Amph What book are you reading right now?

A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov (tr. Vladimir Nabokov and Dmitri Nabokov).

Oh, sure, it didn't make sense to go with a poem broken of its poetic form, but if you think I could remotely resist the temptation to read a translation of something that was already prose by good ol' Vladimir Vladimirovich you would be mistaken (although you are to be commended for not paying attention to my arbitrary whims, so... good job). The resultant text is highly angular with no attempts made to smooth out "Russianisms," and is therefore quite reminiscent of later translations by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (who rather openly wear their Nabokov influence on their sleeves, as evidenced by... constantly citing Nabokov, and being as slavishly devoted to the repetition of translated terms), but, well, I happen to like a nice angular translation. So there.

The actual novel is close to an epistolary novel without actually going all-in on the technique (a lengthy fake diary excepted), essentially providing a collage portrait of the titular hero, Pechorin. It's tempting to see it as a forerunner to other, really famous books and movies with similar techniques that came later, but, to be honest, the lengthy tale within a tale form is extremely old and is arguably present in Don Quixote after a fashion. There's a whole lot of energy, though, every character is operating at roughly 100% at all times, and you really get the sense that Lermontov is trying to rush out every idea he has because you just have to understand. Understand what, exactly? No one knows, possibly that in conclusion Pechorin is a land of contrasts. BUT YOU'D BETTER UNDERSTAND, REGARDLESS. It's as if he's aware he's going to get shot in possibly one of the stupidest duels ever in about four years and needs to get this book out of the way right now.

 

Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

 

The War of the Prophets, book 2 in the Millennium trilogy by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens. DS9 is my favorite Trek...

 

Bible (God)
Book 5 of Wheel of Time (Jordan)
Ready Player 2 (Cline)
Rhythms of War (Sanderson)
Heavens River (Dennis Taylor)
Time for Mercy (Grisham)

 

Jeremy Paxman A Life in Questions .

So it's a memoir about his life and times as a journalist . tbh its a bit disappointing , he recounts some of his more famous interviews but doesn't really add much , and he doesn't say much about his personal life.

 

I just finished reading Lost Stars:

Spoiler

Overall, I thought it was okay. It was a page-turner, for sure, but I did roll my eyes during some of Ciena's portions. I understood where she was coming from, but I can't spare too much sympathy for a character who is willingly in service of a totalitarian regime. Again, her reasons for doing so are wonderfully outlined, so I would never say it was bad writing. My issue comes more so from the fact that she serves this regime but is also self-sacrificing and "good" in a way that her superiors and colleagues are not. That could very well happen, but I think being steeped in a toxic environment like the Imperial Navy would cause the majority of folks to become more apathetic to the plights of the average everyday galactic citizens (she goes from believing in the Empire to hating it, whereas I would have liked to see her belief/love grow stronger, though non-fanatical). (Perhaps my idea is more cliche)

I also disliked the final fight scene on the bridge with she and Thane. I get the thematic reasons for a final confrontation, and I'm glad it didn't end with both of them dying on the Star Destroyer, but having an extended fight scene on a ship headed rapidly towards Jakku's surface feels like something that would work better onscreen than in prose.

After they escape, she ends up in jail, refusing to tell the secrets of the Empire, which she hates, because of her society's adherence to 'oaths' and 'honor'. Is it consistent with her character? Yes. Is it realistic to how some people would act as former members of a totalitarian's government's military? Sure. Did I scream, "Ugh" when I read it? Absolutely. Thinking it over now, however, I like the fact that she is refusing to cooperate as she was always at the mercy of those who existed in higher social brackets than her. As a young girl from the valley she is able to gain ship-flying skills primarily because of her proximity to the wealthier Thane. As an officer in the Imperial Navy she is subjected to the rules, regulations and demands of captains, admirals, and moffs. Now, as a prisoner of the New Republic, she is at the bottom of society's totem pole, but chooses not to take the olive branch offered by those in power ex. a commuted sentence in exchange for classified Imperial intel. She chooses to be difficult when being forthcoming could result in an easier life. That's interesting writing, in my opinion.

I need a sequel.

 

Ada, or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov.

Rarely does a book feel like this much of a final exam while still being enjoyable. I'm not sure what's fostering that sentiment: is it the basic question of whether or not the title is supposed to have a comma (a shockingly contentious subject)? Is it the fact that it contains multiple references to every single book Nabokov covered in his literature courses, and thus is literally a final exam? Well, yes to both, but also I'll just break down what I've been able to piece together about a representative sample:

From the top: this follows two scientific excerpts about caterpillars and butterflies, so the joke is that the book - which is "written" by the main characters, one of whom is named Van Veen - might look like it's randomly repurposing material on this page. Fine.

Not fine. Consider: this supposedly written book is actually being written, by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, and therefore the joke is actually that Nabokov is himself pointing out that people might think he's randomly repurposing material on this page. Fine.

Not fine. The material on the insects is reminiscent of Nabokov's scientific writing on butterflies (see, e.g., Strong Opinions), so the line serves as a combination joke and citation. Fine.

