Bug Jack Barron does not fit within any subgenre, except for falling in the general category of extrapolatory science fiction. There are precedents for some of its various elements, though.

James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) was the first novel noted for using stream-ofconsciousness techniques. Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars (1956) examines immortality from another angle. Later, John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider (1975) also presented a future dominated by media images.

Spinrad says his technique in Bug Jack Barron was inspired by McLuhan's theories in Understanding Media (1964).

The milieu of the 1960s, both the general counterculture influences and the ferment the New Wave brought to science fiction writers — still a relatively small circle in this era — are also obvious in the book.