Genghis Khan
Ancient Mariner
Hmmm... I have Ken Follet right here on my book shelves. I'll have to open it up and give it a try.
Genghis Khan
Ancient Mariner
Shadow said:
Genghis Khan said:
Three and a half years later, I finally got the opportunity to give this book a chance. I liked some of the philosophical sayings throughout the book, but the reliance on a self-conscious super-computer is a little too much into sci-fi territory for the kind of book I sought. Great story and worthy of a read. Nice to read a fictional work that deals with some libertarian issues.
I skimmed through it a while ago and I have to disagree with my past self. It suffers from the same problem as much of Heinlein's work, including the more famous Stranger in a Strange Land: it doesn't take place in the real world, obviously, but neither does it take place in any convincing alternate version of the real world. The whole thing, the characters as well as the environment, feels like it's set up specifically to propagate Heinlein's politics. Our heroes are wise and reasonable and their opponents stupid and corrupt, which means that there is little room for grey areas. Within the parameters of the story, the solutions of the heroes seem reasonable. Problem is, how much of it is meaningful when applied to the real world?
Still, despite the above and some plotting issues, it's a decent read.
Still, despite the above and some plotting issues, it's a decent read.
Genghis Khan
Ancient Mariner
That's fine. I just find the whole "real world" to be as vague as it gets, as everyone draws their own line of what is "the real world". Heinlein from what I remember changed his politics depending on which woman he was in a relationship. So his "real world" was really all about women. I expect that's what may explain the poly relationships in the book.
Onhell
Infinite Dreamer
Yesterday I finished Michael Crichton's posthumous work Pirate Latitudes and not surprisingly it comes across rather lifeless. According to the back jacket the book was found as a finished manuscript when his files were ransacked after he died. For those living under a rock Crichton passed away 2 years ago of cancer.
I don't know what publishers consider "finished" and we will never know how Crichton himself felt about the book. He shelved Sphere for TWENTY YEARS, because he wasn't able to come up with a good ending. In another interview he states that the Andromeda Strain underwent several rewrites, because his editor kept sending it back to him.
Regardless... We follow the Privateer Charles Hunter and his surly crew of English Pirates on the English Colony of Jamaica, specifically Port Royal. He is whoring and drinking around town when a ship comes in reporting that they saw a Spanish Galleon off the harbor of Matanceros, yet it did not pursue them. This leads everyone to believe it is not a warship, but a treasure ship that got separated from the main fleet during a storm and was awaiting escort at said port. The Governor of Port Royal and Hunter strike a deal and hunter is off to capture the ship.
This "finished" book moves very predictably and forcefully for the first half and you can't really feel Crichton coming through until the second half. The second half of the book is MUCH improved. During the first half all the characters obstacles are too easily and conveniently solved, but once they are on their way back to Jamaica the obstacles are much more complex and the solutions not so obvious, plus we FINALLY see classic Crichton writing which is both great and annoying to see. It's great, because this is the reason people buy Michael Crichton books, just like people keep buying AC/DC records. At the same time, goes to show he was never a good writer, just a good storyteller, that relied on tried and true formulas and ends up repeating himself.
Like I said, if you're a fan it's worth picking up, if you weren't that into him you can skip it. I have mixed feelings about the Epilogue. While it makes it more realistic, the book would have been stronger without it. Specially the execution of it. He basically just lists what happened to the characters, most of which we didn't care for to begin with.
I don't know what publishers consider "finished" and we will never know how Crichton himself felt about the book. He shelved Sphere for TWENTY YEARS, because he wasn't able to come up with a good ending. In another interview he states that the Andromeda Strain underwent several rewrites, because his editor kept sending it back to him.
Regardless... We follow the Privateer Charles Hunter and his surly crew of English Pirates on the English Colony of Jamaica, specifically Port Royal. He is whoring and drinking around town when a ship comes in reporting that they saw a Spanish Galleon off the harbor of Matanceros, yet it did not pursue them. This leads everyone to believe it is not a warship, but a treasure ship that got separated from the main fleet during a storm and was awaiting escort at said port. The Governor of Port Royal and Hunter strike a deal and hunter is off to capture the ship.
