As he writes in the new book, “I am giving you explicit permission to use this word in a loose sense.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376640-enshittification
As he writes in the new book, “I am giving you explicit permission to use this word in a loose sense.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376640-enshittification
I was told that I should read Walkaway by Doctorow because it’s one of his best fictional works. If that’s his best then I don’t really need to read anything else. I don’t know if it’s the paper-thin characters or the most awkward sex scenes ever written I enjoyed the least, but what I disliked a lot was Doctorow’s frankly baffling world building.
Tap for spoiler
The beginning of the book starts out with tons of nifty sci-fi elements, like bacteria that ferment pee into alcohol or whatever. And I’m thinking, “Oh neat, this technology must have a bunch of novel uses in this story and impact the narrative and world in many unique ways.” It doesn’t. It just isn’t brought up again. And there’s a bunch of technologies like that in the story. Imagine writing a story about generative AI and saying it’s only used to make meme pictures and not investigating any of the socioeconomic impacts of that technology.
Isn’t that one like The Fountainhead but for DIYers?
What’s up with SciFi authors and doing this sort of revolutionary colonialism genre?
Yes. People make the comparison a lot. It’s a quasi-anarchist response to The Fountainhead. And what makes it worse is that it’s not satirizing The Fountainhead. It reads completely sincere, which made the whole thing almost unbearable for me.
If you’re diabetic you can do that right now
I’ll be honest I don’t know what people see in his fiction. I think he makes good contribution with his non-fiction but I agree with your overall assessment. It feels really… tacky…?
I guess some people find the narrative aspect a more accessible way to engage with the ideas. The ideas can be interesting so if that’s what it takes… I do enjoy occasionally listening to him talk about his fiction, that way you can get the main concepts without having to plod through the characters and plot.
I’m perhaps a less picky eater when it comes to books, but I’ve read the bezzle (yes I’m now aware that’s the middle of the series, fortunately I don’t think that mattered much) and am currently reading through the lost cause, and I find them enjoyable reads. I’m hardly a stranger to the ideas and concepts he’s discussing, but reading stories is fun and I enjoy reading a story that aligns with my values.