To My Readers

             

For the past decade I have published my thoughts on the many weird books I read.  In that time, RXTT’s Book Journey has grown in ways I never imagined, reaching readers worldwide.  The blog arose because of my love of the old, weird, out of print, and reference books, and my wife’s desire that I share my thoughts on them with the world at large, as I always do with her.  She is my inspiration.

If I believe in anything, it is the power of the wisdom, stories, and information contained within humanity’s writings.  The ancients assured us that language and written words were powerful tools.  “In the beginning was the word,” and all.  Our thoughts may or may not shape the world around us.  The mystics still debate.  However, our spoken and written words most definitely DO shape the world around us.  I am not the man I am, and this world we share is not the world it is, without the words handed down through the thickness of time. 

An example, nearly one hundred years ago, a man named Vonnegut witnessed the fickle whim of man’s inhumanity to man.  Decades later, after many stories and books, he wrote a novel called Slaughterhouse Five, or The Children’s Crusade.  In it, using the constructs and themes of science fiction (time travel, aliens, dimensional travel, lunatic fringe, etc.), Vonnegut vomited out his vitriol, pure and choleric, upon the vast, unchanging, and overwhelming stupidity of man, the stupidity that would allow for war, slaughter, pain, and terror to be the tools used to bring “peace.”  He told the rest of us what many tried to, but none had done in words which both a bright thirteen-year-old, and a deeply wise octogenarian would understand.  It is the saddest and funniest book I have ever read.  It changed who I am deeply, altering everything I have ever done, and every interaction I have ever had.  If that is not power, then nothing is.  That is just one book.  One among thousands published in my country that year alone.  It is said that most of the words written by man have been lost.  The works humanity is aware of existing are nearly infinite.  Thinking about the vast oceans of lost works is like mental torture to a book lover like me.

It is a mindboggling thought as I desire to know as much as possible, to understand as much as possible, at least about what interests me.  Because of this desire, I also flatly understand the impossibility of my dream.  I stare bluntly ahead, facing my own wall of ignorance, the mountain of books and wisdom and teachings lost to time, but specifically to me.  I think this is something all book lovers face sooner or later.

It is because I love books that I wanted to create RXTT’s Book Journey.  Each new book is a new world to explore, or a new idea to ponder, and I have travelled deep and wide, reading what interested me, when it interested me.   I appreciate a well-written, insightful review, whether it be of a film, book, or kitchen appliance.  It is a pure communication of ideas.  The feedback I receive from the authors themselves, sometimes concerning a decades-old book of theirs, is precious to me.  Corresponding with, and hearing sincere appreciation, from giants such as Freeman Dyson and Alan Moore was a never-imagined dream come true.  Meeting and reading brand-new works from young writers is an equal thrill, and I have been very fortunate in that regard as well. 

Writing a novel is another story.

While not many of the books I read are fiction, I love the power of a well-crafted story to illuminate, entertain, and enlighten its reader.  Most life-long readers dream of writing their own novel, and many try.  I joined them.  I wrote daily.  My story grew.  The world I created filled up, the story flowed like a glacial stream, slow but steadily building, and I managed to complete it.  IN CRED is my first novel.  I wrote it mindfully, wanting to present a self-contained world, a story entertaining and intelligible, to any clever reader willing to explore the mindways.  The tens of thousands of readers I have worldwide showed me that there are many like me, many who want deep dives into old texts, who are curious to know what the source materials are like.  Readers whose favorite reading experience is not the self-satisfaction of a driving plot, or the florid oscillation of word and language, but the quintessential feeling of having one’s mind BLOWN AWAY by a new idea.  I want my readers to experience that as often as possible, and I wrote IN CRED with you in mind.

Once finished, I had to share it with someone.  The magic and power of words truly spark up when they are shared.  I handed IN CRED to my wife.  I shared it with some close friends.  I reached out to a couple of authors I call friends and asked them for their opinion.  Their feedback and appreciation mean everything to me.  It took some internal literary courage, but I worked diligently to make IN CRED available to readers. 

It is available on Amazon, in Kindle eBook, glossy paperback, or hard cover versions. (I used my B.F.A. in Studio Art and drew the cover artwork also.)

IN CRED’s dedication page may speak of my wife and parents, but IN CRED would not exist without the readers of RXTT’s Book Journey.  I so greatly appreciate that you are out there, wherever you may be in this beautiful world of ours.  I hope my reviews have enlightened and informed you in the same way that the books I love have enlightened and informed me.

