This is your daily reminder that we are living in emergency times.
Shit’s not “about to” hit the fan — it already has, and it’s just not evenly distributed yet. As things accelerate, I’ve found myself shifting what I read. Less escapist sci-fi, more grounding in the moments before things cracked open — before the boots came down.
This week I borrowed Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell from the library. Felt like time to revisit what resistance looked like in the face of rising authoritarianism.
Anyone else making similar shifts in your reading? Got any titles that have helped you stay sharp, stay grounded, or just feel less alone? Drop 'em in the replies.
@franklinlopez
@lulu recently shares this one: The Language of the Third Reich by Victor Klemperer
https://archive.org/details/klemperer-victor-j-auth-language-of-the-third-reich-lti-lingua
לולו @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez
Thank you for signal boosting :)
@lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez
The 1940 Robert Heinlein story "If This Goes On...", from the book "Revolt in 2100", depicts a society in which a charismatic preacher, elected President in 2012, manages to turn the US into a theocratic dictatorship. Heinlein's depictions of romantic relationships are dated and somewhat clumsy, but the plot, set about 90 years later, shows how little freedom is left for the citizens, and what they eventually do about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22If_This_Goes_On%E2%80%94%22
@Anne_Delong @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez
In the book is also a short essay "Concerning Stories Never Written", outlining the rise of Nehemiah Scudder who established a religion dictatorship in the United States.
When I first read it in the 1960s I found it entertaining but unlikely.
With each passing decade I found it more and more terrifying...
@nyrath @Anne_Delong @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez Wasn't a draft passage published as "Stone Pillow"?
@60sRefugee @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez
Both the Heinlein Society and Wikipedia call Stone Pillow one of his unwritten stories, part of the outline for his Future History timeline. Have you seen it published anywhere?
@Anne_Delong @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez What I'm remembering is a very short passage– a page or two– depicting Scudder gloating on the eve of his election and his own backers muttering under their breath about 'what have they done?'. My searches aren't helping because they're insisting that there is a Heinlein novel titled "The Stone Pillow" with a completely different subject and plot; something about the stars going out and women abandoning the Earth?
@60sRefugee @Anne_Delong @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez Sounds like a hallucination by an AI. No novel like that I can recall, written or plotted by RAH.
@FredKiesche @Anne_Delong @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez The short I read before the advent of AI; it might have been included in a collection of posthumously released stuff? And by short I mean excerpt length.
The other novel I referenced turned out to be an old April Fool's gag (which in my defense MULTIPLE cites linked to).
@FredKiesche@dice.camp@60sRefugee @Anne_Delong @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez Ummmm…check the date.
@60sRefugee @Anne_Delong @nyrath @lulu @grim_elsewhere @franklinlopez “Stars going out” might be a published story where the Sun is found to be a variable star? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Year_of_the_Jackpot