Weird seizures
I have about two hours to kill - and that feels such a good word for it. Lets see if writing makes me feel better. It usually does.
I am pleased that I changed the name of this blog to Books etc. It will be mostly about books, but also about my life, my thoughts and my feelings and my opinions. Lets not forget them. As Shakespeare put it "I can not put off my opinion so easily."
"This far and no further", said an Irish poet/terrorist in Colombo about drinking. I say it about what I wrote yesterday. I think I shall delete what came after the first two little paragraphs. Who would want to read about my sweating - not even me, even if it made me feel quite good writing about it. So lets go to fresh pastures: "So graze as you find pasture." (Shakespeare) My mood continues to be a bit weird, but I am in good company. "Myself too had weird seizures." (Tennyson) My online dictionary is brilliant, coming up with these quotes when I check that I have a correct spelling for words. And I do not even have to go on the web page as this Linux operating system enabled me to put a little box on the bar at the top of the screen. There I type a word and it gives me meaning. The only trouble with it is that if I get a spelling wrong it comes up with nothing. So I have to try a different spelling until I get the word right. Enough of this! ...
Now for something else ... a book I have read. I read this novel quite a while ago, but have not written about it yet as I wanted to find out more about one thing in it and did not get round to doing it until yesterday. The book is devil bones by Kathy Reichs. I have read quite a few novels by per and liked them. This one was different for one reason. Still a good read, but that one thing has put me off Kathy Reichs and pers novels.
The main character in the novels of Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist, like the writer perself, by the name of Dr Temperance Brennan who is an alcoholic mostly in control of pers alcoholism. Like the writer Dr Brennan divides pers working life between two countries, Canada and USA. In Charlotte per is employed by the university and by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In Canada per consults for the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de medecine legale in Montreal. In pers working life Dr Brennan, like the writer, sees the worst of what we humans are capable of. Dr Brennan, like the writer, wants to unmask these monstrosities and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In this book the bones found were those of a child, aged between 14 and 17. Dr Brennan feels sad for the loss of a young life and horrified at the thought of what may have brought the bones to the table in front of per. From these grisly discoveries Dr Brennan hurries up to meet pers daughter for dinner at a restaurant. There per orders veal and the daughter comments that per always eats that.
I find it strange that a person cannot see the similarities in the violence. Veal comes from a young calf, sometimes only a couple of days old, often a male calf - surplus to requirement in the dairy industry. These calves are often separated from their mothers after birth, living their short lives often in grates alone where they are artificially fed with all kinds of things that they would not normally eat. This is torture for the calf and the mother. Cows have been known to cry after their young are taken from them.
The juxtaposition of the order of veal with the following enquiry from the daughter, "So. Voodoo, vampires, or vegan devil worshippers?" to me indicates that the writer is aware of the suffering in veal production and does not care. In fact it feels to me that the writer is taunting vegans for their care for animal suffering.
It is strange how we humans can live with such contradictions. We love animals yet we kill them to eat them. I believe, I have to believe, that most of us want world peace like Miss Congeniality and yet we invest in violence. I think all violence is related. As long as we accept some forms of violence others forms will also persist. In many of the novels I have read murderers start by tormenting animals and end up killing human animals.
The World March for Peace and Nonviolence is attempting to create global awareness of the urgent need to condemn all forms of violence and to bring about real peace. With my whole being I wish it success.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Speedy Pensioner
Not Speedy Gonzales but Speedy Pensioner - that's me! The wood finally arrived yesterday in high winds and drizzle. Two cubic meters of wood was dumped on the pavement outside our house - not quite outside the door as our neighbour's van was there. The whole lot was inside the house in about an hour - truly! And now all my muscles hurt and still lot to do as I have piles of wood around the house that need to be stacked in their proper places. But that is another story for another day...
Today's story is about the book which I read in the cold house while waiting for the wood to arrive - Speedy Pensioner in this too as I read the whole book in one day. You Can't Hide is the first book by Karen Rose that I have read. One more of those serial killer books that seem to abound nowadays. I am trying to think of a book with just one murder in it, but cannot remember one single one.
The main character is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist, Dr Tess Ciccotelli, working with suicidal patients. Per also works for the police giving assesments of the criminals being tried in court. Per testifies as to their competence to stand trial. Sometimes that brings per to the conflict with the police. One such case where, according to the police Dr Ciccotelli helped a child and a police killer get free, had happened just before the beginning of the story and had caused the most of the police force to hate Dr Ciccotelli. The police believed that the killer had pretended to be mentally ill, whereas Dr Ciccotelli had pronounced the killer not responsible for pers actions, being continually tormented by demons attacking per.
Another main character is a police officer who is given the task of working the case where Dr Ciccotelli's patients are manipulated to commit suicide. It becomes clear that the killings are just tools to get at Dr Ciccotelli. From the actions it is very clear that the killer is a psychopath. Per has no empathy or any kind of feeling for any of the people per kills. Per manipulates people to get what per wants and killed even before these latest killings, without any remorse, first in an attempt to get what per wanted and later to make money.
Mental illness is an important thread in the book - has to be with a psychiatrist as one of the main characters. When killer is unmasked, but not yet caught, the fact that pers mother suffered from schizophrenia is made much of. It is almost given as an explanation for the actions of the killer. Dr Ciccotelli feels bad that per had not been able to help this person to get better or get any treatment for pers mental illness - schizophrenia. This is where an otherwise good novel falls apart. How could a person - even a fictional character - go through medical and psychiatric education and training and not know the difference between pcychopathy and schizophrenia. There is enough stigma and misunderstanding particularly of schizophrenia in the world for this to be a really bad flaw in the book. It adds to the confusion about these things and is totally inexcusable.
The writer should have researched the illness better. The way the killer is portrayed is clearly someone who is a psychopath. This is how Wikipedia defines psychopathy: "Psychopathy is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Robert Hare, renowned researcher in the field describes psychopaths as 'intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, sex and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse'. ...
Psychopaths are glib and superficially charming, and many psychopaths are excellent mimics of normal human emotion; some psychopaths can blend in, undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments. There is neither a cure nor any effective treatment for psychopathy; there are no medications or other techniques which can instill empathy, and psychopaths who undergo traditional talk therapy only become more adept at manipulating others. The consensus among researchers is that psychopathy stems from a specific neurological disorder which is biological in origin and present from birth."
Psychopathy is not an illness like schizophrenia is. Schizophrenia can be treated and many suffering from it can and do lead normal lives never doing any harm to themselves or others. Its characterisation is different from that of psychopathy. Wikipedia states schizophrenia "is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. ... The mainstay of treatment is antipsychotic medication; this type of drug primarily works by suppressing dopamine activity. Dosages of antipsychotics are generally lower than in the early decades of their use. Psychotherapy, and vocational and social rehabilitation are also important. In more serious cases—where there is risk to self and others—involuntary hospitalization may be necessary, although hospital stays are less frequent and for shorter periods than they were in previous times."
I liked this book on the whole and will read more of this writer's novels. I hope that in other books the research will be better.
Not Speedy Gonzales but Speedy Pensioner - that's me! The wood finally arrived yesterday in high winds and drizzle. Two cubic meters of wood was dumped on the pavement outside our house - not quite outside the door as our neighbour's van was there. The whole lot was inside the house in about an hour - truly! And now all my muscles hurt and still lot to do as I have piles of wood around the house that need to be stacked in their proper places. But that is another story for another day...
Today's story is about the book which I read in the cold house while waiting for the wood to arrive - Speedy Pensioner in this too as I read the whole book in one day. You Can't Hide is the first book by Karen Rose that I have read. One more of those serial killer books that seem to abound nowadays. I am trying to think of a book with just one murder in it, but cannot remember one single one.
The main character is a medical doctor and a psychiatrist, Dr Tess Ciccotelli, working with suicidal patients. Per also works for the police giving assesments of the criminals being tried in court. Per testifies as to their competence to stand trial. Sometimes that brings per to the conflict with the police. One such case where, according to the police Dr Ciccotelli helped a child and a police killer get free, had happened just before the beginning of the story and had caused the most of the police force to hate Dr Ciccotelli. The police believed that the killer had pretended to be mentally ill, whereas Dr Ciccotelli had pronounced the killer not responsible for pers actions, being continually tormented by demons attacking per.
Another main character is a police officer who is given the task of working the case where Dr Ciccotelli's patients are manipulated to commit suicide. It becomes clear that the killings are just tools to get at Dr Ciccotelli. From the actions it is very clear that the killer is a psychopath. Per has no empathy or any kind of feeling for any of the people per kills. Per manipulates people to get what per wants and killed even before these latest killings, without any remorse, first in an attempt to get what per wanted and later to make money.
Mental illness is an important thread in the book - has to be with a psychiatrist as one of the main characters. When killer is unmasked, but not yet caught, the fact that pers mother suffered from schizophrenia is made much of. It is almost given as an explanation for the actions of the killer. Dr Ciccotelli feels bad that per had not been able to help this person to get better or get any treatment for pers mental illness - schizophrenia. This is where an otherwise good novel falls apart. How could a person - even a fictional character - go through medical and psychiatric education and training and not know the difference between pcychopathy and schizophrenia. There is enough stigma and misunderstanding particularly of schizophrenia in the world for this to be a really bad flaw in the book. It adds to the confusion about these things and is totally inexcusable.
The writer should have researched the illness better. The way the killer is portrayed is clearly someone who is a psychopath. This is how Wikipedia defines psychopathy: "Psychopathy is a personality disorder whose hallmark is a lack of empathy. Robert Hare, renowned researcher in the field describes psychopaths as 'intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, sex and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and empathy, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse'. ...
Psychopaths are glib and superficially charming, and many psychopaths are excellent mimics of normal human emotion; some psychopaths can blend in, undetected, in a variety of surroundings, including corporate environments. There is neither a cure nor any effective treatment for psychopathy; there are no medications or other techniques which can instill empathy, and psychopaths who undergo traditional talk therapy only become more adept at manipulating others. The consensus among researchers is that psychopathy stems from a specific neurological disorder which is biological in origin and present from birth."
Psychopathy is not an illness like schizophrenia is. Schizophrenia can be treated and many suffering from it can and do lead normal lives never doing any harm to themselves or others. Its characterisation is different from that of psychopathy. Wikipedia states schizophrenia "is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in the perception or expression of reality. Distortions in perception may affect all five senses, including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, but most commonly manifest as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking with significant social or occupational dysfunction. ... The mainstay of treatment is antipsychotic medication; this type of drug primarily works by suppressing dopamine activity. Dosages of antipsychotics are generally lower than in the early decades of their use. Psychotherapy, and vocational and social rehabilitation are also important. In more serious cases—where there is risk to self and others—involuntary hospitalization may be necessary, although hospital stays are less frequent and for shorter periods than they were in previous times."
I liked this book on the whole and will read more of this writer's novels. I hope that in other books the research will be better.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Escape
I am a rarerity among pensioners - I am more comfortable with the computer and the internet than with the older form of communication - the telephone. In fact I have come to the conclusion that I am slightly phone phobic. I am ok taking calls, but making one is always difficult. Like now, anyone else would have sorted the trouble with the wood delivery by now. Me - I sit here by my computer typing in the cold house hoping that the company has finally read one of my many emails and will send the wood I ordered and paid for (all done on the internet) before I freeze. This is the fifth day without the heat. The wood was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday. Yesterday I escaped into a book - after making my moves in scrabble. I read a book from cover to cover and I will write about that book in due course. Now I will escape to The Western Shore....
The Western Shore is a world born in the imagination of Ursula Le Guin and revealed in the Annals of the Western Shore comprising of three books: Gifts, Voices and Powers. The Western Shore, as its name implies, is a western part of the world by the sea. It has a mountainous region in the north called The Uplands inhabited by people with dangerous gifts living on farmsteads or domains scattered around the mountains. On the far south there is Ansul famous for its university and library and peaceful people engaged in commerce. In between there are the warlike City States fighting each other and sometimes people further away taking slaves. On the east there is Asudar, on the edge of a desert. Alds live there and from there send their armies to Ansul determined to destroy demons they believe inhabit the place.
