This was a great one, Melissa. Thank you for including my post which included awesome comments from the community! I think we need to make “The Man in the High Castle” our next book club pick.
Seeing all the comments on this subject compiled into one essay gives the reader many different perspectives about this intriguing subject! It’s an amazing communityMelissa, thank you! 🤗✨💜
I’m so glad you enjoyed! That’s what I love about this community—I always get out of my posts way more than what I put in. Thanks for contributing to the discussion 💕
Great point by Jim In Alaska about A Clockwork Orange. There is a fascinating history to the publishing of A Clockwork Orange. The American publisher convinced Burgess to leave the pivotal final chapter out, and Kubrick followed suit when he made the movie.
A while back a friend related a story from a Corrections Officer housing violent felons. We were discussing criminal justice reform. The Corrections Officer had told him that 50% of the people shouldn't really be there (the products of bad choices and bad events), and 50% should never be let out- it tallied with an observation I had made about the ASPD spectrum and violent inmate populations. In real life, the American version would be more accurate 50% of the time, the British version the other 50% of the time, although its also true that biologically, men prone to chronic physical aggression begin to age out of it at around 34.
I’m familiar with Cloward-Piven: Government, the disease of which it pretends to be the cure. I wouldn’t put the stress on organised sabotage though- a lot of readers will dismiss such ideas as conspiracies, even though there is a lot of evidence to suggest that’s exactly what is happening in many instances.
Instead, I usually tend to point to the Saul Alinsky approach “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Most Westerners aren’t ready to believe their elites are actively trying to sabotage society as a means of trying to bring about radical social change. Instead, they have an outdated idea of the Left as being well-meaning but lacking in pragmatism.
The “Never let a good crisis go to waste” usually hits home though. Most people are more willing to believe that government types will take advantage of a crisis in order to self-promote, expand the size and importance of their little bureaucratic empire, and increase their funding.
I suppose it depends whether you are writing for a specific audience or trying to open people’s eyes to a very real problem. Personally, I never tire of explaining to people that the same person who created the decolonisation agenda, Frantz Fanon, also invented modern Islamic Terrorism. He believed, incorrectly, that he could mobilise Islam as a counterforce to the abundance created by Western capitalist systems, and then put it back in the box after the Bloody Socialist Revolution had ushered in the false dream of utopia.
I have long held my views on 1984 & Brave New World.
You mentioned Phlip K. Dick, and I feel obligated to mention Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (the inspiration of Bladerunner).
I am old enough to have a decades worth of sci-fi reading behind me when the genre of Cyberpunk was created. While William Gibson is credited as the father of the genre with Neuromancer, credit should probably go to Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired. Both are entertaining and descriptive dystopian reads. Williams' Voice of the Whirlwind is one of my all time favorites to this day, right up there with Dan Simmons' Hyperion.
I mention these, not just because I envy any first time reader, but because they explore these dystopian futures very well.
Cyberpunk provokes one to consider the banal, even when dressed in futuristic trappings.
The Hyperion series is not necessarily cyberpunk, but rather hard scifi, but it is incredibly relevant considering growing interest in the new Theory of Everything and also the new theories regarding time (that coincide with ancient teachings of enlightenment). The use of architecture as language through the eons and the purpose of religion are a bonus!
If you do read any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Interesting! I’ve never heard of Walter Jon Williams—I’ll definitely keep an eye out for him.
I’ve heard great things about Hyperion. I tried to pick it up once years ago, but I think I was too young for it and it went over my head. You might’ve inspired me to give it another shot.
Classic sci fi- one of the few series that actually comes anywhere close to Dune. One of the best new sci-fi novels I've read recently is The Peacemaker's Code by Deepak Malhotra. His insights into group dynamics are particularly keen.
If you're interested in architecture and religion (and art), you should watch A History of Art in Three Colours. It's from the period when the BBC began to increase the specialist selection of content through digital channels, producing some great high brow content, but before it went woke as an institution.
The 'Blue' episode deals with the role of lapis Lazuli blue in the Roman Catholic Church- a colour reserved for Jesus himself and the Virgin Mary and symbolising purity. The third episode, 'White' deals with the use of white in the authoritarian architecture of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th Century. Dr James Fox's programme on Japanese Art is also well worth a watch. He draws a parallel between Japanese block print art and the French Impressionist movement, noting that cultures thousands of miles distant from each other had very similar reactions to the removal of epic natural grandeur from their environment as populations sought the city to lift their living standards. Degas was a particularly avid collector of Japanese block print art.
Oh- I haven't read Colossus! From a slightly earlier period, John Wyndham wrote a lot more than Day of the Triffids. If you like Military Sci Fi, the Stark's War series by Jack Campbell (originally writing as John G Henry) is pretty good. It posits a world where technology has allowed REMF to micromanage combat. Again in the less high brow category, if you like Libertarian sci fi, Live Free or Die (by John Ringo) and the other two books in the series are well-worth a read.
