Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

Post by gbjw » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

bookworm3827482 wrote: post #312

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are thinking about it wrong. Suspend your disbelief about the practicalities of what he did (pretend he was tired and not thinking at all). The story is a metaphor about life, the struggle, and a cruel world. Every person will interpret it differently. Think about how his story is a metaphor for some part of your life, and you might get the emotional import of it.

The guy was a professional fisherman... but didn't know how to fish? I get the point of the story and what the author was trying to do. It just seems silly to have such a huge flaw in the plot. It's like Lord of the Rings - the eagles could have flown the ring over to Mordor. I just can't enjoy books (or films for that matter) which require a suspension of, I dunno, basic reasoning.

Post by aaron695 » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 11:46 PM UTC

yobert wrote: post #119

Red Mars Trilogy - Kim Stanley Robinson These books gave me a very hopeful outlook for humanity's future.

Post by xkgt » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 11:48 PM UTC

dmtroyer wrote: post #310

vector_spaces wrote: post #44

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. This book changed my life. I read this book when I was maybe 17? And read it again last year, a decade and a half later. The most powerful lesson I learned here is what anthropologists call cultural relativism. This book also taught me that everyone is under the influence of Mother Culture and her stories. I think internalizing this can help a lot with understanding other people, building sel…

Same. When I think of my self development, reading this book was a large milestone for me.

Post by vehementi » Sun, Mar 29, 2020, 11:50 PM UTC

throwqwerty wrote: post #332

adaisadais wrote: post #251

Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. My best friend in 7th grade had older siblings and they had all read Ender’s Game. He read it and told me I had to read it. Being the impressionable 7th grader (2006-7) that I was I gladly obliged. I found the book to be deeply fascinating. It opened my eyes to ‘new’ technology like ‘ansible’ (can communicate anywhere in the universe instantaneously) and really opened up my imaginati…

whenever someone mentions ender's game in a positive light i worry about that person https://web.archive.org/web/20070206121131/http://www4.ncsu.... tldr; orson scott card is a bigot and ender's game is nazi apologia. if you don't want to read the above it's been written about in numerous places (google "ender's game book fascism").

Post by Aeolun » Mon, Mar 30, 2020, 12:21 AM UTC

TulliusCicero wrote: post #379

throwqwerty wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

whenever someone mentions ender's game in a positive light i worry about that person https://web.archive.org/web/20070206121131/http://www4.ncsu.... tldr; orson scott card is a bigot and ender's game is nazi apologia. if you don't want to read the above it's been written about in numerous places (google "ender's game book fascism").

When I read > ender's game is nazi apologia in your comment, I was pretty sure that there would be a point in the quoted article where the author went from reasonable background/description, to instantly jumping to a completely nonsensical argument, and I was not disappointed. > The difference between Peter and Ender is not in what they do, but in what they are What? That's incredibly dumb. This like saying a serial…