The Outsider

Well this was a small book (120pgs) that took quite a while to read. It just seems to be hard to get any reading done lately. Always something on e.g. Joes Weedin.

Anyhow the book. The book, by Alexander Camus who as wiki tells us was a French-Algerian author, philosopher, and journalist who won the Nobel prize in 1957. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus refused this label. On the other hand, as he wrote in his essay The Rebel, his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism. On the subject of his belief or not in God, he writes in the third volume of his notebooks: "I do not believe in God and I am not an atheist." Quite the character

Existentialism is the belief that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating it for them.

The story tells of a guy, in Algeria, who become trapped in a chain of events which eventually lead to his execution. The main character of the protagonist is his detachment from all events, a ride on the bus seems to hold the same level of interest to him as his mother dying or sex. We only see real emotion in the rejection of god near his death.

This detachment had, for me the effect of not making the book all so interesting and a little hard to read. I found it hard to interest myself when the main character wasn't even interested.

At any rate its hard to find a classic novel with so few pages so give it a go. I probably will give it a go again.

Now for something completely different - Great Expectations

Mrs Dalloway

So here I am the day before paddys day. waiting to go out march.

this week I finished Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I remember seeing another book on the list called "Whos afraid of Virginia Woolf" and the impression lasted with me that this was a book men couldn't read or something. And it is truly a unique book so far. Its basically set in early 20th century london, which is interesting because she was talking about the various places we were visitng that weekend in london, but anyhow its a truly interesting.

The whole story is set during one day as Mrs Dalloway, a well to do 50 something, is preparing for a party. The narative basically flits in and out of various peoples minds and half the time your not quite sure who is talking or who they are talking about because its all in pronouns (he, she, I). So it needs to be read carefully to be understood, not the best book for commuting but one I'd like to go back to simply because the language is so poetic. You really feel at times your are reading poetry.

Also intersting is the change in pace from the internal dialogue of the women to the men. The women much more flightly and selfconscious the men much more structured and reverent.

Good book but be carefull

Below is a picture of the walk mrs dalloway completed in her preparation for her party.

Goodbye to Berlin

This Novel by Isherwood. A funny old thing, a series of short stories set around the early thirties in Germany. just as the Nazis were coming into power. There are a wide variety of characters and settings, read a little like Fiesta (Hemmingway) in places, people out on the lash all the time, wild characters, poverty behind the cloak of prosperity.

Can't concentrte now, neck too sore.

In Cold Blood

Been busy lately. The last few weekends have been Yorkshire (for "our" birthday), London (for my birthday) and then Joes Stag/first MKSP. What a run, I'm knackered!! But I have to say it were all great.

Anyhow getting back to it - In Cold Blod.
Famous in its own right but given a new lease of light after the movie Capote. This is definitely one of the best books so far on the journey of literature. It started a new genre True Crime

Heart of Darkness

Howdy,

the latest read was the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. This is a stunning book. Popularised now by the adaption by FFCoppolla in Apocalypse Now. Its a really short book ~ 110pages but very dense and a slow read. It is, according to the cover notes, considered the first modern novel of the 20th century, published in 1902.

Its basically a narrative told by a charismatic sailor, hes telling the story to other sailors as they wait to set off on a long journey from London. He tells of a trip up the Congo to find an ivory merchant who has run off the rails. The merchant, Kurtz, is analogous to Brandos character in the the movie and the book does a great job of evoking a kind of mysticism around the character.

I'd love to read it again because the prose is so good but at times I found myself a little lost and having to skip back to check what happened.

This would be a perfect book for a day of solitude, you could actually finish it in one day.

Fiesta: The Sun Also Shines

The latest read is as the titles says "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises" by Hemmingway. This is a really great book. Basically follows a group of writers and artists in Paris in around the 1920s. They decide to go down to Spain, to Pampalona, for the Bullfighting and week long festival called the fiesta. The book is very evocative of the times and the locations. You really just want to get on a plane and hang out in rural Spain. Away from the resorts. Even though during the course of the festival the town is over run by tourists the narrator is an aficionadoo, there is a great explanation in the book of this term. The general sentiment of the book is that although we may think our generation parties the hardest and makes new breakthroughs in debauchery, basically its all been done before, and when drink too much they become drunks which is a particularly sobering thing in any age.

Of course Pamplona is famous for the tradition of allowing the bulls run through the streets to teh bullring, as seen in the pictures.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Well, I've just finished Verne' Journey to the centre of the Earth. What a great, pleasant, enthralling and exhilarating read. I find the recommendation from Authur C. Clark on the sleeve particularly apt. Clark was the master of science-fiction and in a strange way this book is also science fiction. We have come used to the idea that sci-fi is related to something up there in the stars. But really its someone wondering what if... its the little piece of knowledge that opens up possibilities to the imaginative mind. That precisely what Verne do here, except he does it primarily with geology. The book was written in 1864 an interesting time when people were on the verge of understanding yet still steep in religion. It was a time when naturalists were finding strange bones in quarries and developing the extent of geological time.













Verne takes pieces of information that geologists then accepted as fact, large prehistoric animals, the alteration of rock type with depth and age. But perhaps before the full impact of darwins evolution (published 1854) were appreciate, before continental drift, while there was still discussion on whether the centre of the was hot molten mass or a deep cavernous sea.













Its seems from the text that Verne doesn't really agree with the then aging concept of the hallow earth but it makes for a much better story, as opposed to the other option....

In this way the book is similar to Gulliver's Travels which, as you might recall from a previous post, Swift uses a little bit of knowledge to imagine what if. And despite the fact this information in now proved incorrect, it still makes for a good read.

So yeah its a good book, I flew through it, I could well recommend it. The two main characters are very endearing.

Other things this weekend included a trip to the BT young scientist exhibition.http://www.btyoungscientist.ie/f_version/mediacentre_winner2008.html Which was interesting, saw duncan cleary giving a not so interesting talk about cfl bulbs. Sick of hearing about it now.

Also went to see the exhibition of Polish Art in the National Gallery - Very Good.