The Adjustment Team

"The Adjustment Team" will sate nearly any conspiracy lover as it is a story about secret organizations that set day to day life on the correct path.  I'm more interesting, however, in thinking about it as a metaphor for a supernatural creator/designer.  Knowing Dick's own fascination with God, it makes for an inert testing crossover between religious belief and illuminati-like secret organizations.

I've recently had a fascination with Baudrillard's idea of the simulation and simulacra,  as expressed in Turkle's work (so I don't have a deep understanding).  I connect it here because, in the the world of "the Adjustment Team", the world is more a program of cause and effect, with the Adjusters being able to see how events relate and lead from one to another.  It questions whether the world should have a Designer or not; then, assuming there is a designer, it asks if the designed should be aware of it.  I've  a feeling I will continue coming back to this: Dick wonders if there is something beyond us, then asks us if we want to know or not.

(Also, not the best post.  I blame being on a long weekend vacation, and typing on an iPad.)

I wouldn't have remembered that retail.

A love of Jonathan Lethem, a new job involving technology in education, and some mild issues with identity and identity formation lead me back to Philip K. Dick.  It began with a paranoid day caused by reading the prologue to Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.  In that book, Turkle mentions a book called Love and Sex with Robots.  Long story short: this lead me to think of a conversation with my father-in-law (do NOT make a connection there).  His theory was that my grandparents generation would have an issue with inter-racial marriage, while his generation, okay with inter-racial, has an issue with homosexual marriage, while my generation is okay with both (we're almost to the point).  I, looking into the future, believe that my generation will have an issue with human-technology marriage/relationships.

That lead me to purchase Bladerunner and attempt to re-read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. My standard inability to finish things I start, lead me to put down Androids... and pick up The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick.

(I had initially written something like this intro two weeks ago in my head.  I then forgot it, and remembered it today.  I mention this only because it seems reflective of Dick's work itself.)

"We Can Remember That for You Wholesale" was the inspiration for the movies, Total Recall, and it becomes clear fairly early that the writers of the movie put a lot of effort into expanded a basic idea.  "We Can Remember That for You Wholesale" creates the interesting premise that the movies turn into a two hour long action movie.

Similarly to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", the story deals with memory and memory alteration, and how memory is less about recall and more about creation, as well as a belief that personality and memory have an unusual connection.  What "Wholesale" posits is that certain personalities will always want certain things; a secret agent who has been to Mars will always want to go to Mars even when those memories have been taken away.  

It has been too long (coincidentally, the same amount of time a ReKal vacation is) since I read the story, and can't seem to say anything of value.  Maybe I'll try coming back to this one someday.

Remainder

A night or two ago, I finally finished Tom McCarthy's Remainder.  According to the note on the front cover, I began the book in late '09. I faintly recall getting somewhere around halfway and putting it down.  Christmas '12 I restarted the book.

I got about 2/3 of the way through and put it back down.

Then on January 2014, I sort of resolved to read more, particularly before I sleep and particularly to avoid just watching TV shows I've already watched. I also cleaned up and organized my ReReads account and decided to start a clean slate of books I've read.  There were far too many books with a simple star rating.  I wanted to remember the books and have a written document of that memory.

This is why it is serendipitous that I am writing this for Remainder.  In Remainder, the narrator has been the victim of an accident that has left him disabled and amnesiac (at this writing I have only suddenly realized the narrator has no name, or that I have no memory of it).

Because of the settlement he receives because of the incident that caused his amnesia (which he cannot recall and is legally unable to discuss), he ends up with several million pounds which become more than that after some excellent investment.  After a night at a party and a crack in a wall, he decides to use his money to make full, 1:1 scale reenactments of a few moments in his and other people's lives.

This is not a book for those who worry about their own authenticity.

If you've seen Synecdoche, NY, the set up is similar.  The book grapples with a person's feelings about authenticity, particularly in their actions.  What the narrator never seems to realize is that the same issues he has with fluidity are not unique to him.

Originally his issues stem from the massive physical therapy he has to undertake, requiring every motion to be a conscious one.  After viewing Pacino in Taxi Driver, the narrator is bothered how fluid the characters motions seem to be.  He obviously could not hear my screams in regards to an actors' movements never being truly genuine.  Having just yelled at pulped tree, I clearly had some re-examining to do.

Because it is late, and I'm typing this on a phone, I'm inspired to close it.  I loved picking up this book with only the shadows of memories of the books plot and characters.  Though I had put the book down twice, neither instance was due to the book being uninteresting.  It felt oddly comforting to come back to(especially since I didn't want to restart the book again). It was a fascinating read.  Unfortunately, I choose to leave you the same way the book left me: unclear on whether it had ended or not.

We need a re-do

Let's start over, okay?

"A Real Durwan": We love stuff.

