othercat: shader from chrono crusade standing with her back to the viewer. In the background is the Earth. (disturbingly cheerful loki)
othercat ([personal profile] othercat) wrote in [community profile] books2013-06-11 12:01 pm

Reading: Telempath, by Spider Robinson, Part Three

The main reason why I have always been ambivalent about Telempath is that there seems to be something slightly “off” about the entire set up. Jacob Stone, a black scientist frames Wendell Morgan Carlson, a white scientist for spreading a plague that destroys human civilization and starts a war with another terrestrial species. The sticking point I think is the way that the elder Stone’s frame involves playing on a presumably white conservative audience’s fear and mistrust of black (and white?) liberal political activism. He even does the thing where the white liberal is awkwardly attempting to join in on a “black only” activity or group and is subsequently rejected on account of being white and presumably clueless. Another reason I have a problem with the setup is because when you consider it, the entire screed he wrote about Carlson is essentially projection. (Meaning that when Stone is talking about Carlson being a wing nut, the actual wing nut being discussed is Stone.)

 
 
We open up with Isham coming down from some kind of trance.


Read this on Rena's Hub of Random on WordPress.

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