I watched episode one last night. I got bored after 30-40mins. Maybe I should give it another try. (I hated The Wire the first time I watched it.) I was thrilled by the opening scene because of current events—educating people on “woke” revolutions provides a context for debate. Another good film for providing this context is “First They Killed My Father.” So many people don’t know about The Great Leap Forward or the Khmer Rouge. How can you explain anything about the problems with DEI if they don’t know their history?
04/14/24: I instantly knew we were in deep trouble when in the 1990s, a military history professor at West Point reported that his cadet students considered the Vietnam War to have happened way back in the Middle Ages. Yup. It got worse after that.
Once there was a wonderful journalist (don't get much of a chance to put those words back-to-back, do we?), Christopher Byron.
From his column (04/17/06):
"Bush Fuel Plan is Vintage Carter, But Who Cares?"
"In the short attention span of American life, anything that happened more than 20 years ago may safely be assumed not to have happened at all..."
"Granted, science has not yet established the exact percentage of the U.S. population that needs to be judged clueless regarding some past event before it can be safely recycled as 'new' news.
"But the warm and virginal embrace given Bush's endorsement of ethanol suggests this much:
"If more than half the country doesn't know what you're talking about, or the fact that, generally speaking, those under 14 years of age have no opinions worth knowing regarding almost anything, we may safely state [in 2006] ...
"... that the Ethanol Rule puts the cut-off point for presumed national cluelessness at somewhere in the mid-1980s."
Byron's book is recommended: Testosterone, Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2004 paperback. BC passed away in 2017.)
Yep - I kind of did the same, but then I got a case of Covid (no, really) and had to stay home by myself (to recuperate, not to save western civilization), so I watched more and got hooked, a bit of the way through episode 3. I thought it was pretty great.
Maybe. I remember having very rare yet nasty colds in my youth, and no doubt would have tested positive on any fraudulent COVID 40+ cycle threshold test back then too
Thanks for sharing these. As Klaus Schwab continues to cajole us into “The Great Leap Forward,” it is increasingly important to understand history’s rhyme scheme.
We just finished the season. The first episodes were compelling, especially the China scenes. But the cast was so WRONG it was distracting, and it really got stuck around episode 6 or 7 for us. Too little interesting science, too little of the weird cult stuff, too much of the unlikely relationships between the scientists. Unfortunately it also went from being accurate about the Cultural Revolution to having a feeling of “woke” later. But maybe that’s just my paranoia there! It was worth a few hours, and I’m interested to see what they do with Season 2.
"Perhaps finding forgiveness through spirituality would have been a better path." Very interesting point.
Years ago, I read two books by survivors of the Bataan Death March and the even more harrowing trip to Japan in the hold of a ship later in the war. Both men were Christians, overcame their anger, and forgave their tormentors because they were not exposed to Christ's teachings and the respect for the dignity of each and every human being that arises from it. There is a very interesting Chinese movie about the Rape of Nanking that touches on this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx_ervF7h7w
Louis Zamperini is a famous example of someone healing himself by turning to Faith.
04/14/24: Only if somehow his story is intertwined with our beloved Taylor Swift (we have standards to uphold here, you know HARRUMPH! sarcasm). OH, by the way, now that the Geriatric Bachelor's fairy-tale (and how!) marriage has gone kaput (three months later, what's the rush, huh?), we can now anticipate the next Odyssey Made-for-TV Romance to hit the Mediterranean rocks will be that of T. Swift and that Hairy Human Cheese Curd, the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver, Whatzhisname.
Doc, I was 13 in 1959 and read a book my WW2 vet Dad had, Give Us This Day by Sidney Stewart, a Bataan Death March survivor. Still the most horrifying story I have ever read(or wish to). Some years later I saw a kid, my nephew, with a skateboard with a sticker that said "Two A-Bombs weren't enough" Read the book and see if you agree. Lord Mountbatten had a clause in his will that no Japanese were to be allowed near his funeral services- you could look it up.
Sidney Stewart's book is one that I read. The Japanese were incredibly barbaric. Have you read "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley about his dad's experience as a flag-raiser on Iwo Jima? His father, an otherwise modest and gentle sould, echoes Mountbatten's disdain for the Japanese, based on the cruelty inflicted on Americans who fell into the hands of the Japanese.
