Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Well..Do They?

I don't know why it took me so long to understand the title of the book. I was about halfway through when it clicked. Duh!

This book has been on my to-read list for a pretty good while so I finally sat down in read it. Overall it was a pretty quick read. Also, because this was my first book of his that I read, it really peaked my interest in Phillip K. Dick. Even though this is the only book of his that I read, it seems like he has a great focus on the idea aspect of science fiction. He embraces these "what if?" scenarios without sacrificing a good plot. In this book he paints a dark picture of a post-apocalyptic world where Mars has been colonized after a dreadful world war left much of the North American continent under a coat of filth. The outlook is bleak and grey without any signs of clearing up.

There are 2 focuses in the story. One focus is on Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter from a police department who tracks down and "retires" androids. The second focus is on J.R. Isidore. Rick is hired to track down a group of Nexus-6 androids who emigrated from Mars. They are purported to have more wits and cognition than other androids. Because androids are beautifully crafted to look and perform just like human beings, a test needs to be administered to find out whether they are in fact an android or human. The test uses different signals to measure the amount of empathy. It's possible that androids have false memories implanted and go throughout their life believing that they are a human being. Anyways, the bounty hunter retires a few androids and tracks the remaining three to a beat down complex where J.R. Isidore is helping to shelter them. He falls for one of the androids, which is identical in appearance to another android that the bounty hunter has aiding him. By the way, if you've ever dreamed of having sex with a beautiful android, that is possible. Rick Deckard proved it. He also proved that even though androids aren't really living, one can still feel empathetic towards them.

Empathy was a huge principle tossed around everywhere in the book. The book also briefly touches upon the idea of organized religion and consumer media. Citizens own something called an empathy box in their home where they can subscribe to Mercer- a supposed Messiah of the Mercerism religion. Oh, and just to explain the title...Owning animals is a sign of status. It's also a sign of empathy to care for another living creature. This is because most animals died of radiation (or something similar) from the war. A person can purchase a living animal, however, they can run a pretty penny. Therefore, the option of electronic animals who look and act just like real animals exists. If a human being longs to own a living animal, does an android long to own an electric animal?

Anyways, I'll leave it at that. The book took around 50 or so pages to really get going, but once it did, it was really engrossing. The entire book was actually great and I will also agree that it is probably a little ahead of its time. I really need to read Asimov's robot novels so I can have another robot/android book to compare it to. I am at work now and will start Man in the High Castle to pass the time until 7:30am.

Hitchhiker's Guide

I watched the movie adaptation of the Hitchhiker's Guide the year I graduated high school and really enjoyed it. It took me a while to actually get a copy of the book and read it. I recently found a copy of the leather-bound Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide at a great used bookshop for 5 bucks. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is just the first in a series of five books. I read a review of the book and saw that a person referred to it as a combination of Kurt Vonnegut satire/strangeness with Monty Python-ish humor. I wouldn't say that is too far off.

It can definitely be referred to as a sci-fi comedy. It is sometimes over-the-top, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes just plain silly. It starts off with the protagonist, Arthur Dent, being up in arms because his house is set to be demolished in order to make way for a freeway. Several minutes later he finds himself on an alien spacecraft with his good friend Ford (who just revealed he is also an alien). The Earth is demolished and only two human inhabitants remain because they were taken away by different aliens. What follows is as goofy as it is engaging. Advice on how to travel the cosmos and deal with different alien races. The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? 42. How the Universe was created? A sneeze. Why the Earth was created? It's a deeper machine to figure out the actual question of life, the universe, and everything.

I think I just realized that I don't really like writing too much about plots and storylines of books. I just like to write my thoughts on them. This is not the typical kind of book that I would usually read, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and will most likely read the rest in the series within a few years.

I'm lazy

Have I really not finished a book since Hyperion? I guess so. I suck. I'm about half way through several though. I'm halfway through Fall of Hyperion, but I left that in Chicago last weekend. I have about 30 pages left on the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...I'll probably finish that tomorrow. I'm halfway through Left Hand of Darkness, but it's been so long since I was reading that book that I should really just pick it up from the beginning again. Have some pretty good progress on a couple non-fiction books too. Now that I have time on my hands again, I have time to do the things that I enjoy. Like..practice guitar, read, and listen to music. . . Currently listening to Roky Erickson and the Aliens. This album (The Evil One) is awesome. Always puts me in a great mood. I first heard it on a 60 degree day in March quite a few years ago, so it reminds me of a certain warmth whenever I hear it.

