Plan B: A Novel
Book Notes Posted by kitt at 12:26 on 27 June 2017
Okay, this was Jonathan Tropper's first novel. I am uncertain why I decided not to read it when I was on my Tropper kick, but I didn't, which meant I could read it this month.
The story is cute. Tropper's style is pretty apparent early on with this book. I'm glad this book had enough success that he was able to keep writing, as I liked his later books, too. That five people could be best friends in college and manage to keep the best friend status through all of the subsequent years I find to be the most fictional of this fiction, but I'd like to believe it could happen.
I enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone on a Tropper kick. If you want only one Tropper book, make it the Book of Joe. If you want a quick, light, delightful read, this is a good one.
To know him was to know a man of absolute contentment, a loving husband and father, a great friend, a Godfearing man whose ample intelligence did not serve to complicate him, as it does so many people.
Page 171
"You all accuse me of living in the past, but the truth is I’m thirty years old and I’m still counting on the future to bail me out. And that’s a crock. You can spend years working toward something and get killed before you reach it, so what’s the point?”
Page 173
I was scared shitless of reality. That it might be something other than this.
Page 196
Chuck always employed the Socratic method of viewing television shows. He didn’t seem able to enjoy himself without his pointless commentary.
Page 208
A weary-looking nurse carrying a tray entered the room briskly, her rubber souls squeaking on the waxed linoleum. She threw a disapproving glance at Lindsey perched on the bed and then dropped a paper cup with some pills on my end table.
Page 218
I cracked up at the "souls." Yay for homonyms!
“I don’t want Sarah back,” I said.
“I know you don’t,” Lindsey said with a tender smile. “I’m not worried about that. But you don’t want her to resent you or hate you either. And you can’t accept the fact that you left something behind, something messy. You want to keep going back to see if you can somehow clean it up, make it more tidy in your mind, but it isn’t going to happen.”
“I know that,” I said.
“And while you’re busy looking back,” she continued, “you’re not looking at what you have right here in front of you.”
Page 235
“You screwed up in the past. Well, shit happens. You learn what you can, you scrape it off your shoe and you move on. If you can’t do that, you’ll never get the chance to get it right.”
Page 235
“Divorce means you’ve been permanently changed, and that terrifies you."
Page 235
Until you found your way out of the woods, it was reassuring to find other people lost in them with you.
Page 242
“No way,” said the girl above the breasts Chuck was addressing. She was dressed in tight black slacks and an even tighter blue polyester shirt, the bottom three buttons opened to reveal her flat, tanned belly. She seemed very skinny for the breasts she was carrying.
Page 277
Yeah, I can relate to this one, too.
To lose your father at that age, when he’s still such a powerful presence in your life, constantly shaping your perceptions both intentionally and accidentally with every seemingly insignificant word or gesture, was a loss I would never comprehend.
Page 302
“The Scarecrow, Lion, and Tin Man weren’t just helping Dorothy for the hell of it. They all had their own reasons for wanting to see the Wizard.”
Page 305
“It must be tough,” I said sincerely. “Having no clear line between your reality and your bullshit.”
Page 331
At thirty, friends are pretty much like bone mass. Whatever you’ve managed to store up until now starts to diminish and is rarely replaced.
Page 331
Our private world was dissolving, like when the lights come on at the end of a movie and real life starts again.
Page 344
Time’s surface is slick as oil, and there’s just no way to hold on.
Page 357
Adventure!
Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 10:36 on 27 June 2017At Brooklyn Beta in 2014, John Maeda (the bird version) spoke. I'm unable to find any of my journals on that particular Brooklyn Beta, but I liked the conference A LOT, and Maeda's talk in particular.
I strongly recall his saying that when things go wrong, his response is, "Oh, how fantastic!" as things going wrong are opportunities to learn, to explore, to let go, to observe, to create, to discover, and to practice (usually patience, but sometimes other good things like inquisitiveness and curiosity). I loved the idea, and tried to do something similar, but pretty much always failed at recognizing my "Oh, how fantastic!" moments.
Or so I thought.
Recently, I've noticed that when things have gone wrong, have not worked out the way I expected or wanted, have been less than ideal, or could be any of these, I find myself shrugging, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, and commenting, "Adventure!" with various degrees of enthusiasm.
Because that's what life is, isn't it?
An adventure.
One where you're sure you're on the train to New York, only to discover, you've arrived in York, Idaho.
