Books

I read…a lot. Here’s where I ramble about books and printed media.

Choices

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The Leaky Cauldron has been running an interview with J.K. Rowling over the past week (in three parts: one, two, and three) with questions posed by Emerson Spartz of Mugglenet and Melissa Anelli of The Leaky Cauldron. The whole interview is very worth reading — though full of spoilers, so I don’t recommend reading it if you haven’t finished the latest book yet — but one section stood out to me when I read it.

JKR: …because I think there’s a line there between the moment in “Chamber of Secrets” when Dumbledore says so famously, ‘It’s our choices that define us, not our abilities,’ straight through to Dumbledore sitting in his office, saying to Harry, “the prophecy is significant only because you and Voldemort choose to make it so.” If you both chose to walk away, you could both live! That’s the bottom line. If both of them decided, “We’re not playing,” and walked away… but, it’s not going to happen, because as far as Voldemort’s concerned, Harry’s a threat. They must meet each other.

ES: I remember thinking when I read “Order of the Phoenix,” what would happen if Harry and Voldemort just decided to —

JKR: Shake hands, and walk away? We’ll agree to disagree!

[Laughter.]

ES: What if he never heard the prophecy?

JKR: And that’s it, isn’t it. As I said, that’s what I posted on my site –

ES: I’m glad you put that up.

JKR: It’s the “Macbeth” idea. I absolutely adore “Macbeth.” It is possibly my favorite Shakespeare play. And that’s the question isn’t it? If Macbeth hadn’t met the witches, would he have killed Duncan? Would any of it have happened? Is it fated or did he make it happen? I believe he made it happen.

MA: If everyone would just shake hands and play a round of golf, everything would be fine.

[Laughter.]

Obviously, nothing necessarily mind-blowing in and of itself, but it’s a theme that I’m quite happy that Rowling has been using in the books, and expanding on in interviews. So many of the troubles people face, both on a personal and on a global scale, all just boil down to happening because one party or another want them to.

Obviously, the solution to all the world’s woes, then, is never to want to cause any sort of conflict whatsoever, so I’ll shortly be embarking on my daily routine of laudanum and thorazine to ensure I can do my own small part in making this world a calmer, less embittered place.

Erm.

Well, okay, maybe not.

iTunes “Movin’ On Up (Demrocked!’s Movinunbelievable)” by Primal Scream from the album screamixadelica (2005, 5:00).

Potter potter potter…

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The Box ArrivesOpening the Box
One copy out...Our copies of Book Six
Prairie, Arboretum, Seattle, WAMe, Arboretum, Seattle, WA

And with that, it’s done! Our copies arrived about 11am this morning. After opening the box, we packed up picnic supplies and headed down to the Arboretum, spread out a blanket under the shade of a Madrone tree, and got to reading right about noon. Amusingly, Prairie and I read at almost exactly the same speed, so we were within a page or two of each other the entire time — sometimes one of us would be slightly ahead, sometimes the other, occasionally stealing glances at the other’s page numbers to see whether they were giggling or gasping at something we’d just read, or something we were about to read.

Five hours later, we were both within a few chapters of the end, but our bodies had finally started to complain about having been camped out on the ground for the entire day. So, quite reluctantly, we marked our places, came home…and dived right back in.

By 7pm, we were done. Prairie closed her copy just a couple minutes before I closed mine, and waited for me to finish. A few minutes of talk about the final events in the book, and then — after our long, stressful day of lying around in the shade reading — it was time for a nap.

And now, a long, long wait for book seven to arrive…

iTunes “Who Do You Want to Be” by Oingo Boingo from the album Best o’ Boingo (1983, 3:21).

Twelve hours to go…

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Potter Fully Processed…or a bit more than twelve hours, actually, for Prairie and me. Since we pre-ordered our copies (yup — one for each of us) through Amazon, they’ll show up sometime tomorrow.

Our entire plan for the weekend is to spend it Pottering: stopping by the release party at the Barnes and Noble near my apartment tonight, then once our copies show up, we’ll camp out somewhere (at a park if the weather’s good, here at home otherwise) and get reading.

