What Are You Reading?

[cid]

Days of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Odd alternate-universe religion etc...very convoluted.

Not my normal cup of tea, but it was part of a 4-pack -- this, and all three "Mars" books by Robinson.

Oh...did I mention that all four copies were signed by the author?

[brite]

Governing California, Biology, and Becoming a Chef....

Oh! And a bio of Julia Child, articles on the digestive system and a ton of stuff on the ACA

[Thumper]

"The Best of Edmund Hamilton" a select of short stories over his 50 year writing career. A family friend gave it to me when I was a kid. I ate it up. I cannot find the copy, so I put it on my Christmas list. It'll take me forever to read it, but I'm really looking forward to revisiting those stories.

[Parrothead]

I have recently read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by Le Carre and A Study in Scarlet and Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I'm currently reading The Honourable Schoolboy by Le Carre with Smiley's People next up. This will complete his "Karla Trilogy".

[geonuc]

I like reading military history, maybe because we are normally only taught the basics of wars and battles in school. Who won and maybe a little of why. But I find it fascinating when a researcher really digs into the available record to show how decisions were made, the consequences and some of the personalities that influenced the decisions. And sometimes the battle narrative is downright frightening.

Neptune's Inferno: The US Navy at Guadalcanal, by James Hornfischer.

An excellent read so far, but the chapter on the Battle of Savo Island is one of those frightening stories. That naval battle was set in the early stages of WWII when the US Navy was still reeling from Pearl Harbor, although the two momentous battles of Midway and the Coral Sea had already occurred. The allies - mostly the US but also Aussies - were trying to check the Japanese advance into the South Pacific. The Japanese hoped to take the Solomon Islands and cut off the sea link between the US and Australia & New Zealand, which would have been disastrous. So the US landed a bunch of Marines on Guadalcanal with as much naval support as we could muster at the time.

To prevent the Japanese from landing their own forces on Guadalcanal to retake the island, the US Navy - mostly unsuccessfully - sent ships into the strait between Guadalcanal and the main Japanese bases. In the first encounter between the two navies, a US force of several powerful cruisers and a bunch of destroyers were caught unaware by a similar-sized Japanese task force. The Japanese were in battle-ready status; the US ships were not and it takes a few minutes for a warship to transition from normal operations to battle stations. During those few minutes, the Japanese cruisers closed on the US cruisers and unleashed a hellish barrage of gunfire that absolutely mauled the allied ships. Many, many sailors died and the confusion was so great that the US and Australian commanders really had no idea who was shooting at them, and how many they were (it was a night battle). It has been described as the US Navy's worst defeat. Hornfischer's description of the chaos and horror that those men experienced is eye-opening.

As I said, I like learning these things. The Battle for the Solomons was ultimately won by the allies but not without a lot of uncertainty, stupid mistakes, bravery and cowardice.

After I finish this, I'll probably go back to some nice, light reading. Maybe a trashy vampire novel.

[FZR1KG]

I like reading that sort of stuff.
Really brings home the shit people have had to go through.
May have to put that on my must read list.

[Parrothead]

Taking a break from Le Carre, am currently reading Stephen King's (Bachman book) "The Long Walk".

[Sigma_Orionis]

"The Long Walk" is ok,I think that "The Running Man" is better though

[Parrothead]

Currently reading Desperation by Stephen King. It will be followed by The Honourable Schoolboy by Le Carre (which I got side-tracked away from). After those will be The Regulators by King (as Bachman) Smiley's People by Le Carre.

[cid]

Desperation and The Regulators are a combination mirror-image tour de force by King.
Mirror image? No spoiler here -- when you read 'em both you'll understand.
I loved both of them.

Currently (finally!) reading The Dome. They rewrote the snot outen that one for the tube...

[Parrothead]

Thanks cid, I read a bit of The Regulators while riding transit home, after buying it. First thing I noticed, hitch-hiker from Desperation working in shop, Carver parents from Desperation, are brother and sister in Regulators. Only got some pages in, noticed map of Poplar St at beginning of the book. I'll see more once I get to the book.

ETA: Saw a clip, S2 of The Dome starts at end of June, IIRC.

[Cyborg Girl]

Absolution Gap.

Shit, just a second, I think my head's about to explo-

[The Supreme Canuck]

Aha, yeah. It reads kind of like Iain M. Banks on a bad mescaline trip, doesn't it?

[Cyborg Girl]

... I don't think that quite does it justice, actually.

What really gets to me is that, underneath all the manic, macabre, high-concept acid trips, seeing the old characters again still makes me feel like I'm meeting a bunch of old friends. I haven't read a book that made me feel that way in some time.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Oh, don't get me wrong - I love Reynolds. And there is a lot more going on in this book than my comment lets on. I was referring just to the "my mind is melting" thing.

