Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott

I’m rather surprised that I hadn’t read this book earlier in my life. It seems like the type of book I would have easily latched onto in high school or early in college.

From some source, likely Wikipedia, I had in mind that Flatland is a commentary on Victorian society, with its rather strict relationship standards, class structure, educational opportunities and introduction methodologies. It is an interesting parallel and one that is relevant even today, though some of more formal structures are more accessible to the various classes—in Flatland, once an isosceles, always an isosceles. Moving up the social hierarchy is only possible through your offspring. There is some opportunity for regularization of one’s sides, but it not possible to move up a class within your own life span. At least in American society, you can always remake yourself, even if the likelihood of succeeding is minimal, the hope is still there. And hope goes a long way to have something to strive for within one’s own life, not just living for the betterment of one’s children.

The other interesting comparison is between the different worlds: line, point and space. This might serve as a secondary commentary on the impact of a lack of contentment with one’s own place. Our hero, the square, is quite a happy person in Flatland, until he realizes the possibility of other dimensions to explore and experience. And his thoughts to this effect are clearly considered in having a destabilizing effect on Flatland. From a societal aspect, this makes sense, as discontentment with how things are causes revolution, if not stopped quickly and hierarchies have an interest in maintaining their power and therefor quashing any disconcerting thoughts.

This conclusion can also be drawn when the worlds of Lineland and Pointland are investigated—first from the standpoint of what is discussed in the story itself—when one is not aware of any other ways to live, other dimensions of life, one will fit their experience into the world they know, which the point and the King of Lineland do instantly. Additionally, much like our square, there is discontentment that can be bread within one’s self in even admitting that other possibilities exist—happiness does not lie in that direction. So, the reader is left with the conclusion from the investigations of these worlds, that it is really not worth the effort, if you want to be respected and happy, to push out of one’s born into station of life, whether that be a shape or a world of fewer dimensions.

Of course, the characterization of women as having one less dimension than men seems to be classically Victorian—unable to learn, driven only by emotion, the frailer sex, etc. Additionally, the view of the other worlds as quaint, wrong and foolish, reminds me of classical colonization mentality. The view of all “lesser” beings as requiring “enlightenment” (except for women, of course)—to be brought into “higher” worlds so they can view the travesty of their own— fits into the colonization viewpoint as well.

In the end, this book is a commentary, working to lay bare the hidden assumptions the contemporary readers deal with as part of everyday life. In many ways this is similar to Gulliver’s Travels, where a given behavior is characterized to be representative of the entire society or world view. Other than the rather tired view of women (a modern version would have one or two women that have overcome their station), the book has aged well and was an enjoyable read.

8/10

Foundation by Issac Asimov

(Well...its been a while...)

In looking for new sci-fi to read, I found a list of "best sci-fi". After removing all the fantasy that was in the list (ug) and everything I have read, Foundation was one of the few things left that I could get on my Kindle from the library. So, I really came to it through process of elimination.

I read, a number of years ago, Asimov's I, Robot collection, which I enjoyed. I found Foundation to be similarly well written and a universe that is (1) believable and (2) seems internally consistent. Asimov uses a structure that I've seen used most recently in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312, where the background information is told in the format of an encyclopedia, saving us from pages and pages of exposition by describing quite concisely a particular concept that is going to be further developed with the story itself. Here is was used primarily for giving historical information. Robinson used it more to describe cultural properties of his world. It is a clever method, though it can be overused. Asimov seems to balance it well, bringing it in to give us the longer-term context of a historical act we witnessed in the story itself.

In many ways, it is easy to see that this sci-fi was a product of its time. A particularly obvious one is how nuclear power is seen to be the ultimate solution for all systems. There are no batteries, instead there are tiny nuclear generators. Coal and oil planets are seen as backwards. Only nuclear power is considered civilized. This makes sense given the publishing date of l951. Nuclear power was seen as the future. This was the time of Operation:Plowshare and the promise of nuclear power seemed fantastic, with the idea of clean, unlimited power in popular scientific discussion. There is some of the sense of the destructive aspect of nuclear weapons, but it is certainly the promise of nuclear power is the focus.

I am struck a bit by how the ideas of big data sets are used for future predictions. The central tenet of this pyscohistory appeared to be related to the knowledge of the prediction by those that are within the prediction. In short, the residents of Terminus were not allowed to know the future Seldon was calculating out, for if they did, they would be more likely to not make the choices he was predicting. I am reminded of today's large data sets, like those of Nate Silver, that are being used for, compared to Seldon's timescale short term predictions. I can, though, based on what we are doing today in the "real" world extend the thought to a time where large scale predictions can be made on the behavior of organizations and groups. It seems entirely within our modeling power in the reasonably near future.

Asimov is certainly, much like Bradbury, a short story writer, putting his particular stories into a given universe. I certainly can't fault it, but it is not the same as reading Robison's Mars Trilogy, where there is substantial character development throughout the stories and the world building, or history shaping is told as the characters develop. Here, the characters tend to disappear just once you know enough to start getting interested in them. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this as a way to view another idea of the future.

