Review: 13 Short Stories by Philip K. Dick

13 Short Stories by Philip K. Dick by Philip K. Dick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

One of my rare forays into science fiction. It still isn't my favorite genre, but it's nice from time to time. 

These stories sound very cold-war-ish, which I guess they are, and after a while they all have similarities, so I can guess what the twist is, or how it will end. 

Once again, Goodreads does not give me enough space for all my private notes, so I will have to store them here in the public notes section. Along those lines, everything that follows below CONTAINS SPOILERS:

SPOILERS BELOW:

1: Beyond lies the Wub. There is a fat pig-like creature that is sold by "natives" to people on a spaceship. They want to kill the creature and eat it, but the creature speaks. It asks not to be killed (but doesn't beg or anything). The captain decides to shoot it anyway. He is the only one to then eat it, and after a while it turns out the creature is speaking through him, and just transferred body. The author missed an opportunity not calling this "Therein lies the wub", imho. 

2: The gun: Some astronauts come upon a country devastated by nuclear fission. But they are shot at by a gun. They land for repairs. The planet sounds like earth to me. Anyway, turns out the gun was operating automatically, so they disarmed it, planning to return with a team to retrieve all the objects. As they leave more robots are fixing the gun. 

3. The Skull: A man is sent back in time to kill a man who will end all war. Turns out the man he's supposed to kill is himself. 

4. The Defenders: Everyone's living underground due to nuclear holocaust. Robots on the surface fight their war for them. Turns out the robots were lying and it isn't radioactive anymore, but they weren't told bc the robots were trying to end war. Cheesy ending where they meet some Russians and somehow communicate and get along. 

5. The eyes have it: Amusing criticism of turns of phrase, and possibly bad editing (which would be ironic, given the not-so-good editing of this book)

6. Hanging Stranger: A man sees a body hanging from a lamppost in town. But everyone besides the main protagonist seems so nonchalant about it. Turns out it was bait so the aliens could find out who they weren't able to turn. 

7. Mr. Spaceship: In the interplanetary war, they decide to control a spaceship using a brain. They find an old professor, who accepts, with some tweaks. Anyway, he's taken control of the spaceship, and gets two of his pupils (male and female) to repopulate a new planet with a brand new (very inbred) human race. 

8. Piper in the woods: People start turning into plants (or being convinced they are plants), including the man sent to the woods to figure out what was going on. 

9: Second Variety: This was probably my favorite thus far. There are robots created to destroy humans (heat-seeking). Turns out the robots have been building other robots, which look just like humans. An American gets taken in by Russians in their bunker. One of them kills the other, thinking he's a robot. But he's not. Turns out the russian shooter was a robot. The American tells the remaining russian girl how to get to the base (he is injured) on the moon. He discovers she was a robot too. He smiles thinking how this new race of beings already started finding ways to destroy each other, like humans did. 

10: Tony and the beetles: A human kid, living on a beetle planet, plays with beetle friends. Humans must be colonists, because when the war turns in the beetles' favor, they start treating the boy badly. I noticed they called the humans "white grubs", "because of their softness, their whiteness". So, I guess only white people colonized the planet. 

11: The Variable man: This was the longest story, and possibly my favorite. A man from 1913 is brought to the future by mistake. altering the probabilities of successfully annihilating some other planet (but no one knows why). Regardless, a bad politician plans to kill him, while the engineer wants to hire him. He is able to and the man fixes their space rocket that can travel faster than the speed of light, so they don't need to annihilate the other planet anymore (they can travel to other dimensions or something now). The bad politician is arrested. 

12: Beyond the door: An odd story. A man buys a cuckoo clock for his wife. she loves it and speaks to it, but she's having an affair with another man and gets caught. She gets kicked out.  The man decides to smash the cuckoo clock, but it apparently pecks at him and makes him fall and die. 

13: The Crystal Crypt: 3 terrans find a way to miniaturize a Martian city and fit it in a globe, escaping on the last ship to earth. They tell their story to a man, who turns out to be martian and stops them. Once again, Martians see humans as pale, so I guess only white humans are on Mars or something. 

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Review: The White Book

The White Book by Han Kang
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I didn't enjoy this book, but I recognize it was probably my fault. I wasn't really in the mood for it. On the other hand, I don't foresee any point in time when I'll be in the mood for depressing short stories that make me feel drained.

