Moderan
By: David R. Bunch ; foreward by Jeff VanderMeer
Series: New York Review Books Classics; New York Review Books classics
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
ISBN-13: 9781681372549
Copyright date: 1971
Subjects: American Science fiction; Short stories; Fiction
Work titles: Short stories
Description: "Welcome to Moderan, world of the future. Here perpetual war is waged by furious masters fighting from Strongholds well stocked with "arsenals of fear," earth is covered with vast sheets of plastic, and humans vie to replace more and more of their own "soft parts" with steel machinery. What need is there for nature when trees and flowers can be pushed up through holes in the plastic? Who requires human companionship when new-metal mistresses can be ordered from the shop? But even a Stronghold master can doubt the catechism of Moderan. Wanderers, poets, and his own children pay visits, proving that another world is possible. "The effect is as if Whitman and Nietzsche had collaborated," Brian Aldiss wrote of David R. Bunch's stories. Originally published in science-fiction magazines in the 1960s and '70s and passionately sought by collectors, the stories have not been available in a single volume for nearly fifty years. Like Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange, and borrowing from the Bible and the language of advertising, Bunch coined a mind-bending new vocabulary. His intent was not to divert readers from the horrors of modernity but to make them face it squarely"--
Table of contents: title: Moderan -- -- Part one: The beginnings.; title: Thinking back (our God is a helping God!) --; title: No cracks or sagging --; title: The butterflies were eagle-big that day --; title: New kings are not for laughing --; title: One time, a red carpet... --; title: Battle won --; title: Head thumping the troops --; title: New-metal mistress time --; title: And so White Witch Valley --; title: The bird man of Moderan --; title: Bubble-dome homes --; title: One false step --; title: Survival packages --; title: New-metal --; title: Of hammers and men --; title: The stronghold --; title: 2064, or thereabouts --; title: Penance day in Moderan --; title: Strange shape in the stronghold --; title: Getting regular --; title: The walking, talking I-don't-care man -- -- Part two: Everyday life in Moderan.; title: To face eternity --; title: In the innermost room of authority --; title: The problem --; title: Playmate --; title: A husband's share --; title: The complete father --; title: Was she horrid? --; title: A glance at the past --; title: Educational --; title: It was in black cat weather --; title: Sometimes I get so happy --; title: Remembering --; title: A little girl's Xmas in Moderan --; title: the flesh-man from far wide -- -- Part three: Intimations of the end.; title: The one from Camelot Moderan --; title: Reunion --; title: The warning --; title: Has anyone seen this horseman?--; title: Interruption in carnage --; title: The miracle of the flowers --; title: Incident in Moderan --; title: The final decision --; title: Will-hung and waiting --; title: How they took care of soul in a last day for a non-beginning --; title: How it ended -- -- Part four: Apocrypha from after the end.; title: A little at all times --; title: The joke --; title: Two suns for the king --; title: The good war --; title: In the land that aimed at forever --; title: Among the metal-and-people people --; title: The dirty war --; title: When the metal eaters came --; title: A little girl's spring day in Moderan --; title: December for stronghold--; title: The heartacher and the warehouseman.