The Santaroga Barrier
by Frank Herbert · first published 1968
33% recommend67% neutral
On the face of it Santaroga seemed like any other small California town in an agricultural valley. But this one had its own — unofficial — rules. Outsiders found no houses available to let or for sale. G.I.'s always returned there on discharge. No Santarogan ever left the valley. No chain Supermarket could open there. Were they simply "last-ditchers"? Or was there some other explanation, physical, psychological or even extraterrestrial? Gilbert Dasein, pshychologist, with an old college girl-friend living there, went to try to find out. It wasn't any of the things he th
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>I am not aware of a more prescient bit of science fiction. Bradbury knew how people worked and what we'd try to make. I'm not certain it is, but The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert has a rather interesting excerpt: >To those men in their oddly similar dark suits, their cold eyes weighing and dismissing everything, the people of this valley were a foe to be defeated.…
on “Harrison Bergeron (1961)” ↗You'd love The Santaroga Barrier by Herbert. I typed of this excerpt and have used it countless times: >To those men in their oddly similar dark suits, their cold eyes weighing and dismissing everything, the people of this valley were…
on “I was let go for refusing to deploy a dark pattern” ↗…books, concept albums) that aren't really novels. I think Fred Pohl is missing (say Gateway) and also Joe Halderman (Worlds!). I'd rather see any Frank Herbert book but Dune (say Whipping Star or The Santaroga Barrier.) On the other hand, put a sci-fi fan in charge of making this list and it's no doubt they'll add a stick of books from some author who is a "no account" in literary circles like Piers Anthony.
on “New Wave Sci-Fi: 75 Best Novels of 1964–1983” ↗…were so many "sci-fi fans" who had read Hitchhiker 20 times but never read Asimov or Heinlein or Dick or Smith or LeGunn or Pohl or... I am a big fan of Frank Herbert's other books, particularly The Santaroga Barrier, Under Pressure, Destination Void, Eyes of Heisenberg, Whipping Star and the Dosadi books. I can't stand Dune but for some reason people read it over and over again and don't get into the rest of…
on “Nobody Wants to Buy the Future: Why Science Fiction Literature Is Vanishing” ↗I like the Dosadi books, Whipping Star, the short stories in Eye, Eyes of Heisenberg, Destination: Void, The Santaroga Barrier (which my wife hates), Under Pressure and Hellstrom's Hive. If I had to pick just one it might be Whipping Star but maybe Under Pressure is the hardest sci-fi.
on “Vernor Vinge has died” ↗Kind of reminded me of the short novel The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert for some reason.
on “I feel like im talking to the borg” ↗…customer would accept without jarring him into a "rejection pattern." >And we're their spies, Dasein thought. the psychiatrists and psychologists - all the "social scientists" we're the espionage arm. The Santaroga Barrier, Frank Herbert, 1968
on “Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private” ↗The Frank Herbert book 'The Santaroga Barrier' has a psychoactive substance (much like the "spice" in his Dune books) called "Jaspers", named after Karl Jaspers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Santaroga_Barrier
on “Existentialist” ↗…customer would accept without jarring him into a "rejection pattern." >And we're their spies, Dasein thought. the psychiatrists and psychologists - all the "social scientists" we're the espionage arm. The Santaroga Barrier, Frank Herbert, 1968
on “YouTube is testing a more aggressive approach against ad blockers” ↗…customer would accept without jarring him into a "rejection pattern." >And we're their spies, Dasein thought. the psychiatrists and psychologists - all the "social scientists" we're the espionage arm. The Santaroga Barrier, Frank Herbert, 1968
on “YouTube punishes ad-blocker users with slower videos on non-Chrome browsers” ↗