And that's okay.
Death's End
Book Notes kitt decided around 14:23 on 25 June 2017 to publish this:
This is book 3 of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series.
This book worked for me. This whole series worked for me. In a way I really wasn't expecting it to work.
I enjoyed the science fiction, space opera, weird tech elements of the book. I found several aspects of the book difficult, the parts where civilization falls apart and all.
Two parts really stuck with me. The first was that Cheng Xin completely and totally doomed humankind in its entirety. The second was the portrayal of the rich of the rich of humanity's reaction as Xin flew off. The latter I have quoted somewhere in here.
As many other people have, I enjoyed the series after I was able to get into it. It wasn't what I expected, and that was part of the delight. I recommend the series to any science fiction fan.
A new technology can transform society, but when the technology is in its infancy, very few people can see its full potential. For example, when the computer was first invented, it was merely a tool for increasing efficiency, and some thought five computers would be enough for the entire world. Artificial hibernation was the same. Before it was a reality, people just thought it would provide an opportunity for patients with terminal illnesses to seek a cure in the future. If they thought further, it would appear to be useful for interstellar voyages. But as soon as it became real, if one examined it through the lens of sociology, one could see that it would completely change the face of human civilization. All this was based on a single idea: Tomorrow will be better.
Page 72
The main elements of deterrence are these: the deterrer and the deteree (in dark forest deterrence, humanity and Trisolaris); the threat (broadcasting the location of Trisolaris so as to ensure the destruction of both worlds); the controller (the person or organization holding the broadcast switch); and the goal (forcing Trisolaris to abandon its invasion plan and to share technology with humanity). When the deterrent is the complete destruction of both the deterrer and the deteree, the system is said to be in a state of ultimate deterrence. Compared to other types of deterrence, ultimate deterrence is distinguished by the fact that, should deterrence fail, carrying out the threat would be of no benefit to the deterrer.
Page 129
First, being declared a savior was just like being pushed under the guillotine: There was no choice involved.
Page 145
But the greatest danger was the prospect of loss of social order. In the resettlement zones, the hyper-information society disappeared. Newcomers poked the walls, bedside stands, or even their own clothes until they realized that everything was dead, un-networked. Even basic communications could not be guaranteed. People could obtain news about the world only through very limited channels. For a population used to a super-networked world full of information, it was as if they had all gone blind.
Page 201
This totally cracked me up when I read it. I can just imagine people poking the walls, and all the surfaces, trying to interact with them, when they clearly cannot.
The society of resettled populations transformed in profound ways. People realized that, on this crowded, hungry continent, democracy was more terrifying than despotism. Everyone yearned for order and a strong government. The existing social order broke down. All the people cared about was that the government would bring them food, water, and enough space for a bed; nothing else mattered. Gradually, the society of the resettled succumbed to the seduction of totalitarianism, like the surface of a lake caught in a cold spell. Sophon’s words after she killed those people at the food distribution center—“ The era for humanity’s degenerate freedom is over”— became a common slogan, and discarded dregs from the history of ideas, including fascism, crawled out of their tombs to the surface and became mainstream. The power of religions also recovered, and people gathered into different faiths and churches. Thus, theocracy, a zombie even more ancient than totalitarianism, reanimated itself.
Page 208
People being people, I believe this is what would happen. That belief saddens me.
“Vengeance against Trisolaris is our right. They must pay for the crimes they’ve committed. In war, it is right and just to destroy one’s enemies.
Page 235
Perverted ideas about the safety notice also led to vicious acts of terrorism. Some “anti-intellect” organizations were formed to put into practice the proposal to lower human intelligence. One of these planned to add large quantities of “neural suppressors” to the water supply of New York City, which would have caused permanent brain damage. Fortunately, the plot was uncovered in time and no harm was done, though NYC’s water supply was out of commission for a few hours. Of course, without exception, these “anti-intellect” organizations wanted to maintain the intelligence of their own members, arguing that they had the responsibility to be the last of the intelligent people so that they could complete the creation of a society of low-intelligence humans and direct its operation.
Page 284
And again, I can believe this, too. People suck.
Faced with the omnipresent threat of death and the lure of a different state of existence, religion once again took center stage in social life.
Page 284
The main purpose of religion is to comfort. Faced with the omnipresent threat of death, of course a person would turn to religion.
