Memo31+Exemplary+Texts--sferguson

Sci-fi and personal narratives I've always found narratives about individuals and their spaces compelling. I think this is why I enjoy reading sci-fi so much because the stories usually involve both the focus on the human (or alien) actors as well as the importance of the planets, solar systems, computers, land, oceans, shoes, weapons, governments, limits of physics and physical space, cultural norms, etc. that influence the actors behavior. In this vein I'm pretty obsessed with Dan Simmons. I devoured his Hyperion saga and was most recently impressed with his book Ilium. It is loosely based on Homer's Odessey set in the very very far future. I enjoy this particular author because he cares about the stories that we tell ourselves, e.g. religion, love, othering, relationships, good/bad, ethical behavior... and how this influences how people act.

Anger and distaste So I know I should be reading too much of her, but I love reading Vandana Shiva. I don't find her scholarship particularly impressive but I love that there is palpable frustration in the text. I my interest could be that I tend to work on things that tick me off rather than things that I love. If I chose the latter I would probably have done a dissertation on microbrewing. Unfortunatelly, I don't think as well when I'm working on things that make me happy so I end up choosing things that irk me, from non-democracy to consumption.

Answers I have a number of different options but since Mike Fortun's Promising Genomics is sitting next to my computer right now I'll target this one. I like ambiguity and this particular book does this brilliantly. I have a hard time reading anything that has pat answers, which makes little sense considering my interest in policy making. I suppose that the complexity that Mike portrays resonates with my feelings that policy making isn't about developing the right answer to a problem but rather about managing complexity and promising to do the best one can hope to understand.