Dying Inside in Beyond Reality

Jan 15, 2012 mark monday rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: new-wave, new-dimensions, z-robert-silverberg

Dying Inside is a sterling example of 70s New Wave science fiction. it is about a telepath whose powers are fading. dude is a miserable, depressive asshole who whines endlessly about his life. the end.

wait a sec, maybe that sounds like a bad read to you? well my friend, let me tell you... throw that impression away! this is a marvelous book from beginning to end. it is thought-provoking, often delightful, often hard-edged, completely enjoyable. Silverberg is such a masterful writer and many time Dying Inside is a sterling example of 70s New Wave science fiction. it is about a telepath whose powers are fading. dude is a miserable, depressive asshole who whines endlessly about his life. the end.

wait a sec, maybe that sounds like a bad read to you? well my friend, let me tell you... throw that impression away! this is a marvelous book from beginning to end. it is thought-provoking, often delightful, often hard-edged, completely enjoyable. Silverberg is such a masterful writer and many times i had to stop and reread different passages to better enjoy the beauty of his prose and the intelligence of his ideas. that sharp wit! the story is never monotonous and always resonant. LOVED IT.

it is an episodic novel, moving freely from past to present and back again. we meet our not-so-loveable narrator David Selig, his child psychologist, his girlfriends, his sister and the rest of his family, and a fellow telepath. our loser-ish hero makes his marginal living ghost-writing papers for college students, so there are several anecdotes where we see inside a couple students' minds. our hero is an unrepentant jerkoff, so we also get to read his often excruciating views on women and blacks (his thoughts on black empowerment were particularly troubling). we are shown a couple of his essays, one on Kafka and the other on the Electra complex, and they are fairly interesting - as standalones and as commentary on the narrative itself. each chapter is its own separate, challenging, wonderful little experience. my favorite parts include: a dry and rather evil session with our child protagonist as he toys with an overly-literal child psychologist; an exceedingly creepy and effective 'bad trip' (i think we can safely assume that telepathy does not improve LSD); and best of all, a brilliant flashback to our lonely telepath's youth, as he relaxes in a field, moving through the perspectives of a bee, a fish, two kids getting laid in a forest, and a surprisingly spiritual old farmer.

of particular interest is the the novel's other telepath - the confident, capable, cheerfully guilt-free Nyquist. the chapters about the relationship between the two are particularly illuminating in illustrating how Selig's main problem is not so much his telepathy but his fear of openness, of genuine human connection. Selig's problems do not come from his gifts, but rather from his own neuroses. and so the narrative is basically an accounting of how Selig grows to understand his own issues and then tries to move past them.

in his many other fantasy & scifi novels, Silverberg has proven himself a visionary master of often hallucinatory prose. his ideas can be sublimely poetic, so ambiguous as to be almost intangible, so far-reaching that they can be a real challenge to digest. one of the really fun things about Dying Inside is seeing how Silverberg harnesses his talents for what is basically the prosaic, diary-like musings of a not-that-special guy with some very special powers. Dying Inside is bursting with creativity - as if the author is illustrating how stories can be told in ways that are new, fresh, effervescent. Selig is mordant, jumpy, neurotic and highly sexual, by turns cynical and empathetic, and... hilarious! his narration is often a real treat and the free-flowing, occasionally stream-of-conscious thoughts have a chatty, relaxed, loose-limbed kind of appeal that makes the novel smooth yet tangy going down. and it's not just the distinctive, nakedly honest narrative voice that makes this novel so appealing; many chapters practically overflow with playful, jazzy approaches to style and structure and there are plenty of sophisticated insights, delivered both broadly and in deadpan. Silverberg's generous imagination busts the seams of the narrative; the result is a refreshing tonic.

"Nyquist, pausing a moment to detect and isolate Selig's sense of uneasiness, mocked it gently... I think what really scares you is contact, any sort of contact. Right? Wrong, Selig said, but he had felt the point hit home. For five minutes more they monitored each other's minds..."

a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on Shelf Inflicted. ...more

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Feb 16, 2009 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: award-nominee-hugo, award-nominee-nebula, award-nominee-campbell, award-winner-campbell, easton-press, award-nominee-locus, multiple-award-nominee, minders, locus-all-time-science-fiction-poll, 1970-1979

4.5 to 5.0 stars. Robert Silverberg is one of those writers that has never disappointed me and Dying Inside is no exception. This is often considered Silverberg's best novel and, while not my personal favorite of his, it is easy to see why.

The story is told in the first person by a telepath, David Selig, who is slowly losing his ability to read minds. David, despite his ability to read minds, is almost completely isolated from the rest of society and is unable to form any close attachments. He ...more

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Jul 06, 2009 Sandi added it

Shelves: library-books-read, fantasy, 2009

I finished Dying Inside this morning and I'm still not sure what to say about it. Perhaps I should start by saying that I don't believe this is science fiction at all. I kept looking for the science part and it just wasn't there. I believe that it would have been classified as general fiction if it hadn't been written by a famous science fiction author.

I have to say that I have met few fictional characters that are more pathetic than David Selig. He's not pathetic because he's losing his telepat ...more

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Apr 13, 2009 Sarah rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Sometimes it's difficult to separate form from content. This is a well written book that explores a good concept - the downside of being able to read the minds of others - thoroughly. It's soft sf, content to explore the psychological and social ramifications of the gift/curse without providing explanation of how David Selig came into possession of it. In short, right up my alley.

So why the lukewarm rating? For starters, I found the book fairly dated. I have read my share of timeless SF, but th ...more

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Jun 02, 2008 Matt rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, literature, fantasy

One of the touchstone novels that separates the true aficionado of science fiction from the more casual fan or the aficionados of pulp adventures with fantastic tropes.

I like pulp adventurers with fantastic tropes, but that's hardly the sum of either science fiction or fantasy.

A lot of people report being rather stunned by this book, as they didn't think science fiction was this broad or this well written. This is one of the books I turn to when pretentious literary snobs challenge my taste in b ...more

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Mar 17, 2017 Tom Britz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm not sure what Robert Silverberg thought this novel was about. His writing carried me through this, yet he chose to portray his character, a man born with the gift of reading minds, who is slowly losing that power in his 40's, as a complete jerk. It was apparent early on that David Selig was all about David Selig and no-one else. The novel was episodic in format. Silverberg would jump scenes throughout David's life, as a child and as an adult. The only constant was the pity party that David S ...more

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Jul 12, 2009 Frank Taranto rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

One of the greatest books ever written. This is Silverberg's masterpiece. An in depth character study of a man losing his telepathic power.
Silverberg brings us inside David Selig's mind and we ride along with him as his power wanes and finally disappears altogether. It is an uncomfortable and unsettling ride which makes me look at my inner self as I follow Selig's introspection.
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Jun 15, 2009 Elena rated it did not like it

As I read the reviews of this book I ask myself: did they read the same story I did? I stopped reading half into it. Boring, all this guy can read mind about is sex. Except one time he went on a LSD trip on his girlfriend's mind. And two chapters were just the paper he wrote for money for college students, what was the relevance??? What a waste of time and money. ...more

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