newnumber6 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
newnumber6) wrote2008-12-26 04:49 pm
newnumber6) wrote2008-12-26 04:49 pm
Entry tags:
Book Foo
Boxing Day. However, I decided to avoid the boxing. Not much I would have wanted to buy (the things I might have considered buying because of the deal are generally too rare to make it worth going out and looking, or too expensive such that I don't have the money on hand and that I need to know if I'm getting certain other money I'm owed before I can consider it. Or both). Did have to work, and it wasn't too bad, though they were a bit idioty in ordering too much. Ah well.
So let's do some Book Foo. I don't know if this'll be the last of 2008, still a couple more reading days and there's a chance I might finish another one or two.
Finished: Wild Cards, Vol 5: Down and Dirty, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Started: Wild Cards, Vol 6: Ace in the Hole, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Down and Dirty's somewhat enjoyable, although the story sort of meanders. Minor spoilers.
This issue deals with a bunch of smaller plots, with the background being a gang war in the city between the Mafia and an allied groups including some vietnamese gangs and some joker gangs, over turf and control of the city. A lot of other people get caught in the middle, and there are side plots, such as Tachyon dealing with a family issue, the Great and Powerful Turtle considering making his temporary retirement official, and a startling new, seemingly contagious version of the Wild Card virus.
Although some of the plotlines were good (I liked the Croyd plotline and the one with the Turtle), there didn't really seem to be an overall storyline to latch onto, and some storylines seemed to more or less wrap up (or advance significantly) off panel, where we temporarily followed somebody else and then the next time we got back to the other story it was almost over. That made some of the stories a little dull. However, it was still much more enjoyable than the last book.
I'll probably end my rereading of the series with Vol 7 (which takes place at the same time as Vol 6).
Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way) (reread)
Just was bored last weekend and felt like a reread. Still rather enjoyable, no furthur comments.
Finished: Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler (Nebula Award Winner, 1999)
Started: Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman
Comments and a quote, behind the cut, some spoilers but relatively minor, plus some thoughts on the religion in the book. Overall: Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
PotT was actually a sequel to a book called Parable of the Sower. However, never having read the author's work before and not being _too_ interested by the description (I read it as part of my quest to read every Hugo and/or Nebula Award winning novel), I decided to take my chances, skip the first book, and read the sequel. I'm pleased to find that I didn't feel lost or like I missed out on anything. If I didn't know it was book 2 before hand, I might not have even known it upon reading. Things you need to know are laid out as background and although it's likely certain characters would be richer if you knew them from the first book, I don't think it's all that important.
PotT is semi post-apocalyptic. The United States has suffered a severe economic collapse, brought about in large part due to environmental problems like global warming. Crime is rampant, slavery is back, in some cases legal (indentured servitude) and even when not is generally unpunished because of a breakdown in law and order. People prey on others. However, the main character, Olhamina, has a small community called Acorn, dedicated to working together and most of them following a religion of her own creation, Earthseed. It's not a religion based around gods, the central tenet is "God is change", and you have to adapt and try to guide change. There's also a desire to work towards a destiny of spreading humanity through the stars, but it seems a distant thing in the circumstances of the novel. The story is told through diary entries of Olhamina and a few others, and comments on them from her grown up daughter (who is only a baby through much of the time the book takes place).
To give you an idea of the religion, here's a little quote:
"It isn't really religious--your service, I mean. You guys don't believe in God or anything."
I turned to look at him. "Dan, of course we do."
He just stared at me in silent, obvious disbelief.
"We don't believe the way your parents did, perhaps, but we do believe."
"That God is Change?"
"Yes."
"I don't even know what that means."
"It means that Change is the one unavoidable, irresistable, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God."
"But... what can you do with a God like that? I mean... it isn't even a person. It doesn't love you or protect you. It doesn't know anything. What's the point?"
"The point is, it's the truth," I said, "It's a hard truth. Too hard for some people to take, but that doesn't make it any less true.
