Just Finished Reading: The Iron Whim – A Fragmented History of Typewriting by Darren Wershler-Henry (FP: 2005) [290pp] 

Back in my mid-teens (so 50 years ago!) I fancied myself as an author. I wrote short stories and sent off more than a few to a handful of SF Magazines I regularly bought. Nothing was published (not surprisingly) but one response I got back was “For God’s sake get yourself a typewriter. Which I did. Unfortunately for me (and maybe posterity) I bought myself an electric beast that was rather large, rather heavy and smelt of heated oil whenever I used it, which after a while gave me a headache. It wasn’t long before I gave up on it and gave it to my sister. 

Typewriters have always been more than mere keyboards – although try to convince anyone of THAT these days. Typewriters have a mystique, something almost otherworldly about them. It's not that surprising that the simple image of a typewriter is SO iconic and that, at least in large part, is where this rather odd but often fascinating book ‘comes from’. Being a history of a device, no matter how iconic, there’s inevitably time (a few chapters at least) for the actual development of the typewriter and the interesting fact that no one actually ‘invented’ it. The machine itself is the result of several people/companies trying to solve various problems and eventually being mashed together into the device we know today. Also, quite naturally, is discussion of why exactly we use the QWERTY keyboard which has proven to be rather less efficient that it could be (oh, and apparently it wasn’t designed that way to stop key clashes at high speed. Speed typing came *after* the solidification of QWERTY). Regarding speed – it's interesting that in the 1920’s they regularly held typing speed trails with significant prizes. The problem was the time it took to agree on a winner which tended to bore the (presumably paying) audience. 

One of my favourite parts of the book was Chapter 22 which began “Sooner or later, anyone writing about typewriting has to deal with the monkeys.” Incredibly the old adage of monkeys typing Shakespeare (or the author of choice at the time) has actually been tested – including by real monkeys typing (or more often defecating) on real typewriters. A more scientific (and no doubt hygienic) series of experiments were undertaken by computer programmes proving that the age of the Universe itself is not long enough for any number of monkeys to produce any work of literature – classic or not. 

FULL of interesting little quirks and odd historical events this was a fun read and would, I think, seriously warm the cockles of anyone with any love at all for typewriters in any of their many changing forms. Definitely one of my strangest reads of the year and recommended for anyone looking for an off-the-wall read or those interested in the cultural impact of this iconic device. 

Just Finished Reading: Brolliology – A History of the Umbrella in Life and Literature by Marion Rankine (2017) [157pp] 

I have LONG maintained that anyone born in this country should, as part of their birth heritage, have a lifetime access to two things – a pair of Wellington boots (wellies) and an Umbrella (brolly). Personally, I gave up on brollies some years ago having finally lost yet another one by either leaving it on a bus or tube train or having a gust of wind blow it out of my hand or inside out completely destroying its delicate structure. 

Despite the fact that they seem to be archetypically British, the brolly is nothing of the sort. I was indeed surprised to learn that their first outing on our streets resulted in both anger and hoots of derision when first sported by Jonas Hanway in 18th century London. I knew that they had been around for a LONG time but I had no idea that they’d been around for much longer that I suspected or that their geographical reach was SO wide. Umbrellas, used mostly as parasols rather than rain-shields, have been in existence since civilisation itself from Egypt and the greater Middle East to South-East Asia, China, Japan and elsewhere. They were, by and large, marks of status and you could clearly identify the owners rank from the style, manufacture and even colour of the brolly. Indeed, some classes were effectively banned from using them.  

A particularly interesting aspect of this honestly delightful book was the authors focus on the iconography of the umbrella in literature – both Western and Oriental. Not only was the umbrella a potent symbol in some works but has been a central plot point in others. The act of losing, finding or searching for a lost umbrella crops up in a surprising number of novels (some of which I’ll definitely be hunting down). Sheltering under the protective arms of an umbrella can be the beginning of a romance or infidelity, not owning an umbrella can point to poverty or an absentmindedness that is irritating or endearing. Honestly, I never knew that such a ‘simple’ (actually quite complicated) tool had such cultural and symbolic significance. 

The author obviously has a deep love for this rather mundane object, and her passion certainly shines through in this quirky and delightful work. With illustrations and some of the authors photographs of lost and found umbrellas scattered throughout, I found myself amused, fascinated and intrigued by the subject. A total pleasure and definitely recommended as an unusual and, in many ways, comforting read. 

Just Finished Reading: That’s All Folks! - The Art of Warner Bros. Animation by Steve Schneider (FP: 1988) [239pp] 

I have been a fan, to say the least, of Warner Bros cartoon for as long as I can remember – probably my entire self-aware life. In fact, I can’t remember a time I didn’t come running or a smile break out when I heard/saw the starting logo. So, it was interesting to finally read about the history of the endeavour and enjoy the nostalgic memories (much smiling and laughing ensued) associated with leafing through this book. 

As you might well imagine, being focused primarily on the art of the cartoons in question, this was a HEAVILY illustrated book often with whole page drawings of characters or particularly noteworthy or impressive backgrounds. One of the (many) things I found particularly fascinating was the evolution of characters and how their drawn selves changed over time – and between artists – before settling down, by and large, to an agreed look. One of the other things that intrigued me, and made me laugh out loud with recognition, was that the individual characters very much had individual personalities which the artists brought out on screen, but that Bugs and others were ‘real’ and that the stories where character driven – because each character had backstory, motivation and a ‘life’ off-screen. Indeed, I was reminded of a number of cartoons (mentioned here) where individual characters were shown ‘outside’ of the normal cartoon environments and either arguing with the artist ‘drawing’ them or speaking directly to the audience.  