If you love science fiction that explores intimate segments of what it means to be human, you will enjoy IN CRED.  If you seek speculative fiction with big ideas told in intimate ways, you will love IN CRED.  If you enjoy original characters and settings, and a clever story whose progress is constantly surprising, you will love IN CRED.  If you appreciate literature that is honestly edifying without being sentimentally trite, IN CRED is for you.  If you enjoy stories where daily experiences go batshit crazy, and regular people are forced to deal with it, you will enjoy IN CRED.

This is just the beginning.  The spigot has been opened.  Further stories are in the works, and I am very excited about it.  If RXTT’s Book Journey was an initial stab at sharing my thoughts with the world, IN CRED is a mighty cannonade.  I would love for you, my fellow readers, to dive into IN CRED and let me know your thoughts!  Stories are magic, and I have just begun the show.

 

Sincerely Yours,

 

RXTT

IN CRED - Debut Novel by RXTT

IN CRED

A mystical experience or a death-time delusion. A journey to the farthest reaches of the cosmos, or a trip into the inner recesses of the mind.

Cred's day is not going well. Collapsing at the record store and finding himself face to face with the god he accidentally created unhinged him somewhat.

This new problem, however, completely terrifies him.
With the help of some friends, a desperate ploy to save our universe is put in motion.

If only Cred can figure out how.

♦

NOW AVAILABLE!

IN CRED

The debut novel by RXTT.

IN CRED - Kindle Edition

IN CRED - Paperback

IN Cred - Hardcover

IN CRED

 

After a decade of writing this blog I am at a loss for words.

I drafted four versions of this announcement only to find them inadequate, so I kept it simple.

I have written my first novel.

It is VERY good.

I am looking for a publisher from within my worldwide readership. 

Please reach out to me at rxtt.art@gmail.com  Subject Line "IN CRED"

Thank you for loving and reading books

Sincerely Yours,

RXTT

Italo Calvino Uses Words to Help Us Travel Through Deep Time

 

Cosmicomics – Italo Calvino (1965)

 

            I have read so many science fiction books and stories.  Many of their authors use specific scientific data or details to build stories around.  A few actually try to create stories that help the reader understand the scientific concepts discussed in the works.  Even fewer of those manage to create gripping, inventive stories.  Italo Calvino managed all of this and more.  What an amazing collection of short stories!

            I have been fortunate to discover many classic authors as part of my reading on this Book Journey.  From OG sci-fi writer Henry Kuttner, to modern author Cory Doctorow, I treasure finding their work and feeding my brain with their stories.  The one book I have read which most closely resembles Cosmicomics, however, is Clifton Fadiman’s Fantasia Mathematica, a collection of short stories from the 1950’s dealing with purely mathematical subjects.

            Italo Calvino takes the same approach with cosmology, specifically an exploration of the basic concepts used to describe the development of our Universe, from the Big Bang to the farthest reaches of deep time. His main narrator, inscrutably named Qfwfq, regales the reader with stories of his past, describing in beautiful allusions and metaphors, what the universe was like in the very first instances of existence.  In one story, he describes how the Moon used to be so close to the Earth that at certain points in the year, people would climb long ladders to reach the Moon, and harvest essential nutrition from it.  This is based on the knowledge that our Moon, Luna, is slowly moving away from the Earth.  In a million years, the Moon will be far smaller in our sky, and will not completely cover the Sun during eclipses.  In the far past, the Moon was much, much bigger than the Sun in our sky.

            In another great story, Italo’s narrator describes what it was like for him to exist as a creature who once lived in water, but is now on land, and all the accompanying weirdness!  One tale describes what the inner thoughts of fundamental particles must be like, while another shares the story of three entities forever falling through space and time.  Each tale is self-contained, but the whole collection truly helps expand the mind.  I found much wisdom in these stories.  The ancient poets created stories such as these to use as learning tools, handing them down orally to the next generation.  Mr. Calvino wanted to do the same with the often-misunderstood knowledge of Deep Time brought forth by Relativity and 20^th century cosmology.

            Ancient scribes did likewise. These old stories were often misinterpreted or misunderstood by people of later generations.  Instead of seeking intellectual and informational wisdom in them, people started to see them as “divine” messages, or as dogmatic truth.  The very same thing could happen to Italo Calvino’s stories, should someone read them in two or three centuries, well after the average human forgets or is no longer taught basic scientific truths.  We seem to be headed in that direction now, sadly, and this blog, RXTT’s Book Journey, is my small attempt to forestall the stupidization of humanity.

