Next meeting is Thursday 7 August.Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, July 7, 2008
July: The Drowned World (3)
Although I did finish, the book, I must say that I wasn't particularly grabbed by it. I found the plot to be difficult to follow at times. I am not sure why - maybe I was just distracted by other things while reading, but I also think that the writing style was a bit clumsy. I think at times, I was also just not all that interested in the characters, and so that there was not a strong incentive for me to want to read on to find out what happened to them.
Part of the problem may also have been that I think I was expecting that the plot would be different. I was hoping that it might be set in a period of time that was probably about 50 years prior to when the story took place. I wanted to read about how people were coping with the rising temperatures, the melting of the polar ice caps, and a world that was tropical. I wanted to know if they felt any guilt towards the climate change, whether they felt they were responsible or not. However, they seemed to be past that point, and had accepted their tropical environment or at least to a level at which they were (physically) coping. Having said that, the book was showing how people cope with change, but more in the sense of they themselves reverting to primal instincts, which was actually quite interesting.
Before Allyson sent her message, I had also thought that the book was quite similar in subject to that of 'Lord of the Flies', showing the breakdown of society. However, because the social interactions in 'The Drowned World' were tenuous to begin with, the demise of society in this book had less of an impact on me that it did in 'Lord of the Flies'. Overall, I thought that there were a lot of interesting ideas that never seemed to be fully developed. In particular, I had also thought that there would be more development of the vivid dreams that Kerans and Miss Dahl experienced - they seemed to become a secondary issue, unless of course, the dreams became reality...
Part of the problem may also have been that I think I was expecting that the plot would be different. I was hoping that it might be set in a period of time that was probably about 50 years prior to when the story took place. I wanted to read about how people were coping with the rising temperatures, the melting of the polar ice caps, and a world that was tropical. I wanted to know if they felt any guilt towards the climate change, whether they felt they were responsible or not. However, they seemed to be past that point, and had accepted their tropical environment or at least to a level at which they were (physically) coping. Having said that, the book was showing how people cope with change, but more in the sense of they themselves reverting to primal instincts, which was actually quite interesting.
Before Allyson sent her message, I had also thought that the book was quite similar in subject to that of 'Lord of the Flies', showing the breakdown of society. However, because the social interactions in 'The Drowned World' were tenuous to begin with, the demise of society in this book had less of an impact on me that it did in 'Lord of the Flies'. Overall, I thought that there were a lot of interesting ideas that never seemed to be fully developed. In particular, I had also thought that there would be more development of the vivid dreams that Kerans and Miss Dahl experienced - they seemed to become a secondary issue, unless of course, the dreams became reality...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
July: The Drowned World (2)
The Drowned World is a 1963 Science Fiction novel by JG Ballard, an English writer who was born and raised in Shanghai. It's set in a world where solar flares/radiation have caused dramatic climate change leading to the melting of the polar ice caps. The seas have risen, coastlines have changed owing to massive silt deposits, and tropical jungles have encroached further and further north/south.
Dr Robert Kerans is a scientist attached to a military team based in one of the abandoned 'drowned' cities. He is living in the penthouse suite of the Ritz hotel -- it and all other buildings are sunk into the jungle up to around the 7th floor. He's having a relationship with a woman, Beatrice Dahl, who didn't evacuate, and despite a military order for the whole entourage to leave for the north, he decides to remain behind with her (although not for romantic reasons) and his fellow scientist, Dr Bodkin. Before the military leave, one of their pilots, Hardman, goes crazy and escapes south to where the radiation is dangerously high, and Kerans find himself empathising with this. Some weeks later, a group of scavengers led by the unpredictable Strangman, who keeps a flock of sentinel crocodiles, arrives to shake everything up. In the very end, Kerans finds himself on his own crazy journey south, seeking paradise.
In truth, the storyline is very difficult to describe. Just about every character has 'gone troppo', owing to the searing temperatures they're experiencing. The writing is extremely circular, making it difficult to make sense of anything, a feature we decided was intentional. This was not a book to rush through. There are many layers of meaning, although I confess not all of them were apparent to me!
