On Tue, 14 May 2024 13:21:03 -0000 (UTC),
jdnicoll@panix.com (James
Nicoll) wrote:
334 by Thomas M. Disch
An examination of one New York community in the unimaginably distant
year of TWO! THOUSAND! TWENTY-FIVE!
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/so-hard-to-find
334 by Thomas M. Disch is not, in any of its edition, a living
creature with a trunk. Therefore, it is most definitely not an
elephant.
However, it very definitely is a book - in the traditional codex form,
rather than in the older scroll form. While you are correct that it is
a collection of short stories, not only are all the short stories by
the same author, *they are connected by a single theme*.
Given the works of ergodic literature that have been allowed to be
referred to as novels, I don't think that it stretches things too far, therefore, to view 334 as a novel, if an unconventional one.
And, hey, back in 1972, the year 2025 was quite far away. Fifty-three
years away. In 1972, fifty-three years ago was 1919. Considering the
degree of technical progress between 1919 and 1972, someone in 1972
can be forgiven for thinking that there would have been _other_
significant advances in technology between then and now besides those
in microelectronics.
Of course, the speed with which an mRNA vaccine was whipped up for
COVID-19 is somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy... so
there have been _some_ other advances, even if none are so obvious as
the ones from 1919 to 1972.
And the year 2025 may well be distant from 1972. Despite Richard
Nixon, who was quite famiiiar to people in that year, would people
have been able to imagine that the United States might _really_ become
a dystopia (1984, The Man in the High Castle) should Donald J. Trump
win the next election? Despite the story "It Can't Happen Here" trying
to disabuse people of just that notion, it is one that dies hard.
John Savard
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