I agree with you on the lamentable proportion of the population who read for pleasure. I blame progressive education with its innate loathing of phonics. I have a theory that the slight dopamine hit kids get when they correctly 'sound out' a word slowly conditions kids towards reading for pleasure. Perversely, it's also a major source of structural inequality (of the bad kind). Phonics is a leveller for the simple reasons that if progressive teachers pursue the markedly inferior whole word or language approach, then we know full well that kids from upper middle class backgrounds are going to learn phonics from their parents at bedtime, handing them a significant class-based advantage.
I usually go through phases of reading, as I get frustrated at the quality available lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Old Man's War series though.
As a kid growing up pre-internet, I devoured books from our public library. I also had exposure in speed reading in grade school, so I read pretty quick (my kids think it's my superpower lolol, although I claim Hindsight 20/20 is it!).
Interesting theory on phonics, and I can see how that would work.
I have a collection of reading lists on Amazon that I have put together for my children and at least one has started using it.
Classic sci fi- one of the few series that actually comes anywhere close to Dune. One of the best new sci-fi novels I've read recently is The Peacemaker's Code by Deepak Malhotra. His insights into group dynamics are particularly keen.
I totally agree with your comment. I haven't read Walter Jon Williams. I will have to check it out. I take it you've read the Takeshi Kovacs novels?
I was also a big cyberpunk RPG fan- although for sheer impact in fiction genre, White Wolf's Vampire; The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse spawned an entire generation of writers. Steampunk seems to be doing well as a genre.
I was running White Wolf games at conventions in Dallas and caught the eye of Mark Rein-Hagan who offered me a job.I turned him down though, as I had a young son and didn't want to relocate to Atlanta. Mark actually played in my game, based on a Vampire-Werewolf war in the Yukon (6 months of darkness) lol.
Wow! I liked it because there were a lot more girls, some of them very hot goths!
I always thought Mage never really made it into mainstream fiction as much as it deserved, even though there was a lot of rich cultural source material to draw from. Of course, there was Harry Dresden, but when it came to TV they only made one series.
I was a big fan of Call of Cthulhu, although the game system was a bit clunky. Basically, any game which required candles for atmosphere. Of course, contemporary postmodern culture requires regular D100 rolls for Sanity checks.
I had been playing rpgs for a decade when White Wolf came along. I applauded the focus on the story, even if the game mechanics were weak. It resurrected rpgs from obscurity due to Magic the Gathering imo.
Oh, boy—I'm very reluctant to try and chime in. This is all very highbrow, and I really shouldn't besmirch this intellectual intercourse with something lowbrow; but here goes. I've been wondering if humanity is on track to the future depicted in the film Gattaca, or maybe we'll end up with something à la Idiocracy (silly movie, but I did say lowbrow).
Yeah, I too am afraid that Idiocracy is rather prescient, and much more realistic and relevant for our near future, despite its silliness. And about Gattaca, I did enjoy it, but it isn't nearly as scary as Idiocracy. Anyway, if you don't mind spoilers, look up some reviews first, and then decide if you wanna watch it. But if you hate spoilers, just go ahead and watch the movie. You can add it to your watchlist on your favorite streaming platform, and wait until you can watch it for free.
Glad I was able to contribute to the conversation. If you Philip dick you will love man in the high castle. I read hundreds of books per year so buy very few, buying
More these days due to the times we live in, so I rely on the library but made sure I bought this one in hardcover as I know it’ll be reread multiple times. Love your substack!
This was a great one, Melissa. Thank you for including my post which included awesome comments from the community! I think we need to make “The Man in the High Castle” our next book club pick.
Seeing all the comments on this subject compiled into one essay gives the reader many different perspectives about this intriguing subject! It’s an amazing communityMelissa, thank you! 🤗✨💜
I’m so glad you enjoyed! That’s what I love about this community—I always get out of my posts way more than what I put in. Thanks for contributing to the discussion 💕
Great point by Jim In Alaska about A Clockwork Orange. There is a fascinating history to the publishing of A Clockwork Orange. The American publisher convinced Burgess to leave the pivotal final chapter out, and Kubrick followed suit when he made the movie.
https://www.slashfilm.com/1236749/why-stanely-kubricks-a-clockwork-orange-has-a-different-ending-from-the-book/#:~:text=When%20%22A%20Clockwork%20Orange%22%20came,that%20Kubrick%20read%20and%20adapted.
