Marcus -
Thanks for your feedback on KSR's writing style... it really sobered me
to realize how much of an obsessionist I am on this topic and what I
will ignore to feed that obsession.
I tripped over (thank you Google News Feed) an interesting article in Grist:
https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/
that resonated with my reflections. While I do feel a little obsessive
on the topic (not just climate but all the convergent "endogenous
existential threats" coming at us), I feel somewhat balanced about it,
especially as I graze on the buffets that books like MotF and
Stephenson's Termination Shock and Amithav Ghosh's "Great Derangement"
offer. I also found William Gibson's Jackpot Series:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency
refreshing (for a dystopia) with our myriad existential threats
(climate, species, pollution, finance, civil unrest, fascism, etc.)
converging on a bit of a (nasty) wet-fizzle of an apocalypse he
sardonically dubs "The Jackpot".
The Grist article describes (somewhat) the value of keeping one's eye on
the dystopian/apocalyptic future threatened by our short-sighted habits
and (overly optimistic?) conceptions of the future generated by our
materialistic pop-culture.
Someone here (Marcus, Glen, EricS ?) mentioned Musk and the idea that he
might be pursuing the canonical "Good Old Fashioned Future" coined in
the Golden Age and refashioned in the Modern Era of Science Fiction.
We boomers (and Xers?) who went into Sci/Tech likely read at least a lot
of Marvel/DC comics (if not the Science Fiction without pictures) of our
era and I claim it heavily shaped our image of what was
possible/desireable. I don't think it is serving us (Gaia of whom we
are her most precocious children?)
- Steve
On 1/25/22 5:58 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
< It might not surprise anyone here that I have become a CliFi
obsessionist with Kim Stanly Robinson's stuff well represented
("Ministry for the Future" standing out well above the others). His
Red/Green/Blue Mars series is a good complement with the
social/technological/spiritual implications of Terraforming there. >
Huh. I found MftF drawn-out and boring with distracting little
nonsense chapters interleaved. I don’t see why it is popular. A
few good ideas here and there but couldn’t care less about the
characters. It could be massively compressed.
That would be *all* of KSR's novels I'm afraid... my obsession with
the ideas (unanticipated problems as well as unanticipated responses)
trumps any need I have for being entertained by the characters or even
plot.
It really read to me (as you point out) as a series of loosely
connected vignettes of specific interest. To the extent that *some*
of the MoTF characters did get under my skin, it was as an irritant as
much as anything. I probably read Red Mars when it was new as my
introduction to KSR and did not go back to his writing until as little
as 5 years ago when I found his topics more relevant than I had
acknowledged before... He seemed to me to be a lot preachy and I
guess now I'm enough of the choir to be able to hum along with his
sermons now.
Stephenson also gets very tedious for me, but I find his depth of
research and quirkiness of characters and technical surprises worthy
of my attention through his gruelingly long and seemingly careening
storylines and characters.
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