The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (4.5-5)

I’d read Jules Verne before (Journey to the Center of the Earth esp), but you think I’d have read the other author who founded the field of science fiction as well. but I’d never read The Time Machine, or The Island of Dr. Moreau, or The Invisible Man. good gravy, what have I been up to all these years?!

ok. I’d seen the movie. even the recent movie that by Wells’ descendant that scandalized everyone. but I’d never read the book.

it’s not the same (shock!) as the movie; of course I knew that, but I didn’t realize how much they added in the movies. I didn’t realize they’d added the clothes shop bit with the changing manequin. and I hadn’t thought about it, but of course they added the part where the stopped during a World War (can’t remember which movie, but the old one I guess)- the book was written long before the World Wars.

in the book, he doesn’t stop at all before he reaches the land of the Eloi & Murdocks.

I didn’t realize they’d cut out part of the ending, either. he actually goes further into time and sees the ultimate fate of the planet, in the book.

and Weena’s fate is a bit different, as well.

his prose is intriguing and engaging. here are a couple quotes to show you what I mean, and I’ll leave you with an urging to read the book:

(1) ”...there was that luxurious after-dinner atmosphere when thought runs gracefully free of the trammels of precision.”

(78) “Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into an unknown future.”

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists

The Stranger, by Albert Camus (5)

from the back cover: “A terrifying picture of a man victimized by life itself”

wow. apparently the reviewer/publisher missed the point of the book. ???

the French philosopher (and great writer, btw) Albert Camus gives us a main character, the narrator, who feels no attachment to the world, no real emotions to speak of at all. he is a man that lives entirely in the present, with hardly any thought to the future, and no real thought to the past. he is very “in the moment”, or rather, caught up in the physical sensations of the moment, and, even though he is an educated, intelligent, hard working man- he does not reflect on his world or his actions or his own self.

and because of this, his life takes what at first seems to be a dramatic turn, leading to his ultimate undoing. looking back, however, it was hardly inevitable after all.

Camus is making a point. it is not enough to live “in the moment”. the moment is connected to the past and future; the moment exists in a greater context with all of time and with all other people in the moment. and emotions play a great role in this; they are our connections to the world.

Meursault (Mer-soh) _{(Camus= ca-moo)} is, from the start, a very odd fellow because of his disconnection from life, even as he is immersed in the sensations of the moment. what he is disconnected from, ultimately, is any kind of purpose whatsoever. he makes choices passively, not kenning moral issues or what most of us would call basic humanity. but he is not a victim. Meursault makes choices, and he faces the consequences of his choices and his actions. to think of him as a victim is to misunderstand as much of Meursault’s life as Meursault did himself.

this is a very thought-provoking piece; if it interests you, you might read also The Fall by Camus (wherein the main character reflects too much and is thus out of balance with his life ina different way). or look up existentialism in general :D

See more progress on: read all the books on my lists

The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad. rating=4ish

The Secret Sharer, by Joseph Conrad (in same book as Heart of Darkness)

It is a good story, and good writing, if a bit heavily underscored. Joseph Conrad is a bit dark for my tastes (gasp!) but I recommend it :)

The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka. rating=5

click above for story

or here: http://www.mala.bc.ca/~Johnstoi/stories/kafka-E.htm

this is another 5 :)

it’s very short; not even a hundred pages. (and as such I don’t want to quote it much.) it’s a perfect example of the absurd, and of our absurd human tendencies in life.

the story is about Gregor Samsa, who, in the very first sentence, wakes up to find that he has been transformed into a hideous bug.

in fact, it is very like Nikolai Gogol’s story The Nose, in which a man wakes up to find that his nose is not on his face. The Nose is about the man looking all over to find his nose, because he just cannot figure where it has gotten off to, and we are never enlightened as to how this could have come about, really, only that apparently it could happen to anyone. and when the man finally does find his nose, it’s dressed in a uniform [etf freudian slip: I put it was wearing an overcoat; this was the title of another of Gogol's short stories!] walking down the street. the man says, in effect, “Hey, aren’t you my nose?!?”, but, poor fellow, he is of such a low station in life that even his own nose is of higher rank than he is, and it does not deign to stop and talk with him.

in The Metamorphosis, Gregor has been turned into a hideous vermin, some sort of monstrous beetley-cockroach thing, but keeps his human, travelling-salesman, dutiful son and brother mind. and we never know how or why he was changed into a bug, and it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose whatsoever. but Gregor, who has slept through the alarm, what with being changed into a different life form and all, is of course very concerned with the most pressing of urgencies: getting to work and apologizing for missing the early train. and, of course, Gregor is quite depressed and melancholy: about the rainy weather.

