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July 17th, 2008
11:10 am - Madness
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Current Music: Madness, "Our House"
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July 3rd, 2008
11:14 am - The myth of the political center
One of the recurring myths which seemed to get a lot of press with Bill Clinton's candidacy and which is again becoming a topic in election politics is the political "center" or "middle."
The term is inaccurate, as "middle" or "center" presumes some point equidistant between two poles, in this case the hyperconservative and the hyperliberal.
Where exactly is this midpoint?
Who is a "middle" person or "moderate," as they're often called? People usually describe them as someone who is neither a liberal nor a conservative, but that's hardly helpful. Is it someone who is socially conservative but fiscally liberal? Fiscally conservative but socially liberal? Someone who is pro choice but is against any movement towards universal health care? Someone who is pro life but wants universal health care? If the answer is "yes" to each of these, is it possible for two people who are completely opposed on all grounds (a mirror image of mixed conservative and liberal viewpoints) to be part of the same group?
How does a candidate appeal to or move towards such a "middle" if it is so amorphous and contradictory?
The answer is that a candidate doesn't move towards the middle. The democrat candidate moves to the right and the republican candidate moves to the left in order to win over candidates farther from the far left and far right, respectively. As such it is a movement away from the poles, but not necessarily a movement towards any sort of middle. Calling it a "movement towards the middle" is a campaign strategy, a way of trying to put a right or left movement in terms more palatable to the candidate's core constituency to avoid alienating it. It's not an abandonment of party values but a compromise deemed necessary to win the election.
But is it?
Person A and person B are in "the middle" and undecided concerning which candidate to vote for, but are polar opposites of each other on every issue. If Obama adopts a policy more in line with the Republicans on a particular issue, he can at best hope for a split here: while it might get him person A's vote, it might also simultaneously push person B towards McCain.
What "the movement towards the middle" really is, is a gamble. Which of the other side's policies can you adopt as your own in order to gain undecided voters and draw away the voters on the fringe of your opponent's constituency while not alienating undecided voters and the voters on the fringe of your own constituency?
It's not a "necessary compromise." It's political gamesmanship.
Current Music: The Weakerthans, "Left and Leaving"
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July 2nd, 2008
12:30 pm - Obama is pissing me off
Faith-based initiatives are government-sponsored Christian evangelism.
Patriotism is Republican jingoism.
Wesley Clark was right.
The death penalty is not suitable under any circumstances.
Immunity to telecommunications companies = FAIL
The "Political Center" is a myth.
Current Music: The Weakerthans, "Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist"
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June 20th, 2008
11:34 am - Gavroche the monster
Current Music: The Hold Steady, "Constructive Summer"
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August 17th, 2007
10:33 am - Bedouin Soundclash
Punknews just put up a stream of Bedouin Soundclash's new album, Street Gospels, in its entirety (with the band's permission, so it's okay for you to click on the link and listen to it). They're a Canadian reggae trio with some great vocal harmonies and a rootsy sound with a bit of rock to it. I really loved their 2004 album Sounding a Mosaic, and the new album sounds even better.
Current Music: Bedouin Soundclash, "Bells of 59"
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September 27th, 2006
10:03 am - Le cadeau idéal
Quand j'avais onze ans, j'ai trouvé le cadeau ideal. J'ai voulu acheter un cadeau pour ma sœur pour Noël, mais je ne savais pas ce qu'elle voulait. Elle avait dix-sept ans, et elle aimait les garçons, la musique, et les vêtements à la mode. Avant Noël, je suis allé à New York City, où J'ai vu le cadeau idéal dans un magasin de souvenirs: une miniature de la statue de la Liberté avec un thermomètre. Quand j'ai donné le cadeau à ma sœur, elle était si heureuse qu'elle ne pouvait pas parler!
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August 17th, 2006
03:44 pm - A Haiku for Stephanie
Harlequin fall leaves
Hopkins found beauty in them
Giving praise to God
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November 23rd, 2005
09:56 am - I LOVE RUSH HOUR
Apparently, there was a hidden clause in Proposition 2 whereby if one asks someone to move over five inches in order to create enough room for one to sit on the subway, one is only entitled to sit if both:
a) the person who has to move five whole inches; and
b) the guy in the red jacket standing and reading a newspaper nearby
...deem one deserving of the seat.
