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March 16
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Michael
is currently reading:
Time's Arrow (Paperback)
by Martin Amis
bookshelves:
currently-reading
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my rating:
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March 07
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Michael
gave
to:
Wetware (Ware, Book 2)
by Rudy Rucker
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my rating:
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read in March, 2007
Michael said:
"I guess it was about 10 years ago when a guy I'd done some work for couldn't afford to pay me in cash, so he gave me a pile of books by Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, Jack Womack and maybe a couple of other so-called cyberpunks. We had a mutual interes...more
I guess it was about 10 years ago when a guy I'd done some work for couldn't afford to pay me in cash, so he gave me a pile of books by Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, Jack Womack and maybe a couple of other so-called cyberpunks. We had a mutual interest in theoretical mathematics and philosophy and he was of the opinion that these books would appeal to me. Which they did. Despite my distaste for what I perceived as the sci-fi aesthetic (aliens, big laser guns, android babes, etc.), the cyberpunks had upped the intellectual ante by introducing more complex science and nuanced philosophy into the mix. Admittedly, Rudy is among the chief offenders from a standpoint of aesthetic taste, except that his big-breasted androids know more about set theory than Kurt Gödel. So therein lies the compromise. But it is completely without reservation that I list Rudy Rucker among the intellectual elite on my bookshelf.
Which brings me to my relatively low opinion of this particular novel. It more or less contradicts my entire argument about intellectual sophistication trumping weak aesthetic choices. As far as I'm concerned, this is a weak piece in Rudy's extensive catalog. The science is not particularly rigorous and the philosophical impact of applying artificial intelligence to organic human minds is not sufficiently realized to elicit much more than a shrug once the whole thing is finished....less
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Michael
gave
to:
Tristessa (Paperback)
by Jack Kerouac
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my rating:
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read in February, 2007
Michael said:
"Despite suspicions (mostly my own) of anti-intellectuallism, I'm persisting with my investigation into books small enough to fit into one's jacket pocket. Clearly a book's worth cannot be measured in mass, but to what extent is it really possible to ...more
Despite suspicions (mostly my own) of anti-intellectuallism, I'm persisting with my investigation into books small enough to fit into one's jacket pocket. Clearly a book's worth cannot be measured in mass, but to what extent is it really possible to honor the peak of the sacred (the "novel") in less than, say, 150 pages? And to what extent can the formal consideration of length impact conventions in narrative, character development, etc.? My own pre-existing hypothesis is that a shorter format entitles the author to much greater formal liberties and, consequently, the potential for meaningful new ideas in literary structure and content. This appeals to me as a reader who is perpetually seeking new emotional and intellectual phenomena. To me, that's the whole point of reading (and writing).
Having said that, in the particular case of Tristessa, I don't know enough about Kerouac to know whether this (and his similarly-written Subterraneans) are sincere experiments in form or just written in a hurry. In any case, the book is short enough to sustain a high level of abstraction and fracturization of ideas, and to allow a narrative impression (of hopeless love) to grow out of the noise (of junkie hell). My only real criticism is of the lengths to which he didn't go to annihilate convention. Not that any writer is obliged to annihilate anything, but certainly he should finish what he starts? Ultimately my threshold for the bizarre never felt challenged, so I'd describe Tristessa as comfortably weird (a category consisting mostly of runners-up as far as I'm concerned), but easily worthy of approximately 1/4" of space on my bookshelf....less
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March 02
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Michael
gave
to:
Why I Am So Wise (Paperback)
by Friedrich Nietzsche
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my rating:
Added to my books!
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read in March, 2007
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