This is a combo-review of two books. One has been a favorite of mine for a long time, the other I have read recently. I recommend both. And let me warn you up front - there are possible spoilers ahead.
The first book is called 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.
Treason is set in the future in a distant galaxy. Treason is a planet where the galactic empire banished criminals 70 generations prior to the beginning of the story. These criminals tried to take over the galaxy and have the elites rule, and for this crime they were banished to a planet without iron. Without hard metals the criminals couldn't go offworld. Each family was given a machine that could transport things of value back to the galactic government in exchange for iron. The group that got enough iron first could theoretically build a spaceship and re-join the galaxy. The main character is Lanik Mueller, heir to the Mueller empire. The treasonous Mueller 70 generations ago was a geneticist, and his descendants figured out how to re-grow limbs. This helps in battle, and the Mueller empire on the planet Treason has expanded over the years. The other families who were banished to Treason also have evolved specialties. But the plot begins with Lanik Mueller. Lanik is the heir to the king, but he also is an unfortunate genetic anomaly known as a radical regenerative, meaning he grows extra body parts in an uncontrolled way. The Mueller family trades extra parts harvested from the radical regeneratives back to the galactic empire for iron. The fact that Lanik is a radical regenerative means he can't be king, so his father sends him on a secret mission as a spy to another part of the planet where a different kingdom is expanding rapidly - the Nkumai. It turns out that the Nkumai have discovered faster than light travel, which fetched a lot of iron from the galactic empire, which has allowed the Nkumai to expand rapidly.
After bringing you this far into the story, I want to get into some of the major spoilers. But I can't. I know you're probably not going to read this book. But in the off chance that you are, I just don't want to ruin it for you.
Each family that originally settled on Treason went on to develop their specialty. One of the families specialized in politics. This ability evolved into the ability to convince people to believe things that were not true, or were against their own interests. That's all I'm going to say about this story. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.
One book my wife gave me for Christmas is 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays.
I first heard about Edward Bernays while watching the documentary called 'The Century of The Self'. I've always had more than a passing interest in conspiracy theories. The idea that there is some secret committee somewhere pulling the strings. They're very entertaining to me, and I like to get seduced by them long enough to get the main points of the conspiracy, then go in and pop the absurdity in my mind. Most recently I watched a video at my brother-in-law's house that talked about a conspiracy of the 'Bilderburg Group' whose intent is to take over the world and take away our freedoms and destroy the constitution etc...
But Edward Bernays is the real deal. He really did pull strings behind the scenes. His first big job was working with Walter Lippman for Woodrow Wilson (who ran for president on an anti-war platform) to drum up popular support for World War I. Bernays was so surprised at how well the propaganda efforts worked that he decided to do propaganda for corporations after the war. Propaganda still had a negative connotation due to its Catholic roots, and the word was linked to several big lies told about the Germans in WWI, so he opened a 'Public Relations' office instead of a propaganda office.
The book 'Propaganda' is an effort to give the word a good name again.
Bernays uses several positive examples of the uses of propaganda in a modern market economy, a lot of which will be familiar to you although you probably never knew that they were the result of propaganda.
The first example is my favorite. American Tobacco wasn't selling enough cigarettes. There was a taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public. Bernays enlisted a psychoanalyst who said that women considered cigarettes a phallic symbol and that smoking cigarettes showed that they were subservient to men. (Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew - so this didn't sound strange at all) Bernays decided to use this latent subconscious belief and twist it for the benefit of American Tobacco and Lucky Strike cigarettes.
This is so brilliant. (Jay geeks out a little) Bernays convinced a bunch of suffragettes who were marching in a parade to light up cigarettes right in front of the New York Times' cameras. Then Bernays spread rumors with some reporters that he had heard that the suffragettes were going to light up 'Torches of Liberty' as a show of female independence from the male dominated society. The suffragettes did their job, the cameramen took the pictures, the reporters wrote up the story, which was picked up by several other papers around the country.
Overnight the taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public - gone. American tobacco's potential market doubled overnight.
The first book is called 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.
