Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "ethics"
Violence the Norm? Fiction Provides Powerful Images That Stick
Fiction can provide powerful images that change minds; imprinting can result in a lifetime of believing violence is normal. I’m seriously worried about the current obsession with violence and dystopia.
Since I’m so critical, I thought I’d better get educated. My granddaughters watch and read it. They were eager to show me the “Hunger Games” movie, so I sat through the jiggling camera that is supposed to dilute the violence of the games. I was still horrified by the dystopian premise and teen blood-letting, even though the idea is to criticize current TV games.
How about some hope for Christmas? I’m shamelessly providing my award winning book The Webs of Varok to consider for your Holiday giving. It’s not just crass commercialism. Why not a fun story that includes some positive suggestions for securing a stable future? Take a look at a few excerpts below:
“...there are rumors of an Earth launch—more humans coming to Varok.”
“Rumors? Orram and Conn can continue blathering to Earth about water conservation. That doesn’t mean anything to us. But if humans do manage to get here, we must be ready to snuff them out before Conn can raise a fin.”
“Snuff them out? How?” Gitahl’s patches strained to find Mahntik’s true mind. “Let me be clear. Surely you wouldn’t use the diseases you’ve engineered on humans.”
“Why not? I’d use them to keep ahlork in line—even varoks.”
The ahlork Nidok appears on the cover of the Webs. He is one of our heroes, of sorts.
Conn the elll notes to human Tandra that female ahlork have bright blue scales.
“Better not call them birds,” Orram said. “Varok’s small avioids don’t have such a distinguished ancestry as Earth’s.”
“No dinosaurs?”
“Not enough heat or light out here. And ahlork are built differently than birds, like tanks with external hard parts.”
“Insectoids then.”
Orram’s sense of fun surfaced. “No, no, Tandra. Bad biologist.”
He waved an invitation, and with a clatter of broad, plated wings, the ahlork came toward us, swooping low over two elder varoks sitting nearby. One varok grimaced and ducked ever so lightly in revulsion. The ahlork noticed, circled, and made another pass at him.
I felt a surge of mirth. Orram warned me to stifle it, but the ahlork had already seen my wavering smile. He flapped toward me and landed on my head, then peered down into my tear-filled eyes. I burst into laughter despite the dig of his talons.
“You are nothing more than an elll, with all that shaking and grimacing, First-Human-Being-On-Varok,” the ahlork said...
The blue-plated ahlork standing on the floor spoke in a voice broken with foam. “Surely Earth be beautiful. Not this heap of ruins. Why do you come to Varok?”
One more excerpt. The Webs of Varok is a model of what it takes for humans to do long-term survival, based on the nonfiction text Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill.
The issues are challenging, good for Book Club discussion. Here’s one we can all agree on:
“I thought manufacturers are required to take responsibility for their products throughout their entire lifetime, including final disposal or recycling. So much of this cloth must be disposed of, every cycle. How do they pay the cost, with such low prices?”
“I have often wondered,” Orserah said.
“It’s as though the weavers wanted the cloth to wear out quickly—so we would buy more.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “You have just defined planned obsolescence, an old trick on Earth—one of the favorites when business ethics turned sour in the interest of profits.”
Check out http://archivesofvarok.com for more excerpts and information about the series.
Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite ResourcesRob Dietz
]
Since I’m so critical, I thought I’d better get educated. My granddaughters watch and read it. They were eager to show me the “Hunger Games” movie, so I sat through the jiggling camera that is supposed to dilute the violence of the games. I was still horrified by the dystopian premise and teen blood-letting, even though the idea is to criticize current TV games.
How about some hope for Christmas? I’m shamelessly providing my award winning book The Webs of Varok to consider for your Holiday giving. It’s not just crass commercialism. Why not a fun story that includes some positive suggestions for securing a stable future? Take a look at a few excerpts below:
“...there are rumors of an Earth launch—more humans coming to Varok.”
“Rumors? Orram and Conn can continue blathering to Earth about water conservation. That doesn’t mean anything to us. But if humans do manage to get here, we must be ready to snuff them out before Conn can raise a fin.”
