As a cerebral exercise, I randomly choose an Outlaw Bookseller archival video and watch it. It's always a positive experience. I'm learning much and loving every minute of it. Cheers.
Just finished 'Remainder' and it knocked my socks off - I doubt I'd have heard of it were it not for you, many thanks. When I was reading it, I kept being reminded of Stanley Kubrick and his ultra-loyal fixer-upper Leon Vitali - the relationship between the protagonist and Naz seemed very similar to me.
Yes, it's great, right? For me, one of the best SF novels- or novels of any kind - this century. Sadly, his other work, while interesting, hasn't come close. Another example, though, of how great SF is often issued in mainstream guise....
Thanks. I think any SF reader who has reached a certain level of experience has noticed these elements, but sometimes they need to be articulated, which was my intent. I draw on the work of other, far more advanced critics than me in the videos, but I've tried to make them as accessible as possible without losing the messages.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal thanks for doing this. I watch the videos for the second time really:) btw most of books that I read now I read because of your recommendations. I have read successively High-Rise, Non-Stop and now I read The Affirmation.
Great video. So informative. Remainder is the most contemporary novel I’ve seen you praise. Yes, it’s very much like Priest and Ballard, but also like Alain Robbe-Grillet too. It’s very much an old school Modernist book. I’ve recently read C by McCarthy, Booker nominated, but was disappointed - especially when compared to the brilliance of Remainder.
Another excellent, interesting lesson (in the best sense), making me think more clearly about the SF I have enjoyed and why. I shall be moving onto part 3 in the near future. Many thanks again for the time and thought you’ve put into these.
What a fantastic selection of books . Just about as perfect an episode as is possible. Everything I love about sf is here , book of skulls confused me on first read brilliantly , weapon shop ,non stop are favourites, PKD and priest i am trying to read everything by both . Still not found the copy of the beast that shouted love that I want yet the quest goes on 🫡 posted this comment on wrong video ment for conceptual breakthrough with galactic pot healer thumbnail.doh😳
Yes silverberg is one of the very best just read open the sky , working my way through the books I’ve miss of his ,makes for a lot of reading . Involution ocean arrived today never read sterling so looking forward to reading that . Stay well mate.
Loving this series, very interesting. It could be a good idea to add a spoiler tag in the title however. I’m 80 pages into Blindsight and your comment kind of spoiled it for me! Nothing major, but I guess there could be viewers that like to go into a novel without knowing the plot twist (like the one in The Drowned World that you also mention). Keep it up. It is always a pleasure to hear you.
Apologies re 'Blindsighted'. Re 'The Drowned World', it's the kind of book where knowing the conclusion doesn't actually make that much more difference to the ride, despite my comments re conceptual breakthrough - it's always inevitably there in the prose and Keran's demeanour.
Thanks for this video, I've just listened to this for a second time. I think it's the most important one you've done (so far!) pay attention everybody.
I'd agree. The Novum is so central to SF- it's impossible to even think of defining the genre without a focus on it- and of course it creates paradigm shift, which leads to cognitive estrangement and further conceptual breakthrough, all in a post-enlightenment context. Couldn't be simpler, right? Thanks Keith!
Great video as always. Got me interested in Keith Roberts. So today I went to the annual bookmarket in Deventer(Netherlands) which is really big and has mostly dutch books but also English SF paperbacks a lot of vintage but mostly in poor shape. Some also in reasonably good shape and I found a few which were on my list. But behold, the first stall I visited had a vintage copy of Pavane,1970 Panther edition in good shape € 4. Lucky me.
Death Watch is a very interesting film that I rewatched last year. Did not know it was based on a novel, so that's another one to go in the basket... Need to read more Lem: Solaris is one of the best SF novels I have read, and I also liked His Master's Voice as well. Need to get more - Lem was a giant of the genre. And, yes, the Tarkovsky is the one to watch (no smug American faces, for one...too harsh?). I've got to read Pavane again - it's been decades and I remember it blowing my mind at the time. Really enjoying all your videos, sir.
Thanks very much, Daniel, please you like it. The next one will look at how to differentiate SF from Fantasy - be a few weeks, but looking forward to filming and posting it!
Thanks Jon. More will come in this series and I think you'll find them similarly helpful. Without an understanding of the elements that make a successful SF story, it's hard to write a great one. Best of luck with your efforts!
