I went from too much Dick to none overnight. Yesterday in class we finished discussing Philip k Dick’s VALIS, The Divine Invasion and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. We had read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? before the trilogy as well. I also finished up Moby Dick on audio during the drive to Milwaukee Tuesday. So Dicks, whether it was Philip K or Moby, had been taken up quite a bit of my time for the last month.

First, the Philip K. We read these books for my Sci-Fi/Utopia class. Androids is an obvious choice because it’s an SF classic and gave us the opportunity to compare the book to a more-than-decent SF movie, Blade Runner. The VALIS trilogy, however, is a much more interesting choice. Half of VALIS (the book) is realism, the second half is “aggressively” SF, The Divine Invasion is SF from the get-go, and Transmigration doesn’t have any trappings of science fiction at all and could easily have been marketed as a novel of realism. The reason we read these three (which aren’t necessarily Dick’s finest work) is because the professor wanted us to grapple with definitions of science fiction as well as read highly metageneric (i.e. fiction that is about writing genre) works. An interesting exercise.

Now for Herman Melville. Moby Dick started off really hot and then cooled to lukewarm. I wouldn’t call Ishmael’s frequent and lengthy digressions from the plot unnecessary, because Melville was more clever than that. All of his asides about the nature of whales, the mechanics of whaling, and the role of the seaman end up coming into play, yet this must be the easiest book in the world to abridge. The book can easily function (albeit at a shallower depth) without them. What struck me most was how quickly the book ended. The chase for Moby Dick doesn’t start until very, very late and then when it’s over, it’s over. Moby takes the Pequod out and then there’s, what?, maybe a page that describes how the narrator was rescued. I know short stories that have more a dénouement than that! It’s a really long book, so talk about getting out fast.

I also felt like I maybe zoned out during 10-15% of it, which is the problem (and sometimes benefit) of audio. I certainly don’t have time to read such a long book right now, but it’s a good solution to pass time on the drive and while doing errands or playing frisbee with the dog. Still, while I may not have the complete Moby Dick experience, I know how the book feels, the sub-plots, and the story arc. So this is good.

I started Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises and I’m maybe a quarter through. It’s good. Not as good as For Whom the Bell Tolls, but good.

Current Mood: Tired |