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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1542 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 18, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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So, what are you reading?

Still on the Iliad and Dialectic of Enlightenment. Picking up McLuhan's The Classical Trivium.

Just finished Murderbot series. Very fun reading. I hope the author writes a dozen more, if she doesn't get tired of it.

Didn't you get tired of the politics? The first two stories or so were okay, but at some point it became abundantly clear to me that it isn't just a dark satirical setting, the author genuinely just thinks that capitalism is that terrible, and that everything would be better in communist feminist utopia.

I just ignored those parts. Given that most critique of the capitalism is given in the voice of the character which understands very little about how humans work and derives most of its knowledge on the subject from soap operas and actively avoids getting any personal knowledge there, on top of being beset by a rich bouquet of psychological issues, it can be even taken as a satirical critique of the contemporary (and, really, all) left. I am not sure if that was the author's intent, but it certainly lends itself to this way of reading.

That said, "evil megacorp" is a staple villain in SciFi, at least in the settings where corporations exist at all, so it's nothing really new. And in general, economics and politics is almost never properly explored at all - the author doesn't seem to be interested in how that all "free stuff" works on Preservation Alliance - you just reverse the polarity and apply transquantum flux capacitors. Same, never explored what exactly motivates the corps and how they work and why, or why they need so many humans working in "mines" at all, given how advanced their tech is. If one can't get over it, the range of enjoyable SciFi would be greatly reduced. Fortunately, all that stuff is pretty easily ignorable for me, and most of the content is not about that at all.

Started Unsong. It's a lot more fun than I was expecting.

Are you reading the web serial edition?

No, it's an epub.

Is it this one? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unsong-Scott-Alexander-ebook/dp/B0D84DLKZW/

Can't say for certain but it looks like a match, yeah. Why do you ask?

He originally published it as a web serial novel. I was keen to read it, but I don't like reading on screens; however, someone helpfully compiled it into a print-on-demand version, which I bought and read a few years ago. Scott later made it available via Amazon himself, and I think this edition (the edition you're reading) has been edited per the description he outlined here (don't click this link if you want to avoid spoilers). I've bought a paperback copy of this edition and it's on my to-read list for this year. I'm curious to see how it differs from the print-on-demand edition I read years ago.

Can't offer any input on my end, I was unaware there were different versions and I'd rather avoid seeing any spoilers by reading up on the changes.

If your copy of chapter 4 begins with "Even before Erica finished formally adjourning the meeting", you are reading the original web serial. If instead it reads "Even before Valerie finished formally adjourning the meeting", you are reading the edited book version.

More comments

I finished The Man in the High Castle last week. Pretty good, although I still preferred A Scanner Darkly. It made me want to play Wolfenstein The New Order again.

A few months ago I was asking for recommendations for books about Catharism. A few weeks ago it came up in conversation with my aunt, who recommended The Perfect Heresy, which I'm now about 30 pages into. It's a fascinating reminder that there's nothing new under the sun. If I told you I was reading a book about a faction of elites who:

  • believe that there's no distinction between men and women, and the thing that defines us is an ineffable immaterial essence
  • don't have children, a decision they justify on utilitarian grounds
  • practise a plant-based diet

am I talking about French heretics in the 12th century, or woke Western PMCs today?

The topic of this past Sunday’s homily at my parish touched on how Gnosticism is the great heresy from which many smaller heresies sprang.

Is that the one where it started out as some kind of heresy and then it kind of solidified into almost an ethnic group long after no one could even remember what the original heresy was? Or am I thinking of something else?

You’re thinking of the Cagots, who were treated like pariahs for hundreds of years. No one really knows why, as they seemed similar in every way to the surrounding population, except for pariah status, which besides the strict social segregation restricted their trade to carpentry.

This has led one writer to speculate they were the descendants of a fallen medieval guild of carpenters (?). There’s the national myth theory that makes them the descendents of the muslim warriors who lost to Charles Martel when he stopped the islamic expansion in 732. There’s one etymological-based theory where they were the slaves of the ancient visigoths (“cani gothi”, dogs of the goths). There’s the reverse uno card theory that says they were the first to convert to christianity and the surrounding pagans kept resenting them for their virtue signaling long after they themselves converted.

But one of the top theories is that they were descendents of cathars. And the imo most likely, is that they were descendents of lepers, because a lot of the prohibitions involve touching.

I'm not sure, you may be thinking of something else.

Just finished Surface Detail from the Culture series. Kind of stunned by Iain Banks' forecasting. Of course the invention of consciousness upload means we would create everlasting Hell for some people to go to. Probably it'll happen 5 minutes after the guy who invents consciousness upload wins his Nobel Prize.

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