
a zombie novel?
Well, not exactly. Atwood's novel adheres to strict
realism. And there’s a novel within the novel…but it also sticks to plausible
events that "could really happen" (in Atwood’s words). But now things get
trickier, because Atwood has also included sections of a novel inside the
novel within the novel…and it is a wild and crazy science fiction story, straight
from the dark Satanic pulp fiction mills of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
Related Essays
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
So Atwood gets to have it both ways. She upholds the unyielding
requirements of realism, but also finds a way to indulge her inner A.E.
van Vogt. And, in all fairness to Atwood, she is very inventive in concocting her
phantasmagorical space opera. Pretty slick, no? But even as she shares her
over-the-top science fiction story, she uses her framing technique to make
clear how much she despises it. At one juncture, she depicts her pulp writer
mulling over his next story:
He needs to write something that will sell. It's back to the never-fail dead
women, slavering for blood. This time he'll give them purple hair, set them in
motion beneath the poisonous orchid beams of the twelve moons of Arn. The
best thing is to picture the cover illustration the boys will likely come up with,
and then go on from there….Still, it's a living, if he can keep up the speed, and
beggars can hardly be choosers.
This intricate dance between levels of meaning and types of realism pervades
every facet of The Blind Assassin. The narrative operates at four or more
levels, with at least as many intended audiences. Yet each level is suspect,
every author is compromised, no story achieves a pure level of disinterested
objectivity. Only after arriving at the final page, can you start to determine how
much of our story is truth-telling, and what portion can be classified as
convenient fiction, self-justification, or pure fantasy.
In short, few books do a better job of exemplifying the postmodernist theme of
the ‘death of the author’. Hence, it is all too fitting that The Blind Assassin
even begins with the death of an author—in this instance, the troubled heroine
Laura Chase, age 25, who drives off a bridge, leaving behind no note, few
possessions, and the manuscript to a novel, fittingly called 'The Blind
Assassin'. She won’t be the only author to die suddenly in the course of this
book. In fact, we have another ‘death of the author’ at the very end of the novel.
Laura Chase and her sister Iris have to deal with the fallout from the collapse
of their family’s manufacturing businesses in Port Ticonderoga, a fictional
community in Ontario, Canada. Iris makes a last ditch effort to save Chase
Industries by marrying her father’s business rival, Richard Griffen. But he never
injects the promised capital to keep the factories running, and her marriage
turns into a pointless sacrifice (much like that of those tongue-less captive
virgins on the planet Zycron). But her sister Laura is even better suited for the
role of sacrificial victim, and during the course of her short life she finds a host
of ways to humble herself and make reparations. Yet her readiness to play the
role of the willing pawn makes her prey to the worst kind of exploitation.
The sisters both come under the sway of a young man named Alex Thomas, a
labor agitator with communist sympathies—and a knack for writing science
fiction stories!—who is wanted by the authorities. Thomas may have been
involved in vandalism, arson, and perhaps even murder related to a strike at
Chase Industries. Laura and Iris help Thomas elude arrest, even though he
may have helped destroy their father’s business. Their secret devotion to
Thomas evolves into a dark romantic passion, in which the eroticism is
heightened by the sister’s realization that they may be accessories to criminal
activity or even betrayal of their closest blood ties.
At first glance, Atwood has built her ambitious novel on the most clichéd plot
of all—the romantic triangle. But we eventually learn that more than three sides
exist to this relationship, which may even turn into a romantic square or
pentagon. And the personal entanglements of the frame story are further
complicated by the mirroring love affairs of the story within the story, and even
the story inside the story within a story. If I sketched out all the ramifications
here, our love triangle might look more like a three-dimensional love
polyhedron.
By the time Margaret Atwood published this book, in 2000, these postmodern
antics were hardly new. But few have pushed them further, or more
ambitiously. The Blind Assassin a virtuoso effort, both in its storytelling, and
by what it tells us about the process of storytelling. And its span is so wide,
that every kind of narrative gets swallowed up and re-digested here, from the
news story to the scrawled bits of graffiti on the restroom wall, from romance
to business and beyond. And, yes, even spaceships and monsters, God bless
them!
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten
books. His most recent book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
No, she won’t give back the Arthur C. Clarke Award for her 1985 novel The
Handmaid’s Tale. But she does want to clarify matters. She will admit to writing
speculative fiction, but not crass sci-fi. What’s the difference? "Science fiction
has monsters and spaceships," Atwood explains; "speculative fiction could
really happen." Frankly, I am a bit confused by this posture. Am I to conclude
that spaceships can’t really happen? Hello Ms. Atwood, have you heard
about the Space Shuttle? How about Apollo 11?
