If giant alien ships randomly showed up in 29 major cities across the globe bearing this message, would you believe them? That's the catchphrase for Anna, the Visitor high commander in the new ABC series V.
What makes the show great is that there are mixed reactions to the Visitors (as the aliens like to be called). People don't just bow down and worship the V's (well, some do), and they don't let them just take control of everything (like in Childhood's End). Most people in the show are pro-V, because they don't seem to do anything bad, and actually promise universal health care and all kinds of cool alien technologies. Others, like Father Jack Landry are skeptical of the V's. Father Jack is a member of the Fifth Column, a resistance group that knows the true nature of the V's: they are actually reptilian underneath a "human skin." Even though the V's plan isn't revealed (they have some vague and scary plan the whole time), it is clear to the viewer that they are evil. In the beginning, they lied about their true nature when Anna said their scientists can explain why they look exactly like humans, and then FBI agent Erica Evans found out someone she thought she knew and trusted was actually a V. It shows that they have infiltrated all walks of life and that anyone could be a V.
That's half the fun of the show: trying to figure out who is a V. After their true nature is revealed, Father Jack cautions people against jumping on the V bandwagon in his homilies, much to the chagrin of the other priest at the church. That priest is so blindly pro-V that I'm convinced he is one of them. The other half of the fun of the show is all the big reveals and twists that they have. The show is so quick and action packed, and then at the end of every episode someone says something like "We have to tell Tyler the truth about his parents" and it leaves me begging for more. Many times while watching the preview, they'll say "Next week, on V:" and at the end of the preview I shout "I CAN'T WAIT THAT LONG!"
Aside from cheap tricks like plot twists at the end of every episode, the show doesn't drag it's feet in the middle. There are a lot of characters, and there is a lot going on in each episode. The Fifth Column members are always looking for ways to help them fight the V's and convince the rest of humanity that they are being lied to, and there are many scenes with Anna and Marcus (her second in command) plotting and scheming up on the ship. What I like about the scenes where Anna and Marcus is that they have a special camera angle they use just for when they are plotting something.
The show is also very character-driven. Erica leads the Fifth Column, while her son Tyler gets closer to a Visitor named Lisa. Lisa frequently brings him to Anna (the high commander), and Tyler becomes very pro-V. Obviously, this leads to some tensions between him and his mother, but they manage to have some kind of relationship just the same. This is just one example of the character driven nature of the show, but suffice to say that none of the characters are the same at the end of the season.
I could go on and on and on about how great V is, but I might end up ruining the whole show by just giving a synopsis of it. You'll just have to buy the DVD on Tuesday when it comes out.
V on amazon.com
Friday, October 29, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
the difference between Ursula LeGuin and Kurt Vonnegut
Recently, I've tried reading two different books: a Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin, and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut. One of these books was easy to read and enjoyable, the other was really boring. Which one is which? Knowing me, the easy one was Kurt Vonnegut (if you've been reading this blog, you know that I want to name my firstborn son "Kurt").
I got to thinking, why is Vonnegut so much easier to read than LeGuin? Because of how their books are written. LeGuin wrote the basic framework for a story: she has characters, and the characters do things and things happen to them. There is very little dialogue, and little character development. Essentially, the characters are just doing things.
Vonnegut, however, doesn't really tell much of a story. That is, it's not something you can summarize or explain in anything less than what Vonnegut already did it in. You can't summarize the story in a paragraph, you explain what the book is about. Player Piano is about the effects of a world where manual labor is completely replaced by machines, and the effect that has on one Dr. Paul Proteus. Why do we care? Because Vonnegut makes you care. The reader learns so much about Paul that Paul seems more like an old friend than a character Vonnegut made up. Things happen to him, but you get to see inside his mind and see all of his reactions and thoughts. You learn a lot about the place that he lives in, the life he leads, and what causes his world to change. It's a thrill ride of a book.
Obviously, these are two different people we are talking about here, so they'll have different writing styles. I just happen to like Kurt Vonnegut a lot more. Not all of Ursula LeGuin's books are just like a Wizard of Earthsea, either. I also read the Left Hand of Darkness (a book anyone interested in gender studies should read), and that book is more like Kurt Vonnegut's style in that we get to know the characters and the place, and there is dialogue. I wouldn't say it's exactly like Kurt Vonnegut's style, since nobody else writes like him, but it's closer to him because we get to know the characters.
Both are good writers who come up with really original stories, but if you asked me who you should read first, the answer will always be Kurt Vonnegut.
I got to thinking, why is Vonnegut so much easier to read than LeGuin? Because of how their books are written. LeGuin wrote the basic framework for a story: she has characters, and the characters do things and things happen to them. There is very little dialogue, and little character development. Essentially, the characters are just doing things.
Vonnegut, however, doesn't really tell much of a story. That is, it's not something you can summarize or explain in anything less than what Vonnegut already did it in. You can't summarize the story in a paragraph, you explain what the book is about. Player Piano is about the effects of a world where manual labor is completely replaced by machines, and the effect that has on one Dr. Paul Proteus. Why do we care? Because Vonnegut makes you care. The reader learns so much about Paul that Paul seems more like an old friend than a character Vonnegut made up. Things happen to him, but you get to see inside his mind and see all of his reactions and thoughts. You learn a lot about the place that he lives in, the life he leads, and what causes his world to change. It's a thrill ride of a book.
Obviously, these are two different people we are talking about here, so they'll have different writing styles. I just happen to like Kurt Vonnegut a lot more. Not all of Ursula LeGuin's books are just like a Wizard of Earthsea, either. I also read the Left Hand of Darkness (a book anyone interested in gender studies should read), and that book is more like Kurt Vonnegut's style in that we get to know the characters and the place, and there is dialogue. I wouldn't say it's exactly like Kurt Vonnegut's style, since nobody else writes like him, but it's closer to him because we get to know the characters.
Both are good writers who come up with really original stories, but if you asked me who you should read first, the answer will always be Kurt Vonnegut.
Friday, October 8, 2010
A Canticle for Leibowitz
I don't think I "got" this book. It's supposed to be a cult classic, but I'm obviously not in the cult. It has several motifs I've found in other sci-fi: it is several stories that tell one complete story (like The Martian Chronicles and I, Robot), and it deals with a society that has abandoned books and decided to be illiterate morons (like Fahrenheit 451 and the film Idiocracy).
The premise of the book is that there was a huge flame deluge (nuclear war, see the ending of Terminator 3 if you want an idea of what I imagined it to be like), and the people that were left rebelled against the smart people and burned all the books in a global "simplification." What follows is a United States that is divided into several countries, and the rise of Catholocism as a major power in the world once again.
The focus of the stories is on an abbey in the southwestern desert. The abbey is dedicated to a St. Leibowitz, who founded an order of monks who preserve the written word for the time when Man is ready for it again. Why he is so venerated by the monks (other than being their founder) is unclear. It seems like they only want him to be venerated as a saint for their own personal pride. The back cover of the book also implies that a grocery list written by Leibowitz will be an important object in the book, when really it isn't (remember how hyped Darth Maul was before the Phantom Menace cam out? same thing here).
The stories themselves don't really connect that well. All they really have in common is that they take place at the same abbey, in chronological order over a period of roughly one thousand years. They don't really tell a complete story though, and I think that's because there are too few individual stories to tell a whole. I, Robot does a better job telling a story out of several, and it has nine. the Martian Chronicles has over a dozen short stories put together, and that's the most natural progression of all three books. What this tells me is that the more stories you have, the better the book will flow. A Canticle for Leibowitz doesn't flow from one story to another as naturally because there are hundreds of years in between each one, as opposed to a decade at most. The stories are tied together at the very end, when the most recent main character finds the remains of characters we had learned to know and love (or hate) in the last two stories.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and it was interesting, but it could have been done a lot better. It needs more stories to add a better flow to the overall story.
The premise of the book is that there was a huge flame deluge (nuclear war, see the ending of Terminator 3 if you want an idea of what I imagined it to be like), and the people that were left rebelled against the smart people and burned all the books in a global "simplification." What follows is a United States that is divided into several countries, and the rise of Catholocism as a major power in the world once again.
The focus of the stories is on an abbey in the southwestern desert. The abbey is dedicated to a St. Leibowitz, who founded an order of monks who preserve the written word for the time when Man is ready for it again. Why he is so venerated by the monks (other than being their founder) is unclear. It seems like they only want him to be venerated as a saint for their own personal pride. The back cover of the book also implies that a grocery list written by Leibowitz will be an important object in the book, when really it isn't (remember how hyped Darth Maul was before the Phantom Menace cam out? same thing here).
The stories themselves don't really connect that well. All they really have in common is that they take place at the same abbey, in chronological order over a period of roughly one thousand years. They don't really tell a complete story though, and I think that's because there are too few individual stories to tell a whole. I, Robot does a better job telling a story out of several, and it has nine. the Martian Chronicles has over a dozen short stories put together, and that's the most natural progression of all three books. What this tells me is that the more stories you have, the better the book will flow. A Canticle for Leibowitz doesn't flow from one story to another as naturally because there are hundreds of years in between each one, as opposed to a decade at most. The stories are tied together at the very end, when the most recent main character finds the remains of characters we had learned to know and love (or hate) in the last two stories.
Overall, this was an enjoyable read, and it was interesting, but it could have been done a lot better. It needs more stories to add a better flow to the overall story.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Isaac Asimov on immigration
Recently, I read the Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov. This book takes place thousands of years before the Foundation series, but in the same galaxy. The setting is a galaxy where humans have colonized several other worlds, and enough time has passed that the outworlders are called "spacers" and people on Earth generally don't trust them. The spacers want Earthicans to integrate with robots, (the way the sapcers have), and the earthicans simply don't want to.
I don't know if Asimov intended the book to be an allegory for illegal immigration in the United States, but it sort of works on that level. Humans don't want robots around because robots will take jobs from humans. There is almost a riot at one point because a woman refused to be served by a robot in a shoe store. Asimov makes the point that nobody wants to work in a shoe store, and eventually the woman consents to be served by the robot.
This earth is different from ours in that there is also an elaborate classification system (something I'm finding more and more in what I read) where the main character has some prestige that can be lost if he's found associating with robots. He's in luck, because he ends up being partnered with a robot to solve the mystery of who killed a spacer. This robot is different from the rest, however, in that it looks human, and fooled most humans for most of the book about what it truly is.
While reading this book, I realized that a lot of good sci-fi is just a mystery novel that takes place in space, the future or an alternate reality. This one specifically is in the future, where we have space travel and all kinds of neat technology. One aspect of the main character (who I called Deckard and imagined to look just like Harrison Ford, I forgot his name now) that I didn't like was how he jumped to conclusions quickly while trying to solve the case. He would go to his suspect, build a story that made sense, and then accuse them. His suspect then presented a logical alibi, and he had to start all over.
I think it says a lot about Isaac Asimov's writing that his books are relevant to a specific issue decades after they were written. Illegal immigration was not the problem in 1954 that it is today, and because of this, readers in the 1950's and 60 years later will get a totally different reading experience from it.
That is why Asimov is a Grandmaster of Science Fiction.
I don't know if Asimov intended the book to be an allegory for illegal immigration in the United States, but it sort of works on that level. Humans don't want robots around because robots will take jobs from humans. There is almost a riot at one point because a woman refused to be served by a robot in a shoe store. Asimov makes the point that nobody wants to work in a shoe store, and eventually the woman consents to be served by the robot.
This earth is different from ours in that there is also an elaborate classification system (something I'm finding more and more in what I read) where the main character has some prestige that can be lost if he's found associating with robots. He's in luck, because he ends up being partnered with a robot to solve the mystery of who killed a spacer. This robot is different from the rest, however, in that it looks human, and fooled most humans for most of the book about what it truly is.
While reading this book, I realized that a lot of good sci-fi is just a mystery novel that takes place in space, the future or an alternate reality. This one specifically is in the future, where we have space travel and all kinds of neat technology. One aspect of the main character (who I called Deckard and imagined to look just like Harrison Ford, I forgot his name now) that I didn't like was how he jumped to conclusions quickly while trying to solve the case. He would go to his suspect, build a story that made sense, and then accuse them. His suspect then presented a logical alibi, and he had to start all over.
I think it says a lot about Isaac Asimov's writing that his books are relevant to a specific issue decades after they were written. Illegal immigration was not the problem in 1954 that it is today, and because of this, readers in the 1950's and 60 years later will get a totally different reading experience from it.
