Review: The search for the perfect language, by Umberto Eco

I enjoyed this book. There’s only one problem with it – I’m not erudite enough to make it the fast read it should be; it’s so stuffed with information I had to stop every fourth page or so to digest what I’ve read.

Eco states in the preface that it is written with the layperson in mind, but his idea of a layperson knows way much more about linguistics and the history thereof than I do. Apparently. Even if he also states that this is not a book on linguistics but on the history of ideas, which it is, in part – he sketches a history of European thought during the most recent 1000 of the years that led us to be where we are today, using the search for the perfect language and how the idea changed and evolved throughout that millennia as a method for dissemination. This gets especially interesting when he links it with the industrial revolution, the evolution from alchemy to science, and the formation of the nation states and colonisation.

In the conclusion he tells the reader that the discussion could had been even more interesting if he’d included extra-European though and efforts on the topic. I cannot but agree and I’m sure I’m going to seek out some book elaborating on this.

As for now I’m glad I pressed through and actually read the book through, but I’m also glad it’s over. Recommended reading for everyone with an interest in linguistics and European history of ideas. Everyone else is allowed to spend their time on something else.

Review: Heavy Time, by C. J. Cherryh

I know, I’m reviewing them in the wrong order, but it’s a reread review and I started out with Hellburner just because that was the book I remember liking the best.

It was not my first reread of Hellburner, either, but this was my first reread of Heavy Time. In retrospect I think that was because when I finished the pair I a) felt them to be very different, and b) while I had enjoyed Heavy Time I had enjoyed Hellburner more. Well, now is the time to admit it – I was wrong!

Hellburner does stand on it’s own. Yes. But – reading both of them is preferable; even recommended. At least by me.

Heavy Time tells three different tales, at least on the surface. It tells how Ben Pollard, Sal Aboujib, Meg Kady and Paul Dekker came to know each other. It tells about how small people are exploited by big corporations. And is sets the stage for the Company Wars suite, in which this is the first book, chronologically; sketching how the push to build the carriers affected corporations and small people both. While the perspective is intensely personal, often claustrophobic, it’s also more issue-oriented than it’s sequel; the politics are obvious there too, but the focus is on the people and what happens to them – that we might not agree, from a value judgement point of view, that sinking money in military tech aimed for use in a war Sol is doomed to lose is sane we still want the ‘program’ to succeed. Because that’s what the protagonists want.

In Heavy Time the we don’t get to see much of the military but they’re part of the “establishment”, and the “establishment” is presented as corrupt; as being backwards; as having the “wrong” ideas about what’s going on out in space – we view life from the eyes of the disenfranchised, the alienated and the outcast, with all what it means.

Maybe this difference between the books was what got to me the first time, and what made me decide I liked the sequel better. Today I’d say they are both good, both worth reading.

I recommend reading them back to back, preceded by a reading of Downbelow Station but prior to Merchanter’s Luck, Rimrunners, Tripoint and Finity’s End.

Review: Hellburner, by C. J. Cherryh

I honestly thought that my first 2010 review would be of The Search for the Perfect Language. Instead, with 80 pages to go on that one, I got dragged heads on into Cherryh’s Hellburner. It’s a reread – I think this was my third or forth read of it – but according to records the last time was 2 years ago, and despite loving it I had not planned to reread it again, any time soon; too many unread books stacked on the shelves to leave much time for that.

The reason for the unplanned reread was I got it in ebook format, and my first intention was to just test the reader software. But once I started I found it impossible to put it away, even though I know everything that happens, and despite the frequent conversion errors (“com” often spelled as “corn”, for example).

Hellburner is the sequel to Heavy Time, but both books works as standalones (yes, I’ll reread Heavy Time as well, now that the ereader turned out so good) as well. In Hellburner we follow how Pollard, Meg and Sal is co-opted into a program that developed the rider ships that was attached to the EC carrier ships, featuring in the later books in the Company Wars sequence. Dekker is already in the program, by his own free will and choice, but when “accident” strikes his former partners are brought in, as a way to save the program.

The story captures the different cultures at work – earther, insystemer, and deep spacer; the misunderstandings that results, how politics interfere with rational judgement, how powerful people can destroy the life of the powerless, but most of all how skillful spin can pull the tables in your favour… if you lack what could be called decent ethics.

Cherryh’s stories are seldom one-dimensional or “easy”, and that is why they lend themselves to rereading – even if you know what’s going to happen on the surface there’s always new dimensions to explore.

This is also what makes the Merchanter and Company Wars books special. Each on its own may not be a special piece of literature but taken together they paint a multidimensional picture involving lots of people with different positions and loyalties – a picture that challenges our ideas of who the “good” and “bad” guys really are.

Science fiction when it’s real good. A recommended read, for anyone.

