Moonfleet

This lovely Folio Society book is an adventure/treasure/coming-of-age story and, as such, has been compared favorably with Treasure Island. (e.g. VS Prichett says ‘In the class of Stevenson’s Kidnapped or Treasure Island’). I thought it was a very good story, although pretty sentimental and with some plot coincidences that strain credibility. Sentimentality doesn't slow me down much, but I would not really recommend it to others on that account. Paraphrasing Lloyd Bentsen: "Moonfleet, I have read Treasure Island, I know Treasure Island, Treasure Island is a favorite of mine. Moonfleet, you are no Treasure Island".

Partially Finished with Infinite Jest - Preliminary Thoughts

On page 161 of the 1079-page epic Infinite Jest and figured I'd better do a preliminary post since it's taking me a while to work my through this book and I am reading other books at the same time.

I sort of like this book so far. I know that's blasphemy (especially in Colin's mind) since the consensus is that this is a masterpiece on par with Joyce's Ulysses, but so far it isn't really doing it for me. There are definitely ideas of pure genius and some parts that are uproariously funny, Hal is a compelling character, and the theme of entertainment/media is very interesting.

However, it took me til ~150 to become slightly eager to know what happens in the rest of the book. My beef: 1) the mixed up chronology is irritating since I don't know when anything happened and am having difficulty piecing together any coherent storyline. Colin says that it comes together at a certain point, but I don't see why I should have to wait this long for it to make sense. 2) I dislike that the perspective switches so frequently - most of the segments are interesting individually but the sheer number of them feels a little bit gimicky and is another distraction for me.

Hopefully I will like it better as I go along since everyone else finds it brilliant and inspired.

***Updates***
- 6/29/11: on page 185 I have hope!!! There is a reference to "anticonfluential cinema," which is described in footnote 61 as, "an après garde digital movement... characterized by a stubborn and possibly intentionally irritating refusal of different narrative lines to merge into any kind of meaningful confluence" - does this sound familiar???

I feel vindicated and more hopeful that I will ultimately enjoy this novel - I doubt it is coincidence that the description of anticonfluential cinema so closely parallels my experience of the book thus far (especially since the concept is significantly attributed to J.O. Incandenza, a central figure in the novel).

I hope that now that this underlying structure has been revealed, it will be rejected. In other words, the different narrative lines of I.J. damn well better merge into some kind of meaningful confluence.

***Links***
- http://bmackie.blogspot.com/2009/05/david-foster-wallace-and-hypertext.html

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A(n uninspiring) milestone in my literary career: finally read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I read in 2.5 hours. Up til page 41 I found the book juvenile, boring, and silly, and felt that this was probably because I am not a prepubescent boy (no offense to you males). The first line that changed my opinion somewhat was "The robot camera honed in for a close-up on the more popular of [Zaphod's] two heads and he waved again." I suspect my satisfaction with this line is because it is atypically Philip K. Dick-esque (c.f. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch). I found the rest of this book a mix of mediocre and mildly amusing. I really don't understand the enthusiasm people feel for this work, and this is coming from a blogger who ends most posts with "Highly recommend!" The only intriguing character for me was Zaphod, although he could not redeem this book for me. Would not recommend.

Three Californias

Three Californias is a trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson written prior to the Mars cycle. Each of the three novels, The Gold Coast, the Wild Shore, and the Pacific Edge, posits a radically different future taking place in Orange County. I've just finished the Wild Shore, read the Gold Coast over spring break, and will be picking up the final one soon. The Gold Coast takes place in a total-sprawl landscape of designer drugs and party lifestyle, the Wild Shore takes place in a post-nuclear America quarantined by Japanese ships off the coast, and I'm not entirely sure what the other one is about.

While these novels don't quite stand up to the magnum opus that is Red Mars, and are not as dense in ideas and sheer brilliance, they are definitely worth checking out even if only as a prelude to his later work.

William Gibson's Idoru

In this utterly wild and brilliant book by William Gibson, two characters' narratives intersect to reveal the story of a famous rockstar - Rez of the band Lo/Rez - who is determined to marry an idoru, or virtual celebrity, despite the objections of his P.R. team and devoted, massive, scarred bodyguard Blackwell. Set in the near (but technologically greatly advanced) future, the intersecting narratives are from the perspectives of Chia, a fourteen-year-old Lo/Rez fan and skilled hacker from Seattle, and Laney, a hacker with an uncanny ability to detect "nodal points" in data. The theme of emergence is evidenced at the meta- as well as macro-level, wherein the individual stories interact to create a totality which far exceeds the sum of its parts. The tale is a true page-turner, and rife with crazy characters and novel ideas. Definitely worth reading!!

**Update**

Helpful info from Colin: Gibson's 3 Trilogies (turns out this is book 2 of one of them - oops)

Gibson's 3 Trilogies:

The Sprawl Trilogy:

• Neuromancer
• Count Zero
• Mona Lisa Overdrive

The Bridge Trilogy:

• Virtual Light
• Idoru
• All Tomorrow's Parties

The Bigend Books:

• Pattern Recognition
• Spook Country
• Zero History

The Pattern

This gripping page-turner, currently available as a Kindle or Nook eBook, was written by JT Kalnay, the very accomplished and very interesting husband of my first graduate student, Dr. Susann Brady-Kalnay. JT was trained as a computer engineer, worked as a professor, then as a systems architect at Merrill Lynch, then went to law school, specialized in patent law and now has his own patent law firm - oh yeah, he's also a certified rock-climbing instructor and competes in ironman triathlons. Jeez.

(Here's an interview with him about the book).

Well, this book, about a mysterious virus-induced glitch in airplane software, will make your skin crawl - I had to fly on a bumpy flight from Rochester to Detroit right after finishing the book, and I was not a happy camper. Download onto your phone and enjoy a great read while waiting in lines!!

Tales of a Female Nomad

Wow... All I can say is that this woman has lived one heck of a life. The book is essentially an autobiography of Rita Gelman, who at the age of 42 turned her life into a travel story most of us only dream of.

After she had an argument with her husband, they agreed to a two-week break from each other, and then to try marriage counseling. She took off to Mexico, where two weeks turned into two months, which turned into four months, which turned into divorce.

After that, she was free to live however she liked, so she decided to travel to all different exotic locations that she had only dreamed of visiting. For the next 14 years, she visits places such as Indonesia, Thailand, Nicaragua (during Reagan's war!), New Zealand, and more, staying with locals, and truly bonding with the communities she visits.

The book is an awesome read that anyone will enjoy. Recommended highly.