A while back a friend related a story from a Corrections Officer housing violent felons. We were discussing criminal justice reform. The Corrections Officer had told him that 50% of the people shouldn't really be there (the products of bad choices and bad events), and 50% should never be let out- it tallied with an observation I had made about the ASPD spectrum and violent inmate populations. In real life, the American version would be more accurate 50% of the time, the British version the other 50% of the time, although its also true that biologically, men prone to chronic physical aggression begin to age out of it at around 34.
I actually used a quote from A Clockwork Orange as the introduction for an essay that I wrote.
https://x.com/MoonShanghai/status/1767657842985652651?t=4Vc9TK85xbEgjuk45dO1nA&s=19
I’m familiar with Cloward-Piven: Government, the disease of which it pretends to be the cure. I wouldn’t put the stress on organised sabotage though- a lot of readers will dismiss such ideas as conspiracies, even though there is a lot of evidence to suggest that’s exactly what is happening in many instances.
Instead, I usually tend to point to the Saul Alinsky approach “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. Most Westerners aren’t ready to believe their elites are actively trying to sabotage society as a means of trying to bring about radical social change. Instead, they have an outdated idea of the Left as being well-meaning but lacking in pragmatism.
The “Never let a good crisis go to waste” usually hits home though. Most people are more willing to believe that government types will take advantage of a crisis in order to self-promote, expand the size and importance of their little bureaucratic empire, and increase their funding.
I suppose it depends whether you are writing for a specific audience or trying to open people’s eyes to a very real problem. Personally, I never tire of explaining to people that the same person who created the decolonisation agenda, Frantz Fanon, also invented modern Islamic Terrorism. He believed, incorrectly, that he could mobilise Islam as a counterforce to the abundance created by Western capitalist systems, and then put it back in the box after the Bloody Socialist Revolution had ushered in the false dream of utopia.
Damn, I missed a lot while I was playing in the mud this week!
It was definitely an interesting week! Glad to have you back, haha.
Excellent piece!
I have long held my views on 1984 & Brave New World.
You mentioned Phlip K. Dick, and I feel obligated to mention Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (the inspiration of Bladerunner).
I am old enough to have a decades worth of sci-fi reading behind me when the genre of Cyberpunk was created. While William Gibson is credited as the father of the genre with Neuromancer, credit should probably go to Walter Jon Williams' Hardwired. Both are entertaining and descriptive dystopian reads. Williams' Voice of the Whirlwind is one of my all time favorites to this day, right up there with Dan Simmons' Hyperion.
I mention these, not just because I envy any first time reader, but because they explore these dystopian futures very well.
Cyberpunk provokes one to consider the banal, even when dressed in futuristic trappings.
The Hyperion series is not necessarily cyberpunk, but rather hard scifi, but it is incredibly relevant considering growing interest in the new Theory of Everything and also the new theories regarding time (that coincide with ancient teachings of enlightenment). The use of architecture as language through the eons and the purpose of religion are a bonus!
If you do read any of these, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Interesting! I’ve never heard of Walter Jon Williams—I’ll definitely keep an eye out for him.
I’ve heard great things about Hyperion. I tried to pick it up once years ago, but I think I was too young for it and it went over my head. You might’ve inspired me to give it another shot.
Classic sci fi- one of the few series that actually comes anywhere close to Dune. One of the best new sci-fi novels I've read recently is The Peacemaker's Code by Deepak Malhotra. His insights into group dynamics are particularly keen.
Just bought it
If you're interested in architecture and religion (and art), you should watch A History of Art in Three Colours. It's from the period when the BBC began to increase the specialist selection of content through digital channels, producing some great high brow content, but before it went woke as an institution.
The 'Blue' episode deals with the role of lapis Lazuli blue in the Roman Catholic Church- a colour reserved for Jesus himself and the Virgin Mary and symbolising purity. The third episode, 'White' deals with the use of white in the authoritarian architecture of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th Century. Dr James Fox's programme on Japanese Art is also well worth a watch. He draws a parallel between Japanese block print art and the French Impressionist movement, noting that cultures thousands of miles distant from each other had very similar reactions to the removal of epic natural grandeur from their environment as populations sought the city to lift their living standards. Degas was a particularly avid collector of Japanese block print art.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLM4S2hGZDSE7GnK6Satpf4AhIgm1dvn__
I will check it out!
I just bought Hardwired.
Not his best work imo, but the origin of cyberpunk.
Be sure to check out Voice of the Whirlwind though.
Aristoi has an interesting oligarchial dystopian space empire too, with integrated VR.
With Elon Musk's Neuralink, there is a strong argument tech is mapping the future faster than sci fi writers can conceptualise it.
Oh, think we have entered scifi realms for sure and sadly the majority only follow Hollywood and don't read.
