I experienced The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams (1952-2001) as a cleverish, satirical comedy, science fiction novel that's I experienced The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) by Douglas Adams (1952-2001) as a cleverish, satirical comedy, science fiction novel that's written in a tone, narrative, and dialogue style that seemed to have been inspired by Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. A fun, easy-going, read, so I can see why readers enjoy it. Nevertheless, it didn't captivate me enough, that is why I'm not sure that I'm up for reading the entire "trilogy" made up of five parts....more
In this last volume of In Search of Lost Time we read about the declining years of the characters that surrounded the story. We learn from the author In this last volume of In Search of Lost Time we read about the declining years of the characters that surrounded the story. We learn from the author how the evocations of his past and the people that surrounded his life have, in his final years, materialized themselves into a single character that embodied those memories.
Since the "past is like a photographic darkroom encumbered with innumerable negatives which remain useless because their intellect has not developed them." Proust urges us to shed the light upon these undeveloped negatives in order to become more aware of our past and our lives.
Reading this 4,215-page novel was a well-worth journey in itself and I am in agreement with much of Proust's philosophy on life and enjoyed learning about his distinct method of triggering, recollecting, and exploring the past through the prism of impressionism. Thankfully, his predictions of the future, such as: "We accept the thought that in ten years we ourselves, in a hundred years our books, will have ceased to exist" were evidently not the case with Proust or his work that we still enjoy to this day....more
Proust realizes that: "The inertia of the mind urges it to slide down the easy slope of imagination, rather than to climb the steep slope of introspecProust realizes that: "The inertia of the mind urges it to slide down the easy slope of imagination, rather than to climb the steep slope of introspection." Hence, he resolves to climb this steep, uncomfortable, slope throughout his novel. However, even with deep introspection, he wasn't able to overcome his retrospective and prospective jealousy in his relationship with Albert(ine). Was it jealousy or justifiable suspicion?
Parts of this novel were superfluous and redundant. In comparison to this 5th volume, the first few volumes exceeded in quality, despite the author and or his narrator/character finally achieving in this series his literary recognition. The various, already well-developed characters gradually adapted or expanded their sexual orientations which all seemed unnecessary, hopeless, and unconvincing.
Despite all of that the plot was realistic, narrative vivid, contemplations revealing, and the representation of relationships honest. Proust also shares his reflections on his loved and lost relationships and the process of grieving and forgetting, but most importantly forgiving. "I was suffering from a love that no longer existed. Thus does an amputee, in certain kinds of weather, feel pain in the limb that he has lost." All in all, I am looking forward to reading the last part of In Search of Lost Time....more
"By dint of imagining oneself to be ill one becomes ill, one grows thin, one is too weak to rise from one's bed, one suffers from nervous enteritis. B"By dint of imagining oneself to be ill one becomes ill, one grows thin, one is too weak to rise from one's bed, one suffers from nervous enteritis. By dint of thinking tenderly of men, one becomes a woman, and an imaginary skirt hampers one's movements. The obsession, as in the other instance it can affect one's health, may in this instance alter one's sex."
Proust narrates Sodom and Gomorrah: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 4 in less of an impressionistic writing style compared to his previous volumes. This time around, the underlying topic of his characters is their sexuality and his innocence at one point in believing that the taste for one sex excluded the other. We also learn about his intimate but insecure relationship with Albertine and his sobering realization that he might share a similar fate as that of Swann. Lastly, Proust shares the inevitable subject of sleep(lessness): "A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness". and "We do not include the pleasures we enjoy in sleep in the inventory of pleasures we have experienced in the course of our existence."