That is why Asimov is a Grandmaster of Science Fiction.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Yes, it's another Kurt Vonnegut post. As of this writing, I'm reading Player Piano, his first novel, and have read over half of his books. I really enjoy his writing, because the style is so original. I'll talk more about his style later, since this post is specifically about the book that earned him his masters degree: 1963's Cat's Cradle. Now, I don't remember every detail about this book, since I did read it about five months ago, but I remember that it really was a masterpiece.
A little backstory on it, before I begin: Vonnegut was working on his masters degree in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, and they originally rejected his thesis. He left UChicago, wrote Cat's Cradle, and years later UChicago accepted it as a masters thesis. That was what drew me to this book specifically. I wanted to see what UChicago saw in it.
The book follows a writer who wants to write a book about what many people of note were doing on August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He finds the family of Dr. Felix Hoenniker, one of the scientists that worked on the bomb. He finds Newt, a midget, and his sister Emily, who plays the clarinet. They all have samples of another weapon their father had developed, Ice-nine, which is a substance that turns all water it comes into contact with into a solid. Many people inadvertently come into contact with Ice-nine in the book and die. Their older brother, Frank, became the Major General of the island of San Lorenzo in the Caribbean sea. The writer goes there to find him and ask for any stories about his father, specifically from August 6, 1945.
What he finds on the island of San Lorenzo is a religion called "Bokononism." Bokonon was a man, and he said many wise things that united the people of the island. Officially, Bokononism is illegal on San Lorenzo, and nobody will admit to practicing it, but everyone follows the teachings of Bokonon. Bokonon talks about the groups of people that exist, and how people organize themselves. The most common way people organize themselves is into "granfalloons," an artificial karass that is not really destined to accomplish anything or do God's will. A karass, then, is a group of people who work together to do God's will, whether they know it or not. There is also a duprass, which is a karass with only two people. Michelle and I are a duprass, and we belong to a granfalloon called the human race.
Vonnegut's books are generally very well written, but this book surpasses all of them. There isn't much of a story to recollect, but Vonnegut keeps it very interesting and engaging throughout. He makes you really want to know what happens to the characters, and there is a really emotional climax at the end. It should be obvious to most people that developing weapons hurts a lot of people, but Vonnegut shows how it hurts people.
Overall, this is in the top three best Kurt Vonnegut books. I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to start reading Vonnegut.
A little backstory on it, before I begin: Vonnegut was working on his masters degree in Anthropology at the University of Chicago, and they originally rejected his thesis. He left UChicago, wrote Cat's Cradle, and years later UChicago accepted it as a masters thesis. That was what drew me to this book specifically. I wanted to see what UChicago saw in it.
The book follows a writer who wants to write a book about what many people of note were doing on August 6, 1945, the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He finds the family of Dr. Felix Hoenniker, one of the scientists that worked on the bomb. He finds Newt, a midget, and his sister Emily, who plays the clarinet. They all have samples of another weapon their father had developed, Ice-nine, which is a substance that turns all water it comes into contact with into a solid. Many people inadvertently come into contact with Ice-nine in the book and die. Their older brother, Frank, became the Major General of the island of San Lorenzo in the Caribbean sea. The writer goes there to find him and ask for any stories about his father, specifically from August 6, 1945.
What he finds on the island of San Lorenzo is a religion called "Bokononism." Bokonon was a man, and he said many wise things that united the people of the island. Officially, Bokononism is illegal on San Lorenzo, and nobody will admit to practicing it, but everyone follows the teachings of Bokonon. Bokonon talks about the groups of people that exist, and how people organize themselves. The most common way people organize themselves is into "granfalloons," an artificial karass that is not really destined to accomplish anything or do God's will. A karass, then, is a group of people who work together to do God's will, whether they know it or not. There is also a duprass, which is a karass with only two people. Michelle and I are a duprass, and we belong to a granfalloon called the human race.
Vonnegut's books are generally very well written, but this book surpasses all of them. There isn't much of a story to recollect, but Vonnegut keeps it very interesting and engaging throughout. He makes you really want to know what happens to the characters, and there is a really emotional climax at the end. It should be obvious to most people that developing weapons hurts a lot of people, but Vonnegut shows how it hurts people.
Overall, this is in the top three best Kurt Vonnegut books. I highly recommend it to anybody who wants to start reading Vonnegut.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Ray Bradbury on Colonization
About a year ago, I was supposed to read the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury for a class I was taking. Well, I didn't read it, but I learned enough about it from Google to get credit for reading it. Last summer, I actually read it, and it was actually really good.
One aspect I liked is that it's a collection of short stories about Mars that Bradbury wrote, and when put together, tell a complete story .It's the same style as I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, which is one of the greatest books ever written. I like that style because the book moves faster, although it does have the drawback of not getting acquainted with a character and cheering for them through their struggles.
The story itself (or stories, rather) are an allegory for European colonization of the New World. Humans arrive on Mars, and can talk to the native Martians, but there is another barrier to their communication: the Martians think all the humans are crazy (the second expedition from Earth ends up in a mental institution full of Martians who also say they are from Earth). The Martians think the Humans are crazy because the Martians are masters at illusion and mind reading. Later on in the book, an American small town is discovered by a group of humans, and they find all their dead relatives living in it. What they really found was an illusion created by Martians based on the humans' memories.
The small town was one of the final battles for the Martians, as a few chapters later, a group of humans finds the ruins of a Martian city, and one of them explores it and goes rogue from the rest of the group. He is the first person to really appreciate Mars and the Martians. The change from native Martians being the dominant creatures on Mars to a family from Minnesota being the dominant creatures is so subtle and natural. It was very violent in between, but it made perfect sense in the end. I really enjoyed this book, and want to read it again, even though I only read it about two months ago.
One aspect I liked is that it's a collection of short stories about Mars that Bradbury wrote, and when put together, tell a complete story .It's the same style as I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, which is one of the greatest books ever written. I like that style because the book moves faster, although it does have the drawback of not getting acquainted with a character and cheering for them through their struggles.
The story itself (or stories, rather) are an allegory for European colonization of the New World. Humans arrive on Mars, and can talk to the native Martians, but there is another barrier to their communication: the Martians think all the humans are crazy (the second expedition from Earth ends up in a mental institution full of Martians who also say they are from Earth). The Martians think the Humans are crazy because the Martians are masters at illusion and mind reading. Later on in the book, an American small town is discovered by a group of humans, and they find all their dead relatives living in it. What they really found was an illusion created by Martians based on the humans' memories.
The small town was one of the final battles for the Martians, as a few chapters later, a group of humans finds the ruins of a Martian city, and one of them explores it and goes rogue from the rest of the group. He is the first person to really appreciate Mars and the Martians. The change from native Martians being the dominant creatures on Mars to a family from Minnesota being the dominant creatures is so subtle and natural. It was very violent in between, but it made perfect sense in the end. I really enjoyed this book, and want to read it again, even though I only read it about two months ago.
Friday, September 10, 2010
V: The Original Miniseries/Final Battle
I think the authors/writers of V were just as disappointed in Childhood's End that they had to rewrite it. The premise is very similar: 50 alien ships randomly show up and hover over 50 of the biggest cities on Earth. The difference between V and Childhood's End is that humanity bends over and does everything the Overlords tell them to do, whereas V is an allegory for the Holocaust. Now, if it were up to me to rewrite Childhood's End, I would keep it the same up to the point where Karellan finally shows himself to humanity. As he walks down the ramp with a child on each shoulder, he looks to his right, his jaw unhinges and he bites the child's head off! How horrifying! The rest of the book would naturally write itself.
Anyway, V is really good. There are a ton of characters, but it is really easy to like the good guys, and exceptionally easy to loathe the bad guys. Donovan reminds me so much of Han Solo, except that he is a camera man for the news. Elias is the gangster that joins the cause when his brother is killed by the V's.
What exactly is the cause? Early on, the V's frame many of Earth's scientists for forming a secret resistance movement against them. Donovan finds out they have some kind of "conversion" process that makes them able to control people. They convert some scientists to help them build up evidence against other scientists. The end result of all this is that the non-converted scientists actually do form a resistance. The original V is told in five parts: The original miniseries (two one hour, 40 minute episodes or one 300 page book), and the Final Battle (three one hour episodes). Each part is action packed and thrilling. Like Star Wars, it doesn't show every single battle of the war, it just shows the main battles,the turning points, and plenty of lizardmen.
I found this series much easier to watch after reading the book. I picked up the book because I couldn't tell if it was a novelization of the show or if the show was based on the book, since the back cover uses words like "the original novel is finally back in print!" There are only two parts in the book that are not included in the show, one is a cool scene at the end where their cry for help is heard by a third set of aliens, and the second would spoil the show for you so I won't go into details. Suffice to say that Robin is a stupid name for a person and she's a whiny teenager.
I also might have enjoyed this a lot more because of what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a really corny 80's sci fi show with silly rubber suits. Well, it delivered on the corny special effects and rubber suits, but the story is so compelling, the acting is so good that you barely even notice. I also expected the plot to be very similar to the New V show that is on ABC (which is fantastic), but each version of the show is really it's own story. All they have in common is spaceships hovering over cities, lizardmen and the Fifth Column (the name for the resistance group).
The main theme of the show is that it is an allegory for the Holocaust, and the angle it goes to is the way the media portrays the group committing the holocaust. The V's always maintain a positive image in the media, and many people buy it. When scientists apparently have a resistance group against the V's, the general public assumes that what is on TV is true and that the V's are the victims of the scientists. It's a good message to tell, since I often find myself arguing with the news on TV when I think they are sensationalizing something. I like to think critically about what TV or the newspaper are saying, because if nobody does, then the society the V's put together is too easy to create.
Obviously, a society like Nazi Germany or the one the V's put together is an extreme example of how the media can be misused, but science fiction often uses the most extreme cases to prove its points. I think Stanley summarized the purpose of the story very well at the end of the novel (which is at the end of the original miniseries): "We have to help [fight the Visitors], or we haven't learned a thing."
Anyway, V is really good. There are a ton of characters, but it is really easy to like the good guys, and exceptionally easy to loathe the bad guys. Donovan reminds me so much of Han Solo, except that he is a camera man for the news. Elias is the gangster that joins the cause when his brother is killed by the V's.
What exactly is the cause? Early on, the V's frame many of Earth's scientists for forming a secret resistance movement against them. Donovan finds out they have some kind of "conversion" process that makes them able to control people. They convert some scientists to help them build up evidence against other scientists. The end result of all this is that the non-converted scientists actually do form a resistance. The original V is told in five parts: The original miniseries (two one hour, 40 minute episodes or one 300 page book), and the Final Battle (three one hour episodes). Each part is action packed and thrilling. Like Star Wars, it doesn't show every single battle of the war, it just shows the main battles,the turning points, and plenty of lizardmen.
I found this series much easier to watch after reading the book. I picked up the book because I couldn't tell if it was a novelization of the show or if the show was based on the book, since the back cover uses words like "the original novel is finally back in print!" There are only two parts in the book that are not included in the show, one is a cool scene at the end where their cry for help is heard by a third set of aliens, and the second would spoil the show for you so I won't go into details. Suffice to say that Robin is a stupid name for a person and she's a whiny teenager.
I also might have enjoyed this a lot more because of what I expected it to be. I expected it to be a really corny 80's sci fi show with silly rubber suits. Well, it delivered on the corny special effects and rubber suits, but the story is so compelling, the acting is so good that you barely even notice. I also expected the plot to be very similar to the New V show that is on ABC (which is fantastic), but each version of the show is really it's own story. All they have in common is spaceships hovering over cities, lizardmen and the Fifth Column (the name for the resistance group).
The main theme of the show is that it is an allegory for the Holocaust, and the angle it goes to is the way the media portrays the group committing the holocaust. The V's always maintain a positive image in the media, and many people buy it. When scientists apparently have a resistance group against the V's, the general public assumes that what is on TV is true and that the V's are the victims of the scientists. It's a good message to tell, since I often find myself arguing with the news on TV when I think they are sensationalizing something. I like to think critically about what TV or the newspaper are saying, because if nobody does, then the society the V's put together is too easy to create.
Obviously, a society like Nazi Germany or the one the V's put together is an extreme example of how the media can be misused, but science fiction often uses the most extreme cases to prove its points. I think Stanley summarized the purpose of the story very well at the end of the novel (which is at the end of the original miniseries): "We have to help [fight the Visitors], or we haven't learned a thing."
Friday, September 3, 2010
Psychohistory
I really like that word. It's also a travesty that this blog has been posting so long with nothing about Isaac Asimov, the Grandmaster of Science Fiction.
