{"id":2288,"date":"2020-11-04T15:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=2288"},"modified":"2020-09-17T21:03:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T03:03:36","slug":"book-ringworld-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/04\/book-ringworld-1970\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: Ringworld (1970)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ringworld\"Ringworld
\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1970
\nAuthor: Larry Niven
\nLength: 675 minutes \/ 11.25 hours<\/p>\n

It can be difficult to judge a book, especially one as critically acclaimed as Ringworld<\/em>, with 50 years of scientific and societal progress between when it was written and today. On the one hand, there are many scientific concepts explored in this book that we almost take for granted in modern sci-fi. On the other hand, the stink of 1970s misogyny doesn\u2019t age very well, and this book is a prime example. Even today, sci-fi authors are still trying to dig out from the sexist tropes that books like this perpetuated throughout the genre. It\u2019s a complicated, uphill battle, but we\u2019re trying to be better than this.<\/p>\n

For 1970, I do have to admit that the science presented here is relatively revolutionary. Unfortunately, the descriptions were occasionally a bit dry and felt more like reading a textbook than a sci-fi adventure. I could appreciate how Niven described the indescribable scale of something as massive as the Ringworld. Additionally, the alien races were well-rounded and had complex physiologies and backstories that made the group dynamic entertaining to read. However, the only thing well-rounded about the women in this book were their bodies.<\/p>\n

Aside from the considerable age difference between the two romantic leads being an acceptance of pedophilia, it\u2019s clear that Niven only thought of women as objects. This is disappointing because the story could have been more interesting if the female characters had any agency other than being driven by pleasure or luck. I have to recognize that this book is still a snapshot of its temporal circumstances, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily excuse it in today\u2019s society. Acknowledging that it\u2019s from the 1970s, modern works should be more aware of these flaws when using such a pivotal science fiction book as a base for today\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

Some great science with not-so-great misogyny, I give Ringworld<\/em> 3.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" \"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ringworld Year: 1970 Author: Larry Niven Length: 675 minutes \/ 11.25 hours It can be difficult to judge a book, especially one as critically acclaimed as Ringworld, with 50 years of scientific and societal progress between when it was written and today. On the one hand, there are many scientific concepts explored in this book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,54],"tags":[2528,55,2530,810,8,2529,337,235,2531],"class_list":["post-2288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3-0-stars","category-book","tag-2528","tag-book","tag-larry-niven","tag-misogyny","tag-review","tag-ringworld","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction","tag-sexist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2288"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2288\/revisions\/2296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}