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4.2 AVERAGE
4.2 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book. I ended up reading it in a few days. I found it relatively easy to read (other than the introduction) and I marked it up like crazy. This was a bookclub read and I’m excited to discuss it.
This was definitely thought-provoking from an ideological and political perspective. Where I have to detract some stars is in the actual writing. The characters fell a little flat in some chapters and by the end of the book most of the characters felt like a vehicle for the ideological beliefs of the authors. Their individuality got lost in the attempt to pull as much world building and information out of them as possible. This benefited the speculative aspect of the novel but not the fiction aspect.
In particular the chapter on gestation was eery, and imagined this nightmare future where the biological reality of pregnancy had been divorced from the body’s of women, non binary people, trans men. I found this to be deeply unsettling. Like others I found the continued obsession with gender in a post-revolutionary world to be incongruous with the world building done in the prior chapters. The biological realities of sex were quickly eschewed by sweeping and significant medical developments. Anyone can gestate! Mothers no longer exist! Largely an ahistorical take that also seems to honor none of the past reasons for why matriarchal figures are important when raising tiny vulnerable people.
It is unclear how in decades of upheaval, the destruction of hospitals, and the destruction of communication systems people still managed to develop technologies that harvest a whom (from who there is no mention of) and implant them in the body of anyone who wants one (also unclear how this whim would allow biological men to give birth but I digress). I also just truly hate the term gestate. Some of the medical and biological leaps did not make sense in the context of the global upheavals. I think the timeline was wonky. The US govt didn’t fall until the 50s but by the late 60s we have networks of maglev trains? We have gestation centers? We have the ability to change our chromosomes? This was confusing to me.
I also found the first chapter where the sex worker gives her oral history to be truly devastating. In this post revolution, post insurrection world, somehow this woman has not been freed from her deep desire to be seen as beautiful and attractive. So much so that she still practices “skin craft” in a post-labor world. That was maybe one of the darkest chapters in a way. It was also the only chapter that touched on race.
There were definitely things I liked. Initially, I was struck by the complete lack of political or ideological organization in the revolution/insurrections. I personally found the disorganized manner of societal collapse to be the most believable aspect of the narrative. Historically and anthropologically food scarcity and resource scarcity are the catalysts for many revolutions, insurrections, and wars. People need to eat and when they can’t all social order falls quickly. Then religion, politics, and cults help reign people in.
I must say I also found the insertion of the authors themselves into the narratives clever at some points and confusing at others. Sometimes they asked questions that did not make sense in context. Also sometimes it was clear that the interviewer was simply having a conversation with their own beliefs. I do think stronger character development would have benefited this book.
Many of the interviewees are vaguely hostile, show disdain, or seemed confused by the interviewers attempts at recording this history. This also confounded me. Why are so many of them seemingly hostile to the idea of recording the history they were a part of? I found it odd that people who lived through the destruction of modern communication systems and were cut off from anyone not in their immediate area would not understand the value of compiling history. As an example the point where the interviewee in chapter 7 on space seems confused or offended that the interviewer would ask her to explain the space elevator… that just felt weird. Also all the space stuff was problematic in its own right.
Overall I very much enjoyed the thought experiment element of the book. The ideological bent of the authors became even more clear in the latter half of the book. I also agree with some other reviewers that while it’s clear the insurrections and revolutions were violent, destructive, and required massive upheavals it does also read as odd to me that no one was able to discuss these things, even after years of therapy, and I don’t think that gels psychologically with how many people react post-global trauma. It also made it difficult to truly and fully acknowledge how devastating this kind of revolution would be socially, ecologically, environmentally, and culturally.
This book did a lot and the authors clearly have a thorough understanding of political theory, Marxism and the effects of capitalism but other elements didn’t mesh quite enough for me. Also I will say I am always skeptical of any ideological purity and adherence to one way of thinking as the solution. Marxism is a great framework but I don’t think it provides all the answers to a new and better world.
3 stars.
This was definitely thought-provoking from an ideological and political perspective. Where I have to detract some stars is in the actual writing. The characters fell a little flat in some chapters and by the end of the book most of the characters felt like a vehicle for the ideological beliefs of the authors. Their individuality got lost in the attempt to pull as much world building and information out of them as possible. This benefited the speculative aspect of the novel but not the fiction aspect.