The second part of the book was much more focused on the characters themselves – with the first part much more focused on the history of the company and overall artistic developments. Although Bugs Bunny is, by far, my favourite (and is, indeed one of my 3 foundational heroes) I did enjoy learning about Porky Pig who went through quite the development phase before becoming the porcine we know and love, Daffy Duck (ditto) who I particularly loved as Duck Dodgers of the 24 ½ century(!), the LONG suffering Elmer Fudd, Tweety and Sylvester (a plushie of which is sitting on my desk in front of me), Pepe Le Pew (those POOR cats!), the ever excitable Yosemite Sam (WoW Mule!), another personal favourite Foghorn Leghorn (Well, I SAY boy!), the Road Runner and the long, long suffering Wile E Coyote and who could forget Marvin the Martian? Oh, and I almost forgot the fastest mouse alive, Speedy Gonzales... 

I enjoyed this book, and the trip down a chaotic memory lane very much indeed. The only problem I had with the book was its size (essentially it is a coffee-table book) and its floppiness (paperback version) which made it a challenge to hold at times! Other than that, I Highly Recommend it to all Warner brothers cartoon fans. But that’s not ALL folks... I have a similar book just on Bugs himself (of course). Watch this space. 

Happy Birthday: Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American puppeteer, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his involvement with Jim Henson and George Lucas through the Muppets, Sesame Street, and Star Wars, as well as his directorial work in feature films and theatre.

During his adolescence, Oz worked as an apprentice puppeteer in Oakland, California. Despite his interest in journalism, Oz continued his career as a puppeteer when he was hired by Jim Henson in 1963 to work for The Jim Henson Company where he went on to perform several characters in multiple television series and specials. Oz performed the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle on The Muppet Show (1976–1981), and Cookie Monster, Bert, and Grover on Sesame Street (1969–2013). He was hired by George Lucas and began performing the character of Yoda in the Star Wars series, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and reprising the role in six subsequent films and various media for the next forty years, including into the Disney era.

His work as a director includes The Dark Crystal (1982), The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), What About Bob? (1991), In & Out (1997), Death at a Funeral (2007), and an episode of the US television series Leverage (2011).

 Interesting, as always....

Just Finished Reading: Fifth Avenue, 5AM – Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson (FP: 2010) [210pp] 

I’m not exactly sure why I bought this. Impulse is the only word that springs to mind – that and it was comparatively cheap. I’d seen the movie YEARS ago and kinda liked it and I had, at that time, the novella by Capote waiting to be read. It seemed like a fun idea to read them concurrently – and it was. 

Despite being a big fan of both movies and books in general it’s rare that I read much about even my favourite films. So, I was pleased by how quickly I fell into the narrative presented by someone who both wrote well and obviously had a love for the subject. Following the trajectory from published work, to script, to filming to awards this was a fascinating and eye-opening look at the US movie industry at the cusp of the 1960’s. I actually lost count of the number of things I learnt and the times my eyebrow went up in surprise. One of the things that didn’t surprise me, however, after reading the book was the controversy surrounding the role and the casting of the main character. As often with these things, Audrey Hepburn wasn’t the studio’s first choice to play the iconic Holly Golightly. That [raised eyebrow] was Marilyn Monroe! Can you imagine the alt-universe this version exists in? Maybe equally surprising was that Hepburn was an early choice for the role of Maria in West Side Story but she turned it down [another eyebrow raise]. Anyway, when Audrey was finally approached to play the main character she turned it down – as both her and her husband considered the part too much of a departure – playing a ‘hooker’ no less – from her usual on-screen persona. It took a LOT of persuading and rewriting of the script to get her on-board. This, naturally, wasn’t the only hurdle to be overcome. The studio originally had several other directors lined up before they finally, and rather reluctantly, settled on Blake Edwards and then there’s the iconic song ‘Moon River’, written with Audrey in mind to sing it, and almost rejected by the studio. In many ways that’s just scratching to surface of the ups and downs of getting this movie made and on screens across the world. Chaotic doesn’t really cover it! 

Apart from the story and the movie adaptation itself, the author spends a significant amount of time looking at the leading lady herself (I know a BIT about her, but I didn’t realise how she struggled with her profession – she always wanted to dance ballet – and with elements of her life) and the impact she and her role in the movie had on women coming out of the more conformist 1950’s into the freer and more individualistic 1960’s. Overall, this was a surprisingly interesting look at an iconic movie and I admit I enjoyed it more than I expected. Maybe I should read more movie related books in future? Definitely recommended for all fans and for anyone interested in the industry or the cultural impact of that little black dress. 

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Just Finished Reading: Ten Things Video Games Can Teach Us (About Life, Philosophy and Everything) by Jordan Erica Webber and Daniel Griliopoulos (FP: 2017) [324pp]

I hadn’t read any pop-Philosophy for a while and as a Gamer this seemed to be an ideal way to get back into a sub-genre I’ve enjoyed in the past. The authors are both writers specialising in video games rather than philosophers with a gaming interest so the focus of the game is definitely from the gaming and gaming industry point of view. It was also less about the philosophy itself (which is what I was expecting it to be about given the title) and much more about the philosophical underpinnings used by various game developers in their games. Interesting but not a huge focus as far as I’m concerned. Although games can work well with a coherent underlying philosophy I never really gave it that much though as I hacked or shot my way through hordes of Orks or Zombies trying to kill me. Much like my interest in music – I like what I hear without knowing much or anything about the artist or group – my knowledge of individual developers or even gaming ‘houses/companies’ is minimal. I certainly recognise the names of companies [like Blizzard] that I’ve played games by before but I’ve never been one to seek out (or avoid) particular ‘brands’ unless they’re consistent stinkers or simply don’t produce the kinds of games I usually play (like sports games which I have zero interest in).

