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| Top Stories in Books Do Furnish a Room |
| The Man in the High Castle -- Philip K. Dick | | Date Created: Jan 12, 2006, 03:23 PM |
 Okay Dick lovers, I was reviewing my reading inventory and although I had read a few Dick titles, I had not read The Man in the High Castle which is purported to be the author's magnum opus. The quick evaluation is that TMITHC is a satisfactory read that whips along and doesn't waste too much time. However, much like many probably did when comparing Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? to the movie Bladerunner as they read along, I found myself comparing TMITHC to DADOES and my thought was that Dick needs to get out of the rut and find some new themes.
If you haven't read this one, it's premise is that FDR was assassinated in Miami and the Axis won the war. Now the USA is split East and West by the Germans and the Japanese. With an interesting twist, there is this banned book floating around that fictionally develops the premise that the Allies won the war and now the USA and Britain have split up the world. Along the way there is lots of discussion (Dick likes to have a character TELL rather than SHOW) around the themes of the marginalization of parts of humanity (including the extermination of aboriginal populations around the world,) the difference between a real object and a fake object, the blossoming of technology, adherence to an arcane external spirituality to live life by, the tenacity of the human spirit, etc. These are all good topics but Dick just isn't enough of a writer
to carry the same old same old from book to book -- after you've heard the spiel, dressing it up in a new package doesn't make it new -- it's still yesterday's oat meal.
So who did win the war?
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| Not This Saturday | | Date Created: Nov 24, 2005, 07:41 PM |
In the NYT list of notable books for this year I saw this item --
SATURDAY. By Ian McEwan. (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, $26.) This novel traces a day off in the life of an English neurosurgeon who comes face to face with senseless violence.
I can only say that the NYT has it's blinkers on where it comes to this novel -- they probably only saw the author's name and automatically considered it notable. I can think of a half-dozen authors that have done this "day in the life of" bit far far more successfully and with much more interest. Oh, we can give McEwan a pat on the arm for writing clear, if uninspired. prose, but this novel is worthless. It's sort of like Bonfire of the Vanities in that a rich, successful professional man has a run-in with a down and out ne're-do-well and despite his escaping, the thugs later infiltrate his home (the British version of old money overlooking Central Park) and threaten his happy, rich, successful life and family.
Now, add to this the backdrop of unthinking, unemployed hooligans in the hundreds of thousands marching to protest the upcoming invasion of Iraq (McEwan is tilting a little to the right) and the novel has it all -- an unimaginative, uninteresting structure; international politics used with less passion than the squash match; class conflict; overly personal poetry that hits all the cliches; a rich kid who suffers so much he has to sing the blues (and study the guitar under Jack Bruce;) an unselfish emergency brain surgery worthy of Marcus Welby ... the riches go on and on. The biggest question I got out of the book was why the author even bothered to write it?
Yet, there is one possible interpretation that adds at least two or three minutes of interest to the novel -- this brain surgeon, his family and his friends, all represent exactly the world of excess that Islam equates with ungodliness. Now, is Baxter really the bad guy? Should we feel sorry for al-Qeada because they don't have as many toys and gadgets? Does music (or poetry) really sooth the savage beast? Is a rich world-traveling highly educated poetesses when naked actually boring to look at?
The only thing notable about Saturday was that it was notably passed over for any award this year ... well, duh.
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| Addendum -- Islam might not consider this family "good" as the novel suggests. Much of the world sees excess consumption a sign of decadence and evil. The more I think about it, I see the guitarist son as the central theme -- the fake white bluesman with all the money and connections. Could McEwan, that ol' right winger, possibly be cognizant of this subversive sub-text? I doubt it. |
| The Gold Bug Variations -- Richard Powers | | Date Created: Nov 02, 2005, 12:09 AM |
 One of the problems with craftily structuring a novel to correspond to another artistic structure is that the author still has to provide the meat and potatoes to fill up the structure. To tell me that TGBV is modeled after The Goldberg Variations is interesting (and obvious) but it allows me to ask two questions. First I ask WHY? I suggest that the answer should demonstrate that the clever structure is a part of the context of the novel and not just a demonstration of dexterity. Using the example of shaped poetry, what if I write a poem about an English Water Spaniel and print it in the shape of a bell -- there is no context, no matter how clever the shape.
The second question is HOW WELL DID HE DO IT?
I can give Powers the Goldberg variation link because the variations do affect a technique very much like used in code analysis and this also ties in with The Gold Bug. Of course this suggests that the main theme of TGBV is the story of the breaking of the DNA code -- is it or is that just background for the character studies? The second question, unfortunately, is where Powers fails in that it is obvious that he has just shoveled as much as he can into the structure and wasn't very careful or skillful about it.
I went to a rock concert once where the stage was a huge wall of amplifiers and the pyrotechnics and laser lights were telling me it was gonna be "mind blowing" ... maybe even "groovy" ... unfortunately, the band sucked and their songs were dumb with repetitious lyrics and clichéd guitar riffs. I found TGBV a similar experience.
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| Articles in Books Do Furnish a Room (Total Entries: 9) | | | | - Slow Man
Date Created: Oct 03, 2005, 09:34 PM
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