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Out Of Their Minds
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Out of their minds and the force of their imagination, men have created countless beings, from demons and monsters of legend to comic-strip characters. What if their world were real--if dragons, devils and Don Quixote hobnobbed with Dagwood Bumstead and Charlie Brown? Such a world would have its facinations..and its dreadful perils--if it existed. Horton Smith found out th
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Simak and his parallel-world ideas...
Q:
I think that we are haunted," he had said, "by all the fantasies, all the make-believe, all the ogres that we have ever dreamed, dating from that day when the caveman squatted in the dark beside his fire and stared out into the blackness of the night which lay beyond the cave. Imagining what might be out there. Knowing, of course, what might be out there, for he would have been the one to know — a hunter, a gatherer, a roamer of the wilderness. (c)
Q:
Why, I ...more
Q:
I think that we are haunted," he had said, "by all the fantasies, all the make-believe, all the ogres that we have ever dreamed, dating from that day when the caveman squatted in the dark beside his fire and stared out into the blackness of the night which lay beyond the cave. Imagining what might be out there. Knowing, of course, what might be out there, for he would have been the one to know — a hunter, a gatherer, a roamer of the wilderness. (c)
Q:
Why, I ...more
as with the other clifford d. simak books i've read, the ideas behind the story are simply ingenious strokes of miracle on the page, they are the ideas that you've almost thought of, but never fully realized only understanding this when confronted with a book like out of their minds. in out of your minds, simak is playing with the idea that man's own imagination is rebelling against him, that we've created beings as we imagined them, from our fears and whimsies, our comic strips, and bumps in th
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I think this was the first book I ever read by one of my favourite authors, so the fellow pictured on the cover alone knows how come I hadn't added it before now.
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Horton Smith was after some peace and quiet so that he could write a book. A place where he could have expected to find that was his boyhood home, the sleepy, isolated village of Pilot Knob. What he didn't expect to happen when he arrived was to be chased by a Triceratops.
Escaping the dinosaur he seeks refuge and shares a meal and some moonshine whiskey with an elderly comic-strip couple brought to life, then wakes up in a cave with a rattlesnake on his chest.
To say the least, 'there was somet ...more
Escaping the dinosaur he seeks refuge and shares a meal and some moonshine whiskey with an elderly comic-strip couple brought to life, then wakes up in a cave with a rattlesnake on his chest.
To say the least, 'there was somet ...more
I love Simak's SF but not so much his fantasy. This story seemed to work too hard to make some not very interesting observations. There was none of the magical feeling you get from good fantasy. If it was suppose to be satirical it didn't accomplish that either.
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In 2020 I read Clifford D. Simak's 1970 Out of their Minds in its Heyne Verlag German 1971 edition (translated by Birgit Ress-Bohusch). A very trashy sleave with pulpy art by C. A. M Thole where a small red convertible (a Matchbox-sized vehicle in proportion) is being threatened or attacked by huge looking winged dragons and a ludicrous huge demonic creature with a red fluttering cape. Even the German title "Verteufelte Welt" (more like Bedeviled World or Infernal, Devilish World) was probably a
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Dec 31, 2018
Steve
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction-and-fantasy,
re-read
Every creature and thing that mankind has ever imagined exists in some way in the present. There are werewolves and cartoon characters, witches and Civil War soldiers, unicorns and the Devil himself. And they are no longer imaginary; if you are shot through the heart by an archer from fantasy, you are truly dead.
Horton Smith is a nationally known radio and television reporter who wants to take time to relax, fish, and write a book. He returns to the rural town in which he spent his childhood. Un ...more
Horton Smith is a nationally known radio and television reporter who wants to take time to relax, fish, and write a book. He returns to the rural town in which he spent his childhood. Un ...more
Different
You never know what to expect with a Simak story. From the blurb, I was expecting something more along the lines of “Goblin Reservation“ then “Way Station“; it turned out to be neither. Although written in 1970, it had a sense of being much older while at the same time espousing some timeless principles.
The urge to go back home and hope that nothing has changed since you were a kid is still around. The challenges of dealing with the loss of rapid transportation and instant communication ...more
You never know what to expect with a Simak story. From the blurb, I was expecting something more along the lines of “Goblin Reservation“ then “Way Station“; it turned out to be neither. Although written in 1970, it had a sense of being much older while at the same time espousing some timeless principles.
The urge to go back home and hope that nothing has changed since you were a kid is still around. The challenges of dealing with the loss of rapid transportation and instant communication ...more
I've read a lot of Simak's stuff, but this was the first fantasy of his that I've read. The plot toys with the idea that the characters of our imagination could be forced to exist by our belief, so the hero encounters the Devil, werewolves, Don Quixote and others. The idea is interesting but it wasn't pulled off well. The plot took too long to get going, spending the first quarter or so indulging in the love of old country life that is evident in a lot of Simak's work (although often used to muc
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Out of Their Minds is not Clifford D. Simak at his best. The basic story involves the premise of the evolution of human thought creating an alternate reality of imaginative characters, that are real in that realm. It's a nonsensical premise and Simak plays his way through it. In other hands this would be a mish mash of nonsense, and in some ways it is, yet Simak does manage to tell an entertaining story around it. I only rate it at four stars because of Clifford D. Simak's stature as an author a
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Very fun book to read.
