Time has changed but issues R still D same.
So far the first 60 pages of The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson gives me a good sense of how this futuristic world functions. With advance technolgy like nano devices implanted into the body and artificially intelligent beings as teachers, the world still has the same social issuses as the past and present.
In this world instead of race it is a cultural or regional separation (eventhou Bud made racial remarks about the Indian man) , Victorian vs Confucian or Eastern vs Western and then with in the cultures there’s class separation. Hackworth being in the middle class has access to things not privleged to him but tries to use it to improve the standings of his children. The life of the lower class like Bud is fill with crime, drugs, and violence caused by poverty and sub standard education.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Good points. As you continue to read the novel, think further about these issues of social stratification. I imagine that you’ll find your initial observations confirmed.
February 19th, 2007 at 1:52 am
It was the judge who said racial fear hatered laten in beast of all tribes. they might have moved into different tribes and associations,but race problems still exist and so do sterotypes. that a sad fact to believe for the future.
February 19th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I also was shocked by all the racial stereotypes and remarks in the book. Plus they don’t seem to have evolved very much either as far as women’s rights and status are concerned. It reminds me of science fiction movies where all the main characters (especially the pilots and the soldiers) are men and are white (like the people who write the stories I suppose).