The power of money becomes very difficult to control. Man has always been a venal animal. The growth of populations, the huge costs of wars, the incessant pressure of taxation- all these things make him more and more venal. The average man is tired and scared, and a tired, scared man can't afford ideals. He has to buy food for his family. In our time we have seen a shocking decline in both private and public morals. You can't expect quality from people whose lives are a subjection to a lack of quality. You can't have quality with mass production. You don't want it because it lasts too long. So you substitute styling, which is a commercial swindle intended to produce artificial obsolescence. Mass production couldn't sell its goods next year unless it made what it sold this year look unfashionable a year from now. We have the whitest kitchens and the most shining bathrooms in the world. But in the lovely white kitchen the average American housewife can't produce a meal fit to eat, and the lovely shining bathroom is mostly a receptacle for deodorants, laxatives, sleeping pills, and the products of that confidence racket called the cosmetic industry. We make the finest packages in the world, Mr. Marlowe. The stuff inside is mostly junk.
...
We don't have mobs and crime syndicates and goon squads because we have crooked politicians and their stooges in the City Hall and legislatures. Crime isn't a disease, it's a symptom. Cops are like the doctor who gives you aspirin for a brain tumor, except that the cop would rather cure it with a blackjack. We're a big rough rich wild people and crime is the price we pay for it, and organized crime is the price we pay for organization. We'll have it with us a long time. Organized crime is just the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
I read The Long Goodbye today. It was much longer than The Big Sleep, and also slower. The result was a book of meaty characters, a good hit of drama as well as suspense, and the best fucking plot twist ever. I could even say that The Long Goodbye is the best novel I have ever read. I may regret that after class tomorrow, but I may not. Chandler is an absolutely fantastic writer, and it's quite clear to me why others emulated him, and why his name is the one most commonly cast on the boilerplate of hardboiled detective fiction.
The quotes above are from Harlan Potter in chapter 32, and Philip Marlowe in Chapter 48, respectively. Chandler's view on the world is quite cynical, and that's probably why I like it. And to drive the whole thing home, after two novels of his bluntness, his demeanor, and his outlook, I can say with fair confidence that Philip Marlowe is a character I empathize with in a very significant way.
Hell of a book.
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Neuromancer
I just finished Neuromancer, again. But I think I got it this time.
The book hurts my head. The ending, Case as a character, so many things ring too close. The entire journey rings existential in an uncomfortably familiar way.
But, even if I don't read my other books for comparative analysis, I already know I'm going to own this paper. Neuromancer is hardboiled, without a doubt. It's all there: implied distrust for authority, the police, and the established order, the locational awareness of the writing, the 'smooth operator' main character, and an ending in which the protagonist succeeds, though in a hollow and possibly superficial way. Gibson actually kneaded that into you at the end, when Wintermute says "Things aren't different. Things are things."
There are clear stylistic considerations which give nods to Chandler's style of writing, but Case as a character owes more to Sam Spade, in my opinion. He has an emotional profile much closer to that of Spade, though there is one aberration where Case deviates from either Marlowe or Spade: Case is more self-interested than either, though this can be argued based on the way the book ends. It can go several ways, really, and if you really wanted to dig into the Chandler angle, you could even argue that Case's relationship with Wintermute takes on similar hallmarks to the relationship between Marlowe and General Sternwood in The Big Sleep. Based on the order of events in the story, it's difficult to tell exactly how self-interested Case is, since he gets paid after completing the job, though it's implied earlier that he would have gotten his pancreas fixed regardless at a certain point.
The book affected me profundly when I first read it, and it has again now, to a nearly surprising degree. I read it with much more patience this time around, and got to really see and understand the depth in all the characters, not just Case, but Molly and Armitage also, at the very least. Rereading the book gave me a fuller appreciation for Gibson as an author, and the cyberpunk genre as a whole.
The book hurts my head. The ending, Case as a character, so many things ring too close. The entire journey rings existential in an uncomfortably familiar way.
But, even if I don't read my other books for comparative analysis, I already know I'm going to own this paper. Neuromancer is hardboiled, without a doubt. It's all there: implied distrust for authority, the police, and the established order, the locational awareness of the writing, the 'smooth operator' main character, and an ending in which the protagonist succeeds, though in a hollow and possibly superficial way. Gibson actually kneaded that into you at the end, when Wintermute says "Things aren't different. Things are things."
