NYRB Classics Science Fiction & Horror Hidden in Plain Sight in the Bookshop Fiction Section 

I'm telling you richard, you got to look into the goodies at MIT press: their Lem collections are amazing!

@@waltera13 I do have Lem’s ‘The Invincible’ from MIT and you are right, it is stunning. I really like the MIT press logo.

I show pretty much all of them in my Lem video.

My pleasure.

Well this is the thing- I don't look down on people who are overly guided in their expectations of SF, I just feel sorrow that they can't look outside the box- that is what SF is about after all.

Glad you liked the Buzzati, genius.

Many of their more famous books are very long established in the Modern canon and taste aside, you can trust their editorial judgement.

Same here.

Hi Jon- as you know, I aim to reach parts of the genre others have not discovered (yet). 'Moderan' is typical of a number of books that go in and out of print over the decades like tides coming in and receding. I still have quite a few aces like this one up my incraesingly aged sleeve!

Yes, as Aldiss said Sheckley is 'Voltaire and Soda'. For me 'Options' is a key work and the very extreme of his approach- it would make an ideal NYRB Classic.

All great books, I sell the Bressob regularly. The Williams are published by Vintage in the UK - I have the NYRB ones- and are not a patch on NYRB's versions.

People seem to think Atwood's dystopia is the first feminist one simply because it's such a famous book- for every 100 copies I sell maybe one of those customers have read Joanna Russ for example. Shame.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Right? Russ was far more controversial as an author. And in fantasy what about Sherri Tepper or McKinley? Their themes have been far more feminist for far longer and often are far more hard hitting than The Handmaids Tale, which I re-read recently. I guess it is the America/politics situation *shrug*

@@OmnivorousReader Agreed.

I read 'Nightmare Alley' about a decade ago, loved it, plus all the others you mention about 15 years ago. Another I'll point you toward from their list is 'Hard Rain Falling' by Don Carpenter, which is like a cross between a Beat Gneration novel and a Prison Noir, great book.

Many thanks for this, I shall check the film out!

Hey Matt, good to hear from you - yes, that's a crazy one!

You are completely right! I've noticed it before, and it has tricked me into misreading the authors before, but it is a criticism that leaves my mind shortly after I shake my head and reread the proper author. You're 100% right. That is terrible design - unless the editorship thinks showcasing the new hand that touched the manuscript a more important selling tool than the author themself.

The Atwood thing is unreal, but it's the commonly held belief, tragically. I read 'Last Man Standing' about a decade ago and enjoyed it, though I didn't feel it was front rank. I am planning some Italian Fiction vids at some point, though if you watch my Capri videos, in them I talk about Italian- and other writers- a quite a lot.

I've not read much Italian Horror, I must say- but I'm a huge Italian Crime buff. Good to hear from you Mark.

Apart from the odd great book, the truth is that SF's key period was 1950-1990. If you watch my videos about Hauntology, Modernism and so on -especially 'Why The Modern Science Fiction You're Reading Isn't Modern' and 'Why You Like the Books With Old Covers' all will become clear. SF is, like popular music, well past its sell by date as a fresh and innovative thing.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I used to be a musician so I can definitely attest to that. I haven't heard a good song from the mainstream in at least 20 years. There are still some great underground bands though, they are in the extreme metal/power electronics genres.

Yes, there is a collection (not an anthology) coming later this year. I have some of their children's books, they're fantastic.

All genius level stuff, mate.

The graphics are courtesy of another regular viewer, Chris Badenoch, a solid guy.

I remember a Sydney screening of 'Pandora's Box' about 30 years ago, with an accompanying live soundtrack played by a string quartet. Louise Brooks owned that screen!

@@mike-williams How lucky! It sounds like an unforgettable experience.

People tend to hang onto their NYRB, I find.

Well, that's the in print edition, so it can be easily bought! It is the best cover the book ever had.

Yes, NYRB provides constant literary stimulation on all levels I find. I reviewed 'The Singularity' here a couple of videos back. For your first Buzzati, read 'The Stronghold' (aka 'The Tartar Steppe').

'Warlock' is a slow burn and sophisticated read, I enjoyed it, but it is not your typical Western, hence its interest.

Pleasure.

Hey Jozef, good to hear from you. Yes, NYRB are beautiful, must be said.

I didn't, but I have mentioned her stories at least twice on other videos, they are very good stuff.

Yes, it's quite something, but it never stays in print long and the more vanilla SF readers just never get it, shame.

The Corvo book is a classic example of the NYRB titles that have been Penguin Modern Classics for decades in the UK.