But even if I grant Atwood her spurious distinction,
I am still left puzzled. Because right in the midst of
her ambitious 2000 novel, The Blind Assassin,
Atwood is caught red-handed describing monsters
and spaceships. For good measure, she adds the
scandalous and bloody rites of the God of the Three
Suns and the Goddess of the Five Moons on the
planet Zycron—where blind child assassins kill
tongue-less virgin sacrificial victims and "voracious
undead female inhabitants" haunt the crumbling tombs.
Can it really be true? Did Margaret Atwood write
a zombie novel?
Well, not exactly. Atwood's novel adheres to strict
realism. And there’s a novel within the novel…but it also sticks to plausible
events that "could really happen" (in Atwood’s words). But now things get
trickier, because Atwood has also included sections of a novel inside the
novel within the novel…and it is a wild and crazy science fiction story, straight
from the dark Satanic pulp fiction mills of the Golden Age of sci-fi.
Related Essays
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
So Atwood gets to have it both ways. She upholds the unyielding
requirements of realism, but also finds a way to indulge her inner A.E.
van Vogt. And, in all fairness to Atwood, she is very inventive in concocting her
phantasmagorical space opera. Pretty slick, no? But even as she shares her
over-the-top science fiction story, she uses her framing technique to make
clear how much she despises it. At one juncture, she depicts her pulp writer
mulling over his next story:
He needs to write something that will sell. It's back to the never-fail dead
women, slavering for blood. This time he'll give them purple hair, set them in
motion beneath the poisonous orchid beams of the twelve moons of Arn. The
best thing is to picture the cover illustration the boys will likely come up with,
and then go on from there….Still, it's a living, if he can keep up the speed, and
beggars can hardly be choosers.
This intricate dance between levels of meaning and types of realism pervades
every facet of The Blind Assassin. The narrative operates at four or more
levels, with at least as many intended audiences. Yet each level is suspect,
every author is compromised, no story achieves a pure level of disinterested
objectivity. Only after arriving at the final page, can you start to determine how
much of our story is truth-telling, and what portion can be classified as
convenient fiction, self-justification, or pure fantasy.
In short, few books do a better job of exemplifying the postmodernist theme of
the ‘death of the author’. Hence, it is all too fitting that The Blind Assassin
even begins with the death of an author—in this instance, the troubled heroine
Laura Chase, age 25, who drives off a bridge, leaving behind no note, few
possessions, and the manuscript to a novel, fittingly called 'The Blind
Assassin'. She won’t be the only author to die suddenly in the course of this
book. In fact, we have another ‘death of the author’ at the very end of the novel.
Laura Chase and her sister Iris have to deal with the fallout from the collapse
of their family’s manufacturing businesses in Port Ticonderoga, a fictional
community in Ontario, Canada. Iris makes a last ditch effort to save Chase
Industries by marrying her father’s business rival, Richard Griffen. But he never
injects the promised capital to keep the factories running, and her marriage
turns into a pointless sacrifice (much like that of those tongue-less captive
virgins on the planet Zycron). But her sister Laura is even better suited for the
role of sacrificial victim, and during the course of her short life she finds a host
of ways to humble herself and make reparations. Yet her readiness to play the
role of the willing pawn makes her prey to the worst kind of exploitation.
The sisters both come under the sway of a young man named Alex Thomas, a
labor agitator with communist sympathies—and a knack for writing science
fiction stories!—who is wanted by the authorities. Thomas may have been
involved in vandalism, arson, and perhaps even murder related to a strike at
Chase Industries. Laura and Iris help Thomas elude arrest, even though he
may have helped destroy their father’s business. Their secret devotion to
Thomas evolves into a dark romantic passion, in which the eroticism is
heightened by the sister’s realization that they may be accessories to criminal
activity or even betrayal of their closest blood ties.
At first glance, Atwood has built her ambitious novel on the most clichéd plot
of all—the romantic triangle. But we eventually learn that more than three sides
exist to this relationship, which may even turn into a romantic square or
pentagon. And the personal entanglements of the frame story are further
complicated by the mirroring love affairs of the story within the story, and even
the story inside the story within a story. If I sketched out all the ramifications
here, our love triangle might look more like a three-dimensional love
polyhedron.
By the time Margaret Atwood published this book, in 2000, these postmodern
antics were hardly new. But few have pushed them further, or more
ambitiously. The Blind Assassin a virtuoso effort, both in its storytelling, and
by what it tells us about the process of storytelling. And its span is so wide,
that every kind of narrative gets swallowed up and re-digested here, from the
news story to the scrawled bits of graffiti on the restroom wall, from romance
to business and beyond. And, yes, even spaceships and monsters, God bless
them!
