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Posting a reply to: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge

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[QUOTE]dustydigger - 2015-03-15  4:30 PM

Great year,1953! I had previously read 6/18 books;
Fahrenheit 451 - a slightly odd dystopic mix of totalitarian censorship and nuclear destruction. I would presume Bradbury had read George Orwell's 1984?Bradbury was very passionate about censorship. Remember that savage story in Martian Chronicles where someone murdered all the people who wanted to impose censorship on him when he built a house based on Poe's stories?,and I thought the story jarred with the rest of the Chronicles? Well here Bradbury certainly made an impassioned diatribe againnt censorship by extrapolating to a totalitarian state whiere firemen dont put out fires but burn books? At least Bradbury gives us a glimmer of hope,and it is poignant and poetic,less relentlessly downbeat than Orwell. I would agree that this will survive a long time.It still seems fresh,despite censorship is finding it difficult to suppress freedom of speech in these days of social media etc
 Childhood's End. I found this book slightly repellent. Books about Transcendent aliens make me slightly suspicious. I kept wondering if these children uplifted to some higher power were really merged with the entity,or if they were just a meal to them! lol. A surfeit on my part of reading about dastardly devious aliens,perhaps? The callous way the whole of mankind were disposed off,and the suffering of the children lying in their own filth waiting for transcendence didnt seem very highly ethical at all. All that religion  bashing didnt go down well with me either,but that is just my personal opinion. The Overlords were interesting,and the fate of the last human was poignant.but all in all it wasnt my cup of tea.
More Than Human. Sturgeon's b with compassion anest novel. He was theidol of awhole generation of youngerb authors,but mostly for short stories,but today known mostly for this book. He was an excellent literary author,could draw vivid characters. This is a fix up novel,of course. So many of the 50s books were,but this is well written. We really focus on the characters in a sensitive compassionate way. The usual focus on psychiatry and psi powers is there in abundance,but being well written and evenhanded(no transcendent humans tossing away the old humans like rubbish).its base on people is enough to rise above from trends of the time. I really hope that those who havent yet read this book will choose it for their 1953 read. Well worthwhile your attention
Second Foundation - Oh dear,I have made my lukewarm feelings to the Foundation series earlier.  Not my cup of tea,didnt like the whole psychohistory premise,no characterisation,very bitty,even for a fix up. Nuff said.
The Space Merchants. Opinion seems divided here,Jim was disappointed,Rhonda loved it,I had good vibes about it butnafter decades cant be surehow I would feel now. Will be interested in the views of challenge readers!
Starman Jones - One of Heinlein's fun juveniles a light fun read about a young boy who manages to wangle his way into the crew of a space ship.Resourceful,with an eidetic memory he has lots of adventures. The science on the spaceship is so dated,so cumbersome,but Henlein grabs  our attention from the start,and we root for the young man.Good fun, a quick enjoyable read,though not spectacular. Nice and pleasant.
For the challenge I read Iceworld and The Black Star Passes.

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dustydigger

Posted 2015-03-15 4:30 PM (#9886 - in reply to #9883)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge

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Great year,1953! I had previously read 6/18 books;
Fahrenheit 451 - a slightly odd dystopic mix of totalitarian censorship and nuclear destruction. I would presume Bradbury had read George Orwell's 1984?Bradbury was very passionate about censorship. Remember that savage story in Martian Chronicles where someone murdered all the people who wanted to impose censorship on him when he built a house based on Poe's stories?,and I thought the story jarred with the rest of the Chronicles? Well here Bradbury certainly made an impassioned diatribe againnt censorship by extrapolating to a totalitarian state whiere firemen dont put out fires but burn books? At least Bradbury gives us a glimmer of hope,and it is poignant and poetic,less relentlessly downbeat than Orwell. I would agree that this will survive a long time.It still seems fresh,despite censorship is finding it difficult to suppress freedom of speech in these days of social media etc
Childhood's End. I found this book slightly repellent. Books about Transcendent aliens make me slightly suspicious. I kept wondering if these children uplifted to some higher power were really merged with the entity,or if they were just a meal to them! lol. A surfeit on my part of reading about dastardly devious aliens,perhaps? The callous way the whole of mankind were disposed off,and the suffering of the children lying in their own filth waiting for transcendence didnt seem very highly ethical at all. All that religion bashing didnt go down well with me either,but that is just my personal opinion. The Overlords were interesting,and the fate of the last human was poignant.but all in all it wasnt my cup of tea.
More Than Human. Sturgeon's b with compassion anest novel. He was theidol of awhole generation of youngerb authors,but mostly for short stories,but today known mostly for this book. He was an excellent literary author,could draw vivid characters. This is a fix up novel,of course. So many of the 50s books were,but this is well written. We really focus on the characters in a sensitive compassionate way. The usual focus on psychiatry and psi powers is there in abundance,but being well written and evenhanded(no transcendent humans tossing away the old humans like rubbish).its base on people is enough to rise above from trends of the time. I really hope that those who havent yet read this book will choose it for their 1953 read. Well worthwhile your attention
Second Foundation - Oh dear,I have made my lukewarm feelings to the Foundation series earlier. Not my cup of tea,didnt like the whole psychohistory premise,no characterisation,very bitty,even for a fix up. Nuff said.
The Space Merchants. Opinion seems divided here,Jim was disappointed,Rhonda loved it,I had good vibes about it butnafter decades cant be surehow I would feel now. Will be interested in the views of challenge readers!
Starman Jones - One of Heinlein's fun juveniles a light fun read about a young boy who manages to wangle his way into the crew of a space ship.Resourceful,with an eidetic memory he has lots of adventures. The science on the spaceship is so dated,so cumbersome,but Henlein grabs our attention from the start,and we root for the young man.Good fun, a quick enjoyable read,though not spectacular. Nice and pleasant.
For the challenge I read Iceworld and The Black Star Passes.

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