Customer Reviews

334 (S.F.Masterworks S.)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm fairly high on most of Disch's fiction, but I think this book is not accorded the respect it deserves. There are several reasons for this, I think.

1. It is billed as a novel, but it is more a collage or mosaic novel, constructed out of a series of connected stories and novellas that Disch published around 1971-72. Publication was mostly in _New Worlds Quarterly_ and Samuel R. Delany's _Quark_, original anthologies geared towards New Wave fiction that did not receive incredibly widespread distribution.

2. The long section originally published as the novella "334" is written in a decidedly non-linear style--the narrative jumps back and forth in time. This can be a little unsettling if not read with care and attention. As a whole, the work is fairly "literary" (for the tastes of science fiction readers, anyway).

3. The story is at times fairly down beat, if not actually depressing. This isn't a "pink-and-white bunny rabbit" story. :-)

So it's not a conventional novel. Still, looked at as a collection of stories, this book is great. The stories "Angouleme," "Bodies," "Emancipation," and "334" are each among Disch's finest work at this length. Highly recommended for those with a taste for this sort of thing.

This is one of Disch's best books, yet I do not feel it often receives the respect it deserves. At least in part, that's because it's not a conventional novel, but rather a mosaic novel constructed out of a series of stories he published back in 1971-72 in places like _New Worlds Quarterly_, _Quark_, and _New Dimensions_.

Also to consider is that the overall effect of this portrait of a speculative New York in the near future is fundamentally dypstopian. It is pretty clearly a projection of social trends evident at the time of writing wedded to a few what-if speculations. The writing is full of energy, but some of the characters give the impression that Disch was indulging in a bit of Schadenfreude at the expense of his hapless collection of fictional losers. It's entertaining, but it can be a bit down-beat, I fear.

Looked at as a collection of longer stories, the book is impressive in its own right. The enigmatic "Angouleme," an exquisitely-written child-chiller tale, is maybe the best example of Disch's short fiction. The black-humor "Bodies" contains some outright slapstick comedy, and a basic speculative premise that seems prescient in the light of the AIDS epidemic of our own times. The story "Emancipation" is a marvelously observed and imagined story, whose fundamental premise still strikes me as somewhat wonky.

The long, non-linear novella, "334," that closes the book is the most challenging work I think Disch has ever written. The writing is interesting and lucid, but the sequence-and-order of the episodes requires some time to assimilate, and the fragmentary nature of the episodes is reminiscent (in a way) of the paste-up method employed by Burroughs in _Naked Lunch_ or that used by people like J. G. Ballard. It's a rewarding work, but it may not be to the taste of fans of traditional sf.

Finally, taken as a whole, the mosaic effect created by all these stories -- interlocking in locale and sometimes in characters -- produces in the end a unified effect of Disch's vision of the possible future he imagined. It's a dark vision, but it carries absolute conviction and integrity. It's a first-rate book, and it deserves to be read.

This is a totally convincing book about life in the inner city of New York, 2020's. The story follows the lives of several characters, many who live in bldg. 334, a large multi-family government subsidized housing project. Technology has marched ever onward, and the need for unskilled labor has largely disappeared. Yet, with all of the advances, the poor, uneducated and misfortunates live largely unnoticed. They are assisted only by some innefective social programs. The people of 334 fight continual battles for hope, respect and a place among a society that has largely left them behind. The book doesn't attempt to place blame, or offer solutions, but proceeds only with the full reality of the setting. The characters, and the readers, are left to sort it all out. This is a challenging, serious book for serious readers of any genre.

Disch is truly a master. This may be his best work, better even than his better-known Camp Concentration. David Pringle was right when he selected this as one of the 100 best science fiction novels, and he was right again when he said it was Disch's masterpiece, a novel of the forgotten people, and a moving work. This one will keep on the edge of your seat, but that's not all. Ursula K. LeGuin said this about Camp Concentration but I think it is better applied to Disch's most acclaimed novel. "If you read it, you will be changed."