Treason is set in the future in a distant galaxy. Treason is a planet where the galactic empire banished criminals 70 generations prior to the beginning of the story. These criminals tried to take over the galaxy and have the elites rule, and for this crime they were banished to a planet without iron. Without hard metals the criminals couldn't go offworld. Each family was given a machine that could transport things of value back to the galactic government in exchange for iron. The group that got enough iron first could theoretically build a spaceship and re-join the galaxy. The main character is Lanik Mueller, heir to the Mueller empire. The treasonous Mueller 70 generations ago was a geneticist, and his descendants figured out how to re-grow limbs. This helps in battle, and the Mueller empire on the planet Treason has expanded over the years. The other families who were banished to Treason also have evolved specialties. But the plot begins with Lanik Mueller. Lanik is the heir to the king, but he also is an unfortunate genetic anomaly known as a radical regenerative, meaning he grows extra body parts in an uncontrolled way. The Mueller family trades extra parts harvested from the radical regeneratives back to the galactic empire for iron. The fact that Lanik is a radical regenerative means he can't be king, so his father sends him on a secret mission as a spy to another part of the planet where a different kingdom is expanding rapidly - the Nkumai. It turns out that the Nkumai have discovered faster than light travel, which fetched a lot of iron from the galactic empire, which has allowed the Nkumai to expand rapidly.
After bringing you this far into the story, I want to get into some of the major spoilers. But I can't. I know you're probably not going to read this book. But in the off chance that you are, I just don't want to ruin it for you.
Each family that originally settled on Treason went on to develop their specialty. One of the families specialized in politics. This ability evolved into the ability to convince people to believe things that were not true, or were against their own interests. That's all I'm going to say about this story. I highly recommend you pick up a copy of 'Treason' by Orson Scott Card.
One book my wife gave me for Christmas is 'Propaganda' by Edward Bernays.
I first heard about Edward Bernays while watching the documentary called 'The Century of The Self'. I've always had more than a passing interest in conspiracy theories. The idea that there is some secret committee somewhere pulling the strings. They're very entertaining to me, and I like to get seduced by them long enough to get the main points of the conspiracy, then go in and pop the absurdity in my mind. Most recently I watched a video at my brother-in-law's house that talked about a conspiracy of the 'Bilderburg Group' whose intent is to take over the world and take away our freedoms and destroy the constitution etc...
But Edward Bernays is the real deal. He really did pull strings behind the scenes. His first big job was working with Walter Lippman for Woodrow Wilson (who ran for president on an anti-war platform) to drum up popular support for World War I. Bernays was so surprised at how well the propaganda efforts worked that he decided to do propaganda for corporations after the war. Propaganda still had a negative connotation due to its Catholic roots, and the word was linked to several big lies told about the Germans in WWI, so he opened a 'Public Relations' office instead of a propaganda office.
The book 'Propaganda' is an effort to give the word a good name again.
Bernays uses several positive examples of the uses of propaganda in a modern market economy, a lot of which will be familiar to you although you probably never knew that they were the result of propaganda.
The first example is my favorite. American Tobacco wasn't selling enough cigarettes. There was a taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public. Bernays enlisted a psychoanalyst who said that women considered cigarettes a phallic symbol and that smoking cigarettes showed that they were subservient to men. (Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew - so this didn't sound strange at all) Bernays decided to use this latent subconscious belief and twist it for the benefit of American Tobacco and Lucky Strike cigarettes.
This is so brilliant. (Jay geeks out a little) Bernays convinced a bunch of suffragettes who were marching in a parade to light up cigarettes right in front of the New York Times' cameras. Then Bernays spread rumors with some reporters that he had heard that the suffragettes were going to light up 'Torches of Liberty' as a show of female independence from the male dominated society. The suffragettes did their job, the cameramen took the pictures, the reporters wrote up the story, which was picked up by several other papers around the country.
Overnight the taboo against women smoking cigarettes in public - gone. American tobacco's potential market doubled overnight.
Bernays used propaganda to link up our subconscious desires with commodities and products that corporations sell. It works. The intention Bernays, and an endless line of marketing professionals that followed after, is to make us feel that we can't be happy unless we use a particular product or service. Then shortly after purchasing said product, to become dissatisfied with it and want the new updated model. Bernays was a freudian remember. Underneath the surface of all humanity is an animal instinct that we need to supress to maintain order and civilization. Bernays' solution was to channel those desires into consumerism. Take a look around.
