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- Dec 28, 2014
One of my oddball recommendations is also Lem, although it technically isn't directly science fiction. It's called A Perfect Vacuum and is a collection of academic level literary reviews of nonexistent books (including some science fiction). It is probably at least in part inspired by similar works by Jorge Luis Borges, who also wrote reviews of nonexistent books, such as "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," being about an encyclopedia about an alternate reality created by a secret society where objects from the imaginary world start appearing in the real world.
Borges himself, while a high-falutin reel literachur guy, might even be relevant to the thread. Whether or not he does, I definitely recommend at least reading him, an anthology like Ficciones being a great introduction.
That's basically my "Free Bird" of books, something I've read so many times I could practically recite it from memory.
Fun fact: Bradbury's first book, Dark Carnival, a collection of short stories (including some from Weird Tales), was published by Arkham House, the publishing firm started by two associates of HPL, August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, largely to ensure his works stayed in print but also to promote similar artists.
I am certain they would have hit it off had they ever communicated.
I have read a fair number of the published books collecting HPL's voluminous correspondence with other writers and don't remember Bradbury in there, but it's not impossible considering they were publishing in Weird Tales in overlapping times.
(Incidentally his correspondence is well worth reading if you actually are interested in the man himself. Despite his reputation as this awful reclusive misanthrope he was a very kind and generous person with a sharp sense of humor. Even the virulent racism that retards currently deplore him for was so weird and disconnected from reality, to the point he's sometimes ranting insanely about Jews to actual Jews who just let it slide. If he wasn't actually sincere about it, you would almost think it was an act.)
Bradbury also noted that he was inspired by HPL, but I don't remember him ever mentioning actual contact with him.
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