Robert Sheckley's Mindswap
First impression of the word "Mindswap", gives me a feelings of both joy and horror. Joy in
the sense that wish i could swap my mind with people like Jule Verne, Leonardo de v, but it gives a horror feelings thinking about some psychopath taking over my mind. Anyway that just a title of Robert Sheckley's new Science fiction book.
The nature of reality, and the consequences of living in a universe where reality seems to depend to some extent on our own perceptions and expectations is one of those topics that inspires writers to deep and serious discussions packed with insight into the human condition and its place in a hostile universe. Thank goodness, then, that Robert Sheckley came along to skewer all those pretentious and serious discussions with a series of novels that took serious subjects like philosophy, cosmology, and the nature of reality and mixed them all up into one hilarious concoction that left his readers certain that even if the nature of reality is not readily comprehensible, it sure is funny. Mindswap ostensibly chronicles the adventures of one Marvin Flynn, a young man who longs to travel the galaxy but can't afford to go anywhere off Earth. The alternative is mind-swapping, a process by which one being swaps bodies with another being from a different planet, thus allowing for the pleasure of travel much less expensively. Mind-swapping is reputed to be dangerous, but Marvin goes against his friend's advice and tries it anyway. His adventures begin on Mars, and when Marvin discovers that the Martian with whom he has swapped bodies is a criminal who has stolen Marvin's body, things quickly get progressively weirder and funnier.
That feeling that the universe is at its most basic an absurd and funny place gives Sheckley's humor a distinguished place in the annals of science fiction humor. Douglas Adams came close at times, Keith Laumer found it in some of the Retief stories, R.A. Lafferty could mix folk humor and Science Fiction to much the same affect, but, at his best, no one else has matched Robert Sheckley in sheer number of laughs per page. If you've never experienced Sheckley's particular take on the absurdity of reality and life in it, Mindswap, one of his most consistently funny 216 pages book, is a perfect place to start.
Mindswap, Robert Sheckley
The nature of reality, and the consequences of living in a universe where reality seems to depend to some extent on our own perceptions and expectations is one of those topics that inspires writers to deep and serious discussions packed with insight into the human condition and its place in a hostile universe. Thank goodness, then, that Robert Sheckley came along to skewer all those pretentious and serious discussions with a series of novels that took serious subjects like philosophy, cosmology, and the nature of reality and mixed them all up into one hilarious concoction that left his readers certain that even if the nature of reality is not readily comprehensible, it sure is funny. Mindswap ostensibly chronicles the adventures of one Marvin Flynn, a young man who longs to travel the galaxy but can't afford to go anywhere off Earth. The alternative is mind-swapping, a process by which one being swaps bodies with another being from a different planet, thus allowing for the pleasure of travel much less expensively. Mind-swapping is reputed to be dangerous, but Marvin goes against his friend's advice and tries it anyway. His adventures begin on Mars, and when Marvin discovers that the Martian with whom he has swapped bodies is a criminal who has stolen Marvin's body, things quickly get progressively weirder and funnier.
That feeling that the universe is at its most basic an absurd and funny place gives Sheckley's humor a distinguished place in the annals of science fiction humor. Douglas Adams came close at times, Keith Laumer found it in some of the Retief stories, R.A. Lafferty could mix folk humor and Science Fiction to much the same affect, but, at his best, no one else has matched Robert Sheckley in sheer number of laughs per page. If you've never experienced Sheckley's particular take on the absurdity of reality and life in it, Mindswap, one of his most consistently funny 216 pages book, is a perfect place to start.
