Tonguing the Zeitgeist

by Lance Olsen

So you want to be a rock 'n' roll star? In a future that isn't distant enough, you'll have to sell your soul to MTV just to pick up a guitar. And then they start carving you up, making you over in the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1882633040
• ISBN13: 9781882633043
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Permeable Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Devious and Hilarious

A fantastically devious and hilarious near-future fantasy. It's one part WS Burroughs, one part Genensis P-Orridge, and all Phillip K. Dick style paranoia as we race through this toxic, corporate run world that sits not as far away as we might think. This is a work that can be read quickly as a fun diversion from standard science fiction, but also manages to present some insightful ideas and concepts if you decide to ponder over them. Information overload, corporate control, and the image of the rich and famous are just a few of the ideas stabbed at us as Ben Tendo takes us on a whirlwind tour of his twisted world. For anyone who likes the more subversive side of sci-fi, like PKD or Paul di Pillippo, or slightly expermental fiction like Pynchon or Delillo.

post-grunge, post-cyberpunk, post-postmodern avant-popness

_Tonguing the Zeitgeist_ by Lance Olsen is a fun, trippy look into our not-distant-enough future in which it's cool to undergo major body modifications/mutilations. This is a future in which Robert Redford is President and going outside without the proper filters can net you your own set of pollution sores. This is a time in which most music isn't original anymore, so to make it big, the musicians themselves have to be original. The main character is a member of a small time rock band by night, and a telephone order-taker for sex products specializing in mutilated bodies by day. He finds himself caught up in the rush to fame as a rock star, not realizing what price his body will have to pay. This is post-grunge, post-cyberpunk, post-postmodern at its hippest avant-popness. This book is weird and way out there, but highly recommended for people who would enjoy an off-beat, satirical look at a future heavily influenced by today's alternative culture.