A New, Newer, Newest Beginning

I hear-by declare a new, newer, newest beginning. I will reverse this trend of lethargy, indulgence and general apathy. Yes the world is doomed. I am sure it will end badly. But hey, what are you going to do.

The first noble truth of the Buddha is that existence is suffering, a sort of Asian version of original sin. And I kind of agree with both east and west versions.

But an answer by way of an analogy may be the advice for practitioners of Zen meditation. You are told that while sitting there following your breath, or breathing a phrase, mantra or simply “just sitting”, if a thought arises, don't worry that your mind wondered into concepts. Just note it and go back to your breath. Neither seek these diversions out, nor chase after them, just breathe.

So too, as we see ample examples of the ineluctable flawed nature of the world, neither freak out at its obviousness and focus on it, nor be pulled into intelectual despair. Return to the breathe. Return to the now.

My hope is that by trying to pursue a sort of walking, driving, eating, meditation, this mindfulness will result in less food, drink and laziness. Well that is the plan.

I started this newest way by riding around the lake this morning and taking some pictures with a possibly flawed old camera. Basically I will take whatever flawed tools I have (physical or psychological) and just do what I can at the moment.

I didn't note the anniversary of this blog at the beginning of the month, so I guess this is a belated recognition. 6 years older and maybe none the wiser, but as with the coming apocalypse, hey what are you gonna do?

Posting Just to Post

From the Foundation

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I decided to read the original three foundation books by isaac asimov just because I read a comment on a blog. The blog post had something about big data analytics, which I gather is some new fangled statistics thing. Anyway a commenter said big data was like Harry Sheldon's law of mob psychology.

This will make the third time I've read these three books. The first time was maybe 35 years ago and the second 15 years back. I remembered only the sketchiest outline of the store, but I more or less had some of the big points.

I think it holds up pretty well as a sci fic classic, and I thought the episodic structure was very engaging. Even if it started out that way because the first book was really just a collection of previously published short stories.

I like a good sci fic tale, but the problem is when I look at most books, it seems that “speculative fiction” usually means “UN-imaginative Fiction”. But this still strikes me as pretty clever, although the '50s era unadulterated adoration of Nuclear Power and Nuclear Weapons with no downside is a pretty obvious change in cultural values.

The was one scene that I remembered as interesting from a previous reading where they investigating a distant planet that was structured differently.

“I merely point out the significance of all this, Apparently Tazenda is and efficient administrator – efficient in a sense far different from the efficiency of the old Empire or of the first foundation or even of our own Union. All these have brought mechanical efficiency to their subjects at the cost of more intangible values. Tanzenda brings happiness and sufficiency. Don't you see that the whole orientation of their domination is different? It is not physical, but psychological.”

Of course from a real life human perspective, most people would overlook psychological health for material gain. But kind of a neat idea that I wish he would have turned into a speculative fiction novel.

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Good Reading Company

The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Until I was invited to an author reading at the local Barnes and Noble, I had never heard of Robert Jackson Bennett. I checked him out online and what I found piqued my interest enough to read one of his novels before the event.

I got the invitation on Sunday and the reading was on Wednesday so in the interest of time I bought a kindle edition of The Company Man on Sunday. I am not sure why I picked that one over the other 2 or 3 I saw, but it worked out well as I had a good time reading the book.

He mixed genres that I like and struck emotional and storytelling chords that resonated with me. That said for some reason I don’t go overboard in my praise which I sometimes do after an enjoyable reading experience (which this was).

I am probably unfair, but my mind (that tricky little devil) did sometimes identify the genre strands a little too precisely. I thought I could label the Philip Marlowe character, the HP Lovecraft section and even the Sookie Stackhouse seasoning. So it is probably unfair, after all there are plenty of hard boiled detectives that came after Marlow and Sookie certainly wasn’t the first character to be overwhelmed by telepathic overload, and who hasn’t imagined some ancient entity buried in the earth's depths. But that is just how my mind worked and even with that occasional distraction I had a good time.

On a side note I wonder if literary people debate where genre turns into cliché? Maybe that is what tripped me up, I wasn’t quite sure if the story was getting a little too close to this possible line.

