I have been very interested in reading these, I think I might now be motivated enough to find actual copies instead of waiting for the interlibrary loan copy, although I didn't read more of your review than the beginning and the end because I don't want to spoil it.
Oh, hey you. :P .. yeah, you should definitely read "The Stars, my Destination" ... it's fantastic, though I can't help but compare it to Jack Vance's "Demon Princes" saga ... still, the stories are different enough and Bester is perhaps a bit more concerned with character development and justification than Vance is. It's really just "favourite author bias", I guess. :D...anyway, I liked "Stars" far better than "Demolished Man", though I still enjoyed the latter.
What did this blind character say in "Cold Mountain", anyway?
Well, I haven't read it, only your awesomely scathing review of it .. I was just curious about what that man said regarding bitterness, because a lot of people suppose that blind people (or hell, anybody with an obvious disability) must be on fire with bitterness. Hence all the movies and books around with one-legged, one-armed, blind, hunchbaked villains, etc. Not that I'm really complaining about the trend .. I find it kind of amusing and hell, some of us are quite rancorous, I suppose.
The point the particular character was making was how could he be bitter over something he'd never had. If you're interested, go to the library and read that first chapter to get the poetic view of what the character's talking about.
But in terms of the trend you mentioned, I usually see it in villain who've HAD something, then lost it. Save for the physical deforimities, of course. :)
*nods* ... well, I understand that .. I mean I used to say the same thing when people would ask me if I regretted not being able to see, or if I was mad at the universe or something. However, it's kind of a placatory answer I think .. i mean it is very possible to be staunchly bitter over something you've never experienced. You don't have to have ever swum in riches to resent the fact that you don't have as much money as the people around you, to draw a parallel that's definitely true for a lot of people. I've never had sight either, but most of the world does, so it's easy to feel the lack even if it's really impossible to imagine what seeing would actually be like.
Wow, I didn't know that about you. :) You may want to see if you can track down that passage. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. :) Maybe Frazier was hopelessly naive in this regard. :)
Hehe .. bet when you observed that you didn't know or talk to any blind people you never thought one would creep out of the ether to contradict you :P
Hey, nothing wrong with the author making this character content and at peace with a society that is largely based upon something he'll never know ... my contention would be with someone who generalised blind individuals either way. There's an irritating phenomenon at work that says that the individual must speak or act on the behalf of whatever minority group he or she belongs to, and people seem to unconciously fall into this trap. Does that make any sense? haha it's way early and I don't feel as though I'm articulating properly.
Nope, but I'm glad you did! :) I think in comparing the two, the difference is that the COLD MOUNTAIN character is individualized, and his reasonings make sense in the context of the war going on and his lifestyle. Olivia, however, is a very different character, and blind or not, I can't buy her motivations, even is if she is a psychopath. Perhaps my problem lies in that despite her blindness, this is a woman who has everything, and it's difficult to sympathize (for me) with someone who has almost everything (and a special talent to boot, seeing heat like she does) but still is still vindicitive and angry at the world for what she doesn't have. So maybe it's a moral thing, for me. In real life, I know people with handicaps and disabilities that have a helluva lot more reason to be bitter than she does, and if they went psychotic? I wouldn't be surprised. They'd also probably want to kick Olivia's ass for her attitude
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Yeah, I see what you mean about her character .. but on the other hand many people who lack obvious disability and seem to have whatever they'd ever need or want still feel that they are lacking something that other people seem to have, and that can cause rancour! I don't really feel sorry for her, though .. not sure if that was really Bester's intention. You're making me want to re-read it now. :D
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What did this blind character say in "Cold Mountain", anyway?
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But in terms of the trend you mentioned, I usually see it in villain who've HAD something, then lost it. Save for the physical deforimities, of course. :)
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Hey, nothing wrong with the author making this character content and at peace with a society that is largely based upon something he'll never know ... my contention would be with someone who generalised blind individuals either way. There's an irritating phenomenon at work that says that the individual must speak or act on the behalf of whatever minority group he or she belongs to, and people seem to unconciously fall into this trap. Does that make any sense? haha it's way early and I don't feel as though I'm articulating properly.
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