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I have a raging case of jet-lag, but I've decided I'm not going to let that stop me. No, instead I will use numbered items as a crutch.
0) The particular combination of ideas, attitudes, and solutions mentioned in this series made me wonder, seriously, if KSR hasn't been reading E/E. If not, I have to conclude that he at least was reading a lot of the same sources that we discuss here.
1) It finally dawned on me that the entire series was at least partially inspired by KSR's reading of Thoreau and Emerson. Of the two, I estimate that KSR is most like Emerson. More philosophical and humanist.
2) KSR has a tendency toward what I'll call anti-climactic story arcs. Although he has many sub-plots with climaxes, at the highest level, tension just seems dissipate in some kind of socio-political dialectic enlightenment. "Sixty Days and Counting" reminded me of "Blue Mars" in this respect. I'd like to say that I'm really enlightened and see the superiority of this style, but actually I find myself pining for a bit more sound and fury.
3) I did not like his implication that "We can swap out our power and transportation energy supply for 300 billion dollars." I simply think that's bollocks. The fact that he saw fit to even mention space-based solar made me want to grab him by the shoulders and shake him.
4) Although I enjoy his explorations of "feral" lifestyles, I think he places too much weight on that as a solution. It's a sort of economic version of Thoreau's Axe. His ferals might be a useful niche, but they are also somewhat parasitic on more traditional economic activity. You may be able to live by dumpster-diving, but only if somebody else is filling the dumpsters.
5) I thought the idea of using America's nuclear naval fleet as mobile emergency power generators was clever.
6) I still don't get his aversion to wind power.
7) The idea of combating sea level rise by filling low-lands with fucking sea water seems like a disaster far worse than losing coastal cities. Dear fuck, it's literally salting the earth.
8) For a trilogy ostensibly about a Climate Chaos, there really is a shortage of actual climate chaos in the book. Quite a lot of what there is, takes place off-stage, and you hear about it only because a bunch of Washington technocrats are discussing it. The only major climate event in the last book is some kind of barely-averted "system collapse" in China. And yet, the entire situation is related as third-hand news. One of the first rules of good storytelling is to make things both human, and specific. If there was a significant flaw to the book, I would say that was it. In retrospect, that isn't too surprising, since KSR is a big-picture, historical dialectic kind of guy. It's clearly what he loves, and I think he over-balanced a bit here.
9) Another thing about KSR is that he's fundamentally an optimist. On some level, I think that made him the "wrong" person to write this story, because in reality so much of what is coming is tragic. He alludes to some of that tragedy, but again, it's mostly off-stage. It's not that I would want to read a hopeless story, but overall, the series never quite rang true to me, and I think it's because he just never delved into the tragedy of it. I think a slightly darker author like Greg Bear would have captured that aspect of it better. Maybe an author collaboration?
10) It's still a good series. Go read it.
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