Furthermore, if one is "a grown man," one is not deserving of the seat.
A determination by this ad hoc committee may be overruled by SITTING RIGHT FUCKING DOWN in the token amount of space ceded by board member a), putting on earphones and listening to Jawbreaker's Bivouac album at a volume sufficient to drown out the committee's deliberations.
I got the seat. However, there was A LOT of pissing and moaning involved.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) pessimistic
Current Music: Jawbreaker, PS New York Is Burning
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October 14th, 2005
09:46 am - Fuck Squared, or I'm an aging punk fan 3
This morning I learned that:
1. Rocket from the Crypt is breaking up; and
2. Rocket from the Crypt's second-to-last show will be in NYC, but the tickets went on sale over a week ago and are already SOLD OUT.
How is it that Ticketmaster sends me these spam emails all the time for shows that I have no interest in seeing, yet doesn't mention that it has TICKETS FOR ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT'S LAST SHOW IN NEW YORK?!?
That's it! I'm officially out of the loop! Time to throw out all the old punk albums and start listening to Perry Como.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) pissed off
Current Music: Rocket from the Crypt, "Tarzan"
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September 14th, 2005
11:25 am - Walter Mosley
Last night Stephanie and I went to see Walter Mosley do a reading of his most recent book, Cinnamon Kiss, at Hunter College.
Mr. Mosley introduced himself, mentioned his connection with Hunter College (his mother graduated from Hunter 66 years ago), and then announced that he didn't want to read from his new book, because with his upcoming book-signing tour he would have plenty of that to do soon enough. Instead, he decided to read some other things he had written.
Mosley's first piece was some non-fiction, an introduction to a work that is coming out in January. In it, Mosley proposes, among other things, the defeat of bipartisan government through the insertion of a third political party that would prevent either of the other two parties to have any more than 49% of the control of Congress.
Mosley prefaced the second piece by announcing that he had written it a short while ago for his visit to Hunter, that he really loved the story, and that it had been rejected by every magazine to which he had submitted it. It was both surprising to discover that an established author still had his work rejected and exciting to realize that what all those magazine readers would miss out on we would hear from the author himself.
Mosley is not only a great writer, he reads his own work excellently. He told his story, called "Gray Shawl," with all the dramatic diction of an actor, changing his voice when speaking the narrator's, then the mother's, then the driver's lines. It was about a man dreaming about being at a house by a pond with his aging mother, who was sitting in a little rowboat and asking about when the driver would arrive, as the man struggled with a speech that he had to deliver to some young adults the next day. A fog rolls in, his mother in the boat drifts out of reach, and the man drifts in and out of consciousness as he both tries to reach out to his mother and to the next generation.
Next came another short story, the first of "The Tempest Tales," a series of stories he modeled after Langston Hughes's The Simple Stories. The first story tells about Tempest, a man who through a combination of a bad temper and bad luck, is shot dead on the street and ends up before St. Peter for judgment. Mosley was great delivering Tempest's defenses to the accusations leveled at him by St. Peter. When accused of stabbing a young man, Tempest claims self defense. When accused of stealing from the church, Tempest accuses the reverend of spending the church's money for his own pleasure, and adds that he used the money he stole to help his aunt when she had hard times. When accused of bearing false witness against a neighbor in a criminal case, Tempest tells Peter that that guy had it coming, because he did plenty of horrible things that he was never arrested for! Exasperated, St. Peter just tells Tempest to go to Hell, and Tempest refuses. Tempest ends up back in Harlem, but with a new identity and a guardian angel who will follow Tempest as he tries to prove that he's right and St. Peter is wrong about Tempest's fitness for Heaven.
Last, Mosley read a chapter from R.L.'s Dream, which is a story told by an old blues guitarist named Soupspoon who once played with Robert "R.L." Johnson. In the chapter Mosley read, Soupspoon and Johnson play together for nickels in town, but the show is quickly ended when the redneck sheriff shows up and hauls the two to jail. Mosley was great with the narration, and the story mixed equal parts of hard-luck humor and racial hatred and fear.
