simonator's Reviews (183)

Ein etwas langatmiger Rundumschlag, der viele moderne politökonomische Phänomene zusammenwirft und oft sinnvoll marxistisch einordnet, dabei aber oft ins Schwafeln kommt. Der Text ist breit anschlussfähig, d.h. nicht besonders radikal, aber man fragt sich trotzdem, warum die Autoren aus dem RLS-Umfeld partout das Wort Sozialismus nicht in den Mund nehmen wollen? 

Die strategische und taktische Dimension bleibt vage, "mehr gute Dinge sollten getan werden, weniger schlechtes!", und die gelieferten Beispiele laufen dem vorgeschlagenen Reformismus eher entgegen.

Excellent statistical craftmanship and a milestone in the structural adjustment literature that cannot be ignored 

Expecting something of the caliber of The Dispossessed, one is surely left disappointed. This thought-experiment exhausts its insights fairly quickly. 
Nonetheless, the skill of workbuilding and emotional allure on display here is impressive. Unfortunately, the plot kind of stutters along, lots of made-up words to keep track off, and somehow, I felt both protagonists remain sort of blank - maybe because there is not much of a colourful supporting cast to bounce off of or because their backstories remain elusive. 

What makes this a classic is it's pioneering character, being written in 1969. For the modern (feminist) reader, some of the questions and answers in here are already part of a past conversation.

Great overview with a powerful "J'accuse" towards the US and Israel but also a sobre critique of the deficient Palestinian leadership. Shaped by the author's status and position within the international diplomatic elite, which sometimes spends too much time on the role of individuals. While not oblivious to structural and sociological factors, this is in large parts a history of diplomacy and high-level geopolitics, where class and imperial structure sometimes are treated as more of an addendum. Nonetheless, the author's immediate participation and contact to the decisive events of the timeline of the occupation provides for illustrative and engaging reading. 

Exzellente Aufsätze von Mattick und Mandel. Tynjanow nur für interessierte. Rabehl ein komischer, damals schon verschrobener Schwurbeler. 

Extremely evocative painting of life and reality on Mars; one would almost believe the author has been there himself. Extremely atmospheric descriptions of great machinery, large rock formations and vivid landscapes. 

However, a significant chunk of suspense is taken out by the first chapter spoiling a protagonist's later death, only to spend significant time in building that character's place in the story and then the hole that's left is not really made palable. Generally, the most interesting characters are not awarded enough pages.

In general, there are some unfortunate racist and exist undertones to the descriptions of some groups and characters, that shone through the author's attempt to "realistically" depict the conflicts of today being carried over to the future. But the lines between the characters' prejudice and the author's are blurry. 

Hilariously, there are copious amounts of descriptions reserved to geological rock formations and barely any that would help paint the humans more individually - but maybe, that actually adds too a theme.

The author's marxist-esque conception of history and politics and economics is omnipresent and quite nuanced in the broad strokes he's painting martian colonisation in. He shares some prejudices with early soviet sci-fi authors like Bogdanov (who is credited in the name of one protagonist) in that he overestimates the role of technocratic engineers and underestimates the position of workers and labour struggle. Nonetheless, his is a refreshing improvement from mainstream sci-fi imagined histories.

Big recommendation for an overview over Minsky's ideal and a well structured build up to an analysis of the 2008 Financial Crisis. 
At times, the tone is very fanboyish of Minsky and essentially no critical review of his work is included. 
The text is somehow both very advanced and presupposes a lot of jargon knowledge by the reader - but then at times, it really takes on by the hand and puts some things very simplistically. Not entirely coherent.