kab

3.5 There are a lot of training wheels and an unnecessary, iterative spelling out of harmful stereotypes particularly in chapter 7, but also some solid analogies and models, especially about unwanted attention (being marked as a spectacle), derivatization (being flattened to a projected single dimension), stigma, and contagion.

3.25 Liu was able to hold back on overt sexist commentary until the last story. Detailed dives into narrow points of imagination. He can't conceive of worlds where leaders aren't men, where justice and art thrive together, where god-like entities have more emotional intelligence than insecure, petulant babies.

“The Village Teacher” ★★★½
“The Time Migration” ★★★
“2018-04-01” ★★★
“Fire In The Earth” ★★★
“Contraction” ★★★
“Mirror” ★★★
“Ode To Joy” ★★★
“Full Spectrum Barrage Jamming” ★★½
“Sea of Dreams” ★★★
“Cloud of Poems” ★★★
“The Thinker” ★★½

Engagingly designed with fun project ideas. It ramps up fast in the JavaScript section. Just a note that in the JS for the game, hyphens (minus signs) should be used but en dashes appear in the book. Also for the online resources, whoever named the image files capitalised them instead of using what's referenced in the CSS.

The format of a page a day is superb, not overwhelming. The words are well-chosen, usefully balanced between not too common and not too obscure, but the paragraphs that are supposed to introduce the words in context are so awkward and unnatural.

At least three works in a row are variations of the same essay on globalism. The introduction on the power of art is trenchant. The rest I skimmed were meandering, dense, and glancing, even when I wanted them to pierce me. The repetition and lack of notes of context made it easy to drift away on this collection.