            I must commend a Mr. William Weaver, who translated these stories into English around 1968.  The world owes so much to good translators.  It is almost as important a job as actually writing the books themselves!  Translation is how we can share ideas across cultures, continents, and centuries.

            I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science fiction, mind expansion, originality, and creativity in storytelling.  It feels like something of a miracle that stories like this are available for us to read.  We are very fortunate indeed!

(This book can be downloaded and read here: https://www.are.na/block/11318370 )

A Great Story for Younger Readers from Grace Mirchandani

 

Mitzi Clark & the Keepers of SHUT – Grace Mirchandani (2021)

 

            One of the best outcomes from writing this book review blog has been the steady emails from authors and publishers requesting I read and review their book.  As a life-long reader, this is a dream come true.  Often, the books sent to me do not fit neatly with the types of books I have focused on here at RXTT’s Book Journey.  I must admit that I do not read much fiction these days.  Sometimes the requests involve a book I just do not have interest in reading.  Other times the subject matter is too far from my interests.  I respect authors and publishers, so I always make sure to communicate with them, whether or not I do read and review their book.  Sometimes I read the book, and write up a full review, only to email it to the author for them to use as they see fit, even though I do not publish the review on this blog.  Occasionally however, I am sucked in either by the language, or by the first few pages, leading to a thoroughly pleasant reading experience.  This is what occurred as I started to read Grace Mirchandani’s "middle grade" novel, Mitzi Clark & the Keepers of SHUT.

            I must start by stating that I would have LOVED this book if I had discovered it around age 10-13.  The language in books aimed at a younger audience (10-13) is often stilted, basic, or just plain turgid.  This is not the case with Mirchandani’s work.  Like the best Encyclopedia Brown stories, or the great Nancy Drew mysteries (both of which I adored as a kid), this story draws you in quickly.  Before I knew it, I had devoured ten chapters and found myself fully entrenched in the world Mirchandani created.

            Mirchandani does not “write down” to her audience.  She sets the stage and the players with ease.  The details she provides add to the characterization and setting, without slowing the narrative.  We are introduced to Mitzi Clark, our protagonist, her family and friends.  Odd occurrences and small details in what should be a normal day stir up Mitzi’s curiosity.  She discovers a buried item on her parent’s property, which leads her to recruit her friends to what Mitzi thinks will be a fun scavenger hunt, something to liven up the boredom of the summer day. What they find only increases the mystery, and leads to a very satisfying story.

            As usual, I do not like to give away plot details from the fiction I read.  Those are better left for the reader to discover.  I will say that Mirchandani writes clear, descriptive prose and dialogue.  The kids talk like kids, and the parents talk like parents.  This is harder to accomplish than it may seem.  Like the best stories, The Keepers of Shut keeps the reader engaged, invested, and turning the pages.  This is the first of a series of "middle grade" novels involving Mitzi Clark and her friends.  The second volume, Mitzi Clark & The Covenant Cube, continues the tale. 

            I highly recommend this novel to all young readers, or anyone who wishes to read a story to a young person.  It is not a story heavy with terror or grief, although there are tense and suspenseful parts, and the protagonists do face dangers.  Grace Mirchandani has a great facility with storytelling, and I am sure she had as much fun writing this book as I had reading it.  I hope for great success for this series.  It deserves a wide readership.

(This book can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mitzi-Clark-Keepers-Grace-Mirchandani/dp/B09M2XQC2N )

My first visit to Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast will not be the last

 

Titus Groan: Vol. 1 of Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake (1946)

           

            After almost 400 pages, and two years in the life of the title character, I have completed my first foray into the weird, wild, and oppressive world of Gormenghast.  This nearly 80-year old epic begins with the birth of Titus Groan, the heir to the current Earl of Gormenghast, a man whose family line has ruled this walled city-state for millennia.

            What let me know I was in for an unusual story was the initial section of this novel, as Mervyn Peake takes several pages to describe the walled city of Gormenghast, introducing us to the real main character of this tale, the city itself.  Mountains on one side and a forest lake on the other surround the ancient sprawling castle, if it can be rightly called a castle.  Inside the walls of the massive city, its denizens spend their every waking hour in the pursuit of their labors, dictated purely by ritual and birth.  Those born to kitchen workers will be kitchen workers.  Those born to the unfortunate people that live outside the castle, the mud dwellers, are destined to remain outsiders.  The individual duties and positions within the castle being determined not by human decisions but by the countless precedents set by previous Gormenghast Earls and their families.  Every single action is either part of a daily ritual, or mirrors some ancient rite, the reasons for it obscured by time and generations.  No one asks questions.  No one seeks to change his or her position in this world.

