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<p>Marcus -</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback on KSR's writing style... it really
sobered me to realize how much of an obsessionist I am on this
topic and what I will ignore to feed that obsession.</p>
<p>I tripped over (thank you Google News Feed) an interesting
article in Grist:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://grist.org/climate/with-the-world-on-fire-climate-fiction-no-longer-looks-like-fantasy/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>that resonated with my reflections. While I do feel a little
obsessive on the topic (not just climate but all the convergent
"endogenous existential threats" coming at us), I feel somewhat
balanced about it, especially as I graze on the buffets that books
like MotF and Stephenson's Termination Shock and Amithav Ghosh's
"Great Derangement" offer. I also found William Gibson's Jackpot
Series:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://www.wired.co.uk/article/william-gibson-agency</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>refreshing (for a dystopia) with our myriad existential threats
(climate, species, pollution, finance, civil unrest, fascism,
etc.) converging on a bit of a (nasty) wet-fizzle of an apocalypse
he sardonically dubs "The Jackpot".</p>
<p>The Grist article describes (somewhat) the value of keeping one's
eye on the dystopian/apocalyptic future threatened by our
short-sighted habits and (overly optimistic?) conceptions of the
future generated by our materialistic pop-culture.<br>
</p>
<p>Someone here (Marcus, Glen, EricS ?) mentioned Musk and the idea
that he might be pursuing the canonical "Good Old Fashioned
Future" coined in the Golden Age and refashioned in the Modern Era
of Science Fiction. We boomers (and Xers?) who went into
Sci/Tech likely read at least a lot of Marvel/DC comics (if not
the Science Fiction without pictures) of our era and I claim it
heavily shaped our image of what was possible/desireable. I
don't think it is serving us (Gaia of whom we are her most
precocious children?)<br>
</p>
<div align="center"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
src="https://theretrofuturist.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1958flyingcar.jpg"
alt="" width="600" height="772"></div>
<div align="left">- Steve<br>
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<div align="left"><br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:5f8faaa9-782e-199a-1850-f5197ea4b415@swcp.com">
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/25/22 5:58 PM, Marcus Daniels
wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span
style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black">< </span>It
might not surprise anyone here that I have become a CliFi
obsessionist with Kim Stanly Robinson's stuff well
represented ("Ministry for the Future" standing out well
above the others). His Red/Green/Blue Mars series is a
good complement with the social/technological/spiritual
implications of Terraforming there. ><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Huh. I found MftF drawn-out and boring
with distracting little nonsense chapters interleaved. I
don’t see why it is popular. A few good ideas here and
there but couldn’t care less about the characters. It
could be massively compressed.</p>
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<p>That would be *all* of KSR's novels I'm afraid... my obsession
with the ideas (unanticipated problems as well as unanticipated
responses) trumps any need I have for being entertained by the
characters or even plot. <br>
</p>
<p>It really read to me (as you point out) as a series of loosely
connected vignettes of specific interest. To the extent that
*some* of the MoTF characters did get under my skin, it was as
an irritant as much as anything. I probably read Red Mars when
it was new as my introduction to KSR and did not go back to his
writing until as little as 5 years ago when I found his topics
more relevant than I had acknowledged before... He seemed to me
to be a lot preachy and I guess now I'm enough of the choir to
be able to hum along with his sermons now.<br>
</p>
<p>Stephenson also gets very tedious for me, but I find his depth
of research and quirkiness of characters and technical surprises
worthy of my attention through his gruelingly long and seemingly
careening storylines and characters.</p>
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