Sunday Morning Book Thread - 08-04-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

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, sharpen those #2 pencils, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

Found this pic in an article about the "5 best public libraries from around the world in 2021." This particular picture is from the interior of the Oslo Public Library in Norway.

MORE ON FICTION GENRES

OrangEnt sent me a follow-up email last week mentioning the YouTuber above. Because I use Gmail for the Sunday Morning Book Thread, this YouTuber suddenly showed up in my YouTube feed. Weird coincidence, Google!

Although her delivery is a bit on the dry side, she does describe the different categories of books accurately and also has some useful tips on how aspiring authors can categorize their own works into a genre that may be of interest to literary agents and editors. Marketing a book is HARD, so it helps to find the useful tips and tricks that can make your book stand above and beyond the other books that are being published right now.

CHANGE AS A CATALYST FOR STORIES

NOTE: This may be a bit lengthy, but I thought it worth commenting on...

A.H. Lloyd posted a great series of comments last week. I've copied them into a single blockquote for your reading convenience:

Suggested future book thread topic: Books on the edge of some great change, like a war.

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings naturally comes to mind, and one of the most evocative elements is that it starts in a peaceful calm world that is steadily coming apart. Tolkien handles this masterfully, having lived through the runup to both world wars. People try to muddle through, make plans like normal, but there comes a revelation that things will not be as they were. One of my (many favorite lines): "Many hopes will wither in this bitter spring."

Herman Wouk's The Winds of War likewise captures the tension of late summer 1939 and the weird way that war crept through Europe, bit by bit, nation by nation. We Americans seem to think that either Sept. 1, 1939 or Dec. 7, 1941 are the big dates, but it actually started in fits and starts. Yes, Poland, Germany, England and France were at war in 1939, but Italy and the Balkans were at peace. The Soviets attacked Finland, in the winter, but that war never linked to the other one. (Con't)

While Wouk is evocative, he's also a bigot, and all Germans are bullies with room-temperature IQs who are hypnotized by Beethoven or something. On, and tiny genitals. Really, Herman?

Volume I of Winston Churchill's The Second World War is a non-fiction example, and it's gripping reading even if you know what's going on. The failed opportunities, grim sense that Germany is building an insurmountable lead in military strength are things that bear close examination.

I will also point out that all the people who scream "MUNICH! CHAMBERLAIN! APPEASEMENT!" need to read this because it is very specific. Sometimes aggression has to be tolerated because fighting everywhere and always "on principle" (which increasingly means globalist oligarchs) is untenable and immoral. What set Munich apart was that the Western Allies had the edge in military strength, the possibility of Soviet aid and therefore the means to stop Hitler. Post-war documents show that the Wehrmacht could not assault the Czechs while holding off any kind of French pressure. This is vastly different than fighting to maintain the integrity of Stalin's internal borders.

Bruce Catton's The Coming Fury is a detailed look at the year before the Civil War kicked off, and demolishes many of the happy myths that slavery was a side issue. It destroyed the Democracy, which if it could have been unified, would easily have won the 1860 election.

In terms of fiction, Gone with the Wind is popular in part because Scarlett doesn't care about politics and tries to ignore them, but that doesn't matter once the armies gather. Yes, drama, but it really brings home the total transformation the US went through and how fast it all happened. It must really have seemed like an instant to those who lived through it.

I think we are in a similar place, unsure if this is a passing crisis that will be forgotten or a hinge point where we'll tell younger folks things that will seem fantastic to them.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at July 28, 2024 09:58 AM (llXky)

Most of the books listed above are epics in that that scope of the story is far grander than just a handful of people chatting with each other over tea. There is drama, conflict, struggle, romance, and final resolutions against a backdrop that is world-shattering in its effects on society and culture.

We look back now at WWII and the American Civil War as historical events, but because we are so far removed from them and we have the benefit of hindsight, it's difficult for us to really wrap our heads around the challenges that the people who lived through those times faced. There was no guarantee that the North would win the Civil War, though that may have become inevitable after a certain point. Just as there was no guarantee that the Allies would win World War II. Although in hindsight, it's possible that we have eventually lost thanks to the influence of Communism and Fascism that plague us now.

