China Mieville's Embassytown is as much an exercise in semantics as it is a science fiction novel about an alien culture on the brink of apocalypse as...moreChina Mieville's Embassytown is as much an exercise in semantics as it is a science fiction novel about an alien culture on the brink of apocalypse as it comes to clash with human colonists.
The alien culture---the Ariekei---has a language that would be a fundamentalist's/literalist's wet dream or worst nightmare; it has almost no figurative language, and what little figurative language it does have, in simile, is taken as literal truth.
Everything is true. They cannot make subtle distinctions and have no room for gray areas of ambiguity.
The language, known as Language to human colonists, is so obscure, only altered humans, known as Ambassadors can fully understand it. Which leads to intrigue and near apocalypse for both Ariekei and humans when an Ambassador introduces lies into Language.
The Ariekei become addicted to the lies and near-crisis erupts. In the middle of this crisis is Avice Benner Cho, who has just returned to her home planet after years in the immer, a sort liquidy wormhole that allows for interstellar travel (Mieville is ever inventive with language). Avice is an unwilling participant in the intrigue, partly because her husband Scile, a linguist, is a co-conspirator and partly because she is a simile in the Ariekei Language.
Though Embassytown is as imaginative and inventive as Mieville's Hugo-winning The City & The City, I preferred the City & The City and its intriguing look at how we see and choose to "unsee" (another of Mieville's coinages)others set against the backdrop of a noir murder mystery.
Most books on writing are a variation on a theme: they explain several techniques to improve writing; they give examples of those techniques; and then...moreMost books on writing are a variation on a theme: they explain several techniques to improve writing; they give examples of those techniques; and then they supply exercises for practice.
Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing provides almost none of that sort of writing advice. The closest thing to that sort of writing instruction is a section in which Bradbury talks about how he makes lists of nouns and then reviews those lists as a source for ideas.
In this collection of essays, Bradbury, using personal anecdotes about how he wrote and found inspiration for some of his most famous short stories and novels, spends most of his time not instructing on technique, but about how writers can tap their creative spark, their subconscious creative mind, their Muse by writing what they love and by writing with gusto.
The lead essay's opening paragraph sums the theme of the book:
"Zest. Gusto. How rarely one hears these words used. How rarely do we see people living, or for that matter, creating by them. Yet if I were asked to name the most important items in a writer's make-up, the things that shape his material and rush him along the road to where he wants to go, I could only warn him to look to his zest, see his gusto."
And how do you do this? As Bradbury digs deeper, he suggests you approach writing perhaps as a Zen master might approach it --- through work, through relaxation, through nonthinking, and through further relaxation.
To work, of course, is also a common piece of advice given by writers in writing advice books. Bradbury suggests a standard of setting a regular daily schedule, and a set amount of words.
But unique to his advice are the parts about relaxation and nonthinking.
Relaxation, as Bradbury uses the word, isn't kicking back at the beach; it's achieved through work. As you work, as you build quiet confidence in your self and your writing, you relax, your body responds to natural rhythms. And as you relax, you stop thinking and you create.
The essays are for the most part inspiring, in particular the lead essay "The Joy of Writing" and the title essay "Zen and the Art of Writing". In fact, to writing, Bradbury adds a spiritual dimension lost in books solely concerned with technique.
One of the most common --- if not the most common --- tropes of science fiction is the alien invasion story. Its so common, now, its cliche. Still, it...moreOne of the most common --- if not the most common --- tropes of science fiction is the alien invasion story. Its so common, now, its cliche. Still, it shows up, especially in movies and TV.
Though the stories are commonplace, a staple of the genre, when those stories are well told, and not just shoot-'em-ups (that style has its place too, though, along with a tub of popcorn)they often give you a perspective of humanity's direction, its potential, and even its faith in itself as a species to survive.
Arthur C. Clarke's classic Childhood's End does just that. It's an alien invasion story with a twist. When the aliens --- the Overlords --- come, when their massive ships park over our skies, those ships don't erupt with explosive death rays to blow up buildings, nor do they blow up the planet itself to, say, make way for a hyperspace bypass. Instead, the Overlords, essentially do nothing for years, except observe.
Well, observe and direct. Though the Overlords don't initially show themselves, they do, however, make contact with humanity, and, in turn, indirectly begin to shape humanity's course, bringing about world peace, and establishing a near-utopian society. As the Overlords establish this utopia, their true purpose unveils itself: Earth is sort of an experiment, one conducted not by the Overlords, but by a God-like being, the Overmind. The Overlords, it turns out, are no more than servants and errand boys sent by the Overmind to carry out its purpose, to draw humanity into its being.