All the various peoples of the Western Shore originally came over the desert from the east and first settled in Ansul speaking the old language which then evolved into what is spoken in all the various nations of the Western Shore. In the library in Ansul there are books written in that old language.
One of the themes running through all the books is the importance of stories, both oral and written. All the books are written in the voice of one of the main characters. Orrec is the narrator of the first book and an heir to one of the domains in The Uplands. Pers story is about learning about pers gift and accepting it and learning to use it. The gifts were passed on from father to son, from mother to daughter. Orrec's father's gift was undoing, a terrible, fearful gift. But not to have that gift as pers father's son was shameful and also dangerous for the whole domain, because without it there was no protection agains other domains. It was the fear of gifts that kept a sort of peace between domains.
Orrec's mother, Melle Aulitta, also had a gift, but not a kind of gift that was considered of any worth within the domains. Orrec's mother was not from the Uplands, but pers father brought per from a raid to the Lowlands. Per was not taken by force; per chose to come. Melle was an educated person who told stories to Orrec and pers friend Cry and taught Orrec to read. Pers gift to Orrect was a book per made, the only one in the Uplands, with the stories per could remember from pers youth. Orrec inherited this gift of telling stories and making up stories and poems. Orrec's gift was making, not undoing, and that was no good in the Uplands. So at the end Orrec chose to leave, had to leave, the Uplands. Cry came with per as pers wife.
The narrator of the second book, Voices, is Memer in Ansul. Memer lives in the Oracle House, which was built on the place where the people first settled on coming from beyond the desert. It has a secret library with very special books. And in the courtyard there is an Oracle Fountain, which has been dry for many years. Memer is a true daughter of this important house in Ansul, but per is also a daughter of rape. Pers mother was raped by Ald soldiers when they first came to conquer Ansul with a purpose of destroying what they called demons and the Mouth of Evil which they believed to be in Memer's house.
Alds fear written word. They worship one god to whom written word is blasphemy. When they finally took over Ansul they destroyed any book they could find and killed any people found with books. They ransacked Memer's house, but did not find the secret library where Memer's mother was hiding with baby Memer. After the initial destruction in Ansul the soldiers settled to rule and kept the people of Ansul in subjugation. Memer grew up in Ansul, not a free citizen like all the peole of Ansul were previously, but as a member of a subjugated people under the rule of Alds. Memer's mother game from hiding and put the house in as good an order as per possibly could in the circumstances. Other people of the house came back and the Waylord, the head of the household, a relative of Memer, was finally released from Ald prison and came back to live in the house also.
Memer wrote pers story at the age of 17. It is a story of Memer learning about life and pers place in the society. It is a story of how Memer met Orrec, the famous poet and storyteller, and Cry. It is a story of how Ansul became free again. It is a story of how Memer came to learn about and to accept pers special gift.
The last book in the Annals is the book about Gavir. While Orrec learnt about pers gift and purpose in life at pers home domain, and Memer did the same at pers home, Gavir started pers journey in one of the City States, a place where per was brought as a young child to be a slave. Gavir also had a gift or a power as it was called by pers people, but had to hide it, because city people were afraid of them. This gift was to see the future or as Gavir put it "to remember" something that had not happened yet.
Gavir was an indoor slave in an important house where slave children attended school with the children of their owners. The teacher was a slave and Gavir having shown aptitude was being trained to take over once the old teacher was retired. Gavir's older sister was an indoor slave in the same house and once per was old enough was given to the oldest son as a gift-girl. Per was happy about it as per loved this son who loved per back. However, being a slave the sister was badly used and killed by another son, who was not punished. So in a daze Gavir walks away and starts pers journey, to find freedom, to find perself, to find the place where per could feel at home.
The journey takes Gavir through various places and communities, from a crazy hermit, through two different communities of escaped slaves, to pers own Marsh people and finally to Urdile, where Gavir was drawn because Orrec, the poet and writer, was there. There Gavir finds the person from one of pers early "memories" who happens to be Orrec and who offers to vouch for Gavir so that Gavir can become a citizen Urdile and be free. So Gavir finally finds pers real home.
I am a rarerity among pensioners - I am more comfortable with the computer and the internet than with the older form of communication - the telephone. In fact I have come to the conclusion that I am slightly phone phobic. I am ok taking calls, but making one is always difficult. Like now, anyone else would have sorted the trouble with the wood delivery by now. Me - I sit here by my computer typing in the cold house hoping that the company has finally read one of my many emails and will send the wood I ordered and paid for (all done on the internet) before I freeze. This is the fifth day without the heat. The wood was supposed to be delivered on Wednesday. Yesterday I escaped into a book - after making my moves in scrabble. I read a book from cover to cover and I will write about that book in due course. Now I will escape to The Western Shore....
The Western Shore is a world born in the imagination of Ursula Le Guin and revealed in the Annals of the Western Shore comprising of three books: Gifts, Voices and Powers. The Western Shore, as its name implies, is a western part of the world by the sea. It has a mountainous region in the north called The Uplands inhabited by people with dangerous gifts living on farmsteads or domains scattered around the mountains. On the far south there is Ansul famous for its university and library and peaceful people engaged in commerce. In between there are the warlike City States fighting each other and sometimes people further away taking slaves. On the east there is Asudar, on the edge of a desert. Alds live there and from there send their armies to Ansul determined to destroy demons they believe inhabit the place.
All the various peoples of the Western Shore originally came over the desert from the east and first settled in Ansul speaking the old language which then evolved into what is spoken in all the various nations of the Western Shore. In the library in Ansul there are books written in that old language.
One of the themes running through all the books is the importance of stories, both oral and written. All the books are written in the voice of one of the main characters. Orrec is the narrator of the first book and an heir to one of the domains in The Uplands. Pers story is about learning about pers gift and accepting it and learning to use it. The gifts were passed on from father to son, from mother to daughter. Orrec's father's gift was undoing, a terrible, fearful gift. But not to have that gift as pers father's son was shameful and also dangerous for the whole domain, because without it there was no protection agains other domains. It was the fear of gifts that kept a sort of peace between domains.
Orrec's mother, Melle Aulitta, also had a gift, but not a kind of gift that was considered of any worth within the domains. Orrec's mother was not from the Uplands, but pers father brought per from a raid to the Lowlands. Per was not taken by force; per chose to come. Melle was an educated person who told stories to Orrec and pers friend Cry and taught Orrec to read. Pers gift to Orrect was a book per made, the only one in the Uplands, with the stories per could remember from pers youth. Orrec inherited this gift of telling stories and making up stories and poems. Orrec's gift was making, not undoing, and that was no good in the Uplands. So at the end Orrec chose to leave, had to leave, the Uplands. Cry came with per as pers wife.
The narrator of the second book, Voices, is Memer in Ansul. Memer lives in the Oracle House, which was built on the place where the people first settled on coming from beyond the desert. It has a secret library with very special books. And in the courtyard there is an Oracle Fountain, which has been dry for many years. Memer is a true daughter of this important house in Ansul, but per is also a daughter of rape. Pers mother was raped by Ald soldiers when they first came to conquer Ansul with a purpose of destroying what they called demons and the Mouth of Evil which they believed to be in Memer's house.
Alds fear written word. They worship one god to whom written word is blasphemy. When they finally took over Ansul they destroyed any book they could find and killed any people found with books. They ransacked Memer's house, but did not find the secret library where Memer's mother was hiding with baby Memer. After the initial destruction in Ansul the soldiers settled to rule and kept the people of Ansul in subjugation. Memer grew up in Ansul, not a free citizen like all the peole of Ansul were previously, but as a member of a subjugated people under the rule of Alds. Memer's mother game from hiding and put the house in as good an order as per possibly could in the circumstances. Other people of the house came back and the Waylord, the head of the household, a relative of Memer, was finally released from Ald prison and came back to live in the house also.
Memer wrote pers story at the age of 17. It is a story of Memer learning about life and pers place in the society. It is a story of how Memer met Orrec, the famous poet and storyteller, and Cry. It is a story of how Ansul became free again. It is a story of how Memer came to learn about and to accept pers special gift.
The last book in the Annals is the book about Gavir. While Orrec learnt about pers gift and purpose in life at pers home domain, and Memer did the same at pers home, Gavir started pers journey in one of the City States, a place where per was brought as a young child to be a slave. Gavir also had a gift or a power as it was called by pers people, but had to hide it, because city people were afraid of them. This gift was to see the future or as Gavir put it "to remember" something that had not happened yet.
Gavir was an indoor slave in an important house where slave children attended school with the children of their owners. The teacher was a slave and Gavir having shown aptitude was being trained to take over once the old teacher was retired. Gavir's older sister was an indoor slave in the same house and once per was old enough was given to the oldest son as a gift-girl. Per was happy about it as per loved this son who loved per back. However, being a slave the sister was badly used and killed by another son, who was not punished. So in a daze Gavir walks away and starts pers journey, to find freedom, to find perself, to find the place where per could feel at home.
The journey takes Gavir through various places and communities, from a crazy hermit, through two different communities of escaped slaves, to pers own Marsh people and finally to Urdile, where Gavir was drawn because Orrec, the poet and writer, was there. There Gavir finds the person from one of pers early "memories" who happens to be Orrec and who offers to vouch for Gavir so that Gavir can become a citizen Urdile and be free. So Gavir finally finds pers real home.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
This is a first book by this writer. I came accross it when looking for something to read on a train journey back home having finished the book (the previous review) I took with me when I left home a couple of days before. I went to the bookshop at the train station. The cover was interesting, the name unknown, the title intriguing - I needed to have a closer look.
The deciding factors for buying this novel were the setting of the story in Norfolk and the writer being English. If you look at the list of my favourite authors, you see that only one of them is English. Although just now thinking about it I realized that I need to add one more: Manda Scott - more about pers books later, I think.
I read the book without knowing much at all about the setting in Norfolk. I had spent a holiday once on the Norfolk seaside and been pointed out some dangers there. I had also heard of other dangers. So my mind was predisposed to accept some dangerous situations within that landscape, where the main character's home, with its only two neighbours, is on the road which is "frequently flooded in spring and autumn and often impassable by midwinter", on the edge of the Saltmarsh with "these inhospitable marshlands, these desolate mudflats, this lonely, unrelenting view". The meaning of the landscape and the title of the book are explained early on by the main character Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist, as crossing places "between the land and the sea, or between life and death".
The Saltmarsh and the henge at the crossing place are imaginary. However, there was a real seahenge found in Norfolk and the story has similarities with those real events like protests by druids and locals and the controversy about what to do with the find. The story has a beginning in that imaginary find, with all the main characters being present there. And that is when the first child disappeared.
The book has a prologue. I find prologues most of the time just plain unneccessary. And so I think it is here. The real beginning in chapter one is really good: "Waking is like rising from the dead. The slow climb out of sleep, shapes appearing out of blackness, the alarm clock ringing like the last trump." The biblical reference did not come to mind immediately: "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." It is, however, really fitting as Ruth's parents are revealed to be Born Again Christians "(capitals obligatory)". Having been brought up by born again christians (small letters obligatory for me) and having been one myself in my distant past I find the way this is written about amusing. (Perhaps, I was born again third time as an atheist. I do not remember any one birth, although I do remember how I became an atheist.)
I like the book, I like the story, I like Ruth Galloway. However, there are some things in the book that I find not quite ringing true. I find some aspects of the murderer difficult; the motive for the notes I find a little far fetched; and Ruth's flight into the marshes I find annoying. I do not quite know what to make of them. They are all so central to the story. I would not know how to make the story work without these things.