When I have a chance, I will likely read the next book in the series.

7.5/10

The Naked Civil Servent and How to Become a Virgin by Quinten Crisp

Quinten Crisp is an extroidinary character. And The Naked Civil Servent was a great introduction to him. To live openly gay during any time prior to the 1970s is amazing. To do so in the UK--where it was illegal until the 90s--starting in the 1930s is astounding.

A few images from this book still stick with me, even nine months after reading it. The first is when he recieved his draft notice for WWII, and showed up to the draft station ready to serve his country. And, in one of many lucky breaks, despite being recognized as a homosecual, he wasn't arrested, was given a deferral and told never to come back.

Another was his matra regarding cleaning his apartment: after four years the dust doesn't get any worse. Speaking of his apartment, Crisp lived in the same place for something like 40 years, paying rent every month, not cleaning and often sitting around naked or in his dressing gown from when he awoke until he went to bed.

His adventures are interesting at the least.

His second book How to Become a Virgin is more uneven. It tells stories that are less compelling, focusing on the effects that his first book had on his life. While still interesting, it holds no where near the captivation as his first. We do get his impressions of the US, but the stories are not of a man looking back on the most interesting moments of his life, but more of a condesed diary of his life after The Naked Civil Servant was published. There were no stories that still stand out ot me after so much time.

The Naked Civil Servant  9/10
How to Become a Virgin         4/10

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

I am very far behind on posting with this coming some nine months after I originally finished this book. It ends up, in some respects, counteracting the entire point of writing books up in the first place. I suppose, though, better late than never.

Like, I'm sure, many others who often feel out of place or uncomfortable in every day life, the idea of a separate portion of society deadicated to intellectual pursuits is extremely attractive. Like life-long college, with equally committed people around you. For that element of this book, reading this served as pure escapism. And, once the story moved outside of the math, I was actually wanting to read an entire book just about the daily life inside of it. If Stephenson wrote just a long, detailed description of the math, I'd read the whole thing.

One of the projects that I really like from inside the math was the modeling of a battle with plants, using different plants to represent various portions of the armies and their interactions. Maybe later in my life, when I want to stay put, I'll do that in my back yard.

Once the story moved outside the math, a few things struck me: (1) Stephenson does an okay job writing female characters, but he always has one awesome female who is really hardcore and cool, but isn't the main character or even central to the action (the only exception being in <i>Snow Crash</i> where the plot is carried quite evenly between Hiro and Y.T.). Here, the hardcore female characters (Erasmas's sister) does get an important role, but it isn't central and is much lie America Shaftoe from <i>Cryptonomican</i>.

(2)I loved the idea of a distibuted launching methodology for space destined materials. I suppose the ISS was similarly constructed, but here the distributed materials were simulteously launched and the payloads (and human carrying ships) were much smaller. Maybe not practical in this day with our launching technology, but a fscinating idea nonetheless.

It was a good book. Very emersive and well paced.

8/10

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I read this book on my mother's recommendation. I knew that it was making the rounds in pop culture; a movie based on the book came out recently.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of a community of women in Jackson, Mississippi in the early to mid 1960s. The focus is on the interaction between the white women and the black maids and nannies who made their households run. One white woman, who wants to be a writer, decides to try and interview 'the help' to see how the relationships looked from their perspective. The book is told from the point of view of a number of different characters, and it's really interesting to see how the stories intertwine.

I laughed out loud a few times while reading this book, one quote that totally cracked me up (and made me think about teaching): "'What you learn today?' I ask even though she ain't in real school, just the pretend kind. Other day, when I ask her, she say, 'Pilgrims. They came over and nothing would grow so they ate the Indians.'
Now I know them Pilgrims didn't eat no Indians. But that ain't the point. Point is, we got to watch what get up in these kids' heads."

The story is frustrating in many ways, and you can predict a lot of what happens, but it is well told, and definitely makes you think.

8/10

Thorn in My Side (Kindle Single) by Karin Slaughter

This is a really short book, or perhaps a long novella (I can't say I know the difference) that is narrated by a conjoined twin. The twins are in their late 30s or early 40s, and really don't like each other. The narrator is the smarter twin, he goes to church, he gardens. The narrator's twin is more deviant, picking up sketchy chicks at dance clubs and treating them poorly. The story picks up when one of the women that is picked up in a dance club is killed by the brother(s), and they're dealing with the fall-out.

It's a really bizarre and disturbing story. If it were any longer I don't think I would have read the whole thing; I didn't enjoy it at all.

2/10

My Exile Lifestyle by Colin Wright

This book is about Colin Wright's unplugging from traditional society. He whittled his stuff down to a double-digit number of items, and then packed up and went traveling. He moves to a different part of the world every four months, and the new location is picked by people on his website.

The writing in this book was not especially good, it seemed like a mix of content written for the book and journal entries, and was often (very) redundant. The idea of minimalism and untethering is an interesting one, but I think there must be people who are better at talking about it than this guy. Also, there seems to be a big emphasis in this book on all of the girls he's dated, which really didn't interest me very much.

I liked the idea, but really didn't like the execution of this book.

3/10