Some of Proust's comparisons of a man's homosexuality to womanliness such as: "the unconscious but visible woman in him seeks the masculine organ." and drawing parallels between bisexuality and hermaphroditism in this day and age feels a bit dated. However, Proust's literal gift throughout his volumes is flawlessly and compellingly illustrating the behavior, appearance, and personality of the aristocratic female characters with whom he is infatuated during his adolescence and young adulthood....more
Proust's reflections on his young adulthood intertwined with his imagination continue to inspire and carry his seven-volume novel. This time around heProust's reflections on his young adulthood intertwined with his imagination continue to inspire and carry his seven-volume novel. This time around he provides us with an up close and personal glance into a 19th-century life of an aristocratic family The Guermantes, the way the Dreyfus case had degraded the social status of the Jews in France, and Proust's inescapable topic of his awkward romantic endeavors.
I particularly liked how Proust interweaves throughout the story his marginal or spontaneous realizations about himself or things in general, such as his or our "limits" of being infatuated with one woman at a time, his obsession with the idea of being in love rather than the woman of his interest, and things like "the knowledge that to kiss Albertine's cheeks was a possible thing was a pleasure perhaps greater even than that of kissing them."
The Guermantes Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 3 had some significant resemblance to Vol. 1 wherein both volumes the two prominent male characters of high society fall for a prostitute almost unaware of her profession or reputation (perhaps it stands true that "we live in ignorance of those we love.").
Nonetheless, Young Proust's illustrations and portrayals of the personalities and conducts of the older leading female characters with those he is infatuated with are unsurpassable. However, I've enjoyed the first two volumes more than this third, although, I am looking forward to reading the rest....more
Proust structures a simple and lifelike plot in his veiled autobiography of his adolescent impressions and perceptions of love. Even though the plot'sProust structures a simple and lifelike plot in his veiled autobiography of his adolescent impressions and perceptions of love. Even though the plot's events, to an extent, are foreseeable and their intensity softened, Proust's narrative, on the other hand, is depicted in a wide array of colors, most often hazy, with various shapes and silhouettes, oftentimes distorted. He recollects his youthful encounters and subsequent reflections through a medium of fluctuating emotions and perplexed feelings. At times it feels like the story is all over the place but resembles one's unhampered thought process of raw impressions of experiences.
Within a Budding Grove: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 2 embraces the style of impressionistic depictions substantially more than in the previous volume. Proust shows us how the state of our internal feelings encountered by the objects of our attention, from different angles, often distorted by light, changes our impression of the reality of that same object or event through time. I will end with a wonderful example of Proust's portrayal of an experience after meeting a girl he liked: "But so far as the pleasure was concerned, I was naturally not conscious of it until some time later, when, back at the hotel, and in my room alone, I had become myself again. Pleasure in this respect is like photography. What we take, in the presence of the beloved object, is merely a negative, which we develop later, when we are back at home, and have once again found at our disposal that inner darkroom the entrance to which is barred to us so long as we are with other people."...more
"When one is in love one has no love left for anyone"
This was a captivating read composed of long sentences expressing, in a melancholic tone, the dis"When one is in love one has no love left for anyone"
This was a captivating read composed of long sentences expressing, in a melancholic tone, the discomforts and foolishness of love, yet, the depictions of the awkwardness of love were counterpoised by the stories settings in the consoling and vividly illustrated landscapes of Normandy and Paris.
Proust's Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Vol. 1 appears as an impressionistic illustration of his autobiography triggered by his (involuntary) memory and guided by the engraved and everlasting impressions of his bittersweet experiences of the past which are all entwined with a sense of nostalgia for the very same sentiments.
Both the narrator and main character are immersed in their thoughts and feelings, continually reflecting and reasoning exterior events and their personal experiences (which occasionally bring about clearance). However, this disquieting process is followed by anxieties and discomforts that are caused by the narrator/main character's evocations and reflections in which they spend much of their time - in their lonesome thoughts, rather than in the external realities which resulted in their indistinguishable view between tangible and imagined realities.
