books

Urth day

The first fire must have been kindled in an age now inconceivably remote. At that instant, I felt as some ancient must toward the end of his lifetime, when none save the eldest recalled the pure winds of bygone mornings. – Gene Wolfe, Urth of the New Sun

I’m currently reading Gene Wolfe’s Urth of the New Sun, and I guess you could say I’m enjoying it. It’s very similar to The Book of the New Sun, the previous four volumes to which this is more or less a direct sequel, only with a more generous helping of religious mysticism thrown in. It’s a difficult read, and it’s tough not to feel like I’m missing a lot of what’s going on in it, yet the book is not without its rewards.

Kaleidotrope contributor Bill Ward suggested that I check out Michael Andre-Driussi’s recent IROSF article about the book — and, more importantly, how it relates to and illuminates the previous four volumes — which I think I’ll do after I’m finished. (I’m about halfway through the book right now.) I also have the Gene Wolfe Book Club as a good go-to resource — for both insight into the books and the knowledge that I’m not the only one sometimes madly confused by them. And from there, it’s on to The Book of the Long Sun and its sequels, although I’m led to understand those books are much more accessible than the earlier ones.

We shall see.

Library things

Kevin Myers at The Independent wonders, “If we have free books, why not free concerts or free theatre?” (Link via SF Signal.)

Except, y’know, we do have those things. I don’t know how much of these arts are subsidized by the government and taxpayers in the UK, but these are not crazy socialist concepts.

Myers goes on to write:

Now, only a baboon would deny the usefulness of free libraries to children. But why should any well-paid person like myself have their literary tastes paid for, including author royalties, by the taxpayer? Meanwhile, the bookshop down the road has to match the range of taxpayer-funded facilities being provided free of charge at the library, and make a profit, a concept about as foreign to a state-run lending library as toilet paper is to a fish.

I don’t know where to start with this. Maybe with the fact that not every tax-payer is well-paid, or at least can’t afford the discretionary funds that are needed for buying lots of books? That libraries tend to encourage book sales rather than the opposite by allowing readers to discover new authors? That you’d be hard-pressed to find a publisher, much less an author, who doesn’t support and often make use of libraries? Or that hey, your taxes go to pay for a lot of things you may never directly use but that other citizens use quite a lot. That’s sort of how taxes (and a society) work.

Are we really at the point where we’re arguing not just for less spending on arts but on scrapping the whole concept of public libraries?

The superhuman crew

There’s a really terrific (but hugely spoiler-filled) critique of Watchmen — more graphic novel than movie — over at Comic Book Resources with Damon Lindelof, Carr D’Angelo and Atom! Freeman. I think my favorite part — which, again, is a huge spoiler — is the following exchange:

DAMON: I want to talk about Rorschach. Question…

CARR: He is the Question.

DAMON: Rorshach’s face is his everything. In fact, he’s literally holding it on as he’s fighting Adrian in the previous issue. And yet… once he realizes Jon is going to vaporize him, what does he do? He takes off his mask. And so, the question is this: does Jon kill Rorschach? Or does Jon kill Walter?

ATOM!: Wow. Who knew there were still surprises? Walter kills Rorschach. Jon kills Walter.

CARR: Removing the mask is a symbolic suicide. But it’s also saying that you can kill the person who is Rorschach, but not the idea of Rorschach.

DAMON: Well, Rorshach makes such a big deal out of that mask and what it means in regards to his identity.

CARR: Rorschach lives on in the journal too. “Nothing ever ends.”

DAMON: I’ve always felt that Moore’s decision to kill Rorschach was the only way to guarantee no one would ever write a sequel.

CARR: There was talk of a Nite Owl/Rorschach prequel and a Minutemen series.

DAMON: Thank God it was just talk.

CARR: Moore, ironically, thought the book would go out of print

ATOM!: Strange to think that this wasn’t designed to be read and re-read.

DAMON: I’ve always wondered about Rorschach’s decision.

CARR: Well, he wasn’t going to get very far on foot was he?

DAMON: Clearly, the difference between right and wrong seems very clear to him. But I’ve always wondered what he thought it would accomplish if he did expose the truth. I think Rorschach doesn’t want there to be peace, because he doesn’t understand it. And there’s no place for him in a world where there aren’t animals to put down.

ATOM!: I think the mistake is to think Rorschach thought through longterm. Veidt thought longterm and decided to grow a giant squid. Rorschach knocked heads together until he got an answer to his question.

CARR: But is a world without nuclear war necessarily a peaceful one?

DAMON: Well, that’s the $64,000 question. Did it work?

ATOM!: Wait for the sequel.