Mark Reece's Blog, page 16

Birmingham Royal Ballet- Lazuli Sky

Sad though it is that there has been very little ballet this year, the Birmingham Royal Ballet has still been active enough to create a new programme, available through a streaming service. Although of course not as good as a live show, it is an innovative way to get around the current social distancing restrictions.

Lazuli Sky is a set of three short ballets, and was as beautifully edited and performed as one might expect from the BRB. For me, the stand out was the solo Liebestod, which starred Brandon Lawrence in a startling performance in which he was almost naked throughout.

Starting in a fetal position, Lawrence explored his surroundings like a growing child, its movements carefree and whimsical before a swift decline. Both beautiful and memorable.

This was perhaps not how director Carlos Acosta wished to start his directorship at the BRB, but it was a success nevertheless.

Review- Philosophical investigations

Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Ponderous. Is that a word or a sentence? Does it yet have any meaning? Perhaps the words used in this review are arbitrary outside the Goodreads language-game. How could one describe 'ponderous' without the use of more words?

That's enough words for now.



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Competition win

My story 'The epicentre' has won second place in the HISSAC short story competition.

See: http://www.hissac.co.uk/CompetitionDe... for further details. Congratulations also to the Graham Leitch (winner), and the other entrants.

publication

Kitchen Sink Gothic 2, featuring one of my stories, is out now:

https://paralleluniversepublications....

Review- RT, Margaret, and the rats of NIMH

RT, Margaret And The Rats Of Nimh by Jane Leslie Conly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The third and concluding book in the rats of NIMH trilogy tells the story of Arthur (RT), and Margaret, a brother and sister who become lost in a valley, and are helped to survive by the colony of intelligent rats that were the subject of the first two books in the series. Margaret is an unpopular, overweight child, who finds purpose in the Tolstoyan colony, where hard work and plain food are favoured. RT is a boy who has some kind of learning difficulty, possibly autism, that makes speech difficult. Although initially afraid, they soon make friends with the rats, and each benefits from the experience in different ways.

The book has the same flaws as the first sequel, in that the rats are effectively magical creatures, able to overcome all difficulties at will. It is also glaringly illogical in places- one can only presume that a loaf of bread baked by a rat would fit on a human palm, and would not be big enough for any meal. For these reasons, it is perhaps for the best that most of the story is told through the children, who are sympathetically portrayed. There are many instances of casual petty cruelty, such as when Margaret's mother tells her that other children wouldn't pick on her as much if she lost weight. There is a stark realism about such episodes that provides an effective contrast with how the rats behave, and also helps to focus the plot around a child's eye view.

The book has an end of series feel to it, with one of the central characters facing death, and decisive changes at the end for both rats and children. Although not as good as the first book in the series, both adults and children could enjoy the conclusion to the story.



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Website redesign

My website has recently been redesigned. It contains news about my latest publications and gives samples of previously published stories. Check it out: www.markreece.co.uk

Review- Racso and the rats of NIMH

Racso and the Rats of NIMH by Jane Leslie Conly

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It would be easy to be harsh on this book because of its obvious inferiority to the original (written by the author's father). All told, it's a well written, fun children's book that lacks the depth and sophistication of Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH.

The Racso of the title is a city rat who makes his way to join the intelligent rat colony established at the end of the first book, to learn how to read. He meets Timothy, the mouse from the first story, and they have a series of adventures before joining up with the others. Later on, the colony is threatened by the development of a dam, which will flood the valley where the rats live.

The rats are anthropomorphized to such an extent that they are practically little humans, and their abilities are magical (including, amongst other things, communicating with all other animals and learning computer programming in a few weeks from photocopied manuals). Racso is an annoying hero, essentially, a teen 'rebel' from any generic American school drama. There are plenty of cheap plot twists too, such as the explanation for the two dead rats at the end of the first book, which makes no sense.

Despite all of those things, however, I did enjoy the book. It's very easy to read and short enough not to overstay its welcome. Enough of the first book remains in the sequel for it to be worth going back to.



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Story publication

A story of mine- Pain- is to be included in the anthology Kitchen Sink Gothic 2, published by Parallel Universe Publications (https://paralleluniversepublications....).

The royalties are to be donated to homeless charities. Good writing for a good cause- worth checking out.

Review- Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Revisiting something that one enjoyed as a child is, of course, filled with risk. I remember reading this book when I was around ten years old and and finding it extraordinarily exciting and vivid. It seemed very long those days too, such that I thought that I might never finish it. The book seems much shorter now- I read it in two days, in fact, but no less skillful written.

Mrs Frisby and the rats of Nimh tells the story of the eponymous field mouse, who tries to save her son, Timothy, who has pneumonia, and therefore cannot move to their summer home without risking aggravating his illness. However, if the mice do not move, their winter home, which rests in a farmer's field, will be broken up by the plough and they will all be killed. To find help, Mrs Frisby first turns to a wise owl, then to a group of super intelligent rats, who might be connected to her in another way.

The device of intelligent animals trying to understand human motivations and not quite succeeding, is a tried and tested one, and is put to good effect here, both to explain something about human civilization, and as satire. At one point, one of the rats expresses surprise when discovering that rats are despised because they spread disease. After all, he reasons, they don't spread as many as human do themselves. The rats are depicted sympathetically, observing the mistakes humans have made, and trying to avoid them when creating their own civilization.

The point in which the rats describe how they came to be intelligent is thrillingly told, as evocative now as when I first read the book all those years ago. There's real skill in creating characters and settings that are so well told, using simple language that both children and adults can appreciate. The author uses the descriptions of the senses beautifully to describe the many locations in which the book takes place, from stinking sewers to bright, ascetic laboratories.

One thing does occur when re-reading the book, is that the rats seem too anthropomorphized. It always seems a missed opportunity when authors make a fantasy civilization too similar to the human one. For example, it doesn't seem likely that there would be marriage in a society of mice and rats, given their sexual habits. Also, a much smaller animal would probably categorize nature in a different way. Equating civilization with human traits may demonstrate a lack of imagination.

However, putting that criticism aside, this is a book that should be read by readers of all ages, truly, a book that would be mis-labelled if described as a 'children's book'.



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Review- The character of physical law

The Character of Physical Law by Richard P. Feynman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I very much enjoyed this book, although I'll confess to not understanding large parts of it. As such, I won't try to explain the physics. Feynman has a boyish wit, exemplified in the first chapter, where he explains that when playing the bongo drums in front of an audience, no one ever sees fit to announce that he is a theoretical physicist. That makes the book enjoyable even where the science is very complex (Feynman makes fewer concessions to the lay reader, to my mind, than do other popularizing scientists such as Hawkins). The author is passionate in his view that the beauty of nature can be more fully understood if one understands the mathematical basis of the physical laws, and his joy shines through on each page.

The use of analogies when discussing topics at a high level of abstraction are vital, and the ones chosen by Feynman are memorable. His description of trying to dry oneself with wet towels as a means to explain the conservation of energy, both illuminates the topic and is impishly amusing.

I wasn't wholly convinced by Feynman's philosophy of science. At one point, he says that when a thing cannot be defined so precisely, then one cannot claim to know anything about it. I wonder whether this is exaggeration for comic effect when he is (rightly) mocking Freud, as the 'anything' is doing too much labour. The final pages of the book were also curious, as Feynman states that humans will eventually reach a point where either all the physical laws are known, or so many layers of reality will be discovered that they will become prohibitively difficult to investigate. Either way, boredom will result. Perhaps this passage should be read ironically, as the intellectual pessimism there is at odds with the tone of the rest of the book.

In any case, we're not there yet.



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