I was wondering about this while watching the movie, but not enough to bother looking it up. The diversity of the scientists seemed too contrived to be true to the book. It was engaging enough to watch the whole series with my teenager, but the personalities and social dynamics of the scientists were pretty obnoxious. I suppose that’s a testament to the novels that the series was still engaging despite obnoxious Netflix panderstoning.
Indeed, too many women but no older scientists, no immigrants with thick accents, no families; and physicists don't talk like this in everyday life, they talk like regular people. But the part that got stuck with me was a woman (not someone traumatized by the Cultural Revolution) slicing innocent little kids into pieces, just like that.
I don't know specifics, but I've had the sense there has been a dramatic increase in science fiction writers in the mainland since Liu Cixin. Some of the writing is translated into English and available in the Clarkesworld e-zine and podcasts. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
If you pay attention to the writing, you notice it is . . . constrained. No need for active censorship. The boundaries are understood. But the writing is informative the same as if one were to describe a room only by stating what is not in the room.
In a communist culture, that which his unsaid or unseen is most important, ask anyone who lived in the former Soviet Union or its satellites or CCP China.
Nothing is something. If you can name it, it's something.
It's good enough. My cousin asked if he should read the books first or just go watch the series. I told him, and everyone else wondering the same thing, to go read the series first (if you can...it's dense. I didn't have the books but listened to the audiobooks which was enthralling).
The main difference between the two is that the novels are presented as a puzzle that the reader slowly has to piece together to understand what is going on. The Netflix series just lays it all out for you as simply as possible so as to appeal to a broad audience.
Lastly, you think by changing Asians to black and brown people they would at least set it at Harvard and not Oxford.
One of the most interesting things about the characters in the series was how many of them either refused, lacked the courage, or simply couldn’t be bothered to engage in the effort to save humanity due to complete self absorption, despite an existential threat. Some of them even said who cares what happens to mankind in 400 years, that doesn’t effect me. That attitude seemed very relevant to our current predicament.
I liked it very much. Action scenes are amazing. Can easily skip thru the emo scientists talking about their feelings. Need to hit those different themes to increase odds of more seasons being commissioned of course. 4.5 rating is spot on.
I read the first book in this Epic trilogy and really enjoyed it. I definitely saw the correlation you pointed out about struggle sessions. Very creepy and terrifying. I was disappointed that Hollywood put there usual blatant feminist spin on it. Women are all smart, hard (macho) & men are treated like their children, weak & adolescent. The primary character in the book is a strong woman & that's cool. But Hollywood carried that thru-out all of the characters. So tired of this cancer on our society. Our young people are so indoctrinated they don't even see it. They think it's normal. If it wasn't based on such excellent novels I would have just moved on.
I had a difficult time following the characters. At first I couldn't figure out why, but it dawned on me that it was because the names were Chinese. One of the many challenges was the fact I couldn't tell their gender. I realized that was just one of the attributes used to relate and identify a character. Thanks for the great article.
Great video link. I read about half of the first book and lost interest. Some stories need the visual depictions to come alive. DEI is like politics in that it ruins almost everything it touches. It would be great to see a movie-length, non-woke, version of the story.
I’ve read the first two books of the series and all I can say is please read them! As an aside I do prefer the audible versions as I like to “read” as I do mundane tasks like driving, chores, easy tasks at work etc. so it gives me more time to read and I spend less time doing “nothing” while I read—although I will never consider reading a book as “doing nothing “ it can sometimes feel that way. It removes this feeling of doing nothing and allows you to accomplish things while enjoying the time spent doing it. Much better than watching TV — or almost worse—getting lost in UTUBE (or tic tok which I’ve never done)or xwitter short vids. That is definitely time lost doing nothing—not even stimulating the smart part of your brain—just inducing more mush. It really is a fascinating look into Chinese culture and how they view humanity and the future. A great series so far.
Listened to the first two books on audio as well - mostly while on long marathon training runs. They were great mind workouts. And the narration was excellent.
While these things reportedly happened in a far off land at a time in the near past where those in attendance still live and testify to them, it is becoming clear to me that this, too, is propaganda with purpose in a candy shell.
Unity is the antidote to tyranny, but use extreme caution when determining what unites because division of ideas and people into rank is not unity.
There will never be total unity, either, so unify on a shortlist of core values that truly matter to one's cultural survival leaving the rest loose to flavor that humanity and spur ingenuity and growth.