Afterwards there was a Q&A session, where Mosley revealed his favorite fictional character (Mersault from The Stranger), gave his opinion of MFAs for becoming a successful writer (useful but not necessary), discussed rejections (turns out that the first story he got published was accidentally "rejected" by the same magazine a few months after they agreed to publish it), fears (NO FEAR DAMMIT!), work habits (3 hours a day, every day, lucky bastard), and genres (both the good and bad aspects).
Then Mosley signed some books. Most of the people there had shiny new hardcover copies of Cinnamon Kiss, and then there was me, with a trade paperback edition of his first book, Devil in a Blue Dress. Mosley grinned a bit and said "Ah, Devil in a Blue Dress," so I guess he didn't mind signing it for me.
I had a lot of fun last night. It was great hearing a writer read his work, and to hear him speak about the writing craft and business, and his own success, in a straightforward and humble manner. I'm sure that after the reading, many of the students in the room went home and, full of inspiration, wrote something, anything, it didn't matter what, as long as it was honest and from the mind and heart. I know that I did.
I have been writing short stories for a little over a year now, after many years of saying that I would try it and never actually doing it. I have written several so far, have sent them to various magazines, and have been rejected every time. It gets frustrating at times, but I keep writing, because like Mosley, I write because it's fun to create people, places and events on paper, to set down truths in the stories, and in so doing, engage in acts of discovery as I write. I may not end up on the best seller's list, but I'll get published some day, and when I do, it will be because of writers like Mosley who remind me why I'm doing it and inspire me to keep on doing it.
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July 25th, 2005
09:03 am - Melancholy
"Since melancholy could be held responsible for a wide range of behavior patterns and emotional reactions, it was especially useful to writers. The vague sadness that tinges Antonio's life in The Merchant of Venice (1596) is a fairly harmless strain of melancholy, though it seems to render him passive and fatalistic. Other versions of the disease were more virulent, and a wide variety of melancholy humors became highly popular toward the end of the century. Nurtured particularly by aristocratic Italians -- Ficino's praise had its consequences -- the fashionable English traveler tended to return from the Continent with the symptoms of this disease. And in no time at all, even those who had never traveled caught the infection and acted as though they had just returned from Italy. In As You Like It (1599) Jaques has picked up "a most humorous sadness" abroad; Rosalind, however, is quick to point out the absurdity of his affectation: "I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad, and to travel for it too."" -Shakespeare's World: Background Readings in the English Renaissance, by Gerald M. Pinciss and Roger Lockyer (eds.).
The next time I return from the Continent, I'm going to call in sick with melancholy.
"I'm sorry, but I can't make it to work today."
"What's wrong?"
"I have this... malaise. *sigh*"
"Do you think you will be feeling better by tomorrow?"
"Oh, I don't know. I mean, what's the point? Life is merely a harsh prelude to the eternal freedom of death."
"Well, I hope you feel better soon. Get some rest and have some chicken soup."
"I'm sitting in my room with the lights off and the blinds shut, writing desperate and impassioned lines of verse."
"In the dark?"
"I have an Itty Bitty Book Light."
"Oh."
"Farewell, dear friend. You have always been kind to me, and I shall always think of our time together with fondness."
"You too. Oops, I gotta go. There's a call on the other line."
"Oh, okay."
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July 1st, 2005
10:11 am - Neighborhood Development
Down the street from the office is a building on the first floor of which was a crappy pizza place and a crappy deli where they serve food from troughs. About two months ago both stores were closed down, and thus began an ambitious renovation. As I passed the building a few times every weekday, I saw the crappy pizza place and crappy deli where they serve food from troughs gutted, rebuilt, and new facades constructed. Each day for the 15 seconds or so it would take for me to pass the building, I would speculate as to what the new occupants of the first floor would offer. Would it be a coffee shop with comfortable couches for reading (and unlike Starbucks, non-burned coffee)? How about a cheap seafood place where I could get some clam chowder or steamers? Maybe an Indian restaurant!
My anticipation ended this week, when at the site I witnessed the grand opening of:
A crappy pizza place and a crappy deli where they serve food from troughs.