Time to switch gears. I think these might be my top 2 metal albums. I usually hate questions that ask for lists of favorites because there's usually a ton of "favorites" and different albums have their own personal qualities. But I was listening to Abigail in my car (it was probably my 3rd or 4th time through listening to it because apparently I hate taking ten seconds to switch cassettes) and just thought to myself that this might be my favorite album (ever? I don't know...metal? yes.) This album is the ultimate King Diamond classic. Sure, it doesn't have the raw edge appeal of Mercyful Fate, but this is not Mercyful Fate. No other King Diamond album consistently holds the same atmosphere and level of musicianship as heard on this album. Don't get me wrong, other KD albums are incredible as well. But the structure, vocals, and guitars on this album are just so great. The solos and leads are a perfect mesh between precision and feeling. The guitarists obviously know their stuff (theory/scales/whatever), but it sounds like they just take their knowledge of that and play straight from the heart without holding back. So many great passages on this album.

Baby Abigail was eating, Oh I cannot tell you!

Dissection's The Somberlain is another favorite of mine. I don't know if I can completely understand why. Ulver's Bergtatt was the first black metal album I heard and I absolutely loved it. So one might think that I should hold Bergtatt in a higher regard. While I do hold that album in very high regard, there is still something about this record that captivates me. It could be a bright sunny day when I put on this album, but still feel moved by the haunting guitar melodies and crushing vocals. The minute-long classical guitar passages are great as well. They work well to break up the songs and add a unique feeling to the overall album. Along with Abigail, this album is a definite influence on my guitar playing (as well as tons of other guitarists/albums, of course). Strange that two of my favorite albums have such similar artwork. Coincidence?

 I am dying! Death does heal me!

Well, I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide, so I think my next post might be about that.

I'm tired, no books in this post

I'm watching Independence Day right now. Don't know why, I just felt like watching the first half of it for some reason. I think one of the reasons why a lot of people rip on the movie version of Contact is because the two movies were released within a year or two within each other, and people wanted Hollywood explosions and aliens with Contact. Oh well. I enjoy that movie more than Independence Day.

At work today I spent a good portion finishing the Martian Chronicles for the third time. Such a great book. I started re-reading it to pass time last weekend when I was working a couple midnight shifts. I should bring more books to work to read during downtime. After work tonight, I came home to Borrowed Time in the house (who are borrowing Sam and Derek) before they leave for tour tomorrow morning. I also came home to a package containing Fall of Hyperion. Looking forward to reading that book. I think I'll make it the next one on my to-read list.

While I do love metal, I've found myself listening to more music from the 70's lately. A lot of progressive rock ( I started off listening to almost exclusively Italian prog rock several years ago, but I eventually branched out). There are a lot of reasons why I listen to different kinds of music. Sometimes it is simply because it rocks, other times it's because I think there's incredible musicianship. Almost all of the time, it invokes some kind of emotional response. The following albums are masterpieces. Classics. I could only hope to one day make music half as great as the music found on these records.

Watching bad 90's scifi/horror + reading great science fiction

As a kid one Christmas, my brother received Carnosaur on VHS from my Grandma. She must have thought that it was going to be more of a Jurassic Park type of adventure movie. Instead, it is a bad early 90's movie about a a geneticist who plans to breed dinosaurs with spliced DNA. The movie is bad but great in its own right. More violence than you'd think a lower budget movie would have. The puppets themselves look a billion times better than if they would have used CGI animation. I'm watching the movie right now and am enjoying it very much, probably more so for nostalgic reasons. I'd implore anybody to check out the movie if they had a great amount of time on their hands, but there are plenty of other bad movies to watch other than this one.