All in all I think this is a very good first book.
This is a first book by this writer. I came accross it when looking for something to read on a train journey back home having finished the book (the previous review) I took with me when I left home a couple of days before. I went to the bookshop at the train station. The cover was interesting, the name unknown, the title intriguing - I needed to have a closer look.
The deciding factors for buying this novel were the setting of the story in Norfolk and the writer being English. If you look at the list of my favourite authors, you see that only one of them is English. Although just now thinking about it I realized that I need to add one more: Manda Scott - more about pers books later, I think.
I read the book without knowing much at all about the setting in Norfolk. I had spent a holiday once on the Norfolk seaside and been pointed out some dangers there. I had also heard of other dangers. So my mind was predisposed to accept some dangerous situations within that landscape, where the main character's home, with its only two neighbours, is on the road which is "frequently flooded in spring and autumn and often impassable by midwinter", on the edge of the Saltmarsh with "these inhospitable marshlands, these desolate mudflats, this lonely, unrelenting view". The meaning of the landscape and the title of the book are explained early on by the main character Ruth Galloway, a forensic archaeologist, as crossing places "between the land and the sea, or between life and death".
The Saltmarsh and the henge at the crossing place are imaginary. However, there was a real seahenge found in Norfolk and the story has similarities with those real events like protests by druids and locals and the controversy about what to do with the find. The story has a beginning in that imaginary find, with all the main characters being present there. And that is when the first child disappeared.
The book has a prologue. I find prologues most of the time just plain unneccessary. And so I think it is here. The real beginning in chapter one is really good: "Waking is like rising from the dead. The slow climb out of sleep, shapes appearing out of blackness, the alarm clock ringing like the last trump." The biblical reference did not come to mind immediately: "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." It is, however, really fitting as Ruth's parents are revealed to be Born Again Christians "(capitals obligatory)". Having been brought up by born again christians (small letters obligatory for me) and having been one myself in my distant past I find the way this is written about amusing. (Perhaps, I was born again third time as an atheist. I do not remember any one birth, although I do remember how I became an atheist.)
I like the book, I like the story, I like Ruth Galloway. However, there are some things in the book that I find not quite ringing true. I find some aspects of the murderer difficult; the motive for the notes I find a little far fetched; and Ruth's flight into the marshes I find annoying. I do not quite know what to make of them. They are all so central to the story. I would not know how to make the story work without these things.
All in all I think this is a very good first book.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Neighbour by Lisa Gardner
It is a sunny Sunday morning. I have done the washing - first thing in the morning. Have to take advantage of the sun and use my own electricity from the pv panels on my roof. I have checked the new water pipes for leaks - found three slow ones. Must let the plumbers know and get them to do whatever they need to do about them. I have made my moves in scrabble. So now it is time to get down to writing about the books I have read in the last month or so. I started yesterday with a book by Jonathan Kellerman. That was a disappointing book. Todays one was not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
I have read so many murder mysteries that I get a feeling from very early on in the book about the who and the why and even the how. This does not spoil my enjoyment. It is fun seeing that I am right and even more enjoyable when there are some surprises. In this book some things I got right, but there were some surprises also. I got really involved with the main characters. When towards the end one of them seemed to be losing faith with the other, I kept thinking "oh, no, don't believe that bastard" and then sighed in relief when per did not.
This book by Lisa Gardner, like the others I have read, has a central theme of family relationships, good and bad. Its about difficulty in trusting after being badly damaged. It is hopeful and yet so very sad. One character has appeared before in another book. I got that quite early on and was so pleased about meeting per again.
Lisa Gardner gets better with every book I read by per. This novel is well written. The characters are believable and the storyline is exciting but also very sad.The ending is a bit shocking. However, it does feel right although it makes me sad to think that that is how it had to end. There is much hope for the next generation. And that is how it should be. We all have to hope that in this life of ours the next generation will get things right and have a better life.
It is a sunny Sunday morning. I have done the washing - first thing in the morning. Have to take advantage of the sun and use my own electricity from the pv panels on my roof. I have checked the new water pipes for leaks - found three slow ones. Must let the plumbers know and get them to do whatever they need to do about them. I have made my moves in scrabble. So now it is time to get down to writing about the books I have read in the last month or so. I started yesterday with a book by Jonathan Kellerman. That was a disappointing book. Todays one was not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
I have read so many murder mysteries that I get a feeling from very early on in the book about the who and the why and even the how. This does not spoil my enjoyment. It is fun seeing that I am right and even more enjoyable when there are some surprises. In this book some things I got right, but there were some surprises also. I got really involved with the main characters. When towards the end one of them seemed to be losing faith with the other, I kept thinking "oh, no, don't believe that bastard" and then sighed in relief when per did not.
This book by Lisa Gardner, like the others I have read, has a central theme of family relationships, good and bad. Its about difficulty in trusting after being badly damaged. It is hopeful and yet so very sad. One character has appeared before in another book. I got that quite early on and was so pleased about meeting per again.
Lisa Gardner gets better with every book I read by per. This novel is well written. The characters are believable and the storyline is exciting but also very sad.The ending is a bit shocking. However, it does feel right although it makes me sad to think that that is how it had to end. There is much hope for the next generation. And that is how it should be. We all have to hope that in this life of ours the next generation will get things right and have a better life.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman
Something strange happening here, you say. The writer is male. Yes, this is the third ever male writer appearing in my blog. I read very few books by men. And I avoid buying any books written by men. I read them, if they happen to find their way into my hands and if they look interesting enough. So how did it all come to this?
Years ago I was looking for a book by one of my favourite writers. Could I find one? No!!! It seemed to me that the whole bookshop was full of books written by men. I thought that the situation was really bad. This will not do. Urgent action was required. And so to my campaign to make more books by women available in all the shops by avoiding any books written by men. Clever campaign, ain't it! :)
Long before my boycott I read all kinds of books by all kinds of writers. I read quite a few books by Jonathan Kellerman. And I enjoyed them very much. So when this new novel by per found its way to my hands, I was quite pleased and started reading it eagerly putting aside my other books.
Jonathan Kellerman writes psychological murder mysteries. Pers books are said on the cover of this book to be "first-class". "Kellerman has shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form". Well, I think this last one does not measure up. I was disappointed. The storyline seems contrived and the characters just do not mesh together. The reason for Alex Delaware's involvement in the case seems very spurious. Per is not rooted in pers own life in this novel, but just floats around always ready and willing to help pers police friend, another main character. Seems to me that Jonathan Kellerman has dried up. Looking at the list of novels per has written, more or less one a year since 1985, a thought that perhaps Jonathan needs a break from writing comes to mind. Don't force it just for the sake of getting out a book a year. It is not worth it.
Something strange happening here, you say. The writer is male. Yes, this is the third ever male writer appearing in my blog. I read very few books by men. And I avoid buying any books written by men. I read them, if they happen to find their way into my hands and if they look interesting enough. So how did it all come to this?
Years ago I was looking for a book by one of my favourite writers. Could I find one? No!!! It seemed to me that the whole bookshop was full of books written by men. I thought that the situation was really bad. This will not do. Urgent action was required. And so to my campaign to make more books by women available in all the shops by avoiding any books written by men. Clever campaign, ain't it! :)
Long before my boycott I read all kinds of books by all kinds of writers. I read quite a few books by Jonathan Kellerman. And I enjoyed them very much. So when this new novel by per found its way to my hands, I was quite pleased and started reading it eagerly putting aside my other books.
Jonathan Kellerman writes psychological murder mysteries. Pers books are said on the cover of this book to be "first-class". "Kellerman has shaped the psychological mystery novel into an art form". Well, I think this last one does not measure up. I was disappointed. The storyline seems contrived and the characters just do not mesh together. The reason for Alex Delaware's involvement in the case seems very spurious. Per is not rooted in pers own life in this novel, but just floats around always ready and willing to help pers police friend, another main character. Seems to me that Jonathan Kellerman has dried up. Looking at the list of novels per has written, more or less one a year since 1985, a thought that perhaps Jonathan needs a break from writing comes to mind. Don't force it just for the sake of getting out a book a year. It is not worth it.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Marge Piercy
In the early eighties, when I lived in London, I was walking home from somewhere when I came upon a little bookshop on one of the side streets. I had never seen it before. I went in as I was wont to do on passing a bookshop. I found the place crammed with books. The isles between the shelves were narrow. Tables were overflowing. I walked around browsing the spines of the books occasionally pulling one out of the shelf for a closer look.
So I walked and browsed thinking I should go as I did not have much money. As I was walking through the shop on my way out one title on the spine of a small book caught my eye. I had walked past it and had to take a step back to take it out and look at it. I had never heard of the writer, had no idea about the kind of books per wrote. But I had to have that book. Just the thought of dancing an eagle to sleep kept me mesmerised on the spot. That is how I found Marge Piercy. My first ever book by per was this little book Dance the Eagle to Sleep. It was published in 1970, the year I came to UK.
Marge Piercy is one of my very favourite writers. Per is the most versatile writer I know. Pers works include novels in various genres, poetry, essays and at least one play written with pers husband. One of the novels is also written with pers husband.
I copied a list of the novels from a web page (www.margepiercy.com). I have read all of them apart from the first one which I have never seen anywhere. If I had seen it I would have it.
Many of Marge Piercy's books are about the lives of women set within the real historical periods. They are informed by Marge Piercy's own involvement in the political movements of pers time. Some are set in the fifties and sixties, others in the more recent times. All bring those times and the political struggles alive very vividly through the lives of the characters and the parts they play in the events.
Three of the novels are set in earlier historical periods. Gone to Soldiers is the best novel about a war I have ever read. It is set in the second world war which is seen through the eyes of the ten different characters as they live through the war. City of Darkness, City of Light brings alive the French Revolution in the eighteenth century. It also is told through various characters taking part in the revolution. Sex Wars begins with the year 1868, but has three chapters looking back to a few earlier years, and ends with the first few years of the nineteenth century. The events in this novel also unfold through a few main characters based in real individuals like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull and Anthony Comstock and one based on general histories Jewish immigrant experiences.
Two of Marge Piercy's novels can be classed as science fiction. I think that is the genre of Woman on the Edge of Time and Body of Glass. In Woman on the Edge of Time the main character is in a psychiatric hospital in present and travels to the future world of social and ecological harmony. Body of Glass portrays a somewhat different future where rigidly controlled environmental corporate domes dominate and a few free towns have to fight for their survival, a world where information is the most important commodity. In this world the main character creates a cyborg to protect pers free town, a little like a golem which was brought to life to protect the inhabitants of a Jewish ghetto in the Prague of 1600. Body of Glass is He, She and It in the list below.
The list of novels:
GOING DOWN FAST, Trident, l969; paperback, Pocketbooks, l97l.
DANCE THE EAGLE TO SLEEP, Doubleday, l970; paperback, Fawcett l97l.
SMALL CHANGES, Doubleday, l973; paperback, Fawcett l974.
WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME, Knopf, l976; paperback, Fawcett, l977.
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING, Harper and Row, l978; paperback, Fawcett,l979.
VIDA, Summit, January l980, paperback Fawcett, l98l.
BRAIDED LIVES, Summit, February l982; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett l983.
FLY AWAY HOME, Summit, February 1984; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett 1985.
GONE TO SOLDIERS, Summit, May 1987; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett May 1988.
SUMMER PEOPLE, Summit, June 1989; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett June 1990.
HE, SHE AND IT, Knopf, October 1991; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett January 1993.
THE LONGINGS OF WOMEN, Fawcett, March 1994.
CITY OF DARKNESS, CITY OF LIGHT, Fawcett, Oct. 1996. Trade paperback, 1997.
STORM TIDE (with Ira Wood), Fawcett, 1998.
THREE WOMEN, Morrow, Oct. 1999.
