So I was digging through the open stacks at the library today, trying to find some stuff on/by Ursula Le Guin and H.G. Wells, and you’ll never guess what I found.
Yeah, the majority of Bruce Sterling’s books. The only things missing were Involution Ocean, The Artificial Kid, Mirrorshades, and The Difference Engine. Oh, plus Zeitgeist and the new collection of short stories and his nonfiction books (which, for all I know, maybe be shelved in some other section). But everything else is there: Globalhead, A Good Old Fashioned Future, and all the novels from Schismatrix to Zeitgeist.
Okay, so like half of Bruce Sterling’s novelistic output. Still, all of that: in English, no less, on a campus in Korea, and despite the existence of at least one or two of his books in Korean translation. (The translations weren’t on hand, but the English originals were!) I was shocked. It makes me wonder whether there might be a good reason for so much SF content on the shelves of the Uni Library. Maybe there’s an SF fan in the lit department or something? I think I’ll try to find out.