You may be aware of some other accopmlishments of Edward Bernays.
- Bacon and Eggs as a breakfast food (his work with the beech-nut company)
- The idea that every cultured family should own a piano (my parents have had a piano as long as I can remember and none of us know how to play)
-Velvet as a 'nice' 'rich' fabric.
- Bacon and Eggs as a breakfast food (his work with the beech-nut company)
- The idea that every cultured family should own a piano (my parents have had a piano as long as I can remember and none of us know how to play)
-Velvet as a 'nice' 'rich' fabric.
- Increasing the clock speed of fashion cycles for and segmenting different population segments so people buy more clothes
Bernays had a phrase he used. 'Engineering Consent' which was picked up and made even more famous by Noam Chomsky in his great book 'Manufacturing Consent' (Full disclosure - I've only read the cliff notes).
Joseph Goebbels'(Hitler's propaganda minister) personal 'bible' was another book by Edward Bernays called 'Crystallizing Public Opinion'. Goebbels and Hitler used the techniques to eventually build public support for the Holocaust. (Unsurprisingly - 'Crystallizing Public Opinion' is out of print)
You've heard about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Guatemala in the 1950's right? One of many shameful foreign policy blunders the CIA had its fingerprints on. The CIA incorrectly thought that the leader of Guatemala was a Communist. Guess who was the public relations guy for the United Fruit Company? You guessed right! Edward Bernays.
'Propaganda' is a very short book. Less than 150 pages, and a lot of that is the introduction to the new edition of the book. But it has been a very enlightening journey so far. There is a whole new list of fascinating books I now intend to read.
We're all susceptible to propaganda. Education is pretty much the only way to build up somewhat of an immunity to it. That and a constant striving to yield to the the truth.
In the book 'Treason' - the main character Lanik Mueller doesn't respond to the propagandists in a way that would be acceptable or even possible in our modern society.
For a lot of people I know, their response to my reccomending Treason and Propaganda would be the following:
For 'Treason' - Too Gruesome
For 'Propaganda' - Too Boring
Thats just the way it is. But for those of my readers who are in the right audience, pick yourself up a copy of each of these books. You'll be glad you did. You will be taking your first steps into a larger world.
Bernays had a phrase he used. 'Engineering Consent' which was picked up and made even more famous by Noam Chomsky in his great book 'Manufacturing Consent' (Full disclosure - I've only read the cliff notes).
Joseph Goebbels'(Hitler's propaganda minister) personal 'bible' was another book by Edward Bernays called 'Crystallizing Public Opinion'. Goebbels and Hitler used the techniques to eventually build public support for the Holocaust. (Unsurprisingly - 'Crystallizing Public Opinion' is out of print)
You've heard about the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Guatemala in the 1950's right? One of many shameful foreign policy blunders the CIA had its fingerprints on. The CIA incorrectly thought that the leader of Guatemala was a Communist. Guess who was the public relations guy for the United Fruit Company? You guessed right! Edward Bernays.
'Propaganda' is a very short book. Less than 150 pages, and a lot of that is the introduction to the new edition of the book. But it has been a very enlightening journey so far. There is a whole new list of fascinating books I now intend to read.
We're all susceptible to propaganda. Education is pretty much the only way to build up somewhat of an immunity to it. That and a constant striving to yield to the the truth.
In the book 'Treason' - the main character Lanik Mueller doesn't respond to the propagandists in a way that would be acceptable or even possible in our modern society.
For a lot of people I know, their response to my reccomending Treason and Propaganda would be the following:
For 'Treason' - Too Gruesome
For 'Propaganda' - Too Boring
Thats just the way it is. But for those of my readers who are in the right audience, pick yourself up a copy of each of these books. You'll be glad you did. You will be taking your first steps into a larger world.
6 comments:
I would like to read Treason. I may have already because the plot sounds vaguely familiar. Do you have a copy I could borrow, or do I need to go the library?
I'll just read your copies mmmmkay?
I have a copy you can borrow. It's on the bookshelf in my living room next time you're at my house.
Have you read the Poisonwood Bible? I know your wife has--there's all kinds of good stuff to get mad about/intrigued by in there. Plus, some of the best writing in history.
Not that I like that book or anything.
Treason is really good
Post a Comment