Having just read the seminal Neuromancer, I decided to back up and look into William Gibson's earlier works though this collection of ten short storie...moreHaving just read the seminal Neuromancer, I decided to back up and look into William Gibson's earlier works though this collection of ten short stories, some by the author himself, and some with collaborations. Through several, Gibson begins to outline his near-future utopian/dystopian worldview: advances in technology that bring about wonderous possibilities, and the tragic humans (and the trajic events that they create or befall them) that inhabit and often plague that world. In my edition of the book, Gibson himself gives an introduction to each short story, explaining when they came out and under what circumstances, which was very useful. All of the stories use technology/science to wrap the world up, but most of it is about the flawed humans in that world, the tragic people moving about.
One-sentence synopsis: Johnny Mnemonic - A guy with a hard-drive in his skull is hunted through a techno-ghetto by a Yakuza ninja and is protected by razor-girl Molly (who shows up in Neuromancer) - Part of the "Sprawl" worldline.
The Gernsback Continuum - A first-person account of someone hallucinating the future-that-could-have-been, with 10-propeller flying-wing aerocraft mulling about.
Fragments of a Hologram Rose - An introduction to the sim-stim technology (simulation of stimuli) that comes up later; a brief tale, mostly a vignette to describe the idea in esoteric terms.
The Belonging Kind - A despondent professor follows around a magnetically-attractive woman who, evidently, chanages her whole appearance based on the various bars/clubs that she inhabits.
Hinterlands - People aboard a space station wait for hyperspace-esque travelers to return via an unknown "photon stream" (that humans have found a way to latch onto), get whatever advanced trinkets they can, and generally unsuccessfully keep them from committing suicide.
Red Star, Winter Orbit - First Russian man on Mars is the last Russian man in a space station left to go the way of Mir, until he decides to fight back about it.
New Rose Hotel - The second of three stories in the Sprawl worldline, introducing Hosaka and other uber-corporations, their espionage practices, and the people caught in the doomed hijinks.
The Winter Market - Probably one of the best of the bunch, introducing the idea of downloading one's consciousness to ROM and the implications of being able to experience another's dreams as part of heavily-marketed entertainment no different than the music business.
Dogfight - Showing off the beginning of mentally-controlled holograms/projections as part of either entertainment, or a live-videogame of two set of jets dogfighting; this one was an interesting read, and then very difficult at the anti-hero protagonists "fall" a few pages from the end, even thinking about it makes me get just a twinge of upset (so: well-written).
Burning Chrome - The eponymous story and third in the Sprawl worldline, outlining the ideas of cyberspace (the matrix), cowboys, "ice," and all the capers that show up in Neuromancer.
[Aside: I'm sure papers have been written, but I'm most curious about how Gibson treats women. He has all of these young women, or women that are old but have been surgically enhanced to stay young, that are beautiful, smart, in some ways cunning, but always with tragic flaws or with tragic things happening to them. In most cases, it's like, because of a character flaw they are punished beyond what they deserved or become the focus of tragic events. In most cases, the anti-hero/protagonist men are either the ones initiating the tragedy, aware of it and can't/won't stop it, or affected by the tragedy in a poor-me way but not nearly as harshly as the women. Gibson's work here could be a pretty solid term paper in some Gender Studies Literature course...](less)
By the time that the term "cyberpunk" had been coined, the heyday of it's literature was already over, and new novels coming out were just e...moreBy the time that the term "cyberpunk" had been coined, the heyday of it's literature was already over, and new novels coming out were just exploiting a scene that had already moved on. And at that time, I was barely aware of its existence, being more interested in other types of novels.
So here, many decades after the original publishing, I have finally read William Gibson's seminal novel that coined many of the phrases, ideas, and cultures that are shaping today's constantly-connected world. And only after running a "book suggestions for people who like Neal Stephenson" search and Gibson coming up over, and over. I had read a few of his short stories, but never a novel.
The book, written in the early 80s, is a book written in a timeless future where the world is connected through the mutual hallucination that is cyberspace (think cyberspace in the vein of The Lawnmower Man movie visuals), it's dystopian and not at the same time, and space travel to Earth-orbit is rather routine.
I won't get into the plot of the book, but I'll say this for the writing: it's like stream-of consciousness. I found myself not speeding through pages as the plot moved along, but trying to grasp what each sentence was trying to convey. The lines are not put out in a straightfoward, linear fashion, but require proactive thought and interpretation by the reader to really understand what in the ____ is gong on. After finishing, I even had to read some plot summaries around the Web to realize a few points that didn't make sense (like what the heck Riviera was all about).
But the novel was fascinating that way, something to dig into, not just sit back and let happen. Even today, in the advent of what Gibson proposed (on a lighter scale), the ideas and concepts, the way he formed the Matrix, is still visionary and almost appealing.(less)
About as expected: a field guide on all of the ins and outs of backpacking, and really goes from soup-to-nuts on the process: from preparing and packi...moreAbout as expected: a field guide on all of the ins and outs of backpacking, and really goes from soup-to-nuts on the process: from preparing and packing, through equipment descriptions and travel, all the way through first aid, and even a bit on outdoor leadership. Solid guide. After hiking and camping for several years, I still found some useful parts here, tricks on the trail, a remind of what the heck declination is anyway, that sort of stuff.
The read was pretty dry and straight forward, and the author has more than a little fascination with go-light-and-leave-no-trace (I'm not interested in packing out my poo, thanks), but overall this covers just about everything about everything with backpacking.(less)
As a standalone book, this gets four stars. As a Stephenson book, it would get three.
Not my favorite of his efforts, there have been a lot o...moreAs a standalone book, this gets four stars. As a Stephenson book, it would get three.
Not my favorite of his efforts, there have been a lot of "this is his most accessible novel" reviews, and it's true. The book is fairly linear with a few flashback and explanation interludes, as Stephenson is wont to do.
The major ideas of the book revolve around massively multiplayer gaming as a means to earn real money through the transfer for virtual, or "gold mining" as it were, but that's just the backdrop to get the plot going. The function of the book is a chase, more or less, through Asia and the British Columbia area of Canada. Lots of interesting gun lore, ideas about culture and online culture, the ins and outs of flight patters and digital security, the sort of minutiae that Stephenson tends to get into with his novels.
