Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
If you read one book this year, it shoud be this one. It's utterly amazing and has made me a far better person. The book attempts to explain why it is that Eurasian civilizations have been so advanced for so much of history and currently dominate the world, whereas New World and African societies have tended to be a lot more primitive. The complete work is very convincing and also enthralling, explaining a lot about the world and full of interesting tidbits of human history. If you want to know why so many diseases arose in the Old World (consider Spaniards wiping out American civilizations with influenza), who developed farming and why China never discovered the Americas, pick this book up. I can't recommend it enough.

Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
I don't think I'm much of a fan of Vonnegut overall. Something about his writing style just frustrates me - I think perhaps it's too postmodern. I like plots whereas Vonnegut seems to paint very long tableaus. I suppose I am a traditionalist in that I want something to actually happen in the books I read.

A Scanner Darkly - Philip Dick
I really enjoyed this book too. Drugs! Spies! Awesomes! I would write more, but now I am horribly tired. I had high expectations for this book, and I think it lived up to them, so now I am happy.

I am now reading Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game". So far, it is weird. :D

I hadn't heard of this book before, but it was in my "Great Science Fiction" compendium along with 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Day of the Triffids and I, Robot. It didn't really compare to any of them.

On the plus side, it was very well written, and the basic premise was interesting. It's not really science fiction, per se; instead, the book is set thousands of years in the future, on a planet inhabited by the descendants of religious refugees from Earth. They set up a rigid social system in which the self is denied; even the words "I" and "me" are removed from the language, replaced by "one" or by passive constructions. In this world, the protagonist slowly comes to oppose the system of self-denial, claiming that love of self is a prerequisite of love of others. The world is incredibly easy to imagine because it's described so consistently and in such detail.

On the downside, the book contains what is basically magic, dressed up in pseudo-science. This is terrible. Additionally, nothing much really happens. I get that the book is an exploration of the extent to which selfishness has a place in society, but it could easily be a lot shorter; there's really only one point repeated several times. Also, I found the sex scenes quite awkwardly written.

Overall, maybe five out of ten for this one, and not really worth the bother unless you have some reason to read it.

Was good. It took a little while to get into it, mainly because the writing style was quite different to all the books I've read lately; it was very impressionistic and metaphor-heavy. One I'd got into it, though, I was gripped. The plot and the characters were all fantastic, and the whole book is a nice romantic reminder of how wonderful books are. Also, dystopias are always good news, and it was interesting to see so much of our present world reflected in this book about a grim future, written over fifty years ago. But I'll let you discover this for yourself if you haven't already read it; it's a must for all lovers of books.

Well, life has been quite busy, which is why I haven't posted in about an age. From Monday 6th to Tuesday 14th, I was busy with my cousin's wedding. I was utterly exhausted by the end of it - it was way too long and far too much effort - but at least it's over now.

On Wednesday, to destress, I met up with Josh and we went on a giant walk from Luton town centre all the way to the countryside. It was about 3 miles each way, but it was nice because we ended up on a road by some farms, looking down at Luton in the distance. Then we went into a little forest. It's weird how close the countryside is, really (I remember Eva telling me how she loves the British countryside because more or less all of the Netherlands is one big conurbation), and lovely to just escape to it and get away from traffic and people.

Today I met up with Annie and we wandered around some charity shops in Harpenden and St Albans. Pickings were good: I picked up The Children of Húrin, Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (which has continued to grow on me since I read it) and a George Orwell Compendium including Down and Out in Paris and London, Homage to Catalonia, The Road to Wigan Pier and several essays (including a review of Mein Kampf). I haven't read any of this stuff before but Orwell is a man after my own heart, so I'm going to enjoy going through it.

In other news, Vauxhall called up and are actually offering me a job. This is both unbelievable and fantastic in equal measure, because I'd kind of given up on finding a job. It's only for 6 weeks, starting this Thursday, but that works out kind of well because it means there's time for a holiday in September. Unfortunately, it means I can't go to Finland to spend time with Ukri, Hanni, Maria and Volo, but there are still many years ahead...

It's been a good long time since I read a dystopia, so I quite enjoyed this. Written in 1920s Russia, "We" was the inspiration behind 1984.

The book was interesting to me for several reasons. Firstly, of course, there is my general obsession with dystopias. But besides that, We is also chronologically interesting for me - the precursor to Orwell, but a descendant of Wells, it occupies an important position of transition. There are definitely strong elements of Wellsian sci-fi - there's a spaceship present, for example. Zamyatin departs from Wells in making his dystopia "mathematic" rather than capitalist - that is,a scientific, authoritarian future, purportedly for the good of all, kind of a nightmarish vision of Wells' own scientific utopias. At the same time, it feels far less oppressive, and far more light-hearted in spirit, than 1984 - it pokes fun at the idea of such a perfectly ordered world.

The book itself was quite good; the first half was perhaps a little slow, but the second half was quite exciting. I disliked a key element of the plot - the idea that "love" is (perhaps the only thing) powerful enough to overcome such extreme conditioning, but I liked the book as a whole, probably thanks to its political subtext. Not an outstanding book, but worth a read if you have an interest in dystopias, Wells, Orwell, or early Soviet Russia.