THE REBUILDING OF DOWNTOWN IS NOW A REALITY.
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June 17th, 2005
09:10 am - Downtown Manhattan Spring 2005
I decided a few weeks ago to take some pictures of areas around my office. These pictures were taken during commutes and lunchbreaks on two different days. The picture links to the photo album. I added comments explaining what I was photographing, and when I didn't know what I was photographing, I made things up.
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June 15th, 2005
07:41 am - Al Roker
During my lunch break yesterday, I went to the Borders Bookstore on Broadway and Wall Street. When I walked into the store, sitting at a table right in front of the entrance was Al Roker. He has a new book out called Big Shoes: In Celebration of Dads and Fatherhood, and he was signing copies.
However, no one was lining up to get a copy signed and to talk to the world's most famous weather man!
Poor Al was sitting there, a few feet from the entrance, watching everyone walking into the store and right past him, his only consolation provided by a few Borders employees stationed around him like bodyguards.
The entire scene just made me feel so sad for Al. I very nearly ran up to the table, picked up a book, handed it to Mr. Roker and said, "I salute you sir!", but the book cost $19.95 and was only 200 pages long. But you can bet that when Al's mass market paperback book signing tour gets underway, I'll be first in line.
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June 6th, 2005
02:11 pm - Book 8: Poetics by Aristotle (tr. by Malcolm Heath)
8. Poetics by Aristotle (tr. by Malcolm Heath). When I was a philosophy major in college, I thought that Aristotle was a very interesting philosopher and the translations of his work were eminently readable, but that they lacked the poetic elegance of Plato's Socratic dialogues. This is not necessarily a bad thing: Aristotle's works are more straightforward and analytical then Plato's, and certainly more categorically comprehensive. It's just that they weren't as much fun to read. It wasn't until long after that I discovered that Aristotle's extent works were not works intended for publication, but most likely Aristotle's lecture notes. Poetics is one such work, and one that I found interesting because it is a very straightforward, analytical work that addresses the aesthetics of tragedy and epic poetry.
Aristotle's Poetics introduces many critical themes, especially those relating to drama, that are discussed to this day. For example, in describing the best type of tragedy, Aristotle introduces the concept of hamartia, which is roughly analogous to the concept of a hero's "tragic flaw." When criticizing the arbitrary resolution of some plays, he cites the deus ex machina in Euripides' Medea. Aristotle's famous unities are also present here, although it seems that of the three unities frequently cited, the unity of time, the unity of place, and the unity of action, only the unity of action and unity of time are mentioned by Aristotle, and the latter only applies to tragedy. Aristotle also discusses catharsis in reference to tragedy.
Tragedy gets the most treatment by Aristotle, who ultimately rates it the best of the poetics, edging out epic poetry. Comedy, by dealing with less important people and things, is ranked lowest. Aristotle considers tragedy the best because it is more concentrated than epic poetry, from which one can infer that the unities are partly responsible for its preeminence. Aristotle deems the best tragedy to be that which has reversal and recognition in its climax. By reversal and recognition, Aristotle is referencing hamartia, as the best tragedy has its main character lacking something that may be either a moral flaw, or may be simply a lack of knowledge. The climax of the tragedy is when the reversal of fortune occurs, and when that reversal is accompanied by that recognition. For instance, in the case of Oedipus the King, the reversal and recognition occur at the same time, when Oedipus realizes that he killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta.
Also important to Aristotle is that the tragedy's main character be neither perfect nor completely depraved. If the character were perfect, then the audience would feel outrage when the tragedy occurred, while if the character were morally reprehensible, it ceases to become a tragedy, as the character's tragic fate is deemed well-deserved by the audience. Instead, Aristotle said that the best tragedy has a good but flawed character, so that the audience sympathizes with the character's pain, but at the same time, recognizes the tragic result as deserved. Thus, in the case of Oedipus, the audience would feel bad for him because Oedipus is an intelligent and pious man and a popular leader. However, the audience will recognize that Oedipus thought that he could avoid his fate (a minor impiety), and that in his ambition he seeks to learn the truth that will destroy him. This is the moment of catharsis, when the audience identifies with but understands the protagonist's pain.