            Nowhere in this work does Mervyn Peake specify how many people live within the confines of Gormenghast.  It could be tens of thousands, or just a few hundred.  Either way, the vast expanse of this sprawling city-state lays mostly deserted, with rooms, towers, dungeons, and hallways remaining unused for decades at a time, until some event or dictated ritual requires it.  The people we are introduced to come mostly from the retinue of the Earl himself, Lord Sepulchrave (the characters all have such evocative names!).  There is the Head Cook, Mr. Swelter, a fat, slovenly man that runs a small army of servants and kitchen workers whose task is to prepare meals for the citizens as well as the various cyclical feasts and formal events in the castle.  There is Lord Sepulchrave himself, who spends most of his time away from his family, absorbed in books found within an ancient, massive library, of which only the Earl seems to frequent.  There is the Earl’s wife, Countess Gertrude, a very large woman whose sole interests lay in the cats and birds of Gormenghast.  There is the daughter and eldest child of the Earl, Fuschia Groan, a young woman with little purpose in life, and her nanny, Mrs. Slagg, an old, tiny woman who has essentially raised the Earl’s daughter, and will be tasked with the care of the infant Titus. 

Another critical character is introduced, a young man by the name of Steerpike who, after manipulating his way out of what would have been life-long servitude in the Gormenghast kitchens, begins to worm himself into the world of the top servants and the rulers of the castle.  This Steerpike will drive the plot forward as his ever more grand plans start to take shape.

Most novels introduce the characters and dive right into plot.  Not these Gormenghast books.  I venture that around 70% of the novel consists of detailed, meaningful descriptions of the castle buildings, walls, towers, plazas, hallways, rooms, and the surrounding countryside.  Initially this distracted me, as I am so used to the standard plot formats of 20^th century fantasy fiction.  However, once my mind adapted to Mervyn Peake’s prose, it all made much more narrative sense.  The castle is eternal, or may as well be, having seen the rise and fall of dozens and dozens of generations, each one living and dying within the city walls, each one just a small blip in the lengthy life of Gormenghast castle itself. 

The lives of the Gormenghast residents mirror the lives of every heir to any throne in human history.  Their entire existence dictated by ritual, and formal decrees, forcing them to live by codes of honor, with no individuality allowed for it would disturb propriety.  If they are fortunate they end up handing the throne down to their children, who hand it to their children, etc.  There is always someone trying to take what is yours.  There is always some conniving relative attempting to either discredit or outright murder someone in order for his or her progeny to take the throne.  How many members of the British Royal family, for example, count as their only confidants and friends those who serve them?  This is the way of royalty, of entrenched ritual for ritual’s sake.  It is everything I despise in human governance.  Mervyn Peake seems to despise it as well, for the manner in which he details the people of Gormenghast is far less respectful than the way he describes the castle itself.  The castle has dignity, wisdom, and must be respected, whereas those who live within its walls are buffoons, dullards, and inbred.

The book ends with the title character, Titus Groan, reaching his 2^nd birthday, and the formal celebrations that will mark him as the new Earl of Gormenghast.  Those most sensitive and perceptive can sense a great change coming.  Change is the ultimate evil in Gormenghast.  Change effects everyone, seen as unnecessary and unwanted.  The next book in this trilogy is titled Gormenghast.  I fully expect to immerse myself once more within the dark, sullen masonry and the weird, desperate characters that make it their home.  I already feel as if I will walk the halls and rooms of Gormenghast for the rest of my life.

Pascal Garnier's Novel Brings the NOIR!

 

The Panda Theory – Pascal Garnier (2008)

            Previously on this blog, I mentioned how I love randomly running across new books to read.  I especially love when someone sets up a shelf or box full of free books for whoever wishes to read them.  My workplace, the Baylor College of Medicine on Houston, Texas, has such a shelf near the cafeteria.  I have culled several great medical texts from it.  Normally I stay away from the novels placed on that shelf, as they tend to be entertainments like Patricia Cornwall or some other such author, but this small grey book caught my eye.  I was unfamiliar with the author, Pascal Garnier, but after reading the front and back cover, I was intrigued.  On the inside, I noted that the book was a translation from the original French.  I always enjoy finding a new author, especially one from a non-English speaking country, so I grabbed it and dove right in.

