Zeitgeist 2012

"

"Nazi sci-fi film Iron Sky 

becomes Berlin talking point"

By Emma Jones Entertainment reporter, BBC News in Berlin 

“Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.”

— Lloyd Alexander

Science Fiction is a great vehicle to look at our current milieu and cultural zeitgeist.A spoof on Nazis is premiering at the Berlin Film Festival.  The film is gaining great interest and creating much conversation. 
Germany needs to look at their Nazi Propaganda with a fresh point of view, with truth encapsulated by a shell of sweet humor.   A truthful look is an important part of healing.

Novel Reivews:

Review-Stephen King's 11.22.63

 

 11/22/63 by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As Stephen King said repeatedly in 11.22.63, “The past harmonizes”....and so does this book.  11.22.63 shows King traveling in the time streams between 2011 and 1958 United States.  I agree with Time Magazine when they said that this book is a great travelogue back to the 1950’s American Landscape.   However, this book is much more than just a mere nostalgic kick down Route 66.
 
The main character, Jack Epping, thinks he must go back in time and stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald.  He, like many, feels that if just John F. Kennedy was not shot then the world would be a much better place.  But we find that changing the strings of time is never for the better no matter the intentions.  And you can’t stop God’s hand in our storied time; there is no legislation to do away with earthquakes, or tornadoes.

This book was tremendously researched, and because of this one comes away with a sense that this really could be true.   King used his historical research and connected the strands into one epic masterfully.  He is a master at pinpointing the zeitgeist for our age; he understands the times and the people better than the talking heads over at C.N.N. and Fox News. I might even say that Stephen King is our current United State's Charles Dickens.

Be careful for time traveling with King has the possibility of creating jet leg without stepping across a time zone.  The end of the book is a stunner.

Readers who liked this book can also check out Jack Finney’s Time and Again and From Time to Time.
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Three questions raised in Lost World Narratives are:

 

1.       Is the primitive more evolved than modern man? 

2.       Is there a place where the modern world is reshape-able, free from the cost of sin? 

3.       Can the main character reshape self free of past?

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Book Reviews The People That Time Forgot part Two of the Caspak Series: The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss

The present rubbed legs with the past, it set a strange milieu.  Edgar Rice Burroughs leads a tour of Caprona.  He leads us through strange lands amidst noble savages and sub-humans.   The book is a Caprona tour, but lacks action to be exciting.  It makes me wonder if he was forced to write this one.  

(I listened to this on libri vox read by  Ralph Snelson)

Caveat lector, the ideas of the early 20th century are not of our own, and may offend those with politically correct notions.  

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The Land That Time Forgot Part One of the Capak Series

The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A fun read, but not as good as the LOST WORLD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.   The characters seemed flat and cartoonish.  It is difficult to feel heartedly for cartoons.   However, the overall story arch is classic adventure tale and can be a delightful journey.   Two movies are available on Netflix for your viewing.

Caveat Lector: the ideas of the early 20th century  are not of our own, and may offend those with politically correct notions.  Feminists may be offended by the seeming lack of respect paid towards women of this period. 


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Man or Astro Man Unofficial Reading List Book

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Think of a refrigerator box, a normal kitchen clock, and a dad and a son, mix in time travel, and you have a bit of what the book "How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe is all about.

A boy learns that if you bend life too much than "you might end up over there."pg 45. The book is an answer to what it means to group in a Science Fictional Universe.

Charles Yu, the author, seems to confirm my suspicion that good Science Fiction is a conversation with the great science fiction writers of the past. Good science fiction is a continuation of the dialog begun by Herbert, Asimov, Bradbury, and Vance; as well as a dialog with scientists who hope to bring new ideas to light (e.g. David Deutsche and his book: Fabric of Reality). He seems to be telling the reader, read this book, then write it again in your own point of view.

The message that I gained was find those moments where you are the actual man you are and live in this light with much rejoicing. live in the science fiction possibility world.