A slow-paced plot that gradually attracts the reader but never overindulges. Some wonderful internal and external dialogues that resemble a symphony, composed of several parts, moving back and forth in time. I quite liked these parts. All in all, I look forward to reading the second volume....more
Our protagonist Candide is a young, hopeful follower of his mentor Pangloss's optimistic philosophy of life in which pure nature is good and all that Our protagonist Candide is a young, hopeful follower of his mentor Pangloss's optimistic philosophy of life in which pure nature is good and all that happens in life, happens for the best.
Even though the narrative takes Candide through trials and tribulations in his lifelong journey across the oceans and seas, from East to West and back, he maintains his hopefulness, buoyancy, and innocence. However, towards the end of this satirical novella, he comes to a realization.
Voltaire's (1694-1778) Candide (1759) questions Leibniz's philosophy, suggests reading the Stoics, traveling, and most of all "cultivating one's own garden"....more
Aldous Huxley, with a satirical tone, introduces us to a society in which masses of embryos and fetuses are developed in artificial A Motherless World
Aldous Huxley, with a satirical tone, introduces us to a society in which masses of embryos and fetuses are developed in artificial surrogate mothers; incubators. Where infants and toddlers, in controlled environments, are psychologically and emotionally manipulated in order to develop characteristics beneficial for the common good. A society that learns while it sleeps, through hypnopedia, during which the individual is thought to have an intolerance for: family, as they "stink" of emotions, monogamous relationships, which are primitive and indecent, as they are based on passion, and a hatred for nature, books, and the lower caste.
Instead, people are thought to rejoice in order, synthetic music, consumerism, sexual promiscuity, and every pain, sadness or experience of naturally occurring moral dilemmas or human feelings are to be suppressed by pharmaceutical substances that can objectively shorten one's lifespan but subjectively lengthen its quality.
A world that employs the practice of eugenics in order to breed a superior alpha human for the sake of maintaining a quintessential community while variations of inferior human offspring’s are reproduced, by physically manipulating the development of the unborn during gestation, in the interest of creating a caste system that will maintain all features and elements of this utopian society.
This dystopian novel setting takes place in the Ford Era, 632 years after the Model T was first introduced. Huxley envisioned a future society in which Taylorism is engraved in every aspect of a functioning community and Freudianism a blueprint for childhood personality development. He designed a society governed by manipulation, not force. A culture that embraces machines, science, and sensory pleasures, but mocks religious rituals, beliefs, and spiritual values.
I found the Brave New World (1932) well-written with an engaging plot that strengthens as the story unfolds, nevertheless, some scenes were overstated. Also, the storyline was somewhat loose with not quite convincing characters that were only subsequently developed. But what I liked the most about the book is how Huxley quite accurately predicted the future....more
This was a captivating read narrated in an ominous tone by our fictional chronicler, a 14th-century Albanian Catholic monk, Gjon, in which the focal cThis was a captivating read narrated in an ominous tone by our fictional chronicler, a 14th-century Albanian Catholic monk, Gjon, in which the focal characters are a stone bridge and a totemic river and their fatal encounter.
In this allegorical novel, Ismail Kadare (1936-) tells a story loosely based on and inspired by an ancient Illyrian legend of a castle construction. But instead, Kadare constructs a three-arched bridge over the unbridled Wicked Waters river. However, the construction encounters what seems to be an impassible hurdle and the townspeople's opinion was that only a human sacrifice offered to the river can overcome it.
The bridge can be seen as a metaphor for the link between Asia and Europe during the Ottoman invasion and conquer of the Balkans. The "chaining" of the river was the beginning of what was to become a permanent influence, and to some extent a disappearance, of the local traditions, cultures, and beliefs of the natives.
This short novel has some incredibly creative dialogues and reflections in which we also witness how the resurrection of old superstitions and myths can be effectively utilized to justify even the ultimate sacrifice. Thanks to my GR friend Bob for a wonderful recommendation....more
This book is a work of art and my first five-star read this year. While consuming every word and savoring each page I've noticed my pencil's point vanThis book is a work of art and my first five-star read this year. While consuming every word and savoring each page I've noticed my pencil's point vanish by the end of the first few chapters.
