sbisson: (Self Portrait)

Not a Puppy, but I still eat Nutty Nuggets from time to time.

posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 04:45pm on 01/06/2015 under , ,

As a left-of-centre voting European I'm pretty much the Sad/Rabid Puppy definition of a SJW, a definition that owes more to the US Culture Wars than anything else. And yet, looking at the pile of books I brought back from a recent trip to the US, it's clear that my mix of Nutty Nuggets and other cereals (for a balanced diet) make my reading habits a lot closer to the Puppy ideal than they think...

The more I think about it, the more I'm sure that the Puppy position is pushing people away from their view of the Hugos. Most of us readers read widely, and read for different reasons. I read some books to be challenged, some to be entertained, some because friends recommend them, some because I liked a review. My recent reads are easy enough to find, and they cover a wide selection of the genre, from milSF to fantasy to humour to crime to, well, the uncategorisable.

You can see a selection of my recent purchases below. There's a lot that there that I'll enjoy, and a lot that I wouldn't consider to be awards quality. Some will be books for the bath, some will be my Hugo voting reading, some will be because it's the latest instalment in a saga I enjoy, and some because, well, just because. And yes, some because the cover caught my attention as I walked through a bookstore



Because I don't read because some shadowy cabal makes me read. I read because I love reading. And dear Puppies, you're not making reading much fun at the moment.

There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
sbisson: (Self Portrait)

Two islands: a parable.

posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 10:43am on 21/04/2015 under , , , , ,
There once were two islands, one big and one small. The big island had a village, farms, people, even a parliament. The small island had a big house.

The big island was very pretty, and tourists came all summer on boats. They ate food, drank tea and beer, slept in the hotels, and bought crafts. Life was good on the big island, even when the storms came in winter and there were no boats.

Two billionaires bought the big house on the small island, and turned it into a castle. They wanted their own island with their own laws, but found that the big island's laws still applied to the small island, and there was a bigger island (and a bigger island yet) that ruled the big island.

So they lobbied and fought to change one old, old law, and they won. And that was good, because it was a bad law that made some people more equal than others.

"What now?" the billionaires asked.

And then they lobbied and fought to change the way the bigger island elected its parliament. And that was good, because it had been a parliament of land owners, not of people.

"What now?" the billionaires asked.

And they bought all the businesses on the big island and staffed them with their people, and they paid the island's people's wages.

"What now?" the billionaires asked.

And there was an election.

So the billionaires put up a slate of candidates for all the seats in the parliament. And the people of the island didn't like it, and many of them stood for the same seats.

"Vote for our people!" said the billionaires. "Or bad things will happen," they whispered.

And when the votes were counted just one or two of the billionaires' candidates were elected, and many of the islanders had seats in the new parliament.

The billionaires were not happy, and they closed all their businesses. The shops were closed, the hotels were closed, the pubs were closed.

But summer came, and with it came the tourists and their money. And the billionaires loved money more than loved the idea of ruling the island, and they opened all their shops again.

The moral of this story?

Sometimes a determined community can overcome the undemocratic nature of a slate.

Oh and this isn't really a parable. It's a true story.
There are 3 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

January

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
  1
1
 2
2
 3
1
 4
 
 5
 
 6
 
7
 
 8
 
 9
 
 10
 
 11
 
 12
 
 13
 
14
 
 15
 
 16
 
 17
 
 18
 
 19
 
 20
 
21
 
 22
 
 23
 
 24
 
 25
 
 26
 
 27
 
28
 
 29
 
 30
 
 31