New King Book

I’m very excited for this:

Stephen King is a brilliant writer of short stories and novellas. His reputation speaks for itself, but I had a little mini-discussion in one of my literature courses a few weeks ago about him. The only thing we could agree on was that his smaller works we found to be more enjoyable than his larger books. Full Dark, No Stars is a collection of small novellas and short stories, which I’m hoping we get the same quality of stories we’ve seen ranging from The Skeleton Crew to Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

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Strangers

I’ve broken the book-a-day pace that I’ve been on since returning from the cape, but I don’t feel too guilty about it. Right now I’m in the middle of Alan’s Lovecraft collection. I feel that I have a lot to catch up with in both the literary and horror cannons. This upcoming semester does not look promising in terms of time to free read—or write for that matter.

Recently, I’ve just read Camus’ The Stranger for the first time. It’s short, but says a lot about our search for the meaning of life, and how we convict each other socially. The scene with the trial is set out to prove that the protagonist is guilty of being a criminal and harboring dark intentions, than it is to prove that he’s guilty of murder. It reminds me a lot A Fraction of the Whole, a contemporary book by Steve Toltz which was given to me early this summer. The trial of The Stranger really irks me because it’s an example of society attempting to understand this man’s life based on universal truths—which I don’t believe in.  It’s ironic, because two years ago I would have agreed with the Objectivist A=A. How can we establish a concrete awareness for all of existence? Perhaps I’m tainted with the allure of postmodernism, but I feel that as individuals we will only ever know the truths we establish ourselves. I think the closest we will ever be able become to one another is through our stories.

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Brother Odd

Dean Koontz isn’t a writer that I would put on the top of any summer reading list, but his Odd Thomas series has really captivated me. Last summer I started listening to the first book in audio format while I was wasting hours of my life on Halo. I’ve recently purchased a copy of Brother Odd, the third book in the series, and I will say that I am halfway through it and it hasn’t disappointed. One of the themes I’m really picking up on in this particular installment is the idea of confronting our identity in its entirety. Odd has chosen to move to a monastery and live secluded, and there he meets a group of memorable people who have left behind everything from riches to mob life. I’ve had the forth book for a while, which has been taunting me on the shelf because I couldn’t get my hands on the third. Well, in reality I suppose I could have, but the summer is a perfect time for popular fiction.

Also, I ordered a copy of Polaroids from the Dead, by Douglas Coupland. I found it at a very good price, too. Hopefully it will be in before my three-day vacation to Dennisport.

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Philip K. Dick

A Scanner Darkly is a tremendous book, and I highly recommend it. Even if you’re not interested in how the drug culture is affecting our society, it says a lot about people who live passively (the paradox it is…). I’ve been generally pleased with what I’ve been reading from him, but in with a postmodern frame of mind these themes really touched me.

“What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive infrared scanner like they used to use or a cube-type holo-scanner like they use these days, the latest thing, see into me – into us – clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can’t any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the scanners do better. Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too.”

I made the mistake of seeing the movie first, but right now I’m ten pages into Fight Club and looking for somewhere to submit my nonfiction piece “The Trash Picker’s Requiem.” Anybody have any suggestions? I’m currently looking at some smaller literary publications, but I haven’t really found something that would be a good fit.

Soon I’ll be back in Customer Service.

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Spring Break

I finished reading Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God for one of my literature courses. I’m pretty eager to get back into the classroom to talk about it. For those of you that have read it, I’m not 100% sure that I understand the context of Janie’s relationship with the character Tea Cake. Looking at Janie’s life and relationships as a whole, there’s a lot of feminist theory arguments there, especially if you’re reading into the tree, but I feel like when he actually hit her it left a loose end. Her second husband did it to prove something to himself, but it’s arguable that ‘Mr. Right’ did it for the same exact reason. Though he did say that he didn’t do it for power, his reasoning are almost identical. Is this intentional or am I missing something? This is a very powerful story, and I think Hurston’s study of anthropology really shows. I highly recommend this book.

I just stared reading Gibson’s Virtual Light this morning. I’m actually not enjoying it. If I’m not interested by page 100, then it’s going back on the shelf. Now I need to get back to a thesis blueprint.

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The Naked Sun

I just finished reading The Naked Sun, the sequel to the other Isaac Asimov book I discussed. The novel takes place in the future on the planet known as Solaria. Unlike in the first book, The Caves of Steel, I feel like the focus was more on trying to understand what people were doing to their society, instead of how their society is crippling them. Baley, the protagonist, is one of the few people of Earth who is granted the ability to leave his planet and visit the Space Colonies. He doesn’t exactly go willingly, either. In Caves, the population of Earth is described as being confined to large cities, where one typically is diagnosed with agoraphobia, or fear of being in open spaces, separated from congestion. He not only confronts this fear, but continually works on a tolerance as he explores the surface. Solaria, only has a population of 200,000 people for the entire planet, while their robot population is in the high millions. I wish I had the book to provide the exact number. I don’t want to spoil too much, but Baley is sent there to solve a murder mystery, and he leaves understanding more about himself and possible futures for the human race. This book is a very good read.

I believe Asimov’s novels should get more credit then currently they do from literary critics.

Tonight, I will try to read through The Robots of Dawn, the last book in the series.

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Bestial

I just finished reading a copy of Bestial: Werewolf Apocalypse. Chris lent it to me, so it’s not exactly a title that I would pick up on my own. I guess that it’s the debut novel by William Carl, and it’s got some pretty high reviews in the horror world. It won the Bram Stoker award, and was cited as, “the debut novel writer’s dream of.”

I won’t say I didn’t enjoy this novel, but I’m torn on whether I can recommend it or not. I didn’t enjoy the way the characters were developed. “A strong black woman,” is not enough detail for me. The way this particular character’s back-story shows isn’t revealed by anything she does, it’s only stated. I’d rather not know and decipher who she is by the way she acts. The love story is typical for something you would see on the Sci-fi channel, but it wasn’t overly distracting. Despite these things, there is a lot to appreciate about this book. If you enjoy reading horror or dark fantasy, then you might find this as somewhat relaxing. It’s not something I would throw into the literary cannon, but it’s nice to have on your shelf if horror is your preferred genre. The werewolves in the novel are typical, and there is the cliché airborne virus, but it’s an apocalypse story. My favorite part of the story is when he describes people’s reactions to changing the morning after the full moon. Some accept and adapt, while others face harsh reality of killing their own children the night before.

If this is your kind of thing, you’ll enjoy it. If not, you aren’t missing anything.

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