So I've long been a lover of bookstores. I love to go in, and browse the sci-fi section until some cheap paperback catches my eye. Sometimes I have authors or titles in mind that I might be looking for, but more often than not it'll just be a random choice, no real rhume or reason other than my general interests and how they are peaked by the back of the book and maybe the first couple of pages.

No research, no amazon reviews, no forum look ups. Just purchase based off of what's in front of me. This is actually how I came up on books, and I love the activity like digging for records. So long as there are bookstores left (unfortunately less and less) I'll do it this way. Fuck a Kindle (I actually own one but it's for the kids) or nook. Give me a $7.99 paperback anyday.

Okay, so earlier last week I did this and picked up this book "The Hermetic Millenium" read the back and I'm like yeah I can fucks with this. Realize it's second in a series, perfect. Grab the first book "Count to a Trillion" and start reading. I'm all in.

So in between chapters I start searching for the author trying to see what else he's done. Amazon has a nice list. Then I google search. Google's auto fill does "John C Wright bigot" awe fuck me!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=john+c+wright+bigot

So yeah now I'm trying to rationalize all this bullshit about why I should just keep reading anyway. Real talk I do like it, a lot. But fuck this dude fa real. I should probably stop reading cause no matter how good it is, there is little doubt at some point his questionable shit will become apparent in the writing and taint the whole thing.

So this got me thinking about all the questionable shit I've probably given passes for in the past because there was no internet yadda yadda yadda. And that led to thinking about how politically divided sci fi is in general. Like I'd be willing to say the greater majority of sci-fi writers are probably on the conservative right. I'm really into hard sf so it's really apparent there. Tons of military conservatism. But then there are the liberal niche's. Like 'afrofuturist' sci fi is without a doubt left leaning, but subsequently generally thought of as outside of the canon. How often is Octavia named amongst the greats in general SF circles. Delany but I think there's an exception because he came in the door guns blazing the hard sf-like ish out the door. He tackled pretty much every type of sf possible so it's undeniable.

Then you get things like cyberpunk which in some regards were liberal, and yet there was an impotence to that movement in the long run forcing folk like Neal Stephenson to start doing WWII tie ins and shit.

All to start a convo on how the politics of sci fi are some interesting shit, especially when you consider that despite what folk may think, these fantasies do have direct impacts on the charts of humanity into the future.

Talk to me.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."