You expected the insane AI bent on torturing the last five humans forever, to be more respectful of present-day sensibilities?
Like what? I don't really remember anything cringe-worthy in the story.
The cringe-worthy part involves the character of Benny, who AM mutated into a primate creature with enlarged sexual organs. The narrator takes great pains to point out that Ellen obligingly has sex with all of the crew (ehh....), but she really likes having sex with Benny.
Again, I understand this is unreliable narrator's jealousy probably seeping in, but a book written today might be a little more conscious about the optics of the black female character having sex with a Simian/human hybrid.
EDIT: Since I happened to have the ebook on my laptop, here's the passage in question:
> It was too late. None of us wanted to be near him when whatever was going to happen, happened. And besides, we all saw through her concern. When AM had altered Benny, during the machine’s utterly irrational, hysterical phase, it was not merely Benny’s face the computer had made like a giant ape’s. He was big in the privates, she loved that! She serviced us, as a matter of course, but she loved it from him. Oh Ellen, pedestal Ellen, pristine-pure Ellen, oh Ellen the clean! Scum filth.
I don't see anything cringe worthy about that - it's not unusual for women to, uh, prefer bigger organs.
> but a book written today might be a little more conscious about the optics of the black female character having sex with a Simian/human hybrid.
I don't understand this bit either - what does the character being black have to do with it? Once again, in SciFi it's not unusual for humans to have relations with aliens, mutants, etc. Are black people not allowed do so?
Sorry to break it to you, it is unusual
> Sorry to break it to you, it is unusual
In a work of dystopian fiction it's very far away from "cringe worthy", as IRL there are already some women who have that preference.
Calling it cringe worthy is somewhat puritanical ...
People have preferences for all sorts of pain and discomfort during sex. It's simply puritanical to suggest that a certain subset of the population must not have a certain sexual preference.
And, in view of the story we are discussing, the woman in question was given that preference due to physiological manipulations made by AM; there is nothing I see cringe-worthy about the situation, unless you are off the opinion that women must not like a particular type of sexual interaction, because it makes you uncomfortable.