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Sunday, November 07, 2004 |
Gateway
The other day, John Robb posted a blind link to an Amazon page on Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, saying something to the effect that it was his favorite science fiction novel. I haven't read this Sterling, so I requested it from the library. But when he said "favorite," that must have stuck in my head, as favorite science fiction novel is actually something I think about from time to time.
One of the best science fiction novels I've ever read was Frederik Pohl's Gateway. The thing that Gateway does very well, and which not enough science fiction aspires to do, is to meld the personal and the cosmic into a seamless whole. The cosmic -- in this case, the discovery of a hugh supply of mysterious, working artifacts from an earlier interstellar civilization -- effects the people in the story, and the people in turn effect how the mystery of the cosmic is plumbed. Pohl wrote several sequels, the best of which is the first, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon.
So yesterday I was sitting in the theatre, watching Eurydice, and I was reminded of the really poignant and startling scene that happens at the core of Gateway (read no further if you don't want an ending spoiled). At the climax of the book, a spaceship carrying the main character of the book, Robinette Braodhead, is trapped in the pull of a black hole. In order to escape the clutches of the black hole, Broadhead must jettison a pod carrying other members of his crew, including his wife. It's an intense scene. Later, in consultation with his robotic shrink, Broadhead plumbs the depths of his misery. He has forgiven himself for jettisoning the pod -- he knows that he had to do it. He also knows that his wife knew he had to do it, and has forgiven him, even as she has fallen into the black hole. But what tortures him is that, due to the time-dilation effects of the gravity at the black hole, time there is moving thousands of times slower than it is to Broadhead. Thus, while his life has continued past that moment, his wife is still experiencing it. That moment is still "now" for her. It's moving stuff, and in it Pohl combines relativity with human, emotional existence. I was thinking of this during the theatre yesterday, because of the connection between Orpheus looking bak to see Eurydice departing him into the underworld, caused by his looking back, and the similarity of Broadhead looking down at his wife falling into the black hole. I'd never considered this connection before -- after all, I read Gateway years and years ago. I don't know if Pohl meant it to be there, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, here's a funny thing: when the play was over, I stopped in to a science fiction bookstore in the neighborhood, The Other Change of Hobbit. I quickly spotted on the new books shelf, a Frederik Pohl novel: The Boy Who Would Live Forever. Surprisingly, this is another sequel to Gateway, so I picked it up. It was really surprising to me, as Pohl hadn't published in a long time, and I had no idea the book was coming. A nice coincidence and a pleasant suprise. Oh, and I've read half the novel, and while so far it's no Gateway, it is starting out very well, and has big themes (vast time) in mind.
10:44:59 PM Permalink
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Foods for depression
Foods for depression: "
complex carbohydrates (boosts serotonin activity in the brain):Broccoli, Rice, brown, Potatoes, Blackberries, Pasta, wheat, Squash, winter
folic acid (deficient in people who are depressed): Asparagus, Beets, Spinach, Avocados, Brussels sprouts, Bok choy, Cabbage, Savoy, Beans, dried, Chick-peas, Soybeans, Lentils, Oranges, Peas, fresh, Turkey, Broccoli
magnesium (acts as a muscle relaxant): Spinach, Chocolate, Pumpkin seeds, Oysters, Sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, Amaranth, Buckwheat, Avocados, Quinoa, Almonds, Barley
niacin (nerve cell function, relieving depression as well as feelings of anxiety and panic): Rice, brown, Chicken, Pomegranates, Tuna, Lamb, Wheat, Turkey
omega-3 fatty acids (a building block of human brain tissue): Salmon, Trout, Tuna
(Via Foodgoat ... something tasty every day.)
9:46:55 PM Permalink
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The War on Words
Excellent Philip Pullman piece on the war on reading. Religion, he says, isn't the problem, it's theocracy, and has been proved in this century, "you don't need religion to have a theocracy...The root of the matter is quite different. It is that theocracies don't know how to read, and democracies do." I started to grab some text to quote, but ended up grabbing the whole thing. Better that you read it right now. Dang, but I've got to read Pullman's novels.
9:44:18 PM Permalink
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Eurydice
Yesterday I saw Sarah Ruhl's play Eurydice at Berkeley Rep. Ruhl is new to me, not surprisingly, but this was a very effective and moving play. It tells the story of Eurydice and Orpheus concentrating on Eurydice's experience, unlike most versions of the story, which concentrate on Orpheus. After a few scenes of Eurydice and Orpheus together before her death, the play spends most of its time in the underworld, examining her relationship with the living world, and with her dead father. The play was very well written, well acted, and staged very effectively and imaginatively. Oddly, the scene where Orpheus looks back as he leaves the underworld, thus losing Eurydice for good, was for me not as affective as it might have been, perhaps it was something in the staging. The scenes that followed were moving, about memory and the decision to give up memory. A good portrayal of death and leaving life. The play has only a week left to run at the Rep, but I highly recommend the effort to see it. And tomorrow I'll write about an amusing coincidence that happened after the play. And I suppose I'll write a bit about the not so amusing poker game last night.
9:28:34 PM Permalink
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JEFFERSON
JEFFERSON: ""A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over,
their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight,
restore their government to its true principles.
"It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and
incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt.
"If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till
luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the
principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-- Thomas Jefferson, in a letter of 1798, after the passage of the Sedition
Act.
"
(Via Gibson Blog.)
2:37:33 PM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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