All reviews copyright 1984-2008 Evelyn C. Leeper.
THE GREAT MOVIES by Roger Ebert:
Roger Ebert quotes only the best in his book THE GREAT MOVIES. (See his article on "Star Wars" for an example of what I mean.) But though his selection of a hundred films which he calls "Great Movies" is sure to generate the arguments and discussions that such lists always do, I found myself reading only the articles about films I had already seen. Maybe it was that the other films were so uncommon that it was unlikely I would *ever* see them. (Many were foreign films, and not always as well known as Bergman's or Kurosawa's.) I suppose I prefer books that discuss influences and trends rather than films in (semi-)isolation.
To order The Great Movies from amazon.com, click here.
A KISS IS STILL A KISS by Roger Ebert:
Roger Ebert's A KISS IS STILL A KISS doesn't have a thematic thread running through it, but since it is a collection of interviews that were never part of a single theme, that's less of a problem. It's also Ebert's first book, so the style is a lot less polished than his later books.
To order A Kiss Is Still a Kiss from amazon.com, click here.
The Book of Ecclesiastes/The Book of Job:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 01/27/2006]
Our discussion group this month discussed the books of "Ecclesiastes" and "Job". As well as talking about the content, we talked about various translations as well: I had been reading the King James version, the New International Version (with annotations), the Jewish Publication Society translation, and the Catholic version (Douai/Confraternity). The latter was the most modern sounding of the four, even though it was the second oldest. We also talked about how the works get abridged. For example, during World War II, the United States Army published "Bibles" for the troops to carry in their shirt pockets. These were a New Testament for the Christians and an abridged Jewish Scriptures ("Old Testament") for the Jews. (I do not know if they had differing versions of the New Testament for Catholics and Protestants.) Obviously, the Jewish Scriptures had to be abridged--they would need really, really thin paper to make the whole thing fit in a shirt pocket. So for the "Job", they kept the first couple of chapters, the last couple of chapters (mostly), and cut the entire center section with Job's four "friends"! And of course we discovered the source of all sorts of sayings, phrases, and titles, as well as the inspiration for such authors as Roger Zelazny ("A Rose for Ecclesiastes") and James Morrow (BLAMELESS IN ABADDON, reviewed in the 10/11/1996 issue of the MT VOID).
THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 04/08/2005]
I watched the film THE NAME OF THE ROSE recently, so I decided to re-read the Umberto Eco novel (ISBN 0-156-00131-4). The movie was actually a fairly decent adaptation, as these things go. But a lot of the theological discussion had to be cut, and they had to give it a Hollywood ending (i.e., the library still burns, but the girl survives). This is similar to the adaptation of THE CLUB DUMAS by Arturo Perez-Reverte into the film THE NINTH GATE. In that, one reason for the title change was that the entire Alexander Dumas thread was dropped. I suppose that means we could still see a movie called THE CLUB DUMAS which contains that thread. Somehow, though, I doubt there will be another movie of THE NAME OF THE ROSE containing the theological threads.
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THE SIGN OF THREE: DUPIN, HOLMES, PEIRCE edited by Umberto Eco and Thomas A. Sebeok (Indiana University Press, ISBN 0-253-20487-9, 1983/1988, 236pp, trade paperback).
This collection of ten essays centers around the idea of $quot;abduction.$quot; Abduction appears to be a term coined by Charles S. Peirce to signify what might be considered the third side of the triangle whose other two sides are induction and deduction. (Peirce was an American philosopher of the late 19th Century and the founder of the pragmatic movement.) Abduction (also called retroduction) does not attempt, as do induction and deduction, to predict the future, but rather to explain the past. Peirce used a bag of beans to explain the three forms:
Peirce also apparently posited that we have a tendency to guess correctly about the world. (If that were true, why do we have so many contradictory religions--or scientific theories?) He further claimed that this was due to our subconscious reading of $quot;clues$quot; that we don't consciously recognize.
The application of all this to Holmes's methods is obvious. (Dupin, in spite of top billing, is not as much in evidence in these essays.) Holmes's deductive methods are clearly abduction, and his ability to take details unnoticed by others and $quot;guess$quot; correctly from them certainly helps support Peirce's claim (if the doings of a fictional character can be said to support a real-life claim--but then Holmes's observational talents were derived from the real-life Dr. Bell's, who is discussed in one of the essays).
The essays provide an explanation of Peirce's theories and then apply them to the various Sherlockian stories, as well as to other uses. (The most interesting was a discussion of Giovanni Morelli's method of attributing artworks, and its application to $quot;The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.$quot;) At times descending (or ascending) into the academically abstruse, these essays nonetheless provide valuable insights into Holmes's methods even for the non-academic reader. This is not the first analysis of Sherlock Holmes I would recommend that someone read, but for those familiar with the more common studies, this would be an interesting next step.
