Another favorite author of mine is Connie Willis. Today is her birthday.
She writes mostly science fiction, although I have seen some straight-up historical fiction and a book of holiday stories to her credit. She doesn't shy away from big ideas and the style of her prose makes her works easy to read.
My favorite book by Willis is called Bellwether. It is a science fiction story in the sense that the protagonist - Dr. Sandra Foster - is a scientist who studies fads. Everyone who comes into contact with her seems to be a bit loopy, as she looks for solutions to her personal and professional problems. That's a long way from the laser beams and forehead aliens most people associate with sci fi. It has more in common with 30 Rock than Star Wars.
"Schwartzchild Radius," "The Last of the Winnebagos," "A Letter from the Clearies" and "And Come from Miles Around" are all pretty great. Her short story "At the Rialto" is the perfect blend of story (a PhD finds herself unable to get a room for an academic conference) and subject matter (the instability inherent in the rules of particle physics).
I've read a lot by Willis - mostly the short stories, and Bellwether. The Doomsday Book is what I'd like to read next, but most of her works are on the shelf waiting.
Happy Birthday!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
The State I'm In
Today is Brian's birthday. He is the creator of The State I'm In blog, as well as a frequent commenter at the Reader.
Truth be told, he's one of the the oldest friends I have, having first met him in the early 1980's when we attended the same grade school. He had recently obtained the Pac Man game cartridge for the Atari 2600, and I was lying about having recently obtained the Pac Man game cartridge for the Atari 2600. And a friendship was born.
Keeping with the writer's theme, he is today a successful playwright and dramatist in his own right.
Stop by his web page and say hello, won't you?
Truth be told, he's one of the the oldest friends I have, having first met him in the early 1980's when we attended the same grade school. He had recently obtained the Pac Man game cartridge for the Atari 2600, and I was lying about having recently obtained the Pac Man game cartridge for the Atari 2600. And a friendship was born.
Keeping with the writer's theme, he is today a successful playwright and dramatist in his own right.
Stop by his web page and say hello, won't you?
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Best Reads of 2010
Welcome to my Best Reads of 2010 entry.
Most people do a top 10 list; mine is only a top 5. "Why?" you ask. Well, for years I have kept a journal of everything I read. Unfortunately, my journal went into storage inadvertantly in about September 2009. I failed to keep track of my reads in any other journal, and work was busy until mid-May. So there was a lot of lost data. Also, to be fair, if I fleshed it out to 10, half of them would be Philip K. Dick books, and I've written enough about him already (and I'm sure I will write more!)
To shorten up an already too-long story, I could do a top 10, but it would be composed of basically everything of book-length I read this year. So I'm only doing a top 5 this year.
Without further delay:
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba - This is the true story of a young boy from Malawi. Too poor to afford basic schooling, he taught himself the science necessary to build his family a windmill. (Out of scavanged parts and a bicycle generator, no less.) With the windmill, he brought electricity to his central African home, and helped keep excess water out of his father's fields. It is a little slow at first, but it really picks up about Chapter 9. This story is a heartwarming tale of the triumph of the human spirit.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Crime fiction of the highest order, this book by the late Larsson is a pageturner of the best kind.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - If I had to classify this one, I suppose it would be cyber science fiction. It is about 14 years old, but has aged really well. (Mostly. It's take on the internet is ambitious for its time, but does manage to resemble the online world of Half Life, World of Warcraft, etc.) This book takes place 20 minutes into the future - again, my favorite kind of sci fi - and it is a really insightful take on the power of language. It's also a real pageturner. A+. (PS - I love my Cosa Nostra Pizza t-shirt.)
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - First, forget the Paul Verhoven movie. Absolute crap. The book gets a bad rap in some quarters as a fascist, pro-military jingoistic orgy. I suppose. I liked it though, and thought it was very well written, and well thought-out. You may not agree with his politics (and I probably don't) but you can't say it isn't philisophically consistent. I wish he had written ten books like this.
1984 by George Orwell - easily my favorite book. You can read why here.
Honorable Mention:
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
Most people do a top 10 list; mine is only a top 5. "Why?" you ask. Well, for years I have kept a journal of everything I read. Unfortunately, my journal went into storage inadvertantly in about September 2009. I failed to keep track of my reads in any other journal, and work was busy until mid-May. So there was a lot of lost data. Also, to be fair, if I fleshed it out to 10, half of them would be Philip K. Dick books, and I've written enough about him already (and I'm sure I will write more!)
