I am sorry, this got long, I am having trouble explaining why this is bothering me so much without the capacity to wave my arms around a lot, but, just...! SO MUCH ARM WAVING!
But, suffice it to say, I am generally pushing for the actual real world America to have fewer cars in it, more public transit, and waaaaay fewer car related deaths - both for immediate less care related deaths and for climate warming mitigation. I am probably paying more attention to the ways we just sort of have assumptions about how cars fit into culture and spaces and planning than your average reader. Which is fine!
And the history of cars in the United States is quite specific and unique and has had many tides pushing for and against the modern proliferation of private car ownership - nothing about how the world is now can really be taken for granted. It all is the result of people wanted and pushing for particular outcomes. Like, the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where people are trying to destroy the public transit system? A thing that happened in US cities, on multiple occasions, to the detriment of all those who live there. Cars made money, so a huge push by car companies to make sure cars are important to Americans has become a constant cultural pressure for longer than I have been alive. The worldbuilding notebook for modern American culture would have LOTS to say about cars!
So, just...! To have someone just write a version of a different world without actually doing the deep interesting work of worldbuilding, and examining the world he's living in and figuring out if the world he's writing would have the same cultural baggage, and to publically say that he kind of resents having to do that work...? Kind of deflating!
Sigh. It's not a bad book at all. The mystery and the parts of the worldbuilding that he enjoyed are quite enjoyable! I'm down for the story!
He could have written this story in a version of the US, but he picked a bunch of non-American cultural markers that suggest the setting should be very unfriendly to cars, and then doesn't address it, and his whole attitude towards it is just making me cool towards the book.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2019-02-13 02:36 pm (UTC)I am sorry, this got long, I am having trouble explaining why this is bothering me so much without the capacity to wave my arms around a lot, but, just...! SO MUCH ARM WAVING!
But, suffice it to say, I am generally pushing for the actual real world America to have fewer cars in it, more public transit, and waaaaay fewer car related deaths - both for immediate less care related deaths and for climate warming mitigation. I am probably paying more attention to the ways we just sort of have assumptions about how cars fit into culture and spaces and planning than your average reader. Which is fine!
And the history of cars in the United States is quite specific and unique and has had many tides pushing for and against the modern proliferation of private car ownership - nothing about how the world is now can really be taken for granted. It all is the result of people wanted and pushing for particular outcomes. Like, the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where people are trying to destroy the public transit system? A thing that happened in US cities, on multiple occasions, to the detriment of all those who live there. Cars made money, so a huge push by car companies to make sure cars are important to Americans has become a constant cultural pressure for longer than I have been alive. The worldbuilding notebook for modern American culture would have LOTS to say about cars!
So, just...! To have someone just write a version of a different world without actually doing the deep interesting work of worldbuilding, and examining the world he's living in and figuring out if the world he's writing would have the same cultural baggage, and to publically say that he kind of resents having to do that work...? Kind of deflating!
Sigh. It's not a bad book at all. The mystery and the parts of the worldbuilding that he enjoyed are quite enjoyable! I'm down for the story!
He could have written this story in a version of the US, but he picked a bunch of non-American cultural markers that suggest the setting should be very unfriendly to cars, and then doesn't address it, and his whole attitude towards it is just making me cool towards the book.