From China, France, and Israel
When things fully flourish they begin to decline.
At midday the sun begins to set.
When the moon is done waxing it starts to wane.
When happiness ends, sadness begins.
-- Lao Tzu --
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The world is but a perpetual see-saw. Everything goes incessantly up and down--the earth, the rocks of the Caucasus, the pyramids of Egypt--both with the universal motion and with their own. Constancy itself is nothing but a more sluggish movement.
-- Michel de Montaigne --
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All our efforts are temporary. They borrow from preexisting forces, ride the current of natural events, and disappear according to the dictates of the situation. It is best to realize the transitory nature of things and work with it. Understanding world's ephemeral nature can be the biggest advantage of all.
-- Deng Ming-Dao --
====================
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities;
all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour
which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh:
but the earth abideth forever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down,
and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north;
it whirleth about continually,
and the wind returneth again accord to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full;
unto the place from whence the rivers come,
thither they return again.
-- Ecclesiastes --
Do you find this attitude depressing?
Monday, July 26, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXIX
Quatrain XXIX is the third in a series of four linked quatrains: XXVII, XXVIII, XXIX, and XXX.
First Edition: Quatrain XXIX
Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing,
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXII
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXIX
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
FitzGerald made minimal changes which, surprisingly, go in the opposite direction of some that he has made so far. In the past, he has occasionally changed the capitalization of words from upper case to lower case. Here he does the opposite: He changes the lower case "w' in "why." "whence," and "whither" in the First Edition to the upper case "W" in the Second Edition. The Fifth Edition is identical to the Second, including the substitution of a semicolon at the end of the second line for the comma in the First Edition.
Perhaps he wishes to emphasize those words; if not, I can't come up with another plausible explanation. Those are significant words for the theme of this linked set of quatrains. FitzGerald brings forward from the last quatrain the reference to water and wind and also ignorance. In the last quatrain he said he had no answers except that he comes like water and goes like the wind.
In this quatrain he further defines this Seed of Wisdom, or perhaps better defined as the Seed of Ignorance, that he sowed among the wise. FitzGerald uses three terms here very precisely.
Whence means "from where"
Whither means "to where"
Willy-nilly means "willingly or not willingly"
In the previous quatrain, he tells us that all he knows is that he comes like water and goes like wind. In this quatrain, he now tells us that he doesn't know why he is here, that he doesn't know where he came from, and that he doesn't know where he is going when he leaves. Moreover, he has no choice in being here: he is here, willingly or not, and he eventually will leave, willingly or not.
The Taoists make a similar point for they say that all things come from Tao and return to Tao, but just what the Tao is nobody knows. Other terms sometimes used are the Void or emptiness. Furthermore, even to give it a name is misleading , for names suggest that we know something about what is being named, and we know nothing about the Tao, and therefore we know nothing about where we came from and where we are going.
First Edition: Quatrain XXIX
Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Nor whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing,
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXII
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXIX
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing,
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
FitzGerald made minimal changes which, surprisingly, go in the opposite direction of some that he has made so far. In the past, he has occasionally changed the capitalization of words from upper case to lower case. Here he does the opposite: He changes the lower case "w' in "why." "whence," and "whither" in the First Edition to the upper case "W" in the Second Edition. The Fifth Edition is identical to the Second, including the substitution of a semicolon at the end of the second line for the comma in the First Edition.
Perhaps he wishes to emphasize those words; if not, I can't come up with another plausible explanation. Those are significant words for the theme of this linked set of quatrains. FitzGerald brings forward from the last quatrain the reference to water and wind and also ignorance. In the last quatrain he said he had no answers except that he comes like water and goes like the wind.
In this quatrain he further defines this Seed of Wisdom, or perhaps better defined as the Seed of Ignorance, that he sowed among the wise. FitzGerald uses three terms here very precisely.
Whence means "from where"
Whither means "to where"
Willy-nilly means "willingly or not willingly"
In the previous quatrain, he tells us that all he knows is that he comes like water and goes like wind. In this quatrain, he now tells us that he doesn't know why he is here, that he doesn't know where he came from, and that he doesn't know where he is going when he leaves. Moreover, he has no choice in being here: he is here, willingly or not, and he eventually will leave, willingly or not.
The Taoists make a similar point for they say that all things come from Tao and return to Tao, but just what the Tao is nobody knows. Other terms sometimes used are the Void or emptiness. Furthermore, even to give it a name is misleading , for names suggest that we know something about what is being named, and we know nothing about the Tao, and therefore we know nothing about where we came from and where we are going.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Something to think about
In Ursula Le Guin's novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, the human inhabitants of the planet Gethen have apparently been subjects in a long ago experiment. The results are as follows. The Gethens have roughly a 26 day sexual cycle: for around 22-3 days they are effectively asexual. They are neither male nor female. Sometime around the 22nd day they begin to undergo changes which will result in becoming a sexual being--either male or female--for about 2-3 days. This period is known as kemmer.
The significant effect of this is that the inhabitants, therefore, have no real sense of being male or female as we do. They are just people and treat each other as such. They only perceive each other as males and females during the 2 or 3 days of kemmer. This has repercussions in behavior, possibly even threatening to non-Gethenians.
In a report, one observer notes that--
The First Mobile [first ambassador] , if one is sent, must be warned that unless he is very self-assured, or senile, his pride will suffer. A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.
What do you think of the above statement?
Do we always see each other and treat each other as a male or as a female, even though the signals may be indirect or even if unnoticed consciously?
Would it be so terrible to be "respected and judged only as a human being" and not as either a male or a female? Would this be "an appalling experience"?
The significant effect of this is that the inhabitants, therefore, have no real sense of being male or female as we do. They are just people and treat each other as such. They only perceive each other as males and females during the 2 or 3 days of kemmer. This has repercussions in behavior, possibly even threatening to non-Gethenians.
In a report, one observer notes that--
The First Mobile [first ambassador] , if one is sent, must be warned that unless he is very self-assured, or senile, his pride will suffer. A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.
What do you think of the above statement?
Do we always see each other and treat each other as a male or as a female, even though the signals may be indirect or even if unnoticed consciously?
Would it be so terrible to be "respected and judged only as a human being" and not as either a male or a female? Would this be "an appalling experience"?
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Mircea Eliade: youth without youth
Mircea Eliade was born in Romania in 1907 and died in Chicago, Illinois, in 1986. He is described as a journalist, an historian of religion, a philosopher, an essayist, and a writer of short stories and novels. I knew him first from his various philosophical and religious works: The Myth of the Eternal Return, Myth and Reality, and The Sacred and the Profane, all of which I found thought-provoking and interesting. Eliade has also been blessed with extremely competent translators. All three works are on my list of books to be reread.
I was therefore surprised to find he also wrote fiction. I was enlightened when I was browsing a list of recommended films on Netflix. One of the films mentioned was Youth Without Youth. The plot was interesting, but what was most intriguing was that it was based on a novel by Mircea Eliade. I did watch the film, and I have just finished reading the novel. I'll save the film, perhaps, for another post.
Dominic Matei is an aging academic, over 70, and beginning to be forgetful. One night, during an extremely localized thunderstorm, he is struck by lightning and burned over 100% of his body. He not only survives the lightning bolt and its consequences, but his body regenerates to that of a man in his early 30s. His hair turns dark and he grows a new set of teeth. His memory becomes far better than it ever was: he now remembers everything that happened to him, everything that he has studied and learned. However, these memories no longer seem to belong to him. In addition, he has only to read a few paragraphs of a work to know what is in the rest of the work.
Yet, in spite of these super-abilities, Matei doesn't come across as a superman, or at least not as a typical superman that is found elsewhere. Matei spends the years following his rejuvenation in hiding. All he really wants is to be left alone so he can finish his great work on the origin of language and society.
Eliade's treatment of Matei brings in echoes of other works. For example, before the accident, Matei begins to lose hope about finishing his great work: "the more time passed the more clearly he understood that he would never be able to to finish his one and only book, his life's work. He awoke one morning with the taste of ashes in his mouth. He was approaching age sixty, and he had finished nothing of all all that he had begun." In George Eliot's masterwork, Middlemarch, the Reverend Casaubon has also spent his entire life on his great work on the origins of myth, and near the end of his life, he begins to realize that he has spent his entire life preparing to write a book that he will never finish, or perhaps even begin.
Matei, after the lighting bolt, discovers that he has a double. It is not a double in the sense of Dostoyevsky's double or Edgar Allan Poe's double--one that the character sees as existing outside of himself and acting independently. This double is another consciousness that he and only he can hear. It too occupies his brain, or so it seems. Only when Matei sleeps does this consciousness take control and act. In the morning, Matei can guess at what went on during the night through his dreams. What's intriguing is that Youth without Youth was published in 1979, only three years after Julian Jaynes published his controversial work, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which Jaynes postulates a similar condition for a major part, if not all, of humanity. Thousands of years ago, this was interpreted as the voice of god, while today it is seen as an auditory hallucination.
Other elements in the story include a discussion of Plato's theory that learning is simply remembering what we have always known, an escape from the Nazis who are interested in Matei's super human abilities, and an excursion by one woman into past lives who aids Matei in his search for the ur-language. This, too, has its drawbacks, forcing Matei to halt the project.
The Ending: well, if you feel that you have come full circle on the last page, you are correct. Borges has a short work in which a man in front of a firing squad is given a year to finish his play. Ambrose Bierce wrote a short story about a Confederate sympathizer who "escapes," for a short time anyway, being hanged from the Owl Creek Bridge.
Overall Rating: a strange, quirky novel that requires several more readings. If this commentary seems fragmented or disjointed to you, I agree with you. I don't feel that I have a grasp of the work, but I did want to let others know about this work.
I shall also have to begin looking for his other works of fiction.
I was therefore surprised to find he also wrote fiction. I was enlightened when I was browsing a list of recommended films on Netflix. One of the films mentioned was Youth Without Youth. The plot was interesting, but what was most intriguing was that it was based on a novel by Mircea Eliade. I did watch the film, and I have just finished reading the novel. I'll save the film, perhaps, for another post.
Dominic Matei is an aging academic, over 70, and beginning to be forgetful. One night, during an extremely localized thunderstorm, he is struck by lightning and burned over 100% of his body. He not only survives the lightning bolt and its consequences, but his body regenerates to that of a man in his early 30s. His hair turns dark and he grows a new set of teeth. His memory becomes far better than it ever was: he now remembers everything that happened to him, everything that he has studied and learned. However, these memories no longer seem to belong to him. In addition, he has only to read a few paragraphs of a work to know what is in the rest of the work.
Yet, in spite of these super-abilities, Matei doesn't come across as a superman, or at least not as a typical superman that is found elsewhere. Matei spends the years following his rejuvenation in hiding. All he really wants is to be left alone so he can finish his great work on the origin of language and society.
Eliade's treatment of Matei brings in echoes of other works. For example, before the accident, Matei begins to lose hope about finishing his great work: "the more time passed the more clearly he understood that he would never be able to to finish his one and only book, his life's work. He awoke one morning with the taste of ashes in his mouth. He was approaching age sixty, and he had finished nothing of all all that he had begun." In George Eliot's masterwork, Middlemarch, the Reverend Casaubon has also spent his entire life on his great work on the origins of myth, and near the end of his life, he begins to realize that he has spent his entire life preparing to write a book that he will never finish, or perhaps even begin.
Matei, after the lighting bolt, discovers that he has a double. It is not a double in the sense of Dostoyevsky's double or Edgar Allan Poe's double--one that the character sees as existing outside of himself and acting independently. This double is another consciousness that he and only he can hear. It too occupies his brain, or so it seems. Only when Matei sleeps does this consciousness take control and act. In the morning, Matei can guess at what went on during the night through his dreams. What's intriguing is that Youth without Youth was published in 1979, only three years after Julian Jaynes published his controversial work, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, in which Jaynes postulates a similar condition for a major part, if not all, of humanity. Thousands of years ago, this was interpreted as the voice of god, while today it is seen as an auditory hallucination.
Other elements in the story include a discussion of Plato's theory that learning is simply remembering what we have always known, an escape from the Nazis who are interested in Matei's super human abilities, and an excursion by one woman into past lives who aids Matei in his search for the ur-language. This, too, has its drawbacks, forcing Matei to halt the project.
The Ending: well, if you feel that you have come full circle on the last page, you are correct. Borges has a short work in which a man in front of a firing squad is given a year to finish his play. Ambrose Bierce wrote a short story about a Confederate sympathizer who "escapes," for a short time anyway, being hanged from the Owl Creek Bridge.
Overall Rating: a strange, quirky novel that requires several more readings. If this commentary seems fragmented or disjointed to you, I agree with you. I don't feel that I have a grasp of the work, but I did want to let others know about this work.
I shall also have to begin looking for his other works of fiction.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Robert Silverberg (ed): Far Horizons
Robert Silverberg (ed): Far Horizons
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Old Music and the Slave Women" (the Hainish and Ekumen series)
Joe Haldeman: "A Separate War" (the Forever Series)
Orson Scott Card: "Investment Counselor" (the Ender series)
David Brin: "Temptation" (The Uplift Universe)
Robert Silverberg: "Getting to Know the Dragon" (Roma Eterna series)
Dan Simmons: " Orphans of the Helix" (the Hyperion Cantos)
Nancy Kress: "Sleeping Dogs" (the Sleepless)
Frederik Pohl: "The Boy Who Would Live Forever" (the Gateway series)
Gregory Benford: "A Hunger for the Infinite" (the Galactic Center series)
Anne McCaffrey: "The Ship That Returned" (the Ship that Sang series)
Greg Bear: "The Way of All Ghosts" (the Way)
I just finished reading a interesting collection of short stories, or perhaps novella would be a better description. The collection is Far Horizons, edited by Robert Silverberg. It contains eleven stories, all written specifically for this collection which came out in 1999. In his introduction, Silverberg writes
"What I have done in Far Horizons is to gather together most of today's foremost practitioners of the evolutionary science-fiction series and ask them to write a short story or novelette that explores some aspect of their famous series that they did not find a way of dealing with in the books themselves."