The novel was actually a fairly easy, pleasant read, at least where it's meant to be. It certainly gets into some very unpleasant places as awful things happen all over, but the world set up is pretty convincing for the most part, and I found myself drawn in to the story. The ending, in terms of the growth of the religion itself, is a little weak, seemingly happening because the author wants it to rather than being convincing that it actually would.
As to the religion, well, I like it. In terms of the central tenets and the eventual goal, it kind of matches my own viewpoint, and I like the idea of it being true, but not comforting at all. That strikes me as far more likely than any of the wish-fulfillment religions. That said, it is a bit too high on ceremony and little poems of meaning for my tastes. The fact that the main character has written a book about Earthseed would be a barrier for me to actually joining it. Not that I don't love reading, I guess my POV is that any overarching philosophy of the universe and how it runs (from a moral standpoint, not a scientific one) can't be completely and comprehensively discussed and explained in about 15 minutes, there's gotta be something wrong with it. Well, I suppose theoretically you can do that with most. Kinda like the old story of the Rabbi summing up the Torah while standing on one foot: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary." Of course, the problem is, in most religions, the rest isn't commentary. There's weird, byzantine restrictions about what you can eat and wear. And varients of the Judeo-Christian religion have never, to me, satisfactorily answered the one basic question for their religion. "What does God need with a starship?" (It's a thinker. The question is deeper than first glance).
And anyway, the more text you have, the more someone's likely to use it to justify the worst abuses. I can sum up my philosophy of life in a few words: Don't be a $@!#. There. I don't need a book for it. I don't even need a page. So having a bunch of ceremonies and phrases that get memorized and tossed around kind of turns me off any religion, even if I fidn the tenets appealing and agree with the philosophies. Even if I like the phrases and find them memorable. In this case the passages of Earthseed feel more like poetry, and I mean that in a bad way. I'm not a big poetry guy (as you might guess from the wording of my life philosophy).
. Anyway, while I probably wouldn't seek out the Parable of the Sower specifically, if I happened to find it used for a good price, I might well pick it up, just to see how the story started.
So let's do some Book Foo. I don't know if this'll be the last of 2008, still a couple more reading days and there's a chance I might finish another one or two.
Finished: Wild Cards, Vol 5: Down and Dirty, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Started: Wild Cards, Vol 6: Ace in the Hole, edited by George R. R. Martin (reread)
Down and Dirty's somewhat enjoyable, although the story sort of meanders. Minor spoilers.
This issue deals with a bunch of smaller plots, with the background being a gang war in the city between the Mafia and an allied groups including some vietnamese gangs and some joker gangs, over turf and control of the city. A lot of other people get caught in the middle, and there are side plots, such as Tachyon dealing with a family issue, the Great and Powerful Turtle considering making his temporary retirement official, and a startling new, seemingly contagious version of the Wild Card virus.
Although some of the plotlines were good (I liked the Croyd plotline and the one with the Turtle), there didn't really seem to be an overall storyline to latch onto, and some storylines seemed to more or less wrap up (or advance significantly) off panel, where we temporarily followed somebody else and then the next time we got back to the other story it was almost over. That made some of the stories a little dull. However, it was still much more enjoyable than the last book.
I'll probably end my rereading of the series with Vol 7 (which takes place at the same time as Vol 6).
Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way) (reread)
Just was bored last weekend and felt like a reread. Still rather enjoyable, no furthur comments.
Finished: Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler (Nebula Award Winner, 1999)
Started: Forever Peace, by Joe Haldeman
Comments and a quote, behind the cut, some spoilers but relatively minor, plus some thoughts on the religion in the book. Overall: Enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
PotT was actually a sequel to a book called Parable of the Sower. However, never having read the author's work before and not being _too_ interested by the description (I read it as part of my quest to read every Hugo and/or Nebula Award winning novel), I decided to take my chances, skip the first book, and read the sequel. I'm pleased to find that I didn't feel lost or like I missed out on anything. If I didn't know it was book 2 before hand, I might not have even known it upon reading. Things you need to know are laid out as background and although it's likely certain characters would be richer if you knew them from the first book, I don't think it's all that important.
