Today in my CCLaP essay series “On Being Human,” it’s ‘The Culture’ novels by Iain Banks, in which humans, aliens, and machines all live in a post-scarcity utopia. Banks’s novels follow eccentrics and troublemakers in a society where humans can switch gender, become aliens, and even become machines.
Posted in books, CCLAP Fridays
Tagged anarchism, books, communism, culture, hippies, Iain Banks, philosophy, politics, pop culture, religion, science fiction, Scotland, series, sex, socialism, space epic, The Culture, UK, UK fiction
Near the end of his life, Count Leo Tolstoy wrote two lengthy essays on the topic of religion. Hesperus Press includes these two essays, “A Confession” (1879 – 1882) and “What is Religion, and What Does its Essence Consist of?” (1902). The edition includes a foreword by novelist and Orange Prize winner Helen Dunmore with an introduction by famed Tolstoy translator Tony Briggs.
Tolstoy would revisit the religious theme in “Father Sergius” (written in 1890, published in 1898), an excruciatingly introspective tale of sensual temptation, religious duty, and personal mutilation. With “A Confession” and “What is Religion?”, Tolstoy works within the conventions of the non-fiction essay, having renounced his early fictional works (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection) as so much literary dross. “A Confeession” is an autobiographical essay and a moral reckoning, coming to terms with a life filled with personal wealth, family, friends, knowledge, and a nagging spiritual emptiness. The entire essay pivots on the existential quandary, “So what?” He cites long passages from Ecclesiastes and the life of Gautama Buddha to drive the point home. In the end, following years in the intellectual wilderness of the sciences and philosophy, he returns to the fold of the Russian Orthodox Church, albeit not without some personal reservations. The moral guidance of the Church draws him in, but the obscure rituals and ceremonies repel him.
Tolstoy wrote “What is Religion?” as an ambivalent believer. Ambivalent in the sense he remained skeptical of the trappings of the Russian Orthodox Church, the state-sponsored church of the Russian Empire. (The separation of state being a Western notion and one explicitly written in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.) Tolstoy asserts that since religion is part of man’s relationship with the infinite, man can only be moral when man has religion. (One can argue this point and with the specter of nuclear jihad and Bible-believing domestic terrorists, one probably should question this assertion. Tolstoy, like his fellow Russian compatriot, Ayn Rand, does not hold a monopoly on infallibility.) He hedges his assertion by differentiating the gaudy opulence and arcane rituals to “false religion” and the primitive simplicity of the peasants to “true religion.” While the sincerity of state-sponsored careerist clerics is always under suspicion, Tolstoy resembles Rousseau and cinematic hack James Cameron in his assumption that “true religion” is found among the peasants. This is not a far cry from the condescending notion of the Noble Savage and benevolent supernaturalism of the Na’vi in Avatar. For a writer as gifted with genius as Tolstoy, this patronizing generalization could only come from an aristocrat with wealth and privilege. Besides having a peasant’s view of faith, one should also have a personal relationship with God. But since the personal is the subjective, how can “true religion” be the same for all? In the end, it can be distilled to an issue of personal taste. Unfortunately with state-sponsored churches (and similar theocracies), personal taste takes a back seat to rigid dogma and slavish obedience. Every authoritarian and totalitarian regime learned this lesson from religion models. Only when church and state get decoupled can “true religion” and a personal relationship with God be achieved.
Overall, the Hesperus edition is a wonderful compact presentation of Tolstoy’s thoughts on spirituality. While Dunmore’s foreward is excellent, Brigg’s introduction appears as nothing more than an elaborate ad hominem attack on Friedrich Nietzsche. Just because Nietzsche went insane at the end of his life does not negate the power of his philosophy. Another demerit of this particular volume is for its miserly footnotes, especially in terms of more obscure points in Russian history and the Russian Orthodox Church. If these volumes were intended for non-specialists, it would be beneficial for these points to be explained.
Posted in book reviews, books, film, nature
Tagged book reviews, books, Christianity, communism, culture, economics, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy, pop culture, religion, science fiction, space epic, too big to fail
“In place of a hermeneutrics we need an erotics of art.” – “Against Interpretation” [1964], Susan Sontag
Challenges and Non-Responses
The job of the critic is, by turns, tastemaker, evangelist, and champion. The best critics harness the powers of intellection and enthusiasm to inform his or her readership on a work’s merits. If a work receives more merits than demerits, than, in a roughly mathematical fashion, the creator obtains a “good review.” This reviewer finds works with “mixed reviews” or polarizing reactions (see Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones) most attractive, since “mixed reviews” are not sure things. A tiny element of surprise exists when encountering the work. It could be awful, but it could also be great.
