"Talk to me about this book" seems to be the one fully consistent reaction
haha, I think that's great! :D
I think maybe one of the reasons I appreciated the book as much as I did is that immigration is kind of an AU experience, isn't it? You come to a place where norms and beliefs and customs are different and are just plunked in the middle of it with no-one around you realizing that anything is different from the way it could be. (Or at least immigration pre-internet and international travel being common.)
Ohhhh, this is really interesting. I'm not an immigrant myself, but my parents are, and I've often thought about how hard it must have been for them, not just when they first came, but years afterwards, especially given that they raised their kids in the new culture. And yeah, now that you say that, it does seem like it must be a bit of an AU-like experience.
(I think the fact that there doesn't seem to be a faction of humanity who are not a creepy cult of child soldiers but who do want vengeance on the majoda for committing genocide a mere generation ago contributes to my feeling like the narrative endorses the destruction of Earth as the lesser evil. I mean, those people may well exist out there -- I realize we're getting a very narrow view through Kyr's POV and a couple of documents. But the composite picture I'm getting is frustrating in that regard...)
Oh, yeah, that's a good point which I hadn't thought about! Though I can imagine that over time those who are angry become more angry and get sucked into the creepy cult void, and those who aren't, get on with life... Like Admiral Russell and Lin, who seemed like they were pretty reasonable people actually, but who somehow were part of the cult anyway. (It's hard for me not to think that Tesh is making a point here about... well, let's just say that I know a few white older people who flirt with that line of becoming angrier and angrier and supporting some really sketchy things. So far I feel like they haven't totally crossed that line, and they've kept their anger in check enough, but it's a line that I can see exists.)
The " it seemed like the narrative thought that killing Earth in Version 3 was A-OK and that's really weird??" part for me came in when no-one had any negative reaction to it even when Kyr got the opportunity to confront the Wisdom about it.
Do you mean at the very end? I thought that it was clear that the Wisdom had no power to change things (which is what rachelmanija objected the most to, that Kyr wouldn't have made it change things), but I agree, Kyr might at least have been like "WTF, Wisdom, why did you stick us HERE?"
But my friend who also read and loved the book was not bothered by this either, and IIRC wrote it off as alien AI being alien AI. So being bothered by this is not universal, although it was gratifying to see that many people did have the same problem with it that I did.
Lol! I am also gratified by your friend having the same opinion as me ;)
and maybe giving this whole resolution more of the scaffolding that I feel is (objectively) missing from the book.
Yes! We can all agree on that :D I feel like all of this could have been solved relatively easily by just a little more scaffolding being provided. (In general I think that might be a weakness of Tesh's writing -- I also felt like there was this thread of racial supremacy in Gaea that she was alluding to but which she never quite scaffolded enough for me to understand where that arc was going, if indeed it was going anywhere.)
and the thing about Kyr is that once she learns that majo or the "traitors and collaborators" are people, she can't unsee it, and feels a sense of duty to all of them like she did to the Sparrows and Gaea at the beginning.
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Date: 2023-06-21 05:29 pm (UTC)haha, I think that's great! :D
I think maybe one of the reasons I appreciated the book as much as I did is that immigration is kind of an AU experience, isn't it? You come to a place where norms and beliefs and customs are different and are just plunked in the middle of it with no-one around you realizing that anything is different from the way it could be. (Or at least immigration pre-internet and international travel being common.)
Ohhhh, this is really interesting. I'm not an immigrant myself, but my parents are, and I've often thought about how hard it must have been for them, not just when they first came, but years afterwards, especially given that they raised their kids in the new culture. And yeah, now that you say that, it does seem like it must be a bit of an AU-like experience.
(I think the fact that there doesn't seem to be a faction of humanity who are not a creepy cult of child soldiers but who do want vengeance on the majoda for committing genocide a mere generation ago contributes to my feeling like the narrative endorses the destruction of Earth as the lesser evil. I mean, those people may well exist out there -- I realize we're getting a very narrow view through Kyr's POV and a couple of documents. But the composite picture I'm getting is frustrating in that regard...)
Oh, yeah, that's a good point which I hadn't thought about! Though I can imagine that over time those who are angry become more angry and get sucked into the creepy cult void, and those who aren't, get on with life... Like Admiral Russell and Lin, who seemed like they were pretty reasonable people actually, but who somehow were part of the cult anyway. (It's hard for me not to think that Tesh is making a point here about... well, let's just say that I know a few white older people who flirt with that line of becoming angrier and angrier and supporting some really sketchy things. So far I feel like they haven't totally crossed that line, and they've kept their anger in check enough, but it's a line that I can see exists.)
The " it seemed like the narrative thought that killing Earth in Version 3 was A-OK and that's really weird??" part for me came in when no-one had any negative reaction to it even when Kyr got the opportunity to confront the Wisdom about it.
Do you mean at the very end? I thought that it was clear that the Wisdom had no power to change things (which is what
But my friend who also read and loved the book was not bothered by this either, and IIRC wrote it off as alien AI being alien AI. So being bothered by this is not universal, although it was gratifying to see that many people did have the same problem with it that I did.
Lol! I am also gratified by your friend having the same opinion as me ;)
and maybe giving this whole resolution more of the scaffolding that I feel is (objectively) missing from the book.
Yes! We can all agree on that :D I feel like all of this could have been solved relatively easily by just a little more scaffolding being provided. (In general I think that might be a weakness of Tesh's writing -- I also felt like there was this thread of racial supremacy in Gaea that she was alluding to but which she never quite scaffolded enough for me to understand where that arc was going, if indeed it was going anywhere.)
and the thing about Kyr is that once she learns that majo or the "traitors and collaborators" are people, she can't unsee it, and feels a sense of duty to all of them like she did to the Sparrows and Gaea at the beginning.
Yes! I love the way you put this.