In the neither here nor there range, Much as I have fallen ‘out of love’ with Ender’s game, in part having read some of Card’s political rants, his definition of ‘porn’ as he applies it to Card’s writing in that essay would qualify any work I can think of as ‘porn’, if the reviewer didn’t like it. “I don’t like the message” is sufficient, even “I think it’s intellectually dishonest” and why—certainly I feel that way about every Ayn Rand novel I have subjected myself to. But his essay seems more about rationalization than rationality - .
That said—for myself, probably the first thought of ethics as logic came from Asimov’s “Three Laws”, as a set of rules that allowed for logical consideration of when it was fair to help pr hinder yourself or others, although I was probably primed to look for a logical basis for ethics by Mr. Spock.
his definition of ‘porn’ as he applies it to Card’s writing in that essay would qualify any work I can think of as ‘porn’, if the reviewer didn’t like it.
I have to disagree. The repetitive and episodic nature of the plot is the main point of the “pornography” analogy. Not every lousy book has these features.
In the neither here nor there range, Much as I have fallen ‘out of love’ with Ender’s game, in part having read some of Card’s political rants, his definition of ‘porn’ as he applies it to Card’s writing in that essay would qualify any work I can think of as ‘porn’, if the reviewer didn’t like it. “I don’t like the message” is sufficient, even “I think it’s intellectually dishonest” and why—certainly I feel that way about every Ayn Rand novel I have subjected myself to. But his essay seems more about rationalization than rationality - .
That said—for myself, probably the first thought of ethics as logic came from Asimov’s “Three Laws”, as a set of rules that allowed for logical consideration of when it was fair to help pr hinder yourself or others, although I was probably primed to look for a logical basis for ethics by Mr. Spock.
Jonnan
I have to disagree. The repetitive and episodic nature of the plot is the main point of the “pornography” analogy. Not every lousy book has these features.