In any case, I bought his new book at the reading and got it signed and it if it wasn’t quite so long I might have jumped right in. But I thought The Company Man was definitely good enough to encourage me to read another Bennett novel.


The Wordspace Dallas (http://www.wordspace.us/WSblog/) reading event was small but pleasant and those Wordspace people asked some kick-ass questions which got some great answers from the author. I didn’t ask anything since any question I had would have been something juvenile like “What does the ending of your book mean?” So it was better that I kept quiet.


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I Finally Finish Reading A Book

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


It has probably been more than 10 years since I last read a Chuck Palahniuk book. Yet I tell people I really liked the two I read way back then. I am not sure why, but after a few weeks of a reading funk where all “currently reading” books seemed uninteresting, I came home yesterday and decided to read Survivor which has been my my bookshelf for 8 to 10 years.

A good choice for spending the bulk of two evenings in a room by yourself and just read. I wonder why  I don't do it more often.

Any-hoooo... the “feel” of Survivor reminds me of how I remember Fight Club feeling, Even though I've forgotten enough of that book that I can't know if what I remember is the book or the movie. But with no real analysis or evidence, I proclaim Survivor a good book but not a great book. Interesting, funny, with characters I want to know more about.

Maybe the thing about my somewhat faint praise is that while I found the characters and plot engaging, I kind of felt like the author was not telling us all about the characters, mainly I wanted to know and get more from the narrator, Tender Branson.

But even now, I am talking myself out of that judgment since the psychological hobbling he got as a child restricts his range of emotional dept. So really that is part of the store of a survivor.There, I upped my rating a star just now.

I recommend it and I want to read more of his and if I get enough gumption I won't wait another decade to read another Palahniuk book.




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Clever Catalan

Guadalajara by Quim Monzó

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I have no idea why it is called Guadalajara. I may have missed something obvious, but I didn't spot anything when I flipped through after I finished reading it.

I suppose these stories might be called “high concept” in that most are premised on some clever what if core. Like what if there was story that is a reverse of Kafka's Metamorphosis where a beetle wakes up as a human? Or what if your apartment building acted like a MC Escher drawing and you could never get out?

Yep. They are all very, very, clever. I am just glad they were all very short. They all interesting but you really don't care about the characters. And another thing, most of them are so high concept he doesn't bother finishing out the endings of these “what ifs”. Many of them he sets the scene makes a few moves but leaves it up to the reader to decide what happens.

OK. I liked it. But I probably won't read another book by Mr Monzó



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More Sepúlveda

Full Circle: A South American Journey by Luis Sepúlveda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A somewhat rambling book by Sepúlveda that starts in Spain, follows stories to Patagonian and back to Span. Full of wild characters and wild stories. Some charming, some scary. A short book but it packs a lot, and he has lived a pretty amazing life. A life filled with bravery, danger and audacity and still giving off a feeling of soft curiosity (I am not sure what that means, but somehow it seems right, at least to me).

We get to see the unconventional charm of the unconventional people he meets. Like after the 18th Patagonian lying Championship...

“I lifted my head to look at the sky studded stars, thousands of starts.
'Nice Lie, that one about the louse,; says Baldo
'And the sky? All the stars, Blado?Are they another Patagonian lie?'
'What does it matter? Down here we lie to be happy. But we all know the difference between lying and deception.'” pg 111

I remember his novel about the old man who read romance , and after all the craziness in this book, his ending had me fighting back the tears that must somehow compare to the sweet emotions the old man in the other book was yearning for. Maybe it is just a simple display of a happy, pure expression of human connectedness(now that I think of it maybe that is a stretch; maybe we are just both sentimental suckers).

The story ends in a small village in Spain, where upon meeting his grandfather's younger brother for the first time the old man realizes the connection Sepúlveda writes..

“A serious look came into the old man's countenance...

Then Don Angel cleared his throat and pronounced the most beautiful poem life has rewarded me with, and I knew I had come full circle: I was at the starting point of the journey my grandfather began. 
Don Angel said:

'Maria, bring some wine, a relative has come from America.' ” pg 183

Thumbs up!
Good stuff.

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