May 27, 2023The OdysseyMy thoughts on the Odyssey are largely similar to my thoughts on The Iliad, in the extent to which this story told millennia ago about a people and a culture distant in all manors from mine remains engaging, entertaining, and apparently well crafted is of course remarkable. It is clearly apparent why the Odyssey is more referenced and revered than its sibling the Iliad, focusing on the more personal story, hitting more of the familiar Hero's Journey archetype, which is so much more common today than the Hero is Sad about his Slave Being Taken Away But Gets Better And Fights Everyone and Then There Is a Tournament archetype. Good enough that it is probably worthy of a read beyond just being one of the most influential stories of the western canon.
Jun 24, 2023The Snow LeopardReading this brought to mind Susan Sontag's On Photography, or at least what I remember of it/what I imagine it as saying, having read it a number of years ago. Not to say that they have anything in common or anything, but. What I imagine Sontag saying is something about the act of photography causing an incision between the realities of the viewer and the viewee. The photographer becomes the camera and the subject an object. What occurred to me reading this is that the same logic can apply just as well to writing about the act of photography - in examining photography, you loose the ability to do photography. This is a bit of a silly criticism of Sontag, but I think it points its finger towards ideas around non-fiction as a whole - writing about an experience, and especially planning to write about an experience, will color that experience, make it less Authentic.
Aug 29, 2023The Memoirs Of Stockholm SvenThere is, for me, an undeniable allure in Svalbard and the Arctic (and Antarctic). Austere, windswept desolation, wide vistas, creatures eking out a living amongst the snow and ice - it is romantic. It feels so alien, so antithetical to my existence like no other place I can imagine. I have, of course, looked into visiting, living, being an IT person at a research station at the south pole or working as remotely in Svalbard (you hear good things, although finding housing is tricky). The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven captures that attraction, the peril, the loneliness and the scurvy. It is, for all the hardships and pain, for my eyes a pleasant novel of a man finding a place that works for him and a community (small and maybe including some puppetized animal corpses) of kind and caring characters, well-written and compelling.
Oct 6, 2023The Three MuskateersI can't really decide whether Dumas is great without being good, or instead good without being great - I suppose it depends on the point of view. He is unquestionably amazing, astonishing, a grandfather of Adventure as a genre. Sure I guess there was Don Quixote and the Knights of the Round Table and Odysseus and Enkidu and it really does go back aways. I'm not really sure what Dumas has that the others lacked, and I'm not super eager to downplay Cervantes and Homer. Perhaps it is just that Dumas is culturally the closest, writing in with the rhythm and language (in translation) of an empathetic modernity. But he definitely got something right, and is a joy to read - not for the depth of characters, or insight into the human condition or beauty of the language but just for the excitement of it all. It is fun to watch these lovable(?) rogues foil the dastardly plans of their enemies, and what more do you really need.
Oct 25, 2023Treasure IslandFor a boy named Hawkins growing up by the (fresh, decidedly not pirate-infested) water, Treasure Island was a formative and exciting read about a boy named Hawkins traveling the world, finding pirates and treasure and friends. Rereading it to get in the proper headspace for dressing as a pirate for a costumed wedding - it holds up. Excellent swordfights and intrigue, and Long John Silver is to be sure a character for the ages.
Dec 7, 2023Into The SilenceImpressive, compelling and detailed story of a bunch of crazy Britishers, gallivanting through life, clinging to the glory of a bygone era, callously causing wanton death and performing feats of greatness. It is astonishing their arrogance, what they lived through, what they accomplished.
Dec 28, 2023Life Lived WildRick Ridgeway's writing has a bit of a rough-hewn, simple style that I don't think will win many awards - and at first, that I didn't think I liked that much. But there is also a deep, earnest sincerity to it that makes his stories just a bit larger-than-life. That, and the fact that they are just completely wild, crazy things he's done, been all around the world and up on all the mountains and through all the forests. He writes and is a bit full of himself, as I suppose one must be to confront the extremities of the world at the risk of death, but his transparency there becomes a bit charming; his transparency makes the tragedies he faces all the more heartbreaking. There is also - I think maybe accidentally, but he presents his life in a bit of a fascinating fragmentation of time, reminiscent of Vonnegut? Recollections mostly in order, with insertions of the future and the past and sudden and unexpected jumps...product I guess of the growth of the book out of a series of instagram posts, but creating a pattern that I do appreciate. An excellent and engaging series of stories that weave together into a very good book.
Jan 22, 2024Master And CommanderA bit of an odd coincidence, I did not realize when reading His Majesty's Dragon that it was basically just Master and Commander with dragons. And to be frank, I think the dragons did improve it a bit. I mean, I enjoyed this, it was enjoyable, it was maybe a bit long and not quite as compelling as one might hope the swashbuckling tale of naval adventure would be. I will most likely come back and continue the series at a future date. And, credit where credit is due, O'Brian is the first writer I've encountered with the temerity to use the word floccinaucinihilipilification, so he's really not that bad.