To order The Sign of Three: Holmes, Dupin, Peirce from amazon.com, click here.
WAR OF THE WORLDS by adapted and abridged by Ian Edginton and illustrated by D'Israeli:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 01/27/2006]
The Darkhorse Comics version of H. G. Wells's WAR OF THE WORLDS, adapted and abridged by Ian Edginton and illustrated by D'Israeli is now complete on-line at: http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/wotw/wotw_popup.php?p=. (It will also be released as a hardcover book in February 2006, ISBN 1-59307-474-3.) Edginton and D'Israeli previously collaborated on a sequel, SCARLET TRACES (ISBN 1-56971-940-3).
In my review of the original Wells novel in the 07/08/05 issue of the MT VOID, I discussed some of the anti-Semitic phrases that disappeared in later editions. In the Darkhorse version, D'Israeli takes the revision a step further, and portrays as Jewish the family that shelters and cares for the narrator after the Martians have been defeated. An interesting touch, though one wonders if Wells would have approved.
To order Darkhouse's War of the Worlds from amazon.com, click here.
WITTGENSTEIN'S POKER by David Edmonds and John Eidinow:
David Edmonds and John Eidinow's WITTGENSTEIN'S POKER spends much more time on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper, and other twentieth century philosophers than it does on the actual meeting of Wittgenstein and Popper in which Wittgenstein may or may not have threatened Popper with a fireplace poker. In some ways, trying to resolve what happens is representative of their philosophical differences.
(For those who don't know, Wittgenstein and Popper met once, in a meeting of a philosophical discussion group. The discussion turned into an argument and Wittgenstein picked up a fireplace poker and either waved it around for emphasis or threatened Popper with it, depending on whom you ask.)
When Wittgenstein and Popper were both back in Austria, there was created "the Vienna Circle" of philosophers. It claimed that only two kinds of statements were meaningful. The first were those "inherently" true, either by definition (e.g., "All triangles have three sides"), or as syllogisms (e.g., "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; Therefore Socrates is mortal.") The second are those which are empirical and verifiable (e.g., "It is raining outside now.") All other statements were meaningless.
The first major problem pointed out to this was Hempel's Paradox. That is, consider the statement "all ravens are black." To verify this one would presumably go out and look at ravens. If the raven was black, this would support that statement. But the statement is identical to "all non-black objects are not ravens," so presumably anything supporting *that* would also support "all ravens are black." So looking at a red object and discovering that it was a rose rather than a raven should help verify "all ravens are black." (And it would also presumably support "all ravens are white" as well!)
There was also the observation that observing a million ravens which were black really didn't tell you anything about the million-and-first. (This is the Problem of Induction.)
But Popper really gave the theory the coup-de-grace when he pointed out that the claim of the Vienna Circle was neither inherently true, nor empirical and verifiable. Hence it was meaningless, so why were they wasting their time on it?!
(He tried substituting the notion of "falsifiability," but it's not clear that got philosophers much further.)
Anyway, the argument that Wittgenstein and Popper got into was whether there were any philosophical problems at all (Popper's claim), or whether they all boiled down to puzzles and definitons (Wittgenstein's position).
Wittgenstein is certainly the better known of the two these days, although Popper may have done work with more relevance. I would love to read his work THE OPEN SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES, but it's a bit pricey (and apparently only volume 1 of the two volumes is even in print--ironically, my library system has only volume 2!). One of his main points in that seems to be that it isn't as important to create a political system in which the people can choose the government so much as one in which people can *remove* the government without a civil war. (Example: Hitler was chosen by democratic vote, but there was no provision for removing him.)
One final note: The authors observe that Wittgenstein was a major philosopher of the twentieth century--perhaps *the* major philosopher--and would have been the jewel in the crown of any university, yet during his lifetime published only three works (one of which was a grammar for German schoolchildren). He would never have survived in today's "publish-or-perish" atmosphere.
All this is obviously just a sampling of the book, which I obviously recommend to anyone interested in modern philosophy.
To order Wittgenstein's Poker from amazon.com, click here.
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 07/11/2008]
"Dark Integers" by Greg Egan (ASIMOV'S Oct/Nov) is a sequel to his short story "Luminous". The idea is that there are areas of space (or parallel universes) where the laws of mathematics are different than here, and attacks can be made by pushing our mathematics into them (and vice versa). I think that reading "Luminous" is a prequisite for "Dark Integers", even though Egan attempts to fill in the background in the latter. There is actually at least some basis for the notion of conflicting mathematical systems, since the has been proven that there are propositions such that both a statement and its negation would be consistent with our system of mathematics. Mathematical science fiction is rare, so it is always good to see another work added to it, especially by someone as skilled as Egan.