THE THIRD CHILD, Morrow/HarperCollins, 2003.
SEX WARS, Morrow/Harper/Collins, 2005
In the early eighties, when I lived in London, I was walking home from somewhere when I came upon a little bookshop on one of the side streets. I had never seen it before. I went in as I was wont to do on passing a bookshop. I found the place crammed with books. The isles between the shelves were narrow. Tables were overflowing. I walked around browsing the spines of the books occasionally pulling one out of the shelf for a closer look.
So I walked and browsed thinking I should go as I did not have much money. As I was walking through the shop on my way out one title on the spine of a small book caught my eye. I had walked past it and had to take a step back to take it out and look at it. I had never heard of the writer, had no idea about the kind of books per wrote. But I had to have that book. Just the thought of dancing an eagle to sleep kept me mesmerised on the spot. That is how I found Marge Piercy. My first ever book by per was this little book Dance the Eagle to Sleep. It was published in 1970, the year I came to UK.
Marge Piercy is one of my very favourite writers. Per is the most versatile writer I know. Pers works include novels in various genres, poetry, essays and at least one play written with pers husband. One of the novels is also written with pers husband.
I copied a list of the novels from a web page (www.margepiercy.com). I have read all of them apart from the first one which I have never seen anywhere. If I had seen it I would have it.
Many of Marge Piercy's books are about the lives of women set within the real historical periods. They are informed by Marge Piercy's own involvement in the political movements of pers time. Some are set in the fifties and sixties, others in the more recent times. All bring those times and the political struggles alive very vividly through the lives of the characters and the parts they play in the events.
Three of the novels are set in earlier historical periods. Gone to Soldiers is the best novel about a war I have ever read. It is set in the second world war which is seen through the eyes of the ten different characters as they live through the war. City of Darkness, City of Light brings alive the French Revolution in the eighteenth century. It also is told through various characters taking part in the revolution. Sex Wars begins with the year 1868, but has three chapters looking back to a few earlier years, and ends with the first few years of the nineteenth century. The events in this novel also unfold through a few main characters based in real individuals like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull and Anthony Comstock and one based on general histories Jewish immigrant experiences.
Two of Marge Piercy's novels can be classed as science fiction. I think that is the genre of Woman on the Edge of Time and Body of Glass. In Woman on the Edge of Time the main character is in a psychiatric hospital in present and travels to the future world of social and ecological harmony. Body of Glass portrays a somewhat different future where rigidly controlled environmental corporate domes dominate and a few free towns have to fight for their survival, a world where information is the most important commodity. In this world the main character creates a cyborg to protect pers free town, a little like a golem which was brought to life to protect the inhabitants of a Jewish ghetto in the Prague of 1600. Body of Glass is He, She and It in the list below.
The list of novels:
GOING DOWN FAST, Trident, l969; paperback, Pocketbooks, l97l.
DANCE THE EAGLE TO SLEEP, Doubleday, l970; paperback, Fawcett l97l.
SMALL CHANGES, Doubleday, l973; paperback, Fawcett l974.
WOMAN ON THE EDGE OF TIME, Knopf, l976; paperback, Fawcett, l977.
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING, Harper and Row, l978; paperback, Fawcett,l979.
VIDA, Summit, January l980, paperback Fawcett, l98l.
BRAIDED LIVES, Summit, February l982; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett l983.
FLY AWAY HOME, Summit, February 1984; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett 1985.
GONE TO SOLDIERS, Summit, May 1987; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett May 1988.
SUMMER PEOPLE, Summit, June 1989; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett June 1990.
HE, SHE AND IT, Knopf, October 1991; paperback Ballantine/Fawcett January 1993.
THE LONGINGS OF WOMEN, Fawcett, March 1994.
CITY OF DARKNESS, CITY OF LIGHT, Fawcett, Oct. 1996. Trade paperback, 1997.
STORM TIDE (with Ira Wood), Fawcett, 1998.
THREE WOMEN, Morrow, Oct. 1999.
THE THIRD CHILD, Morrow/HarperCollins, 2003.
SEX WARS, Morrow/Harper/Collins, 2005
Saturday, August 01, 2009
genesis by Karin Slaughter
This is the new novel by Karin Slaughter, published this year. In this novel the writer brings together Sara Linton one of the main characters from some previous novels and the detectives Faith Mitchell and Will Trent from the novel fractured, published last year. In some ways the title genesis is indicative (well, it would be, wouldn't it!) of various new beginnings in the novel. Sara Linton's life is in a way beginning again after the horrible and shocking ending of the novel Skin Privilege. There is a beginning of a life as one character discovers pers pregnancy. However, that is not the only new thing in the life of this character; per also has to learn to cope with a chronic disease which per was diagnosed with at the beginning of the book. Add to all this the beginnings of these new relationships between the main characters. Enough of new beginnings ... no way!
The book is a detective novel, a murder mystery with a serial killer at large. Like all Karin Slaughter's novels it is well constructed to keep the reader's interest to the end. The characters are interesting, real human beings, and the developing relationships between them kept me absorbed and wanting to know more. I want to meet them all again in another novel.
Some difficult topics touched in the novel are diabetes, bulimia and anorexia. Some possible causes for these are posed - another genesis theme. The reader is also given a glimpse of the murderer's childhood. It led my mind to think on the nature of evil and how a person can become such. Is it possible for a person to be born evil? The old nut of nature versus nurture.
The mother / child relationship is an important thread in the book. Like everything else it seems that that relatioship can bring about good or bad in a person. It can perhaps literally save a person's life or possibly destroy it.
A very good read.
This is the new novel by Karin Slaughter, published this year. In this novel the writer brings together Sara Linton one of the main characters from some previous novels and the detectives Faith Mitchell and Will Trent from the novel fractured, published last year. In some ways the title genesis is indicative (well, it would be, wouldn't it!) of various new beginnings in the novel. Sara Linton's life is in a way beginning again after the horrible and shocking ending of the novel Skin Privilege. There is a beginning of a life as one character discovers pers pregnancy. However, that is not the only new thing in the life of this character; per also has to learn to cope with a chronic disease which per was diagnosed with at the beginning of the book. Add to all this the beginnings of these new relationships between the main characters. Enough of new beginnings ... no way!
The book is a detective novel, a murder mystery with a serial killer at large. Like all Karin Slaughter's novels it is well constructed to keep the reader's interest to the end. The characters are interesting, real human beings, and the developing relationships between them kept me absorbed and wanting to know more. I want to meet them all again in another novel.
Some difficult topics touched in the novel are diabetes, bulimia and anorexia. Some possible causes for these are posed - another genesis theme. The reader is also given a glimpse of the murderer's childhood. It led my mind to think on the nature of evil and how a person can become such. Is it possible for a person to be born evil? The old nut of nature versus nurture.
The mother / child relationship is an important thread in the book. Like everything else it seems that that relatioship can bring about good or bad in a person. It can perhaps literally save a person's life or possibly destroy it.
A very good read.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Written Sunday, December 21, 2008.
Richard Dawkins and polyamory
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
.... Now to the book I have been reading. It is the Richard Dawkins' God Delusion - still. I am reading it the second time. Richard Dawkins has the priviledge of being the only author whose work I am reading the second time immediately after finishing the first reading. I do not want to misrepresent anything I say about the book.
I found it really interesting that on the first reading the word "extra-solar" did not register at all in my mind. On the second reading it really got me. I did not understand what it meant. I thought that if I google it the answer would be "not known" or "did you mean" or even saying it was nonsense. So I did. And what do you know, it is a real thing with meaning and all. Only it is written all together without a hyphen. And instead of 170 extrasolar planets in the book "As of December 2008, 333 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia." Its meaning (just in case there is an ignoramus like me among my readers) is stated as "a planet beyond the Solar System, orbiting around another star".
On the first reading I felt a little annoyed with what I thought as continual putting down those not trained as scientists. On the second reading, I think I may have been wrong. At least it is not so prevalent as I first thought. I probably have to read the book the third time to be certain. You all know by now that I am not a scientist or even that highly educated because I have to read the book so many times to get things clear in my mind.
I said in my first blog about this book that I thought that "Richard Dawkins in some respects looks at some things through the lenses of pers religious upbringing". On my second reading I still think that. Although I must say that what I am about to write is just my untrained thoughts. I could be totally wrong.
Richard Dawkins definately gives a wrong definition of a word per uses in pers book about human love relationships. Per says that polyamory "is the belief that one can simultaneously love several members of the opposite sex" when the wiki, the only source for the definition I have found, does not state anything about the genders of people involved. I feel Richard Dawkins is here influenced by pers religious upbringing. In the same way Richard Dawkins writes about falling in love with a person of "opposite sex". I can understand this being a evolutionary trait to make it possible for people to "go forth and multiply". I assume that the falling in love with a person of the same sex is viewed by Richard Dawkins as some kind of misfiring of this evolutionary trait.
Initially, we humans did not know how children were produced. Children I assume were a part of the group. What if falling in love was nothing to do with the sex and procreation at the beginning but a part of a friendship relationship with the added pleasuring by physical contact? Children being brought up within and by a group of friends could be just as good as a monogamous marriage. In fact, I can see some advantages (to parents and children alike) to this way of bringing up children. What if the males in trying to wrest the control from females instituted the religious marriage and all the other trappings of control that are a part of any main modern religion?
Richard Dawkins and polyamory
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
.... Now to the book I have been reading. It is the Richard Dawkins' God Delusion - still. I am reading it the second time. Richard Dawkins has the priviledge of being the only author whose work I am reading the second time immediately after finishing the first reading. I do not want to misrepresent anything I say about the book.
I found it really interesting that on the first reading the word "extra-solar" did not register at all in my mind. On the second reading it really got me. I did not understand what it meant. I thought that if I google it the answer would be "not known" or "did you mean" or even saying it was nonsense. So I did. And what do you know, it is a real thing with meaning and all. Only it is written all together without a hyphen. And instead of 170 extrasolar planets in the book "As of December 2008, 333 exoplanets are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia." Its meaning (just in case there is an ignoramus like me among my readers) is stated as "a planet beyond the Solar System, orbiting around another star".
On the first reading I felt a little annoyed with what I thought as continual putting down those not trained as scientists. On the second reading, I think I may have been wrong. At least it is not so prevalent as I first thought. I probably have to read the book the third time to be certain. You all know by now that I am not a scientist or even that highly educated because I have to read the book so many times to get things clear in my mind.
I said in my first blog about this book that I thought that "Richard Dawkins in some respects looks at some things through the lenses of pers religious upbringing". On my second reading I still think that. Although I must say that what I am about to write is just my untrained thoughts. I could be totally wrong.
Richard Dawkins definately gives a wrong definition of a word per uses in pers book about human love relationships. Per says that polyamory "is the belief that one can simultaneously love several members of the opposite sex" when the wiki, the only source for the definition I have found, does not state anything about the genders of people involved. I feel Richard Dawkins is here influenced by pers religious upbringing. In the same way Richard Dawkins writes about falling in love with a person of "opposite sex". I can understand this being a evolutionary trait to make it possible for people to "go forth and multiply". I assume that the falling in love with a person of the same sex is viewed by Richard Dawkins as some kind of misfiring of this evolutionary trait.
Initially, we humans did not know how children were produced. Children I assume were a part of the group. What if falling in love was nothing to do with the sex and procreation at the beginning but a part of a friendship relationship with the added pleasuring by physical contact? Children being brought up within and by a group of friends could be just as good as a monogamous marriage. In fact, I can see some advantages (to parents and children alike) to this way of bringing up children. What if the males in trying to wrest the control from females instituted the religious marriage and all the other trappings of control that are a part of any main modern religion?
Written 10 Nov 2008.