Thanks Paul. Do watch the entire 'Elements of SF' series of videos - there is a playlist- and you'll find that each one- the Novum, the Paradigm Shift, Cognitive Dissonance and Conceptual Breakthrough- are at the heart of every great SF novel.
Very informative and a good selection of books. However, as a personal preference, I'd add "Spin" by Robert C. Wilson as well as "Hull Tero-Three" by Greg Bear to your list.
Glad you enjoyed this. Of course, as I say, any truly good SF novel should aim to employ a truly new Novum, so there are plenty of good examples out there. I'm familiar with both Bear and Wilson as writers, of course, both have titles in my collection.
As Giles Ward said to me recently "You have enormous faith in people wanting something different,". It's the only way I can keep on walking! See ya soon.
An excellent video and an education in itself, as are practically all of your expositions. You aroused especially an interest in Keith Roberts. I've known of him, and of his masterpiece, Pavane, but I've never gotten around to reading him. I even had once a copy of Pavane in hand in a bookshop, but didn't buy it. So I must correct this gap in my SF reading. It would be helpful if you did a video about Keith Roberts for th those of us in unfamiliar with his oeuvre or maybe you have already.
Thanks Daniel, good to hear from you again. Yes, a Keith video is at planning stage and I'll be shooting at least some of it outdoors in early September.
Thanks, glad you liked it. Check out my other stuff, hope you have subscribed! Have subscribed to your channel, will take a look at some of your videos.
Very informative and entertaining. That said, there is no way that I could, nor would I care to, view SF in that analytical manner. But then, I have come to realize that I was never a real SF fan. Ideas were never the attraction for me. I read SF simply as romances -- adventures in an exotic land. SF worlds were that exotic land.
Well, I never set out that analytically when I read, but the theory fits every great example. You get the enjoyment from the paradigm shift into 'exotic land', the enjoyment of the sublime, a kind of conceptual breakthrough. This is what Adam Roberts means when he talks about SF as being like poetry- the sublime descends upon you.
Vast isnt Space Opera its AI. All takes place on earth. Very good series of 3 books. Linda Nagata also did another AI/ military SF trilogy set on earth or at most LEO.
I've read 'Vast' and it does take place on board a spacecraft - or at least begins that way I recall, with the protagonists being pursued. Maybe you're thinking of its predecessor, 'The Bohr Maker', which is set on Earth and in Orbital Habitats. Like many works of contemporary Hard SF, it references AI, Nanotechnology and Biology. Checking 'Th Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Clute/Nicholls et al), which is the definitive work on the genre, the entry on Nagata (wrfitten by John Clute, probably the greatest living SF critic) sees him invoke Space Opera in his description of the 'Nanotech Succession' as the series is known. It's a while since I read 'Vast', but Clute's summation is more than good enough for me.
Lots of good stuff in here. "Pavane" never made the same impact over here, as we had Ward's "Bring the Jubilee" 15 years before setting off a cottage industry of Alternate History (although almost synonymous with "If The South Won" as a genre in it's own right.) As a bookish, literary type historian I *heard* of it 😉 but I don't think I've ever come across it in the wild - Except (perhaps a conflated memory from a different timeline?) possibly one of those 70's laminate stained-glass style covers that made me think it was Christian Fiction on the Down Low, and cast it aside. . . .Too bad. I *really* would like to get to it! I don't know if it's a lack of interest, a lack of education, or a lack of Dr Who in our formative years that has led to our disinterested ignorance of historical turning points beyond our own and Classical history's but we have our own alternative history of key novels and watershed moments. Some of it's ignorance, some of it is the American need to plant a flag. The common wisdom here is that the modern popular conception of a "Time Travel Story" is Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle to Twain's Connecticut Yankee and *then* to Wells, but I agree; Wells gives us the New and Novel idea that there can be a technological engine of controlling movement in time from which the river flows. . . What was I saying?
