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Finished Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons finally. Very good book. Surprisingly good. Also surprisingly literary in places, more so actually than most fantasy and sci-fi novels. All sorts of references in this one to classical and modern poetry, the Wizard of OZ, the Greek and Roman myths, and religious doctrine. Two major doctrines are examined: the Hebrew or Old Testament story about Abraham's sacrifice of Issac - and whether this was in obediance to god, out of love for god, or in fact out of love for the child and the ultimate test of God. Will God prove itself to be worthy of my devotion and trust by preventing me from sacrificing the one thing I love most? The sacred trust and love between father and child. (in this case father and daughter). And how that trust and love expands to include God or our view of God. Interesting exploration of that trope, haven't seen it examined quite that way before. The writer also explores the concept that the deaths in the 20th century (ie. the Holocaust, etc) were parents sacrificing themselves in lieu of their children. The other doctrine examined is the Christian view of redemption through pain - the tree of thorns, the cruciform, the resurrection. Can we really be redeemed through pain? Is empathy with others pain - the source? Or is it really something greater and more complex - love? As if this wasn't enough - we add the religion of science, man as god, or machine as god - the idea that if god does not exist, we ourselves become god or can aspire to it. The view of technology becoming the ultimate intelligence. And the pitfalls of that conceit. The pitfalls of depending on technology for everything of allowing oneself to hardwired to all information, 24/7. What happens if you give yourself completely over to art or to escaspism? Very interesting couple of books. Simmons won the Hugo a few years back for the first one: Hyperion
Now I struggle with what to read next. Tried reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson on the train again - but it put me to sleep. I think my mood resists the prose right now - it's either too close to my current state of being or too far removed, not sure which. Or I'm just burnt on the whole computer/internet story trope.
Am considering giving Terry Prachett's book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a whirl. Having never read Prachett, we'll see if this works. Also flirting with George RR Martin's "A Game of Thrones" (which I kept picking up only to be thwarted by the book club in the past, book club is no longer a threat now that it has collasped in on itself) or China Melville's Perdido Street Station. Whatever I pick has got to entertain me on my airplane trip to Hilton Head on the 25th. (It is highly unlikely I'll be finished before then, takes me a long time to read a book.)
Continuing with my guilty pleasures...I picked up my favorite fluff magazine, Entertainment Weekly. ( ET articles, bit on Gellar, and other stuff, cut for length )
Did a bit more writing tonight. But not as much as I hoped. Instead of coming home and writing, I fixed dinner, then binged - four brownies and three scoops of Dove's caramel pecan ice cream, after which I felt gross and bloated. Ugh.
Why?Why?Why? Did the same thing yesterday. And could not get to sleep as a result of the frigging sugar high. Same deal now. And blasted tired. Wrote about a paragraph if that, mostly just fine tuning. Filling in descriptive gaps here and there. Most of the night I spent vegging in front of tv, eating,
and thumbing through magazines, note not really reading as scanning, I rarely read magazines - they are made for scanning: ET, New York, and Money. New York warned of a Real Estate Market Crash (yes! Please!), while Money stated it was unlikely to happen and don't worry (Ugh!). ET had long articles on Star Wars (which I doubt is fantastic, but hopefully will be better than the first two - Lucas wrote the script, so let's face it - it's not going to have stellar dialogue. I love Natalie Portman's comment about what she thinks of Lucas' dialogue writing skills: "I take the Fifth. Let's face it he's not Shakespeare." LOL!), one on Crash (which I really want to see), and a few others I can't remember at the moment. But no Stephen King column. I love those columns - they are basically rambles and go nowhere, but that's why I love them.
Okay must go to bed...
Now I struggle with what to read next. Tried reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson on the train again - but it put me to sleep. I think my mood resists the prose right now - it's either too close to my current state of being or too far removed, not sure which. Or I'm just burnt on the whole computer/internet story trope.
Am considering giving Terry Prachett's book The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a whirl. Having never read Prachett, we'll see if this works. Also flirting with George RR Martin's "A Game of Thrones" (which I kept picking up only to be thwarted by the book club in the past, book club is no longer a threat now that it has collasped in on itself) or China Melville's Perdido Street Station. Whatever I pick has got to entertain me on my airplane trip to Hilton Head on the 25th. (It is highly unlikely I'll be finished before then, takes me a long time to read a book.)
Continuing with my guilty pleasures...I picked up my favorite fluff magazine, Entertainment Weekly. ( ET articles, bit on Gellar, and other stuff, cut for length )
Did a bit more writing tonight. But not as much as I hoped. Instead of coming home and writing, I fixed dinner, then binged - four brownies and three scoops of Dove's caramel pecan ice cream, after which I felt gross and bloated. Ugh.
Why?Why?Why? Did the same thing yesterday. And could not get to sleep as a result of the frigging sugar high. Same deal now. And blasted tired. Wrote about a paragraph if that, mostly just fine tuning. Filling in descriptive gaps here and there. Most of the night I spent vegging in front of tv, eating,
and thumbing through magazines, note not really reading as scanning, I rarely read magazines - they are made for scanning: ET, New York, and Money. New York warned of a Real Estate Market Crash (yes! Please!), while Money stated it was unlikely to happen and don't worry (Ugh!). ET had long articles on Star Wars (which I doubt is fantastic, but hopefully will be better than the first two - Lucas wrote the script, so let's face it - it's not going to have stellar dialogue. I love Natalie Portman's comment about what she thinks of Lucas' dialogue writing skills: "I take the Fifth. Let's face it he's not Shakespeare." LOL!), one on Crash (which I really want to see), and a few others I can't remember at the moment. But no Stephen King column. I love those columns - they are basically rambles and go nowhere, but that's why I love them.
Okay must go to bed...