REAMDE reminds me of how Cobweb and Interface went: straightforward drama-cum-thriller with lots of comical interludes and interesting characters, but nothing like the Baroque Cycle or Anathem, or even Cryptonomicon. Actually, REAMDE could be considered Cryptonomicon Light.
High points: characters, dialog, and the quick snappy wit that Stephenson is so good at.
Low points: the mountain lion. I'm all of suspension of disbelief, but the excessive use there was just over the top.
A good read for any Stephenson fan, but don't expect it to be your favorite. A great read for anyone who wants some good, 1,000 page witty thriller fiction.(less)
By now, any reader of the Baroque Cycle knows what they are in store for, and is going to read the third volume regardless of any review, but herein I...moreBy now, any reader of the Baroque Cycle knows what they are in store for, and is going to read the third volume regardless of any review, but herein I shall make a few points...
This book starts out slow. I mean slooooow. The last that we saw Daniel Waterhouse in the 18th Century, it was in Quicksilver's back-and-forth storytelling between the 1600s (young Daniel) and 1700s (older Daniel) when he was visited by one Enoch Root, made his way onto the Minerva, and manoeuvered around Cape Cod to get away from attacking pirates on some errand that we did not understand, having not read about his backstory (or future-story, in the earlier timeline). Now we find Daniel on a carriage-ride across England.
I think that Stephenson did this on purpose, to drag out how things felt for Daniel: slow. The book starts at least a decade after The Confusion. The reader understands that things have happened in the meantime, but it has been slow, not at the ragged edge like the events described in the previous volumes. This picks up, nearly exponentially, as the game is set for Daniel's investigations and maneuvers wtih Newton and Liebniz, with Eliza's machinations and intrigue, and with Jack's schemes and plots. Let's just say, the page turning got better and better.
I noted that, at the end of The Confusion, the book pulled a viscerally emotion reaction out of me. The same is said here, the frantic pace of the the attack on The Tower, and the events pushing through the end of the volume were written so well, so deeply, and paced so perfectly as to really draw the reader into be involved and really vested- not just intellectually, but emotionally.
Stephenson is a master. Throughout the three volumes he spins out many different lines and plots that all (all!) seem to get wrapped up in specific ways, and all well done. Some lines were so intricate that I thought that they were the crux of the entire Cycle, but were resolved handedly well before the terminus. The actual fulcrum of the Cycle is much grander than anyone plot line, even though we find grand resolution at the end, it's the broad scope and many ideas presented in.
It's hard to describe the entire Baroque Cycle's depth, scope, and grandeur, and how The System of the World encapsulates it so decidedly. There is no easy way to browse the books or try-it-out. One has to summarily decide to read the entirety, no easy feat, but the reader is well, well rewarded for the effort. (less)
The four stars for the plurality of The Confusion gets promoted to five upon the last fourty or fifty pages, as Stepehenson summons out emotions from ...moreThe four stars for the plurality of The Confusion gets promoted to five upon the last fourty or fifty pages, as Stepehenson summons out emotions from the reader that the latter did not know existed!
The Confusion takes place following Quicksilver, but is much broader in both scope as well as geography. Daniel Waterhouse's efforts take a secondary role this time in place of Eliza (The Juncto) and Jack (Bonanza). As Stephenson notes well, The Confusion is a con-fusion of the two novels so they take place generally on the same timeline, instead of one and then backtracking to the other. I can't imagine reading the novels independently otherwise.
In brief: Eliza does a lot of stuff with finance, money, and courly intrigue, and both quite well. Jack voyages far around the globe, essentially circumnavigating from where Quicksilver ended, with no small amount of exploits between.
Stephenson has a knack for altering his writing style to fit the character he follows, snarky, succint, and with a snappiness for Jack, and with a flow and style, concinnity, with Eliza.
Well written in the same token as Quicksilver, but taking things much further and with more emotion. The several scenes at the end are wrenching, entirely unexpected, but the reader has been with these characters for going on 20 years...(less)
At first few pages, Wallace's effort reminds me of Chuck Klosterman, inasmuch that Wallace writes about various facets of pop culture and society. In ...moreAt first few pages, Wallace's effort reminds me of Chuck Klosterman, inasmuch that Wallace writes about various facets of pop culture and society. In the grand Venn Diagram, they overlap on "sports," where Klosterman handles the wide-world, while Wallace tends to stick to tennis (for reasons from his youth). I found that this comparison started to fall apart the further I went into the book.
Wallace can really drag on. And on. And on, if he chooses to. About half the time: Wallace chooses to.
The very first essay, on a convention of pornographic culture (movies and the like) goes on way longer than it needed to, and into some detail that kept ticking away at my "skip the rest of this one." Which it finally did. Wallace's essay on grammar, in light of some new dictionary with some new rules of English grammar, started out cohesive enough, but eventually devolved into a perfectly-written grammatical-prose nuclear-scale stream-of-consciousness that lost me so impolicitly that I started to full doubt my own grammatical skills as I typed out work email that day. "Can I end this sentence with a prepositional phrase??" plagued me for some time. Crude move, David Foster...
The essay on the tennis star, and the one on Updike, were well-written, to-the-point, funny, full-read, and pretty much brutal takedowns of their subjects. Updike I don't care as much about, that guy is a it of a mysoginistic ass, but the poor tennis star and her memoir, Wallace drove the knife honestly, but certainly didn't need to twist it...
The essay on the lobster festival made me want to not eat lobster. I think that may have been the intention.
Also: the excessive use of footnotes is annoying. If it's more than two sentences, just put it in the main text, no? Klosterman does this better. If your footnote drags on over to the next page, it is no longer a footnote. I got so tired of this that I started to not read them, they interrupted too much. The last essay, I can't even remember the topic, was so disjointed with body-notes, re-directions, and text-boxes that i gave it all of four pages before I closed the book and clicked "Date I finished this book."
