2020-11-04 Schismatrix Plus - Bruce Sterling

I don't remember just what lead me to reading this book. Likely a post in gemini space. Some of the names in the book seem central in the gemini world, so I'm on my guard about what I say about it.

Chapter 1

Describes a time after Earth's resources have been depleted. Civilization initially jumped to orbiting artifical worlds circling the moon, but has since migrated to homes further out in the solar system. The protagonist, Lindsey has left one world to seek shelter in another called Zaibatsu that has some connection with Japanese culture. First he meets Dr. Cory Prager who lives in a hermetically sealed Black Medical lab, the meets Fyodor Ryumin of Russian culture. Zaibatsu has one civil right, the right to death. Drugs and artificial medical implants are central to the economy. The atmospheres of the various worlds are unpleasant and subject to ecological catastrophe. Several groups are described, sundogs, Mechanists, Geisha bankers, Black Medicals.

Fri 13 Nov 2020 08:01:01 AM UTC

Having put this book aside, I've read another entry and pick up more of the vibe of it. It is an imagined future constructed out of the history current to a present day creative artist. The groups are images of historical groups with their illusions and delusions. I sense I am reading a literature written at a level above my grasp.