From: John B (discwuzit@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Jul 31 2003 - 06:58:32 MDT
[quote from: shade999@optonline.net on 2003-07-30 at 15:24:41]
From: owner-extropians@extropy.org [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]
On Behalf Of Charles Hixson
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 1:13 PM
Paul Grant wrote:
.............................................................................
<me> it can, ergo why people discuss history. At least that occurred
in our universe; thus its far more likely to be relevant. Thats the
nice
thing about history; there's so many different viewpoints to examine and
choose from, and hindsight is always 20/20.
Where do you get those perfect retroglasses? I could use a pair - and I'd LOVE
to forward pairs to the SCOTUS, congresscritters, the executive branch, etc...
What am I saying, they'll just look at the parts they want to see, anyways.
*big sigh* Oh well, it was a good thought while it lasted...
[charles] whereas in the book one
knows, or can know, the complete context.
<me> Thats facetious at best; you're reading a fiction book. Unless you
are
the author, you have absolutely no idea what the complete context
of the book is; just what the author has currently decided to expose
to the reader. Furthermore, there is nothing to indicate that a valid
comparison can be necessarily drawn from the book mapping to our
current reality. If they were doing a book review, than yes,
I'ld agree <within the bounds of the book>; they are however,
discussing real-life effects of the genocide of human beings.
Pointing out the fictional character had second thoughts while
nice, is really not that useful. Arguing the reason (or rationale)
the author used to generate that particular fictional response
might be. Using that rationale as conclusive proof however, is
not.
Agreed, it's a book. It's a fiction. However, if it's a good book (by which
I mean that the reader doesn't have to suspend disbelief TOO much), it gives
you a rough thought experiment, all nicely written out and shared amongst many
people throughout the community of readers, to draw on to help explain other
events.
-snip-
One final thought; what the media and movies (and yes, even
fictional works in their heyday) represent does not indicate the
norm in reality. Its a shame people have such difficulty in
observing the difference.
Good catch - and most fiction is escapist at best, agreed. However, even so,
I find that I can explain libertarianism easier to a sci-fi crowd by invoking
Heinlein, as just one example.
-John
---- This message was posted by John B to the Extropians 2003 board on ExI BBS. <http://www.extropy.org/bbs/index.php?board=67;action=display;threadid=56622>
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