I am a sci-fi fanatic and loved it and I want more. Liam Cunningham is a beast. Also thought of another great movie with struggle sessions but not sci-fi. The Last Emperor. I really enjoy this movie but it leaves me with such profound sadness for China and the Chinese people under the CCP. John Lone and Joan Chen. 👍
The first few episodes were so good - Ye's growing hatred of humanity from the cruelty and stupidity around her, the creepy attacks on the scientists, the propaganda video game that was perfectly designed to draw them in. Jin was a good character who rose to the occasion, while the rest of the scientists were whiny sad sacks (this was a bit more forgivable for Augie, since she did seem traumatized by what she had done to the followers). But after that the plot totally fell apart. The San-ti have omnipotent power over computing, electronics, and human perception and they use it to... troll Wade and try to assassinate a whiny stoner. The first priority plan for humanity is to... waste 300 nuclear warheads launching the brain of a British sad sack into space, hope it ends up near the San-ti, hope they decide to pick it up, hope they can reconstitute the body of a totally different species, hope they allow him to learn something useful, and hope he figures out a way to communicate it back to Earth. So stupid.
I was thinking that they can use psychological warfare and pretend they have an effective weapon, since San-ti don't have abilities to understand deception. But never mind. Science!
You really must read the books (or listen to them on Audible) as it is the most engaging trilogy I've read - I've listened to the entire trilogy twice.
I've not seen the TV adaptation, but can be certain that unless it's a Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" sort of effort, then it's not going to convey the absolute brilliance of the novels.
Nevertheless I'm willing to give the adaptation a go.
I watched episode one last night. I got bored after 30-40mins. Maybe I should give it another try. (I hated The Wire the first time I watched it.) I was thrilled by the opening scene because of current events—educating people on “woke” revolutions provides a context for debate. Another good film for providing this context is “First They Killed My Father.” So many people don’t know about The Great Leap Forward or the Khmer Rouge. How can you explain anything about the problems with DEI if they don’t know their history?
Know your history… stay tuned for a satirical educational video on Tuesday.
04/14/24: Life is a Bitch... and then you D.E.I.
04/14/24: I instantly knew we were in deep trouble when in the 1990s, a military history professor at West Point reported that his cadet students considered the Vietnam War to have happened way back in the Middle Ages. Yup. It got worse after that.
Once there was a wonderful journalist (don't get much of a chance to put those words back-to-back, do we?), Christopher Byron.
From his column (04/17/06):
"Bush Fuel Plan is Vintage Carter, But Who Cares?"
"In the short attention span of American life, anything that happened more than 20 years ago may safely be assumed not to have happened at all..."
"Granted, science has not yet established the exact percentage of the U.S. population that needs to be judged clueless regarding some past event before it can be safely recycled as 'new' news.
"But the warm and virginal embrace given Bush's endorsement of ethanol suggests this much:
"If more than half the country doesn't know what you're talking about, or the fact that, generally speaking, those under 14 years of age have no opinions worth knowing regarding almost anything, we may safely state [in 2006] ...
"... that the Ethanol Rule puts the cut-off point for presumed national cluelessness at somewhere in the mid-1980s."
Byron's book is recommended: Testosterone, Inc., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (2004 paperback. BC passed away in 2017.)
Yep - I kind of did the same, but then I got a case of Covid (no, really) and had to stay home by myself (to recuperate, not to save western civilization), so I watched more and got hooked, a bit of the way through episode 3. I thought it was pretty great.
Maybe. I remember having very rare yet nasty colds in my youth, and no doubt would have tested positive on any fraudulent COVID 40+ cycle threshold test back then too
Agreed - Notes From The Past wanting to fill some gaps here - Pol Pot https://notesfromthepast.substack.com/p/pol-pot-and-the-killing-fields and the cultural revolution https://notesfromthepast.substack.com/p/the-great-leap-forward for starters.
Thanks for sharing these. As Klaus Schwab continues to cajole us into “The Great Leap Forward,” it is increasingly important to understand history’s rhyme scheme.
We just finished the season. The first episodes were compelling, especially the China scenes. But the cast was so WRONG it was distracting, and it really got stuck around episode 6 or 7 for us. Too little interesting science, too little of the weird cult stuff, too much of the unlikely relationships between the scientists. Unfortunately it also went from being accurate about the Cultural Revolution to having a feeling of “woke” later. But maybe that’s just my paranoia there! It was worth a few hours, and I’m interested to see what they do with Season 2.
