Dangerous Visions (SF Masterworks)

This was a very big deal when first published. I read it my second or third year in college. I have just re-read it and my reactions are mixed. Of thirty-three stories I only remembered one clearly "Riders of the Purple Wage". I remembered "Gonna Roll the Bones" semi clearly. By contrast during the same period I had a subscription to Galaxy where most of the Cordwainer Smith stories were published but after 50 years I bought the complete anthology of those stories and discovered that I remembered each one in significant detail. So it is established that I can hold 50 year memories if they are the right ones.In my judgement DV is important not for the quality of the stories, though some are quite good, but for it's influence on the "speculative fiction" publishing market and on the writers. Supposedly some of the stories were un-publishable at the time. Reasons for non-publishability can be put categories: the nature (including some weird possibilities ) and/or existence of God; will humans survive their own violent/perverse nature); unconventional sex (with whom/how/what); violence including nuclear apocalypse; atypical writing and story telling styles/techniques; and sheer intelligibility. I am not convinced that none of these could have been published back then but most could not have been. But not just because they were "dangerous". At least two or three could not be published then or now simply because they are unintelligible or just plain boring. One would likely not be written today because the probable adverse genetic consequences of incest are more clearly understood and documented. Nonetheless, most could be publish in 2021 with much controversy. Whether this book contributed to that or it was just the general change of cultural values is a question for historians.Does the term "speculative fiction" get used that much anymore? It is my impression that the distinction between science fiction, fantasy, related genre does not excite people like it did back then. I think today we can even use the term Sci-Fi without getting anyone's knickers in a twist. SF sometimes tries to predict the future but does not do it too well. This tome fails spectacularly: computers got way smaller rather than bigger, social media and the online community are not hinted at, the world is still here but the USSR is not - etc. Larry Niven's "Jigsaw Man" offered the one good prediction to which the inmates of Chinese re-education camps (Uhigars and Falun Gong practitioners) can attest.In addition to the 33 stories the book includes two "Introductions", three "Forwards", an intro/min-bio by Ellison of the author for each story and and afterword to each story by the author. All this takes up a sizable chunk of the 544 page total. I suspect the mini-bios are indirectly as much about Ellison as the authors of the stories. [Full disclosure: I very briefly met the guy back around 1971/2 and conclude that just as sausage fanciers had best not visit sausage factories fans of authors would do well not to meet the author.]

Harlan Ellison collected these thirty-two stories to familiarize readers with the "new" voice in 1960's science fiction which broke taboos, flouted conventions, and challenged assumptions. He solicited stories which had something to say. "Each story is almost obstinately entertaining. But each one is filled with ideas as well. Not merely run-of-the-pulps ideas you've read a hundred times before, but fresh and daring ideas."Here are seven that seemed a little better than the others:- Frederik Pohl's "The Day After the Day the Martians Came" - When the Martians arrive there is worldwide excitement. Then the wonder wears off and everybody starts talking about them.- Miriam deFord's "The Malley System" - A new method of punishing violent criminals reduces the recidivism rate dramatically. But not the rehabilitation rate.- Larry Niven's "The Jigsaw Man" - In the future there is strong public support for an organ donation program integrated with the driving licensing process. What possible harm?- James Cross's "The Doll-House" - This is more of a three-wishes-from-a-genie fantasy story than it is science fiction. The moral: Treat your genie well.- John Brunner's "Judas" - This story reenacts an important New Testament lesson.- Norman Spinrad's "Carcinoma Angels" - A man who has achieved everything is diagnosed with cancer. He fights and wins his last battle. Alone.- Samuel Delany's "Aye, and Gomorrah..." - Explores relationships between asexual Spacers, who are neutered before puberty, and frelk, who are attracted to them.This anthology and its second volume,  Again, Dangerous Visions , are important landmarks in science fiction history and contain some innovative and provocative ideas. There is a noticeable, but not off-putting air of adolescence about the way many of the stories jump in the reader's face. You can get a feel for this from two of the shorter stories. Henry Slesar's "Ersatz" delivers a sexual shock (to 1960's sensibilities) without having much else to say. Damon Knight's "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" makes similar gratuitous use of a religious topic. It's a sixties thing.Nevertheless, there are some good stories that are worth reading.

This is a classic yet mentally challenging book that every true speculative fiction fan should have in their bookcase.

