Alastair Reynolds Lives! Kurt Vonnegut, Alas, Does Not.

Came across a random article on the physicist turned sci-fi novelist, Alastair Reynolds. I've read 4 of his books and can see why he's been one of the key components of the British "space opera renaissance" of the last few years (other contributors include Neal Asher, Charles Stross, Peter Hamilton and of course the grand masters Iain Banks and Ken MacLeod).

I'm looking forward to reading his new book 'The Prefect', though I don't imagine it will be any time soon, what with work and a huge backlog of stuff to read.

On another note, the brilliant satirist and novelist Kurt Vonnegut has passed away. To learn more about him you can follow the link to his obituary on bbc.com. I thought I'd just put down a comment of two about some of his stuff that I've read.

The first book of his that I read was 'Breakfast of Champions' back when I was doing my A Levels in Karachi. I remember picking it up at a friend's house, just meaning to browse and then getting caught up. Its very elegantly written, like all of his best stuff. At the same time I was amazed. I didn't know it was possible to write like this! Breaking all the conventions of plot and characterisation and narrative, and yet, still write something so interesting. I remember when I finished the book I was crying. At the time I found the book unremittingly bleak, though a recent rereading of it found it less so.

My favourite Vonnegut book has to be 'Slaughter House 5'. It is based on Vonnegut's own experience in the Second World War. In the introduction, Vonnegut describes how he was a prisoner of war in 1945, and was held at Dresden where he and other prisoners were housed in a Meat processing plant which had been converted to hold prisoners because there was no meat to be found at this late stage of the war in Germany. He describes how Dresden was fire-bombed (many now hold the fire-bombing of Dresden as a war crime because it was not a military target and led to the deaths of between 20,000 - 60,000 civilians, with some estimates going as high as 160,000) which he survived because the slaughter-house in which he and his fellow prisoners were in was untouched while the next building over which housed nuns who were war refugees was completely destroyed. After the bombing he and the other prisoners were put to work pulling out bodies from the wreckage. There is one horrific detail (out of the many) which sticks in my mind, which is his description of another POW - a Maori from New Zealand retching till he choked to death at the sight of the carnage. Vonnegut builds on these and other experiences to write about fate, free will and human nature. The climax of the novel comes not with the fire-bombing, but in the aftermath with the hanging of a man for looting in the ruins of the city, a rather senseless tragedy in the face of everything that has come before and that is to follow.

As Vonnegut says 'So it goes'.

IZ

Banksy!!!

To be honest I'd never heard of Banksy before I stumbled across a reference to the artist on a random website. Intrigued I went to his website. For those who may not of heard of him, Banksy is an artist who specializes in what has variously been called "terrorist art", "guerilla art" or plain old "graffiti art". He came to worldwide fame through his penchant of walking into museums and putting up his own works - often the museum authorities only learn about it after Banksy announces it on his website. As this article describes, these escapades include setting up a fake display of a rock with a cave painting of a prehistoric hunter with a shopping trolley in the British Museum, as well as a fake stuffed rat dressed like a rapper in the Natural History Museum.

But Banksy's best work has been his graffiti art (of which there are splendid examples on his website). In particular his culture jamming approach often has a strong political slant. Several of his works appeared on the Palestinian side of the controversial West Bank barrier that was built by Israel despite the protests of Palestinians who were cut off from their workplaces, and fields. More recently a life-size replica of a Guantanomo Bay detainee, complete with hood and orange jump-suit was left inside a Disney-Land roller-coaster ride, a reminder of the plight of those being held there without recourse to due judicial process.

I've always found the culture-jamming approach to art interesting and provocative, and its political engagement exciting. Alas, the approach is now all too often appropriated by marketing campaigns for the very brand-labels it often seeks to undermine (Banksy was reportedly offered a huge contract by Nike which he declined).

On the topic of culture-jamming, if you went to Asma's site, you may have noticed some of her earlier work has some of the elements of protest against mass consumerism - the ominous armies of Ronald MacDonalds swarming over Karachi's landmarks are quiet chilling. Great stuff!

IZ

Internet Radio

Here is a link to a bbc article about the new royalty fees that are to be imposed on internet radio stations.

IZ

Asma Ahmed Shikoh

Here is a link to the website of Asma Ahmed Shikoh, a pakistani-american artist now living in New York, and a friend and former colleague from my early teaching days.

IZ

Independent Internet Radio Stations under Threat

I don't know a great deal about internet radio and its only recently that I have started listening in. SomaFM has a number of stations, and it often forms nice background music when I'm studying. Anyway, apparently due to new legislation that targets internet radio for huge payments to recording companies, most small independent internet radio stations are under threat of closure.

Not really having a congressional representative, I don't think I am in a position to join in the campaign to save internet radio. But those of you who are, please do go ahead and do so. Its in a good cause.

IZ

On Not Keeping Up With the Joneses

Well when I started this blog I was hoping that I would jot down a few notes about each book I read... as it turns out things haven't really worked out that way. I would like to think that the tremendous rate at which I devour books leaves me little time for the difficult task of blogging about them, but the little itty bitty part of me that occasionally pricks my conscience into speaking the truth would have us believe that I have been seriously remiss in my duties and not a little lazy about this.

mea culpa.

On the up side a quick glance at the Zokuto meter in the margin of my blog tells me that I've now read 27 books this year already (making that 41% of my pledged reading total) while a mere 107 days (just under 30% of the year) have passed, so I am well on the way of achieving my targets.

Hmm... maybe my targets are not ambitious enough. Maybe I should shoot for... oh, say 75 books (36% done) or even... heaven forfend... 100 books!!! No, that would be a little too ambitious. I'll have a ponder over the 75 mark. In the meanwhile I'll try and get more written about the books I'm reading.