May 11, 2011
Reading 2011, vol 2
Wow. Forgot about these a bit. But then I haven’t been reading much.
Paul Bowles, Magic and Morocco – Allen Hibbard
Odd little volume examining Bowles as a North African magician. Part exploration of different literary evocations of Morocco, part travelogue, part biography (almost hagiography), part autobiography; on the whole feels like it is dancing around a mystery that cannot be spoken of, aided by a stellar supporting cast of glittering fame who appear in fragments, move on and off-stage to an unheard beat. A mysterious little book to exist.
The Art of Memetics – Wes Unruh and Edward Wilson
Breathlessly excited hyper-intellectualised fun romp through memes, mind, and the magic of systems. Signs of occasional brilliance amidst lots of gibberish.
Fight Club – Chuck Pahluniak
Finally got around to reading the novel which birthed one of my favourite movies. It is darker and more nihilistic than the film, and the ending is substantially less feel-good. The film remains such a strong imprint in my mind that the book’s impact was inevitably lessened. There were few surprises left. Some cracking lines though.
The Neuroscience of Religious Experience – Patrick McNamara
Skimmed. What it sounds like.
Darwin, God, and the Meaning of Life – Steve Stewart-Williams
Clever, accessible, and well written, but ultimately the way he defines god renders all the evolutionary arguments against god irrelevant if you have a more eastern conception of god. Parallels aspects of my own arguments in C&R in interesting ways given our philosophical differences.
Herzog on Herzog.
Skimmed. Book of interviews with Werner Herzog. What more could you want?
The Crippled God – Steven Erikson
Tenth and concluding volume (at least of Erikson’s sequence) of the Malazan Book of the Fallen. This is the series that has kept me interested and engaged as an adult returning to fantasy.
Fuck knows what to say at the end of a 3.5 million word journey. This the longest sustained work I have ever read. I guess it was worth it. Definitely, encountering these characters, these races, these vistas, has enriched my life in some way. The one time I actually encountered someone else who had read all of what was then out, we didn’t really talk about it at all, just sat with a kind of knowing silence filled with shared experience between us.
The defining work of modern epic fantasy, certainly. Vast, extraordinary, and wonderful, definitely. Funny, dark, cunningly plotted, and all too human? Yup. Apparently they are at work on an encyclopedia of the Malazan world, which will bloody well help. (The scale of the thing cannot be exaggerated.)
One of the few works of fantasy capable of changing the way you see the world purely through an appreciation of impermanence and historic time. Plus a tonne of philosophical asides to keep you busy, a thousand tangled perspectives. Apparently he gets some flack for being too nihilistic – the series goes some dark places, and the last two books were hellishly bleak and grinding – but that is a very thin reading of what he puts across.
Anyway. In this book, a lot is tied up, but many questions remain unanswered. There are three more books to come from Esslemont, and some sense Erikson will write some kind of distant past prequels.
Not sure if/when I would reread the set, just because it is so colossal. More likely to browse it, as it repays browsing; many interactions and conversations are pieces of the puzzle that are scattered across the many years covered, and will read differently knowing the shape of the whole; and are frankly wonderful in themselves.
Report on Experience – John Mulgan
Somewhere between a war diary and psychological observation on NZ, England, politics, life, etc. The first few chapters are brilliant and probably necessary for any Kiwis as the shrewdest observation of NZ’s national character I have read. The last chapters are about the most grounded perspective on humanity I have read.
In Arabian Nights – Tahir Shah
Sequel to The Caliph’s House, reviewed back here. Travel writing by a dude living in Morocco. This time he delves deep into the nature of story and storytelling and what they mean for us. (Crazily, this time I realised his father was Idries Shah, which throws a whole new spin on all the anecdotes, and the relationship he has to story. (Idries Shah published at least four books of Sufi teaching stories, among other things.))
Anyone who wants to grasp my fascination with Morocco – an oriental minded world of Arabs living amidst a desert, mountains, the sea and a decaying European facade with a native history and belief system that still rules – would be rewarded by picking either of these books up as exceptional evocations of the modern Moroccan mind. Plus they are awesome and funny.
Filed by billy at 1:34 am under reading
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