Lee Hunts

I just finished reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein. This author is one of the OGs of science fiction, having shaped the genre from the mid-twentieth century on, so I was very eager to read this, as it was my first book of his. This book is about a libertarian revolution on the moon. A colony that is economically linked with earth, and is politically repressed by the so-called "Authority," seeks to liberate itself from its oppressive grip. At the center of this revolution are three people and an AI computer that has chosen to take part in the revolution for its own reasons. So, what did I think of it? No Spoilers I'm not going to mince words. I did not like this novel. At all. In multiple senses, I outright disliked the story: I did not like the characters, except on a shallow level. I did not like the shallow exploration of the ideas; this felt like a whole host of lost opportunities. I did not like the stakes of the story. And I did not like how the...

It was inevitable that I would write something on the topic of politics and fiction. I hate the way it is talked about, because people are often so shallow in how they approach the topic. We are regularly treated to gems like, "Art shouldn't be political," and equally shiny gems like "All art is political." Invariably, I find the discussions to be particularly annoying and, at the heart of all of them, there is a rather obvious problem. They do not define what it means to be political. How else do you think people could be making such ridiculously contrasting statements? They have different understandings of what it means to be political. In this post, I want to unpack multiple senses of what it means for art to be political, and draw out the implications. What is Politics? I subscribe to a particular form of power politics, so my understanding of politics places power at the center. Politics is the set of activities individuals, groups, and institutions engage ...

I just finished reading House of Leaves, by Zampanò and Johnny Truant. This is a literary horror novel, and a postmodern novel that I bought probably over a decade ago, after watching a video about it. But I was quickly intimidated by it, and it remained on my shelf for that length of time. But finally, finally after deciding to put my foot down this year and read all the heavy books that need to be read, I finished this beast of a book after a month or two of reading. I didn't count the time, but it was a chore and I know that this is a good ballpark estimate. Borrowing the basic concept from a comment by Vince Gilligan, I did not enjoy reading this book, but I enjoy having read it. Let's explore what that means. No Spoilers Summary The inside cover description of the book starts with the following: "Years ago, when House of Leaves was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the Inte...

I There was a book that was essentially purged from all the markets in society around 2017 in America. If you are familiar with recent history, this is around the time of the rise of the Alt-Right and the Charlottesville protests and riots. The book is known as The Turner Diaries. It was easily available leading up to those moments. You could actually find a copy of the official audiobook for free on youtube. It disappeared shortly afterward. The content makes clear why. The book opens with a far-left government taking control of America. They claim that because laws against murder and rape have a disparate impact against black people, they are racist—and so they abolish them. As a result, crime runs rampant; the book operates on the added assumption that black people are inherently violent in everything they do. This triggers a white nationalist revolution, where the white population seeks liberation, not just from black people, but also from the government, and of course, from the Je...