Clarke plays with multiple themes common to SF: utopia and dystopia, the limits of science and technology, for example. He asserts, through these genre commonplaces, that humanity is responsible for itself; its future can be either bleak and apocalyptic or it can be, if not utopian, at least worthwhile. We cannot, Clarke seems to suggest, lose faith in ourselves.(less)
A good novel. Better on the second read. Obviously influential to the genre--cyberpunk in particular. But I seem to be missing why it's such a seminal...moreA good novel. Better on the second read. Obviously influential to the genre--cyberpunk in particular. But I seem to be missing why it's such a seminal SF work. Still, Gully Foyle maybe most memorable character in SF.
Richard Matheson's What Dreams May Come sets itself up as a memoir of sorts(SNARK ALERT: unfortunately some memoirs deserve that tag, too),as a piece ...moreRichard Matheson's What Dreams May Come sets itself up as a memoir of sorts(SNARK ALERT: unfortunately some memoirs deserve that tag, too),as a piece of nonfiction dictated from the afterlife. Obviously, it's a novel, the story of Chris Nielsen, who dies in a car accident, and whose spirit is transported to the afterlife, or a realm of the afterlife known as Summerland.
Before Chris' spirit goes to Summerland, he finds himself stuck in a sort of purgatory in which he has to accept he's dead. What keeps him in this state is his wife, Ann, whose grief he witnesses, and his desire to assure her that she's going to be fine.
Once he finally enters Summerland, he's guided and acquainted to this level of the afterlife by his cousin, Albert.
Like Dante's visions of the afterlife, Matheson's afterlife consists of many levels and Summerland isn't quite heaven, though it's not unpleasant--it's a place of perpetual sunlight and summer where spirits come to work to get to higher levels, a heavenly corporate ladder of sorts.
Though Chris finds Summerland pleasant enough, he never finds it satisfying because he longs for his wife. His love for her seems boundless, and when she commits suicide on Earth, his love takes him on a journey to hell to rescue her, to get her spirit to see life/the afterlife is worthwhile.
The novel is uneven, an OK read.
Matheson's afterlife is New Age-y and universalist in outlook: Buddhists get Nirvana, Christians get Heaven (eventually, although it's not an immediate reunification with God), and Vahalla is probably in there, too. He explores several theological/philosophical concepts, in particular the soul's attempt to move level by level in the afterlife, until reunion with God is acquired. Most often this climb up requires rebirth on Earth, until the soul is perfected.
Its weakness: the idealistic, overly sentimental relationship between Chris and Ann. It's almost too perfect. Granted the novel is fantasy, but their relationship lacks in realism, though Chris protests it wasn't perfect---like most couples they fought over money, they almost got divorced---his protests are unconvincing. They always make up and smoothe things over perfectly, even in their most difficult journey---guiding Ann into the afterlife to be reborn.(less)
What intrigues readers and Hemingway fans so much about the manuscripts lost in Paris in 1922? Hemingway was so obsessed with that episode---his wife ...moreWhat intrigues readers and Hemingway fans so much about the manuscripts lost in Paris in 1922? Hemingway was so obsessed with that episode---his wife at the time, Hadley claims they were stolen---he wrote about it some 40 years later in his posthumously published memoir A Moveable Feast, and the story was recently retold in Paula McLain's The Paris Wife.
Scholars, biographers and novelists have speculated about the what-could-have-beens if those manuscripts were somehow to surface. It's a question that intrigues fictional Hemingay scholar John Baird so much that, at least in some universes of Joe Haldeman's The Hemingway Hoax, he's cajoled by con man Sylvester Castlemaine to forge those manuscripts, and get the forgeries published as the real thing, a scheme that may alter Earth's history in several universes.
Once Baird takes on the task, he alerts the attention of the Spacio-Temporal Adjustment Board, a time-space policing agency with a license to kill. An agent of STAB jumps back to stop Baird by any means necessary.
One trip, one threat of death should be enough to stop Baird, but something happens to throw off the space-time continuum and Baird gets flung from one end of time to another, each time persisting in writing the forgery until the interdimensional hitman can convince him otherwise or kill every manifestation of Baird known to exist.
