Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one can fall; also a ceiling above which no one can rise. Enough is as good as a feast—or bett Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one can fall; also a ceiling above which no one can rise. Enough is as good as a feast—or better.
How Scandanavian, as Bjork once opined (in an unrelated context). This book oozes optimism which by definition isn't bad but reading it only gives us an escape, not even a set of dreams, perhaps a hatful of dreams would suffice, let's ask Willy W. Or Wily Brandt as he knelt. It isn't an urge to be glib but a recognition which fuels this post. I suffer from biosphere grief, a sense of loss and impending collapse. KSR gives us a hopeful yarn. Another reviewer said this is a counterpart to his The Years of Rice and Salt . I really liked that exploration in alternate history. I didn't care near as much for this, a literary effort to forestall defeatism? The opening of the novel is harrowing, and I wasn't familiar with wet bulb conditions, but I could feel such through the prose, which is an endorsement for sure. It is the subsequent happy turns (although many of them are the result of sweeping acts of terror which somehow receive a pass, authorial or otherwise) and the surfeit of questionable science. I understand this is speculative fiction, but some leaps are ridiculous, but then I'm just an aged cynical progressive, still searching for an embraceable metanarrative....more
If, mind you, if we think of Benjamin and a 3D printer do we automatically violate Godwin’s Law?
Having watched the Prime adaptation years ago, I thouIf, mind you, if we think of Benjamin and a 3D printer do we automatically violate Godwin’s Law?
Having watched the Prime adaptation years ago, I thought I knew the source material. I was cursedly mistaken and without even an amulet not to mention an aura for my trouble.
Not sure this was the best selection to absorb while waiting for the French election results? It is a depressing enough tale about a future where CaliNot sure this was the best selection to absorb while waiting for the French election results? It is a depressing enough tale about a future where California is a sovereign state after secession and there’s a bookstore on the border with America, one that accepts the currencies of both nations and attempts to cater to each population. ...more
History as a story worth telling will only begin when the whole lives outnumber the wasted ones. That means we have many generations to go before histHistory as a story worth telling will only begin when the whole lives outnumber the wasted ones. That means we have many generations to go before history begins.
My best friend has a good friend teaching on the East Coast, he recommended this to me over 15 years ago, I found entry inconvenient at the time, adhering to ridiculous notions of literary propriety. I decided to return to such a few weeks ago and was delightfully surprised.
Mr Robinson gives us an exercise in alternate history: in the 14C the Black Death eradicates the population of Europe. What happens then is interesting--and heartbreaking. If Marx & Freud didn't exist, then Ra would be forced to create or even imitate them. What if Islam had a Reformation and it had to skedaddle to persist: what better destination than the depopulated lands of Europe?
Technology isn't lightning in a bottle but a series of determined failures. The sections on the scientific method were astonishing, just as heartbreaking as the inevitable collisions of powers resulting in a long war that claims a billion lives and stokes senses of identity amongst the mass graves.
China is indestructible, there are too many of us. Fire, flood, famine, war—they’re like pruning a tree. Branches cut to stimulate new life. The tree keeps growing.
Continuity is maintained by the notions of reincarnation and the Bardo. Characters become a call and response while reflecting a certain framework....more
Despite the blue orgasms, I loved this, which is truly unexpected, not for the technicolor ejaculate but rather how I had hated the previous encounterDespite the blue orgasms, I loved this, which is truly unexpected, not for the technicolor ejaculate but rather how I had hated the previous encounter with Gibson. I can’t say Nick Land and Mark Fisher led me here as that was a lifetime ago, so 2022-23.
Neuromancer is a portfolio of ideas in the skein of noir. It is often cumbersome and burdened with patois but it has a rhythm and the dub remains righteous. I won’t go into the specifics but the AI was simply astonishing. I thought the Frog Squad upholding the Turing Tenets a hoot, similar to the Vegan Police in Scott Pilgrim.
Given the sabbath, I might continue with the trilogy...more
It is curious that I approached this source material for the Spielberg adaptation with genuine interest. I found it sourced between The Big Sleep (194It is curious that I approached this source material for the Spielberg adaptation with genuine interest. I found it sourced between The Big Sleep (1946) by Hawks and Renoir’s The Grand Illusion (1937) and again I mean the story not the adaptation. Retired military officers believe in entitlement. That’s an element I don’t recall from Minority Report as a film. Perhaps the film more aptly depicts our reality: industry exerts much more influence than the military these days.
I liked the chapter/scene breaks and especially the fugitive atmosphere: the latter was very Graham Greene....more
I used to think that there was just a simple either/or: either sell your soul or wait to wither away and die.
It is an epistemological question: did I I used to think that there was just a simple either/or: either sell your soul or wait to wither away and die.
It is an epistemological question: did I know I needed this story before I knew it existed? Am I just a narrative whore attempting to fill in the weary silence of my soul?