Unfortunately, some of the writers Silverberg would like to have included had died while others told him "that they had already said all they wanted to say. . ."
Silverberg defines "the evolutionary science-fiction series" as "the kind that carries the reader through an evolutionary progression of concept and (sometimes) insight into character." I guess it's a series in which the characters and the plot evolve over time, and in some cases the ending could never have been predicted from the first novel. Greg Benford's incredible "Galactic Center" series is a perfect example of this. One more point is that this is the type of series that should best be read in sequence.
The "template series," on the other hand, features a number of stories which are set in the same universe and which do not demonstrate any particular or significant change or development. Each work stands alone, even though set in a shared universe. In a template series, it usually makes little difference in the order in which the stories are read. I would guess that Andre Norton's "Witch World series" would be considered a template series in which there are a number of novels set on that planet, each of which is relatively independent of the others and shows little, if any at all, forward progression of plot or character.
Each of the eleven stories in Far Horizons is preceded by a 1-3 page introduction by the author. These very helpful introductions include a brief summary of the series and, usually, the place occupied by the short story within that series , and in some cases, the history behind the particular story.
For example, Joe Haldeman writes that people had always asked him about a sequel to The Forever War (TFW), and he had always insisted that "the book is complete. . .But someday [he] would write a novella about what happened to the characters later in life."
So, he gladly accepted Silverberg's offer to write that novella for the collection. However, shortly after beginning to write the novella, he found he was writing the sequel that he said he would never write. So, he turned that into a proposal for a novel and sent it off. It was eventually published as Forever Free.
William Mandella and Marygay Potter are the two main characters in TFW and are separated in the last part of the novel, presumably forever. However, the two are almost miraculously reunited at the very end. This story, "A Separate War," tells of what happened to Marygay during the period of her separation from William, and as Haldeman writes, "it also serves as a sort of foreshadowing of the new novel."
====================
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Old Music and the Slave Women" (The Hainish and Ekumen series)
Ursula K. Le Guin's "Old Music and the Slave Women" is set in her Ekumen universe, which includes her earlier "Hainish" novels, Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions.
After the earth humans (descendants of the Hainish) and Hainish meet, a league is set up, the Ekumen. The novels set in this period are The Left Hand of Darkness (one of my top ten favorite SF novels), The Dispossessed, The Word for World is Forest, and Four Ways to Forgiveness.
In the fourth book, Four Ways to Forgiveness, Le Guin introduces two new worlds, Werel and Yeowe, recently contacted by the Ekumen. Werel is a slave planet, in which a slave revolt is initiated as a result of the contact by the Ekumen. This story tells of one incident during that rebellion in which the intelligence officer for the Ekumen does something very stupid.
====================
Orson Scott Card: "Investment Counselor" (The Ender Series)
To quote Card, "During the three thousand years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead . . . he somehow acquired a computer-based companion named Jane, who is second only to Ender in importance in the last three books of the series. The story now before you is an account of how they met." Fortunately for the human race, Jane is benevolent, as is Ender.
====================
David Brin: "Temptation" (The Uplift Universe)
This story tells of events following Brin's second novel in the Uplift universe, Startide Rising. When the earth exploratory vessel Streaker takes off in a desperate attempt to escape the alien fleet, a number of dolphins are left behind on the planet Kithrip. This story doesn't just fill in the gap of what happened to them after being left behind, but it also provides a significant development that could affect the entire structure of the present political situation. Unfortunately, not having read any of the novels beyond the third one, I don't know whether anything ever came of this encounter on Kithrip.
====================
Robert Silverberg: "Getting to Know the Dragon" (Roma Eterna series)
I hadn't known of this series before getting this collection. It's an alternate universe tale in which Silverberg's premise is that Moses never led the Hebrews out of Egypt. The Exodus never happened and therefore the Hebrews never settled in Palestine. Consequently Jesus of Nazareth did not exist and the Roman Empire remained pagan. The history of this world is generally the same until the 4th century (our time frame). The division between the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire therefore were strictly political, without any religious connotations. The quarrels were therefore reconcilable and the Roman Empire flourished.
The present story is set in 2503, by Imperial Time reckoning (1750 A. D.) and "fills in a gap in the series by depicting the Empire late in the Second Decadence, when the Emperor Demetrius II is about to come to the throne."
It looks like an interesting series, one that I think I may do some looking around for.
===================
Dan Simmons: "Orphans of the Helix" (The Hyperion Cantos series"
This story appears to be set after the conclusion of the four books in the Cantos. An exploratory and colonizing ship, the Helix, encounters a group of humans and aliens who are under attack by a device that visits their home periodically and gathers up large quantities of whatever they need from that particular site, including people.
The Helix discovers that this may not be a deliberate attack by another race, but a means of survival by a race with minimal resources. The material the device brings back may be necessary for their survival. Therefore, destroying the harvesting device may result in the destruction of a race of beings. Continued depredations by the harvesting device, though, will result in the deaths of many beings. This is the dilemma faced by the people of the Helix.
====================
Nancy Kress: "Sleeping Dogs" (The Sleepless)
This story is set in the same universe as Beggars in Spain, wherein genetic manipulation has permitted parents to specify the characteristics of their unborn offspring. The most radical changes are those that create the Sleepless, those who never sleep, thus giving them an extra 8 or more hours of consciousness.
"Sleeping Dogs" doesn't move the plot forward, but simply tells a story about one of the unexpected side effects of genetic manipulation on dogs. In this case, the dogs are modified to be sleepless and therefor make the perfect guard dogs. Unfortunately for Carol Ann's family, there's a problem with the modified dogs. The dogs were purchased for breeding purposes and intended to better the family's precarious financial situation. What they soon learn is that the dogs can not be trusted and they kill Carol Ann's sister. The story is Carol Ann's attempt to avenge her sister's death under the old Biblical adage--an eye for an eye. . .
====================
Frederik Pohl: "The Boy Who Would Live Forever" (the Gateway Series)
Stan, who has dreamed for years of getting to Gateway and becoming unbelievably wealthy (or so his dreams went) finally gets sufficient funds to make the trip. Shortly after he arrives, and after only one trip, the guidance programs have been translated and the exploration missions are no longer necessary. The Gateway Project has been terminated.
But--not completely. Robinette Broadhead, the main character in the first and several subsequent "Gateway" novels has discovered where the Heechee have fled, to a dark hole. A five person ship is being outfitted to follow the Heechee into their lair. Stan, who hasn't given up on his dreams, volunteers to be one of the five.
This story seems to be a wrapup. The mystery behind Gateway has been the Heechee: who were they and why did they go and where did they go. This story and the last novel in the series seems to answer all the questions.
====================
Gregory Benford: "A Hunger for the Infinite" (the Galactic Center series)
The "Galactic Center" series focuses on the conflict between the mechs, a machine society/ culture? directed by highly intelligent AIs, and all organic life, especially sentient beings, which the mechs see as their greatest enemy.
This story tells of an attempt by the Mantis (a recurring character in the last four of the six novels in the series) to gain a fuller and deeper understanding of the way organic beings think. One of the mysteries which the Mantis and all the higher intelligences of the mech civilization can not crack is that of art. The Mantis' attempts at creating art are rejected universally by all humans who have viewed them. Not only do the humans reject them, the humans are disgusted and sickened by the Mantis' artistic endeavors for they consist of horrific blends of semi-live humans and mechanical parts.
The Mantis decides to try a radical experiment. He downloads part of his consciousness into a human embryo to become an observer. The theory is that the observer will then learn what it is to be human (an organic sentient life form) which will allow it to grasp the meaning and significance of art. Its plan fails, but not for the obvious reasons. It shows the gap between the mech AI-based intelligence and the organic thinking based on intelligence and emotions.
I've always been curious about the Mantis, and this story provides some interesting information about it.
=====================
Anne McCaffrey: "The Ship That Returned" (the Ship that Sang series)
In The Ship That Sang" we are introduced to Helva, the human intelligence that operates the ship. She is part of the ship, and the ship is an integral part of her. We meet her first partner, Jennan Sahir Silan, the "brawn" of the partnership, and her grief at his death, and her search for a new partner. She finally finds Niall Parollan. Subsequent novels tell of their adventures.
"The Ship That Returned" is the story of Helva who, in several ways, has now made a full circle. Niall Parollan, her long-time partner, has just died, and once again, she is on her way to begin another search for a compatible brawn at Central Administration on Regulus. However, before she gets to Regulus, she discovers a fleet of Kolnari on route to Ravel, obviously planning on raiding the planet and destroying as much as possible. Ironically it was on a mission to aid Ravel that her first partner, Jennan, was killed.
First, she sends off a warning to the nearest Administration base. She then goes to Ravel to warn the inhabitants of the horrors on the way to their planet. The inhabitants, however, seem unconcerned and respond to her warnings with reassurances that all will be well. Then the Kolnari arrive.
====================
Greg Bear: "The Way of All Ghosts" (The Way series)
This story is part of the series that includes Eon, Eternity, and Legacy. Bear, in the inroduction, tells us --
"The Way, an artificial universe fifty kilometers in diameter and infinitely long, was created by the human inhabitants of an asteroid starship called Thistledown. They had become bored with their seemingly endless journey between the stars: the Way, with its potential of openings to other times and other universes, made reaching their destination unnecessary."
However, other beings discovered the Way, the Jart, and the humans barely held them at bay, for a time anyway. "The Way of All Ghosts" is the story of one of those exploratory expeditions to a world accessible by the Way. It also is a story about Olmy Ap Sennen, shortly after his first reincarnation. He is destined to "become a living myth, be forgotten, rediscovered, and made myth again. So many stories have been told of Olmy that history and myth intertwine."
Overall Rating: I would rate Benford's story the most interesting, followed by Le Guin and Brin. There really isn't a bad story among the rest, and considering the lineup of writers, one really wouldn't expect to find one.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Old Music and the Slave Women" (the Hainish and Ekumen series)
Joe Haldeman: "A Separate War" (the Forever Series)
Orson Scott Card: "Investment Counselor" (the Ender series)
David Brin: "Temptation" (The Uplift Universe)
Robert Silverberg: "Getting to Know the Dragon" (Roma Eterna series)
Dan Simmons: " Orphans of the Helix" (the Hyperion Cantos)
Nancy Kress: "Sleeping Dogs" (the Sleepless)
Frederik Pohl: "The Boy Who Would Live Forever" (the Gateway series)
Gregory Benford: "A Hunger for the Infinite" (the Galactic Center series)
Anne McCaffrey: "The Ship That Returned" (the Ship that Sang series)
Greg Bear: "The Way of All Ghosts" (the Way)
I just finished reading a interesting collection of short stories, or perhaps novella would be a better description. The collection is Far Horizons, edited by Robert Silverberg. It contains eleven stories, all written specifically for this collection which came out in 1999. In his introduction, Silverberg writes
"What I have done in Far Horizons is to gather together most of today's foremost practitioners of the evolutionary science-fiction series and ask them to write a short story or novelette that explores some aspect of their famous series that they did not find a way of dealing with in the books themselves."
Unfortunately, some of the writers Silverberg would like to have included had died while others told him "that they had already said all they wanted to say. . ."
Silverberg defines "the evolutionary science-fiction series" as "the kind that carries the reader through an evolutionary progression of concept and (sometimes) insight into character." I guess it's a series in which the characters and the plot evolve over time, and in some cases the ending could never have been predicted from the first novel. Greg Benford's incredible "Galactic Center" series is a perfect example of this. One more point is that this is the type of series that should best be read in sequence.
The "template series," on the other hand, features a number of stories which are set in the same universe and which do not demonstrate any particular or significant change or development. Each work stands alone, even though set in a shared universe. In a template series, it usually makes little difference in the order in which the stories are read. I would guess that Andre Norton's "Witch World series" would be considered a template series in which there are a number of novels set on that planet, each of which is relatively independent of the others and shows little, if any at all, forward progression of plot or character.
Each of the eleven stories in Far Horizons is preceded by a 1-3 page introduction by the author. These very helpful introductions include a brief summary of the series and, usually, the place occupied by the short story within that series , and in some cases, the history behind the particular story.
For example, Joe Haldeman writes that people had always asked him about a sequel to The Forever War (TFW), and he had always insisted that "the book is complete. . .But someday [he] would write a novella about what happened to the characters later in life."
So, he gladly accepted Silverberg's offer to write that novella for the collection. However, shortly after beginning to write the novella, he found he was writing the sequel that he said he would never write. So, he turned that into a proposal for a novel and sent it off. It was eventually published as Forever Free.
William Mandella and Marygay Potter are the two main characters in TFW and are separated in the last part of the novel, presumably forever. However, the two are almost miraculously reunited at the very end. This story, "A Separate War," tells of what happened to Marygay during the period of her separation from William, and as Haldeman writes, "it also serves as a sort of foreshadowing of the new novel."
====================
Ursula K. Le Guin: "Old Music and the Slave Women" (The Hainish and Ekumen series)
Ursula K. Le Guin's "Old Music and the Slave Women" is set in her Ekumen universe, which includes her earlier "Hainish" novels, Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions.
After the earth humans (descendants of the Hainish) and Hainish meet, a league is set up, the Ekumen. The novels set in this period are The Left Hand of Darkness (one of my top ten favorite SF novels), The Dispossessed, The Word for World is Forest, and Four Ways to Forgiveness.
In the fourth book, Four Ways to Forgiveness, Le Guin introduces two new worlds, Werel and Yeowe, recently contacted by the Ekumen. Werel is a slave planet, in which a slave revolt is initiated as a result of the contact by the Ekumen. This story tells of one incident during that rebellion in which the intelligence officer for the Ekumen does something very stupid.
====================
Orson Scott Card: "Investment Counselor" (The Ender Series)
To quote Card, "During the three thousand years between Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead . . . he somehow acquired a computer-based companion named Jane, who is second only to Ender in importance in the last three books of the series. The story now before you is an account of how they met." Fortunately for the human race, Jane is benevolent, as is Ender.
