What rough beasts

I think a lot about "psychic weather." The ebb and flow of ideas, thoughts and moods that blow through a population. I mean, I think there are prosaic explanations for the moods and memetic ideas and how they move through the population of a very social species. For instance, the way panic moves through a crowd does not require a supernatural or paranormal psychic explanation. Primate social dynamics likely suffice. Still, if we're just talking about the felt experience of the world, I think about psychic weather because it feels like such terrible storms are forming everywhere.

Maybe weather is the wrong metaphor. Maybe it's memetic beasts run rampant, inspiring smug rationalizations for cruelty and and a terrible, hateful animosity for the other in every host they find.  Maybe there are vast fields of space with energy gradients we can't yet measure that affect the whole species and we just drifted into the Hateful Asshole nebula. Maybe it's a particularly pernicious set of ideas that have developed a life of their own.

I don't really know. All I know is there is an ugly, spiteful spirit loose in the world and I don't like it. Further, I can see who the bad actors are. Assholes aren't subtle and you can tell who is wallowing in the worst version of themselves and who is egging them on. And what I really don't like is how few concrete and organized responses in favor of kindness, community, aiding the needy and loving the other exist. I don't know who I would point to as leading the counter-charge against the truly malignant forces currently challenging the post world-war democratic order. Everyone else either seems asleep, or outraged but helpless, or so deeply up their own ass they have yet to find their way back to daylight. And that I REALLY don't like. The ideas we value matter and they are not an inevitable force of the universe and we have to fight for them. I wish we understood that half as well as the "pain and suffering for you is corrective and incredibly convenient for me" and "we need a pure ethnostate that only likes ketchup" crowd does.

*the sound of a fighter plane crashing*

Ugh, I'm super bummed about another potentially exciting relationship down the drain. I keep telling myself that it's just that the timing is wrong, but the timing will always be wrong as long as I am this stupid, tragic version of myself who's barely functional and not in any shape to share my life with someone. Cannot wait to finally be past my bullahit.

Look to Windward

Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Extremely satisfying, as his books tend to be. Extended mediations on culture and mortality in truly fantastic and fascinating environments. I could read a whole series of books on the airspheres and giant floating creatures that essentially function as biological, if completely alien, versions of the Culture ships. The crescendo of tension as all the players came together in this one was particularly page-turning. Recommended.


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Inversions

Inversions by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While I generally like the Minds And Drones and ships and things, I liked this more subtle take on the series. Those things are there, they are just only obliquely mentioned and interpreted through the eyes of someone who could not possibly understand them. A good book on its own merits unrelated to the Culture, although I'm still struggling to unpack what the moral of the story was. It feels more like a snapshot of a Special Circumstances mission to a developing planet. However, it remains unclear what the culture intends to accomplish here, other than a general push away from barbarism. I guess part of the lesson was monarchies are not necessarily evil and populist revolts not necessarily good.

In any case, I liked it and recommend it and look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series.

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Excession

Excession by Iain M. Banks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm reading through the culture books in order, and this is one of my favorite so far. I'm not sure what I think of the Culture in general, but I find the universe interesting and compelling and I like hanging out there. While there is a lot going on here story-wise it largely feels like an extended contemplation of morality and mortality.

Sometimes it feels in these novels like the Minds are more people than the spoiled hedonists they coexist with, and sometimes it feels like they are scary, if generally benevolent, gods for all intents and purposes. That said, some of my favorite moments in this book were long conversations between ship Minds and how they differ from and relate to each other and bicker in ways that made me laugh out loud.

Good book. Good premise. Interesting Universe. Highly Recommended.



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