Book: Nemesis by Isaac Asimov

The first book I remember really enjoying was Foundation by Asimov. I eventually read the entire series, but after that I went genre hunting never to seriously return to science-fiction. Thinking about it now, I think I made the right choice in exploring other genres rather than sticking to what I was comfortable with.

Science fiction does one thing really well. There are countless examples in this book of a character making an observation and reporting it to an audience, the audience discussing the observation at length coming up with reasonable explanations, and one explanation is deduced to be the correct one. That might sound fairly bland, but when we're talking about celestial bodies, alien life forms, and faster than light speeds, it's pretty neat. 

Science fiction does not do human emotion well though. The essential requirements were fulfilled to build out perfectly believable characters, but once that was done Asimov chose to focus on the plot, the conflicts, the physics. The few scenes of intimacy between characters were either glossed over or broad-stroked to the point of picturing the author as someone who had yet to pass second base with the fairer sex. 

Intimacy obviously wasn't the point of the book though. The point was to stir the imagination, to picture the universe as a beautiful yet unfathomably destructive environment, to picture a future humanity still struggling with prejudice and greed, and to give a few really good examples of logical reasoning. And if there's one thing modern society needs, it's some help with patient logical reasoning. 

4/5

Book: Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby

There are lists of books posted online by avid readers with the purpose of guiding other readers toward a particular theme or genre or period. I think I found this book in a list called Literary Smut. The list was created by someone who had the original intention of warning people away from indulging in the books posted, but since I love fringe culture and since a good portion of the fringe is made up of different forms of obscenity, the list had the opposite effect than was originally intended.

Last Exit to Brooklyn is a series of short stories which attempt to describe the slums of Brooklyn in the 1950's. The stories are only loosely connected, mentioning the same bar and maybe a few recurring characters. The focus isn't on making a story arc of any kind, but rather on a few short illustrations of people struggling to survive conflicts that are completely internal, completely dependent on the human condition. The conflicts covered: drug and alcohol abuse, sexual dysfunction, and violent urges of almost every kind imaginable.

I don't want to get into any explanations of the stories because each story is worth complete immersion without forewarning. I would like to defend the merit of a book like this though. I think most would immediately dismiss it as mentioned above, literary smut, an author getting off on creating revulsion in the hearts of his readers. But, it's not that at all. Last Exit to Brooklyn explains in great detail the insecurities of man taken to absolute extremes, insecurities that are present in everyone. For me this novel is a warning to watch those insecurities, those universal weaknesses, and attempt to address them in a thoughtful way. So many people rely on their insecurities, view them as parts of their identity, embracing them and lashing out at people for questioning them. If those people read this book they would see parts of themselves in the characters and as they turn the pages they would be disgusted in themselves for embracing traits that could lead to so much pain for them and everyone around them.

5/5

Movie: Rust and Bone

It took me a while to build up the courage to watch this film. I was afraid it would be too depressing, knowing a little of the story line. It helps to remind myself that no matter how depressing a film is, if it's good, I'll always return from it with the feeling of having learned something about life and human nature. Last night telling myself that a few times "you'll learn something, it'll be alright," I decided to turn it on and suffer through. What I watched wasn't at all what I was expecting. Yes, there is a fair amount of disaster, but that's not what this film is about.

This film is about adapting to disaster, feeling the emotions that come from it and trying not to despair. Marion Cotillard's character Stephanie is a trainer of killer whales. Her passion for her job is made very clear and her connection to the marine beasts is unmistakable. You can feel a sense of mutual respect when she gives an order to them, watching them leap out of the water with graceful ferocity. This scene gives way to the first disaster. One of the orcas leaps onto the stage where Stephanie is giving direction and slides into her, crushing her legs. She wakes up in a hospital a double amputee. Marion is beautiful in every sense of the word and a dimension of her character Stephanie is that she relies on her beauty, toying with men, watching them perform for her. This is the first parallel to her profession.

She gives a back story of how she likes to go out to night clubs alone and drum up passion and jealousy, watching as the beasts perform for her. On one particular night a bouncer takes her home after one of the nameless men takes his frustration and jealousy out on her. Stephanie is put off by the the bouncer, Matthias, at first. He's blunt, aggressive, and seemingly careless. But, as she tests him she feels more comfortable with him, again, like her killer whales. He's an unrefined beast and she's captivated by his ferocity, his dominance over other men and after her accident, she relies on his lack of emotional weight to bring her out of despair.

He makes a perfect partner during the most difficult of times. One scene illustrates this perfectly. He takes her out in her wheel chair and seeing the ocean shore nearby decides that he wants to go swimming. He asks her to if she wants to as well and she says no, possibly fearing the environment that caused her injury. Without hesitation Matthias leaves her and heads to the shore. After a few minutes realizing she's made a mistake she yells to him. He comes back and carries her into the water. A more gentle man would have gone along with her sentiment and just kept walking, trying to comfort her, but Matthias treated her as temperamental and ridiculous for not wanting to do something she would obviously love.

In time Stephanie realizes the price of spending time with someone so impulsive. She is taken to a night club, stirring up old memories of her dominance. Now she views herself as powerless, devoid of the beauty she once had. Matthias doesn't realize the weight of this, how fragile Stephanie might be and takes home another girl in front of her. In the moment she's devastated and feeling defeated, lets him leave. The next day she makes it clear that that behavior is not acceptable, that she cares about him and demands that if he cares for her, he must show it. She is once again trying to train a beast.

