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Aug. 18th, 2007 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethFinished the second Dream Park book in one night again - The Barsoom Project, Niven & Barnes
Again it has that mix of detective, fantasy, and science fiction, with some larger scale politics mixed in. Like, Dream Park demonstrated some of the power, Barsoom Project lets rip.
And that's why it's rather less comfortable, especially right at the end.
The end of the first book involved a bit of a cover up. Which is nasty.
But the second book follows through - when the coverup is the norm, what does justice look like?
The bad guy meeting his doom has a lot of wow-cool factor about it. He pissed off the wizards and they found him a selection of really *creative* ways to die. But... well... in what sense is it a good thing?
This is a theme park we're talking about here. Would we really want Disney to do assassinations? Granted it makes for awesome RPG setups, but really...
It also goes further with the gamers-are-crazy and the potential for psychological manipulation. Which is uncomfortable too. Sure, they signed up to have their minds messed with, but...
well, on the other Game area there's a huge political project in the offing.
And the same people put together that show.
... do we want Disney doing mind control?
Even if they do dream of space?
Last level where it leaves me uncomfortable is the m/f relationships again. And I couldn't entirely tell you why. Seeing women through the eyes of Max, one of the main characters, just makes me really uncomfortable, even though I had trouble picking out anything that's bad about it. I decided eventually there's a thing where he seems to look at them not as people but as targets. Or not just as people - he'll notice personality too. But it's more he's looking at women, not people-in-general, women described in sexual terms. And it just bugs me. Even though he's being all protective and inspired and stuff... no, actually, partly because of that.
And I can't figure out why it bugs me to the extent it does.
Except for one thing - he ends up shagging the crazy lady. Who decides she doesn't need therapy, just sex with him. That's a lot later in the book than I was already uncomfortable, but that was just sick making. I mean I know healthy relationships help make healthy people, but that doesn't mean "boyfriend chosen by your alternate personality" it means a social network. And, well, *alternate personality* - did anyone ask her other-her if she wanted to be doing that? And by the end of the book she's snapped the pieces back together, but still, that's rather uncomfortable.
*Especially* when one of her is being described as child like.
The stuff in the Fat Ripper I quite liked, except for it feeling uber preachy.
The strand about abortion I did not like - it didn't have a choice message, it had a 'people would die from bad quality ones anyway' plus a 'you have to forgive yourself' plus a 'did it for spite and can't have children any more'. That's just creepy.
... I actually hate the idea of abortions, but it still seems a twisted message.
And that character was the one who was fat because she wanted to put men off because sex had led to this bad stuff. But she'd been described throughout as sexy. And then she had a bunch of sex. And, well, what was their message there? Woman can't just decide not to have sex any more so she has psych problems about it???
I realise their main characters were all there purely because of their psychological traumas, but...
It was like - the women got Motives, like the abortion thing or the guilty because someone died. The men just got Results - overweight or underweight. Apparently they don't need explaining. Er, huh?
So there was more about manipulation and twisted psyches in this one than the first one, more about the psychological power and the potential for abuse thereof, and so it was more uncomfortable. But interesting.
Again it has that mix of detective, fantasy, and science fiction, with some larger scale politics mixed in. Like, Dream Park demonstrated some of the power, Barsoom Project lets rip.
And that's why it's rather less comfortable, especially right at the end.
The end of the first book involved a bit of a cover up. Which is nasty.
But the second book follows through - when the coverup is the norm, what does justice look like?
The bad guy meeting his doom has a lot of wow-cool factor about it. He pissed off the wizards and they found him a selection of really *creative* ways to die. But... well... in what sense is it a good thing?
This is a theme park we're talking about here. Would we really want Disney to do assassinations? Granted it makes for awesome RPG setups, but really...
It also goes further with the gamers-are-crazy and the potential for psychological manipulation. Which is uncomfortable too. Sure, they signed up to have their minds messed with, but...
well, on the other Game area there's a huge political project in the offing.
And the same people put together that show.
... do we want Disney doing mind control?
Even if they do dream of space?
Last level where it leaves me uncomfortable is the m/f relationships again. And I couldn't entirely tell you why. Seeing women through the eyes of Max, one of the main characters, just makes me really uncomfortable, even though I had trouble picking out anything that's bad about it. I decided eventually there's a thing where he seems to look at them not as people but as targets. Or not just as people - he'll notice personality too. But it's more he's looking at women, not people-in-general, women described in sexual terms. And it just bugs me. Even though he's being all protective and inspired and stuff... no, actually, partly because of that.
And I can't figure out why it bugs me to the extent it does.
Except for one thing - he ends up shagging the crazy lady. Who decides she doesn't need therapy, just sex with him. That's a lot later in the book than I was already uncomfortable, but that was just sick making. I mean I know healthy relationships help make healthy people, but that doesn't mean "boyfriend chosen by your alternate personality" it means a social network. And, well, *alternate personality* - did anyone ask her other-her if she wanted to be doing that? And by the end of the book she's snapped the pieces back together, but still, that's rather uncomfortable.
*Especially* when one of her is being described as child like.
The stuff in the Fat Ripper I quite liked, except for it feeling uber preachy.
The strand about abortion I did not like - it didn't have a choice message, it had a 'people would die from bad quality ones anyway' plus a 'you have to forgive yourself' plus a 'did it for spite and can't have children any more'. That's just creepy.
... I actually hate the idea of abortions, but it still seems a twisted message.
And that character was the one who was fat because she wanted to put men off because sex had led to this bad stuff. But she'd been described throughout as sexy. And then she had a bunch of sex. And, well, what was their message there? Woman can't just decide not to have sex any more so she has psych problems about it???
I realise their main characters were all there purely because of their psychological traumas, but...
It was like - the women got Motives, like the abortion thing or the guilty because someone died. The men just got Results - overweight or underweight. Apparently they don't need explaining. Er, huh?
So there was more about manipulation and twisted psyches in this one than the first one, more about the psychological power and the potential for abuse thereof, and so it was more uncomfortable. But interesting.