I can't see Buzzati as an influence over Ligotti in any direct way- Ligotti, despite the quality of his writing falls definitively into the Supernatural Fantasy subsection of Horror, while Buzzati is much broader and more fabular. But 'The Tartar Steppe' (aka 'The Stronghold' is incredible, one of the great European Modernist novels- watch the video about it I link to at the end of this video.

@outlawbookselleroriginal I've just read several excerpts of Buzzati's works. I don't think I've ever read anyone like him. He's definitely a writer I need to seek out.

They don't always have introductions, some have afterwords, some have no extra material, though a large percentage do include intros. I've always been more of an afterword man myself.

Sheck is uneven, but that gets to be part of his charm after I while I find, though it does prevent him from being a truly great novelist.

OMG yes! Penguin Classics have been on shit paper since they went to the beautiful black livery! So Frustrating! The tan bordered ones from the 80s & 90s have better paper that lasts longer, and the ones from the 60s and 70s are usually still bright white if they're not outright foxed. I used to work for Penguin and I can't see where the money from the price jumps are going.

Yes. Acid-free has long been popular in the USA but in the UK we've lagged behind badly on this, though there is some evidence of late that US University presses are starting to drop the ball. Penguin will do anything in my view to keep their production costs down and their prices high.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal you're quite right. I see Penguins under 10 years old browning. Disgraceful.

Yes, it's great stuff.

Bioy Casares’s wife was an accomplished writer in her own right m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_ea2RfV278Y.html

Yes, they've led me down many shadowy alleys and I've generally been pleased.

Can't say I know the giant sized one, must have been US only. I have read "Memories of the Future"- he is very challenging, very fabular and modernist at the same time, something the Russians are big on and it often makes me want to scream 'cut to the chase and stop playing' at them. Not always, though.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thank you. At $2 how could I *not* grab it? Too modern for you is a serious warning to me who shies away from a lot of modernists. Perhaps not top of the list then. . . Blindly trusting any / all of them becomes more daunting when you stand in front of a wall of the whole nyrb collection. One of the best used / new book stores in the region is here in SF. They have made the great sales decision to give them their own section and really amp up the intellectual materialism appeal!

@@salty-walt I did an NYRB display where I work about ten years ago. Wasn't a huge success as I think it was too daunting for some readers. I think it would have done better if NYRB selected one colour for their spines and text box, but they go their own way and I admire that.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal they probably didn't have the same rep at that time. Or maybe the suburban parts of San Francisco are just that much more elitist that there are people who only shop nyrb. Anyhow, it works well for Green Apple books. I guess you were just ahead of your time again!

@@outlawbookselleroriginal P.S. that large format size shadows of carcassa from the 80s is totally where nyrb got their livery from BTW.

We'll have to disagree then, as you say. Have you read any pre- Atwood feminist dystopia? Let me know!

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Not sure I know of any earlier feminist dystopian writers. Who would you recommend?

@@nigelwillits7818 There are/were numerous ones. Going back centuries, there was Margaret Cavendish's 'The Blazing World', though you could say she was simply a misandrist, over a century ago Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'Herland' is key. In the 1960s Feminist SF really got going with Ursula K LeGuin and more importantly Joanna Russ, whose 'The Female Man' is really important. There were lots of others from then on, such as Suzy McKee Charnas, Jody Scot, Marge Piercy's 'Woman on the Edge of Time' and pretty much all the Women's Press SF line from the 1980s, which featured loads of books from the 1970s and 1980s. Atwood was a latecomer, simple as that. Plenty of them are mentioned on this channel in numerous videos as I read, re-read and pick up some of their books in hauls. Don't make the assumption that 'popular is first and best'. Cheers.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thanks for the recommendations. I have read quite a lot of Le Guin but don't recall her writing a feminist dystopia set on Earth in our own era. The immediacy of The Handmaid's Tale and especially its sequel The Testaments, with many elements being just slight extrapolations of what actually exists among the political/religious right-wing of America today, enhances its power.

@@nigelwillits7818 No Dystopia is set in our era, they are by definition set in the future, or in archaic cases on undiscovered islands. "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" is one of LeGuin's dystopias and her feminism is subtler and more inclusively humanist than Atwood's. Yes, Atwood's work reflects today, but then all dystopias do- they are fundamentally satires, viewing our society through a metaphoric glass darkly- and to take this further, all good SF is metaphoric and really about the contemporary. More's 'Utopia' was not published in whole in the UK- even in its original Latin- while Henry VIII was alive- as More realised it could be read as a critique of Tudor kingship- and that was in the 16th century. The nature of dystopia is long established and that's my point- if you read earlier feminist dystopias - like Russ and Piercy, they are critiqueing their own times as well. The point is that Atwood was following in their wake and does not deserve excessive recognition compared to earlier pioneering figures who showed her the way.

That's a new one as well!