There are two criteria for a work to be science fiction: one is that it has to have some science fact to it, that it uses or changes somehow to make the story, and it also should have some kind of social commentary. Why do I bring this up? Because the science fact in the Foundation is Math. Yes, you read that right, Math.
To be more precise, it's actually statistics, (which is a subset of math anyway). The main character, Dr. Hari Seldon has discovered a way to use probability to guess the most likely future for the galactic empire. What he found is that the galaxy will most likely have a 20,000 year dark age between the collapse of the first empire and the beginning of the second empire. To ensure the Dark Age only lasts 1000 years, he creates what is called the "Seldon Plan" for the galaxy. Nobody knows what it is, except for the people of the Second Foundation.
The First Foundation (or just the Foundation) is a group of scientists charged by Hari Seldon to write an encyclopedia galactica, or a book of all the knowledge in the galaxy.
I know this series sounds really boring, but I promise that it is not. The Galactic Empire in the Foundation novels has often been cited as the inspiration for the Galactic Empire in Star Wars. They are very similar: Trantor is the capital planet of the Foundation empire, it is a world covered in one big city, and it is as close to the center of the galaxy as an inhabitable planet can be. Coruscant, the capital planet of the Star Wars galaxy, shares all of those characteristics.
The first book, Foundation is actually four short stories that Asimov wrote in college. They describe the origins of the Foundation, and its rise to power in its corner of the galaxy.
The second book, Foundation and Empire, is a story about a man named simply “The Mule” who has the power to alter people’s emotions. Seldon’s plan could not randomly predict someone with that power. Even though the Foundation doesn’t know Seldon’s plan, they know that they must remain control what they already had (they cannot cede any territory, lest the whole plan possibly being thrown off).
The third book, Second Foundation, is two stories: the first is the Mule’s search for the Second Foundation, and the second story is Arkady’s search for the Second Foundation. Arkady is the daughter of a prominent First Foundationer.
All three books have plenty of action, and have interesting conclusions full of neat twists. They are less thought provoking than a Kurt Vonnegut or Philip K. Dick book, but that’s fine because sometimes, we just need a fun adventure to be immersed in (Asimov probably needed an escape from all the studying he did while majoring in biochemistry).
What I like about Asimov’s stories is that he comes up with some kind of concept, like Psychohistory or the three laws of robotics, and then tries to find exceptions or flaws in them. This is especially prevalent in Foundation and Empire when the Mule is taking over the galaxy. Seldon could not have predicted that, so now the whole plan is skewed. It’s an interesting conflict: you have a madman trying to conquer the galaxy, but the deeper implication is that the Dark Age may last longer, or the future may not be as predictable as we hope it is.
This trilogy is a subset of Asimov’s much larger “future history of the Milky Way galaxy series,” which spans seventeen (yes, seventeen) books, starting with I, Robot. I have read nine of the books, in no particular order, and they are all enjoyable on their own. If you know the premise behind psychohistory, then it doesn’t matter if you read book one, then two, then negative 2 (being the first prequel book), then four (being the first sequel book) etc.
I’ll write more about the sequel and prequel books later, because the original Foundation book is really the best place to start. Prelude to Foundation is a good book for fans of the series, but it would not really be a good place to start it. Overall, I highly recommend this series to anyone who even remotely enjoys science fiction, since the story is really good, and they are pretty easy to read, too.
Foundation
ISBN# 0553382578
Foundation on Amazon.com
Foundation and Empire
ISBN# 0553293370
Foundation and Empire on amazon.com
Second Foundation
ISBN# 0553293362
Second Foundation on amazon.com
There are two criteria for a work to be science fiction: one is that it has to have some science fact to it, that it uses or changes somehow to make the story, and it also should have some kind of social commentary. Why do I bring this up? Because the science fact in the Foundation is Math. Yes, you read that right, Math.
To be more precise, it's actually statistics, (which is a subset of math anyway). The main character, Dr. Hari Seldon has discovered a way to use probability to guess the most likely future for the galactic empire. What he found is that the galaxy will most likely have a 20,000 year dark age between the collapse of the first empire and the beginning of the second empire. To ensure the Dark Age only lasts 1000 years, he creates what is called the "Seldon Plan" for the galaxy. Nobody knows what it is, except for the people of the Second Foundation.
The First Foundation (or just the Foundation) is a group of scientists charged by Hari Seldon to write an encyclopedia galactica, or a book of all the knowledge in the galaxy.
I know this series sounds really boring, but I promise that it is not. The Galactic Empire in the Foundation novels has often been cited as the inspiration for the Galactic Empire in Star Wars. They are very similar: Trantor is the capital planet of the Foundation empire, it is a world covered in one big city, and it is as close to the center of the galaxy as an inhabitable planet can be. Coruscant, the capital planet of the Star Wars galaxy, shares all of those characteristics.
The first book, Foundation is actually four short stories that Asimov wrote in college. They describe the origins of the Foundation, and its rise to power in its corner of the galaxy.
The second book, Foundation and Empire, is a story about a man named simply “The Mule” who has the power to alter people’s emotions. Seldon’s plan could not randomly predict someone with that power. Even though the Foundation doesn’t know Seldon’s plan, they know that they must remain control what they already had (they cannot cede any territory, lest the whole plan possibly being thrown off).
The third book, Second Foundation, is two stories: the first is the Mule’s search for the Second Foundation, and the second story is Arkady’s search for the Second Foundation. Arkady is the daughter of a prominent First Foundationer.
All three books have plenty of action, and have interesting conclusions full of neat twists. They are less thought provoking than a Kurt Vonnegut or Philip K. Dick book, but that’s fine because sometimes, we just need a fun adventure to be immersed in (Asimov probably needed an escape from all the studying he did while majoring in biochemistry).
What I like about Asimov’s stories is that he comes up with some kind of concept, like Psychohistory or the three laws of robotics, and then tries to find exceptions or flaws in them. This is especially prevalent in Foundation and Empire when the Mule is taking over the galaxy. Seldon could not have predicted that, so now the whole plan is skewed. It’s an interesting conflict: you have a madman trying to conquer the galaxy, but the deeper implication is that the Dark Age may last longer, or the future may not be as predictable as we hope it is.
This trilogy is a subset of Asimov’s much larger “future history of the Milky Way galaxy series,” which spans seventeen (yes, seventeen) books, starting with I, Robot. I have read nine of the books, in no particular order, and they are all enjoyable on their own. If you know the premise behind psychohistory, then it doesn’t matter if you read book one, then two, then negative 2 (being the first prequel book), then four (being the first sequel book) etc.
I’ll write more about the sequel and prequel books later, because the original Foundation book is really the best place to start. Prelude to Foundation is a good book for fans of the series, but it would not really be a good place to start it. Overall, I highly recommend this series to anyone who even remotely enjoys science fiction, since the story is really good, and they are pretty easy to read, too.
Foundation
ISBN# 0553382578
Foundation on Amazon.com
Foundation and Empire
ISBN# 0553293370
Foundation and Empire on amazon.com
Second Foundation
ISBN# 0553293362
Second Foundation on amazon.com
Friday, August 27, 2010
Star Wars: What happens after Return of the Jedi?
That was probably the biggest question at the end of Return of the Jedi: What happens next? The Rebel Alliance just killed the Emperor, and the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Navy, now what? It's a question that went unanswered until the early 1990's when Timothy Zahn answered it in the Thrawn Trilogy.
Like all good Star Wars stories, this one is told in three parts: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. The story pick up five years after the Battle of Endor (the battle at the end of the Return of the Jedi). We find Leia and Han are married, and expecting twins (to be named Justin and Joe), Luke is a powerful Jedi now, and he is training Leia. Chewbacca still hangs out with Han, and R2 and 3PO are there too. The Rebel Alliance has now become the New Republic, which is modeled closely after the Old Republic (that fell so easily to the Sith in the prequel trilogy). The problem they run into is that the Empire may be impossible to defeat completely. An obscure Grand Admiral named Thrawn has taken command of what is left of the Empire, and is a tactical genius. His plan is to reconquer the Galaxy, a little at a time. The first problem the Empire runs into is not a lack of loyalty, but a lack of supplies, so Thrawn plans to attack the Sluis Van shipyards in order to get ships for his fight (and it sets up a cool space battle at the end).
The second book, Dark Force Rising is my favorite of the three, just like Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Original Trilogy and Attack of the Clones is the best of the prequel trilogy (if you know how to watch it). This time, Thrawn's scheme is to find the lost Katana fleet. The Katana fleet is a huge fleet of early star destroyers from the Clone Wars that disappeared. It is an interesting mystery story that also results in an awesome space battle.
Book three is also very good, it is about Thrawns desperate attempt to build a clone army at the Emperor's old cloning facility, Mount Tantiss. C'Boath also escalates his search for the Jedi twins, and it results in the only lightsaber duel of the series.
What makes these books so interesting for a hard-core Star Wars fan is the depth they add to the mythology. Take this for example: Thrawn knows that the Emperor used the Force to "motivate" the troops in the Empire, and when he died during the Battle of Endor, they lost the will to win and were beaten more easily. That is why Thrawn enlists the crazed Jedi Master Joruus C'Boath to help him. C'Boath just asks for two things in return: Leia and Hans children, so he can train them and mold them into the more Dark Jedi like him. To protect himself from C'Boath's power, Thrawn gathers many Ysalimiri, a lizard-like creature that actually blocks the Force out of its area. A Jedi is powerless when they are about three feet away from an Ysalimiri, and C'Boath's Force lightning cannot enter the Force-free area around them.
This creature also proves useful in the Last Command when Thrawn is trying to make a new clone army. He found the Emperor's cloning facility at Mount Tantiss, and tried making new clones and growing them up really fast (infant to adult in five years), however that didn't work, since they broke down and went crazy from growing too fast. Thrawn's solution was to block out the Force during their development, and they wouldn't have the problems the first batch of clones had.
I liked how well Zahn seamlessly adds new characters and aliens to the existing Star Wars universe rather than recycling people and creatures we already know. He delves into the disorder in the smuggling world caused by Jabba the Hutt's death, and he adds the Noghri race. The Noghri are used by the Empire as assassins, and they have a really interesting backstory. I won't go into details here, you'll just have to read the books.
The series also gives some depth to the characters. We see (well, I see, because whenever I read a good book it's like I'm watching a movie of it in my head) Chewbacca's homeworld of Kashyyyk, Thrawn isn't just "generic Imperial Grand Admiral number 7." What is most interesting though is that Zahn spends a few pages on race within the Empire, noting that all the Grand Admirals were humans, yet Thrawn is not (he's a blue guy!).
Overall, this is a worthy successor to the Star Wars Original Trilogy. It offers all the thrills, action, bad guys turning into good guys and plenty of Lando Calrissian to boot. I really wish they would make these into a movie already.
Heir to the Empire
ISBN# 0-553-29612-4
Heir to the Empire on Amazon.com
Dark Force Rising
ISBN# 0-553-56071-9
Dark Force Rising on Amazon.com
The Last Command
ISBN# 0-553-56492-7
The Last Command on Amazon.com
Like all good Star Wars stories, this one is told in three parts: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. The story pick up five years after the Battle of Endor (the battle at the end of the Return of the Jedi). We find Leia and Han are married, and expecting twins (to be named Justin and Joe), Luke is a powerful Jedi now, and he is training Leia. Chewbacca still hangs out with Han, and R2 and 3PO are there too. The Rebel Alliance has now become the New Republic, which is modeled closely after the Old Republic (that fell so easily to the Sith in the prequel trilogy). The problem they run into is that the Empire may be impossible to defeat completely. An obscure Grand Admiral named Thrawn has taken command of what is left of the Empire, and is a tactical genius. His plan is to reconquer the Galaxy, a little at a time. The first problem the Empire runs into is not a lack of loyalty, but a lack of supplies, so Thrawn plans to attack the Sluis Van shipyards in order to get ships for his fight (and it sets up a cool space battle at the end).
The second book, Dark Force Rising is my favorite of the three, just like Empire Strikes Back is the best of the Original Trilogy and Attack of the Clones is the best of the prequel trilogy (if you know how to watch it). This time, Thrawn's scheme is to find the lost Katana fleet. The Katana fleet is a huge fleet of early star destroyers from the Clone Wars that disappeared. It is an interesting mystery story that also results in an awesome space battle.
Book three is also very good, it is about Thrawns desperate attempt to build a clone army at the Emperor's old cloning facility, Mount Tantiss. C'Boath also escalates his search for the Jedi twins, and it results in the only lightsaber duel of the series.
