This book strongly evokes the silly stories my brother and I used make up as bored little kids. Pirates? Dinosaurs? Chainsaw battles? A heroine who, upon confronting the big bad, essentially calls him a poopy head? Yeah: the author here doesn't bother with sense-making. Instead, she's having fun -- and there is a crystal-blue purity to it all that needs to be experienced to be appreciated. Definitely pick this up if you want something happy and imaginative and hopeful to read to your younger children. I think most kids will immediately take to the plucky Marymae.
This anthology, on the other hand, is strictly for adults -- but it's a very, very interesting read. Imagine, for example, that someone could alter reality simply by convincing enough people to believe an outright falsehood? Or: imagine we could, through technological wizardry, create the perfect safe space by essentially erasing all perceptible traces of anyone who disagrees with us or makes us uncomfortable? These are the premises behind the two longest (and best) stories in this collection, which are both blisteringly effective literary explorations of the profound fundamental problems with today's identitarian, truth-denying ideological zeitgeist. Also covered here: the steady erosion of parental rights in Western society, the excesses of the trans movement, our elites' condescending attitudes towards the religious (and the plebs in general), etc., etc. Fox says upfront that he's trying to poke sacred cows; I'd say he's succeeded beautifully. I shall wait with bated breath for the multi-author follow-up!
Iron Man #2
Okay: now that two issues of the Iron Man relaunch have been released, it's time for some more extensive commentary on Christopher Cantwell's so-called "back-to-basics" take. And as I said yesterday on Twitter:
At any rate, buckle up for some ranting in re: Tony and the most annoying discourse in the world.
— The Right Geek (@TheRightGeek) October 21, 2020
Honestly, the fact that issue two royally honked me off is an absolute tragedy because this new run - despite the rage-inducing bull I'm about to discuss - brings quite a lot to the table.
Continue reading over on my Iron Man blog...
(And then afterwards, if you'd like, watch my rant on YouTube, which adds a few more things I didn't include in the blog post.)
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