So... I finally finished "Dangerous Visions" - the celebrated 60s anthology of SF and speculative-fiction stories, edited by Harlan Ellison. I will note a few observations:Like a lot of SF from the period, it's very "of its time", which principally manifests in one of a couple of ways: either the "dangerous vision" seems quite tepid and milquetoast when read from a perspective of 2021 (Homosexuality! Drugs!), or the thrust of the stories seems quite backwards and old-fashioned; a little bigoted, even.Similarly, as is common with the likes of anthology tv of the era, sometimes the twist or the moral of the story can end up reading as subtly as a brick to the face, a property masterfully lampooned by Philip K. Dick in his story "The Story to End All Stories For Harlan Ellison's Anthology Dangerous Visions".The other principle element here is Ellison's introductions - the anthology contains a number of forewords and each story/author is introduced with a little two or three page essay. He's an irritating, self-aggrandising, priggish presence.As such, it's difficult to really recommend the collection as a whole - some of the quality in hindsight varies enormously - but as a historic curio and a landmark of the genre, I'm glad I read it.

Dangerous Visions was originally published in 1967 and remains perhaps the most famous anthology in the history of science fiction. It is credited with defining at least the US version of the New Wave movement in SF (as opposed to the related but slightly different British version). It contains over 30 short stories, novelettes and novellas, each with an introduction, nearly all by the editor Harlan Ellison, who also contributes a story, and a short afterword by the author.Many of the stories were written to have some shock value. This is inevitably less so when they are read today, though by no means entirely lacking. There is some variation in story quality and no doubt even more in the reactions to each story by individual readers. Several of the stories won major awards in the SF field and it remains an interesting and varied collection with some top quality pieces.For me personally the following are the stand-put stories. “Gonna Roll the Bones” by Fritz Leiber features a strange and macabre game of craps between Joe Slattermill, a miner, and a professional gambler who may be Death incarnate. “Auto-da-Fe” by Roger Zelazny concerns a future version of a bullfight where a “mechador” fights cars with electronic brains. "Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel Delany features a future in which space pilots are neutered before puberty to avoid the affects of cosmic radiation on the reproductive cells, producing androgynous beings who are objects of sexual fetish for a particular subculture. Other excellent stories in the anthology include the contributions by Robert Silverberg and Philip K. Dick. The best story by a British author is for me "The Recognition" by J. G. Ballard. Another notable and award-winning contribution is "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Philip José Farmer.I would recommend this anthology, especially to anyone interested in the New Wave SF writing of the 60s and 70s.

This review is of the Kindle SFMasterworks edition.Anyone who reads SF has heard of this anthology. First published in 1967, it's the literary equivalent of films like Psychedelia: a great many big names appearing early in their careers. Larry Niven, Philip K Dick, Poul Anderson, Theodore Sturgeon, John Sladek. I recently started reading SF again and hadn't heard many of these names since my childhood.It's fair to say this book was the "Sopranos" of SF: it took an established genre and shook it up, making people reconsider what they thought SF was. All these stories are idea-driven, genuine explorations of what happens when mankind and his technology develop in ways these writers imagine.Only one of Ellison's own stories appears (The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World) but you can "hear" his voice in other stories, since they influenced many later careers. Perhaps this book and the Gardner Dozois anthologies are all you need to read the best work ever in short-form SF.

I originally bought this book when it was first published in 1967, back when many of these stories were actually considered dangerous - dealing with such "controversial" subjects as incest and homosexuality, and a physical manifestation of God. Some of them are still moderately controversial today, but it's interesting to reread them now, 46 years later, in ebook form.Harlan Ellison is one of the best science fiction and fantasy short story writers, and I've bought every nook he's written. There was a lot of hype when this book was published; it contained short works by well-established and much less well-known authors, all with the remit of producing a story which challenge conventional views of the world.Standouts are Robert Bloch's and Ellison's takes on the Jack the Ripper story; Philip Jose Farmer's "Riders of the Purple Wage" and Theodore Sturgeon's wonderfully titled "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?"Well worth buying, but don't expect to be as shocked in 2013 as some were in 1967.

I am a fan of Harlan Ellison and so I bought this book.It is a collection of short stories by all the well known sci/fi writers of the 60s and 70s.Each story is introduced by Harlan, and though I find the information interesting,I do feel the intros are too long and a bit self indulgent.The stories vary wildly,as you would expect from this group.There are a few stories that will stay with me forever and some I have already forgotten.If you a sci/fi fan,there is something for everyone in this compilation.Horror,humour and excitement, are all there.I would recommend this book to anyone looking for something unusual and entertaining.