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missroserose...for once.
What I've just finished reading
Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is one of those books you can't really discuss without discussing the ending; the last part ties together many of the themes raised throughout. As I think I mentioned before, what I kept turning over in my head was precisely what Tchaikovsky was saying about human nature. (Spoilers ahoy.) I mean, throughout this long, long history, we witness the (beautifully written) accidental growth and evolution of an incredibly complex spider-society on the terraformed planet—terraformed by humans, and accelerated in its evolution by a human-engineered virus that promotes empathy and cooperation between its carriers. Simultaneously, we see the last vestige (so far as we know) of humanity, driven by all our worst instincts (fear and greed), only barely make it to this planet—this planet that they've convinced themselves they're entitled to, because that's the only thought that's keeping them going. The spiders, obviously, aren't big on the idea of giving up their planet to a genocidal race, but rather than annihilate the humans and their clear potential, they re-engineer the virus to create that same sense of empathy towards their race, and infect the humans with it, thus ending the conflict and allowing both races to move forward together, their diverse viewpoints making technological and social leaps that one race alone could never have achieved. So the spiders end up being the more humane of the two, and saving the humans from themselves...and yet without human ingenuity, their race would never have existed, so in a way the humans save themselves (sow the seeds of their own salvation, as it were). I honestly can't decide—is Tchaikovsky pro- or anti-humanity? Pro- or anti-technology? Does he think humans are inherently good? awful? self-interested? Is this story a warning or a wishful fantasy? I genuinely can't figure it out.
In retrospect, I had to laugh—when I got to the Big Epic Space Battle (which is told from the humans' point of view, and thus keeps the bit about the reverse-virus secret until the last), I was saying to Brian "This is well-written, but I was really hoping for the Star Trek ending..." And then the book goes and directly references Star Trek in the epilogue, haha. And yet...while it was definitely more hopeful than I'd initially feared, I don't think it was a Star Trek ending; the whole point of Trek is that humans can be better, we can solve our problems through diplomacy and finding common ground with those we encounter, no matter how strange or alien they may seem. Clearly that's not what happened here; the humans had to be genetically altered to find that common ground, and something about that just...doesn't quite sit right with me. It smacks of coercion, and I guess I prefer stories where people choose to do the right thing on their own. Still, it's a hell of a story, and I certainly enjoyed it.
The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope. A super-fun (if super-Victorian) swashbuckling adventure read, with heroes and villains and swordfights and escapes and all manner of derring-do. (Also precisely the right kind of book one can describe with the phrase "derring-do".) Unsubtle in the extreme; when the characters profess surprise that someone named Black Michael, possessed of an isolated castle far in the woods, turns out to be a kidnapper and would-be usurper, well...I had to laugh. I admit I mostly read it because I'm looking forward to KJ Charles' upcoming The Henchman of Zenda...and having encountered the characters that telling is centered upon, I'm looking forward to it even more now.
What I'm currently reading
I actually picked up The Master and Margarita again, and I think I'm starting to gain the thread of it—so of course the thing to do now is to start all over again, with a different translation! Actually, I mostly wanted a Kindle edition with linked footnotes, so I invested in the 50th Anniversary Edition, which also came with a foreword and introduction that've provided some useful context on Bulgakov's life as well as a rundown of the various themes and characters. So I'm more hopeful this time around (and having easy access to the footnotes is helping as well.)
What I plan to read next
Probably something at random I grab off of the shelf, virtual or physical...it all depends.
What I've just finished reading
Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. This is one of those books you can't really discuss without discussing the ending; the last part ties together many of the themes raised throughout. As I think I mentioned before, what I kept turning over in my head was precisely what Tchaikovsky was saying about human nature. (Spoilers ahoy.) I mean, throughout this long, long history, we witness the (beautifully written) accidental growth and evolution of an incredibly complex spider-society on the terraformed planet—terraformed by humans, and accelerated in its evolution by a human-engineered virus that promotes empathy and cooperation between its carriers. Simultaneously, we see the last vestige (so far as we know) of humanity, driven by all our worst instincts (fear and greed), only barely make it to this planet—this planet that they've convinced themselves they're entitled to, because that's the only thought that's keeping them going. The spiders, obviously, aren't big on the idea of giving up their planet to a genocidal race, but rather than annihilate the humans and their clear potential, they re-engineer the virus to create that same sense of empathy towards their race, and infect the humans with it, thus ending the conflict and allowing both races to move forward together, their diverse viewpoints making technological and social leaps that one race alone could never have achieved. So the spiders end up being the more humane of the two, and saving the humans from themselves...and yet without human ingenuity, their race would never have existed, so in a way the humans save themselves (sow the seeds of their own salvation, as it were). I honestly can't decide—is Tchaikovsky pro- or anti-humanity? Pro- or anti-technology? Does he think humans are inherently good? awful? self-interested? Is this story a warning or a wishful fantasy? I genuinely can't figure it out.