====================
David Brin: "Temptation" (The Uplift Universe)
This story tells of events following Brin's second novel in the Uplift universe, Startide Rising. When the earth exploratory vessel Streaker takes off in a desperate attempt to escape the alien fleet, a number of dolphins are left behind on the planet Kithrip. This story doesn't just fill in the gap of what happened to them after being left behind, but it also provides a significant development that could affect the entire structure of the present political situation. Unfortunately, not having read any of the novels beyond the third one, I don't know whether anything ever came of this encounter on Kithrip.
====================
Robert Silverberg: "Getting to Know the Dragon" (Roma Eterna series)
I hadn't known of this series before getting this collection. It's an alternate universe tale in which Silverberg's premise is that Moses never led the Hebrews out of Egypt. The Exodus never happened and therefore the Hebrews never settled in Palestine. Consequently Jesus of Nazareth did not exist and the Roman Empire remained pagan. The history of this world is generally the same until the 4th century (our time frame). The division between the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman Empire therefore were strictly political, without any religious connotations. The quarrels were therefore reconcilable and the Roman Empire flourished.
The present story is set in 2503, by Imperial Time reckoning (1750 A. D.) and "fills in a gap in the series by depicting the Empire late in the Second Decadence, when the Emperor Demetrius II is about to come to the throne."
It looks like an interesting series, one that I think I may do some looking around for.
===================
Dan Simmons: "Orphans of the Helix" (The Hyperion Cantos series"
This story appears to be set after the conclusion of the four books in the Cantos. An exploratory and colonizing ship, the Helix, encounters a group of humans and aliens who are under attack by a device that visits their home periodically and gathers up large quantities of whatever they need from that particular site, including people.
The Helix discovers that this may not be a deliberate attack by another race, but a means of survival by a race with minimal resources. The material the device brings back may be necessary for their survival. Therefore, destroying the harvesting device may result in the destruction of a race of beings. Continued depredations by the harvesting device, though, will result in the deaths of many beings. This is the dilemma faced by the people of the Helix.
====================
Nancy Kress: "Sleeping Dogs" (The Sleepless)
This story is set in the same universe as Beggars in Spain, wherein genetic manipulation has permitted parents to specify the characteristics of their unborn offspring. The most radical changes are those that create the Sleepless, those who never sleep, thus giving them an extra 8 or more hours of consciousness.
"Sleeping Dogs" doesn't move the plot forward, but simply tells a story about one of the unexpected side effects of genetic manipulation on dogs. In this case, the dogs are modified to be sleepless and therefor make the perfect guard dogs. Unfortunately for Carol Ann's family, there's a problem with the modified dogs. The dogs were purchased for breeding purposes and intended to better the family's precarious financial situation. What they soon learn is that the dogs can not be trusted and they kill Carol Ann's sister. The story is Carol Ann's attempt to avenge her sister's death under the old Biblical adage--an eye for an eye. . .
====================
Frederik Pohl: "The Boy Who Would Live Forever" (the Gateway Series)
Stan, who has dreamed for years of getting to Gateway and becoming unbelievably wealthy (or so his dreams went) finally gets sufficient funds to make the trip. Shortly after he arrives, and after only one trip, the guidance programs have been translated and the exploration missions are no longer necessary. The Gateway Project has been terminated.
But--not completely. Robinette Broadhead, the main character in the first and several subsequent "Gateway" novels has discovered where the Heechee have fled, to a dark hole. A five person ship is being outfitted to follow the Heechee into their lair. Stan, who hasn't given up on his dreams, volunteers to be one of the five.
This story seems to be a wrapup. The mystery behind Gateway has been the Heechee: who were they and why did they go and where did they go. This story and the last novel in the series seems to answer all the questions.
====================
Gregory Benford: "A Hunger for the Infinite" (the Galactic Center series)
The "Galactic Center" series focuses on the conflict between the mechs, a machine society/ culture? directed by highly intelligent AIs, and all organic life, especially sentient beings, which the mechs see as their greatest enemy.
This story tells of an attempt by the Mantis (a recurring character in the last four of the six novels in the series) to gain a fuller and deeper understanding of the way organic beings think. One of the mysteries which the Mantis and all the higher intelligences of the mech civilization can not crack is that of art. The Mantis' attempts at creating art are rejected universally by all humans who have viewed them. Not only do the humans reject them, the humans are disgusted and sickened by the Mantis' artistic endeavors for they consist of horrific blends of semi-live humans and mechanical parts.
The Mantis decides to try a radical experiment. He downloads part of his consciousness into a human embryo to become an observer. The theory is that the observer will then learn what it is to be human (an organic sentient life form) which will allow it to grasp the meaning and significance of art. Its plan fails, but not for the obvious reasons. It shows the gap between the mech AI-based intelligence and the organic thinking based on intelligence and emotions.
I've always been curious about the Mantis, and this story provides some interesting information about it.
=====================
Anne McCaffrey: "The Ship That Returned" (the Ship that Sang series)
In The Ship That Sang" we are introduced to Helva, the human intelligence that operates the ship. She is part of the ship, and the ship is an integral part of her. We meet her first partner, Jennan Sahir Silan, the "brawn" of the partnership, and her grief at his death, and her search for a new partner. She finally finds Niall Parollan. Subsequent novels tell of their adventures.
"The Ship That Returned" is the story of Helva who, in several ways, has now made a full circle. Niall Parollan, her long-time partner, has just died, and once again, she is on her way to begin another search for a compatible brawn at Central Administration on Regulus. However, before she gets to Regulus, she discovers a fleet of Kolnari on route to Ravel, obviously planning on raiding the planet and destroying as much as possible. Ironically it was on a mission to aid Ravel that her first partner, Jennan, was killed.
First, she sends off a warning to the nearest Administration base. She then goes to Ravel to warn the inhabitants of the horrors on the way to their planet. The inhabitants, however, seem unconcerned and respond to her warnings with reassurances that all will be well. Then the Kolnari arrive.
====================
Greg Bear: "The Way of All Ghosts" (The Way series)
This story is part of the series that includes Eon, Eternity, and Legacy. Bear, in the inroduction, tells us --
"The Way, an artificial universe fifty kilometers in diameter and infinitely long, was created by the human inhabitants of an asteroid starship called Thistledown. They had become bored with their seemingly endless journey between the stars: the Way, with its potential of openings to other times and other universes, made reaching their destination unnecessary."
However, other beings discovered the Way, the Jart, and the humans barely held them at bay, for a time anyway. "The Way of All Ghosts" is the story of one of those exploratory expeditions to a world accessible by the Way. It also is a story about Olmy Ap Sennen, shortly after his first reincarnation. He is destined to "become a living myth, be forgotten, rediscovered, and made myth again. So many stories have been told of Olmy that history and myth intertwine."
Overall Rating: I would rate Benford's story the most interesting, followed by Le Guin and Brin. There really isn't a bad story among the rest, and considering the lineup of writers, one really wouldn't expect to find one.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Henry David Thoreau: July 12, 1817-- May 6, 1862
One most frequently encounters quotations from Thoreau's most well-known work Walden, so I thought that I would provide something that's rarely given--one of his poems. This is one that's a bit ironic, almost with a touch of Robert Frost about it, or so it seems to me.
I knew a man by sight
I knew a man by sight,
A blameless wight,
Who. for a year or more,
Had daily passed my door,
Yet converse none had had with him.
I met him in a lane,
Him and his cane,
About three miles from home,
Where I had chanced to roam,
And volumes stared at him, and he at me.
In a more distant place
I glimpsed his face,
And bowed instinctively,
Starting he bowed to me,
Bowed simultaneously, and passed along.
Next, in a foreign land
I grasped his hand,
And had a social chat,
About this thing and that,
As I had known him well a thousand years.
Late in a wilderness
I shared his mess,
For he had hardships seen,
And I a wanderer been;
He was my bosom friend, and I was his.
And as, methinks, shall all,
Both great and small,
That ever lived on earth,
Early or late their birth,
Stranger and foe, one day each other know
I wonder if this is true. I also wonder just what Thoreau meant by the last five lines: Will all, "stranger and foe, one day each other know"?
I knew a man by sight
I knew a man by sight,
A blameless wight,
Who. for a year or more,
Had daily passed my door,
Yet converse none had had with him.
I met him in a lane,
Him and his cane,
About three miles from home,
Where I had chanced to roam,
And volumes stared at him, and he at me.
In a more distant place
I glimpsed his face,
And bowed instinctively,
Starting he bowed to me,
Bowed simultaneously, and passed along.
Next, in a foreign land
I grasped his hand,
And had a social chat,
About this thing and that,
As I had known him well a thousand years.
Late in a wilderness
I shared his mess,
For he had hardships seen,
And I a wanderer been;
He was my bosom friend, and I was his.
And as, methinks, shall all,
Both great and small,
That ever lived on earth,
Early or late their birth,
Stranger and foe, one day each other know
I wonder if this is true. I also wonder just what Thoreau meant by the last five lines: Will all, "stranger and foe, one day each other know"?
Friday, July 9, 2010
Loren Eiseley: Sept . 3, 1907--July 9, 1977
From Loren Eiseley's essay "The Judgment of the Birds"
On the maps of the old voyageurs it is called "Mauvaises Terres," the evil lands, and slurred a little with the passage through many minds, it has come down to us anglicized as the Badlands. The soft shuffle of moccasins has passed through its canyons on the grim business of war and flight, but the last of those slight disturbances of immemorial silences died out almost a century ago. The land, if one can call it a land, is a waste as lifeless as that valley in which lie the kings of Egypt. Like the Valley of the Kings, it is a mausoleum, a place of dry bones in what once was a place of life. Now it has silences as deep as those in the moon's airless chasms.
Nothing grows among its pinnacles; there is no shade except under great toadstools of sandstone whose bases have been eaten to the shape of wine glasses by the wind. Everything is flaking, cracking, disintegrating, wearing away in the long, imperceptible weather of time. The ash of ancient volcanic outbursts still sterilizes its soil, and its colors in that waste are the colors that flame in the lonely sunsets on dead planets. Men come there but rarely, and for one purpose only, the collection of bones.
It was a late hour on a cold, wind-bitten autumn day when I climbed a great hill spined like a dinosaur's back and tried to take my bearings. The tumbled waste fell away in waves in all directions. Blue air was darkening into purple along the bases of the hills. I shifted my knapsack, heavy with the petrified bones of long-vanished creatures, and studied my compass. I wanted to be out of there by nightfall, and already the sun was going sullenly down in the west.
It was then that I saw the flight coming on. It was moving like a little close-knit body of black specks that danced and darted and closed again. It was pouring from the north and heading toward me with the undeviating relentlessness of a compass needle. It streamed through the shadows rising out of monstrous gorges. It rushed over towering pinnacles in the red light of the sun, or momentarily sank from sight within their shade. Across that desert of eroding clay and wind-worn stone they came with a faint wild twittering that filled all the air about me as those tiny living bullets hurtled past into the night.
It may not strike you as a marvel. It would not, perhaps, unless you stood in the middle of a dead world at sunset, but that was where I stood. Fifty million years lay under my feet, fifty million years of bellowing monsters moving in a green world now gone so utterly that its very light travelling on the farther edge of space. The chemicals of all that vanished age lay about me in the ground. Around me still lay the shearing molars of dead titanotheres, the delicate sabers of soft-stepping cats, the hollow sockets that had held the eyes of many a strange, outmoded beast. Those eyes had looked out upon a world as real as ours; dark, savage brains had roamed and roared their challenges into the steaming night.
Now they were still here, or, put it as you will, the chemicals that made them were here about me in the ground. The carbon that had driven them ran blackly in the eroding stone. The stain of iron was in the clays. The iron did not remember the blood it had once moved within, the phosphorus had forgot the savage brain. The little individual moment had ebbed from all those strange combinations of chemicals as it would ebb from our living bodies into the sinks and runnels of oncoming time.
I had lifted up a fistful of that ground. I held it while that wild flight of south-bound warblers hurtled over me into the oncoming dark. There went phosphorus, there went iron, there went carbon, there beat the calcium in those hurrying wings. Alone on a dead planet I watched that incredible miracle speeding past. It ran by some true compass over field and waste land. It cried its individual ecstasies into the air until the gullies rang. It swerved like a single body, it knew itself and, lonely, it bunched close in the racing darkness, its individual entities feeling about them the rising night. And so, crying to each other their identity, they passed away out of my view.
I dropped my fistful of earth. I heard it roll inanimate back into the gully at the base of the hill: iron, carbon, the chemicals of life. Like men from those wild tribes who had haunted these hills before me seeking visions, I made my sign to the great darkness. It was not a mocking sign, and I was not mocked. As I walked into my camp late that night, one man, rousing from his blankets beside the fire, asked sleepily, "What did you see?"
"I think, a miracle," I said softly, but I said it to myself. Behind me that vast waste began to glow under the rising moon.
On the maps of the old voyageurs it is called "Mauvaises Terres," the evil lands, and slurred a little with the passage through many minds, it has come down to us anglicized as the Badlands. The soft shuffle of moccasins has passed through its canyons on the grim business of war and flight, but the last of those slight disturbances of immemorial silences died out almost a century ago. The land, if one can call it a land, is a waste as lifeless as that valley in which lie the kings of Egypt. Like the Valley of the Kings, it is a mausoleum, a place of dry bones in what once was a place of life. Now it has silences as deep as those in the moon's airless chasms.
Nothing grows among its pinnacles; there is no shade except under great toadstools of sandstone whose bases have been eaten to the shape of wine glasses by the wind. Everything is flaking, cracking, disintegrating, wearing away in the long, imperceptible weather of time. The ash of ancient volcanic outbursts still sterilizes its soil, and its colors in that waste are the colors that flame in the lonely sunsets on dead planets. Men come there but rarely, and for one purpose only, the collection of bones.
