#uncharitable

Really wish we could quit this shell-game between "Everything is political" (true but vacuous), "This work is political" (Creators were attempting to communicate a specific political position that they hold via the themes, characterization and the rest, in a way you can argue using the content of the text) and "This work is political" (Creators weren't deliberately communicating a specific political stance but what the story takes for granted speaks volumes about the moment of its creation)

Me, writing world building and writing advice circa 1700: If your setting doesn’t have anyone with smallpox scars or anyone who has lost a friend or loved one to smallpox, because “ooh, it’s the future and we’ve magically eradicated smallpox with futuristic medical technologies :)” then I’ll assume your story really has nothing worthwhile to say about the human condition.

Y'know if you've read 40 books so far this year I really do not think those were smart people books...

to some extent hg wants to have its cake and eat it too, it wants to criticize sankta hegemony and ethnosupremacy while at the same time prioritizing the feelings of said sankta about their position within the hierarchy and depicting them as Cool And Badass people outside of the story etc etc , ultimately we get to read a million words about how sankta must find their own way ☺️ and treat others better! while the liberi & sarkaz characters are relegated to side characters and npcs