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vgr's profile
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
Venkatesh Rao
@vgr

Tweets

Venkatesh Rao

@vgr

Conversational account. For work follow @ribbonfarm, @breaking_smart, @artofgig. Tweets are 90% vacuous views, apathetically held. Mediocritopian. IKEA builder.

Los Angeles, CA
venkateshrao.com
Joined August 2007

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    1. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 22 Dec 2020
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1341285050537504771 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      Finished Player of Games. That was surprisingly short. I enjoyed it, but definitely not my favorite Culture novel. Good and clever but not great. Interesting to contrast with other game-themed books like Glass-Bead Game and Ender’s Game.
      1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
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    2. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 22 Dec 2020
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      Now on to Consider Phlebas. Nice to be reading it at #6. It will feel like a prequel and I’m a big fan of prequel narratives.

      6 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    3. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 31 Dec 2020
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      Finished Consider Phlebas last night. Easily the worst so far, but still worth it for getting the backstory of the world. It is both technically weaker than later novels and less inventive. Has a color-by-numbers feel. Player of Games too. The rest feel organic by contrast.

      6 replies 0 retweets 8 likes
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    4. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr 31 Dec 2020
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      Status: ✅ Use of Weapons: A- ✅ Hydrogen Sonata: A ✅ Look to Windward: A ✅ Matter: A+ ✅ Player of Games: B ✅ Consider Phlebas: B- To go: State of the Art Excession Inversions Surface Detail

      10 replies 1 retweet 29 likes
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    5. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 7
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      Next up: Surface Detail

      7 replies 0 retweets 11 likes
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    6. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 11
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      LOU/eccentric Me, I’m Counting is one one of my favorite ship names. Nice godly name.

      2 replies 0 retweets 7 likes
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    7. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 16
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      Venkatesh Rao Retweeted Venkatesh Rao

      Surface Detail has the most direct philosophical exposition and plot-extraneous world building among the books I’ve read so far. Mildly tedious. Also not particularly enjoying the detailed description of hells. Reminds me of Dante’s Inferno (which I also found tedious).https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1350335875373154305 …

      Venkatesh Rao added,

      Venkatesh Rao @vgr
      “[Simulationism creates] a kind of lassitude through acceptance that could be exploited. There were few better ways of knocking the fight out of people than by convincing them that life was a joke” —Iain M. Banks in Surface Detail
      1 reply 0 retweets 8 likes
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    8. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 16
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      Kinda fun to learn about non-SC divisions of Contact. Quietitude is a nice concept for an afterlife intelligence agency.

      1 reply 0 retweets 7 likes
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    9. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 20
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      Ok SC still steals the show in the end. Surface Detail is a B-. Some really ambitious world-building compromised by long stretches of rather tedious scene descriptions.

      2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
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    10. Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 20
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      This is the most overtly socialist-polemic of the novels so far, and somewhat weakens it. Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints is probably one of the most anthropomorphic ships ever. Almost too human to be fun, though it acts properly ship-like towards the end.

      1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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      Venkatesh Rao‏ @vgr Jan 20
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      Status: ✅ Use of Weapons: A- ✅ Hydrogen Sonata: A ✅ Look to Windward: A ✅ Matter: A+ ✅ Player of Games: B ✅ Consider Phlebas: B- ✅ Surface Detail: B- To go: State of the Art Excession Inversions

      2:09 PM - 20 Jan 2021
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      • ben hsieh Rerarom Ddy. Gabriel Sirsfurther Dagmar Fraser Matt McGunagle 0.005 Seconds To Freedom sleep geas Dan listens to the long come down
      4 replies 0 retweets 12 likes
        1. 0.005 Seconds To Freedom‏ @seconds_0 Jan 20
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          Replying to @vgr

          The Algebraist is Banks work and is also Culture Adjacent and pretty good

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        1. Michele Bannister‏ @astrokiwi Jan 20
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          Replying to @vgr

          yeah, Surface Detail's insistence on Bad Things happening somewhat endlessly got rather tedious, and there's only so long one can spend with remarkably unpleasant characters

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        1. Gradient Assent‏ @GradientAssent Jan 20
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          Replying to @vgr

          I highly recommend Excession next. Very focused on the Culture itself and inter-Mind politics. I haven't read the other 2 candidates, but Excession is my favorite of all of them so far.

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        1. alienbrain‏ @alien__brain Jan 20
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          Replying to @vgr

          Excession!!!

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