The filmmaker guides us through Matthias's life as well. He has a son, he's living with his sister struggling to find work. To make some easy cash he gets mixed up in an underground bareknuckle fighting ring. Through all of these minor conflicts he leaves a trail of wreckage behind him. I won't mention the final conflict because it's worth witnessing without warning, but the theme is that normal every day life can allow people to focus too much on petty conflicts while disasters pull people together. It's a horrible thought that we require disaster to feel solidarity, but it's often the case. This film is so mutli-dimensional, but that's the point that fulfills my original intention of learning something. Personal conflicts are often petty and it's so important to put them aside now and again and see other people as people, see humanity as a family capable of dealing with the worst of human disaster.

Needless to say, I loved the film

5/5

Book: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

When I was younger I liked the idea of Dostoevsky but I couldn't get through any of his novels. I'd start flipping the pages and feel like I wasn't getting anywhere, like nothing was happening, as if the characters were petty and thought entirely too much about things with little to no consequence. I vividly remember  trying to read Crime and Punishment for the first time. I knew the major conflict in the book was the murder of the decrepit pawnbroker and her delicate sister beforehand. So I read up until that point and then was completely thrown by the resulting chapters. He had such a revulsion to what he did and dwelled on it endlessly. He hid his spoils in such a way that he could never use them. He even hinted to people that he did it. This all seemed incongruent with everything I new about murderers and violence.

In youth we see things as black and white. If you kill you're a murderer, if you steal, you're a thief, and if you do either you'll be caught and thrown in jail, unless you get away with it, then you just get away with it. As you get older you realize that the world isn't black and white. It's gray; the intentions, the motivations, the perceptions of man are infinitely complex and oftentimes it's very hard to stand in the shoes of someone and see their perspective. With patience and precision, this book forces you to stand in the shoes of a very complex young man. You see him at his worst, you see him destitute, without hope, you see him murder. As he constructs various justifications for his actions, as he taunts other characters, you see him tear himself apart. His body decays, his mind is torn to shreds, but he doesn't realize it until he experiences something that might actually be worth living for. 

The turning point in the novel is the experience of meeting someone he might love. He has no idea what the emotion is at first but he feels an indescribable attraction to her. He goes to her, rebukes her, toys with her. He doesn't know what to do, but ultimately he confides in her. He tells her what he's done knowing it might be the end of him. Her name is Sonia and she is the symbol of innocence, of godliness, of devotion toward goodness. Raskolnikov thinks she's petty, a whore, a perpetual victim, but this is only one level of his consciousness. Buried below all of his judgment is truth. He can't live with what he's done, and she is his salvation. 

Now think for a second that this is only one dynamic between two characters in the novel and then add 7 or 8 other characters with as much depth. You have the ability to see everything, every slight nuance of the human conflict from every perspective imaginable. Crime and Punishment is a classic for a reason and if you can maintain patience enough for everything to develop, you'll be rewarded with some new perceptions of society, of human nature, of existence in general. 

5/5

Book: Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe

Every reasonably successful writer has one work used by publishers to sell all the others. "If you liked _____, you'll love ______." I have no criticism for this technique in marketing because it has worked on me a number of times walking through aisles in the local bookstore. Whether or not this method is accurate depends largely on the author. Some writers stick to certain subject matter as their muse, delving deeper and deeper into previously traversed themes, but some authors are just too unpredictable to market this way. Kobo Abe is certainly one of the loose canons in surrealist literature. Printed in bold lettering on the cover of Secret Rendezvous is "Author of The Woman in the Dunes," but having read Woman in the Dunes I can confidently say it didn't prepare me for this.

The story starts out with a fairly easy to accept conflict. A husband and wife are sitting in bed when an ambulance stops at their front door. Two medics rush into their home, grab the woman, and strap her to a stretcher. The wife attempts to convince the medics that she is in perfect health and has no idea why she's being taken but they are under orders. The husband, seeing the proper paperwork allows his wife to be taken and decides to drive over to the hospital later on to pick her up. Unfortunately, when the husband arrives at the hospital his wife is nowhere to be found. She checked in, but was never assigned a room and the security guard has no idea where she could have gone.

The man begins a journey in search of his wife and from here the narrative devolves into absolute chaos. There's an on-call doctor who is found masturbating (for the purpose of donating to the fertility ward) and breaks his neck upon being discovered. There's an impotent hospital executive who wants nothing more than to be a horse and uses the bottom half of the injured doctor to achieve his goal. There's a nurse who was born in a test tube, and therefore has no basis for human intimacy, who thinks the only way to be close to someone is to watch them pleasure themselves. There's a girl with a particularly horrifying disease causing her bones to gradually dissolve into liquid. And all of these characters are preparing for the yearly anniversary of the hospital which is celebrated with a contest to pick the female patient that can have the most orgasms in a day. While all of this is going on, every detail is recorded on innumerable listening devices hidden around the hospital grounds, the tapes of which are sold in a sort of black market for people who take pleasure in overhearing others.

The obvious themes here are sexual disorder, identity disorder, and exhibitionism. And through it all the husband is a constant victim of the insanity surrounding him. He only wants to find his wife. None of these other characters are of any consequence to him, but in time it becomes obvious that his wife is there for a reason and so is he. The insatiable beast that is the hospital ensnares him, devours him, and, for continuity of the metaphor, shits him out.

I have no shame in saying I love books like this, books that explore the absurd, books that pay no mind to what might be socially acceptable to talk about. Highly recommended.

5/5