Showing off?

[pigwotflies]

Hello LJ. I haven't actually ever posted on my LJ, but I think that should change. Not sure whether I'll start cross-posting from my blogger blog, or do something different here, but I _shall_ post here. I think.

So, to start things off gently, here's a book-meme as done by atreic and woodpijn

Comments

To comment on a few of the ones you missed

[andrewducker]

I loved Life of Pi. Well worth reading.

To Kill A Mockingbird is genuinely fantastic.

Oh, and I agree with Rob when it comes to Brave New World :->

Re: To comment on a few of the ones you missed

[ex_robhu]

heh - I can see why it's a dystopia, but also why it's not :)

Re: To comment on a few of the ones you missed

[andrewducker]

Absolutely. It makes the vast majority of its citizens exceedingly happy. But it runs counter to how many of us would consider a good society should be run.

Re: To comment on a few of the ones you missed

[ex_robhu]

A vast majority are happy (but not all) and that comes at the expense of having to alter the citizens to make them happy. One way of looking at it would be that it's a utopia in the sense that we'd have a utopia now if we lobotomised everyone.

Re: To comment on a few of the ones you missed

[andrewducker]

Well, if we lobotomised everyone _and_ had robots to look after them!

It's not just altering the citizens though - they tune the society to fit the citizens as much as the other way around. They mention that at one point they got rid of work entirely (as it's not actually needed), but discovered that people were happier when they jobs, so they phased them back in at the level which produced the best balance.