Sol and I have played a lot of Star Wars over the last few days as he’s been allowed to watch a little bit of the movies on top of his Lego Star Wars Wii obsession. I think the following little web app I wrote illustrates the thought processes nicely: Star Wars According to Sol Plot Generator
What is it that gives some people to ability to rise above the crowd and do something exceptional? How come some people seem to have the power to think clearly, grasp opportunities and attract followers while others plug away for their whole lives trying to make something of themselves and never getting anywhere? Is it luck? Genetics? Education? Upbringing? A rich family?
This is the question at the heart of The Diamond Age where we follow the exploits of Nell on her Pygmalion like journey from girlhood to adulthood. Also at the heart of the story is The Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer and those who designed it: Lord Finkle McGraw, a rich and powerful equity lord and John Hackworth, an engineer with a background in the arts.
Finkle McGraw believes that subversiveness is the key. The ability to fully grasp the structures that govern ones life enough to be able to see past them and find ways around the barriers in life. This is what McGraw is getting at when he suggests that Nell has a finely honed ability to see a wall and sense where there might be a gateway through it.
The Primer is engineered to foster subversiveness using puzzles and narrative to hone problem solving skills and develop lateral thinking.
I think the book struggles to find resolution though (which is the usual criticism of Stephenson). Once Nell “graduates” from the Primer and goes out to find her fortune, her story becomes underwhelming even as a few long running threads come together with a bang, you’re left wondering who Nell really is. She seems to get lost in a bit of academic dabbling and then inadvertently has greatness thrust upon her. Hardly a great act of subverting anything at all. So maybe McGraw is wrong afterall?
A few details I noticed in this reread: Hackworth’s loyal chevaline (some kind of robotic horse) Kidnapper is pretty cool and I loved the bit where it trots out of the bushes wearing Hackworth’s moss covered bowler hat. Also in the transportation section, I’m not sure what a velocipede is. Is it like a segway? Or a leg extension walking thing? A small scooter? The idea of nano particles that weave into the brain and link in a kind of distributed human brain powered super computer went over my head the first time. I also more thoroughly enjoyed Judge Fang’s Confucian ruminations this time around.
Episode 10 of Matt and Sol’s Favourite Things is online and ready for your eyes and ears. This one features a little project me and Sol got up to on the weekend. Other important things to watch out for: Sol is wearing a shirt I bought him in Holland and I have grown a rather disturbing beer-gut. I’d better cut down on my pork-life and get some exercise. So without further ado:
Some evil spammer managed to hack my blog and add some stuff that injects spam into the RSS feed (but only visible in Google Reader and a number of other RSS readers, not visible when viewed directly)
Thankfully Anwyn’s Notes had the tips to get me on the trail although in my case the evil code was in a different but similarly named file.
Hopefully when I view this post in Google Reader the problem will have been resolved.
Update: Hooray! Google Reader has refreshed and spam is banished.
I’ve posted a bunch of photos on flickr with captions which generally give an idea of what I saw in Holland. (The flickr stream is broadly reverse chronology). In case you’re interested it went like this: flew into Amsterdam via Singapore and arrived at about 5am, failed to get the coffee order right straight up, was picked up by an employee of the Netherlands office and we drove to the site. We stayed on site so I got to see a fair bit of sand, the office, the inside of my room and the campus which included a bunch of old and new construction equipment.
That’s not to say it was all bad, we had a kind of summer camp vibe going and when we knocked off in the evening, one of the guys barbecued up a storm and we drank various beers (I always seemed to be handed the Atlas extra sterk 12% ). So it was generally fun and I did some interesting work but not so good on the sightseeing front.
Towards the end of the week, we headed out a bit in the evening (sun goes down at about 9pm) and checked out Harderwijk, having a rather pleasing dinner at the Bakhuus where we retired to the bar after a big plate of all-you-can-eat ribs each and sampled the liqueurs. I had a sambuca with coffee beans floating in it and set on fire briefly before drinking which was pretty fun. The waiter and bartender chatted us up nicely for an hour or two before we ambled home.
