A little linkage this morning:

• John Clute talks clearly as always about the Jonathan Lethem-edited Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 60s over at scifi.com. He talks about everything except whether Dick, who must be admired and understood, can still actually be read, now that we are living in his world – something that Gary Wolfe touches on in Locus next month (not online). You need to read both articles, and perhaps glance at Graham Sleight’s related Locus article. I’d also draw your attention, when discussing Dick, to this new Gollancz book, Human Is?: A Philip K. Dick Reader, which collects some of his best short fiction.
• Lou Anders has been discussing a number of interesting things over a Bowing to the Future. He’s written several suprisingly interesting pieces on SF and literary respectability: I say surprising, not because it’s surprising that Lou’s opinions are interesting, but because the subject is so deadly dull. I am constantly astonished that anyone still cares whether sf achieves literary respectabilty or not. Yes, it was nice that Stephen King won his big award, and it’s lovely that Bradbury got his Pulitzer. Good stuff. But, we live in a science fictional world. Whether or not the literary mainstream acknowledge it or not, we are living and breathing science fiction ever single minute of our 21st Century First World Western European lives. And Lou, in two quite elegant posts, seems pretty much headed to that point of view too, though I think he’d like the respect anyhow, which I can understand.
• And via Lou, a pretty good review by David Soyka over at Strange Horizons, that looks at Lou’s Fast Forward and George Mann’s The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction. The review is fine, and both books are worth checking out. I think I like Lou’s better of the two, but that may just be my taste. Anyhow, Soyka says of anthologies that these days “You can’t just put together a bunch of stories you think are really cool”, and goes on to say that you need themes and such. I think you can. I think I have. And I think that’s what Lou and George have done. I do sometimes wonder if I’m slipping further and further out of touch…