Part of something I’m doing for work is reading books from loads of other publishers and reviewing them. I picked Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam because he wrote an introduction for another book the company I work for published, and I corresponded with him very briefly over email a number of months ago.
Yes, I’m a bit of a star-struck loser that way.
I’m glad I read it, in any case. I’m a recent convert to short story writing and perhaps this would be a gentle introduction to short stories for someone who’s never been into the format. It’s a great collection of inter-connected stories, stories of young adults looking to get into medical school through to their lives mid-career.
It was easy to relate to Ming, Fitz, Chen and Sri’s trials and tribulations. I’m not sure if it’s being part of the Chinese diaspora and its obsession with academic achievement that I felt I understood the most! I recommended the book to my rellies who’re in the medical profession (of which there are a fair few — I’m the under-achiever of the family), and my cousin in Canada told me that she also really enjoyed it and it’s been adapted into a teevee series — how cool!
Distinctly underwhelmed by all this chatter about the iPad. I reckon I’ll be carrying something ultra-portable like a smartphone and/or a work machine like a laptop. I don’t think a touchscreen keypad will ever be as good as a physical keyboard if you’re hoping to, you know, get some work done.
But if it’s purely for leisure and you don’t mind paying more for the brand, sure, why not? What they’re really launching is the iBooks store anyway — that’s the most important part of yesterday’s announcements.
How many people have already made Trigger Happy TV jokes?
Neil and I had secular wedding. It’s infuriating that some people don’t seem to understand that evolution can be social as well, and marriage is no longer a religious institution.
Why can’t any couple in a stable relationship choose to get married, same-sex or not?
While I’m complaining about it, using the term ‘partner’ is pretty ‘ugh’. If you’re married, you’re married. Calling your spouse / boyfriend / girlfriend your ‘partner’ makes them sound like someone you don’t have any deep feelings for.
A wee story about a wee girl who no one loves.
The production design of this is brilliant. It’s only a little book and the beauty of it is more how it’s presented, so this is a short entry.
It’s lovely. But a bit sad.
I thought there was going to be a Battle of the Armchair Criminal Profilers in the criminal psychology course I’m attending this term. The lecturer is aware that I’m a longtime fan of true crime (I’ve been reading about serial killers since 1983) and in the lecture last night, he mentioned a couple of names. Generally, it went like this:
“Anyone besides Andrea know who this is? No? Well, [brief description]… ”
Oh yeah. FTW!
(There’s an interview with Arthur Shawcross on on-demand teevee that I’m refusing to watch — it’s just ghoulish.)
Oh! Oh! And the most interesting person in history outlined in the lecture? Alphonse Bertillon, the French criminologist. Apparently he was the first person to solve a murder using fingerprint identification even though he didn’t like that method!
Holy fuck the casino development on Sentosa looks tacky (check out the uncles perusing the rules and regulations). Casino developments generally look tacky, so I’m not singling them out for criticism or anything. Via Twitter.
(Neil said this, I’m paraphrasing.)
If my neck exercises are anything to go by (I suffer non-debilitating but highly annoying pain and was ‘prescribed’ a book of exercises by the doctor I consulted), porn stars should have really strong neck muscles and never suffer from a sore neck or shoulders.
Wow. Primer was a weird film.
From what I’ve been able to understand by thinking incessantly about it for a couple of hours and consulting Wikipedia, I think I’ve finally grasped how time travel works in the film (which helps explain the narrative). (Read more.)
- Verdict: It deserves its cult status and critical acclaim.
Hello, ‘Dad’,
Just so you know — if you plan to worm your way back into the family for whatever reason by contacting your former in-laws — you owe my mother alimony. The court ruled. That’s five years’ worth of alimony. You go have fun thinking about that.
Another Philip K. Dick? Yes, I’m really getting into his weirdness now.
