Books - Reviews by Magic Marmalade

Books - Reviews by Magic Marmalade

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
Magic Marmalade 14th Nov 2024		Book Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist (1999)	Rated 8/10 This is one that would probably be a good one to teach in schools. Simple, crisp, clear language, in the old style in which such tales were told, that conjures great images in the mind of the reader, telling a magical, extended parable / fable about a shepherd boy setting off to the pyramids to find a treasure he dreamt of. It's about having a dream, following that dream, understanding it, and not giving up. Very good read. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 7th Nov 2024		Book Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum (1990)	Rated 8/10 What a tangled web we weave! This is one for the conspiracy theorists, especially those who got entangled with the likes of The Da Vinci Code, and The Holy Blood, And The Holy Grail... Except this is work of (overt) fiction is a almost a masterpiece of deadpan satire of conspiracy theories. In fact, given the author was an absolute master of medievalism (he knew his historical, and indeed his "historical" stuff!), this leaves those other works in the dust, due to his total command of the material in ways others can only dream of. Essentially, within the framework of the plot, of a trio of cynical, esoteric book publishers who decide to make a little publishing enterprise by concocting a global "masterplan" based on their combined knowledge of all things "secret society", freemason, and Knights Templar etc., they weave a massive web of horseshit for their target audience, built form the accumulated mass of almost every piece of history and "history" not nailed down that you can think of... (Seriously, almost any historical figure or place you care to mention pops up at some point, and even the most learned or familiar among you will struggle with some of these references) ...Only to discover, once dark events and happenings around them may suggest their created plan may actually be true! .....And now it seems it may be after them. There's plenty of twists here, naturally, and I think it may be somewhat too dense with historical reference at times, but that only serves to highlight the psyche of the conspiratorial mind, by taking it, and running further with it that most of them are able, or willing to go. It gets to be like a joke told deadpan, that just keeps going and going, and getting more and more elaborate and funnier, not necessarily because of the content, but due to the absurdity of persistence. It is also great at breaking this down, and showing the mechanics of conspiracy, and the conspiratorial mind, and how such people are susceptible and vulnerable to such intrigues. So not only a masterpiece of satire of the whole "world" of conspiracy, but actually quite useful for those wishing to seek some objectivity... or indeed... sanity. Ultimately, there is no conspiracy, and everybody else knows it but you :) ...Or is there? ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 24th Aug 2024		Book Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (2004)	Rated 9/10 Brilliantly conceived novel. The narrator / protagonist is a young guy with autism - possibly, specifically Asperger's, and so we view the world through his eyes, via his mind, understanding events and happenings as related to us descriptively by him as he sets about detecting, and uncovering the truth behind titular curious incident... which a neighbour's dog is "murdered" with a garden fork in the middle of the night. But the story evolves, through this premise, way beyond it... for him, at least. The real genius though, other relating to the reader what the autistic mind comprehends, and how, is by way of his blank description of the events, that we can see, and understand, what he cannot... ...So the story being told in his descriptions is understood, in it's meaning, of what the people he is describing are doing and saying, even though, and especially, because he cannot see or comprehend those meanings. Usually, we get an insight through the protagonist, or a "God's eye view" of the story, but in this case, we get to see the story he is blind to, even though he is telling it; which is somewhat tragic and heart-breaking, in it's depiction of everyday life for those struggling with autism in their lives, both those who are autistic, and those who love them, and live with them, and their condition. (Apologies if I have been innocently insensitive in my use of terms, I don't want to come across as tone deaf or condescending here, but this is the first time I feel I've come anywhere near close to appreciating what Autism is, let alone experiencing it in anyone) I venture to suggest though, that a lot of what is written here will hit home hard for those caring for anyone like main character: Christopher, and how he drives his parents, himself, and others near to, and even past the edge sometimes, unrelenting as it is. Perfectly framed, and actually very enjoyable. >Two points though, after reading and looking online about this: 1. The "offensiveness" of some of the language and terms used, principally by Christopher, as a criticism, holds absolutely no water, as he himself, is incapable of any intent, but innocently, merely relating, and reporting the words, and deeds of others, who have no such excuse - he doesn't get it anyway, just states: "He / she said / did this / that", so it's completely contextualised. 2. I see actor-oid Brad Pitt owns the movie rights to this, but nothing has been forthcoming as of yet - but if he does eventually pull his thumb out of his ass and get on with making this happen, he needs to make it (In my opinion) along the lines of an independent, mid to lower budget affair, along the lines of, say... Juno, in tone and style, rather throwing money at it, and making some huge, toe curling, and by virtue of this - offensively, and tone deaf "Hollywood" style movie. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 2nd Mar 2024		Book Laurence Sterne - The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1985)	Rated 5/10 Well that was three weeks of my reading life I'm never getting back! Can't honestly say, having now read it, I could tell you anything about it, or even what it is "about". Like an fantastically over-long satirical literary joke that wears out it's welcome after even the first three hundred pages. let alone seven hundred!. Poo. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 25th Oct 2023		Book Christopher Priest - The Prestige (1995)	Rated 8/10 Literature as Magic! Hey... It's also a book! ...Did you know it was a book? .....I didn't, until I saw the SF Masterworks edition on the shelf at a charity shop, and naturally, bought it. Pleased to report it's a very evocative, engrossing read, conjuring (snigger) all the mystery and and intrigue that Christopher Nolan captures in his brilliant movie version... and then some! For although that movie is filmed adaptation of this material - the characters, times, places, themes, and events described here, it is pleasing to me to find that Nolan has done with this what Ridley Scott did with translating Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep into Blade Runner: He's not been too slavish to the source material, and understood that there are aspects of the story's presentation in literature that won't or don't need to go over in movie form. ...No, instead, what he has done (Like Ridley), is take the essentials - such as characters, time and place, ad mood, as well as basic storyline, but jettisoned others, such as the "framing device" narrative in this book, which is a modern setting with modern descendants of the two warring magicians - sorry... Prestigitators - falling into the intrigue and mystery surrounding their century old battles, and then unfolding, by means of their opposing accounts in their respective diaries, of the events that occurred, and then amplifying and teasing out some aspects of this story, and diminishing others to emphasise and de-emphasise according to medium. Beginning with that of Alfred Borden's who presents his narrative as a form of magic trick, openly telling us from the outset, that he is doing so - Are you reading carefully? - So you are on guard as a reader from the off, before finally, and for the bulk of the book, giving us Rupert Angier's testimony, by way of juxtaposition with modern interspersals. Indeed, the whole book is - for want of a better word - designed - to be a form of magic trick in word and book form. ...And by Joseph's knobbly knees and elbows! - It works!!! It does a couple of other things too: Firstly, as a mystery book, it keeps you leaning in to discover the next pieces of the puzzle, and then as a story that draws so distinctly the difference between science and magic, it does more than any other work I can think of to