DIASPORA by Greg Egan:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 03/07/2008]
The science fiction discussion group picked DIASPORA by Greg Egan (ISBN-13 978-0-061-05798-4, ISBN-10 0-061-05798-3) for this month. I know I read it when it first came out (1997), but I don't remember it being as difficult to follow as it was this time. Maybe I made more use of the glossary last time, but frankly, I don't think a novel should require a glossary--or Java-enabled pages demonstrating the mathematical concepts (as Egan has provided for this as well)--to be understood. His shorter fiction (so far) doesn't seem to have this problem; one suspects that there just isn't enough space in a short story to work in characters, a plot, *and* semi-Riemannian manifolds as well.
To order Diaspora from amazon.com, click here.
DISTRESS by Greg Egan (Phoenix, ISBN 1-85799-484-1, 1996 (1995c), 342pp, L5.99; Harper Prism, ISBN 0-061-04264-7, 1997, 304pp, hardback):
I believe this is scheduled for United States release later this year, but if you're ordering books from Britain, you could as well add this to the list and not have to wait.
As usual, Egan packs a lot of ideas into a single novel. Our protagonist, Andrew Worth, is a 21st century science journalist who seems to concentrate on the sensational. But rather than doing a story on Distress (a new mental disease in which the patients display, not surprisingly, extreme distress), he decides to cover a conference at which leading scientists will present their competing Theories of Everything. This conference is being held on a bio-engineered renegade island called Stateless. That's already five science fiction ideas, and we haven't even gotten to the main part of the book.
Egan also has Violet Mosala, a brilliant African physicist who serves as both the apparent target of assassins and a mouthpiece for some decidedly "politically incorrect" ideas. I do not mean this negatively. When asked, "It seems to me that your whole approach to these issues reflects a male, Western, reductionist, left-brained mode of thought. How can you possibly reconcile this with your struggle as an African woman against cultural imperialism?" Mosala replies, "I have no interest in squandering the most powerful intellectual tools I possess, because of some quaint misconception that they're the property of any particular people: male, Western, or otherwise."
Although the interplay of politics and science is part of what makes this book fascinating, the somewhat straightforward political intrigue centering around Stateless does seem like piling Ossa on Pelion. Everything else ties together reasonably well, but that seems somewhat detached. The core of this book is similar to the core of many of Egan's other works (including his Hugo-nominated "Luminous," and his latest, "Reasons for Feeling Cheerful," which is already on my Hugo list for next year): does knowing or understanding something, whether a single phenomenon or the whole universe, change it, or our reaction to it? Does a "law" exist before it's understood? To what extent do our perceptions and understandings control the universe?
Not being a physicist, I can't judge the physics, but there are a couple of small errors I did note. There are no pyramids in the Valley of the Kings and at one point someone is described as a "loose canon."
This is another great Egan novel. Yes, I know that's redundant, but I want to make sure you realize this is a very positive recommendation. I'm sure there's a good reason that it's taken two years to get this book published in the United States; I just can't imagine what it is.
To order Distress from amazon.com, click here.
"Glory" by Greg Egan:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 07/11/2008]
"Glory" by Greg Egan (in the anthology THE NEW SPACE OPERA) is about two explorers who travel through some physics mumbo-jumbo to a distant planet populated by two antagonistic peoples so that they can try to find the ultimate mathematical secret hidden on some ancient tablets before the area is completed flooded. This sounds pretty straightforward, but Egan adds some twists that make it into something else entirely, with more emphasis on psychology than on mathematics. (Egan is competing with himself here, but the automatic run-off system used for Hugo voting ought to ward off any problems.)
To order The New Space Opera from amazon.com, click here.
AN UNUSUAL ANGLE by Greg Egan (Norstrilia Press, ISBN 0-909106-12-6, 1983, 200pp, trade paperback):
No, this is not a new Greg Egan novel; it is an old Greg Egan novel. Actually, it is a *very* old Greg Egan novel--his first novel. Someone discovered a case of them in a basement somewhere and they showed up at Aussiecon Three, where I immediately grabbed one. (See last paragraph for availability information.)