Neil and I rented the film A Scanner Darkly not too long ago — I wonder if my mother’s seen it, she has the most inappropriate crush on Keanu Reeves. Linklater’s film sticks reasonably closely to the novel, which is the tale of undercover operative Fred (or Bob Arctor) in California in 1994.
A Scanner Darkly was written in the 70s, so for me reading it now, it’s kind of like an alternate past. Substance D has taken hold, and addicts could be hooked on that, as well as cocaine, crack, heroin, or pot. The major downside of D is that it severs the connection between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, turning users into wacked out weirdos. Fred is trying to flush out the big-time dealers, and hopefully even the source, of Substance D — he lives in a house with two other users, Luckman and Barris, taking and buying Substance D regularly. His main dealer (and potential squeeze) is Donna.
I know from watching the film that Dick was convinced he was being watched by the authorities during this time. (Read more.)
Don’t blame me, Neil wanted to see Daybreakers.
All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Remember I Am Legend (the book)? Give it the Hollywood treatment and you get that thing that starred Will Smith. Sanitise it even more (so no one could possibly get offended) and you’ll get Daybreakers.
The human race has been all but eliminated by a disease that turns them into vampires. This is clearly a step back in evolution as vampires can only live on human blood and with the human population dwindling, toothy haematologist Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke) is desperately trying to find an alternative to feed the vampiric populace.
He helps a few humans escaping the vampire military and they have some very interesting things to show him.
It’s not one of those movies you see that makes a commentary on current affairs like most good SF tends to; it’s purely entertainment and you should leave your analytical mind at the door. Willem Dafoe is hilarious. Claudia Karvan, average. Sam Neill? I like Sam Neill. Ethan Hawke is looking good — the only reason I was willing to pay full price to see this film (as opposed to waiting to rent it on DVD).
- Verdict: Ethan Hawke is wearing well. Worth watching if you have a thing for him and like a little brainless entertainment.
Isa Dick Hackett, I’m disappointed in you. This makes me want to buy the Nexus One that runs Android, even though I originally had no intention to do so.
The subject of John Douglas’ book — Anyone You Want Me to Be — is John Robinson, a consummate con artist and serial sexual predator and killer. He went from scheme to scheme to con people out of money and had absolutely no conscience about it.
… does that sound vaguely familiar (*cough*Michael See*cough*)?
The only difference is this guy was smart enough to swindle strangers, not friends and family and burn all his bridges. Robinson is also a serial killer, sexual predator, and is into BDSM. I hope to Deity I don’t ever have to find something like that out about my biological father (i.e. seeing his ‘bag of tricks’ and finding out his Internet handle is Slavemaster… *shudder*).
What’s most important about this book (and it isn’t its excellent writing) is the warning about Internet interaction. It may seem quaint where they talk about email and online chat, but in our age of oversharing it’s so much more likely to think you know someone intimately when they are merely playing a role.
- Verdict: Get your kids to read it
Bohemian Rhapsody may be funny but Ode to Joy is absolutely fucking hilarious.
I’m slowly making my way through a Sherlock Holmes omnibus (after watching the film, which was terribly fun), and since I took out a bunch of library books that are due back on 20 January, I thought I’d start with T.C. Boyle’s Riven Rock.
T.C. Boyle — what a storyteller! This is the story of three people: Stanley McCormick, his wife Katherine, and Stanley’s nurse, Eddie O’Kane. Stanley needs a nurse because he’s had a breakdown, and his wife Katherine clings to the hope that he will recover and return to her side. In the meantime, Stanley is confined to one of his (very wealthy) family’s homes in California, known as Riven Rock.
There is definitely a comparison to be made to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night. It, too, goes forward and backwards in time as we witness Stanley’s descent into madness. It’s set during the turn of the century (the 20th). Its main characters (with the exception of Eddie) are wealthy and pretty louche.
Since I’ve made my feelings about Tender is the Night pretty clear, you’ll know that I prefer Boyle’s version of love, lust and insanity infinitely more than Fitzgerald’s.