Hollywood’s economic base was not built on good movies.
The critic faces challenges when encountering works that are not contemporary or from a creator with a prestigious reputation. A book that has just been published offers a critic a tabula rasa. He or she can imprint first impressions and create a reaction that will be integrated into the cultural understanding of the work. There is critical reception, consumer (read: “popular”) reception, and overall sales. Hollywood has made millions on good remakes (Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven) and terrible remakes (Harald Zwart’s The Karate Kid). The balance between these three axes (critics, consumers, and sales receipts) will be the focus of this essay. Included are two works which I personally like, although both have been critically maligned, albeit not without good cause.
The challenges are myriad for any critic desiring to exhibit his or her worth to the critical community and the readership at large. If the critic has no taste, why bother reading the reviews? The subjectivities of taste can be intimidating, especially to two particularly annoying sub-species of readership.
The first sub-species are the Fanboys (and Fangirls). Critical taste evaporates and a hardcore evangelism permeates every reaction. Whether it involves CGI, the works of Ayn Rand, or Angelina Jolie raiding tombs, the works are transfigured from mere pop culture artifacts to quasi-religious relics. This is glaringly evident in champions of J.R.R. Tolkien. Only a philistine would dismiss Tolkien’s place as founding father of modern high fantasy. On the other hand, just because he was one of the first to write high fantasy, it does not mean Lord of the Rings is any good. I found the work an overlong tedious bore written in stilted language. Tolkien wrote in a style to emulate the cadence found in the King James Bible. One also sees manifestations of this fanaticism of reader reviews of Atlas Shrugged. The positive reviews are gushing. Many say it is the best novel ever written. To which any sensible critic would ask, “The best novel compared to what?” Rabid fanatical fandom is hard to deal with. Instead of Al-Qaeda strapping dynamite to their torsos, fanboys bomb discussion threads with bombastic rhetoric that veils an utter lack of critical sensibility.
Turnoffs: Judging people, things, etc.
The other sub-species are Egalitarians. Unafraid to offend anyone’s tastes, the Egalitarians short-circuit discussions with non-responses. These include, but are not limited to the following:
It is enough to make people gnash their teeth and pull out their hair. Literary criticism is not about the First Amendment. That is a given. The right to an opinion involves having one in the first place! Otherwise, the person renders the entire enterprise pointless. While these two positions are not necessarily politically analogous, the Egalitarian position crops up in many subscribing to the pieties of the Left. (Full disclosure: This author finds pieties of the Right and the Left absolutely insufferable. Political pieties are a waste of time. What matters are concrete results.)
Concepts like multiculturalism and tolerance have invaded the confines of aesthetic criticism making everyone suffer in the process. People have become afraid of criticizing a work on its merits and then being accused of racism, sexism, and other epithets. Works should be included in the Canon based on merit, not on tradition (defenders of Dead White Males) or on representation (defenders of everyone excluded in the Traditional Western Canon™).
In the determination of a work’s merit, exclusions will have to be made, but a work should also be judged on its own merits. Troma films have their own bent brilliance, despite their tiny budgets, broad acting, and lunatic plots. One can champion just about any cultural product (film, book, TV show, album, etc.) with sound arguments and sincere affection.
Up next, Hipsters!
“I liked __________ before they were cool.”
Posted in book reviews, books, Critic's Notebook, film, food, The Internet, TV
Tagged book reviews, books, capitalism, culture, economics, fantasy, fiction, film, hippies, hollywood, movie reviews, non-fiction, philosophy, pop culture, science fiction, series, space epic, the internet, TV
The Horus Heresy series continues in Graham McNeill’s epic Mechanicum. Graham McNeill is one of the Black Library’s “dream team” writers. The other members of the trio include the hyper-prolific Dan Abnett and Ben Counter. The trio wrote the first three novels of the Horus Heresy series.
The first three novels functioned like a self-contained trilogy, chronicling the Warmaster Horus and his descent into heresy and madness. James Swallow’s Flight of the Eisenstein (Book 4) was a taut thriller with crisp writing and wonderfully orchestrated space battles. Since then, the Horus Heresy has had its ups (Legion by Dan Abnett) and downs (Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon). This reviewer happily reports that Mechanicum brings the series back up to fighting trim.