That’s actually just a long and somewhat involved explanation as to why this book really didn’t ‘do’ it for me. One thing was that the games they chose to illustrate various points I hadn’t, by and large played – BioShock, Ultima and Portal for example. Although it was passing interesting having their developers interviewed and explaining exactly what they were hoping to achieve it left me fairly cool about the whole thing. The philosophical discussions were generally reasonable although a few times I thought that the authors had either missed the point or misunderstood some of the underlying actual philosophy under the game version. It raised the odd eyebrow anyway! A few of the discussions – notably about the philosophy of Mind (which is of particular interest to me) were interesting but, overall, they didn’t really push the envelope much as far as I was concerned. Despite not being a bad book per se I couldn’t help but be disappointed in it for the simple reason that it wasn’t really what I was expecting or wanting going in to it. I had expected/hoped that it was going to be much like the previous pop-Philosophy books I’d read before. Unfortunately, from my own personal interest point of view, it wasn’t. A reasonable read – especially if you’re interested in particular games philosophy rather than the philosophy of games or Philosophy in general.   

Just Finished Reading: Replay – The History of Video Games by Tristan Donovan (FP: 2010)

I started playing video/computer games in the early 1970’s and have been hooked ever since. But, after my first encounter with them on a Pong machine in a hotel in the French Alps, I had a close to 10 year hiatus in the gaming arena. I missed out on many of the advances talked about in the first sections of this totally fascinating history not having the resources to buy any of the early gaming rigs – though I did have a few friends whose families had somewhat larger disposable incomes than mine. My next real encounter with gaming was in the arcades of the seaside town of Morecambe where I spent the 2nd Year of my University days pushing my grant money into slot machines like Space Invaders and X-Wing. I see from the history of such things the driving forces of why particular machines ended up there – I think I was there in the transition away from pinball machines to video game machines – and moved away just as the video arcade hit its apogee and started to collapse in on itself in a blaze of multi-coloured pixels. Machines were getting bigger, more powerful, and naturally more expensive to both use and run/maintain. Then, of course, came the console….

I, for one, was never a console player. Again I knew people with various gaming rigs but I never owned one even after starting work. Looking back on it I’m not exactly sure why. My 6 year stint in London was definitely video game lite except for the (very) odd trip to the nearby seaside resorts in the summer. In those days – prior to moving here with work – I was without a computer but did (briefly) try out the Atari Lynx. I still have it somewhere….. Only in the early 90’s did I reconnect with the gaming world – now exclusively on the PC – with games like the iconic Doom (my first ever multi-player experience) and SimCity. After I borrowed an older model 386SX from work I really didn’t look back and have been playing ever since.

Naturally the nostalgia index was high whilst reading through this pretty exhaustive account of the video game industry from its earliest days up till about 10 years ago. My potted history of personal gaming will show you that most of gaming development passed me by so it was interesting and informative to fill in the gaps. It was fun to recognise games and incidents from growing up and even more fun remembering playing them and some of the experiences I shared with various gaming buddies over the decades. Even many of the games I’d never played, or systems I’d never played on, elicited recognition if nothing else.

One of the things that I did find fascinating was the chaotic nature of the gaming industry in the early years/decades. It was only really after games themselves and the technology used to both create and play them became much more expensive that the *industry* we know and hate these days became such a factor. Before that things were pretty much thrown together and, to be honest, often looked it. Of course one of the main issues with the corporatisation of gaming is the lack of imagination and the reduction of risk taking (to say nothing of taking fans/users for granted). It seemed, at least for a while, that the BIG companies would kill the goose that had laid so many golden eggs. Then came the Internet, independent games designers and platforms such as Steam to distribute them online. With that everything changed……

If you’re a gamer like me this will pretty much be a guaranteed fun read. It was definitely interesting to understand how games came about, the wild-west style industry in the early days and the ever expanding technology that helped it grow. Much nostalgia was experienced (along with a sprinkling of sadness at the loss of some ‘freshness’) and many a smile passed across my face. A recommended fun read.     

Just Finished Reading: Death By Video Game – Tales of Obsession from the Virtual Frontline by Simon Parkin (FP: 2015)

In early 2012 a young gamer at an Internet café in Taiwan was found dead at his station. He had in fact died nine hours before discovery after a marathon gaming session. He had, apparently, died of a heart attack without anyone noticing. Apart from the lax overview by the café itself the reason why the youngster had died in that way became a media sensation. But he was neither the first nor the last youth who would die this way. The question which intrigued many, including the author, was what would motivate anyone to game so long and so intently that they would put their own physical well-being at the ultimate risk. So he went to find out.

Since there earliest incarnation’s computer/video games has been designed to be compulsive. With the advent of coin operated gaming machines in arcades across the world this compulsiveness moved into high gear. The more addictive a game was the more money it would make in the arcades – simple. This quality, using techniques like micro-rewards and other endorphin releasing methods, moved on-line in massive multi-player games (MMO’s) like Everquest and World of Warcraft (and countless others) with level and power ups, loot boxes, rare drops and high demand rare items. You could literally lose yourself in the game. That was the whole point. These were not the kind of games that you could drop into for the odd 20 minutes. They required dedication, staying power, investment if you wanted to progress along quest chains and show off your latest armour or spell to friends and enemies alike.

But a simple addiction to reward can’t explain everything – and it doesn’t. Gaming to death goes deeper – much deeper. Games offer places that are, ironically, safer than the real world. In places even as violent as Call of Duty (CoD) you know the rules and the rewards that come your way are because of your skill and persistent effort. With time and some skill a kid you’d hardly notice in the halls or the Mall could be a holy terror on the battlefield. A kid or even an adult that you wouldn’t even glance at the first time might, online, be a clan leader known across the world. Online a nobody could become a somebody and that’s worth putting in the hours. But not only can you be ‘someone’ online you can be even better than that. Online you can even be yourself – your true self – someone that no one IRL (In Real Life) has ever seen including the player themselves. Online you can find out who you are. You can play a role in a safe environment. You can play with gender and other roles and try each on for size.