Ted Gioia writes on music, literature and popular culture. He is the author of ten
books. His most recent book is How to Listen to Jazz (Basic Books).
Check out our sister sites:
The New Canon
Great literary works
published since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of mystery &
suspense
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Radical, unconventional and
experimental fiction
The New Canon
Great literary works
published since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of mystery &
suspense
Fractious Fiction
Radical, unconventional and
experimental fiction
| The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood |
Essay by Ted Gioia
| To purchase, click on image |
Ted Gioia is publishing essays on his
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
Click here for the other titles
50 favorite works of non-realist fiction
released since 2000. Featured books
will include works of magical realism,
alternative history, sci-fi, horror, and
fantasy, as well as mainstream literary
fiction that pushes boundaries and
challenges conventional notions of
verisimilitude.
Click here for the other titles
| conceptual fiction Exploring the Non-Realist Tradition in Fiction |
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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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Gardner, John
Grendel
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
Hendrix, Grady
Horrorstör
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Joe Hill
Heart-Shaped Box
Hill, Susan
The Woman in Black
Hoffman, Alice
Practical Magic
Houellebecq, Michel
Submission
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Never Let Me Go
Jackson, Shirley
The Haunting of Hill House
James, Henry
The Turn of the Screw
James, M.R.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
Keret, Etgar
Suddenly, A Knock at the Door
Ketchum, Jack
Off Season
Keyes, Daniel
Flowers for Algernon
King, Stephen
Carrie
King, Stephen
Pet Sematary
Koja, Kathe
The Cipher
Krilanovich, Grace
The Orange Eats Creeps
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
Our Lady of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Levin, Ira
Rosemary's Baby
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Lindqvist, John Ajvide
Let the Right One In
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Lovecraft, H.P.
Tales
Machen, Arthur
The Great God Pan
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
I Am Legend
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
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
Wizard of the Crow
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
Oyeyemi, Helen
White is for Witching
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
Rice, Anne
Interview with the Vampire
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Roth, Philip
The Plot Against America
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, Clark Ashton
The Dark Eidolon
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Straub, Peter
Ghost Story
Spinrad, Norman
Bug Jack Barron
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde
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
Tryon, Thomas
The Other
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
The Dragon Masters
Vance, Jack
Emphyrio
Vance, Jack
The Languages of Pao
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vollmann, William T
Last Stories and Other Stories
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wallace, Edgar
King Kong
Walpole, Horace
The Castle of Otranto
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
Wong, David
John Dies at the End
Woolf, Virginia
Orlando
Yamada, Taichi
Strangers
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
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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 Blind Assassin
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Bacigalupi, Paolo
The Windup Girl
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
Barker, Clive
Books of Blood, Vols. 1-3
Barth, John
Giles Goat-Boy
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bierce, Ambrose
The Complete Short Stories
Blackwood, Algernon
The Complete John Silence Stories
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
Brooks, Max
World War Z
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Bunch, David R.
Moderan
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Butler, Octavia E.
Fledgling
Campbell, Ramsey
Demons by Daylight
Campbell, Ramsey
The Nameless
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
Chambers, Robert W.
The King in Yellow
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
Cline, Ernest
Ready Player One
Crichton, Michael
Jurassic Park
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
Dickens, Charles
A Christmas Carol
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
Egan, Jennifer
A Visit from the Goon Squad
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
Gardner, John
Grendel
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Burning Chrome
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Neuromancer
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Time Enough for Love
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Winter's Tale
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Never Let Me Go
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Off Season
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Flowers for Algernon
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Carrie
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Pet Sematary
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The Cipher
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The Orange Eats Creeps
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The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
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Gods Without Men
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Nine Hundred Grandmothers
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Conjure Wife
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Our Lady of Darkness
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The Wanderer
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His Master's Voice
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Rosemary's Baby
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Magic for Beginners
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Doctor Faustus
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Wittgenstein's Mistress
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Hell House
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What Dreams May Come
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
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Dangerous Laughter
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Cloud Atlas
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Ada, or Ardor
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Ringworld
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Vurt
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At Swim-Two-Birds
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White is for Witching
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Love in the Ruins
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Interview with the Vampire
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The Plot Against America
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Dying Inside
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City
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Around the Moon
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Cloudstreet
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John Dies at the End
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The Bear Comes Home
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Lord of Light
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This Immortal
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