Rump and Reading 1: Project Hail Mary

Context: I've for a while had a goal to write a post once a week that I've not been meeting. Since I've started writing notes in a journal about each book I've read, I'm going to cheat and start typing up those when I can't think of something more novel to blog about.

 Project Hail Mary is a solid scifi story. The amnesia plot device is an interesting method of revealing the back store, and as usual Weir has a reasonably solid scientific grounding for events. PHM continues Weir's standard form mainly being competency porn, with the main character solving numerous problems over the course of the story. This is Weir's style, and he writes it well, although it's definitely a specialisation.

The interactions with the alien are really good and portrays a positive first contact (no Dark Forest in Weir's universe). Rocky is well crafted and the nature of a creature for whom sound is the primary sense are handled realistically (e.g. not realising Grace can tell the planet is getting hot while they are taking the sample by seeing it start glowing). 

 Overall a small step up from The Martian, and a big improvement on Artemis, which suffered for being much more protagonist vs the consequences of their previous actions rather than the protagonist vs the situation. 

Troy Story

Once again I'm not making it to the monthly book club meeting so I'm putting some thoughts down on the blog instead. This months book was the Song of Achilles, a retelling of the Trojan war from the perspective of Patroclus and focuses on the relationship between him and Achilles.

The book is written as a romance, and while the story covers the key plot points of The Illiad, it's always for the purpose of progressing the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles. We see the relationship grow over the course of their short lives (even factoring in the 10 years of the Trojan war they were in their late twenties at most at the end, more likely mid twenties). The relationship does seem very one sided with Achilles being more accepting and allowing than actively pursuing, while Patroclus is the besotted desiring one. Patroclus' devotion seems to dominate his personality, to the point that the one time he finds a role for himself without Achilles it stands out greatly.

In fact, Patroclus' lack of identity separate from Achilles seems very one dimensional, and very counter to the way the novel uses a more modern lens on telling the story. Patroclus only has a few instances where he shows any motivation other then being with Achilles, and does tend to make him unmemorable as what is nominally the protagonist of the story.

While not too graphic, the book doesn't hide the physical nature of the character's relationship between chapters and definitely wouldn't get a PG rating (I think I'd still make that conclusion if it was a straight relationship). What there is isn't too titillating (is that the right word for a M/M encounter?) although maybe someone attracted to men may disagree with me.

Overall a straightforward read with ok writing, although I do prefer Stephen Fry's retelling of the Trojan saga with his tendency to get distracted by side stories and odd bits of trivia.

I Dreamt I Dwell In Marble Halls

Again I won't be able to make the monthly book club I go to so I'm writing down my thoughts on the book instead. This month the book was Piranesi by Sussana Clarke. I didn't recognise the author until I picked up the book and was reminded she was the author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrrell, which I read and enjoyed a few years ago after watching the miniseries adaptation. 

Piranesi is similarly set in a world similar to our own but with some forgotten magical element that has been rediscovered. In this case this takes the form of an alternate world consisting of hallways full of statues which induces amnesia. We are first introduced to this world by one this world's only current permanent resident, for whom this is the only world they know, but we are soon given hints that this is not the case. We see his journals change from a whimsical dating scheme (e.g. The Year the Albtoss came to the South West Halls) change to a more familiar numerical 2011 as they go further back in time. We meet some of the other people who have entered this world, although only one of these is still alive. This Other knows more about the world than the main character does, and over time reveals his sus nature and his access to our world.

We follow the main character as he comes to learn more about the world, who he is, and how he came to be here, and ultimately, how he leaves the hallways for the real world. It's not a complete return as most of his original memories remain lost and he isn't able to easily slip back into the life that was once his.

The story and the world its set in is intriguing and keeps the reader interested in learning more about it, and the only thing I'm disappointed in is that there wasn't more exploration of the world itself in the story. The aesthetics of the world is inspired by the art of Giovanni Piranesi, the main character and book's namesake. Overall it's a good read that I enjoyed.

  

The Many Iterations of Harry August

At the start of the year as a way of being a bit more social I joined a book club that was being formed on the Brisbane subreddit. It's been good experience and it has got me reading more than I have in recent years and reading some things I wouldn't normally have given a go. There's usually some good discussion and the meetings are held at a pub on the night they do cheap steaks so there's good food as well. This month I'm not going to be able to make the meeting due to working a night shift so I'm putting down some thoughts on this month's book (I've kind of wanted to do it for each book, but haven't gotten around to it).