Silly? Not in our world — for us, this should be a perfect weekend.

(Originally uploaded by michaelkpate.)

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

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Prairie and I went to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy last weekend, on opening night at the Cinerama. The perfect time to go, as far as I’m concerned. A gorgeous theatre, and lots of excited fans looking forward to seeing the show — including a few who showed up dressed for the occasion in bathrobe and with towel slung over their shoulder.

I’ve been perusing various reviews since then, and it’s been interesting to see the reactions. I haven’t seen many people who were entirely disappointed, but I haven’t seen many people head-over-heels in love with it, either. Most of the consensus seems to be that they did an acceptable job in translating the book to film.

For my part, I had a blast. It wasn’t perfect, but I thought it was quite enjoyable, and a reasonably good attempt at putting Douglas Adams‘ particular brand of absurdity on screen.

While I could point out a few things that bothered me a bit (Sam Rockwell as Zaphod, for instance, came across more as annoyingly-annoying rather than insanely-egotistically-cool-annoying-but-still-a-hoopy-frood) and a whole list of things that I was thrilled to see (the BBC TV series Marvin in line on Vogosphere, or the entrance to the Magraethea factory floor), there was one particular standout point for me.

In a movie that was cast fairly well overall — Mos Def as Ford and Martin Freeman Arthur were both good, Zooey Deschanel as Trillian is really cute, and I loved Alan Rickman as Marvin’s voice — far and away the single best piece of casting was Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast. He was, to my mind, jaw-droppingly perfect. While I don’t think any of the other actors will replace the mental images I’ve had in my head for years from reading the books, as far as I’m concerned, this was as if Slartibartfast was plucked whole from the pages and put on screen. Absolutely brilliant.

Even better, Royce called me on Tuesday to wish me a happy birthday and chat for a while, and as we were discussing the film, he said nearly exactly the same thing — good movie, pretty well done, Slartibartfast was perfect. It appears that great minds think alike…and so do ours!

iTunes “So Long & Thanks for All the Fish” by Hilary Summers, Kemi Ominiyi & The R’SVP Voices from the album The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005, 2:26).

Guess what? You’re not normal.

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You're not normal, Seattle, WA

Not a bad day at all today. Woke up at about 8am, looked outside, and realized that we were in for a gorgeous spring day — mostly clear skies, bright sun, and just a hint of breeze. Perfect for going out wandering…so wander I did.

I started by heading up the hill and heading down Broadway, keeping an eye out for more stickers to add to my sticker graffiti collection on Flickr. I found a ton of stuff to add — Broadway being something of a center point for much of the city’s “freak” population, it’s got a wide collection of graffiti (stickered and otherwise) to choose from. While I found a lot of good stuff, I think my favorite from the day was this one Chickens ate my Baby Sticker Graffiti, Broadway, Seattle, WA — a ‘dollar bill’ emblazoned with the text, “Yo, chickens ate my baby!!!” Other favorites include a plea to boycott certain Safeway employees, a reason for the stickers and these teapots.

A couple weeks ago, Prairie and I noticed that a gorgeous old church on Broadway right across from the Seattle Central Community College was due to be demolished. This was kind of a bummer to find out — while neither of us had ever gone there, it was a nice building, and it was a shame to see that it was to be torn down rather than renovated. When I passed it today, the work crews were in the midst of the demolition process. I’ve got to admit — while I hate to see the building go, it was kind of neat to get to watch some of the work (must be my inner six year old).

I managed to find a couple conversations as I continued down the street, too. First was a gent who I saw debarking from a bus wearing a khaki Sport Kilt, which led to a conversation about kilts and cameras that lasted for a couple blocks. Later on, one of the many street kids that prowl Broadway for spare change asked me about the kilt, and I ended up chatting with her and a friend of hers for a few minutes — Leah and Shy were their names, I think, though I could easily be wrong about that, as I’m absolutely horrid with names.