We (1920) is written by the Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884-1937) who was a one of the first Soviet dissidents and whose We earned the title as the first book to be banned by the Soviet censorship board.
The premise of the story takes place several hundred years in the future. In which the protagonist, a mathematician and engineer, is developing a spaceship for his 'One State' government. The space mission's purpose is to conquer the extraterrestrial planets and impose on its inhabitants the One State system of government that is exclusively dictated by rationalism.
The characters in the story are nameless. But they are all assigned a number; something that resembles a serial number: for the male characters they start with a consonant followed by a rigid prime number, and for the female characters they begin with a vowel attached to a beautifully rounded even number.
The entire One State is made of transparent glass structures dominated by curveless geometry and enclosed by a green wall. The people live by a predetermined daily schedule, outlined by the authority, which is precisely defined by an almost perfect equation with barely any unknown variables. Everyone is under constant surveillance by the Benefactor and his "guardian angels" for the benefit of the We, rather than the I.
Every citizen's life is a mechanical one; dreamless and devoid of passion. Any involvement in asymmetrical art, music or poetry is punishable by execution. The only melody permitted is the one in tune with the mathematical notes.
The State has to approve for everyone a brief visits by their partner, where the State usually assigns two or three companions for each person all for the sake of mimicking a triangle or square. During the protagonist's short impersonal walk with his assigned companion, he spontaneously meets another, free-spirited woman, with whom he becomes infatuated with and eventually falls in love. This leads him to develops a sense of self-awareness, and as a result, he is diagnosed by the State's doctor with a terrible illness; the birth of a soul. What will happen to the space mission? What’s behind the green wall? Will his "illness" ever be cured and will his love endure it all?
This compelling read is a fusion of dystopian science fiction and political satire with religion root metaphors. It reads like a poetic prose with beautifully crafted expressions, with the right dose of sarcasm, and Zamyatin's unfinished sentences that leave you wondering......more
Why do many of us find enjoyment in reading dystopian novels but would dread living in such a society? Why does our imagination find stories of oppresWhy do many of us find enjoyment in reading dystopian novels but would dread living in such a society? Why does our imagination find stories of oppression compelling and attractive while in reality, we have an inborn repulsion and intolerance for injustice? Perhaps it's just human nature and certain stories produce in us a wide spectrum of feelings and subsequently we get to experience the color of emotion we desire. These are some of the thoughts that came to mind while reading Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).
What can I say about a book that so many have read and reviewed? Well, during the first half of Orwell's book I was distracted, as the plot, to a significant extent, resembles Yevgeny Zamyatin's We (1920). It's obvious the Englishman was more than just inspired by the Russians We. To give just one example: in We the protagonist records his thoughts in his secretly kept journal while anxious that the One State will get a hold of it and as a result, he will be executed. He writes and plans to share his journal with the people his authoritarian government is preparing to conquer in the future. Similarly, Orwell's protagonist, Winston Smith, is also keeping a diary, strictly hidden from The Party while concerned that the government authorities will find it for which he will be executed. Winston Smith also writes for and plans to share his diary with future generations. There are several other similar examples.
Although, the second half of the book was exceptionally original and overall Orwell's plot was very engaging. Also, his detailed descriptive narrative allowed me to effortlessly visualize every single scene clearly.
Orwell depicts a society that resembles a communist state run by a totalitarian regime. All party members live by strict daily routines under constant surveillance by Big Brother, where your thoughts are your only freedom. The majority of the population, the uneducated working-class, is continually being manipulated by the government and thus live in ignorance, humiliation and unawareness. Our protagonist, Winston Smith, is struggling with low self-esteem and dreams of rebellion. He gradually becomes aware of himself and his surroundings and is able to formulate his own opinion on things. Winston later meets Julia and they enter a relationship, but their love wasn't convincing or I just couldn't relate to it. Altogether, this is a great science fiction novel without the impossible futuristic science but with the possible social and political science.
