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dolorosa_12It's been a sunny, sleepy Saturday, and I've spent most of the morning reading self-indulgent fanfic, interrupted by a quick trip into town to the outdoor market.
We're on to the final week of the thirty-day book meme:
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
I've been tying myself in knots trying to think of a book that would fit this prompt, and I'm coming up with nothing. There's a subgenre of science fiction books/short stories (I think it was more popular forty-fifty years ago, though), which is more like thought experiment than story, and basically asks the reader to consider various versions of the trolley problem. I can't give specific titles, as it's not a subgenre I particularly enjoy — it's more of a case of 'I know it when I see it.' I suspect some people might use books or stories of this type as an answer to today's prompt, but for me that kind of story is off-puttingly manipulative, and exemplifies everything I feel is wrong with people who claim to value 'objectivity' and 'rationality'. These kinds of questions are designed to manipulate the reader into choosing the option to do harm to other people, like a kind of gotcha: see, if you took all that silly, pesky emotion out of the equation, and operated on the basis of 'pure reason,' and 'the objective facts,' OF COURSE doing harm to other people can be the right choice in some circumstances. This perspective ignores the fact that, in most instances of a real-world moral conundrum, emotions are going to come into play: fear (for one's safety or that of others), or love (or some other emotion) of the people concerned.
Other books — whether SFF, or historical or contemporary real-world fiction — about people living under unjust or totalitarian regimes ask an implicit question of their reader: would you have the moral courage to make the brave decisions of these characters? or how can you know that you wouldn't do the same (expedient) thing as such characters, if you shared their circumstances? I have a lot more time for this kind of fiction — indeed, a huge bulk of my reading is devoted to stories of people living in unjust circumstances, and the various ways they do (or don't) resist — but my answer to its implicit questions has never been ambiguous to me, at least in relation to myself. Obviously I can't answer it on behalf of any other person, though.
So I guess all I can say in response to this question is that I do not have a book with which to answer it!
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by
We're on to the final week of the thirty-day book meme:
24. A book that asked a question you've never had an answer to
I've been tying myself in knots trying to think of a book that would fit this prompt, and I'm coming up with nothing. There's a subgenre of science fiction books/short stories (I think it was more popular forty-fifty years ago, though), which is more like thought experiment than story, and basically asks the reader to consider various versions of the trolley problem. I can't give specific titles, as it's not a subgenre I particularly enjoy — it's more of a case of 'I know it when I see it.' I suspect some people might use books or stories of this type as an answer to today's prompt, but for me that kind of story is off-puttingly manipulative, and exemplifies everything I feel is wrong with people who claim to value 'objectivity' and 'rationality'. These kinds of questions are designed to manipulate the reader into choosing the option to do harm to other people, like a kind of gotcha: see, if you took all that silly, pesky emotion out of the equation, and operated on the basis of 'pure reason,' and 'the objective facts,' OF COURSE doing harm to other people can be the right choice in some circumstances. This perspective ignores the fact that, in most instances of a real-world moral conundrum, emotions are going to come into play: fear (for one's safety or that of others), or love (or some other emotion) of the people concerned.
Other books — whether SFF, or historical or contemporary real-world fiction — about people living under unjust or totalitarian regimes ask an implicit question of their reader: would you have the moral courage to make the brave decisions of these characters? or how can you know that you wouldn't do the same (expedient) thing as such characters, if you shared their circumstances? I have a lot more time for this kind of fiction — indeed, a huge bulk of my reading is devoted to stories of people living in unjust circumstances, and the various ways they do (or don't) resist — but my answer to its implicit questions has never been ambiguous to me, at least in relation to myself. Obviously I can't answer it on behalf of any other person, though.
So I guess all I can say in response to this question is that I do not have a book with which to answer it!
25. A book that answered a question you never asked
26. A book you recommend but cannot love
27. A book you love but cannot recommend
28. A book you adore that people are surprised by
29. A book that led you home
30. A book you detest that people are surprised by