Thomas Harris was a newspaper reporter. His boss made him come to work on New Years Day. Sitting there he decided he'd write a novel. He looked at the day's headlines. The three biggest stories were about terrorists, Vietnam veterans, and the Super Bowl. His first novel, 'Black Sunday' was about a Vietnam veteran who decides to help terrorists set off a bomb at the Super Bowl.
War of the worlds has its share of apologia for colonialism. It's fiction from a different era and may be judged by those standards.
The entire premise is for Britain to reflect on its inhumane colonial practices as it is "conquered" by a more technologically Martian race. It flips the script so that colonizers may imagine themselves as colonized.
But several arguments in the book dominish colonial practices including
Implying that the colonized people deserve their subjugation because they have also engaged in imperialism in the past. (what would be referred to in the modern day as Whataboutism).
It retains an hierarchical racial framework by referring to the Tasmanians (those colonized and exterminated by those now colonized by Martians) as racially inferior.
The environmental impact of the technologically superior Martians gets erased and Britain is restored after they die off due to Earth's microorganisms. In the real world, colonial nations, their allies and their settler nations have contributed 50% of cumulative carbon emissions since the Industrial revolution despite making up 15% of the global population. Little has been done to correct that imbalance.
It's a fascinating book no doubt but H.G. was a product of his time and was in support of imperialism for much of his life, only to have his views change as he came to see the true purpose of colonialism (labor exploitation and extraction).
In The New Machiavelli he writes:
"We English do not own that country, do not even rule it. We make nothing happen; at the most we prevent things happening.”
Which better represents the anti-colonial views he developed over time.
HG Wells is a bit weird like that. Fervent lifelong supporter of eugenics, then he writes the Morlocks and the Eloi with a lot more complexity and social commentary than you'd expect if you'd only seem the story in film. The Morlocks in the novel aren't just degenerated (literal) chud monsters, they're preying on the useless nepo baby descendants of the people that exploited them and keep the entire society running.
On the topic of where ideas come from though, bro definitely named the Morlocks after someone he knew.
I have thought about writing a story about someone who kills all the leadership ghouls who force return to office, no holiday pay, and so on. Not sure what I could do to raise it from revenge porn to something deep.
18 replies
Also: "the writer's barely disguised fetish" is a trope for a reason.
It also implies the existence of "the writer's well disguised fetish", which might be all the other books and we would never know.
Thomas Harris was a newspaper reporter. His boss made him come to work on New Years Day. Sitting there he decided he'd write a novel. He looked at the day's headlines. The three biggest stories were about terrorists, Vietnam veterans, and the Super Bowl. His first novel, 'Black Sunday' was about a Vietnam veteran who decides to help terrorists set off a bomb at the Super Bowl.
A few years later he created Hannibal Lector
War of the worlds has its share of apologia for colonialism. It's fiction from a different era and may be judged by those standards.
The entire premise is for Britain to reflect on its inhumane colonial practices as it is "conquered" by a more technologically Martian race. It flips the script so that colonizers may imagine themselves as colonized.
But several arguments in the book dominish colonial practices including
Implying that the colonized people deserve their subjugation because they have also engaged in imperialism in the past. (what would be referred to in the modern day as Whataboutism).
It retains an hierarchical racial framework by referring to the Tasmanians (those colonized and exterminated by those now colonized by Martians) as racially inferior.
The environmental impact of the technologically superior Martians gets erased and Britain is restored after they die off due to Earth's microorganisms. In the real world, colonial nations, their allies and their settler nations have contributed 50% of cumulative carbon emissions since the Industrial revolution despite making up 15% of the global population. Little has been done to correct that imbalance.
It's a fascinating book no doubt but H.G. was a product of his time and was in support of imperialism for much of his life, only to have his views change as he came to see the true purpose of colonialism (labor exploitation and extraction).
In The New Machiavelli he writes:
"We English do not own that country, do not even rule it. We make nothing happen; at the most we prevent things happening.”
Which better represents the anti-colonial views he developed over time.
HG Wells is a bit weird like that. Fervent lifelong supporter of eugenics, then he writes the Morlocks and the Eloi with a lot more complexity and social commentary than you'd expect if you'd only seem the story in film. The Morlocks in the novel aren't just degenerated (literal) chud monsters, they're preying on the useless nepo baby descendants of the people that exploited them and keep the entire society running.
On the topic of where ideas come from though, bro definitely named the Morlocks after someone he knew.
holy shit this is just what i needed while im getting back into game development. what a wonderful idea
Launching into interstellar space is a lot easier because you don't have to counteract earths velocity btw. Better for the environment.
I saw that the other day. I'm just gonna use a nuclear powered rocket. Gotta show commitment to the bit.
That’s how I write. Any of you dumbasses can be a bit of inspiration. See, you’re all so useful even if you’re not.
Hey, you're a cotton headed ninny-muggins. Now make me famous
I have thought about writing a story about someone who kills all the leadership ghouls who force return to office, no holiday pay, and so on. Not sure what I could do to raise it from revenge porn to something deep.
Instead of making it about middle managers and return to office just go up a step and start killing all the ghouls in all the csuites. Then it's deep
You do realize that dystopian stories tend to become reality?
Such as?
Star Wars
..
Hey