John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (9) "Guncrit"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner, , escritor británico de ciencia ficción perteneciente al movimiento llamado Nueva Ola.
Sus obras suelen versar sobre un futuro inmediato narrado a través de múltiples personajes, centrando su interés más en la descripción de la sociedad imaginada que en las peripecias o aventuras de sus personajes. O más bien, lo que le ocurre a sus personajes siempre está enmarcado en un punto de vista sociológico.
Es este peculiar enfoque, ausente de elementos épicos o de una trama central evidente, el que le ha impedido convertirse en un autor de éxito. Sin embargo las historias de John Brunner siempre tienen un final que las dota de pleno sentido narrativo.
Sus mejores obras corresponden a la llamada "Trilogía del Desastre", especialmente Todos sobre Zanzíbar y El rebaño ciego, y a la novela El jinete de la onda de shock, una de las obras precursoras de la corriente cyberpunk, que se inspiró en el ensayo de Alvin Toffler El shock del futuro. Las obras posteriores se suelen considerar menores.
El jinete de la onda de shock, aparte de ser una de sus obras más conocidas, es un ejemplo perfecto de obra profética olvidada. Escrita en 1975, en ella se describe una sociedad construida alrededor de internet en la que existen gusanos y virus informáticos, tarjetas de crédito virtuales, técnicas de cifrado y anonimato y otros elementos novedosos que caracterizarán ya no sólo el cyberpunk, sino los tiempos actuales.
Por este y otros relatos se puede considerar a Brunner uno de los visionarios más profundos y acertados de la ciencia ficción de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Wikipedia
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (9) "Guncrit"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (12) "The Sociological Counterpart of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration" <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Contexto: If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle — when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them.
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (16) "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere: Calypso (stanzas 2, 5, and 7) <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Contexto: Watching their sets in a kind of trance
were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
It may be a rumor or it may be true
But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
"I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
"What do you think of Beninia then?"
"The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.
“Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.”
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (16) "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere: Calypso (stanzas 2, 5, and 7) <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Contexto: Watching their sets in a kind of trance
were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
It may be a rumor or it may be true
But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
"I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
"What do you think of Beninia then?"
"The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.
“First you use machines, then you wear machines, and then …? Then you serve machines.”
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
continuity (14) "The Right Man For The Job"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
“It's supposed to be automatic, but actually you have to push this button.”
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
Fuente: Stand on Zanzibar
John Brunner The Shockwave Rider
Fuente: The Shockwave Rider
John Brunner The Shockwave Rider
Fuente: The Shockwave Rider
Section 5 (p. 127)
Short fiction, You’ll Take the High Road (1973)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
December “A ROOST FOR CHICKENS”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
the happening world (8) “Be Kind To Your Forfeited Friends”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro The Stone That Never Came Down
Fuente: The Stone That Never Came Down (1973), Chapter 4 (p. 31)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
January “SNOW JOB”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (1) “Scanalyze My Name“
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
November “THE SMOKE OF THAT GREAT BURNING”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
February “DISGRACE”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
Next year
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (11) “Come Outside and Say That”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
continuity (37) “Storage”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
continuity (42) “And Say Which Seed Will Grow“
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
tracking with closeups (31) “Unto Us a Child”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (8) “Isolation”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro The Stone That Never Came Down
Fuente: The Stone That Never Came Down (1973), Chapter 5 (p. 44)
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
context (2) "Editorial Slot"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro The Stone That Never Came Down
Fuente: The Stone That Never Came Down (1973), Chapter 3 (p. 26)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
November “THERE IS HOPE YET”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
“If there is a hell, perhaps it consists in living up to all one’s promises.”
John Brunner libro The Tides of Time
Fuente: The Tides of Time (1984), Chapter 11 (p. 202)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
September “MOTHER-RAPERS”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)
“You have many years to live—do things you will be proud to remember when you're old.”
John Brunner libro Stand on Zanzibar
continuity (27) "Manscape"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
John Brunner libro The Sheep Look Up
January “EARTHMOVER”
The Sheep Look Up (1972)