And then there's the fact that I really _doubt_ that the H-G lifestyle is 100% luddite. There's probably some sort of interactive link at the various huts and waystations for kids to use.
It wasn't shown at all in the books; that could be PoV or author oversight or a reflection of how "back to nature" the H-Gs are.
It's very probable that there's a lot we the readers haven't seen: the H-Gs are living such a radically back-to-basics lifestyle that they may have needed a governmental okay on risk awareness, education, environmental impact and other factors before they could move into the bush, and that's when the education issue was addressed.
I may be fitting things just a tad to my own preconceptions, but if you're going to have a _utopia_, you might as well rationalize it so that it really _is_ a utopia. And KSR certainly sets things up in a such a way as to make the justifications easier than they might be.
True. I'm a bit cynical, and like to pick stuff apart, find points of potential weakness and conflict. The big problem I find in KSR's setup is that the educational system is only briefly and vaugely addressed; if you discover you hate what you're doing, will your co-op pay to retrain you or do you have to come up with the money yourself? Are there government loans or grants? How is it ensured that all citizens get an adequate education, and what is done when a co-op fails to provide such for the members' kids? And so forth.
Conflict breeds interesting stories. I'd love to see this stuff addressed, if KSR ever wants to play in the Mars universe again.
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baggyeyes
Re: It's called a utopia for a reason. (Part 2)
Date: 2004-06-14 09:52 pm (UTC)It wasn't shown at all in the books; that could be PoV or author oversight or a reflection of how "back to nature" the H-Gs are.
It's very probable that there's a lot we the readers haven't seen: the H-Gs are living such a radically back-to-basics lifestyle that they may have needed a governmental okay on risk awareness, education, environmental impact and other factors before they could move into the bush, and that's when the education issue was addressed.
I may be fitting things just a tad to my own preconceptions, but if you're going to have a _utopia_, you might as well rationalize it so that it really _is_ a utopia. And KSR certainly sets things up in a such a way as to make the justifications easier than they might be.
True. I'm a bit cynical, and like to pick stuff apart, find points of potential weakness and conflict. The big problem I find in KSR's setup is that the educational system is only briefly and vaugely addressed; if you discover you hate what you're doing, will your co-op pay to retrain you or do you have to come up with the money yourself? Are there government loans or grants? How is it ensured that all citizens get an adequate education, and what is done when a co-op fails to provide such for the members' kids? And so forth.
Conflict breeds interesting stories. I'd love to see this stuff addressed, if KSR ever wants to play in the Mars universe again.