Most of them have to do with her mother giving birth to her older sister, two months premature, all alone at home (she had to sterilize her own pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord), and then having the baby die while holding her. It is heartbreaking. There are also stories about Warsaw, since she was apparently living there.


"Glittering" was probably my favorite story, since it was the only one that was at least somewhat optimistic

Some, like "Clouds", seemed more like poetry than prose.

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Review: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book was a let down in much the same way Tom Hanks' book was: A great actor does not a good author make. In this case, an outstanding author of fiction does not necessarily a good nonfiction author make. 

It probably helps if you like running, since he goes into length about his experience running, jogging, and racing in marathons and triathlons.  It is a short read, so it kept me interested throughout, but it doesn't compare to his fiction at all. 

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Review: Life In Victorian Britain

Life In Victorian Britain by Michael St. John Parker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Probably good to read through before watching a movie or reading a book that takes place in Victorian England.

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Review: As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan

As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan by Lady Sarashina
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My second reading of one of my favorite books. I'm still not sure why I enjoy it so much, except it is enthralling it is 'everydayness' and to think that all those actions really did occur. 

As per the introduction, at the very same time Lady Sarashina was accompanying the empress to the imperial palace, and probably while she was visiting the sacred mirror room, half a world away St. Edward the Confessor was probably getting ready for his coronation to be held later that day. 

Regardless, I recommend reading the diary first, then going back to the introduction later. Read it as time travel, accompanying her through random points her in life. 

Some notes I took while reading:

Mt. Fuji still had an active flame!!

I'm amazed she could leave the imperial palace after her first night in service there just because she didn't want to work there anymore. I guess they weren't very strict about matters like that. 

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Review: Napoleon: The Man behind the Myth

Napoleon: The Man behind the Myth by Adam Zamoyski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was written the way I believe a biography should be written. The initial focus is on Napoleon's childhood and formative years, rather than later battles per se (although there is plenty of those as well). I like this because it give much more insight into why and how Napoleon became the man he was. I wish more biographies followed this pattern. 

Some of my notes:

Apparently after the reign of terror in Paris they had parties and balls where you could only attend if a relative of course had died at the guillotine, and they would wear red ribbons around their necks. Talk about gallows humor...

Amusing to think Napoleon was really bad at Chess, considering he was so good at real life strategic warfare. 

Napoleon's favorite author was Ossian, and he considered Homer's poems much weaker in comparison. 

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Review: Highway with Green Apples

Highway with Green Apples by Bae Suah
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautifully written novella. I almost want to reread it. 

Like her other novels, time is relative here. This novel is actually more straightforward in a way, but things get mixed up, whether due to faulty memory (she even admits as much at one point) or due to stream of consciousness. 

The narrator starts with talking about taking a car trip with her (then) partner toward a fishing village on the west coast. They have just stopped to buy some green apples from an old lady on the road. This leads to the rest of the story, a mixture of events and reminiscences, with a not-necessarily happy ending, but very insightful and poignant at times. 

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Review: Democritus

Democritus by Paul Anthony Cartledge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 2nd read-through for me, and I think I enjoyed it more this time (I gave it 3 stars last time). 

It is rather short, also given the fact that we don't have much information about Democritus. He is credited with coming up with the idea of the indivisible "atom", making up everything. 

Interesting how he states that thoughts are also made up of atoms:

"We know nothing truly about anything, but for each of us opining is a rearrangement (of soul atoms). (p. 10)

Also, he talks about how bodies and worlds are held together by "a membrane", which seems like his version of explaining gravity, and which seems to work quite well. 

Some of my  other notes:

"All those who make their pleasures from the belly, exceeding the right time (or measure) for food, drink or sex, have short-lived pleasures - only for as long as they eat or drink - but many pains." (p. 30)

"Poverty in a democracy is preferable to so-called prosperity among dictators to the same extent as freedom is to slavery. (p. 38)

Apparently Karl Marx wrote his doctoral thesis on a scholarly comparison between Democritus and Epicurus. 

