Talk:Player Piano (novel)

Untitled

I think the statement "technically science fiction" is suspect - basically it seems to be saying that science fiction doesn't cover characters or social themes. Good science fiction often does. Also "sci-fi" is a loaded phrase. This seems to be a repeat of the old mantra "this is literature, so it can't be science fiction, because that's trash"... Notinasnaid 07:24, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)

There is now a link from the protagonist's name, Paul Proteus. It doesn't seem likely there will be an entry on him, so I propose removing the linking. Notinasnaid 09:35, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

"Reeks and Recks"

The novel makes quite a bit of the governmental "make-work" program for those displaced by technology, euphemistically called the Reconstruction and Reclamation Corps, and colloquially by the engineers the "Reeks and (W)recks". It is apparently organized on paramilitary lines (much like the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s New Deal) but is not regarded as a temporary response to an economic crisis but as a way of keeping those would otherwise be unemployed both occupied and too tired to form a truly credible threat to the system, which is an important plot point, since there is no longer a military necessity to have truly large armed forces in this world, and also it requires a bachelor's degree to be a even a noncommissioned officer and a doctorate to be a commissioned officer, thus closing off a typical avenue formerly used by "common people" to get ahead in life. 2600:1004:B10D:5840:0:1B:D740:9701 (talk) 14:32, 27 January 2022 (UTC)