So, there is a homeless woman with a lot of grand stories, and she lives near the mailboxes in this apartment complex. Because she has stories of days when she was rich, and because she acts as a sort of guard dog, the tenets like her. The story as a whole is a greed story. The Dalal's buy two basins (sinks); they install one in their apartment, and another in a common area for all to use. The other tenets slowly get envious of them, and decide that they too have every right to have nice things inside their apartment. The homeless woman slowly gets out placed as the people decide to redo the entire building and make it prettier. Everyone is very upset when the basin in the common area gets stolen; there was no one around to protect it anymore. There is a lesson in simplicity present as stuff begets more stuff and wants begets want. As the tenets slowly work their way out of simpler living, the push the old story teller out as well, and end up paying the price for having stuff: they gain the fear of losing that stuff.

The Plague by Albert Camus

It took me a long time to read this book, but it is so good. Camus is a good writer because he makes you think. He does, however, fall into what Patrick Marton and I always referred to as “French-people-can’t-write-fiction.”

The book doesn’t necessarily flow very well. Sometimes, it seems to bop around to whatever topic the narrator (and therefore Camus) feels like talking about. This could reflect the chaotic environment that would besiege a town that has been quarantined., but it doesn’t not make for easy reading. Reality doesn’t translate well to fiction.

That being said, I love reading this book because Camus also falls for what Patrick Marton and I often referred to as “French-People-Know-How-to-do-philosophy-stuffs-especially-when-it-is-literature-based.” If you are anything like me you like stories where something happens to humanity as a whole, and humanity as a microcosm gets interesting (Russell has an interesting game like this; if there are only a 1000 people left on earth, what does the world do?). Unlike the Stranger, Camus does pretty well in painting people in a positive light. At one point there is a discussion about God, and one person talks about how he doesn’t believe in God. What is interesting is that it is a similar complaint that I’ve heard Russell make about people. The character says there cannot be a god because it takes people’s attention away from life. “Stop praying and save a poor person!” he would say. Russell and I have talked about how annoying the idea of waiting for heaven is. Don’t wait for the Kingdom of Heaven, it is upon us now.
The scary thing about this is when the Kingdom gets plague, which is what happens in this novel. Despite their words many people are good, and work to do good. In the event of this crisis, people do not act like animals, even if that simply means standing upright as you walk to your death (Camus’ Sisyphus idea).

My caffeine levels have gotten a little high, so I think I need to stop here. Read the Plague, and get rid of your adjectives sometimes. If anyone has questions, I can answer them in comments.

Going Home to a Landscape: Writings by Filipinas. Ed. Marianna Villanueva, Virginia Cerenio

"Writing landscape thus becomes constitutive of the process of selfhood. This Phillipines, as represented by the women in this volume, is a distinctly plural phenomenon constructed out of the comparison and intersection of past and present, of colonizations and immigration, of the cohabitation of different races and cultures."
- Foreward by Rocio Davis

Phew!! It's a good thing that the poetry and prose in this collection contain NONE of the academica-graduate-degree-speak contained in this foreward, which is nearly drowning in its own jargon. Yet this foreward is also something to be proud of, because it represents the achievements Filipino writers have made in the past 5 years. When I was an undergraduate in 2001, one of my classmates was working on creating a pretend anthology of Filiipino authors, just like this one, because she couldn't find anything like it out there!!

Still, you might want to skip the foreward, and jump right into the introductions by its two editors, for an introduction into the book's design and to Filipino literature in general.

This collection is all about discovery. Villanueva's introduction says that for Filipino women, maintenance of "the internal landscape" is vital, and this image (theme?) unites all the works. The book moves through five phases:

I. Las Dalagas (the time between girlhood and adult womanhood)
II. Landscapes
III. Traveling over Water
IV. Testament
V. Another Day
VI. Roots

The variety of voices is astounding! And it's quite refreshing, making this a fun read. None of the selections repeat, yet they are all actually connected. I am mid-way through the second part, but I'd like to share a few clips to show you the different voices I'm talking about:

april is the month of asparagus / of old uncles with bent backs and tired eyes / of hot sun on my back and shoulders / in april / my father greets the sun / and stays in the fields long after sunset / in dirty flannel and worn Dickies / for more than forty years he has cut and packed / a detestable vegetable / white people love to eat
--- "April in Stockton"

oh yeah, well check this:
my mama's hella brown,
a teacher/artist in da Flip nation
don't got an accent
'cause she's second generation!
-- by the Pinay M.A.F.I.A.

You think I am all mountain and valley, your mouth probing forests, your tongue climbing peaks.
I am small, a landscape defined by the space within your arms. Your palms journey and memorize me.
-- "Cartographer"

some women color their lips red.
not me, i like to color mine with good words instead.
--- "Some Women"

At 2:00 in the morning, the patients who are not unconscious drift in morphine-induced bliss. The events of the evening drift across Caridad's mind like the patients' cardiac tracings on the screen. She hates losing her composure in front of doctors, but she couldn't help herself, she thought. When she and Nita were wrapping Mang Tomas's body in that plastic shroud, she remembered words her father had spoken that summer long ago: "Over the years I built walls around my mind so nothing could hurt me."
--- "Mang Tomas"

I am really enjoying this reading. It is not at all work, though my motive to jump in was partially work-related, given the number of Filipino students in our school. I will update as I read more.

interpreter of maladies / stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER... WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE... PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD WINNER... NEW YORKER "DEBUT OF THE YEAR".... it declares on the front and back covers. I am not typically one to be swayed by such awards, since artistic merit does not always translate into a good read. Still, I am not above placing them in capital letters at the beginning of my book review, in a pitiful attempt to entice my readers to continue onward.

