Radical

So, Wonder Wife is off to Hawai'i and I have plenty of time on my hands, and over this weekend I read Cory Doctorow's Radicalized.

The book is collection of four long short stories/short novellas/whatever-they-ares. Because some of the motifs and conceits are sort of science-fiction-y and because there are (thinly disguised) superheroes in one story, I am talking about it here on Thark, but the subtitle of the work is Four Tales of our Present Moment and I could easily place this on Epicurus (where I get as political as I ever do).

From the internet of things shit to institutionalized racism, from the inhumanity of healthcare-for-profit to the inevitable failure of libertarian me-firstism, Doctorow throws all that is wrong with our culture into stark relief through compelling narrative: political analysis delivered through ripping yarns.

I'm not sure what impressed me more: Doctorow's grasp of the ethical aspects of technological, economic, and political structures and his lucid unpacking of them, or his ability to tell an engaging story through spare, direct prose that still sings with a distinctive voice. I don't have to choose; it's a win-win.

I was familiar with Doctorow from Boing-Boing and Twitter - along with Sarah Kenzidor, he is one of my go-to sources in these troubled times -  but I hadn't actually read any of his fiction until now. I am remedying that immediately: Walkaway is open on the table now.

Read Doctorow.