The introduction to this book, by Malcolm Heath (who also translated it), contrasts Plato's and Aristotle's views on emotions. Plato views poetry as bad because it provokes emotions, and emotions should be controlled. Aristotle disagrees, as he views tragedy as a good way to deal with emotions, as viewing the suffering of others in the poetic art form is a harmless outlet for expressing emotions. In fact, not experiencing emotional trauma through tragedy is a negative thing, as it can allow emotions to get pent up and explode at improper times and with truly tragic consequences. As such, catharsis is an integral element to poetry on both a stylistic and moral level.
One other item that I found interesting was that Aristotle acknowledged that irrationalities occur in tragedy, and that in some cases irrationalities are appropriate, and even preferable, provided that they are hidden well. As Aristotle says, "Probable impossibilities are preferable to implausible possibilities." Aristotle notes this in the section covering epics, and says that it is more appropriate in epics, which are much broader in scope than tragedies, and therefore can more easily conceal such irrationalities.
Unfortunately, Aristotle's section on Comedies has not survived the millennia. He discusses comedies briefly in the tragedy and epic sections, but not in sufficient detail to get a really good idea of what he thought about it and what he thought made for the best comedy. I really would have liked to have read Aristotle's take on comedy, especially in consideration of the fact that when he is commenting on such works, as he does in regard to tragedies and epics, he is referring to works that were to him nearly contemporary (even Homer's The Odyssey was only a few hundred years old at Aristotle's time). Aristotle makes it pretty clear that his favorite tragedy is Sophocles' Oedipus the King, as he uses it repeatedly for his examples. But what was his favorite comedy, and who was his favorite comic playwright?
This is a great book, covering a lot of stuff in a small number of pages, with a good introduction and explanatory notes. The translation is modern and easy to read. I wrote a lot of notes in the margins of this one and anticipate going back to it often.
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May 31st, 2005
12:54 pm - A Feast for Crows, Volumes 1 and 2?
So, according to George R.R. Martin's website, A Feast for Crows is finished, sort of. Because of its length (1650-1700 pages), he is dividing the characters' story lines into two separate volumes to be released in succession. In other words, he's going Tolkien on us.
I guess this means that I'll have some re-reading to do soon, in anticipation of the release of A Feast for Crows, Volume One.
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11:23 am - Book 7: The Oresteia by Aeschylus (tr. by Robert Fagles)
7. The Oresteia by Aeschylus (tr. by Robert Fagles). Prior to reading this trio of plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, I had never read an ancient Greek tragedy before. I can't believe how much I was missing by not having done so before now.
The Oresteia is an incredible story of revenge, justice, religion, and redemption, having the Trojan War as its backdrop and the cursed House of Atreus at its center. The story begins in Argos, where Queen Clytemnestra awaits the return of her husband Agamemnon from the Trojan War. In the morning light, a signal fire indicates that the Greeks have seized Troy, meaning that Agamemnon, king of Argos and leader of the Greek army, will be returning home. Clytemnestra eagerly anticipates his return, not because she misses him, but because she wants to kill him. It seems that Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia in order to have safe and speedy passage to Troy at the start of the war, and Clytemnestra wants some revenge. At the same time, she has started an affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin, who also wants revenge for Agamemnon's father Atreus' murder of his siblings (Atreus prepared them as a tasty meal for the unsuspecting Thyestes, Atreus' brother and Aegisthus' father).
Agamemnon shows up, pompous and accomplished, with the ignored prophetess Cassandra in tow. Clytemnestra welcomes Agamemnon home, convinces him to enter his home by walking on tapestries (a damming act of hubris), and then strangles and stabs him to death while he is soaking in the tub. Clytemnestra justifies her actions as those of a mother whose daughter was taken from her, while Aegisthus' henchmen push around the old men of Argos who object to Agamemnon's murder and the tyrant Aegisthus.
Fast forward a few years, and we find Electra, Agamemnon's other daughter, mourning her father's death. She is supposed to be placating the spirit of her father, as Clytemnestra is having nightmares of a snake first suckling her breast, then biting her. However, Electra, as the daughter of the dead king, is treated like a slave, and prays for her father to rise up and strike down Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Instead, Orestes arrives. Orestes is the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and was sent away by the latter when he was young, in part because he would be a threat to Aegisthus, and in part because Aegisthus would be a threat to him. Orestes and his friend Pylades have come to Argos at the direction of the god Apollo, who told Orestes to avenge his father's death.
