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  • (ReacTor) Five SFF Books About Oddballs Resisting Conformity

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jun 11 10:11:54 2025
    Five SFF Books About Oddballs Resisting Conformity

    Tales of dissidents, dissenters, and iconoclasts taking on the status quo...

    https://reactormag.com/five-sff-books-about-oddballs-resisting-conformity/
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
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  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to petertrei@gmail.com on Wed Jun 11 18:48:07 2025
    In article <102cgun$248b1$1@dont-email.me>,
    Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com> wrote:
    On 6/11/2025 10:11 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SFF Books About Oddballs Resisting Conformity


    Imagine tyranny as carried out by well-meaning high school guidance counselors.


    “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its >victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under
    robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's >cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated;
    but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end
    for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

    - C.S. Lewis

    Dolores Umbridge is one of the great truly evil characters.
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to michael.stemper@gmail.com on Mon Jun 23 09:16:09 2025
    On Wed, 11 Jun 2025 14:51:51 -0500, "Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

    When I read the title of your post, my mind was immediately drawn to _Brave >New World_[1]. However, it's not quite a fit, because the "taking on the >status quo" element is missing. Yeah, the Savage didn't fit in with the >status quo, but the powers that be didn't even bother to crush him like
    a bug -- they just exiled him and that was, as they say, that.

    Which is ironic given he was far more against the system than Winston
    Smith ever was. Smith never objected to outwardly conforming as long
    as he was able to privately think freely (and fornicate) as his
    confrontation with O'Brien shows - but when even that wasn't allowed
    he broke.

    One of the ironies of history is that CS Lewis, Aldous Huxley and JFK
    all died on 22 Nov 1963.

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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to lynnmcguire5@gmail.com on Mon Jun 23 09:20:51 2025
    On Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:18:00 -0500, Lynn McGuire
    <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    On 6/11/2025 9:11 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
    Five SFF Books About Oddballs Resisting Conformity

    Tales of dissidents, dissenters, and iconoclasts taking on the status quo... >>
    https://reactormag.com/five-sff-books-about-oddballs-resisting-conformity/

    Only the "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury.

    Isn't Science Fiction about oddballs ? Just about every good science >fiction character, such as Miles Vorkosigan, is odd.

    While I generally agree with you I think both the Darrells of
    Foundation and Empire and their granddaughter Arkady Darrell of Second Foundation can't really be described as oddballs though both were
    great protagonists.

    And 1984's Winston Smith was more an everyman caught in the gears than
    a true oddball.

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