Life imitates SF

Building the modern spaceship.

Available soon: Walkman-style brain scanners.

The Alternate History of Chinese Science Fiction... featuring Kong Ang Rui's Rendezvous with Rama, Fanqui Mieville's Mengzi Street Station and Xiang Kong Hui's Accelerando.

2007 books

42) Richard Brautigan, Revenge of the Lawn, 1972
My two previous encounters with Brautigan's strange mind came in the shape of Sombrero Fallout, read decades ago, and the endearing but frankly impenetrable In Watermelon Sugar, read much more recently. The few dozen short pieces here have an autobiographical content that unfortunately crowds out the more interesting stuff, such as the wonderfully short-short 'The Scarlatti Tilt' and the impressive 'The World War 1 Los Angeles Aeroplane'. So far I'd say Brautigan is only memorable when he's being at least a little surreal, the remainder feeling like so much chaff, but he was more than capable of showing you different ways of seeing things when he really wanted to, which is also here in many small doses.