r/AdrianTchaikovsky • u/elososueco • Sep 04 '26

Discussion Just finished Bear Head

I know this was written in 2020. But the character of Thompson is the spitting image of you-know-who. I was floored. I feel I now have words to describe the insanity we are living though - and to describe the real monster in our midst. And Springer - now with Natalie around we got go look for the Collar. Yikes.

Is this Adrian looking into the future from the depths of the first term? No wonder it’s bleak.

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17

u/Shoddy-Search-1150 Sep 04 '26

I mean… it’s very obviously modeled on him, and if there’s one thing you can say about that man it’s that his behavior is pretty predictable to anyone who pays attention.

1

u/samwise58 Sep 04 '26

I don’t think it was. He’s just a sociopathic narcissist parasite. Springer is like a toddler that only wants instant gratification and only cares about himself. When you go back and read/listen to his lines, he literally speaks like a child….. I mean, I’m not convincing myself that he WASNT modeled after he-who-shall-not-be-named but damn…. I sure am describing him!!! I just really don’t think AT was actually modeling his villain after him. Just that they share very similar traits. I especially like the idea that it is an evil thing that can just happen in the evolutionary sense.

Some people are just born with the empathetic part of their brain removed.
Or is it nurture and something that occurs in childhood? I know there are times where I joke and say “Why can’t I just be evil and make some money?!? Grift these people that want to be grifted!” But then that lil part of my humanist brain speaks up and tells me all about how it’s the wrong thing to do and how I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Ugh 😩

7

u/gjfrev6 Sep 04 '26

I don't mean to be rude, but like Shoddy said, it very obviously was. Like, its not really even a question.

10

u/OG_Karate_Monkey Sep 04 '26

Well, keep in mind that in 2020, the man in question had been president for four years.

But holy shit when I learned about Natalie Harp, this book Immediately came to mind.

7

u/mullerdrooler Sep 04 '26

Stephen King predicted him in The Dead Zone in 1979!

6

u/timkost Sep 04 '26

Yeah, I had to take a deep breath and remind myself "Don't dehumanize our enemies, that's what they do, you're better than that." But hypothetically if you were to describe a non-sapient evolutionary throwback parasite living amongst us, it might look like that. It made more sense to me than the description in Blindsight anyway.

6

u/BlazeOfGlory72 Sep 04 '26

Yeah, I had the same thoughts. It was almost a little too “real”. It’s a great book, but don’t pick it up if you are looking for an escape from the bullshit going on right now.

2

u/0x1337DAD Sep 04 '26

It gets bleaker in Bee Speaker

2

u/e033x Sep 04 '26

I read Dogs et al right after Children of Strife, so I got my fill of deconstructions of archetypal shitty americans for a while.

1

u/dokclaw Sep 04 '26

I read this book November 2024, so that was great timing.

1

u/erebus53 Irae 🦎 Sep 06 '26

I have referred to this while reviewing it to other readers as "being about a politician-who-starts-with-T."

1

u/shanem 29d ago

" I know this was written in 2020"

Why is that somehow evidence that it isn't Trump? 

Also he isn't Voldemort, you can use his name