Thursday, February 7, 2008

Paperback 72: The Jagged Orbit / John Brunner (Ace 38122)

Paperback 72: Ace 38122 (1st ptg, 1969)

Title: The Jagged Orbit
Author: John Brunner
Cover artist: Uncredited


Best things about this cover:

  • Gotta love the olde-timey computer script: "Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate ... The Jagged Orbit!"
  • In the future, the universe will be run by giant, anthropomorphic gumball creatures.
  • If this cover, and the endorsement from Philip K. Dick, don't make you realize that everyone in 1969 was high, then I hereby offer Exhibit B...


Best things about this back cover:

  • I love how "this world of ours" (circa 1969) sounds just like "this world of ours" (circa 2008).
  • Thomas Disch gives us a good example of why more people don't write blurbs in the middle of acid trips. "The styling is now" is something we should all start saying. That, or "Eat it!"
RP

2 comments:

Michael5000 said...

[bitchy comment]The day Phillip K. Dick praises your "artistry" is the day to hang up your word processor.*[/bitchy]

I wikied this Thomas Disch character to see if I could find out what sort of like experiences would provoke a man to say "The styling is Now. Wear it! Eat it! Drive it! Buy it today!" One assumes drugs, of course, but it turns out he's a science fiction author/poet/opera critic/computer game designer. I want his life.


*or "typewriter," as they called them back in the day.

Unknown said...

I just like the back-cover lament about the "too-casually defined 'insane' ". It really seems like the copywriter has a specific, personal grudge about this.

lol.