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bluegargantua) wrote2011-01-19 02:44 pm
bluegargantua) wrote2011-01-19 02:44 pm
Entry tags:
A Dreaming Quarterly Review
Hey,
So I did some reading and here's what I thought.
Lapham's Quarterly Winter 2011 -- Celebrity: I'm pretty much going to have to plunk down for a subscription to this. Superior bathroom reading and that may sound flip, but really it's the perfect time for short essays and poems all meditating on one particular subject.
This time around it's celebrity and fame. Various authors look at how one achieves fame and the value of fame. Famous people also write about the perils of fame. Interestingly, even famous people seem to find fame problematic. Everyone seems to be in agreement that the best fame is being famous well after you're dead -- so start working on those stone monoliths to leave behind.
Particular stand-outs this time around include:
...among many other interesting pieces.
This topic hasn't grabbed me like the previous two, but the selections are all quite good and well worth perusal.
The first book of the year is The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton. This is the first of his Void Trilogy and it takes place in the same universe as Pandora Star and Judas Unchained some 1500 years later.
When you've got a high-tech sci-fi universe where people's lives are practically immortal, the question becomes -- can anyone new ever get a word in edgewise? The answer is yes, but there are quite a few people making their return from the previous pair of books. None of them are the center of focus, but they just keep turning up.
So, in the future, humanity discovers that the center of our galaxy is something called the Void. There's a barrier you can't get through and occasionally that barrier expands...with cataclysmic results for things swept up in the barrier. One ancient alien race shoved a war fleet into it and thousands of cultures disappeared in a blink. So now they (and humans and other alien species) sit there and watch it. Until a man named Inigo starts dreaming of the lives of people inside the Void. A religion builds up around this with Inigo leading the way until he gets fed up and takes off.
Now the Living Dream encompasses a great deal of humanity and the newest Pope has determined that the faithful are going on the Great Pilgrimage into the Void. He thinks he'll succeed where others fail because a second dreamer has started dreaming about the Skylord -- a being who promises to guide ships through the Void. He also thinks he'll succeed because various factions within the post-physical collective of humanity is backing him.
And now the race is on to find Inagio, the Second Dreamer, more information about the Void and anything and everything to prevent or ensure the Pilgrimage.
I had trouble getting through this book. I'm not quite sure why. Hamilton always has some really interesting ideas on display. The book breaks off with interludes recounting the dreams Inagio had and those take place in more of a fantasy setting so maybe that's it. There's also that whole "folks from the previous books show up here" and the "I can't be bothered to find a decent stopping point cause it's a trilogy" problem and his female characters feel a little flat (although one of the major female protagonists is done really, really well so...).
I think that objectively, the book is pretty good. I think that it just wasn't good for me, or it wasn't good for me right now. I'm in no hurry to get the second book at this time (I've already got a small stack from Amazon to get through and The Crippled God looms like Godzilla in my near future), but I might come back to it eventually.
later
Tom
So I did some reading and here's what I thought.
Lapham's Quarterly Winter 2011 -- Celebrity: I'm pretty much going to have to plunk down for a subscription to this. Superior bathroom reading and that may sound flip, but really it's the perfect time for short essays and poems all meditating on one particular subject.
This time around it's celebrity and fame. Various authors look at how one achieves fame and the value of fame. Famous people also write about the perils of fame. Interestingly, even famous people seem to find fame problematic. Everyone seems to be in agreement that the best fame is being famous well after you're dead -- so start working on those stone monoliths to leave behind.
Particular stand-outs this time around include:
- Lillie Langtry discusses her sudden rise to fame as "the most beautiful woman in the world" and the sudden hysteria surrounding her.
- Cicero discusses how you ain't shit till you hit it big in Rome.
- Yiyun Lee writes about a boy from her village who looked exactly like Chairman Mao and how the Chairman's cult of personality swept up him and the country.
- Bob Dylan speaks wistfully of the little house with the white picket fence he hoped his career could provide him.
- Fredrick Treves talks about how he first encountered the Elephant Man.
- William F. Cody recounts the bet that earned him the moniker Buffalo Bill.
- Danilo Kis spins an anecdote about the funeral of a prostitute in Hamburg.
- Andrew McConnell Stott writes about Shakespeare's mulberry tree and Byron's fame overshadowing Byron's poetry.
...among many other interesting pieces.
This topic hasn't grabbed me like the previous two, but the selections are all quite good and well worth perusal.
The first book of the year is The Dreaming Void by Peter F. Hamilton. This is the first of his Void Trilogy and it takes place in the same universe as Pandora Star and Judas Unchained some 1500 years later.
When you've got a high-tech sci-fi universe where people's lives are practically immortal, the question becomes -- can anyone new ever get a word in edgewise? The answer is yes, but there are quite a few people making their return from the previous pair of books. None of them are the center of focus, but they just keep turning up.
So, in the future, humanity discovers that the center of our galaxy is something called the Void. There's a barrier you can't get through and occasionally that barrier expands...with cataclysmic results for things swept up in the barrier. One ancient alien race shoved a war fleet into it and thousands of cultures disappeared in a blink. So now they (and humans and other alien species) sit there and watch it. Until a man named Inigo starts dreaming of the lives of people inside the Void. A religion builds up around this with Inigo leading the way until he gets fed up and takes off.
Now the Living Dream encompasses a great deal of humanity and the newest Pope has determined that the faithful are going on the Great Pilgrimage into the Void. He thinks he'll succeed where others fail because a second dreamer has started dreaming about the Skylord -- a being who promises to guide ships through the Void. He also thinks he'll succeed because various factions within the post-physical collective of humanity is backing him.
And now the race is on to find Inagio, the Second Dreamer, more information about the Void and anything and everything to prevent or ensure the Pilgrimage.
I had trouble getting through this book. I'm not quite sure why. Hamilton always has some really interesting ideas on display. The book breaks off with interludes recounting the dreams Inagio had and those take place in more of a fantasy setting so maybe that's it. There's also that whole "folks from the previous books show up here" and the "I can't be bothered to find a decent stopping point cause it's a trilogy" problem and his female characters feel a little flat (although one of the major female protagonists is done really, really well so...).
I think that objectively, the book is pretty good. I think that it just wasn't good for me, or it wasn't good for me right now. I'm in no hurry to get the second book at this time (I've already got a small stack from Amazon to get through and The Crippled God looms like Godzilla in my near future), but I might come back to it eventually.
later
Tom