There are clear stylistic considerations which give nods to Chandler's style of writing, but Case as a character owes more to Sam Spade, in my opinion. He has an emotional profile much closer to that of Spade, though there is one aberration where Case deviates from either Marlowe or Spade: Case is more self-interested than either, though this can be argued based on the way the book ends. It can go several ways, really, and if you really wanted to dig into the Chandler angle, you could even argue that Case's relationship with Wintermute takes on similar hallmarks to the relationship between Marlowe and General Sternwood in The Big Sleep. Based on the order of events in the story, it's difficult to tell exactly how self-interested Case is, since he gets paid after completing the job, though it's implied earlier that he would have gotten his pancreas fixed regardless at a certain point.
The book affected me profundly when I first read it, and it has again now, to a nearly surprising degree. I read it with much more patience this time around, and got to really see and understand the depth in all the characters, not just Case, but Molly and Armitage also, at the very least. Rereading the book gave me a fuller appreciation for Gibson as an author, and the cyberpunk genre as a whole.
Nocturnal?
This weekend has had me with the most fucked up sleep schedule ever. Despite that, I feel like I came out better than I went in.
Formal was Saturday night. I had a lot of fun, and was very glad I went, despite the angst that front-loaded the process.
For that and other reasons, I was up until 4 last night, slept two hours before buggy, then went back to bed at 10am and woke up around 4:30pm. Hence the post name. Going to bed tonight may be very difficult...but after suffering through tomorrow, I think I'll be back on track. At least until buggy next week.
Other things...
Saw Fast and Furious with Dexter. There were some entertaining bits, and some very pretty cars. Don't get me wrong, though: the movie was terrible.
Started rereading Neuromancer for my 'hardboiled' English class. Reading it again, with a better critical eye and more patience than my 9th grade self has led me to the conclusion that the novel is indeed brilliant, and deserving of all the praise it got. Damn Gibson needed to learn how to write scene transitions, but if you give it the patience it needs, the story and the twists and the characters are all sublime.
Formal was Saturday night. I had a lot of fun, and was very glad I went, despite the angst that front-loaded the process.
For that and other reasons, I was up until 4 last night, slept two hours before buggy, then went back to bed at 10am and woke up around 4:30pm. Hence the post name. Going to bed tonight may be very difficult...but after suffering through tomorrow, I think I'll be back on track. At least until buggy next week.
Other things...
Saw Fast and Furious with Dexter. There were some entertaining bits, and some very pretty cars. Don't get me wrong, though: the movie was terrible.
Started rereading Neuromancer for my 'hardboiled' English class. Reading it again, with a better critical eye and more patience than my 9th grade self has led me to the conclusion that the novel is indeed brilliant, and deserving of all the praise it got. Damn Gibson needed to learn how to write scene transitions, but if you give it the patience it needs, the story and the twists and the characters are all sublime.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
In conclusion
To end spring break, I went to, as I put it, a carnival of violence and human depravity. Or, more specifically, a Mindless Self Indulgence concert. Damn.
I went down to Worcester with my brother for this one. We quickly realized that the median age of the concertgoers was below my age. Well, OK, I kind of knew that. Then, we thought about it...it may have been below my brother's age. Maybe. That was scary.
Fun show though. Violent in the extreme, Jimmy seems to know only half the words to his songs, and my brother nearly lost a shoe and definitely destroyed the pair of pants he was wearing. All in all, a very successful evening.
To back up, spring break was good. I did very little, but got a lot of sleep. I did manage to get out of the house and see people and do stuff, and I'm glad I saw and did everything and everyone. Or everyone and everything. However those verbs line up.
I went down to Worcester with my brother for this one. We quickly realized that the median age of the concertgoers was below my age. Well, OK, I kind of knew that. Then, we thought about it...it may have been below my brother's age. Maybe. That was scary.
Fun show though. Violent in the extreme, Jimmy seems to know only half the words to his songs, and my brother nearly lost a shoe and definitely destroyed the pair of pants he was wearing. All in all, a very successful evening.
To back up, spring break was good. I did very little, but got a lot of sleep. I did manage to get out of the house and see people and do stuff, and I'm glad I saw and did everything and everyone. Or everyone and everything. However those verbs line up.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Anathem, by Neal Stephenson
As part of my winter break, I managed to read a book. Yes, one. If it weren't for a stubborn case of sinusitis I'd probably do more, but this one's a doozy anyway. Clocking in at nearly 900 pages, Anathem continues Stephenson's tradition of writing long books. This one, I can say, is worth it.
The conceit of the novel is that, in the world it takes place in, academics are cloistered in maths, which are essentially monasteries, except for academics instead of religion. The story follows Erasmas, a brother in one of these 'maths'.
The plot in the book is engrossing, and the world is well-built, if not a little bit disturbing. A lot of parallels are drawn regarding the way academia is treated in our world, and though it is clearly nothing as extreme as the case presented in the book, it does make you ask some questions as to what Stephenson is trying to say with this.