Eva/Cailín came to visit yesterday and we spent seven wonderful hours together. Photos will go onto facebook soon. Eva was charming and great to be with, what with indulging my random whims (hey, I've never been down this path before! Wanna explore?). We did a lot of wandering around Oxford looking at beautiful buildings, went to Oxfam (where I bought the Discworld Mapp! Score!), had smoothies and went punting. A shame about her shoulders getting burnt in the 30 degree heat. Anyway, she claims to have liked Oxford so much that she'll convince Neil/Eomer to come one day. :D

Today was the first of two open days, which are my alleged purpose for staying behind. I got really into showing people around; it's generally been good fun, which is the ideal type of work. I'll probably be shattered by the end of tomorrow though!

I've read four books this term. What's been unusual is that three of them have had a very strong effect on me, which is a good ratio. Here they are:

The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History - Colin McEvedy
Star-Begotten - H. G. Wells
Knots - R. D. Laing
Has Man a Future? - Bertrand Russell

The Penguin Atlas of Ancient History - Colin McEvedy
Well, I suppose the word "read" is used loosely here in that half of the book was taken up with maps. This book has changed my perception of the world mainly because I now actually know a little about the history of the human race in the West and Near East. At school, we were taught about Greeks, followed by Romans, followed by the Dark ages. We're not really taught about the context of Greece and Rome, or what came before. For me, it's important to know these things for a sense of continuity and understanding where we come from; Western society is obviously largely based on Greece and Rome, but they themselves were the descendants of other societies. I now understand the entire process of the spread of civilisation from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern Britain, which is great (although eventually I should also learn about Chinese, Indian, African and American civilisation).

It's also kind of crazy to think of man before he discovered farming and thus set the foundation for civilisation. Our brains now may be no different from what they were 12,000 years ago, but the fact of civilisation has changed us so much in that brief time.


Star-Begotten - H. G. Wells
The one book which didn't affect me much. One of Wells' less known and, frankly, less good books; nothing much happens except the advocation of eugenics really. Still, I am a great Wells fan, so I wasn't hugely disappointed - but probably not for people without a specific interest in Wells.


Knots - R. D. Laing
I'm not quite how to describe this book. It's a short, incredibly beautiful volume of poetry, essentially describing knots, paradoxes and lack of logic in human thoughts. The result is simultaneously hilarious and depressing, and I strongly recommend it. Perhaps a couple of quotes will do it justice:

They are not having fun.

I can’t have fun if they don’t.

If I get them to have fun, then I can have fun with them.

Getting them to have fun, is not fun. It is hard work.

I might get fun out of finding out why they’re not.

I’m not supposed to get fun out of working out why

they’re not.

But there is even some fun in pretending to them I’m not

having fun finding out why they ’re not.

 

A little girl comes along and says: let’s have fun.

But having fun is a waste of time, because it doesn’t

help to figure out why they’re not having fun.

 

How dare you have fun when Christ died on the Cross

for you! Was He having fun?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JILL I’m upset you are upset

JACK I’m not upset

JILL I’m upset that you’re not upset that I’m

upset you’re upset

JACK I’m upset that you’re upset that I’m not

upset that you’re upset that I’m upset,

when I’m not.

JILL You put me in the wrong

JACK I am not putting you in the wrong

JILL You put me in the wrong for thinking you

put me in the wrong.
 

JACK Forgive me

JILL No

JACK I’ll never forgive you for not forgiving me

Has Man a Future? - Bertrand Russell
I'd never read anything by Russell before; I'd only heard of his teapot, which pleased me of course. Then I read the first line of this book and instantly feel in love with the man:
"Man, or homo sapiens, as he somewhat arrogantly calls himself, is the most interesting, and also the most irritating, of animal species on the planet Earth". Incredibly true, and incredibly succinctly expressed. Reading the rest of the book, I feel my worldview coincides greatly with Russell's, and feel ready to call him one of my favourite philosophers already.

Two more quotes:
The division of mankind into competing and often hostile nations has had a disastrously distorting effect upon national estimates as to who deserves honour. We in Britain have devoted our most conspicuous public monuments to Nelson and Wellington, whom we honour for their skill in killing foreigners.

Patriots always talk of dying for their countries, and never talk of killing for their countries.

The book, written in 1961, deals largely with the nuclear aspect of the Cold War, calling for disarmament on both sides. It raised some very interesting points. We all know of Stanislav Petrov, who prevented nuclear war by correctly identifying what appeared to be an incoming US missile as a false alarm and refusing to retaliate. However, the same thing actually happened on the opposite side as well. Several times, flocks of geese, and at least once, the moon (!) were mistaken for a Russian attacks and bombers set off on "retaliatory" raids, only later being called back. It's also full of various other interesting facts from the Cold War Era, and definitely worth a read.

Hooray! It hasn't been a ridiculous amount of time since I last blogged!