Chemistry according to Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
... a book I am reading at the moment. It is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It has made me think more clearly about what I believe and what I know. I have not finished the book so I only write a little about it today. Yesterday I came to a point in the book which made me think that Richard Dawkins in some respects looks at some things through the lenses of pers religious upbringing. I shall write about that further when I have had time to think about it more.
Now I want to write about something which really exited me when I read it. I thought "WOW! I wish the chemistry was taught this way at school. Perhaps then something would have stuck to my mind about it. Something else than H2O." I am fairly certain that the fact that we humans are mostly water entered my brain and stayed there after I had left school, not before. I have known that water is important for us, as we all know, but I had not really thought that "Liquid water is a necessary condition for life as we know it, but it is far from sufficient." (page 164) What else? "The origin of life was the chemical event, or series of events, whereby the vital conditions for natural selection first came about." (p. 164) After reading "Chemistry as we know it consist of the combination and recombination of the ninety or so naturally occurring elements of the periodic table" I checked the Wiki for it. Richard Dawkins' book was published in 2006 and the "current standard table contains 117 elements as of January 27, 2008 (elements 1-116 and element 118)" states the Wiki.
Richard Dawkins goes on to write about stars like our sun and explosions which may lead into formations of planets like our Earth. "This is why Earth is rich in elements over and above the ubiquitous hydrogen; elements without which chemistry, and life, would be impossible." (p. 171) And then onto our universe and ideas about many universes or "multiverse" and "megaverse" and black holes. Are we entering the realm of science fiction here? Lets finish this with another quote "The key difference between the genuinely extravagant God hypothesis and the apparently extravagant multiverse hypothesis is one of statistical improbability. The multiverse, for all that it is extravagant, is simple. God, or any intelligent, decision-taking, calculating agent, would have to be highly improbable in the very same statistical sense as the entities he is supposed to explain." (pp. 175-176)
Chemistry according to Richard Dawkins
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
... a book I am reading at the moment. It is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It has made me think more clearly about what I believe and what I know. I have not finished the book so I only write a little about it today. Yesterday I came to a point in the book which made me think that Richard Dawkins in some respects looks at some things through the lenses of pers religious upbringing. I shall write about that further when I have had time to think about it more.
Now I want to write about something which really exited me when I read it. I thought "WOW! I wish the chemistry was taught this way at school. Perhaps then something would have stuck to my mind about it. Something else than H2O." I am fairly certain that the fact that we humans are mostly water entered my brain and stayed there after I had left school, not before. I have known that water is important for us, as we all know, but I had not really thought that "Liquid water is a necessary condition for life as we know it, but it is far from sufficient." (page 164) What else? "The origin of life was the chemical event, or series of events, whereby the vital conditions for natural selection first came about." (p. 164) After reading "Chemistry as we know it consist of the combination and recombination of the ninety or so naturally occurring elements of the periodic table" I checked the Wiki for it. Richard Dawkins' book was published in 2006 and the "current standard table contains 117 elements as of January 27, 2008 (elements 1-116 and element 118)" states the Wiki.
Richard Dawkins goes on to write about stars like our sun and explosions which may lead into formations of planets like our Earth. "This is why Earth is rich in elements over and above the ubiquitous hydrogen; elements without which chemistry, and life, would be impossible." (p. 171) And then onto our universe and ideas about many universes or "multiverse" and "megaverse" and black holes. Are we entering the realm of science fiction here? Lets finish this with another quote "The key difference between the genuinely extravagant God hypothesis and the apparently extravagant multiverse hypothesis is one of statistical improbability. The multiverse, for all that it is extravagant, is simple. God, or any intelligent, decision-taking, calculating agent, would have to be highly improbable in the very same statistical sense as the entities he is supposed to explain." (pp. 175-176)
Written 02 Nov 2008.
High on Life by Katy Watson
Spacegirl Pukes by Katy Watson, illustrated by Vanda Carter
.....
Katy's novel, High on Life, which I finally got hold of after the funeral further took me back into those painful years of my life. The novel is about a person in the process of kicking the heroin habit. Although I have never taken heroin or been addicted to any illegal substance the novel was strangely reminiscent of my struggles around then. Katy had drawn from pers own experiences in writing the novel. The familiar places in London and the familiar activities took me back to the years before. I do not know how much Katy there is in the main character apart from the politics, the activities and the places. I do know that Katy used drugs, but I did not see anything like what is in the book when I knew Katy. I found it interesting and in a way disheartening that the only support group available in the novel (and I suspect in real life) is a religious one. True to the character the heroine does not attend after the first meeting, although per is tempted a little. Anything for some support even if it comes with an objectionable package. At the end per manages without the support from that source. Good for per!
The reading of Katy's novel was an experience in itself. I wish I had read it before and been able to tell Katy how much I enjoyed reading it. If Katy was still alive it probably would not have been half as painful a read, because there would have been a hope of a renewed friendship.
High on Life by Katy Watson is an important novel about addiction and what it does to a person and how difficult it is to kick it. It is really well written. I had only read Katy's writing in our paper before. So I did not know that Katy could write so differently and so well. It is published by The Women's Press. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get hold of. I first tried to find it when I heard that the book was published. I gave up too easily. I did not know the title at the time. I just put Katy's name in Amazon. Nothing came up and I gave up trying. After the funeral my eldest did the search by Katy's name. Nothing came up. Then per put down the title of the book. All kinds of other books came up, but scrolling down Katy's book was there too. I recommend the book wholeheartedly.
Katy wrote another book too. It is a children's book Spacegirl Pukes. When I told the title to a friend per's expression and words were dismissive. Per did not like the title. I have been thinking of it and decided that it was just the right thing. All the little children go through that experience. I think for them it would be fun to read about it. And to have a girl as a heroine (who pukes) going out to space after getting better is just great. The illustrations are very good too. It is a brilliant book. I shall order one or two before long.
High on Life by Katy Watson
Spacegirl Pukes by Katy Watson, illustrated by Vanda Carter
.....
Katy's novel, High on Life, which I finally got hold of after the funeral further took me back into those painful years of my life. The novel is about a person in the process of kicking the heroin habit. Although I have never taken heroin or been addicted to any illegal substance the novel was strangely reminiscent of my struggles around then. Katy had drawn from pers own experiences in writing the novel. The familiar places in London and the familiar activities took me back to the years before. I do not know how much Katy there is in the main character apart from the politics, the activities and the places. I do know that Katy used drugs, but I did not see anything like what is in the book when I knew Katy. I found it interesting and in a way disheartening that the only support group available in the novel (and I suspect in real life) is a religious one. True to the character the heroine does not attend after the first meeting, although per is tempted a little. Anything for some support even if it comes with an objectionable package. At the end per manages without the support from that source. Good for per!
The reading of Katy's novel was an experience in itself. I wish I had read it before and been able to tell Katy how much I enjoyed reading it. If Katy was still alive it probably would not have been half as painful a read, because there would have been a hope of a renewed friendship.
High on Life by Katy Watson is an important novel about addiction and what it does to a person and how difficult it is to kick it. It is really well written. I had only read Katy's writing in our paper before. So I did not know that Katy could write so differently and so well. It is published by The Women's Press. Unfortunately, it is not easy to get hold of. I first tried to find it when I heard that the book was published. I gave up too easily. I did not know the title at the time. I just put Katy's name in Amazon. Nothing came up and I gave up trying. After the funeral my eldest did the search by Katy's name. Nothing came up. Then per put down the title of the book. All kinds of other books came up, but scrolling down Katy's book was there too. I recommend the book wholeheartedly.
Katy wrote another book too. It is a children's book Spacegirl Pukes. When I told the title to a friend per's expression and words were dismissive. Per did not like the title. I have been thinking of it and decided that it was just the right thing. All the little children go through that experience. I think for them it would be fun to read about it. And to have a girl as a heroine (who pukes) going out to space after getting better is just great. The illustrations are very good too. It is a brilliant book. I shall order one or two before long.
Written 24 Aug 2008.
With the will the way would be found.
Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
I do not think a day goes by without me reading fiction. Even when I am reading some non fiction books I still read some fiction every day. Non fiction tends to last me much longer; it requires more of my mind than fiction does. Although good fiction, and some not so good, makes me think of the world around us.
Some think the reading of fiction is a kind of escape from the real world around us. I do not think so. Even if while reading the real world seems to disappear and the world created by the author feels perhaps real, after the reading the real world is still there and possibly in sharper detail or contrast than before. Certainly, this is the case with me. For me whatever I read, whenever I read, the world I live in with all its good and evil, its problems, its delights, its very real beauty, is always there. Further, often when reading some phrase in the book may stop me and bring me very forcibly to something in the life around me.
I have just finished another crime novel about solving a case involving a serial killer. Many crime novels seem to be about serial killers. I suppose they sell, so the authors create them. I suppose it also gives added urgency and suspense to the storyline to have a serial killer as one being pursued and having to be stopped before more people got killed. Another supposition of mine is that the authors, if they are any good, are trying to grapple with the nature of evil - taking of life, whether it is actual extinguishing of life or destroying the soul or spirit of a person, is the ultimate evil. And it has to be on a personal level, killing of individuals rather than the evil of war, as we have not yet developed a sense of collective local/global responsibility to feel truly horrified by the state of our society which leads us to allow some people's lives to be seen as less worthy than others, to be seen as exploitable and expendable.
I think Lisa Gardner is a good writer. Not my very favourite, but one whose novels I like reading. In pers novels (I have read a couple of them) I get a feeling of exploration of the nature of evil. Another kind of theme in the novels is the family relationship, in particular the first ever relationship we each encounter - that between a parent and a child. The book I have just finished is Say Goodbye and it deals with the evil of child exploitation. It tells a plausible story in a harrowing way about a person's journey from an innocent child to a murderer. It is a heartbreaking story and even while condemning the murderer I felt pity for per as much as I felt pity for pers victims. It deals sensitively and plausibly with the effects of such awful abuse can have on those who are rescued and returned to their families.
I feel a little ambiguous about the female accomplice of the murderer. Per is somehow made to be worse than the really horrible and calculating killer, although per does not kill anyone perself. Per enjoys the violence whereas the killer needs the feelings of satisfaction and power that the killing gives per in order to drown the feelings of fear and helplessness per was made to feel when per was abducted and abused. The woman is devoid of any kind of feeling for others whereas the murderer does right at the end feel relief at being killed and not having to destroy another child. I wonder why the author needs to invent a female character like this. It fits in the story and is central to it really. But ... is a woman more unfeeling once the feeling for others is killed in a person? Only the need to survive at any cost is left in the person? Is that what a woman can become when per chooses to act on the capacity for evil within per? And is it only possible for women to be like that? Do men have a spark of humanity right at the end, but women don't? Or is it that we women are harder on other women, more unforgiving? And why, if that is the case?
What does this book say about the world we live in? As the main detective says "The world is a hard place. People suck. Monsters do live under the bed-or, frankly, in Daddy's room down the hall." The answer to this problem at the end of the book is to install more security systems and to be ever more watchful. I like to think that more could be done to make our world safer. This same character says "... everyone has inside him- or herself the capacity for evil. Some people will never act on it, others will definitely act on it, and still others will act on it only if the right circumstances present themselves." I do believe that we all have the capacity for good and for evil also. I do, however, question the rest of this statement. In our society which does not collectively condemn the abuse of allowing some people to be seen as worth more than the others, it is not possible to determine how we all would act if the society was such that none lived in poverty and fear and none lived in obscene material wealth. We should collectively condemn the situation where a child was hungry, where a child was abused. To condemn that situation would mean doing our best to change the situation. Not just build walls around our lives in the hope that the monster could not climb over.
With the will the way would be found.
Say Goodbye by Lisa Gardner
I do not think a day goes by without me reading fiction. Even when I am reading some non fiction books I still read some fiction every day. Non fiction tends to last me much longer; it requires more of my mind than fiction does. Although good fiction, and some not so good, makes me think of the world around us.