About 2 weeks ago, I finished reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. This was an amazing book. One that had me completely engrossed when reading it and one that had me putting off other priorities in order to read it. Often described as a sci-fi version of the Canterbury Tales, the book follows a group of people as they embark on a pilgrimage to confront the Shrike- a mysterious being who acts as the ultimate "villain" in this book. Even at the beginning of the book, it was not what I was expecting. But then again, I didn't really know what I was expecting because I didn't actually know the premise of the novel. I think the fact that it was a series of interconnected stories gave it some gravy points with me. The characters seemed flat at first, but with each character telling their story the development grew substantially. This isn't to say that that a good book MUST have excellent character development. Just look at Rendezvous With Rama. Character development was lacking in that book, however, the story and Clarke's ability to paint an evolving picture of another world is entirely unique and nearly unsurpassable. Back to Hyperion (and it's great cover art):

This book and Fall of Hyperion (it's sequel) were written as one but broken up and released separately. This explains the sudden and seemingly abrupt ending. While some science fiction relies on hypothetical technologies, galactic conflict, or alien environments, Hyperion uses excellent story telling with those elements interspersed. All of the character's tales were very engrossing. The crew involves a preacher, a poet, a scholar, a detective, a soldier, and a consul. The scholar's tale in particular was pretty depressing by itself. His daughter ages backwards until she is literally two weeks old and his wife dies in an accident. The Shrike and the Time Tombs at fault. Let me add that this book was released in 1989, so that's almost twenty years before the movie Benjamin Button (about a man who ages in reverse or something...I haven't seen it). With the development of each story, it seems like a piece of the puzzle is quietly put together as a whole. I appreciated that between stories there was a little break and an update on the progress of the pilgrimage was given. Sometimes it didn't really add much, but it was a reminder of where all the characters currently were in the story. 

The more I think about this book, the more I love the stories. Many different elements here. It's sort of a space opera, deals with A.I., time travel, poetry, and religion. It all blends well in a way that isn't smug or over the top. I give kudos to the author for having the immense talent to write in a way that is inviting and purposeful. This is a classic in my eyes, no doubt. I don't expect that Fall of Hyperion will be as great as this one, but I'm still looking forward to reading it soon to discover how the pilgrimage will end.

2013

So 2013 arrived a couple months back. If I were to say that I've been exceptionally busy, I would be lying. I work less than forty hours a week, make enough money to live on and more time to do things I like to do (as opposed to many other people). Anyways, the reason I mentioned 2013 is because I tried to impose a "resolution" on myself. Maybe less of a resolution and more of a goal. The goal was to read on average one book a week. It might be harder than I thought it was simply because I have plenty of stuff to do outside of reading- work, write, 2 classes, work on APA application, practice guitar/write songs, listen to music. But I've been trying to keep up with the reading. I decided that re-reads and graphic novels also count toward my goal. So far I've read some very awesome books that each probably deserve their own post, so I won't say what they are. I will say that they are all classics (except the last one I read). And what was the last one I read?
Neonomicon by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows. I picked this one up on an impulsive whim. I was in Dearborn waiting for work to get done on my car. A $300 quote doubled once the mechanics started working on my car. Classic car mechanics, fucking crooks, have I ever had a good experience? Whether the markup was legitimate or not, I was still pretty upset about it. After all, I have a limited income and there are several other things that I have to and would rather spend my money on. Anyways, after drowning some of my sorrows with Thai food, I decided that spending more money at the comic book store would make me a little happier. And it did. I had actually never been inside the shop before, I always just skipped it over and went to the record store upstairs. The store itself was very cool. I won't be glib and act like I know a lot about comics, but it seemed like they had a very diverse selection overall. I had my eyes on a book that had a few HP Lovecraft stories in graphic novel format before I came across this book.

