Fiction:

37 Norman Spinard The Iron Dream: An Alt History novel, where hitler moves to ny after the putsch, and at first draws adn then writes for pulp sci fi magazines, eventually this was supposed to be his masterpeice, it is a reworking of historical documents and mein kamph, in the style of heinlien and other lesser writers. the book is brilliant, maintaining tone throughout, writing this badly on puspose is an incredible act of chutzpah and skill--it is also an impt book, metacritquing the fascism, and controlling of bodies that occur in large chunks of sci fi, and also the academic reclaiming of books that may or may not require it. i first heard of the book in China Meville's long canon of socialist sf in the fantastic metropolis, where he wrote t his about it:
A SF novel by Adolf Hitler… Spinrad’s funny, disturbing and savage indictment of the fascist aesthetics in much genre SF and fantasy. What if Hitler had become a pulp SF writer in New York? Not a book about that possibility but a book from it. “By the same author: Triumph of the Will and Lord of the Swastika.” Brave and nasty

Hes right, i also couldnt honestly recommend it, its too difficult to read.


36 Jesus Son---the new york times called it the third best american novel written in the last 30 years, and Blair loved it, i read it as short stories, though it could work as both. there are sections of beauty in hte prose, and i like its sort of heroin dream spaciness, raymond carver, with out families, and in the pacific northwest instead of the mid west. i didnt like it though, it seemed too self conciously art, too proud of its own decadence, and too directed towards its own ego, this might be because i like drinking writers better then i like smack writers