New ideas from reading

AlexBell · 07-04-2012, 01:15 AM

One of the joys of reading for me is that occasionally I come across a new idea or concept, and it stretches my mind. For example, in The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman the main protagonist is a young woman whose mother seduced a man on an outlying planet. The young woman and her mother are fugitives because the mother refused to abort the pregnancy, and the father charged her with copyright violation (a very severe crime on that planet) for using his genes without his knowledge and consent, and insisted that she pay him massive royalties.

Does anyone else derive pleasure from new ideas like this? Do you have any examples?

Lynx-lynx · 07-04-2012, 04:51 AM

Not a new idea as such .... more a philosophical viewpoint .... I hope it fits what you had in mind for this thread:

"Each one of us is, successively, not one but many. And these successive personalities that emerge from the other tend to present the strangest most astonishing contrasts among themselves."

This quote, by Uruguayan author Jose Enrique Rodo, is the epigraph to Mario Vargas Llosa'a new novel, The Dream of the Celt.

Excerpt from The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, June 30-July1 2012, reproduction of interview by Stuart Jeffries' with Llosa as printed in the (UK) Guardian. (No original Guardian publication date mentioned)

.

carpetmojo · 07-04-2012, 06:02 AM

[QUOTE=AlexBell;..................the main protagonist is a young woman whose mother seduced a man on an outlying planet. The young woman and her mother are fugitives because the mother refused to abort the pregnancy, and the father charged her with copyright violation (a [U]very[/U] severe crime on that planet) for using his genes without his knowledge and consent, and insisted that she pay him massive royalties..................QUOTE]

Wasn't that Apple v. Samsung ?

Or am I getting a tad confused ........ ?

kennyc · 07-04-2012, 07:52 AM

Apple vs. world.

RainingLemur · 07-04-2012, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kennyc

Apple vs. world.

Heh. Sounds about right, anyhow...

AlexBell · 07-05-2012, 02:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Not a new idea as such .... more a philosophical viewpoint .... I hope it fits what you had in mind for this thread:

"Each one of us is, successively, not one but many. And these successive personalities that emerge from the other tend to present the strangest most astonishing contrasts among themselves."

The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, June 30-July1 2012, reproduction of interview by Stuart Jeffries' interview with Mario Vargas Llosa as printed in the (UK) Guardian.

This quote is the epigraph to Llosa'a new novel, The Dream of the Celt, written by Uruguayan writer Jose Enrique Rodo.

Thanks, Lynx-lynx. Yes, that's the kind of thing I was looking for.

charlesatan · 07-05-2012, 03:36 AM

Sure I do.

And the genre science fiction and fantasy tends to excel at this, as some narratives are thought experiments.

Wasn't a big fan of The Ice Owl though.

kiwidude · 07-05-2012, 08:16 AM

+1 on the SF comment, that's one of the things I love about it. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a new idea as such - just getting you to think through the implications of a "fantastical" idea.

For instance being able to extend your life indefinitely - hardly original. But I remember reading Elizabeth Moon (Serrano I think?) where it touched on the impact on the military. Where generals would then never reach a retirement age, which leaves ever growing discontent from those underneath particularly all the new recruits. Leaving a lot of trained for violence individuals with a justifiable cause for complaint. Something that in hindsight has you thinking "oh yeah, of course that would be a problem" but not perhaps something you thought about if you ever day-dreamed about being able to live longer...

AlexBell · 07-06-2012, 02:46 AM

Thanks, Kiwidude, that's exactly what I was trying get at.

AndrewH · 07-06-2012, 03:45 AM

Years ago I recall reading... I think it was The Maker of Dune, in which Frank Herbert discussed many of the ideas that went into the creation of Dune. At one point he mentioned a debate between Teller and Oppenheimer in which they theorized that a hydrogen bomb would ignite nitrogen in the atmosphere which could, in turn, cause the hydrogen in all the Earth's water to fuse... essentially turning the entire Earth into a giant bomb. They checked their calculations and decided it probably wouldn't happen, but there was enough uncertainty that when they set off the first hydrogen bomb in the New Mexico desert there were bets placed on what would happen. Yet they decided to set it off anyway.

That idea terrified me at the time and led me to a much deeper appreciation of environmentalism.