This "finished" book moves very predictably and forcefully for the first half and you can't really feel Crichton coming through until the second half. The second half of the book is MUCH improved. During the first half all the characters obstacles are too easily and conveniently solved, but once they are on their way back to Jamaica the obstacles are much more complex and the solutions not so obvious, plus we FINALLY see classic Crichton writing which is both great and annoying to see. It's great, because this is the reason people buy Michael Crichton books, just like people keep buying AC/DC records. At the same time, goes to show he was never a good writer, just a good storyteller, that relied on tried and true formulas and ends up repeating himself.
By this I mean that once again the main character is presented by a supposed insurmountable problem and the solution is at the tip of his tongue. He always thinks "There was something about (blah blah blah), but he couldn't place it." "(blah blah blah) kept tugging at his mind, but he wasn't sure why." In Disclosure it was recordings, In Timeline it was the rubber in tires, in the Andromeda strain the low blood pressure in the old man and the baby... etc, etc, etc. In this one it is something about Leonardo Da Vinci and cannons. Also we see the return of a giant squid. I say return, because he used one in Sphere and this one is ALSO florescent green. I did a quick search of "giant squid"... there are several species scattered across the globe, which is why the legend of the "Kraken" transcends cultures. The search lead to this answer, "The skin is of a giant squid is covered in chromatophores, which enable the squid to change color to suit its surroundings. Like a chameleon." Why he always picks glowing green is beyond me. I really enjoyed the ending, it's rare when the main character doesn't end up the hero and most of the characters don't fair well.
Like I said, if you're a fan it's worth picking up, if you weren't that into him you can skip it. I have mixed feelings about the Epilogue. While it makes it more realistic, the book would have been stronger without it. Specially the execution of it. He basically just lists what happened to the characters, most of which we didn't care for to begin with.
national acrobat
Ancient Mariner
Now reading...Bring On The Empty Horses, by David Niven, an account, or rather collection of anecdotes, about Hollywood in the '30s, '40s and '50s. It's a follow up to his autobiography The Moon's a Balloon, which unfortunately for this second book used up the best of his (albeit numerous) reminisces. Very interesting and entertaining read though; you can't really tire of stories about Errol Flynn getting up to all sorts.
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
Onhell said:
Remember we talked about Greg Graffin's book? It's out now.
Punk rock prof explains ‘Anarchy Evolution’
Editor's Note: CNN's Gabe LaMonica recently spoke with Greg Graffin the lead singer of Bad Religion. In addition to being a rock star, Graffin is also teaching evolution at UCLA and this month released a new book. Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.
In his book Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God, Greg Graffin says, “For me, the existence or nonexistence of God is a non-issue.”
He’s a naturalist, the lead singer of the punk rock band Bad Religion.
The notorious punk riot at the El Portal Theater in Los Angles on December 29, 1990 made his band infamous – CNN covered it – but Graffin wasn’t involved in it.
He still tours internationally with his band, whose new album The Dissent of Man celebrates 30 years of Bad Religion.
Graffin also has a PhD in zoology from Cornell. When he is not on stage, he teaches evolution at UCLA.
Graffin is an atheist who doesn’t like to characterize himself as an atheist. “I bill myself as a naturalist because if you say you’re a naturalist it gives people a conversation point to talk about what you actually do believe in instead of when you say you’re an atheist and it’s really just a statement of what you don’t believe in,” he said.
Though the icon of his band is a Christian cross slashed out as if it was a cigarette on a no smoking sign, Graffin never outwardly attacks religion in his book.
His great-grandfather Zerr was a brilliant theological scholar, a legend in Graffin’s family, and Graffin alludes to a familial rift over Zerr’s strict fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible.
Graffin, third generation from Zerr, was raised in the “absence of theology,” but maintains he was not raised an atheist. “Even though my mom didn’t send us to church, we respected everything that they got out of their family life, including the music, obviously," he said.
