Some fiction centers around plot, and while Babel-17's plot is truly captivating, the thoughts and ideas intermingled with it are what kept me reading the book and affected my thought process. Which is precisely one of the important themes of the book: how much does the language affect who we are? Could we imagine a language that when spoken or thought would change the way one perceives the world? As if this alone wouldn't be exciting, Delany bases off his work on Plato's Dialogues - making firm connection to philosophy.
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Not an avid book reader per se, but I like to read a good book now and then. Mostly interested in Sci-Fi, but open to other genres as well!
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indutny started reading The Dialogues of Plato by None None
The Dialogues of Plato by None None, Plato
Writing in the fourth century B.C., in an Athens that had suffered a humiliating defeat in the Peloponnesian War, Plato …
indutny started reading Supernova Era by Cixin Liu
indutny reviewed Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
indutny finished reading Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns …
indutny started reading Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
During an interstellar war one side develops a language, Babel-17, that can be used as a weapon. Learning it turns …
indutny finished reading Groups, Rings and Fields by David A.R. Wallace
indutny finished reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the …
indutny started reading The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the …
indutny reviewed A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
What does the scanner see
5 stars
Content warning Contains some information on the plot and some thoughts about it.
On a surface layer "Scanner Darkly" is about the police state through the eyes of a paranoid junkie. Suspicion mixed up with delusion, true and broken friendship, and heavy drug use. However, further into the book and beneath the surface lies the question of a relationship between the god (if any) and man. Building upon St. Paul's "for now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." Philip K. Dick seems to ask a question: if we do see the god darkly through the glass, does the god see us the same way? If there's no way to know whether you see only the worst in people, could it help to look into morally (and perhaps visually) inverted mirror? Watching his friends and himself Bob Arctor asks that, and wonders if it is someone's obligation to "at least mark their sad comings and goings" "so they’ll be remembered." The answer to this is certainly not present in the book, but sometimes a good question is much better to have and for that I'd recommend reading "Scanner Darkly".
indutny finished reading A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick
A Scanner Darkly is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick, published in 1977. The semi-autobiographical story …