'Bring The Jubilee' is similarly obscure in the UK - it's in print most of the time, but I meet few people other than serious SF veterans who have read it. 'Pavane' is almost as obscure over here- as I've said elsewhere in videos on this channel, Roberts' difficult character led to his exile from mainstream publishing. He's also way too literary for the average younger reader who thinks that Iain M. Banks is the paragon and that SF is essentially Space Opera or Hard SF.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Understandable. Perhaps the whole subgenre is more of an American taste? Likewise, I can't help but notice the two biggest subgroups of of Alternative Histories (What if the South won the Civil War? & What if the Nazis won WW2?) say a lot more about America's tastes and demons than I care to examine. I've been lucky at the book mines lately, so perhaps Pavane will cross my path. Although I'm behind in my reading, I *have* picked up a number of books on your recommendation (like "The Lordly Ones" , "Casey Agonistes & et al.", 334, and others.) Was Kate Wilhelm "The Downstairs Room"; was that you? Heck you've got me thinking about "The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe" now as well!
Quick note (happy to delete after coffee) still watching: Your mise en scene - If your camera faced book were on the other side of the screen it would block the shelves of text blocks instead of picturesque spines. I know it probably has to do with the space, possible layouts, personal preferences, etc. Not trolling, just telling you there's something on your tie.
Good point. Am experimenting with limited space for shooting (as ever). I think I've automatically gone with that layout to keep the right free for me to grab books with from a pre-prepared stack, but I'll have a think about it -thanks Walkter, hope you are well!
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
"SF is wakening me to the possibilities." Brilliantly stated.
Thank you.
As a cerebral exercise, I randomly choose an Outlaw Bookseller archival video and watch it. It's always a positive experience. I'm learning much and loving every minute of it. Cheers.
Cheers Rick. We aim to be cerebral, but without being academic - we autodidacts can do nothing else!
I couldn't agree more.
Just finished 'Remainder' and it knocked my socks off - I doubt I'd have heard of it were it not for you, many thanks. When I was reading it, I kept being reminded of Stanley Kubrick and his ultra-loyal fixer-upper Leon Vitali - the relationship between the protagonist and Naz seemed very similar to me.
Yes, it's great, right? For me, one of the best SF novels- or novels of any kind - this century. Sadly, his other work, while interesting, hasn't come close. Another example, though, of how great SF is often issued in mainstream guise....
Excellent video
The more I watch, the more I begin to understand.
I quite like the idea that SF is like poetry as Adam Robert posits in his ted talk.
Very interesting
These series of videos are so brilliant stuff.
Thanks. I think any SF reader who has reached a certain level of experience has noticed these elements, but sometimes they need to be articulated, which was my intent. I draw on the work of other, far more advanced critics than me in the videos, but I've tried to make them as accessible as possible without losing the messages.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal thanks for doing this. I watch the videos for the second time really:) btw most of books that I read now I read because of your recommendations. I have read successively High-Rise, Non-Stop and now I read The Affirmation.
Great video. So informative. Remainder is the most contemporary novel I’ve seen you praise. Yes, it’s very much like Priest and Ballard, but also like Alain Robbe-Grillet too. It’s very much an old school Modernist book. I’ve recently read C by McCarthy, Booker nominated, but was disappointed - especially when compared to the brilliance of Remainder.
Yes, I've read other titles by TM and none of them have come close to 'Remainder'.
Another excellent, interesting lesson (in the best sense), making me think more clearly about the SF I have enjoyed and why. I shall be moving onto part 3 in the near future. Many thanks again for the time and thought you’ve put into these.
My pleasure Richard. There will be more to come like this in the years ahead!
What a fantastic selection of books . Just about as perfect an episode as is possible. Everything I love about sf is here , book of skulls confused me on first read brilliantly , weapon shop ,non stop are favourites, PKD and priest i am trying to read everything by both . Still not found the copy of the beast that shouted love that I want yet the quest goes on 🫡 posted this comment on wrong video ment for conceptual breakthrough with galactic pot healer thumbnail.doh😳
Never mind, it still works! I love the way that SIlverberg witholds information in 'Skulls', which brings its genre status into question, masterful.
Yes silverberg is one of the very best just read open the sky , working my way through the books I’ve miss of his ,makes for a lot of reading . Involution ocean arrived today never read sterling so looking forward to reading that . Stay well mate.
@@themojocorpse1290 Silverberg did SO MUCH great stuff in the 60s and 70s, total genius.
Loving this series, very interesting. It could be a good idea to add a spoiler tag in the title however. I’m 80 pages into Blindsight and your comment kind of spoiled it for me! Nothing major, but I guess there could be viewers that like to go into a novel without knowing the plot twist (like the one in The Drowned World that you also mention).
