Theodore Sturgeon: "The World Well Lost"

Theodore Sturgeon's "The World Well Lost" is an SF short story.  The title is taken from John Dryden's play, All For Love; or, The World Well Lost.  The subject of  Dryden's play is the same as Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, the love between them that cost one a kingdom and the other an empire.  Love's price is high for them, but the title suggests love is worth it.  Sturgeon's short story is about another love, a different type of love that at that time had to remain hidden, for the consequences of revealing it would result also in the loss of one's position, and very likely one's family and friends.  This story was published in 1953, which makes it remarkable for being written and published at that time.

It is set far in the future when Terra (Earth) had spread its influence throughout the galaxy.  However, there were a few holdouts and the planet Dirbanu was one of them.  When the initial contact had been made by a Terran ship, Dirbanu had surrounded itself in impenetrable force fields, thus preventing any contact until an ambassador could be sent to Terra.  Once there, in spite of numerous and obvious similarities, "the ambassador .  .  . showed a most uncommon disdain of Earth and all its work, curled his lip and went wordlessly home, and ever since then Dirbanu had locked itself tight away from the questing Terrans."

So it remained until the time when Dirbanu finally slipped from Terran concerns and memory.

Then the "loverbirds" arrived.  They landed in a small spaceship, and after disembarking, the taller one of the two threw some powder on the ship, and it immediately dissolved into dust which blew away on the wind.  It was clear they planned to stay on Terra, thus giving up their home planet, possibly forever.

They were so wrapped up in each other that the Earth folk were captivated.  There were loverbird songs, trinkets, hats and pins, and jewelry.  It took a computer, however, loaded with the accumulated knowledge of Terran space exploration to discover where they came from, for they never would say.  It was Dirbanu.  It was at this time that Dirbanu sent a message, the first one in ages, to Earth.  The loverbirds were criminals and the Dirbanu would be most grateful if they were returned.

"So, from the depths of its enchantment, Terra was able to calculate a course of action.  Here at last was an opportunity to consort with Dirbanu on a friendly basis--great Dirbanu which, since it had force fields which Earth could not duplicate, must of necessity, have many other things Earth could use;  mighty Dirbanu before whom we could kneel in supplication (with purely-for-defense bombs hidden in our pockets) with lowered heads (making invisible the knife in our teeth) and ask for crumbs from their table (in order to extrapolate the location of their kitchens)."

Sturgeon does not paint a pleasing picture of the Terrans, or, at least, one that doesn't sound very pleasing to me. And later, one of the characters paints an even more dismal picture of Earth culture, which ostensibly is in the future but can be descriptive of many contemporary human cultures and groups.

"A filthy place, Terra.  There is nothing, he thought, like the conservatism of license.  Given a culture of sybaritics, with an endless choice of mechanical titillations, and you have a people of unbreakable and hidebound formality, a people with few but massive taboos, a shockable, narrow, prissy people obeying the rules--even the rules of their calculated depravities--and protecting their treasured, specialized pruderies.  In such a group there are words one may not use for fear of their fanged laughter, colors one may not wear, gestures and intonations one must forego, on pain of being torn to pieces.  The rules are complex and absolute, and in such a place one's heart may not sing lest, through its warm free joyousness, it betray one."

The subject, a taboo one when this story was written, and although more acceptable today, but still considered with loathing and fear by various groups for various reasons, is homosexual love.   It is one of the first stories I read that portrayed homosexual love as being something other than a perversion or a defiance of natural law.   Though it might be banned by various groups today, it still doesn't have the effect it had when it was first published in the early '50s. 


Highly recommended:  it is a story that makes its point without preaching.

Basho: a haiku or two or maybe . . .

Some time ago I bought a collection of haiku by poets the editor called Haiku Masters.  When I opened it, I was surprised to find that it had no haiku by Basho.  In the Introduction, the editor explained that he hadn't included any by Basho because Basho was the Haiku Poet, and therefore superior to the Haiku Masters.

While I don't think every haiku by Basho is a gem, as some editors and commentators claim, I do think he has more gems than any other haiku poet and I can't argue when he's called the Haiku Poet..


Here are some:



          For a lovely bowl
Let us arrange these flowers .  .  .
       Since there is no rice

Opportunities to create beauty are everywhere.

-   -   -   -   -   -


        April's air stirs in
Willow-leaves .  .  .a butterfly
      Floats and balances.

My favorite haiku.  I've posted this one before and I'll probably post it again.


-   -   -   -   -   -


          White cloud of mist
Above white cherry-blossoms .  .  .
      Dawn-shining mountains

Sheer imagery


-   -   -   -   -   -


  Twilight whippoorwill .  .  .
Whistle on, sweet deepener
       Of dark loneliness

This goes straight to the heart: 
"sweet deepener
       Of dark loneliness"




All haiku are taken from A Little Treasury of Haiku, Avenel Books.
Translations by Peter Beilenson

Recent Viewings

This is a mixed bag of recent DVDs I've watched in the past few weeks.  Some were disappointments while others surprised me.  One was a dramatization based on a short story that greatly expanded on the short story, adding a new element, along with the usual special effects, that reminded me of another film.


------------------------------------------

Casablanca

Casablanca had to be one of the two best films I've seen recently.  It is the classic with Bogart, Bergman, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Paul Henreid and everybody's favorite German officer, Conrad Veidt.  It has a great cast, a great script, and a story that has everything--romance, adventure, danger, and patriotism.  The specific reason for seeing it this time was a fear that a recent viewing of the Neil Simon effort, The Cheap Detective, spoiled the film for me.  Sometimes images from a pastiche can interfere with the original.  In this case, there was no problem.

If you haven't seen it, go see it.  If it's been awhile, see it again. 


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The Maltese Falcon

The other film which occupied the top spot was The Maltese Falcon, which was the second part of Neil  Simon's The Cheap Detective, in which the Peter Falk character played the role of Bogart's Sam Spade who occasionally wandered onto the set of Casablanca.   Like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon also had a great cast:  Bogart, Greenstreet, Lorre, Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, and Elisha Cook, Jr., in the only role I can remember him, as the Gunsel or the Kid.  The weak link was Mary Astor, as Brigid O'Shaughnessy.  The specific reason for watching this film is the same as for Casablanca.  I was curious to see if I could watch it and not have my enjoyment spoiled by Simon's pastiche.  Again, I found no problems. 

My recommendation is the same as for Casablanca--see it soon.


--------------------------------------------

Aftermath: Population Zero


Aftermath:  Population Zero is a very different film.  It is a National Geographic special that predicts what would happen on Earth if the human race suddenly vanished.  It doesn't explain why or how this happened, just that all humans vanished at the same time.  The immediate effect was a lot of auto crashes and eventually plane crashes.  It took a bit longer for ships to collide or run aground or just lose power and become just another bit of flotsam.

The period of time covered in the film went from one minute after the disappearance to twenty-five thousand years in the future when another ice age completely destroyed any remaining signs of human existence on Earth.  Ironically, the only signs that humans existed were the astronauts' footprints and discarded materials on the moon.  They might last for hundreds of thousands of years.  What surprised me the most was the speed at which the power grid shut down--a few days at most.  This of course resulted in various other failures, one of the most serious was at nuclear power plants when the cooling systems shut down and caused meltdowns.  I thought that the estimate of the damage was minimized.

The film naturally had spectacular graphics of the destruction of many buildings and landmarks.    I also found interesting the speculations regarding the fate/future of various animals which had been pets (dogs, cats, exotic birds) or domestic animals (cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, chickens) or most interesting, animals in zoos, assuming they could get out of their cages or habitats.

If you're curious about what would happen if we all disappeared one day, give this one a viewing.  I found it absorbing and enlightening.  


-------------------------------------------


Nostradamus:  2012

Hoping to get some real information, free from the hype of those with an axe to grind and from those who just wanted to exploit the topic, I chose to watch The History Channel's film on Nostradamus, Nostradamus: 2012, which presumably would cover Nostradamus' predictions and the Mayan prophecies regarding events on Dec. 21, 2012.