Some think the reading of fiction is a kind of escape from the real world around us. I do not think so. Even if while reading the real world seems to disappear and the world created by the author feels perhaps real, after the reading the real world is still there and possibly in sharper detail or contrast than before. Certainly, this is the case with me. For me whatever I read, whenever I read, the world I live in with all its good and evil, its problems, its delights, its very real beauty, is always there. Further, often when reading some phrase in the book may stop me and bring me very forcibly to something in the life around me.
I have just finished another crime novel about solving a case involving a serial killer. Many crime novels seem to be about serial killers. I suppose they sell, so the authors create them. I suppose it also gives added urgency and suspense to the storyline to have a serial killer as one being pursued and having to be stopped before more people got killed. Another supposition of mine is that the authors, if they are any good, are trying to grapple with the nature of evil - taking of life, whether it is actual extinguishing of life or destroying the soul or spirit of a person, is the ultimate evil. And it has to be on a personal level, killing of individuals rather than the evil of war, as we have not yet developed a sense of collective local/global responsibility to feel truly horrified by the state of our society which leads us to allow some people's lives to be seen as less worthy than others, to be seen as exploitable and expendable.
I think Lisa Gardner is a good writer. Not my very favourite, but one whose novels I like reading. In pers novels (I have read a couple of them) I get a feeling of exploration of the nature of evil. Another kind of theme in the novels is the family relationship, in particular the first ever relationship we each encounter - that between a parent and a child. The book I have just finished is Say Goodbye and it deals with the evil of child exploitation. It tells a plausible story in a harrowing way about a person's journey from an innocent child to a murderer. It is a heartbreaking story and even while condemning the murderer I felt pity for per as much as I felt pity for pers victims. It deals sensitively and plausibly with the effects of such awful abuse can have on those who are rescued and returned to their families.
I feel a little ambiguous about the female accomplice of the murderer. Per is somehow made to be worse than the really horrible and calculating killer, although per does not kill anyone perself. Per enjoys the violence whereas the killer needs the feelings of satisfaction and power that the killing gives per in order to drown the feelings of fear and helplessness per was made to feel when per was abducted and abused. The woman is devoid of any kind of feeling for others whereas the murderer does right at the end feel relief at being killed and not having to destroy another child. I wonder why the author needs to invent a female character like this. It fits in the story and is central to it really. But ... is a woman more unfeeling once the feeling for others is killed in a person? Only the need to survive at any cost is left in the person? Is that what a woman can become when per chooses to act on the capacity for evil within per? And is it only possible for women to be like that? Do men have a spark of humanity right at the end, but women don't? Or is it that we women are harder on other women, more unforgiving? And why, if that is the case?
What does this book say about the world we live in? As the main detective says "The world is a hard place. People suck. Monsters do live under the bed-or, frankly, in Daddy's room down the hall." The answer to this problem at the end of the book is to install more security systems and to be ever more watchful. I like to think that more could be done to make our world safer. This same character says "... everyone has inside him- or herself the capacity for evil. Some people will never act on it, others will definitely act on it, and still others will act on it only if the right circumstances present themselves." I do believe that we all have the capacity for good and for evil also. I do, however, question the rest of this statement. In our society which does not collectively condemn the abuse of allowing some people to be seen as worth more than the others, it is not possible to determine how we all would act if the society was such that none lived in poverty and fear and none lived in obscene material wealth. We should collectively condemn the situation where a child was hungry, where a child was abused. To condemn that situation would mean doing our best to change the situation. Not just build walls around our lives in the hope that the monster could not climb over.
Written 10 Aug 2008.
From the darkness of Chelsea Cain to the light of Conscious Evolution
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard
I read a lot of detective/mystery/crime fiction. I like the aspect of the puzzle to be solved. Really good ones have something to say about the society we live in and the characters are made plausible; the reader can really get into the story and the characters become almost like friends whose lives the reader follows with interest.
Lately I have come to think that perhaps some crime writers are competing with each other to produce the most gruesome crimes and characters and situations. I have just finished a book by Chelsea Cain titled Sweetheart. I struggled to the end trying to find something redeeming in it all. Perhaps the writer's background as a creative director in PR and marketing campaigns has something to do with the "creativity" in the novel. (Lets face it, many of the ads nowadays are based on the worst possible qualities in us: all the seven - is it 7 - "sins" are encouraged for us to give into and revel in.)
The murderer in the novel is a beautiful female serial killer, who got to be one all by perself without any help from men, "a feminist homicidal psychopath" as the detective in the book says. The detective who ever having had sexual relations only with pers wife becomes sexually involved and obsessed with this killer. The killer so beautiful, cunning and manipulative that per can get men and even women to do anything per wants. And the killings - well, I keep wondering if the things done are even possible in real life. I have no idea what kind of research the writer has done to find out if the ways and means of killing are possible the way they are in the novel. I feel kind of numb inside after reading this novel. The subtitle on the cover says "True love never dies." The killer escapes and lives to "thrill" in another novel with pers obsessive pursuer, I assume. I can live without such thrills.
There are other murders being investigated while this drama with the psychopath is played to the final escape. These murders are committed to protect a "good" politician's reputation. There are no surprises there as to how and why and who. All quite predictably brought to conclusion. Which brings me to something else I have been reading.
I have just started reading a book by Barbara Marx Hubbard. The book is Conscious Evolution with a subtitle Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential. The introduction states that the book is "an early effort to respond to the immense challenge and opportunity of our age. It sets forth a vision of the vast transformational enterprise of the next millennium ...... Conscious Evolution carries us beyond the human potential movement toward the social potential movement and describes a new social architecture to enhance and connect social innovations now evolving around the world. .... Conscious Evolution presents a plan that can bring humanity across the dangerous threshold of possible self-destruction to the point of the shift - when we realize we are going to make it, that we have the capacity to survive and grow. This plan is composed of initiatives that are already occurring, but have not yet been connected, communicated, and understood to be vital elements of a whole system transition."
Well, dare I hope? I have not got very far in reading this book yet. So far an interesting and a positive fact revealed is that a big study in US found out that "there are 44 million 'cultural creatives' in the United States alone - almost one-fourth the American population. Cultural creatives are defined by a set of values, a new lifestyle, and worldview. Feeling that we are all members of one planet, they are concerned about the environment and social-economic justice. They have a different notion of relationship - one that is less hierarchical. They are interested in holistic health and are extending women's concerns into the public domain. Their emphasis is on consciousness raising in all aspects of our lives - personal, social, and planetary." The study was published in 1996. Lets hope there are even more now, 12 years on.
We seem to be living in a very dark time right now. The book by Chelsea Cain is one indication of it. So are all the ads that draw on our worst possible characteristics and seem to say it is ok to be greedy, manipulative, vindictive etc. Many people feel apathetic, depressed, social outcasts. There is a very wide cap between those who have and those who don't. Just the other day in the morning news there was an item about really expensive yachts and the billionaires who owned them having trouble finding people to work in them. I remember another item some time ago about a restaurant in a plane hovering over London I think it was. Juxtapose these images with the millions without shelter or food. Dark times indeed.
Perhaps this darkness will be followed by light. The book Conscious Evolution gives me hope. So do all the cultural creatives around the world. Another wonderful thing I heard about is the world march for the world without wars. Check this website about it http://www.mundosinguerras.org/ Perhaps, we'll survive. Toivossa on hyvä elää, sanoi kirppu toiselle.
From the darkness of Chelsea Cain to the light of Conscious Evolution
Sweetheart by Chelsea Cain
Conscious Evolution by Barbara Marx Hubbard
I read a lot of detective/mystery/crime fiction. I like the aspect of the puzzle to be solved. Really good ones have something to say about the society we live in and the characters are made plausible; the reader can really get into the story and the characters become almost like friends whose lives the reader follows with interest.
Lately I have come to think that perhaps some crime writers are competing with each other to produce the most gruesome crimes and characters and situations. I have just finished a book by Chelsea Cain titled Sweetheart. I struggled to the end trying to find something redeeming in it all. Perhaps the writer's background as a creative director in PR and marketing campaigns has something to do with the "creativity" in the novel. (Lets face it, many of the ads nowadays are based on the worst possible qualities in us: all the seven - is it 7 - "sins" are encouraged for us to give into and revel in.)
The murderer in the novel is a beautiful female serial killer, who got to be one all by perself without any help from men, "a feminist homicidal psychopath" as the detective in the book says. The detective who ever having had sexual relations only with pers wife becomes sexually involved and obsessed with this killer. The killer so beautiful, cunning and manipulative that per can get men and even women to do anything per wants. And the killings - well, I keep wondering if the things done are even possible in real life. I have no idea what kind of research the writer has done to find out if the ways and means of killing are possible the way they are in the novel. I feel kind of numb inside after reading this novel. The subtitle on the cover says "True love never dies." The killer escapes and lives to "thrill" in another novel with pers obsessive pursuer, I assume. I can live without such thrills.
There are other murders being investigated while this drama with the psychopath is played to the final escape. These murders are committed to protect a "good" politician's reputation. There are no surprises there as to how and why and who. All quite predictably brought to conclusion. Which brings me to something else I have been reading.
I have just started reading a book by Barbara Marx Hubbard. The book is Conscious Evolution with a subtitle Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential. The introduction states that the book is "an early effort to respond to the immense challenge and opportunity of our age. It sets forth a vision of the vast transformational enterprise of the next millennium ...... Conscious Evolution carries us beyond the human potential movement toward the social potential movement and describes a new social architecture to enhance and connect social innovations now evolving around the world. .... Conscious Evolution presents a plan that can bring humanity across the dangerous threshold of possible self-destruction to the point of the shift - when we realize we are going to make it, that we have the capacity to survive and grow. This plan is composed of initiatives that are already occurring, but have not yet been connected, communicated, and understood to be vital elements of a whole system transition."
Well, dare I hope? I have not got very far in reading this book yet. So far an interesting and a positive fact revealed is that a big study in US found out that "there are 44 million 'cultural creatives' in the United States alone - almost one-fourth the American population. Cultural creatives are defined by a set of values, a new lifestyle, and worldview. Feeling that we are all members of one planet, they are concerned about the environment and social-economic justice. They have a different notion of relationship - one that is less hierarchical. They are interested in holistic health and are extending women's concerns into the public domain. Their emphasis is on consciousness raising in all aspects of our lives - personal, social, and planetary." The study was published in 1996. Lets hope there are even more now, 12 years on.
We seem to be living in a very dark time right now. The book by Chelsea Cain is one indication of it. So are all the ads that draw on our worst possible characteristics and seem to say it is ok to be greedy, manipulative, vindictive etc. Many people feel apathetic, depressed, social outcasts. There is a very wide cap between those who have and those who don't. Just the other day in the morning news there was an item about really expensive yachts and the billionaires who owned them having trouble finding people to work in them. I remember another item some time ago about a restaurant in a plane hovering over London I think it was. Juxtapose these images with the millions without shelter or food. Dark times indeed.
Perhaps this darkness will be followed by light. The book Conscious Evolution gives me hope. So do all the cultural creatives around the world. Another wonderful thing I heard about is the world march for the world without wars. Check this website about it http://www.mundosinguerras.org/ Perhaps, we'll survive. Toivossa on hyvä elää, sanoi kirppu toiselle.
Originally written 09 Jun 2008.
fledgling by Octavia Butler
...... I just finished a book - thats what I was thinking of writing about when I started. Heh, this is how things go, you get more to read because my mind wanders. Aren't you lucky.
The book is the last novel written by Octavia Butler before per died. In some ways it is unusual for Ocatavia Butler and yet so similar. Don't get me wrong, although all pers books deal with the one big issue, the other and how we humans deal with it, they are not boringly same at all. The characters are real wonderful people, both aliens and humans, and the storylines are so amazingly interesting, grabbing your attention from the first word. I am so sad that Octavia Butler died so young as we lost such a wonderful storyteller in per.