 This month's book was The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It was a refreshing change from the previous two months which were both rather heavy (physically and metaphorically) tomes. It is a sci-fi novel about a man who lives his life over and over again, and focuses on how he deals with a problem that affects him and his fellow Groundhog Day-ers.

The story takes a while to develop, and starts out with exploring what life looks like for someone who experiences life like this. This is a bit of a mix, and it was at this point I started trying to work out how this works in universe. Like the titular character, I take a multiversal view of how things work (the alternative being a single universe that doesn't work with how things are described). Initially I assumed that the rebirths happen straight away as there is zero perceived time between death and rebirth (although it does take a few years before memories start coming back). However I started considering how this would work with people who had short lives compared to someone who lived a longer life and this just led to paradox or complex schemes with variable speed time. In the end my working model is that upon death the GroundHog Day-ers go into a sort of limbo until the end of the current universe, then they all move to the next universe and remain in limbo until it is time for them to be born again. 

The plot resolution does build on the early set up, but also feels a bit deus ex machina.

Normally I've taken some notes of the books to record some bits that have particularly stood out for me in the previous books, but this time my notes have mostly been keeping track of Harry's various lives (they aren't presented entirely in order) and the ongoing work to have a proper model of how the Groundhog Dayism works. Also, this wasn't as literary a tome as the last two books, so the crafting of the language used was more matter of fact. 

Overall I'd give it 3-3.5 our of 5 stars,

Thoughts on Winning Friends and Influencing People

I finally finished reading "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carneggie a while ago. I can't say I was really enthused by the book, as evidenced by the fact that it took me over a month to read it. My main interest in reading it was due to it having percolated into popular culture as The Book for learning how to deal with people successfully. Whether this is just due to it's age or the name recognition of the author vs it's actual merit is something I am not sure of, although I'm less inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt now that I've read it.

So why do I feel like I've not learnt much from this book that so many people swear by? Part of it is presentation. Each point is only illustrated with a series of anecdotes, and as we all should know, the plural of anecdote is not data. This is a collection of feel good stories, and if presented as such I wouldn't be so unsatisfied, but the claims it made starting out were of scholarship and research and on that basis the book oversold itself (I'll admit my background might make me view research in a more mathematical orientated way, but even loosening those standards I still feel it didn't meet the standards it claimed). Overall, it's made a claim that this is a good way to deal with people, but hasn't backed up the claim.

Another reason I didn't like the message conveyed in the book from a number of stories such as the salesman who found out a potential buyer's son liked stamps, so went out and bought a rare stamp as a gift and so got the sale, which to me feels like a bad message. The person didn't get the sale because he was selling a good product at a good price that met the needs of the buyer, but because they did something nice that was irrelevant to the transaction. I don't think it's cynical to say that if you're making a large purchase on behalf of your company, giving the sale to the guy who was nice to you just because he was nice to you is a dereliction of duty. Some of the tactics suggested in the book do seem cynical, or at least some of the applications described are. A salesman finding out the needs of the business he's trying to sell to and altering his pitch to suit is sensible and a good thing. A salesman finding out the manager is a baseball fan and spending the meeting talking baseball with the potential client is being manipulative rather than standing on his merits.

The last problem I have with the book is a message that I partly find contradictory and partly makes me feel as though I fail at being a human being. Several times the book stresses that when showing an interest in people it must be sincere, and not just flattery, but then gives examples where the interest is insincere. The part where this makes me feel like an incomplete person is that in general I don't find people interesting. Specific individuals yes, but it generally takes me quite a while to get there, and it usually requires some sort of context where I have the time to get to know them (university, work, board gaming, etc). So being told that the essential key to good interactions with people is something I don't have (and that faking it is bad) is discouraging at the least (at the most it makes me feel like a failure as a person that something fundamental to the human experience is missing in me).

So what can I gain from all this? Be nice to people? I already try to do that. Start with a positive and then move to the negative? The "You're doing this thing great but need to work on this other thing" routine just makes the first part sound phoney. Do something that doesn't come naturally to me but don't fake it. The final section on tips for married life quote clearly dates the book quite markedly. I get the point the book is trying to make but the implementation it suggests seems flawed and impractical.

