Anyone else read this?
You know, the one where transhumans are cajoled into taking part in a historical reenactment of the late twentieth century (particularly, if not explicitly, the 1950s).
Of course, this sucks for them, especially because the experimenters running the reenactment have instituted a points system for "historically accurate" behavior, which gives a participant cash bonuses at the end of the three-year reenactment. Naturally, the points system rapidly becomes a pernicious form of social control. The central character is Robin (who assumes the name Reeve), a transhuman who is pretty much masculine in outlook and body-preference, randomly assigned a female body for the experiment.
This is one of those kind of science fiction books that if it had been written fifty, forty, or maybe even thirty years ago, it would have been groundbreaking, and maybe profoundly important. And it's very excellently written, to be sure.
However, the more over-the-top aspects of the recreation, done for effect, which would have been good metaphors for the less dramatic but equally soul-crushing social mores of the 1950s and conservative America in general--had the book been written when these were more widespread--now come off more as a caricaturish, and lose their impact. An adultery-sparked lynching scene in particular seems suspect. This scene would have been unlikely to have happened in the 1650s, outside of Puritan Massachusetts--and as it consciously recalls The Scarlet Letter, this is an appropriate comparison--but in the 1950s it's preposterous.
Sure, there's the built-in historical inaccuracy, and the points system, but this kind of spontaneous violence really pushes it, even for people who are able to treat death more casually than present day humans. (I am assured that this is indeed the point, but this scene may protest too much.) If it were more squarely a metaphor for the kind of treatment adulterers, particularly female adulterers, received in the present day, it would be far more salient. But since we don't really care that much anymore about adultery, its ultimate impact is flattened. Edit: ("We" meaning Westerners. I suppose if the historical reenactment is drawn from a global melange, it might be more accurate than I originally thought.
)
Interestingly, the technology and setting, while probably more plausible to readers of today than the first kids to pick up Stranger in a Strange Land, is sketchy enough that I think it could have been written without the cyberpunk and transhuman literature of the 1980s-2000s. Body-swapping is a voguish topic, but as a trope it's hardly a recent invention. As are stargates or magic molecular assemblers. (Sidenote: Despite the lack of any prepared ground, it actually would have been much more plausible than Stranger, but this is no great hurdle, given that Stranger is on about the same level as Star Wars in regards its scientific pedigree.)
Anyway, the novel does a very good job of exploring gender in a repressive society, and this is by far the most interesting aspect (to be sure, Robin/Reeve is an excellent and interesting character). Stross seems to realize this, as race and class commentary are conspicuously absent--I suspect he didn't want to confuse the issue he wanted to attack. And so as a social commentary, it at best strikes an awkward blow against conservatives who believe there was ever any such thing as a golden age of intersexual dynamics; at worst, it misses entirely by aiming so squarely at problems that we've already, for the most part, solved!
Or maybe I'm being too sanguine. Who knows.
Edit: and I might be remiss in failing to mention the slight misogynism inherent in the exultation of physical action against a oppressive society represented by Robin/Reeve. Robin's self-loathing of his new body is, intentionally or unintentionally, a comment on the combat abilities of a female. The female form is undeniably less suited to lugging the ammunition you need to kill every motherfucker in the room, though, and Stross is so egalitarian elsewhere that I don't think this is deliberate misogyny in any relatable sense. In fact, the violent solution Robin embraces may have only appealed to him because of the anti-female nature of the experiment, which suggests that, as a man, I might not know shit about how anti-female current society is.
Highly recommended--4/5, or something like that.
I'm also curious if his other books are worthwhile, Accelerando and the like. If anyone's read those, please let me know how they were.
You know, the one where transhumans are cajoled into taking part in a historical reenactment of the late twentieth century (particularly, if not explicitly, the 1950s).
Of course, this sucks for them, especially because the experimenters running the reenactment have instituted a points system for "historically accurate" behavior, which gives a participant cash bonuses at the end of the three-year reenactment. Naturally, the points system rapidly becomes a pernicious form of social control. The central character is Robin (who assumes the name Reeve), a transhuman who is pretty much masculine in outlook and body-preference, randomly assigned a female body for the experiment.
This is one of those kind of science fiction books that if it had been written fifty, forty, or maybe even thirty years ago, it would have been groundbreaking, and maybe profoundly important. And it's very excellently written, to be sure.
However, the more over-the-top aspects of the recreation, done for effect, which would have been good metaphors for the less dramatic but equally soul-crushing social mores of the 1950s and conservative America in general--had the book been written when these were more widespread--now come off more as a caricaturish, and lose their impact. An adultery-sparked lynching scene in particular seems suspect. This scene would have been unlikely to have happened in the 1650s, outside of Puritan Massachusetts--and as it consciously recalls The Scarlet Letter, this is an appropriate comparison--but in the 1950s it's preposterous.
Sure, there's the built-in historical inaccuracy, and the points system, but this kind of spontaneous violence really pushes it, even for people who are able to treat death more casually than present day humans. (I am assured that this is indeed the point, but this scene may protest too much.) If it were more squarely a metaphor for the kind of treatment adulterers, particularly female adulterers, received in the present day, it would be far more salient. But since we don't really care that much anymore about adultery, its ultimate impact is flattened. Edit: ("We" meaning Westerners. I suppose if the historical reenactment is drawn from a global melange, it might be more accurate than I originally thought.
)Interestingly, the technology and setting, while probably more plausible to readers of today than the first kids to pick up Stranger in a Strange Land, is sketchy enough that I think it could have been written without the cyberpunk and transhuman literature of the 1980s-2000s. Body-swapping is a voguish topic, but as a trope it's hardly a recent invention. As are stargates or magic molecular assemblers. (Sidenote: Despite the lack of any prepared ground, it actually would have been much more plausible than Stranger, but this is no great hurdle, given that Stranger is on about the same level as Star Wars in regards its scientific pedigree.)
Anyway, the novel does a very good job of exploring gender in a repressive society, and this is by far the most interesting aspect (to be sure, Robin/Reeve is an excellent and interesting character). Stross seems to realize this, as race and class commentary are conspicuously absent--I suspect he didn't want to confuse the issue he wanted to attack. And so as a social commentary, it at best strikes an awkward blow against conservatives who believe there was ever any such thing as a golden age of intersexual dynamics; at worst, it misses entirely by aiming so squarely at problems that we've already, for the most part, solved!
Or maybe I'm being too sanguine. Who knows.
Edit: and I might be remiss in failing to mention the slight misogynism inherent in the exultation of physical action against a oppressive society represented by Robin/Reeve. Robin's self-loathing of his new body is, intentionally or unintentionally, a comment on the combat abilities of a female. The female form is undeniably less suited to lugging the ammunition you need to kill every motherfucker in the room, though, and Stross is so egalitarian elsewhere that I don't think this is deliberate misogyny in any relatable sense. In fact, the violent solution Robin embraces may have only appealed to him because of the anti-female nature of the experiment, which suggests that, as a man, I might not know shit about how anti-female current society is.
Highly recommended--4/5, or something like that.
I'm also curious if his other books are worthwhile, Accelerando and the like. If anyone's read those, please let me know how they were.
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