I was also given the day off on Friday before heading home so a coworker and I caught the train into Amsterdam and had a wander around. We debarked at Centraal station and headed up towards Dam Square, then hung a left and checked out the red light district. I wasn’t expecting the red light district to actually be real, I was expecting it to be a bunch of lame tourist shops harking back to the time of sailers coming in to Amsterdam for some “entertainment”. Boy was I wrong, Amsterdam red light district is still the real deal as we found out when I decided to duck down a little alley to get to The Oude Kerk. We got a few meters down the alley and then realised that there were prostitutes behind all the windows in the alley jiggling their jugglies at us and inviting us in. It was eyes forwards as we embarrassedly charged to the other end of the alley past the pimps having a ciggie in the doorway.
Apart from that, the red light district was mostly dodgy tourist shops, porno DVD shops and marijuana seed shops. Many of the coffee shops offered “feel good” coffee as well. But we didn’t check out any more alleys.
After we escaped the red light district we kind of got ourselves a bit lost looking for a decent jewellery shop (my co-worker wanted to buy something for his wife) and walked through a nicer area with al-fresco restaurants with views of the canals (which were quite pretty if you didn’t look at the actual water).
Then it was time to head to the airport for the home run. The trains were very easy to use with the only hiccup being you need to pay cash. The flight home was gruelling with an eight hour stop in Singapore. In hindsight we should have immigrated and had a look around Singapore but it was night and I was tired and didn’t feel like doing much yet was bored out of my brain. Even the Tiger Champions Bar was dead (but if you buy beer, the chips are only a dollar extra).
What I’m actually doing: we’re at a kind of construction training boot-camp except during a term break so we have the run of the place. We’re testing our construction automation equipment and associated systems that I’ve been working on.
Things I might have tweeted during this flight:
Pushing every button within reach and exaustively exploring built in entertainment system. Trying feebly to restore a sense of control.
I’d forgotten how steep the take-off is. Set the controls for the heart of the sun!
Part of the steepness of take-off is an illusion – it’s the acceleration as well as the climb.
I finally get to watch Star Trek. This is even worse than downloading a cam.
Actually Star Trek still made me bight my knuckles – which is a sign I’m enjoying it.
Watching a random episode of Buffy: Pangs S04E08. Can you believe this is the only Buffy I’ve ever watched?
Warm towel?
Watching tiny ice crystals growing on the window. Nature is truly a wonder.
You gotta see these ice crystals: when the sun gets on them, they’re like tiny diamonds.
Stuff it, I’m going to watch the other episode of Buffy on here: S04E15
Remaining battery: 7:35
At Singapore airport.
Am I ever going to find this legendary airbus to T1? I’ll have walked there by the time I find it.
Can’t get internet working but phone came to life.
Beginning to doubt the battery meter: it says 2:49 hours
6:24am 10/8/09
Survived the flight to Amsterdam. Somehow managed to sleep with head wedged in headrest and legs kind of jammed under the seat in front of me.
When we landed some of the passengers gave a rousing cheer and applause
How do you order a flat white? Apparently cafe creme is incorrect.
Remaining battery 6:01. I didn’t actually use my computer as much as I thought I would. I had intended to watch the rest of Torchwood Children of Earth but it was easier to watch the in-flight stuff: Star Trek and Buffy. Also watched an episode of Hulk: it’s a little but Jekyll and Hyde and a little bit crime fighting super hero. In the episode I watched, Hulk escaped from a police car by stomping through the floor and then throwing it off him – pretty damn cool. The tension of the show is based around David trying not to hulk out and the audience anticipating that he will.
Coffee consumed, humanity restored
I seem to be saying g’day more than usual. Is it just that I’m noticing all my Aussie quirks or am I subconsciously playing them up as an identity thing?
I saw this friendly/creepy sunflower outside Amsterdam airport.
I’m sitting in the departure lounge at the Brisbane International airport about to fly for ~23 hours to Holland via Singapore. The exciting send-off we had planned where Sol would come into the airport and get wowed watching planes take off didn’t come off as planned because Sol came down with a vomiting bug and fell asleep in the car. I kissed him goodbye and he barely opened his eyes but later he gave me a phone call which was nice. Felicity is still too young to get it so she will just be wondering where I got to for a week.
