Sunday Morning Book Thread - 02-04-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: sharon (willow's apprentice))

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading. Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, make yourself a bologna sammich, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

NOTE: I won't be around in the comments this morning as I will be assisting the tech team at church. Saturday Morning Coffee Thread comment rules now apply. Have a great day!

PIC NOTE

Sharon (willow's apprentice) took a trip to Europe over Christmas and visited Bologna, Italy. Bologna has lovely museums and art just about everywhere. The picture above is from the Biblioteca Salaborsa in Bologna.

BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL MEDIA

I know we've had numerous conversations around here about the pros and cons of digital media v. physical media. I will freely admit that I enjoy the convenience of digital media that is accessible on any device at any time. It's an awesome benefit for travelers who are now able to carry around MASSIVE amounts of digital information that they can enjoy anywhere. Stuck on a plane while waiting for a runway to open up? Read a book on your Kindle app! Bored at the doctor's office? Fire up a mobile game app! Don't want to watch the television in your hotel room? Open up Amazon Prime Video or Netflix! Truly, we live in an age of marvelous technology.

The downside, of course, is that we do not "own" any of that content in any truly meaningful fashion. Anything that's stored on a cloud server is NOT your property--unless you own the server yourself, of course, which is always a possibility. Streaming media companies can modify or even delete content at a whim or suddenly lock it down and require a fee to pay for something that used to be "free" with your subscription. Or they'll add a "premium" subscription service to avoid advertisements, like Amazon Prime just did with their "free" video content. Modifying video content--by adding or changing scenes--is a difficult and expensive process, so that's not too likely to happen unless the Woke crowd really, really, really wants it to happen for some intellectual properties.

Modifying digital books, on the other hand, is a very cheap and easy process. Simply change a few words, paragraphs, or pages here and there, and send out an "updated" version to all subscribers. Suddenly, they all have the "new and improved" version of the book and cannot go back to the old version. Brandt Legg's The Last Librarian features a tiny change in an author's digital book as the main plot point to begin the entire story. According to the fictional author of that digital book, one tiny change to one word in the book changed the ending to the complete opposite of what he intended.

Naturally, owning physical copies of media carries its own risks. Physical media can be damaged, for one thing. One of my cats pooped all over my DVDs of Animaniacs. Another cat tore out a page of one of my favorite books. (Who knew cats were so critical of modern entertainment?) These can be replaced, but that means I have to have the money to pay for those replacements. The other challenge in physical media is storing it somewhere. My house is mostly full up on books and DVD/Blu-Ray. When I move, I am probably going to have to get rid of quite a bit of it. Who then takes it? Do I give away to the local library for their book sale? Or do I try to sell it off on eBay or something?

(HT: Peter (my friends call me Pete) Zah)

DOES CANON MATTER?

"Canon" can have a few meanings, depending on context. One context refers to a body of works that are determined to be "official" according to some arbitrary standard. Usually this refers to a fictional universe such as Star Wars or Star Trek but it can also refer to literary works, such as Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings (franchises which have themselves been turned into movies that may or may not be considered "canon" because of the changes made by the filmmakers.).

Things can get a bit nebulous when shared universes are involved. For instance, H.P. Lovecraft was quite keen on encouraging other authors like Robert E. Howard and August Derleth to expand on his own body of works which is now referred to as the Cthulhu Mythos. Derleth often gets a bad rap for the changes he made to Lovecraft's stories, but he was also instrumental in keeping Lovecraft's stories alive after Lovecraft's death, so perhaps that exonerates Derleth somewhat.

I think authors who attempt to remain true to the original creator's vision will have the best chance of having their own works deemed "canon." However, those who stray too far from the source material (*cough*Amazon's Wheel of Time/Rings of Power*cough*) will most likely have their content tossed into the dustbin of history.

HOW DO CHARACTERS REFER TO EACH OTHER?

Wolfus Aurelius had an excellent question from last week's Sunday Morning Book Thread:

Got a topic for the readers. What determines what name a character calls another one, either in direct address or by reference? And what determines how the fans of that character refer to him?