It was a late hour on a cold, wind-bitten autumn day when I climbed a great hill spined like a dinosaur's back and tried to take my bearings. The tumbled waste fell away in waves in all directions. Blue air was darkening into purple along the bases of the hills. I shifted my knapsack, heavy with the petrified bones of long-vanished creatures, and studied my compass. I wanted to be out of there by nightfall, and already the sun was going sullenly down in the west.
It was then that I saw the flight coming on. It was moving like a little close-knit body of black specks that danced and darted and closed again. It was pouring from the north and heading toward me with the undeviating relentlessness of a compass needle. It streamed through the shadows rising out of monstrous gorges. It rushed over towering pinnacles in the red light of the sun, or momentarily sank from sight within their shade. Across that desert of eroding clay and wind-worn stone they came with a faint wild twittering that filled all the air about me as those tiny living bullets hurtled past into the night.
It may not strike you as a marvel. It would not, perhaps, unless you stood in the middle of a dead world at sunset, but that was where I stood. Fifty million years lay under my feet, fifty million years of bellowing monsters moving in a green world now gone so utterly that its very light travelling on the farther edge of space. The chemicals of all that vanished age lay about me in the ground. Around me still lay the shearing molars of dead titanotheres, the delicate sabers of soft-stepping cats, the hollow sockets that had held the eyes of many a strange, outmoded beast. Those eyes had looked out upon a world as real as ours; dark, savage brains had roamed and roared their challenges into the steaming night.
Now they were still here, or, put it as you will, the chemicals that made them were here about me in the ground. The carbon that had driven them ran blackly in the eroding stone. The stain of iron was in the clays. The iron did not remember the blood it had once moved within, the phosphorus had forgot the savage brain. The little individual moment had ebbed from all those strange combinations of chemicals as it would ebb from our living bodies into the sinks and runnels of oncoming time.
I had lifted up a fistful of that ground. I held it while that wild flight of south-bound warblers hurtled over me into the oncoming dark. There went phosphorus, there went iron, there went carbon, there beat the calcium in those hurrying wings. Alone on a dead planet I watched that incredible miracle speeding past. It ran by some true compass over field and waste land. It cried its individual ecstasies into the air until the gullies rang. It swerved like a single body, it knew itself and, lonely, it bunched close in the racing darkness, its individual entities feeling about them the rising night. And so, crying to each other their identity, they passed away out of my view.
I dropped my fistful of earth. I heard it roll inanimate back into the gully at the base of the hill: iron, carbon, the chemicals of life. Like men from those wild tribes who had haunted these hills before me seeking visions, I made my sign to the great darkness. It was not a mocking sign, and I was not mocked. As I walked into my camp late that night, one man, rousing from his blankets beside the fire, asked sleepily, "What did you see?"
"I think, a miracle," I said softly, but I said it to myself. Behind me that vast waste began to glow under the rising moon.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Something to think about
It is no weakness for the wisest man
To learn when he is wrong, know when to yield.
So, on the margin of a flooded river
Trees bending to the torrent live unbroken,
While those that strain against it are snapped off.
A sailor has to tack and slacken sheets
Before the gale, or find himsel capsized . . . .
Let not your first thought be your only thought.
Think if there cannot be some other way.
- Sophocles - from Antigone
Only fools are certain and immovable.
- Montaigne -
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXVIII
This is the second quatrain in what I see as a linked series of four quatrains. In Quatrain XXVII, the narrator tells us that he listened to the Doctors and Saints, but learned nothing from them. In this quatrain, we now learn that he taught them something.
First Edition: Quatrain XXVIII
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXI
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXVIII
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
I could find only minor changes among the three versions. Lines 1, 2, and 4 are identical, with the only changes occurring in the second line.
First Edition: And with my own hand labour'd it to grow;
Second Edition: And with my own hand wrought to make it grow;
Fifth Edition: And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
The First Edition's "labour'd it to grow" becomes "wrought to make it grow." I guess the second version flows a bit more smoothly than the first. I'm not sure why he changed it from "my" to "mine" except perhaps for a bit of internal rhyme when "my own hand" becomes "mine own hand."
Instead of learning from the wise, the young narrator teaches them. I don't know if this is a coincidence or an interpolation by FitzGerald, for this reminds me of the incident in Luke, Chapter 2, when Christ as young child was found in the temple and "all that heard him were astonished by his wisdom and his answers." And the "Seed of Wisdom" also has echoes in the Gospels, for several times we find that Christ uses the analogy of a seed and his words.
His "Harvest" suggests the transitoriness of life, for he comes like water and goes like the wind. Both are natural forces and while a river flows and the wind blows, it is never the same wind and water. He also comes and eventually will go, for he is of this world and subject to its laws. And, others will come after him and take their turn here, before they too will go on, for this is not a unchanging situation that is being depicted, but one that is filled with movement and change.
First Edition: Quatrain XXVIII
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand labour'd it to grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
Second Edition: Quatrain XXXI
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with my own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXVIII
With them the Seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."
I could find only minor changes among the three versions. Lines 1, 2, and 4 are identical, with the only changes occurring in the second line.
First Edition: And with my own hand labour'd it to grow;
Second Edition: And with my own hand wrought to make it grow;
Fifth Edition: And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
The First Edition's "labour'd it to grow" becomes "wrought to make it grow." I guess the second version flows a bit more smoothly than the first. I'm not sure why he changed it from "my" to "mine" except perhaps for a bit of internal rhyme when "my own hand" becomes "mine own hand."
Instead of learning from the wise, the young narrator teaches them. I don't know if this is a coincidence or an interpolation by FitzGerald, for this reminds me of the incident in Luke, Chapter 2, when Christ as young child was found in the temple and "all that heard him were astonished by his wisdom and his answers." And the "Seed of Wisdom" also has echoes in the Gospels, for several times we find that Christ uses the analogy of a seed and his words.
His "Harvest" suggests the transitoriness of life, for he comes like water and goes like the wind. Both are natural forces and while a river flows and the wind blows, it is never the same wind and water. He also comes and eventually will go, for he is of this world and subject to its laws. And, others will come after him and take their turn here, before they too will go on, for this is not a unchanging situation that is being depicted, but one that is filled with movement and change.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Franz Kafka: July 3, 1883--June 3, 1924
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide of completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.
Thus opens one of the most famous short stories in Western Literature. If millions have read it, I suspect that many more millions know about the story--about a man who wakes one morning and finds he's been turned into a gigantic insect. Aside from the obvious questions about its meaning and themes, I have a minor one.
At the beginning of the story, Gregor Samsa is the sole support of his family, which includes his parents and sister. His father went bankrupt, and Gregor has been working long and hard to not only support his family but also to pay off his father's debts. His father, crushed by his failure, does little except sit around and read the newspaper, sometimes out loud to Gregor's mother and sister. They seldom leave the house and entertain rarely.
The family's financial status has now become very serious. Gregor can no longer support them. There are sufficient funds available to keep them for about a year, but after that, some source of income must be arranged.
At the end of the story, Gregor has died. The father has thrown off his lethargy and found a job, as has also Gregor's mother and sister. All three now are working. They have found a smaller apartment, one more suitable for the three of them. They even take a trip into the countryside together, something they haven't done in a long time.
And Gregor's sister? The parents noticed--
their daughter's increasing vivacity, that in spite of all the sorrow of the recent times, which had made her cheeks pale, she had blossomed into a pretty girl with a good figure . . . And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their journey their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body.
Considering the behavior of Gregor's family at the beginning of the story, when they relied on him as their sole support, and their new enthusiasm and energy at the end of the story, when he has died, I keep asking myself the following question:
Is Gregor Samsa the victim or the villain of the story?
Thus opens one of the most famous short stories in Western Literature. If millions have read it, I suspect that many more millions know about the story--about a man who wakes one morning and finds he's been turned into a gigantic insect. Aside from the obvious questions about its meaning and themes, I have a minor one.
At the beginning of the story, Gregor Samsa is the sole support of his family, which includes his parents and sister. His father went bankrupt, and Gregor has been working long and hard to not only support his family but also to pay off his father's debts. His father, crushed by his failure, does little except sit around and read the newspaper, sometimes out loud to Gregor's mother and sister. They seldom leave the house and entertain rarely.
The family's financial status has now become very serious. Gregor can no longer support them. There are sufficient funds available to keep them for about a year, but after that, some source of income must be arranged.
At the end of the story, Gregor has died. The father has thrown off his lethargy and found a job, as has also Gregor's mother and sister. All three now are working. They have found a smaller apartment, one more suitable for the three of them. They even take a trip into the countryside together, something they haven't done in a long time.
And Gregor's sister? The parents noticed--
their daughter's increasing vivacity, that in spite of all the sorrow of the recent times, which had made her cheeks pale, she had blossomed into a pretty girl with a good figure . . . And it was like a confirmation of their new dreams and excellent intentions that at the end of their journey their daughter sprang to her feet first and stretched her young body.
Considering the behavior of Gregor's family at the beginning of the story, when they relied on him as their sole support, and their new enthusiasm and energy at the end of the story, when he has died, I keep asking myself the following question:
Is Gregor Samsa the victim or the villain of the story?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Shirley Jackson: "The Lottery"
Warning: I will reveal significant plot elements and the ending.
One of my favorite short stories is "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). It is a deceptively simple and straightforward tale. This small village holds an annual lottery, and the reader wonders just what the point is as the procedure is spelled out in some detail. However, when the winner is announced, the reader begins to understand that something just isn't right here; all is not what it seems. The winner, Tessie Hutchinson, objects loudly that the procedure wasn't fair, that her husband Bill was rushed and didn't have the chance to pick the slip he wanted. It should be done over again. Her complaints are ignored, and, instead of getting money or a valuable prize, she is stoned to death by the townspeople, and her own children take part. Now, all is clear. This is a horror story. The shock ending provides the point.
The town is obviously filled with monsters in the guise of typical rural Americans in a small village who engage in this horrific ritual every year. The title is clearly ironic for the winner of the lottery does not get a prize but a death sentence, just the reverse of what one would expect from winning a lottery.
Or, so it seems at first glance.
If one looks a bit closer, though, one realizes that the title is most apt. She did win a prize: an opportunity to die for her people, an opportunity for a meaningful death, something not granted to everyone. Among the ancient Romans, we read in one of Horace's Odes that Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. In English that translates roughly as "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." In the Bible, we read "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man shall lay down his life for his friends" (John 15: 13). Tessie actually died so that her friends may live. Is this not the same justification we use for sending young people off to war? We even have a memorial to The Unknown Soldier.
I was going to post this commentary about a week or so ago, but after glancing at the calendar, I decided to wait for today, June 27th. Why? Well, the story opens as follows:
"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day: the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."
The lottery takes place on June 27th. Why did Jackson decide to begin the story on June 27th. I don't think it was a random choice, for June 27th in the ancient Roman calendar is Initium Aestatis. It is the Roman festival of the beginning of summer. We ourselves noted the first day of summer several days ago at the Summer Solstice--the longest day of the year. The Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring) and the Summer Solstice are or were important days for ancient agricultural civilizations. On those days, many held rituals or religious ceremonies designed to please the gods of agriculture or nature in order to ensure a good harvest.
The size of the harvest was extremely important for these peoples. A good harvest provided sufficient food to survive the long dead seasons of late Autumn and Winter that follow. A poor harvest--many of the old and the weak and the sickly probably would not survive. The first colonists in New England suffered many deaths that first winter because of inadequate food.
Many of those rituals included sacrifices to the gods; frequently they were human sacrifices, for in what other way could a group show its devotion to its gods than by sacrificing one of its own. Those who were sacrificed were giving up their lives for their people.
Jackson provides other clues to the tie between Tessie's fate and rituals designed to ensure a good harvest.
One of the characters remarks that "over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."
"Old Man Warner snorted. 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said. 'Listening to the young folk, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery . . ."
And later, Mrs Adams remarks: "Some places have already quit lotteries."
Old Man Warner provides valuable information here. First, this village isn't an aberration for there's at least one other village that holds a lottery. Mrs. Adams tells us that some have quit already, and in the first paragraph of the story, the narrator tells us that there were some towns that had so many people that the lottery lasted for two days.
Secondly he also provides a link to the harvest with his recollection of the old saying about the June lottery and the ripening corn in his reaction to the comment about giving up the lottery. He also grumps on and suggests that without the lottery they'd all "be eating stewed chickweed and acorns," thus again suggesting a link between the lottery and the harvest. Without the lottery, they would be reduced to living off chickweed and acorns. Since chickweed and acorns aren't harvested crops but are gathered wherever found, this would hint at a way of life prior to the agricultural stage--hunting and gathering for example. His reference to living in caves also indicates a pre-agricultural society.
Some of the names that Jackson gives her characters are suggestive. For example, the M. C., or perhaps he would have been the high priest in earlier days, is named Summers, a very apt name for one conducting a festival held on the first day of summer. Summer's assistant is Mr. Graves, another appropriate name if one considers the outcome of the lottery. The only name given extra notice, and it happens in the second paragraph is "Delacroix." I think that's French for "of the cross," another significant reference when one thinks about sacrifices for the good of the people.
In the drawing, the first man is Adams (Adam?) and it ends with Zanini--from A to Z. In the Bible, the prophets had a very specific role and that was to warn the Israelites of the dangers of straying from the rules laid out for them by the Lord. In "The Lottery," we have Old Man Warner forewarning the people of the dangers of dropping the lottery.
For me, the true horror of the story is that the people go through this ritual every year and no longer know why. Tessie's death has no meaning, no significance for them any more. It has been lost along with most of the ritual, for the narrator tells us that "at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the had had been allowed lapse. There had been, also, a ritual salute . . ."
I think that Jackson has told a story about the slow death of an ancient ritual that had meaning when it first began--the survival of the people. Over the generations, most of it has been lost, all except the sacrifice of one for the many. The story, after several readings, now seems to me to be a much richer and even darker story than it first appeared to be.
I have one more thought about the story, but I'm still kicking it around and haven't come to any definite conclusion yet. Jackson published her story in 1948, just a few years after the Nuremberg Trials held in 1945-6. In the trials, the German defendants who had taken part in the horrors of those concentration camps insisted they were not responsible, that they were just following orders. Is Jackson's story a commentary on what happened in the concentration camps in Germany?
