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Honestly, this dismissive comment helped me formulate a thing in my mind. So, as a Black American, I do believe it's important to hear from the voices of peopl
by jrm4 2y ago
Honestly, this dismissive comment helped me formulate a thing in my mind.
So, as a Black American, I do believe it's important to hear from the voices of people who are suffering.
That being said, I find that, unfortunately, that market-in-books tends to really lean into the suffering, and I say it's important to consider the extent to which that might weigh down the writing and the reading experience.
This is the primary reason I bristle at the idea of "getting away from e.g. white male writers." There, of course, is nothing inherently better about them; but our unfortunate social / cultural / historical filters have made it so that (easily findable) writing that is free from certain kinds of suffering comes from them -- and sometimes you need that too.
- 082349872349872 2y agoOne detail that struck me in Le Guin's Dispossessed was when her anarchist-from-an-anarchist-society protagonist visits the neighbouring planet and discovers (a little to his dismay? or is it just puzzling?) that compared with his other physics colleagues there, he admires the franchise of the aristocrat the most.
- vinnyvichy 2y agoSinclair Lewis has a sort of parallel there-and-back-again story of the heroic scientist from the backwoods. (The erstwhile Mr. Dorothy Thompson) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767891 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767891
- 082349872349872 2y agoAn ostinato themes in Dispo is cycles vs lines; today I'm not so surprised to reencounter Ms Thompson*, but was pleasantly surprised by the following cycle: (1986) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B_UYYPb-Gk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B_UYYPb-Gk (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcCK99wHrk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcCK99wHrk0 (1978) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjXLzapT4-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjXLzapT4-Q (1975) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6fs26i4BA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE6fs26i4BA now time for me to listen to The Meters, and get some prehistory? (then again, a basic problem is once you hit New Orleans, everyone has influenced everyone) Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvuPuOrYMlg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvuPuOrYMlg * the "escalating terrorism" mentioned in her en.WP article probably refers to things like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing ?