MELTZER, David

(1937-)

   US poet and novelist whose sf is almost entirely restricted to two sequences of erotic novels published by ESSEX HOUSE at the end of the 1960s, though he published a very few stories earlier. The first sequence,the Agency series - The Agency (1968), The Agent (1968) and How Many Blocks in the Pile? (1969) - is a remarkably savage SATIRE of aNEAR FUTURE USA through a plot whose erotic nature (a young man is indoctrinated by the eponymous organization into sexual slavery, and himself becomes an agent for his masters) can readily be seen as a metaphor illustrating the nature of post-industrial society.This vision is even more sharply focused in the Brain Plant sequence - comprising Brain Plant \#1: Lovely (1969), \#2: Healer (1969), \#3: Out (1969) and \#4: GlueFactory (1969) - in which cartoonlike characters ricochet surreally through a disjointed USA in a pre-programmed search for theme-park SEX, while the secret masters - in this case the military-industrial complex - rule on.Most of DM's work, from his first book, Poems (coll 1957 chap), has been poetry, and he can be seen as a very late member of the Beat Generation; his roots in that tradition help make clear the intersectionof erotic excess and political protest in his work.

   JC