To shorten up an already too-long story, I could do a top 10, but it would be composed of basically everything of book-length I read this year. So I'm only doing a top 5 this year.
Without further delay:
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba - This is the true story of a young boy from Malawi. Too poor to afford basic schooling, he taught himself the science necessary to build his family a windmill. (Out of scavanged parts and a bicycle generator, no less.) With the windmill, he brought electricity to his central African home, and helped keep excess water out of his father's fields. It is a little slow at first, but it really picks up about Chapter 9. This story is a heartwarming tale of the triumph of the human spirit.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - Crime fiction of the highest order, this book by the late Larsson is a pageturner of the best kind.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - If I had to classify this one, I suppose it would be cyber science fiction. It is about 14 years old, but has aged really well. (Mostly. It's take on the internet is ambitious for its time, but does manage to resemble the online world of Half Life, World of Warcraft, etc.) This book takes place 20 minutes into the future - again, my favorite kind of sci fi - and it is a really insightful take on the power of language. It's also a real pageturner. A+. (PS - I love my Cosa Nostra Pizza t-shirt.)
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein - First, forget the Paul Verhoven movie. Absolute crap. The book gets a bad rap in some quarters as a fascist, pro-military jingoistic orgy. I suppose. I liked it though, and thought it was very well written, and well thought-out. You may not agree with his politics (and I probably don't) but you can't say it isn't philisophically consistent. I wish he had written ten books like this.
1984 by George Orwell - easily my favorite book. You can read why here.
Honorable Mention:
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Currently Reading: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
After considering a whole shelf of possible next reads, I decided to take some of my hard-earned Christmas cash (I didn't earn it! That's the joke!) and buy Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe.
I've read the first six chapters, and am not disappointed thus far. It does appear to be mind-bending fiction, which is of course, my favorite kind.
I've read the first six chapters, and am not disappointed thus far. It does appear to be mind-bending fiction, which is of course, my favorite kind.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sarah Vowell
Happy birthday to Sarah Vowell, author of The Wordy Shipmates and a favorite here at the Reader!
A favorite quote: "Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know."
Sarah Vowell
The Partly Cloudy Patriot
A favorite quote: "Being a nerd, which is to say going too far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know."
Sarah Vowell
The Partly Cloudy Patriot
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Quote of the Week
"As we turned to leave, I noticed that the elves seemed agitated. At the door, I looked back to see several of them trying gently to keep the old man in his bed. Color had temporarily filled his cheeks, and he struggled to his feet. Grinning impishly, he motioned for silence and then bent to elf-ear level. He whispered, 'Boys, we're back.' The little men looked mortified."
-Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkeley Breathed
And a very Merry Christmas to everyone who has bothered to read my humble musings this fall!
Friday, December 24, 2010
UBIK and Inception
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
If you don't want the book UBIK or the movie Inception spoiled, please stop reading now.
But feel free to bookmark this page and read it later!
When I first read Philip K. Dick's UBIK, I thought, "someone should really make a movie out of this." When I saw Inception for the first time last week, I thought, "wow. Somebody did." That somebody being Christopher Nolan.
In the interest of full disclosure, the two are not the same. There are similar themes, though, and some really neat instances of congruent storytelling.
First up is worldbuilding. Both stories take place in realities very similar to our own. (My favorite kind of science fiction; not the sci fi of laser blasters and warp drive, but the kind of sci fi that takes place 20 minutes into the future.) People still go to work. Corporations still make billion-dollar deals. People fall in love. And they die. But both stories have one or two technologies which are no where near their infancies in the universe in which we actually live.
In UBIK, corporations employ people with special abilities: telepaths, precogs, people who have telekinetic powers. And when a person dies, if they have the money, they can have their body frozen in a special kind of mausoleum where they enjoy a "second life." They can still be communicated with, as long as the tissues of the brain remain somewhat intact. The cold helps preserve it longer.
In Inception, it is possible to access the dreams of another. This is done in the name of big business and usually done in order to steal ideas. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to implant an idea. There are rules, of course. Time and space take on different qualities. It is possible to dream within a dream. If you are hurt, you feel it. If you die within a dream, you wake up.
