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Apr 20

Grade inflationClick for larger image

Brain Aldiss Comments: Dickless wonder … no more!

You might remember this from here.

Published 1965

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 7.90 out of 10)
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16 Responses to “Brain Wave”

  1. THX 1139 Says:

    And by the end of the book, IQ 15.

  2. Bibliomancer Says:

    Koko says: “Terrible sci-fi cover art makes Koko sad … but Good Show Sir!”

  3. fred Says:

    When Dr. Dragon say’s ‘Bend over and cough.’, your 150+ I.Q. better come up with a good excuse not to real quick.

  4. Francis Boyle Says:

    “An IQ of 150+ you say. No thanks, I’ll go with the option of having an actual dick.” – just about every man ever.

  5. Ryan Says:

    Embarrassing to read in public, lazy/terrible art effort, puts the reader off the story – this is truly on the mark.

  6. B. Chiclitz Says:

    @Bibliomancer—Don’t forget Koko uses sign language to communicate. I guess that’s what the loosely closed fist moved rapidly up and down followed by the extended middle finger sign translates to.

  7. Tat Wood Says:

    Let’s be honest, any artwork is superfluous once you’ve decided on that shade of puce for the rest of the cover. So why not go for a picture that looks like an IQ test? ‘

  8. A.R.Yngve Says:

    The “super-intelligent” cover design is dripping with irony (i.e. the editors didn’t expect geniuses to read this stuff, so they made a cover aimed at simpletons)….

  9. GSS ex-noob Says:

    I remember this as being a pretty good book (novella/ette), but not having any dragons in it. Maybe it’s a collection that has a dragon story?

    The top reads like an announcement/introduction to an impressed crowd:

    “Poul Anderson”
    “OOOOOOooooooooooooooooo”

    I, um, guess that’s a pretty well-done gorilla head?

    @Tat: Puce hard by chartreuse! Was there an outbreak of color blindness in the cover department? I mean, we can tell they had no taste.

  10. A.R.Yngve Says:

    I read BRAIN WAVE as a teenager…

    I recall that back then, one part of the plot seemed particularly reactionary and dumb: the protagonist’s housewife, struck by the IQ-boosting “brain wave”, lobotomized herself so she wouldn’t have to suffer the agony of being a genius.

    Why would anyone deliberately choose to be stupid? I reasoned… back then. Of course, I later learned that such people exist…

  11. Bruce A Munro Says:

    @A.R. Yngve: well, they do say ignorance is bliss…

    There’s also a racist bit where a Buddhist (or Hindu maybe) is unhappy with the situation because he can’t manage a meditative trance anymore: you see, Really Powerful Minds can’t just shut themselves down like that. (Insert eye-rolling GIF)

  12. Hammy Says:

    Hey! Does Giant Gorilla Head have a moon falling out of its ear, or is it just a Small Gorilla Head that’s leaking Everlasting Gobstoppers?

  13. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Gobstoppers are multicolored, so that’s a moon. Or a rock if the gorilla is normal-sized.

  14. Hammy Says:

    @GSSxn (prev.):

    I know about Gobstoppers. I have two theater boxes of them waiting for me in my desk drawer at work. 😉

    So, SGH is just losing his marbles, then?

  15. Hammy Says:

    @GSSxn (prev.):

    So, SGH is just losing his marbles, then?

  16. Bruce A Munro Says:

    Look at how big that gorilla’s eyes are: I bet he’s used his expanded intelligence to invent drugs and is hallucinating the rest of the cover.

    Or perhaps the artist is saying that he doesn’t buy the author’s explanation, it was the lizard people’s plot all along.

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