Reading Subversion (Day 6: The End)
The end has arrived. These are the last two stories in the Subversion anthology, but at least they provide a fine sendoff. Both warn us about the dangers of being manipulated by extremism, and both emphasize the value of personal responsibility as the antidote for that social ill. Timothy T. Murphy’s Received Without Content raises [...]
Reading Subversion (Day 5)
At first glance, the next three stories in the Subversion anthology don’t seem to have a whole lot in common. They take place in a dreary, futuristic call center, a fantastic world of dragons and their human snacks, and Hell itself. The characters are worker drones, royalty, and demons. No obvious theme besides subversion, the [...]
Reading Subversion (Day 4)
The next three stories in the Subversion anthology are all about germination; growth and change from within. Each reveals a different sort of transformation of a different type of group, but all these stories follow one person taking one step in the right direction. They show us that leaders must first revolutionize themselves before they [...]
Reading Subversion (Day 2)
The next three stories in the Subversion anthology are all tales of nurturing resistance against intractable, destructive ideas about human worth. Each in their own way, they describe our equally incorrigible drive toward freedom at the individual level and at the scale of civilization. Pushaway by Melissa S. Green is my favorite kind of story. [...]
Reading Subversion (Day 1)
I asked editor Bart R. Leib if he arranged it this way on purpose, but he told it me it was pure happenstance that luck and philosophy are central elements in both of the first two stories in the Subversion anthology. Jessica Reisman’s A Thousand Wings of Luck is a beautiful tale even taken only [...]