Numerous exciting things have happened in life. I went to Cambridge for the weekend to go to Strawberry Fair - basically, a huge one-day hippy-fest, which was quite wonderful. There was lots to see, eat and do, most of it bizarre. The two things which stand out were Capoeira and Singing Bowls.

Capoeira (make sure you watch until 1:00 at least):
I was utterly enchanted by this. I looked it up on wikipedia afterwards, and it's described as an art form rather than a martial art - the music, for instance, is crucial. We literally watched this for ages, perhaps half an hour, and couldn't tear our eyes away. So beautiful.

Singing bowl. They are beautiful. Here's some of the stuff they can do:
I have bought one and am slightly in love with it now. Two of my friends also bought some, and a third is getting one off Ebay, so we may well form a troupe. :D

In other news, yesterday I ate crayfish for the first time. Seeing as it's not the most common term, here is a picture of a crayfish for all you non-native English speakers:
My friend caught them from the river and kept them in a bucket in his kitchen. Then we boiled them and ate them, which was incredibly fiddly, what with ripping off the bottom, then tearing off the shell, carefully removing the genital-urinary tract and trying not to spill guts everywhere. However, they were tasty and it was definitely worth it. Whenever I'm presented with a whole animal carcass to eat, i.e. the meat isn't made to look like it isn't an animal, my immediate reaction is to squeam, but I get into it after that. It felt nice to be a little like a hunter-gatherer rather than a super-sanitised urban wimp.

Today I went to see a play for the first time ever (yes, I admit it, this is one aspect of life in which I'm ridiculously uncultured). To make matters worse, it was in French - La Cantatrice Chauve by Ionesco. However, I understood it fine (I would say I understood at least 90%) and found it hilarious, which was great. I should definitely go the theatre more often now. Also, I am definitely studying Ionesco in fourth year!

I also bought two books today, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and Star-Begotten by H. G. Wells. I look forward to reading them both.

I'd usually be thinking about the end of term by now (it finishes on the 20th), but I'm staying in Oxford until the beginning of July to help with interviews. I am really looking forward to long summer days in Oxford with nothing to do! Feel free to visit, one and all.

Yesterday I went charity shopping with Annie, with pleasing results. I bought the RotK DVD (yes, shamefully I didn't own it before...), 2 Discworld books (1 of which I already owned, alas), an atlas of ancient history and the Book of Lost Tales by Tolkien. I'm particularly pleased with the last two. The atlas covers all those ancient Eurasian empires, like the Hittites and Assyrians, that nobody really cares about. I feel I should know more about them - the world didn't start with the Ancient Greeks, and it will be interesting to see what came before them. The Book of Lost Tales I remember being my favourite volume of the History of Middle Earth series - so much amazing myth.

I also bought a 5000 year old game. It was discovered in Ur and dates from 2600 BC (although my replica dates from the 1980s). It's pretty darn fantastic. Look at the board!



Look at the pieces!


It would be worth it for the amazing design alone, but I've played it and it's a pretty good game, somewhat like backgammon but more strategic.

Finally, anybody who is LJ friends with lalwendeboggart will remember her Walkers taste test. If not, and if so, to recap: Walkers introduced 6 new flavours of crisps, only one of which can survive. Like Lal, I have now tried all six, and can rank them:

1 - Builder's Breakfast
2 - Fish and Chips
3 - Cajun Squirrel
4.5 - Hoisin Duck / Onion Bhaji
6 - Chilli and Chocolate

Builder's Breakfast is something like crisp heaven, while Chilli and Chocolate approaches hell. I was quite impressed with Fish and Chips as well. The other three flavours were good at tasting like what they were meant to, but not good flavours for crisps.

Films

I recently bought The Motorcycle Diaries and Pan's Labyrinth to add to my meagre DVD collection.

Recently seen: Che part 1, The Class, Sunshine.

Che: part 1

Fairly interesting look at his life but one of those films I probably wouldn't watch more than once, I guess. The best part was Castro's soothing voice... Should probably get round to watching part 2 some time.

The Class (Entre les murs)

Again, this was a very interesting look into French classrooms, and the acting was superb. Lots of nicely flawed characters, wonderfully French.

Sunshine

Crap science, but suspension of disbelief was fine due to the good acting. The psychological aspect of the film, getting to know the characters and all, was brilliant. A good sci-fi film overall, but not quite a classic, I think.


Books

Recently read: The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) and Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder)

The Old Man and the Sea

Well it was quite interesting to read, but I wasn't sure what to make of it afterwards... Apparently, Hemmingway said that he didn't give the book "meaning" to start with, but that's clearly bollocks... I suppose my main problem is that there are too many different things that can be read into the book, and I don't know enough about Hemmingway to know what is from the author and what is from me (although that raises the question of how important that distinction is anyway). Ho hum. I think the main message I got out of it was an existential one - the twin futlity and nobility of everything we do.

Sophie's World

Written by the second famous writer from Norway (awww). I really liked it as an introduction to philosophy, but the plot was a bit bash. I can kind of see what the author was trying to do in the second half - exploring questions of reality, existence, free will - but don't think it worked particularly well. Still, definitely worth it if you want a quick intro to philosophy.