            The very first paragraph on Page 1 sucked me in.  A man, disembarking off a train in Breton, finds himself in a nearly deserted train station, hands filthy after travelling, and heads out into the quiet “nondescript town” whose air smells faintly of manure.  He finds a room, and proceeds to look for a place to have dinner.  The woman running the desk at the Hotel, and the man running the local pub, offer welcome at the same time they bemoan the lack of anything to do in the small town. 

            Gabriel, the protagonist, quickly enmeshes himself with the locals he meets.  He is an exceedingly good cook, which comes in handy several times, but he has something disquieting deep inside him of which we are barely aware.  As the story progresses, we sometimes go back in time to experience Gabriel’s life before he arrived in this small town.  In this manner, Pascal Garnier slowly unfolds Gabriel’s past.  With each passage, we start to understand that for all the peace and calm shown by Gabriel with his new friends, there is a deep disquiet contained in the man. 

            Gabriel ingratiates himself with the various locals he has gotten to know.  We learn of their lives, as they explain to Gabriel the reason for their current states.  Gabriel listens, and seems to relate.  However, as we soon learn, Gabriel’s past has changed him deeply, leaving him almost emotionless.  The way he describes the world around him informs the reader of the true state of Gabriel’s mind.  His internal dialogue is cynical, detached, joyless, yet deeply observant.

            As with all the novels I review on the Intellectual Journey, I will not go into further detail concerning the plot of The Panda Theory.  Novels are unfolding mysteries and to give anything away is anathema to me.  However, I will say that it has been a long while since I found an author that spoke so clearly, yet so descriptively.  Pascal Garnier’s writing is lucid, clear, simple, and constantly surprising.  I give great credit to the translator!  I am so excited to have discovered a new author.  That is one of my favorite things in reading. I will definitely hunt for more Pascal Garnier novels!  I highly recommend this book, a quick read whose story will stick with me for a long time.

(This book can be purchased here: https://belgraviabooks.com/product/the-panda-theory )

I Ran Across a Biting Satire for Our Modern Times

Mischief – Chris Wilson (1993)

            I often spend much of my lunch hour at work reading (lucky me!).  One day, as I was leaving the Baylor College of Medicine cafeteria, I noticed a bookshelf tucked away in the corner.  Taped to the top shelf was a sign reading “Your Free Library.”  I am always drawn to Libraries of any type, even tiny ones.  I perused the contents of the shelves, finding many magazines, medical periodicals, and quite a few books, both fiction and non-fiction, that were interesting to me.  Among these was a well-worn paperback titled Mischief, by English author Chris Wilson.  Reading the blurbs and the synopsis on the back page I was intrigued, and took the book with me.

            From the moment I began to read this novel I found myself both engaged and amused by turn, and began to really relate to the protagonist, one Charlie Duckworth.  He narrates his own tale, describing himself then his humble beginnings, where he was found beside a Brazilian river by a British botanist who brings Charlie back to the UK as his adopted son.  This book resonantly speaks to the outsider’s experience upon being thrust into British society and culture, mirroring somewhat my experience as an outsider Puerto Rican who was brought to Houston, Texas, leaving behind every bit of societal culture I understood, and having to adapt and join the alien American culture I had seen so much on TV and movies.

            Like the very best works of satire, this is one funny book.  Also, like the very best works of satire, the jokes are there to shed light upon the horror inherent in the culture being savaged.  Charlie is, in nearly all respects, the opposite of a British gentleman.  His skin is yellow, his body is hairless, and his frame is tall and gangly.  He is a devout vegetarian.  He is so overcome with empathy and sympathy for anyone who appears in pain or suffering that he unconsciously mimics their afflictions, thereby causing the very people he is sympathizing with to reject him, fearing that he is only ridiculing their woe.  He does not understand sarcasm, nor lies, nor the very British trait of extreme politeness to the point of delusion.  He sees himself as an animal, not a Homo Sapiens Sapiens human being, and the responses and reactions he receives from the British people as he maneuvers school and life only reinforce that idea.

            Charlie Duckworth is also an astute observer of humanity, sharing with the reader the many conclusions he has come to regarding the human creature and the actions of such.  Here is an example of the type of interactions Charlie had with his University professors,

            “Holzinger gave a rhesus Monkey an electric shock every time it ate a banana,” Dr. Jobson told our seminar group. “Why do you suppose he did this?

