Can we get another Cain reading dump?

[LMNO]

OK. Once I finish the Divergent Trilogy, I'll start reading it.



Yeah, I said Divergent. What?

[Cain]

Never heard of it until now.

Charles Stross has an idea why YA Apocalyptic Fiction is so popular, which you all may find interesting:

There has been a boom market in dystopian young adult fiction over the past decade. There is a reason for this. Play and recreation is an important training mechanism in young mammals by which they practice or rehearse activities that will fit them for later adult life experiences. (It's also fun, but bear with me while I discuss the more ploddingly puritan angle for a moment.) Could it be that the popularity of YA dystopias reflects the fact that our youngest generation of readers expect to live out their lives in dystopia? (The alternative explanations hold that (a) high school in the age of helicopter parenting, fingerprint readers in the library, and CCTV in the corridors is an authoritarian dystopia anyway, and YA dys-fic helps kids understand their environment; and (b) that worse, their parents (who influence their reading) think this.)

On a global scale, things are improving. The absolute number of people living in poverty has remained static or actually declined over two decades during which our population rose dramatically. Wars affect fewer people than ever before. Huge swathes of the developing world are actually developing, and are now within sight of catching up with our declining developed world standard of living. But that's scant consolation to those of us who are trapped in the middle. And the way things are looking now, I expect the 30 year old Brits of 2030, people whose grandparents were buying houses and starting families on a single breadwinner's wages in the 1960s, will be envying the living standards of the average Malaysian citizen.

This decline has not of course gone unnoticed by the elite. There's a reason for the increasing militarization of police and security organizations in the United States and the UK: widespread civil disorder escalating to revolution along the lines of the Arab Spring is no longer unimaginable by 2030 if current trends continue. The oligarchs can hold the lid down by force for quite a considerable time, but the longer this continues the worse the eventual explosion will be, as witness the upheavals in Egypt or Ukraine.

[Cain]

I wont have much time to contribute to The Problem of Punishment, as it was one I skim-read a while ago and, while it is interesting, its not a book I know off by heart and I have other reading I need to get on with.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Anyone still seeding?

[Pæs]

Anyone still seeding?

I should be. I haven't checked in a while.

[Pæs]

Yeah I seem to still be seeding. 6.3GB uploaded so far.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Yeah I seem to still be seeding. 6.3GB uploaded so far.

Thanks. I'm plugging along with the download now.

[LMNO]

I'll fire back up.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I'll fire back up.

Thanks.

I'm about halfway through the download.

[Cain]

I'm continuing to seed as well, will be for the forseeable future.

[Bu🤠ns]

I'll see as well--get it while it's hot

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Got it downloaded and am now seeding for stragglers, thanks guys.

[LMNO]

Ok, done with the trilogy.  Gonna load The Problem of Punishment into my kindle tonight.

Last time, we all waited a bit before diving into the discussion (we should start a new thread for that), but this time I think we should be aimed at momentum.  You see something that strikes a note, say it.  The rest of us can comment or wait until we get there, or skip ahead, or whaterver.  The important thing is to keep the energy up.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

Ok, done with the trilogy.  Gonna load The Problem of Punishment into my kindle tonight.

Last time, we all waited a bit before diving into the discussion (we should start a new thread for that), but this time I think we should be aimed at momentum.  You see something that strikes a note, say it.  The rest of us can comment or wait until we get there, or skip ahead, or whaterver.  The important thing is to keep the energy up.

Cool.

The first one with substantial comments on The Problem of Punishment ought to post a new thread.

[Slyph]

"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days."

LAAAAAAAAAAATE