Music

Give yourself a cookie if you read all the above. If so (and even if not, I suppose), here is your Jewish-Ethiopian reward:

Overall this was a good book which I'd recommend to others, giving it 4 out of 5, but not something I'd consider a classic or equivalent to many of my favourite dystopian / apocalyptic books. Oryx and Crake covers the territory of both genres

First, the good points: it was well-written and easy to read. The dystopian elements were good food for thought - not entirely original, but covering topical issues which I imagine will remain relevant for a long time. Some of the ideas will, I imagine, stick with me forever. People have complained that some of the characters are wooden, and it's true that they weren't explored in much depth, but I found it easy to associate with the protagonist and to understand the others to an extent.

On to negative points. The main point of dystopian literature is to show the reader your dystopia. However, if you choose to do this in novel form, you need to create a plot to follow. Thus, in 1984 we follow Winston Smith's rebellion; in Brave New World, the Savage's wonder. In Oryx and Crake, there's no real tension - the protagonist might not be content, but he fits into the dystopian world. I suppose this is an alternative method of showing us the dystopia, but it's not hugely interesting. Similarly, in a post-apocalyptic book, you need tension in the form of a battle to survive as in War of the Worlds or The Day of the Triffids. The protagonist of Oryx and Crake doesn't live in much real danger; the post-apocalyptic section of the book just follows him around. This was especially frustrating as at least in the dull dystopian sections, we get to see the dystopia in action. Succinctly, the book is good as philosophy or a thought experiment, but not brilliant as a story.

In addition to this, some of what the characters do sometimes doesn't seem to fit in with their character.

( SPOILERS - More specific thoughts on the book )

This was an incredibly eye-opening book on US foreign policy. It should be compulsory reading for every US citizen and everyone who cares about the state of the world.

The basic premise of the book is that US foreign policy is geared towards securing permanent US global hegemony, whatever the cost; this explains the stark gap between US rhetoric and actual foreign policy. There's are several case studies on countries in which democratically elected governments have been overthrown - with US support, often material - and replaced by dictatorships subservient to US interests - e.g. Nicaragua. In other cases, US military aid is given to nations supporting the US which have a complete disregard for human rights, such as Turkey at a time when it was brutally suppressing the Kurds. It undermines the whole rhetoric about love of "democracy", which obviously collapses when you think about it, but does so by providing example after example.

But the book covers a lot more than that basic and unarguable premise. For example, the role of propaganda is examined, as is everything from the Cuban Missile Crisis to humanitarian intervention to the US harbouring of terrorists. I think the most important thing I got from the book was a renewed concept of terrorism. Just as political groups such as Al-Qaeda or the IRA can commit terror (and this is no less to be condemned), so a nation can engage in "state-terrorism", that is, using violence and terror as a means to achieving political or ideological goals. The CIA instigating a coup or assassinating a leader is state-terrorism. Arming the Columbian military, or any paramilitaries who attack civilian populations, is state-terrorism. Imposing economic sanctions, which hurt the people and not the leadership, such as in Iraq or Cuba, is state-terrorism. More or less the whole of US foreign policy is state-terrorism.

Overall, this is a very disillusioning book. I recommend it if you want to understand present US foreign policy or learn about their past crimes, but prepare to feel thoroughly powerless and depressed.

I watched both of these during my wonderful stay in Leeds, where much geekery (read: Age of Empires) happened.

Princess Mononoke

For a while, this was the highest-grossing film in Japan. Finding that out was a little shocking - it shows how completely different Japan is to the West. It's an anime, so I was dubious at first, but it was actually very good - a historical fantasy following a cursed prince attempting to get his curse lifted. The characters were a lot more complex than anything you'd find in Disney, although the protagonist's moralizing was ever so slightly grating. The music was really good. The fantasy world was well made - simple enough for the big screen, but nice and imaginative. I can't wait to see more by the creators now.

Twilight

brinniel  mentioned this is a post recently, and sarahlitarose  wrote scathingly about the book in February. Although I was dubious about this film too because I'd heard it was a romance, I actually quite liked it as a one-off bit of entertainment. I liked how the vampires lived and the inclusion of Native Americans, and of course vampire baseball! I suppose I liked the heroine for being nice and analytical, until she became incredibly stupid briefly for plot purposes. The villains were nicely villainous. Edward was not especially attractive. The romance itself was annoying simply because of the overt Christian sexual morality, but overall it was definitely not a bad film.

I'm not sure I'd want to read the book though. From what sarahlitarose  says, it sounds like I'd find it pretty dull - romance is not really my genre, so repetitve gushing over one another would probably do my head in. However, one of my friends has read and likes the books, and she promised me both lesbianism and a greater role for Native Americans if I should read it. I wonder if those elements are worth churning through the romantic bits.

volobm , it will be a crime if you do not read this. It was made for you.

aliquisa , I'm certain you will approve of this too.

lady_wormtongue , avatar_sitar hobbitsizerooms (presuming you are Kitanna); I'm not certain, but I think you will like this.