            “Was he a sadist, a psychopath?” I asked.  It seemed a rhetorical question, but I wanted to make a contribution.

            “Duckworth,” Dr. Jobson declared…”don’t be a smart-arse.  Not in my seminars.”

            “But look at it from the monkey’s point of view…” I protested.

            “The monkey doesn’t have a point of view,” he snapped.  There was this prevalent view in psychology that animals didn’t have pleasures or feelings.  There were only things that happened to them, and things they did in reflex reply – stimuli and responses.  I knew better.  Though, I didn’t say so.

            Charlie experiences much of what constitutes a “typical” British upbringing, always experiencing things in a way that exasperates the Brits around him.  They do not know how to cope with someone who has not yet assimilated all their self-delusion mechanisms.  This is very much how life is like in our modern world for anyone not interested in acquiring wealth and/or power, or for someone whose personal values are deemed worthless by the society he finds himself in.  The kind, giving, friendly person is the first victim of the mean, selfish, and antagonistic person. 

Charlie’s insights into us humans may cut deep, but they are true insights, and exceedingly valuable.  I would recommend this book to anyone who has felt marginalized by the world at large, or out of place within a world that you did not create.  I know it resonated deeply with me, and my experiences.  Author Chris Wilson has created a profound book, dripping with the sharply observed satire expected out of someone like Mark Twain or Jonathan Swift.  It is a satire for our modern age, asking what being human really means, and whether it is worth it to try.

(This book can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/Mischief-Christopher-Wilson/dp/0233987134 )

God Comes to Earth to Converse with Humans

Chats with God in Underwear – Eduardo Chapunoff (2019)

            What a weird little book!  Recently, I received a request from this author to review his book, Chats with God in Underwear (translated from the Spanish, “Charlas con Dios en Calzoncillos”), explaining its themes and topics.  I was told this book concerned a trip that God makes to Earth, and his thoughtful conversations with the people he meets.  I was immediately intrigued, especially after I saw that the author is an eminent cardiologist and prominent member of some very serious medical boards.  There are not too many cardiologists out there writing books exploring the nature of man, death, the Universe, and its creator.

            This was a quick and lively read.  The book is structured almost like a screenplay or stage play, consisting mainly of dialogue between God (who goes by the name Rogelio), and John, a man he meets upon arriving on the shores of Brazil unharmed in the middle of a hurricane.  John takes Rogelio to his beach-side home, where he is informed that Rogelio is God, and that he is interested in talking to learned people of various faiths, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Agnostic.

            The story proceeds to detail the various conversations that God/Rogelio engages in, each of them polite, but intense questions regarding their faith, their specific beliefs, and the way they view the Divine, without avoiding the pain and horror that humans suffer through and must come to grips with if they chose to believe in an all-powerful, all-good deity.  No one but John is aware of the fact that Rogelio is God, although they react to him in a way that lets you know they can sense his innate goodness and kindness.

            These conversations are great, and likely the type of self-analysis that many devout people do regularly, as they try to understand their god, their beliefs, and how it all applies to the world around us, so full of evil and pain and hate.  Many of the people that God interacts with admit as much.

            There are sections of this book where the author goes into the personal life of John, and his marital troubles, children troubles, etc.  God/Rogelio offers advice to help John in these matters, even though John is not very receptive to it.  Several asides are included which try to show the relationship John has with his three children and they are not very successful, apart from being plot devices that allow God and John to continue their conversations.  I would have preferred that these sections were omitted.

            Other than that quibble, I really enjoyed reading this, and seeing how Chapunoff imagines God would interact with the humans he meets.  Many of the questions that God poses to the people he meets are things that all of us should think about, especially the religious among us, for they can help us understand the complexity and mystery that is the world we live in, and our daily existence.  Very cool stuff.

(This book can be purchased (Kindle Edition) here: https://www.amazon.com/CHATS-GOD-UNDERWEAR-Eduardo-Chapunoff-ebook/dp/B07RD8Q4YM )

Cory Doctorow Writes Stories for the Times We Live In

Radicalized: Cory Doctorow (2019)

Four stories.  Four explorations of exceedingly plausible near-future realities.  Author, journalist, and all-around bad-ass Cory Doctorow’s new book, Radicalized, has written a quartet of tales that are not only timely and extremely relevant, but engrossing and entertaining.  This is a difficult feat, and the results are quite satisfying.