One thing to say is that Stephenson takes setting his book in an academic cloister seriously, and there's a lot of math, a lot of philosophy, and a fair amount of quantum physics. It makes the book harder to read, yes, but if you're willing to learn along, or have a decent academic background of any sort (I'm neither a physics nor a math major, but was able to keep up with most of the abstract concepts), it will greatly improve your ability to appreciate the book. I don't think you need to be extraordinarily educated to understand things the way Stephenson presents them, but you do need to be patient enough to understand the discussions the characters have on the subjects, possibly rereading them if need be (I did do this a few times, for this and a reason outlined below).
The one thing I find a little irksome in the book was Stephenson's vocabulary, notably the words he made up. For the most part, they add to the experience, and play in heavily towards the end of the book. So, it may have been worth the effort on Stephenson's part. There are 'dictionary' entries spread throughout the text as well as a glossary in the back, though some of these are still confusing. I went through most of the book with only some feeling as to what both 'Deolater' and 'Ita' meant, and both of these terms were fairly important.
All in all, the book was quite good, and kept me hooked for the two days I spent reading it. It is worth noting that reading a 900 page book in two days is not something I normally do, but for Stephenson, I'll put in the effort. After coming out deeply satisfied with this read, it may just be worth it to try the Baroque Cycle again. Maybe.
The conceit of the novel is that, in the world it takes place in, academics are cloistered in maths, which are essentially monasteries, except for academics instead of religion. The story follows Erasmas, a brother in one of these 'maths'.
The plot in the book is engrossing, and the world is well-built, if not a little bit disturbing. A lot of parallels are drawn regarding the way academia is treated in our world, and though it is clearly nothing as extreme as the case presented in the book, it does make you ask some questions as to what Stephenson is trying to say with this.
One thing to say is that Stephenson takes setting his book in an academic cloister seriously, and there's a lot of math, a lot of philosophy, and a fair amount of quantum physics. It makes the book harder to read, yes, but if you're willing to learn along, or have a decent academic background of any sort (I'm neither a physics nor a math major, but was able to keep up with most of the abstract concepts), it will greatly improve your ability to appreciate the book. I don't think you need to be extraordinarily educated to understand things the way Stephenson presents them, but you do need to be patient enough to understand the discussions the characters have on the subjects, possibly rereading them if need be (I did do this a few times, for this and a reason outlined below).
The one thing I find a little irksome in the book was Stephenson's vocabulary, notably the words he made up. For the most part, they add to the experience, and play in heavily towards the end of the book. So, it may have been worth the effort on Stephenson's part. There are 'dictionary' entries spread throughout the text as well as a glossary in the back, though some of these are still confusing. I went through most of the book with only some feeling as to what both 'Deolater' and 'Ita' meant, and both of these terms were fairly important.
All in all, the book was quite good, and kept me hooked for the two days I spent reading it. It is worth noting that reading a 900 page book in two days is not something I normally do, but for Stephenson, I'll put in the effort. After coming out deeply satisfied with this read, it may just be worth it to try the Baroque Cycle again. Maybe.
Friday, July 25, 2008
FUCKIN' METAL
So, lots of stuff has happened recently. But I only want to focus on one thing.
I went to see Helmet Thursday night. It was, without reservation, totally sick. Amazing, amazing show.
Page Hamilton, the frontman of the band, is by far the coolest middle-aged guy ever to walk the earth. I mean, I didn't realize this until I looked it up, but the man is 48. Holy shit. He can rock with the rest of them, that's for sure.
They played all my favorite songs. I was in a mosh pit and was tossed in projectile motion by crazy guys who were twice my size. I screamed at the top of my lungs and went home with no voice and my ears ringing. It was so good. I can't even say anything else. It was just so good.
It was so good, I bought a shirt.
Though, for next time, I'm bringing ear plugs. I can't keep doing this to my ears.
I went to see Helmet Thursday night. It was, without reservation, totally sick. Amazing, amazing show.
Page Hamilton, the frontman of the band, is by far the coolest middle-aged guy ever to walk the earth. I mean, I didn't realize this until I looked it up, but the man is 48. Holy shit. He can rock with the rest of them, that's for sure.
They played all my favorite songs. I was in a mosh pit and was tossed in projectile motion by crazy guys who were twice my size. I screamed at the top of my lungs and went home with no voice and my ears ringing. It was so good. I can't even say anything else. It was just so good.
It was so good, I bought a shirt.
Though, for next time, I'm bringing ear plugs. I can't keep doing this to my ears.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Syrup
So, I just read one hell of a book.