I hadn't watched many of the offerings of this channel, so I had high expectations for the level of discussion.  I was disappointed.  It turned out to be just another exploitation film with all the usual tricks that show up.  Much of the narrative consisted of questions that later on were assumed to be answered.  Speculations later became facts.  Claims were made by "experts,"  who were never named.  These claims were followed by a statement from one or more authors who testified mostly that those statements or prophecies really existed, but nothing about the legitimacy of the prophecies.  Nothing was ever said about Nostradamus, that his prophecies had been used by numerous seers and preachers who pointed out  the relevance of those prophecies to events in every century or even almost every decade since his death in 1566, almost four hundred and fifty years ago.

The conclusion?  One of the most prominent authors on the program told us in a very confidential voice that he really didn't think that anything dramatic was going to happen on December 21, 2012--no earthquakes, no super-volcanic eruptions, no super storms .  .  .  It was going to be a normal day, just like any other day.  In other words, he just discounted everything that had just been told us.  However, forty years in the future in a world that has eliminated pollution, overpopulation, poverty, disease,  famine, war, etc., we would be able to look back and say that it all began on December 21, 2012.

No comment

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The Box

The Box is a recent film based on Richard Matheson's short story "Button, Button."   If you are not familiar with his writings, then you should take a look at his SF novel  I Am Legend, which has been made into several mediocre films.  It's a reverse spin on the traditional vampire legend.   In this tale, a normal human is seen as a monster (for good reasons) which vampire parents use to scare their children.

In "Button, Button,"  a financially struggling young couple receive a package one day.  Upon opening it, they find a box with a button on top, all covered by a plastic shield.  Later, they receive a visitor who tells them that by pushing the button they will receive fifty thousand dollars.  In addition, someone they don't know will die.  They can get the money only at the expense of someone's life. 

We then see the discussion between the husband and wife.  They need the money.  But, at the cost of a human life?  Is this a hoax?   The button is pushed, but at a price neither expected.

It's clear this is too slight of a story to be turned into a feature length film.  It was dramatized on Twilight Zone in the 80s, a version which I haven't seen.  I suspect, though, that  it would do well in a short format.

In 2009, the feature film version came out--The Box, which was loosely based on the story.  In the film, a young couple with financial problems receive a package containing a box with a button on top and covered with a plastic shield.  A visitor later that day tells that by pushing the button they will get one million dollars: 
obvious inflation here as we've gone from $50,000 in 1970 when the story was first published  to $1,000,000 in 2009.  This is followed by the discussion between the husband and the wife, and eventually the button is pushed.  In both the short story and the film, the husband is opposed to pushing the button and he leaves for work.  While he is gone, she pushes the button.

Spoiler warning:  I have brought out some significant plot elements here.

Up to this point, the film has been very close to the story, but once the button is pushed, the short story is forgotten.  All sort of special effects and strange events take place.  There is a group behind the box who seem to be running some sort of experiment.  In the back ground are aliens who have come to test humanity for the virtues of compassion and empathy.  If humanity loses, it will be destroyed--a bit reminiscent of a much earlier classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.  In addition, at the end the husband is forced to choose between his son and his wife.  This is a reversal of sorts of the end of the short story.

Recommendation:  give it a viewing.  I doubt if it will be a classic, but it does pose some questions regarding morality which are frequently ignored in many SF films.   And, these questions should also be turned back on the aliens as well.

Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias (California Troika)

While Kim Stanley Robinson's Three Californias occupy differing universes, there still are some interesting links drawing them together.   A brief reminder:  Wild Shore (WS) is the post-holocaust novel about life in what was once Orange County; The Gold Coast (GC) tells of life in a Orange County which has become completely covered over with expressways, condos, and shopping malls; and Pacific Edge (PE) relates of life in a world that takes the future of humanity, the environment, and our fellow creature into account.

All three novels open with a similar event or adventure, depending upon the novel--digging up the past.  In WS, Henry and his friends engage in a midnight raid on a graveyard located in one of the mostly deserted urban areas in the vicinity.  They are looking for the silver trimmings (silver is especially valuable as a trade item at the swap meets) from the caskets.  The problem is that these are considered to be their property by the scavengers who live there and have been known to kill trespassers.  They find that the silver trimmings are not really silver and barely escape the scavengers who have come across them..

The past again  becomes important in GC for Jim has persuaded his friends to dig up a parking lot which has paved over an old school, according to maps that Jim has found. He hopes to find a souvenir of that past time before the auto took over the county.   In this case, the police take a dim view of the destruction of the parking lot and Jim and his friends barely escape them.  One of his friends does manage to escape with a piece of  wood.

In PE, Kevin and others in his town are engaged in town work.  All residents must donate ten hours a week to doing work needed by the town, which has very few employees, part of the new legislation setting maximum levels of number of employees.  Aside from this which is a distinct break from our world, is another even more startling:  all governments must obey the same rules. They are busy digging up an old part of the town and putting aside for future use all the items made of metal with copper wiring and actually anything that can be reused.

Digging up the past is obviously an important element in all three novels, but this serves a different purpose in each.  In WS it's for  something that could be valuable as a bargaining/trading item,  in GC, it's for a souvenir of the long ago dead past, while in PE, it's for recyclable items.

A second link uniting the three is the main character's love life, and the course is unfortunately consistent across the three universes.  Henry, in WS, falls in love with the sexy daughter of a man who lives on the outskirts of the tiny settlement.  He is viewed with suspicion by the others for he seems to have considerable wealth, but from where no one can say.  It's a short brief but passionate affair (at least on Henry's side) that ends when Henry discovers the truth behind her sudden passion for him.

In GC,  Jim has a short, brief passionate affair with a woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend, or perhaps he has dumped her.  In any case, Jim is the lucky recipient of her affection, for a short time, that is.

Kevin, in PE, has been going with a woman for several years now, but it's clearly not going anywhere, and he's losing interest.  Then he discovers that his long ago secret love has broken up with her boyfriend after living together for more than a decade.  He finds that she suddenly discovers him, and he is ecstatic, until the sad end.  He then decides that his old girlfriend is his true love but soon learns that in the interim she has found a new boyfriend.

The path of true love does not run smoothly, regardless of the universe.

The third link is the supposed author of the works, two of which are written by the main character in each work--Henry in WS and Jim in GC. In both cases we are shown just when Henry and Jim get the idea to write down their experiences of the past months which were highly significant for them, their families, and friends.  We also hear from the author of PE, but the identify of that person is not clear.  The authorial intrusions soon make it difficult to see him as Kevin.  They live in two different universes.  Comments made by the author also suggest that this is a work of  fiction, and not autobiographical in any way.  Perhaps this is Robinson's way of suggesting that this world could never exist.  Sadly, I have to agree with Robinson that a post holocaust world is far more likely than a world that comes to realize that sheer greed and exploitation must be at least controlled, for eliminating greed and exploitation is impossible.

The last and most intriguing link is also the most direct.  In each of the three novels, there is an old man called Tom.  In WS, he is called Tom Barnard, and he is one of the few survivors from the pre-holocaust world.  He is a valuable member of the small community, for his memories of the past are highly useful.  Moreover, he is a teacher who conducts a school for the young people in the community.  Literacy among the people of his community may be his greatest contribution.  He is also a myth maker, not only telling about the pre-holocaust days but exaggerating the accomplishments of the Old Americans.  For example, Shakespeare was an American.  At one point, he becomes seriously ill and the entire community is concerned.  Existence without Tom Barnard would be unthinkable.

In PE, the old man is also called Tom Barnard.  He also lives on the outskirts of the community but is isolated from the community.  This is his choice.  He had been closely involved in the legislation that created the world as it is today in PE, and he now appears to be taking Voltaire's admonition to "tend to your own garden" quite seriously.  He is Kevin's grandfather, and Kevin attempts to get him involved in the struggle to defeat Alfredo's plans.  Tom's experience and knowledge would be very useful to those opposing Alfredo.