Review: The Stanza ereader, on iPhone

A handful of days ago I still thought it would be some time before I read an ebook. Main reasons being a) I like the feel of paper books, and b) I don’t own an ebook reader – like the Kindle – and don’t enjoy reading on screen; the back light kills my eyes.

Then Cherryh released Heavy Time and Hellburner as ebooks, though Closed Circle. Hellburner is one of my favourite A/U books, so I decided I’d look into ebook reader software for my iPhone.

It wasn’t easy to find anything useful, but after some research I decided to try Stanza, from Lexcycle. By then I had already purchased the aforementioned books, the files sleeping on my laptop, unused, and as expected the tricky part was to get the files from there and onto the phone. iTunes was not helping, refusing to accept the files. Lexcycle had the “from desktop to phone” question down in it’s FAQ, though, thankfully, and after finding that the rest was easy.

So, what about the reader software? Not having used any other modern ebook reader software I can’t compare it with others but to me Stanza held up well. Once I had figured out how to transfer the files they were easy to find, and easy to access. The flipping of pages were intuitive, and it was easy to change both font and font size. There are two modes – a daytime and a night time mode, utilising different templates for showing the book, and both templates are easy to adjust to the colour scheme of roughly your own preference – no free choice of colours, but enough to go around.
It was also easy to adjust the back light, to annotate and to bookmark, and there’s also a dictionary available (didn’t use it so can’t comment on it).
Throughout the read you can follow your progress on the discreet but readable progress bar, at the bottom of the book.

The unintended bonus was I could read in bed without the light on.

All in all an enjoyable experience. I’ll definitely read use it to read other books.

Winter wishes

Today the light out was fantastic, so I managed to snap a few wintry pictures. Hopefully this weather will not only stay the season but also return next winter as a change from the rain we had the winter of 2008/2009.
Perhaps I’ll even dare purchase cross country skis – something which I have wanted for a long time but with winter lacking in the snow department the investment has seemed senseless…

Our love for arbitrary givens

This planet takes approximately 365 days to complete one circuit around the sun. Where we start counting these days is totally arbitrary. If you start at Midsummer’s Eve or August 15th or February 2nd you’ll get the same amount of days. There’s nothing intrinsically different, except where in the continuous circuit across the universe the planet is, happening on January 2nd if compared with December 29th. Indeed some cultures starts their counts according to other calendars, not coinciding with the western/xtian one.

Despite this most people uses this arbitrary date, the break between December 31st and January 1st, to signify the beginning of something new, something Other. If it, like now, marks the end of an equally arbitrary thing like a decade, then it also is a signal to start a summary of the past 10 years, trying to figure out what’s so special about that particular time. It’s often funny, because as we all know these transitions are not clear breaks just because we want them to be so, and some of the things marked down as ‘typical’ are forgotten the the next day.

I think maybe we humans needs these anchor points in the time-space continuum, to make us feel more real, as a way to validate our being here. We are so afraid to face the reality, of there being no higher reason for us being here, nothing else beyond the biochemical reactions making us function. It makes us construct a reality that essentially aren’t there but without which we wouldn’t survive as a species.

Or – would we? Dare we try?

No patience for fantasy

As a rule I have small patience for works in the fantasy genre. I have not stopped to analyse why; I just tend not to choose to read a work of fantasy, except if it has gotten raving good reviews by people who I trust.

Reading Eco’s The Search for the Perfect Language has inadvertently provided me with some tools for analysing, though. While telling the story of the search for the perfect language the book also works as a rough catalogue listing different beliefs and concepts ruling the statesmen, intellectuals and the church of Europe, starting with the late Greeks and proceeding through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and into our own time.

This exposé of the evolution of ideas is extraordinary (and quite fun, Eco has a wry sense of humour and I do not agree with those deeming this a “dry” book). He connects the need for different ideological constructs with the economic history of Europe, the development of the nation states, etcetera, all the while telling the reader about one bizarre idea after another – ideas genuinely held as true, at least by the originator, some hundreds of years ago.

And as I said – it also helped me analyse my aversion against a lot of fantasy. Because there, in the clear open, lies a smorgasbord of ‘magical’ concepts commonly used in fantasy novels. Everyone of them justified, historically, by a lack of knowledge and a wealth of imagination, and a basketful of faith, in one god or another (but mainly one in number, lol, whatever the creed of the originator).

Today superstition can’t be justified, at all – it’s just ignorance, or wishful thinking. Of course, most fantasy isn’t about today, or about ‘here’. This means that if the concept is well executed and the characters are nicely done the book can be a highly enjoyable experience. If not it just becomes a hotchpotch with deus ex machina on deus ex machina – it’s just poor writing, nothing more. However famous the author.