What makes these books so interesting for a hard-core Star Wars fan is the depth they add to the mythology. Take this for example: Thrawn knows that the Emperor used the Force to "motivate" the troops in the Empire, and when he died during the Battle of Endor, they lost the will to win and were beaten more easily. That is why Thrawn enlists the crazed Jedi Master Joruus C'Boath to help him. C'Boath just asks for two things in return: Leia and Hans children, so he can train them and mold them into the more Dark Jedi like him. To protect himself from C'Boath's power, Thrawn gathers many Ysalimiri, a lizard-like creature that actually blocks the Force out of its area. A Jedi is powerless when they are about three feet away from an Ysalimiri, and C'Boath's Force lightning cannot enter the Force-free area around them.
This creature also proves useful in the Last Command when Thrawn is trying to make a new clone army. He found the Emperor's cloning facility at Mount Tantiss, and tried making new clones and growing them up really fast (infant to adult in five years), however that didn't work, since they broke down and went crazy from growing too fast. Thrawn's solution was to block out the Force during their development, and they wouldn't have the problems the first batch of clones had.
I liked how well Zahn seamlessly adds new characters and aliens to the existing Star Wars universe rather than recycling people and creatures we already know. He delves into the disorder in the smuggling world caused by Jabba the Hutt's death, and he adds the Noghri race. The Noghri are used by the Empire as assassins, and they have a really interesting backstory. I won't go into details here, you'll just have to read the books.
The series also gives some depth to the characters. We see (well, I see, because whenever I read a good book it's like I'm watching a movie of it in my head) Chewbacca's homeworld of Kashyyyk, Thrawn isn't just "generic Imperial Grand Admiral number 7." What is most interesting though is that Zahn spends a few pages on race within the Empire, noting that all the Grand Admirals were humans, yet Thrawn is not (he's a blue guy!).
Overall, this is a worthy successor to the Star Wars Original Trilogy. It offers all the thrills, action, bad guys turning into good guys and plenty of Lando Calrissian to boot. I really wish they would make these into a movie already.
Heir to the Empire
ISBN# 0-553-29612-4
Heir to the Empire on Amazon.com
Dark Force Rising
ISBN# 0-553-56071-9
Dark Force Rising on Amazon.com
The Last Command
ISBN# 0-553-56492-7
The Last Command on Amazon.com
Friday, August 20, 2010
2001: A Space Odyssey: What did I just watch?
2001: A Space Odyssey (Henceforth 2001) is probably the most famous of all the science fiction films. Notice I use the word “famous” and not “most popular.” It is nowhere near the most popular movie because it leaves everyone who watches it wondering: “what the hell did I just watch?!” I first saw it when my fiancé took a class on Stanley Kubrick (who directed the film). Before he started the movie, the instructor warned us that there is no plot: this is a concept film about human evolution (reminds me of Childhood’s End , another Arthur C. Clarke book).
Knowing that, I braced myself for a long, boring, pointless movie that would last about four hours. I was disappointed on all counts, because I found the movie to just be long (and at times boring, but it is so interesting). The movie is separated into five parts: precreation, the Dawn of Man, the trip to the moon, Jupiter Mission, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. The Dawn of Man is the famous 25-minute sequence with the ape-men (the book calls them ape-men), where they discover a giant black monolith that imparts the knowledge of tools upon them. The movie does an excellent job establishing how harsh life is for the ape-men, it shows them unable to sleep at night because they are afraid of jaguars, and they have to fight off other tribes of ape-men for water. Then they discover the big black monolith. In the book, it is a big crystalline monolith that actually takes control of them and makes them do some rudimentary tasks (like tying a knot) to see if they can do it. Then the crystalline monolith turns into a sort of video screen that shows fat ape-men, to taunt them. Once they figure out how to use tools, the ape-men are able to kill the jaguar that is scaring them (at least in the book they do), and they fight off another tribe of ape-men. After the battle, one ape-man triumphantly throws his tool into the sky, and it transitions to the moon sequence.
It’s at the moon that the movie actually loses a lot of its momentum. I really enjoyed watching the ape-men, and now we have all these scientists and some kind of epidemic on the moon. They eventually find a moon monolith, and it redirects them to Jupiter (Saturn in the book). I think this part is so long so as to emphasize how people will lose control of their environments in space: it shows a woman who just relearned how to walk, it has a long list of instructions for the bathroom, and there is a pen floating around. We have left our cradle and are learning to walk again.
The Jupiter mission is the famous part where the computer (HAL 9000) goes crazy and kills everybody except for Bowman. The book goes into a lot of detail, but what I like about the movie is it leaves HAL’s motives open to debate, and you can come up with your own reason for HAL to kill everyone. The same goes for the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite sequence: you can decide for yourself what you just saw. Objectively, what you’ll see near the end is a twelve minute sequence of trippy light tunnels and strange noises, and then a bizarre ending that seems to make no sense at all. It’s really whatever you want it to be, unless you read the book.
If you read the book, Clarke spells everything out for you in very clear terms, and I think that takes a lot of the fun out of it. He also goes into meticulous detail about the mission and the astronauts daily routine, which gets kind of boring after a while since I don’t really care. The biggest problem with Arthur C. Clarke’s works is that he goes into too much technical scientific detail, and it becomes much less accessible non-science people. That’s what makes the movie 2001 so much better than the book: Kubrick had all the scientific details too, but it just makes the movie seem realistic, whereas in the book it just makes it hard to read. Overall, I think this story works better as a visual experience rather than a written experience, which is good because it will only take you just over two and a half hours to experience it rather than 236 pages.
The Book:
ISBN# 0-451-45273-9
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Film:
ISBN# 1-4198-5308-2
2001: A Space Odyssey
Knowing that, I braced myself for a long, boring, pointless movie that would last about four hours. I was disappointed on all counts, because I found the movie to just be long (and at times boring, but it is so interesting). The movie is separated into five parts: precreation, the Dawn of Man, the trip to the moon, Jupiter Mission, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. The Dawn of Man is the famous 25-minute sequence with the ape-men (the book calls them ape-men), where they discover a giant black monolith that imparts the knowledge of tools upon them. The movie does an excellent job establishing how harsh life is for the ape-men, it shows them unable to sleep at night because they are afraid of jaguars, and they have to fight off other tribes of ape-men for water. Then they discover the big black monolith. In the book, it is a big crystalline monolith that actually takes control of them and makes them do some rudimentary tasks (like tying a knot) to see if they can do it. Then the crystalline monolith turns into a sort of video screen that shows fat ape-men, to taunt them. Once they figure out how to use tools, the ape-men are able to kill the jaguar that is scaring them (at least in the book they do), and they fight off another tribe of ape-men. After the battle, one ape-man triumphantly throws his tool into the sky, and it transitions to the moon sequence.
It’s at the moon that the movie actually loses a lot of its momentum. I really enjoyed watching the ape-men, and now we have all these scientists and some kind of epidemic on the moon. They eventually find a moon monolith, and it redirects them to Jupiter (Saturn in the book). I think this part is so long so as to emphasize how people will lose control of their environments in space: it shows a woman who just relearned how to walk, it has a long list of instructions for the bathroom, and there is a pen floating around. We have left our cradle and are learning to walk again.
The Jupiter mission is the famous part where the computer (HAL 9000) goes crazy and kills everybody except for Bowman. The book goes into a lot of detail, but what I like about the movie is it leaves HAL’s motives open to debate, and you can come up with your own reason for HAL to kill everyone. The same goes for the Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite sequence: you can decide for yourself what you just saw. Objectively, what you’ll see near the end is a twelve minute sequence of trippy light tunnels and strange noises, and then a bizarre ending that seems to make no sense at all. It’s really whatever you want it to be, unless you read the book.
If you read the book, Clarke spells everything out for you in very clear terms, and I think that takes a lot of the fun out of it. He also goes into meticulous detail about the mission and the astronauts daily routine, which gets kind of boring after a while since I don’t really care. The biggest problem with Arthur C. Clarke’s works is that he goes into too much technical scientific detail, and it becomes much less accessible non-science people. That’s what makes the movie 2001 so much better than the book: Kubrick had all the scientific details too, but it just makes the movie seem realistic, whereas in the book it just makes it hard to read. Overall, I think this story works better as a visual experience rather than a written experience, which is good because it will only take you just over two and a half hours to experience it rather than 236 pages.
The Book:
ISBN# 0-451-45273-9
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Film:
ISBN# 1-4198-5308-2
2001: A Space Odyssey
Friday, August 13, 2010
On Brand Loyalty
One of the topics for the new Futurama episodes was the "eye-phone," a phone that everyone in New New York had to have. This is an obvious spoof on Apple products and the insane loyalty some people have for them. Personally, I dislike Apple, and loved the episode. I'm a Science Fiction Nerd, and I'm a PC.
But why? Why do I like PC's so much?
The answer is that they have earned my loyalty one way or another. I like the layout of PC's and they are cheap compared to Macs. I like Target because it seems organized and clean. Other than that, most businesses seem pretty much the same. Every bank offers checking accounts, savings accounts, and will sell you a loan. Every sit-down restaurant has roughly the same menu and atmosphere. Every candidate running for governor has roughly the same platform.
Begin tangeant from my what I'm writing about:
If you read the "issues" page on any given candidate's website, they all sound the same. Take this example:
Now read this one:
Now which one is Tom Emmer and which one is Mark Dayton? They are both pro-education, they both acknowledge that our schools aren't good enough, but they are otherwise on opposite ends of the political spectrum. (The answer, if you are curious, is that it doesn't matter because neither one of them would be a good governor anyway).
/tangeant
I guess what I'm getting at is that your loyalty should be very expensive. If you get bad service somewhere, don't go there again. That's what makes capitalism the most democratic system on Earth: you vote with your money. If you keep going back to the same place over and over, bad companies will not be slapped by the Invisible Hand. My favorite quote from the Futurama episode was this exchange between the eye-phone salesman and Fry: "it's $500, you have no choice of carrier, the battery can't hold a charge, and the reception isn't very-" It's at that point that Fry interrupted the Eye-phone salesman and told him to "Shut up and take my money!" I think that's an accurate representation of the idiotic loyalty Mac fans have to their computers. "It costs twice as much as a comparable PC, and it doesn't work as well," "Shut up and take my money!" Mom put it best at the end of the episode: "Idiots!"
But why? Why do I like PC's so much?
The answer is that they have earned my loyalty one way or another. I like the layout of PC's and they are cheap compared to Macs. I like Target because it seems organized and clean. Other than that, most businesses seem pretty much the same. Every bank offers checking accounts, savings accounts, and will sell you a loan. Every sit-down restaurant has roughly the same menu and atmosphere. Every candidate running for governor has roughly the same platform.
Begin tangeant from my what I'm writing about:
If you read the "issues" page on any given candidate's website, they all sound the same. Take this example:
Since the pivotal 1983 release of A Nation at Risk, we have known that America’s schools are falling behind those of other industrialized countries. Now, more than ever, we find ourselves part of a truly global economy with workforce needs changing and businesses facing employee shortages in critical areas such as engineering, science, and health care.
Now read this one:
I will insist that some of my additional state funding be used to increase public school teachers’ salaries. The average Minnesota teacher’s salary is 3.3% below the national average. Good salaries are essential to attracting and retaining the best teachers possible, who are essential to the best public schools possible.
Now which one is Tom Emmer and which one is Mark Dayton? They are both pro-education, they both acknowledge that our schools aren't good enough, but they are otherwise on opposite ends of the political spectrum. (The answer, if you are curious, is that it doesn't matter because neither one of them would be a good governor anyway).
/tangeant
I guess what I'm getting at is that your loyalty should be very expensive. If you get bad service somewhere, don't go there again. That's what makes capitalism the most democratic system on Earth: you vote with your money. If you keep going back to the same place over and over, bad companies will not be slapped by the Invisible Hand. My favorite quote from the Futurama episode was this exchange between the eye-phone salesman and Fry: "it's $500, you have no choice of carrier, the battery can't hold a charge, and the reception isn't very-" It's at that point that Fry interrupted the Eye-phone salesman and told him to "Shut up and take my money!" I think that's an accurate representation of the idiotic loyalty Mac fans have to their computers. "It costs twice as much as a comparable PC, and it doesn't work as well," "Shut up and take my money!" Mom put it best at the end of the episode: "Idiots!"