Orestes and Electra firm up their resolve by invoking their father's spirit. Orestes lies his way into the palace, kills Aegisthus, and confronts Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra appeals to Orestes by stressing the mother-son relationship, even though she has proven to be a rather poor mother (the dim-witted wet nurse was closer to Orestes than Clytemnestra was), but then realizes that the serpent in her dreams was Orestes. She goads him into killing her by revealing the dream, and he does. Once she dies, however, the Furies arrive and torment Orestes for murdering his mother.
Orestes flees from Argos, pursued by the Furies, and while seeking shelter in Apollo's shrine, is told by the god to go to Athens. After Orestes leaves, the ghost of Clytemnestra appears and summons the Furies to chase after Orestes, and the Furies and Apollo confront each other.
Orestes arrives in Athens, and the Furies show up shortly thereafter. The goddess Athena announces that Orestes will be tried by the citizens of Athens. The Furies at first object, but then relent, and Apollo shows up and acts smugly, perhaps because he knows that the cards are stacked in his favor with his sister running the show.
What follows is a trial not only about Orestes' act of murder, but about the conflict between the old Cthonian gods represented by the Furies and the new Olympic gods represented by Apollo and Athena, and the conflict between the Cthonian values of family with the Olympic values of civil institutions. The Furies are grotesque supernatural women that represent ancient justice in the form of vengeance, and want Orestes to pay for the crime of killing his blood kin. Apollo, the male god of light, argues that he told Orestes to kill Clytemnestra at Zeus's insistence, as Clytemnestra murdered her husband Agamemnon. The issue therefore becomes which is worse, to murder one's spouse or to murder one's blood kin. However, Apollo sidesteps this confrontation of values with the novel argument that a mother is not blood kin to a son, as the son is only blood kin to the father, and the mother is merely an incubation receptacle. In support of his argument, he cites Athena as an example, as she was not even born from a woman, but instead sprung from Zeus' head.
The sides rest, and the jury puts in their votes. Athena announces that if there is a tie in jury votes, that she will rule in favor of Orestes. Sure enough, the vote is tied, and Orestes is found not guilty. Orestes thanks the jury, vows to create an alliance between Argos and Athens, and goes back home. The Furies are Furie-ous, but Athena transforms them into the Eumenides, or the Kindly Ones. The Furies change from seekers of vengeance of the crimes of blood kin to worshiped protectors of Athens, thereby becoming integrated into the Olympic pantheon and subordinating their agenda to that of the Olympic gods. Their black robes are covered with the red robes of state, and they are celebrated by the people of Athens.
The Oresteia is a cornerstone of western drama, and should be read by everyone both because of its foundational qualities and just because it's a really cool tale of revenge, redemption, and the transformative power of reaching truth through suffering. It is a travesty that it took me so long to read it. I read the Robert Fagles translation by Penguin Books, which included notes and introductions for each play. I highly recommend this, and I look forward to reading more Aeschylus. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Aeschylus wrote over 70 plays, only 6 still exist, as Aeschylus lived back in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. However, through the miracle of modern science it is possible (but unlikely) that more may be found.
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May 18th, 2005
11:55 am - Book 6: Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
6. Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons. This is the fourth and final book of the Hyperion series. I reviewed the first three books here, here and here.
In Rise of Endymion, the conflict between the Catholic Church, the Technocore, and the child of a human and an artificial intelligence, Aenea, reaches its climax. As with Endymion, this story is narrated by Raul Endymion, a native of planet Hyperion and Aenea's first disciple. Also as with Endymion, Raul narrates as an omniscient observer the scheming and intrigue occurring among other principle characters.
Most of the characters from Endymion are here, including Endymion, Aenea, Bettik, Sylenus, Father DeSoya, and Rhadamanth Nemes. Also having more substantial roles are the higher ups in the Catholic Church, including the Pope and Cardinal Lourdusamy, as well as the mysterious Core representative Councillor Albedo. And, of course, there is the Shrike, the mysterious being covered in deadly spikes that seems at times a threat, and at times Aenea's protector.
