Carter Scholz

A brilliant, overlooked novel about 2 physicists entangled in corruption, mid-life crises, institutional incentives, technological inevitability, the end of the Cold War, nuclear bombs & the Star Wars missile defense program, existential risks & accelerationism. Based on true events, with unparalleled realistic dialogue. A bleak masterpiece...

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Thematically, Scholz pairs a character that is realistic and sees human politics for what it is – inevitable, Machiavellian, out of control, conflicted – and one that is naive, in search for truth. But in the novel – as in life – truth is problematic, as even smart men can’t agree. It is not much of a spoiler to say the tragedy of Quine is that he eventually makes ‘moral’ mistakes like Highet too. Yet, morality is in the eye of the beholder, and while Scholz has written an indicting, political book, it steers clear of easy judgements or finger pointing. Democratic oversight is very hard to get right, and bureaucracy unavoidable. Decisions are “taken in the absolute vacuum of procedure and contingency”, and humans have complex, differing motivations. We all need to eat.

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Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It… (mehr)

I read this right after finishing a complete collection of Kafka's shorter works, and I kind of think that's what these guys had done right before they wrote these pieces. They're riddled with references to Kafka's work. References to the novels were pretty obvious and inevitable, but there was a good bit of "Josephine the Singer", "In the Penal Colony", "The Burrow", "The Judgement" and "The Vulture". Those are just the ones I caught. What they actually do with these references is not necessarily all that satisfying. I found "Receding Horizons" (the long-ish piece co-written by both) and "K for Fake" (by Lethem alone) to be the most worthwhile. I enjoyed the idea of having Kafka (who invented so much of what we think of as uniquely 20th Century angst) survive to experience a bit more of that Century.
It wasn't mind-blowing but it was also only 100 pages. It's not like I'm underwhelmed after enduring a dense, discursive tome. They knew how much material they could get out of the subject-matter and the concept.… (mehr)