Joey Anderson > Recent Status Updates

This one will challenge you. The setting is quite foreign and the narrator is quite devious. Not only do I find it fun, but it is intellectually stimulating as well.

The djinn, the fallen angels, and their relationship to the "twins" Hale and Philby finally become apparent. A lot of story for so little return.

This novel is getting better and better as it blends Cold War espionage with Middle-Eastern mysticism and religion that begins to appear in the world. The use of famous historical figures is also quite engaging. What a mystery in all of the senses of that word.

Still Cold War espionage with a hint of the supernatural.

Hale is a interesting character and the variety of plot questions concerning the subjects of British intelligence services during WWII, Hale's mysterious birth, the supernatural element of religion (at this point, Roman Catholicism), and the unnatural interest in Hale by the Crown intrigue. There is more here than meets the eye.

I find this intimate view of the times of the Civil War, before and after, and Varina Davis incredibly moving and intelligent. Beyond my expectations.

And this is how we are reduced:
“And so, like a rabbit, like Emily Fusselman’s rabbit, froze where he was. Hoping as he did so that everyone understood the rules: you do not destroy a creature that does not know what to do.”

I’m just as confused about what is going on as Jason, the main character, is. Is Jack dead, having a dream, or has he really been transported to another world, which is like his original world, but one where is no evidence that he has ever been born. This is what alienation must feel like and it is disturbing.

Why would a government ban psychiatrists? With television, anything can be faked. Paranoia becomes a facet of society instead of a disease. A diseased person would be one who sees the many kinds of simulacra as imitations or replicas of reality.

“The Sons of Job, like the Nazis of the past, fed on disappointment, on the disinherited. Yes, these backwater towns which time had bypassed were the movement’s authentic feeding ground...It should not have surprised him, then, to see this.
But these were not Germans; these were Americans.”

Nothing really changes, does it?

For interest and ideas, Dick never fails to deliver. So far, we have fake Presidents (simulacrum) of whom the permanent First Lady exchanges one for another. She’s really in charge of the government, but the function of government is only decorative, for the captains of industry from the 53rd state (Germany) actually run it. The story is narrated through peons (like us) who simply stand and stare.

End of The Hamlet.

Pretty much a plot-based narrative with minimal characterization, but the first person narration of what seems half robot and half human does spark interest at times. I had higher expectations. The style is simple, minimalist. Pretty skeletal.

Flem Snopes slowly gains power and influence in Frenchman’s Bend due to the witlessness of the Varners, Ratliff, and the villagers. Flem and his kind are a new social force that surprises the old order, and the denizens of FB are too slow to understand, if they ever do, that he will supersede them.

A colony of humans struggle to learn how to survive in a natural world where plants and mammals possess various structures of intelligence. Interesting, but can be dry at times.

Very fine novel. Never boring. Merricat presents herself as very sympathetic, but I believe she’s responsible for something grisly of which we are unaware. Too much knowledge about poisonous mushrooms.

I hope Charles receives his just deserts.

What is so strange is that his novels always are based on an actual aspect of his life. Who would think that his novels would be so autobiographical? Not me. The cause is understandable: he suffered from epilepsy, a disease that causes hallucinations, usually religious.

Dick’s quest for respectability and fame. His inability to foster healthy relationships with women. His breakthrough with the critics with “The Man in the High Castle.” His unwitting use of amphetamines.

An interesting psychological study so far that shows how his childhood becomes inculcated in his fiction. His life is more interesting than many works of fiction.

Dick’s stories are not all gems, but he always delivers. These stories were written in the fifties, and many writers have used his situations and themes as a springboard for their own works. Hollywood seems to love him.

Okay. The theme is interesting that as the Earth ends due the eventual burning out of the sun, humanity has regressed from science to the rudiments of magic, superstition, and barbarism. The characterization and dialogue is weak.