Sep 23, 2021
Cheryl is busier irl atm.
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
dave-and-i-both-read
I dunno. I'm fond of Simak's books, but I think his short stories are often better. And his SF is better than his fantasy. But there's something special inside even odd efforts like this one, something rewarding to a reader capable of seeing what the man was going after. I, unfortunately, couldn't quite make it out... mainly because the surface premise made no sense to me as presented. The dogs & not-quite dogs really through me off.
So, start elsewhere with Simak, work up to this gradually.
"... ...more
So, start elsewhere with Simak, work up to this gradually.
"... ...more
It is probably known for certain (egocentric?) readers feeling - percievable not only a possibilty of writing (doing) theme better (wiser), but truly accessible is non-verbal knowledge ('insight') of someone who already wrote (did) it (or even writing (doing) it simultaneously with your reading).
That's the way with "Out of their minds". Maybe, i'll add more analysis or kind of (twaddle) 'sophistics' other day, but for now - if i have no questions for novel (its' characters, language or 'chain of ...more
That's the way with "Out of their minds". Maybe, i'll add more analysis or kind of (twaddle) 'sophistics' other day, but for now - if i have no questions for novel (its' characters, language or 'chain of ...more
Not as fond of this one as I am of many of Simak's other works, because it spends 85% of its time circling its subject in all these oblique, unsatisfying ways, and only 15% of its time actually making contact with it. That 15% could have been lifted off and transformed into a vastly superior book -- a story about the responsibilities we owe to our imaginations and vice versa. But was it worth reading for that 15%? Yeah, I guess, if you're a fast reader (as I am).
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This is a bit different even for Clifford Simak. Our minds are the next evolutionary step and everything we create exists in an alternate world. One man is at odds with those creations. This was somewhere between a short story and a novella and I felt like a longer story would have fleshed out some of the plot elements better.
I'm a big fan of Simak, but even for him this one is long on ideas and thin on execution. Still fun, not good best, but its a great collection of images and ideas which, now that I think about it, is on- brand for the plot.
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A reporter on a leave of absence returns to his home town to write a book but instead gets caught in a world where fantasy and fiction are real. I can't say too much about it without spoiling it, but this is a hell of a fun read!
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Neil Gaiman might have read 'Out of Their Minds' sometime before coming up with his American Gods...
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Fictional characters come to life. Another strange one by Simak.
My rating: ★★★✫
Interesting
Pretty typical stream of consciousness novel from Simak. Wonderful writing but jumbled story structure. Interesting take on a “Ready Player One” concept though.
Hard to categorize this one. Featuring Don Quixote and Mickey Mouse, it's an engaging blend of silliness and wonder written with Simak's always beautiful style.
Very enjoyable. ...more
Very enjoyable. ...more
The Devil has a complaint, humans are populating fairie with too many cartoon characters and changing the rules.
Out Of Their Minds is pretty old SF compared to what I usually read, written in the 70s. Reading it now, most if not all of the ideas aren't new to me, but I imagine they were a lot fresher back when it was written. At first it seems to be quite serious, with the careful set up and slow build up, but it doesn't surprise me that it becomes more ridiculous as it goes along -- that's the way humans think, after all, and the crazy beliefs we've had in the past don't have to make that much sense. It'
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Note to self: Stop re-reading books you enjoyed as a teenager.
Though I still like Clifford D. Simak, those novels I have re-read lately have not aged well.
The characters are pretty stereotype (the pretty young school mistress? Please ...) and in this case the ending is very much rushed, almost as if Simak noticed too late that he had arrived at the last page. Or did he notice he hadpainted written himself into a corner ...
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Though I still like Clifford D. Simak, those novels I have re-read lately have not aged well.
The characters are pretty stereotype (the pretty young school mistress? Please ...) and in this case the ending is very much rushed, almost as if Simak noticed too late that he had arrived at the last page. Or did he notice he had
This was a bit of a disappointment for me as I usually find Simak novels more engaging. About halfway through, I was almost ready to give up, but decided to continue since it was a short book.
There was a touch of Lovecraft in the sense that the things of madness, the darker side of man's mind might be real. Yet, I don't think that Simak pulled it off as well as Lovecraft does. The ending felt rushed and a bit silly (as did a few other parts of this story). ...more
There was a touch of Lovecraft in the sense that the things of madness, the darker side of man's mind might be real. Yet, I don't think that Simak pulled it off as well as Lovecraft does. The ending felt rushed and a bit silly (as did a few other parts of this story). ...more
A brilliant look at the role our imagination plays in the world. Dated only because the references are no longer fresh off the funny pages, but no less topically valid than it ever was.
It would make an amazing movie, even if some other films have taken away the then-fresh idea of cross between our funny-paper world and the (so-called) real world.
It would make an amazing movie, even if some other films have taken away the then-fresh idea of cross between our funny-paper world and the (so-called) real world.
"...Mr. Smith and his sulfurous friend..." Ha ha ha!
Funny how much of a change in the use of contractions in writing has occurred since this was written in 1970. To me, a cross between Weaveworld and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. my first Simak read, I'll give him at least another read. ...more
Funny how much of a change in the use of contractions in writing has occurred since this was written in 1970. To me, a cross between Weaveworld and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. my first Simak read, I'll give him at least another read. ...more
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