In the end, this book was worth the read to bridge me between heavy-fiction-reading phases. I read most of it, skipped large chunks of it, but never felt bad for doing so. Between Wallace and Klosterman, I decidedly prefer Klosterman, but that's a matter of taste. (less)
It would be very difficult to give a proper review of this book, owning to the extreme complexities and intricacies that go along with a 900+ page nov...moreIt would be very difficult to give a proper review of this book, owning to the extreme complexities and intricacies that go along with a 900+ page novel, especially when that is but Part One of three parts. But, distilling it down:
I have read everything else by Stephenson at this point. Everything, including The Big U and his short-story miscellany. I was simply intimidated by the girth of the Baroque Cycle books. But I finally caved, and am glad that I did. Stephenson's grand Cryptonomicon style is evident here, with the wit and flow of the text and dialog, sown through with the explanations and minutiae of so many different facets of technology, culture, life, and trivia (all about using mercury to purify silver? Sure! Want to know more about the advances in needlework fashion during 17th Century France? Why not?!). But one thing: it is never boring.
Three main characters are followed: Daniel Waterhouse, the Puritan scientist and sub-revolutionary, Jack Shaftoe, the eminently intelligent (in his own way), skilled, humorous, and crude vagabond (or king thereof), and Eliza, the displaced Qwghlmian odalisque intrigue savant. Those are three of the dozens and dozens of other personae that make up the stage, so much so that Stephenson had to include a Dramatis Personnae at the end of the novel just to keep it all straight. Even then, the ins and outs of the plots and spiderwebs of connections are just too much to really keep it all in line (...wait... what was that again wtih Dutch East India stock trading? Who was getting what when now?). Many of the characters are actual historical people, and they have major parts, those from the royalty, the Royal Society, military, alchemy, it goes on.
I can't say more about Stephenson's writing that hasn't already been. Suffice to say that this first book is thick and epic and interesting and daunting and fascinating and completely worthwhile holding the tome up while my forearms complain.
"You can say any sort of nonsens in Latin and our feeble University men will be stunned, or at least profoundly confused."(less)
Another excellent work by Stephenson. I've read most of his other non-Baroque-Cycle fiction at this point, so I'm catching up on his earlier work afte...moreAnother excellent work by Stephenson. I've read most of his other non-Baroque-Cycle fiction at this point, so I'm catching up on his earlier work after seeing his later efforts.
Zodiac was perfect for me as a snark-appreciating chemist. The protagonist who relays the story in first person, Sangamon Taylor, is oft referred to as the "granola James Bond" as he slings chemistry instrumentation, nitrous oxide, and small-boat-prowess like a sidearm. The book delves into the topics du jour the way only Stephenson does: he goes after a few select areas of information and focuses on them, in this case toxins, chemistry, and Boston Harbor, and uses them as the foundation to build the story around. Constantly interesting, funny, rather random (a landlord who trashes his own properties for nigh-psychotic reasons?), the story keeps going at a good pace without too many boring or excessive sidebars. What Stephenson does stray into is always for a funny, interesting, or eventually-pertinent reason.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes the lighter side of Stephenson's style with a dash of the intellectual: this is more Big U than Anathem, but done quite well. (less)
"What started as a scientific argument became a political dispute about territory and boundaries. Such is science, such is life."
T...more"What started as a scientific argument became a political dispute about territory and boundaries. Such is science, such is life."
This book is interesting, readable, witty, and often fascinating. There are few books out there on the "central science" of chemistry that aren't actual educational textbooks. Physics gets a lot of wear with philosophical meanderings about quanta and astrologica, and biology is endless with genetics and sociological minutiae, but chemistry is often just relegated to what I've learned in my studies: a very large set of rules with an even larger set of exceptions.
This book details the history, intricacies, fun-facts, and a decent amount of science behind the periodic table- both the table per se, as well as the elements behind it. The author takes cues from single elements, their histories and properties and how that has affected human history, but also human history and research and how that played into the discovery of elements. There's a remarkable story here, the cast of characters and lineage of things, and the author really presents it in both an informative and curiousity-peaking way.
When you're done with A Brief History Of Time, pick this one up.(less)
My biggest takeaways from this book: -Awareness is peace -Uncertainty is liberation -Be aware of your breathing
I had listened t...moreMy biggest takeaways from this book: -Awareness is peace -Uncertainty is liberation -Be aware of your breathing
I had listened to Tolle's previous effort, The Power of Now twice on audiobook, which was very thought-provoking, and certainly opened up many new ideas. He expands and progresses those ideas here, although staying with the same themes of happiness through present awareness. The main idea, simply being aware of one's self and one's feelings and thoughs as they happen, but not fight them or let them "be" who we are, is detailed throughout the beginning, with follow-on ideas and meditations throughtout the remainder.
It was compelling and provoking, leading me to focus on many of the ideas presented.
-Life isn't as serious as my mind makes it out to be. -...sometimes letting things go is an act of fear greater power than defenidng on hanging on. -The ego knows nothing of Being but believes you will eventually be saved by doing. If you are in the grip of the ego, you believe that by doing more and more you will eventually accumulate enough "doings" to make yourself feel complete at some point in the future. You won't. You will only lose yourself in doing. The entire civilization is losing itself in doing that is not rooted in Being and thus becomes futile. -Due to a complete lack of self-awareness, they cannot tell the difference between an event and their reaction to the event. -You are able to live with uncertainty, even enjoy it. When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life. It means fear is no longer a dominant factor in what you do and no longer prevents you from taking action to initiate change. (less)
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book, having received it as a Christmas present from my grandmother, who tends to give me boths that are either...moreI wasn't sure what to expect from this book, having received it as a Christmas present from my grandmother, who tends to give me boths that are either 1) thought-provoking metaphysical/spiritual, or 2) political conservative propaganda. I was somewhat worried that this would fall into the latter category, being an outlet for political quips through the guise of Benjamin Frankling. I was wrong.
And I really rather enjoyed this book.
The author makes brief, but pointed, essays on many various topics surrounding today's culture, mainly economic and political, but he delves into other areas as well. It's all done as though Ben Franklin's wandering spirit is writing them, which actually has some wit to it. The essays are very concise, but thought-out, with a nice arc of common sense. I may not have agreed with everything, but there wasn't any pushiness to it, just simple explanation though an interesting modis.
