Oops

Hey, readers. Sorry about that last post. I accidentally put some Lorax fanfic where I meant to put my review of "Apple in China", Patrick McGee's recent bestseller.

These things happen. They're just superficially so similar. A beautiful thing about Apple and China is that both are such rich tapestries that you can use them to tell just about any story you want to. Politics? Yes, between the two of them just about every human politic yet devised is present. Technology? Also yes. Personalities? You bet. Heros? Villians? It's in there. A little gender stereotyping with boyish Silicon Valley executives and agressive and unlikeable women is easy to pick up.

Of all the stories you could tell about these two, Patrick McGee has picked one. Some politics from column A, tech from Column B, personalities from Column C and a sprinkle of stereotyping. It was entertaining enough that I finished it. I realized at the end that I had a sunburn from reading at the beach for a little too long. More importantly, I realized that reading it had precluded few of the other stories that could be arranged from the pieces at hand. McGee has picked one of them, but made a strong case for none of them.

And the Lorax? Same. It really takes little imagination to flip that story on its head and see Onceler as the victim and Lorax as a conflicted character whose magical comings and goings merely elide to suit a narrow view of the situation. 

Besides, Lorax is short, and bossy, and agressive, and hard to work with. Seriously, Lorax doesn't even dress professionally. The bar-ba-loots manage to wear bar-ba-loot suits appropriate for the workplace and Onceler always has gloves and probably a bunch of other PPE appropriate for a hazardous manufacturing operation. Come to Lorax straight from McGee's world and you might be wondering if Lorax is really male.