I’m around halfway through Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Something I never would have read, but Elana is reading it and suggested a 2-person ad-hoc book club.
It’s definitely not what I expected.
Specifically, it’s soooo close to making some deep, insightful (I think) claims about the virtue of doing things slow, skills with your hands wherein a certain ineffable quality is lose in automation, and how problem-solving can be an anxiety- or OCD-based addiction that stands between us and our happiest selves… and yet refuses to explicitly make any of those points.
It reminds me a bit of Captain America: Civil War because that movie did something similar. It touched on fascinating questions of state paternalism and whether the very existence of a superhero makes supervillains – and, therefore, large-scale destruction and devsastation – inevitable. And yet, refuses to actually make any arguments, ending instead with the usual fist-fights.
I’m only halfway through Sourdough so the jury’s still out on whether the book will go the way of Marvel.
For now I oscillate back and forth frustration with the simplicity of the book and admiration that it can subtly make all these points without any hint of intellectualism.
Or maybe it’s making none of these points and I’m just projecting. I do love to do that :)