Bailey/Coy Books, one of the bookshops along Broadway, always has a sign out front Bailey/Coy Books, Broadway, Seattle, WA with the first line from a book. If you know the book that they’re quoting from, you get 20% off — and today, for the first time, I was actually able to identify the quote! Determined not to let this opportunity go to waste I headed in and picked up The System of the World, the last book in Neal Stephenson‘s Baroque Cycle, which I’d been wanting to get since it came out last year. I’ll get around to reading it as soon as I’m done re-reading the Harry Potter series, which I decided to do after Prairie and I had a “Harry Potter Weekend” a couple weekends ago and watched all three films over the course of the weekend.

Once I hit the end of Broadway, I decided to continue on and head up to Volunteer Park, which I’ve never wandered through on a “normal” day (I usually end up there for the Pride Day festivities). After a wander around I started heading back out when I was called over by a small group of kids hanging out at the amphitheatre. “We’re having a parade,” they said, “come and join us!” I wasn’t entirely sure about joining in a parade, but I headed over to chat and see what was going on.

Pre-parade gathering, Volunteer Park, Seattle, WA As it turns out, this is something they’ve been doing for the past few weeks, and intend to keep doing — get a bunch of friends together, dress up, find some noisemakers, and go wandering around Capitol Hill in their own little festive parade. Why? Why not? “Everybody gets out to march in protest, pissing and moaning about things — but nobody ever just celebrates a good day,” said the guy who seemed to be more or less in charge. “It’s a warm spring day, we’re here, nobody’s dropping bombs on us…why not have some fun?”

Seemed like good enough rationale to me, so I decided to wander along with them as photographer (not generally being one for random prancing, hootin’ and hollerin’, but still a great supporter or random silliness and fun). After a few more people showed up, it was declared time to go — and we were off.

Join the Parade! Volunteer Park, Seattle, WA This little motley group of assorted oddballs (and yes, I most definitely include myself in that) headed up and out of Volunteer Park, down 15th Avenue to John St., down John to Broadway, and up and then back down Broadway, prancing, dancing, twirling, shouting, chanting, singing, banging on gongs, bowls, and other noisemakers the entire way. “We’re having a parade! Join the parade!” they shouted at passers by and into windows of stores and open doors of shops. Some people weren’t quite sure what to make of the spectacle, but overall, I saw lots of amusement on the faces of the people we passed — they might not want to join in (though a few did eventually), but the sheer absurdity of the event was enough to bring a smile to quite a few people.

And in the end, what more excuse do you need to do something silly?

Once the group made it to SCCC they camped out on the lawn for a few moments to decide where to go next, and I took my leave of them. By this point I’d been out wandering around for about five hours, and it was time to head home and rest for a bit. I came home, napped for about an hour, then after a quick chat with Prairie before she headed out to a night at the opera (Central Washington University just got a new music building, and this was their inaugural performance), showered and headed up to the Vogue for a night of bouncing.

Bouncing accomplished, I’m home again, and now that this mini-opus is done, it’s long past bedtime for Bonzo.

iTunes “Power in the Blood (Acoustic)” by Alabama 3 from the album Acoustic Power: Underground Acoustic Sessions From the Steam Room (2003, 2:31).

The Last Unicorn

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I have no idea what the status of this is, how close to completion it may or may not be, or whether it will actually ever see the light of day — but there’s a live action version of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn (previously produced in animated form) in production.

In theory, this could be a very good thing — though I must admit, I’m a little more excited about the live-action version of C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe — apparently the first in a planned seven-film series covering the entire set of books, with special effects by the crew of Weta (you might have heard of them — they did the effects for a little series called The Lord of the Rings). Apple has a short look at Weta’s work on the film and another on director Andrew Adamson.

iTunes “I Love Saturday” by Erasure from the album I Say I Say I Say (1994, 4:02).

Hunter S. Thompson

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Seeing all the many varied reports of Hunter S. Thompson‘s unfortunate demise reminds me that I’ve actually never read any of his work.

I’m a big fan of the Terry Gilliam/Johnny Depp film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and I also have a great 3 of the book. I even used to have a hardbound copy of Fear and Loathing — unfortunately, the only times I opened it were during one ill-considered period where it was a convenient (and seemingly appropriate) place to hide the sheet of acid I was in the process of selling. I may still have the book buried somewhere in my boxes, but I’m not entirely sure.