Maybe I will check the Chinese version. For me GoT showrunners are a clear sign to avoid it.
"Perhaps finding forgiveness through spirituality would have been a better path." Very interesting point.
Years ago, I read two books by survivors of the Bataan Death March and the even more harrowing trip to Japan in the hold of a ship later in the war. Both men were Christians, overcame their anger, and forgave their tormentors because they were not exposed to Christ's teachings and the respect for the dignity of each and every human being that arises from it. There is a very interesting Chinese movie about the Rape of Nanking that touches on this point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx_ervF7h7w
Louis Zamperini is a famous example of someone healing himself by turning to Faith.
Zamperini is a legend, should I do a post on him?
Yes, please.
(Insert thumbs up emoji)
I posted the wrong finger. Never mind.
04/14/24: Only if somehow his story is intertwined with our beloved Taylor Swift (we have standards to uphold here, you know HARRUMPH! sarcasm). OH, by the way, now that the Geriatric Bachelor's fairy-tale (and how!) marriage has gone kaput (three months later, what's the rush, huh?), we can now anticipate the next Odyssey Made-for-TV Romance to hit the Mediterranean rocks will be that of T. Swift and that Hairy Human Cheese Curd, the Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver, Whatzhisname.
Doc, I was 13 in 1959 and read a book my WW2 vet Dad had, Give Us This Day by Sidney Stewart, a Bataan Death March survivor. Still the most horrifying story I have ever read(or wish to). Some years later I saw a kid, my nephew, with a skateboard with a sticker that said "Two A-Bombs weren't enough" Read the book and see if you agree. Lord Mountbatten had a clause in his will that no Japanese were to be allowed near his funeral services- you could look it up.
Sidney Stewart's book is one that I read. The Japanese were incredibly barbaric. Have you read "Flags of Our Fathers" by James Bradley about his dad's experience as a flag-raiser on Iwo Jima? His father, an otherwise modest and gentle sould, echoes Mountbatten's disdain for the Japanese, based on the cruelty inflicted on Americans who fell into the hands of the Japanese.
Will give it a bash. Thanks.
The movie I linked to in my first comment is outstanding. Worth watching.
By the time he died, the Japanese probably owned the building where his funeral was conducted.
“In the book, they are all Chinese men.”
I was wondering about this while watching the movie, but not enough to bother looking it up. The diversity of the scientists seemed too contrived to be true to the book. It was engaging enough to watch the whole series with my teenager, but the personalities and social dynamics of the scientists were pretty obnoxious. I suppose that’s a testament to the novels that the series was still engaging despite obnoxious Netflix panderstoning.
Indeed, too many women but no older scientists, no immigrants with thick accents, no families; and physicists don't talk like this in everyday life, they talk like regular people. But the part that got stuck with me was a woman (not someone traumatized by the Cultural Revolution) slicing innocent little kids into pieces, just like that.
I don't know specifics, but I've had the sense there has been a dramatic increase in science fiction writers in the mainland since Liu Cixin. Some of the writing is translated into English and available in the Clarkesworld e-zine and podcasts. https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/
If you pay attention to the writing, you notice it is . . . constrained. No need for active censorship. The boundaries are understood. But the writing is informative the same as if one were to describe a room only by stating what is not in the room.
In a communist culture, that which his unsaid or unseen is most important, ask anyone who lived in the former Soviet Union or its satellites or CCP China.
Nothing is something. If you can name it, it's something.
It's good enough. My cousin asked if he should read the books first or just go watch the series. I told him, and everyone else wondering the same thing, to go read the series first (if you can...it's dense. I didn't have the books but listened to the audiobooks which was enthralling).
The main difference between the two is that the novels are presented as a puzzle that the reader slowly has to piece together to understand what is going on. The Netflix series just lays it all out for you as simply as possible so as to appeal to a broad audience.
Lastly, you think by changing Asians to black and brown people they would at least set it at Harvard and not Oxford.
Great review. But I quit Netflix when they brought in the Obamas and Susan Rice.
DEIflix.
One of the most interesting things about the characters in the series was how many of them either refused, lacked the courage, or simply couldn’t be bothered to engage in the effort to save humanity due to complete self absorption, despite an existential threat. Some of them even said who cares what happens to mankind in 400 years, that doesn’t effect me. That attitude seemed very relevant to our current predicament.