Any thoughts here?
Overall Rating: a story that has stayed with me for years and gets deeper each time I read it.
One of my favorite short stories is "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (1916-1965). It is a deceptively simple and straightforward tale. This small village holds an annual lottery, and the reader wonders just what the point is as the procedure is spelled out in some detail. However, when the winner is announced, the reader begins to understand that something just isn't right here; all is not what it seems. The winner, Tessie Hutchinson, objects loudly that the procedure wasn't fair, that her husband Bill was rushed and didn't have the chance to pick the slip he wanted. It should be done over again. Her complaints are ignored, and, instead of getting money or a valuable prize, she is stoned to death by the townspeople, and her own children take part. Now, all is clear. This is a horror story. The shock ending provides the point.
The town is obviously filled with monsters in the guise of typical rural Americans in a small village who engage in this horrific ritual every year. The title is clearly ironic for the winner of the lottery does not get a prize but a death sentence, just the reverse of what one would expect from winning a lottery.
Or, so it seems at first glance.
If one looks a bit closer, though, one realizes that the title is most apt. She did win a prize: an opportunity to die for her people, an opportunity for a meaningful death, something not granted to everyone. Among the ancient Romans, we read in one of Horace's Odes that Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. In English that translates roughly as "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country." In the Bible, we read "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man shall lay down his life for his friends" (John 15: 13). Tessie actually died so that her friends may live. Is this not the same justification we use for sending young people off to war? We even have a memorial to The Unknown Soldier.
I was going to post this commentary about a week or so ago, but after glancing at the calendar, I decided to wait for today, June 27th. Why? Well, the story opens as follows:
"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day: the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green."
The lottery takes place on June 27th. Why did Jackson decide to begin the story on June 27th. I don't think it was a random choice, for June 27th in the ancient Roman calendar is Initium Aestatis. It is the Roman festival of the beginning of summer. We ourselves noted the first day of summer several days ago at the Summer Solstice--the longest day of the year. The Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring) and the Summer Solstice are or were important days for ancient agricultural civilizations. On those days, many held rituals or religious ceremonies designed to please the gods of agriculture or nature in order to ensure a good harvest.
The size of the harvest was extremely important for these peoples. A good harvest provided sufficient food to survive the long dead seasons of late Autumn and Winter that follow. A poor harvest--many of the old and the weak and the sickly probably would not survive. The first colonists in New England suffered many deaths that first winter because of inadequate food.
Many of those rituals included sacrifices to the gods; frequently they were human sacrifices, for in what other way could a group show its devotion to its gods than by sacrificing one of its own. Those who were sacrificed were giving up their lives for their people.
Jackson provides other clues to the tie between Tessie's fate and rituals designed to ensure a good harvest.
One of the characters remarks that "over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."
"Old Man Warner snorted. 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said. 'Listening to the young folk, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery . . ."
And later, Mrs Adams remarks: "Some places have already quit lotteries."
Old Man Warner provides valuable information here. First, this village isn't an aberration for there's at least one other village that holds a lottery. Mrs. Adams tells us that some have quit already, and in the first paragraph of the story, the narrator tells us that there were some towns that had so many people that the lottery lasted for two days.
Secondly he also provides a link to the harvest with his recollection of the old saying about the June lottery and the ripening corn in his reaction to the comment about giving up the lottery. He also grumps on and suggests that without the lottery they'd all "be eating stewed chickweed and acorns," thus again suggesting a link between the lottery and the harvest. Without the lottery, they would be reduced to living off chickweed and acorns. Since chickweed and acorns aren't harvested crops but are gathered wherever found, this would hint at a way of life prior to the agricultural stage--hunting and gathering for example. His reference to living in caves also indicates a pre-agricultural society.
Some of the names that Jackson gives her characters are suggestive. For example, the M. C., or perhaps he would have been the high priest in earlier days, is named Summers, a very apt name for one conducting a festival held on the first day of summer. Summer's assistant is Mr. Graves, another appropriate name if one considers the outcome of the lottery. The only name given extra notice, and it happens in the second paragraph is "Delacroix." I think that's French for "of the cross," another significant reference when one thinks about sacrifices for the good of the people.
In the drawing, the first man is Adams (Adam?) and it ends with Zanini--from A to Z. In the Bible, the prophets had a very specific role and that was to warn the Israelites of the dangers of straying from the rules laid out for them by the Lord. In "The Lottery," we have Old Man Warner forewarning the people of the dangers of dropping the lottery.
For me, the true horror of the story is that the people go through this ritual every year and no longer know why. Tessie's death has no meaning, no significance for them any more. It has been lost along with most of the ritual, for the narrator tells us that "at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the had had been allowed lapse. There had been, also, a ritual salute . . ."
I think that Jackson has told a story about the slow death of an ancient ritual that had meaning when it first began--the survival of the people. Over the generations, most of it has been lost, all except the sacrifice of one for the many. The story, after several readings, now seems to me to be a much richer and even darker story than it first appeared to be.
I have one more thought about the story, but I'm still kicking it around and haven't come to any definite conclusion yet. Jackson published her story in 1948, just a few years after the Nuremberg Trials held in 1945-6. In the trials, the German defendants who had taken part in the horrors of those concentration camps insisted they were not responsible, that they were just following orders. Is Jackson's story a commentary on what happened in the concentration camps in Germany?
Any thoughts here?
Overall Rating: a story that has stayed with me for years and gets deeper each time I read it.
Paul Laurence Dunbar: June 27, 1872--Feb 9, 1906
This is the poem that gave Maya Angelou the title for her poem and the first part of her autobiography--I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting--
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from this heart's deep core,
But a plea that upward to Heaven he flings--
I know why the caged bird sings!
- Paul Laurence Dunbar -
The last stanza reminds me of something I read in Frederick Douglass' autobiography, but I'm unable to find it at present for the exact quote. Douglass writes that those who defend slavery often state that slaves really are happier being slaves and that one proof of this is that they are always singing. To the contrary, Douglass writes that the songs they sang were really prayers for freedom and release and were "not a carol of joy or glee."
In this poem, I think Dunbar speaks for all who feel trapped or enslaved.
Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting--
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from this heart's deep core,
But a plea that upward to Heaven he flings--
I know why the caged bird sings!
- Paul Laurence Dunbar -
The last stanza reminds me of something I read in Frederick Douglass' autobiography, but I'm unable to find it at present for the exact quote. Douglass writes that those who defend slavery often state that slaves really are happier being slaves and that one proof of this is that they are always singing. To the contrary, Douglass writes that the songs they sang were really prayers for freedom and release and were "not a carol of joy or glee."
In this poem, I think Dunbar speaks for all who feel trapped or enslaved.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Combination Plate 15
Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements and the endings.
Anthony Boucher: The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, a mystery novel
Avatar: an SF Film
Brian M. Stableford: The Paradise Game, an SF novel
Martha Grimes: The Black Cat, a mystery novel
==================================
Anthony Boucher
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, a mystery novel
Type: accidental detectives (I guess)
Setting: Hollywood in the late 1930s
I first encountered Anthony Boucher as an SF writer. He had written a novel, I think, and numerous short stories, and hundreds? of columns as a critic and commentator, as well as being one of the founding editors of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well editor of several anthologies of SF.
So, when I ran across this novel, I had to get it. First, I was curious about Boucher as a mystery writer, and second, I'm a fan of Sherlock Holmes from way back. I recognized the name, The Baker Street Irregulars (BSI), in the title as having appeared in several of the Holmes stories. The BSI are a group of street urchins who occasionally worked for Holmes. Since they were children and ignored by adults, they could go anywhere and not be noticed. Holmes used them for information-gathering and for keeping track of some individuals when Holmes wanted to keep of. The Baker Street Irregulars is also a real group, comprised of admirers of Holmes, one of whose members was Anthony Boucher.
Consequently, I did a little digging myself. and I was surprised, therefore, when I discovered that he was even more well known in the mystery genre as a writer, editor, and critic. The annual Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention is named in his honor as are the wards given out at that convention for the best mystery writing during the previous year--the Anthony Awards.
In the novel, Holmes does not appear, except indirectly as the star of a new film. Metropolis Pictures has decided to make a film of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." In a letter to the film company, the BSI can only applaud this decision to bring their hero to the screen once again, but, on the other hand, they are incensed that the "responsible task of transferring this adventure to the screen has been entrusted to the typewriter of Stephen Worth." Worth writes mysteries, but of the "hard-boiled" kind and also "has many times expressed in public print his contempt for the exploits of Holmes and his desire 'to show up that cocky bastard for what he is.'"
The studio invites the BSI to come to Hollywood and act as expert consultants for the film Five do take advantage of the offer (none of whom, of course, are real members of the BSI). They have barely arrived and settled in when Stephen Worth is murdered. They, naturally, are among the chief suspects and decide that their only course is to solve the case themselves. This is when the fun begins.
As each of the five go out on their investigation, they encounters strange people and events, each with an unique adventure of their own. However, the adventures are not that unique, for Boucher has taken five of the Holmes cases and skillfully adapted them to the mean streets of Hollywood and surrounding environment during the 40s. False clues and leads only add to the fun and confusion, before the mystery is solved to everybody's satisfaction.
While this novel is straight fiction, Boucher hasn't forgotten the other half of his life--the SF half. While there are no SF elements in the story, the SF reader familiar with Boucher's stories will recognize some of the characters.
One is Maureen O'Breen, the company's chief publicist. Her younger brother is Fergus O'Breen, a private investigator who appears in a number of Boucher's SF stories. He specilizes in cases that have an SF flavor--time travel, ESP, werewolves, magic. Sometimes his clients come to him, and in other cases, Lt. Jackson, a member of the LAPD, brings him in as a consultant whenever there appears to be something unusual or bizarre about the case. In fact, she says she would recommend bringing him in but says that he's out of town on a case right now.
The other is Lt. Jackson himself, who gets involved with Worth, and finds himself lumped with the other suspects, or so the suspects think. In his postion, Jackson obviously can't take part in the official police investigation, so he joins up with the BSI and Maureen O'Breen in their unofficial investigation.
Did I solve the mystery early on? No. I spotted some clues, but I got so involved in picking out the references to Sherlock Holmes, that I just went along for the ride.
Overall Rating: good solid mystery, enlivened with all sorts of stuff from the Holmes stories, including various incidents, cases, and codes. It's an enjoyable, lighthearted read.
====================================
Avatar (2009)
I guess that the latest SF film to be highly publicized and talked about is the recent Avatar. What few negative comments I've seen or read were mostly in the political vein. But since I'm not one to bow down or even bow my head in the presence of companies or corporations, the "message" of the film didn't bother me. Frankly, the message wasn't a shocker for I was already aware that companies or corporations, as well as individuals, groups, and governments, do stray from the paths of righteousness now and then and therefore can legitimately be cast as villains.
I didn't see it at the theatre but on a DVD at home. Even on the small screen, though, it is a very good film, as far as the special effects are concerned. I haven't seen any of its competitors, but I thought that it probably earned the three Oscars that it picked up--for art direction, cinematography, and visual effects. At least, I haven't heard anybody suggest another film that was more deserving. However, I didn't find anything that could be considered innovative as far as ideas or concepts in the film, though, and I guess the judges felt the same way.
Jake Sully is a paraplegic (a marine injured in battle) who is sent to an alien planet to become part of a contact team working for a large corporation. Since the planet is inhospitable to humans, avatars (androids) have been developed. In this case the avatars are copies of the indigenous people, of the planet, the Na'vi. The minds of humans can be placed in the avatars and can control them. In this way, Sully's injuries are bypassed. He and the others in the contact team are supposed to study the Na'vi and convince them to allow the corporation to exploit the planet's resources.
Jake and the others realize that the corporation has no intention of recognizing the rights of the Na'vi. If the Na'vi don't get out of the corporation's way, then they will be exterminated. The contact team then sides with the Na'vi, and open warfare is the result. The corporation has a trained and heavily armed military force, complete with tanks, while the Na'vi are armed with spears and bows and arrows. The Na'vi are on the verge of defeat when the planet itself decides to play a role, and the corporation's military forces are ultimately defeated.
The acting was acceptable, except for Sigourney Weaver who was excellent as Dr. Grace Augustine.
Overall Rating: an enjoyable film.
====================================
Brian M. Stableford: The Paradise Game, (1974)
A week or so ago, I was rummaging through my TBR bookcase when I came across this novel. I hadn't read anything by Stableford in at least a decade or two, so I decided to rectify that omission. It somehow seemed a bit familiar as I got deeper into the novel.
Grainger is the pilot of a starship, The Hooded Swan. It has set down on an alien planet, Pharos. Grainger's boss, Titus Charlot, has come here to act as an observer and, if necessary, a mediator between two contending groups. One is the Caradoc Corporation, which intends to exploit the planet and turn it into a paradise for humans. A second group is here to make sure that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants are protected. At the end of his stay, Charlot will make a report which will include his recommendations for the future of the planet and its inhabitants.
Grainger and Charlot soon realize that the Caradoc Corporation isn't in the least concerned about the indigenous population and hadn't even bothered to report their existence. The natives were just going to have to get out of Caradoc's way or Caradoc was going to solve the problem in its own way. It had a large battleship in orbit around the planet with a few thousand troops in full battle gear and heavily armed.
Caradoc's military forces are brought down, but before they have a chance to go into action, two people die and numerous others, including many of the troops, become ill, some with minor ailments while others are bedridden. In a sense, the planet is defending itself.
The scientific staff discover some very strange things about this planet. First of all, none of the native plants and animals seem to die. Secondly, there are no young; everything is a mature specimen, from the plants to the sentient natives of Pharos. Plants get their nourishment from the sun and soil, while the animals feed off the sap of the trees. Nothing eats anything or anybody else. However, while digging to build foundations for Caradoc's planned city, several fossils were found, with teeth and claws. This planet wasn't always this way. Something intervened in the normal evolutionary process to create the present situation.
