“They’re made out of meat” is a famous very short and very nice little novelette published in 1990 by Terry Bisson. If you don’t know it, it’s a must-read and a nice treat for the holidays.
The story goes as a dialogue between two characters, obviously non-humans, on a mission to “contact other sentient beings in this quadrant of the Universe. They converse briefly on their bizarre discovery of carbon-based life, which they refer to incredulously as “thinking meat.”
But I found the small text “they’re made out of data” to be just so interesting, putting the light on the paradox at the heart of the first novel.
You should probably read it first.
Go get them:
The Dispossessed is not a difficult book. The setup is based on a thought experiment: two planets face each other, one is governed by a radically anarchist government, the other one is governed under a no-less radical class system.
But Le Guin excels at tearing the thing apart. The nonlinear story forces the reader to recollect the events and the logics of the book, allowing step by step to a better understanding of its inherent complexity.
It’s one of the rare books to actually show a real understanding of the dynamics of society. Things moves. They evolve. The tensions between the individual mind and the collective society impacts everywhere, whatever the collective organization will be.
Once closed, this is nowhere to be seen as a defense of anarchist theory. The book gives the feeling to teach something about social dynamics. Not unlike George Orwell’s 1984, but in a less pessimistic way. Too bad it’s just an illusion.
After some search, I was able to find that Samuel R. Delany wrote a piece entitled “To read The Dispossessed”. After being extremely critical of the artistic and scientific value of the book, he concludes as this: The Dispossessed will excite young and generous readers — indeed, will excite any reader beginning to look at our world and us in it. And it will excite for a long time…. Nevertheless, some of these excited readers who return to the book a handful of years later will find themselves disillusioned: What excited them, they will see, was the book’s ambition more than its precise accomplishments. But hopefully — a year or so after that — they will reach another stage where they will be able to acknowledge that ambition for what it was and value it; and know how important, in any changing society, such ambition is.
Published in 1974, and winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula, it’s a must-read and a pleasure for the mind.
Have a look at The Dispossessed on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
And once again, have a look at Samuel R. Delany article. It’s an interesting reading in itself: “To read The Dispossessed”
I saw that Theodore Sturgeon had also written on it, but I was unable to find his text.
Christmas time was a pleasure since I could get some time to read again (and to play Modern Warfare II online, but that’s for another story).
So what to say about “A Fire Upon The Deep.” Great book. Huge book. I wonder if the speaking dogs were an influence for “UP”, the awesome movie Pixar released this year. I was hooked after the first page. And I loved the excellent storytelling that avoided the so-called “arcs” that are so common today. Vernor Vinge just finds a way to jump from one character to another in a linear but logical and pleasant manner. And he’s going from interstellar saga to medieval manipulations with the same brio. I liked “Rainbow’s End” a lot, but it’s safe to say that “A Fire Upon The Deep” is even better.
So what’s next? I might set up for “The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin,” and “Stories of Your Life and Others“ by Ted Chiang. Any other advice?
Last but not least, I am beginning “The Idea of Justice” by Amartya Sen. I have been reading John Stuart Mill, Marx and John Rawls quite extensively. They had a great influence on Amartya Sen, but his own introduction just stroke me as being the clearest and most modern explanation of the current functioning of a democracy. The book could be a tough read, but it looks like it’s worth the effort.
Nice way to finish 2009. Neal Stephenson’s book was published in 1999 and was soon described as “the ultimate geek novel.” Yup. It was certainly in to be a geek at that time. It was before geek culture looked like being some sort of tech-savy redneckness.
Great book by the way. 4 stars on Amazon, and 857 customers reviews. Nice!