Here is the link: http://www.lockpickbook.net You can read it on the net, and it is nice and short.

This ties in with my last post about challenging societal norms. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but the book is basically about a group of gays who hate and rebel against hetero-normative society and values, and how they react to it. It is fantastic. Promise.

Here is a review from elsewhere:   It's impossible to talk about a book like Joey Comeau's Lockpick Pornography without first considering the way things like terror, gender, family values, and even the publishing industry are currently constructed, because every page in this grenade of a novel is written to blow them to bits. Everything is fair game to be smashed and reconstituted, from the boundaries of gender to the proper way to handle a closed door. This tiny spitfire also manages in turn to be funny, awkward and tender, all strung together with explicit, cover-your-kid's-eyes sex and violence.

I realise some of you aren't on LJ that much any more, so I might facebook you about it over the next week or so.

Day of the Triffids

I don't know why this book isn't more well known. I heard about it as it was a major influence for 28 Days Later, then realised I own it. As apocalyptic fiction goes, it's amazing. The characterisation is very good so that you end up actually caring about the characters, rather than the author just using them to explore the breakdown of the world. The various human reactions to that breakdown are very realistic. The nature of the apocalypse itself is somewhat bizarre, and the Triffids are just pure madness, but I didn't find suspension of disbelief difficult at all - the book is very well written, as well as nicely English. I think this is definitely one of my favourite books now.

In Watermelon Sugar

I got this because one of my friends recommended it to me. Here is the blurb:

iDEATH is a place where the sun shines a different colour every day and where people travel to the length of their dreams. Rejecting the violence and hate of the old gang at the Forgotten Works, they lead gentle lives in watermelon sugar. In this book, Richard Brautigan discovers and expresses the mood of a new generation.

Reading that, I was not best pleased and expecting some kind of pretentious post-modern rubbish. It was pretentious and post-modern, but it wasn't bad and there was, happily, a plot. Various words come to mind: surreal, symbolist, impressionistic, dream-like, beautiful. The setting was some kind of small settlement, perhaps a commune. The humans behaved realistically much of the time, but there were times when their actions are as bizarre as the world they inhabit. It's hard to describe this book, really. It's one of those ones where you really have to give it your own meaning and interpret it as you will. If that appeals, I recommend it; if you have more conventional tastes, steer well clear.

Random fact: the Klaxons wrote a song about this book, Forgotten Works.

( My views... spoilers )

Book recycling scheme: http://www.greenmetropolis.com Sell any book for £3, buy any book for £3.75, free delivery unless it's a hardback or weird size!

There aren't any books I desperately want at the moment, so I'm happy to wait and see if the ones I vaguely want will turn up for cheaper in a charity shop somewhere. However, they have a huge range of stuff, so if you are after something I would check it out. If you don't mind second-hand books, you should save some money AND help the planet.

I've just finished a couple of books by Voltaire for my course, Candide and Lettres philosophiques / anglaises. After studying realism for so long, I'd forgotten French could be so easy to read, so well-written and witty.

Candide is a classic of Western literature; I'm not sure how good it is in translation but it was one of the first books I read in French and I couldn't put it down. Fast paced, hilarious, pessimistic... one of my favourite books.

It was the first time I read Lettres philosophiques, but it was very interesting doing so. The basic premise of the book is that the UK is the best country in the world. Voltaire goes on about liberalism, tolerance, parliament and how advanced we were in the sciences. So that was weird. I suppose he'd be a bit depressed to see it now.

I'm looking forward to reading more Voltaire. Witty, well-written and banned by the Pope - what's not to like?

I just finished reading this, and I'm very glad I did. I didn't much like Slaughterhouse 5, but I thought I'd give Vonnegut another try as the blurb looked interesting. Once again, the book was a page-turner, but this one didn't have the silly non-chronological story-telling. And again, the plot and the concepts were so startlingly original that you had to be amazed. This book influeced the Hitchhiker's Guide, actually, which I suspected as soon as I saw the word Betelgeuse.

Like Slaughterhouse 5, this book was packed full of meaning as well as being a good story. It touched on lots of things I'm interested in, not least God and the purpose of existence. Here are a few choice quotes:

"Sometimes I feel it is a great mistake to have matter that can think and feel."

"O Lord Most High, Creator of the Cosmos, Spinner of Galaxies, Soul of Electromagnetic Waves, Inhaler and Exhaler of Inconceivable Volumes of Vacuum, Spitter of Fire and Rock, Trifler with Millinea-what could we do for Thee that Thou couldst not do for Thyself one octillion times better? Nothing. What could we do or say that could possibly interest Thee? Nothing. Oh, Mankind, rejoice in the apathy of our Creator, for it makes us free and truthful and dignified at last."

"We hate Malachi Constant because he accepted the fantastic fruits of his fantastic good luck without a qualm, as though luck were the hand of God."

All of these were sentiments I already felt, although expressed far more beautifully than I could manage.

Conclusion: Go and read!

I've recently finished reading Dune and Second Foundation and finished watching Heroes season 2. Spoilers behind cuts.

