I finished reading Orson Scott Card's "Shadow of the Giant" recently.
SPOILERS follow.
There's all kinds of wars involving China, Russia, India and unified Muslim nations while the leader of the future version of a neutered United Nations schemes behind the scenes.
All the while I'm reading this I'm thinking "When's America going to flex its muscles in these conflicts?" It never does, America is described as big, do-nothing America. America had apparently packed up all its toys declared victory and went home long ago.
I took satisfaction that the scheming pseudo-UN leader behind the scenes, the Hegemon, was American. He ended up consolodating the entire world under one government, except for the good old USA. For some reason I took satisfaction in that too.
Nationalism affects my thinking more than I thought, it must color my views, interpetations and enjoyment of every form of popular art, (movies, books, tv shows what have you) so I've been re-examining things. I'll stand back and think "If I was an extraterrestrial what I would think of this?"
SPOILERS follow.
There's all kinds of wars involving China, Russia, India and unified Muslim nations while the leader of the future version of a neutered United Nations schemes behind the scenes.
All the while I'm reading this I'm thinking "When's America going to flex its muscles in these conflicts?" It never does, America is described as big, do-nothing America. America had apparently packed up all its toys declared victory and went home long ago.
I took satisfaction that the scheming pseudo-UN leader behind the scenes, the Hegemon, was American. He ended up consolodating the entire world under one government, except for the good old USA. For some reason I took satisfaction in that too.
Nationalism affects my thinking more than I thought, it must color my views, interpetations and enjoyment of every form of popular art, (movies, books, tv shows what have you) so I've been re-examining things. I'll stand back and think "If I was an extraterrestrial what I would think of this?"