Bookfest Acquisitions

Yesterday was the start of this years bookfest, and like any cheap bibliophile, I went along to see what I could find. I came out with a rather mixed bunch of different things that caught my interest as I scanned the many tables filled with books. In no particular order (well, the order I pull them out of the bag) they are

The Bachelor Home Companion by P.J. ORourke ($2.50). I mainly picked this up because P.J. O'Rourke is a common guest Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, an NPR Radio show I listen to as a podcast.

The Magic Goes Away by Larry Niven ($2.50). Niven is a big name that I haven't read anything by, so I thought I should change that.

Rising Son by S.D. Perry ($3.50). A Deep Space Nine novel set after the series focusing on Jake Sisko. Deep Space Nine has a good share of the good Star Trek novels, although I may be biased as I think Deep Space Nine was the best of the Star Trek series.

Battlestar Galactica 11: The Nightmare Machine Glen A Larson and Robert Thurston ($2.50). A novel that follows on from the old Battlestar Galactica, this will probably suffer from being no 11 in a series I haven't read and not living up to the new series.

The Fortress of the Pearl by Michael Moorcock ($3.00). Moorcock is another big name in fantasy that I've not read anything of. My recognition of the name was enhanced by a piece in Neil Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" called "One Life, Furnished in Early Moorcock". I've just noticed that it is the 7th in a series, so I may have to visit the library soon if it turns out to be good.

A Dagg At My Table by John Clarke ($3.50). A collection of stuff written by John Clarke, whom I know best for The Games, but he's been doing a lot for a long time. Since I've yet to come across anything by him I haven't liked, it was an easy pick.

That's all from the priced section. The rest are from the unpriced section, where at the checkout they have some rectangles of various sizes drawn up, and the price of the book is determined by which rectangle it fits in.

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. I'm pretty sure Nethack quotes this in the entry for Unicorns, and I think nearly anything quoted by Nethack is worth a look (I say anything because it does quote the bible).

Laying Down the Law 4th Ed. Morris, Cook, Creyke, Geddes, Holloway. This was purchases as something to look at in line with the finance course I'm doing as regulation is a part of what gets studied.

So Sue Me by John O'Grady. An Australian humourist from a few decades back whose work is always enjoyable.

Gone Gougin' By Nino Culotta. Actually by John O'Grady this book is the third sequel to "Their a Weird Mob".

Australian Corporations Legislation 2004. Another finance course inspired purchase. Admittedly it's a little out of date. The contents include such hits as Corporations Act 2001, Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001
Corporations (Fees) Act 2001, Corporations Regulations (2001), an extract from the Acts Interpretation Act 1901, and more. The physically biggest item by a good margin.

An Introduction to Australian Foreign Policy by J.A. Camilleri. Well out of date having been published in 1973, was purchased out of desire to know more of Australian politics.

The Penguin Dictionary of Quotations. Although missing all of the pop culture stuff I've filled my head with (I can identify an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer from nearly any 30 second scene), it should be an interesting reference piece.

How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. The title says it all I think.

Even Gods Err Book One by F.A. Gourley. I believe the Author and Von Daniken would have gotten along well. I bought this mainly as a debunking exercise and to protect the more vulnerable from it.

How To Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carneggie. A book everybody has heard of, picked up under the nagging thought at the back of the head that I do need to improve my social interaction skills. The true test will be to see if I actually read it or not.

And there ends the list. I'll also mention another recent acquisition picked up at the weekend markets in the Valley, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. So far it's interesting, but not as informative on zen or motorcycle maintenance as I'd expected, although I've still got a way to go.

Dead Authors Society

Recently I've read two books in series started by an author now dead. One lived up to my expectations while the other I doubt I'll bother to include in the canon of that series.

First is And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer. This is part six in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy. I had not previously read any of Colfer's work, but have heard good things about the Artemis Fowl series, so I didn't go in entirely pessimistic, but I can't say I was expecting greatness. Which is just as well, because Adams set a high bar, and unfortunately Colfer didn't reach the bar. The introduction was promising, but Colfer couldn't work Adams' style, and the voice of the piece felt off. The guide entries in particular did not work as well they did for Douglas Adams. Overall I though it was a story that might work OK, but didn't fit the characters and the world that it was grafted onto.

