Bibliophile: Good Bye Asimov; Hello Shelly!

The sun sets behind the concrete jungle of buildings, here in Shipra Sun City. The only unused patch of land by the Shipra Mall and my apartment, full of wild bushes, tall trees and birds emanates its own music of returning birds and crickets. The evening tunes are occasionally pierced by the escaping songs on stereo from the Mall - I can recognize the faint lyrics of Titanium, by David Guetta, being played. All the while these sounds play with the faint, far-away background noise of traffic and hum of construction machinery.

I‘ve completed reading my book, The Rest of The Robots from Isaac Asimov. All I have to say about these short stories are that they have some good food for thought and vintage value, like a science fiction classic. The stories have ideas and story plots found almost everywhere these days and hence, they didn't amuse me much.

My Toshiba laptop had been troubling me for some time; Overheating, sudden shutdowns and now, Graphics Card failure. Got it fixed yesterday and after an hour or two it burned itself again! I fear the price of fixing that stuff and all my documents were on the system.

Though, being the paranoid I am, I had created a backup on my thumb and portable hard drives, as well as on the cloud. Had to wire my elder brother‘s obsolete PC and hook it up with my laptop‘s hard drive. Will get the work done for now. I hope my Toshiba, infamous for its heating problem, gets repaired quick enough. I've got a job interview tomorrow evening. Wish me luck readers; I‘m in dire need of it considering the pile of problems instantly materializing with the absence of my only laptop.

I‘m blogging from my cellphone so do excuse my typos and other errors.

Now, I‘ll pick up that new book still in packing paper that I had ordered off Amazon; “Frankenstein“.

Here‘s a link to the book I‘m going to start reading.

http://www.amazon.in/gp/aw/d/0007350961/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1384096088&sr=1-2&pi=SL75

I was biased to this print primarily because of its appealing cover art. (Now, don‘t remind me about that old saying on book contents and covers.)

Even though I know the sketches and themes of the story from pop-culture but, you truly don‘t know, until you've seen it for yourself.

Bibliophilia: Bond...Ruskin Bond!

Got my hands on a short story collection of Ruskin Bond, the famous Indian children's story writer. This collection is titled, "Potpourri", which means "a mixture of things" or "a mixture of dried petals and spices placed in a bowl to perfume a room". Origin, French - a rotten pot.

The meaning and the origin are the courtesy of The Oxford Pocket English Dictionary which I have here by my computer table with its hard-covers ripped off with a few pages indexing the words initialized by 'Z', missing. There is nothing more satisfying to a reader (and a writer) than a worn and dilapidated dictionary. It is...so fulfilling. Just by looking at it for a few microseconds you begin to feel proud/content with your vocabulary and literary achievements. If placed on a coffee table or somewhere in the living room, it will surely elicit praise and admiration from your guests and friends, as a symbol of your literacy and knowledge. (Irrespective of the fact that I have weak spelling retention but, a great meaning retention capacity.)

This gives me an idea...(link to my another post on the digressing idea, in order to keep the blog posts themes and premise in a more consistent and terse fashion).

Returning, to Ruskin Bond, short stories at hand. Ruskin Bond's stories that I've read right now are: "Our Great Escape", "Gone Fishing", "Susanna's Seven Husbands". Some of the stories of which I have some recollections are: "The Girl on The Train", "The Earthquake" and the poem: "Do you believe in Ghosts?".

Currently, my personal favorite of Ruskin Bond is "The Girl on The Train". Hush! I need not whisper anything about it, or, it'll become a spoiler! Short stories are more delicate than novels, you know.

This book happens to be with Ruskin Bond's personal commentary appended with the stories and a recent introduction (July 2007). A lot of funny idiosyncrasies and genuine humor is sprinkled in the introduction. His ideas and thoughts in the introduction are thought worthy and must be reflected upon.

The stories I have read are beautifully simple, lucid and yet rich with realism and emotion. Best fit for children's short stories and some deep thought provoking questions for us mature readers, too. Nonetheless, I am having a nice time reliving my childhood days and his life experiences via his narratives. I gotta buy me one of those hard-bound complete collections of Ruskin Bond as well as the complete short stories of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, by Agatha Christie.

I also am continuing my reading of Isaac Asimov's "The Rest of the Robots", already, mentioned in my previous blog post. (Link appended at the end.) This time completing the Section 2, titled "The Laws of Robotics" comprising of two shorts: "The First Law" and "Let's Get Together". I also, chanced upon an e-comic with the first three collected issues of "Transmetropolitan", one of the great graphic novels ever made.

