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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   2360 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 9, 2025

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I finished the two novels I started in Feb a couple weeks ago.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I picked this up digitally after seeing @SubstantialFrivolity 's review. I largely agree with what he wrote but have some additional observations:

A society with a dearth of women is an interesting concept. Historically, what it's led to is almost exclusively heavily utilized prostitution (this is fresh on my mind, given that I just read about the American West). Heinlein goes the opposite way here and posits that men in a more cultured society would revere and protect women even more than they do so now, that consent would be cherished, and that rape would be considered far worse than murder. Once again, this is a concept close at hand for me, given that I happened to stumble across Lara Logan's horrifying story and have had the concept of rape just.... appear more than normal in various contexts.

I'm less down on the polycule aspect, and I think that the idea of linear marriages is compelling. The archetype of a man trading in his wife for a younger one is widespread for a reason. Frankly, I think many of them would keep the older wife if they could, but ultimately make the choice for sex over love and wisdom. The fact that this sort of familial structure simply doesn't exist even with widespread acceptance of polyamory means probably nobody else finds it appealing, though.

The Lunar pidgin dialect that the book is written in made it read "fast" for me. It was very businesslike and to the point, with very few extraneous details. Sometimes this felt more like a textbook on how a revolution is run instead of a story because of this pacing.

My primary criticism is perhaps twofold: The character of Wyoh is introduced and essentially disappears for the back 2/3 of the novel, and the computer as a character is more of a deus ex machina than anything else. Speaking of the latter, it is truly hilarious how much Heinlein undershot computing power estimates in many ways.

Conversations with Friends

After having such a great time reading "Normal People" I decided to dig into this one. In short, a disappointment.

Compared to the first of Sally's books I read, this one had far more unlikeable characters and dug into more culture war crap than I had hoped. The protagonists are insufferable Irish college students (two of them spoken word poetry phenoms if that gives you any indication of where this is going) and basically details a couple of unrealistic relationships in a group.

I can't help but wonder how much Sally knew these people sucked. I get the impression she's pretty into lame, midrange-for-the-uk political views and just got lucky keeping her opinions to herself in "Normal People".

On the plus side, the protagonist is a 21-year-old girl and is actually as stupid as we all were at that age (making immature and emotional decisions, etc.), so that at least felt realistic. As always, the sex scenes are pretty nice, and the build-up to them is paced well. I don't feel like I wasted my team reading it but there are better books out there for sure.

Next in the Queue is:

  • Cryptonomicon
  • My Brilliant Friend
  • Anathem

Didn’t stick with Conversations with Friends but found Normal People very perceptive and, in many ways, a perfect representation of the experience of many parts of rural and urban Ireland and especially where those two things collide. (I’m Irish.)

I'm glad you can vouch for its "authenticity." I've always known that the romantic rhythms in Ireland are different from those where I grew up, and seeing them represented in a novel is one of the reasons I really liked it.

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