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>> No.12705825 [View]
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12705825

>>12705802

>Clearly this metanarrative is the one that explains all the current criticism to metanarratives going on

>> No.10907529 [View]
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10907529

>>10907323

'White privilege' is one of the great schisms that erupted from the atomization of social groups after the post-war industrial boom, and it does cause great ruckus inside "left" academics.

The problem here is that the "great fights" of the 20th century have been slowly but surely replaced by the concept of micro-agression and that of identity struggles. This applies equally to feminism, "native" struggle, etc. Some thinkers who deal with the relation of technology and society believe this is a direct consequence of the need of capital/technique to increase its threshold of influence, both through production and through consumption, or as Ellul put it, " All men are constrained by means external to them to ends equally external. The further the technical mechanism develops that allows us to escape natural necessity, the more we are subjected to artificial technical necessities."

The basic foundation is always the class conflict theories developed my Marx, Weber and others, but it is twisted into being about a lesser struggle. In this particular case, white privilege is a form of systemic violence/oppression done by a master class (whites) who systematically oppresses, well, everyone else. The meaning of systemic is important here: it is meant to be read as external to any particular individual, or something that we do "without thinking", out of mere technical necessity. To give you a short example: suppose I cross the street whenever I see a black man dressed "ghetto"-ish coming towards me. When someone points out to me that this is racist, I might claim "I'd rather be racist and alive than be a dead liberal!". This example, when elaborated, would show that institutions such as the police would employ the same reasoning rather than act "neutral", and usually in excess, to the point they would purposely target black people regardless of how they are dressing. This theory "works" because it's self-fulfilling, I could switch black people to jews, women and literally any word I wanted, because they key term here is not "black" but rather the social class implications (avoiding people who dress "ghetto").

Nevertheless, in spite of being a completely butchered and atomized version of the master/slave dichotomy, it was co-opted by capital because it's that much easier to turn into commodity, and a commodity it became. Identity struggles are forms of fighting people who are not active perpetrators of systemic violence (e.g the ancestry dilemma), while ignoring the true cause of systemic violence (the system). We can't put our smartphones in jeopardy because of the exploitation we suffer, so we turn to each other instead, even though everyone is equally enslaved by technical necessity ("get a job!" "be yourself!" "live life to its fullest!"). The post is reaching its limit but, as TL;DR: atomization into micro-struggles is what makes white privilege such a misleading term when a more fundamental structure is the problem.

>> No.10757872 [View]
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10757872

>>10751018

Does Flower for Algernon count? I think it was the one novel I have read in just the right age to fully let it sink in without the natural criticism experience brings. Other things I believe I have read too early or too old.

Also, it *is* meme tier, but I guess I have also been touched by the many RPGs I played at a young age (I still play but, back then I was really impressionable, which is the point here).

>> No.10740333 [View]
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10740333

>>10740304

If you think about it, you might lean towards thinking that FAS girls are cute precisely because we drink alcohol

>> No.10713935 [View]
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10713935

>>10713859
Pffft

For me it's probably Wolfe's Solar Cycle (Books of the New Sun, Long Sun & Short Sun)

HOWEVER

There are so many great stand-alones in sci-fi. That's one big difference between the two genres. The fantasy greats are often long trilogies or series of books, whereas many of the sci-fi greats aren't part of a series:

PKD's classics, Bester's "The Stars My Destination", Lindsay's "Voyage to Arcturus", Wells' classics, Gibson's "Neuromancer", Heinlein "Moon is a Harsh Mistress", Lem's "Solaris", Orwell and Huxley's dystopia classics...

If we look at sci-fi series, some of the big boys are:

Dune series
Wolfe's Solar Cycle
Asimov's Foundation books
Simmons' Hyperion series
Iain M. Banks' Culture series
Stephenson's wild rides... and so on

The original Dune is great, but the series as a whole is very patchy. Not exactly the best. Foundation series is a classic but I don't like it. Too sterile, bad prose, etc. Culture books are fun, often disgusting, and explore very interesting themes... but the whole post-scarcity utopia thing really stretches belief. Stephenson is an acquired taste, Wolfe as much as I love him is also polarising.

In conclusion I think the great sci-fi series tend to be weaker than the great stand alone novels

>> No.10554083 [View]
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10554083

Last book:

Too Like The Lightning - Ada Palmer

Current books:

Seven Surrenders - Ada Palmer
The Mighty Dead - Adam Nicolson

Next book:

Probably the next Terra Ignota book if Seven Surrenders turns out good...

>> No.10244171 [View]
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10244171

>>10244042
absolutely patrician

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