The book is entitled Syrup, and it's written by Max(x) Barry, the author of Jennifer Government. The book centers around marketing idea-man Scat and his partner/object of infatuation, 6. After Scat's old roommate, Sneaky Pete, steals Scat's brilliant idea for a new soda, Scat and 6 need to figure out a way to get around Sneaky Pete's social maneuvering and shoot him down once and for all.
The thing that made the book so compelling was that Scat kept failing. Whether by chance, by Sneaky Pete being quicker, or just by bad luck, almost the entire book is of him screwing up and yet somehow still being intelligent and creative enough to keep going. He spends the entire book infuriating two women (6 and his old flame, Cindy), and yet neither of them seem to actually tire of him. Sneaky Pete is clearly better at the game, which in addition to frustrating everything Scat tries to do, also adds to the book's story by making a very hateable, despicable antagonist. You will get so pissed off at Sneaky Pete. Despite the smallest introduction possible as Scat's roommate, by the end, he's the most insidious, two-timing and just evil guy you could think of. He makes you hate the marketing ethos, despite the fact that the 'good guy' is doing the exact same thing.
I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I wonder if taking longer to read it and fuming a bit more would have made it more fun. I don't know.
In vaguely related news, I got my Maximo iMetal iM-490 headphones in the mail from Woot. They are completely sealing earbuds, something new to me. The sound is crisper, the passive noise cancelling is fantastic, and, unprecedented for earbuds, they have bass response. For 15 bucks, I say it was a pretty good buy.
The book is entitled Syrup, and it's written by Max(x) Barry, the author of Jennifer Government. The book centers around marketing idea-man Scat and his partner/object of infatuation, 6. After Scat's old roommate, Sneaky Pete, steals Scat's brilliant idea for a new soda, Scat and 6 need to figure out a way to get around Sneaky Pete's social maneuvering and shoot him down once and for all.
The thing that made the book so compelling was that Scat kept failing. Whether by chance, by Sneaky Pete being quicker, or just by bad luck, almost the entire book is of him screwing up and yet somehow still being intelligent and creative enough to keep going. He spends the entire book infuriating two women (6 and his old flame, Cindy), and yet neither of them seem to actually tire of him. Sneaky Pete is clearly better at the game, which in addition to frustrating everything Scat tries to do, also adds to the book's story by making a very hateable, despicable antagonist. You will get so pissed off at Sneaky Pete. Despite the smallest introduction possible as Scat's roommate, by the end, he's the most insidious, two-timing and just evil guy you could think of. He makes you hate the marketing ethos, despite the fact that the 'good guy' is doing the exact same thing.
I enjoyed it thoroughly, though I wonder if taking longer to read it and fuming a bit more would have made it more fun. I don't know.
In vaguely related news, I got my Maximo iMetal iM-490 headphones in the mail from Woot. They are completely sealing earbuds, something new to me. The sound is crisper, the passive noise cancelling is fantastic, and, unprecedented for earbuds, they have bass response. For 15 bucks, I say it was a pretty good buy.
Friday, August 10, 2007
The Hacker Crackdown
Today, I read Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown in its entirety.
The book is, unlike most of what Sterling writes in book form, nonfiction, detailing events in 1990 around Operation Sundevil, an operation by part of the US Secret Service to take out "underground" BBSes used by hackers. Sundevil has been of passing interest to me, because SJ Games was raided by the Secret Service in connection to the publication of GURPS Cyberpunk.
I will first say that the mentions of hacking in the book are, now, obsolete, and to me, a CMU student, fairly inane. The mere concept that it would be possible to actually use a ten digit code to access someone's long distance account in 2007 is ridiculous. Credit Card fraud is about the only thing mentioned that is still the same, though in this day and age, almost impossible to get away with. On the other side of the coin, anyone who has seen a bittorrent hub knows that obtaining gigabytes of illegally pirated software is dependent only on your bandwidth and patience, requiring nothing illegal to be done in preparation.
I'll also say that the value of the book lies in both how it addresses the hacker subculture (though that in itself has a fair amount of obsolescence attached to it) and also how computer crime is viewed. Although you may laugh at the idea of a 3.2 GB hard drive being cutting edge, you must still concede that the same issues regarding privacy and ethics surrounding computer intrusion still exist.
Regardless of one's opinion of how dated the book is, it provides interesting and eye-opening history to the first real ballooning of the internet, which now has an ubiquity (at least in Western society) that is unmatched by almost anything else. Between this blog, my first website, and my Carnegie Mellon sites, I have access to more hard drive space on other people's computers than any of the players in the book had on their own computers in 1990. That alone gives you an idea of how much things have changed. However, with the arms race expanding between PGP, zero-day software vulnerabilities, and a further array of different software hacks and tricks, a lot of the basic conflict remains the same. On an ethics side, I would not want to see a computer science major graduate without reading this book. Even if it doesn't change opinions, it at least makes you go 'huh'.