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Review: Forgotten Founder: The Life and Times of Charles Pinckney

Forgotten Founder: The Life and Times of Charles Pinckney by Marty D. Matthews
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Another DNF for me. I read 50 pages, and then started asking myself if he was worth pursuing. Up to this point these were my notes:

Apparently he was 29 at the constitutional convention, but told everyone he was 24 so he could be counted as the youngest. The book says it could be an oversight, but apparently he kept repeating this as a fact many years later. 

It's not really a hagiography, but to me it reads almost like a proud parent writing about their son. An example: 

"Despite the maturity and experience of  Gorham and Grayson, they allowed the junior member of their committee (Pinckney) to deliver the major address to the New Jersey Legislature" (p. 33)

He submitted a plan at the constitutional convention, which wasn't adopted, but years later (1818), at John Adams' request, he sent him what he recollected as being his plan, which basically contained many ideas in the constitution. James Madison said most of these points were not correct and that Pinckney hadn't originally mentioned them. The author states Madison had beef with him, but I'm not really convinced. (pp 42-43)

Anyway, then I read on wikipedia that he introduced the Fugitive slave clause and didn't accomplish too much else, so I figured life is too short to keep reading about his. 

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Review: Wolves

Wolves by Jeon Sungtae
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A collection of short stories. I enjoyed them for the most part. Interestingly almost all of them take place in Mongolia, with the Korean population there (Korean businessmen, North Korean refugees & immigrants). Got me interested in possibly reading some Mongolian fiction at some point. 

Once again, since Goodreads doesn't give me enough space in the private section, I am writing my synopses in this public section for my notes. So, fair notice, MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW:

The Magnolia: It is the name of a North Korean restaurant in Ulaan Bataar. This same restaurant features in other stories. I liked this one. A new chef from North Korea is announced, and people love the food. But it turns out the chef never arrived.

Wolves: This was interesting, but too many characters and points of view for a short story, at least for me. I got lost. Like, why was the hunter obsessed with catching the black wolf? And why alive?

Southern plants. A South Korean who is not sure whether to help a Mongolian go to South Korea illegally. Also deals with some waitresses in the Magnolia. And the South Korean cheated on his wife, who left him and is back with their daughter in Seoul. 

Korean soldier: Probably my favorite thus far. A Korean poet comes to Mongolia for 3 months. He gets mugged, almost get assaulted outside an internet cafe, and then gets locked out of his apartment. He then gets some rope from a construction site and is able to lower himself to his window. 

Second waltz: I'm not sure I got this one. A poet is going to a town to look for a North Korean woman who is supposed to live in the mountains around there. A policeman asks for his papers, and when he can't produce them, tells him he can't leave the hotel. But it turns out the copy is in love with the lady acting as the poet's guide. They find where the old lady lived, but it sounds like she died. 

Chinese Fireworks. This one is a touching story about homeless children in Mongolia asking for recyclables they can resell. 

River Crossers: The first story not taking place in Mongolia. This is also probably the most depressing story. Every story I read about crossing from North Korea over the border involves the death of a child. I might skip these from now on. 

Has anyone seen my shoes: This was quirky and sort of fun. An old man in an island off the coast of Jeolla-do still uses an ox when farming, so he's featured in the news once a year. But he's hungover and not sure why his shoes are missing and he has a different pair. They might belong to a friend of his, originally from NOrth Korea, who is a police officer. It turns out he might have drowned himself. I'm not sure I get the end though. 

Kids need money too: Oddly enough, another story featuring shoes. These are running shoes. A kid is a good runner, so he has top of the line shoes and eats ox meat soup, paid for by his school principal. Anyway, the narrator finds money on the ground, buys the same shoes, but then borrows the money to return it, and has to pay off his debt. He and the other kid are helping with a chore, since they have the good shoes, and then..? Once again, not sure I got the ending. 

Imitayshun: I liked this one. A Korean guy who looks like a 'hapa' (half korean, half foreigner) works at an English cram school in a newly built city. It recounts the crap he went through growing up looking different, and how he can reinvent himself here. 

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Review: A Slow Walk through Jeong-dong

A Slow Walk through Jeong-dong by Michael Gibb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another book I'm reading during COVID so I can vicariously travel, using it and google streetview (or Kakaomaps) as a guide. 