[Cyborg Girl]

Yeah, I know.

[SciFi Chick]

I'm currently reading the Immortal Witch series by Maggie Shayne. Really enjoying it too.

Books have literally saved me on this trip.

[brite]

re-reading Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner series.... total and complete brain candy.... but I deserve it...

[SciFi Chick]

Everything I've read on this trip has been brain candy. I feel ya brite.

[gethen]

Johannes Cabal--the Necromancer by Jonathon L. Howard. Kind of like Terry Pratchett meets H.P. Lovecraft. Or Douglas Adams meets Stephen King. Anyway, it's interesting.

[The Supreme Canuck]

I just finished The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. Boy, is that ever a fascist book. Ho-lee shit, is it ever.

[Cyborg Girl]

Got a copy of that on a bookshelf somewhere. Never read it, only know a vague plot outline. Interested in why you think it embodies Fascist concepts?

I recall reading most of The Stars My Destination as a teenager, and not really being able to get into it. Interesting concepts, but Gully Foyle being a vile, unsympathetic piece of shit throughout basically ruined it for me.

[FZR1KG]

I just finished The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. Boy, is that ever a fascist book. Ho-lee shit, is it ever.

Yeah, but the movie was pretty crap.

[The Supreme Canuck]

I just finished The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. Boy, is that ever a fascist book. Ho-lee shit, is it ever.

Yeah, but the movie was pretty crap.

Hey, I think the film was a brilliant political satire, under-appreciated at the time due to its over-the-top violence. So there.

[The Supreme Canuck]

Got a copy of that on a bookshelf somewhere. Never read it, only know a vague plot outline. Interested in why you think it embodies Fascist concepts?

Well (spoilers, BTW), the book is fascist on two levels: at the metaphysical level, and at the content level.

When I say that the book is based in fascist metaphysics, I mean that the world of the story itself presupposes that the assumptions of fascism are true. I could just as well say that the book is based in Freudian metaphysics in that, for the world of the story, Freudian psychology is literally and categorically correct. That is the truth. It's the same with fascism; in the world of the story, the things that fascism says are true of the world are literally and categorically correct.

For example, it's flat-out stated that the bad guy is a Nietzschean over-man who, by his superior nature, is a "focal point" of history and civilization that can bend humanity to his will. By his very being and his vigorous actions. It isn't that he thinks he can do this, it's that he absolutely can do this, if he isn't stopped.

But it's not just that - even the good guys swallow the fascist assumptions about reality whole.

First, they accept that this bad guy is an Übermensch.

Second, they (being telepaths) are themselves a cabal of Übermenschen who control society behind the scenes in order to bend it to their will. Their natural superiority allows them to do so (telepathy) and their natural superiority allows them to have their own superior ethics (they're in the right, and are right to force society to do what they want - in this case, they want to carry out a eugenics program that results in all humans being telepaths). Individuals are not considered; only the good of society is.

And the good guys don't see it! Which says to me that Bester didn't see it! The fascist assumptions are baked right into the metaphysics, and they never cotton on! They call other groups in the story "fascist," but they never see it in their own worldview!

Of course, you see this through the thoughts and actions of the characters, which is the second way that the book is terribly fascist - the content of the thing.

The place this is most evident is right at the end, after they capture that bad guy. They punish him through "Demolition." That is the erasure of the individual psyche and the reprogramming of the individual's mind to serve the interests of society, as determined by... well, it's not said. But since the decision is made by the secret cabal of telepaths, I think I know who's calling the shots. And when they're discussing this Demolition, they talk about (in what appears to be an author's message) how silly it was that in the past they executed criminals. Much better to take these people, who are obviously superior since they had the fortitude to defy society's common morality and laws (created by dullards), and tear out their minds to instead create a vigorous Übermensch who acts for society instead of against! Why, if you kill all these superior specimens, eventually humanity is only left with the "sheep." Hell, maybe that's why they did it - back then, they only wanted sheep, not supermen.

So... holy shit, right? Nietzschean fascist (though I repeat myself) eugenics. And the author couldn't even see it.

Frankly, a lot of these mid-20th century science fiction novels are dripping with fascism, and I have no idea why. Was all of society like this, or just SF? Because... wow.

Oh, also, there's some really uncomfortable iffy sexual stuff in the novel, but it was originally published in 1953, so I guess you expect that.

And yet... I actually liked the book. I'm of the opinion that you can like problematic things, so long as you recognize and examine those problems. Which this book has in spades.