Seen in TV Tropes entry for the New Wave

[james_davis_nicoll]

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War was a bizarre deconstruction of military SF, full of surreal imagery and borderline existentialism, inspired by the author's real-life experiences in the Vietnam war.

What book did they read? Not The Forever War.

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I don't know. The fight against the teddy bears who shoot bubbles that take the top of your head off? That's pretty surreal.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

And the notion of an individual trapped in an insane world of which they have no control is definitely existentialist.

I can see it.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

+1 on this and "new to genre". Psychic teddy bears, no less.

I did enjoy the space combat sections, and the "life on Charon" sections. The future Earth where everyone is gay and all the men are therefore effeminate...*near-fatal eyeroll*