It was an easy read, and the author interludes with many of the quips from the original Poor Richard's Alamanack which Ben Franklin, indeed, wrote and published. Those were nice editions to the point the author was trying to make.
If nothing else, the book makes some pretty good points, neither left- nor right-leaning, but through the use of logic and the common sense of the writer. It's all thought-provoking, sometimes witty, and never dull. It's also in nice bite-sized portions, which does make for easy picking-up. (less)
Early on in the book, the author talks about how Secret Service agents "observe everything that goes on behind the scenes" but they must not...moreEarly on in the book, the author talks about how Secret Service agents "observe everything that goes on behind the scenes" but they must not reveal this to anyone, citing a phrase from their credentials about being worthy of trust and confidence.
The rest of the book is full of stories and quotes from agents who, evidently, were not worthy of it.
The entire book read like a gossip blog, more or less. There are some law-enforcement stories, but it's mainly a hodgepodge of lewd behavior, agents acting badly, agents wanting to act nobly but management acting badly, and dirt-dishing on Presidents, their wives, their mistresses, and other people. A who's-who of who acting really nice or really mean to their protective Secret Service agents!
That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't, well, fairly poorly written. The style of writing reminded me of middle-school tone and structure.
The stories were interesting, the writing was not, but it was a quick and easy read.(less)
"Time is a goon" explaining the title of the book. The back cover or inserts talk about ...moreBelieve the hype, this book is *excellent*
"Time is a goon" explaining the title of the book. The back cover or inserts talk about how "Bennie is an aging record exec" and "Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs." While that is true, it's only just a sliver of how the book operates. There are different stories of differently connected people, similar to how Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Snatch worked, but these stories traverse not though hours or days, but through decades and through generations (even a bit into the near future). Think of a large asymmetric Venn diagram with intersections and concentric circles and tangential connections; now put that diagram into the 4th dimension of time, and you've got the outline.
The writing is captivating, and not necessarily consistent. Some chapters are in first person, some in a weird first/second person hybrid ("you" do such-and-such, "you" say things), some in third person, one in the form of a magazine article (footnoted, of course), and, the most talked about chapter, the one done in Powerpoint. And yes, that chapter is that good: it tells the story like any other chapter, but does it visually and textually, and does it fascinatingly. A simple discussion of of pauses in music for a school project leads to the slightly autistic child, her brother, who obsesses over them, leads to the family dynamics, leads to the larger point.
I suppose the book does revolve around Bennie and Sasha, if there were two characters that centered the mass of everything else, but there are events taking place before them and without them, a connection to a connection to one of them in different times. Sasha is the most fascinating of the two, she's ethereal, magnetic, something mythical and unknowable, even supernatural in all her flaws. When she is presented finally as a grown-up, it is through someone else's lens through a whole different medium, as though the Sasha we have seen is not her, and the mythos is still there.
The way Egan presents the outcomes or histories of people in the stories, and sometimes later, is very affecting. Simple paragraphs can detail two generations on of the person in question, or simple sentences can tell the fate of many previous chapters. It's done bluntly, sometimes to sadness and sometimes to smiles. Some stories end up just so well, some end up rough, and some just fade out.
Not many books affect me the way a well-done film can, but this book did. Highly, highly recommended. (less)
Whereas Jack Kornfield and Eckhart Tolle take the spiritual vantage for writing on self-awareness, meditation, and "watching the thinker," S...moreWhereas Jack Kornfield and Eckhart Tolle take the spiritual vantage for writing on self-awareness, meditation, and "watching the thinker," Siegel takes the Western/science route of neurobiology and psychological case studies to the same effect, all without ever taking the same wonder and fascination out of the ordeal.
I gave this two stars for the literal "It was ok" since I often found my attention span wandering. It could have been the content, could have been the typeface of the book, or it could have been the fact that I have little to no formal biological or psychological education.
The first part of Siegel's book is illustrating the brain, how it works, how the human brain arised in layers that have lead to emotions, feelings, and the singular ability to not just think, but recognize that we ARE thinking, and to be able to think ABOUT that thinking (metacognition, or "mindsight"). This complexity gives rise to stresses and problems that might not normally exist in lesser mammals, but to which we find ourselves in the midst of. But that same vein, this mindsight allows us to see the emotions, feelings, and thoughts, to be able to tackle them and evolve. The overview that Siegel gives on the brain, connections, how things work, why they work as they do, comes up in the second part.
The second section of the book is mainly case studies from Siegel's career: people he had as patients and their stories illustrating the concepts he discussed. Siegel often comes back to use ideas from his original overview of the brain and how it functions to illustrate what the people are going through: the synapses are firing too much, aren't connected, the person cut off their left/right brain long ago, etc, etc.
I would recommend this for the left-brained person who is interested in how the whole-brain works, and also people who have instruction in psychology (while one does not need a psych degree to get the material, it probably makes it all more familiar and easy to read along with). Siegel makes some pointed and very interesting insights. If you're looking for a "why" and "give me examples," this is your book. If you're looking for mushy how-to on self-awareness and introspection, I'd go with Kornfield or Tolle.(less)
The main premise of this book, inasmuch as I presume: the best decisions are made by thin-slicing mounds of information through a filter of a wealth o...moreThe main premise of this book, inasmuch as I presume: the best decisions are made by thin-slicing mounds of information through a filter of a wealth of lifetime experience and wisdom on an unconscious level. So listen to those choices. Unless those unconscious choices are made with other unconsious biases and predjudices that we can do very little about. Then do not listen to those choices.
Also: the Pentagon cheats on tests.
Best advice gleaned: pre-choose not to choose mundane choices (i.e., decide one or two things to eat for lunch in advance, so you don't have to re-think it every single day); if you have to make mundane choices with no real consequences, weight the options consciously, you'll be happier for it. For big-deal choices with lots of information and trade-offs: listen to your first-instinct gut thin-slice feeling (again, unless it is based on predjudices that you are not consciously aware of), you'll also be happier for it.(less)
I gave this one two stars for the alt-text: It was okay.
I found myself flipping pages to get to the next idea as the book progressed, and I'...moreI gave this one two stars for the alt-text: It was okay.
