Too weird and new wave for me. ( )

This is a classic collection of short stories. It constitutes the first introduction of the Moorcockian New Wave to the United States.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/256163.html

This was one of the influential sf anthologies of that long ago time, the 1960s, being Judith Merril's project of familiarising an American audience with the British sf authors of the New Wave. I spotted it with glee in Boston in October, but also it fits in with my planned re-reading of the other rival great 60's anthology, Dangerous Visions (supposedly even now on its way to me from the book dealer).

It would be very easy to make fun of this book. The gutter is too narrow, especially given the experimental placing of some of the margins. Some of the stories are very bad. One author admits that to write his story "I had to draw in some places on my acid/pot experiences as I think you will detect". The introduction is earnest and breathless.

Some of the authors have disappeared with little trace: the stories of "John Calder" and John Clark here apparently represent their only published work; the output of Michael Hamburger, Michael Butterworth, Bill Butler, Roger Jones, and Graham Hall has been pretty minimal.

However there are some fascinatong pieces as well: Kyril Bonfiglioli's only recorded sf story; also Chris Priest's first published story; also a bit of Brian Aldiss' Barefoot in the Head; also three stories by J.G. Ballard, including "The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race", and two by Michael Moorcock, with Thomas Disch, Keith Roberts, Barrington Bayley, David Masson and Pamela Zoline all represented. Each story has an afterword in which Merril cuts between the authors' own supplied autobiographical material and her commentary. In the case of the Michael Moorcock afterword, this turns into a fascinating little narrative of how the Arts Council of Great Britain was persuaded to give a grant for the perpetuation of science fiction.

Merril's decision to front-load the collection with the weakest of these was brave, and the less dedicated reader is likely to give up. But it's worth the slog, even now that the New Wave has pretty much receded. ( )