this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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And what's on your to read shelf?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just finished a book from the 1930s by a Czech author Karel Čapek called War with the Newts.

It’s sci-fi based on earth in 1930s but what I found the most interesting is

  1. seeing an author from 1930s write and think on paper (casual racism and sexism, for example),

  2. the echoes of the looming WWII

  3. the retro futurism - I love seeing what people from the past imagined would happen with technology. They are often right, often cutely wrong.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh! Never read anything from Čapek. Thanks for bringing him to my attention!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

TIL: His brother invented the word “robot”, which Karel Čapek used in the book R.U.R.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_%C4%8Capek#Etymology_of_robot

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

John Brunner's 'Stand On Zanzibar' won the Hugo in 969 for its depiction of the early 21st Century. Amazing how much he got right.