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Boris Vian’s science fiction

Several of Boris Vian’s books reflected his interest in science fiction, although sf made up only a small part of his activities. In Vercoquin et le plancton, joys of life are threatened by standardization, represented by the Association Française de Normalisation.

L’Automne à Pékin (1947) was a desert utopia, set in the imaginary land of Exopotamia, where a pointless railway is constructed. L’Herbe rouge (1950) was a time-machine story, in which one character is haunted by a double.

Copyright © 2005 by Dana Paramskas

Thank you for forwarding the information! Although old now, the stories sound strangely current in their interest; perhaps some of our readers are familiar with them and would like to write a review. Of course I’d love to check out the time-travel story, and the theme of the double practically has my name on it... Oh, and I forgot to ask: do we have any of these around the house?

Don