Re: Nebula finalists 2018

On Thu, 23 Jan 2025 13:30:49 -0500, Ahasuerus <ahasuerus@email.com>
wrote:

On 1/22/2025 11:24 PM, Chris Buckley wrote:
[snip]

I happened to read _All Systems Red_ within a couple of days of it
coming out since I like Wells. I re-read it that day (it's short). The
next day I reported it here as the most enjoyable book I had read in
several years. It's that good.

>
I had a more muted -- but still positive -- reaction. Back in 2021 I wrote:
>
I thought it was well written and quite funny in places but a little
thin. Still, it was pretty good overall. It probably worked better for
people who found the protagonist highly relatable.
>
It got me thinking about the fact that fictional non-humans (robots,
aliens, etc) are often fascinated with human culture. It probably tells
us something about the current state of humans, but I am not sure what
it is. I too find it attractive at the visceral level, but why? Is it a
mammalian thing – we just want to cuddle? A psychological self-defense
mechanism because otherwise we would be facing implacable, almost
Lovecraftian, forces out in the cold of space? A desire for external
affirmation, for someone to tell us that what we have produced is of
universal value and not just a bunch of monkeys prancing in the dirt?

Because human culture is all the author knows, and so it must, of
necessity, be drawn on for much of the story's content?
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"