The authors looks at these reasons and others to explain why people can sit at a computer for hours or even days at a time being someone else and being somewhere else. He makes a lot of very good points and a lot I agreed with. I have lost myself in games more than once – wondering after hours exploring and fighting why my eyes hurt and why I *desperately* needed to pee – seeing that six hours had gone by in the flash and it was 3am. I still think of some of my WoW characters and miss them as if they were friends or family members. My gaming buddies still laugh, many years after we stopped playing CoD together, at our exploits online and our favourite kills or even our best deaths. That sense of community is another reason why, in these isolated times (even before the Pandemic), people go and stay online sometimes far longer than is good for them.

If you’ve ever wondered what a friend or your child sees in online gaming (or just gaming in general) then this book will provide a lot of answers. If you’re a gamer as I have been since the early 1970’s (yes, that’s not a typo) it will validate what you already know and give you some ammunition in the next debate you have about all that time you ‘waste’ away from the so-called real world. Recommended.     

Just Finished Reading: Life Moves Pretty Fast – The Lessons we Learned from Eighties Movies (& Why We Don’t Learn Them from Movies Any More) by Hadley Freeman (FP: 2015)

I tend not to judge a book by its cover but a good one will certainly attract my attention. This one (shown in the cover art above) looked just like a VCR cassette – same shape, size and (probably) weight. It immediately made me do a double take and then smile at its cleverness. Half sold already. Of course the subject matter helped – 80’s movies. As someone who (well, almost) grew up with 80’s movies – I was in my 20’s, living away from home and, at least for the early part of the decade at university with a VCR machine and a nearby video store. Needless to say I developed a deep and abiding love for the teen movies of the time and much more besides.

The author of this interesting, funny but admittedly hit and miss homage to the time and genre had a bit of a different exposure. She saw her first 80’s movie aged 8 or 9 so had a much different route into the subject at hand which shows in her pick of movies reviewed and honestly gushed over. For example she starts off with Dirty Dancing. To be honest I don’t think I’ve seen the whole movie so I learnt a lot from her description and her analysis of its cultural and social place in the 80’s scheme of things. On to The Princess Bride (which I have seen at least once or twice) which I agreed was a good film although maybe not as good as many people think it is. Then Pretty in Pink. OK, I’m a HUGE John Hughes fan and I like Molly Ringwald as much as the next person but again PinP wouldn’t normally have made my Top 20. I did find the background of the film interesting – as well as the discussion of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (I’m looking at you Zoe Deschanel) – which made me laugh. I was more than a little creeped out by Hughes’s relationship with Ringwald though…. Then one of my all-time favourite films and one of the best comedies ever made – When Harry Met Sally. Quite brilliant. I realised that there were feminist themes in the movie (obviously) but enjoyed it myself because of the realism of the relationship between the two leads. Then onto another of my all-time favourite movies – Ghostbusters. Again both very funny and very clever. As with the other films – even the ones I wasn’t greatly interested in – the author provided some good insights and background information 90% of which I was completely unaware of. Naturally at some point we had to get to the movie where the title of the book came from: Ferris Bueller’s Day off. I watched it recently after finishing this book. In any list it’d probably be in my Top 20 favourite movies. I LOVE it to death – as does the author (naturally). I found myself agreeing with much of her analysis and hoovering up the movie trivia around it. Then she lost me completely with Steel Magnolias which I knew existed but have never seen. Then (as if in recompense) was another film that I love dearly – Back to the Future. I’ve seen that movie many times and the sequels almost as much. I still quote it from time to time. After that the book got a bit….. vague, looking first at Batman movies and then at Eddie Murphy who I always thought to be rather hit and miss. Some of the reason behind that was explain here. 

Although far from a perfect book about far from a perfect movie era (a significant number of 80’s movies were SO bad I believe they actually warped space-time and probably destroyed whole alternative universes – I’m looking at YOU Buckaroo Banzai). It was fun travelling down such a nostalgic path even with someone else leading the way. My version of the book would’ve been rather different (more Schwarzenegger for one thing!) and would’ve covered the 80’s films that ended up defining my life like:

The Breakfast Club
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Terminator
Die Hard
Gremlins (which me and the guys are seeing tomorrow on the BIG screen)
Bladerunner (which I’ve seen over 60 times)
Top Gun
Aliens
The Lost Boys
Weird Science
Heathers
Risky Business
Beetlejiuce
Escape from New York……..

Definitely a fun read for all 80’s movies fans but this is very much a personal journey looking back at a childhood spent watching iconic movies whilst growing up lonely in New York. Recommended with caveats. (R)

Just Finished Reading: The Rebel Sell – How the Counterculture became the Consumer Culture by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (FP: 2005)

This was one of those all too rare books that confounded my expectations – in a good way! I was expecting the authors to explain how our culture (basically western Capitalism) co-opts rebellion and repackages it in such a clever way that it hoodwinks the masses into believing they’re rebelling whilst actually making lots of money out of bamboozled idiots. Although the authors mention this ‘theory’ in passing they give it little more than very short shrift indeed.

No, what the authors put forward is something quite different and actually a lot more disturbing in some ways. What they contend is that the counterculture and the dominant culture are not only one and the same thing – that in fact what is referred to as the counterculture doesn’t actually exist – but that the so called counterculture in fact is one of the main drivers behind the power and continued expansion of Capitalism into even more markets across the globe. Although I wasn’t 100% convinced by their arguments it did give me more than enough food for thought to look at things through a new set of eyes.