I found myself flipping pages to get to the next idea as the book progressed, and I'm realizing why: when behavioral economics books (like this) first came out, the ideas were fresh, the whole idea was fascinating, and opened up dozens of "a-ha!" moments for me. But having read a few books, and kept up on various news sites, blogs, and infotainment centers that focus on behavorial economics, I think that I've saturated myself. This book was probably a big eye-opener when it hit in 2004, but a lot has been said in the last 6 or 7 years.
I don't want to downplay the main idea, though: some choice is happiness, too much choice is tyranny. The author certainly has experimental data, and subjective analysis, to back up his claims. There is no shortage of different studies cited to focus the different points (see above, flipping pages), so I'm certainly along with him on this. There were a few key points that really hit home with me: Choose When To Choose (that is, pre-make mundane decisions, so real decisions are not cumbersome), don't make every big choice a life-or-death "maximization," don't let expectations rule the results, the psychological ups and downs of "trade-offs," and a few others.
In brief: good for the ideas, but things have been said and done at this point, so there may not be anything really eye-opening for anyone picking this book up new after looking at the behavior economics genre elsewhere.
Excellent stuff. Klosterman collects a decade of interviews, articles on culture, articles on music, and articles on sports that he has written for va...moreExcellent stuff. Klosterman collects a decade of interviews, articles on culture, articles on music, and articles on sports that he has written for various media (newspapers, Spin, Esquire, ESPN, etc) into a single book that mostly spans 1995-2005.
Klosterman has this excellent way of both telling a story and making a point, all the while taking the briefest of vignette interludes or side-tracks that are both very poignant and not at all relevant simultaneously. His insight into culture and media are often so simple and obvious that it's something that has to be explained, which he does quite well. Much of the book is footnoted with his current comments on articles, which are usually just as funny and witty as the text itself. He goes into some of the "why" of the articles, but also makes some comments on how things have since turned out after the publish of the article. One example, in his article on Britney Spears circa November 2003:
--- Main article: "...Oh, and did I mention that she's pantsless? She's not wearing any pants. This is a hard detail to ignore. This is a hard detail to ignore because the number of men who have seen a pantsless Britney belong to a highly select fraternity: it's Justin Timberlake, her gynecologist, the photographer who's doing this particular photo shoot, and (maybe) the frontman for a fourth-rate rap-metal outfit from Jacksonville, Florida. That's more or less everybody(1)."
1, footnote: "Because I write about popular culture in the present tense, it's not uncommon for things I write to become inaccurate over time. This sentence, however, is a particularly insane example of that phenomenon. At this point, I would be pretty surprised of anyone readin this book has NOT seen Britney Spears' vagina. Modernity!" ---
For many of the "Things That May Be True" section, the second one, Klosterman poses these what-would-you-do scenarios that he talks about earlier on: it's not the answer that is interesting, it's how one goes about their thought process to arrive at that answer that tells the most about a person.
The final section is a bit of fiction, somewhat influenced by Klosterman's personal history, that he wrote and has edited down. A friend of mine who recommended this book to me said that she liked this book the best of his, except for this section, which she didn't like or understand. FALSE. This little vignette was great. It has no point, it is not a shorty story in the technical sense, it is just a well-written, witty, articulate, and fascinating little piece of fiction about a few days-in-the-life of a small north-mid-western town many who writes film reviews for a local newspaper, smokes PCP three days a week, enjoys Chinese buffets and Southern-Comfort-and-Mountain-Dew (SoCo-Dew), somehow manages to have a girlfriend, and has one pretty wacked-out thing happen to him while driving his car on an errand for a friend that is also pretty wacked-out.
Good stuff.
Quotes:
-It seems like kids today are more interested in the culture around music than in the music itself
-Yorke's preoccupation with picking words for how they sound (as opposed to what they mean) is part of why Radiohead's cultic following cuts such a wide swath (every album except 2001's Amnesiac has gone platinum): if phrases have no clarity and no hard reality, people can turn them into whatever they need... It's a songwriting style Yorke borrowed from Michael Stipe; not coincidentally, Stipe's REM were the last rock intellectuals taken seriously as Radiohead are taken today.
-My editor found it slightly bizarre that I liked Billy Joel, since he was living under the impression that I sat in a bomb shelter listening to Warrant and snorting cocaine off of a Ouija board.
-And this is the truth to which I refer: culture can't be wrong. That doesn't mean it's always "right," nor does it mean you always have to agree with it. But culture is never wrong. People can be wrong, and movements can be wrong. But culture - as a whole - cannot be wrong. Culture is just there.
-Maybe it would be easier to remain faithful to your spouse if you both assumed you'd get typhoid before turning fifty.
-Machines allow humans the privilege of existential anxiety. Machines provide us with the extra time to worry about the status of our careers, and/or the context of our sexual relationships, and/or what it means to be alive. Unconsciously, we hate technology. We hate the way it replaces visceral experience with self-absorption. And the only way we can reconcile that hatred is by pretending that machines hate us, too.
-I hope I have enough hit points to survive.
-I am both drowsy and awake, the product of combining 80 proof alcohol with enough caffeine and glucose to make a ground sloth break-dance.(less)
An very intellectual and pragmatic take on the "religion issue." The author's thesis for the book is that all religions are not one, as the ...moreAn very intellectual and pragmatic take on the "religion issue." The author's thesis for the book is that all religions are not one, as the old saying goes, and uses the title God is not One to illustrate the point, maybe to hyperbole.
There are eight main chapters on the eight "greatest" religions in the world today, in what the author says is in order of descending greatness based on a myriad of values. Islam comes first, being the fastest growing and religion of most chatter right now, followed by Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoruba Religion (African origins), Judaism, Daoism, and then a ninth chapter "A Brief Coda on Atheism."
The author goes through each religion in an instructional manner: the who, what, why, how, etc. Each religion has a problem, a solution, and the means to that solution, in the author's eyes. For instance, in Christianity, the problem is sin, the solution is salvation, and the means are prayer/good works/belief in Christ, etc. For Buddhism, the problem is suffering, the solution is awakening/Nirvana, and the means is the "middle way" eightfold path, etc. Further, the author delves into not just the basis of the religions, but their belief system, history, rituals, exemplars (those who exemplify the religion's practices and beliefs), and culture. If nothing else, this book is an excellent primer on the eight religions from both the inside and out.
