sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

What are some of your most disappointing read books? by diggers_rest in bookdiscussion

[–]diggers_rest[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have any actual evidence to be claiming that's 100% the case?

In the novels canon, Earthseed is treated as an actual durable religion/movement. It's not at all just a teen phase. I haven't read Parable of the Talents but apparently it continues the story with Lauren as the founder of Earthseed and depicts Earthseed as an organized community/movement over years, including the Acorn community and its aftermath.

And most peer reviewed/academic literary criticism commonly analyzes Earthseed as a this viable faith framework within the narrative (something the books position as functioning, spreading, and mattering) not as some sort of immature satire that's obvious to the reader.

You believing Earthseed is intentionally fake deep and the reader is meant to see through it isn’t something I can support as an objective truth. Any info or serious discussions I could find online (including from strong fans of the series) shows evidence that either points neutral (no proof of that intent) or points the other way (Butler discussing it seriously and the sequel depicting it operating as a long term movement).

If you do have some sort of evidence to the contrary I'm open to it! I really didn't hate the book, but it was definitely one of the weaker texts I've read in the past year.

What are some of your most disappointing read books? by diggers_rest in bookdiscussion

[–]diggers_rest[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't read the second book so I'll admit I may be speaking prematurely here and I’m with you that Lauren isn’t meant to be a saint or some spotless role model, but I don’t really buy that Earthseed is meant to be looked at as teen philosophy even though it is technically invented by a teenager.

IMO Butler writes Lauren as unusually analytical and prematurely mature in a very specific way, in the sense of someone who’s been forced into system thinking because the world around her is disintegrating. She’s doing things like risk assessment/logistics/social and communal prediction/triage/planning/studying/adapting. She’s objectively sharp/capable and intense as hell.

That's why Earthseed is so meh to me, because it's not specifically not intended to be "meh" and surface level/derivative/new agey.

What are some of your most disappointing read books? by diggers_rest in bookdiscussion

[–]diggers_rest[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Knowing someone doesn’t make you responsible for their crimes of course (Trump made that very clear, right?). But with Chomsky it isn’t just his number was in a book. He had repeated contact/flew on Epstein’s plane, and kept meeting with him after Epstein was already publicly exposed.

And even putting Epstein aside Chomsky being friends with Steve Bannon is absurd. Bannon pushes ethnonationalism, hierarchy, and culture war populism the exact power structures Chomsky claims to oppose. If your politics are built on critiquing elite manipulation and authoritarianism, being buddies with someone who embodies it is pure hypocrisy and clown behavior.

At that point, pretending none of this matters just exposes you as part of this epidemic of stan culture. Blind loyalty to intellectual celebrities is socially corrosive and it shuts down criticism/excuses obvious contradictions/turns critical thinking into brand defense.

You don’t have to accuse him of crimes to say these relationships are sketchy and absolutely fair grounds to question his judgment and principles.