Second Foundation (1953) is the 3rd novel of the The Foundation Trilogy and the one I found most compelling of the three.
The Mule, after conquering thSecond Foundation (1953) is the 3rd novel of the The Foundation Trilogy and the one I found most compelling of the three.
The Mule, after conquering the First Foundation, which is at the forefront of the physical sciences in the Galaxy, is in a restless search to find and eliminate the Second Foundation. The Second Foundation is the Mule's only threat and obstacle in uniting the Galaxy under his tyrannical rule. The Mule is a mutant with supreme mental powers capable of tampering with and manipulating the emotions of others while converting them into his loyal devotees. But the Mule is in for a surprise, as the Second Foundationers have for centuries been developing and refining their intricate telepathic science and have acquired the mental capabilities that for the Mule are inborn. Has the Mule met his match? And does Arcadia, a 14-year-old girl, become the key link as the events unfold?
As far as I am concerned, this is not a sturdy stand-alone novel, therefore, you would need to read the previous two parts, for all of this to make sense. Although, the narration flow of this novel is smoother than in the previous parts and the dialogues are well developed and psychologically intriguing, though, some of the jargon is dated.
Throughout the book, Asimov gives the advantage to the Second Foundationers due to their education in neuroscience, psychology, and sociology as well as presenting in a positive light their egalitarian society with a horizontal structure of government. Compared to the First Foundation, which is governed by a more conventional hierarchical structure where their strengths are derived from nuclear power, high-tech technology, commerce, and education in the physical sciences. But what science, 'mental' or 'physical', shows to be superior? And what system of government, 'vertical' or 'horizontal', prevails at the end of the novel?
There is a whole series of these novels but I think that I will pause with completing just this Trilogy and perhaps come back to it one day....more
Reading Foundation and Empire, the second book in the Foundation Trilogy, reminded me of a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche: “In every real man, a child iReading Foundation and Empire, the second book in the Foundation Trilogy, reminded me of a quote by Friedrich Nietzsche: “In every real man, a child is hidden that wants to play.” That said, reading a SF book once in a while, can be great play.
This story continued where the previous book Foundation left off. Hari Seldon, used psychohistory to project that the 12,000 year old Galactic Empire will collapse in 300 years and the dark ages will reign for the next 30,000 years. But as the Emperor allowed, Seldon, to establish two Foundations colonies at the extreme ends of the spiral galaxy, Seldon, and his scientists have in return promised to, with their work, reduce the barbarian ages to a mere one thousand years.
It's seems that, Hari Seldon's, predictions are coming true. But with the appearance of The Mule, who is presented by Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) as a rebel conqueror and threat to Seldon's plan, is a new breed of a human being, with greater metal and emotional powers than that of man. With the appearance of The Mule things are not looking promising for the Foundation. Did Seldon's deterministic calculations fail to predict the probability of a spontaneous mutation that resulted in a creation of a human with greater intelligence that the homo sapiens, a new dominant race? Also, what ever happened to the other, Second Foundation, at the opposite far end of the Galaxy?
I have to say that I enjoyed this book slightly more than previous one, perhaps the story grew on me. I liked the many allegorical settings, such as the Galactic Empire's administration positioned on a dead planet Tranton housed with billions of isolated lonely people in a vast closed structure - sounds very familiar. Also, the symbol of hope and order, the Foundation, is the cradle of science, research and development of the galaxy.
Since the plots time frame lasts over a century, new generation of characters are introduced, but faintly, while the old ones have passed. There is a constant change of characters, and once you begin to learn about or like your characters, they are exchanged by their successors. Which makes it difficult to keep up with all the names. All in all, the storyline and narrative were good enough to make me want to read the following book....more
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