Nancy Kress

[Matthew J]

I recently read the novel Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. I immediately recognized her as an Objectivist of sorts as the primary capitalist philosophy in the book (Yagaaism) is nearly identical to Objectivist capitalism. in any case, i found the book to be captivating science fiction regarding a genetic modification of human beings to no longer require sleep. sleepless were faster, better, stronger, smarter and well adjusted. they could produce tirelessly. naturally, people like James Taggart would resent them for it and then try to live off them. a very well written book, I'd recomend this to any objectivist for a taste for sci-fi.

has anyone else read this book?

edit: grammar

Edited February 14, 2006 by Matthew J

[khaight]

I recently read the novel Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress. I immediately recognized her as an Objectivist of sorts as the primary capitalist philosophy in the book (Yagaaism) is nearly identical to Objectivist capitalism. in any case, i found the book to be captivating science fiction regarding a genetic modification of human beings to no longer require sleep. sleepless were faster, better, stronger, smarter and well adjusted. they could produce tirelessly. naturally, people like James Taggart would resent them for it and then try to live off them. a very well written book, I'd recomend this to any objectivist for a taste for sci-fi.

has anyone else read this book?

I've read it. There are two sequels, which are (IMHO) inferior in quality. (You *really* won't like what ultimately happens to Leisha Camden -- I came within a hair of throwing the book across the room in disgust.)

At its root the "Beggars" series is deeply critical of key principles of Objectivism, most significantly the Trader Principle. The whole point of the beggar parable is that there are (allegedly) cases in which it is impossible to deal with others by trade because they have nothing to offer -- not because they are immoral, but simply because the competency gap has grown to the point where the values they can produce aren't enough to overcome the irreducible transaction costs of dealing with them.

[Matthew J]

ah yes. in my eagerness to recomend the book, i forgot to add that i had later emailed Nancy Kress and found that she disagreed with Ayn Rand in that "she ignores that man is a social being". this is all she had to say, and i gave her the benefit of the doubt for she is quite knowledgeable, and if shes studied Rand at all, she must know that her statement is incomplete if not rediculous. however, she had nothing else to say. it is still however one of my favorite books.