While these aspects of these stories may at first seem similar, the fundamental story behind each is not: UBIK is largely the story of a man, Genn Runciter, who is trying to figure out what the hell went wrong on his last corporate mission. A bomb goes off. Then some of his colleagues mysteriously die off, aging rapidly as if they had drank from the False Grail. His boss' likeness starts showing up on coinage. It is my favorite kind of story: the ontological mystery.
Inception is a story that is part caper, part tragedy; but I dare to say it is, in the end, the simpler story archetype of the two: the story of a man, Dominick Cobb (Leo DiCaprio), trying to overcome his own inner demons. Both stories play with one of my favorite themes: "what is real, and how do we know it is real?"
Both stories also had the one quality I love and hate about unique fiction: I love it so much, I can't wait for it to be over, even though I know when it is over, I'll be sad about it because I know I'll never be able to read it again for the first time.
The end of both stories is very satisfyingly left ambiguous, and I won't spoil that for you here. The bottom line, though, is that if you liked Inception, you will probably like UBIK. If you liked UBIK, you will probably like Inception. And if you don't like sci fi in general, thanks for reading this far. You are probably lost.
A Quote from UBIK: "It was a tranquil sight, these faithfuls, coming as they did so regularly to pay homage. They brought messages, news of what took place in the outside world; they cheered the gloomy half-lifers in these intervals of cerebral activity. And they paid Herbert Schoenheit von Vogelsang. It was a profitable business, operating a moratorium."
A Quote from Inception: "Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."
If you don't want the book UBIK or the movie Inception spoiled, please stop reading now.
But feel free to bookmark this page and read it later!
When I first read Philip K. Dick's UBIK, I thought, "someone should really make a movie out of this." When I saw Inception for the first time last week, I thought, "wow. Somebody did." That somebody being Christopher Nolan.
In the interest of full disclosure, the two are not the same. There are similar themes, though, and some really neat instances of congruent storytelling.
First up is worldbuilding. Both stories take place in realities very similar to our own. (My favorite kind of science fiction; not the sci fi of laser blasters and warp drive, but the kind of sci fi that takes place 20 minutes into the future.) People still go to work. Corporations still make billion-dollar deals. People fall in love. And they die. But both stories have one or two technologies which are no where near their infancies in the universe in which we actually live.
In UBIK, corporations employ people with special abilities: telepaths, precogs, people who have telekinetic powers. And when a person dies, if they have the money, they can have their body frozen in a special kind of mausoleum where they enjoy a "second life." They can still be communicated with, as long as the tissues of the brain remain somewhat intact. The cold helps preserve it longer.
In Inception, it is possible to access the dreams of another. This is done in the name of big business and usually done in order to steal ideas. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to implant an idea. There are rules, of course. Time and space take on different qualities. It is possible to dream within a dream. If you are hurt, you feel it. If you die within a dream, you wake up.
While these aspects of these stories may at first seem similar, the fundamental story behind each is not: UBIK is largely the story of a man, Genn Runciter, who is trying to figure out what the hell went wrong on his last corporate mission. A bomb goes off. Then some of his colleagues mysteriously die off, aging rapidly as if they had drank from the False Grail. His boss' likeness starts showing up on coinage. It is my favorite kind of story: the ontological mystery.
Inception is a story that is part caper, part tragedy; but I dare to say it is, in the end, the simpler story archetype of the two: the story of a man, Dominick Cobb (Leo DiCaprio), trying to overcome his own inner demons. Both stories play with one of my favorite themes: "what is real, and how do we know it is real?"
Both stories also had the one quality I love and hate about unique fiction: I love it so much, I can't wait for it to be over, even though I know when it is over, I'll be sad about it because I know I'll never be able to read it again for the first time.
The end of both stories is very satisfyingly left ambiguous, and I won't spoil that for you here. The bottom line, though, is that if you liked Inception, you will probably like UBIK. If you liked UBIK, you will probably like Inception. And if you don't like sci fi in general, thanks for reading this far. You are probably lost.
A Quote from UBIK: "It was a tranquil sight, these faithfuls, coming as they did so regularly to pay homage. They brought messages, news of what took place in the outside world; they cheered the gloomy half-lifers in these intervals of cerebral activity. And they paid Herbert Schoenheit von Vogelsang. It was a profitable business, operating a moratorium."
A Quote from Inception: "Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what's going on."
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