Jonas David's Blog, page 53

The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood

This novel tells a story parallel to Oryx and Crake, and although it was well written and enjoyable, I’m not quite sure what the point of it was. For anyone who has read Oryx and Crake, there is very little new info. It is stuff you already knew, seen through the eyes of new characters. Except they aren’t really new characters either, just ones that played only bit parts in Oryx and Crake.

We get to see how the God’s Gardeners live, and there is some interesting religious/spirituality stuff there. We get to see a bit more of the broken down world, and find out what happened to Jimmy’s mom. But.. really, if you asked me what the book was about I’d have a hard time saying something other than ‘It’s about what happened in Oryx and Crake.’

I listened to the audiobook, and there were several songs that they actually produced music for, which I’d never seen done in an audiobook before. I was impressed by that, and it added a lot of depth to the world.

Recommended if you’re a big fan of this world, or the author, but otherwise I’d just as soon read something new than rehash what I’ve already read in Oryx and Crake.

Never stop never stopping

If you’ve got momentum, keep it! Because once you give it up you will have to expend ten times the energy to get it back.

How many times have I said “write every day?” Probably a lot, but, I am trying to write every day here… and it bears repeating! If you don’t write tomorrow, that might make today the last day you ever write.

Write a blog entry, write a short story, write a random collection of thoughts, write a screenplay, write the opening to a new novel, write a chapter in an old novel, write an advertisement, write a song, write a letter, write an article, write a top ten list, write something! Anything!

Writing is driving up an icy hill. The second you let off the gas, you’re going to get stuck, and maybe even slide backwards.

Don’t let up.

 

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Painting with words

I imagine sometimes that writing descriptively must be like painting, though I’ve not done much painting in my life. You get an idea in your head, and you choose the right colors, the right palate, the right style, to get the image you want across. Is finding the right word like finding the right color or tone? Each skill has the objective of putting a picture before someone. A clear vision of what was in the creators head, or a capturing of some scene from real life on paper/canvas.

When you see the scene in your head that you want to describe, take time and pleasure with getting it right, the way an artist might take time and enjoy making a painting. If you rush through out, it’s going to end up being a quick pencil sketch with no weight or flavor.

Take your time, enjoy yourself!

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Older than I’ve ever been

And now I’m even older…

My birthday was on Friday, and they just keep coming quicker.

One day I’ll wake up and be 50, then another I’ll wake up and be dead.

Just like your birthday, you have a death-day that you pass each year. A future anniversary of your demise. Which day could it be? Any of them.

What if we knew the day, but not what year we would die? If you knew you’d die on January 1st, for example, how would you behave differently on that day? Would you? There would be nothing you could do to prevent it, no matter how safe you were, how careful…

Maybe we’d be more appreciative of those we love and the things we have, on that day each year. Maybe we’d spend it telling our family we love them, in case we don’t get another chance. And the following morning, when we were still alive, we’d be grateful for life and take it for granted a little bit less.

Of course… there would be the problem of everyone being immortal for the other 364 days of their year……

Trading instincts for intelligence

I thought the other day about how animals know what to eat and how to find it, seemingly from birth. Do animals accidentally eat poisonous or harmful things? It doesn’t seem like it. But we humans, we don’t know how to eat, how to catch food, how to prepare it, until we’re taught. We don’t know how to do most things until taught. I wonder, if we’d even figure out how to have sex without being told…

Is that the cost of high intelligence? Perhaps there is no more room in our head for all that instinctual knowledge that other creatures seem to have. Or, maybe once we got intelligent enough to learn it all, the selective pressure to keep the instincts was removed, and they were bred out of us over the eons.

I wonder if the reverse could ever happen, and we could lose our intelligence in favor of instinct…

Endless stories

There are so many books out there I’ll never read. So many characters I’ll never know, places I’ll never imagine, idea’s I’ll never entertain. Imagining this infinite landscape of fiction gives me a sense of exploration and openness–anything-is-possible-ness–that I used to get from playing open world video games. The slight sadness that I’ll never get to enjoy all these books is overtaken by the excitement of knowing that I’ll never run out.

Open something new! Take a step into the unknown…

 

Time travel

The only way time travel could work is if the traveler had been completely removed from existence, and was only an observer looking in. Peering through a window, fast forwarding and rewinding time at will but forever separate from causality.

If you could go everywhere, see everything–but interact with nothing… would it be worth it to satisfy your curiosity? Could you give up all effect on the world in order to know all its secrets?

Maybe the subject of my next story/novel/cluster of words…

The waterless flood

I liked Oryx and Crake so much I got the sequel, The Year of the Flood–although I’ve heard several people say it can stand alone and doesn’t need any knowledge of Oryx and Crake in order to read it.

So far this is true. The story follows several characters who are a part of the God’s Gardeners cult as they prepare for the prophesied ‘waterless flood’ that will wipe out humanity. It happens parallel to the events in Oryx and Crake, but from this different viewpoint.

I found myself several times wondering what it would be like to join a cult like this–one that segregated itself from society. Life would be simpler, that’s for sure. It seems appealing in some ways, to be cut off from all the requirements of technology and the demands of employment. To just step out of the race to get more more more.

But what affect can you really have on a society that you aren’t an active part of? How can you bring change to something you’ve left behind?

The characters in the book aren’t trying to change anything, of course, they believe it is beyond saving and are just preparing for it all to collapse.

Our society, though, can be saved. So we should do our best to save it from within–despite the allure of running away to start fresh, unfettered by all the garbage and evil that’s grown up around us.

 

Pick something and stick to it

Easier said than done…

This is a blog post aimed at myself. I’m talking to myself, wow, am I okay?

Edit! Or rewrite! Or write a short story! Or start a new novel! Not all of these at once!

Trying to do too many things leads to nothing being done. This has been a constant problem for me in all things, it seems.

Part of why I never went to college is because I never could decide what I wanted to study. I never learned a second language because I could never pick which one would be best. I never finished a novel (until recently) because other ideas always became better and more appealing.

Focus! How do you elude me so!

Once I get started though, I can convince myself to continue. As I have on this crazy daily blogging thing even though half the posts are ad hoc pulled out of the air crap.

Time to pick something and take action!

What to write…

Too many things to choose from means I can’t pick one, and thus I do nothing!

I’ve got to make a decision and get out of this slump, except every time I make one, I change my mind a few days later…

How will this end…