The second book I found did a much better job of things. The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brian Sanderson (Sanderson's name is about a quarter the size of Jordan's on the cover, which is not to unfair since Jordan did manage to write the previous eleven books on his own before passing). Sanderson's style, while distinct from Jordan's is a good fit and does shore up some of the weaknesses that Jordan had, the big one being the at times horrendously slow pacing. In The Gathering Storm things are always moving along, and for the first time in many years, you begin to feel like you may actually see the end of the road. Numerous plot threads were tied up in this volume, some of which have been dangling since the early books. All in all it is a much more satisfying read than And Another Thing.

I don't know if there will be another Hitchhiker's sequel (I'm not sure I'd read it if there was), but there are two more Wheel of Time books to go (I've heard rumours of some prequels as well, but nothing is happening there until after the series is finished) and I will definitely be reading them (I started reading the series a decade ago, a decade after the first book was published) as I do want to see the end. I just hope Brian Sanderson can keep doing such a good job.

Von Daniken is Wrong

After having failed to pick up a book from the library I'd put on hold due to having had it sent to the wrong library, I had a look at the new books that they had on display and one caught my eye. The title "History is Wrong" sounded intriguing, although upon seeing that the author was Erich von Daniken my expectations changed a bit. I still borrowed the book, more to see how hard it would be to find holes in the arguments it presented than to find out what historical facts I might have been wrong about.

As it turned out, finding holes in the arguments presented was pretty easy. The hard part turned out to be finding the arguments. Wild claims, check. Connections from out of nowhere, check. Hypotheses galore. Arguments and evidence, I'm still looking.

The book covers a few different topics. The first is the story of Enoch (Adam's great great great great grandson in case you didn't know) and the apocryphal Book of Enoch. Von Daniken claims that the Book of Enoch tells a story of a primitive man visiting a spaceship and bringing back books of knowledge beyond his time (and allegedly ours). He suggests that the Voynich Manuscript is one of these, and that others might be hidden in the great pyramid and a massive cave complex in South America.

Next we get the story of the cave complex in South America. This cave complex was said to contain a library written on gold plates, thousands of golden animals, and was miles deep and spanned the continent, if not the earth. Von Daniken wrote about this in a book decades ago, and was generally criticized for his coverage of it. This is I think where the book gets its title, as this section is really nothing more than von Daniken trying to clear his name. This doesn't work however. First he admits that when he wrote the chapter on the caves, he had not seen the caves nor any of the artifacts from the cave. He had only spoken to the man who claimed to have found the caves and his lawyer. The only evidence the provided were some photos taken at a cave entrance, and a letter on some official looking letter head written to the Ecuadorian government claiming the treasures contained in the caves. Apparently this was enough to convince von Daniken, as he offered to assist in setting up expeditions and so forth with the pair. And when he was pressed for evidence and asked the pair for some, they become hostile and refused further contact. Somehow I wasn't too surprised. Today von Daniken pins his belief in the caves to a different man who has his information from another man who went into the caves that are at a different location and saw all the stuff, but didn't bring any back and died a decade ago. Also, the mormons are involved since they got their special knowledge

The final few chapters then provide a bit of info about the Nazca plains.

Ultimately it must be concluded that it is not history that is wrong, but Erich von Daniken. While many of his claims are way out there, he does make a few specific claims that are easily proven, he has not done so, which only raises the question "why not?".

A Double Dose of Pratchett

Last Thursday I indulged in a greater than usual amount of the works of Terry Pratchett. I went to see the Brisbane Arts Theatre's production of Maskerade, and afterwards finished reading the latest Discworld novel, Unseen Academicals.

The Brisbane Arts Theatre has a bit of a regular thing putting on plays based on Terry Pratchett novels (one or two a year, at least), and this is the third one I've been to. I initially found out that this one was on through one of my coworkers during my short career as a telemarketer who had a small role in the play. The crowd was a lot smaller this time compared to previous ones, but it was a Thursday and I used to usually go on Friday evenings. There was around 15 or so people in the audience. The play was pretty good, not much suspense as I already knew the story, but the acting was good, especially the witches, and it's a very funny story, and seeing it acted out allowed for the introduction of a bit of physical comedy as well. All round a good night out.

Unseen Academicals however, was a bit of a let down. The Discworld novels all have a concept, an idea or a theme that forms the core of the story even though it's not always explicitly stated. Unseen Academicals however seems to be two almost ideas tacked together in a way that doesn't add up to one big idea. Each of the two ideas with a bit of work could have stood on it's own and been a better novel for it.