The book is available here. If you want it in PDF, email me and I'll send it to you. It was released for free by Sterling in 1994, so this is completely legal.
The book is, unlike most of what Sterling writes in book form, nonfiction, detailing events in 1990 around Operation Sundevil, an operation by part of the US Secret Service to take out "underground" BBSes used by hackers. Sundevil has been of passing interest to me, because SJ Games was raided by the Secret Service in connection to the publication of GURPS Cyberpunk.
I will first say that the mentions of hacking in the book are, now, obsolete, and to me, a CMU student, fairly inane. The mere concept that it would be possible to actually use a ten digit code to access someone's long distance account in 2007 is ridiculous. Credit Card fraud is about the only thing mentioned that is still the same, though in this day and age, almost impossible to get away with. On the other side of the coin, anyone who has seen a bittorrent hub knows that obtaining gigabytes of illegally pirated software is dependent only on your bandwidth and patience, requiring nothing illegal to be done in preparation.
I'll also say that the value of the book lies in both how it addresses the hacker subculture (though that in itself has a fair amount of obsolescence attached to it) and also how computer crime is viewed. Although you may laugh at the idea of a 3.2 GB hard drive being cutting edge, you must still concede that the same issues regarding privacy and ethics surrounding computer intrusion still exist.
Regardless of one's opinion of how dated the book is, it provides interesting and eye-opening history to the first real ballooning of the internet, which now has an ubiquity (at least in Western society) that is unmatched by almost anything else. Between this blog, my first website, and my Carnegie Mellon sites, I have access to more hard drive space on other people's computers than any of the players in the book had on their own computers in 1990. That alone gives you an idea of how much things have changed. However, with the arms race expanding between PGP, zero-day software vulnerabilities, and a further array of different software hacks and tricks, a lot of the basic conflict remains the same. On an ethics side, I would not want to see a computer science major graduate without reading this book. Even if it doesn't change opinions, it at least makes you go 'huh'.
The book is available here. If you want it in PDF, email me and I'll send it to you. It was released for free by Sterling in 1994, so this is completely legal.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Recent Stuff
So, I finished Harry Potter. I enjoyed it, suffice it to say. No spoilers here, I'm not going to be a dick. I won't write a full review (I'm sure you can find plenty), but I'll say it follows the path of the previous books, including the darker mood and the increased density of crazy history.
I finished my first revision of my AQ space setting, and have sent it out to my players. My second revision will be a more detailed look at certain areas and events. My third and hopefully final revision will have the entire setting written out in full. I wouldn't be surprised if the third revision is either not finished, or only finished after a long period of time. I'm writing the setting with a strange combination of bottom-up and top-down methods, and I'm now stuck in the middle, knowing both the small area in which the players will start, and the large overall picture. My plan is to bulk up the middle and bottom with parts my players add. All in all, it will be very, very interesting.
I finished my first revision of my AQ space setting, and have sent it out to my players. My second revision will be a more detailed look at certain areas and events. My third and hopefully final revision will have the entire setting written out in full. I wouldn't be surprised if the third revision is either not finished, or only finished after a long period of time. I'm writing the setting with a strange combination of bottom-up and top-down methods, and I'm now stuck in the middle, knowing both the small area in which the players will start, and the large overall picture. My plan is to bulk up the middle and bottom with parts my players add. All in all, it will be very, very interesting.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Tub Ring, or, I drove four hours to Toledo and all I got was my face rocked off
So, using a scheme of logic I am still uncertain of, Lindsey and I borrowed a car yesterday to drive a car out to Toledo, Ohio to see Tub Ring. This was an odd endeavour, and having only heard anything by the band some two weeks ago, I was unsure of what to expect.
It was psychotic.
The first band was a couple of Toledo guys who, frankly, sucked. They just played loud and had a drunk entourage making fools of themselves in the front of the club.
Notable quote: "Play some Barry Manilow, you pussy!"
- Drunk Asshole
After that, it got better, though.
Foxy Shazam was weird. They were a good type of weird though, and rocked pretty hard. That is, when the lead singer wasn't strutting around being a pompous frontman. The bassist looked a lot like Buzz Osborne. The keyboardist had the most terrifying sideburns I have ever witnessed on a human being. They finished a pretty sick set, and then Tub Ring took the stage.
Oh man. They were sick.
Playing some songs I knew, some I didn't, the whole time everyone was jumping around, being crazy. Also, it was a small club, so there were probably no more than 100 people there. All in all, very cool.
