James Tiptree Jr., predicting influencers in a world where advertising is forbidden. Interesting worldbuilding, but the story felt repulsive, maybe because it was so intentionally superficial? I don’t like superficiality any more just because there’s a meta.
At the same time, Tiptree is ALL about that meta, and she plays well with it. Must’ve been powerful when it came out. I honestly think the story would have been better off without the final change, with just the brutal twisted ending, with no hope at all instead of a tiny bit of innocent awareness-gaining robot peeking through. What hope can Cinderella have, when it turns out she never left home?
