Lofgeornost
Feeling Martian!
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
- Messages
- 3,550
- Reaction score
- 10,765
No doubt. I was thinking more about the book last night and I realized that one thing that makes the initial part somewhat hard slogging is that Budrys is trying to portray the mental effects of living in such a circumscribed environment. Beyond the fact that Jackson is something of a douche, his reactions and ideas in the first part are a little hard to follow because, in a sense, he has so few tools to think with. Later in the book, after he has received an instant education via machine and shares more of our frame of reference, he becomes much more comprehensible.Budrys' protagonist are usually assholes, so I think it's an intentional decision.
Another facet of the book I didn't mention is that in some ways it seems a rather eerie presentiment of the effects of the internet. On the post-scarcity Earth, the relatively small remaining human population is constantly plugged into an information network, and one of their main activities is watching what other people are doing ('actualities' as they are called) as mediated by the A.I.. Budrys' model for this is clearly television--at one point Jackson re-enacts an amsir hunt and then sees the 'broadcast' version, noting in surprise the music underneath, the cuts in perspective, etc. But the idea of turning one's life into a spectacle for other people and the focus on the number of people watching reminds me a lot of current 'influencers' and similar things.