Reviews tagging 'Racism'
The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson
4 reviews
ksorianotaylor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
idk i wanted to like this book. the world building is interesting, like the idea that a post-scarcity world wouldn’t necessarily be a utopian one. and nell, the main main character is “loveable” and it’s satisfying to watch her grow up and see her relationship with the primer.
but some of the ideas didn’t really come across to me like the “seed” vs the “feed”, like why are they different? and the political conflict was a little confusing and maybe not necessary since its bubbling over seemed like a rushed afterthought at the end.
very very white savior-y and orientalist. like literally the white characters are the only ones who get to have their inner lives explored and who get to be the “good guys”.
but some of the ideas didn’t really come across to me like the “seed” vs the “feed”, like why are they different?
Spoiler
and the weird bioluminescent orgy supercomputer as a new technologyvery very white savior-y and orientalist. like literally
Spoiler
an army of faceless “abandoned” chinese girls being led by a white girl?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
In a post-scarcity society run by nanotechnology and ruled by cultural tribes, The Diamond Age follows Nell, a girl who grows up in poverty until she comes across an AI-powered book: The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. The Primer's fairytales about "Princess Nell" entertain Nell, but also educate her in self defence, street smarts, and other skills that free her from her destitute situation.
Under the Primer's tuition, Nell grows up, becomes a badass, and founds her own cultural tribe - a simultaneous coming-of-age and rags-to-riches story.
Unfortunately, this fascinating worldbuilding and premise is dragged down by a slow start and a dubiously-justified ending. It takes ~100 pages of poverty and suffering for Nell to even receive the Primer, and she only starts to learn from it around p138. 130+ pages of hopeless misery with no end in sight is an awfully long time, and I think the book would have hooked me more effectively if the Primer's spark of hope had been introduced earlier.
After that, The Diamond Age chugs along effectively and maintains interest through Nell's days at a high-class elocution school. However, the events of the last hundred pages seem contrived and poorly justified, as though the author wanted to hit specific beats and plot points regardless of what made sense for the characters to do. Details in the spoiler tag below.
For example, while Nell is travelling through Pudong, she decides to loiter inside a brothel so as to lose the trail of some bad guys who are following her. However, she then applies for a (writing) job?!?! at the brothel and then comes back the next day to actually do the job?!?!?! Why????
She was just hiding in the lobby to get out of sight for a few hours! Why would she actually apply for a job there??? Why tie herself down to a location like that? Why provide identifying information that might be used to track her in the future????
Now, the narrative reason for this is that it sets Nell up to meet the scriptwriter Carl Hollywood, one of the good guys who helps her find the surrogate mother who effectively "raised" her via the Primer's tuition. But there is no in-universe reason for this happen, and so it feels very arbitrary.
Other events at the end of the book also seem unjustified and unbelievable, such as the fact that the Mouse Army girls antagonize Nell by tying her up and torturing her (p468), only to universally pledge allegiance to her shortly afterwards (p478). It's very serious that this event has no justification, because Nell's state of incapacitation leads to an invading group of thugs raping her (Y I K E S). Even that event seemed to be brushed over quickly in order to get to the following events the author had planned, like the mass walk of the Mouse Army into the sea and the visit to the Drummers' caves. Like, dude, you can't just drop sexual assault in like it's no big deal.
Again, narratively you might say that this was to set up for Nell having the sexually-transmitted Drummer nanosites in her bloodstream, which is relevant to the last few pages. But then she immediately engineers counter-nanosites to remove them from her body, so what was the point of all this? It just seems contrived, unnecessary and gross.
I felt that this letdown in the ending was a real shame, because the middle section of the story (about Nell's use of the Primer's fairytale education) was charming and interesting.
In the end, I don't recommend The Diamond Age. There are other sci-fi books out there that have equally interesting worldbuilding without the unnecessary attempts at shock value.
Under the Primer's tuition, Nell grows up, becomes a badass, and founds her own cultural tribe - a simultaneous coming-of-age and rags-to-riches story.
Unfortunately, this fascinating worldbuilding and premise is dragged down by a slow start and a dubiously-justified ending. It takes ~100 pages of poverty and suffering for Nell to even receive the Primer, and she only starts to learn from it around p138. 130+ pages of hopeless misery with no end in sight is an awfully long time, and I think the book would have hooked me more effectively if the Primer's spark of hope had been introduced earlier.
After that, The Diamond Age chugs along effectively and maintains interest through Nell's days at a high-class elocution school. However, the events of the last hundred pages seem contrived and poorly justified, as though the author wanted to hit specific beats and plot points regardless of what made sense for the characters to do. Details in the spoiler tag below.
Spoiler
For example, while Nell is travelling through Pudong, she decides to loiter inside a brothel so as to lose the trail of some bad guys who are following her. However, she then applies for a (writing) job?!?! at the brothel and then comes back the next day to actually do the job?!?!?! Why????
She was just hiding in the lobby to get out of sight for a few hours! Why would she actually apply for a job there??? Why tie herself down to a location like that? Why provide identifying information that might be used to track her in the future????
Now, the narrative reason for this is that it sets Nell up to meet the scriptwriter Carl Hollywood, one of the good guys who helps her find the surrogate mother who effectively "raised" her via the Primer's tuition. But there is no in-universe reason for this happen, and so it feels very arbitrary.
Other events at the end of the book also seem unjustified and unbelievable, such as the fact that the Mouse Army girls antagonize Nell by tying her up and torturing her (p468), only to universally pledge allegiance to her shortly afterwards (p478). It's very serious that this event has no justification, because Nell's state of incapacitation leads to an invading group of thugs raping her (Y I K E S). Even that event seemed to be brushed over quickly in order to get to the following events the author had planned, like the mass walk of the Mouse Army into the sea and the visit to the Drummers' caves. Like, dude, you can't just drop sexual assault in like it's no big deal.
Again, narratively you might say that this was to set up for Nell having the sexually-transmitted Drummer nanosites in her bloodstream, which is relevant to the last few pages. But then she immediately engineers counter-nanosites to remove them from her body, so what was the point of all this? It just seems contrived, unnecessary and gross.
I felt that this letdown in the ending was a real shame, because the middle section of the story (about Nell's use of the Primer's fairytale education) was charming and interesting.
In the end, I don't recommend The Diamond Age. There are other sci-fi books out there that have equally interesting worldbuilding without the unnecessary attempts at shock value.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Violence
Moderate: Violence, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Murder
Minor: Drug use and Trafficking
As you can guess by the number of tags above, there's a lot of violence and nasty staff in this book.A little like Cryptonomicon (although not as bad), The Diamond Age also had some unnecessary sexual references, maybe intended for the shock value.
merst_nob's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Xenophobia, War, Religious bigotry, and Racism
janel's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
I really disliked this book. It's social Darwinism dressed up in nanotechnology.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Misogyny, Rape, and Racism
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