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Notes -
So, what are you reading?
I'm finished with Sayers' Whose Body. Lord Whimsey was great, and it had enough intensity at times to grab my interest. I feel like the confrontation was a missed opportunity, given the convergence of themes which was implicit in the scene. A good read nevertheless.
Picking up Churchill's Savrola, because it has occurred to me that I've read more Hitler and Stalin than Churchill.
Started reading Artemis by Andy Weir, also known for the Martian. I'm about 60% through, and I like it quite well so far. The Sci-Fi seems pretty hard so far - all of the technology and systems seem reasonable by current-day or near-future tech and physics. If anything is a bit implausible, it's the politics - a Moon colony formed by a space industry based out of Kenya, just based on the government deciding to let rocket companies do what they feel like with minimal taxes and regulations? And becoming sufficiently populous to resemble a real city with hardly any real government at all? Seems like a bit much of a Libertarian pipe-dream to me. The story is engaging and keeps me wanting to read more though. It does lean a bit hard on the trope of desperately poor but plucky young girl saves the world through daring and determination, but I'll allow it. I might have more to say when I finish it, but I doubt it - Weir's books so far seem to be more about telling a pretty good if somewhat predictable story with some Sci-Fi elements, not so much surprising plot twists and daring societal commentary.
Have you read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein? Similar libertarian themes.
He was a Libertarian Socialist himself. Save for his political explorations in Starship Troopers.
Yeah, I really liked most of his work as a kid and not surprisingly was receptive to libertarianism when I came across it more formally later in life. Looking back, he did seem to consider space as a new frontier where freedom was maximised.
My father considered him a surrogate father figure when he was growing up. He said Stranger in a Strange Land was his favorite science fiction book. I read it as well, and his other works like Time Enough For Love, etc.; and it was good but not my style of Sci-Fi. Zelazny’s Lord of Light, Neuromancer, Dune, etc., were much closer to what I liked to read when it came to that and it was somewhat controversial as a matter of taste. I always liked Cyberpunk and especially Sci-Fi that mixed heavy religious and philosophical themes with futurism. It’s why I’ve always had a soft spot for Chronicles of Riddick but there are very few movies that do the kind of thing they did. It’s extremely niche, even within Sci-Fi literature as a whole, never mind cinema. Internally he was more one of those “religion is bullshit,” type of people. Very knowledgeable on the topic but didn’t like discussing it. He’d always say he was agnostic but that if someone really pressed him he’d admit he was an atheist. To him all there was, was matter and energy and he was all but impossible to fool; not a gullible man at all. I think when I came out as Catholic it was a real disappointment to him. He wondered why I liked that variety of Sci-Fi, and I think it’s probably related to my religious beliefs.
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