The book begins in the style of an autobiography but comes together in a way reminiscent of the dichotomous nature of Graffin’s life and naturalist beliefs. Steve Olson helped to co-write this hybrid of an autobiography and a philosophy rooted in science.
I asked Graffin about his beliefs. Here is an edited transcript of our conversation:
LaMonica: Voltaire said, “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” Is that not your view of nature?
Graffin: *laughs* No, I don’t think so. See that implies there’s a design and of course Voltaire was a deist and a famous one at that and I think he thought that there was some design but I would say that there is no design to nature.
LaMonica: But you certainly have a pedantic sense of humor. You say, “As far as I’m concerned, if a philosopher or theologian wants to interpret scientific data as divine, he or she has a right to do so. (Maybe they can write with a quill pen, too!)."
Graffin: That’s because it seems comedic to me that even modern people think that the debate is such, and maybe it is with the atheist debates, that you can’t believe in God and believe in evolution.
I’m saying that there were many great naturalists before Darwin’s time who were very pious people and who knew more about nature than most of us. These were great naturalists; people I would admire for their knowledge of natural science given the time. But that was at the turn of the 18th Century, in the first decade of the 1800s, and what I’m talking about is that there are people today who still want to think like that, basically ignoring any contributions that Darwin made to the subject.
If they want to do that, it’s perfectly valid, but they’re using a philosophy called natural theology that was popular before Darwin came along.
bearfan
Ancient Mariner
Looking forward to reading this
The WWI Diary of Ernst Jünger
http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... -2,00.html
The WWI Diary of Ernst Jünger
http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... -2,00.html
Prowler_108
Trooper
Prey is a great book.Onhell said:
bearfan said:
Isn't that the same as Storm of Steel, which has been around forever?
____no5
Free Man
Hagakure, by Yamamotto Tsunetomo. It's the book around which is built the plot of Ghost Dog. A kind of manual for Samurai, written in the early 18th century. Tsunetomo, who was a samurai himself, was not allowed to commit disembowelment after the death of his master and he was granted permission to become a Buddhist priest in his 42nd year of his life.
Ten years after he began visited by a young samurai, Tashiro Tsuramoto and had conversations for seven years. This book is Yamamotto's utterances as recorded by Tsuramoto...
*
One cannot accomplish things simply with cleverness. One must take a broad view. It will do to make rash judgments concerning good and evil. However, one should not be sluggish. It is said that one is not the truly samurai if he does not make his decisions quickly and break right through to completion.
*
It is bad to carry even a good thing too far. Even concerning things such as Buddhism, Buddhist sermons and moral lessons, talking too much will bring harm
*
Dreams are truthful manifestations. When I occasionally have dreams in battle or committing seppuku, if I brace myself with courage, my frame of mind within the dream gradually changes. This concerns the dream I had on the night of the twenty seventh day of the fifth month.
*
In China there was once a man who liked pictures of dragons and his clothing and furnishings were all designed accordingly. His deep affection for dragons was brought to the attention of the dragon god and one day a real dragon appeared before his window. It is said that he died of fright. He was probably a man who always spoke big words but acted differently when facing the real thing.
*
Ten years after he began visited by a young samurai, Tashiro Tsuramoto and had conversations for seven years. This book is Yamamotto's utterances as recorded by Tsuramoto...
*
One cannot accomplish things simply with cleverness. One must take a broad view. It will do to make rash judgments concerning good and evil. However, one should not be sluggish. It is said that one is not the truly samurai if he does not make his decisions quickly and break right through to completion.
*
It is bad to carry even a good thing too far. Even concerning things such as Buddhism, Buddhist sermons and moral lessons, talking too much will bring harm
*
Dreams are truthful manifestations. When I occasionally have dreams in battle or committing seppuku, if I brace myself with courage, my frame of mind within the dream gradually changes. This concerns the dream I had on the night of the twenty seventh day of the fifth month.
*
In China there was once a man who liked pictures of dragons and his clothing and furnishings were all designed accordingly. His deep affection for dragons was brought to the attention of the dragon god and one day a real dragon appeared before his window. It is said that he died of fright. He was probably a man who always spoke big words but acted differently when facing the real thing.