This was a fun read for me, as both a Hemingway and Haldeman fan. It's always intriguing to think about what direction a writer might have taken if he published once-lost manuscripts or kpet working on some manuscript that taxes him so much he gives up wriiting. Haldeman's story puts forward the question of what effect, if any, does literature or art have on history. It's a fast-paced witty novel with a twisted plot.
And watch literary forgers---STAB may just be watching.
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Don't expect Will Smith's I Am Legend if you read Richard Matheson's original 1954 novel. As with any novel-to-film adaptation, directors take poetic ...moreDon't expect Will Smith's I Am Legend if you read Richard Matheson's original 1954 novel. As with any novel-to-film adaptation, directors take poetic license. Though the film holds up on its own, it's no match for the novel.
Robert Neville is the only human left in a post-apocalytic world inhabited by vampires. To survice, he locks himself in a boarded, locked and garlic-filled home at night, and stalks around killing the vampires by day. While the novel has vampires---a horror staple---the novel works just as well as science fiction (it's in fact part of Gollancz's SF Masterworks series, the books of which I've been trying to find and read, in part as another reading project, as well as to learn from SF masters). The vampirism, Neville discovers is a disease, an apparently uncurable disease.
And though Neville struggles to understand the disease, it turns out (spoiler alert) he's the legend of which the novel's title speaks.
The novel is a dark but philosophically powerful book, ultimately humanistic in outlook despite its ending. (less)
It may be a long while before we have robots as sophisticated as R2D2 or C3P0, but roboticists get closer every day as they work toward making robots ...moreIt may be a long while before we have robots as sophisticated as R2D2 or C3P0, but roboticists get closer every day as they work toward making robots think.
Lee Gutkind's Almost Human: Making Robots Think tours through contemporary robotics research --- largely at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh --- and gives readers a glimpse of where we are going with this particular technology and reveals that getting to the point of making independent thinking machines is at "the barest beginning."
Gutkind focuses heavily on researchers who are involved in trying to find out whether robots could traverse the rugged extraterrestial terrain of Mars and perform independent experiments to discover signs of life on the Red Planet.
One intriguing concept Gutkind follows briefly is the idea of human/robot interactions --- that humans will have to learn to adjust to almost-human machines in the same way we are having to adjust to the rapid advances in computer technology.
But most of all Gutkind puts a human stamp on the machines, potraying in depth the scientists and engineers behind the robots. We find out these researchers are driven, willing to put in long, grueling hours into designing and testing their machines. Gutkind's portrait is reminiscent of Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, an examination of the computer revolution in the '70s and '80s.
What Gutkind finds, I believe, is that the soul of these new machines is human.(less)
Through the eyes of protagonist William Mandella, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War gives readers a glimpse of what war in deep space and on distant plan...moreThrough the eyes of protagonist William Mandella, Joe Haldeman's The Forever War gives readers a glimpse of what war in deep space and on distant planets might be like. It's a theme taken up by countless sci-fi writers --- Robert Heinlein and Orson Scott Card, to name a few --- and no telling how many sci-fi films and tv shows.
Though set in the far future, this novel is comparable to any classic war novel. It's gritty and unromantic. And given that Haldeman is a Vietnam vet, The Forever War is a novel as much about that war as Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.
The war Mandella fights against an alien enemy millions of light years from Earth has a spurious beginning --- its Gulf of Tonkin incident. The soldiers in Mandella's unit fight in hostile environments against an often unseen enemy.
Because of the phenomenon of time dilation caused by light speed travel, soldiers age months while Earth ages centuries. When they return home, they find the word vastly changed, an almost completely different culture: one ravaged by overpopulation as well as wars and violence. An experience not unlike that many Vietnam vets had upon their return to the United States. Haldeman in interviews talks about the feeling the went on without him while he was overseas.
The novel, however, is more than a metaphor of Vietnam: Haldeman is prescient about such things as overpopulation, violence and more tolerance of gays.(less)
Now a classic of science fiction, Neuromancer launched the cyberpunk genre, and gave readers a look into a future that to some extent has become real....moreNow a classic of science fiction, Neuromancer launched the cyberpunk genre, and gave readers a look into a future that to some extent has become real.
Like most science fiction, some of Gibson's technological inventions are now outdated, but I can imagine in the near future the possibility of humans being able visit virtual worlds while linked physically to computers, and enhance ourselves cybernetically.
The novel follows computer hacker Case and cybernetically enhanced mercenary Molly as they delve into the virtual worlds of an AI, Wintermute. They eventually learn Wintermute is trying to merge with its twin, Neuromancer to create a super AI.(less)
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