Keep it up. It is always a pleasure to hear you.
Apologies re 'Blindsighted'. Re 'The Drowned World', it's the kind of book where knowing the conclusion doesn't actually make that much more difference to the ride, despite my comments re conceptual breakthrough - it's always inevitably there in the prose and Keran's demeanour.
Thanks for this video, I've just listened to this for a second time. I think it's the most important one you've done (so far!) pay attention everybody.
I'd agree. The Novum is so central to SF- it's impossible to even think of defining the genre without a focus on it- and of course it creates paradigm shift, which leads to cognitive estrangement and further conceptual breakthrough, all in a post-enlightenment context. Couldn't be simpler, right? Thanks Keith!
Great video as always. Got me interested in Keith Roberts.
So today I went to the annual bookmarket in Deventer(Netherlands) which is really big and has mostly dutch books but also English SF paperbacks a lot of vintage but mostly in poor shape. Some also in reasonably good shape and I found a few which were on my list. But behold, the first stall I visited had a vintage copy of Pavane,1970 Panther edition in good shape € 4.
Lucky me.
Excellent work!
A thought provoking video, and one that had me going to my library to find the featured books. I really like this series so far.
More to come in a few weeks time! Thanks.
Death Watch is a very interesting film that I rewatched last year. Did not know it was based on a novel, so that's another one to go in the basket... Need to read more Lem: Solaris is one of the best SF novels I have read, and I also liked His Master's Voice as well. Need to get more - Lem was a giant of the genre. And, yes, the Tarkovsky is the one to watch (no smug American faces, for one...too harsh?). I've got to read Pavane again - it's been decades and I remember it blowing my mind at the time. Really enjoying all your videos, sir.
Thanks Noel, much appreciated. I can tell that you're one of the good guys! Try 'Fiasco' by Lem, amazing, and check out my Lem video. Cheers.
I can listen to you all day
Many thanks- plenty here to watch and listen too!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Hi, I sent you an email
Really appreciate you doing this video for us. Incredible wealth of SF you have there.
Thanks Austin, plenty more to come, do subscribe and watch the backlist.
thank you, sir. a rare and beautiful yt channel.
loving this series, and your channel in general. always smart, endlessly fascinating!
Thanks very much, Daniel, please you like it. The next one will look at how to differentiate SF from Fantasy - be a few weeks, but looking forward to filming and posting it!
Great video, as someone who has recently attempted to write some sf as a bit of a hobby its extremely helpful.
Thanks Jon. More will come in this series and I think you'll find them similarly helpful. Without an understanding of the elements that make a successful SF story, it's hard to write a great one. Best of luck with your efforts!
What about the Mandella Effect as being some form of alternative history? Do any writers do a decent treatment of this?
Big question, have to ponder it....
Thoroughly enjoyed this😊
Thanks Paul. Do watch the entire 'Elements of SF' series of videos - there is a playlist- and you'll find that each one- the Novum, the Paradigm Shift, Cognitive Dissonance and Conceptual Breakthrough- are at the heart of every great SF novel.
Very informative and a good selection of books. However, as a personal preference, I'd add "Spin" by Robert C. Wilson as well as "Hull Tero-Three" by Greg Bear to your list.
Glad you enjoyed this. Of course, as I say, any truly good SF novel should aim to employ a truly new Novum, so there are plenty of good examples out there. I'm familiar with both Bear and Wilson as writers, of course, both have titles in my collection.
Tremendous materials my friend!
As Giles Ward said to me recently "You have enormous faith in people wanting something different,". It's the only way I can keep on walking! See ya soon.
An excellent video and an education in itself, as are practically all of your expositions. You aroused especially an interest in Keith Roberts. I've known of him, and of his masterpiece, Pavane, but I've never gotten around to reading him. I even had once a copy of Pavane in hand in a bookshop, but didn't buy it. So I must correct this gap in my SF reading. It would be helpful if you did a video about Keith Roberts for th those of us in unfamiliar with his oeuvre or maybe you have already.
Thanks Daniel, good to hear from you again. Yes, a Keith video is at planning stage and I'll be shooting at least some of it outdoors in early September.
really enjoyed listening to this - great series
Thanks, glad you liked it. Check out my other stuff, hope you have subscribed! Have subscribed to your channel, will take a look at some of your videos.