07-04-2012, 01:15 AM	#1
AlexBell Wizard Posts: 3,413 Karma: 13369310 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Launceston, Tasmania Device: Sony PRS T3, Kobo Glo, Kindle Touch, iPad, Samsung SB 2 tablet	New ideas from reading One of the joys of reading for me is that occasionally I come across a new idea or concept, and it stretches my mind. For example, in The Ice Owl by Carolyn Ives Gilman the main protagonist is a young woman whose mother seduced a man on an outlying planet. The young woman and her mother are fugitives because the mother refused to abort the pregnancy, and the father charged her with copyright violation (a very severe crime on that planet) for using his genes without his knowledge and consent, and insisted that she pay him massive royalties. Does anyone else derive pleasure from new ideas like this? Do you have any examples?

07-04-2012, 04:51 AM	#2
Lynx-lynx Treachery of images ... Posts: 4,069 Karma: 91561091 Join Date: May 2012 Location: Australia Device: Blackberry Playbook, Sony 650, Kobo Glo, H2O, Aura One, Forma, Libra 2	Not a new idea as such .... more a philosophical viewpoint .... I hope it fits what you had in mind for this thread: "Each one of us is, successively, not one but many. And these successive personalities that emerge from the other tend to present the strangest most astonishing contrasts among themselves." This quote, by Uruguayan author Jose Enrique Rodo, is the epigraph to Mario Vargas Llosa'a new novel, The Dream of the Celt. Excerpt from The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, June 30-July1 2012, reproduction of interview by Stuart Jeffries' with Llosa as printed in the (UK) Guardian. (No original Guardian publication date mentioned) . Last edited by Lynx-lynx; 07-05-2012 at 03:47 AM. Reason: To grammatically make better sense of the reference

07-04-2012, 06:02 AM	#3
carpetmojo Wizard Posts: 3,117 Karma: 9269999 Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: UK Device: Sony- T3, PRS650, 350, T1/2/3, Paperwhite, Fire 8.9,Samsung Tab S 10.5	Hurrumph ...... [QUOTE=AlexBell;..................the main protagonist is a young woman whose mother seduced a man on an outlying planet. The young woman and her mother are fugitives because the mother refused to abort the pregnancy, and the father charged her with copyright violation (a [U]very[/U] severe crime on that planet) for using his genes without his knowledge and consent, and insisted that she pay him massive royalties..................QUOTE] Wasn't that Apple v. Samsung ? Or am I getting a tad confused ........ ?

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07-04-2012, 07:52 AM	#4
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,872 Karma: 118716293 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2; Kindle Fire	Apple vs. world.

07-05-2012, 03:36 AM	#7
charlesatan Addict Posts: 230 Karma: 3799024 Join Date: May 2012 Device: iPad	Sure I do. And the genre science fiction and fantasy tends to excel at this, as some narratives are thought experiments. Wasn't a big fan of The Ice Owl though.

07-05-2012, 08:16 AM	#8
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	+1 on the SF comment, that's one of the things I love about it. Sometimes it doesn't even have to be a new idea as such - just getting you to think through the implications of a "fantastical" idea. For instance being able to extend your life indefinitely - hardly original. But I remember reading Elizabeth Moon (Serrano I think?) where it touched on the impact on the military. Where generals would then never reach a retirement age, which leaves ever growing discontent from those underneath particularly all the new recruits. Leaving a lot of trained for violence individuals with a justifiable cause for complaint. Something that in hindsight has you thinking "oh yeah, of course that would be a problem" but not perhaps something you thought about if you ever day-dreamed about being able to live longer...

07-06-2012, 02:46 AM	#9
AlexBell Wizard Posts: 3,413 Karma: 13369310 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Launceston, Tasmania Device: Sony PRS T3, Kobo Glo, Kindle Touch, iPad, Samsung SB 2 tablet	Thanks, Kiwidude, that's exactly what I was trying get at.

07-06-2012, 03:45 AM	#10
AndrewH Fanatic Posts: 553 Karma: 1234566 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver, WA Device: Sony PRS-T1, & Kobo Mini	Years ago I recall reading... I think it was The Maker of Dune, in which Frank Herbert discussed many of the ideas that went into the creation of Dune. At one point he mentioned a debate between Teller and Oppenheimer in which they theorized that a hydrogen bomb would ignite nitrogen in the atmosphere which could, in turn, cause the hydrogen in all the Earth's water to fuse... essentially turning the entire Earth into a giant bomb. They checked their calculations and decided it probably wouldn't happen, but there was enough uncertainty that when they set off the first hydrogen bomb in the New Mexico desert there were bets placed on what would happen. Yet they decided to set it off anyway. That idea terrified me at the time and led me to a much deeper appreciation of environmentalism.

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