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Vlad!
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« on: January 20, 2005, 01:38:24 PM » |
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I finished reading this maybe two weeks ago, and I still don't quite know what to think of it. My initial opinion is that if the authors believe everything they wrote they're lunatics and if they don't they have the greatest imaginations of the century.
The books (it's organized like the Lord of the Rings series, with three volumes of two books each) contain a LOT of drug use and not a small amount of sex. The fact that the characters are stoned roughly half the time (or more, depending on the character) helps explain a lot of the series. It's really about the mother of all conspiracy theories, and the paranoia and psychedelic "this can't be even conceivable" feel have the same flavor of a drug trip as well. The chapters (which are quite long) are called Trips, which sort of emphasizes this notion.
One thing it does not do is take itself seriously. There is one point in which a literary critic is phoning in a review of a book that, though the title is never given, sounds suspiciously like the trilogy itself. The review is quite unflattering but also quite funny in itself. Since a lot of the plot involves people lying to other people and the book is not arranged particularly chronologically but jumps around a bit, it's hard to tell what really happened and what is going on. Fans of Joyce (if such a thing exists) will note that it sort of resembles his near-nonsense novel Finnegan's Wake. Whether this is just the authors having more fun or a profound commentary of how history is not static but interpreted I don't know.
I'm not really sure I can recommend this series to anyone. I read it because it's sort of a cult classic among computer scientists, and to get the in jokes one really has to know what it's about. If you like kook lore, bizarre humor, drug-fueled hijinks, and pseudo-religious rambling, this book may just be for you.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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Josh
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« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2005, 01:23:16 PM » |
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If you like kook lore, bizarre humor, drug-fueled hijinks, and pseudo-religious rambling, this book may just be for you. It occurs to me that this sentence could just as easily be describing Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. (Except, maybe, for the drug-fueled hijinks). And that's one of my favorite novels. Your description also reminds me, just a tiny bit, of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. |
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Vlad!
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« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2005, 02:37:28 PM » |
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It is somewhat reminiscent of HG2G, in fact, and I meant to mention that. The venerable guide doesn't jump around quite as much, doesn't have such a multi-layered plot, and has a lot less drugs and sex. Other than that, not dissimilar at all.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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DvChWi
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« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2005, 05:20:01 PM » |
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Well, I picked this up at the library, so I'll soon be in the know. So far, I like the quote on the first page: The Purple Sage opened his mouth and moved his tongue and so spake to them and he said:
The Earth quakes and the Heavens rattle; the beasts of nature flock together and the nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up heat while elsewhere water becomes ice and melts; and then on other days it just rains. Indeed do many things come to pass.
-Lord Omar Khayaam Ravenhurst, K.S.C., "The Book of Predications." The Honest Book of Truth |
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Fun facts about Chuck Norris:
Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2005, 08:34:38 PM » |
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Aye, those quotes (which as far as I know are all or mostly made-up) are either profound, funny, or both ^_^
I hope you enjoy it.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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DvChWi
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« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2005, 12:14:34 AM » |
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Well, so far this book is much more Joyce than Adams. The fragmented plots really force you to concentrate on your reading if you want to make any sense out of it.  I guessed I'd say I'm enjoying it so far, though the sex is a little heavy for my tastes. We'll see how it goes. |
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Logged
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Fun facts about Chuck Norris:
Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
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RokrantheGreat
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« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2005, 11:35:21 AM » |
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Sounds semi-interesting... I'll check it out sometime I guess. I'm atually reading Cat's Cradle right now for literature class (but I'm enjoying it alot - its not just required reading). After that I plan on reading The Castle by Kafka, so I'm going to abound in weird stories in the next few weeks looks like. I also just finished a collection of sci-fi short stories (more weird stuff).  |
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\"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the former.\" - Albert Einstein
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Vlad!
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« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2005, 01:24:46 PM » |
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Dv, I see in the reading thread where you gave up on this book. Can't say I blame you; there were a couple times (especially when they were holding a black mass, if you got that far  ) where I just wanted to throw it away. Fortunately it tapered off a bit after the worst parts. As I said, I really can't recommend it to anyone :/ |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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