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BBAW: Forgotten Treasure
Sorry to have missed yesterday’s topic! I’ve been ill this week, which unfortunately meant only the pre-scheduled posts made it through…until today that is! Today’s BBAW theme is to highlight a book that we wish would get more attention/would be more well-known.
It was honestly kind of difficult for me to pick just one book. I’d say around 1/3 to 1/4 of my reading is random obscure scifi/dystopian novels that I wish would get more attention. Actually, I wish dystopias would get more attention in general. I think they’re such an excellent way to explore issues and philosophically think about possible outcomes to modern decisions. In fact, I think the world would be a better place in general if everyone would just stop and seriously think before making decisions….but that’s another topic for another blog post.
In any case, there’s a book that I read this year that I’ve certainly never heard mentioned before anywhere–Robert Silverberg’s The World Inside
(review). I knew I loved it, so it made it to the Wolfy Recommends page, but I had no idea how much it would stick with me. I can’t tell you how many times since I read it that I’ve gone back in my head to that world to ponder all the implications.
The World Inside is relatively short. In fact, you could almost call it a novella, and it is easily read in one sitting. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t contain a full story, however. The World Inside
examines the issues of pro-life versus pro-choice and overpopulation by looking at a future in which most of the world is vehemently pro-life, and the impact that the massive population has had on the world, society, culture, and individuals. Silverberg imagines a future in which the world can handle a massive population via “urbmons”–incredibly high-rise buildings that contain the equivalent of entire nations. Stacking people up on top of each other like this makes it possible to devote most of the rest of the world to food production. Silverberg therefore is able to fully develop both the culture within the urbmons and the culture that produces the food.
Whether Silverberg is for ever-increasing population or not is deliciously unclear. His future is a world where all privacy is absent. Where diversion from the norm is unacceptable. Offenders get only one chance then they are “sent down the chute” aka given capital punishment. It is a world where all life is welcomed, yes, but at what cost? The solutions to overpopulation he presents are ones that make sense, but he also clearly shows the costs on the individual. Life as a whole is valued so much that the individual is discounted. On the other hand, he uses the farming culture to show how always choosing the individual over the whole could also be perceived as unfair or barbaric.
This book is an intriguing, eye-opening read. It is nearly impossible to put down once you pick it up, and I believe it would do wonders to opening true dialogue between the opposing viewpoints on world population/overpopulation. No matter what your viewpoint is on the issue, it will do wonders to expand your mind and make you think. That’s why I love dystopian literature, and that’s why The World Inside is an excellent taste of the genre. Plus, its length makes it easily accessible to those who might be nervous about trying dystopian lit for the first time. I highly recommend it, and I hope to start seeing buzzing about it in the book blogging community.
Friday Fun! (Exercise and Zombies)
Hello my lovely readers! I hope you all had lovely weeks and are enjoying your Augusts. Remember that scientific studies have proven that you’re more likely to have a bad Friday the 13th if you believe in the curse, so just don’t believe it. 😉
I’ve had a busy, but fun week. As a way to try to strategize against my anxiety until my doctor’s appointment next month (where I’m hoping to finally get some anti-anxiety meds), I’ve been seriously increasing the amount of physical activity in my week. If I’m exhausted then maybe I’ll be too tired to be anxious, eh? Well, it worked in uni anyway. So I started doing the 30 Day Shred again and found myself barely able to walk up and down stairs the next day, haha. I’ve also returned to biking now that the weather has cooled some, and I’ve started doing the evil pilates dvd some of my friends from uni and internships may remember. Ana Caban’s pilates dvd
really kicks your ass. Er, abs. I highly recommend it.
One of my pepper plants is blooming! But the blooms tend to wither up after one day and die. I have no idea if this means I’ll be getting peppers or not. Are the blooms supposed to whither? Anyone know?
So I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the increasing zombie trend. (If you haven’t heard much about it yet, trust me, you will be). Where is this obsession with a global pandemic coming from? I think maybe, on some level, everyone knows that the way we’re going right now isn’t sustainable. We have too many people using too many resources. A key element of a lot of the zombie lit is that it wipes out the population to a sustainable level, and the survivors are forced to return to the ways of our ancestors–growing their own food, going to sleep when it’s dark out, being physically active, etc… So people clearly know that two of the main issus are overpopulation and over-use of resources, and yet most people do little to nothing about it. What used to be a key element of our survival as a species–the instinct to reproduce as much as possible–is now our downfall. Whereas we used to lose a lot of people in childhood (seriously, as a history major I can tell you, kids were so disposable, some families named all the boys the same name because statistically only one would survive. It was that bad), now you pretty much have a really good shot at living a long, healthy life as long as you live in a western nation. And of course there’s that problem on top of the overpopulation problem. We currently have plenty of resources, but they’re unevenly distributed. I’m not saying there’s something wrong with there being some variance in the levels of comfort, but it’s so incredibly wrong that we have some people with multiple million dollar homes and an entourage they pay for and clothes that cost thousands of dollars while other people are living on the street or in dirt huts or are starving to death. And the thing is, I think everyone knows that the world is fucked up, but we’re tired and we’re beaten down, so we just figure the world is coming to an end, may as well have fun imagining it. My friends and I started talking about whether banding together to fix things was possible or if it’s just too late. One of my friends thinks it’s just too late. I’m inclined to agree with her. I think there’s just too many people who would rather live in happy ignorance than face the facts they know and make drastic changes to fix it. Of course, that’d be a lot easier if so much of the population weren’t debt slaves…., but that’s another rant for another post.
Anyway, so that’s what’s been going on here this week! Lots of physical activity and lots of philosophical discussions, lol. Oh also, I bet you’ve figured out by now that there’ll be a review of a zombie book next week. Those of you who follow me on Twitter already know which one. 😉
What do you guys think about zombie lit? Where’s the popularity coming from?
Happy weekends!