Actually, now that I think about it a bit more, the football side of the story seems to have been tacked on to the much better and deeper story of Nutt and co, and stole too much of the time and energy from that story. Even with this though, the themes of rising above misconceptions and getting along with different people has been done by Pratchett before.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow is a book I've been aware of for some time but have only just got around to reading, and I really don't think it's that great. It's reputation is more born out of the authors position on copyright and the fact that the book is available under a creative commons license than on any great artistic merits.

The story relates a conflict between two groups with different philosphies on how Disneyworld should be run in a future world where money has been replaced by reputation and transferring memories to clones has brought about effective immortality for all. The bickering between the groups seems almost petty at times, although the characters would probably say that is just my quaint parochial mindset showing through.

The plot goes forward pretty straightforwardly, with a few diversions to look at how society got to where it is in the story. There are a few surprises along the way, but they are either easily predictable or not very significant to the story. The conclusion is a piece of deus ex machina and leaves the reader with a feeling of so what.

The Gladiator

I picked up The Gladiator at the library while collecting a book I'd put on hold. The cover appealed to me with its soviet style artwork of a hand holding a D20. Being by Harry Turtledove also helped as I've enjoyed some of his previous works before. As with pretty much everything he writes, The Gladiator is a work alternate history story. It's an easy read and I managed to finish it that evening in about 5 or so hours of reading.

It's set in a world where America backed down over the Cuban missile crisis and so communism eventually won the day. Taking place in Italy about a hundred years from now, the main plot focuses on a group who have traveled from our world to this one and are trying to install capitalistic ideals by running game shops where people can play games that require capitalistic thinking. Things go haywire when the security forces crackdown, and the proprietor finds safety with the family of some of his customers. An escape is finally managed via a similar store in San Marino.

The story isn't really that deep, and the ideals the author favours are quite clearly those of our world. All of the main characters are shown to question the ruling ideology of their world, and those who have bought the communist kool-aid are mostly caricatures. The plot is pretty straight forward and there aren't any twists per se.

Overall it's an OK read, but aimed more at the young adult rather than the adult reader that Turtledove usually writes for. I doubt I'd have picked it up except for the gimmick of using games to subvert the communist regime.

Writing with Cryptic Limits

Fans of A Void and Gadsby: Champion of Youth have another book to sink their teeth into. Eunoia is a new book that while not written in quite so strict a form as those other tomes I mentioned, has been written in such a way as to make you ask yourself "Why would anyone do that?"

Each chapter of the book is written using only one vowel.

The text is surprisingly readable, but I doubt I'll do more than read the samples the Beeb has provided. This is more something I'll give props for having done it, but I don't really want to go through the whole result.

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Writing time: 5 minutes
Time since last post: I don't think I actually care that much anymore, although I have been slack of late compared to earlier in the year.
Current media: None

On The Wealth of Nations

I recently finished reading The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. A weighty tome that took about a month to get through (my reading rate has dropped since I don't have an almost hour long commute each way). I actually got it back in January, but my reading of it got preempted by some other books (some of which I'll write about later).

When thinking about The Wealth of Nations the best comparison I can think of is to Dracula. Both are great works which were groundbreaking when they came out, but nowadays lose a lot of their immediate impact simply because the ideas in them have become so much a part of the ingrained knowledge of society. Ideas such as the division of labour, free trade, supply and demand are part of the basis of modern society, but were significant topics in his day.

The first two parts are definitely the strongest, and the most timeless. This deals with the ideas of labour and stock. The latter parts are of more interest historically but don't apply quite so well to the modern day.

The last part is of the expenses and revenues of the sovereign (government) and in those days the government was a lot smaller and less sprawling than most governments today are and people expect a lot more from their government today than anyone would have dreamed of in the 1700s.

Also less relevant to today is the warnings on the pitfalls of foreign colonies and the diversions on the historical values of the price of corn over the centuries. These are interesting, but a modern writer would perhaps have put those at least as an appendix or a separate volume, not as a digression during the middle of the text.

Overall it's a solid text that is definitely worthy of its place in history, but a lot of its message has already reached the modern audience.

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Time since last post: 10 days
Current media: The Hollowmen

A Hat Full of Media

I've got a few different bits of media from the last few weeks that I have a little bit to say about, so I'm going to collect them all here in no specific order.

The Okinawa Reading List.
The books I read on my trip to Okinawa were as follows: Foundation and Empire, Freakonomics, The Little Prince, and Absurdistan.