After the show, I got a chance to talk to Kevin Gibson, the lead singer, who is a cool guy, and was a little surprised that we came out from Pittsburgh for the show. Well, after hearing that, Let's hope that maybe they consider swinging by the Burgh on their next tour...
After I get The Great Filter, which may take a few weeks (I accidentally had it shipped back home to MA), I am definitely going to look into getting their other two albums.
It was psychotic.
The first band was a couple of Toledo guys who, frankly, sucked. They just played loud and had a drunk entourage making fools of themselves in the front of the club.
Notable quote: "Play some Barry Manilow, you pussy!"
- Drunk Asshole
After that, it got better, though.
Foxy Shazam was weird. They were a good type of weird though, and rocked pretty hard. That is, when the lead singer wasn't strutting around being a pompous frontman. The bassist looked a lot like Buzz Osborne. The keyboardist had the most terrifying sideburns I have ever witnessed on a human being. They finished a pretty sick set, and then Tub Ring took the stage.
Oh man. They were sick.
Playing some songs I knew, some I didn't, the whole time everyone was jumping around, being crazy. Also, it was a small club, so there were probably no more than 100 people there. All in all, very cool.
After the show, I got a chance to talk to Kevin Gibson, the lead singer, who is a cool guy, and was a little surprised that we came out from Pittsburgh for the show. Well, after hearing that, Let's hope that maybe they consider swinging by the Burgh on their next tour...
After I get The Great Filter, which may take a few weeks (I accidentally had it shipped back home to MA), I am definitely going to look into getting their other two albums.
Friday, January 12, 2007
Children of Men
Went out to see the movie tonight. It is really, really good. Like, really good. It's the perfect mix of dystopian nightmare sci-fi with...I dunno. Believable characters? It doesn't beat you over the head with the allegory, but it's there (the easiest way to see this is the prison camp scene. Choosing the phrase Homeland Security was no mistake either). I can't even describe it, other than very upsettingly real. And that's what made it so good.
It got me thinking on my story idea. I've changed it around a bit, but am still juggling it in my head. I'll write something down soon.
It got me thinking on my story idea. I've changed it around a bit, but am still juggling it in my head. I'll write something down soon.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Sideways
I did something today that I have not done in a while. That is, I read a book cover to cover in one day. Today, the book was Sideways, by Rex Pickett. Now, this book was made into a movie, one I had seen quite some time ago when it first came out. Normally, I have a fairly rigid rule against reading the book after seeing the movie, because, while the book is indeed always better, the movie usually ruins your unique ability to see the reality written within a book.
Here, though I had the usual problem as seeing the protagonist as Paul Giamatti, there was no doubt that the book affected me in a way the movie couldn't. In the movie, you were given insight into the essential angst of the protagonist's existence. While reading the book, there were passages where it tugged at your stomach as if you were taking the Xanax.
Maybe this is incredibly angsty of me, but there was something very primal in the empathy I felt. I guess it's the feeling of not knowing your next turn, especially with your love life. But in retrospect, feeling that in college has a degree of normalcy, whereas in middle age, it can be devastatingly depressing. But the empathy does indeed make the book that much more alive to me. Personally, I believe those sorts of feelings of confusion and forked roads are fairly universal. Therefore, the ability to relate to and enjoy this book should be similarly universal.
Here, though I had the usual problem as seeing the protagonist as Paul Giamatti, there was no doubt that the book affected me in a way the movie couldn't. In the movie, you were given insight into the essential angst of the protagonist's existence. While reading the book, there were passages where it tugged at your stomach as if you were taking the Xanax.
Maybe this is incredibly angsty of me, but there was something very primal in the empathy I felt. I guess it's the feeling of not knowing your next turn, especially with your love life. But in retrospect, feeling that in college has a degree of normalcy, whereas in middle age, it can be devastatingly depressing. But the empathy does indeed make the book that much more alive to me. Personally, I believe those sorts of feelings of confusion and forked roads are fairly universal. Therefore, the ability to relate to and enjoy this book should be similarly universal.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Aaron's Top Five Metal Albums (of the moment)
In no real order:
Hellbilly Deluxe - Rob Zombie
It's catchy, hard, and brilliant.
Adultery - Dog Fashion Disco
This band falls under the genre auspices I like to call "Death Fusion". That alone is a reason to listen to it.
Pure Rock Fury - Clutch
The Elephant Riders - Clutch
Both of these albums are, in my opinion, Clutch at their finest. Headnodding, bluesy, hard-ass metal.
Senile Animal - The Melvins
Their newest, and crazy. Totally crazy, but still listenable and awesome.
Honorable Mention:
Chemlab
They aren't metal per se, but are great industrial rock. I recommend both "Scornocopia" from Oxidizer, and "Latex" from East Side Militia.