Friday, August 6, 2010
The Sirens of Titan: An elaborate plan to make everyone just be nice to each other
The Sirens of Titan is Kurt Vonnegut’s second novel, and it is very obvious from the start (at least to me) how much his writing style changed throughout his career. I’ve read Timequake and Breakfast of Champions though, so I know what ends up happening to his writing style. The Vonnegut style that I’m used to is short paragraphs that all seem to be about nothing, but tell a complete story over two to three hundred pages. They are full of random thoughts (especially in Breakfast of Champions) that are funny because they are usually not something you think about. Sirens is different in that Vonnegut was still a young author who probably felt he had to write like all the other authors. I had a hard time believing this actually was a Kurt Vonnegut book, but there were a few elements that convinced me it was. One of those elements was the character Winston Niles Rumfoord, who is a character I’m sure I’ve read about in another Vonnegut book (I don’t recall exactly where now, it just sounds really familiar), and the presence of the Tralfamadorians, our favorite aliens that were also featured in Slaughterhouse-Five.
Now that we know it’s an actual Vonnegut book, we can start looking beyond the story to see what it is all about. Rumfoord is one of the main characters, and he doesn’t seem like a protagonist or an antagonist in the book. He’s just the guy that makes everything happen. He travels around the solar system by materializing in regular intervals on different planets. He does this because he (and his dog Kazak) flew into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, and it turned them into some kind of wave. Whenever the Rumfood/Kazak wave intersects a planet, they materialize there. Somehow Rumfoord also gains the ability to see the future. So what does Rumfoord do with these cool powers? He stages an elaborate attack on Earth by Mars. There were no aliens on Mars, instead he has people kidnapped and taken to Mars to form an army to attack Earth later. The purpose of the attack is to unite everyone on Earth in a new religion called “The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent.” The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent teaches that God created everything, and then stopped interfering altogether. Everyone is a victim of a series of accidents, and there isn’t much they can do about it.
The purpose Rumfoord has in creating this new religion is to take away any claims that God wants this or that. It asks the questions “Why would God single you out? Why does God like you more?” Obviously then this takes away all claims to leadership by divine right. Another implication of having a totally indifferent God is that there would never be any reason to pray. If God doesn’t care anyway, why bother asking him for things, or thanking him? He didn’t do anything for you besides creating you, so your thanks is wasted on him. The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent goes another step further in trying to eliminate random good luck by making people compensate for their strengths in negative ways: an attractive woman wears frumpy clothes, the local priest carries around 48-pound weights, the most attractive man marries a woman who is nauseated by sex. The purpose of that is to try and bring everyone to the same level and eliminate jealousy. It makes everyone easier to love I guess, which is the central point of the religion: just love each other, even though no one Up There really cares.
The book is very well written. Unlike Arthur C. Clarke, Vonnegut wastes no space on pointless exposition. The other two main characters life stories are very important to the conclusion of the book, Mars’ attack on Earth is the turning point of the book, and Unk’s time on Mercury is also important. At one point, it seems that the two main characters are forgotten, but they are not. I promise. This is a very linear story with a pretty important message, and even though it wasn’t as easy to read as other Kurt Vonnegut books, I still enjoyed it. I also have a new favorite quote from it:
The Sirens of Titan on Amazon.com
ISBN#: 0-440-17948-3
Now that we know it’s an actual Vonnegut book, we can start looking beyond the story to see what it is all about. Rumfoord is one of the main characters, and he doesn’t seem like a protagonist or an antagonist in the book. He’s just the guy that makes everything happen. He travels around the solar system by materializing in regular intervals on different planets. He does this because he (and his dog Kazak) flew into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, and it turned them into some kind of wave. Whenever the Rumfood/Kazak wave intersects a planet, they materialize there. Somehow Rumfoord also gains the ability to see the future. So what does Rumfoord do with these cool powers? He stages an elaborate attack on Earth by Mars. There were no aliens on Mars, instead he has people kidnapped and taken to Mars to form an army to attack Earth later. The purpose of the attack is to unite everyone on Earth in a new religion called “The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent.” The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent teaches that God created everything, and then stopped interfering altogether. Everyone is a victim of a series of accidents, and there isn’t much they can do about it.
The purpose Rumfoord has in creating this new religion is to take away any claims that God wants this or that. It asks the questions “Why would God single you out? Why does God like you more?” Obviously then this takes away all claims to leadership by divine right. Another implication of having a totally indifferent God is that there would never be any reason to pray. If God doesn’t care anyway, why bother asking him for things, or thanking him? He didn’t do anything for you besides creating you, so your thanks is wasted on him. The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent goes another step further in trying to eliminate random good luck by making people compensate for their strengths in negative ways: an attractive woman wears frumpy clothes, the local priest carries around 48-pound weights, the most attractive man marries a woman who is nauseated by sex. The purpose of that is to try and bring everyone to the same level and eliminate jealousy. It makes everyone easier to love I guess, which is the central point of the religion: just love each other, even though no one Up There really cares.
The book is very well written. Unlike Arthur C. Clarke, Vonnegut wastes no space on pointless exposition. The other two main characters life stories are very important to the conclusion of the book, Mars’ attack on Earth is the turning point of the book, and Unk’s time on Mercury is also important. At one point, it seems that the two main characters are forgotten, but they are not. I promise. This is a very linear story with a pretty important message, and even though it wasn’t as easy to read as other Kurt Vonnegut books, I still enjoyed it. I also have a new favorite quote from it:
“it took us that long to realize that a purpose of a human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
The Sirens of Titan on Amazon.com
ISBN#: 0-440-17948-3
Thursday, August 5, 2010
The Dresden Files . . . meh.
For a series that boast of badass-ery all over its cover (and indeed, the cover art is really really sweet) the Dresden Files just doesn't live up to the standards of a good fantasy. It is a unique concept for a book, and the mysteries are interesting and not your run of the mill variety. However, the book is bogged down by poor writing and a self-involved main character who can't get past his own image.
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard for hire in downtown Chicago. You'd think being the only publicly practicing wizard would pay more, but Harry can barely make ends meet. He sometimes works for the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago Police Department, investigating crimes which involve magic. Karrin Murphey, head of this unit, is the one who hires him and the only one who takes him seriously.
I've read the first two books it this series: Storm Front and Fool Moon. I enjoyed both books, but overall, was not that impressed. After the first book, I was not particularly compelled to read the next one, which should have been a clear sign for me not to bother with the rest of the series. However, I found the plot of the first book enjoyable enough, and decided to try the next one. After reading Fool Moon I realized I really don't need to read anymore of this. The mysteries Harry works on are interesting, but the character pushes the limits of what I can bear to read, the dialogue is contrived, and as I get further into the books, the author begins to hint as deeper undertones for the series which are so cliche they leave a chalky taste in my mouth.
The first complaint I have is the main character, Harry Dresden. The books are written in the first person, so it is possible that his enormous ego is an intrinsic character flaw, but based on the level of competence I see in Butcher's writing, I'm fairly sure that it's not. My suspicions rise as I look at his author picture. Seriously, look at the guy. He's the steriotypical D&D nerd. Character Harry Dresden seems to have no major flaws, aside from a vaguely hinted at darkness that lies dormant in his soul, and even that sounds a little bit cool. Sure, he has some flaws, probably added at the editors requests. They seem out of place with such an otherwise perfect character. He is tall, dark, mysterious, stylish, and, as we are repeatedly reminded, an unusually powerful wizard. If there's ever a bad guy he can't face, it's due to him overexerting himself earlier in the story. As for his image, he makes numerous references to his black duster, guns, and powerful magical weapons, as though trying to remind his readers of how cool he is. The movements the author describes seem unrealistic, as though they're simply for dramatic flare. At times reading this book was like watching a movie with all the dramatic swooshing of his black trenchcoat.
Another thing I disliked about the story was the writing, which, as I've mentioned, is not the highest calibre. For one thing, it is first person, which can be done well, but this is one of the instances where it's not. A good first person narrative offers a certain insight into the character and the way they view the world. In this, it was like playing an RPG. Butcher plows through the story with little attention to narrative devices. His direct method makes for a fast read, with lots of action, but little art. This may appeal to some readers, but not me. After two books I still feel no connection with any of the characters, and that's quite a feat for an author.
The third problem with these books was the dialogue. What passed as witty banter was mostly just a series of awful puns and smart-alec taunts between good guys and bad guys. Most of the time it's horribly out of place, such as when Harry is talking to the head of the police force or mob boss Johnny Marcone. Oftentimes, even the narration would contain such things, followed by the words "(no pun intended)," which, as we all know, is basically the person saying "SEE WHAT I DID THERE??"
It's a shame that such a unique idea was handled so poorly. I enjoyed following the clues and twists along with Harry as he tried to discover the truth behind the murders he was investigating. However, it was not enough to redeem the otherwise empty story. I understand this author has received a good deal of success, and it's no surprise to me. People like a story with a first person narrator who really has no character. It makes it easy for them to slip into that persona and imagine they are the hero. It's the same reason Twilight is famous. Many readers love that sort of thing, and if you are one I don't mean to dissuade you or make you feel wrong about liking it. Reading, and particularly the fantasy genre, is a beautiful escape from everyday life, and everyone should feel free to experience that in whatever way makes them happy. However, if you value the art of a well crafted story, you'd best skip The Dresden Files.
ISBN# 0451457811
The Dresden Files on amazon.com
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard for hire in downtown Chicago. You'd think being the only publicly practicing wizard would pay more, but Harry can barely make ends meet. He sometimes works for the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago Police Department, investigating crimes which involve magic. Karrin Murphey, head of this unit, is the one who hires him and the only one who takes him seriously.
I've read the first two books it this series: Storm Front and Fool Moon. I enjoyed both books, but overall, was not that impressed. After the first book, I was not particularly compelled to read the next one, which should have been a clear sign for me not to bother with the rest of the series. However, I found the plot of the first book enjoyable enough, and decided to try the next one. After reading Fool Moon I realized I really don't need to read anymore of this. The mysteries Harry works on are interesting, but the character pushes the limits of what I can bear to read, the dialogue is contrived, and as I get further into the books, the author begins to hint as deeper undertones for the series which are so cliche they leave a chalky taste in my mouth.
The first complaint I have is the main character, Harry Dresden. The books are written in the first person, so it is possible that his enormous ego is an intrinsic character flaw, but based on the level of competence I see in Butcher's writing, I'm fairly sure that it's not. My suspicions rise as I look at his author picture. Seriously, look at the guy. He's the steriotypical D&D nerd. Character Harry Dresden seems to have no major flaws, aside from a vaguely hinted at darkness that lies dormant in his soul, and even that sounds a little bit cool. Sure, he has some flaws, probably added at the editors requests. They seem out of place with such an otherwise perfect character. He is tall, dark, mysterious, stylish, and, as we are repeatedly reminded, an unusually powerful wizard. If there's ever a bad guy he can't face, it's due to him overexerting himself earlier in the story. As for his image, he makes numerous references to his black duster, guns, and powerful magical weapons, as though trying to remind his readers of how cool he is. The movements the author describes seem unrealistic, as though they're simply for dramatic flare. At times reading this book was like watching a movie with all the dramatic swooshing of his black trenchcoat.
Another thing I disliked about the story was the writing, which, as I've mentioned, is not the highest calibre. For one thing, it is first person, which can be done well, but this is one of the instances where it's not. A good first person narrative offers a certain insight into the character and the way they view the world. In this, it was like playing an RPG. Butcher plows through the story with little attention to narrative devices. His direct method makes for a fast read, with lots of action, but little art. This may appeal to some readers, but not me. After two books I still feel no connection with any of the characters, and that's quite a feat for an author.
The third problem with these books was the dialogue. What passed as witty banter was mostly just a series of awful puns and smart-alec taunts between good guys and bad guys. Most of the time it's horribly out of place, such as when Harry is talking to the head of the police force or mob boss Johnny Marcone. Oftentimes, even the narration would contain such things, followed by the words "(no pun intended)," which, as we all know, is basically the person saying "SEE WHAT I DID THERE??"
It's a shame that such a unique idea was handled so poorly. I enjoyed following the clues and twists along with Harry as he tried to discover the truth behind the murders he was investigating. However, it was not enough to redeem the otherwise empty story. I understand this author has received a good deal of success, and it's no surprise to me. People like a story with a first person narrator who really has no character. It makes it easy for them to slip into that persona and imagine they are the hero. It's the same reason Twilight is famous. Many readers love that sort of thing, and if you are one I don't mean to dissuade you or make you feel wrong about liking it. Reading, and particularly the fantasy genre, is a beautiful escape from everyday life, and everyone should feel free to experience that in whatever way makes them happy. However, if you value the art of a well crafted story, you'd best skip The Dresden Files.