Foundation and Empire is an oldy and a goody, although I prefer the first of the Foundation novels. From the second book onward, it concentrates more on the individuals whereas the first had a feeling of more impersonal, grandiose history unraveling as you read. Although to be honest, I'm not sure that could be kept up over the course of a thousand years with the same level of quality.

Freakonomics was interesting, but unfulfilling. It lacked a certain amount of depth. I think I expected it to be a weightier, more serious and academic tome than it really was.

The Little Prince I added to the list since John Paul showed me the French copy he was carrying around with him on his travels. An interesting tale which definitely made me think about things (some of which I may be better of not thinking about).

I'm still reading Absurdistan, which is about a fat Russian guy who gets mixed up in a civil war in the former soviet republic of Absurdistan. It's not bad, but I'm not sure what point the author is trying to make.

Also in Okinawa I started playing Phoenix Wright. This is a lawyer RPG type game. The game play has two sections, investigation where you talk to witnesses and look for evidence, and the courtroom where you cross examine witnesses and present evidence to show the holes in the witnesses' testimony. An interesting game, although it is quite linear in play, sometimes the evidence to present and when is quite arbitrary, and now that I've finished it I doubt I'll play it again any time soon. That said, I will probably buy Phoenix Wright 2 after payday.

I've already talked about Die Hard 4 and Pirates 3, so I won't do so further. I am going to try and see Transformers and Harry Potter 5 in the near future while they are still showing in the cinemas.

Today I got my hands on the final Harry Potter book, and am already 100 pages in. I don't expect to get much sleep tonight, as I'll probably get to around 2 am and think, damn, I should get some sleep. I'll probably comment a bit more when I finish it.

Lastly, I found a link to this on Neil Gaiman's blog, Peanuts by Charles Bukowski. This appeals to my fondness for the reinterpretation of stories with a different, more twisted perspective. This is very different to the original, but very good.

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Writing time: 28 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: Apocalyptica - Faraway

Perth Pink

A few weeks ago I bought a new book. In Japan, my strategy for buying books has mainly been to go for quantity that is quality. This has meant that I've mostly been perusing the classics section of the English shelves. My most recent purchase is somewhat the epitome of this buying philosophy, the canonical long book. The book is none other than War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

I've yet to start reading the book. It is sitting on my shelf, still in the bag from the book shop (honya). To paraphrase Monty Python: "This is not a book for reading, it is a book for laying down and avoiding."

I do plan to start reading it soon. This was not helped by my birthday though. From a friend over here I got another book of the lay down and avoid variety; Crime and Punishment (can anyone think of a non-daunting book with a title of the form x and y?), and from my Aunt I got 5 Ben Elton novels. Elton has got a good reputation as a writer and since he is somewhat responsible for Blackadder 2-4 (he was one of the writers), so those are looking tempting. A lot lighter than what I've read lately.

The book I have been reading for the last few weeks (I think I borrowed it from the Takarazuka school the day after I bought War and Peace) is Mobile Suit Gundam, a novelization of an anime series. It didn't seem that great as a novel, but I think giant robots flying around and fighting in space is always going to be better in a visual medium. I might try and acquire a few episodes to watch if I can.

I'm going to try and start on War and Peace soon, and see how I go.

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Writing time: 37 minutes
Time since last post: 2 days
Current media: iTunes Shuffle - currently Floating Away by Velvet Chain

Who is Esonlinji?

Today I finished reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The end was not really a surprise after reading through the book, given that the grand plan was announced about two thirds the way through the book, and the rest of the book was the fulfilment of that plan.

The philosophy Rand puts forth agrees a fair bit with mine, and I can see myself incorporating some more of it into my own ideals. The main agreement is in the fundamental basis of the philosophy: the existence of a external, independent, consistent reality which man lives in. This is to me the only place to start thinking about the world we live in. To think the world is as we think it to be instead of the way it is is plain delusional. To think that you can change the world just by thinking it so without taking action to achieve such a change is to ignore the true nature of the world we live in.

Rand also points out the dangers of collectivism in the novel. The idea of taking from the rich, the skilled, the creative, and giving to the poor, the unmotivated, the leeches is not the one that socialists put forward, but is definitely a result that could happen when such a system is put in place. I think that the idea "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" should be supplemented with "From each according to his need, to each according to his ability." Each person should give their best and should be rewarded accordingly. Each person should pay their own way, pay for the resources they use in their endeavours. I'm having a little trouble fitting "to each according to his need" into this, so, except for the fact that it ruins the symmetry of the statements, I'd suggest dropping it.

