an invisible "fairy", able to travel almost without restriction and perceive hidden things. The undergoders regard this as a sinful and dangerous practice, so much so that they discourage musical performance of any kind; but in the coastal cities flying is a fad, so popular that singers are afraid to admit not having been able to achieve it. Many Americans simply refuse to believe that such a radical escape is possible and claim that flying is a hallucination, but still take precautions to avoid being observed by "fairies". Literary significance Harold Bloom listed On Wings of Song in The Western Canon, as did David Pringle in his Science Fiction: 100 Best Novels. John Clute wrote in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction that it "thematically sums up most of the abiding concerns of TMD's career, as well as presenting an exemplary portrait of the pleasures and miseries of art in a world made barbarous by material scarcities and spiritual lassitude; in the final analysis, however, it lacks the complex, energetic denseness of the earlier book." Author William Gibson described it as "one of the great neglected masterpieces of late 20th-century science fiction." Michael Bishop in A Reverie for Mister Ray writes that the novel "comments on the American predicament by exaggerating its salient stinks...leaving us to walk about in this funhouse future as if it were real. [We are] repeatedly surprised by the vividness with which Disch has rendered our present provincialism, conformity, commercialism, frivolity, intolerance, and narcissism. On Wings of Song is a major accomplishment of American letters." Awards and nominations On Wings of Song won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1980. It was nominated for the 1979 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 1979 BSFA Award for Best Novel, the 1980 Hugo Award for Best Novel, the 1980 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, the 1981 Balrog Award, the 1982 Prometheus Award, and was runner-up for the 2004 Premio Ignotus for Best Foreign Novel for the Spanish translation, En alas de la canción. References Sources Rossi, Umberto, "On a Background, Catastrophic, the Story, Ironic: Ecological Awareness and Capitalist Shortsightedness in Thomas M. Disch’s On Wings of Song", Foundation 31:85, Summer 2002, 89-105. External links 1979 review by Gerald Jonas in New York Times 2004 review Bibliography with cover scans at Fantasticfiction.co.uk 1979 American novels 1979 science fiction novels 1979 fantasy novels American science fiction novels Novels