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droar 's review for:
To Your Scattered Bodies Go
by Philip José Farmer
Ok, so I did not enjoy this book. It was a struggle to read, not because it was boring or dry but because it's emotionless and almost entirely without character development. Now I am a big fan of fairy tales & folk tales, which also often feature no characterization, but they are usually driving at a moralized or allegorical point. To Your Scattered Bodies Go is as yet unwilling to give us a clear moral or allegorical point (maybe he's saving it for a later book?). It's also hella sexist and racist (I assume this is at least partially because our POV character is from the 1820's but it's not ALL a product of the protagonists time. Farmer started writing in the 1950's & it's very apparent in his portrayal of women especially). I can generally gloss over the sexism of early Sci-fi for a good story but this one did not deliver. It is possible that the 'product of it's time'ness is intentional as it comes up a fair bit in the story (when you're mixing all ages of humanity together you're going to see it a bit), but if this is Farmer's intention it seems to go no where further than 'huh, that's a thing maybe'. In book club we talked about this a bit as a possible way to show that people cannot change even when faced with the more advanced/better versions of themselves but I'm not convinced Farmer sees the progression of human history as a move from 'worse' to 'better'. By choosing Burton as the POV character it often felt like Farmer was making a statement on the 'glorious past' rather than the 'wiser & better future' . Burton is extremely competent in survival, building, languages, logic, & tons of other things. The 20th century man is seen as a wise, but highly repressed person that Burton both loves but also resents. It just has a weird glorifying the past angle while also reinforcing the general cruelty of humanity through the ages even when placed in a relative paradise.
On a slightly more positive & less gripe-y note I do think the premise of the book is quite interesting. Many of the philosophical points the story brings up are discussed by characters in interesting and nuanced ways. Unfortunately it really feels like Farmer just wanted to talk about the essential nature of man and living but decided he needed to wrap it in fiction and did so as petulantly as he could.
Not particularity recommended unless your looking to wander through an extended thought experiment with a dis-likable protagonist as your guide.
Spoiler
this can be rolled all the way out to include the potential 'evilness' of the Ethicals who, in a 'humanity is always improving as we move forward in time' based world would be the absolute best nowOn a slightly more positive & less gripe-y note I do think the premise of the book is quite interesting. Many of the philosophical points the story brings up are discussed by characters in interesting and nuanced ways. Unfortunately it really feels like Farmer just wanted to talk about the essential nature of man and living but decided he needed to wrap it in fiction and did so as petulantly as he could.
Not particularity recommended unless your looking to wander through an extended thought experiment with a dis-likable protagonist as your guide.