On Wings of Song

On Wings of Song is a science fiction novel by the American writer Thomas M. Disch, published in 1979. It first appeared as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, in three installments between February and April 1979. Like his previous novel, 334, it is a bitter satire that depicts a near-future America falling into worsening economic and social crisis.

The story is set in suburban Iowa and New York City around the middle of the 21st century. Its first section follows the childhood and adolescence of Daniel Weinreb, an imaginative boy who adapts to his conservative surroundings until a minor act of rebellion sends him to prison at the age of fourteen. After falling in love with the daughter of a powerful reactionary tycoon, he moves with her to New York, hoping to become a musician and to explore the forbidden art of "flying", an electronically assisted astral projection. Tragedy and exploitation shatter his idealism, yet he persists and becomes an internationally famous and controversial performer.

The portrait of the country is one of the book's great strengths. The Midwestern Farm Belt is ruled by a coalition of the Christian right, known as "undergoders", while the coastal states resemble present-day urban life, with great economic inequality but more permissive social attitudes. The novel was well received by critics and is often considered Disch's best work, although it was a commercial failure.