The two humans who died were involved the death of another. Those who couldn't control their anger or hostility got sick. Those who were able to remain calm and stable didn't get sick. The fittest, on this planet anyway, meant those who were without anger or hostility or were at least able to control it successfully.
The medical researchers find a way to cure the humans (all were infected). Since their illness was contagious, it is clear that humans could not come here without putting the galactic human civilization at risk. What would civilization be like if people couldn't kill one another without dying themselves shortly afterwards or even get angry or hostile? The planet was proscribed. The corporation was defeated by the planet itself. However, there were plenty of planets in the universe and the Caradoc Corporation moved on.
It seemed clear, from comments made throughout the novel, that Grainger, Charlot, and the Caradoc Corporation had previous conflicts. I had no problem following the events of this novel though. It wasn't until I glanced at the back cover that I discovered the following inscription:
"Star-Pilot Grainger: 4"--which suggests that this is the fourth book in the series.
Overall Rating: a decent read. I'm not going to rush out and look for others in the series, but if I do come across one or more in a used bookstore, I might grab it, if it isn't too expensive.
==================================
Martha Grimes
The Black Cat
Mystery novel--police procedural
Setting: London--contemporary
I've read most, if not all, of Martha Grimes' "Richard Jury of Scotland Yard" novels, so I have a fair idea of what to expect from the series, which now extends to 20+ works. They feature a tightly plotted mystery, some red herrings, a fair number of eccentric ensemble characters, mundane or realistic events, and a variety of villains. However, the times they are " achanging," to quote somebody or other.
In Old Wine Shades, one of her most recent novels, Grimes introduces something new, or new at least for her series-a telepathic cat and dog, who, ironically, belong to the villain, Harry Johnson. While they are unable to communicate with Jury, they do manage to help thwart Harry's plans. Unfortunately for Jury, Harry is one devious character, so he manages to escape the law at the end.
Dust, the novel that followed Old Wine Shades introduced two new elements to the adventures of Richard Jury. One was the recurring villain: Harry Johnson from the previously mentioned novel. Jury has decided that he will bring Harry to justice, so he continues to go to Harry's favorite wine pub and stay in touch, hoping Harry will make a mistake. Harry, of course, knows exactly what Jury is up to and is confident that he can avoid any trap Jury may set up.
The other new element in Dust is lust, at least it's new for Jury. A friend of Jury has calls him to say that he's found a body. It isn't in Jury's jurisdiction, but a friend is a friend. The police are called and take control. However, once Jury and the female police officer in charge of the investigation meet, control goes out the window. Whenever they are alone, with a few minutes free, off come the clothes, and what results can at best be called very enthusiastic and highly energetic sex. Grimes spares us the clinical details but does tell us that the two "meetings" that took place in Jury's apartment were hard on the furniture--several of which were turned into kindling. Jury's neighbors are also curious about the source of the loud noises emanating from Jury's apartment.
The Black Cat, the novel that immediately follows Dust, and also is the most recent of her Jury works, continues the trends noted above. Harry is still around, and Jury is still trying to trap him This time, Harry, again not directly involved in the investigation, decides to meddle a bit in order to embarrass Jury once again. The animal population has now increased to three cats and two dogs, of which two cats and one dog are telepathic. The dog and one of the cats were first introduced in Old Wine Shades, so they appear to be recurring characters. I wonder what will happen if Jury eventually does trap Harry. Will they move in with Jury? For now, though, they seem to be replacing the eccentric characters that Jury spent time with in the earlier novels.
Overall Comments: Grimes seems to be moving her Jury series out of the strict police procedural category and into the cozy cat crime-solving category, or at least a blend of the two. I wonder how far she's going to go with this.
Recommendation: if you are looking for a police procedural story with some whimsy involved, try her earlier novels. If you are looking for a series that seems to be in the midst of a change, read one of the novels I've mentioned above.
Anthony Boucher: The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, a mystery novel
Avatar: an SF Film
Brian M. Stableford: The Paradise Game, an SF novel
Martha Grimes: The Black Cat, a mystery novel
==================================
Anthony Boucher
The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars, a mystery novel
Type: accidental detectives (I guess)
Setting: Hollywood in the late 1930s
I first encountered Anthony Boucher as an SF writer. He had written a novel, I think, and numerous short stories, and hundreds? of columns as a critic and commentator, as well as being one of the founding editors of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, as well editor of several anthologies of SF.
So, when I ran across this novel, I had to get it. First, I was curious about Boucher as a mystery writer, and second, I'm a fan of Sherlock Holmes from way back. I recognized the name, The Baker Street Irregulars (BSI), in the title as having appeared in several of the Holmes stories. The BSI are a group of street urchins who occasionally worked for Holmes. Since they were children and ignored by adults, they could go anywhere and not be noticed. Holmes used them for information-gathering and for keeping track of some individuals when Holmes wanted to keep of. The Baker Street Irregulars is also a real group, comprised of admirers of Holmes, one of whose members was Anthony Boucher.
Consequently, I did a little digging myself. and I was surprised, therefore, when I discovered that he was even more well known in the mystery genre as a writer, editor, and critic. The annual Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention is named in his honor as are the wards given out at that convention for the best mystery writing during the previous year--the Anthony Awards.
In the novel, Holmes does not appear, except indirectly as the star of a new film. Metropolis Pictures has decided to make a film of "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." In a letter to the film company, the BSI can only applaud this decision to bring their hero to the screen once again, but, on the other hand, they are incensed that the "responsible task of transferring this adventure to the screen has been entrusted to the typewriter of Stephen Worth." Worth writes mysteries, but of the "hard-boiled" kind and also "has many times expressed in public print his contempt for the exploits of Holmes and his desire 'to show up that cocky bastard for what he is.'"
The studio invites the BSI to come to Hollywood and act as expert consultants for the film Five do take advantage of the offer (none of whom, of course, are real members of the BSI). They have barely arrived and settled in when Stephen Worth is murdered. They, naturally, are among the chief suspects and decide that their only course is to solve the case themselves. This is when the fun begins.
As each of the five go out on their investigation, they encounters strange people and events, each with an unique adventure of their own. However, the adventures are not that unique, for Boucher has taken five of the Holmes cases and skillfully adapted them to the mean streets of Hollywood and surrounding environment during the 40s. False clues and leads only add to the fun and confusion, before the mystery is solved to everybody's satisfaction.
While this novel is straight fiction, Boucher hasn't forgotten the other half of his life--the SF half. While there are no SF elements in the story, the SF reader familiar with Boucher's stories will recognize some of the characters.
One is Maureen O'Breen, the company's chief publicist. Her younger brother is Fergus O'Breen, a private investigator who appears in a number of Boucher's SF stories. He specilizes in cases that have an SF flavor--time travel, ESP, werewolves, magic. Sometimes his clients come to him, and in other cases, Lt. Jackson, a member of the LAPD, brings him in as a consultant whenever there appears to be something unusual or bizarre about the case. In fact, she says she would recommend bringing him in but says that he's out of town on a case right now.
The other is Lt. Jackson himself, who gets involved with Worth, and finds himself lumped with the other suspects, or so the suspects think. In his postion, Jackson obviously can't take part in the official police investigation, so he joins up with the BSI and Maureen O'Breen in their unofficial investigation.
Did I solve the mystery early on? No. I spotted some clues, but I got so involved in picking out the references to Sherlock Holmes, that I just went along for the ride.
Overall Rating: good solid mystery, enlivened with all sorts of stuff from the Holmes stories, including various incidents, cases, and codes. It's an enjoyable, lighthearted read.
====================================
Avatar (2009)
I guess that the latest SF film to be highly publicized and talked about is the recent Avatar. What few negative comments I've seen or read were mostly in the political vein. But since I'm not one to bow down or even bow my head in the presence of companies or corporations, the "message" of the film didn't bother me. Frankly, the message wasn't a shocker for I was already aware that companies or corporations, as well as individuals, groups, and governments, do stray from the paths of righteousness now and then and therefore can legitimately be cast as villains.
I didn't see it at the theatre but on a DVD at home. Even on the small screen, though, it is a very good film, as far as the special effects are concerned. I haven't seen any of its competitors, but I thought that it probably earned the three Oscars that it picked up--for art direction, cinematography, and visual effects. At least, I haven't heard anybody suggest another film that was more deserving. However, I didn't find anything that could be considered innovative as far as ideas or concepts in the film, though, and I guess the judges felt the same way.
Jake Sully is a paraplegic (a marine injured in battle) who is sent to an alien planet to become part of a contact team working for a large corporation. Since the planet is inhospitable to humans, avatars (androids) have been developed. In this case the avatars are copies of the indigenous people, of the planet, the Na'vi. The minds of humans can be placed in the avatars and can control them. In this way, Sully's injuries are bypassed. He and the others in the contact team are supposed to study the Na'vi and convince them to allow the corporation to exploit the planet's resources.
Jake and the others realize that the corporation has no intention of recognizing the rights of the Na'vi. If the Na'vi don't get out of the corporation's way, then they will be exterminated. The contact team then sides with the Na'vi, and open warfare is the result. The corporation has a trained and heavily armed military force, complete with tanks, while the Na'vi are armed with spears and bows and arrows. The Na'vi are on the verge of defeat when the planet itself decides to play a role, and the corporation's military forces are ultimately defeated.
The acting was acceptable, except for Sigourney Weaver who was excellent as Dr. Grace Augustine.
Overall Rating: an enjoyable film.
====================================
Brian M. Stableford: The Paradise Game, (1974)
A week or so ago, I was rummaging through my TBR bookcase when I came across this novel. I hadn't read anything by Stableford in at least a decade or two, so I decided to rectify that omission. It somehow seemed a bit familiar as I got deeper into the novel.
Grainger is the pilot of a starship, The Hooded Swan. It has set down on an alien planet, Pharos. Grainger's boss, Titus Charlot, has come here to act as an observer and, if necessary, a mediator between two contending groups. One is the Caradoc Corporation, which intends to exploit the planet and turn it into a paradise for humans. A second group is here to make sure that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants are protected. At the end of his stay, Charlot will make a report which will include his recommendations for the future of the planet and its inhabitants.
Grainger and Charlot soon realize that the Caradoc Corporation isn't in the least concerned about the indigenous population and hadn't even bothered to report their existence. The natives were just going to have to get out of Caradoc's way or Caradoc was going to solve the problem in its own way. It had a large battleship in orbit around the planet with a few thousand troops in full battle gear and heavily armed.
Caradoc's military forces are brought down, but before they have a chance to go into action, two people die and numerous others, including many of the troops, become ill, some with minor ailments while others are bedridden. In a sense, the planet is defending itself.
The scientific staff discover some very strange things about this planet. First of all, none of the native plants and animals seem to die. Secondly, there are no young; everything is a mature specimen, from the plants to the sentient natives of Pharos. Plants get their nourishment from the sun and soil, while the animals feed off the sap of the trees. Nothing eats anything or anybody else. However, while digging to build foundations for Caradoc's planned city, several fossils were found, with teeth and claws. This planet wasn't always this way. Something intervened in the normal evolutionary process to create the present situation.
The two humans who died were involved the death of another. Those who couldn't control their anger or hostility got sick. Those who were able to remain calm and stable didn't get sick. The fittest, on this planet anyway, meant those who were without anger or hostility or were at least able to control it successfully.
The medical researchers find a way to cure the humans (all were infected). Since their illness was contagious, it is clear that humans could not come here without putting the galactic human civilization at risk. What would civilization be like if people couldn't kill one another without dying themselves shortly afterwards or even get angry or hostile? The planet was proscribed. The corporation was defeated by the planet itself. However, there were plenty of planets in the universe and the Caradoc Corporation moved on.
It seemed clear, from comments made throughout the novel, that Grainger, Charlot, and the Caradoc Corporation had previous conflicts. I had no problem following the events of this novel though. It wasn't until I glanced at the back cover that I discovered the following inscription:
"Star-Pilot Grainger: 4"--which suggests that this is the fourth book in the series.
Overall Rating: a decent read. I'm not going to rush out and look for others in the series, but if I do come across one or more in a used bookstore, I might grab it, if it isn't too expensive.
==================================
Martha Grimes
The Black Cat
Mystery novel--police procedural
Setting: London--contemporary
I've read most, if not all, of Martha Grimes' "Richard Jury of Scotland Yard" novels, so I have a fair idea of what to expect from the series, which now extends to 20+ works. They feature a tightly plotted mystery, some red herrings, a fair number of eccentric ensemble characters, mundane or realistic events, and a variety of villains. However, the times they are " achanging," to quote somebody or other.
In Old Wine Shades, one of her most recent novels, Grimes introduces something new, or new at least for her series-a telepathic cat and dog, who, ironically, belong to the villain, Harry Johnson. While they are unable to communicate with Jury, they do manage to help thwart Harry's plans. Unfortunately for Jury, Harry is one devious character, so he manages to escape the law at the end.
Dust, the novel that followed Old Wine Shades introduced two new elements to the adventures of Richard Jury. One was the recurring villain: Harry Johnson from the previously mentioned novel. Jury has decided that he will bring Harry to justice, so he continues to go to Harry's favorite wine pub and stay in touch, hoping Harry will make a mistake. Harry, of course, knows exactly what Jury is up to and is confident that he can avoid any trap Jury may set up.
The other new element in Dust is lust, at least it's new for Jury. A friend of Jury has calls him to say that he's found a body. It isn't in Jury's jurisdiction, but a friend is a friend. The police are called and take control. However, once Jury and the female police officer in charge of the investigation meet, control goes out the window. Whenever they are alone, with a few minutes free, off come the clothes, and what results can at best be called very enthusiastic and highly energetic sex. Grimes spares us the clinical details but does tell us that the two "meetings" that took place in Jury's apartment were hard on the furniture--several of which were turned into kindling. Jury's neighbors are also curious about the source of the loud noises emanating from Jury's apartment.