“Snuff them out? How?” Gitahl’s patches strained to find Mahntik’s true mind. “Let me be clear. Surely you wouldn’t use the diseases you’ve engineered on humans.”
“Why not? I’d use them to keep ahlork in line—even varoks.”
The ahlork Nidok appears on the cover of the Webs. He is one of our heroes, of sorts.
Conn the elll notes to human Tandra that female ahlork have bright blue scales.
“Better not call them birds,” Orram said. “Varok’s small avioids don’t have such a distinguished ancestry as Earth’s.”
“No dinosaurs?”
“Not enough heat or light out here. And ahlork are built differently than birds, like tanks with external hard parts.”
“Insectoids then.”
Orram’s sense of fun surfaced. “No, no, Tandra. Bad biologist.”
He waved an invitation, and with a clatter of broad, plated wings, the ahlork came toward us, swooping low over two elder varoks sitting nearby. One varok grimaced and ducked ever so lightly in revulsion. The ahlork noticed, circled, and made another pass at him.
I felt a surge of mirth. Orram warned me to stifle it, but the ahlork had already seen my wavering smile. He flapped toward me and landed on my head, then peered down into my tear-filled eyes. I burst into laughter despite the dig of his talons.
“You are nothing more than an elll, with all that shaking and grimacing, First-Human-Being-On-Varok,” the ahlork said...
The blue-plated ahlork standing on the floor spoke in a voice broken with foam. “Surely Earth be beautiful. Not this heap of ruins. Why do you come to Varok?”
One more excerpt. The Webs of Varok is a model of what it takes for humans to do long-term survival, based on the nonfiction text Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill.
The issues are challenging, good for Book Club discussion. Here’s one we can all agree on:
“I thought manufacturers are required to take responsibility for their products throughout their entire lifetime, including final disposal or recycling. So much of this cloth must be disposed of, every cycle. How do they pay the cost, with such low prices?”
“I have often wondered,” Orserah said.
“It’s as though the weavers wanted the cloth to wear out quickly—so we would buy more.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. “You have just defined planned obsolescence, an old trick on Earth—one of the favorites when business ethics turned sour in the interest of profits.”
Check out http://archivesofvarok.com for more excerpts and information about the series.
Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite ResourcesRob Dietz
]
Reviewing The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen
The Honor code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York, W. W. Norton, 2010.
How are human beings motivated to discard ancient or long-term practices that do harm? In this thoroughly researched, notated, and indexed book, Princeton professor Appiah tells three compelling stories of how codes of honor gone awry were finally brought down by the one thing that could undermine their powerful, damaging hold on human society—shame.
The first story tells how dueling in defense of honor was brought down. The second story, the binding of women’s feet in China, ended for a similar reason. The war against women in Pakistan is still being fought. Here again, historical honor plays a huge role. In all cases a sociological sense of honor trumps compassion or common sense.
This brings to mind our current situation—our obsession with the need for economic growth in an overpopulated Full Earth. Can we Americans face the fact that we have used up resources at a great rate? Can we be shamed into changing our ways and cutting back—demonstrating to the world how to Not overuse the Earth?
How are human beings motivated to discard ancient or long-term practices that do harm? In this thoroughly researched, notated, and indexed book, Princeton professor Appiah tells three compelling stories of how codes of honor gone awry were finally brought down by the one thing that could undermine their powerful, damaging hold on human society—shame.
The first story tells how dueling in defense of honor was brought down. The second story, the binding of women’s feet in China, ended for a similar reason. The war against women in Pakistan is still being fought. Here again, historical honor plays a huge role. In all cases a sociological sense of honor trumps compassion or common sense.
This brings to mind our current situation—our obsession with the need for economic growth in an overpopulated Full Earth. Can we Americans face the fact that we have used up resources at a great rate? Can we be shamed into changing our ways and cutting back—demonstrating to the world how to Not overuse the Earth?
Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction
Expanding on the ideas portrayed in The Archives of Varok books for securing the future.
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