NOT FINE. THE CARMEN TORTOISESHELL BUTTERFLY DESCRIBED IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THIS DOES NOT EXIST. THE HOAX IS THAT THERE IS NO SUCH BUTTERFLY. FINE.

NOT FINE. THE HOAX IS BEING COMMITTED BY VAN VEEN. FINE.

NOT FINE. THE ENTIRE BOOK IS FICTIONAL SO ANY PURPORTED HOAXES ARE THEMSELVES HOAXES PERPETRATED BY THE AUTHOR.



So, yeah, it's slow going.

Oh, and I didn't get into the part where there are also annotations in the back by "Vivian Darkbloom" (no points for solving that anagram) which will elucidate some foreign language quotes, references, and jokes, but not others, and I think there's maybe another joke lying in wait in those annotations since it didn't comment on this butterfly thing at all and just

 

The Ventriloquists, by E.R. Ramzipoor
Inspired by real events during World War II, a 12 year old girl dresses up as a boy in Belgium and joins a small group of journalists who have been ordered by the Nazis to distribute propaganda focusing on Axis victories (or at least what they claim to be victories); but all the while these journalists have taken this opportunity to distribute alternative propaganda meant to undermine the Reich.

 

Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson
Sci-Fi/space opera about a young man finding his way in service to the decadent and decaying Terran Empire (which I couldn't help but visualize as the Centauri from Babylon 5). A lot of it is very dated, computer output is on sheets of paper and inputs on tape reels. Published in 1965, very much a product of the Cold War. I'll probably read more of the series when I get around to it, but I won't be beating down doors to get the next volume.

 

*sigh* I hope it comes out soon. Granted, I need to reread the first two books because I remember pretty much nothing, so his very veiled hints make little sense to me. But I don't want to until I know when the third will be published!



Currently reading: Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (my library FINALLY got them in and I was the first in the queue so I got that new book feel and smell which is über rare from the library )
Currently listening to: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

 

Ready Player 2. Without comparing it to other books, if Ready Player 1 is 5 out of 5 stars then Ready Player 2 is 3 out of 5. I have seen other reviews call it a slog, but it was not. It moved along quite well. When RP2 is trying to be RP1 it works well enough, but everything else brings it down. It had an odd attempt at inclusion (Really? Everyone becomes bisexual with a realistic VR?), Halliday is no longer a lovable, awkward game maker, but instead is shown to be creepy and horrible.

RP2 is is ok, but where RP1 is wonderful RP2 is not.

Moving on to Bruce Lee a life by Matthew Polly. I am a life long Lee fan, and thanks to my dad being one too I had access to truly huge amounts of information via a magazine and Special Edition this or that items. This is advertised as the latest and greatest so we'll see how it does.

 

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, by Mary Beard. As with any topic this big, Beard keeps things largely at a high level, but at that level does a great job of offering an overview of the emergence of Rome as an imperial power. Beard has the rare and valuable talent of accessibly addressing the process of evaluating evidence, often asking more questions than delivering hard answers but still being informative and interesting. An excellent history that addresses both what we know and how little we actually know.

 

Pretty sure I read that awhile back. She's a pretty good author of this type of book.

 

I was right to not trust those endnotes.

Spoiler

The book isn’t even set on Earth, so Vivian Darkbloom is Nabokov’s weird counter-earth counterpart.

Goddammit.

Europe’s Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War by Peter H. Wilson.

Armed with the author’s exhaustive, arguably four books in one book work on the Holy Roman Empire, I feel like I have enough background to really appreciate this considerably more approachable narrative history of the dangers of throwing diplomats out of windows. Wilson’s goal is straightforward - exhaustive detail, and equal treatment of all years of the conflict, so as to balance out the tendency to oversimplify the concluding years in a lot of earlier summary works on the subject.

I think it’s largely successful, and useful for shoring up what I kind of hazily recollect as “a bunch of fighting over religious differences and then the Peace of Westphalia I guess.” Could it stand more descriptions of then-contemporary civilian religious life, to better facilitate the key Ramza demographic? Of course the answer is yes, but sadly this detail is ignored in favor of the stuff with battles and whatever. I swear, if it wasn’t for Diarmaid MacCulloch’s The Reformation one might become convinced the 17th century was just a bland stew of bloodshed and government upheavals, with none of the exciting book printing and fussing over minutiae in the liturgy. The perils of history, I suppose; it can’t all be interesting.

 

I've recently finished Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire, by Roger Crowley. The casual acceptance of the common practice of the exchange of hostages during delicate maneuvers in the 1490-1520 years among the Portuguese, Muslims and Hindus of the Indian Ocean area stuns any reader of today, I should think, although it beats defenestration. A diplomat's career could include years of either neglect or fawning treatment as a hostage and so many forfeited their lives in an attempt to reach agreement. All their basic goals could change when Despot A replaces Despot B in that length of time, too.

 

Bruce Lee tidbits:

At his funeral, an African American friend named Jesse Glover took a shovel and shooed away the workers. "It didn't seem right that Bruce should be covered by strange hands."