This book I read, fledgling, is about a vampire, or an ina as they call themselves, whose eldermothers had been scientist and had managed to give fledgling DNA from a human making it possible for fledgling to stay awake daytime and not burn totally in sunlight. These vampires are not like the folklore vampires we know. Our folklore is explained in the book as human stories trying to deal with some aspects of the ina they came to contact with as they lived together on this world. Octavia Butler makes it all so plausible. Like with all pers wonderful creations, the most unusual and even repellant sometimes, it is still possible to see them as people, aliens or otherwise, and live with them through their struggles and tribulations.
Ina are in many ways like us humans. Some of them are bigots and racists and afraid of anything new. The new in this novel is the DNA experiment which produced the fledgling of the story and pers brothers and sisters. This aspect of the story made me think of the DNA experiments some scientists want to do now, mixing different animals' DNA with our human animal DNA. One difference here is that the non-human animals have not given their consent. In the novel the person who gave pers DNA was a woman who was considered as the fledgling's human mother, who had loved the fledgling as pers child, as had done the ina mother who had actually given birth to the fledgling. This aspect I think is very important and really brings us to face one of the unappealing aspects of our human nature: our arrogance. Some have it to a greater extent than the others, but I believe, we are all prone to it and we have to learn to temper it with real proper humility, not with Uriah Heep kind of humility. And perhaps we can then learn to accept others as our fellow humans and can learn to build a society which is all inclusive.
fledgling by Octavia Butler
...... I just finished a book - thats what I was thinking of writing about when I started. Heh, this is how things go, you get more to read because my mind wanders. Aren't you lucky.
The book is the last novel written by Octavia Butler before per died. In some ways it is unusual for Ocatavia Butler and yet so similar. Don't get me wrong, although all pers books deal with the one big issue, the other and how we humans deal with it, they are not boringly same at all. The characters are real wonderful people, both aliens and humans, and the storylines are so amazingly interesting, grabbing your attention from the first word. I am so sad that Octavia Butler died so young as we lost such a wonderful storyteller in per.
This book I read, fledgling, is about a vampire, or an ina as they call themselves, whose eldermothers had been scientist and had managed to give fledgling DNA from a human making it possible for fledgling to stay awake daytime and not burn totally in sunlight. These vampires are not like the folklore vampires we know. Our folklore is explained in the book as human stories trying to deal with some aspects of the ina they came to contact with as they lived together on this world. Octavia Butler makes it all so plausible. Like with all pers wonderful creations, the most unusual and even repellant sometimes, it is still possible to see them as people, aliens or otherwise, and live with them through their struggles and tribulations.
Ina are in many ways like us humans. Some of them are bigots and racists and afraid of anything new. The new in this novel is the DNA experiment which produced the fledgling of the story and pers brothers and sisters. This aspect of the story made me think of the DNA experiments some scientists want to do now, mixing different animals' DNA with our human animal DNA. One difference here is that the non-human animals have not given their consent. In the novel the person who gave pers DNA was a woman who was considered as the fledgling's human mother, who had loved the fledgling as pers child, as had done the ina mother who had actually given birth to the fledgling. This aspect I think is very important and really brings us to face one of the unappealing aspects of our human nature: our arrogance. Some have it to a greater extent than the others, but I believe, we are all prone to it and we have to learn to temper it with real proper humility, not with Uriah Heep kind of humility. And perhaps we can then learn to accept others as our fellow humans and can learn to build a society which is all inclusive.
Written 07 Apr 2008.
A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer
by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
southern cross by Jann Turner
Ah, but your land is beautiful by Alan Paton
The Betrayal by Gillian Slovo
My mind has been working overtime as usual chewing various things from the news, the book I am reading and life as I live it and see it. I am trying to sort out the worlds problems all by myself here at my little desk in my fairly big house (comparatively speaking) in a small village in a small country in a wide wide world.
I am reading a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The writer is a South African psychologist who served on the Human Rights Violations Committee in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa between 1996 and 1998. The book is an exploration of the meanings of responsibility, remorse and forgiveness. The title of the book caught my attention in the bookshop. It is A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer. Its the first part that really got to me. It still does. It feels like a small ball is painfully lodged inside my belly. I am actually crying now. I have to stop for a while. ....
A cup of coffee to help me along: Cafe Rebelde Zapatista from the Nueva Luz Co-operative in Chiapas, Mexico. There’s a mouthful for you and a very tasty mouthful to me. Heh. If I buy anything (I try to limit my purchases to Europe or even closer to home whenever possible) from outside Europe I try to make certain that the product is fair trade and possibly also organic in order to cause least possible harm to others and to our environment by my indulgences.
I read fairly recently another book, a novel, southern cross by Jann Turner, with a few first chapters set in 1987 and the remaining ones in 1997. It explores the crime of political murder in the apartheid era which is brought to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ten years later and is then slowly unraveled by the characters. Other books dealing with life in South Africa at the time of apartheid are Alan Paton’s famous Ah, but your land is beautiful, set in the years 1952 to 1958 and Gillian Slovo’s The Betrayal set in the later years of apartheid. These two last books I read many years ago. I do not remember much about the stories, but I do remember that they really moved me. They are all written by South Africans and I recommend them all.
Now back to what is exercising my mind today. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s book got me to thinking of the situation now and particularly about the crime that is being committed right now by all of us, but more so by the people who have money and power in our society. It is a great crime of our society that so many people are suffering in various ways because of the uneven distribution of wealth. South Africa seems to be following in the footsteps of all the other capitalist nations. There is so much poverty there and poverty leads to all kinds of crime. Which in turn leads to those in power to entrench their positions of wealth and power and to legislate to protect their positions. Here in Britain obscene wealth of some is continually brought to the attention of public at large. The latest changes in the taxation are profiting the richer and punishing the poorer. This was done by a Labour government.
How to solve the problem without undue suffering and confrontation? And believe you me, it is time to solve this. We cannot afford to have so many people suffering and feeling alienated and hurting themselves or others. We cannot afford to live in a society which seems to concentrate on crime and punishment. It is not good for our health, to anyone’s health - rich or poor.
I think we need to get away from our usual way of valuing things, step sideways and value people instead. So instead of paying for a work or job done pay for a worker’s time spent on it. Value the worker and the time and effort the worker puts in pers work. So the roadsweeper who spends time keeping our roads clean and thus helping us to avoid getting sick and overwhelmed by the filth we drop around us or the office cleaner who makes the work place clean and tidy and pleasant to work in, is paid the same hourly rate as the manager pushing papers around in the clean and tidy office trying to decide who does what job.
This is not meant to belittle what happened in apartheid South Africa or in Rwanda or in Hitler’s Germany or in Stalin’s Russia or in Cambodia. I think it is important to keep in mind that these monstrosities that took place involved human beings, both as victims and as perpetrators, and the situations that led to these happenings were created by us. It is time to wake up and organise our society so that all feel that they are a part of it. The wealth of our society belongs to us all, not just a few. We all should be able to enjoy that wealth. All in moderation, none in excess.
A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer
by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
southern cross by Jann Turner
Ah, but your land is beautiful by Alan Paton
The Betrayal by Gillian Slovo
My mind has been working overtime as usual chewing various things from the news, the book I am reading and life as I live it and see it. I am trying to sort out the worlds problems all by myself here at my little desk in my fairly big house (comparatively speaking) in a small village in a small country in a wide wide world.
I am reading a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. The writer is a South African psychologist who served on the Human Rights Violations Committee in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa between 1996 and 1998. The book is an exploration of the meanings of responsibility, remorse and forgiveness. The title of the book caught my attention in the bookshop. It is A Human Being Died That Night: Forgiving Apartheid’s Chief Killer. Its the first part that really got to me. It still does. It feels like a small ball is painfully lodged inside my belly. I am actually crying now. I have to stop for a while. ....
A cup of coffee to help me along: Cafe Rebelde Zapatista from the Nueva Luz Co-operative in Chiapas, Mexico. There’s a mouthful for you and a very tasty mouthful to me. Heh. If I buy anything (I try to limit my purchases to Europe or even closer to home whenever possible) from outside Europe I try to make certain that the product is fair trade and possibly also organic in order to cause least possible harm to others and to our environment by my indulgences.
I read fairly recently another book, a novel, southern cross by Jann Turner, with a few first chapters set in 1987 and the remaining ones in 1997. It explores the crime of political murder in the apartheid era which is brought to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission ten years later and is then slowly unraveled by the characters. Other books dealing with life in South Africa at the time of apartheid are Alan Paton’s famous Ah, but your land is beautiful, set in the years 1952 to 1958 and Gillian Slovo’s The Betrayal set in the later years of apartheid. These two last books I read many years ago. I do not remember much about the stories, but I do remember that they really moved me. They are all written by South Africans and I recommend them all.
Now back to what is exercising my mind today. Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s book got me to thinking of the situation now and particularly about the crime that is being committed right now by all of us, but more so by the people who have money and power in our society. It is a great crime of our society that so many people are suffering in various ways because of the uneven distribution of wealth. South Africa seems to be following in the footsteps of all the other capitalist nations. There is so much poverty there and poverty leads to all kinds of crime. Which in turn leads to those in power to entrench their positions of wealth and power and to legislate to protect their positions. Here in Britain obscene wealth of some is continually brought to the attention of public at large. The latest changes in the taxation are profiting the richer and punishing the poorer. This was done by a Labour government.
How to solve the problem without undue suffering and confrontation? And believe you me, it is time to solve this. We cannot afford to have so many people suffering and feeling alienated and hurting themselves or others. We cannot afford to live in a society which seems to concentrate on crime and punishment. It is not good for our health, to anyone’s health - rich or poor.
I think we need to get away from our usual way of valuing things, step sideways and value people instead. So instead of paying for a work or job done pay for a worker’s time spent on it. Value the worker and the time and effort the worker puts in pers work. So the roadsweeper who spends time keeping our roads clean and thus helping us to avoid getting sick and overwhelmed by the filth we drop around us or the office cleaner who makes the work place clean and tidy and pleasant to work in, is paid the same hourly rate as the manager pushing papers around in the clean and tidy office trying to decide who does what job.
This is not meant to belittle what happened in apartheid South Africa or in Rwanda or in Hitler’s Germany or in Stalin’s Russia or in Cambodia. I think it is important to keep in mind that these monstrosities that took place involved human beings, both as victims and as perpetrators, and the situations that led to these happenings were created by us. It is time to wake up and organise our society so that all feel that they are a part of it. The wealth of our society belongs to us all, not just a few. We all should be able to enjoy that wealth. All in moderation, none in excess.
This was written 19 Mar 2008. I read the book in Finnish. I do not know if it is translated into English.
Agnes by Minna Canth
Today is Minna Canth’s Day, The Day of Equality in Finland. It is a new official Finnish flag-raising day, only became so last year. I only found out yesterday looking at my Finnish calendar.
Minna Canth was a Finnish playwright. Per was born on the 19th of March 1844 and died on the 12th of May 1897. An introduction to per in the only book I have by per says that Minna Canth is the second most important Finnish playwright. The book I have is a novella Agnes. It is the only thing I have read by Minna Canth. I read it some time ago and was really impressed by it and its treatment of its subject matter. Yesterday I decided to read it again to refresh my memory so that I can write something about it.
Agnes was originally a part of a collection of novellas published in 1892. The introduction to my copy, which was printed in 1911 as a part of a series Otava’s 50 pennies libarary (Otavan 50 pennin Kirjasto), says that the strangest of the novellas is Agnes, in which a haughty beauty, who is totally broken away from the moral precepts of the nation, is set opposite naive Finnish home-bodies.
