Midas68 answers “Is this book as racist as Flashback? That...”

Christopher asked this question about The Fifth Heart:

Is this book as racist as Flashback? That made me question my Dan Simmons love and wonder if I would ever buy a book from him again. I try to separate people's kooky politics from their writing, but it was so overwhelming and hideous in Flashback.

Midas68 There were so many so called tolerant enlightened ones who not only were intolerant of Simmons Flashback book but were damn right hateful to the point…moreThere were so many so called tolerant enlightened ones who not only were intolerant of Simmons Flashback book but were damn right hateful to the point of death threats.

The Ironic thing about many modern liberals is that they refuse to consider if they are being hypocritical.

The Hated Book Flashback just happened to be a revision and expansion of a novella he did in the 80's. Since the president was Republican back then, He took the story from Reagan's era and took the fictional future of his govt and did a dystopia from that.

When he decided to expand it into a novel a few decades later. A Democrat was then President and he took the Obama era and expanded that possible future into a dystopia.

Ironically the same people that hate Simmons for presenting opinions they have disdain for in the Novel, would have loved the same story he wrote as it was from a left and not right perspective.

The funny thing is basically all we have is left and right politics, Both sides ignorantly hating the other even though they need each other like a dysfunctional Siamese twin. But it's quite amazing when a science fiction writer writes a fictional dystopia that isn't liberal agenda based in nature and becomes something akin to a "Enemy of the State"

I myself fell for this and refused to read the book for quite a few years because of this same bias, It' was all that "Hope and Change" that came out to just be "More of the Same" that eventually allowed me to overcome my preconceived bigotry on the subject and give this fiction book a chance.

Oh and if anyone has trouble finding it. It's in his collection called "LoveDeath" and The name of the Novella is called "Flashback"
(less)

flag

View all 12 comments

About Goodreads Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions

Learn more