Naveen Durgaraju's Blog, page 10
June 13, 2017
Kafka on the Shore : Review
A character in the book says
"there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air,"
And that is what I think this book is. A way to dust off our own libraries of the mind. A way to let our private libraries of hearts breathe once again. A way to understand ourselves.
The book doesn't make sense and I frankly don't want to make sense of it. I don't think that's the point of the book. The point of the book is to bask in the barrage of feelings that come along with it and look inwards. This book is the closest I got to dreaming while awake. And like dreams, the book is not made to make sense but to evoke something in you.
This is my first Murakami and these are also my fastest 615 pages. I clearly have a difficult time articulating why I am so drawn to a book that has no conventional structure or narration, a book that is surreal and often downright contradictory.
Murakami with his strange narrative style makes the book fantastically hallucinatory yet deeply personal at the same time. This definitely is not going to be my last Murakami, that's for sure.
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June 6, 2017
Fooled by Randomness : Review
This is a book that makes you feel hopeful and resigned at the same time.
In a world which sees causality and patterns everywhere, Nassim tries to switch the world view to one that is dominated by randomness. The whole of the book is an attempt to make the reader realize that more or less, the world runs on luck and random chance.
Nassim’s tone is irreverent throughout. Some readers might see a problem with his superiority laden remarks and lack of humility at times. Nassim often ridicules those who are very certain about their own theories and ideas but in the process comes off as someone who has the same vices and problems.
This is not the book you might want to read if you want solutions to the problem of randomness and uncertainty. The author himself agrees that he offers no solutions but only aims to educate that there is a problem. Though we are all fooled by randomness, the book is maybe a handy guide to at least realize that sometimes we are being fooled. It offers a different way to see the world and interpret the things we see. It also makes you feel, whatever way you interpret it, you are more likely to be wrong than right. In that sense the book makes you hopeful of not being easily fooled by randomness but also makes you resigned in the face truly unpredictable nature of the world.
Read this if you are looking for something which is intellectually stimulating, moderately entertaining and filled with some big ideas that might fundamentally change the way you think about how the world works.
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June 2, 2017
IRobot : Review
I was wrong.
I thought Asimov’s books were old classics that would bore me to tears and any interesting themes they deal with might already be done to death over time by other books and media.
I was grossly wrong.
IRobot manages to not only stay captivating but also fresh over all these years. It goes beyond the usual themes and tropes that popular robot fiction deals with. The standard questions of what makes us human and what separates humans from robots etc are all trivial when compared with the questions that IRobot asks and sometimes tries to answer.
Through a series of stories, Asimov establishes the laws of robotics and builds his world, while deftly maneuvering through different times and locations.
Over the course of reading this book, I have realized that the book at its core is a collection of detective stories like Sherlock Holmes. Except for the first story, rest of them read like the classic seemingly unsolvable cases that have to be solved with limited resources but abundant deduction and logic. This is Sherlock Holmes in SPACE. With ROBOTS.
In the process of slowly unraveling the cases, Asimov gives us a glimpse into the laws of robotics, the psychology behind it and the kind of unique problems that might arise because of this and also the kind of benefits this provides.
A must read for fans of sci-fi, detective fiction or just plain good stories.
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May 29, 2017
On the road : Review
On the road is a book that doesn’t lend itself easily to descriptions.
Is this is a travelogue? Is this a book about Sal Paradise and his friends? Is this a character study of Dean Moriarty? Is this a book about America?
Its all of them and also none of them. This book is the answer to what if drifters, crazy people, criminals and dysfunctional vagabonds were also pretty articulate writers. The narrator is Sal Paradise, a writer who is always looking for or else is caught up in a road trip across America. He chronicles his life and the antics of his colorful friends and their absurd lives. Particularly most of the book is focused on Dean Moriarty, the friend who often introduces the necessary craziness to it all.
The appeal of the book lies in the way it makes you see your life in a completely different light. All the important things are trivialized and vice versa. Things we consider necessary such as safety, security, a steady job, respect, money or stable relationships are all brushed past in a constant search for ‘kicks’ by the group. Similarly the things we think are trivial like a mundane ride down the road, a round of drinks among friends are transformed into things of profound and enormous spiritual and philosophical importance. The book makes you live in the present and appreciate each moment with a sort of strange dream like devotion to life.
Sal and Dean are brilliant contradictions in the sense that they are constantly looking for external stimulation and kicks but their perception of these is heavily internalized and cerebral. Partying wildly for spirituality and philosophical search for truth is the book’s primary exploration.
A word of warning. The content of the book and Sal’s thoughts are vastly colored by the times (1940–50) in which the book is set. There are gracious amounts of misogyny and racism on display. They do not disrespect them ( any more than they disrespect the white males. The books is irreverent throughout) but women and people of other races are seen as exotic ‘things’ that Sal and his group need to explore for kicks. There is no concrete effort to see them as people — only as tourist attractions and thrills.
In conclusion, this book is a good read if you are trying to understand the point of view of people who defy social and cultural norms and travel from place to place and live moment to moment. It can act as a fresh reminder that sometimes we can see things differently and focus only on things that make us truly happy and alive.
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