In the novel, the readers encounter the adepts and forge masters of Mars. Centuries ago, the Emperor and the Fabricator-General created a union between Terra and Mars. The Mechanicum is one of the pillars of the Imperium of Man. The novels functions as an institutional history, similar to earlier volumes that chronicled the origins of a specific Space Marine legion. Only Graham McNeill could pen a compelling narrative based on supply chain logistics and portraits of the mechanically modified denizens of Mars that humanize them.
The novel includes many competing plots (and competing plotters). Adept Koriel Zeth wants to build the Akashic Reader, a device capable of giving someone unlimited knowledge. Fabricator-Generator Kelbor-Hal wants to open the Moravec caverns, sealed by the Emperor’s command. Finally, Dalia Cythera, a lowly transcriber drafted by Adept Zeth to construct the Akashic Reader, deals with her visions of a dragon and a secret long buried in legend and deception. During this historical period of the Imperium, there is no single interpretation of the Omnissiah, the so-called Machine-God worshipped by the Mechanicum. To use more familiar figures, Adept Zeth, a champion of scientific exploration and eternal skeptic, could be seen as Dr. Richard Dawkins. She does not believe that the Machine-God actually exists. Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, a cold-blooded figure of monumental avarice and ambition, could be seen as Reverend Pat Robertson. Kelbor-Hal, a servant of the traitorous Warmaster Horus, will use every means at his disposal, including unleashing the demonic forces sealed away by the Emperor. And like Pat Robertson, he is not moved by the death of millions, but only uses it as a means to acquire more power in the name of the Machine-God.
While these machinations and theological debates occur, the Mechanicum suffers catastrophe after catastrophe. The atrocities lead to the inevitable split, with those loyal to the Emperor arrayed against those loyal to the Warmaster. The novel also includes great battle scenes with rival Titans, Reavers, and Knights fighting each other.
The novel is a wonderful continuation of the Horus Heresy, bringing a mix of space battles, ideological debates, and gothic imagery.
Posted in book reviews, books, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer 40K
Tagged black library, book reviews, books, chaos, dan abnett, fantasy, fiction, games workshop, graham mcneill, horus, horus heresy, james swallow, RPG, science fiction, series, space epic, warhammer 40K
Battle for the Abyss by Ben Counter begins with the construction of the gigantic battleship, the Furious Abyss, within the hollow center of Thule, a moon of Saturn. The Mechanicum construct the ship using the ancient technologies they preserve. Unbeknownst to the Emperor, the Mechanicum build the massive warship for the Word Bearer Traitor Legion. Those familiar with the Cylon basestars of Battlestar Galactica will recognize the Furious Abyss. Heavily armed and holding a contingent of fighters, the Furious Abyss is an intimidating force. Unlike the sleek basestars, the Furious Abyss resembles a giant battlestar with Chartres Cathedral sitting on top.
In the novel, we meet several Space Marine legions, each with their own specialty and genetic modification. The aforementioned Word Bearers are a Traitor Legion combining martial skill with a fanatical adherence to the Word of Lorgar, their Primarch. In the unfolding galaxy-spanning civil war, the Word Bearers resemble Oliver Cromwell at his most theocratic, fanatic, and tyrannical.
Members of the five legions meet up on Vangelis to resupply their ships. Everything proceeds apace, with the Space Marines prepping themselves for their future engagement, to must at Calth “in preparation to launch a strike on an ork invasion force besieging the worlds of the neighboring Veridan.”
Following a psychic attack on Vangelis, Cestus, Brother-captain and fleet commander of the Ultramarines 7th Company, discovers that the Wrathful Abyss will strike the Ultramarines homeworld of Ultramar. Cestus commandeers the Wrathful, a ship of the legendary Saturnine Fleet. The Fleet has a history that predates the Empire of Man. Members from three other Space Marine Legions accompany Cestus. Skraal, Brother-captain of the World Eaters Legion, fights with a psychotic ferocity that frightens the other Space Marines. Brynngar, Captain of the Space Wolves Legion, with his lupine incisors and penchant for drinking, has serious misgivings about Mhotep, Brother-sergeant of the Thousand Sons. Mhotep raises Brynngar’s ire because the Thousand Sons, shunned at the Council of Nikea because of their psychic abilities, embody an irrational, unknown force. At this stage of Imperial history, people possessing psychic powers still pose a threat to the Emperor’s embrace of rationalism and reason. The Word Bearers broke their oath with the Imperium because their fanaticism and superstition met with censure from the Emperor.