Being a theist, more notably a pragmatic Presbyterian Christian, I found the Coda on Atheism especially interesting. The author doesn't exactly skewer the new atheist movement, but he certainly takes Dawkins, Hitchens, and Onfray to task. He divides the "religious atheists" into two sects: angry atheists (essentially fundamentalists, like Dawkins), and friendly atheists, who are pragmatic and not judging about others' beliefs.
I wish there was more discussion about "the differences and why they matter," how they reflect the world today, what they have done, etc. There's great information about the religions and what they have done for their followers as a singularity, but there's not much discussion about how the different religions interact and how those differences really affect things. It touches some on the topic, but nothing too in-depth. A tenth chapter on "why this matters" may have been interesting.
There's something about science fiction written during the 50s and 60s... they didn't have any of the scope of modern technology, just a romantic view...moreThere's something about science fiction written during the 50s and 60s... they didn't have any of the scope of modern technology, just a romantic view of it, ideas of computers and space travel and whatnot. So they had all of these far-reaching concepts, but only concepts, and fills in the details with their imaginations.. Modern sci-fi often tries too hard with actual technological science, or just forgoes it altogether.
This could be considered run-of-the-mill science fiction from the golden years: some indeterminate future timeframe, humans have spread out to the starts, there's an enemy we're fighting in a brutal war, etc, etc. I was more curious about how future humans were perceived by a writer in the 60s. The "free love" facets were very interesting, given the time that the author wrote the book. There's evidently LOTS of free love in the future.
Not a hard read, not unlikeable, not overly likeable, just some decent sci-fi from a decent author.(less)
The setting of the novel was probably the most interesting, and at the same time difficult to deal with, aspect. It's set in a not-terribly-distant fu...moreThe setting of the novel was probably the most interesting, and at the same time difficult to deal with, aspect. It's set in a not-terribly-distant future that isn't exactly dystopian, but that has taken some of the current aspects of American popular culture to ironic extremes. Everyone has a "smart phone" called an apparat that hangs around their necks, constant connection. The main uses appear to be connectivity to others, shopping, rating other people in realtime, and access to the GlobalTeens network, an advancement to what we know as Facebook. America is lost down a rabbit hole of security-state and bad economics. The Secretary of Defense is nigh in charge, and he is highly unliked. The obsession with "Media" and "Retail" and "Debt" as the only feasible professions, and the protagonists job at an agency that specializes in living forever through diet and treatments (bottles of wine called "resveratol," and not what they actually are).
Suffice to say, that part was unsettling, but I assume that was the point.
The book itself is told through the diaries of the protagonist, Lenny, and the GlobalTeens communications of his love interest, Eunice. The story does come together, but it's interesting the two different takes on the plot as discussed by two different people. Sometimes they talk about the same events, sometimes one part advances the timeline where the other left off.
The writing was well done, and the ideas were well thought-through (certainly to be able to evoke the emotion and difficulty-to-deal that I experienced). Good for an interesting read, certainly in the 25-40 crowd who has seen the current advancements in technology and pop American culture progress as they have. (less)
"Watch out for the iguanas," Larkin had told her. Betsy hadn't understood the reference until recently. But now she saw iguanas all over Was...more"Watch out for the iguanas," Larkin had told her. Betsy hadn't understood the reference until recently. But now she saw iguanas all over Washington, people who sat sunning on their rocks, destroying anything or anybody who came within tongue's reach, but doing nothing.
The book centers around several situations in the time just before the first Gulf War, detailing a few different plot lines: DC intel analysts and insiders, a smarter-than-expected deputy sheriff in a big small town in Iowa, and a grad-student-nigh-PhD in that same small Iowan town. The plot revolves around the same basic fulchrum, the secret development of a biological weapon, but takes many different vantages to how things play out.
There's a lot of good DC-specific intrigue snarkiness, which is what I enjoyed most. The authors use both the agency web as well as the physical layout of the greater DC area as "characters" in a way. Anyone who lives in the DC area will be able to picture what the authors have in mind as characters live and move around the area.
The book has the same feel as Interface, the other novel by Stephenson and his father. They did their basic homework on a lof the key plot points, and ones not so key: making botulin toxin, Olympic-style wrestling theory, the culture of Vakhan Turks, the plays of the CIA and FBI and all Intel groups as they jockey for positions and their own jobs, how federal-political meetings can be run, and what it's like to run a large business that is really a research group looking for more money to continue operating. (less)
Good stuff. I'm not sure that I would go with "an extremely insightful book full of wit" or "an extremely witty book full of insight,"...moreGood stuff. I'm not sure that I would go with "an extremely insightful book full of wit" or "an extremely witty book full of insight," but it probably falls somewhere inbetween. Classic Klosterman writing (although this is the first book of his that I've read), he illustrates points on culture, reality, and general day-to-day dynamics that are so plainly true that I have never even though of of them, much less articulate them (or even know that they were articulable).
Between Nirvana, football, Lady Gaga, irony, time travel, and ABBA, Klosterman makes circuitous routes to fascinating thesis, all while grammatically painting the mental processes he himself is experiencing.
Highly recommended.
"Just by the act of being willing to talk about oneself, the person is revealing something about who they are."
"...anecdotal mistakes are used to make metaphors that explain the motives of a person who is sort of like you, but not really."
"It has been said that pretty much everything about John Mayer is fascinating, except for his music."
"By now the theme of Vertigo is understood by all people interested in watching it, often before they see if for the first time: It's about every man's inherent obsession with attractive, psychologically damaged women."
"This is why I preferred watching the stranger across the way, even though she never did anything: there was always the possibility that she might do everything."
"I'm willing to associate myself with this gimmick."
"Lady Gaga is like a fifteen year old Honor Student who gets drunk in the parking lot before school, but only because she wants to impress her weird English Lit teacher."(less)
Very detailed, really goes in depth into the history and minutiae, but is also fairly dry.