Like a moody child, human society’s attitude toward Blue Space, which had already vanished in the depths of space, transformed again. From an angel of salvation, this ship again turned into a ship of darkness, a ship of devils. It had hijacked Gravity and cast a sinful spell of destruction on two worlds. Its crimes were unforgivable. It was Satan in the flesh. Sophon’s worshippers also pleaded for the Trisolaran Fleet to find and destroy the two ships, to safeguard justice and the dignity of the Lord. As with their other prayers, Sophon did not respond.
Page 286
Individuals may be strong, but people as a whole aren't. They are swayed by the loudest voice.
In actuality, the Earth dangled over a sea of death. Rationally, everyone understood this, and the ugly fights that broke out during the false alarm were nothing more than meaningless mass madness driven by a survival instinct that overwhelmed rational thinking.
Page 398
As it does.
“What have you discovered?”
“Nothing. It’s my intuition.”
Page 491
Intuitions work because of a lifetime of training that gives you the ability to make connections where inexperienced people can't. That said, ghosts don't exist.
“Don’t be arrogant!”
“What?”
“Don’t be arrogant. Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, but arrogance is. Remember the droplet!”
Page 492
Civilization was like a mad dash that lasted five thousand years. Progress begot more progress; countless miracles gave birth to more miracles; humankind seemed to possess the power of gods; but in the end, the real power was wielded by time. Leaving behind a mark was tougher than creating a world. At the end of civilization, all they could do was the same thing they had done in the distant past, when humanity was but a babe:
Carving words into stone.
Page 509
And even that rock didn't survive.
A museum was built for visitors; a tombstone was built for the builders.
Page 510
“Look at that ship! How is it able to accelerate so fast?” a woman screamed.
“Oh! The people inside must have been crushed into meat pies,” a man said.
Another man spoke up. “You idiots. The ship itself would be crushed under that kind of acceleration. But look at it: It’s perfectly fine. That’s not a fusion drive, but something entirely different.”
“Curvature propulsion? A lightspeed ship? That’s a lightspeed ship!”
“The rumors were true, then. They were building secret lightspeed ships so that they could escape.…”
“Aaahhhhh…”
“Hey, any ships ahead? Stop that ship! Crash into it. No one should live if we all have to die!”
“They can reach escape velocity! They can run away and live! Ahhhh! I want the lightspeed ship! Stop them; stop them and kill everyone inside!”
Page 533
If I can't have it, no one can - an incredibly human reaction.
“I know you’re not afraid. I just want to tell you something in case we don’t … I know about your experience as the Swordholder. I want to let you know that you didn’t do anything wrong. Humanity chose you, which meant they chose to treat life and everything else with love, even if they had to pay a great price. You fulfilled the wish of the world, carried out their values, and executed their choice. You really didn’t do anything wrong.”
Page 570
Okay, I understand what the author is trying to say here, I really do. But, she doomed the planet and killed mankind. She did do wrong.
“I don’t know what happened to you after that, but you still didn’t do anything wrong. Love isn’t wrong. A single individual cannot destroy a world. If that world was doomed, then it was the result of the efforts of everyone, including those living and those who had already died.”
Page 571
Yifan looked somewhat puzzled by the black soil. “I feel that soilless cultivation tanks would be more suitable here.”
Cheng Xin said, “Anyone from the Earth has a kind of nostalgia for soil. Remember what Scarlett’s father told her in Gone With the Wind? ‘Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin’ for, worth fightin’ for, worth dyin’ for, because it’s the only thing that lasts.’”
Page 587
This.
Yifan said, “The Solar System humans spilled their last drop of blood to stay with their land— well, save for two drops: you and AA. But what was the point? They didn’t last, and neither did their land. Hundreds of millions of years have passed in the great universe, and do you think anyone still remembers them? This obsession with home and land, this permanent adolescence where you’re no longer children but are afraid to leave home— this is the fundamental reason your race was annihilated. I am sorry if I’ve offended you, but it’s the truth.”
Page 587
Maybe.
How to Ruin a Life
Blog Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 11:47 on 23 June 2017My junior high school best friend has an older brother. He's maybe 8 years older than we are? I'm not sure exactly how much older he is than we, as I don't really recall him much from when we spent time at her house. Could be he was closer to our age, could be he was further from our age. Regardless of actual age, he was, around the time JHSBF and I spent a lot of time, a teenager. Which also means, as a teenage boy, he had porn magazines. In particular, he had a few Playboy magazines.