This book wraps up many of the mysteries developed in the first three books, but not all satisfactorily. What is Aenea's messianic power? Answered big time. Can Aenea really see into the future? Answered. What does the Core have to do with it? Answered somewhat. What are the cruciform symbiotes? Definitely answered. What do the Ousters have to do with all of this? Answered. What is the Shrike? Answered, but not to my satisfaction. Does Raul get out of the catbox he has been telling his story from? Answered. How can Raul possibly narrate from the perspectives of other characters? Answered.
I can't go into too much detail with the plot without spoiling everything. Basically, Aenea's tutelage as an architect (working under an AI Frank Lloyd Wright) has come to an end, and she is prepared to begin building on other worlds, and spreading whatever message she has to spread. She tells Raul to find the Consul's ship they abandoned in Endymion and fly to a rendezvous point. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church sends Father DeSoya on a mission to wipe out the Ousters for good. Raul engages in a journey much the like the journey in Endymion, but is now pursued by the very deadly Rhadamanth Nemes and her fellow terminator buddies. DeSoya begins the Church-backed genocide, but has doubts about the legitimacy of his actions. The Shrike appears all over the place, from the Mars colony where thousands of colonists are shredded to bits to planets along Raul's path where it battles with Rhadamanth Nemes. And lastly, it is revealed that the Technocore is putting millions of people not bearing the cruciform symbiote in some sort of suspended animation for an unknown purpose.
The story is rife with action and drama, and includes a climax of biblical proportions. There is a humanistic message behind it all, kinda, although the message itself questions the nature of humanity.
Simply put, this book is a conclusion. It wraps everything up rather neatly, but not perfectly (I'm still not clear what the Shrike really is), and provides an ending that seems to accord with many of the books I have read so far this year, namely that life is short, that its brevity is one of its blessings, and that one should therefore enjoy it while it lasts. In the final pages the sweeping drama fades away, culminating in an intimate and poignant scene reminiscient of the endings of tales such as The Lord of the Rings. There is a sense of victory and newfound freedom, but it is tempered by the cost thereof and a realization that these things are only important in the context of one's relation with others and the living of one's life in the manner that one wants in order to be happy and feel fulfilled. Without this fundamental human concept, the victory loses all value.
It's a waste to recommend this book. If you haven't read any of the others, then you shouldn't read this book because you will be completely lost. If you have read the others, then you would be a fool to stop reading now unless you really hated the first three, in which case what I think of the book probably doesn't matter. Instead, I will just say that this is an excellent conclusion to an even better series, and that I plan to read the books again some day after I read the John Keats poems that inspired them.
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April 29th, 2005
10:51 am - Book 5: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever: Lord Foul's Bane, by Stephen R. Donaldson
5. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Book One: Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson. This is, as the title indicates, the first book in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.
Thomas Covenant is a novelist whose life changes irrevocably when he inexplicably contracts leprosy. He has part of his hand amputated, his wife leaves him and takes their new-born child, and he becomes an outcast in the small town where he lives. Covenant learns the hard lesson of living without hope, of viewing all of outward existence as imminent danger to his fragile body, and of viewing himself as "unclean." He becomes bitter and angry, and in time, resigned to the fact that he will spend the rest of his life alone.
Then one day, while crossing the street and seeing a car speeding toward him, Covenant blacks out and wakes up in The Land. Covenant, formerly an inhabitant of modern day America, now finds himself in a mystical and fantastic world, and refuses to believe that what he perceives actually exists, especially the fact that his leprosy has apparently gone away. Covenant's condition appears to be connected to The Land, which Donaldson depicts as brimming with life and abundance.
However, there are evil forces in The Land, and these forces seek to pervert this life. Lord Foul is the baddie in the book, a Satan-type character who seeks to twist that which is good into that which is bad. Lord Foul has not been seen in The Land for hundreds of years, when a king called Kevin Landwaster underwent the Ritual of Desecration, which marred The Land but only temporarily banished Lord Foul. Lord Foul gives relics of power to a cavewight called Drool Rockworm, who uses them to terrorize The Land. It is at this time that Covenant appears.