We find a very different situation in GC.  The old man is Jim's uncle.  I can't find any mention of him other than Uncle Tom, so I have no idea of what his last name is.  He is in a nursing home, with moments of lucidness and times of confusion;   He is mostly ignored by Jim, and by society in general, a too typical situation for many older people in our society as well.  Jim has to be nagged at by his parents to visit him once in a while.  On one visit, Tom is lucid and Jim finally realizes, much too late, that Tom has a storehouse of memories of the way Orange County was before progress took over.

In WS, the post-holocaust novel,  and PE, the fantasy universe that has gone green, Tom is a valued member of the community with close ties to both Henry and Kevin.  In GC, the universe that is closest to ours, Tom, for the most part,  is ignored by Jim and of no value to society.

Highly Recommended (naturally)

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LVI

This is another quatrain that seems difficult to interpret with a religious or a spiritual meaning.


First Edition:  Quatrain LVI

And this I know:  whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath consume me quite,
    One glimpse of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.



Second Edition:  Quatrain LXXXIII



And this I know:  whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
    One flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.



Fifth Edition:  LXXVII

And this I know: whether the one True Light,
Kindle to Love, or Wrath-consume me quite,
    One flash of It within the Tavern caught
Better than in the Temple lost outright.


Only one word change appears among the various editions.  "Glimpse" in the third line of the first edition is changed to "flash"  in the second and fifth editions.  The significance of the change may be that since it's a Light that the poet is speaking of, a "flash"  would be more accurate a description than a "glimpse."   The other change is an addition of a dash  between "Wrath" and "consume"  in the second and succeeding editions.  It's effect is to produce a pause after "Wrath" and and link it more closely to "Kindle to Love, or Wrath."  Now it seems as that the True Light could result in Love or Wrath, regardless of its ultimate effect.

The poet suggests that he could get a brief look at the Divinity, regardless of  whether it happens in a Temple or a Tavern--the spiritual world or the profane world.   However, it would be preferable to die from getting a glimpse of it in a Tavern than spending all one's time fruitlessly in a Temple.

Barbara Hurd: Some kind words for swamps

".  .  .We love high drama in this country, mountain peaks and soap operas.  They offer us something to tilt our lives toward--that triumph of ascent, that heart-pounding eye-to-eye intensity, that feeling of being wildly alive.  Our nature aesthetics sound like movie reviews.  We thrill to the surprising twist in the road that reveals the vast panorama, the unexpected waterfall.  We canonize beauty that can be framed on the walls, in the camera, or on the postcard.
     To love a swamp, however, is to love what is muted and marginal, what exists in the shadows, what shoulders its way out of mud and scurries along the damp edges of what is most commonly praised.  And sometimes its invisibility is a blessing.  Swamps and bogs are places of transition and wild growth, breeding grounds, experimental labs  where organisms and ideas have the luxury of being out of the spotlight, where the imagination can mutate and mate, send tendrils into and out of the water.  It should come as no surprise that the most common carnivorous plants are found in wetlands.  Here there is room for the thought not fully formed to stretch, roll over, poke its eyes above water.  Here is the valley of split-pea soup where what floats like a chunk of ham might lift its meaty head out of the muck and haul itself onto the log next to you. blinking in the sunshine."

-- Barbara Hurd --
from Spring: A Spiritual Autobiography of the Season



I must confess that I'm one of those high drama lovers that Hurd writes of and who seldom spends any time contemplating the virtues of a bog.  And, I never thought of comparing our subconscious where those half-formed ideas germinate and play  to a swamp or bog, but it does seem to fit somehow.   Some of those ideas probably should never escape from the bog, but there are others that should be nurtured for awhile before being exposed to the harsh realities of  the outside world.

Kim Stanley Robinson: Pacific Edge (Three California series)

I have to resist calling Kim Stanley Robinson's Pacific Edge the third book in the Three California Series because that sounds as though it's the third book in the series.  It is, but only because it's the third book published in the series, which was originally called The Orange County Trilogy.  Wild Shore was published in 1984 (actually his first published novel), The Gold Coast in 1988, and Pacific Edge in 1990.  I published a short commentary on Wild Shore in March 2011, The Gold Coast in August 2011, and a very short summary of all three in a post titled The California Troika in January 2011.

Pacific Edge is a "what if" tale.  It answers the question of what it would be like if the world turned green and developed a concern for the environment and ecology.  It is also a fantasy whereas the first two novels are closer to SF in nature, and, frankly, I believe a nuclear war and a military-industrial takeover are far more likely than the premise in Pacific Edge.  However, regardless of the change in perspective, Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) has not created a utopia.  People are still people, and there are those who don't see why they can't use the new rules for their own purposes, including grabbing for power and wealth.

Sustainability is the rule in this society.  Excesses are eliminated, or at least, attempts are made to do so.  Corporations are limited by the number of employees, although this limit can be effectively circumvented by setting up dummy corporations, or at least circumvented until the linkage is discovered.  The growth of urban populations are controlled by the amount of water available--insufficient water results in no growth.   In Pacific Edge, we see how these issues are worked out in a small town setting.

This is not a rural fantasy, where technology has disappeared.  People are living in space habitats and there's a colony on the moon.  An expedition is now being fitted out for a trip to Mars.   KSR has not created a completely low-tech culture, but one that makes decisions about when and where to apply technology.  Cars still exist, but in Kevin's small town, people either walk or ride a bike when they move about town.   Cars are necessary only for long trips, not for short jaunts around town.  Moreover, when the novel  begins, we see the people engaged in town-work.  All able-bodied citizens have to put in ten hours a week of town work.  This reduces the need for town employees and the associated costs.  Small government comes with a cost.


Kevin, the main character,  is in his early 30s, although he seems a bit younger than that.  Perhaps this will be the summer that matures him.  It certainly will be a busy one for him, testing him in a variety of ways and providing new experiences. As to be expected in our real world, his experiences have two sides to them--good and bad.

Perhaps one of the most frivolous, frivolous perhaps to some, is his love of softball.  This summer, as in the past, he plays in a softball league.   But, this summer is different, for well into the season, he has compiled a perfect record at bat--he is batting 1.000!  All recognize that this can't last the season, but when will it end?  The attention he gets (the absolute silence, including a few hushes) from the players and spectators each time he comes up to bat is disconcerting.  At times he wishes that it will end and even considers ending it deliberately.  But, he is competitive and each hit helps his team.

He has been involved in a lukewarm relationship that's been going on for years and obviously going nowhere.  This summer, though, the word (gossip) flashes through the young folk: Ramona has broken up with Alfredo.  Ramona and Alfredo have been living together for years now, ever since high school, but they've never formalized their relationship.  Now it appears as though it's over.  Kevin has been nursing a secret (even from himself) love for her for years, but did nothing about it for there seemed to be no hope.  Now, she was free.

He unobtrusively (or so he thinks) begins to pay her some attention.  At first he has to listen to her complaints about Alfredo's faults.   Frankly, this is a bad sign, although Kevin isn't aware of it.  However, Kevin is ecstatic and their relationship flourishes during those summer months.

Kevin has also just been appointed to the town council.  Being relatively apolitical, he hasn't paid much attention to local politics, but now he will find himself immersed in political maneuvering that could affect him personally.   Kevin eventually wonders if perhaps his apolitical past is the reason why he is now on the council.  Someone as naive as he is might not notice certain actions being taken by Alfredo, who is also the mayor at this time.

However, regardless of Kevin's lack of experience, there is one thing he's learned, and that is that Alfredo can not be trusted.  Even if it's something as straightforward as giving the time of the day,  Alfredo will create some sort of plot which will benefit him. 

Therefore, at the first council meeting, Kevin discovers that one of the items on the agenda is a proposal to buy more water from the state water board.   Kevin is immediately suspicious and questions Alfred about  the reason for the proposal.  They have enough water for the present and even a bit more than they need.  Alfredo vaguely mentions that it is always good to have more water available than is necessary because something may arise requiring more water; however, he has nothing specific in mind, just thinking about the future.

