Take a photo of a barcode or cover
mauryneiberg18 's review for:
A Song for a New Day
by Sarah Pinsker
A fascinating and timely book. I suspect that just how you read it depends strongly on *when* you read it. I read it during the Covid-19 lockdown, but very near the end, and during the George Floyd protests. The set-up seems like the author was prescient -- pandemic means everyone retreats to home, works from home using VR, (OK, our VR isn't that good) turning to homesteading and getting all necessities that can't be produced at home by drone delivery. And also, attending concerts only in cyberspace, not in real space. It's all totally convincing.
But then you see that because of laws and customs developed during the pandemic, people are both legally barred and uncomfortable being in groups. And this takes it's biggest toll on concerts. And that's where it splits from reality. Sure, I've attended a ton of Zoom concerts in the past several months, and the bit about the encore could have been something said at the last concert I attended, but we see that people really are social beings, and they simply will not put up with the cyberspace shallow substitute once there is no threat of dying from being with strangers. People are flooding to open air public places like restaurants and parks as things start slowly opening up and the public pressure to open up is enormous. And we are nowhere close to the end of this pandemic. And the demonstrations inspired by George Floyd's death show that people are willing to congregate and die rather than have their voices stilled.
I think the author was using the set-up (bombings plus pandemic) as a way to show how in the US we've reacted to terrorism, accepting restrictions, laws and customs even when there is (no longer) any real threat. Focusing on rock concerts feels a tad trivial, though I certainly understand the power of live music. Kudos to the author for having actually toured with musicians, especially a musician like SONiA who crosses the folk/rock/genre divide.
I totally understand Rosemary. Luce is not really as understandable a character, or perhaps she just doesn't fully grasp that she's a diva. The big conflict that she's willing to die for is to make live music for an audience, and to let her voice be heard. But she's not actually all that interested in music generally. She's interested in her own performance -- not anyone else's. If she was really interested in *everyone* of making music, during the jam session in that barn she'd have picked up her acoustic guitar and joined in. Musicians who believe in the necessity of making music, particularly in the folk/folk-rock community encourage participation and Luce's message of "pick up an instrument" and join a musical community, which rings so true today in this era where for so many music is delivered through earbuds for solo enjoyment of perfected recorded music instead of encouragement of making music of any sort, falls flat. Luce doesn't want to go and make music with the hoi polloi, she wants people to adore her and adore her music. In other words, she doesn't really practice what she preaches, and I see no reason why she wouldn't actually get what she's looking for out of the VR music industry, provided that she had enough audience adoration. In other words, she didn't convince me of the purity of her motives.
But then you see that because of laws and customs developed during the pandemic, people are both legally barred and uncomfortable being in groups. And this takes it's biggest toll on concerts. And that's where it splits from reality. Sure, I've attended a ton of Zoom concerts in the past several months, and the bit about the encore could have been something said at the last concert I attended, but we see that people really are social beings, and they simply will not put up with the cyberspace shallow substitute once there is no threat of dying from being with strangers. People are flooding to open air public places like restaurants and parks as things start slowly opening up and the public pressure to open up is enormous. And we are nowhere close to the end of this pandemic. And the demonstrations inspired by George Floyd's death show that people are willing to congregate and die rather than have their voices stilled.
I think the author was using the set-up (bombings plus pandemic) as a way to show how in the US we've reacted to terrorism, accepting restrictions, laws and customs even when there is (no longer) any real threat. Focusing on rock concerts feels a tad trivial, though I certainly understand the power of live music. Kudos to the author for having actually toured with musicians, especially a musician like SONiA who crosses the folk/rock/genre divide.
I totally understand Rosemary. Luce is not really as understandable a character, or perhaps she just doesn't fully grasp that she's a diva. The big conflict that she's willing to die for is to make live music for an audience, and to let her voice be heard. But she's not actually all that interested in music generally. She's interested in her own performance -- not anyone else's. If she was really interested in *everyone* of making music, during the jam session in that barn she'd have picked up her acoustic guitar and joined in. Musicians who believe in the necessity of making music, particularly in the folk/folk-rock community encourage participation and Luce's message of "pick up an instrument" and join a musical community, which rings so true today in this era where for so many music is delivered through earbuds for solo enjoyment of perfected recorded music instead of encouragement of making music of any sort, falls flat. Luce doesn't want to go and make music with the hoi polloi, she wants people to adore her and adore her music. In other words, she doesn't really practice what she preaches, and I see no reason why she wouldn't actually get what she's looking for out of the VR music industry, provided that she had enough audience adoration. In other words, she didn't convince me of the purity of her motives.