I'll be honest. The cover art didn't really catch my attention too much. The upper half looked interesting, Alan Moore's name was on it, and the title was a reference to HP Lovecraft. Actually, I just now realized that the title is "Neonomicon" and not Necronomicon. That's interesting. Time to go back and change the title. Anyhow, my interest was peaked and I did a quick flip of the book, I came across some pages which included copious amounts of nudity and violence. Some of the artwork looked too cool to pass up, so I was sold on it. Kelly (lady at the counter) said it was a good choice and hoped that I was not easily offended. Luckily I'm not easily offended (if it was any other member of my family, it'd be a different story). I read half of the book when I was waiting for my car and the other half when I came home later on. I always try to justify the amount of money I spend on something with the amount of enjoyment I get out of it. That's why I love used books so much. At a couple of dollars you get several hours of art, knowledge, and entertainment. I thought this was a little steep at $20 new, but was still probably worth it.
What starts off as a potentially X-Files type comic quickly spins into an environment occluded by drugs, sex, HP Lovecraft mythology, and occultism. It's fun, interesting, kind of cheesy, and a little grossly fucked up at certain parts. Alan Moore's writing is more straight forward and I would definitely not hesitate to say that this is probably one of his darkest works. I wish I had read more Lovecraft to catch more references. I am slowly working on it though by working my way through his collection. What this comic really is missing is length. I wish it was a little longer. It was a very quick read (6 separate issues altogether, I believe). I feel like once the story really gets going, it ends a little too abruptly. Kind of like if Free to Live by Winterhawk was only half as long. The song would still be great, but there would be 4 and a half minutes of incredible guitar magic missing. Nonetheless, the comic was a lot of fun and made me remember how great graphic novels can be. I read V for Vendetta almost 3 times already. Time to re-read Camelot 3000 and a few others; and try to find some other comics as good or as insane as this one.

An unposted draft from 7 months ago

Lots of stuff going on in the last few weeks/month. In short...I finished the mortuary science program at WSU, took (and passed) both parts of the National Board Exam, and started working full time (9-6 M-F isn't THAT bad..so far at least) So obviously, I haven't had a great amount of time to fulfill my objectives on my 'to-read' list. In between the time I spent studying, I checked out a few books from the library. Canticle for Lebowitz, Time Enough For Love, Left Hand of Darkness, and The Demon Haunted World. Unfortunately, all I managed to accomplish was about half of The Demon Haunted World and nothing else. I did manage to accumulate 15 bucks in late fees as well. Late fees suck. This book, on the other hand, does not suck.

I can't stress enough how much I love Carl Sagan. I remember first watching Contact in my mom's then-boyfriend's (essentially my stepdad) apartment with the two of them and my brother. I remember at the time I thought it was a mix of interesting and boring. I was more interested in the fact that a person said "shit" in a PG rated movie. I was also more interested in watching Good Burger after that movie. I wish my 9-year-old self would've paid more attention to this movie. I watched the movie several years later and realized how great it was. I constantly hear/read negative reviews about the movie and, although I completely disagree, I guess I might see where a lot of these people are coming from. Several people call it boring, some call it anti-climatic, some call it a waste of time. I couldn't disagree more. The story is a realistic approach of the discovery of life on another planet. It doesn't have guns everywhere or constant explosions. And I truly believe that's why a lot of people don't like it. It's not an action movie or horror movie. It is a million times more subtle than Ridley Scott's Alien but just as epic in it's own right. Maybe the average Hollywood movie consumer wasn't ready for thinking just yet.

This book isn't Contact though. This non-fiction book is like porn for science enthusiasts and logical thinkers. I only read half of it, but will eventually give it another go once I get more situated to this working lifestyle. The first half that I read was good though. At times, it did seem like he was being very critical. For example, the section on UFO's I really liked but also felt a little like he...(*this was the end of the draft*). I don't remember what train of thought I was on. I now own this book so I can re-read it anytime I want and I will have to do so if I want to give this book a proper review. Instead, I"ll point out that Carl Sagan has become increased in "popularity" over the past year due to social media. Actually, I think the same can be said with Bill Nye and Neil Degrasse Tyson. I guess it's no coincidence that these are also some of the most known science popularizers, but there seems to have been an inkling of a resurgence. Good thing, right?

I will eventually re-read the book even though some of the parts felt like they were being hammered over too much. And that's the overall theme of the book- he takes subjects that have no legitimate scientific basis (astrology, Sasquatch, UFO's to name a few) and tears them apart through his own personal blend of reasoning and skepticism. He wants the reader to understand that several million Americans and others around the globe are scientifically illiterate. He desperately wishes to raise awareness of this fact and accomplishes his goal by also instilling a desire to increase your knowledge in several aspects. This wasn't the best review, but that's okay. I know I will eventually read the book in full so I can appreciate it in it's entirety.