The authors contend that there is a component in human nature that makes a small percentage of people want to stand out from the rest – in effect to be more ‘cool’ than those around them. To do this they must in some was distinguish themselves from others – they move to particular areas, wear certain clothes, listen to certain music and so on. They’re often the early adopters of all things later seen to be cutting edge and often initially invent, manufacture or develop much of what makes them distinctive. Before you know it they are not only recognised as cool within their own tiny community of other cool people but are perceived as cool by those on the leading edge (rather than the bleeding edge) of culture. This is when Indy bands become increasingly popular and your kids start wearing black make-up. With a growing population of cool and semi-cool people the demand for this year’s cool items increases and (as we all know) if there’s a big enough demand for something then someone will make money out of suppling it. At this point it starts to become less cool, less exclusive and less distinct as more and more people buy into it. It becomes mainstream – counterculture has become consumer culture. Long before this happens the cool people have found something else to make them distinctive and the cycle repeats itself again and again. The counterculture, which was always actually part of the innovating, risk taking, cutting edge capitalist mainstream culture provides the driving force behind capitalism itself with constant change, constant recycling of the old and constant planned obsolescence.

It’s not capitalism cannily co-opting rebellion for its own repackaged use. Its capitalism doing what capitalism does – finding new markets, discovering needs and then fulfilling them. It is human nature – looking for novelty, wanting to stand out from the mass, needing to be cool (or appearing to be cool or at least not uncool!), demanding to be individualistic and distinctive and (finally) getting quickly bored and looking for the next craze that drives the whole process forward. It’s a very interesting thesis and in many ways makes a lot more sense than a sort of global conspiracy to take the sting out of rebellion by pulling the Che T-shirts over people’s eyes. Each chapter ended with a bibliography and I intend following up on some of the author’s recommended reading. I think there is much investigation and much mussing to be done before I decide if their hypothesis is correct which, on refection, I think it probably is. Recommended for anyone who wants a different perspective on things and who likes to look at things in a rather unexpected way.        

Just Finished Reading: The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore (FP: 1967)

This is one of the seminal books on modern western culture by one of its most revered commentators. Except it’s less of a book and more of a conceptual art work – it was the late 60’s after all when conventions such as books and the boundaries between art and literature where – well, square man!

Such as it is this is actually a quite interesting work. Despite much of it being very much of its time and place it still manages – between the apparent pretension and ‘pop’ cult artwork – to raise some interesting questions and the odd eyebrow. The idea (which came across to me as rather Marxist in outlook) that the medium – writing or television for example – is not just a way of communicating information but determines or constrains what type of messages can be transmitted. Much like the means of production determine what kind of society can exist the medium of information exchange determines what can and cannot be said or even thought because it shapes the very world view and the concepts within that view which are available to be used to think with. It’s a bold, and no doubt at the time, original idea. I think that it’s worth following up with some other reading on the subject. I don’t know where it might lead but I think it’ll be interesting to find out.

Because of its picture heavy content this is a very quick read. There’s a few gimmicks or toys to play with – a page of mirror writing for example – plus odd changes of font (why stick to convention, man?), juxtaposition of photographs and text in a collage format (why not?) and plenty of pictures that probably meant a lot more in 1967 than they do in 2015 without some research. It is, rather inevitably, focused very much on the American perspective but then again 60’s America was pretty much the cutting edge of western culture back then.

Despite its rather dated, now nostalgic and sometimes cute format this is still worth a few hours of your time to see what all the fuss was about. I do however recommend you get it from a library rather than buy it new. I really didn’t find it great value for money.

Just Finished Reading: Star Trek and Philosophy – The Wrath of Kant edited by Jason T Eberl and Kevin S Decker (FP: 2008)

Boldly going where no philosopher has been before – OK, maybe not as the sections in the book cover age old questions using pop-culture to tease out some of the issues in a format the modern reader can appreciate – looks at the many issues raised and philosophical ideas broadcast during the long running saga of Star Trek (all of the series and movies up to the time of publication).

Some of the ideas will come as no surprise to Star Trek fans the world over: whether language can ever be separated from the culture that produced it and the need for cultural references to understand the spoken word (referenced by the rather strange TNG episode ‘Darmok’), can logic alone lead to the truth or is it just a way of making mistakes with confidence (referenced by numerous episodes in OS, TNG and Enterprise, plus ST III, V and VI), can data become anything like the human he aspires to without true emotions – one’s that he can’t turn off when they become inconvenient (many TNG references), is Khan right to seek revenge against Kirk and can revenge ever be a productive driving force (referenced, of course, by ST II and the original OS episode it grew from – aw well as the books by Greg Cox), can ultimate power ever lead to happiness or do we need to struggle our way to heaven (referenced by the many appearances of Q in TNG and Voyager), is it ever OK to kill your clone or is your clone actually you (referenced by the TNG episode ‘Masterpiece Society’), can Starfleet, basically a military organisation, really be a force for good in the Galaxy or will military ethics always be in conflict with more liberal democratic points of view (with many OS and TNG references), is Odo a collaborator both with the Cardassians and the Dominion (with many DS9 references), what place does ethics have in business or are they mutually exclusive (DS9 again), why is it so bad to be assimilated by the Borg (TNG, Voyager and Enterprise), why is Star Trek such a cultural phenomenon and would it be a good idea to live in their universe if we could (many references as you might imagine), why it’s not a good idea to live your life on the holodeck (many references again), if the Gods came back would anyone believe it and if so, why (mostly referenced by ‘Rightful Heir’ in TNG) and one of my personal favourites, is it ever really possible for deep seated enemies to ever get beyond their enmity for each other and sit down for meaningful talks at the negotiation table after the war is over (many DS9 references).