While his father and a friend took opium a Japanese bomb came through the roof, landed on his friend, broke though the floor to the basement. His father survived as it did not explode.

His father was a working opera actor. His mother came from a very rich family who did not approve of their match, so she left the family and its fortune to be with him.

 

Just started Philip Pullman's Daemon Voices as my non-fiction book. It's a collection of essays and talks he gave on writing and storytelling. Pretty good so far and might be of interest to those who are fans of his - or are writers or want to be.

 

I shall post more Bruce Lee tidbits in spoilers in case folks wish to read the book themselves.

Spoiler

After the occupation of Hong Kong ends Bruce Lee's father comes to own some properties and the family becomes quite well to do complete with a tv, car, various pets, and live in servants.

Bruce had a few nicknames as he grew up, based on his apparent issues with authority; "Never Sits Still", "Why Baby", and the director of The Big Boss called him "The Why Dragon".

To calm him down his parents gave him comic books. These were Kung-Fu based and he would eventually graduate to martial arts fantasy novels (wuxia) and spent hours in books stores and reading.

Bruce was seeing early success in movies playing roles as wayward lost boys though his father was not sure he wished his son to dive into the entertainment world where instead his children could become doctors or lawyers or something more pragmatic.

 

Summoning Light by Jeanne Cavelos
Book 2 of the Passing of the Technomages, a Babylon 5 trilogy, takes up where the first one left off and gradually builds up to a fast-paced page-turner. Much of the plot is from The Geometry of Shadows, the B5 episode that introduced the mages, but told much more in-depth from the point of view of Elric (played on TV by the great Michael Ansara). The author does a great job of capturing the voices of all the familiar TV characters.

 

A Place for Us (2018) – Fatima Farheen Mirza

In this deftly written, intricately detailed novel, Mirza explores the dynamics of a family of five, parents Rafiq & Layla, children Hadia, Huda & Amir, Indian-American Muslims struggling to find the good life as both circumstances and their own flaws and failings stand in the way. This book was really a masterpiece in my opinion. The book moves around in time in as fluid and seamless a way as any book I’ve read in years and years. We fill in the blanks around these characters and their interactions as we jump through the years, seeing moments in time from the courtship of Rafiq and Layla to their days as elders facing mortality with their children grown with families of their own. The leaps always feel exactly right, almost thematic in the way the book transitions from scene to scene, making emotional connections between people and events separated by years. As well, the characters are stunningly well written. Huda is the least developed of the main family, but all of the others are given really excellent treatment. Each of those main four characters is deeply flawed but as a reader, I felt empathy for all of them in their turns and I also felt very angry with each of them in their turns. I think if I was to say one thing about this book and one thing only, I would say that what distinguishes it from many of the other, very similar family drama type books is just how punishingly sad this book is. And it doesn’t require a lot of over the top plot developments, just the simple rhythms of life: a crush on a childhood friend, the surprising death of an acquaintance in an accident, a hot temper, a casual emotional cruelty as only children can commit them, an escalating drug addiction that stays far this side of melodrama while also treating the issue with seriousness. These are the things that Mirza builds a tapestry of sorrow and grief of, the things, I suppose, that we all build our tapestries out of. Watching as these characters both inflict pain on others and have pain inflicted on them by others is a deeply moving experience. Mirza writes very poetically and beautifully, but not romantically I’d say; even in her most beautiful prose, she is drawing us deeper into the sorrows and dissatisfactions of these people.

Now, look, I get it; we’re finally coming close to ending 2020 – you may not be in the mood for a book that basically vacillates tonally between “melancholy” and “crushingly sad.” But I found the catharsis of great tragedy here; the ending is beautiful and deeply moving in a way that is both sad and transcendent, a note of hope and faith amidst deep sadness that I found incredibly meaningful. This is a phenomenal book, one I’d come darn close to calling perfect. It’s engrossing, compelling, moving and hypnotic; the structure is as strong as the characters, the themes as deeply felt as the story. This is the Novel as a form at its most emotionally powerful, generating empathy, to evoke Roger Ebert, at maximum efficiency. There’s a whole world of humanity here. 4 stars.

tl;dr – decade-spanning family drama is perfectly structured & crushingly sad; brilliant characterization & beautiful prose create a masterpiece of intense emotions. 4 stars.

 

More Bruce Lee bits.

Spoiler

Hyperactivity. Seems Bruce had problems just sitting in class. His grades were bad especially with math.

He would make friends so long as he was the leader and would defend his followers though they would have to do things like let him cheat off their tests.

He pulled a knife and chased a teacher who hit him with a switch because he was not keeping up with other students during a run. He was suspended.

He would fight at the drop of a hat, not always winning and making excuses if he lost. The final straw of all his horrible behavior was depantsing another student and painting his privates red. He was expelled. During this school time he was allowed to make more movies in an attempt to calm him down but it did not work.

Over time his father became more interested in opium, becoming very distant from his family and having a hard time financially keeping up their lifestyle.

Next chapter: IP Man.