(Ron Walotsky’s cover for the 1973 edition)
Barry N. Malzberg was one of the more cerebral Science Fiction Writers of the previous century. The Remaking of Sigmund Freud , first published by Ballantine Del Rey, not only features Sigmund Freud, but also Emily Dickinson and her lover, Mark Twain. You can see where Malzberg shuffles the literary deck of cards and characters to produce a unique and original SF novel…which was Nominated for Best Novel in 1985.
Also Nominated
Winner: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, published by Tor
Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling, published by Arbor House
The Postman by David Brin, published by Bantam Spectra
Helliconia Winter by Brian W. Aldiss, published by Atheneum
Dinner at Deviant’s Palace by Tim Powers, published by Ace
Blood Music by Greg Bear, published by Arbor House
That’s pretty strong competition. Although The Remaking of Sigmund Freud didn’t win, the novel remains significant because of Malzberg’s boldness in what would be his last SF novel. When Emily Dickinson wonders why she has been brought to Venus in 2176, Mark Twain explains: “They need a poet,” Twain said again. “They thought that you could help. There are problems here. Very serious problems.”
The later Freud, appearing in 2176 and then 2372, is: “a simulacrum of the actual Freud, a crafted organic duplicate”–equipped with what we today would term “Artificial Intelligence.” The Remaking of Sigmund Freud is a tour de force displaying Malzberg’s brilliance and insights. GRADE: A
Published just a year after Malzberg won the John W Campbell Memorial Award with Beyond Apollo (1972), The Men Inside (1973) is a good match to be bundled with The Remaking of Sigmund Freud because Malzberg uses an audacious Freudian metafictional approach in The Men Inside to exploring the pitfalls of future societies and the price of freedom.
Malzberg employs a “filmic flashbacks” technique –flashbacks from the life of the central character, Leslie Blount, described as if they were documentary films. Leslie Blount escapes his slum life by volunteering to be a Messenger of the Hulm Institute. The Institute has developed a way to shrink people to tiny size, like in the movie Fantastic Voyage. The Messengers, when shrunk, enter the bodies of wealthy clients to excise inoperable cancers by hand. GRADE: B+
Both The Remaking of Sigmund Freud and The Men Inside celebrate Malzberg’s fascination with Freud and other literary icons. Malzberg wrote some of the most ambitious, challenging and profound Science Fiction novels of the 20th Century.
Just reading that plot synopsis made my head hurt.
Byron, Malzberg books really stretch your brain.
I must admit that I’d never heard of either of them.
Jeff, THE REMAKING OF SIGMUD FREUD appeared and disappeared in the mid-1980s. It’s a very underrated book.
I have a lot of trouble buying into this sort of mashup. OF course, I don’t read science fiction or fantasy either. I guess mysteries are my only genre reading.
Patti, mash-ups sometimes work, sometimes they don’t. Barry N. Malzberg had a number of enthusiasms–Freud, the Kennedy Assassination, horse racing, etc.–that found their way into his work.
Nothing escapes genre, Patti.
Of course, with ENDER’S GAME, the worst novel won.
Todd, Fate corrected that win by ENDER’S GAME by turning Orson Scott Card into a SF pariah because of his political views.
Well, they and his profound misanthropy. Or at least a near utter lack of empathy. Clumsy prose didn’t help.
Todd, Malzberg’s style was both intellectual and raw.
That is the best Walotsky cover I recall seeing…which gives you some idea of how I feel about Walotsky’s work. Fully the equal in his compass to Card in his.
Todd, I included that Walotsky cover in my post because–like you–I consider it his best work.
Cruel yet just.
Todd, Malzberg had a harsh view of Government and Society. Cruel…but Just fits.
No, I meant your assessment in agreement that this cover painting was about as good as Walotsky was able to do.
Barry was a genius and more often than not a very ultraviolet parodist. Sometimes a bit saddened, I think, or a bit resigned that many just weren’t going to the cream of the Jest, to borrow a phrase that Cabell ran with.
For me, Malzberg personified the term “Sly Boots,” going places where others never thought to go.
Jerry, Greg Shepard–editor of STARK HOUSE–compared Malzberg with Philip K. Dick. Both writers presented a different version of Reality.