The Black Cat, the novel that immediately follows Dust, and also is the most recent of her Jury works, continues the trends noted above. Harry is still around, and Jury is still trying to trap him This time, Harry, again not directly involved in the investigation, decides to meddle a bit in order to embarrass Jury once again. The animal population has now increased to three cats and two dogs, of which two cats and one dog are telepathic. The dog and one of the cats were first introduced in Old Wine Shades, so they appear to be recurring characters. I wonder what will happen if Jury eventually does trap Harry. Will they move in with Jury? For now, though, they seem to be replacing the eccentric characters that Jury spent time with in the earlier novels.
Overall Comments: Grimes seems to be moving her Jury series out of the strict police procedural category and into the cozy cat crime-solving category, or at least a blend of the two. I wonder how far she's going to go with this.
Recommendation: if you are looking for a police procedural story with some whimsy involved, try her earlier novels. If you are looking for a series that seems to be in the midst of a change, read one of the novels I've mentioned above.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Something to think about
The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Egyptian), c. 1800 B. C.: "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." (May be the earliest version ever written.) http://tinyurl.com/399m99n
Mahabharata, c. 800 B. C.: "Deal with others as thou wouldst thyself be dealt with. Do nothing to thy neighbor which thou wouldst not have him to thee hereafter."
Dadistan-I dinik, Zend-Avesta. c. 700 B. C.: "That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self."
Undana Varga. c. 500 B. C.: "Hurt not others with that which pains yourself."
Confucius, 5th century B. C.: "Tuan-mu Tzv said, 'What I do not wish others to do unto me I also wish not to do unto others.' Do not do unto others what you would not they should do unto you."
Mo Tzu, 470-391 B. C.: "If people regarded other people's families in the same way that they regard their own, who then would incite their own family to attack that of another? For one would do for others as one would do for oneself."
Plato, c. 4th century B. C.: "May I do to others as I would that they should do unto me."
Panchatantra, c. 200 B. C.: "Ponder well the maxim: Never do to other persons what would pain thyself."
Hillel Ha-Babli, c. 30 B. C.: "Whatsoever thou wouldst that men should not do to thee, do not do
that to them. This is the whole law. The rest is only explanation."
Epictetus, c. A. D. 100: "What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others."
St. Luke, c. A. D. 75: "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."
St. Matthew, A. D. 75: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."
Mohammed, 7th century A. D.: "Say not, if people are good to us, we will do good to them, and if people oppress us we will oppress them: but resolve that if people do good to you, you will do good to them, and if they oppress you, oppress them not again."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
John Cowper Powys: Three Fantasies
John Cowper Powys
Three Fantasies
I came across John Cowper Powys' Three Fantasies in a used bookstore. I had heard about him in grad school but had never read anything by him. The name was familiar, that's all. So, I pulled the book from the shelf and on the title page I saw "Stories by the Grandfather of magical realism."
Magical Realism? Grandfather?
There was an "Afterword" by Glen Cavaliero. It began--
"The preceding stories were written towards the end of John Cowper Powys' long life (1872-1963). They are the last in a series of nine short fantasies that could well be described as the juvenilia of his old age. Nothing even in his own fiction quite prepares us for their bizarre character. But it does Powys an injustice to dismiss the stories as the playthings of a literary senescence: he welcomed second childhood, delighting in his rapport with the very young, and in these final tales he wrote simply to please himself, liberated from the world of 'adult' journalism, reviewers and literary critics . . ."
That's tempting, especially when I noticed that the price was only $2.00. How could I turn down a book by the grandfather of magical realism? And, Cavaliero called the stories "bizarre." I have to agree. The first story was enough to convince me that I should go looking for the other six of his "nine short fantasies." To be precise, the first page is what really convinced me.
"Topsy-Turvy" is the first story in the book. It begins--
The Gray Armchair gazed across the little room at the Brown Armchair. They were in opposite corners; the grey one in the south corner and the brown one in the north corner of the room.
'Whirlwind and Whirlpool have left us quiet today,' said Mr Gray Armchair.
'I don't think it'll last long,' replied Mrs Brown Armchair. ' I seem to feel a certain motion of air coming in through the sides of the wind.'
'I hope,' said Mr Grey Armchair, 'that they won't carry Topsy away again. I don't at all like seeing her whirled down our little square and carried over the wall into the green field. And it must be awful for Turvy. I saw him make a queer jerk when it happened last time just as he was going to shut the door.'
Yes, the two armchairs are talking. And Topsy just happens to be a "picture of a Little Girls' Party" while Turvy is a "door-handle." Other characters who appear in the first part of the story are a hostile Rocking-Chair, the Book-Case, several books, the Carpet, the Bottom-Step, and two dolls who engage in a discussion as to why Big-Doll or Man-Doll refuses to ravish Little-Doll or Girl-Doll. He fears that the children, "their tiny dolls would become a great responsibility . . . [while] Little-Doll gave vent to several deep sighs."
The Rocking Chair plots with the Whirlpool and the Whirlwind to kidnap Topsy when Topsy and Turvy go out walking. They, however, escape to Another Dimension, which is a cloud-land where the clouds are sturdy enough to walk on. It seems to be Powys' conception of the Elysian Fields for there they meet a wide variety of historical figures, all of whom are engaged in discussing various topics. Dido and Aeneas discuss the relationship of humans to inanimate objects. Later they meet Dick Turpin, Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and various others. They return home at the same time that Girl-Doll gets her wish--she is going to have a baby.
"Abertackle" is the second story. It begin relatively realistically but around one-third of the way into the tale, it also gets bizarre.
The Abertackle folk were, it must be confessed, a queer lot. But then it must be remembered that Abertackle was itself a queer place; and queer places tend to breed queer people.
. . .
Visitors to the Go Peninsula [where Abertackle is located], whether tourists or business men, will always tell you that they like the people there very much and find them hospitable and friendly, but what they never tell you for some mysterious reason is why they leave the place so quickly and rarely ever return to it.
The first part of the tale consists of meeting various inhabitants who engage in small town gossip about each other and each other's foibles. Their names could easily belong in a Dicken's novel: Mr and Mrs Po, Mr Thrapplewait, Mr Willmop, Squire Neverbang and his friend Ooly-Fooly, and Titty Tinkle, to name a few. We then learn that the Po's son Gor has run off to London, and it is in London that life gets a bit strange.
Gor in his wanderings about London meets David Cox, the famous painter, who "was being carried through the air by a space-horse." He invites them to join him aboard the space-horse and they "went off round the world." What they don't know is that the horse is possessed by the Devil himself (the horns on the horse's head weren't noticed by either Cox or Gor). Sporadically throughout the novel the Devil would engage in various theological soliloquies, once about the death of God and whether he could resurrect God by himself. Others soon join Cox and Gor, and they eventually decide to explore the universe.
After various adventures, they decide to rule the universe and set up the members of their little party as King of the New State of Mankind ( Gor) while others become various functionaries.
The third tale is "Cataclysm." It opens--
In the little town of Riddle in the county of Squat in the west of Bumbledom there was a young man called Yok. He had just reached his seventeenth birthday . . . and told his sister, sitting across from him "I have now decided that I'll do it . . . I have decided,' he said quietly, 'to destroy the whole human race."
He has found a bag of dust that will instantly kill anyone who breathes it and Yok is now off to London to carry out his plan. While there, he hears about a group of vivisectionists who have discovered life on Venus and who plan to go there to capture subjects for their experiments. He borrows an airplane from his uncle and chases after them. He catches up with them on their journey to Venus and manages to destroy them with his dust. He also has picked up a few companions and they decide to travel about the universe. They have various bizarre adventures, as one might expect.
I've gone on long enough, I think, and I hope that I've given some idea of the strange and bizarre tales in the book. I may go looking for his more mundane fiction as well. From what I've read, Wolf Solent is considered to be his best work.
Overall Rating: As promised, they are bizarre tales, and I think they would make excellent animated films.
Three Fantasies
I came across John Cowper Powys' Three Fantasies in a used bookstore. I had heard about him in grad school but had never read anything by him. The name was familiar, that's all. So, I pulled the book from the shelf and on the title page I saw "Stories by the Grandfather of magical realism."
Magical Realism? Grandfather?
There was an "Afterword" by Glen Cavaliero. It began--
"The preceding stories were written towards the end of John Cowper Powys' long life (1872-1963). They are the last in a series of nine short fantasies that could well be described as the juvenilia of his old age. Nothing even in his own fiction quite prepares us for their bizarre character. But it does Powys an injustice to dismiss the stories as the playthings of a literary senescence: he welcomed second childhood, delighting in his rapport with the very young, and in these final tales he wrote simply to please himself, liberated from the world of 'adult' journalism, reviewers and literary critics . . ."
That's tempting, especially when I noticed that the price was only $2.00. How could I turn down a book by the grandfather of magical realism? And, Cavaliero called the stories "bizarre." I have to agree. The first story was enough to convince me that I should go looking for the other six of his "nine short fantasies." To be precise, the first page is what really convinced me.
"Topsy-Turvy" is the first story in the book. It begins--
The Gray Armchair gazed across the little room at the Brown Armchair. They were in opposite corners; the grey one in the south corner and the brown one in the north corner of the room.
'Whirlwind and Whirlpool have left us quiet today,' said Mr Gray Armchair.
'I don't think it'll last long,' replied Mrs Brown Armchair. ' I seem to feel a certain motion of air coming in through the sides of the wind.'
'I hope,' said Mr Grey Armchair, 'that they won't carry Topsy away again. I don't at all like seeing her whirled down our little square and carried over the wall into the green field. And it must be awful for Turvy. I saw him make a queer jerk when it happened last time just as he was going to shut the door.'
Yes, the two armchairs are talking. And Topsy just happens to be a "picture of a Little Girls' Party" while Turvy is a "door-handle." Other characters who appear in the first part of the story are a hostile Rocking-Chair, the Book-Case, several books, the Carpet, the Bottom-Step, and two dolls who engage in a discussion as to why Big-Doll or Man-Doll refuses to ravish Little-Doll or Girl-Doll. He fears that the children, "their tiny dolls would become a great responsibility . . . [while] Little-Doll gave vent to several deep sighs."
The Rocking Chair plots with the Whirlpool and the Whirlwind to kidnap Topsy when Topsy and Turvy go out walking. They, however, escape to Another Dimension, which is a cloud-land where the clouds are sturdy enough to walk on. It seems to be Powys' conception of the Elysian Fields for there they meet a wide variety of historical figures, all of whom are engaged in discussing various topics. Dido and Aeneas discuss the relationship of humans to inanimate objects. Later they meet Dick Turpin, Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe, and various others. They return home at the same time that Girl-Doll gets her wish--she is going to have a baby.
"Abertackle" is the second story. It begin relatively realistically but around one-third of the way into the tale, it also gets bizarre.
The Abertackle folk were, it must be confessed, a queer lot. But then it must be remembered that Abertackle was itself a queer place; and queer places tend to breed queer people.
. . .
Visitors to the Go Peninsula [where Abertackle is located], whether tourists or business men, will always tell you that they like the people there very much and find them hospitable and friendly, but what they never tell you for some mysterious reason is why they leave the place so quickly and rarely ever return to it.
The first part of the tale consists of meeting various inhabitants who engage in small town gossip about each other and each other's foibles. Their names could easily belong in a Dicken's novel: Mr and Mrs Po, Mr Thrapplewait, Mr Willmop, Squire Neverbang and his friend Ooly-Fooly, and Titty Tinkle, to name a few. We then learn that the Po's son Gor has run off to London, and it is in London that life gets a bit strange.
Gor in his wanderings about London meets David Cox, the famous painter, who "was being carried through the air by a space-horse." He invites them to join him aboard the space-horse and they "went off round the world." What they don't know is that the horse is possessed by the Devil himself (the horns on the horse's head weren't noticed by either Cox or Gor). Sporadically throughout the novel the Devil would engage in various theological soliloquies, once about the death of God and whether he could resurrect God by himself. Others soon join Cox and Gor, and they eventually decide to explore the universe.
After various adventures, they decide to rule the universe and set up the members of their little party as King of the New State of Mankind ( Gor) while others become various functionaries.
The third tale is "Cataclysm." It opens--
In the little town of Riddle in the county of Squat in the west of Bumbledom there was a young man called Yok. He had just reached his seventeenth birthday . . . and told his sister, sitting across from him "I have now decided that I'll do it . . . I have decided,' he said quietly, 'to destroy the whole human race."
He has found a bag of dust that will instantly kill anyone who breathes it and Yok is now off to London to carry out his plan. While there, he hears about a group of vivisectionists who have discovered life on Venus and who plan to go there to capture subjects for their experiments. He borrows an airplane from his uncle and chases after them. He catches up with them on their journey to Venus and manages to destroy them with his dust. He also has picked up a few companions and they decide to travel about the universe. They have various bizarre adventures, as one might expect.
I've gone on long enough, I think, and I hope that I've given some idea of the strange and bizarre tales in the book. I may go looking for his more mundane fiction as well. From what I've read, Wolf Solent is considered to be his best work.
Overall Rating: As promised, they are bizarre tales, and I think they would make excellent animated films.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Edward FitzGerald: March 31, 1809--June 14, 1883
On this day, I thought it only appropriate to post the last two quatrains from the First Edition of his interpretation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Quatrain LXXIV
Ah, Moon of my Delight, who know'st no wane,
The Moon of Heav'n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me--in vain!
Quatrain LXXV
And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
When I made one--tun down an empty Glass!
Quatrain LXXIV
Ah, Moon of my Delight, who know'st no wane,
The Moon of Heav'n is rising once again:
How oft hereafter rising shall she look
Through this same Garden after me--in vain!
Quatrain LXXV
And when Thyself with shining Foot shall pass
Among the Guests Star-scatter'd on the Grass,
And in thy joyous Errand reach the Spot
When I made one--tun down an empty Glass!
Friday, June 11, 2010
The Rubaiyat: Quatrain XXVII
Quatrain XXVII is the first in what I see as four linked quatrains--Quatrain XXVII through Quatrain XXX. This quatrain provides the setting for the next quatrain which then leads to punning and word swapping in the third and fourth quatrains in this linked series.