ISBN# 0451457811
The Dresden Files on amazon.com
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
New Writer!
Michelle is now a writer for the Summer of Sci Fi!
I am 22 years old, and really enjoy reading fantasy books. My favorite authors are Terry Pratchett, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Charlaine Harris, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. I have a degree in English with a minor in Art from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. I took a Fantasy Literature class at St. Scholastica, but found that being forced to read Fantasy is not as enjoyable as reading it for fun. I am going to review primarily Fantasy books (and maybe some sci fi every now and then), and I will be contributing guest posts periodically.
I am 22 years old, and really enjoy reading fantasy books. My favorite authors are Terry Pratchett, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Charlaine Harris, and of course, J.R.R. Tolkien. I have a degree in English with a minor in Art from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. I took a Fantasy Literature class at St. Scholastica, but found that being forced to read Fantasy is not as enjoyable as reading it for fun. I am going to review primarily Fantasy books (and maybe some sci fi every now and then), and I will be contributing guest posts periodically.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Way of the Wolf (and the Vampire Earth Series)
Way of the Wolf is the first of an ongoing series called Vampire Earth, which is currently on its 8th book. The series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the Earth has been taken over by an alien race called the Kurians. They have taken over the planet, except for a pockets of resistance spread throughout the world and concentrated in the Ozark Free Territory--the area west of the Mississippi. The plot follows David Valentine, one of those freedom fighters.
There are also beings called Lifeweavers who have taken the side of the humans, and they are able to impart certain powers on humans who are capable of possessing them. There are four branches of service in the militia known as Southern Command: Guards, Wolves, Cats, and Bears. Each branch except guards has certain advanced abilities given to them by the Lifeweavers (senses for wolves, reflexes and balance for cats, and strength and berserker rage for bears).
David Valentine is a resourceful Wolf Lieutenant who readers quickly come to like. He's a Minnesota boy, which gets me rooting for the home team right off the bat. He was raised by a priest after the Kurians killed his parents, and he went into Southern Command to protect others from similar experiences. Though in this book he's a new Wolf, he shows a lot of promise, and seems to be a natural leader. His ability to sense Reapers, the life-sucking minions of the Kurians, also gives him an edge.
In this book, he is separated from his unit when he goes out on a covert operation into Kurian-controlled Wisconsin. He finds himself posing a Kurian supporter while caring for a badly wounded comrade in secret. With the help of a Wisconsin farming family named the Carlsons, he is able to hide his friend, and maintain his cover. But when the family that has been so gracious to him is in danger, he finds it impossible to just stand by and watch.
I loved this book, and the entire series after it. EE Knight's writing is superb, and every story is so gripping I read it in just a few days. I have recomended this book to two other friends and they both love it just as much as I do. This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. Knight places you in a dark future, but with a character who won't allow that darkness to get through to the reader. It speaks volumes about the indomitable human spirit, and our will to fight and survive no matter how bad things get.
Every book of this series is excellent, but I have to warn you of its one drawback: after book 2, (Choice of the Cat), the books no longer have endings which will allow you to stop reading the series. While they do wrap up almost everything that happens in the book, they don't leave you satisfied. You will always think to yourself, "I need the next book RIGHT NOW!" or "I have to find out what happens next!" Even at book eight, there is no end in sight for the series as of yet. So unless you're in it for the long haul, you better just quit after Choice of the Cat. If you can, that is.
ISBN# 0-451-45973-3
Way of the Wolf on Amazon.com
There are also beings called Lifeweavers who have taken the side of the humans, and they are able to impart certain powers on humans who are capable of possessing them. There are four branches of service in the militia known as Southern Command: Guards, Wolves, Cats, and Bears. Each branch except guards has certain advanced abilities given to them by the Lifeweavers (senses for wolves, reflexes and balance for cats, and strength and berserker rage for bears).
David Valentine is a resourceful Wolf Lieutenant who readers quickly come to like. He's a Minnesota boy, which gets me rooting for the home team right off the bat. He was raised by a priest after the Kurians killed his parents, and he went into Southern Command to protect others from similar experiences. Though in this book he's a new Wolf, he shows a lot of promise, and seems to be a natural leader. His ability to sense Reapers, the life-sucking minions of the Kurians, also gives him an edge.
In this book, he is separated from his unit when he goes out on a covert operation into Kurian-controlled Wisconsin. He finds himself posing a Kurian supporter while caring for a badly wounded comrade in secret. With the help of a Wisconsin farming family named the Carlsons, he is able to hide his friend, and maintain his cover. But when the family that has been so gracious to him is in danger, he finds it impossible to just stand by and watch.
I loved this book, and the entire series after it. EE Knight's writing is superb, and every story is so gripping I read it in just a few days. I have recomended this book to two other friends and they both love it just as much as I do. This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. Knight places you in a dark future, but with a character who won't allow that darkness to get through to the reader. It speaks volumes about the indomitable human spirit, and our will to fight and survive no matter how bad things get.
Every book of this series is excellent, but I have to warn you of its one drawback: after book 2, (Choice of the Cat), the books no longer have endings which will allow you to stop reading the series. While they do wrap up almost everything that happens in the book, they don't leave you satisfied. You will always think to yourself, "I need the next book RIGHT NOW!" or "I have to find out what happens next!" Even at book eight, there is no end in sight for the series as of yet. So unless you're in it for the long haul, you better just quit after Choice of the Cat. If you can, that is.
ISBN# 0-451-45973-3
Way of the Wolf on Amazon.com
Friday, July 30, 2010
Free Will! Free Will! The Rerun is over!
Those are the words of the old, out-of-print science fiction author Kilgore Trout, right at the end of the ten year rerun that is the basis for the book Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut.
The premise of Timequake is that the Universe got bored with expanding all the time. “What is the point?” It asked itself. So it stopped expanding, and contracted for a while. On Earth, everyone is flashed back to a point 10 years earlier, and are forced to relive the previous 10 years of their lives. They make the same bad decisions, they do all the exact same things, and can’t help it. They have all their memories of the last 10 years, so they know what is coming. This results in everyone going on what Trout calls “autopilot,” since everyone knows what is coming next, they don’t have to think about it.
For me, this would be a combination of a great time and torture. Like everyone else (I’m sure), I’ve done a lot of things that I’m embarrassed about, but the last 10 years for me include college, high school and seventh and eighth grade. Some good times and some bad; I won’t get into it here.
Early on in the book, Vonnegut writes a little bit about his opinion on TV. He says that it was ok a long time ago, when there were very few shows and people would get out and discuss them, but it expanded to the point where nobody is watching the same thing and nobody talks to other people.
I didn’t catch this while reading the book, but after I read it (and the more I thought about it), Vonnegut uses the timequake as an allegory for TV. The previous 10 years of everyone’s life is like a bad TV show they are re-watching. People realize that they can’t do anything about it, so they all just stop thinking. Studies have shown that there is less brain activity in someone who is watching TV than someone who is sleeping, and Vonnegut shows people forgot how to think during the timequake. As soon as the rerun ends (the Universe expands back to where it was), everyone who was standing on one leg when the timequake hit falls over. This is pretty common because many people were mid-stride while walking around. He even gives an example of a man who was driving a truck, and when the rerun ended, he crashed into a building because he didn’t realize he had to think about what he was doing.
This book gives me chills because of how reflective of our society it actually is. I have a pretty extreme example, but I think it’s exactly what Vonnegut was getting at. I lived with a guy whose drivers license said he weighed 290 pounds, but he had to have weighed closer to 350 or maybe even more than that. The reason for his weight was that he sat on the couch for thirteen (I wrote it out so you’d know it’s not a typo) thirteen hours every day. He set his alarm for 9:30 AM, so he could waddle over to the living room and channel surf all day long. He did leave the apartment to go to class, work, and broomball; but those are the only reasons he left. Occasionally, my other roommates and I would use the living room while he was in class, and when he got back and found the TV in use, he had no idea what to do with himself. He had become dependent on TV.
This of course is an extreme example, but it is not uncommon for people not to know what to do without TV’s or computers. When I went to my grandparent’s cabin last weekend, I brought a few good books to read in case it rained, and I spent the entire time outside exploring the woods, swimming, or having a fire; not being anti-social in front of a screen the entire time.
This book is similar to Fahrenheit 451 in that it is heavily critical of TV, and it shows how people are thinking less because the TV is doing it for them. People don't know how to entertain themselves, they don't know how to interact, because there's no need: We have TV instead.
Timequake on Amazon.com
ISBN # 0425164349
The premise of Timequake is that the Universe got bored with expanding all the time. “What is the point?” It asked itself. So it stopped expanding, and contracted for a while. On Earth, everyone is flashed back to a point 10 years earlier, and are forced to relive the previous 10 years of their lives. They make the same bad decisions, they do all the exact same things, and can’t help it. They have all their memories of the last 10 years, so they know what is coming. This results in everyone going on what Trout calls “autopilot,” since everyone knows what is coming next, they don’t have to think about it.
For me, this would be a combination of a great time and torture. Like everyone else (I’m sure), I’ve done a lot of things that I’m embarrassed about, but the last 10 years for me include college, high school and seventh and eighth grade. Some good times and some bad; I won’t get into it here.
Early on in the book, Vonnegut writes a little bit about his opinion on TV. He says that it was ok a long time ago, when there were very few shows and people would get out and discuss them, but it expanded to the point where nobody is watching the same thing and nobody talks to other people.
I didn’t catch this while reading the book, but after I read it (and the more I thought about it), Vonnegut uses the timequake as an allegory for TV. The previous 10 years of everyone’s life is like a bad TV show they are re-watching. People realize that they can’t do anything about it, so they all just stop thinking. Studies have shown that there is less brain activity in someone who is watching TV than someone who is sleeping, and Vonnegut shows people forgot how to think during the timequake. As soon as the rerun ends (the Universe expands back to where it was), everyone who was standing on one leg when the timequake hit falls over. This is pretty common because many people were mid-stride while walking around. He even gives an example of a man who was driving a truck, and when the rerun ended, he crashed into a building because he didn’t realize he had to think about what he was doing.
This book gives me chills because of how reflective of our society it actually is. I have a pretty extreme example, but I think it’s exactly what Vonnegut was getting at. I lived with a guy whose drivers license said he weighed 290 pounds, but he had to have weighed closer to 350 or maybe even more than that. The reason for his weight was that he sat on the couch for thirteen (I wrote it out so you’d know it’s not a typo) thirteen hours every day. He set his alarm for 9:30 AM, so he could waddle over to the living room and channel surf all day long. He did leave the apartment to go to class, work, and broomball; but those are the only reasons he left. Occasionally, my other roommates and I would use the living room while he was in class, and when he got back and found the TV in use, he had no idea what to do with himself. He had become dependent on TV.
This of course is an extreme example, but it is not uncommon for people not to know what to do without TV’s or computers. When I went to my grandparent’s cabin last weekend, I brought a few good books to read in case it rained, and I spent the entire time outside exploring the woods, swimming, or having a fire; not being anti-social in front of a screen the entire time.
This book is similar to Fahrenheit 451 in that it is heavily critical of TV, and it shows how people are thinking less because the TV is doing it for them. People don't know how to entertain themselves, they don't know how to interact, because there's no need: We have TV instead.
Timequake on Amazon.com
ISBN # 0425164349
Friday, July 23, 2010
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
Ray Bradbury is the second incarnation of HG Wells. Most of Wells’ books were a social commentary of some kind (I don’t like British imperialism, so how would they like it if Martians imperialized them? What would happen to our current class structure over 800,000 years? Etc.). Fahrenheit 451 is a commentary on censorship and the amount of reading people do these days.
The book is the story of Guy Montag, who is a fireman. It is his job to start fires. He starts books on fire, because books are banned. The reason for banning books is that the smart people made the dumb people feel dumb, so they banned the books, burned as many as they could, and now they have firemen whose job it is to burn down the houses of people who are hiding books. The result is a world where people essentially watch TV all day every day. Montag’s wife Mildred spends most of her time in their parlor, where TV’s fill up three of the four walls. On these TV’s are her “families,” it sounds like they are just soap operas that she watches all day that she can interact with in really small ways (they had a chip installed that makes the characters say “Mrs. Montag” instead of “Paying customer” whenever they are talking to her. It makes her even more involved with it). These parlors with TV’s covering the walls are very common in this world. One woman, when discusses having children says that “having children is like doing laundry! You just throw them in the parlor and give them some clean clothes every now and then!” This may not sound realistic, but I believe it does happen on occasion in our society. I lived with a guy who weighed over 300 pounds, and the reason was that he sat on the couch for thirteen hours every day watching TV. He also had the personality of a little kid, which is another characteristic of the people living in Fahrenheit 451: they don’t really get what is real and what is not. They don’t thing the characters in books could be real because they can’t see them, but the people on their walls are real because they see and “interact” with them.