Dune - Overall brilliant. It's been compared to Middle-Earth and I can see why - the world feels incredibly complete, which is very rare and hard to achieve. The plot is excellent and will draw you in. The book actually felt much more like a fantasy than science fiction, what with the feudalism and prophecies. Definitely one to read if you haven't before. My only gripe was that the characters were too easily divided into good and evil, but if you can manage LotR that's hardly going to bother you.

Second Foundation - This book concluded the Foundation trilogy, of which I really enjoyed the second but wasn't too thrilled with the first. I found this book, like the first, wasn't that great - the plot is slow and sometimes the characters do odd things... But it's almost worth reading it for the twists at the conclusion!

Heroes Season 2 - Disappointing after the fantastic first series. The plot lacked focus and didn't seem to go anywhere for ages, and then suddenly concluded swiftly and unsatisfactorily. Also, most annoying of all, lots of the characters suddenly developed Lack of Analysis Syndrome, or simply put, Stupid Syndrome.
( More thoughts with spoilers )

I spent the weekend at Cambridge because one of my friends (Mike the Mathematician) lives there. Five Oxonians were there altogether, plus a couple of Mike's friends at some points. I've been to Cambridge a couple of times before and think it is actually quite a lot nicer than Oxford. The grand college, like King's, are prettier than Oxford equivalents like ChristChurch; the towncentre is more spread out and doesn't have people spilling onto the streets; there are loads of parks spread out throughout the town and the shops are better (Fopp! Giant Oxfam! Amnesty Bookshop! Mead vendors! Geeky shop whose name eludes me!).

I had a good time, involving punting (with no falling in! The poles are lighter in Cambridge and therefore easier to manage too. Oh, and the river is cleaner), picnics, nudists, blackberries (first of the season!), bubbles, pubs and Age of Empires until 3:30am.

I bought quite a few things at brilliant Cambridge prices, including LOTR FOTR DVD which I shamefully did not own; these games: Age of Empires 1, Shogun Total War, Theme Hospital; and a book by Noam Chomsky called Hegemony or Survival. Noam Chomsky is one of my person heroes, being a linguist, a socialist, the most quoted living person in the humanities and generally cool. I'd always meant to read one of his political books but never got round to it, so it was this to find this book on American foreign policy for £3.

I think I'm turning into a hardcore sci-fi / fantasy geek this holiday. I finished reading Foundation and Empire and thought it was awesome - a lot better than the first book, perhaps because it was more linear and more depressing (about the Foundation in descendency instead of ascendency). So yes, well worth the read. The universe created is very believable too. I've reserved the last one in the trilogy, Second Foundation, but annoyingly they only have it in large print.

I got Dune out of the library. See you in a week...

I bought:

Thud! by Terry Pratchet... have lots of Discworld now, will one day catch them all.

"Great Science Fiction Stories" - bargain from Oxfam at 99p. Contains 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Time of Changes (Robert Silverberg)
, The Day of the Triffid (John Wyndham) and I, Robot. I've never heard of the two middle ones, but I've read I, Robot and always wanted to read 2001: A Space Odyssey.

If you have even the slightest interest in Language, I suggest you read Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct. I'm currently reading his latest book, The Stuff of Thought, which I think is inferior to his other books, which all present a theory, as opposed to the Stuff of Thought which is more or less a romp through various linguistic topics that, though interesting, aren't part of a single overarching idea.

However, Pinker's style is still as enjoyable and full of anecdotes as ever. One of my favourites was "Project Steve," which I'll quote from the Stuff of Thought:

A brainchild of the National Center for Science Education, the initiative is a parody of the creationist tradition of publishing lists of several dozen "scientists who dissent from Darwinism." The NCSE replies: "Oh yeah? Well we have a list of several hundred scientists who affirm evolution - just named Steve!"

Variants such as Stephanie and Estaban are allowed, but still a brilliant idea. :D How on Earth so many Americans manage to convince themselves that animals just popped out of nowhere and coincidentally happened to share loads of their DNA is beyond me. Religion is understandable to an extent, but claiming that a Holy Book is literally true in the face of all the evidence, not to mention reason, is just something I will never be able to comprehend, no matter how hard I try. "Oh, fossils? Just put there to test us..."

From the website:

Creationists are fond of circulating statements denouncing evolution signed by as many scientists as they can muster, with the intention of conveying the impression that evolution is a theory in crisis. The point of Project Steve is to demonstrate, in a lighthearted manner, that, on the contrary, the status of evolution within the scientific community is secure. But the signatories realize that science is not conducted by voting.

The Steve-o-meter has reached 892, in case you were wondering. :D

Happy Backwards Day! Today, much on Sci-fi

I read Foundation by Asimov recently on the advice of a Norwegian Mathematician. It was okay, not as awesome as I expected. I suppose I like the idea without necessarily enjoying the writing style. I remember liking I, Robot quite a lot more. Anywho, I've ordered Foundation and Empire from the library anyway as I'm curious... I also plan to read Dune at some point, with high expectations.