Either way it is a Promethean nightmare of an overheated world. It marks us each guilty and worthy of the stake, a pyre of our collective indolence. ...more
Continuing a trend of reforming Lovecraft by turning his racism against itself, allowing cosmic horror to accelerate a penchant for social justice thiContinuing a trend of reforming Lovecraft by turning his racism against itself, allowing cosmic horror to accelerate a penchant for social justice this collection was encouraging if not successful. I liked the notion of the ancient gods falling prey to the Anthropocene: pollution and technology have altered the order of things. Offerings have underwent a mutation. I’m not sure the regulations list the possibility in the index. I cared least for the stories which featured a military context, save for the last piece. The others were clunky and uncertain. There is plenty here about nightmares, childhood and the occasional ravenous cathedral: Calvino, indeed. ...more
When scientists discovered the limits of planetary sinks, they also discovered market failure.
Potentially impactful for a naive reader. Couched in teWhen scientists discovered the limits of planetary sinks, they also discovered market failure.
Potentially impactful for a naive reader. Couched in terms of 24C historical analysis, the documentary aspires for a neutral distance. I agree with other reviews about the detail afforded to the causes of the collapse, about the ideology which produced conspicuous consumption. We are generously treated to thumbnail portraits of Comte and Friedman. As eco-apocalypse goes, this is bloodless on the page. We don't encounter much of the fall or the aftermath. That decision was chickenshit....more
Very predictable YA fare, which I suppose is crucial. I read such for the environmental collapse but such was spare given the adolescent perspective. Very predictable YA fare, which I suppose is crucial. I read such for the environmental collapse but such was spare given the adolescent perspective. This is a gulf coast Captain Courageous featuring augmented mercenaries and South Asian oligarchs. It was a diversion from a stressful period so I suppose the mission was accomplished, but only just.
Someone elsewhere noted this is nonfiction in a number of places globally. The code followed is interesting as are the causes to sever such. Literacy doesn’t appear integral in the post collapse condition. ...more
I’ve gnawed on this anthology for a while now but my recent engagement with Timothy Morton and David Wallace-Wells has pushed me back into the orbit. I’ve gnawed on this anthology for a while now but my recent engagement with Timothy Morton and David Wallace-Wells has pushed me back into the orbit. This is a very uneven collection, as is the case with most anthologies. The Bacigalupi pieces were great as were the excerpts from Kim Stanley Robinson though they weren’t stories, but just clips.
The rest of the pieces were intriguing, but not always effective. Hot Sky by Robert Silverberg will likely persist in my memory, with its haunting imagery....more
As always, beneath the vaulted brilliance the infernal shadows of the streets were filled with the phantoms of murdered girls.
Read the other reviews, As always, beneath the vaulted brilliance the infernal shadows of the streets were filled with the phantoms of murdered girls.
Read the other reviews, I found them illuminating-- the idea that Dead Girls is a flotilla of ideas or that it is more of a mindspace than a novel -- both of are parallel to my own loping appreciation. That said, I don't care for cyberpunk. Written in the early 1990s Calder imagines a world of 2070--one where resources are dwindling and mass migration has irrevocably altered global areas of influence. There is a pandemic of sorts and there are automatons and an admixture betwixt and between the pair, the nature of which would likely be a killjoy spoiler. You have to appreciate a novel where the author dedicates matters to Dolores Haze and Wednesday Addams. ...more
We have been rewired by the pandemic. I’m not sure this novel would have been as effective beforehand. It would have been speculative, removed from ouWe have been rewired by the pandemic. I’m not sure this novel would have been as effective beforehand. It would have been speculative, removed from our expectations sort of Blindness but with state sanctioned cannibalism. Alas one Sunday during the summer of 2020 I stood in a long queue outside of Trader Joe and marveled at how orderly everything was, everyone masked and no one raising an eyebrow at the passing cars operated by white people featuring placards announcing that black lives matter. It was surreal but positive proof as how we can be conditioned.
Perhaps I should be concerned that I enjoyed this novel? I certainly felt empathy with the jaded protagonist making sense of a future where an animal borne virus had led to the necessity of destroying all animals. Thus, a market for flesh requires some behavioral adjustments. I felt something similar when reading about the New Jersey program offering reduced sentences to inmates participating in organ donation. It is masterful how the novel embraces the biopolitics of "The Transition" to special meat and all the necessary coding. There's an adaptive use of spaces and networks, think Foucault and the Leper Houses, and intriguing extrapolations upon myriad meanings in not just a food chain or protein acquisition but upon our notions of alterity and civility. ...more
If there had been some tiny bead present in the brain of all humans, that had told each other, They are like you; that had drawn some thin silk threadIf there had been some tiny bead present in the brain of all humans, that had told each other, They are like you; that had drawn some thin silk thread of empathy, person to person, in a planet-wide net – what might then have happened? Would there have been the same wars, massacres, persecutions and crusades?
A few weeks back I read a few pages of this lengthy space opera of sorts and my wife asked about it. I told her in my slapdash manner and she replied in confirmation: So, Nietzsche-reading super-spiders regard humanoid refugees as bipedal ethnic cuisine, life pod Uber eats.
My reading paused for a host of reasons, and I returned to this last weekend. I enjoyed it but feel it would have been better served as a holiday book, not something to nosh upon each evening as my bewildered self curled around it seeking stability if not inspiration.
