July 11, 2010: Book Club Parable of the Talents

From SolSeed

• What is the narrative purpose behind Lauren and Bankole, other than the resources he has?
  • She's more mature than most people around her regardless of age
  • Father issues?
• What do you think of Acorn?
  • Constant learning is good
  • Technically primitive but socially/culturally advanced
  • Has traditional family roles, as opposed to some communes
    • Sort of opposite to a commune, trying to get away from craziness and be more conventional, rather than establish a radical alternative to the mainstream
  • Was Acorn a mistake?
    • Easy to destroy
    • But the story of its destruction, and the survival of Lauren and others in spite of it, is powerful and could help build the religion of Earthseed
      • Also, the survivors (not just Lauren) might become missionaries
• Dan saving his sisters (Ben doesn't remember this)
  • Simple self-sacrifice vs. more complex heroism?
• Planned third book would have been about the challenges of settling an alien world
  • Similar issues as first two books? (coping with a "desolate world" here on Earth)
    • In space travel, social, economic, and political issues will always be more complex than the technical challenges
    • Can we get positive philosophies or religions like Earthseed to prevent misuse of space ex. by pushing asteroids toward Earth? Or will space just be dominated by corporations and/or the military?
    • Could company towns and debt slavery recur in space?
  • Common theme in other SF: However well-chosen the crew is, they will end up acting like average people
• Power and corruption
  • Christian America people abusing slave collars are corrupt partly because their ethical "powers" are less advanced than they need to be, since CA deliberately goes backward in ethical history