When the Furious Abyss destroys the Waning Moon, the loyalist Space Marines have to make the decision to wage war on their battle brothers. The prophecy given to the Alpha Legion (in the previous book, Dan Abnett’s Legion), about the Imperial Civil War has come to pass. The loyalist Space Marines have their loyalties tested.
Battle for the Abyss provides plenty of action, including ship-to-ship battles. Ben Counter, author of the Soul Drinker’s Omnibus, fills the pages with adventure, excitement, and gore.
Posted in book reviews, books, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer 40K
Tagged ben counter, black library, book reviews, books, chaos, horus, horus heresy, RPG, science fiction, series, space epic, UK, UK fiction, warhammer 40K
The Horus Heresy series continues in its sixth installment, Descent of Angels, written by Mitchel Scanlon. The series makes a major reversal with this series. Scanlon has written previous novels for the Black Library, but his work involves the Warhammer brand, the epic fantasy sister ‘verse to the space fantasy of Warhammer 40K. Unlike previous volumes, the action occurs on one planet under circumstances one could label “low-tech.”
Descent of Angels begins with an original story, telling the tale of how humanity settled on the planet Caliban. The settlers became separated from the rest of humanity because of warp storms (the Warp being the means of interstellar travel). The separation lasted 5000 years. In that space of time, the human settlers created their own mythology, culture, and defense systems. The major obstacle to settlement on this heavily forested planet was the great beasts, nightmarish monsters reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.
The novel follows Zahariel, Knight Supplicant of the Order, in his rise to full knighthood. The Order, unlike other knightly orders, considers all men created equal, regardless of birth or position. Zahariel is in awe of the Order’s future Grand Master, Lion El’Jonson, a superhuman giant found in the woods battling beasts with his bare hands.
During Zahariel’s ascent to full knighthood, he becomes aware of a “gift” he possesses, an uncanny ability to “read” people. He keeps this gift secret until members of the Dark Angels Space Marine legion descend upon Caliban, ending 5000 years of separation.
The novel can be seen as a Pre-Contact novel, to borrow the phrase from colonial studies. The majority of the novel does not involve the Imperium of Man and the Space Marines arrive well into the book’s second half. Ideologically, the book takes place when the Imperium espoused a rationalistic, explicitly atheist position. A previous volume, Flight of the Eisenstein, traces the transition from this militant atheism to the “Church Militant” phase, when the Emperor was considered a living god. It is nice to see a franchise not adhere to a rigorously linear storyline between volumes. The vastness of the Warhammer 40K universe and multitude of Space Marine chapters offers more opportunities to non-traditional storytelling. In addition, it is easier to drag out a series when it is not the standard linear storyline. (The sitcom How I Met Your Mother, a 3-camera sitcom, excels in plot contortions and subverting the standard linear storyline.)
In full disclosure, standard fantasy is not my favorite genre to read. I enjoy the Warhammer 40K space fantasies. It was enjoyable to read this volume of the Horus Heresy series because it was not the usual Tolkien Boilerplate Knock-off, although Warhammer 40K originated as such in the 1980s.
Descent of Angels is another exciting read in the ever-expanding Horus Heresy series.
***
On a personal note, I was underwhelmed. In a word, “Meh.”
Posted in book reviews, books, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer 40K
Tagged black library, book reviews, books, chaos, fantasy, fiction, games workshop, horus, horus heresy, RPG, science fiction, series, space epic, UK, UK fiction, warhammer 40K
In the Warhammer 40,000 franchise, the Horus Heresy represents a monumental event. A galaxy-spanning civil war led by the Warmaster Horus, sundered and nearly destroyed the Imperium of Man 10,000 years ago. Horus, formerly primarch of the Luna Wolves, was appointed by the Emperor to command all Imperial forces. Flight of the Eisenstein by James Swallow, is the fourth book in the series, following Horus Rising by Dan Abnett, False Gods by Graham McNeill, and Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter.
To read the complete review, click here.
Posted in book reviews, books, The Horus Heresy, Warhammer 40K
Tagged black library, book reviews, books, chaos, fantasy, games workshop, horus, horus heresy, james swallow, RPG, science fiction, space epic, UK, UK fiction, warhammer 40K