The novel concerns a dying earth--which as a last gamble sends out explorers to poke through the remains of previous terraforming efforts to see if such is sufficient to host an exo-human postscript. Monkeys are sent with an evolutionary nanovirus to accelerate their development-- alas it is the creepy arachnids which become the recipient of this developmental catalyst and before you know it there's airships, chemical warfare and a Gospel According to Trent Reznor. The other plotline concerns this last expedition of human refugees and their proclivity for jihad and mutiny. Tchaikovsky has displayed his zoological and entomology chops before elsewhere and I found this interesting if laborious. Ultimately, he wants a Becky Chambers utopian vision but understands how the libidinal economy derails these higher angels. I kept musing about Nick Land, let's put the rat back in rationality.
special thanks to Natalyia for prodding my lazy ass to read this....more
It’s difficult to assign value to discovery when you haven’t sorted out the parameters of reality yet.
My problems with the book disturb me. It was achIt’s difficult to assign value to discovery when you haven’t sorted out the parameters of reality yet.
My problems with the book disturb me. It was achingly utopian where everyone wanted to explore and above all to do as little harm as possible. This novella depicts the voyage of four scientists (three and an engineer/pilot) exploring exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system. It is largely a novel of exploration, asking basic philosophic questions along the way. I fear my disposition was often at odds. I did enjoy the exploration though I regarded it with minimal emotional attachment. It was simply there. I'd read more by the author....more
officers and men got drunk together and never saluted or used titles. They lost the war. But the other side didn’t have any fun.
This is from a conversofficers and men got drunk together and never saluted or used titles. They lost the war. But the other side didn’t have any fun.
This is from a conversation late in the novel when a question of protocol is resolved via an anecdote about the Marxist PUUM militia during the Spanish Civil War. This is the tone of the book, one I can appreciate. The titular event of the novel is a thousand year conflict with an alien species. There is considerable space (no pun intended) devoted to the hard science of interstellar travel and wormholes. This coincides with the POV of a infantry soldier. The result is wry and reflects the author’s experiences in Vietnam. This isn’t something I’d normally approach but it was a delightful distraction during one’s holiday. ...more
There must be some Tommy Hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of souThere must be some Tommy Hilfiger event horizon, beyond which it is impossible to be more derivative, more removed from the source, more devoid of soul.
A few key directional events happened just before I grabbed this novel. It was a long holiday weekend and I had started to watch a series on Prime featuring an adaptation of Gibson. I also found myself looking at a snapshot that was taken of my wife and I in London from 2002 -- twenty years ago this very week. Our malleable memories can be demonic, yet there isn't nostalgia, no active move towards those times. This novel concerns itself with cool, branding and technology. There's also corporate intrigue and a, "gosh did September the Eleventh change everything" sort of miasma. Everything in Gibson's world is too cool for school. Very Cronenberg -- and i hated it. The protagonist is a Lisbeth Salander without most of the damage and her job as a coolhunter sounds terrible. Coolhunters determine the next trends operating in street culture. I am very tired of found digital art and the possibility of haunted media.
We have no future because our present is too volatile. We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition.
There's your title (Robert is a sibling of your parent). I noticed that my favorite novels of the year LibraThe Passenger and The Name of the Rose all concern revelation and hermeneutics. I won't be including Pattern Recognition is conversation with those other triumphs....more
I give this a soft four. My interest dipped over the course of the last two stories. By that acknowledgement I am admiAnd God sent him to Hell anyway.
I give this a soft four. My interest dipped over the course of the last two stories. By that acknowledgement I am admitting that I recovered from my initial disappointment with the second story (Understand) after the blazing triumph of the first one (Tower of Babylon). I found the first story a Borgesian parable. The second appears a bit derivative, even if you acknowledge that it is over thirty years old.
So, yes, collectively this is a book-long hermeneutic, divided into conceptual stories which ultimately are epistemological, if often gnostic. The penultimate story concerned angelic Visitation and questions of Divine Justice.
Our beauty receptors receive more stimulation than they were evolved to handle; we're seeing more beauty in one day than our ancestors did in a lifetime. And the result is that beauty is slowly ruining our lives.
Strange enough I preferred that to the final story, one which was Black Mirror in written form. It could have used a golem courtesy of an earlier story's steampunk rabbis....more
3.5 stars Presently a few people that I care deeply about are suffering. Serious things. I felt myself bending in empathy and thought I needed a detou3.5 stars Presently a few people that I care deeply about are suffering. Serious things. I felt myself bending in empathy and thought I needed a detour, I needed a field guide for being a bad anthropologist. And just like that I found one.
I liked this but similar to the other Tchaikovsky I read over Labor Day this lacks in terms of denouement. There’s almost a YA feel to the conclusion. Otherwise it is an intriguing survey of technology, hybrid species and misused loan words. It is difficult review without slipping into spoilers so trust in the idea that this is a worthy diversion, one which plumbs the implications of scientific objectivity and the garland of emotions we bring to our sense data....more
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