Review of “With No Strings Attached” (1963)
David Gordon (writer).
Read in 2025.
An inventor from Minnesota gradually resigns himself to market his work as a black box, in a suitcase with two electrodes, 14” apart.
This is step up from “The Professional Approach” (1962): It’s a more entertaining interrogation of the relationship between plausibility, credibility, and realism, all interfacing with patent law, economics and the US military-industrial complex. It’s dressed up in a series of anecdotes told by and about mildly interesting characters in decent prose, without the spectacle and narcissism of more popular science fiction.
References here: Valis (1981).