So why do we care about Montag so much? Early on in the book, he meets a girl named Clarisse, who basically introduces him to the world. She asks all the silly questions, and just observes people. Eventually she dies, or something. I don’t really know. I wish Bradbury had explained what happened to her or had her come back at the end. In Montag’s hero’s journey, she serves as the mentor, which is the character that sends our hero on (in this case) his quest. Montag’s quest is to stop “killing” authors by burning their works. After he burns down a house, he realizes that every time he burns a book, he is killing the author in a small way. He makes that connection when he burns down a house that has a woman still inside it. It horrifies him so much that he begins to wonder what is in the books that is worth dying for. Long story short, he finds that books are wonderful, except when they are banned and get his house burned down.
Montag’s discovery of books leads him to betray his fireman friends, and he is eventually exiled from society because of his bookish ways. Lucky for him, right after he leaves the city, there is a huge (and short) war that annihilates the city he just lived in. The hobo’s he ends up with are all book nerds, and they have developed a way to recollect any book they have read at least once. They are Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dostoevsky, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They preserved all the books between all the hobo’s in the country. Montag is the book of Ecclesiastes and Revelation.
Bradbury probably chose the book of Ecclesiastes to be ironic, because the book is about how work is meaningless, although having wisdom is the best way to live. For example, chapter 1 verse 2 states:
This ties in with the end of Fahrenheit 451 when the literature nerds were saying that humans will always go through repeated Dark Ages and Renaissance’s, and their job is to preserve the wisdom that the books have. Also in chapter 1, (verse 18):
This is passage is true for Montag and the other nerds because they are sorrowful for the civilization that is lost at the end of the book, whereas all the people living in it were indifferent because they had lost touch with what was real and what was just on their TV. Next week I’ll be discussing Kurt Vonnegut’s opinions of TV in a review of Timequake.
Fahrenheit 451 on Amazon.com
ISBN # 0345342968
Ray Bradbury is the second incarnation of HG Wells. Most of Wells’ books were a social commentary of some kind (I don’t like British imperialism, so how would they like it if Martians imperialized them? What would happen to our current class structure over 800,000 years? Etc.). Fahrenheit 451 is a commentary on censorship and the amount of reading people do these days.
The book is the story of Guy Montag, who is a fireman. It is his job to start fires. He starts books on fire, because books are banned. The reason for banning books is that the smart people made the dumb people feel dumb, so they banned the books, burned as many as they could, and now they have firemen whose job it is to burn down the houses of people who are hiding books. The result is a world where people essentially watch TV all day every day. Montag’s wife Mildred spends most of her time in their parlor, where TV’s fill up three of the four walls. On these TV’s are her “families,” it sounds like they are just soap operas that she watches all day that she can interact with in really small ways (they had a chip installed that makes the characters say “Mrs. Montag” instead of “Paying customer” whenever they are talking to her. It makes her even more involved with it). These parlors with TV’s covering the walls are very common in this world. One woman, when discusses having children says that “having children is like doing laundry! You just throw them in the parlor and give them some clean clothes every now and then!” This may not sound realistic, but I believe it does happen on occasion in our society. I lived with a guy who weighed over 300 pounds, and the reason was that he sat on the couch for thirteen hours every day watching TV. He also had the personality of a little kid, which is another characteristic of the people living in Fahrenheit 451: they don’t really get what is real and what is not. They don’t thing the characters in books could be real because they can’t see them, but the people on their walls are real because they see and “interact” with them.
So why do we care about Montag so much? Early on in the book, he meets a girl named Clarisse, who basically introduces him to the world. She asks all the silly questions, and just observes people. Eventually she dies, or something. I don’t really know. I wish Bradbury had explained what happened to her or had her come back at the end. In Montag’s hero’s journey, she serves as the mentor, which is the character that sends our hero on (in this case) his quest. Montag’s quest is to stop “killing” authors by burning their works. After he burns down a house, he realizes that every time he burns a book, he is killing the author in a small way. He makes that connection when he burns down a house that has a woman still inside it. It horrifies him so much that he begins to wonder what is in the books that is worth dying for. Long story short, he finds that books are wonderful, except when they are banned and get his house burned down.
Montag’s discovery of books leads him to betray his fireman friends, and he is eventually exiled from society because of his bookish ways. Lucky for him, right after he leaves the city, there is a huge (and short) war that annihilates the city he just lived in. The hobo’s he ends up with are all book nerds, and they have developed a way to recollect any book they have read at least once. They are Shakespeare, Chaucer, Dostoevsky, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They preserved all the books between all the hobo’s in the country. Montag is the book of Ecclesiastes and Revelation.
Bradbury probably chose the book of Ecclesiastes to be ironic, because the book is about how work is meaningless, although having wisdom is the best way to live. For example, chapter 1 verse 2 states:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
This ties in with the end of Fahrenheit 451 when the literature nerds were saying that humans will always go through repeated Dark Ages and Renaissance’s, and their job is to preserve the wisdom that the books have. Also in chapter 1, (verse 18):
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
This is passage is true for Montag and the other nerds because they are sorrowful for the civilization that is lost at the end of the book, whereas all the people living in it were indifferent because they had lost touch with what was real and what was just on their TV. Next week I’ll be discussing Kurt Vonnegut’s opinions of TV in a review of Timequake.
Fahrenheit 451 on Amazon.com
ISBN # 0345342968
Friday, July 16, 2010
Childhood’s End: Biggest Letdown in History
Few books leave me disgusted and angry after reading them. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke did both of those. The back cover of the book makes some lofty claims:
Ok, this sounds pretty good. Granted, I was hoping it would be like V since the cover does feature a ship almost exactly like the ones seen in V hovering above what is obviously New York. Also, it promises the end of mankind on Earth. Maybe through destruction? Let’s find out!
The reason this book is so disappointing is because it stretches reality until it breaks. It sounds like the massive ships showed up above fifty cities on Earth, started giving orders, and humanity bent over and obeyed the orders. Humans wouldn’t do that. Humans need incentives to do things, and it sounds like the overlords don’t give them any, not right away anyway. After a while they do (at a bullfight in Spain, the entire crowd feels the pain of the bull as it is killed in the Overlords effort to end animal cruelty). Eventually, the Earth is a perfect utopia: there is no crime, everyone goes to college, and there are no problems. Clarke admits that some people think it’s boring (I agree that it would be), but says that most people really like it.
Then comes the nefarious and sinister plot that ends mankind, right? When we’re defenseless because we lost the need for guns and armies, the overlords enslave us and start eating us, right? Then a resistance forms and there’s action and it’s great. Nope. The last generation of mankind that the back cover talks about? It’s the last generation because their children evolve into something else. They develop mental powers and stop communicating verbally. One human remains on earth to observe them, and he describes how they start turning the moon around with their mental powers. Eventually the Earth disappears. That’s how it ends. I just saved you 218 pages of disappointment.
Another problem I have with this book is that Clarke wastes a lot of time. The book seems to be going nowhere, and Clarke must have realized that, because it abruptly shifts directions and starts describing an island called “New Athens.” Humans have lost the drive to create any new forms of art, since there are no problems and no frustration to inspire art. So a group of people form a new city in the Mediterranean Sea where they can have theater troupes and create art and all that fun stuff. What does that have to do with anything? It doesn’t. Clarke just wanted to waste 30 pages describing it. All that is pertinent to the story is that the character ‘s the book is following at that point lived near the sea, and their child is almost killed by a giant wave but the Overlords save him so that evolution can still happen. It’s not clear why that specific child is needed, since after he evolves, the rest of them do.
Another problem I have with the book is that it doesn’t focus on a single main character the whole time. Granted I did read this book about a month ago, but I don’t remember any of the characters names (I read Slaughterhouse-Five at least eight months ago, and I remember Billy Pilgrim’s name quite easily. That book is focused). I had to look up the main Overlord’s name because all I remember about it is that it had a K in it, I think (it is Karellen, but I had to look that up). Because of the lack of focus, it is impossible to care about any of the characters, since the book spends little to no time effectively showing who they are, and when it does show a little bit about their likes and dislikes, it made me dislike them more (I found the guy who moved his family to New Athens very unlikeable because he just up and moved his family there. It didn’t sound like he gave them much choice, so they had to uproot and go there just for him). Overall, there are Zero likeable characters, there is Zero action. This book makes some exciting promises, and delivers on them, just in a really boring and stupid way.
Childhood's End on Amazon.com
ISBN# 0-345-24937-2-150
THE LAST GENERATION ON MANKIND ON EARTH
Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth.
They are manned by the Overlords…mysterious creatures from an alien race who soon take over control of the world.
Within fifty years, these brilliant masters have all but eliminated ignorance, disease, poverty and fear.
Then suddenly this golden age ends…and the end of Mankind begins!
Ok, this sounds pretty good. Granted, I was hoping it would be like V since the cover does feature a ship almost exactly like the ones seen in V hovering above what is obviously New York. Also, it promises the end of mankind on Earth. Maybe through destruction? Let’s find out!
The reason this book is so disappointing is because it stretches reality until it breaks. It sounds like the massive ships showed up above fifty cities on Earth, started giving orders, and humanity bent over and obeyed the orders. Humans wouldn’t do that. Humans need incentives to do things, and it sounds like the overlords don’t give them any, not right away anyway. After a while they do (at a bullfight in Spain, the entire crowd feels the pain of the bull as it is killed in the Overlords effort to end animal cruelty). Eventually, the Earth is a perfect utopia: there is no crime, everyone goes to college, and there are no problems. Clarke admits that some people think it’s boring (I agree that it would be), but says that most people really like it.
Then comes the nefarious and sinister plot that ends mankind, right? When we’re defenseless because we lost the need for guns and armies, the overlords enslave us and start eating us, right? Then a resistance forms and there’s action and it’s great. Nope. The last generation of mankind that the back cover talks about? It’s the last generation because their children evolve into something else. They develop mental powers and stop communicating verbally. One human remains on earth to observe them, and he describes how they start turning the moon around with their mental powers. Eventually the Earth disappears. That’s how it ends. I just saved you 218 pages of disappointment.
Another problem I have with this book is that Clarke wastes a lot of time. The book seems to be going nowhere, and Clarke must have realized that, because it abruptly shifts directions and starts describing an island called “New Athens.” Humans have lost the drive to create any new forms of art, since there are no problems and no frustration to inspire art. So a group of people form a new city in the Mediterranean Sea where they can have theater troupes and create art and all that fun stuff. What does that have to do with anything? It doesn’t. Clarke just wanted to waste 30 pages describing it. All that is pertinent to the story is that the character ‘s the book is following at that point lived near the sea, and their child is almost killed by a giant wave but the Overlords save him so that evolution can still happen. It’s not clear why that specific child is needed, since after he evolves, the rest of them do.
Another problem I have with the book is that it doesn’t focus on a single main character the whole time. Granted I did read this book about a month ago, but I don’t remember any of the characters names (I read Slaughterhouse-Five at least eight months ago, and I remember Billy Pilgrim’s name quite easily. That book is focused). I had to look up the main Overlord’s name because all I remember about it is that it had a K in it, I think (it is Karellen, but I had to look that up). Because of the lack of focus, it is impossible to care about any of the characters, since the book spends little to no time effectively showing who they are, and when it does show a little bit about their likes and dislikes, it made me dislike them more (I found the guy who moved his family to New Athens very unlikeable because he just up and moved his family there. It didn’t sound like he gave them much choice, so they had to uproot and go there just for him). Overall, there are Zero likeable characters, there is Zero action. This book makes some exciting promises, and delivers on them, just in a really boring and stupid way.
Childhood's End on Amazon.com
ISBN# 0-345-24937-2-150
Friday, July 9, 2010
Five out of Five for Slaughterhouse-Five
I have a harsh grading scale for books that I read. I give every book a number between one and five, where one means the book was stupid, unenjoyable and I can’t believe I wasted a weekend reading it. Five means it was life-changing because it was so good and thought provoking. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut easily earned the five that I gave it.
This was the first Kurt Vonnegut book I read, and it was the springboard from which I jumped when I started my reading binge (that I am currently on). Since reading Slaughterhouse-Five, I have been addicted to Vonnegut, reading everything I can about his life and reading several more of his books (after SH5 I read Timequake,Jailbird,Cat’s Cradle and plan on reading the rest of his works).