Then Kevin discovers, buried at the end of the agenda, when most folks are gone and those who are left are tired and just want to go home, another innocuous proposal by Alfredo.   A small hill outside of town would be given a commercial zoning rating.  This hill, with no structures on it, is a favorite spot for picnickers and lovers  and those (Kevin, for example)  who just want to sit and be alone for awhile.  It also has the best view in the area of the valley below.

Kevin then questions this motion, and Alfredo, irritated,  insists he has nothing in mind; it's just that it's not zoned and he wanted to clear this up.  Others on the council then begin to ask questions, and Alfredo  withdraws the motion.  After the meeting, Kevin, in a discussion with some members of the council, wonders if there is a connection between the proposal to buy more water, which would allow considerable growth in the town and the zoning motion for commercial use of the hill. What is Alfredo up to?  It's time to take a closer look at Alfredo once again.    

An interesting summer for Kevin--radical changes in his life in sports, love, and politics.

However, there's one more element to the story that isn't found in the other two novels of  The Three Californias.  In the other novels, the stories are written by the two main characters. as a record of the events of the unusual events of the past six months or so.  This is made very clear in both works.  KSR has decided to do something different in this novel.  There are authorial intrusions throughout the work. The first one begins:

2 March 2012, 8 A.M. I decided that as a gesture to its spirit, I would write my book outdoors.

The author is in Zurich, Switzerland.  Is this Robinson, injecting himself into the novel as does Samuel R. Delany in The Einstein Intersection or John Fowles in The French Lieutenant's Woman?  But, the year in the quotation is 2012 while this novel was published in 1990,  Could this be Keven himself, just as in the other two novels, writing down the events of a past summer?  The intrusions become even more bizarre as the author appears to be in conflict with a hostile US Government and even is imprisoned at one point.  The tone of these insertions is decidedly Kafkaesque, in direct contrast to the tale of  Kevin's summer.  Could Kevin's summer be some sort of idyllic escape for the author who is trapped in a world that seemingly is closer to Orwell's 1984 or Kafka's The Trial than to Kevin's world?

Or perhaps, the authorial intrusions represent a fourth California, one so much worse than even a post-holocaust world that Robinson can't quite bring himself to write about it, except in this oblique way.

Highly recommended, but then again, I'm biased.  I highly recommend anything and everything Kim Stanley Robinson writes. 

Robert Frost: "The Vantage Point"

This is one of Robert Frost's earlier poems.  It appeared in his first collection of poetry,  A Boy's Will, which was published in April 1913 in London.



The Vantage Point

If tired of trees I seek again mankind,
   Well I know where to hie me--in the dawn,
    To a slope where the cattle keep the lawn.
There amid lolling juniper reclined,
Myself unseen, I see in white defined
    Far off the homes of men, and farther still,
    The graves of men on an opposing hill,
Living or dead, whichever are to mind.

And if by noon I have too much of these,
    I have but to turn on my arm, and lo,
    The sun burned hillside sets my face aglow,
My breathing shakes the bluet like a breeze,
    I smell the earth, I smell the bruised plant,
    I look into the crater of the ant.


I always have to be careful, if not wary, when reading a Frost poem.  I think I know what's going on, and then, at the end, he manages somehow to introduce a question as to just exactly what is going on here. This poem is no exception.  It seems very straightforward at first.  He is tired of looking at nature and wishes to see something of humankind. And, he knows the spot from where he can see homes and also cattle owned by humans.  But, then, there's those ". . . graves of men on an opposing hill."  He can think of  humans "Living or dead, whichever are to mind."   This strikes me as being a strange way when  "tired of trees"  to contemplate humankind.  To me, anyway, it suggests some sort of ambiguity in his attitude towards  his fellow humans.  It seems the only differences between the living and the dead are the ways in which one wishes to think of them or as Frost puts it --"whichever are to mind."

The second stanza now reverses his original thought, and now he's tired of humankind. He once again selects nature,  and all that is required is "to turn on my arm."  This is a very nice vantage point.  Now he has a view of nature--sun, earth, plants.  Then, comes the last line, the end of the poem:  "I look into the crater of the ant."  Is he drawing a comparison between the human habitations and the crater of the ant?  As is typical with Frost, one may think he's providing answers, but there's always that last line.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LV

As I have mentioned before, Khayyam's references to wine and the grape has caused considerable controversy among those reading The Rubaiyat.  Is he referring to wine or as others insist, is the wine a symbol for grace?  Is it a religious symbol?  This quatrain does not help either side, for it can be read as simply referring to wine or grace.



First Edition: Quatrain LV

The Vine had struck a Fibre; which about
If clings my Being--let the Sufi flout;
   Of my Base Metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.


Second Edition:  LXXXII

The Vine had struck a fibre: which about
If clings my being--let the Dervish flout;
   Of my Base metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.



Fifth Edition: LXXVI

The Vine had struck a fibre: which about
If clings my being--let the Dervish flout;
   Of my Base metal may be filed a Key,
That shall unlock the Door he howls without.


For the most part, FitzGerald made only minor changes.  "Fibre" begins with an uppercase "F" in the first edition which is changed to lower case in subsequent editions.  The same change occurs to "Being" and with "Metal."

The second change is a word change; "Sufi" in the first edition becomes "Dervish" in the second and the fifth versions.   Sufism is the inner, mystical aspect of Islam.  It's followers turn away from the material world and focus solely on the Divine, just as the mystics of Judaism, Christianity, and Buddhism, for example.  A dervish would be a follower of Sufism who use whirling dances and chanting as a way of gaining a mystic state in their worship of the Divine.  The "howling without" seems to be a sarcastic reference to the chanting  which is one of the practices of the dervishes.

Just a random thought here--that vine that clings to his body--strikes me as being almost snake-like, perhaps a reference to the Snake in the Garden of Eden.  This could refer to alcohol, for during the 19th century, the temperance movement began, and especially attacked "demon  rum" as being the root of the evils afflicting the lower classes and the cause of their poverty. 

In alchemy, base metals are those which are common, inexpensive, and easily corroded.  Iron, nickel, lead, zinc, and copper would be examples of base metals.    "Noble metals" are the opposite, and they include gold and silver.  One of the tasks of alchemists was finding a way of turning base metals into noble metals.  The most common example would be turning lead into gold.

In the last two lines of the quatrain, therefore, wine, or grace perhaps,  has transmuted the common elements of his body into something which could be turned into a key that would open the door to the mystic experiences that the sufi or dervish desires. This could  refer back to a previous quatrain, XXXII,  which also speaks of a key.

There was a Door to which I found no Key:
There was a Veil past which I could not see:
    Some little Talk awhile of  Me and Thee
 There seem'd--and then no more of Thee and Me.


 In this quatrain, and previous quatrains, he has been inquiring of various teachers, saints, and mystics for the key to the door but obviously has failed.  Now,  it seems he himself, transmuted by wine, is the key.  This, of course, is clearly in the vein of mystical thinking that stretches from England all the way to Japan.  The Divine is within oneself.  To go looking for the Divine in some other place is a waste of time.

It seems, therefore, that he has succeeded in his quest where others using different methods have failed.   If it is wine, then the poet seems to suggest that all study and religious practices are useless.  Wine is much easier and much more successful in producing an ecstatic state.  If the wine is really Divine grace, then those who strive for the ecstatic state are wasting their time for the secret is within them--all they have to do is look.
.

Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford: The Inheritors

Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford: The Inheritors

Conrad and Ford: this has to be one of the strangest collaborations in literary history. Henry James, who knew both, is supposed to have said that the collaboration was like "a bad dream . . . their traditions and their gifts are so dissimilar." At one point, Conrad even rented a farm house owned by Ford. I remember reading somewhere (unfortunately my memory can't come up with specifics) that Conrad had asked someone, perhaps Edward Garnett (who was a close friend of both) to recommend one whom he might work with to improve his English. Conrad's native tongue was Polish, and he later learned French while in the French merchant marine. Ford was recommended; so occurred a strange collaboration that eventually produced two novels and one novella and considerable influence in the writings of both from that point on.