Urban fantasy is even worse. It’s supposed to be here and now, with werewolves and demons and whathaveyou (zombies, now, are the worst – don’t get me started…). It’s just so unbelievable and… downright INANE.
I get very sad when authors I otherwise think highly of do this kind of book. Like Guy G Kay did with Ysabel…

Most of these books are written as pure ‘entertainment’, many of them utilising the horror trope. I have no problems with that. Entertainment is good, I read a lot of books for entertainment, not to mention watching TV or films. Now, to me, of course, entertainment is not having to wince inwardly twice on every page, like I do when I read a Harry Dresden book. So it’s poor entertainment.

I accept that some people like these things. Everyone to his or her own. As far as I’m concerned, though, it’s NOT my cup of tea. At all. And now I know why.
Thank you, Umberto Eco, for that.

Swedish schools breaks the law, and no one cares

Today I got really REALLY upset. Earlier this week my son came home from preschool (which is a kind of preparatory school – every kid has the option to start school one year early, the year they turn 6) singing on a religious song about the birth of Jesus. It certainly didn’t feel good. I’m an atheist, to me religion are important to know but then I mean ALL religions, and schools should not teach what is arbitrary belief.

But. It’s Yule, and Sweden has a strong tradition regarding the singing of carols and such at this time of year – I too did that when I was a kid, and I survived.

Despite this I called the National Agency for Education, to check what the law said regarding this. I had a clear memory of the schools having to be non-confessional, but couldn’t find any information on the subject.
The call confirmed my memory – it’s both in the Education Act and in the Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, which all public schools has to follow.

I decided to talk to the teachers about it, to see how they reacted. My guess was they just hadn’t thought this through. We live in a relatively segregated area, consisting mainly of middle- to high income families, so maybe parents thought this OK.

Then, today, my son came home and told me they had been reading about Jesus, from the Bible, during these past days.

That was when I got upset for real. Did they mention Eid al-Fitr back in September? Chanukha, just recently? No, of course not. They teach the Bible not as a literary reference – I’m not convinced 6 year old kids understand the distinction, anyway – but as a belief system that we all adheres to.

Well – here’s news for you; I’m not!

And – if you’re Christian and reading this. How would you react if your kids came home and told you Mohammed is the true prophet? Or that Jesus is a false messiah?

I’m a great believer in knowledge. I think kids should know that there’s a lot of different ways to look at the world, out there. Without that knowledge they’ll not be able to analyse and understand what’s going on around us.

Forcing a belief – a faith! – on small kids, against the will of their parents, is NOT a widening of knowledge; it’s brain washing. And. In Sweden, it’s against the law.

The school is going to hear from me, believe me.

Snow, at last!

Some of us are dreaming of a white Yule, and perhaps we’ll get one, this one year :-)

This photo was snapped when I walked to the local centre to get something for lunch – I made a wise choice and worked from home today… even if I didn’t know it would end up like this when I made my decision!

Review: Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Some books are well nigh impossible to review. Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson, is one of them. My reason for this feeling is this is so very obviously the first of the three books in the Mars Trilogy – the stage setting, the laying of the foundation for more to come…

As such it is a good one, I think.

In many ways this is Big Ideas fiction, and I’m an avid fan of every book that makes me think. The grandness of the scale is impressive, a multi-decade storyline involving a lot of people, both as individuals and as pieces in a jigsaw too big for them to fathom. The main characters are mostly scientists, with little idea of how they and their side taking affects the world or how they and their ideas will come back at them, with a political twist.

The way the story plays out is plausible, if depressing, but I am eager to get to know how this social, economic and political experiment will develop.

On the down side this is very clearly about people and systems of people – normally known as “societies” and their close kin “political systems” and “economic system” – and not about individuals. Sure, we follow certain characters, but in a distanced third person, and only for a short while – the story is told from multiple perspectives, and these perspectives shifts every now and then. These characters are there to illustrate different viewpoints and different ideas about who to tackle a situation, and sometimes this is too obvious.

Sometimes the text feels like an embellished piece of non fiction, veritable info dumps that gets no less info dumpish by being real science.

Finally, the text is somewhat dated. It plays out in a reality where the US and Russia were still THE dominant actors. This, honestly, doesn’t bother me much. Politics is politics, just like economics is economics – the name tags are not as important as the actual system, and the basic premise that he stipulates is not that far fetched.

All in all it works quite well and at the moment I’m staring at the door waiting for the next instalment – Green Mars – to be delivered; the SF bookshop was out of stock, so I had to order it from another source. (I do favour brick’n'mortar bookshops, I want them to stay in business, so I try to use those I particularly fancy. No luck this time, though.)

I should say that this is not a book to read as distraction. It needs a focussed mind to work, as evidenced by the fact that I had to put it down for a while – since my previous post here I’ve had planned tonsillectomy, followed by high levels of pain and its mitigator (codeine based painkillers, yuk /but that’s another story/) and what felt like a fried brain. During that time – almost two weeks – I either didn’t read at all, or did feel-good rereads.

I’m very glad that I picked Red Mars up again, as it ultimately was a rewarding read.