So, then, a question for those more familiar with Thompson’s work than I am: while Fear and Loathing seems to be practically the only book that ever gets mentioned when eulogizing Thompson, I’m sure he wrote more than that one tome. Any recommendations? Should I pick Fear and Loathing up (or dig through my boxes to see if I can find it), or are there other books that I should search out instead/in addition to that one?

iTunes “Say Hello” by Anderson, Laurie from the album United States Live (1984, 5:01).

Hitchiker’s Trailer

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Amazon has the full trailer for The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on their home page right now. It’s Flash-based and kind of small, but at least it’s there.

So far, things look promising.

Update: Waxy has a QT version.

I found this much higher-quality Quicktime trailer, that seems to be a copy of the internal workprint with time signatures and “Do Not Duplicate” warning. Oh, well!

iTunes “Shoot That Laserbeam (Re-Recorded)” by Army of Lovers from the album Army of Lovers (1991, 4:22).

Reason interview with Neal Stephenson

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There’s a great interview with Neal Stephenson at Reason right now. Every time I read something by Neal, whether a book or an interview, it amazes me how unassumingly intelligent this man is.

My favorite question and answer from the interview:

Reason: The Baroque Cycle suggests that there are sometimes great explosions of creativity, followed by that creative energy’s recombining and eventual crystallization into new forms—social, technological, political. Are we seeing a similar degree of explosive progress in the modern U.S.?

Stephenson: The success of the U.S. has not come from one consistent cause, as far as I can make out. Instead the U.S. will find a way to succeed for a few decades based on one thing, then, when that peters out, move on to another. Sometimes there is trouble during the transitions. So, in the early-to-mid-19th century, it was all about expansion westward and a colossal growth in population. After the Civil War, it was about exploitation of the world’s richest resource base: iron, steel, coal, the railways, and later oil.

For much of the 20th century it was about science and technology. The heyday was the Second World War, when we had not just the Manhattan Project but also the Radiation Lab at MIT and a large cryptology industry all cooking along at the same time. The war led into the nuclear arms race and the space race, which led in turn to the revolution in electronics, computers, the Internet, etc. If the emblematic figures of earlier eras were the pioneer with his Kentucky rifle, or the Gilded Age plutocrat, then for the era from, say, 1940 to 2000 it was the engineer, the geek, the scientist. It’s no coincidence that this era is also when science fiction has flourished, and in which the whole idea of the Future became current. After all, if you’re living in a technocratic society, it seems perfectly reasonable to try to predict the future by extrapolating trends in science and engineering.

It is quite obvious to me that the U.S. is turning away from all of this. It has been the case for quite a while that the cultural left distrusted geeks and their works; the depiction of technical sorts in popular culture has been overwhelmingly negative for at least a generation now. More recently, the cultural right has apparently decided that it doesn’t care for some of what scientists have to say. So the technical class is caught in a pincer between these two wings of the so-called culture war. Of course the broad mass of people don’t belong to one wing or the other. But science is all about diligence, hard sustained work over long stretches of time, sweating the details, and abstract thinking, none of which is really being fostered by mainstream culture.

Since our prosperity and our military security for the last three or four generations have been rooted in science and technology, it would therefore seem that we’re coming to the end of one era and about to move into another. Whether it’s going to be better or worse is difficult for me to say. The obvious guess would be “worse.” If I really wanted to turn this into a jeremiad, I could hold forth on that for a while. But as mentioned before, this country has always found a new way to move forward and be prosperous. So maybe we’ll get lucky again. In the meantime, efforts to predict the future by extrapolating trends in the world of science and technology are apt to feel a lot less compelling than they might have in 1955.

I have got to pick up the last book in the Baroque Cycle soon.

iTunes “Thunder Kiss ’65 (The Remix That Wouldn’t Die)” by White Zombie from the album Nightcrawlers: The K.M.F.D.M. Remixes (1992, 6:10).