The author presents nine (well, ten) different c...moreVery detailed, really goes in depth into the history and minutiae, but is also fairly dry.
The author presents nine (well, ten) different comparative scenarios to show how different facets of the economy (or ecology and climate, sociology, history, or culture) can lead to very different outcomes: the economics of Argentina versus the United States, the cocaine trade logistics of South America versus Africa, the economic drivers of Christendom versus Islam, and (the one part where I laughed out loud) why panda bears are "incompetent, inefficient piebald buffoons" as compared to the wildly successful house cat. Which, truly, the author makes an excellent case for.
The economies here are less "false" and more "comparative," in the end. The corruption that the British used worked while the Portugese drove themselves to ruin; those corrupt policies weren't false, they were just different.
For any econo-historical person, this book is perfect. But if you're looking for an extension of The World Is Flat or Freakonomics, you probably want to keep searching.
"Unregulated finance capitalism appeared to be enriching a powerful minority while subjecting everyone else to the vagaries of a volatile economy." (less)
A very unnerving, and dichotomous, read. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw a brief review and decided to pick the book up.
Half of th...moreA very unnerving, and dichotomous, read. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw a brief review and decided to pick the book up.
Half of the book narrates from the first-person during the toughest parts of a complete spiral into crack-addiction madness. It is told very matter-of-factly through that chronology, although the styles do change depending on the mood of the narrator when referencing the time. This is never moreso true than during the "Last Door" chapter as things come crashing down. It was written in a way to really convey the frantic and unfocused mind that he had at the time.
The other half of the book, the author narrates his youth in the third person, going from his childhood, though college, through post-college when the addiction begins. The line between third-person and first- is blurred as the downward spiral begins.
Both chronologies are moving, but I could not identify at all with the first-person account, the difficult nature of it, it was difficult to read but also very pulling at the same time, owning to how well it is written. The third-person account of the narrator's youth is much more identifiable, even sympathic, to how the boy has no control over what goes on with his life, vice the pseudo-control during his 20s as the accoutn of addition takes place.
The chapter "Another Door" halfway through was very moving, as it accounted his youth and meeting Kate. I only underlined one sentence in the novel: "Her words have a kind of magic, like the garments that carry storybook characters out of their lives." He has a lot of deeply accurate lines like these, that make the book very intense, drawing the reader in even at times of near-revulsion at his actions.
In my ongoing effort to read everything by Neal Stephenson that isn't the very intimidating 3000-plus-page Baroque Cycle...
Neal Stephenson...moreIn my ongoing effort to read everything by Neal Stephenson that isn't the very intimidating 3000-plus-page Baroque Cycle...
Neal Stephenson has essentially disowned the book, this being his first effort and not up to the Cryptonomicon standard. Personally, I thought it was great. It's still very Stephenson in style, although the scope is smaller than his other books and doesn't go as deep. The Big U is a send-up of large university life, taking every paradigm and sterotype to a hyperbolic extreme. Drunken jocks become pseudo-terrorists, drama-club nerds play out real life Dungeons and Dragons in the sewar warrens of the "Plex," the massive towers for residences, the university president is both cunning and hyperintelligent as a good-guy and bad-guy in different venues, and science club projects become full scale weapons of war. The style was snarky and excellent, still very funny and scathing of university culture.
The whole book is technically narrated by a younger-30s new professor and faculty-in-residence who just started at the American Megaversity. The cast of good-guys is pretty solid: the 30-year-old-junior devoted physics nerd-cum-hero who simply wants the ideal university experience who also befriends (and falls for) the student-body-president with a pragmatic worldly view, she herself who falls for another girl that is the deadly rebellious type on the inside of a sorority-airhead act that she plays, not to mention the overeager philosophy major, the systems engineer/supreme mage with a normal-student alter ego, and what essentially amounts to an early inception of Enoch Root: megaprogrammer, keenly intelligent on many levels, and has access to the deus-ex-machina skeleton key to the entire campus.
At first I thought that the final "battle," as it were, was going to be drawn out and cheesy. But the narrative really held true to the overall theme, and the plot finishing up with this over-the-top event was a pretty decent page-turner- not for what happened, but for how it was described.
I liked how a few of the main ideas in later volumes popped up here (potential spoilers):
1. Discussion on the bicameral-mind theory and its theoretical effects - integral to the main plot point of Snow Crash.
2. "One of my professors has interesting things to say about the similarity between the way organ pipes are controlled by keys and stops, and the way random-access memory bits are ready by computers." Yeah, that's pretty much the entire first chapter of Cryptonomicon.
3. The housing of nuclear waste at academic institutions since they tend out outlast governmental cycles - major plot point of Anathem.
All in all, it comes recommended for the Stephenson crowd and the non-Stephenson crowd who just wants some apocalyptic collegiate satire. It's not as epic in scope as his later books, but definitely a "light" Stephenson read, if you want the humor and snark without all of the need for a glossary or dramatis personnae to have to refer to. (less)
(Accidentally left on an airplane, had to buy a new copy, took a bit longer to finish...)
Good stuff. Whereas Brockman's "Science At T...more(Accidentally left on an airplane, had to buy a new copy, took a bit longer to finish...)
Good stuff. Whereas Brockman's "Science At The Edge" had maybe a dozen or two longer, more in-depth essays, this work was a tapas menu of 1-5 page essays, all bite-sized, on what various Edge members thought would change everything. It was certainly slanted to what scientific/technological breakthrough would do that, but some writers found some more esoteric/creative ideas to introduce. There were several usual-suspects writing, but also some off-the-wall writers that came in from interesting angles.
This book was nice because it gave everything in bite-sized portions. An easy idea to ponder and look into further, most everyone has written full essays or volumes of books on their work, so anything could be studied at length. The earlier chapters were ok, but I found the last 1/4 of the book to have the best stuff, Brockman may have done that on purpose. Essays are grouped loosely into genres (biology section, nanotech section, etc), although they flow well from one to the next.(less)
Upon receiving this book from a friend, I was told "...he said that it changed his life. I didn't really like it, but you can check it out."...moreUpon receiving this book from a friend, I was told "...he said that it changed his life. I didn't really like it, but you can check it out."
