{"id":13810,"date":"2021-11-08T13:21:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=13810"},"modified":"2021-11-08T13:21:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:21:49","slug":"the-violence-of-reason-i-review-a-retrospective-of-cold-war-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2021\/11\/the-violence-of-reason-i-review-a-retrospective-of-cold-war-sf.html","title":{"rendered":"“The Violence of Reason”: I review a retrospective of Cold War SF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

at We Are the Mutants:<\/p>\n

The new world is a place where a new kind of person lives \u2014 although many would argue that this new and dangerous person was always the only kind of person around. The old SF hero was that rational man you used to hear so much about: the imagined actor in liberal political philosophy, the person without dependents or dependencies, who confronted the stars with reason, self-control, and a spirit of adventure. He travels, as the introduction puts it, \u201cfrom the suburbs to the stars.\u201d The old guard\u2019s heroes were white, even when they were green. The old SF hero might die, but he\u2019d never worry about getting pregnant. Mind and body were manageable; desires were reasonable, inspiring, and above all intelligible, both to the hero himself and to the reader.\u00a0Whether this is a fair description of the old-school hero, I can\u2019t say. I only like this kind of guy when he\u2019s played by William Shatner \u2014 in a book, I just can\u2019t see the appeal. I can say that the works explored in the PM Press collection are rebelling against this hero. These books are populated by mystics and criminals, artists and threatened children, even animals and creatures who are some blend of human and Other. The political apparatus of the state does not enable constructive action; it provokes fear or anger. In these books knowledge is less like an equation and more like a hallucination.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Samuel R. Delany\u2026.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

at We Are the Mutants: The new world is a place where a new kind of person lives \u2014 although many would argue that this new and dangerous person was always the only kind of person around. 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