Forty Signs of Rain
Oct. 10th, 2007 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatIf the Earth were to suffer a catastrophic anthropogenic extinction event over the next ten years, which it will, American business would continue to focus on its quarterly profit and loss. There is no economic mechanism for dealing with catastrophe. And yet government and the scientific communicty are not tackling this situation either, indeed both have consented to be run by neoclassical economics, an obvious pseudo-science. We might as well agree to be governed by astrologers.
I really, really wanted to like Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson. Its about scientists who are mostly doing everyday science, worrying about publications, grants, phd students and so forth but somehow they were just dull, dull, dull (don't comment!). Even when breaking into NSF by abseiling through a skylight in order to steal documents they somehow contrived to be dull - which is no mean feat. The most fascinating, and actually I found it genuinely gripping, chapter concerned the manipulation of a grant awarding panel meeting in order to deprive a particular grant of funding.
I can't even say the book is "worthy yet dull" since its message, encapsulated in the quote above, is that we can invent our way out of the current crisis and, in fact, enable such invention by giving more money and power to scientists. It covers the issue of changing society and behaviour but comes to the conclusion that this is so deeply rooted in the Savannah brain evolved millions of years ago that we might as well give up on that route. Not that I necessarily object to the idea that scientists should have more money and power but I don't think that should be used as an excuse to abdicate responsibility for more wide-ranging changes.
The book also doesn't really end, it just sort of stops. I mean, there is a big cataclysmic (at least if you live in San Diego or Washington) weather event but that is merely a climax. The stories that have been driving the novel don't really stop just because there has been a flood. I suspect Robinson would argue that it is obvious (or at least obvious enough) where most of the stories are going to end by this point but I would disagree - especially the re-incarnated Tibetan Llama sub-plot that is only introduced properly on page 324 (the book has 355 pages) despite a fair amount of foreshadowing, is mentioned once thereafter and just left dangling. The whole thing had me checking for "first in a major new trilogy" bylines secreted in places I might not have noticed around the book.
EDIT: I now discover that it is, indeed, the first in a trilogy - just omitting to mention the fact anywhere in the book itself.
As a pet peeve the book also features an angelic toddler. Despite being mentioned as more troublesome and energetic than his sibling, this toddler could sleep for America. He sleeps so soundly and reliably his stay-at-home Dad takes him (sleeping on his back) into a critical meeting with the President in order to discuss the details of a climate change bill. OK so Gwendolen has always treated the concept of sleep with deep contempt but I doubt most real parents of even reliably sleeping toddlers would contemplate trying to do this. The book tries to show how difficult it is to work while caring for a toddler but I was just amazed at how much this particular parent appeared to able to get done.
Its not a bad book by any means but I wasn't gripped by it and was mostly bored or irritated in turns. A disappointment.
I really, really wanted to like Forty Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson. Its about scientists who are mostly doing everyday science, worrying about publications, grants, phd students and so forth but somehow they were just dull, dull, dull (don't comment!). Even when breaking into NSF by abseiling through a skylight in order to steal documents they somehow contrived to be dull - which is no mean feat. The most fascinating, and actually I found it genuinely gripping, chapter concerned the manipulation of a grant awarding panel meeting in order to deprive a particular grant of funding.
I can't even say the book is "worthy yet dull" since its message, encapsulated in the quote above, is that we can invent our way out of the current crisis and, in fact, enable such invention by giving more money and power to scientists. It covers the issue of changing society and behaviour but comes to the conclusion that this is so deeply rooted in the Savannah brain evolved millions of years ago that we might as well give up on that route. Not that I necessarily object to the idea that scientists should have more money and power but I don't think that should be used as an excuse to abdicate responsibility for more wide-ranging changes.
The book also doesn't really end, it just sort of stops. I mean, there is a big cataclysmic (at least if you live in San Diego or Washington) weather event but that is merely a climax. The stories that have been driving the novel don't really stop just because there has been a flood. I suspect Robinson would argue that it is obvious (or at least obvious enough) where most of the stories are going to end by this point but I would disagree - especially the re-incarnated Tibetan Llama sub-plot that is only introduced properly on page 324 (the book has 355 pages) despite a fair amount of foreshadowing, is mentioned once thereafter and just left dangling. The whole thing had me checking for "first in a major new trilogy" bylines secreted in places I might not have noticed around the book.
EDIT: I now discover that it is, indeed, the first in a trilogy - just omitting to mention the fact anywhere in the book itself.
As a pet peeve the book also features an angelic toddler. Despite being mentioned as more troublesome and energetic than his sibling, this toddler could sleep for America. He sleeps so soundly and reliably his stay-at-home Dad takes him (sleeping on his back) into a critical meeting with the President in order to discuss the details of a climate change bill. OK so Gwendolen has always treated the concept of sleep with deep contempt but I doubt most real parents of even reliably sleeping toddlers would contemplate trying to do this. The book tries to show how difficult it is to work while caring for a toddler but I was just amazed at how much this particular parent appeared to able to get done.
Its not a bad book by any means but I wasn't gripped by it and was mostly bored or irritated in turns. A disappointment.