★★☆☆☆
(SF Dystopia) A controversial TV talk show host inflames her audience even as a massive protest builds outside her building. (9,191 words; Time: 30m)
Recommended By: 👍STomaino+1 (Q&A)
"American Gold Mine," by Paolo Bacigalupi [bio] (edited by C.C. Finlay), appeared in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction issue 09-10|19, published on September 3, 2019 by Spilogale Inc.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.514 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: There’s plenty of action and excitement, especially after the protesters break into the building.
Con: It’s message fiction and it’s too “on the nose.”
Other Reviews: Search Web
Paolo Bacigalupi Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: There’s plenty of action and excitement, especially after the protesters break into the building.
Con: It’s message fiction and it’s too “on the nose.”
Other Reviews: Search Web
Paolo Bacigalupi Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Yeah, speaking as someone who thinks that there are very few stories that don't actually contain politics, whether the author thinks that they do or not: this wasn't a story, it was a polemic, with all the subtlety of a cinderblock dropped on the reader's foot.
ReplyDeleteAnd the whole story has the author's thumb pressed down on the scales. No one is allowed any comebacks to the protagonist's cheap rhetoric. The left is just as irrational and emotion-driven as the right; only the nihilistic protagonist stands above it all. And apparently we're supposed to believe that people across the political spectrum watch her show, even though it's clearly a Fox News analogue.
Author website:
ReplyDeletehttps://windupstories.com/