BE ch 5 nerd wars

[rich]

why this good guys bad guys shtick? it doesnt make for interesting reading.
two examples: I just watched Dune--can't get much more black and white, can
you? all that destruction because the 'emperor' is annoyed. there's no
tension. you know who to root for. I'm also reading a new biography of
Robert E. Lee ( I enjoyed the author's previous book on Gettysburg). One
can vehemently disagree with Lee's decision to fight for the Confederacy
and his general attitude towards slavery (a bad mark that would eventually
wither away which granted is not much of an argument, but his views were
not as extreme as others and he generally had a poor view of the hardcore
secessionist. essentially he was trying to protect his family and
livelihood since Arlington was situated so close to DC. I'm not trying to
condone anything here and there is a lot to criticize, and god knows all
those monuments (ugh) but history is full of nuance. Pynchon used to have
that nuance, but its easy to draw a line between the goodies and the
badies in the last three books. I dont find that much appealing

rich

On Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 1:00 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> One of the themes of  Ch 5 is the division taking place between 2
> directions for the tech revolution, to be sucked into the world of the rich
> dickheads, jocks, wall streeters, military contracts...  or to defend some
> kind of integrity, net neutrality, empowered feminism, fair wages,
> avoidance of wanton  predation and militarism and  generally to follow your
> own path, your own cultural affinities, without giving in to suburban
> consumerism partisan wars etc..  This generalized Nerd version of integrity
> is a bit vague around the edges which is a weakness Driscoll concedes in
> observing how easy it will be to recruit “ code monkeys” if there are large
> military contracts.
>   I wonder about the sisterly support for Driscolls fascination with
> Jennifer Anniston’s looks. It seems to me better to tell her she’s already
> beautiful and should make/find her own look. Totally my opinion here but I
> wonder if the chicken scene is poking at the potential weirdness/not so
> coolness of this pursuit of full princess appeal.  Does this circle back to
> the real estate theme? Do we buy style as we buy real estate, either cookie
> cutter or salvaging some already worked out creative charm instead of
> making our own or appreciating what  is already there.
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> --
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>