A lot of health crankery is about control—people want to feel like they’re in the driver’s seat of their health, not a doctor (and, conversely, they want to believe that when bad things happen it’s the failure of the patient).

Overall it felt just a little underbaked. Agree that it wasn’t terrible—but not quite up to the subject matter. I’d have loved to see even what the same author could have done with a few rounds of extra editing.

There were also a few eye-roll worthy quotes, the one where the narrator claims to not know what fear means seemed silly compared to, say, The Dispossessed, where the first thing the collectivist kids do after learning about prison is take turns locking each other in a crawlspace.

The worldbuilding felt like it was designed around the plot rather than vice-versa. Le Guin and Butler‘s anarchist utopias were always grounded—you got a distinct sense of the social dynamics and economy that allowed a small, insular society to work.

Where I eventually settled was “this is not a stunningly well written piece of fiction and it would be reckless to make any sweeping statement based on a story that clearly struggled to execute its goals.”

They might not have been alone, Tolkien likes to hint that there were other minor Maiar (largely disembodied) who didn‘t keep court around the Valar and we’re just hanging around middle earth the whole time.

like radagast its very possible that they never Fell, just fell in love with middle-earth and didn’t want to leave.

If I’m reading correctly the rollout they’re headed for is some sort of chat or designed to help people navigate services—apply for TANF, figure out local regulations, that sort of thing. Which would be great if it worked! But AI is not always reliable on facts.

One of my favorite parts of every Oliver Sacks book is when he tells you about some drug combo he took as a student/resident, none of which were terribly out of the norm at the time.