BE ch 5 nerd wars

[Mark Kohut]

good guys vs bad guys are pretty clear in GR too, no?....He's not doing
such judging about anywhere.

But since you mention the last three books. AtD has lots of good-bad
ambiguity I might argue......

On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 9:55 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>