I don't agree quite so strongly with Rand's ideal of laissez-faire capitalism as the ultimate form of guiding societies production. I think the problem with such systems is that once the means of production sufficiently outweigh the means of consumption, the scarcity that underpins capitalism of all forms falls away. Combine this with the reduction in physical labour due to technologies such as automation, and Rand's idea of production as the greatest of tasks seems a bit empty.

The contrast I've got in my head with the world of John Galt is that of Iain M Banks' The Culture, a post scarcity, anarcho-socialist mish mash. I think Rand would despise the hedonistic human citizens of The Culture as looters of the worst kind, having created greater beings (the Minds of the Culture) hamstrung into acting as willing victims who give their sanction to those who live off their power and ability. I think the Culture is a much better long term goal society wise, but Ayn Rand's ideas are an important step in getting there.

I'll write some more later, but will stop here since I'm rather tired.

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Nostromo?

I've decided to help Chris in spreading the message that Nostromo Sucks. This is not a decision I haven't taken lightly, just for the entertainment.

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Kevin Shrugged

Inspired by recent adventures in book-wankery of others, and lacking other reading material, I decided today to buy a new book and make it one that one reads more for the sake of saying one has read it than for the book itself. The book I chose was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

So far I've read about 50 pages and my main response so far is that she's really laying it on thick. You have no doubts which characters she sympathises which and which she despises. 50 pages is more than enough to get the general idea underlying the novel (I don't foresee a major change in this, just exploration of the idea). I'm not sure where the story will go, but the general themes are well established.

I sort of agree with some of the ideas Rand is espousing here, but dislike the extremes she takes them too. As I have said before, any idea, no matter how good or noble, when taken to extremes becomes a source of bad.

Anyway, I will post a longer and more thought out statement when I finish the book.

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Hyde and Seek

Completing the trifecta of classic horror stories I've been reading recently is The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, perhaps better known for Treasure Island than this work (I hadn't know RLS was the author of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde until I read the introduction to the collection). It was by far the shortest of the three, so much so that while reading Dracula at one stage I worried that there wasn't enough room for the third story, but at a mere 70 pages it's a relative lightweight.

Jekyll and Hyde is much more like Frankenstein than Dracula, again being about a scientist who brought forth something he couldn't control. The difference here though is that while Frankenstein's monster was separate from himself, Jekyll's monster was his own darker side.

Frankenstein's big idea was don't overlook the humanity in that which appears monstrous, while Jekyll and Hyde is about not overlooking the monstrous in what looks human. Hyde is Jekyll freed of his inhibitions and as he would say nobler self, a man who only answers to his desires.

Jekyll though is not free of blame in this story. He sought the freedom to be his darker self. And when he realised it might be a problem, he kept on going to the dark side, until ultimately he was unable to come back.

Overall, a warning not to succumb to the temptations that exist in each of us.

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Back in Drac

One of my recent literary achievements was finally reading Bram Stoker's Dracula (the original, not the novelisation of the movie (seriously, they made a new book out of the movie that was based on a book)). As far as stories go, it was pretty dry. The suspense wasn't that great, although to someone who hadn't been exposed 12 combined years of Buffy and Angel, a passing interest in Vampire: The Masquerade in it's various incarnations, and other pop culture vampire bits and pieces (for example, someone who read it when it was first published) the mystery of the book would be much greater. The great mystery in the 2nd part of the story is pretty obvious to the modern reader.

It's the oldest book I've seen that was written as if it was made up of the several characters different views of events (I'm sure some more literary type will tell me that there are older examples of this).

The one bad bit in the matter is the actions of Dr Van Helsing. From the start he was pretty confident he knew what type of creature he was dealing with, but he did not do everything he needed to do to protect Lucy. He took some half measures, and delayed her demise, but he only got serious about the matter after an innocent life had been lost, and more were likely to follow.

Similarly, later on they miss the obvious similarity of the symptoms that Mina Harker is suffering from with those that afflicted Lucy. In such a situation where they are taking great pains to piece together all the bits of knowledge they have, this stuck out like a sore thumb.

Overall, Bram Stokers' Dracula is not the best of stories, but is pretty important for all that it has inspired.

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