I read a lot of epic fantasy (so you don't have to) and I can see that Great Change does form the basis for many, many stories, which draw upon real-life events for inspiration.

Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, one of my favorite epic fantasies (not least because of its influences from Tolkien), features "The Conqueror's Star" a bloodred comet that appears in they sky every 500 years or so. It's seen as a herald of change because of the massive transformations in the world that take place when it reappears. In the context of this story, it's heralding the Storm King's impending war against the mortal and Sithi realms. In the past, it marked the downfall of Ineluki when he transformed into the Storm King at the fall of Asu'a (now the Hayholt). It was also in the sky when Usires Aedon (i.e., their version of Jesus Christ) was crucified upside down on the Execution Tree. Although the Conqueror's Star is a mere background detail, its presence in the story is still felt because people can see it in the sky during the years of turmoil within the story. Naturally, it fills the sky at the climax, just before the Storm King's triumph, as it's a part of his master plan...

A classic science fiction example is Frank Herbert's Dune, where a young man becomes the hope of the universe as he struggle to understand the powers and gifts that have been bestowed upon him against his will. In the end, his son is the one that enables humanity to break free of its stagnation and begin progressing towards a better future once again (the Golden Path). But there is quite a lot of pain and destruction along the way.

And of course, one of my favorite examples is Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, another epic fantasy series inspired by Tolkien. Here, the world cycles through endless Ages. In the Third Age, the Dragon is Reborn, heralding the Final Battle between the living avatar of Creation and the Dark One, which promises to reshape the world. The end of the Second Age was marked by the Breaking of the World, when the last attempt to chain the Dark One was only partially successful. His backlash caused all male magic-wielders to go insane and they destroyed the world in their madness. The current residents of the world are still dealing with the aftermath of the destruction some three thousand years later.

Although all of these examples are quite fictional, the authors still draw upon real-world inspiration to tell their stories. Williams draws upon European history and culture in his story, as well as the cultures of various indigenous people such as the Inuit (portrayed as the Qanuc). Herbert is inspired by Middle-Eastern culture and history with the Fremen, who are an offshoot of ancient Bedouin tribes. Jordan is all over the map, mixing and matching cultures with abandon. The Aiel, for instance, look like tall Irishmen, but behave a lot like Zulu or Maasai warriors from Africa.

Change is at the heart of these examples as well, because each story revolves around titanic changes within the greater societies and cultures in which the stories are told. Ineluki, the Storm King, seeks to return the world to a prior state of being, when humans were no more than insignificant gnats on the outskirts of Sithi society. Paul Muad'dib, the Kwisatz Haderach, ascends to the throne of the Empire, sending shockwaves throughout thousands of worlds, as he now has an absolute monopoly over the spice that keeps society functioning. And Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, is destined to destroy the world again--perhaps for all time--even as his blood is the key to saving it.

MORON RECOMMENDATIONS

My book this week was C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. It's a short book, an allegory of people "choosing" heaven or hell. My takeaway is that most folks don't understand what it means to be a Christian, or how salvation works - they look on it as a cultural group to join or be born into.

What struck me about it is the arguments and protests against "Christianity" by some of the characters is exactly the same as the arguments and protests we hear today. Nothing has changed in their rebuttals in 78 years (from the writing of this book in 1946. But it's the same argument from the first sin.) Highly recommend!

Posted by: Moki at July 28, 2024 09:44 AM (wLjpr)

Comment: C.S. Lewis always has great commentary about Christianity. He was converted by his best friend J.R.R. Tolkien, and became a firm, devout believer. And yes, the arguments and protest against Christianity have been raging since 1st century A.D.... Those who believe "get it" while those who reject belief struggle with their faith or refuse to adopt a faith in anything greater than themselves. It took me quite a number of years before I accepted Christianity and it took a number of weird experiences that could not be explained rationally to get my attention.