Being a long-time fan of all of the incarnations of the Trek-verse (the less said about the new movie manifestation the better I think) this book was a page turning delight as it looked at some of my favourite SF characters, plots and ideas from a variety of philosophical points of view. Star Trek was often, if not always, a deeply philosophical project which is not surprising really seeing where the idea for the whole thing came from. ST often asked awkward questions in a way that many other shows just couldn’t at the time it was first shown. It made the audience question firmly held assumptions in quite subtle and insidious ways which explains how Trek has become a huge part of 20^th and now 21^st Century culture. This book is a worthy addition to that continuing dialogue. Recommended.   

Just Finished Reading: The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy - One Book to Rule Them All edited by Gregory Bassham and Eric Bronson (FP: 2003)

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that Tolkien’s classic trilogy is a deeply philosophical text – or at least can be treated as such. Likewise it shouldn’t come as any surprise at all that such a book would interest me. As usual with such things the editors and publishers of this work – and the series of which it forms a part – have picked a wide variety of philosophers and cultural experts to tease out the themes represented in the books and films that make up the trilogy. Split into five parts this slim volume (at 218 pages) covers power and responsibility represented by the one true ring as well as the threat of emerging technologies (Part I), the quest for a happy life with a brief excursion into Existentialism (Part II), the nature of Good and Evil in Middle Earth (Part III), the idea of death as a gift, the importance of tradition and the books environmental themes (Part IV) and finally the idea of Providence, Buddhist and Taoist themes in the books, the Journey motif and the concept of the books as an extended fairy tale (Part V).

Overall this was a very interesting and thought provoking work. Often in books such as this there are stand-out contributions and those which can happily be skipped over or lightly skimmed. This volume was one of those rare examples where every section had its nuggets of gold and every article had something, and often multiple something’s, of interest. Of course you really shouldn’t pick up this book without having at least a passing knowledge of the books or movies – and preferably both. The works are heavily referenced and the uninitiated could quite easily get lost (or bored) by being bombarded by details that go over their heads. Several authors reference other Tolkien works (one of which, The Silmarillion, I have never read) but in such a way that your understanding is increased rather than clouded over. If you’ve read the books or watched the films with the excitement and wonder that I did you’ll have no problems when authors delve into the background of some scenes and go all fan-boy on the themes involved in Middle-Earth. The authors are, at least as far as I could tell, both knowledgeable and interested in the world Tolkien created. They have sometimes thought very deeply about the implications of his work (maybe too deeply on occasion!) and present their thoughts here with real enthusiasm. More than once I found myself smiling at a comment, laughing out loud at an observation or nodding sagely in agreement with a point of view. I also found myself more than once with a raised eyebrow and a ‘so that’s what that meant’ feeling as topics within the books where discussed and dissected in detail. If you are in any way a fan of this series – and I know that some of my regulars are – then this really should be on your bookshelf or downloaded to your Kindle. Impressive and recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: More Matrix and Philosophy – Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded edited by William Irwin (FP: 2005)

Rather unsurprisingly this is the sequel to The Matrix and Philosophy also edited by Irwin which I read some years ago – pre Blog. The Matrix, it would seem at least, is practically single-handedly responsible for the plethora of many of the pop-culture philosophy books presently cluttering up my book shelves. The Matrix, no matter what it detractors say, is certainly a movie that can be dissected philosophically much more than any other later 20^th Century film – so what about its much debated sequels?

Well, 18 authors (some of who are professional philosophers) attempt just that. As with most things like this, at least in my experience, the quality or at least the interest they generate, varies with the author. Some of the articles I found moderately interesting. Some I found rather pretentious and others I found truly interesting. One aspect of the movies that I hadn’t really thought about prior to reading this volume was the music in the movies. Now I liked the soundtracks and even bought them. The opening credits music still sends a shiver up my spine now but no matter how much I enjoy the music I’d never really thought about it much. Theodore Gracyk made one point which really stopped me in my tracks. He was describing a scene where Neo gets ‘killed’ in the first movie and briefly assumes a Christ crucified pose hinting that he is indeed the new Messiah. Behind it is clearly religious music but why do we recognise it as such. In some countries The Matrix was heavily edited before finally being released. In places the obviously Christian message was edited out – but they left in the music because, it would seem, that even though the religious imagery was clear to them the religious music was not. Playing a Western audience clearly religious music from other ‘unknown’ cultures gets a similar response. We have no idea what we’re listening to! I never really thought of music that way before…. My other favourite article was by Nick Bostrom who brought up the old idea that we might be living in a Matrix ourselves. He actually made a very good case that any sufficiently advanced civilisation would, and could, simulate either previously existing environments (for study or just for fun) and that if the Universe is as old as it appears to be have had plenty of time to do just that. If these simulations have been running long enough, he suggests, they would have created their own simulations inside simulations and so on ad infinitum. The odds suggest that the world we think of as real is really just a Matrix within countless other matrices. The kicker is, of course, that we could never find out if this was true. If a software ‘bug’ became obvious enough for the Sims to discover the truth it would be rolled back or patched in order to correct the mistake and they’d never know it happened. It’s an intriguing if pointless idea!

Overall this was an enjoyable read especially for anyone who enjoyed the trilogy (OK, the first movie kicked ass and the others where…. Shall we say less than they could have been?) as much as I did. Recommended.