Very informative and entertaining. That said, there is no way that I could, nor would I care to, view SF in that analytical manner. But then, I have come to realize that I was never a real SF fan. Ideas were never the attraction for me. I read SF simply as romances -- adventures in an exotic land. SF worlds were that exotic land.
Well, I never set out that analytically when I read, but the theory fits every great example. You get the enjoyment from the paradigm shift into 'exotic land', the enjoyment of the sublime, a kind of conceptual breakthrough. This is what Adam Roberts means when he talks about SF as being like poetry- the sublime descends upon you.
Vast isnt Space Opera its AI. All takes place on earth. Very good series of 3 books. Linda Nagata also did another AI/ military SF trilogy set on earth or at most LEO.
I've read 'Vast' and it does take place on board a spacecraft - or at least begins that way I recall, with the protagonists being pursued. Maybe you're thinking of its predecessor, 'The Bohr Maker', which is set on Earth and in Orbital Habitats. Like many works of contemporary Hard SF, it references AI, Nanotechnology and Biology. Checking 'Th Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Clute/Nicholls et al), which is the definitive work on the genre, the entry on Nagata (wrfitten by John Clute, probably the greatest living SF critic) sees him invoke Space Opera in his description of the 'Nanotech Succession' as the series is known. It's a while since I read 'Vast', but Clute's summation is more than good enough for me.
Great video!
Thanks!
Lots of good stuff in here. "Pavane" never made the same impact over here, as we had Ward's "Bring the Jubilee" 15 years before setting off a cottage industry of Alternate History (although almost synonymous with "If The South Won" as a genre in it's own right.) As a bookish, literary type historian I *heard* of it 😉 but I don't think I've ever come across it in the wild - Except (perhaps a conflated memory from a different timeline?) possibly one of those 70's laminate stained-glass style covers that made me think it was Christian Fiction on the Down Low, and cast it aside. . . .Too bad. I *really* would like to get to it!
I don't know if it's a lack of interest, a lack of education, or a lack of Dr Who in our formative years that has led to our disinterested ignorance of historical turning points beyond our own and Classical history's but we have our own alternative history of key novels and watershed moments. Some of it's ignorance, some of it is the American need to plant a flag. The common wisdom here is that the modern popular conception of a "Time Travel Story" is Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle to Twain's Connecticut Yankee and *then* to Wells, but I agree; Wells gives us the New and Novel idea that there can be a technological engine of controlling movement in time from which the river flows. . .
What was I saying?
'Bring The Jubilee' is similarly obscure in the UK - it's in print most of the time, but I meet few people other than serious SF veterans who have read it. 'Pavane' is almost as obscure over here- as I've said elsewhere in videos on this channel, Roberts' difficult character led to his exile from mainstream publishing. He's also way too literary for the average younger reader who thinks that Iain M. Banks is the paragon and that SF is essentially Space Opera or Hard SF.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Understandable. Perhaps the whole subgenre is more of an American taste? Likewise, I can't help but notice the two biggest subgroups of of Alternative Histories (What if the South won the Civil War? & What if the Nazis won WW2?) say a lot more about America's tastes and demons than I care to examine. I've been lucky at the book mines lately, so perhaps Pavane will cross my path. Although I'm behind in my reading, I *have* picked up a number of books on your recommendation (like "The Lordly Ones" , "Casey Agonistes & et al.", 334, and others.) Was Kate Wilhelm "The Downstairs Room"; was that you?
Heck you've got me thinking about "The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe" now as well!
@@salty-walt -That particular Wilhelm wasn't me, but I have mentioned other ones!
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Right. It's a collection & I thought "Where do I know that name from?" 😉
In Pavane, in the alternate 1966 do England still win the World Cup?
Well, Keith doesn't mention it....
Quick note (happy to delete after coffee) still watching: Your mise en scene - If your camera faced book were on the other side of the screen it would block the shelves of text blocks instead of picturesque spines. I know it probably has to do with the space, possible layouts, personal preferences, etc.
Not trolling, just telling you there's something on your tie.
Good point. Am experimenting with limited space for shooting (as ever). I think I've automatically gone with that layout to keep the right free for me to grab books with from a pre-prepared stack, but I'll have a think about it -thanks Walkter, hope you are well!
The block universe theory is wrong and has been superseded by the quantum theory of time, see "The Fabric of Reality" by David Deutsch, Chapter 11.