Though not famous, Transmetropolitan, directly touches issues of grave importance in the current world spiraling towards becoming, Police States with growing corruption and injustice. It also, in the first three issues, beautifully shows the effects of alienating segments of society, discrimination, civil unrest/strife and the cruel actions of the government. Facts, themes and ideas that no longer are mere fiction but, now, resonate with recent world events and sociopolitical situation. And, the comic series being a Vertigo imprint is geared towards mature readers.

Meanwhile, delving deeper in, Asimov's, "The First Law", short story which records the first ever event of a robot's decision to override the hard-wired "First Law" which is;

"A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm."

This overriding was due to the fact that it had begun to feel emotions and love (and subsequent attachment) which made it disregard the First Law in order to fulfill the demands of Love. I re-think this simple idea in the human context. Isn't this the very rule we violate in order to fulfill the demands of our love and other relationships. Isn't love the reason that one will go to war against someone else or avoid saving others in order to protect one's own self-interest (lovers, attachments etc)?

In turn that our attachments are the reason we will violate logically foolproof rules of peaceful self-existence. Doesn't the thief punished by law become a victim of circumstance and fate when his family is starving in poverty? Then why is Justice, blind? And, if it always meant to be blind then why do we tolerate such a system and not evolve it to incorporate the greater aspects of guilt, blame, sin and forgiveness.

Does that mean our self-interest is short-sightedness and our attachments are shackles binding us to err? Or is our defiance of this law, for short term self-interest truly or appropriately rewarding for us? Does this mean that we will always, sooner or later discriminate against someone or the other in order to favor those whom we are attached to (emotionally, socially etc)?

Maybe, this makes me feel a little comfortable with myself and my personal philosophy of perfect detachment and stoicism. Without emotions one will always make correct decisions but, then we also need humanity and morals to guide our laws and decisions for the greater good.

The other story, "Let's Get Together", is a modest mystery story with some adequate logical argument, mystery, challenge and strategy set in a fictional futuristic world of prolonged Cold War between the East and West (referred as "Them and Us"). Short, but, decent considering the age it was written in. Though, modern day marvels like Death Note, the Japanese Manga/Anime would make this look like ancient obsolete flint tools.

Books Discussed:

1. Potpourri by Ruskin Bond (Mixed Bag of Fiction, Autobiography, Poetry, Romance, Mystery, Supernatural, Horror and Humor)
2. The Rest of The Robots by Issac Asimov (Science-Fiction, Classic, Robots)
3. Transmetropolitan by Warren Ellis - Vertigo (Comic, Mature, Dystopian Future, Social and Political Satire, Science Fiction)
4. The Oxford Pocket English Dictionary - Oxford University Press

Books Mentioned:

1. Complete short stories of Miss Marple by Agatha Christie.
2. Complete short stories of Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie.
3. Death Note a famous manga and anime.

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Bibliophilia: Asimov, Milton and More...

Been reading some real hard-copy books now a days after a long long time. The last hard-copy book I read out of my college curriculum was "Mysterious Mr.Quin" by Agatha Christie, a collection of mystery and crime themed short stories with a mystical twist. That was way back in '09, I believe. Since then I read a few e-books, but, nothing beats the smell and touch of printed paper. The feel of a book in my hands actually starts background thought processes, I feel, within me that gives me an immersive experience. Ideas, imagination and links with existing knowledge is formed. Meanwhile reading a digitized e-book version is an ersatz; It maintains an elusive detachment and requires greater concentration and effort to grasp the text. I'll blog in another post on my recently read e-books.

  

I picked up two books from an airport bookstore on my way back to Patna from Delhi. The first was an earlier read book, "33 Strategies of War" by Robert Greene; A very good book which assimilates and distills 33 strategies of war from history. Superfluous with facts and beautifully informative side-notes running parallel stories, from history, in depth with relation to references in the main text. I had read this book earlier when in High School. I had borrowed it for almost a year from my elder cousin brother and had to return it with a lot of text unread, not understood or, now, forgotten. This time, I am working through it slowly and memorizing the narrated stories and strategies for longer retention. (Thanks to a couple of memorization tricks and techniques I've mastered. Though, I'll not be

able to memorize the text verbatim.) 