So somewhere between not really liking this and changing-my-life, On Love isn't too bad. De Botton, having read his treatise on "Work" and "Travel," has a way of articulating broad, often nebulous concepts with real clarity; there are ideas and concepts about the topics that he tackles that I know on some level or another, but have never been able to verbalize. De Botton doesn't write uniniteresting sentences.
The book uses the fictional first-person account of himself meeting-to-loving-to-losing-to-afterwards a woman named Chloe. While this is technically fictional, more than 60% of the book is De Botton's discussion of the various facets of love and relationships and all the other wonderous b.s. that goes along with them.
I enjoyed the philosophical aspects more than the fictional ones, although some of the dialog was witty in that British sense. There are some things that the narrator did in the relationship that I simply couldn't relate to (getting into his first fight over the lack of strawberry jam when raspberry and blackberry were present, I just can't associate with that being sliiiiiightly more easy going about my food choices). The path of relationships, while often similar, are never exactly the same: Not sure where these two found the money to world-travel, eat out at nice restaurants, and go clubbing like they did, but I digress.
I've dog-eared about 15 pages as I tend to do with De Botton's work, again for how he can make plain some semi-conscious thoughts that I've already known, so that alone makes the book worth it. De Botton sums it up best, at the end, at why musings on love are both necessary and, in the end, futile:
"I realized a more complex lesson needed to be drawn, one that could play with the incompatibilities of love... Love had to be appreciated without flight into dogmatic optimism or pessimism... Love taught the analytic mind a certain humility, the lesson that however hard it struggled to reach immobile certainties (nmbering its conclusions and embedding them in neat series), analysis could never be anything but flawed--and therefore never stray far from the ironic."(less)
If it wasn't obvious from the outset, this is a collection of short stories and excerpts (and, in my humble opinion, a few vignettes) from the "s...moreIf it wasn't obvious from the outset, this is a collection of short stories and excerpts (and, in my humble opinion, a few vignettes) from the "steampunk" genre of fiction, across several variations. Some of the stories fit neatly into the clockwork-machines-with-Victorian-manners archetype, but many stray from that, expanding what "steampunk" defines itself as. In any case, it's good stuff.
Warlord Of The Air - forgettable. I hear that the full novel is pretty good?
Lord Kelvin's Machine - The concept was okay, but too much of it was crammed into too few pages. This seemed very pure steampunk: some sort of industrial-revolution-badassery widget to accomplish some goal.
The Giving Mouth - Fascinating. While not heavy on the steam or the punk, aside fron allutions to "liveiron," this created a very interesting world wrapping around a mesmerizing narrative. I'm still not sure what the subtext really is, I'd have to read it again, but the dreariness is so apparent, that when the resolution spews forth, it hammers home succinctly. This story is one of the best of the set.
A Sun In The Attic - I liked the world that was conjured up here, and I'd be interested to read more about that. The story was ok, another brief one, but the world itself is 100% steampunk, only this time matriarchial arche-feminist, which the author works nicely.
The God-Clown Is Near - Vignette, but I do enjoy it when authors create new natural sciences in worlds similar to ours. The idea here, about biological creations not unlike designing and creating a clock from metal scraps, was cool to read about. No idea what the God-Clown actually meant, but I'm not sure that the end result was the real focus.
The Steam Man Of The Prairie And The Dark Rider Get Down - When the editors say "not for the squeamish," they should have included "or anyone who wants to read some rather sick stuff." I liked the short-story idea, but the author must have just come off of a marathon set of grindhouse snuff-films, because some of it was just over the top. There was a little need for how gross some of the descriptions were, or what the Dark Rider does and how. I mean, honestly, none of it advanced the plot to a measurable degree. It really ruined the story. Maybe that was the point?
The Selene Gardening Society - Great dialogue, so-so story.
Seventy-Two Letters - Loved it. Another narrative where a new natural science is created, in this case a nigh-theological lexical natural science, which was very cool. The author takes the new science, that a specific set of letters, imparting a name, can impart character to an inanimate object, to many steps ahead: social implications, theological implications, and even philosophical ones. The author writes as though the science, nomenclature, is matter-of-fact and that the reader takes it at face value, which I like. Not only did this get into the science of it (steam), but also very much into debate over the uses (punk). One of the best of the bunch.
The Martian Agent - Skipped it. Read the first page, lost interest.
Victoria - Read the first 10 pages, skipped it.
Reflected Light - Well written, but a true vignette: brief, nothing really happened, and no resolution to the one point of interest in the last few sentences. Strange to include this piece.
Minutes Of The Last Meeting - Interesting, the IIE system reminds me some of the Eagle Eye in the eponymous movie, more or less. This falls heavily into the nano-steam-punk genre.
Excerpt Of The Third And Last Volume Of Tribes Of The Pacific Coast - Neal Stephenson, Yes! Great way to cap off the anthology, even though this one is brief. It follows in the same universe as The Diamond Age (which is a future-post-cyber-nano-steam-punk), although taking place some time later than the events of Diamond Age. Colonel Napier and PhyrePhox both make appearances, though, which is of note. This may be one of the Top Three of the set, although I am heavily biased.
Good stuff. Not the typical Stephenson fare of Snow Crash/Diamond Age/Cryptonomicon/etc, this was written mid-90s about a nigh-modern-day possibility....moreGood stuff. Not the typical Stephenson fare of Snow Crash/Diamond Age/Cryptonomicon/etc, this was written mid-90s about a nigh-modern-day possibility.
What I did enjoy was how the characterization evolved, Stephenson and J. Patrick George (his father, I believe) get deep into the dramatis personae, how they act, why they act, and interesting details that give a very intricate landscape of their players. And the broad range of personae that they bring into the story, even towards the end, really makes the book (the may-have-needed-may-have-not aside of Jeremiah Freel was pretty d--n funny).
The storyline is plausible, as they say a "Manchurian Candidate for the connected world," which is more or less the overall idea. But the interesting part, for me, was using that setting (and the ins and outs of Washington DC) to play out a media-centric world with very intelligent, very conscious, and often hyper-aware people.(less)
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