#94

Rumor has it that Kurt Vonnegut,in Breakfast of Champions, based the pornographic hack writer Kilgore Trout on Theodore Sturgeon. One need look no further than Godbody for proof that Vonnegut was unjust.

Why did I read it again after 25 years? I was packing up the library, I saw it, I'd been considering buying the short stories (which Faulty Landscape recommends). I remembered at age 13 how I'd been struggling to free myself from the ugly Christianity of my youth, and how Sturgeon's little book helped liberate me from snake-handling original sin afficionados.

Sure, Godbody reeks of hippie theology, with its nudism and its free love. But this is no mere fuck-book, my friends (though it is a quality fuck-book). This is a gospel, a sophisticated take on the true meaning of Christ and his sacrifice. Joe Campbell could have done an hour with Bill Moyers on this shit.

I rank it with Robert Graves' King Jesus, with Jim Grace's Quarantine, with Hesse's Sidhartta. Read it.