Okay, I'm reaching

Okay, so what did Minority Report have to do with The Gods Themselves? Let me consult my syllabus. "The Politics of Knowledge" Okay, I guess that makes sense. In both stories ignoring knowledge is beneficial on the short run. Reminds me of many, many science fiction plots. Here's one of my favorites, I've never managed to locate this story again, and I've looked (If you know it, I'll love you). :::

There's a great delicious food that's been opened up in chains across America and it's cheap! You get a little fat, but when you do, you go to the new liposuction-type place next door and get thin quick. Whenever you go to the lipo-place, you get a tiny blue dot tattooed on your wrist, and they build up as you keep going into a little bracelet. But people seem to be disappearing as they get full bracelets. Because the aliens invented both services, the food and the lipo, and when you've had enough energy-giving fat taken out, you're of no use and you're removed from the population by the aliens. So yeah, good stuff at a price you don't want to believe.


I looked up biographies of Asimov and I found out that he considered the second section, the alien section, of the book to be his greatest science fiction writing. I can believe it, I suppose. While the excess of sex reminded me of Heinlein, I found the whole thing to be a great commentary on relationships betwen men and women, in that stereotypical men can't quite understand emotionality. But, that's obvious. Why did I liek this book? A lot because of the sexual tension between Selene and Ben, but there were other reasons, I guess, just well doen overall.