• more about #thomasdisch more comments →
    bubbagrump: Thom Disch was a God. more »
    jfpierce: I know this has been touched on by other commenters, but going by LeGuin's definition, Brazil is about as far from escapism as is possible, and is pra... more »
    Ricky Cruz: Wow. Been entertained reading the entire discussion and eventhough I disagree with some of the posters, the level of civil discourse on this thread... more »
    Peppermint_m: Art is anything that takes your mind and lets it soar. Escapism is letting reality go hang and enjoying yourself for a while.I see art in cloud forms ... more »
    Pinkhamster: The notion that escapism has to defend itself against elitist academic snobs is seriously out of date. We live in a world where my college did a year... more »
    Pinkhamster: Camus wrote in "Myth of Sisyphus:" "One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises ro... more »
    Pinkhamster: Escapism is not the highest art. You're fairly certain of getting a wildly positive response to such a thesis by posting it on a pop culture blog tha... more »
    Briareosdx: Interesting article. It seems to me that the crux of the matter is one of changing the meaning of the term "escapist" from a pejorative used to dism... more »
    gods-n-clods: Brilliant article. It makes me consider the appeal of escapism contrasted to the theory that the right brain (unconscious) cannot tell the difference ... more »
    Jeremy Tapsell: I like the article, and it is these kind of dialogues that keep me coming back to io9, so bravo CJ. I would argue that Escapism itself is in fact In... more »
    ArthurByronCover: Could just be me, but I think there are a lot of false dilemmas in this discussion (though truth to tell, I've wrestled with the same question forever... more »
    braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.: Oh, wait. I see what you did here. You just redefined "escapist" to mean "about escaping." (or, possibly "imaginative") Which, you know, fine, I g... more »
    Seviche: I never try to define why I like what I like. Nor do I try to define why others like what they like. It takes all the fun out and also makes you look ... more »
    nicolaz: To paraphrase Tolkien: those most likely to be upset by the notion of escape are the jailers. What are the gatekeepers afraid of? Nicola Griffith more »
    Mortimer Gray: "...we live in a world that's changing so quickly, that any attempt at pure realism will become historicism instead." Okay, so you're kinda paraphras... more »
  • #rant

    Escapism Is The Highest Form Of Art

    Is escapism the enemy of smart science fiction? Are stories that let us escape reality always inconsequential fluff? That's what people argue — but the reverse is true. Escapism is a literary impulse, and escapist art is the highest art. More »
  • #triviagasm

    Virtual Resurrection: The Dead Who Went To Cyber-Heaven

    Is there life after death? Maybe, if you're wired. After all, death is just a failure of storage media. Science fiction is full of people who've died in meatspace, only to live on in cyberspace. Here's our inventory of cyber-Heaven. More »
  • #exclusive

    Tachyon's Jacob Weisman Talks Steampunk, Slipstream And Thomas Disch

    If you've read an exciting/edgy book of short SF in the past few years, there's a decent chance it comes from Tachyon Publications. We talked to publisher Jacob Weisman about niche publishing, and Thomas Disch.