*
{Leviathan}
Prowler
I'm reading, The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche.
{Leviathan}
Prowler
Yes of course! I got introduced to The Heart of Darkness through Iron Maiden's "The Edge of Darkness" which is a song about the film Apocalypse Now (great movie by the way), which was based of Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness". So I expect a good book lol. I'll do my best to write a review.Onhell said:As the creator of the thread intended, this is more of a review thread. Let us know what you thought of them when your done
I'm still reading Beyond Good and Evil for class, but if you don't find Philosophy interesting, you won't like Beyond Good and Evil.
portermoresby
Trooper
In the last few months I've been reading some pretty interesting books: The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles (that's where my nickname comes from) Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Empire of the Sun by J.G. Ballard. As for poetry, I've been reading Garcia Lorca, Neruda, Koltz, Ritsos and an Italian anthology of T'ang period classic Chinese poetry (the most famous and well known poets featured there are Li Po and Du Fu).
The Sheltering Sky is about Porter and Kit Moresby, a couple who travels to an unnamed North African country (based on Morocco, Bowles' chosen place to be) to retrive the spark that ignited their love. Very poetic and introspective in places, with a lot of existential angst. Bowles' prose is lucid, though, the result makes for a very good read.
Under The Volcano is the cryptic, reference-heavy, stream-of-consciousness chronicle of the downfall of Geoffrey Firmin, English consul in Mexico. A whole website has been devoted to annotating the often puzzling, sometimes unexpected references and allusions contained in this book (to everything from Goethe's poetry to Ancient Mayan astrology to Kabbalah to Mexican customs) I would recommend it if you're patient and willing to spend sometime in that website (search for The Malcolm Lowry Project on Google). "A Faustian masterpiece", according to Anthony Burgess.
Love in the Time of Cholera is about the unrequited love Florentino Ariza harbors for the beautiful Fermina Daza (whom he calls "The Crowned Goddess" after seeing her wearing a crown of roses) It's a book full of poetic, elegant prose which nonetheless never gets tiresome. I must confess I'm quite a sucker for this kind of books. There's also some of Garcia Marquez's cruel irony in it.
Empire of the Sun, finally, is the story of Jim Graham, a young British boy living in Shanghai. It is set during WWII. Based on Ballard's own experiences in the Lunghua concentration camp, the book is harrowing, at times harshly poetic, full of brutal realism. Steven Spielberg turned it into a movie in 1987 (Christian Bale stars as Jim).
The Sheltering Sky is about Porter and Kit Moresby, a couple who travels to an unnamed North African country (based on Morocco, Bowles' chosen place to be) to retrive the spark that ignited their love. Very poetic and introspective in places, with a lot of existential angst. Bowles' prose is lucid, though, the result makes for a very good read.
Under The Volcano is the cryptic, reference-heavy, stream-of-consciousness chronicle of the downfall of Geoffrey Firmin, English consul in Mexico. A whole website has been devoted to annotating the often puzzling, sometimes unexpected references and allusions contained in this book (to everything from Goethe's poetry to Ancient Mayan astrology to Kabbalah to Mexican customs) I would recommend it if you're patient and willing to spend sometime in that website (search for The Malcolm Lowry Project on Google). "A Faustian masterpiece", according to Anthony Burgess.
Love in the Time of Cholera is about the unrequited love Florentino Ariza harbors for the beautiful Fermina Daza (whom he calls "The Crowned Goddess" after seeing her wearing a crown of roses) It's a book full of poetic, elegant prose which nonetheless never gets tiresome. I must confess I'm quite a sucker for this kind of books. There's also some of Garcia Marquez's cruel irony in it.
Empire of the Sun, finally, is the story of Jim Graham, a young British boy living in Shanghai. It is set during WWII. Based on Ballard's own experiences in the Lunghua concentration camp, the book is harrowing, at times harshly poetic, full of brutal realism. Steven Spielberg turned it into a movie in 1987 (Christian Bale stars as Jim).