| Philip José Farmer |
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The Riverworld books |
Charles Daney's Being and Nakedness site provides information about Philip José Farmer and his Riverworld series of novels, novellas and short stories. At one time, I was an avid reader of Philip José Farmer's work - eagerly snapping up anything of his that I could find. But, after a while, I tired a little and my enthusiasm waned. Although he is a prolific author, some of his output consists of reworking short stories into longer works, or or turning a single work into a series - eventually the series appears to stretch to infinity (note also that each of the four main Riverworld novels is a lot thicker than the previous one). Nonetheless, Philip José Farmer has undoubtedly produced stimulating and innovatory ideas and stories - amongst which the Riverworld series is perhaps the best known. He was perhaps the first mainstream SF author to tackle sexual themes in an interesting and adult manner. By that I don't mean that sex didn't exist in SF before stories such as The Lovers and Flesh, but it consisted primarily of heroic spacemen with rugged good looks rescuing stunningly beautiful young women from fates worse than death at the tentacles of unspeakable aliens. Philip José Farmer considered sexual (and romantic) relationships between species, in non-human species, and in human societies very different from those found in conventional literature. Worth at least a look - try either Riverworld and Other Stories or To Your Scattered Bodies Go.
The truly curious might find some interest in Farmer's collection of attempts to recreate the characters or styles of other authors. These include Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle, although none - in my view - come close to the originals in quality. Edgar Rice Burroughs has had a lot of this attention, with a whole series of Tarzan stories. While these are at least acceptable, there is also a particularly dismal effort, The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod, Tarzan as written by William Burroughs, the author of The Naked Lunch.
From the point of view of this Website, another serendipitous aspect of the Riverworld series is that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) is a major character. He appears with Richard Burton (the translator of the Arabian Nights and The Perfumed Garden, not the actor!), Alice Liddell and many others.
Ratings:
| Nudity | Naturist nudity | A good read? |
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