The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin

The Unincorporated Man by Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The concept was sort of interesting, but the execution was pretty bad. I was most interested in Sebastian and the other assistants, but that never really got off the ground. I was able to keep reading and be fairly entertained but towards the end, the plot became even more tortured and unlikely.

Also, there was a little bit of random sexism and it seemed like the authors really went out of their way to add it to an otherwise sexism-free future. Just why?

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1984 by George Orwell

1984 by George Orwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For whatever reasons, I was assigned this book 3 times in high school and have read it at least 2 times since then, making this the book that I've read the most times in my life. I don't enjoy the novel enough for it to be my most read book- it's just a bad accident. Alternatively, maybe I read it for the same reasons that terrifying local news gets such high ratings.

Here's one thing Orwell didn't anticipate, in the modern world everyone wants to be constantly surveilled on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Goodreads, and YouTube. (Me too.) In the modern world, The Ministry of Truth still resides in Russia but pumps in their "truths" via these same social media channels. (Are they on Goodreads? Are they giving 1984 bad reviews on account of poor characterization?) There's no time to read anyway because everyone is watching reality television. The Real Housewives of Doublethink. In the modern world, the government doesn't care if everyone hates the government because they don't need your vote just your money. In the modern world, we hardly have time for thought crimes because we're constantly fighting incorrect bills and insurance companies.

Winston's job is especially quaint. In the modern world, there's no need to falsify history or the news. Not enough people care about the ample evidence of the actual truth. Anyone can just wave away the truth, claim any unsubstantiated nonsense, and enough Congressmen and civilians will follow in step. The rest of us can just scream into our social media. It's so much simpler really.

Yes, I know I'm being dramatic.

On the other hand: “She did not feel the abyss opening beneath her feet at the thought of lies becoming truths.” - Orwell

I do, Orwell! I feel the abyss. This abyss needs to be updated though because it’s gotten much bigger: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2...

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Friday by Robert A. Heinlein

Friday by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Okay, sometimes I display bad taste. This is a good example. This book is bad because the main character is a woman and she displays a very cavalier attitude about gang rape. This can be attributed to any number of causes: 1) perhaps Heinlein just doesn't understand female anatomy and women's emotional lives, 2) perhaps Heinlein wanted to display what a superhuman badass spy the main character is, 3) just trashy writing so as to kick up some publicity bad or otherwise to sell books? And I tried to forget this initial disaster except the main character goes on to completely forgive one of the rapists. Ugh, too much.

But let's say you just ignore that whole thing, which is tough, but let's say you do-- what a fun meandering sci fi book! It's fun to see what Heinlein predicted right or wrong, though he still has the opportunity to be proven right. The difficult-to-obtain futuristic library technology described by Heinlein is completely ours these days. In Heinlein's future it's easy to travel the galaxies, but expensive, whereas in real life we're not even close. IVF and even 3-parent IVF is already real, though specific genetic modifications to the embryos are still just on the horizon. (Crispr/Cas9)

And I like Friday/ Marge/ whatever her current identity is. I like how she's an unstoppable badass and a needy emotional mess at the same time. (Except when it comes to rape?)

Anyway, worth reading if you can compartmentalize feelings about fiction and enjoy trashy fun.

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I reread this as part of my "Bannon-Trump-resist" reading list. I only read it before it in middle school and I'm not sure what I got from it at the time except maybe that tyranny, and tyranny of ideas, is dangerous.

It has a peculiar effect on me this time around. I've been reading fast and furiously for about a year, trying to make up for lost time (all the time I spent not reading very much while I was working a lot). The more I read, the more I become aware of all the books that are necessary to read; the books I have yet to read. And in this frame of mind, the single scariest sentence in the book is: "Remember the firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord. You firemen provide a circus now and then at which buildings are set off and crowds gather for the pretty blaze, but it's a small sideshow indeed, and hardly necessary to keep things in line."

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The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't know. It's well-written. It's an eloquent and complete answer to Ayn Rand about the possibilities of cooperation- not perfect even if set-up perfectly, but better than greed and selfishness. At the same time, the characters are real and moving people. This isn't an empty allegory.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot I actually enjoyed in this book. I more or less just powered through it.

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Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I recently reread this and still really enjoyed it. The plot is well-worn but the details of the story are fun. Though many of the characters are somewhat flat I really enjoyed the father-figure character, Jubal Harshaw.

Also, here's a link on the flags of Mars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mars.

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Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I read this for school, I was exceptionally young. Sometime in middle school for sure. I barely knew anything about communist and socialist revolutions around the world, and wouldn't for many years. (We didn't even make it to the Kennedy years in History Class, possibly something to do with the years the AP exam focused on.) Years after reading the book, I recalled its contents and just sort of assumed it was anti-communist.

But I reread it recently and it's not that simple. The previous system, where the animals are slaves under the farmer, is only better in terms of animal feed and a lack of hypocrisy about the evils being committed. The ruling elite are pigs either way- whether they are the humans or the literal pigs.

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