First Edition: Quatrain XXVII
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door as in I went.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXX
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door as in I went.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXVII
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.
Only the slightest changes take place through the various editions. "Argument," which was capitalized in the first edition, now has a lower case "a" in the second and fifth editions. "Door" also lost its capital letter in the second and fifth editions. And, in the last line, the "as" of the first and second editions becomes "where" in the fifth version.
FitzGerald has changed the upper case first letter of nouns to lower case several times already, so this is nothing new. I can't think of any case so far in which he does the opposite--substitutes an upper case letter for the original lower case. The change from "as in" to "where in" seems, to me anyway, to rest on the expectation that "where in I went" appears more likely to occur than "as in I went." What is your thinking on this?
Khayyam presents himself as a student going from teacher to teacher, from reason (the Doctor) to holiness (the Saint), but all he ever heard were disputes "About it and about." Just what these arguments concerned is never really spelled out--just the vague "it" and eventually not even "it," but mostly motion around this vague "it." Khayyam here seems to be saying that not only were the answers of no help, but even the questions were unprofitable.
What did he learn from all this? That he "came out by the same door" that he had entered suggests it wasn't much: he was back where he started. This point has been made already in earlier quatrains--the inability of "Saints" and "Sages" and "the Wise" to provide answers for his questions. Neither reason nor sanctity seems give him what he is searching for--the answers to "life's persistent questions."
First Edition: Quatrain XXVII
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door as in I went.
Second Edition: Quatrain XXX
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door as in I went.
Fifth Edition: Quatrain XXVII
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.
Only the slightest changes take place through the various editions. "Argument," which was capitalized in the first edition, now has a lower case "a" in the second and fifth editions. "Door" also lost its capital letter in the second and fifth editions. And, in the last line, the "as" of the first and second editions becomes "where" in the fifth version.
FitzGerald has changed the upper case first letter of nouns to lower case several times already, so this is nothing new. I can't think of any case so far in which he does the opposite--substitutes an upper case letter for the original lower case. The change from "as in" to "where in" seems, to me anyway, to rest on the expectation that "where in I went" appears more likely to occur than "as in I went." What is your thinking on this?
Khayyam presents himself as a student going from teacher to teacher, from reason (the Doctor) to holiness (the Saint), but all he ever heard were disputes "About it and about." Just what these arguments concerned is never really spelled out--just the vague "it" and eventually not even "it," but mostly motion around this vague "it." Khayyam here seems to be saying that not only were the answers of no help, but even the questions were unprofitable.
What did he learn from all this? That he "came out by the same door" that he had entered suggests it wasn't much: he was back where he started. This point has been made already in earlier quatrains--the inability of "Saints" and "Sages" and "the Wise" to provide answers for his questions. Neither reason nor sanctity seems give him what he is searching for--the answers to "life's persistent questions."
Monday, June 7, 2010
Something to think about
Shelley's irony is fascinating here and to capture it, one must read this poem twice. First, put yourself in Ozymandias' place and read the quotation on the pedestal from his point of view. Then, go back and read it as that traveller had seen it in midst of that desolation that surrounded that ''shattered visage."
Ozymandias of Egypt
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley --
Ozymandias of Egypt
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley --
Friday, June 4, 2010
Fata Morgana: a film by Werner Herzog
Fata Morgana is my nominee for the strangest film I've viewed this year. It came out in 1971, but I just recently noticed it and decided to give it a viewing. Werner Herzog is the director, and this is one of his earliest films: the third to be exact. In the commentary included on the DVD, Herzog said that this film contains many of the themes that he explored in greater detail in his later films. I watched the film twice; the second time with the commentary by Herzog. If you do watch the film, I highly recommend watching the commentary version at some point. It helps.
The title, Fata Morgana, is an Italian term that refers to an unusual and very complex type of mirage. It refers to Morgan le Fay, from the Arthurian cycle, and suggests the belief that the mirage is produced by witchcraft. Several mirages are presented throughout the film, some of which I didn't realize were mirages until it was pointed out during the viewing with the commentary turned on.
The film has no plot, at least not in the accepted sense of the term. In addition, Herzog states that this is not a documentary. I agree with him--at least, again, not a documentary in the usual sense. Herzog also insists that "there is a coherence there which is inexplicable but somehow there." Ultimately, I consider it unclassifiable. For the most part it is a series of short scenes and images shot in the northern Sahara Desert. The dialogue is almost non-existent, consisting of short voice-overs: readings from the Popol Vuh, which is the Mayan creation myth, and music ranging from classical ecclesiastical works to songs by Leonard Cohen.
Herzog says that initially it was to be an SF film. Aliens land on a planet and film what they see. This was to be a photojournal of their visit. However, he quickly dropped the idea and decided that he would just present the film images without the story.
The film has three parts: "Creation," "Paradise," and "The Golden Age." One commentary I read stated that on the surface, the titles appear ironic in contrast to the film images, but are not ironic at a deeper level. Unfortunately I am unable so far to get to that deeper level.
The film opens with an airport scene: we see a number of planes landing, each one getting more and more blurred and distorted as the day warms up.
Part I: Creation
As we hear a woman's voice reading the Mayan creation myth in German (English subtitles) we see images of the desert with buildings off in the distance, sand dunes, an oasis with palm trees, and huge storage tanks. Other scenes include a wrecked plane, an oil field perhaps burning off natural gas, and a flat landscape with sand and brush. One might almost call it a collage of images.
People occasionally appear in brief glimpses, but with no discernible purpose. Herzog commented that he couldn't communicate with them, so they were free to do what they wanted. Some just glanced at the camera and walked on. Others stood there and stared back. One man gestured with his hands, first pointing in one direction, then another, and then shrugged his shoulder and walked off.
I was startled when lush vegetation and once a beautiful waterfall appeared. These were not from the Sahara but scenes shot later in the Canary Islands. Again, the commentary was helpful here. However, there seemed to be no attempt to draw any conclusion from the juxtaposition of the barren scenery and the waterfall. It was up to the viewers, I guess, to make of it what they would or could.
Part II: Paradise
Again, a series of images that contrast with the usual concept of a Paradise. There are people again engaged in inexplicable, to me anyway, activity. A man and a woman approach the camera, both taking very short steps. He wears a coat that has many medals and begins speaking. There is no translation, and Herzog commented that they had no idea of what he was saying. During this segment Leonard Cohen sings two songs, one of which is "Suzanne." One scene is of a German researcher who is holding a monitor lizard that obviously fascinates him. He wears what appears to be swim or diving goggles. At one point a man appears holding a very worn and creased letter that is falling apart. He says, in German, that he is going back to rejoin his people in Germany. He got the letter over 25 years ago. Other images are of a Moslem cemetery, a military camp, and the site of a French test of a nuclear weapon.
Part III: The Golden Age
The most striking image in this section consists of a man and a woman on a small stage: she plays the piano and he sings and plays the drums and cymbals. He is singing in Spanish, but the sound quality is so bad I couldn't tell what language it is. The music and the movement of the two are so repetitive that I wonder if it is just one short clip of ten or fifteen seconds that has been repeatedly copied and spliced together. But, in spite of the repetition and monotonous tone, it is strangely compelling. Even now, almost a week after I watched the film, I can still recall that scene.
At one point, a voice intones that there "the landscape was as God commanded it to be." The scene was of a military camp. Another scene is of a huge unfinished factory building, only the structural girders have been installed. It is surrounded by desert; there is nothing, absolutely nothing to be seen for miles. Who built it? Why was it built there, in the middle of nowhere? Who was supposed to work there? Nobody knew anything about it.
Fata Morgana reminds me of a type of psychological test called a projective test: the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test, for example. They consist of ambiguous images which the individual is supposed to interpret and say something about. What the person says about the images is supposed to reveal some aspects of that individual's personality.
Overall Rating: It's one that I put back in the queue for another viewing, perhaps next year. I'll leave it sit and percolate in my subconscious for awhile.
The title, Fata Morgana, is an Italian term that refers to an unusual and very complex type of mirage. It refers to Morgan le Fay, from the Arthurian cycle, and suggests the belief that the mirage is produced by witchcraft. Several mirages are presented throughout the film, some of which I didn't realize were mirages until it was pointed out during the viewing with the commentary turned on.
The film has no plot, at least not in the accepted sense of the term. In addition, Herzog states that this is not a documentary. I agree with him--at least, again, not a documentary in the usual sense. Herzog also insists that "there is a coherence there which is inexplicable but somehow there." Ultimately, I consider it unclassifiable. For the most part it is a series of short scenes and images shot in the northern Sahara Desert. The dialogue is almost non-existent, consisting of short voice-overs: readings from the Popol Vuh, which is the Mayan creation myth, and music ranging from classical ecclesiastical works to songs by Leonard Cohen.
Herzog says that initially it was to be an SF film. Aliens land on a planet and film what they see. This was to be a photojournal of their visit. However, he quickly dropped the idea and decided that he would just present the film images without the story.
The film has three parts: "Creation," "Paradise," and "The Golden Age." One commentary I read stated that on the surface, the titles appear ironic in contrast to the film images, but are not ironic at a deeper level. Unfortunately I am unable so far to get to that deeper level.
The film opens with an airport scene: we see a number of planes landing, each one getting more and more blurred and distorted as the day warms up.
Part I: Creation
As we hear a woman's voice reading the Mayan creation myth in German (English subtitles) we see images of the desert with buildings off in the distance, sand dunes, an oasis with palm trees, and huge storage tanks. Other scenes include a wrecked plane, an oil field perhaps burning off natural gas, and a flat landscape with sand and brush. One might almost call it a collage of images.
People occasionally appear in brief glimpses, but with no discernible purpose. Herzog commented that he couldn't communicate with them, so they were free to do what they wanted. Some just glanced at the camera and walked on. Others stood there and stared back. One man gestured with his hands, first pointing in one direction, then another, and then shrugged his shoulder and walked off.
I was startled when lush vegetation and once a beautiful waterfall appeared. These were not from the Sahara but scenes shot later in the Canary Islands. Again, the commentary was helpful here. However, there seemed to be no attempt to draw any conclusion from the juxtaposition of the barren scenery and the waterfall. It was up to the viewers, I guess, to make of it what they would or could.
Part II: Paradise
Again, a series of images that contrast with the usual concept of a Paradise. There are people again engaged in inexplicable, to me anyway, activity. A man and a woman approach the camera, both taking very short steps. He wears a coat that has many medals and begins speaking. There is no translation, and Herzog commented that they had no idea of what he was saying. During this segment Leonard Cohen sings two songs, one of which is "Suzanne." One scene is of a German researcher who is holding a monitor lizard that obviously fascinates him. He wears what appears to be swim or diving goggles. At one point a man appears holding a very worn and creased letter that is falling apart. He says, in German, that he is going back to rejoin his people in Germany. He got the letter over 25 years ago. Other images are of a Moslem cemetery, a military camp, and the site of a French test of a nuclear weapon.
Part III: The Golden Age
The most striking image in this section consists of a man and a woman on a small stage: she plays the piano and he sings and plays the drums and cymbals. He is singing in Spanish, but the sound quality is so bad I couldn't tell what language it is. The music and the movement of the two are so repetitive that I wonder if it is just one short clip of ten or fifteen seconds that has been repeatedly copied and spliced together. But, in spite of the repetition and monotonous tone, it is strangely compelling. Even now, almost a week after I watched the film, I can still recall that scene.
At one point, a voice intones that there "the landscape was as God commanded it to be." The scene was of a military camp. Another scene is of a huge unfinished factory building, only the structural girders have been installed. It is surrounded by desert; there is nothing, absolutely nothing to be seen for miles. Who built it? Why was it built there, in the middle of nowhere? Who was supposed to work there? Nobody knew anything about it.
Fata Morgana reminds me of a type of psychological test called a projective test: the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test, for example. They consist of ambiguous images which the individual is supposed to interpret and say something about. What the person says about the images is supposed to reveal some aspects of that individual's personality.
Overall Rating: It's one that I put back in the queue for another viewing, perhaps next year. I'll leave it sit and percolate in my subconscious for awhile.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Thomas Hardy: June 2, 1840--Jan. 11, 1928
In his prose and poetry, Thomas Hardy often celebrated the heroism of the individual's struggle to survive in an uncaring universe, but he seldom, if ever, glorifies the great human institutions--government, the church, war. In truth, he saw them as another enemy to fight against.
This poem is typical, I think.
Departure
(Southhampton Docks, October 1899)
While the far farewell music thins and fails,
And the broad bottoms rip the bearing brine--
All smalling slowly to the gray sea-line--
And each significant red smoke-shaft pales,
Keen sense of severance everywhere prevails,
Which shapes the late long tramp of mounting men
To seeming words that ask and ask again:
"How long, O striving Teutons, Slavs, and Gaels
Must your wroth reasonings trade on lives like these,
That are as puppets in a playing hand?--
When shall the saner softer polities
Whereof we dream, have sway in each proud land
and patriotism, grown Godlike, scorn to stand
Bondslave to realms, but circle earth and seas?"
I think that dream hasn't gotten any closer since Hardy wrote this poem. Frankly, I doubt that I will see it in my lifetime.
This poem is typical, I think.
Departure
(Southhampton Docks, October 1899)
While the far farewell music thins and fails,
And the broad bottoms rip the bearing brine--
All smalling slowly to the gray sea-line--
And each significant red smoke-shaft pales,
Keen sense of severance everywhere prevails,
Which shapes the late long tramp of mounting men
To seeming words that ask and ask again:
"How long, O striving Teutons, Slavs, and Gaels
Must your wroth reasonings trade on lives like these,
That are as puppets in a playing hand?--
When shall the saner softer polities
Whereof we dream, have sway in each proud land
and patriotism, grown Godlike, scorn to stand
Bondslave to realms, but circle earth and seas?"
I think that dream hasn't gotten any closer since Hardy wrote this poem. Frankly, I doubt that I will see it in my lifetime.
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