Future Past

I found Rizal Johan's piece Future Past in today's Star very interesting indeed. He reckons that virtual reality:

... is not what was imagined by sci-fi scribes and filmmakers 30 years ago. But the past still holds promise for the future, at least in cinematic terms.

He explains :

... there was a time when such a future only existed in the world of fiction. And more often than not, the future was a sinister world. But it was also exciting because the possibility of such a future could be imagined, dreamed and maybe even realised. Celebrated sci-fi author William Gibson stirred the imagination through a series of novels about the virtual and information world in the 1980s. He is responsible for coming up with the term “cyberspace” and fully explored his vision of the future in his debut novel, Neuromancer in 1984. In the novel, Gibson describes cyberspace as being a “consensual hallucination” and is set in a dystopian future of drug addicted computer hackers, genetic engineering, virtual reality, vicious AIs (artificial intelligence) and overpowering multi-national corporations. ... It was a paranoid world on the brink but you met cyberpunks, rogue military agents, and cybernatically enhanced women running in and out of cyberspace in search for the all important grail of information. Such a world was visually glimpsed slightly earlier in 1982 when the dark and dreary (and now classic) sci-fi film Blade Runner hit cinemas that year. Based on the Philip K. Dick book, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? and directed by the visionary Ridley Scott, the vision of a bleak future, the city and its landscape was perfectly realised in this film.

Althought the emphasis of the piece was largely on the realisation of the vision in films, I am surprised though that the article makes no mention of virtual worlds and more specifically of Second Life which was very much influenced by Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (am grateful to Ted Mahsun for telling me this and putting a copy of the book in my hand) and in so many ways has surpassed Stephenson's vision of what was possible.

Like blogger Crazy Monk I was totally perplexed that Stephenson never wanted to visit the world his imagination helped to create but agree with Wagner James Au (right) here - five very successful novels later, he most probably just moved on.

Saying Thank You

Blogging about books doesn't make money - but one of the perks is that bookshops/publishers/distributors/authors are very generous in giving me copies.

I've been a bit lazy blogging about donated books in the past, but am going to try to turn over a new leaf - and if I haven't time, energy or brain space to actually review them - at least I can feature them and let you know what's out there. Follow the links to find out more about each title.

The stack above came from distributor Pansing who are incredibly kind to me! Topping the pile is Mario Vargos Llosa's Bad Girl in which one of the masters of postmodernism takes possession of the plot of Flaubert's Madam Bovary, and makes it entirely his own. (Reviewed here by The New York Times).

Several of the books are historical novels. There's Ken Follet's historical epic World Without End, a sequel to his best-seller Pillars of the Earth, which takes place in the same cathedral city. The China Lover by Ian Burma is set in the movie industry in Shanghai during World War II and in postwar Tokyo. While The Lost Army by Valerio Massimo Manfredi is another historical novel - this time exploring the darker side of the Greek conquest. Narrated by a female camp follower the book tells of the katàbasis (return) of the Greek mercenaries of Xenophon's famed 'Anabasis'.

The two books that interest me most are Crime, in which Irvine Welsh tackles the topic of paedophile rings. It is hailed as a return to form for the author and Neal Stephenson's Anathem, shortlisted for this year's Hugo awards. The latter is set in the far-future on an Earth-like planet, Arbre, where scientists, philosophers and mathematicians—a religious order unto themselves—have been cloistered behind concent (convent) walls. It's a huge read - almost 1,000 pages, but looks fascinating. (I'm debating with myself - do I have the stamina to make this climb?)

At the bottom of the pile is a book I really will treasure - William Shakespeare on the Art of Love : The Illustrated Edition of The Most Beautiful Love Passages in Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry. It is also a stunning edition, bound in green silk, printed on quality paper and filled with photos and reproductions of paintings. I'd say that it would be the perfect Valentine's gift, but then you'd have to wait till next year to buy it for your sweetheart.


If there's anyone out there who would like to write a review for their own or this blog on any of these books, do let me know!