The plot of this book is not like Egan's later work, but the wealth of ideas--and many of the same ideas--that characterize his later work is. There is a section on how quantum mechanics restored the concept of free will. The protagonist sends out "viewpoints"--essentially non-material copies of himself--to perform various tasks. The protagonist is (literally) making films in his head, which conjures up a vision of universes within an individual mind, which in turn conjures up the image of layers of universes. (And yes, I mean literally--the protagonist claims to have an actual little film lab in there!)
The protagonist--first-person narrator, in this case--is a student at what appears to be (in United States terms) a private preparatory school. Though it many ways it seems to be run by the same sort of people as the upper management in "Dilbert," the narrator actually finds some method in their madness. That is, their insane methods are actually logical to achieve their goals--it's just that their goals are insane also.
I find it interesting that both Greg Egan and Neal Stephenson both have their first novel out of print, somewhat disowned by themselves, and set in an academic environment. I suppose this may be a function of "write what you know." The value of this suggestion can be judged by comparing the quality of these authors' later works--arguably about things they have no firsthand experience or knowledge of--to their first novels. (And how much did Shakespeare really know about early Scottish politics?)
This book is out of print (and unlikely to come back into print, from what I've heard), but Slow Glass Books, GPO Box 2708X, Melbourne, Victoria 3001 AUSTRALIA may still have a few copies [as of September 1999]. They take credit cards, so a letter with your credit card information and a statement authorizing them to charge it for the price (A$14.95) plus shipping and handling would probably be easiest for those not in Melbourne. (I note that hardback versions are going for US$500.)
To order An Unusual Angle from amazon.com, click here.
MISQUOTING JESUS: THE STORY BEHIND WHO CHANGED THE BIBLE AND WHY by Bart D. Ehrman:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 05/25/2007]
MISQUOTING JESUS: THE STORY BEHIND WHO CHANGED THE BIBLE AND WHY by Bart D. Ehrman (ISBN-10 0-060-85951-2, ISBN-13 978-0-060-85951-0) has annoyed those who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible (especially the New Testament), buoyed up those who feel that it is the work of fallible people with agendas, and baffled those who do not want to follow the minutiae of translations and copyists. I found it most interesting when Ehrman focuses on a specific verse or verses and traces their history through various manuscripts in detail (e.g. Mark 1:41, Luke 22:43-44, Hebrews 2:8-9). He is less convincing when he moves into more general claims about why it is likely that some verses were changed, rather than providing more substantive evidence. (Of course, one of Ehrman's contentions is that not all differences can be tracked back, and some will have to be analyzed more probabilistically.)
To order Misquoting Jesus from amazon.com, click here.
TRUTH AND FICTION IN THE DA VINCI CODE by Bart D. Ehrman:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 07/01/2005]
Bart D. Ehrman's TRUTH AND FICTION IN THE DA VINCI CODE (ISBN 0-19-518140-9) could be considered yet another book in the ever- growing list of "Da Vinci Code" books (was it in the New Yorker where I saw a cartoon showing a bookstore with an entire section labeled "Da Vinci Code"?), but it is a debunker of the book, not yet another prop to its claims. Ehrman begins by saying that he has no complaint with the fiction aspect of Dan Brown's book--in fact, as fiction he likes it a lot--but he does take issue with Brown's claim that "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." Ehrman addresses only the documents, but that is sufficient. One might charitably say that perhaps Brown's claim is like that at the beginning of the film FARGO, which says that that movie was based on a true story--in both cases, part of the fiction rather than the truth. Early on in the "Da Vinci" craze, Ehrman put together a list of ten errors in its claims, and this book elaborates on them. These include (but are not limited to) Brown's characters' claims that Constantine was instrumental in deciding what gospels were included in the New Testament, that before this there were dozens of gospels and thousands of documents to choose from, that the Dead Sea Scrolls were Christian in nature, and that before Constantine Jesus was not considered divine. This is must reading for anyone interested in the claims of the phenomenon.
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AT EASE: STORIES I TELL TO FRIENDS by Dwight David Eisenhower:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 11/05/2004]
While at the Eisenhower presidential Library & Museum this past summer, I bought President Eisenhower's AT EASE: STORIES I TELL TO FRIENDS (ISBN 0-915992-04-3). This is another collection of anecdotes, covering the period up to, but not including, his Presidency. It also has only a few pages on World War II, since (as he says) that was covered at great detail in his book CRUSADE IN EUROPE (which I have not read). As with the man himself, it is genial enough but not particularly intellectual, inspiring, or involving. One interesting note: he attributes his desire to create a decent interstate highway system to a cross-country road trip of Army vehicles that he made after World War I. I may lend this to my father, who was in World War II (though not in Europe), and certainly would remember more about Eisenhower than I do.
To order At Ease from amazon.com, click here.