In retrospect, I had to laugh—when I got to the Big Epic Space Battle (which is told from the humans' point of view, and thus keeps the bit about the reverse-virus secret until the last), I was saying to Brian "This is well-written, but I was really hoping for the Star Trek ending..." And then the book goes and directly references Star Trek in the epilogue, haha. And yet...while it was definitely more hopeful than I'd initially feared, I don't think it was a Star Trek ending; the whole point of Trek is that humans can be better, we can solve our problems through diplomacy and finding common ground with those we encounter, no matter how strange or alien they may seem. Clearly that's not what happened here; the humans had to be genetically altered to find that common ground, and something about that just...doesn't quite sit right with me. It smacks of coercion, and I guess I prefer stories where people choose to do the right thing on their own. Still, it's a hell of a story, and I certainly enjoyed it.
The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope. A super-fun (if super-Victorian) swashbuckling adventure read, with heroes and villains and swordfights and escapes and all manner of derring-do. (Also precisely the right kind of book one can describe with the phrase "derring-do".) Unsubtle in the extreme; when the characters profess surprise that someone named Black Michael, possessed of an isolated castle far in the woods, turns out to be a kidnapper and would-be usurper, well...I had to laugh. I admit I mostly read it because I'm looking forward to KJ Charles' upcoming The Henchman of Zenda...and having encountered the characters that telling is centered upon, I'm looking forward to it even more now.
What I'm currently reading
I actually picked up The Master and Margarita again, and I think I'm starting to gain the thread of it—so of course the thing to do now is to start all over again, with a different translation! Actually, I mostly wanted a Kindle edition with linked footnotes, so I invested in the 50th Anniversary Edition, which also came with a foreword and introduction that've provided some useful context on Bulgakov's life as well as a rundown of the various themes and characters. So I'm more hopeful this time around (and having easy access to the footnotes is helping as well.)
What I plan to read next
Probably something at random I grab off of the shelf, virtual or physical...it all depends.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-19 11:51 pm (UTC)I know in history people have used language to equate their enemies with vermin to justify genocide. That makes me think two things: first, that people share a sense of wrongness about actual genocide and have to try to disguise it as something else, and second, that people didn't feel that way about wiping out things that didn't reach that standard. I'm glad we've broadened our sense of ... not sure what to call it: compassion/sense of fellow-creature-hood to a place where we also feel it's bad to wipe out other species, but I notice we haven't reached that point with things like the smallpox virus or the AIDS virus. I like the spiders' solution...
Tangentially, it made me uncomfortable when I thought the spiders were going to wipe out the ants, because even though the ants weren't individually aware, they had a kind of awareness en masse. But then the spiders didn't! So that was good/cool.
no subject
Date: 2018-04-20 03:31 pm (UTC)That said, I think there's a reasonable difference between killing creatures that are invading your home and wishing you could kill *all* examples of a creature. I don't want all ants everywhere to die, they serve an important purpose. Same with mice, snakes, lizards, moths, and everything else we had invade our house (mostly in Arizona). About the only critter I feel that strongly about is mosquitoes; I recognize they have their place in the ecosystem but I HAAAATE those bloodsuckers Probably because there's just no negotiating boundaries with them. Maybe that's the differentiator (and why the humans were so happy to think of the spiders as vermin)—if something's invading 'your space', you're much more likely to be hostile to it. And it was pretty clear that the humans had a sense of entitlement about 'their planet', which is problematic in itself.
(Also, Brian just came out and asked what I was up to, and I answered cheerily, "Discussing genocide with my friend!" Because this is what I do for fun, haha.)
no subject
Date: 2018-04-21 07:04 am (UTC)