actually do the opposite, and blur the boundaries, until they are one and the same thing. ...But also, it serves as a very effective ghost story in atmosphere and narrative, as well, as eventually becoming positively vampiric. Powerfully evoking the eerie, supernatural qualities that any standard ghost story does. What gives this story a real beating heart, though, is that, being told the story across two diaries, both giving "versions" of the same tale of obsession and feud you see that each is told as a point of view, not being able to access the inner thoughts or intentions of the other, that is expressed in each their own diaries, which would, had either known, that the other never really intended malice to the other, and frequently expresses regret over the incidents that occurred, and yet perceiving the malice in the other because of this absence of information, lends it a kind of tragic quality: If only these two knucke-heads had sat down and talked, they would have realized the truth of each other, and all this nonsense could have been avoided. Thank God we live in more enlightened times! (Hmmm.....) As such, it is, like Electric Sheep and Blade Runner, this is not necessarily "bettered" by the other medium, but is a perfect compliment to it, and so Nolans movie and this, should be thought of a perfect companion pieces. But a truly inspired work, presenting literature as a means of performing a magic trick. Very Prestigious. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 16th Aug 2023		Book Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary (1978)	Rated 9/10 Another classic read! This one is fully deserving of it's reputation. ...Some of the finest writing I've ever read, even in the Translated English - Very fluid style, and very poetic. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 9th Jul 2023		Book Pierre Boulle - Planet Of The Apes (1964)	Rated 9/10 Read this in a day! Seen most, if not all the movies, so was pleased to find this in the charity shop, so I could go straight to the source at last. It doesn't really start out that promising to be honest, as it reads in the early stages like it's going to be one of those aloof, colonial attitude pieces from the previous century or two, where the attitude of the author, expressed through his narrator might not have dated that well - more than a whiff of a kind of Shatnerian Kirk-ery: "Captain's log... stardate _+_+_, Weeeeee've....GOT. To.... GEt, backtotheship!" But as you read, you realise this is on purpose, as this, almost ultimate work of absolute deadpan satire, focused on just these attitudes, morals and values as expressed in those earlier kind of works are completely undermined...but again, *absolutely deadpan. ...It... Apes, them :) Some rather impressive expressions of then, recently discovered physics (albeit, the years after have rendered most. factually inaccurate). But during the course of it's couple hundred pages of short punchy, and concise chapters, it lays out a plethora of fertile material for consideration and interpretation, so that you can see why movie makers keep going back to it... (Remarkable, how much, although reconfigured for more modern purposes, from this original is revived even for the most recent movies - themes, names poits made etc.) ...Animal rights, psychology, sociology, social commentary, satire, allegory, metaphor, power structures, science (scientific attitudes), morality... it's all here, to be interpreted any way you like! You could really read this a hundred times and always get something new to think about from it. And very much like I Am Legend... nice final line! :)* 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 5th Jul 2023		Book Samuel Butler - The Way Of All Flesh (1941)	Rated 5/10 Wow, what a tedious book. Basically about intergenerational daddy issues from overbearing, religiously, and "morally" exacting parents. Repetitive, Dull. Boring. I've actually given up reading this through, about two thirds in, as, although I don't like to abandon a book (especially a "Classic"), I'm getting no value from it, when I could be reading something else. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 11th Jan 2023		Book Richard Adams - Watership Down (1983)	Rated 9/10 Pure magic! (Another one off my: "To read" list - Really read a lot this last year, which surprises even myself!) In essence, this is to The Lord Of The Rings as Wind In The Willows is to The Hobbit... ...In that, as a tale told from the point of view of anthropomorphised animals (we do seem to like this literary tradition in England!), The Wind In The Willows and the Hobbit, are comparatively light reading smaller books, aimed at the younger reader... ...Whereas he Lord Of The Rings, and indeed this, are both chunkier volumes with more advanced, epic themes and scope, more suited to a slightly older reader (and adults! :) who have perhaps graduated from reading those earlier works. It is a grand story of a journey, taken by a handful of rabbits, to escape the destruction of their warren by man and his machines, to find a new home in some far and distant, and as yet unknown land, and who's outcome is uncertain (very Moses like!) The journey is perilous, as the rabbit is the natural prey of a multitude of enemies, both wild and tame, as well as man-made, and there is danger and adventure at every turn. At the centre of which is a very close and intimate portrayal of the rabbit characters, and their relationships, giving it a certain warmth, as well as being interspersed with rabbit mythology in the tales of the Black Rabbit, and the Rabbit "Gods" and heroes in the form of the stories they tell each other in their more subdued moments (Rabbit Culture), which really lend the work an air of mysticism and legend (in the same way that LOTR does). It deals, rather matter-of-factly with certain realities of the lives of wild animals, in kind of the same way that a nature documentary does, but deftly avoids being too graphic or lurid about them. It may, for this reason, as well as both the more advanced language, and the sheer size of the book (487 pages!) be a little too much for 11 year olds (as per comments below) but young adult, say only year older or so, at 12-13 years may be a better able to grasp, understand, and appreciate it fully, as well as being slightly less disturbed by some of the concepts and scenes here. (Any Brits reading this will remember, and appreciate how personally devastating watching the animated movie adaptation at such a young age was! - burned into our brains from that moment on!) But this is a richer experience than the movie version, and carries you along effortlessly from first page to last with it's incredible magical charm. (Another book I read some time back along these lines (I forget the author) of a story told as from a Fox's point of view, is Hunter's Moon* - well worth seeking out if you like this.)* ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 4th Jan 2023		Book Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger In A Strange Land (1962)	Rated 9/10 Bit of a monster this book! I have the 1992 restored text version, that runs at over 600 and some pages... ...But this is a monster in more ways than one, as, in taking it's central premise of a "Man from mars" (frequently referred to this throughout the book), who is in fact, the illegitimate human child of a couple of expeditionary astronauts sent to Mars to engage "diplomatically" with native Martians (No other, underlying exploitative agenda, of course - ahem - (Avatar vibes?!), who is brought back to Earth, having been raised as a Martian, according to their ways, and as such, is a Human, who is also an alien on this planet, and viewing earthmen, and their ways through the un-prejudiced lens of a visitor to this planet... ...And how very strange we are, in our ways! But here's he crux: This book is basically an protracted excuse for Robert Heinlein to critique human society (as he fond it then, and as it, in many ways, remains) by looking at as an outsider would... so the Man from Mars acts as a device through which he can do this, having a perfectly naïve figure who can ask the kind of uncomfortable questions usually forthcoming from human children to their uneasy parents (chuckle) and at the same time, adopt the persona of the Man from Mars' mentor, adviser, and guide, in the shape of Jubal Harshaw, a world weary old professor type, and cipher for Heinlein to set the world to rights and hold forth on every aspect of human strangeness with lecturers, monologues, acerbic asides and biting cynicism, having had the Man From Mars provide the excuse to do so, through the posing of these questions. As such, it's more of a "talky" science fiction book, or like the philosophy of Plato and such, who used this basic device of fictional meetings of functional characters, leading to dialogues in which the philosophy is found. (If Plato were alive today... he'd