House of Stairs

[checkers65477]

I finished House of Stairs by William Sleator in one evening, an almost unheard-of feat for me, a slow reader easily distracted by the Internet.

I came upon this book when I was weeding the fiction section in my library. I was intrigued by it, with its ugly, dated cover from 1974. A slim 166 pages, it's science fiction and tells about five teens who find themselves in a strange place, "no walls, no ceiling, no floor. Nothing but stairs." They have to figure out how to interact with one another, how to remain hopeful, how to acquire food that comes only from a Skinner-type conditioned response to a machine that dispenses meat pellets. What will they do when the machine requires them to hurt one another if they want to survive? It's suspenseful and has a real 70s feel to it. No book today would treat an obese character like this book does. Whoa, the-times-they-have-achanged. It would be a real discussion-starter and was an interesting psychological study. Very thought provoking, though it might be a hard sell with the cover.



I kept picturing an M. C. Escher painting in my head, when there were descriptions of the world where the book takes place.

Cool.

Comments

[peggy-2.livejournal.com]

I like interspersing my light romances with more thought provoking reads. Good find, and the escher picture is perfect.

Nice to have your posts back on my friends page, even if I don't get notified : )

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

So strange. Don't know why you don't get the notifications.

[crowinator.livejournal.com]

That book is such a classic! We even read it in one of my library school classes on YA fiction (and yeah, it had that same cover, too). It's a great one for discussions; William Sleator often is. I still find the ending chilling -- and I always end up thinking of Lord of the Flies, even though it's different, because of the way the psychology of human nature plays in. Maybe there's a cheap copy with an updated cover out there? (c:

[sdn.livejournal.com]

yes, there is. i publish it.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I'm not seeing it on Firebird's site though I got completely distracted by the cover of Dingo and the cover gallery. Wow.

Is this (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41CEF1QRKZL.jpg) it? Seems to be a Penguin cover.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

that's it.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I reminded me of Lord of the Flies, too. There have been several different covers and it's strange that the stairs are not even on this one.

Being an ancient psychology major, I could really appreciate that aspect of the book; the conditioning and manipulation. Very cool.

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I just read A Drowned Maiden's Hair. Tell me your thoughts when you are done! Am looking for a post office RE: Bimbos. Sorry for the delay. XD

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Ah, don't worry about any delay. No problem.

I'm not too far into A Drowned Maiden's Hair but keep thinking, whoa she writes really well. Lovely language and descriptions.