Also...
Terminal Choice did a cover of "I Ran" on their album New Born Enemies. Best/Worst industrial metal cover of an 80s pop song ever.
Hellbilly Deluxe - Rob Zombie
It's catchy, hard, and brilliant.
Adultery - Dog Fashion Disco
This band falls under the genre auspices I like to call "Death Fusion". That alone is a reason to listen to it.
Pure Rock Fury - Clutch
The Elephant Riders - Clutch
Both of these albums are, in my opinion, Clutch at their finest. Headnodding, bluesy, hard-ass metal.
Senile Animal - The Melvins
Their newest, and crazy. Totally crazy, but still listenable and awesome.
Honorable Mention:
Chemlab
They aren't metal per se, but are great industrial rock. I recommend both "Scornocopia" from Oxidizer, and "Latex" from East Side Militia.
Also...
Terminal Choice did a cover of "I Ran" on their album New Born Enemies. Best/Worst industrial metal cover of an 80s pop song ever.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Facebook: I may as well
A comment on the changes to Facebook:
Yeah, I saw the feed thing, and thought, "wow, a bit on the detailed side." But my first reaction to the feed was "oh cool, now I now if people have accepted my friend requests, and no longer have to pore over a profile to figure out what they've updated." If I don't want to look at it, it collapses. That, by the way, was an excellent idea and implementation. Also, in response to the stalker issue, I say this. I went into facebook's privacy settings. You can restrict who sees any of your information...you can have it so you don't even show up on their searches, if you so desire. So if people are really concerned, they can adjust their privacy settings. I adjusted it so that no one can see my cell number unless I have them as a friend. Also, no one outside of my networks can read my profile. Other than that, I don't care, because everything else I post is public domain anyway (within CMU, you can search an index of every student email, and cross-reference it with a name). My most provocative photo is probably a photo of my Celica's shift knob. My wall is filled with inane greetings and birthday spam. My notes are redirected from Blogger, which is, wait, oh yeah...publically listed and indexed on Google. So...yeah. My privacy is not at stake. I don't advertise my illegal behavior (wait, what illegal behavior?), and I frankly am not that interesting. So yeah. For those of you annoyed, I recommend pressing the little drop-down triangle, and collapsing the thing. Not terribly difficult. For the rest of us RSS-heads, you can be thankful that checking facebook no longer has to be an hours-long experience. Or pissed, if you needed a way to kill time. I recommend Freecell, personally.
Yeah, I saw the feed thing, and thought, "wow, a bit on the detailed side." But my first reaction to the feed was "oh cool, now I now if people have accepted my friend requests, and no longer have to pore over a profile to figure out what they've updated." If I don't want to look at it, it collapses. That, by the way, was an excellent idea and implementation. Also, in response to the stalker issue, I say this. I went into facebook's privacy settings. You can restrict who sees any of your information...you can have it so you don't even show up on their searches, if you so desire. So if people are really concerned, they can adjust their privacy settings. I adjusted it so that no one can see my cell number unless I have them as a friend. Also, no one outside of my networks can read my profile. Other than that, I don't care, because everything else I post is public domain anyway (within CMU, you can search an index of every student email, and cross-reference it with a name). My most provocative photo is probably a photo of my Celica's shift knob. My wall is filled with inane greetings and birthday spam. My notes are redirected from Blogger, which is, wait, oh yeah...publically listed and indexed on Google. So...yeah. My privacy is not at stake. I don't advertise my illegal behavior (wait, what illegal behavior?), and I frankly am not that interesting. So yeah. For those of you annoyed, I recommend pressing the little drop-down triangle, and collapsing the thing. Not terribly difficult. For the rest of us RSS-heads, you can be thankful that checking facebook no longer has to be an hours-long experience. Or pissed, if you needed a way to kill time. I recommend Freecell, personally.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Don't Even Try to Play This Game
Violence
This is not an RPG per se, but rather a sociological analysis of gamist RPGs written from a rulebook perspective. I personally believe RPGs are escapist, but this is a sobering view of exactly what you're escaping to.
The game is designed to be virtually unplayable, because the idea is that it is the D&D dungeon-crawl ethos superimposed over inner-city criminality. It is the sort of violence that inevitably crops up in a roleplaying session, especially a very gamist one. I have tried to steer away from this in my recent campaigns, though not entirely...we still blow shit up without abandon, no doubt. I do think it's important to look at what it's satirizing...if for nothing else, just to recall what sanity is. And some of this stuff is really funny. Examples: a skill called "funky woowoo shit", cars in the game have no price and their own hide value because it's assumed the only way you'll ever get one ingame is by stealing it. Just read it...it's priceless, if a tad unplayable.
