"Stand on Zanzibar" which won a Hugo award in 1968 moved Brunner out of deep-space adventures and into the near-future dystopias which were popular in the late sixties and early seventies and which prepared the way for the cyberpunk movement.
Ballard has said elsewhere that whereas the 20th century was mediated through the car, the 21st century will be mediated through the home, and as far as Super-Cannes goes home means work. "The dream of a leisure society was the great 20th century delusion," says Wilder Penrose. "Work is the new leisure. Talented and ambitious people work harder than they have ever done, and for longer hours. They find their only fulfilment through work. The last thing they want is recreation." There are references to the flats and houses of Eden-Olympia as service stations "where people sleep and ablute". The real home is now the office.
Evelio Rosero (*1958, Bogotá) zeigt in seinem Roman Zwischen den Fronten (Premio Tusquets 2006) die in den Medien zu wenig präsente Seite der Misere, die Seite der leidtragenden Bevölkerung.
THERE is one fact which, whether for good or ill, is of utmost importance in the public life of Europe at the present moment. This fact is the accession of the masses to complete social power. As the masses, by definition, neither should nor can direct their own personal existence, and still less rule society in general, this fact means that actually Europe is suffering from the greatest crisis that can afflict peoples, nations, and civilisation. Such a crisis has occurred more than once in history. Its characteristics and its consequences are well known. So also is its name. It is called the rebellion of the masses.
