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Beauty

Sheri S. Tepper
Locus best fantasy 1992

Vast scope ­ from the past to the future to the present. From myth to science, from fantasy to the stark realities of modern, environmental destruction.

The myth of Sleeping Beauty as a hope, a prayer for the salvation of nature's wonders while humankind rushes toward psychological and ecological disaster. Parallel to the oriental story of Shambhala where the forces of light wait and concentrate ready to reappear while the forces of darkness expand and grow.

Sharp criticsim of horror novels and movies, sensationalistic TV and newspapers that habituate people to violence, "deaden the sense of terror needed to stay alive", "catch a kind of leprosy of the spirit, an inability to feel". "The more you talk about it, the oftener you see it, the more it loses its power to shock, the power to disgust."

Depressing vision of a completely overpopulated future and Dantian image of the psychological hell those responsible (by opposing birth control and abortion, "worshipping the fetus over all other of God's creations") share "endlessly pregnat, endlessly giving birth, endlessly suckling the demonic life that burgeons out of the them with no choice in the matter. Having allowed none, they are now given none."

A sharp environmental testament and condemnation of the "gobble god" of a "totally selfish humanity" that puts our narrow self-interests above all else. True but negativity and depression only make things worse. Instead of a small hope in a fairy-tale possibility, I much prefer the grand vision and possibilities and inspiration in the face of these same questions exemplified in books like Dune.

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