In particular the chapter on gestation was eery, and imagined this nightmare future where the biological reality of pregnancy had been divorced from the body’s of women, non binary people, trans men. I found this to be deeply unsettling. Like others I found the continued obsession with gender in a post-revolutionary world to be incongruous with the world building done in the prior chapters. The biological realities of sex were quickly eschewed by sweeping and significant medical developments. Anyone can gestate! Mothers no longer exist! Largely an ahistorical take that also seems to honor none of the past reasons for why matriarchal figures are important when raising tiny vulnerable people.
It is unclear how in decades of upheaval, the destruction of hospitals, and the destruction of communication systems people still managed to develop technologies that harvest a whom (from who there is no mention of) and implant them in the body of anyone who wants one (also unclear how this whim would allow biological men to give birth but I digress). I also just truly hate the term gestate. Some of the medical and biological leaps did not make sense in the context of the global upheavals. I think the timeline was wonky. The US govt didn’t fall until the 50s but by the late 60s we have networks of maglev trains? We have gestation centers? We have the ability to change our chromosomes? This was confusing to me.
I also found the first chapter where the sex worker gives her oral history to be truly devastating. In this post revolution, post insurrection world, somehow this woman has not been freed from her deep desire to be seen as beautiful and attractive. So much so that she still practices “skin craft” in a post-labor world. That was maybe one of the darkest chapters in a way. It was also the only chapter that touched on race.
There were definitely things I liked. Initially, I was struck by the complete lack of political or ideological organization in the revolution/insurrections. I personally found the disorganized manner of societal collapse to be the most believable aspect of the narrative. Historically and anthropologically food scarcity and resource scarcity are the catalysts for many revolutions, insurrections, and wars. People need to eat and when they can’t all social order falls quickly. Then religion, politics, and cults help reign people in.
I must say I also found the insertion of the authors themselves into the narratives clever at some points and confusing at others. Sometimes they asked questions that did not make sense in context. Also sometimes it was clear that the interviewer was simply having a conversation with their own beliefs. I do think stronger character development would have benefited this book.
Many of the interviewees are vaguely hostile, show disdain, or seemed confused by the interviewers attempts at recording this history. This also confounded me. Why are so many of them seemingly hostile to the idea of recording the history they were a part of? I found it odd that people who lived through the destruction of modern communication systems and were cut off from anyone not in their immediate area would not understand the value of compiling history. As an example the point where the interviewee in chapter 7 on space seems confused or offended that the interviewer would ask her to explain the space elevator… that just felt weird. Also all the space stuff was problematic in its own right.
Overall I very much enjoyed the thought experiment element of the book. The ideological bent of the authors became even more clear in the latter half of the book. I also agree with some other reviewers that while it’s clear the insurrections and revolutions were violent, destructive, and required massive upheavals it does also read as odd to me that no one was able to discuss these things, even after years of therapy, and I don’t think that gels psychologically with how many people react post-global trauma. It also made it difficult to truly and fully acknowledge how devastating this kind of revolution would be socially, ecologically, environmentally, and culturally.
This book did a lot and the authors clearly have a thorough understanding of political theory, Marxism and the effects of capitalism but other elements didn’t mesh quite enough for me. Also I will say I am always skeptical of any ideological purity and adherence to one way of thinking as the solution. Marxism is a great framework but I don’t think it provides all the answers to a new and better world.
3 stars.
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
An interesting exercise in speculative fiction, but not for me.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
This book is such a gem. Many of us know we need something different - a different, communal, collectivist way of orienting society... but as hard as it can be to imagine what that looks like, it can be harder to imagine what it looks like to get there. This book helps do that. It is not utopian. It is messy. It is violent. It is contradictory. And it still leaves you and humanity with many questions... and much, if not all, still un-figured out. But... it is hopeful. Because it also shows us examples of what it could look like to be beyond capitalism, beyond the strict, limiting and burdensome confines of gender and the nuclear family, beyond the worries of how to simply survive so instead we have time to create and dream. (I will note that the book was a bit limited in the disability justice space, though.)
This is such a unique book and I will tell anyone who will listen to read it, and read it with an open heart and mind. Another world is possible. We have to try.
This is such a unique book and I will tell anyone who will listen to read it, and read it with an open heart and mind. Another world is possible. We have to try.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Very interesting premise, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to engage with the world. However, the idealistic nature just was an underlying irritant. With every new interview subject, I found myself saying that wouldn't have happened that way. Highly unrealistic, but the setting is soooo fun to play in.
Más ficción imaginando futuros para todas xfavor. Para todas, todo.