I liked it very much. Action scenes are amazing. Can easily skip thru the emo scientists talking about their feelings. Need to hit those different themes to increase odds of more seasons being commissioned of course. 4.5 rating is spot on.
I read the first book in this Epic trilogy and really enjoyed it. I definitely saw the correlation you pointed out about struggle sessions. Very creepy and terrifying. I was disappointed that Hollywood put there usual blatant feminist spin on it. Women are all smart, hard (macho) & men are treated like their children, weak & adolescent. The primary character in the book is a strong woman & that's cool. But Hollywood carried that thru-out all of the characters. So tired of this cancer on our society. Our young people are so indoctrinated they don't even see it. They think it's normal. If it wasn't based on such excellent novels I would have just moved on.
I had a difficult time following the characters. At first I couldn't figure out why, but it dawned on me that it was because the names were Chinese. One of the many challenges was the fact I couldn't tell their gender. I realized that was just one of the attributes used to relate and identify a character. Thanks for the great article.
I agree with your assessment. Feral Historian does a review of the whole series: https://youtu.be/6oDMXn-ViQg?si=eWjep-0Zlm3aff8r
Great video link. I read about half of the first book and lost interest. Some stories need the visual depictions to come alive. DEI is like politics in that it ruins almost everything it touches. It would be great to see a movie-length, non-woke, version of the story.
Watch the Chinese version for this
I’ve read the first two books of the series and all I can say is please read them! As an aside I do prefer the audible versions as I like to “read” as I do mundane tasks like driving, chores, easy tasks at work etc. so it gives me more time to read and I spend less time doing “nothing” while I read—although I will never consider reading a book as “doing nothing “ it can sometimes feel that way. It removes this feeling of doing nothing and allows you to accomplish things while enjoying the time spent doing it. Much better than watching TV — or almost worse—getting lost in UTUBE (or tic tok which I’ve never done)or xwitter short vids. That is definitely time lost doing nothing—not even stimulating the smart part of your brain—just inducing more mush. It really is a fascinating look into Chinese culture and how they view humanity and the future. A great series so far.
Listened to the first two books on audio as well - mostly while on long marathon training runs. They were great mind workouts. And the narration was excellent.
While these things reportedly happened in a far off land at a time in the near past where those in attendance still live and testify to them, it is becoming clear to me that this, too, is propaganda with purpose in a candy shell.
Unity is the antidote to tyranny, but use extreme caution when determining what unites because division of ideas and people into rank is not unity.
There will never be total unity, either, so unify on a shortlist of core values that truly matter to one's cultural survival leaving the rest loose to flavor that humanity and spur ingenuity and growth.
I am a sci-fi fanatic and loved it and I want more. Liam Cunningham is a beast. Also thought of another great movie with struggle sessions but not sci-fi. The Last Emperor. I really enjoy this movie but it leaves me with such profound sadness for China and the Chinese people under the CCP. John Lone and Joan Chen. 👍
The first few episodes were so good - Ye's growing hatred of humanity from the cruelty and stupidity around her, the creepy attacks on the scientists, the propaganda video game that was perfectly designed to draw them in. Jin was a good character who rose to the occasion, while the rest of the scientists were whiny sad sacks (this was a bit more forgivable for Augie, since she did seem traumatized by what she had done to the followers). But after that the plot totally fell apart. The San-ti have omnipotent power over computing, electronics, and human perception and they use it to... troll Wade and try to assassinate a whiny stoner. The first priority plan for humanity is to... waste 300 nuclear warheads launching the brain of a British sad sack into space, hope it ends up near the San-ti, hope they decide to pick it up, hope they can reconstitute the body of a totally different species, hope they allow him to learn something useful, and hope he figures out a way to communicate it back to Earth. So stupid.
Nailed it. The end got real silly real fast just like game of thrones.
That first episode was so good I was totally cheering for the B&W redemption arc... but unfortunately they couldn't pull it off.
I was thinking that they can use psychological warfare and pretend they have an effective weapon, since San-ti don't have abilities to understand deception. But never mind. Science!
You really must read the books (or listen to them on Audible) as it is the most engaging trilogy I've read - I've listened to the entire trilogy twice.
I've not seen the TV adaptation, but can be certain that unless it's a Peter Jackson "Lord of the Rings" sort of effort, then it's not going to convey the absolute brilliance of the novels.
Nevertheless I'm willing to give the adaptation a go.