be writing Science Fiction! - for these are our modern philosophers) For this reason, I can see why a lot of it was originally cut out, in order to cut the book down a bit, as there is, perhaps a lot of "banging on" here, but none of what may have been cut (I haven't read the cut version, so don't know what they did remove) is necessarily flabby, excessive, or superfluous... there's just a lot of it! But of course, the other (Perhaps, main) reason to cut a load out of this, is that it is extremely radical in it's thinking, beyond what any would dare today, much less, at time of publication, in questioning every moral construct, idea, institution, faith and religion, social convention, basis of human relationships and moral boundary you can think of... ...There is free love, polygamy of sorts, atheism, pantheism, cannibalism as a notion of an accepted normal social and "religious" practice (on Mars), the formation of a cult, or commune, and it savagely represents a deeply cynical view of politics, organised religions, media, and individuals in their habits and conventions, as they all scrabble to get a piece of the visitor for their own ends, or to make him go away... (So as not to call into question their own positions - don't want the ordinary folk thinking too deeply about stuff, do we now?) ...And so, if you are not the kind of person who would find this funny, enjoyable, and eliciting a kind of cheerleading response to what it has to say, you would most likely fall into the category of "everyone else", who will find this almost universally offensive on every point, even (especially?) today. You could not publish this today, I feel, as a new book, as the angry villagers, and worse, would be on your doorstep the very next day! (As, funnily enough, happens in the book itself :) And for all these reasons, it's well worth reading. ((Just maintain perspective, and don't get too carried away with it, or else you may take it as a cue to start your own cult, or "religion", and thank goodness that hasn't happened yet! (...er.....)) But then, what do I know, for in the words of the man from Mars himself: "I Am Only An Egg." (You Grok?) 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 31st Dec 2022		Book Joseph Conrad - Heart Of Darkness (1994)	Rated 6/10 Category: Small book with a disproportionately large reputation. I've been meaning to read this since the early nineties... (When of course, Apocalypse Now hoved into my consciousness - this being the prime source material, and inspiration) ...And I've got to say, it's one of those books that has a massive reputation that ultimately disappoints. As with Catcher In The Rye, the first thing that you notice is how tiny a book it is, with a little over a hundred pages there... (I felt inclined to pick the book up by the spine, and give it a good shake, to see if more words fell out of it that I might have accidentally missed - "Is that it?!!") ...And like Catcher In The Rye, it's had such a huge influence on later renditions, either of the story itself, or versions of it, and better, and more refined, that the true original can't really live up to those iterations of the central idea. In this case, it's the whole "going up river" "Into (of course) the heart of darkness", spiralling into insanity deal. Here though, it's fairly tame, and a bit, dare I say, uneventful compared, at least, to Apocalypse Now - Granted, this is largely an effect of the times in which this was published, compared to the times that movie was made, in terms of what could be presented to an audience (shifts in morality, taste, public de-sensitisation to graphic material, images / ideas etc. But even if this is so, The nutbag at the end of the pain-bow (Kurtz) is often spoken of, as in the movie adaptation, in order mythologise him, and make him grow in our minds with dread and anticipation, but even when we finally meet him here, nothing much really happens, and he is rather underwhelming... so much so, that you wonder what all the fuss was about in telling the tale leading up to it. As this is the tale told by a seaman to a new crew on a boat for seafaring expedition, about a previous experience, it has the feel of a ghost story being told, and the writing, in this regard, is really great, and with the essential bones of the story, and the concept of the character of Kurtz being a very powerful one until the let down of meeting the reality, you can see the powerful inspiration of an idea for Francis Ford Coppola to make the movie he did. What is worth while in reading this is the uneasy comparisons, and unspoken statement of the original with Apocalypse Now, in that he equates, and finds parallels between 60s America, and a late nineteenth century colonial power, exploiting, and attempting to subjugate an "inferior" people (commercially / politically motivated racism at it's best folks!), by sending one group of people into a more... *"primal"* setting that the layers of "Civilization" cannot cope with, or understand, once peeled away, layer by layer... and causing the disintegration of the artificial modern social and moral constructs to precipitate insanity in those that venture there. So a good companion piece to the movie, or curio, but in this case, the movie wins, hands down, so you wouldn't be missing much by not reading the source text. Apocalypse now makes all these points, more graphically, effectively, and thoroughly. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 14th Dec 2022		Book Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Books (1987)	Rated 8/10 Finally read this... (And discovered the idea behind all that mysterious nonsense they had us rehearse in cub-scouts) ...Having found a copy in the charity shop (not this edition), and straight off the bat it has to be said: This isn't for kids! ...Well, not very young ones anyway, as Disney it ain't! It is, through the prism of Rudyard Kipling's own upbringing in colonial India, and extended metaphor of various social structures (of the time), and ones place in it through the parallels of Jungle life, ultimately encapsulated in the background / sometimes referenced Law of the Jungle, ...An extended fable, or parable to create a myth loosely placing itself alongside Aesop and such, the effect of which is greatly enhanced through the use of semi-biblical / old testament style language: Lot's of Thou and Thus, and Thine-ing, but deftly, and poetically handled by a man who understands how to use it to great effect. Of course, it has the essential tale of Mowgli... (Pronounced like: Cow- gli ("Ow", not "Oh") "we are actually informed by the author himself... so you've proabably been saying it wrong all these years, as I have! :) ...At it's centre that we all are familiar with, at least from the Disney film, but it's more primal and quite grim, even brutal at times, as Mowgli goes to war with the tiger Shere Khan, who's out to eat him, and with the help of Baloo, Baghera, and of course, Akela learns the tricks of survival and the ways of the jungle in order to bring the tiger to a rather sticky end. (He ends up skinning Shere Khan and dumping his hide on the Wolf-pack centre stone (like the town square for wolves).. so happy nightmares kids! :D But rather than just leave off here, the main narrative follows Mowgli through many adventurous perils as he faces new adversaries, and other adversities on his way to becoming a man, when he ultimately seeks to return to his human societal origins. These narrative chapters in his life are, however, interspersed with other "Jungle books", or stories, from other kinds of Jungles, form the tale of a Household mongoose named (er...) Riki-Tiki-Tavi, as he fights to protect a human family from a couple of poisonous cobras, the story of a white Seal in arctic wastelands, another tale of a human Elephant herder, and even an Inuit tribe looking for seal meat (Yup, healthy dose of seal clubbing here too folks!). You can see just how sanitised the Disney animated version is (And altered - Kaa, the giant python, is indeed deadly and disturbing, but also an ally to Mowgli, not a villain), and I can well imagine that many a parent has found this book, and thought: "Oh how sweet, my kid loves this film, I'll take this home and read this to my little cherub!" - only to draw breath at the more mature horrors lie within, and abruptly throw this in the cupboard. Just know what you're getting into, is the thing, with this. As a fabulous, proto-mythological tale read by a more adult reader though, I found it all the more brilliant because of it, rather than the sweet kiddies book I had been expecting, and for this audience, I highly recommend it. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 11th May 2022		Book Jane Austen - Pride And Prejudice (1985)	Review Well, I've only gone and read it! One of those books that just kept nagging at me to be read... always appearing in lists of greatest books you must read before you die, explode or are crushed by a meteorite, and if you don't read it, one of those things probably will happen, so read it... or else!!!! ...Not to mention, It's always there, on the bookshelves of charity shops and at boot fairs, following me around constantly, and reminding me of the fact I haven't read it yet. (Is it possible I have been stalked by a book?) So, in spite of my severe misgivings about it, and the apparently unending TV and movie adaptations that keep popping up all over, I gave it a go, at last. I was worried about the language, mostly, as the snippets I'd seen of those adaptions led me to believe this was not strictly speaking... English: "Wherefore, forthwith perchance to extemporise on my pre-postulisation..." etc. (or what that sounds like to me) Eh? But actually, it's a lot easier to read than I had imagined, the lingo makes sense, so I conclude most of the reason I didn't understand it has more to do with pretentious thespian types acting their arses off in order to appear more thespian-ic. True, most of the early dialogue is like chewing dry crackers in the mind, straight up statements of morality, like a barrage of proverbs in "conversation" form in order to instruct or sermonise to the reader. Especially around social etiquette and other shit I care not a jot for, especially in this, stiff period world in which Jane Austen lived. But thankfully, it all begins to go awry, as shit goes down, the done things are not done, and people begin to crack, all of which is reflected in the dialogue, which opens up, becomes looser, and more natural, as the pro-tangle-ists Ms Elizabeth Benet and Oh Mr. Darcy! (to give him, what I believe to be his proper name :) loosen up, and break through all that Prejudice and Pride of theirs (or in todays money: Sexual tension :D. So it's a bit of a prototype Mulder and Scully situation, among social hoo-ha and incomprehensible, cultivated family connections that are the bedrock of this world, where social scum like the Bennets, daring to have only daughters (how very common of them! :), to to sell them off to better families than their own. Nice characterisations, a little dull subject matter for me personally, but quite an easy read, even over it's rather lengthy almost 400 pages. In my view though, you're better off reading something by one of those Twisted Bronte sisters (I love those girls! ), as they're totally rock and roll, compared to this relatively literary elevator music. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 28th Feb 2022		Book Martin Luther King Jr - The Autobiography Of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2000)	Rated 8/10 A fascinating insight into a great man's mind, whilst in the midst of great historical events. This is an "autobiography" constructed from Martin Luther King's personal writings, articles, and letters, and assembled in chronological order, that very much feels like a pre-planned memoir or autobiography, and certainly offers a very open, honest, and candid testament of a great man of peace. The abiding impression that you take from this, is that he was far from a superhuman icon of the ages, which most of us will only see as an historical figure, but rather, quite simply, a man... ...A man of course, of great conviction and faith, but weak and fragile too... having had a great path laid before him, he often has his moments of doubt, about how to walk that path, or even if he should, as well as struggling with the odd moments of ego, that comes from being lauded constantly as the great hero. And so, his true heroism as he himself presents it here, is not that of being infallible, or not susceptible to fear, but finding the courage to endure, and overcome his own fears and doubts, even when those around him were wavering and seemingly were prepared to abandon a non-violent path to freedom, and also the very evident self-awareness of his own ego, which left unchecked, might have gotten the better of him, as it has many other great men of "destiny"... ...Indeed, this for me, is the most impressive thing about him that I took form this book, his constant self examination, recognition, and correction of his faults... a constant self-redeemer. The steadfast support of family, friends, colleagues, his faith, and the teachings of Ghandi, which he frequently references, also deserve the credit he bestows upon them. A great opportunity to look at such a figure from the inside out, rather than the more traditional presentation of a cardboard cut-out archetypal hero, or worse, a self-mythologizing piece of self promotion, as and when such megalomaniacs occasionally choose to confer a testament of their own perfect brilliance on us. A great read too, about the events around him, as witnessed from his point of view. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 19th Nov 2021		Book Shirley Jackson - The Haunting Of Hill House (1977)	Rated 7/10 Houses don't get haunted... People do. I found the modern Penguin edition of this a couple of weeks back, so was pleased to finally read it at last... ...And I've got to say, it's an odd one. The basic set up (which most may know by now), is that a Doctor conducting a scientific experiment in the supernatural phenomena of "Hauntings" leases an old house with a reputation for such goings on, and then invites people to apply to come and stay there, to be the subjects / observers of this experiment. Other than the Doctor, and Luke, a relative of the family who owns the house, only Theodora, a bit of a flake, and Eleanor actually arrive. So there's only four of them in the house, along with the brief appearance of Mr. Dudley, the gatekeeper, who lets them in, and his wife Mrs. Dudley, who cleans, makes the meals, then clears out as fast as possible. (The doctor's wife - a pain in the arse who has delusions of spiritual sensitivity and expertise, and her rather stiff friend, a school headmaster, are the only other characters who appear in the book, and they arrive rather late in the proceedings) But mostly this is a story about Eleanor; A 35 year old single woman who has spent most of her life caring for her mother (recently deceased) and so she has had a rather cloistered life, and is pretty meek, and subservient, but is trying to break out after her mother's passing, and live a little - seek a little adventure, though she is very timid and afraid at doing so. The house, seems to single her out, and wants her for it's very own in some capacity, and the narrative focuses entirely on her point of view... we are privy to her thoughts, as well as words and actions, in a way we are not with the other characters. This is perhaps the most impressive element of this story, in how Shirley Jackson perceives, and captures that thing we all do, in thinking one thing, then immediately saying something else - frequently the opposite! How Eleanor thinks and feels about the others grows in diverging from what she says to them as the story progresses, and she begins to feel more herself, with her subservience and compliance conditioned into her over a lifetime ebbing away, and as the influence of the house begins to take hold, and act on these characteristics. And this is the odd thing, because while the house, and it's architecture are a real presence in the story, there's not actually much by way of actual haunting "Events" in it. ....There's no "beings", or manifestations that appear "in the flesh" so to speak, although the previous occupants / owners / residents are referred to and their stories told. So if you are looking to get creeped out / chilled or have the willies scared out of you, you probably won't get that here, in the way you might with say, a Stephen King Novel or a more modern horror / ghost story book. The haunting events don't get going until about two thirds of the way in, and are more pronounced, and cursory. No, this is more a character study of one lonely, lost young woman after she has lost whatever dissatisfying reason for living she once had, and trying to reach out into a new life, however strange... ...And it's about her baggage, guilt (?), and timidity. It might be said, she brought her own hauntings with her to the house. The story is startling in that it doesn't end in anything like the way you think it might, and like Shirley Jackson's brilliant description of the house itself, it's full of odd angles that don't add up, or make conventional sense... but it does catch in the mind, perhaps the more so, because of all this. The writing style is superb, cracking along, at times almost poetic, but quickly read. (I read this in two days - which is good by my standards >Mr. Snail Brain!!!< :) A very enjoyable, if tragic story. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 22nd Jul 2020		Book H. G. Wells - The Time Machine / The Island Of Dr. Moreau / The Invisible Man / The First Men In The Moon / The Food Of The Gods / In The Days Of The Comet / The War Of The Worlds (1984)	Rated 9/10 I have this! These Octopus books are great value, but tend to omit at least one of the key stories by any particular author you are after (My Hemmingway one lacks a couple of the big titles :(... ...But this has all the good Wells stuff in it you want. What is striking about his stories is how my pre-conceived notions about how dated and quaint his Sci-fi / physics notions were actually even now have a surprising air of plausibility about them... even the patently daft ones... like going to the moon in a tin foil box to meet the ant people... The physics is clearly duff, but his ideas and explanations are very well considered, and brilliantly explained, like the concept of how the physics of his time machine works... really conjures an image in the mind. Just a shame it doesn't work that way really.... I think his stories deserve better physics in the real world. (Maybe we could start a petition to get science changed to accommodate Wells! :) Top volume, well worth geting, as it's great value. ((And still can't any reference to any bleedin' octopus)) 6 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 1st Jun 2020		Book Isaac Asimov - The Complete Robot (2018)	Review This ought to be on any modern national curriculum - *A Must Read!* I came across a newer edition of this in a charity shop last year, and thinking that Isaac Asimov was one of those I must get a around to reading, due to his name keeping on popping up in any discussion of sci-fi, or real world artificial Intelligence / robotics of the modern / coming age. And it does not disappoint, not due to any special gift of language Asimov had, or even his ability to spin a rip roaring yarn - there's no real poetry here - But because of the ideas presented in these stories... Prescient, and increasingly relevant. What these are, is not so much stories, as scenarios based around different aspects of robotics / AI, in which he works through how they work... if they work, where the problems are, and the benefits are of Robots in these scenario contexts. To give them collectively their proper, original name... these are speculative fictions. What ifs: What if a politician were sneakily replaced with a robot replica... would anyone notice the difference? (Chuckle) ...Actually they would... when the situation starts inexplicably improving... leading to the moral considerations of this situation: Run by robots?!!! .... deceiving the public... even when it's for their own good and benefit? Yikes! Or another, where a chain of mining robots who share a collective mind start going a bit wobbly... ....Or my favourite: ...Where a robotics engineer has to send a complex AI robot to go mining on Mercury, too hot and inhospitable for humans, but the robot starts leaping about and having fun on Mercury, not doing what was wanted... ... turns out, the engineer decided to place the consciousness of his disabled locked-in son in the robot. Most of these stories utilise a handful of the same characters to set the scenarios against: Two hapless robotics engineers, who have to figure out what's going wrong all the time, and a senior AI / robotics scientist, who is more the Yoda of AI, and does most of the theorising, philosophising and resolving - a woman too... so some very early feminism there from Mr Asimov! - So while this is logical theorising as story-telling, they are engaging, fun, and very interesting. The basis of some good classroom discussion I'd have thought, around a subject more relevant to modern students than: Of Mice and Men, or Lord Of The Flies <This last is kind of redundant, as we seem to have been living it for real now for quite some time :).... :( So maybe time to ditch some of yesterday's fusty old curriculum staples, and look more to this kind of thing. ...And even if you are not a student... read it anyway... you may have to know what it's got to say sometime soon! 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 26th Apr 2018		Book Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey (2000)	Rated 9/10 For those who have seen the Stanley Kubrick film, and come away with the eternal question... ...WTF!??? ...This will go a long way to illuminating you as to the intent and meaning of the story. ......Well, in so far as the general idea is concerned, particularly around this novel; Less so for the film, as Kubrick has made a couple of small, but key editorial alterations to features of the story that render it in an entirely new light. As Arthur C. explains in the introduction, although this novel is an expansion on a kernel of an idea he sketched out in a short story: The Sentinel, more was draw from other works of his, that allowed him to write the full novel for the purposes of a collaboration with Kubrick on the film - He says here that they decided to write out the story as a novel for the film, as screenplays tended to be brief, dry, and uninformative, so this provided the basis for the screenplay to be written from (not a novelisation of the film "ugh"), he stresses - "Writing a novel is like swimming through the sea; Writing a film script is like thrashing through treacle" The key changes are at both the beginning and the end, whereby in the first scenes with the apes, the monolith is a large transluscent crystal slab, that has all kinds of flashing lights and goings-on that test the aptitudes of the ape population, and so promote their advancement, and are of unequivocally of alien intelligent origin... Kubrick omits this in the film, opting to use the inscrutable, and largely passive black slabs that appear later in this work as the only monolith design to appear... this renders it ambiguous at best, as to whether the story is actually about aliens or not... (I think the film actually is not about aliens at all, but only intelligence of human origin, with the slabs being symbolic objects of our own wonder, and self promoted intellectual advancement - intelligence begets itself) ...This ambiguity is further compounded with the "through the stargate" segment at the end, where here, it is very clearly the involvement of alien civilization, but in the film, a more abstract approach is taken, in order to represent an intellectual leap towards a new stage in human evolution. All else being pretty much as you see in the film. What did surprise me though, reading this, is what a fantastic writer Arthur C. Clarke is, which may sound silly, but most of the praise for him usually lies in the quality and innovation of his ideas, but I think it should be noted how lyrical, concise, and even poetic, at times, his writing is, and how easily he wraps up quite complex scientific ideas without trying to bludgeon you with description... he makes these ideas very easy to digest in simple phrases and expressions (his description of the stargate is brilliant).... ...so much so, that, comparatively slow reader that I am, I was able to bang through these 252 pages in just under two days! (A record for me) In large part though, as there are (other than the ape scene and space station scene), only three characters (Hal included) interacting in a tube in space, the story is of course, very elegant, without lots of environment and multitudes of characters to consider. The film and this book really are compliments to each other, and if you want to get more to the bottom of both, either is recommended to have at hand as at least a side-salad to your preferred main course. Great book! 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 4th Oct 2017		Book J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (1996)	Review In case you were wondering... ...This is a very different experience than watching the recent Peter Jackson movie adaptions. I first read this at school some years ago, and in the intervening years, I've read The Lord Of The Rings, and seen the very good movie adaptations of that trilogy of books... I was particularly struck by how faithfully rendered the movies were to the books – bar a couple of scenes which would have perhaps sat awkwardly in the context of a movie (Tom Bombadil) – ...So, like many, I was a little perplexed at how Peter Jackson managed to spin out three movies from this 270-odd page book, the same as he did with the three movies from the 1000 or so page Lord Of The Rings. I'd intended to get a copy when I next saw one anyway, so I could find out, and saw this on the shelf of a charity shop; recognising the cover art from school, I decided to get it. What I have discovered, is that the basic reason the movies have been made the way they are is that this is very different in tone than even The Lord Of The Rings books, as it seems this, being Tolkien's opening venture into that world, is the initial idea, and the Lord Of The Rings, a much more developed examination of that world, with Elvish and other languages, mythologies, histories, and characters much more evolved and involved. ...As such, this reads more as a children's book comparable to any of the genre