This is not an RPG per se, but rather a sociological analysis of gamist RPGs written from a rulebook perspective. I personally believe RPGs are escapist, but this is a sobering view of exactly what you're escaping to.
The game is designed to be virtually unplayable, because the idea is that it is the D&D dungeon-crawl ethos superimposed over inner-city criminality. It is the sort of violence that inevitably crops up in a roleplaying session, especially a very gamist one. I have tried to steer away from this in my recent campaigns, though not entirely...we still blow shit up without abandon, no doubt. I do think it's important to look at what it's satirizing...if for nothing else, just to recall what sanity is. And some of this stuff is really funny. Examples: a skill called "funky woowoo shit", cars in the game have no price and their own hide value because it's assumed the only way you'll ever get one ingame is by stealing it. Just read it...it's priceless, if a tad unplayable.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
When Gravity Fails
Review: When Gravity Fails, by George Alec Effinger
So, to put it simply, this is one of the best cyberpunk books I have read, right up there with Snow Crash. It is different than Snow Crash, but very well-written, well-researched, and just fun to read.
As an indication: I purchased this book in the Concord Bookshop this past Sunday, around 1:00PM. I had finished the 284 page volume by 5:00PM on Monday, some 28 hours later.
It is that good.
The book centers around Marid Audran, a fixer/PI who lives by his wits in the Budayeen, a dangerous city in an unnamed Arab country. Although there are lots of references to the political condition of the world, the only thing the reader needs to understand is the idea of an economic collapse, and of some serious cybernetics.
A large theme in this book is change. The cybernetics described are ones that change who you are, at a base level. The most popular enhancement is a brain tap, most often used to plug in personality modification modules, or "moddies". There are also modules which enhance some of you brain's capabilities, called "daddies", but other than language modules, these seem to be less commonplace.
Marid has insisted that he will not modify his brain, and takes the disadvantages he gets when dealing with modifed people as a challenge. He is fiercely independent, and that becomes very important to the core story.
First, let me say that Marid Audran is a character I identified with very easily. His motivations and personality pop out at you, and there are certain parts of the book where you will be sharing Audran's emotions as the events in the story are thrown at him.
Also, the book is well researched. I somehow doubt (though I could be wrong) that Effinger was Islamic, but the book's setting feels very genuine and real, despite being something I am not familiar with firsthand. It makes for a unique setting for this type of novel, far away from Neo-Tokyo or BAMA.
And finally, the story is a first-rate detective mystery spun into this Cyberpunk universe. The plot could not occur without the conceits of the futuristic setting, but any mystery fan who isn't entirely repelled by the technology element would find this to be a riveting mystery.
I give this my wholehearted recommendation, and will be scouring a bookstore for Effinger's other two Audran novels the next time I can get off camp.
So, to put it simply, this is one of the best cyberpunk books I have read, right up there with Snow Crash. It is different than Snow Crash, but very well-written, well-researched, and just fun to read.
As an indication: I purchased this book in the Concord Bookshop this past Sunday, around 1:00PM. I had finished the 284 page volume by 5:00PM on Monday, some 28 hours later.
It is that good.
The book centers around Marid Audran, a fixer/PI who lives by his wits in the Budayeen, a dangerous city in an unnamed Arab country. Although there are lots of references to the political condition of the world, the only thing the reader needs to understand is the idea of an economic collapse, and of some serious cybernetics.
A large theme in this book is change. The cybernetics described are ones that change who you are, at a base level. The most popular enhancement is a brain tap, most often used to plug in personality modification modules, or "moddies". There are also modules which enhance some of you brain's capabilities, called "daddies", but other than language modules, these seem to be less commonplace.
Marid has insisted that he will not modify his brain, and takes the disadvantages he gets when dealing with modifed people as a challenge. He is fiercely independent, and that becomes very important to the core story.
First, let me say that Marid Audran is a character I identified with very easily. His motivations and personality pop out at you, and there are certain parts of the book where you will be sharing Audran's emotions as the events in the story are thrown at him.
Also, the book is well researched. I somehow doubt (though I could be wrong) that Effinger was Islamic, but the book's setting feels very genuine and real, despite being something I am not familiar with firsthand. It makes for a unique setting for this type of novel, far away from Neo-Tokyo or BAMA.
And finally, the story is a first-rate detective mystery spun into this Cyberpunk universe. The plot could not occur without the conceits of the futuristic setting, but any mystery fan who isn't entirely repelled by the technology element would find this to be a riveting mystery.
I give this my wholehearted recommendation, and will be scouring a bookstore for Effinger's other two Audran novels the next time I can get off camp.
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