Just Finished Reading: The Philosophy of Neo-Noir edited by Mark T Conard (FP: 2007)

This was another one of those books whose title (and cover featuring Sean Young as the replicant Rachel from Bladerunner) made it irresistible to me. As my readership already know I am a huge fan of Film Noir and its modern successor Neo-Noir so I was really looking forward to reading about the philosophical underpinnings of the whole thing. I was however slightly disappointed with the whole thing – though only slightly and only until I adjusted my preconceptions a bit. For although the word Philosophy was prominently displayed on the front cover and even mentioned several times in the various articles between its covers the main thrust of the book was very much from the film studies genre rather from any philosophical point of view. Of course, by and large, this was no bad thing and I must admit that I did learn a thing or two about Neo-Noir in general and the movies discussed in particular it’s just that I would’ve liked a bit more philosophy and a bit less discussion of the cinematic arts (to say nothing of one particular section that I found almost unreadable as it was chock full of film jargon and, to be frank, so far up its own arse as never to see daylight again.)

Anyway….. After a general explanation of what exactly Neo-Noir was – basically Noir type movies made after the classic Noir films – a selection of authors dived into various movies to discuss the ins and outs of each one logically starting with Bladerunner (1982) as it appeared on the cover. This was probably the most philosophical of all the articles concentrating on the idea of humanity, free choice and authenticity in the Sartre sense. Then we had several interesting articles on Point Blank (1967) and Memento (2000) discussing personal identity (without memories who are we really?) and the nature of reality (how can we be sure that any of our experiences are actually real?). After that it got a bit less philosophical with a discussion of The Onion Field (1979) and the idea of guilt vs justice, A Simple Plan (1998) and the idea of moral corruption, Hard Eight (1996) and atonement, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and the idea of redemption. After that I felt that we moved fully away from any philosophic bent and moved straight onto film criticism (with a slight tinge of philosophy to shoe-horn the articles between the pages of a philosophical publication) as various authors discussed Chinatown (1974), Blood Simple (1984), Fargo (1996), The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), The Big Lebowski (1998) and finally – and bizarrely to my mind – the 1980’s TV series Miami Vice.

Now I didn’t exactly dislike this book. Once I got over the mild disappointment of it not being as philosophical as I had hoped and expected it was reasonably interesting. I certainly learnt quite a bit about various aspects of Neo-Noir that I would probably never have considered prior to reading this book. It probably would have helped if I’d have seen more of the films being discussed (I think I managed about 50% to be honest) so maybe the feeling that it could have been a better more engaging book stems from my apparent ignorance of the modern genre. It’s certainly possible. So although I won’t be giving this a blanket recommendation I’ll leave it to other Noir fans to decide if this is a good book or not.   

Just Finished Reading: Terminator and Philosophy – I’ll be Back, therefore I Am edited by Richard Brown and Kevin S Decker

I am, as most of you will know, a huge fan of the Terminator ‘franchise’ of movies and TV series. So it will come as no surprise that I jumped at the opportunity to read about some of the ideas behind James Cameron’s original ideas and their offspring. Of course many of these ideas are deeply philosophical – if not exactly anything particularly original. The most obvious point brought up in the movies is about machine intelligence. As Reese explain in the first movie regarding Skynet – “They say it got smart, a new order of intelligence and decided our future in a micro-second” – or words to that effect. So there are several articles about that aspect. My particular favourite however are those dealing with the other major aspect: Time travel and the possibility of changing the past (or the future) which, quite naturally, leads on to discussions of fate and free will. Some of the temporal mechanics is rather mind-bending and I did have to slow things down and read a few passages more than once – but it all made sense in the end. The two things to remember of course is that ‘Judgement Day is inevitable’ – though it can seemingly be delayed – and no matter how many killer robots (or protectors) you send back you can’t seem to change things very much or for very long. Tagged on to all this is the obvious question of where exactly are these Terminators coming from? Does that mean that the future already exists in some form or other? Surely it must if the cyborgs live there, right? Also, rather than repeatedly failing to stop its own destruction at the hands of humanity, does Skynet merely create other worlds and other timelines where different versions of itself sends back robots into our world? As John Conner said in the last movie: ‘This isn’t the future my mother warned me about’. Is that because of the meddling of Skynet (and the Resistance) in The Sarah Conner Chronicles?

I do love thinking about all this sort of thing. If you are as sad as me in that respect then this book is most definitely you. If you read it carefully you might even find out why we cry (cringe worthy moment par excellence!) Highly recommended but, be warned, it might make you watch all four films back-to-back like I did last weekend……..

Just Finished Reading: Zombies, Vampires, and Philosophy – New Life for the Undead edited by Richard Greene and K Silem Mohammad

Although I have had a long fascination with Vampires I have never really understood the interest with the walking dead (or these days the running dead). Obviously I understand that they can be seen – though the eyes of the survivors of any zombie attack - as a metaphorical triumph over death itself, I can’t see where you go after you realise this. Then again I have never been a huge fan of any of the general horror genres so my lack of interest (or maybe understanding) in watching animating corpses shuffle after the tasty living.

So it should come as no surprise that I was hoping that the majority of this book dealt with the various philosophical and culture aspects of vampirism. Not so unfortunately – or at least I thought this to begin with. Rather surprisingly I actually enjoyed the sections on zombies and ended up thinking that the subset of articles on vampires were rather dull. The zombies in question were, almost exclusively, those created by George Romero – the ‘Dead’ series of movies (none of which I’ve actually seen all the way through. Probably my favourite article in the whole book discussed the philosophical idea of zombies – rather than its cinematic variant. This is the problem of other minds – that being that because we have direct access to the thoughts of others there’s no actual way to confirm that other people have minds like you (or actually like me – because I don’t know if you actually exist as people!). You can see the problem. Other ‘people’ might respond in an appropriate manner but how can you tell if that’s just a conditioned response rather anything driven by another consciousness? Dale Jacquette discussed this in an intriguing way – by thinking about zombie gladiators. What if we could train zombies (the philosophical type not the rotting corpse type) to fight in gladiatorial contests for our entertainment? What if they looked just like us, shouted in pain just like us and bled to death just like us? But what if they only acting these things out because they never actually had minds – and we could tell that because of a tattoo on their skin ‘inked on’ as soon as their lack of consciousness was discovered. Would such contests be OK and if not why not? Probably the second interesting argument – put forward by several authors – was the socio-economic view of what zombies mean (beyond the critique of consumerism so blatant in the second (?) ‘Dead’ film with its now classic Mall scenes). Typically the vampire related articles explored the question of whether vampires are inherently evil or if good vampires (with or without a soul) can actually exist outside of the Buffy universe.      