The Inheritors is the first of their collaborations that was published, although Ford had begun work on Romance, which became their second published work. However, Conrad at that time was too busy with Heart of Darkness, so Ford put it aside and began work on "a topical political fantasy" which was eventually called The Inheritors.

The tale is a first person narrative told by Arthur Granger, a struggling young writer who is determined to write literature. However, he struggles to get published and when he is offered a chance to do a number of short political propaganda portraits, he accepts the work, even though he feels it is beneath him. But, in the real world, one needs money. In addition, he, and most importantly, others will see him in print, perhaps making it easier for him to get his serious work in print. One can see his high principles beginning to slip a bit for he now sees himself as part of the real world, that of high stakes politics and business.

He is on his way to do his first "portrait" when he meets a strange young woman who insists she comes from the Fourth Dimension. She and others from the Fourth Dimension have appeared in England with the express purpose of taking control of England and eventually of the world. He goes along with her tale, primarily because he finds her very attractive and eventually falls in love with her.

As Granger travels about, interviewing various important people for his series, he encounters her more often as she begins to insinuate herself in the upper levels of the British ruling class. In fact, she eventually identifies herself as Granger's sister, and besotted as he is, he doesn't deny it. He professes his love for her, but she remains distant, only occasionally meeting him, in order to maintain her control over him. He will be, as she frequently reminds him, useful to her in furthering her plans for domination.

And she is right; she hasn't misjudged her control over him as, at the end, he betrays his friends when he goes along with her plans to bring down the present government. Circumstances had placed him temporarily in control of a politically powerful newspaper, and he does not print an article which would bring all her planning to naught.

[As was pointed out by Anonymous in a comment, I have suffered a mental spasm and reversed the sequence of events. While temporarily in control of the newspaper, Granger allowed an article to be printed which furthered her plans and brought down the government, and incidentally removed his friends from power. ]

Two themes are present in the novel: one is clearly Ford's, for it appears in several of his novels, while the other reminds me of a theme that Conrad brought into a number of his works, but most especially in Heart of Darkness.

In several of Ford's novels, one can easily distinguish the theme of replacement or perhaps displacement of the English ruling class by outsiders. In Ford's tetralogy, Parade's End, set during WWI, Christopher Tietjens, at one point, notes that the ruling classes are doomed and will be replace eventually be technocrats. In The Good Soldier, John Dowell, the American, replaces Edward Ashburnham, the good soldier, at the end, when he takes over Ashburnham's country estate and the care of Ashburnham's ward. This theme of replacement is spelled out very clearly in The Rash Act when an impoverished American takes the place of a wealthy Englishman who has been killed in an auto accident.

In Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Kurz is the head of a trading post. He is supposed to make a profit for the Company by bringing in ivory. But, Kurz also is expected, by many, to civilize the natives. This is the White Man's Burden--to bring the joys of civilization to the benighted and savage members of the human race. In various works, Conrad sarcastically brings up this issue and shows that it's really just an excuse to exploit them, that the whites are far more savage than those they are supposedly enlightening.

In The Inheritors, we learn of the Greenland Project, a project which will enlighten and civilize the Esquimaux. While some have called it exploitation, its founder, Duc de Mersch defends it by pointing out its obvious financial importance to the English, not to speak of "the moral aspect of the work--it was unnecessary. Progress, improvement, civilisation, a little less evil in the world--more light! It was our duty not to count the cost of humanising a lower race."

And later, we learn more about the progress of the Greenland Project: "They had taught the natives to use and to value sewing-machines and European costumes. So many hundred of English younger sons had gone to make their fortunes and, incidentally, to enlighten the Esquimaux--so many hundreds of French, of Germans, Greeks, Russians. All these lived and moved in harmony, employed, happy, free labourers, protected by the most rigid laws."

It is ironic that the failure of the supporters to gain backing by the English government that ultimately brings down the government and brings in those backed by Dimensionist faction, aided, of course, by Arthur Granger's betrayal. At the end, Granger is alone. He has betrayed his friends and she tells him that they must go their separate ways now: "you, yours, and I, mine." She no longer has any use for him.

I wouldn't call The Inheritors one of their best novels. It lacks the depth that I've become accustomed to from each of them. The issues are there, but they haven't been explored to any great degree. I suspect that the collaboration process is at fault here. However, I would recommend it for those interested in something different, something not quite Conrad and not quite Ford, but a little bit of both and a little bit of neither.

Early Vietnamese Poetry

These are short poems, perhaps reflecting Japanese influence in Korea around a thousand years ago. They are reminiscent of Japanese haiku and other short Japanese forms, and many of the themes are also commonly found in Japanese poetry.


The body of man

The body of man is like a flicker of lightning
existing only to return to Nothingness.
Like the spring growth that shrivels in autumn.
Waste no thought on the process for it has no purpose,
coming and going like the dew.

-- Van Hanh --
(d. 1018)
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich with W. S. Merwin

We are just part of the natural process of life on this planet. Our existence has no more meaning then dew or lightning. I don't think he would understand those who believe the universe was created solely for humans, a testing ground for eternal happiness or pain and suffering.

-----


Rebirth

Spring goes, and the hundred flowers.
Spring comes, and the hundred flowers.
My eyes watch things passing,
my head fills with years.
But when spring has gone not all the flowers follow.
Last night a plum branch blossomed by my door.

-- Man Giac --
(1051-1096)
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich with W. S. Merwin


Something still remains, even if most have gone on before--perhaps to remind us that the flowers and spring will come back again.


-----

Spring view

The willows trail such glory that the birds are struck dumb.
Evening clouds balance above the eave-shaded hall.
A friend comes, not for conversation,
But to lean on the balustrade and watch the turquoise sky.

-- Tran Nhan-tong --
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich

One can always talk, but a night of beauty such as this comes rarely and shouldn't be missed.


-----

A plough and a spade

A plough and a spade, that's all,
A row of chrysanthemums, and orchids,
A place to plant beans: that's all I need
Friends come, birds sing and flowers wave: welcome!
The moon walks with me when I fetch water for tea.
Old Po Yi stayed pure and stayed happy,
Yen-tzu stayed poor and liked it;
Let the world buzz,
I need no praise, I am deaf to laughter.

-- Nguyen Trai --
(1380-1442)
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich



A bamboo hut

A bamboo hut and a plum tree bower--
That's where I spend my days, far from the world's talk.
For meals, only some pickled cabbage,
But I've never cared for the life of damask and silk.
There's a pool of water for watching the moon,
And land to plough into flower beds.
Sometimes I feel inspired on snowy nights--
That's when I write my best poems, and sing.

--Nguyen Trai --
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich


What? No Ipad, no Blackberry, no computer, no forty-five inch TV, no Twitter or Facebook?

-----

The stone dog

With a heavy paw he guards the frontier,
Squatting alone in the middle of the pass,
Paying no heed to the snow or frost,
Never asking for good food or payment.
Staring straight at the visitors' faces,
He is above listening to their gossiping tongues.
With one mind he serves his lord.
A thousand-weight strong, he cannot be swayed.

-- Emperor Le Thanh-tong
(1142-1497)
trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich


And, no doubt he guarded that pass long after the emperor who had him created had gone, even perhaps long after the empire had disintegrated--perhaps an Asian Ozymandias?



All poems are taken from World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time, and edited by Katherine Washburn and John S. Major.

Michel de Montaigne: from Chapter XXVIII

This quotation is from Chapter 28: "All Things Have Their Season." One aspect of Montaigne's writings is that he generally states clearly and straightforwardly his thinking on various topics. This makes it relatively easy, therefore, to decide whether or not I agree with him. In this case, however, I have to disagree with him.