The novella is a first person account of a few days in the life of Liisi, the narrator, when an old school mate Agnes comes back to visit the small town where Liisi still lives with pers husband, three small children and a servant. Liisi and Agnes meet by chance and these few days with Agnes in their lives cause huge emotional and moral turmoil for Liisi. Agnes brings new ideas, new beliefs and without being passionate about anything arouses passion in others. Liisi is forced to learn something about perself and about pers husband and their realationship. And Agnes makes some really interesting comparisons between their two different ways of living their lives as women, and also as human beings. This novella is well worth reading and has something to offer us even today more than hundred years after its publication.
Agnes by Minna Canth
Today is Minna Canth’s Day, The Day of Equality in Finland. It is a new official Finnish flag-raising day, only became so last year. I only found out yesterday looking at my Finnish calendar.
Minna Canth was a Finnish playwright. Per was born on the 19th of March 1844 and died on the 12th of May 1897. An introduction to per in the only book I have by per says that Minna Canth is the second most important Finnish playwright. The book I have is a novella Agnes. It is the only thing I have read by Minna Canth. I read it some time ago and was really impressed by it and its treatment of its subject matter. Yesterday I decided to read it again to refresh my memory so that I can write something about it.
Agnes was originally a part of a collection of novellas published in 1892. The introduction to my copy, which was printed in 1911 as a part of a series Otava’s 50 pennies libarary (Otavan 50 pennin Kirjasto), says that the strangest of the novellas is Agnes, in which a haughty beauty, who is totally broken away from the moral precepts of the nation, is set opposite naive Finnish home-bodies.
The novella is a first person account of a few days in the life of Liisi, the narrator, when an old school mate Agnes comes back to visit the small town where Liisi still lives with pers husband, three small children and a servant. Liisi and Agnes meet by chance and these few days with Agnes in their lives cause huge emotional and moral turmoil for Liisi. Agnes brings new ideas, new beliefs and without being passionate about anything arouses passion in others. Liisi is forced to learn something about perself and about pers husband and their realationship. And Agnes makes some really interesting comparisons between their two different ways of living their lives as women, and also as human beings. This novella is well worth reading and has something to offer us even today more than hundred years after its publication.
This next one was written 11 Feb 2008. It is clear that these pieces of writing are not just book reviews, but book reviews with additions: the whirlpool of thoughts in my mind.
Changelings and a sentient planet
Changelings by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough
A few days ago I finished a novel by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It is called Changelings. It takes the reader back to the world of Petaybee which was introduced in a novel Powers That Be, and continued in Power Lines and then in Power Play. I have them all and read them some years ago. These books introduce an interesting idea: a sentient planet which communicates with its inhabitants. It is set in a future where humans live on many different planets terraformed to suit humans who have come from the old earth with their old beliefs and customs. The changelings of the novel are twins born to a fully human and a human who becomes a seal in water. The twins have inherited this. They are different from the majority of people. So they have to be very careful in order to avoid being discovered as different from other humans, apart from a few who know and can be trusted.
This book deals with the idea of other, of something different from the norm, and how we humans deal with it. It is a sad truth that we are not very good at dealing with otherness, with too much difference. It is feared and distrusted, often ridiculed and debased and even annihilated.
The other foreign idea for us is the planet being sentient and actually communicating with its people. I think we, some anyway, accept that the planet we live on is a living thing, but we, that is at least most of us, think of it as something that we own and can do anything to or with. Imagine what it would be like if we came to really accept that our planet is a living being instead of a thing. Would it become too much of another and would we try destroy it even faster than we are doing now? Or could we perhaps learn to accept its otherness and respect it and its right to existence? Could we learn to be grateful to it for allowing us to live on it and find sustenance for our bodies and souls from it? And could we stop the destruction before it is too late? Probably one of the most benign ways we see our earth at the moment is that we are looking after this thing for our children who actually own it. Would it not be even better if we saw that all of us, whatever colour, creed, gender, sexuality etc, are a part of the huge whole living entity with the planet and the whole universe. Perhaps we all could be humbled a little by the hugeness of it all and stop our quarrels over our tiny problems and differencies. Instead we should help each other and share the bounty of our planet so that none of us would lack the necessities of life.
Changelings and a sentient planet
Changelings by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough
A few days ago I finished a novel by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It is called Changelings. It takes the reader back to the world of Petaybee which was introduced in a novel Powers That Be, and continued in Power Lines and then in Power Play. I have them all and read them some years ago. These books introduce an interesting idea: a sentient planet which communicates with its inhabitants. It is set in a future where humans live on many different planets terraformed to suit humans who have come from the old earth with their old beliefs and customs. The changelings of the novel are twins born to a fully human and a human who becomes a seal in water. The twins have inherited this. They are different from the majority of people. So they have to be very careful in order to avoid being discovered as different from other humans, apart from a few who know and can be trusted.
This book deals with the idea of other, of something different from the norm, and how we humans deal with it. It is a sad truth that we are not very good at dealing with otherness, with too much difference. It is feared and distrusted, often ridiculed and debased and even annihilated.
The other foreign idea for us is the planet being sentient and actually communicating with its people. I think we, some anyway, accept that the planet we live on is a living thing, but we, that is at least most of us, think of it as something that we own and can do anything to or with. Imagine what it would be like if we came to really accept that our planet is a living being instead of a thing. Would it become too much of another and would we try destroy it even faster than we are doing now? Or could we perhaps learn to accept its otherness and respect it and its right to existence? Could we learn to be grateful to it for allowing us to live on it and find sustenance for our bodies and souls from it? And could we stop the destruction before it is too late? Probably one of the most benign ways we see our earth at the moment is that we are looking after this thing for our children who actually own it. Would it not be even better if we saw that all of us, whatever colour, creed, gender, sexuality etc, are a part of the huge whole living entity with the planet and the whole universe. Perhaps we all could be humbled a little by the hugeness of it all and stop our quarrels over our tiny problems and differencies. Instead we should help each other and share the bounty of our planet so that none of us would lack the necessities of life.
This bit I wrote originally 10 Feb 2008.
The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji
A wake-up call for Honesty and change
I am half way through Irshad Manji's book. I started reading it a couple of months ago. It got left aside for a while as I got into an interesting novel. Even now I am also reading a novel, but so far it has not gripped me to the extent that I forget the other book. I think the other reason I am reading Irshad Manji's book slower is that there is a lot to take in. It challenges some of my previous convictions. Well, not exactly convictions. They were not so strong as I was always aware of my lack of real knowledge and the possibility of my being taken in by propaganda. Thinking about it now, I must say that I had been taken in by propaganda to some extent anyway. So now I have to think about what I think and believe about certain things and then very likely adjust my convictions. After getting more information. I am not saying I would end up agreeing with everything Irshad Manji says in this book. I can already see one thing I may end up disagreeing with per(=her/him), although I can understand why per (= s/he) would take a position per is taking in this book. Very interesting, thought provoking book. It says on the cover that it is "A wake-up call for honesty and change". I really hope it does that, not only for muslims but others also.
The book has made one of my convictions even stronger: church and state have to be separate. Of course, people who belong to a church also belong to a state even though there are many people who feel very much outside the state; they feel the state does not care for them, does not allow them a voice in any decisions. However, a church has members who all see things in the same way, more or less. The state has members who see things in many different ways. And that is what makes human society so interesting - so many different people with different views.
Irshad Manji's account about pers visit to Israel in the book is a real eye opener, for me anyway. There are many facts that I did not know. I am sure it is possible to get at these facts by digging further. However, they are not readily available to all. I am afraid propaganda from both sides, Palestinian and Israeli, confuses the issues and realities. I need to do a lot more digging, reading and thinking.
The Trouble with Islam Today by Irshad Manji
A wake-up call for Honesty and change
I am half way through Irshad Manji's book. I started reading it a couple of months ago. It got left aside for a while as I got into an interesting novel. Even now I am also reading a novel, but so far it has not gripped me to the extent that I forget the other book. I think the other reason I am reading Irshad Manji's book slower is that there is a lot to take in. It challenges some of my previous convictions. Well, not exactly convictions. They were not so strong as I was always aware of my lack of real knowledge and the possibility of my being taken in by propaganda. Thinking about it now, I must say that I had been taken in by propaganda to some extent anyway. So now I have to think about what I think and believe about certain things and then very likely adjust my convictions. After getting more information. I am not saying I would end up agreeing with everything Irshad Manji says in this book. I can already see one thing I may end up disagreeing with per(=her/him), although I can understand why per (= s/he) would take a position per is taking in this book. Very interesting, thought provoking book. It says on the cover that it is "A wake-up call for honesty and change". I really hope it does that, not only for muslims but others also.
The book has made one of my convictions even stronger: church and state have to be separate. Of course, people who belong to a church also belong to a state even though there are many people who feel very much outside the state; they feel the state does not care for them, does not allow them a voice in any decisions. However, a church has members who all see things in the same way, more or less. The state has members who see things in many different ways. And that is what makes human society so interesting - so many different people with different views.
Irshad Manji's account about pers visit to Israel in the book is a real eye opener, for me anyway. There are many facts that I did not know. I am sure it is possible to get at these facts by digging further. However, they are not readily available to all. I am afraid propaganda from both sides, Palestinian and Israeli, confuses the issues and realities. I need to do a lot more digging, reading and thinking.
I wrote this elsewhere on the 27th of January 2008. I have decided to bring here all my writings about books I have read. Originally it was my intention to write here about books. Then I started writing about my life in general elsewhere and my thoughts about books got mixed up with those writings. I have stopped that other blog, but do not want to lose it all. So here goes:
Motives for murder, modern and not so modern
The Shakespeare Secret by J. L. Carrell
10 as of this morning. "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" (Lady Macbeth not talking about mice like I was in my blog.)
I finished reading The Shakespeare Secret by J.L.Carrell last night. Why else would Shakespeare come to mind in relation to mice in our house! The cover states that the novel is a story of "A modern serial killer - hunting an ancient secret". The novel is very interesting regarding the secrets, ideas and theories about Shakespeare and the plays. The real historical characters, events and places are cleverly intertwined with invented characters, events and places.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact . . .
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. --Shak.
However, I take exception to the calling of this murderer "a modern serial killer". Its the modern part which grates with me. I confess I do not know much of real serial killers and their motives. It is the motive that I find in this novel to be somehow not so modern. Although I abhor the deeds, like I abhor any taking of life be it state commissioned, group or individual acts of cruelty which taking of life always is, I must say that the motive in this novel makes of this murderer something other than modern. I have never heard or read of any real motive like this. Of course, all our deeds are always at least partially motivated by self interest (proved by Phoebe in Friends:). How can they not be, being what we are? However, the self interest can be elevated by other considerations as is the case here.
Motives for murder, modern and not so modern
The Shakespeare Secret by J. L. Carrell
10 as of this morning. "Out, damned spot! out, I say!" (Lady Macbeth not talking about mice like I was in my blog.)
I finished reading The Shakespeare Secret by J.L.Carrell last night. Why else would Shakespeare come to mind in relation to mice in our house! The cover states that the novel is a story of "A modern serial killer - hunting an ancient secret". The novel is very interesting regarding the secrets, ideas and theories about Shakespeare and the plays. The real historical characters, events and places are cleverly intertwined with invented characters, events and places.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact . . .
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name. --Shak.
However, I take exception to the calling of this murderer "a modern serial killer". Its the modern part which grates with me. I confess I do not know much of real serial killers and their motives. It is the motive that I find in this novel to be somehow not so modern. Although I abhor the deeds, like I abhor any taking of life be it state commissioned, group or individual acts of cruelty which taking of life always is, I must say that the motive in this novel makes of this murderer something other than modern. I have never heard or read of any real motive like this. Of course, all our deeds are always at least partially motivated by self interest (proved by Phoebe in Friends:). How can they not be, being what we are? However, the self interest can be elevated by other considerations as is the case here.
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