Thomas Disch's 334 has got to be the most depressing book I have ever read, an SF novel about people more than ideas or plot. The book (more a series of inter-related stories than a novel) is set in a future New York City (mis)governed by technocratic socialistic regime which enforces eugenics, attempts to radically redefine gender roles, and placates citizens with drugs and televised pornography. The focus of the book is the lives of several ordinary tenants of an overcrowded and decrepit public housing project, people whose lives range from unfulfilling to abjectly miserable, flawed people whom the soulless welfare state is incompetent to help, or people unable to meet their potential in the inhuman society that that inefficient bureaucracy has, by accident or design, created. Disch skillfully never strays into condescension or preachiness and always shows and never tells, depicting people and events that are never spectacular or maudlin, but are instead utterly quotidian and horribly believable. 334 is much better than Disch's earlier novel, Genocides, and more on a par with his impressive Camp Concentration, which shares with 334 forays into experimental (and generally successful) story structures and techniques.

I find that '334' and 'Camp Concentration' are the most literate of Disch's works, but for different reasons. 'Camp Concentration' may have a Pynchon-like use of references, difficult lexicon, etc., but '334' shows Disch's ability to produce postmodern work that challenges the boundaries of the traditional narrative - he uses multiple characters, movements back and forth in time, and provides no 'plot.' The text is fractured - so much so, that for the final section of the book, Disch actually provides a subway-map-like diagram charting the relationships between the various vignettes (whether it helps or not is debatable).

Overall, Disch shapes a view of the mundane lives of little people. There is nothing outlandish about this dystopia that a few function happily within while others suffer. The totalitarianism is never as extreme as Orwell's '1984,' and it therefore seems as if the world of '334' could creep up on us without protest - and that's truly horrifying.

A novel that has forces us to examine our world by scaring us with what it might become. Although that sentence can be used to describe any novel in the dystopian theme, 334 is a work that stands out with its seductive realism that dares us to find a way this isn't plausible. Disch is one of the few lyrical novelists writing sci-fi, and or that we are blessed. 334 is disjointed almost to absurdity in the post-modernist fashion, but Disch does not idly throw his readers through time and space. This is, debatably, the first work that uses this style for more than an attention-getter, suspense tool, or bookend. Disch fleshes his characters to the reader with a logic and style that would only be hampered by linearity. A superb read-and-think.

The book 334 is a journey into the future, where babies are grown in bottles and promiscuity is no longer "promiscuous." But it is also liquid: the scenes and years jump back and forth, and it can be hard to keep track of. I thought this book was very developed; the character of the different mini-stories were all connected in different ways, and the plots shared similar themes. It was very entertaining to read, and it really made me think about what the world will be like if society continues on the path it is currently on. Thomas Disch wrote this book in the seventies, but it still seems like a plausible scenario for the future (unlike 1984 must have seemed in the sixties), though perhaps not quite as early as Disch envisioned. All in all, I think it is a very entertaining and enlightening book.

This story is a sequence based around the people who live at a particular address in New York in the near future. The writing is the best you'll find in all 'speculative fiction' and the characterisation can't be beaten by anything you'll find in the mainstream. This is one of my favorite books and I recommend it unreservedly. I won't give you any spoilers. Read it for yourself and I know you'll agree this is one of the best sf books you've ever known.

334 is a science fiction novel written by Thomas Disch. The book 334 looks into how lives may possibly be in the near future. It describes the lives of several living individuals in New York City, in the 2020's, and who all live in the same building number 334. The reading goes back and forth between different characters lives. I found it a little bit confusing sometimes switching from one characters life to another, but on the otherhand it kept me interested in the reading. I thought that this novel took the idea of government control to the extreme. It described a type of rating system that decided if an individual or couple scored high enough to be allowed to have children. The government had hired officials that would counsel people and give them advice on ways they could raise their score so they would be allowed to have children. Another interesting thought I got from reading this novel was how open people seemed to be about their sexuality. Everyone seemed to be accepting of homosexuality and bisexuality. I most certainly thought that this novel should be considered as science fiction. It seems very out of the ordinary to me that the government in the United States will someday regulate who can and who can't have children. I found it interesting that Disch was trying to envision how drastically lives may change in the future and how a country based on freedom may not be in the future.