📚 Books 2024, 24: A Jura for Julia by Ken MacLeod
Short stories by Ken 📚. I mentioned this in my Nineteen Eighty-Four post, since the first and last stories are inspired by Orwell’s novel. The last being the title story.
Both they, and the others, are very good. Ken’s usual concerns are here, of course: the future, politics, Scotland, and more.
Also the cover and internal illustrations are by Fangorn. Highly recommended.
Conclave, 2024 - ★★★½
When I was a kid, brought up in the Roman Catholic Church, my Mum taught me that, when a pope dies, all the cardinals get together to choose a new one. God guides them so they vote for who He has chosen, and it has to be unanimous.
Whether or not that unanimity requirement was ever really true, I can't say. But that's certainly not how it happens in this film. I imagine this tale is closer to the reality, humans being political beings with preferences and schemes. And God not existing, of course. Or, if 'He' does, certainly not taking that kind of hand in human events.
I enjoyed this story of the events after an unnamed, imaginary pope's death. It's well acted and beautifully shot. It does have one or two moments that tend to the over-theatrical, let's say.
But I have to wonder why the filmmakers chose to tell it, and why now. It's an adaptation of Robert Harris's novel from 2016, and could ask the same question of him: why that story, whey then?
And I guess you tell the story you want to tell, and why not? If other people enjoy it, or get something from it, that's all that matters, really.
📚 Books 2024, 23: Death's End by Cixin Liu, Translated by Ken Liu
I laugh gently at my past self, musing that this volume, based on its title, might have a less bleak universe-view.
Reader, it does not.
In fact, that’s the thing I liked least about this whole trilogy, the dark view of the universe, of sentience. The idea that every species that develops intelligence and advances to the point of thinking about space travel and the idea of possibly communicating with other intelligent species; that they would all have a xenocidal1 instinct. Have it, and routinely, casually act on it, by wiping out the star systems of other species they detect.
I’m not saying it couldn’t be so. As one explanation for the Fermi paradox it’s exactly that: one explanation. But it’s just too fuckin bleak for my tastes.
Otherwise, this story, and the trilogy as a whole, is jam-packed with ideas, stuff about relativity, higher and lower dimensions, all sorts of good hard-SF stuff. The characters are kind of blank, undeveloped: I don’t think they’ll be sticking in my memory. But I enjoyed it overall.
Apart from when I was annoyed/disturbed/upset by the dark forest idea.
Your central idea: I do not like it.
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The word is Orson Scott Card’s invention, but/and it’s a good one. ↩︎
It Happened One Night, 1934 - ★★★★
Great screwball comedy. Lots of fun. Don't know why the poster is in colour when it's a black & white film.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, 1988 - ★★½
Daft film about con men. I think I saw it back when it came out, but didn't really remember it.
I'm a week or so behind with posting this.
Currently reading (and relatively close to finishing): Death’s End by Cixin Liu 📚
‘Call a General Election’ is trending, with a parliamentary petition. ‘The country can’t stand another four years of this!’ I saw.
But… what is the ’this’ they’re unhappy about? Labour have been in power for about five minutes, they haven’t had a chance to do anything yet. I don’t understand.
Watching Channel 4’s Unreported World segment on cocaine smuggling into Spain by mini submarines from South America. And I can’t help thinking, just fucking legalise it. Regulate it, tax it. Take control out of the hands of gangsters. Everyone would be safer.
And not just cocaine, obviously.