the scene where the manager comes to Gregor’s house to find out what’s going on is horrible and amazingly comic: here we have Gregor as a giant roach trying to convince his boss that he really is a good employee, and he’ll be back on the job at no time at all.

the second half of the work is perhaps a bit darker but all the more enlightenting and bizarre. for such a ridiculous prospect, Kafka makes very bold and enduring statements about family, self-identity, alienation, guilt, and literature/ being a writer.

apparently people have built careers around analyzing Franz Kafka’s work, esp this story, and I can see why. I say read it :)

this might come in handy later on --- longueur

The Word of the Day for September 10 is:

longueur \lawn-GUR (approximation -- this word comes from French and has sounds with no English equivalents)\ noun
: a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition) -- usually used in plural

Example sentence:
“This production has its occasional longueurs, but glorious singing and energetic choreography quickly rope us back in." (Rick Rogers, _The Oklahoman_, June 28, 2007)

Did you know?
You’ve probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn’t know there was a word for them. English speakers began using the French borrowing “longueurs” in the late 18th century. In French, “longueurs” are tedious passages, and “longueur” literally means “length.” The first recorded use of “longueur” in English comes from the writer Horace Walpole, who wrote in a letter, “Boswell’s book is gossiping;… but there are woful longueurs, both about his hero and himself.”

Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian. rating= 5.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian


ok, I must admit: I just wrote this entire long review about how brilliant the book and the author are, and then the computer froze up and I lost it all and now I'm very frustrated.

I saw the movie in the theater; I loved the detail of the story and how they filmed it. I'd never heard of it otherwise. I realized that my friend had read the books and recommended them, so I put it on my reading list. I didn't know there were over 20 books in the series and that the first was published before I was born! I also didn't realize that the movie was not the same as the book. how innocent I was.

the movie is called Master and Commander: Far Side of the World. there is a book in the series called The Far Side of the World; I thought they had just skipped to that story (ten books in, no less!) and started there. but no, they combined story elements from the first book with places and events from the tenth book. quite ridiculous and totally unnecessary: Master and Commander stands very well on its own, thank you, and needs no cinematic reinterpretation.

here we have the young Jack Aubrey, in 1800, promoted to Master and Commander and given his first ship in the British Navy, right after he has just met the coincidentally Irish Dr. Stephen Maturin, and right away things manage to run quite sprightly. the book follows several trips and tours; battles at sea and on land, both won and lost; as well as a court-marshalling. we get to see the inner workings of several different characters (I of course esp find Dr. Maturin interesting), the development of the haphazhard collection of men into a well-honed crew, the political realities between esp Aubrey and his superiors and equals. for starters.

the detail is damn near immaculate, even if there is a little acknowledged liberty taken, the humanity of the characters is profound, the flow of the story sweeps you up and carries you away just like the proverbial ship. the language is attractive and O'Brian shows such deep insight... read it :)

(and btb, I must add that I love the idea of "calms". oh please do forgive me; I grew up in the middle of the United States, the desert no less, and seafaring terms are a new world as far as I'm concerned. well, if we have "storms", then we most certainly can have "calms". and in fact in my house, a "calm" is just as useful a term as it is rare an occurence. )

173. ... I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind - it is my own truth alone - but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman.

177. I have never yet known a man admit that he was either rich or asleep: perhaps the poor man and the wakeful man have some great moral advantage. How does it arise?

250. "You danced?" cried Jack, far more astonished than if Stephen had just said "as we ate our cold roast baby."
"Certainly I danced. Why would I not dance, pray?"
"Certainly you are to dance - most uncommon graceful, I am sure. I only wondered... but did you indeed go about dancing?"

309. ... and after Stephen had been bumped into once or twice and had "By your leave, sir" and "Way there - oh parding, sir" roared into his ear often enough, he walked composedly into the cabin, sat on Jack's locker and reflected upon the nature of a community - its reality - its difference from every one of the individuals composing it - communication within it, how effected.

336. A blur, and a sense of oppression; a feeling more of the x's defeat than of the Sophie's victory; and exhausted perpetual hurrying, as though that were what life really consisted of. A fog punctuated by a few brilliantly clear scenes.

341. He had seen looks of unfeigned respect, good will and admiration upon the faces of seamen and junior officers passing in the crowded street; and two commanders senior to him, unlucky in prizes and known to be jealous, had hurried across to make their compliments, handsomely and with good grace.
He walked in, up the stairs to his room, threw off his coat and sat down. "This must be what they call the vapours," he said, trying to define something happy, tremulous, poignant, churchlike and not far from tears in his heart and bosom.

390. I was strangely upset today, I must confess, and I need what is it? The knitting up of ravelled care?

(and now I'm off to add the other twenty books to my "to-read list". I hope they are all as good as this!)