Take the Colossus series for example, Terminator ripped off much of the trilogy storyline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(novel)
Oh- I haven't read Colossus! From a slightly earlier period, John Wyndham wrote a lot more than Day of the Triffids. If you like Military Sci Fi, the Stark's War series by Jack Campbell (originally writing as John G Henry) is pretty good. It posits a world where technology has allowed REMF to micromanage combat. Again in the less high brow category, if you like Libertarian sci fi, Live Free or Die (by John Ringo) and the other two books in the series are well-worth a read.
I agree with you on the lamentable proportion of the population who read for pleasure. I blame progressive education with its innate loathing of phonics. I have a theory that the slight dopamine hit kids get when they correctly 'sound out' a word slowly conditions kids towards reading for pleasure. Perversely, it's also a major source of structural inequality (of the bad kind). Phonics is a leveller for the simple reasons that if progressive teachers pursue the markedly inferior whole word or language approach, then we know full well that kids from upper middle class backgrounds are going to learn phonics from their parents at bedtime, handing them a significant class-based advantage.
I usually go through phases of reading, as I get frustrated at the quality available lol.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Old Man's War series though.
As a kid growing up pre-internet, I devoured books from our public library. I also had exposure in speed reading in grade school, so I read pretty quick (my kids think it's my superpower lolol, although I claim Hindsight 20/20 is it!).
Interesting theory on phonics, and I can see how that would work.
I have a collection of reading lists on Amazon that I have put together for my children and at least one has started using it.
Classic sci fi- one of the few series that actually comes anywhere close to Dune. One of the best new sci-fi novels I've read recently is The Peacemaker's Code by Deepak Malhotra. His insights into group dynamics are particularly keen.
I totally agree with your comment. I haven't read Walter Jon Williams. I will have to check it out. I take it you've read the Takeshi Kovacs novels?
I was also a big cyberpunk RPG fan- although for sheer impact in fiction genre, White Wolf's Vampire; The Masquerade and Werewolf: The Apocalypse spawned an entire generation of writers. Steampunk seems to be doing well as a genre.
I was running White Wolf games at conventions in Dallas and caught the eye of Mark Rein-Hagan who offered me a job.I turned him down though, as I had a young son and didn't want to relocate to Atlanta. Mark actually played in my game, based on a Vampire-Werewolf war in the Yukon (6 months of darkness) lol.
Wow! I liked it because there were a lot more girls, some of them very hot goths!
I always thought Mage never really made it into mainstream fiction as much as it deserved, even though there was a lot of rich cultural source material to draw from. Of course, there was Harry Dresden, but when it came to TV they only made one series.
I was a big fan of Call of Cthulhu, although the game system was a bit clunky. Basically, any game which required candles for atmosphere. Of course, contemporary postmodern culture requires regular D100 rolls for Sanity checks.
Spider Robinson once espoused that SciFi fans were preppers for alien contact/time travel.
Sanity checks!
Some of my best memories are from Call of Cthulhu!
I had been playing rpgs for a decade when White Wolf came along. I applauded the focus on the story, even if the game mechanics were weak. It resurrected rpgs from obscurity due to Magic the Gathering imo.
Thank you for taking the time to compile comments and take the discussions further. So fascinating. What a treasure is your Substack! 🙏
Thanks so much, Janet!
Oh, boy—I'm very reluctant to try and chime in. This is all very highbrow, and I really shouldn't besmirch this intellectual intercourse with something lowbrow; but here goes. I've been wondering if humanity is on track to the future depicted in the film Gattaca, or maybe we'll end up with something à la Idiocracy (silly movie, but I did say lowbrow).
No snobs here, haha. I love Idiocracy (and while silly, that’s my vote for the way things are headed). I’ve never seen Gattaca. Is it worth a watch?
Yeah, I too am afraid that Idiocracy is rather prescient, and much more realistic and relevant for our near future, despite its silliness. And about Gattaca, I did enjoy it, but it isn't nearly as scary as Idiocracy. Anyway, if you don't mind spoilers, look up some reviews first, and then decide if you wanna watch it. But if you hate spoilers, just go ahead and watch the movie. You can add it to your watchlist on your favorite streaming platform, and wait until you can watch it for free.
I think I’ll just give it a try—I like the genre, and can’t stand spoilers!
Thanks for the comment :)
Enjoy, have fun! I still have to finish my homework —grading your QM homework, hehehe.
Haha! Keep me posted.
Happy watching—it really isn't that bad.
Glad I was able to contribute to the conversation. If you Philip dick you will love man in the high castle. I read hundreds of books per year so buy very few, buying
More these days due to the times we live in, so I rely on the library but made sure I bought this one in hardcover as I know it’ll be reread multiple times. Love your substack!
Thanks! :)
John and I picked Man in the High Castle as our next Thinking Man Book Club pick—I hope you check it out.
I’m definitely looking forward to it. We picked two stinkers in a row, so it’ll be nice to read an enjoyable one for a change.