I also bought a book called "Selected Short Stories by H G Wells" recently. Now, Wells is the closest thing I have to a God - an awesome writer and frightening prophet, the father of sci-fi, a dedicated socialist and founder of the League of Nations - so I am predictably quite happy about this. I've been wanting to get my hands on some of his more obscure stuff, including compilations of short stories, for a while now, and the book was only £1.50 from Age Concern. Unfortunately it was printed in the 70s, resulting in there being no pages 137-156, although in their place you get a bonus duplication of pages 197-216. This has ruined three of the stories, but luckily I own two of them in a different book (which I think I've lent to somebody...)

Anyway, the Wells is very good so far. There's a lot of variety in the collection, and it's nice to get a bit of his comedy and more poetic pieces in addition to the sci-fi and socialism he's famous for.

I do have a ton of French to read, but I deserve a break. Ugh at nineteenth century French lit - Realism is clearly the worst literary movement of all time. "Let's make writing as mundane as possible!"

 I spent two days in Cambridge this week, Wednesday to Friday morning - it was fantastic. Cambridge is really so mcuh nicer than Oxford - there areparks everywhere. I stayed at Mike's (wonderful Oxford mathematician) house, which is awesome and Victorian. Time splitters, age of empires and cake-baking occurred.

Purchases:

Books:
Is it just me or is everything shit? 1 and 2. Cynical and hilarious. Everything is indeed shit. The only problem I found with this is that the authors seem to think that, if they insert the word "fuck" into every single entry, the book will be better. This is also shit. Such is life.
No Logo by Naomi Klein. Some anti-corporate book from Oxfam, should be interesting. It's hard to believe the extent to which corporations control literally everything... somebody should really inform David Icke.

DVDs:
Donnie Darko. 'Nuff said.
The Edukators - German film about a group of communists who break into people's houses and rearrange their furniture. Seen it before, it's really good.

Other:
Mead. Yes, mead. On the basis that honey tastes amazing, this should clearly be my drink of choice from now on. Unfortunately Cambridge seems to be the only place I can get it, and you can't exactly go to a bar and say "glass of mead please".



In other news, I am back to Oxford on Wednesday (at last, thank God!). I will have exams straight away. I do not remember which parts of the course I'll be tested on... I have no idea what to revise. Damn it. Home work is still to be done.

Next term is going to be ludricously busy. Exams at both ends of term, which is only 9 weeks. I already have stuff planned for the first four weekends - that's half the term!  Gah. It also doesn't help that I have a gameboy advance charger now, so I'm back on Pokemon and Super Mario. And of course, the ever present Risk boardgame. And Go. And climbing trees. It will be sunny. Perhaps going to parks. And I'll have my own laptop. Facebook and Livejournal. Oh, and David Cameron is coming in the first week, but I don't think I'll get in - according to facebook, 760 people are definitely going and a further 300 are maybes. The Oxford Union tends to get full at around 250 people. Alas, I did actually want to go listen to the twat say stupid things. Oh well.

How much work will get done? Any bets?

I've almost finished reading La Peste for the second time, and like the first time, I feel really inspired. I feel I understand what Camus was saying, and the difference between him and Sartre, much better now - largely thanks to a random book attacking atheism which I found and flicked through in a bookshop. Sartre holds the view that man can, in some way, replace God. That's the classic humanism/communism which I adhered to a couple of years ago.

Camus, on the other hand, doesn't try to replace God. His view is a lot more pessimistic - that we can never build up a utopia. I came to agree with this pessimistic view a while back, and I kind of let it get to me in that, despite holding my beliefs, I never did anything about them. The characters in La Peste are inspiring because, despite acknowledging their smallness in the world, they never stop trying to improve it in their own small way. The carry on even though they know that ultimately, what they achieve is going to be tiny, and then we're all going to die anyway.

That is exactly the kind of inspiration I needed to get off my arse. Last year, at sixth form, I pretty much single-handedly ran the Amnesty International Club (3 members...) but I decided against joining at uni because I didn't agree with their view on the death penalty (and am still unable to decide. It's a difficult question, and I think ultimately it's more rational to support it, and more humane not to. As some Frenchy once said, there are two great errors one can commit in thinking: relying too much, or too little, on reason. I can't decide where this one falls). I've realised now how silly that was - even if I do disagree with one aspect of what they aim for, I agree with all the rest. I also stopped because I felt that I couldn't make a difference - but of course I can. It's just a tiny, tiny one in the grand scheme of things. You have to be happy to save people one at a time - you can't save them all at once.

One of Gandhi's more famous quotes is "you must be the change you wish to see in the world," which resonates nicely with La Peste. Another example of my own complacency and despondency in the face of the world is the use of plastic bags. So many millions are being used, I felt I couldn't make a difference. All it took to change my mind a few months ago was going shopping with Mike (friend at Oxford), and seeing that he took his own bags. He didn't say anything about it, or tell me to change my evil ways. But seeing him, I realised that the change I wanted to see couldn't come about if I didn't participate - a revelation that I suppose I'm generalizing now - and started declining bags at supermarkets.