One key theme of the book was the idea of regression of civilisation. This was not limited to social aspects, although these were rife. The Drowned World, being Sci-Fi, actually played with the idea of physical regression/transmutation/evolution, to the point that flora and fauna reminiscent of the Triassic period had emerged as dominant, plus (possibly) the devolution of humans with the formation of gills etc. Part of this involved the idea of cellular memory and a collective consciousness -- as the characters went crazy, they all started having the same dream.
As I said earlier, we had an animated discussion about this book, because there is an awful lot to interpret and different people saw different things in it.
From my personal point of view, I respect the book more having had our discussion. I finished the book frustrated, having just 'not got it'. I didn't understand any of the character motivations, felt no emotion from any of them, and found the writing style pretentious to the max. It just didn't hit any of my buttons and I didn't care what happened.
This made me ponder the well-coined phrase: "Science Fiction is literature of the mind; Fantasy is literature of the heart".
This is most definitely a 'mind' novel, which is not where I usually choose to read. However, after hearing what other people got out of it, and being exposed to different interpretations, I get more out of it as well. It's a classic case of feeling enriched after a group discussion. There is a lot in this book if one chooses to take the slightly mad journey!
Dr Robert Kerans is a scientist attached to a military team based in one of the abandoned 'drowned' cities. He is living in the penthouse suite of the Ritz hotel -- it and all other buildings are sunk into the jungle up to around the 7th floor. He's having a relationship with a woman, Beatrice Dahl, who didn't evacuate, and despite a military order for the whole entourage to leave for the north, he decides to remain behind with her (although not for romantic reasons) and his fellow scientist, Dr Bodkin. Before the military leave, one of their pilots, Hardman, goes crazy and escapes south to where the radiation is dangerously high, and Kerans find himself empathising with this. Some weeks later, a group of scavengers led by the unpredictable Strangman, who keeps a flock of sentinel crocodiles, arrives to shake everything up. In the very end, Kerans finds himself on his own crazy journey south, seeking paradise.
In truth, the storyline is very difficult to describe. Just about every character has 'gone troppo', owing to the searing temperatures they're experiencing. The writing is extremely circular, making it difficult to make sense of anything, a feature we decided was intentional. This was not a book to rush through. There are many layers of meaning, although I confess not all of them were apparent to me!
One key theme of the book was the idea of regression of civilisation. This was not limited to social aspects, although these were rife. The Drowned World, being Sci-Fi, actually played with the idea of physical regression/transmutation/evolution, to the point that flora and fauna reminiscent of the Triassic period had emerged as dominant, plus (possibly) the devolution of humans with the formation of gills etc. Part of this involved the idea of cellular memory and a collective consciousness -- as the characters went crazy, they all started having the same dream.
As I said earlier, we had an animated discussion about this book, because there is an awful lot to interpret and different people saw different things in it.
From my personal point of view, I respect the book more having had our discussion. I finished the book frustrated, having just 'not got it'. I didn't understand any of the character motivations, felt no emotion from any of them, and found the writing style pretentious to the max. It just didn't hit any of my buttons and I didn't care what happened.
This made me ponder the well-coined phrase: "Science Fiction is literature of the mind; Fantasy is literature of the heart".
This is most definitely a 'mind' novel, which is not where I usually choose to read. However, after hearing what other people got out of it, and being exposed to different interpretations, I get more out of it as well. It's a classic case of feeling enriched after a group discussion. There is a lot in this book if one chooses to take the slightly mad journey!
Friday, July 4, 2008
July: The Drowned World (1)
Good turnout for this evening's meeting -- there were 10 of us, including our host. I counted five who had finished the book. JG Ballard's dystopian Science-Fiction novel inspired rather an animated discussion, which I will describe in a day or so.
Of the members who couldn't attend, Allyson sent the following comment for starters:
Quite relevant in today's climate - no pun intended. Interesting concept about how the world was able to de-volve so quickly to its prehistoric status. Also, I found myself skipping over the 'fight' between our hero (name escapes me) and Strangeman's crew (where they tied him up and put a mask on him.) Too reminiscent of Lord of the Flies for my liking.
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