Thanks so much for this! I just finished all of The Expanse’s novels recently and haven’t watched the show, but everything you and others have said about it seems to indicate that the show is a faithful representation of the novels, problems and all. You really put into words a lot of the same points that I was feeling reading the storie…
Thanks so much for this! I just finished all of The Expanse’s novels recently and haven’t watched the show, but everything you and others have said about it seems to indicate that the show is a faithful representation of the novels, problems and all. You really put into words a lot of the same points that I was feeling reading the stories but didn’t know how to express.
Just like the show apparently, the novels get MUCH better at depicting prejudice and gender representation than they were starting out in the first novel/season, and as the novels progressed they also took frequent opportunities to point out the Earthborn White Guy Protagonist’s implicit assumptions and subtle bigotry that he wasn’t even noticing and how obvious it was to everyone but him. But still, I’m in total agreement that the story definitely suffers at least a good bit from not confronting real world prejudice as directly as it could have with its new fictional prejudice, or mixing the two properly— and absolutely, UNARGUABLY suffers from its choice and constant elevation of its “Normal” Good-Hearted Go-It-Alone No-Government Straight White Guy Hero Protagonist and how constantly and aggressively it feels as if the acclaim and fame gloms onto him like deserved privilege. The way the later novels point out how everyone in the crew has become a celebrity in their own right to their respective “home nationalities”, ie. the Martian pilot to Mars and Naomi to the Belters, is constantly undercut by both how infrequent it is and just HOW STUBBORNLY and reverently the words “James Holden” constantly come out of everyone’s mouths and thoughts 20 times as much.
It reminds me of how often CEOs and Directors agglomerate all the credit deserved for the skill, creativity, and invention of everyone below them they employed who did most of the actual work and thinking, like rich Lords used to for all their servants and the freedom their privileged lives allowed them to dick around with silly science experiments or write novels that said servants doubtless facilitated and kept from screwing up as badly as the rich bozos would have done solo. It’s like rich people of privilege intentionally become Leviathans larger than themselves who hoard the benefits and sense of fame and immortality from the vast beasts at their commands forced to help them indulge their whims.
that's interesting; they may play up Holden's fame less in the tv show. there is still that dynamic where he's the most important one for reasons that are very unclear though.
Thanks so much for this! I just finished all of The Expanse’s novels recently and haven’t watched the show, but everything you and others have said about it seems to indicate that the show is a faithful representation of the novels, problems and all. You really put into words a lot of the same points that I was feeling reading the stories but didn’t know how to express.
Just like the show apparently, the novels get MUCH better at depicting prejudice and gender representation than they were starting out in the first novel/season, and as the novels progressed they also took frequent opportunities to point out the Earthborn White Guy Protagonist’s implicit assumptions and subtle bigotry that he wasn’t even noticing and how obvious it was to everyone but him. But still, I’m in total agreement that the story definitely suffers at least a good bit from not confronting real world prejudice as directly as it could have with its new fictional prejudice, or mixing the two properly— and absolutely, UNARGUABLY suffers from its choice and constant elevation of its “Normal” Good-Hearted Go-It-Alone No-Government Straight White Guy Hero Protagonist and how constantly and aggressively it feels as if the acclaim and fame gloms onto him like deserved privilege. The way the later novels point out how everyone in the crew has become a celebrity in their own right to their respective “home nationalities”, ie. the Martian pilot to Mars and Naomi to the Belters, is constantly undercut by both how infrequent it is and just HOW STUBBORNLY and reverently the words “James Holden” constantly come out of everyone’s mouths and thoughts 20 times as much.
It reminds me of how often CEOs and Directors agglomerate all the credit deserved for the skill, creativity, and invention of everyone below them they employed who did most of the actual work and thinking, like rich Lords used to for all their servants and the freedom their privileged lives allowed them to dick around with silly science experiments or write novels that said servants doubtless facilitated and kept from screwing up as badly as the rich bozos would have done solo. It’s like rich people of privilege intentionally become Leviathans larger than themselves who hoard the benefits and sense of fame and immortality from the vast beasts at their commands forced to help them indulge their whims.
that's interesting; they may play up Holden's fame less in the tv show. there is still that dynamic where he's the most important one for reasons that are very unclear though.