Theodore Sturgeon

DRAFT

So, I'm back to book blogging. I'm not quite ready to tackle the awesomeness of Assassination Vacation. Instead here are some thoughts on a book I have to return to the library tomorrow: A Saucer of Loneliness, volume 7 of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Stories are arranged chronologically and this volume spans from August 1952- August 1953. It is a pretty strong year, I think. A few years ago I read a short story collection of Sturgeon's called The Golden Helix, and it included some of these stories but there's nothing wrong with a reread!
The Stories with some background:

Forward: Kurt Vonnegut talks about Sturgeon being a sort-of-but-not-really model for Kilgore Trout.
A Saucer of Loneliness: Really famous and good. I've never read it before but I remember another scifi writer saying that this story was one of things that disuaded him from suicide as a teenager. Imagine creating something that could effect someone so profoundly!
The Touch of your Hand:
The World Well Lost: Interesting for it's sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality. Probably the first example in science fiction and certainly the first in Golden Age Scifi. I love a lot of scifi from the 50s and 60s, but it really does cater to straight male adolescent wish-fulfillment. For his time and genre Sturgeon is pretty groundbreaking.
...And My Fear is Great: Read it before, skimmed it again. I never realized how thematically important sex and love are in Sturgeon's writing. This is a sex positive psychic/paranormal/epic-battle-of-good-and-evil-but-in-a-Zen-way-story. It also feels very 50s.
The Wages of Synergy:
The Dark Room: Didn't read.
Talent: Short. I like it. It's seems like something you'd read in an anthology.
A Way of Thinking: Basically a horror story. Reminds me of a western/zombie story I read once that was super creepy. [Some extensive googling revealed this to be: "They Bite" by Anthony Boucher though I may have conflated it with "Spud and Conchise" by Oliver La Farge. Both stories are in The Best of All Possible Worlds ed. Spider Robinson. It is an awesome book in which Robinson chooses a few of his favorite stories, then asks the author of each story to choose his (pretty sure they're all men) favorite story.]
The Silken-Swift: A unicorn fable.
The Clinic: I read this a few years ago and it was very striking then.
Mr. Costello, Hero: This is apparently about McCarthy. Didn't get to read it. Hope to soon.
The Education of Drusilla Strange: Long. Didn't get to read it.