Good morning, Horde. I started reading The Coast Watchers by Patrick Lindsay. It's about the men on Japanese-occupied islands in the Pacific during WW2 who relayed information via radio back to Australia regarding enemy movements. I'm about 20% through, so the war is just getting started and the Japanese are kicking ass and taking names while the Allies are scrambling to catch up. One interesting point for me: the radio sets, and all the supporting equipment, weighed up to 300 lbs, and they had teams of natives to haul it all around (and they had to move frequently). Today, with a shoebox of equipment and a solar panel, you could set up a comparable station.

Posted by: PabloD at July 28, 2024 09:55 AM (yhCZc)

Comment: When I read the blurb on Amazon about this book, it sounded pretty insane. A bunch of men were tasked with keeping an eye on what was happening in the Pacific and had to report back what they saw. They hid among the natives and moved frequently to avoid detection, but as Pablo points out, this was a fairly massive undertaking. They didn't exactly have smartphones to record and report. They didn't even have transistor radios.

It's incredible the level of technological advances that have been made since WWII. Things they could never have dreamed of back then are now commonplace in our lives. It's notable that the transistor was invented just two years after the end of the war in 1947. However, it took a few more years to work out the kinks and start mass production of transistors for everyday objects like AM radios. According to Wikipedia, there were an estimated 13 sextillion (1.3 x 10²²) MOSFETs (a type of transistor) manufactured between 1960 and 2018. They are in just about everything we use today...

Three quarters of the way through The Scarlett Letter. It is deservedly a classic but I can't imagine a standard issue high school kid getting anything out of it but bored. That is probably a sign of the decline of standards in modern America. But since I'm not a standard issue high school kid, and haven't been for over 50 years, I'm really liking it.

Posted by: who knew at July 28, 2024 11:23 AM (+ViXu)

Comment: This is a good reminder that our tastes and interests change and mature as we grow older and--presumably--wiser. I remember reading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in school and not really get much out of it at that time. However, when I was assigned to read it as part of my graduate degree curriculum, I had a lot more knowledge and experience to bring to my reading and I thoroughly enjoyed the story.

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.

Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko

This a series of novellas packaged into a single volume. The stories in this book revolve around Anton, a mid-level functionary of the Night Watch, a mystical organization that keeps an eye on those who follow the path of Darkness. For a thousand years, the Night Watch and their counterpart the Day Watch have maintained an uneasy truce to avoid complete Armageddon if the two sides ever truly went to war. It's an interesting take on the urban fantasy genre, as the different books in the series focus on the varying factions that are dancing around each other, scheming, plotting, and striving to take down the other factions without ever declaring open war. The stories take place in Moscow for the most part, after the Soviet Union collapsed, so we get to see daily life of the citizens in that world.

Sandman Slim Book 5 - Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey

Sandman Slim is no longer the new Lucifer, having relinquished that title to a sliver of God. In the process he lost the Qomrama Om Ya, a powerful weapon that can slay not only God but the Older Gods that came before Him. Those Older Gods are seeking to reclaim the universe that was stolen from them. Now James Stark--a.k.a. Sandman Slim--must recover the lost artifact before it can be used to destroy our universe...

As with the previous entries in the Sandman Slim series, Stark goes on a rampage around LA, kicking ass and chewing bubble gum, and he's all out of bubble gum. He's mostly unkillable, but certainly not invulnerable. He's accompanied by his usual cohort of colorful lunatics that assist him on his adventures, even when he doesn't want them tagging along for the ride. He's the type of anti-hero that is only marginally interested in keeping the current universe going, though a part of him would be content to let the whole world burn.

The Servants of Twilight by Dean Koontz

A doomsday cult seeks the death of an innocent six-year-old boy because they believe he's the Antichrist. His mom, of course, is not too thrilled about this. In typically Koontz style, there is at least one dog in the story. While the overall plot is fairly basic--a cult wants to kill a boy--there are also the standard Koontz hidden mysteries from the past that will return to haunt the main characters in some way. There is always some significant connection between the antagonists and protagonists. Enjoyable Koontz.

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