I personally find this unsurprising and without any shock. What boy of that era didn't have them? 100% sure my older brother had some.
Anyway, these magazines. He left for college, leaving JHSBF with access to a couple of them for reasons I don't know and am not interested in pondering at the moment.
They were illicit. They were scandalous. They were forbidden. This made them exciting.
They were also full of scantily clad women in various poses I didn't understand, couldn't relate to, and had little interest in imitating.
The words, however.
The magazine had words. Unlike I don't know how many people who claim this, I actually did read the magazine for the articles. Well, less the articles, and more the letters to the editors.
See, those letters had descriptions of sexual encounters, all of them good ones, exciting ones, with new experiences and lessons learned. They were descriptions of actual encounters (in theory anyway - I was young, not yet a teenager, newly hitting puberty and confused by these things growing on my chest), which made them real in the sense the pictures of the nearly-naked women could never be. The letters were vague enough that one could actually imagine the encounters. I lacked any experience that would give me perspective on the physical act: the sounds, the smells, the awkward moments, the embarrassments, the pain, or the delight. The whole thing was fanciful.
I recall two letters from those two magazines that JHSBF had. One had some level of deceit involved, but everyone was happy, so it all worked out. The second one, though.
It described how the writer, I pictured her as a woman, really didn't want to have sex "that night" (all the letters are "that night"). She wanted to sleep. Husband convinced her to have sex; the letter goes on to describe the encounter. I recall nothing about the details of the encounter except that concluded the way that all encounters in the letters to the editor conclude: THE BEST SEX OF MY LIFE. The letter author then went on to say something to the effect of, "Ehhhhhhhh.... even if you don't feel like it, try it anyway. It could be the best experience of your life!"
Seems like sage advice, doesn't it?
Someone suggests an activity. You don't want to do it. You decide to do it anyway, because it could be the best experience of your life. Even if it isn't, you have this new experience, you have had AN ADVENTURE. You have stepped outside of your comfort zone and you are now a better person for expanding your horizons. Alternatively, you could know that this activity now belongs firmly in the do-not-do column, and you know this for sure. Hooray, you did the thing.
Look at this from another perspective though.
You don't want to do a thing. Maybe not you-you, but the general you. Someone else convinces you to do the thing. You have now just moved your boundary of what you're willing to do firmly towards the things you don't want to do. It is now harder to say no the next time. "I just did this, that other thing I don't want to do isn't that much worse." Or, consider a more dominant personality doing the convincing. If you're already willing to say, "Sure, I'll try this thing" when you don't want to do it, because, hey, it might be THE BEST THING EVER, and someone suggests something far outside your comfort zone, that someone with a stronger personality is going to convince you to say yes even when the alarms are all going off saying NO NO NO, but hey, you might miss out on THE BEST THING EVER. The philosophy of "try it even if you don't feel like it" enables the subjugation of your own opinion, weakens your boundaries, and lessens your will to say no.
It creates a life subject to the whims of others, no longer your own.
Thing is, even if you don't take the advice to heart, but only let it whisper in your ear, it does considerable damage over a lifetime, because you're always thinking, but this could be THE BEST THING EVER. You're no longer deciding your life, others are doing it for you.
I'd argue it to be a subtle way to ruin a life.
The Gap of Fifty Years
Commentary Posted by kitt at 11:56 on 26 June 2017Let's contrast the difference nearly fifty years makes, shall we?
Check out the lyrics for "Cool Kids":
Oh look. Teenage angst. You know what? Everyone has it. Nearly everyone who lives to twenty gets through it. The lyrics are inane and boring. The song might be catching, but the lyrics? Drivel.
Contrast those lyrics with the lyrics of The Battle of New Orleans, sung by Johnny Horton. It reached number one in the popcharts in 1959.
The lyrics of this song teach a history lesson. We learn about the Battle of New Orleans - I bet you can guess what year it was in, and could probably even figure out based on that year which war it was in. You know who a major player in the war is (hello, Andrew Jackson), and can even figure out his nickname with the Old Hickory references. Oh, and look, some lessons on wartime provisioning and movements and OOOOOOOOOOOO strategy. There's some cultural references, too, with the cotton bales.
So, bacon and beans and defending your country, versus whaa whaa whaa cry cry I'm not as cool as those other, equally angsty, possibly less competent kids who don't know what they want to do with their lives.
What an f'ing life of privilege we live these days.
Get off my lawn.