I have read 56% of this book, which equals the first five of its nine short stories. I read them about a month and a half ago, and when I just now picked up the book in my hands, I had forgotten if I'd even read the story "Sexy." The details came back slowly... not a good sign, when you consider that my memory for fiction typically lasts years.

Still, the first story, "A Temporary Matter," is brilliant. It is not brilliant in the "shiny and happy" sort of way, but in the "piercingly accurate and moving" sort of way. I read this entire story with a fierce look upon my face... A young married couple receives notice that their electricity will be turned off every night, beginning at 8pm. And in the private darkness of their home, every night, they play a simple game that helps them speak what they could not communicate otherwise. They explore their relationship, reach blindly for a way to move forward. Eventually, they grasp the truth of the situation. To me, these characters feel real. In a scene when the husband brushes his teeth, I think the author captures the occasional mundanity of daily life.

The title story, "Interpreter of Maladies," once again portrays a cast of frail, hopeless characters who are trapped in an existence of suffering, due primarily to the overpowering influence of their unfulfilled desires. Hindu overtones abound here, made especially apparent when the family of American tourists visit an ancient holy site. The tourists are sick, almost grotesque, due to their own lack of discipline, which is highlighted in sharp contrast to their disciplined Indian tour guide... or so we think. There are some surprising, provocative moments in the story and the story really picks up in the middle when the conflict finally reveals itself. The English teacher in me really enjoyed the irony that the interpreter in this story is both immensely powerful, yet at the same time completely powerless.

Overall, I would say this is a well-crafted collection of stories about India and her people, including those who stay at home and those who move abroad.

This collection contains characters who struggle to manage their desires -- especially sexual desire -- in their personal relationships and daily life. It is filled with characters who question their choices, doubt their fate, and yearn for a truer sort of existence. Sadly, some are hurt by their dangerous passions. And honestly, the book left me a little depressed.

Promethea: Books One & Two

I feel a little bit better about reading this comic because, unlike 300, it will take me days to read this. Promethea was part of the America's Best Comics line, which was all governed by Alan Moore, one of the mediums best creators. He is the man behind From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Watchmen, Swamp Thing, its spin-off Hellblazer (Constantine), and V for Vendetta (yes, most of the movies were crap). In the late 90s, Moore came out as a practicing magician; the comics world sighed, said, "wow that's great, can we have more comics please?" and a lot of people just let it slide; Alan Moore was never known for being completely sane.

Promethea is where he explains a lot of what he knows about magic. Promethea is a story that lives. When the story of Promethea is written about, someone becomes Promethea. I'm making this all sound like crap.

The interesting part is how Moore does nothing to chastise other belief systems. This is not, "go Wiccans, F*** the Christians!" It is largely about showing how all belief systems work much better together than they possibly could apart. In the last chapter of the second book, the Tarot is explained as a means of talking about the history of mankind, from the big bang on, each card representing a different chapter in the history of time and the universe (the zero card, for example, is The Fool and represents the lack of knowledge because of... well... the lack of everything). One of the most interesting parts he throws in is the interpretation of the genesis creation story representing an amoeba first finding out it could separate into more amoebas, hence why Eve came out of Adam's side.

I'm big on inclusion (stop laughing) and I'm bigger on new ideas. Promethea, even on a second read, does this. And if you don't like what it says, you can always just tell yourself it's a comic book. And it isn't like the characters we read about really exist. Right?

A Canticle for Leibowitz: Clever Subtitle for Post

I had planned on doing three posts on this book, but have failed as I have finished the book, but never felt like writing anything up. I have not been doing very well emotionally lately, and as I sit here thinking about the book, I realize how nice it would be for me to blame this book for that. I could get away with it. The book looks at how we, as humans, often repeat ourselves throughout history. When we destroy our history, there is a fair chance the same mistakes will be made.

This is, of course, a simple view of the issue, and the book deals with it quite well. Human's have flaws, but we have learned from ourselves in the past. We have overcome some of those flaws, but the greatest flaw may be thinking that now-we is better then then-we and that translates into now-we thinking we are better then tomorrow-we will ever be. The world is destroyed twice in The Canticle for Leibowitz; while difficult to find the silver lining here, note that humanity, like the cockroach seems able to be beating down, though not destroyed.

I'm rambling. I think the most important thing to learn from this book is to be weary of facts and texts. Stories (which I love) have to remain their own category of thing, separate from truth. I cannot believe every word of the bible is true, as there were far too many translations, and far too much separation between event, author, first draft, second draft, and so on. But there is a worthwhile story there, and in learning a story, we begin to discover truth; they are small, and they are gradual, but each step gets us closer.