Aside: If your child is vomiting and you need to go in the car: get a paper milkshake cup and a plastic shopping bag (with no leaks). Tear the bottom out of the cup and pull the plastic bag through and wrap the opening of the bag around the top of the cup.
It’s funny how as soon as I walk into the airport I start writing literature in my head: the kind of heavily descriptive stuff full of wry observations and melancholy introspection. Maybe this is due to boredom or perhaps I have been feeling the itch to write for a little while but haven’t had the time. The boredom of travel is an opportunity to let your brain unravel in a way. The bombardment with the unfamiliar surroundings and interupted routine throws you into a different mode of being. The parts of your brain that are usually engaged worrying about bills, work issues and houskeeping get to collapse in a synaptic heap.
Other observations: obsessive rearranging of laptop bag. e.g. power cable can go to the bottom, likewise the panadiene (for the sake of optimism). Visited the prayer room and was very disappointed: just a bunch of leaflets on a table in a lifeless boxy room. A couple of chairs and a sign pointing to mecca (screwed securely to the wall to stop people messing with it). There was a nice framed Bahi prayer on the wall though and another framed passage exhorting religious tolerance.
Remaining battery (using extra battery in CD bay): 7:55 hours.
Did a kind of drive-through book purchase at Pulp Fiction today. Steph parked the car on Adelaide St while I jumped out, dived into the shop, located Charles Stross’ Halting State and Saturns Children, also grabbed Ken Macleod The Night Sessions, paid and then back in the car less than five minutes later and we didn’t pay for parking. I can rest assured that I’ll have some enjoyable reading while I’m on the plane tomorrow. Oh BTW, I’m flying to Holland for work this week: should be fun!
I’m honoured to have been tagged by Mark Lawrence (a published author with positive press reviews) to participate in the Three True Things meme.
The rule is to post three true things you’ve read recently that are from fiction. Here are mine from recent memory:
The first is from Ozma of Oz which I think is truth on the nature of hypocrisy:
‘... it must be a great misfortune not to be alive. I’m sorry for you.’‘Why?’ asked Tik-Tok.
‘Because you have no brains, as I have,’ said the Scarecrow.
‘Oh, yes, I have’, returned Tik-Tok. ‘I am fitted with Smith & Tin-ker’s Improved Com-bi-na-tion Steel Brains. They are what make me think. What sort of brains are you fit-ted with?’
‘I don’t know,’ admitted the Scarecrow. ‘They were given to me by the great Wizard of Oz, and I didn’t get a chance to examine them before he put them in. But they work splendidly and my conscience is very active. Have you a conscience?’
‘No,’ said Tik-Tok.
‘And no heart, I suppose?’ added the Tim Woodman, who had been listening with interest to the conversation.
‘No,’ said Tik-Tok.
‘Then,’ continued the Tim Woodman, ‘I regret to say that you are greatly inferior to my friend the Scarecrow and to myself. For we are both alive, and he has brains that do not need to be wound up, while I have an excellent heart that is continually beating in my bosom.’
‘I con-grat-u-late you,’ replied Tik-Tok.
The joke is of course that neither the Scarecrow or the Tin Woodman have real brains or a heart so their claims to superiority are baseless (the Scarecrow’s head is fitted with a handful of needles and the Tin Woodman has a heart shaped silk pillow in his chest).
My second truth comes from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.
“...there is an ineffable quality to some technology, described by its creators as concinnitous, or technically sweet, or a nice hack—signs that it was made with great care by one who was not merely motivated but inspired
And another from The Diamond Age because I am a goldfish and can’t remember anything except from only the most recent book I’ve read.
“To the other girls, the wall is a decorative feature, no? A pretty thing to run to and explore. But not to Nell. Nell knows what a wall is. It is a knowledge that went into her early, knowledge she doesn’t have to think about. Nell is more interested in gates than in walls. Secret hidden gates are particularly interesting,”
If I had a lot of time, I’d think harder and come up with better quotes because there really are plenty, especially in Stephenson but in all great sci-fi that is written, as William Gibson says, about the here-and-now: disguised to make us look at it afresh.
I tag Circulating Library and Goddard’s Letterboxes because they’re the only two blogs I follow that admit to ever having read a book.