If my description of the book seems a tad abstract, then your right this book is a tad abstract. But well worth the Read. There is just way too much here to tell you all of it, but you should check this book out. Then write me back and let me know what you think of it.







BTW:
Read with Man or Astro Man for Full Pleasure Experience.  Also read before or after, "The Fabric of Reality" David Deutsch. How to Life Safely in A Scientific Universe is a continuation in a fictional form of the ideas expressed in the Fabric of Reality.


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Fahrenheit 451 (A Review)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Fahrenheit 451 is a story set in the future, told as a parable* about the role of the critic/teacher and the independent reader.  The book takes place in a future where literature is burned and thinking is a Capital Crime.   The only books allowed in this future dystopia are those that don't make you think, like Richie Rich or Archie comic books.  The big thing you can ask questions, but don't ask why, never ask why.  The main characters Montag and Faber battle against each other in war between the preservation of books and the need to burn them all.
The characters in the story represent the battle between readers and those that stand in the way of the reader.   Montag represents the blank piece of paper.  Faber represents a pencil with an eraser.   Faber desires to graft the critics wholesome viewpoint on the blank unwritten mind.  Faber types feel the best way to keep the people mailable is through the work of firemen, the maintainers of ignorance. The defenders of the thinkers are the librarians who maintain the critical mind by safeguarding valuable books.
Teachers sterilize the independent yearning of students when they dictate what one should think about this or that book.   Society stands conditioned as trained morons, to use Prussian systematization to condition our future to be like drones thinking with homogenized answer.  The homogenized answer is a problem in a divergent complex world.
The group discussion at the Larry Jackson Library was indepth, and full of insight. Don't miss next month's book discussion at the Main Library or the Jackson Library on the book: Emily's Ghost.

Fahrenheit 451 is a Classic Tale-and I liked it a lot!!!

(Listened to this on Audio C.D. Read for B.S.I. Lakeland.)



*(a short story that uses familiar events to illustrate a religious or ethical point)



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Cannibals Pertake Body Sushi Extreme

 Last night I saw an article that struck me as quit sick.  A restaurant nearby is   promoting body sushi, where you eat pieces of sushi off of a model.   This is to me a depraved way to enjoy food.  I feel that things like Body Sushi can easily lead to the above sketch, its just a matter of degrees.) This is a sketch of an idea, I could not write the full story as it scared me too much, I just wanted a rough sketch here.  

The beautiful model laid on the cloth covered table, deliciously lathered with special seasoning, her body was covered with pieces of meat.

The master sushi chefs were preparing the main course.

The spacemen were awakening their sensual pleasures.

The men sat in another room enjoying the beautiful bodies simulating sexual pleasures.  The clients sat with their lips quivering in anticipation of the full course.  .   The men awaited smoking cigars and swapping stories told too many times at the mahogany stained table.  And yes, on space capsule Xeron, their were strip joints modeled after the old legends of Hustler, Penthouse, and Playboy.  The stories of the men whispered up with the smoke.

Strippers danced on poles, teasing the spacemen who stared.  Their breasts were sprayed down with glitter, the disco ball reflected on the women's glittery breasts, shinning faeries on the wall.   The space traveler's  hard ons were hidden beneath the lacquered oak dark stained table. Some of the men were business men signing contracts and entertaining clients, others were space cowboys on leave. Some of the men joistled with their dicks, while others played with their straws in their pink Cosmos.  All of the men were guilty of a feeling that they were about to do something not quite right.

"Gentlemen!"  The steward spoke,  "Please join me in the pleasure den, where tonight we have a real surprise!!!"

The men arose from their tables and followed the steward to a back room.

This practice has been outlawed on Earth, but here on planet X we think not.  This is a special event which we offer you to participate in tonight.   We ask that you show decorum and not fight over the pieces of meat from the model-Angelic.   Angelic will not feel a thing, I promise you,  for she has been thoroughly drugged.  So stick your knives and forks into her flesh, and carve her up boys! She's all yours!!!!

