Author:
Matt Haig
Stars:
3
Review by: Saraswati
Got this book because it was listed as one of the "Must read" sci-fi books this
summer and someone in our group rated it highly. I thought about this book a lot
and think it is either a 1 or a 5 rating and I still go back and forth and here
is why (run on sentence-not an English major :) )
First I have to get over the
fact that a super intelligent race of beings that lives galaxies away from ours
is actually interested in us. Plus since they were super intelligent, they
should know we adapt or perish. Just like today - Technology moved too fast and
we have issues that correspond. So why care? Then if logic rules this life
form why is the alien so whiny?
Now to the story. I loved the humor of
misunderstanding our mixed "moral" codes, the use of high level math, the trying
to learn what it is to be human. I wanted to show this to all my fellow
math/sci teachers until I pondered on the book. In the end I felt let down. In
this day and age where geeks, math & science are looked down upon, how can
you say that these things do not make us human? How many fish, dogs, etc. do you
know who can do combinatorial calculations? I get that emotions do set us apart
from other animals but so does logic. Non-human animals do not ponder why prime
numbers are what they are. Why can't logic, math, science, etc. be beautiful and
human? I enjoy being a geeky human that can look at a tree and see both its
beauty of being plus the mathematical progressions in the leaves, plus the
thermodynamics of why this tree is what it is, plus... I feel that if love and
poetry are what make us human, there are a lot of humans left out in the cold.
Again, I really like the book until I thought about it. I also read about the
author and his trials so... I just get tired of being told that because I can do
logical things that I'm not truly human. I would love others' input. I know
it's fiction but it can influence a lot of people. Please post comments or read
the book!
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