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Originally Posted by DawnFalcon
As to what Mr. Ringo's written, I hear he practically had to have those novels forced out of him...and I'm not reading them.
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The first one. It was the book he wrote to get it out of his head so he could go on writing the stuff he wanted to. I'm not sure what's more disturbing -- the fact that it was in his head in the first place (that said, there are some pretty toxic corners in my own head) or the fact that his fanbase ate it up and demanded more. Which he not at all reluctantly provided. I'm still dragging my way through
Watch on the Rhine, though, so it'll be a while until I have the time, dedication, and stomach to start in on
Ghost and its many sequels.
It doesn't help that I don't really mesh with his writing style, even in straightforward books like the early Posleen War ones. I couldn't tell you why; it just doesn't work for me.
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Shrug, I can't stand any Heinlien *except* Starship Troopers either, so...
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Have you tried
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? That's one of my favorites, along with
Citizen of the Galaxy and
Tunnel in the Sky.
Mercedes Lackey is a falconer and raptor rehabilitator. I think there is a certain amount of clear thinking forced upon one by dealing on a daily basis with feather-covered bundles of I-want-to-kill-you.
In "The Wee Free Men", I think it was, Terry Pratchett defined a witch, not as a person who has second sight, but one who has "first sight and second thoughts" -- someone who sees things as they are, and someone capable of self-analysis of their own thinking. I find that to be the kind of person I get along with best, whatever their political viewpoint, possibly because that is the only kind of person one can really have a productive discussion with. Unfortunately, too many people have what I call religious issues: their personal beliefs (social, political, scientific, even literary) become like a religion to them, and they think that if they just believe really, really hard, it'll all come true. Look at the politics of both left and right (not to mention the more dogmatic libertarians) and you'll find all the examples you could ever need. They don't have first sight; they see things as they expect them to be, or want them to be, not as they are. They assign attributes to labels, and then expect those attributes to manifest themselves in anything (or anyone) they affix those labels to. And they are totally, completely incapable of recognizing that their ways of thinking, their collections of labels, their personal dogmas, are
a way rather than
the way.
The do-gooders in "Last Rights" are a perfect example. They attached the label "poor oppressed creatures" to the dinosaurs and expected them to behave accordingly. However, the dinosaurs acted like dinosaurs anyway. When reality contradicted their image, they rejected reality and clung to that image.
Part of the problem is that we're used to living in a negotiable world. Many of the things that affect us, starting with our first interactions with our parents as tiny babies, can be negotiated in some way. Our words, and the feelings that generate them, can influence our world. We can negotiate about staying up past our bedtimes, about whether that paper really merited a C, about leases and raises and forum bans and returning broken clocks. As a result, many of us are ill-equipped to deal with things which can't be negotiated, like giant lizards with tiny brains, or other things that directly involve the laws of nature rather than the laws of man. You can negotiate if you get caught breaking the traffic law that dictates what happens if you drive over 120 kph, but you can't negotiate if you get caught breaking the law of physics that dictates what happens if you drive into a tree. No matter what you think will happen if you drive your car into a big, solid tree, no matter what you hope will happen, no matter what you want to happen, no matter what you believe will happen, what actually happens is under the control of the universe, not your own mind. I find that many of the people I can talk with most productively are those whose hobbies include things such as rock climbing. The law of gravity has no appeals process.
People who are pragmatic rather than dogmatic can usually find some common ground and work toward common goals. Unfortunately, such people are a vanishing minority.