Customer Reviews

Semiotext(e) U.S.A.

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I received this book as a gift more than a decade ago. (Thank you Jen!) I haven't been the same boy since.
Reading Semiotext(e) USA was, and still is, the most exquisite, voyeuristic look into the uncharted edges of not just the American, but the human experience. This collection of stories and ideas literally lead me to the place I am today. I found refuge in its embrace of that which scares "decent" society, and comforted in it's portrayal of those who are forever below the media's radar. I was shocked by the extremes of thought, and utterly mesmerized by the breadth of ideas.
This book opened more doors than I knew existed, and set me on my search for all that which is not shoved down out throats by McMedia.

I bought this book a few years after it's release in 1989 and it helped to propel my interest in SF from being a pulp escapist distraction (i.e. Star Trek, et al) to seeing SF as a viable and vibrant literary form all it's own, capable of engaging complex social, political and philisophical quandries, both in the context of the present and the future. Tons of great short stories in this book, many of which stick with me to this day. This opened the door to such fabulous items as the Illuninatus! Trilogy, Neuormancer, and Snow Crash to name a few. And if you like the short story SF angle, I highly recommend the Mirrorshades collection edited by Bruce Sterling and Deathbird Stories by Ellison.

And no, the material presented in this anthology is not for the faint of heart. While some of the pieces may not fit the Science Fiction stereotype >aliens, outer space, etc.< all of them test new waters, explore deeper into the recesses of the human mind, and present the varying truths found in unique, raw, and above all, fun (at least imho) formats. Don't misunderstand - it serves up its share of sex and blood and good times. The real depth starts the day, years after you've read it - when something everyday strikes a chord of familiarity, and you recall this or that story, and how weird it was to your senses. Then it has affected your frame of reference. The adjustment is highly recommended. ;-)

What happens when you take the likes of Burroughs, Gibson, Hakim Bey, Robert Anton Wilson and other speculative fiction greats, and invite them to submit their most shocking, break-your-mental-state stories? You get Semiotext(S) SF, a book that invites you to get high with Bigfoot on the side of a lonley highway; a book that let's you watch, in step-by-step medical detail, Jane Fonda's boob job; a book that includes a neat-o flip-book animation of a mechanical male organ interfacing with it's mechanical female counterpart. This collection of stories will make you laugh out loud as well as lead you down the dark allies and blind corners of your psyche where you'll roll your windows up and lock your doors....

Anytime you have Burroughs, Ballard, Metzger, and R. A. Wilson together in a collection you know it's just the kind of good, clean fun you mother warned you about. (Not to mention the Rev. Stang!)
There are some great short stories in this collection. There are also a few which aren't great, but if you fancy yourself as more-subversive-than-thou, you simply aren't if you don't have a copy of this.
I've had this book for more than a decade, and it is still read often, and displayed proudly in my most prominent bookshelf.

Filth and circumstance, liberty and license, Ginsberg, Burroughs, and a fellow named Gabriel Thy included in this collection of odd parables and drawings, scribblings, and anxious prophets. This is not a book for the knee-socked self-righteous nor the thoroughly untracked, but a knuckle-cracking romp through the dry weeds of yesterday's validity, perhaps now mere fodder for the times, the mid-1980s. Remember Throbbing Gristle? And Re/Search? Same sort of pain. A thick collection of first, second, and third offenses.

This is a great collection of some really out-there short stories. They're SF for the not-so-faint of heart.