If their is any thing that my stewards and I can get you to make your night more enjoyable let us know, we will be happy to assist you.  And we hope y'all have a great night here."

The night commenced in bloody mayhem.

Stranger in a Strange Land: Review of....

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Heinlein is a master of the literary craft.  Here in Stranger in a Strange Land he interweaves human relations, large ideas (theology), and the art of the story. The story a Stranger in a Strange Land takes place in a New America, that is one world ordered hegemony.  The world has made missions to mars and has set up a space colony there.  The space colony had been deserted on the planes of Mars.  The man from mars is found after many years of exposure to an alien race. The climax resolves whether Michael Valentine Smith will be excepted by the people of Earth.  At times this book gets bogged down in Heinlein's philosophy, so it can be a difficult read. 

What I liked about the book is its deep analysis of Faith. Heinlein first looks at the cult of the Fosterites. A cult where everyone is happy, and everyone thinks as a one happy unit.  (I would like to go deeper into describing the Fosterites, but I am afraid that this would lead you down a rabbit hole and would maybe bore you deeply.) 
Then he looks at how Michael Valentine Smith twists the Abrahamic religions to make a cult that combines elements of Confucius, Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism.  
The religion is based on the wisdom of the old ones (Confucius).  (I am only all that I Grok.(Buddhism)) The perfect wisdom of the elders is not to be disputed at all.   The cult members become entwined by a sharing of water together.  They see each other as all Gods.(Brahman Hindu)  Thou art god and so are my Guinea pigs and Lovebird.  The religion replaces God and put man in God’s place, this allows man to worship created things.
When God’s proper place, to be above all, is replaced all is left in Chaos.  A chaos I imagine to be like the ending of the Demolished Man by Alfred Bester.  This chaos is a place of no form at all, the lizard eats his own tail and poof he is no longer. 
Because man is now God like, the divine things are the things that connect man in deeper communication.  Sex is seen as sharing deeper with many people.  The communal orgasm is sacred, a great religious experience.(Athenian Greek Goddess Cults)  Cannibalism is the holiest way to die for it is taking the spirit of the other deeply into the body of the collective (Native American Ritual).
Stranger in a Strange Land  raised the questions: 

What does it mean to be both God and man? 

Why could not Joseph and Mary give birth to the messiah? 

Why did it need to be a virginal birth?    

What becomes lost when the Messiah is merely a superman?

(Loved this book and Clucked it Loud)



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The Best of Jack Vance by Jack Vance




This is a collection of stories by Jack Vance written between 1952 and 1973.  Part II of III
(1958)Ullward's Retreat: (Issues Examined: Utopias)
How much space does one really need?  A whole planet is it enough for one man?  Are we that greedy that even ownership of a planet is not enough? 

(1966)The Last Castle: (Issue Examined: Civil Rights)
The Last Castle, is a short story influenced by Japanese Samurai Culture, and explores the ideas of a closed caste system where it is impossible to alter one's life.  The story highlights the relationships between the gentlemen society and those that work to support it.  Vance poses the quesiton: "Is prospering from slave labor ever okay for the building up of a society?  The men of high means almost always underestimate their servants, "They are a clever, resourceful race, untroubled by qualms or preconceptions, and we have long underestimated their quality."   The gentlemen becoming Wild Animals? or Nomads with out a home? if they are to leave their caste system.    The answer to Vance is clear, "Society need not wither, provided that all of us - you as well as we - toil for it.  There can be no more slaves."pg 112 

(1952)Abercombie Station:
Where is Abercombie Station?

(1961)The Moon Moth:
An anthropological tale.

(1973) Rumfuddle:'
Where is that portal, where does it lead, can you change history?  Can you change history by helping others find their creative calling?  Can Hitler make a good hotel maid?  Can Genghis Kahn make a great catcher on the San Francisco Giants? This is one of my all time favorite short stories. 




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