I suppose the worst thing I've done (from my point of view) is give up on the whole socialism thing. It's sad that, of the handful of organisations surviving on the far left, almost all are weird, Marxist-Leninist commies. That kind of thinking just doesn't apply any more, I think, so I was put off. But I can be anti-corporate without belonging to a formal group. Corporations do hideous things in the world, and we learn to ignore them because of the low prices and also because those being oppressed are out of sight, out of mind (not to mention out-groups...) And even though a one man boycott wont bring down Primark, it will make a slight - ever so slight - dent in their profits, and possibly set a precedent.

So there we go. I'll take things one at a time - it's difficult to maintain resolutions if you take too many on at once. I already don't use plastic bags, this term I'll join Amnesty, over summer I'll implement my boycotts and next year, if I find a good group, I'll join some leftist organisation. It's all down in writing, so I can't go back on it.

How fitting that this should happen at the beginning of Spring.

 Why is there so little of it? Yes, I suppose compared to many, such as Sarah, I just have loads of time but am just ineffecient at using it. But look:

Work (+ travel): 6-10 hours / day, usually 8. 5 days a week.
Watching Heroes: 45mins / day.
Grammar revision: 1 hour / day.
Getting ready for the day: 1hr day
Reading La Peste: 1hr/day
Internet: 30mins/day
Dinner: 30mins/day

I have to do all these things (except work twice a week). Yes, I do need the internet, it provides ALL my social life. I'm not sure why I thought it would be a good idea to re-read La Peste. However, I am faring well with it. My French is not good enough to only have an average of 3 words I don't know per page, so I feel obliged to look them all up for a complete understanding of the text, rather than getting the gist of it, as I did the first and only other time I read it.

I have no time to revise for my exams in 4 weeksish. Damn.

In book news, I now own something like 11 second hand Discworld books, huzzah! I also bought a book by H G Well,s brand new from Waterstones, for £1.50 - amazing that you can still get books for the price, though admittedly it was less than 100 pages.

I currently hate George Bush, my father and China. More, perhaps, later.

Life is generally good.

Recently read: Slaughterhouse 5 (Kurt Vonnegut), The Children of Men (P D James), The Trial (Franz Kafka). Spoilers behind cuts.

Slaughterhouse 5 - I heard lots of good things about this. While I think the story was alright, I was also very cynical about the style in which it was written. It seemed to me that the style wasn't entirely necessary for the story, and was more of a method of making people pay attention to the book because it was different. Meh.

The Children of Men - This was MUCH better. It was brilliantly written, I couldn't resist turning the pages. The story was thrilling, the characters well developed; basically, brilliant.


The Trial - You could tell, from the dusty, dry prose, that this was translated from German. This made reading it more of a chore than a pleasure, but I'm glad I did, just to get to the end There's not much to say about this book really - or rather, there's so much to say that I wouldn't end, and it's down to each person to interpret it as they wish. I suppose the world of The Trial could also be called a dystopia in some sense, though the only dystopic element is the judicial system. Most of all, I think the Trial highlights the necessity of a transparent judicial system to prevent tyranny. *glares at America* Although, of course, that is unfair. We only worry about America because it is generally transparent enough, and liberal enough, for us to notice and get angry about the non-transparencies (opaques?), There are many worse countries out there, although, granted, none of them are advanced Western nations.

That is all for now. Next, I'm reading Catch 22. That's all I have time for before I go to uni, but I've appreciated this break from education and got a lot of reading into it.

Is a very good book. Well written, good characterization, good pace, keeps you interested. No real gripes that I can think of. Go now.

In other news, I have decided on a Natwest Account. I would have gone for Halifax, but you have to be 18. Sigh. Anywho, soon I will have plastic money and be at university, so I will be an adult, whatever the birth certificate says.

In yet other news, I am having trouble ordering books for uni. 6 are stuck in France and wont be shipped over until a week into my course, so it's quite difficult to read them beforehand. 1 is not in stock at Waterstones, so they're waitig to get it from the publishers so as to get it to me. This is all very sucky.

I have never written an angry letter to a newspaper before. Let's try that now and reach whole new levels of nerdiness.

I got an A* is my Latin GCSE. For those not from Britain, a GCSE is a basic qualification which, at this point, there is no point in me having other than self-satisfaction. Ho hum.

I've bought a few Discworld books from charity shops, which seems slightly foolish as I'll now want them all and there are about a gazillion of them to collect. The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and Interesting Times are what I've got. I like Pratchett; I'll be taking them to uni along with the hitchhiker's guide because i think i will desperately crave some comic relief.

Apparently Children of Men was a book before it became a film. Has anybody read it? If so, what do you think of it? If not, on the premise that, no matter how good the film, the book is always better, I think I'll read it first.

I went to a London second hand book shop looking for books on my French list today. No luck, but I did find a 1975 copy of a Tolkien compendium for £1.75, including Smith of Wootton Major, Leaf by Niggle, On Fairy Stories and The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth. I hadn't yet read the latter two, so I got very excited and bought it. :D Two new Tolkien tales (well, an essay and a tale), imagine!