I first became aware of Mr. Doctorow through his superb articles for various online sites, many of which seek to shed light on aspects of our modern technological life which the normal, everyday consumer is not aware of, especially the obscured and malicious ways that technology is used by companies and governments to stick it to the average individual, oftentimes without their consent.  Through my reading of his essays and articles I became aware of his fiction work, and when I found out that Radicalized was to be released, I requested a review copy from Mr. Doctorow himself, who was kind enough to provide one. 

Science fiction, or as it is referred to these days, speculative fiction, can sometimes concern itself with ideas and themes so vast and deep that the individual human stories are left undeveloped.  This is understandable, and does not reduce the power of works such as these.  Huge, sweeping galactic stories allow a reader to expand their reality-tunnel, to include whole swaths of expansive consideration that would otherwise never occur.  Other science fiction tales revolve around the experience of one person, or a small group of people, and their day-to-day lives as affected by futuristic or speculative technology and science.  The four stories in Radicalized fall in this vein.

Unauthorized Bread, a personal story of a refugee in the near future and the increasingly labyrinthine technology that dictates what a person can or cannot do, even to the smallest detail of their life, starts things off.  Not only is it an affecting tale of honest yet desperate people seeking to make the best of life for themselves and their children, but it is a deeply cautionary tale about the dangers of extending endless “rights” to companies and technology, and removing those “rights” from individual consumers.  It resonated with me, as I rail against the ridiculous idea that companies are trying to force down our throats, that being that digital programs and items are not “owned” by the person that bought them, but “leased” from the corporation who sold it.  All the legal rights are transferred in this manner from the consumer to the producer.  This is evident in the rise of “Right-to-Repair” movements around the world.  In 1960, if you bought a TV, it was yours to fix, alter, customize, etc. because you purchased the item.  If you could not fix it, you could find a clever person, or a certified repairman, who could.  In 2019, if you buy an Apple product, and you choose to try and repair it yourself, the law does not protect you.  It protects Apple and essentially creates a monopoly where they control all access to their machines, repair services, software, etc.  HORROR.  They can essentially force you to purchase new items, and of course those new items will come with even stricter user contracts and restrictions.

Model Minority explores what happens when a superhero wakes up, and begins to understand that he is a tool of a corrupt system.  All it takes is deciding to swoop in and stop a group of policemen who are severely beating an older black man.  The hero’s involvement sets off a chain of events that would be very familiar to anyone who has ever studied what happens when one person, even an exceedingly GOOD person, decides to fight a system that has the ability to control how people see things, and which will lie with impunity to protect its status quo.  It also sheds light on the manner by which people actively ignore the ugly shit around them, as long as it doesn’t happen to them.  People are willing to overlook the most horrible things as long as they feel free to do so.

Radicalized is a story that would resonate with anyone who has lived with or through a loved one’s chronic illness, and had to deal with faceless corporate insurance companies whose job is to make money for their shareholders by withholding expensive treatments from the very people who pay outrageous amounts of their monthly paycheck for Health Insurance.  The rage, the feeling of impotence in the face of corporate anonymity, drives a group on an online forum for survivors to what, to them, is the logical end result.  It is a very gripping story, and sadly all-too familiar.

The Masque of the Red Death, the final story, presents us with a powerful, successful, cut-throat capitalist as he arranges plans for him and a select group of people to hole up and survive what he refers to as “The Event,” meaning the financial and social collapse of the United States.  The story does a great job of presenting the actual thoughts and reasoning behind this man’s decision making, and they shine a bright light on the qualities and traits that are sought and rewarded in the world of finance, a world where no product is created, no service is provided, and the only thing that matters is taking rich people’s money and making more money with it, while taking a fat cut for the broker.  It is a bleak tale, and will hopefully have readers thinking deeply about what truly matters in life.

This has been a good couple of months for me on the science fiction front.  I have found several new writers whose work I will explore, and whose careers I plan on following because their stories are so great.  I look forward to digging into Cory Doctorow’s previous work, and seeing where his ideas take me in the future.  I highly recommend this book.