PotT is semi post-apocalyptic. The United States has suffered a severe economic collapse, brought about in large part due to environmental problems like global warming. Crime is rampant, slavery is back, in some cases legal (indentured servitude) and even when not is generally unpunished because of a breakdown in law and order. People prey on others. However, the main character, Olhamina, has a small community called Acorn, dedicated to working together and most of them following a religion of her own creation, Earthseed. It's not a religion based around gods, the central tenet is "God is change", and you have to adapt and try to guide change. There's also a desire to work towards a destiny of spreading humanity through the stars, but it seems a distant thing in the circumstances of the novel. The story is told through diary entries of Olhamina and a few others, and comments on them from her grown up daughter (who is only a baby through much of the time the book takes place).
To give you an idea of the religion, here's a little quote:
"It isn't really religious--your service, I mean. You guys don't believe in God or anything."
I turned to look at him. "Dan, of course we do."
He just stared at me in silent, obvious disbelief.
"We don't believe the way your parents did, perhaps, but we do believe."
"That God is Change?"
"Yes."
"I don't even know what that means."
"It means that Change is the one unavoidable, irresistable, ongoing reality of the universe. To us, that makes it the most powerful reality, and just another word for God."
"But... what can you do with a God like that? I mean... it isn't even a person. It doesn't love you or protect you. It doesn't know anything. What's the point?"
"The point is, it's the truth," I said, "It's a hard truth. Too hard for some people to take, but that doesn't make it any less true.
The novel was actually a fairly easy, pleasant read, at least where it's meant to be. It certainly gets into some very unpleasant places as awful things happen all over, but the world set up is pretty convincing for the most part, and I found myself drawn in to the story. The ending, in terms of the growth of the religion itself, is a little weak, seemingly happening because the author wants it to rather than being convincing that it actually would.
As to the religion, well, I like it. In terms of the central tenets and the eventual goal, it kind of matches my own viewpoint, and I like the idea of it being true, but not comforting at all. That strikes me as far more likely than any of the wish-fulfillment religions. That said, it is a bit too high on ceremony and little poems of meaning for my tastes. The fact that the main character has written a book about Earthseed would be a barrier for me to actually joining it. Not that I don't love reading, I guess my POV is that any overarching philosophy of the universe and how it runs (from a moral standpoint, not a scientific one) can't be completely and comprehensively discussed and explained in about 15 minutes, there's gotta be something wrong with it. Well, I suppose theoretically you can do that with most. Kinda like the old story of the Rabbi summing up the Torah while standing on one foot: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary." Of course, the problem is, in most religions, the rest isn't commentary. There's weird, byzantine restrictions about what you can eat and wear. And varients of the Judeo-Christian religion have never, to me, satisfactorily answered the one basic question for their religion. "What does God need with a starship?" (It's a thinker. The question is deeper than first glance).
And anyway, the more text you have, the more someone's likely to use it to justify the worst abuses. I can sum up my philosophy of life in a few words: Don't be a $@!#. There. I don't need a book for it. I don't even need a page. So having a bunch of ceremonies and phrases that get memorized and tossed around kind of turns me off any religion, even if I fidn the tenets appealing and agree with the philosophies. Even if I like the phrases and find them memorable. In this case the passages of Earthseed feel more like poetry, and I mean that in a bad way. I'm not a big poetry guy (as you might guess from the wording of my life philosophy).
. Anyway, while I probably wouldn't seek out the Parable of the Sower specifically, if I happened to find it used for a good price, I might well pick it up, just to see how the story started.
no subject
I think Carl Sagan very eloquently summed up a secular system of ethics in his quote about the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, without adding any sort of the trappings of religious practice.