". . . The young man should make his preparations, the old man employ them, say the sages. And the greatest defect that they observe in our nature is that our desires constantly renew their youth. We are forever beginning anew to live. Our study and our desire ought some time to give evidence of old age. We have one foot in the grave, and our appetites and our pursuits are newly born.

The longest of my plans is not of a year's extent; henceforth I think of nothing but coming to an end; I rid myself of all new hopes and undertakings, take my last farewell of all the places I leave, and dispossess myself every day of what I have."



I suppose that attitude has meaning for Montaigne. And, he, and those who agree with him, should be free to live out their last years as they wish. However, it's not for me. If I agreed with him, I certainly wouldn't have purchased a new pickup, my first, when I retired at sixty-five, and spent almost a month driving from Arizona to Alaska and then back. And, I certainly wouldn't have begun this blog when I was a few months shy of seventy.

I have no idea of what comes after death, except that it is the end of my existence on this planet. Consequently I see little reason to spend any time contemplating what will come in its own time and in its own way. There is much to enjoy here and enjoying them seems to me to be a much better idea.

And you?

Several Spring Poems

I guess it's a truism that poetry is not about something but rather about the poet's perception of something. Glancing at the several poems below, all about spring, does show that each poet has a different perception about Spring. Even the titles suggest those varying viewpoints.


Metamorphosis

Always it happens when we are not there--
The tree leaps up alive into the air,
Small open parasols of Chinese green
Wave on each twig. But who has ever seen
The latch sprung, the bud as it burst?
Spring always manages to get there first.

Lovers of wind, who will have been aware
Of a faint stirring in the empty air,
Look up one day through a dissolving screen
To find no star, but this multiplied green,
Shadow on shadow, singing sweet and clear.
Listen, lovers of wind, the leaves are here!

-- May Sarton --





Loveliest of Trees,
The Cherry Now

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

-- A. E. Houseman --



Cherry Blossoms

Cherry blossoms--
lights
of years past.

-- Basho --



In Time of Silver Rain

In time of silver rain
The earth
puts forth new life again,
Green grasses grow
And flowers lift their heads,
And over all the plain
The wonder spreads
Of life,
Of life,
Of life!

In time of silver rain
The butterflies
Lift silken wings
To catch a rainbow cry,And trees put forth
New leaves to sing
In joy beneath the sky
As down the roadway
Passing boys and girls
Go singing, too,
In time of silver rain
When spring
And life
Are new.

-- Langston Hughes --


All poems come from the following collection:

Art and Nature: An Illustrated Anthology of Nature Poetry
Selected by Kate Farrell

It is a collection of seasonal poetry and paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a remarkable anthology.

Kenko: from Essays in Idleness

No. 13

The pleasantest of all diversions is to sit alone under the lamp, a book spread out before you, and to make friends with people of a distant past you have never known. The books I would choose are the moving volumes of Wen Hsuan, the collected works of Po Chu-i, the sayings of Lao Tzu, and the chapters of Chuang Tzu. Among works by scholars of this country, those written long ago are often quite interesting.

-- Kenko (1283-1350 approximate dates)
The Tsurezuregusa of Kenko (Essays in Idleness)


Chapter 13 reminds me of a poem by a Western poet, but unfortunately my failing memory can't come up with either a name or a title. Perhaps you can help me out here.

Kenko has an interesting reading list: poetry, Taoist texts, and ancient texts.



Kenko's Reading List

a poem by Po Chu-i

Lute

my lute set aside
on the little table
lazily I meditate
on cherishing feelings
the reason I don't bother
to strum and pluck?
there's a breeze over the strings
and it plays itself




Wen Hsuan: "A collection of poetry compiled by Prince Chao Ming of Liang (501-31). It was known as Monzan in Japan and exercised great influence." (Note from Essays in Idleness)


Lao Tzu: considered to be the first Taoist although he never considered himself as such. His work, The Book of the Way and Virtue, is the first and most important of all Taoist texts.

Chuang Tzu: the author of the second most important of the Taoist texts.

Baltasar Gracian: thoughts on campaign tactics

The following is from Baltasar Gracian's The Art of Worldly Wisdom.


#114

"Never the cheap rival. Every effort to outshine an opponent lowers the standing, for competition resorts at once to mudslinging, in order to besmirch. They are few who carry on war in fair fashion, for rivalry lays bare the flaws which courtesy has covered over: many lived in honor, as long as they had no emulators. The heat of combat calls up, and brings to life infamies long dead, and digs up stenches forgotten: competition starts with a manifesto of slander, and calls to its aid whatever it can, and not what it should, and when at times, nay mostly, insults prove not the arms of victory, these men find a vile satisfaction in their spite, and bandy it about with so much air, that the dust of forgetfulness is shaken from old scandals. Men of good will were ever men of peace, and men of honor, men of good will."



After observing the primaries, I wonder just how nasty the presidential election will be. No doubt the candidates will take the high ground while their supporters are busy slinging the mud.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LIV

This quatrain relates back to the previous quatrain with its reference to predestination. There's also a hint of astrology here.


First Edition: Quatrain LIV

I tell Thee this--When, starting from the Goal,
Over the shoulders of the flaming Foal
Of Heav'n and Parwin and Mushtara they flung,
In my predestined Plot of Dust and Soul.



Second Edition: LXXXI

I tell you this--When, started from the Goal,
Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal
Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtari they flung,
In my predestined Plot of Dust and Soul.



Fifth Edition: LXXV

I tell you this--When, started from the Goal,
Over the flaming shoulders of the Foal
Of Heav'n Parwin and Mushtari they flung,
In my predestined Plot of Dust and Soul.


FitzGerald made only minor changes between the First and the Second Editions, and the Fifth Edition is identical to the Second. The "Thee" in the first version becomes "you" in the later versions, a change which he has consistently made in previous editions as he moved from a poetical language to more prosaic and contemporary usages. A second change is the replacement of the present tense "starting" with the past tense "started." It is now something that happened in the past, at his birth, but ironically, the initial point is the Goal, which is the end or object or destination of a movement. It almost appears as though he is suggesting that his end determines his beginning.

FitzGerald also moved "flaming" in the second line so that in the second and later editions, it modified "shoulders" instead of "Foal." Now, instead of the entire Foal being in flames, only its shoulders are. I'm not sure why he made this change. Perhaps he felt that "flaming shoulders" sounded better than "flaming Foal"; having two words in sequence both beginning with "f" didn't sound right to him.

In the second edition, FitzGerald dropped the "and" after "Heav'n." I suspect this was to clarify the meaning because the "and" after "Heav'n" suggested that there was a series which included "Heav'n and Parwin and Mushtara" which wasn't what he intended. "Heav'n" is part of the phrase "Foal of Heav'n" while "Parwin" and "Mushtara" were flung into his predestined plot. Removing the "and" makes it clear that the series included only "Parwin" and "Mushtara." I think it would have been even clearer if he had placed a comma after "Heav'n." The third line would then have read" Of Heav'n, Parwin and Mushtari they flung".

The final change involved the spelling of "Mushtara." The final "a" was changed to "i". It seems as though FitzGerald's source spelled it "Mushtara" while the more accepted spelling is "Mushtari." He later changed it when it was pointed out to him.

Three astronomical terms are included in this quatrain. The "Foal of Heav'n" is a reference to the small constellation Equuleus or as it is more commonly known today--Equus. "Mushtari" is Arabic for the planet Jupiter, while Parwin refers to the Pleiades. The reference to "predestined plot of Soul and Dust" brings in, to me anyway, an astrological element, in which the stars control our destiny. In astrology, of course, one's chart is computed by determining the day, hour, and minute of birth (if possible) and then consulting the charts to see which planets and constellations were prominent at that time. This configuration of heavenly bodies then has an influence on all aspects of one's life, including personality and future events.

I wonder if an astrologer would see something significant in the references to "the Foal of Heav'n," "Parwin," and "Mushtari."

My interpretation of this quatrain is that Jupiter, the Pleiades, and Equus were possibly present at his birth and that these three are significant in determining his personality and life in some way.