(This book is available for purchase here: AMAZON )

My first dive into Russian literature pays off

One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1962)

      The name Alexander Solzhenitsyn was known to me.  His place among the great writers of Russian literature was something I was taught as a matter of fact.  I knew very little else than that  when I picked up this, the author’s first published work, a novella that details the happenings of an entire day, from waking to sleep, of a man imprisoned in a Soviet-era prison camp.  It was only after finishing this oddly humorous book that I looked up Solzhenitsyn’s life, and learned that, like Ivan Denisovitch, he too spent some years of his life in a Soviet prison camp.  This came after he had served with honor in the Soviet military, rising to the rank of Captain.  His crime?  It was much like all the other stupid and tyrannical “crimes” used by despots to crush their people.  He was claimed to have made seditious statements against Stalin after his private letters were intercepted and read by the Soviet government.  After he was released from the prison camps, he turned to writing and this novella was the only one of his works to be published in his native Russia.  It is a sad shame that the writing that helped him win a Nobel Prize in literature had to be published surreptitiously in the West, and smuggled back into Russia.  Down with tyrants and despots everywhere!  Burn them all down.

      In this book I found a man who had become so accustomed to his life, and it was barely life, inside the prison camps that his every single thought, from waking to sleep, was concerned with his immediate concerns and needs, with no thought given to escape or freedom, and very little thought given to the state of the world outside the prison camp’s fences.  The tone of the novel reminded me of a Russian Vonnegut, the otherwise ordinary characters matter-of-factly resigned to the stupidities and irrationality inherent in the world they inhabit, finding cold comfort in gallows humor, and seeking every single opportunity to stretch the rules, gain a tiny advantage, or finding ten minutes somewhere to try and keep warm.  Nearly every second is spent by Ivan either plotting on how to make his current situation slightly better, or in watchful fear of doing the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing, or even looking at the wrong person for fear of retribution from the camp guards. 

      As Ivan tells it, there are very few moments of true rest for the prisoners.  One of them is the first moments of wakefulness after the morning alarm has been rung.  Ivan stated that, in these fleeting minutes, still in bed, eyes still closed, and his body somewhat warm, he was “free.”  There were no obligations for these few minutes, and he tries to make them last as long as possible.  One of the other times he stated he felt free and that his time was his own, and not the state’s, was the ten minutes he was allotted to eat his servings in the mess hall during breakfast and dinner.  The hour before meals was hectic, with lines, pressing, queues, counts and recounts of prisoners, all in an attempt to feed them in an orderly fashion.  That hour of stress was relieved by the ten minutes of quiet, slow eating.  The instant he was done however, the manic thoughts and worries return. Sad but true.

      As Ivan goes through his day, Solzhenitsyn has his narrator describe the nearly-fractal levels of bureaucratic bullshit that permeated every aspect of life in these Russian prison camps.  One small example is the numbers assigned to the inmates, and painted on their hats and shirts, making it easy for the guards to single them out individually from a distance.  There were several older trustys that were permitted to paint and touch up these white numbers on a black field, for a price, and theirs was a tricky art.  They had to make sure the numbers were legible, for illegible numbers would constitute a violation and ten days in the “cage.”  However, the prisoners requested that the numbers be slightly blurred, just enough that guards further than a few meters way would have trouble reading it.  It was a delicate balance, like everything in the prison camp.  This level of insanity suffused everything in the camps.

      Solzhenitsyn does an amazing thing with this novella.  As I read it and progressed through Ivan Denisovich’s day, I became filled with a dread.  Throughout the day Ivan had managed to save himself from bad situations, plan for the day ahead, manage to finagle two bread rations, get a little tobacco, find a piece of broken hacksaw blade, and lead a work crew building masonry.  I waited for the hammer to fall.  I expected tragedy to spring forth and engulf our narrator, for everything seemed to be going as well as it could for him.  This was not to be.  Solzhenitsyn is not after that.  Instead, he shows us a “good” day, but a day not unlike the hundreds that Ivan had before, and the hundreds that were yet to come.  In this way, it really hit me how BIG this novella was.  We humans can conform to nearly every horror, and assume it as our new normal.  We can go to work and see our fellow citizens be killed and mistreated, and we see it as the normal day to day life we lead.  This nightmare, this waking delusion, is what lies at the heart of all tyranny.  In showing us a non-tragic, normal, ordinary day in the life of a normal, ordinary man, Solzhenitsyn shines a harsh light on the true tragedy involved, that hundreds of thousands of normal, ordinary people were tasked with imprisoning and torturing millions of normal, ordinary people, all at the request of a distant, rich, and aloof government.  It is a great book.

     

(This book can be purchased here:  ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH )

(When Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, he was afraid to leave the USSR and go to Stockholm for fear of not being allowed to return.  He sent in a written acceptance speech, which is amazing and well-worth reading.  The speech is found here: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1970/solzhenitsyn-lecture.html )