from around that time, and would sit more happily on the shelf next to the likes of Peter Pan, The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, than it does with the depth, and more adult “Rings”. It's quite playful, and simply presented, and more easily read by a younger audience... a kind of “fireside tale”, or bed-time story – a situation it would which it would suit very well (although a few passages could frighten younger children, I think – Large Spiders etc.). And The Dilemma facing Peter Jackson, it seems,was to make another, single film, which was as faithful as his Lord Of The Rings, and yet contrasted wildly; Due not to this, but because of the differences in the tone of the original texts; Or, having already madethe Rings, “retro-fit” the Hobbit to match that, and so that I would sit more easily with it. In that world... and from this point of view, I think the correct decision was made. Here, there is no Pale Orc (Completely Jackson's creation – unless he appears in some other Tolkien work?), no Legolas (Imported from Rings) or female elf (another possible Jackson creation) or accompanying story-line, The whole Barrell scene has been re-rendered for action scenes, and some of the attitudes of the Dwarfs are “enhanced”. The “Necromancer” is known only as that, and no reference to Sauron is made, and this is only briefly mentioned when Gandalf goes out of the story for a time. Radagast The Brown Wizard is mentioned only once by name, and Smaug The Dragon is a jewel encrusted red creature, who's weak-spot, and relationshipto Bard does not involve the same back-story... Finally, actually the Eagles, and the Thrush have had their roles diminished, as in the books, these birds (and a raven) can communicate, which may have seemed too quaint for the movies. So if you read this expecting the movie experience, you may be disappointed, but then if you didn't like the movies, but like a simple adventure tale told in the best traditions of the genre, you may like this better. 3 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 13th Sep 2017		Book Mary Shelley - Frankenstein (1999)	Review It never fails to amaze me... ... how different these classic tales are in the reading, than what you think you know about them, as gleaned from the filmed versions, and even literary discussions on arty programmes and such. This, for instance, leaves a very different impression in the mind than the sight of Mr Squarehead - bolt neck - Karloff, or those Hammer productions with Christopher Lee lumbering around as a monolithic, mute, and intellectually impaired American quilt of human bits 'n' bobs in some loose arrangement of anatomy would make of it. No, this is a very different creature than such liberties and licence over the intervening years since it's publication have created in the mind of popular culture. In fact, the first thing that struck me, and which even the notes by scholars here (and subsequent moseying around he net at other opinions) have failed to draw attention to, is that there is very, very little by way of detailed descriptions of persons, processes, or places in it. Indeed, the only thing said about the creation of "the creature" is that Victor Frankenstein gives him "The spark of life" - and hey-presto, the creature is born. No bubbling test-tubes, no grand mechanisms, lightning, castles, angry, torch bearing villagers, no grave robbing, stitching of pieces or even the source of the components that go to make him. No, the only thing we are told is that Victor discovers the secret to giving life... and Shelley makes a particular point of not saying how he does it (the point of the book, is not to follow his folly, and so he tells Walton; A man on a similar scientific expedition who finds Victor pursuing the creature through the northern Ice cap in order to destroy it; that hill will not tell him that secret, but simply relates his tale to warn him off his endeavour. The structure of the book is a bit of a Russian doll of narratives, opening with Walton sending letters home to his sister Margaret, relating how he found Frankenstein, and in these, he relates Victor's narrative, who in turn relates the creature's narrative, as told to him (yes, the creature speaks, and in fact, is articulate, eloquent, philosophical, and highly intelligent). And perhaps this is the power of the book on the imagination, which subsequent film-makers have learned... that the less you describe, the more you allow the reader / viewer's imagination to make the horror for themselves (like Ridley Scott's: Alien)... (There's barely enough description of protagonists to fill a paragraph, in terms of concrete facts) ...And in fact he only descriptions we are afforded of the creature, over and above judgemental characterisations of him as a "demon", "hideous" etc. Is that he has a watery-yellow eye (conspicuously, this reference is very closely followed by reference to the moon... ((The sun and moon are very strong symbols in the this book, from what I gleaned)) ...and that he is eight feet tall, with "flowing black hair", and moves with superhuman strength, speed and agility (Have a look at Lord Byron - could he be a source of inspiration for this creature?). In fact, the very strong impression grew in my mind of an alternative theory about the story than those I've found elsewhere... that "The Creature" is not a physical entity within the story at all, but is Victor Frankenstein's psychosis, that he is the killer and the monster in this work, and that the creature is a split element of his own personality - his own murderous ambition, against which he is struggling, and which may well be the Hyde to his Jekyll that he cannot contain. For it seemed to me that there are many very suggestive clues all through the book which point to this, including the creature's narrative (later related) having taken place at exactly the time, early in he book, after he is created, where Victor spends months wandering, delirious, and semi-conscious.... and the general Superman thing, where neither seems to be where the other is, in the sight of others, at the same time. Victor Frankenstein is the creature... the creature is his own split personality? This is only a very short book in fact (How penguin and the like stretch this out into hundreds of pages in their editions is beyond me), as once you take all the introductions, out, it probably boils down to only 150 pages or so, and it only took me two days last week, so it can be gotten through easy enough. Great read though, another one to finally tick off the list! 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 16th Mar 2017		Book J. D. Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye (1994)	Review Holden Caulfield And The Template For Gloom! ...Would have been a great alternative title for this. I'll have to read this again, as I don't really remember that much about it... except how underwhelmed by it I was. A short novel about moody youth (he says dismissively :)... with a huge reputation. I think it may be one of those instances where the reputation came to overwhelm the actual content and quality... and couldn't live up to billing eventually. But having thought about it since (my reaction to it), I think it's probably the case that I just read it too late - I was too old for it to mark me the way it has many young comers of agers for generations now. The reason being, I conclude, is that this did originally make such a splash when it came out, that it created a template for an anti-hero type, that we've seen in books and in cinema ever since, and that have, during the course of time, been refined, probably done better, and certainly too often. *..."Is that it?!!!"* I finished it, and then took the book by the spine and shook it, to see if there were any extra words in there that I was missing somewhere... maybe they'd fall out and reveal all this brilliance I'd been hearing of. I even went round the back of the book, to see if the words were hiding there... but alas, no. But then... I am old. So a modern reader looks at this as derivative, whiney teen-angst stuff... when in fact, it's the original whiney teen-angst. But for a younger reader, at the right age, and who still has a soul, this may come to mean a lot. ...maybe, as another aspect of it's reputation suggests (perhaps urban myth), for some it might come to mean too much (Reputedly one of the most commonly found books on the shelves of serial killers and other high profile murderers) So maybe it's like landing a space shuttle... where you have to get it in, in just a narrow "window" of time... hit too soon, and you'll burn up... hit too late, and you'll just bounce off it's atmosphere and off into space. (Is this a comment, or a review? - it began as a comment :) ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 21st Jul 2016		Book Carl Gustav Jung - The Undiscovered Self (2006)	Review This is one of only a couple of books I could claim to have changed my life. (I never liked such claims, as I don't really like to think I'm so easily moved by anything I happen to read... not healthy to buy into any single piece of literature absolutely I think) It's not a big book by any stretch of the imagination... more of a pamphlet, or brochure for Jung's theory, from which you can jump off into his other works, which go into much greater depth on each of the aspects of the theory. Like many, I never liked the Idea of Freud's rather reductive view of human beings as little more than mechanical animals driven by primal clockwork impulses, and which seems to exclude any possibility of attaching any inherent value to a person by so reducing them. Jung doesn't do that, but in fact digs a little deeper into that very clockwork to discover meaning... and value. From here, the other small Routledge books on Modern Man In Search Of A Soul, The Nature Of the Psyche, are a good route to take, before getting into the nitty gritty of Dreams, and The Science Of Mythology, and then the bigger editions which are presented more as the original essays and lectures. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 11th Jan 2016		Book Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra	Rated 9/10 This is Nietszche's masterwork... And great source of bother, to say the least. It discusses issues of morality, and how a superior morality from that which ages of Christianity calcified into dogma might be achieved. His great proposal here was the proverbial "Breaking of the tables", a phrase which has passed from this book into modern culture to describe the perilous undertaking of breaking up old patterns of thought, of overcoming the habit of living according accepted, and long established understandings of moral virtue, as described in scriptures, and living by rote, in compliance with the superficial knowledge of those virtues long since "set in stone" (You might equate this then with the smashing up of the Ten Commandments). He describes race of people (you can begin to see where the trouble comes from already) of superior moral worth, able to live according to their own moral determinations, and who can as cast aside a set of morals in favour of some new moral understanding when such appears, and suits them to do so.... A kind people able to live according to a an ever evolving morality. Supermen. The Superman. This, of course, was the idea from this book that later Nazi Germany seized upon to describe their "Master-race", and justify their abominable deeds. A wilful misunderstanding! ...as can be plainly seen from even a cursory read of this book, where Nietzsche is at pains to differentiate between this "superman", and another species he calls: "The Ultimate Man". According to Nietzsche, the Ultimate man is one who believes himself to be the ultimate expression of moral virtue, the end point of the process, and the ultimate reference point of such moral considerations... he says it, thinks it, or does it, therefore it is just and right, because it is he who does it. Whereas the superman takes his reference from truth alone... external to himself, and not determined by himself. So Nazi Germany took the idea f the "Superman", and applied it to themselves, and in so doing, simply became the "Ultimate" men... a curse, and danger to the world, and all and any in it. Of Course, there were many other such ingredients borrowed, pilfered, and stolen from other works, from other cultural histories besides this work, and all, along with this, were bakes up in their hideous cake according to their own ends, and to their own purpose, as suited them best. But even on an individual basis, a reader must take great care when reading this, as to adopt this philosophy wholesale is to abandon established moral considerations altogether, even if they are correct, and simply by virtue of the fact that they are old... Nietzsche himself, through this, and other works, attempted to do so... and died, insane. In short, it's one thing to look to new horizons of moral possibility, but you can't just let go of everything to do it... you won't know where you are, if you burn the old landmarks to the ground. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 10th Jan 2016		Book Jean-Paul Sartre - Being And Nothingness (1998)	Review Perhaps the most rewarding read I've ever had... and the hardest read too. This book actually hurt my brain to read it. My brain... In my head. Hurt! It's commonly thought of (some say erroneously) as a manifesto of existentialism, and while it is philosophy, which implies thick academic logic and the consideration of existence (Ontology) from a scientific perspective, you actually come away from it feeling that you've read one of the greatest works of spirituality ever written. (Religious Scriptures aside) It can change your world view, and make feel... yes feel spiritually enlightened. But to get there you have to get stuck in the mire of some very dense concepts, which are hard to get your head around... such as: "beings for themselves", "beings for others", "beings in themselves" etc. As well as the truly mind melting concept of temporality, whereby we don't actually exist, and neither does anything else, because as soon as something something happens, it no longer exists, and likewise, if it hasn't happened yet, it doesn't exist either, and we exist in the crack of the existence of now, which doesn't exist, but is defined be movement of future to past, and exists between the two, but as it is neither past or future but constantly moving from being the future (which doesn't exist), to the past (which doesn't exist)... So we exist between two states that don't exist, that define a state which doesn't exist because they don't, but does, because it is... yet is not. OK? I promise you there is more of a sense of what you might define as "God" in this, than you may find in a thousand other books. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 8th Jan 2016		Book Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels	Review You have to be very careful with which edition of this work you get... It's one of those stories that has a timeless and general appeal, and has been taught in schools for many years. And this has meant it has had to have some real editing down to make it appropriate for younger minds. In schools, most of the book is missing, mainly for reasons that after he's been small in a large world, and large in small world... the point has been felt to have been made adequately, and the rest deemed unnecessary. In this way it offers a boldly drawn story that would catch the younger reader's imagination, but this was originally written as biting satire, both social and political, and the "further adventures of Mr Gulliver" that are usually omitted serve to hammer home this point... and Swift pulls no punches in doing so, often in quite a Bawdy way too (he pisses on the lilliput palace to put out a fire there in one scene - the politically satirical point there rather unceremoniously made)... so all of this has had to have been "disappeared" too, to make it appropriate for younger ages. This edition is the unedited - "complete, and unabridged" variety, aimed at an older reader... so another edition of the edited kind should be sought for younger readers. Sing along now: "There's Lilliput and Brobdingnang, the Laputans, Balnibarbi and Luggnagg, Glubbdubbdrib and Houyhnhnms and.............. ..................... Japan (!?!)" (A few more besides too - Haven't quite worked out the rhyme yet, but I'm sure there's a song in there somewhere along the lines of that song about the elements) (((Oooh, almost forgot, it does contain what is thought to be one of, if not the earliest descriptions of a calculating machine... a computer. (And a floating city too, which is always good!)))) 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 8th Jan 2016		Book Collins Latin Dictionary And Grammar - Collins	Review I don't speak Latin... hence the dictionary. I got this as I was coming across many words I wanted to get to the bottom of in other books (and in general), and this fitted the bill perfectly. The same size as a standard paperback novel, it is quite like a Tardis, in that I was worried when I got it that it might not be big enough to contain all the words I might possibly need to translate... but so far, every word I wanted has been found in it. It has sections on Grammar etc. apart from the dictionary, but that's a bit beyond me to be honest (both my need and my interest too, as well as my capability). It has a front section of Latin to English, then a back section of English to Latin, which is very important in some circumstances. And having lived with it for a good couple of years or so now, I can even begin to decipher general meaning in Latin phrases when I come across them, even if the exact translation still escapes me (I can get the gist). Does what you want it to... in a nut shell. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 5th Jan 2016		Book Gawain And The Green Knight - Oxford University Press (2008)	Review A short book, and this translation makes for an easy read. (You could get through it in a couple of hours or so) But it is one of the staple texts of Arthurian literature (of this very early stage in the development of Arthurian legend especially). Elegantly, and poetically written, it conjures strong mental images, and the narrative is easy to follow. However... if you are to understand Arthurian literature, you have to learn to decipher symbols, and decode the symbology which these romances are thick with. Honestly, I have come to understand that not only specific things within them are symbols (the individual knights, their attire, their names (etymology rapidly becomes a new interest when you get into these works), but how knights interact with objects, and other knights, speech patterns, and even the structure of the narrative is symbolic, and has deeper, and more obscure meanings than is immediately evident. As such, these tales often seem mystical and obscure... but this is where their power (and the power of the Arthur legend) lies... they weave a spell, through fascinating the mind of the reader, and drawing you in.... and ultimately, that is how they are designed to function, and their purpose. As well as to encode, or "hide" what they would have understood to have been truths from unwelcome eyes, but be apparent to those who knew how to read them. For instance: This particular work has the entirely nutty premise of a "head chopping-off" contest between Mr Sir Gawain and the titular Knight of the distinctly (and conspicuously) Green variety.... Following a pattern for Arthurian romances (which if not established first by Cretien De Troyes, is certainly to be found there), ...the quest begins at Arthur's court (they usually do, and Arthur himself does not feature quite so strongly in them as you'd imagine ((and Sir Gawain, more than any other knight, features in almost all of them, often to parallel, or analogue the narrative of the quest of the other knight - maybe he's the most significant figure in Arthurian Literature!-))... The Green knight comes in and offers a challenge to the court, that he will accept a blow from anyone (He first offer it to Arthur) to cut off his head, in return for that knight riding out to his Green Chapel in a distant woods, exactly one year later, to receive a like blow in return. Gawain takes up the challenge, and lops the Green knight's head orrf... which the Green knight (now sans head), picks up (it still talks, as he reminds Gawain of his vow to meet him in a year), and gets on his green horse, and rides off. This bonkers story continues on from here, following the story of Gawain meeting this obligation (which I won't ruin with spoilers). One article of great interest within this book, and of tremendous general significance, and which is highly unusual in that it gives an overt explanation of what one of these symbols actually means, is when Gawain is armed and horsed in preparation for setting out on this quest, he is given a shield which bears a device (the picture) of a golden Pentagram (pentangle) on a red background... This, it explains in detail, is not, as it has come to be thought of more recently, a "satanic" symbol, and in fact, is as far from devil-worship-ry and all as is possible to get in it's origins. It is in fact Solomon's Knot, or Solomon's Seal (yup, biblical Solomon), which once stood as the seal on the pillars of Solomon's temple where the Ark of the Covenant was kept... so actually one of the most sacred CHRISTIAN (Judeo-Christian (-Islamic?)) symbols of that ancient world. But even at face value, it makes for an entrancing read, even if it is a bit grim :) 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 4th Jan 2016		Book Edwin A. Abbott - Flatland (1998)	Rated 10/10 Genius. A very simple and elegant idea that is endlessly meaningful and poignant in any age: It is the story of a square, who lives in a two dimensional world, with other geometric shapes (triangles, and other assorted polygons), who believes his world to be the only possible manner of existence.... until one day, a three dimensional shape enters his world: A sphere ...who presence is detected by the square only as a circle of increasing and decreasing circumference as he passes through his two dimensional plane of existence, which the sphere does to prove to the square that he is of the extra-dimensional variety. To prove that other manners of existence, um... exist, he takes the square to a one dimensional world which is organised as a line, and each of the inhabitants is a piece of that line of varying length, and who jostle for position on the line to organise their social structure, just as the square, in his two dimensional world must feel the edges and corners of the other two dimensional inhabitants to know each other, in what shape each other is. After taking the square high above his own world, to offer him an overview of it, in a perspective he'd never seen before... the square asks the sphere: "What about a Four Dimensional World?" to which the sphere essentially replies: "Don't be silly... there's no such thing!" Edwin A. Abbott (1838-1926), was a school headmaster, and "Teacher of Genius" at the City Of London School. 5 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 4th Jan 2016		Book James Joyce - Finnegans Wake	Review This book does not need a review, as it is as un-review-able, as it is unreadable. It rather needs a warning instead... like those found on cigarette packets: -Reading, or attempting to read this book will seriously screw with your mental health - It is James Joyce's epic "stream of consciousness" "masterpiece", and it is so obscure that nobody has even worked out exactly what it's about (indeed, whole literary groups and societies get together at weekends and such to devote their time to decoding and trying to decipher meaning in it... an occupation which is only probably akin to trying to calculate Pi to the most decimal places). It was this that made me buy it... thinking: "I'm a pretty good reader, I'll have a crack, to see what the fuss is about". Error. My own personal record for this book is 50 pages in, before my brain began to implode, and I started chewing my eyelids. I begin to wonder if Joyce didn't actually write this as the greatest joke ever told, perpetrated against the intellectual pride of the "literati" persons... to serve up a book that would drive them all crackers trying to understand it and look for meaning where there is none. It's long, it begins where it ends, and ends where it begins, it makes zero sense, and even one paragraph will cook your neurons. My advice: Give this one a miss, and read something else instead. 4 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
Magic Marmalade 8th Dec 2015		Book T. H. White - The Once And Future King (1996)	Rated 10/10 A great entry point for anyone looking to get into Arthurian Legend, as it's written in a modern style, as opposed to some of the "Canonical" mediaeval Arthurian texts, which can be a sticky read, with all that dense old English, such as Malory... or has read Tolkien and C.S Lewis, who White was contemporary with, and who work this should be considered as being in the same vein. ...White however, is a better writer than either of them! Some absolutely breath-taking passages, and brilliant devices (talking animals!) to illustrate liberal ideas that the ethos that "Might Is Right" is untrue, and true justice, through a system of laws and good governance is how the human race ought to live (And share this world with other life in the world). Arthur is taught this by being transformed by Merlin on several occasions into various animals, among whom he has to live, in order to understand the different social structures, including the disturbing transformation into a mindless ant in a colony. One device does seem to get the better of White though in that Merlin lives backwards through time from the future to the past, getting younger as the story progresses as it follows the story moving forward in time, and I think he bit off a little more than he could chew working out the logic of this on a couple of occasions. There is always the sticky subject of Lancelot and Guinevere in this story, which will raise uncomfortable questions in younger reader's minds, but it is lightly handled here... But one Scene involving The Orkney boys (Gareth, Gaheris, Mordred) and the slaughter of a Unicorn is graphic, and so potently conjured in the mind by White's descriptive powers that it would disturb a younger reader greatly I think.... and for that reason, this edition would probably be suited to early teens, with versions I believe being available for younger readers in edited form. All in all, a brilliant book. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?