Robert Grudin: An image of change

I've read a number of attempts to describe the way change happens or at least the way we perceive it, and I think Robert Grudin's is one of the best.

I.12

"In late November of 1968, I spent a few days in a hotel just off the Piazza San Marco in Venice. At 6 one morning, hearing the loud warning bells, I jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and rushed out to see the famous Venetian flood. I stood in the empty and as yet dry Piazza and looked out toward he Gulf, for I expected the flood tides to come in from the open water. Many minutes passed before I turned to see that the Piazza was flooding, not directly from the Gulf, but up through its own sewers. The indented gratings in the pavement had all but disappeared under calm, flat silver puddles, which grew slowly and silently until their peripheries touched and the Piazza had become a lake. That morning I experienced vividly, if almost subliminally , the reality of change itself: how it fools our sentinels and undermines our defenses, how careful we are to look for it in the wrong places, how it does not reveal itself until it is beyond redress, how vainly we search for it around us and find too late that it has occurred within us."

-- Robert Grudin --
from Time and the Art of Living



My experience has always been that the changes I talk about are always the ones that have already occurred. Perhaps others are more perceptive than I am. Unfortunately I've never met them.

Eric Hoffer: on mass movements

Faith is a two-edged sword. It can move people to do virtuous and compassionate acts as well as monstrously evil. However, we tend to focus solely on the good it can do and ignore its tendency towards cruelty and hate. Are the processes that lead to good actions the same as those that lead to evil?

Eric Hoffer on the subject of faith:


11
Mass movements use irrationality to shut out the intellect, to turn people into predictable, mindless machines. Both Stalin and Hitler used blind faith as a device for mechanizing souls.


12
We hear a lot about the dehumanizing effects of the machine. Actually, the large-scale dehumanization of the Stalin-Hitler era was the work of ideological machines. In Russia the doctrinaire appliances work better than the mechanical.


13
The savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despo9t who wants to turn them into puppets.

There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience; a readiness to attempt the impossible; a bias for simple solutions--to cut the knot rather than unravel it; the viewing of compromise as surrender; the tendency to manipulate people and 'experiment with blood.' Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.-- Eric Hoffer --
from Reflections on the Human Condition


This is an interesting list of qualities characteristic of those demanding absolute faith.
1. a demand for absolute obedience;

2. a readiness to attempt the impossible;

3. a bias for simple solutions--to cut the knot rather than unravel it;

4. the viewing of compromise as surrender;

5. the tendency to manipulate people and 'experiment with blood.'



Are there "leaders" today who insist on the above from their supporters or have they all disappeared with the twentieth century?

Combination Plate 21

Warning: I will discuss significant plot elements and some endings.


Sea Wolves: a WWII film

The Cheap Detective: a parody/satire? of film noir and WWII films, written by Neil Simon

Rope, a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Philip Jose Farmer: To Your Scattered Bodies Go, an SF novel

Willa Cather: The Professor's House

=========================


Sea Wolves, a WWII film, 1980

Being a longtime Gregory Peck fan, and having seen him in several WWII films, I decided to take a look at The Sea Wolves (TSW). It also stars David Niven, and a host of other names. The cast therefore includes Gregory Peck, David Niven, Roger Moore, Trevor Howard, and Patrick Macnee. With a cast like this, how could one go wrong?

Well, it did go wrong. I did watch it, but I was disappointed at the end. Perhaps I had expected that it would be as good as the earlier Guns of Navarone (GoN) which also starred Peck and Niven. However, in TSW, the pairing was Gregory Peck and Roger Moore, and it didn't work for me. Roger Moore apparently thought he was still James Bond and plays his character that way--ironic and detached, as if this was a farce, definitely something not to be taken too seriously. This did not play well against Gregory Peck's solid and earnest depiction of a military officer with a suicide mission.

In addition, I felt the plot was weak. I didn't see the tension in TSW that I felt was so strong in GoN. I think the difference between the two films were two elements in GoN that were absent in TSW. In GoN, they were in enemy occupied territory, and the German army was in pursuit. Therefore, they had to elude the Germans as well as make it to their target. In TSW, they were either at sea or in neutral territory and the risk of encountering the enemy was minimal. The only obstacles they faced for much of the film were the weather and a boat engine that should have been retired long ago. This made for a much lower level of tension in TSW.

The second element present in GoN was the deadline. Peck and the saboteurs had to destroy those guns by a certain time. If not, those guns would decimate a convey that had been sent to rescue a large number of British soldiers. Therefore, the guns not only had to be destroyed, but they must be destroyed before the convoy arrived. This element was not present in TSW. Peck and his men had to destroy the ship which was transmitting vital information to German U-boats, but there was no real deadline, except for the usual one of doing it as soon as possible. The powers-that-be, I suspect, recognized this weakness and worked a deadline into the plot that the viewers would know about but not the characters.

Every night at 10:30 (I think it was then), the German radio operator would transmit information regarding Allied shipping in the area. On the night of the attack by the British irregulars, the operator had precise information regarding an US aircraft carrier. Therefore, while they didn't know this, the British unit had to destroy the radio before 10:30. For some reason, this didn't work for me. I wonder if this had been known by the characters, it would have affected their performances in some way. I have no idea, but the film didn't work for me.

Recommended for those who want to see every film Gregory Peck made.

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The film opens with Peter Falk as Lou Peckinpaugh, a private detective in San Francisco during WWII. He has just been notified that his partner, Ezra Dezire (played by Sid Caesar), has been killed. His partner's widow, Jezebel Dezire (Ann-Margaret) later calls him and asks if he killed her husband so they could be together. Peckinpaugh asks if the police are listening in, and she says yes, as the scene shifts to show her on the phone with several police officers standing very near listening to their conversation.

Lou decides to go to his favorite hangout--Nic's Bar. While there, an announcement over the radio informs all in Nic's that Paris has fallen to the German army. A group of German officers immediately stand up and begin singing "Deutschland Uber Alles." Another group of patrons then get up and begin singing "The Marseillaise."

The film written by Neil Simon is a parody of two monumental films: The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. The two films are melded together mostly successfully, although at time it seemed as though Lou Peckinpaugh (Sam Spade and Ric in the original films and both played by Bogart) wanders back and forth between two alternate universes.

It has a cast of relatively well-known actors, a followup of director Robert Moore and Neil Simon's earlier comic mystery, Murder by Death. Dom DeLuise plays Pepe Damascus and John Houseman appears as Jasper Blubber. Fernando Lamas shows up in the Paul Heinreid role as Louise Fletcher with the help of careful lighting comes across quite well in the Ingrid Bergman role. Others appearing more or less briefly are Stockard Channing, James Coco, Madeleine Kahn, and Phil Silvers.

Overall Comments: I would classify this as clever rather than uproariously hilarious, or any such superlative suggested by advertisements. However, I did feel the urge to watch the originals again, and I have already watched The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca is next. I am pleased to say that scenes from the The Cheap Detective did not pop up as I was watching The Maltese Falcon and spoil my enjoyment of one of my favorite films.

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Rope, a film (1948)

This film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is based on a play by the same name written by Patrick Hamilton. Rope is loosely based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case which took place in Chicago in 1924. Twenty-year-old Nathan Leopold and nineteen-year-old Richard Loeb were the sons of two wealthy and prominent families in Chicago. They were tried and convicted of murdering fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks. Their motives supposedly were to see if they could commit the perfect crime. I've also heard that they killed him just to see what it felt like to kill someone.

In the film, two young men, Brandon and Phillip, kill David, a friend whom they considered inferior, based on their interpretation of a philosophy expressed by Rupert Cadall, a former teacher of theirs, played by Jimmy Stewart. They are so certain of their ability to plan the perfect crime that they kill David shortly before a party was held in their apartment. They hid the body in a large chest which they decided to use as a table to hold the food and drinks for the party. Invited to the party are the David's father and aunt, Rupert, another close friend, and the victim's fiance.

