Just read Jerome Bixby's "It's a Good Life" (pdf download). It's apparently one of the top 20 science fiction short stories. Only 13 pages long. Thought provoking, especially at this moment in time.
I'm halfway through Sherrington's 'Man on his Nature' - dead tree, not ebook. Having just finished Postman's 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' I find it amusing if slightly concerning that - in the sequel to my earlier post https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/random-picture-thread-vers-3.89074/page-240#post-2056031 - I find myself, almost subliminally, frustrated that I can't click on the footnote asterisks.
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart, with all this lovely summer I've not picked it up for ages, storms tomorrow apparently, should make some progress.
Rereading The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0006513905 and just finished The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson https://www.amazon.co.uk/Subtle-Art...books&sprefix=the+subtle,stripbooks,80&sr=1-1
Reading good old 1984 by Orwell at the moment. Scary… I confess I had never read it, but now I can read Newspeak, I understand better what Annie Lennox means by “Sexcrime” in Eurythmics 1984 album…
Have a go at Brave New World next - similarly down beat and dystopian but strangely relevant to today's social media et al.
I just started (re-) reading 'Brave New World', on account of Neil Postman saying, 40 years ago, that Orwell didn't imagine as Huxley did, that we'd walk willingly into the dystopian future. 41, actually, as he wrote 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' in 1984. I agree with much of what he (Postman) says (I did, after all, get rid of the telly more than a decade ago) but sometimes wonder if he strayed into fanaticism. Or, if I would think that, wouldn't I, because I grew up within the world he warned about, i.e. I'm conditioned to think that maybe he went too far.
Its a brilliant book. I remember first seeing the film on TV in '73, and can clearly remember being entertained, but also amazed and yet something more. It was a total revelation to me at 12 years old. Soon after came Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Sure as a youngster the horror had its own appeal, but as I discovered the true message of the book, I also realised all kinds of new lights were blinking on in my mind...
I have to admit of never hearing of the guy & had to google him. Orwell was a politically minded writer & thinker and it's worth noting that both 1984 & Animal Farm were written in the immediate aftermath of the war during the huge upheavals in the (totalitarian) political landscape. Huxley was a lot less earnest in such matters and was an intellectual & philosopher so thought & wrote from that perspective. Brave New World was written pre-war in 1932 during the time when he was mixing with the Bloomsbury Group. As for the pernicious nature of media I think it's pretty much the same as it ever was. The only difference is the speed & reach of the medium, clay tablets are a lot slower & less pervasive than the 'tinternet. And, imo, Huxley recognised it's the human condition to want/need to bond into groups to the possible detriment of themselves & others not in the group... and modern communications just makes this so much easier. See Life of Brian - Brian says "You're all individuals!" & the crowd retort with "Yes!, we're all individuals" All very interesting.
I have a first edition of the Road to Wigan pier. I believe my grandfather is in one of the photos. There is a group picture of miners in South Wales down the pit. It’s the pit my Grandfather, and other relatives, worked in and the right time. It was a small pit and, unusually I understand, only worked one shift a day. Sadly he died young and my Dad also lost him Mum so ended up being orphaned at 11 and no pictures of my Grandfather survived. I often look at the picture and try and work out which one he was. I first read the book a long time ago and it added ‘meat’ to the stories my Dad had told me. I now have read almost all of Orwell’s work and have several other first editions. I think the Lion and Unicorn is particularly pertinent in the times we find ourselves in and is well worth a read. And on the note of Dystopian classics I would add Fahrenheit 451 and We by Zamyatin as excellent examples of the genre.
Recently re-read Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut - fantastically crazy anti war book. And so it goes...
There's some interviews on YouTube with Huxley that are well worth a watch. His predictions for the future (our now) are uncanny.
I just read The Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall, really gets you thinking, highly recommended. I'm half way through Motorcycle Grand Prix by Adam Wheeler, I'm enjoying the anecdotes from the paddock and the behind the scenes insight but less interested in his back story/biography at the start (seems a bit indulgent for a journo).
Adding to the Dystopian classics: « This Perfect Day » by Ira Levin, was the first sci-fi book I ever read, when I was 13-ish. I loved it. That book made me an avid sci-fi reader. Then « Ravage », a book written in 1943 by René Barjavel (French). One of the only two books I ever took with me to the beach, cause I just couldn’t stop reading. It’s about the world loosing all electricity overnight. Forever. Chaos at its best.