For instance, Sherlock Holmes & Dr. John Watson always addressed each other by last name, as did Supt. Hadley and Dr. Gideon Fell in John Dickson Carr. I'm not sure, but I think fans usually refer to them the same way. However, while Nero Wolfe (Rex Stout's detective) is hardly adorable or cuddly, fans often call him "Nero." In contrast, Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call of Lonesome Dove call each other "Gus" and "Woodrow," and fans call Gus by that name; but everyone I've read calls the other "Captain Call." What determines this?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at January 28, 2024 09:10 AM (omVj0)

Where can I even start with this? It's a great question, but there are lots of layers to unpack here. Wolfus Aurelius gives us the classic duo of Holmes/Watson as an example of characters who address each other by their last names. I suspect a lot of that is driven by the social and cultural norms of late Victorian Britain, shared by their creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In that society, it seems as though calling someone by their first name--even if they are your dearest friend--implies a certain level of intimacy. Much easier to call them by their last name or title or both (e.g., Inspector Lestrade).

Different stories will have different rules for how characters are called. In the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson, the last name of the titular character is *never* given. He's just "Jack." Everyone he meets calls him that. Even his own family. Wilson makes sure to never refer to Jack's father or brother by their surname, either. Though he does make an exception for Jack's sister, who is married and has a different surname.

By way of contrast, Special Agent Pendergast in Preston & Child's Agent Pendergast series is usually just called "Agent Pendergast" or "Pendergast." His first name, "Aloysius" is rarely used and only in special situations that call for a first name.

In the Malazan books I've been reading, characters often have very colorful nicknames that they've earned from their squadmates during their military service. "Fiddler" (now "Strings") is called that because he carried around a fiddle while marching with the Imperial Legions. "Onearm" Dujek, High Fist (general) of the Malazan army only has one arm. I don't know how "Throatslitter" and "Deadsmell" (minor characters) earned their names, but I'm sure there's an interesting story behind them. Humans who ascend to godhood often take on different names. Emperor Kellanved ascended to become "Shadowthrone/Ammanas," King of High House Shadow. His companion, Dancer, ascended to become "Cotillion/The Rope," Patron of Assassins.

So the business of naming characters can be quite complex. And how the fans refer to characters will vary, depending on whether or not a particular name catches on in the fan communities, e.g., Darrius "Sweetdick" Honeycum, Esq.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

Not the Book Thread yet, but the book to read is The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Great read and great insights.

As far as 'expect to prove', that isn't the point. These movements give people a sense of belonging and fellowship, which modern society has in many cases stripped away. Without family connections, without religious community, with a 'diverse' life and work that you have no commonality with anyone else in... What happens? We're a social species. People want to belong and feel valued. This gives them that. It's insane, but it fills their *actual* need.

Posted by: Vanya at January 28, 2024 08:20 AM (H5IZ1)

Comment: Sounds like an interesting book. From the information on Amazon's website (including reviews), Hoffer seems to have particular insights into mass movements and how they can suck ordinary people in to engage in actions they might not normally perform if left to their own devices. There is tremendous feeling of "oneness" in being a member of a crowd, when masses of people move in one direction at the orders from someone who seems to know what they are doing. Charismatic leaders can use that to their advantage to cause havoc and mayhem. Or just cause mass deaths, like Jim Jones.

On Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Biography by DJ Taylor. It's a short look at the background to Orwell's book, his influences and the agony of writing the thing itself. Skip the last chapter, "The Post-Truth World," since it's the obligatory slap at Trump and enjoy the rest.

What really spoke to me was an excerpt from a review Sonia Brownell (Orwell's second wife) wrote in its relation to 'doublethink:'

"When you have seen through this world you can never become its victim, but can fight it with the only unanswerable weapon - cynical despair; when you have learned the lessons of the double visions, action and emotion are equally meaningless."

If that doesn't describe my own mental state and attitude to life, I don't know what does.

One thing Taylor notes about Nineteen Eighty-Four is something I'd never known: apparently, in the original manuscript, when Winston Smith is writing "2+2 = 5" in the dust at the Cherry Tree Cafe, Orwell had penned only "2+2 =," which a proofreader, thinking Orwell had forgotten to complete the equation, altered to "2+2 = 5."

Taylor combines this with Orwell's essay on Newspeak at the end of the book, which makes it seem as though Newspeak and Ingsoc were things of the past, and tentatively concludes that these might have been Orwell's subtle hints that the Party and Big Brother are defeated after all.

Something to think about.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at January 28, 2024 09:11 AM (Q0kLU)

Comment: I had heard about the ending being left ambiguous by Orwell on purpose. We were meant to wonder if Smith had indeed been completely transformed by his experiences into a member of the collective or if he still had some shred of free will left to him. I don't agree that "cynical despair" is the only weapon that is available to a victim in this world. To me, that leads to a final solution where suicide is the only way out. I don't accept that at all. Even in the darkest dungeons, there is always a glimmer of hope. In the Malazan books, characters go through horrific experiences--gruesome body and mind mutilations. They are transformed by them, but never give in to ultimate despair, even when they probably should.