Overall, despite my initial disappointment in the lower than hoped for number of vampire related articles, I found this book to be nicely diverting. I certainly learnt quite a lot about the zombie mystique – not that it is going to encourage me to watch any of Romero’s movies anytime soon. I can look at the whole zombie genre in a different way though – be it political, economic or philosophic. Books like these are great ways of ‘doing’ philosophy without appearing to do so. If you’re either a zombie or vampire fan you’ll find something in here that will interest you – and you might just pick up the odd (and sometimes very odd) philosophical concept along the way. Recommended.

Just Finished Reading: Dune and Philosophy – The Weirding Way of the Mentat edited by Jeffery Nicholas

Well, I just had to really……

I have been enjoying these Popular Culture and Philosophy books. They’re a great way to get into some of the philosophical ideas and concepts as well as delve a bit deeper into some of your favourite bits of pop culture. Of course few come closer than Dune which produced 6 original novels by Frank Herbert as well as many more expansions by his son and others. Then there was the ‘interesting’ movie and two made-for-TV mini-series. All in all that’s quite a bit of material to mine into for philosophical subject matter. Those who know of the Dune universe will not be in the least bit surprised that there is a great deal of fine philosophical material to mine! Indeed several authors in this outstanding collection call Herbert a philosopher in his own right rather than a SF author who just peppered his work with bits of philosophy. I would probably agree with them.

I read the first Dune trilogy back in my teens. Again for those who have experienced the books you can imagine the effect they had on an adolescent mind. Tales of Galaxy spanning empires, super beings, genetic manipulation on a species wide scale, cloning and much else besides made my head spin. Something of that effect, still with me after all those years, was present in this book. Some of the articles were very well written indeed, the majority were interesting at worst and often fascinating. A mere two were, in my opinion, largely unworthy to have been included – which out of sixteen articles actually wasn’t that bad. Discussions moved from the differences in politics between the worlds of Dune, the problems and dilemmas associated with planning to improve the species, the possibility of being enslaved by technology of our own creation, issues created by the idea of seeing the future – does it destroy free will or give us an amazing power to shape our own destinies and is it even possible to shape our own destiny never mind that of an entire species.

One of my favourite sections was a series of discussions on ideas of personal identity using one of my favourite Dune characters – the Ghola Duncan Idaho – as an example. If a clone of someone long dead can have his memories activated so that he is mentally the ‘same’ as his deceased counterpart is he the same person? What if two such clones exist at the same time? If you had multiple copies of yourself from previous lives and had access to their memories are you still you or are you them or someone completely new? It’s fascinating stuff. The last section – discussions about Paul Muad’Dib from a Nietzschean perspective – rocked my world. They were excellent. Inevitably I watched the movie, deeply flawed though it is, soon after reading this and am seriously toying with the idea of reading the Herbert novels again. Maybe I will – when I have an extra few weeks to rub together.

If you are a Dune fan, and I know some of my regulars are, you will definitely enjoy this book. It does help to have at least some knowledge of the series and the movie to get the full benefit from this book but on the other hand it might raise enough interest in those who haven’t read these landmark works to dive right in. Highly recommended.       

Just Finished Reading: The Science of Battlestar Galactica by Patrick Di Justo and Kevin R Grazier

How could I resist? - after all I’m trying to read more science based books! So this seemed an ideal way to break back in without reading yet another VSI book. Those of you who have watched the re-imaged (and IMHO much superior) version of BSG will already know that, as much as possible, the science fiction elements of the story relied very much on real science. OK they threw in FTL ‘jump’ technology but that’s at least theoretically possible with a bit of imagination and a pinch of salt. Just about everything else is either within our present technology or understanding given enough time and effort.

The book itself – which contains many shots from the series as well as publicity shots – runs through the whole gamut of science from definitions of life (are the Cylons alive as we understand the term for example), to the possibility of ‘hive minds’, the ability (or possibility) of downloading memories, an interesting diversion into discussions about Cylon brain structures (and why the differences are so difficult to detect), how we could get from Colonial plus Cylon plus native to existing humanity (which will only make sense if you saw the end of the last series), the drugs used in the Colonial fleet, quite a bit of basic physics all the way up to Einsteinian Relativity, the problem with Gravity (both dealing with it in space and generating it on a ship), the basics of radiation, and the effects of nuclear weapons, explorations of the galaxy and the possibility of habitable worlds, the formation of planets, stars and black holes, various propulsion systems both sub-light and FTL (complete with equations), the problems of navigating across vast distances within our galaxy and much else besides. Subjects are discussed in enough depth to give you a good taste of things without getting too technical (OK, I skipped over the math) or too boring. Also throughout the book the link to the show itself is constantly referenced – helped by the fact that Grazier was the scientific advisor on BSG and works for NASA so knows his stuff.

This was a breeze of a read and informative both from the point of straight science and from the perspective of BSG so I found that I learnt stuff about both aspects which was nice. It’s an easy book to get into (though it helps being a fan or at least familiar with the show) and easy to pick up lots of information without too much effort. All in all a very enjoyable weekend reading experience. Recommended.