Covenant is soon identified as the reincarnation of the ancient hero Berek Halfhand by the people who first find him, called Stonedowners because of their use of a magic called stone lore (Donaldson gives an environment-friendly message with The Land, as its people live in harmony with it, and its enemies corrupt it). Covenant also discovers that his white-gold wedding band, until now a bitter reminder of his failed marriage and lost bliss, is an item of unknown magical power.
If Bilbo Baggins is the common man confronted with the world of magic and legend, then Thomas Covenant is the intellectual confronted with the same. While Bilbo deals with every encounter with his common sense and bourgeois prejudices before finding what courage lurks within himself, Covenant grapples with a world that is contrary to every notion of existence he has, and one that cruelly tempts him to regain the hope he thought he had forever relinquished. This novel is clearly influenced by Tolkien's stories of Middle Earth, but Covenant is a character who could never have come from Tolkien's pen.
Covenant is frequently mentioned as an anti-hero, and for good cause. He is clearly a reluctant hero, considering his skepticism. However, he is also a severely flawed hero, one capable of committing morally repugnant acts. Insofar as these crimes are committed while he is struggling with the notion that he is really in The Land and not having a nightmare or in some sort of purgatory, Covenant's actions may be forgiven, but not completely, as they still show a guilty (even if tortured) mind. Despite these flaws, one can see redeeming qualities in Covenant, and his struggle with his disease and his skepticism is also a struggle with his becoming a hero.
Lord Foul's Bane is a highly imaginative work. Donaldson's descriptions of The Land are incredibly vivid, and his complex character rendering of Covenant is unique for a story that otherwise reads as typical epic fantasy. However, Covenant's constant grumblings become annoying at times (he says things like "Hellfire!" A LOT), and the story's other characters are not as well-developed as Covenant. Lastly, the action is inconsistent, and not as gripping as the main character is interesting or the setting is picturesque.
When I finished this book I felt that I had visited a fantastic world, but had not read a fantastic story. Still, Covenant is an intriguing character, and I am interested enough in what happens to him next to put up with his complaining for at least a few hundred pages longer. Covenant is a jerk, but he is a realistic jerk, and has some justification for his anger. He suffers from both physical and mental affliction, and as shown in Lord Foul's Bane, a healed body does not necessarily make a healed mind. This is a story about healing, both that of Covenant and that of The Land, and Donaldson has made me want to know if both, or either, will be healed.
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April 28th, 2005
04:31 pm - So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
We got a ten-gallon fish tank on Tuesday, and bought three fish to inhabit it. We got a Spotted Pimelodus, a Bala Shark, and an Iridescent Shark. Shortly after getting the fish, we learned that the pimelodus and bala shark get as large as one foot in length, and the iridescent shark can reach a METER in length! Of course, the guy at the pet store assured us that they will not outgrow their tank, but just in case, we are already clearing out space for the 1,000 gallon tank we will need in a few months.
So far the tank is a bit sparse, as it only has the three fish and some gravel, but we made up for it by giving the fish ridiculous names.
The pimelodus catfish, with his distinguished whiskers and silver and black body, is Finnington, Earl of Fish, the unique combination of both a fish pun and a noble title. We call him Earl for short. He is a complete spazz, as he swims all over the place like a nut. He also eats way too much, and has even been spotted eating the poop of one of the other fish.
The iridescent shark (also a catfish), with his fu manchu-like goatee and apparent vision problem (one eye is small, and the other bulges out), is named Captain Fu Manchu. Don't be fooled into thinking that Cap'n Fu is from the navy though. He is a PIRATE catfish. His favorite pastimes are swimming really fast into glass walls and playing dead. Usually in that order.
The bala shark (actually a carp) is named Mike. Yes, I named my pet fish after my dead pet hermit crab. He enjoys twitching.
We're going to get a couple more fish at some point, but given the obvious space constraints, they will probably be lil'uns. Maybe a couple of cory cats, as they are supposed to be very nice fish, plus they eat up algae from the bottom of the tank. Maybe a more colorful fish as well. We will also get some plastic plants and a little thing that fish can swim into for privacy.
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