If a story is narrated by a witness (or even a possible suspect) it can make for an interesting perspective. This is the style of She Died a Lady, by Carter Dickson (a mom de plume of John Dickson Carr). Dr. Luke Croxley is invited to a dinner party held by Alex and Rita Wainwright at their seaside home. The doctor knows Rita is having an affair with a younger man, Barry Sullivan, who is also present. During the party, Rita and Barry disappear, but their footprints are found leading out to a cliff overlooking the sea. A double suicide of star crossed illicit lovers? Possibly, until their bodies are discovered two days later, each with a bullet hole in them. Fortunately, famous detective Sir Henry Merrivale is in town, recuperating form a broken toe. This is a clever mystery, told by the doctor bumbling through clues while trying to avoid being implicated himself, and once again, the resolution at the end will be quite surprising. Was it suicide or murder? There were no other footprints found. And how could the gun that killed them be found miles away from the cliff?

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 28, 2024 09:17 AM (TkiD6)

Comment: The point-of-view of characters can have a dramatic effect on storytelling when used effectively. For instance, the Unreliable Narrator trope means we may or may not be able to recognize the truth of the story as the narrator relates it to us. Does the narrator have his own agenda? What is the narrator hiding from us? In the story above, Dr. Croxley must have a pre-existing relationship with the Wainwrights. How does this factor into his own observations and decisions going forward as the case progresses? Is the doctor being deliberately obtuse in his own narration of the facts?

My last book this week was a re-read: Thomas Robert Harris' Selling Hitler about the 'Hitler Diaries' hoax in 1983. It's a quick, breezy read, delving both into the lives and motivations of the swaggering (and utterly incompetent) forger Konrad Kujau, the Nazi-struck reporter Gerd Heidemann and the self-deluded editors and managers of Stern magazine who were so besotted with the idea of holding something by Him that all reason and scepticism was tossed aside.

The whole mess was made into a UK TV movie of the same name, starring Jonathan Pryce as Heidemann.

As Lincoln said, "If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you'll like."

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at January 28, 2024 09:27 AM (Q0kLU)

Comment: Normally, I don't post two recommendations from the same Moron, but MP4 had some great comments about the books he's read recently. This one in particular was entertaining, as cartoonist Berke Breathed parodied this incident in his comic strip Bloom County. The series of strips around this incident are pretty funny by themselves, but even funnier when you know the inspiration behind them. I went ahead and made a copy of those strips available for y'all HERE. I'm looking forward to a takedown notice from the law firm representing W. A. Thornhump III, CEO of Bloom County Industries.

More Moron-recommended reading material can be found HERE! (1000+ Moron-recommended books!)

WHAT I'VE BEEN READING THIS PAST WEEK:

After reviewing some of OregonMuse's old Book Threads, I thought I'd try something a bit different. Instead of just listing WHAT I'm reading, I'll include commentary as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can interpret this as an implied recommendation, though as always your mileage may vary.

Malazan Book of the Fallen 6 - The Bonehunters by Steven Erickson

STATUS: 100% Complete!

The Bonehunters is one of the longest single books I've read, clocking in at a whopping 1200+ pages for the mass-market paperback edition. Out of the four remaining books in the series, two of them are even longer.

As with all of the Malazan books, there is a lot going on all over the world. Most of the story takes place on the continent of the Seven Cities, but much of it also takes place in the various magical warrens that criss-cross the world. These warrens fuel the magic system in some way and they are also connected to the gods of the realm. There are some pretty intense scenes, especially one scene involving the deliberate firing of a city by defenders who are under siege from the Fourteenth Army of the Malazan Empire. The instigator of the conflagration escapes, but takes out fully one third of the Malazans (2,000 soldiers) and demoralizes them even further. A few survivors of the siege manage to escape by tunneling underneath the city while it's burning. And to add insult to injury, a massive plague is sweeping across the Seven Cities heading towards the Malazan Army. Fun times as they scramble to stay ahead of its inexorable march...

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 01-28-24 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Disclaimer: No Morons were harmed in the making of this Sunday Morning Book Thread. The "Huggy Squirrel" diaries should be coming out in a few months...

posted by Open Blogger at 09:00 AM

| Access Comments