axler.upenn@UDel-Relay (12/14/82)
From: David Axler <axler.upenn@UDel-Relay>
(RE: Paul Fuqua's comments on reality as only the perceptions of the
observer, SFL 6:101)
Two other books that deal specifically with the perception of reality in
sf terms are a pair of novels by Brian Aldiss. The first, "Barefoot in the Head
is set in a post-WWIII Europe which has been heavily bombed by third-world
nations, who used chemical warfare, specifically long-term, permanent-effect
hallucinogens. When the book starts, the narrator is as straight as can be,
and is watching the collapse of Western Civilization; by its end, however, the
drugs have gotten to him, and his perceptions are totally altered.
The other Aldiss novel worth noting in this context is his "Report on
Probability A," which Illuminati fans would love because of the paranoia that's
implicit in the plot premise, viz., that there are aliens from another time-
track (almost the same as ours, but not quite...) watching us to determine the
differences. Unbeknownst to them, there are aliens from another .... and so on,
ad infinitum. Very well done, in that understated British style Aldiss does so
well.