tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post8923031909260947113..comments2023-12-18T18:23:05.715-05:00Comments on Marooned Off Vesta: Sturgeonblogging: Sarah Pinsker's "In Joy, Knowing the Abyss Behind"Ethan Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11207042480666924085noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-74159267281588569412014-06-02T09:08:57.016-04:002014-06-02T09:08:57.016-04:00You know, that's a good point (that had the in...You know, that's a good point (that had the internment camp been for ordinary human beings it would have changed nothing in the story). <br /><br />Aside from my automatic allergy to "The Gernsback Continuum", and my weariness in the face of this story (and my irritation with the telegraphing of THE TREEHOUSE IS A METAPHOR PEOPLE in the story itself), I'm interested at least in the possibilities of your last paragraph...but yes, agreed, in the story as it exists, it's pretty disappointing.Ethan Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11207042480666924085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8524497770619950288.post-32896629282302987212014-05-30T17:33:21.361-04:002014-05-30T17:33:21.361-04:00"what Pinsker seems to be after here — and in..."what Pinsker seems to be after here — and in itself this is I think very promising ground to explore — is what becomes of the utterly quotidian and mundane in a world that elsewhere has grown, or threatens to grow, sfnal."<br /><br />I was disappointed by the way the story's quotidian and mundane elements remain completely untouched by the sfnal elements. It would make no difference if George had been involved in something non-sfnal instead, like designing "ordinary" internment camps -- in which case, why include the sf bits at all?<br /><br />I can see the story as a "Gernsback Continuum"-like metacommentary on sf in which, to put it crudely, the starry-eyed vision at the root of the genre is crushed by being made to serve the military-industrial complex. The story itself would then be like the treehouse: a homemade substitute, built with care and attentiveness; the mundane elements that make up the bulk of the story are the wood that "spaceships aren't made of." Unfortunately, I think that ultimately just makes the story *even more* the kind of thing that's so disappointing about so much contemporary sf. On this reading, the story thematizes its own abandonment of the visionary core of sf. ("Visionary" is a terrible word choice, but hopefully the point is clear.)<br /><br />-JeffAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com