 

The second book I bought was "The Rest of The Robots" by Isaac Asimov, the classic science-fiction writer. His works mostly have a robot theme with a socio-philosophical premise. It is a collection of short stories by Asimov. There was an offer going that time of 3 books for the price of 2 by the publishers Harper Collins, but, I did not find any other intriguing book by Asimov or any other author that would've made a set of three. (The other book with multiple copies was I,Robot by Asimov which I had seen as a movie starring Will Smith.) Hence, I settled for this one only. 

I, a few minutes ago, completed it's 1st set of stories from it's three groups; "The Coming of The Robots". Novel and decently humorous, I'll rate them. A lot of fancy science buzz-words have been sprinkled, as was common in those days (I'm talking about the 1940s, people!), which does not quite impress or affect me as was it's intention for readers then. Maybe due to my exposure and understanding of a lot of modern day science and science-fiction, makes it taste a little bland. Still, the stories do give an entertaining experience, considering the time they were written in, and ignoring my encyclopaedic knowledge of science-fiction.

This book that I bought also combines introductions by Isaac Asimov, himself, which explains the themes and premise he has structured his stories upon. He refers to Frankenstein and Faust to have primarily forced his thoughts and story themes to go in the direction they took. I am very much aware and know of both Frankenstein and Faust but, personally have not read any of these works (other than in cartoon and comic variants, especially in DC Comics). Faust is primarily a supernatural, moral and horror themed story while Frankenstein is based in horror and rudimentary science.

Personally, I found the short, "Victory Unintentional", quite amusing considering people of the characteristics and mindset of the Jovians (Dwellers of Jupiter) do exist. Go read the story if you want to know. Here's a link to the book on Amazon. (And, that is because some good products are Fulfilled Amazon; which means they personally package, send/receive in case of returns for free and is eligible for cash on delivery. Meanwhile, Flipkart still sucks. Good luck paying extra 

while you could've saved it for some other book.) 

 

I've also picked up John Milton's poem-book, "Paradise Lost", which makes it a difficult read. (But, thankfully not as difficult as "You're not a Gadget".) Old style poem-prose with Biblical theme and cast of characters, unknown to the modern eastern reader, would make it an instant turn-off. Though my knowledge of the myths, supernatural and religious materials is great enough to create sensory overloads, the book still is a slow read. The prime reason I'm reading this is due to its protagonist. The protagonist of the story is Satan and the entire Biblical chain of events and theology is narrated and shown from his perspective which makes for an interesting read. Plus, it has some really fancy texts. Take this for instance;

A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.

Then there is one really strong rebellious dialogue worth thought;

Better to reign in Hell than serve Heaven.

But, what a great/foolish/masochistic decision, I'd say!! Reminds me of the concluding conversation between Dean Winchester and Castiel in Supernatural TV Series Season 5 Episode 22: Swan Song. (I'd recommend you to see the series from the start but, you can also gather enough emotion for this thought provoking reply by watching only seasons 2/3 to 5). Owning a hard copy of Paradise Lost does make it good for underlining texts. So, here's the link; (Be forewarned! I don't know which themes does it touch as I've not read it entirely yet. Just gotten my feet wet and this is a freaking long poem running 280 pages and was initially published as a set of 10 books back in the year 1667, and you thought Harry Potter was unnecessarily long?) Finally, I've been skimming the various models in the book, "The Decision Book" by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler, another non-fictional semi-technical book. Got it from Amazon, hardcover and all at only Rs149!! (One, of the reasons for my new allegiance to Amazon India.) Good book but, not for everyone. So, watch out and make sure it's worth your cash. For (a confused, a million thoughts & ideas a moment - brainstorm afflicted guy) me, it was totally worth it. Learned and tried out the first Eisenhower Matrix.

Books Discussed:

1. 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene (Non-Fiction, History, Strategy)
2. The Rest of The Robots by Isaac Asimov (Science-Fiction, Classic, Robots)
3. Paradise Lost by John Milton (Long Poem, Classic, Biblical)

Books Mentioned:

1. The Mysterious Mr.Quin by Agatha Christie (Mystery, Crime, Enigma/Paranormal)
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (Science-Fiction, Horror) - I must read later.
3. Faust by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (Supernatural, Horror ??)- I must read later.
4. The Decision Book by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschappeler (Non-Fiction, Meta-thinking, Life, Mind)