One of the opening lines of chapter two sets up the premise of the book: “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.” The rest of the book is written non-sequentially, to reflect the Billy Pilgrims random shifts through time. What I loved about the constant time shifts was that it made the whole book seem like a compare/contrast essay. Pilgrim shifts the most between his time in World War II and his life shortly after, however it is clear that he shifts all over his life and sometimes sees parts of his life several times. With a little help from the Tralfamadorans (aliens from the planet Tralfamadore), Pilgrim learns to just accept what is happening to him and essentially enjoy it. The Tralfamadorans view time differently than humans do. Humans see time as linear: you are born, you live your life, and you die. The Tralfamadorans can move back and forth in time and live all the different parts whenever they want to. They have seen the end of the universe many times, and they never attempt to change it; it always happens the same way. By being able to see what comes next and having hindsight, Pilgrim learns that life isn’t so bad after all.
Several Vonnegut motifs are in this book: it has something to do with World War II, and Kilgore Trout makes an appearance. Pilgrim spends some time in a hospital in the book, and meets a fan of Kilgore Trout. Trout is an old, out of print science fiction writer, and Pilgrim looks him up and meets him later on. One thing that really struck me was a Kilgore Trout story that was in the book called The Gospel From Outer Space. It is printed in its entirety, probably because Vonnegut thought it was pretty important. I’ll reprint it here for you:
It doesn’t exactly tie in with the rest of the story in the book, but I thought it was really profound. In the real Gospels, Jesus always asks people not to tell others about the miracles he performs, and I never understood why. That is, until I read this, and this reasoning makes sense. Since Jesus taught about loving our neighbors and turning the other cheek (and all the other lovely and puzzling things he said), Christianity has done a lot of terrible things to people who were “the right person to lynch.” Christianity has done many, many good things, too, but Jesus probably saw what overzealous religious people were capable of (he is the son of the most powerful being in the universe, after all). The Purpose of this quote is probably to describe Vonnegut’s view of what Christianity was trying to get at but in his opinion failed to do. He saw Jesus’ teachings as centered on “punishing horribly anybody who torments the bum with no connections” instead of “punishing the bum with no connections.”
The back cover of SH5 describes it as an anti-war book, but I really didn’t see that as the focus of the story. If you want a good Kurt Vonnegut anti-war book, go read Cat’s Cradle (which I will also be reviewing). I see this more as a description of a new philosophy of time book. You need not fear death or mourn for the people who have died, because they are always alive at different times. They are just in a bad state at the moment, but if you were able to go back in time, there they would be: alive and well.
Overall, Slaughterhouse-Five is an amazing piece of literature, with many new and interesting ideas. I found it to be very profound and just awesome. It inspired what could be a lifetime love not just of this author but also of reading in general.
Slaughterhouse-Five on Amazon.com
ISBN# 0-440-18029-5
This was the first Kurt Vonnegut book I read, and it was the springboard from which I jumped when I started my reading binge (that I am currently on). Since reading Slaughterhouse-Five, I have been addicted to Vonnegut, reading everything I can about his life and reading several more of his books (after SH5 I read Timequake,Jailbird,Cat’s Cradle and plan on reading the rest of his works).
One of the opening lines of chapter two sets up the premise of the book: “Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.” The rest of the book is written non-sequentially, to reflect the Billy Pilgrims random shifts through time. What I loved about the constant time shifts was that it made the whole book seem like a compare/contrast essay. Pilgrim shifts the most between his time in World War II and his life shortly after, however it is clear that he shifts all over his life and sometimes sees parts of his life several times. With a little help from the Tralfamadorans (aliens from the planet Tralfamadore), Pilgrim learns to just accept what is happening to him and essentially enjoy it. The Tralfamadorans view time differently than humans do. Humans see time as linear: you are born, you live your life, and you die. The Tralfamadorans can move back and forth in time and live all the different parts whenever they want to. They have seen the end of the universe many times, and they never attempt to change it; it always happens the same way. By being able to see what comes next and having hindsight, Pilgrim learns that life isn’t so bad after all.
Several Vonnegut motifs are in this book: it has something to do with World War II, and Kilgore Trout makes an appearance. Pilgrim spends some time in a hospital in the book, and meets a fan of Kilgore Trout. Trout is an old, out of print science fiction writer, and Pilgrim looks him up and meets him later on. One thing that really struck me was a Kilgore Trout story that was in the book called The Gospel From Outer Space. It is printed in its entirety, probably because Vonnegut thought it was pretty important. I’ll reprint it here for you:
"The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:
Oh boy – they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!
And that thought had a brother: “There are right people to lynch.” Who? People not well connected. So it goes.
The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn’t possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!"
It doesn’t exactly tie in with the rest of the story in the book, but I thought it was really profound. In the real Gospels, Jesus always asks people not to tell others about the miracles he performs, and I never understood why. That is, until I read this, and this reasoning makes sense. Since Jesus taught about loving our neighbors and turning the other cheek (and all the other lovely and puzzling things he said), Christianity has done a lot of terrible things to people who were “the right person to lynch.” Christianity has done many, many good things, too, but Jesus probably saw what overzealous religious people were capable of (he is the son of the most powerful being in the universe, after all). The Purpose of this quote is probably to describe Vonnegut’s view of what Christianity was trying to get at but in his opinion failed to do. He saw Jesus’ teachings as centered on “punishing horribly anybody who torments the bum with no connections” instead of “punishing the bum with no connections.”
The back cover of SH5 describes it as an anti-war book, but I really didn’t see that as the focus of the story. If you want a good Kurt Vonnegut anti-war book, go read Cat’s Cradle (which I will also be reviewing). I see this more as a description of a new philosophy of time book. You need not fear death or mourn for the people who have died, because they are always alive at different times. They are just in a bad state at the moment, but if you were able to go back in time, there they would be: alive and well.
Overall, Slaughterhouse-Five is an amazing piece of literature, with many new and interesting ideas. I found it to be very profound and just awesome. It inspired what could be a lifetime love not just of this author but also of reading in general.
Slaughterhouse-Five on Amazon.com
ISBN# 0-440-18029-5
Friday, July 2, 2010
Independence Day
Independence Day is one of Roland Emmerich’s “disaster movies,” it’s a series of non-connected films he made that all focus on one huge disaster. He’s the guy that made Independence Day (alien attack), The Day After Tomorrow (global warming), Eight Legged Freaks (giant spiders!), 10,000 BC (ok it’s not a disaster movie but it was still bad) and 2012 (the end of the world). The Day After Tomorrow was terrible, and I didn’t even bother seeing 2012, since it looked bad and I despise anything that makes people believe the world might end in 2012 (as an amateur Astronomer, I cringe whenever someone brings up galactic center alignments or near-Earth asteroids that are coming our way). Independence Day stands out from those, because it is a much, much better movie. What makes it so great is that Emmerich can take any guess he wants about the human reaction to aliens visiting Earth, and I believe he makes the correct guess when he shows hundreds of people gathered in the streets welcoming the aliens (I know I would be out there with a big welcome sign). He also guesses correctly that we would fight back when we are attacked, or when the aliens try and force us to do things; unlike Arthur C. Clarke, who assumes humans have no willpower and will just obey some alien they can’t see (I have a review of Childhood’s End coming up in two weeks, you’ll hear all about this).
The best thing about Independence Day is that it’s just a fun movie you don’t have to think much about. Some of the best sci-fi plots are the simplest: robot from the future wants to kill Sarah Connor, so it shows how she survives; alien monster is running amok on the ship, so let’s see how Ripley and the cat survive, giant alien spaceship attacking Earth, how do we fight back? etc. Some movies with more complex plots that develop their own lore can be really good (i.e.: Star Wars), but if they over-think it, the movie/series suffers or even loses some of its depth (i.e.: 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Watch for a post about that in January).
Overall, Independence Day delivers on the action, aliens and Will Smith. I might find time this Fourth of July to re-watch it, even though I’ll be in the Middle of Nowhere Wisconsin at the fiancée’s cabin.
Independence Day at bestbuy.com
The best thing about Independence Day is that it’s just a fun movie you don’t have to think much about. Some of the best sci-fi plots are the simplest: robot from the future wants to kill Sarah Connor, so it shows how she survives; alien monster is running amok on the ship, so let’s see how Ripley and the cat survive, giant alien spaceship attacking Earth, how do we fight back? etc. Some movies with more complex plots that develop their own lore can be really good (i.e.: Star Wars), but if they over-think it, the movie/series suffers or even loses some of its depth (i.e.: 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Watch for a post about that in January).
Overall, Independence Day delivers on the action, aliens and Will Smith. I might find time this Fourth of July to re-watch it, even though I’ll be in the Middle of Nowhere Wisconsin at the fiancée’s cabin.
Independence Day at bestbuy.com
Friday, June 25, 2010
New Futurama Reactions
I love Futurama. I was so excited to hear that it was coming back, and last night it did. I got to see two new episodes, and they were both great. The best part of the Futurama comeback is that the show doesn’t seem completely different than it used to be. Family Guy underwent a huge change after its hiatus, with many of the characters personalities changing, more flashbacks etc. The only difference I noticed between old and new Futurama is that the professor’s voice sounds different.
On to our Sci-Fi storylines then. The opening scenes of the season six premiere have the Planet Express crew being shot out of the sky by the Nimbus. Only Fry and the professor survive, but luckily he killed enough humans to have a huge vat of stem cells to reincarnate the rest of the cast, except Leela. The rest of the episode could have been written by Philip K. Dick, since it has some interesting twists near the end (that I won’t reveal here, since I know some Futurama fans that missed it).
The second new episode was pretty funny too. Zapp and Leela get lost on an “alien” planet, and believe they are the last humans alive. The story isn’t as good as the first episode, since most of it is just Zapp trying to trick Leela into having sex with him, but it was a better episode overall because it was so much funnier than the first one.
Overall, I’m really glad that Futurama is back, and I’m not going to miss any new episodes. It is on Comedy Central at 9PM Central.
Also, this blog will mainly focus on books, but not until after Independence Day.
On to our Sci-Fi storylines then. The opening scenes of the season six premiere have the Planet Express crew being shot out of the sky by the Nimbus. Only Fry and the professor survive, but luckily he killed enough humans to have a huge vat of stem cells to reincarnate the rest of the cast, except Leela. The rest of the episode could have been written by Philip K. Dick, since it has some interesting twists near the end (that I won’t reveal here, since I know some Futurama fans that missed it).
The second new episode was pretty funny too. Zapp and Leela get lost on an “alien” planet, and believe they are the last humans alive. The story isn’t as good as the first episode, since most of it is just Zapp trying to trick Leela into having sex with him, but it was a better episode overall because it was so much funnier than the first one.
Overall, I’m really glad that Futurama is back, and I’m not going to miss any new episodes. It is on Comedy Central at 9PM Central.
Also, this blog will mainly focus on books, but not until after Independence Day.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Welcome!
The purpose of this blog is for me to share the science fiction books I have been reading and the science fiction movies I enjoy watching. I've been reading an average of one book every week, and my ambitious goal is to review a new book each weekend. If I can't keep up that pace, then I'll dig into the archives of previous material that I remember well enough to review.
About me:
I am 22 years old, and I just graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD) with a BA in Economics and a minor in Math. I've been looking for jobs but have found it somewhat overwhelming. In the meantime I have been working at McDonald's. I have a huge interest in space and science fiction. I worked the planetarium at UMD (www.umdstars.org) for three years, and I have read a lot of science fiction books and watched a lot of science fiction movies and TV shows. A few of my favorite authors include Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick. In school I have taken a science fiction literature class at both the high school and college level (I have read Ender's Game three times for school). I also took a class specifically about JRR Tolkiens the Lord of the Rings at UMD. I am also interested in fantasy, and I'll review it every now and then, but the majority of posts will be about science fiction.
About me:
I am 22 years old, and I just graduated from the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD) with a BA in Economics and a minor in Math. I've been looking for jobs but have found it somewhat overwhelming. In the meantime I have been working at McDonald's. I have a huge interest in space and science fiction. I worked the planetarium at UMD (www.umdstars.org) for three years, and I have read a lot of science fiction books and watched a lot of science fiction movies and TV shows. A few of my favorite authors include Isaac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick. In school I have taken a science fiction literature class at both the high school and college level (I have read Ender's Game three times for school). I also took a class specifically about JRR Tolkiens the Lord of the Rings at UMD. I am also interested in fantasy, and I'll review it every now and then, but the majority of posts will be about science fiction.
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