As in a stage play, the film is shot basically in two rooms, with the chest in view most of the time.
The drama involves the differing reactions of the two murderers: one being increasingly convinced that nobody would ever suspect them and one becoming more and more wretched over his part in the murder. A discussion based on Rupert's philosophy that the superior people have the right to eliminate inferior people alerts Rupert that something strange is going on, something that may be related to David's inexplicable absence from the party. When one of the two young men expresses his complete agreement with this theory, Rupert gets upset and says that he would never act upon such a theory. Sensing that something is wrong, Rupert then begins to watch the two carefully, especially their interactions with each other.

I found it intriguing that the blurb mentioned that the two young men had acted upon a "misinterpretation" of Rupert's theory, but frankly, I didn't see that at all. Rupert's only disagreement was that he would never act upon this theory. Secondly, in the film, the theory was based on Nietzsche's superman theory. That may be true, but the language used in the discussion comes much closer to that used by Dostoyevsky in his Crime and Punishment, when Raskolnikov justifies his murder of the old pawnbroker.

My favorite scene in the film takes place shortly before the end. While the people are talking, the maid sees that they have finished eating, so she clears the food off the table. She then returns and removes the table cloth. She returns a third time and brings some books with her that belong in the chest. All this is going on behind the backs of the two murderers who don't see her. I have no idea what the others were talking about as I was fascinated by the maid who was simply going about her duties. Was she really going to open the chest and find the body? But, this is Hitchcock.

One bit of trivia: Patrick Hamilton, who wrote the play the film was based on, also wrote Angel Street, aka Gaslight, which had two film versions. The better known one is the second with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.

Overall Comments: I found it an interesting film, with Jimmy Stewart playing a different role than I'm used to seeing him in.


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Philip Jose Farmer: To Your Scattered Bodies Go


This is probably Farmer's best known novel and rightfully so, as I believe it's his best novel. It's the first of five novels set in Riverworld, and frankly, the quality of the subsequent novels does not equal that of the first.

The premise of the novel is simple: when people die, they are resurrected on another planet, which they, for obvious reasons, call Riverworld. Riverworld essentially consists of one river that circles the planet. Paralleling the river are two mountain ranges, one on each side, which is impossible to climb. The resurrectees therefore must live along the banks of the river.

The point-of-view character is Richard Francis Burton, the nineteenth century British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist. He is only one of the numerous real people who appear in the book along with various fictional characters. Some of the real characters are Alice Liddell, the model for Lewis Carroll's little girl in Alice in Wonderland. Another is Hermann Goering, a twentieth century German politician, military leader, and a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party. One of the fictional characters is Peter Janius Frigate, who becomes a close friend of Burton on Riverworld. What I find intriguing is that Frigate was born in 1918, the same year that the author was born. Secondly, Frigate describes himself somewhere in the novel as an SF writer. Thirdly, Frigate's initials are PJF, the same as Philip Jose Farmer's--a coincidence, no doubt.

The novel follows the exploits of Burton and his friends as they attempt to explore the length of the River and unravel the mystery behind Riverworld: who created this world, who had gone to the effort of resurrecting all those who had died on Earth, and why?

Readers who expect an idyllic paradise created by humans who have gained a second chance will be mistaken. Humans with a second chance are no better than they were the first time around. One example is Hermann Goering who manages to create a another Third Reich, even if a bit more primitive, with slave camps and a strong military force.

Trivia: the title comes from John Donne's "Holy Sonnet No. 7"

"At the round earths imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, Angells, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities,
Of soules, and to your scattred bodies goe,
All whom the flood did, and the fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom warre, dearth, age , agues, tyrannies,
Despaire, law, chance hath slaine . . ."


I wonder if the sonnet gave Farmer the inspiration for the novel. It certainly is a unique vision of the afterlife. A number of years ago, a friend of mine, who is very interested in various theories of the afterlife, told me about a book that had been written by a person, who claimed to have contact with the dead. According to the book, the locale of the afterlife was identical to the description of Farmer's Riverworld.

Overall Comments: As I mentioned earlier, I think this is Farmer's best novel. However, the questions facing Burton and the other resurrectees are not answered in this novel. Some partial answers are provided, but at a tentative level only.


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Willa Cather: The Professor's House

This is one of Willa Cather's shorter novels, and it has a rather unique structure.

The first part focuses on Professor Godfrey St. Peter and his family, which includes his wife, Lillian, and their two married daughters and their husbands. It also includes Tom Outland, a young student who became a close friend of the Professor St. Peter and almost married Rosamund, one of the professor's daughters.

The St. Peter family has moved into a new house. However, Godfrey can't accept this and returns to the old residence and does his work there in his old study. The readers also learn about Tom Outland, who had invented a gas engine for aircraft and also had attempted to get the federal government interested in protecting cliff dwellings he had discovered out West.

The second part is the story of Tom Outland's discovery of the cliff dwellings on Blue Mesa (Mesa Verde?) and his failed attempt to have it declared a National Monument.

The third part then returns to Professor St. Peter and his growing despondency and depression as he looks back on his life. After the success of his first book, he has done little to justify the esteem he gained from it. He almost dies when the wind blows out the light on his gas lamp, and the room fills with gas. Is it a suicide attempt?


Overall Comments: the novel left me with several questions.

1. Who is the main character? Professor St. Peter or Tom Outland?

2. What is the point of the novel?

3. What is the relationship between Tom Outland's story of the discovery of and subsequent failure to protect the Blue Mesa from exploitation and destruction and the Professor's inability to adjust to the inevitable changes that time brings?

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam: Quatrain LIII

Quatrain LIII introduces a new theme, that of predestination, or so it can be interpreted. See what you think of this:


First Edition: Quatrain LIII

With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man's knead,
And then of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
Yea, the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



Second Edition: LXXIX
With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



Fifth Edition: LXXIII
With Earth's first Clay They did the Last Man knead,
And there of the Last Harvest sow'd the Seed:
And the first Morning of Creation wrote
What the Last Dawn of Reckoning shall read.



There are several changes from the First to the Second Edition. Apparently FitzGerald was satisfied with the changes, for the Fifth is identical to the Second. In the first line, the poet writes of kneading the Last Man's clay, whereas in the later edtions, it becomes the Last Man who is kneaded. The change seems to subtly suggest that Man is not separate from the Clay but is the Clay itself. The second change occurs in the second line where the "then" becomes "there," a change of time to place. The last change is the substitution of the more prosaic "And" for the poetic and Biblical sounding "Yea."

Overall, the quatrain states that the ending is written or was written on the first day of Creation. The reference to the "Last Dawn of Reckoning" suggests the Judgement Day, and what will be read of humanity's behavior was actually written on "the first Morning of Creation."

This corresponds closely to the Calvinist doctrine of "unconditional election: "which asserts that God has chosen from eternity those whom he will bring to himself not based on foreseen virtue, merit, or faith in those people; rather, it is unconditionally grounded in God's mercy alone. God has chosen from eternity to extend mercy to those He has chosen and to withhold mercy from those not chosen. Those chosen receive salvation through Christ alone. Those not chosen receive the just wrath that is warranted for their sins against God.

In other words, we are all sinful and unable to gain redemption on our own, and God chooses those whom He would save, and this choice is NOT based on the "virtue, merit, or faith in those people." I have seen a few lines in the Qur'an which seem to say something similar, but it is not spelled out as clearly as it is in the doctrine of the Christian Calvinist sect.

I think this is even a bleaker view of our position in the universe than was brought out in earlier quatrains which said that we were puppets or chess pieces controlled by the Master Player who engaged in games for His own entertainment. It is a very mechanistic view of the universe which was shared by philosophers and scientists of the time. It was only with the beginning of the 20th century when the theories of Einstein and Heisenberg argued for a relativistic and and uncertain universe that some measure of freedom was once again supported, but not universally accepted.

The question is still this: do we have free will and are able to some extent anyway to make choices freely or are we predetermined to make the "choices" that we only seem to make freely?