This is excellent. I wish more travel books were written in this manner. I took copious notes on the locations and their history. Some of the coffee shops and restaurants seem to be gone, but otherwise I can't wait until I'm back in Seoul and can take an afternoon to follow this itinerary. 

I keep hoping the author will do the same for other parts of Seoul, but I guess that is too much to ask. 

Some random notes I took:

Jeongno gil used to be called Legation Street, when Western countries first set up their embassies

Horace G. Underwood founded Chosun Christian College (which joined another school to become Yonsei)

Mary F. Scranton founded Ewha girls' school

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Review: Canzoniere

Canzoniere by Francesco Petrarca
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Ok. I'm throwing in the towel. I will not be able to finish this. The 14th century Italian is too intense, and I'm frankly not much of a poetry guy either way. I got to Page 63, then skipped ahead to find my favorite poem (number CLIX): 

In qual parte del ciel, in quale idea

era l'exempio, onde Natura tolse

quel bel viso leggiadro, in ch'ella volse

mostrar qua giú quanto lassú potea?

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Review: La Galleria di Milano - lo spazio e l'immagine

La Galleria di Milano - lo spazio e l'immagine by Massimiliano Finazzer Flori
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another book I am reading in lieu of travel, and in order to prepare for future travel.

The preamble is interesting.
The first article seems much too contrived. But I really liked the second article (by the same author).
The subsequent articles are about the photos, which accompany the text, and are quite interesting.

Here are my notes for future travel:
Giuseppe Mengoni was the architect of the Galleria. He died on December 30th, 1877, one day before the Galleria was set to be inaugurated (He fell off some scaffolding). The Galleria had a grand opening party on Dec 31st, and was open to the public on Jan 1st, 1878.

"Rissa in Galleria" - a painting (in the Pinacoteca di Brera) set in the galleria.

"The Galleria was to combine the advantages and convenience of a street with the comfort of an immense, splendid room"




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Review: Confessions

Confessions by Augustine of Hippo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first part of this book (the first 9 books) is great. The story of his personal journey to Catholicism is intense, personal and relatable. 

Starting at Book X, however, it starts losing me. The whole discussion on memory and thoughts is a tad too philosophical for me, and his discussions on what time is (Book IX) seem more about semantics than anything else. It doesn't really pick up much from there. 

Some of my highlights:

"Grant me, Lord, to know and understand whether a man is first to pray to you for help or to praise you, (Book1)

"Though I liked actors and openly admired them, I should not have wanted their fame and popularity for myself. I would rather have been entirely unknown than known in the way that they were known. I would rather have been hated than loved as they were." (Book IV)

(Re: St. Ambrose) "When he read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart explored the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still." IOW he didn't read aloud, which was apparently remarkable back then.  (Book VI)

"Your apostle did not forbid me to marry, although he counseled a better state, wishing earnestly that all men should be as he was himself" (Book VIII)

"I had prayed to you for chastity and said 'Give me chastity and continence, but not yet'" (Book VIII)

Book X, Chapter 21: Argument about two men. One might wish to join the army, the other not. But both will want to be happy. ie, the army makes one happy, not the other. 

"But there is a true Mediator, whom in your secret mercy you have shown to men. (...) He is the Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ" (Book X)

"What else was the presence of darkness but the absence of light?" (Book XII) - I hadn't realized this expression had originated with St. Augustine

" the gift of speaking in strange tongues is a sign given to unbelievers, not believers" (1 Corinthians 14:22, Book XIII)

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Review: I castelli di Bellinzona

I castelli di Bellinzona by Werner Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another book I'm reading to prepare for future travel. Obviously, having lived right next door, I've been to these castles many times. Still, I took some interesting notes:

"Until the 15th century, the Lago Verbano was navigable clear until Bellinzona, and there was a small port next to one of the towers of the wall.

The three castles were divided, in 1506, between cantons, and we called the castles of Uri, Schwiez and Unterwalden.

Castelgrande didn't have the empty space in it before, and had many more buildings contained inside

Castelgrande has also been called: Castello vecchio, castello d'Uri, Castello di S. Michele

Castello di Montebello has also been called: Castello piccolo, nuovo, or di mezzo, Castello di Svitto, Castello di S. Martino

Castello di Sasso Corbaro has also been called: Castello d'Untervaldo, Castello di S. Barbara.

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Review: Il Monastero-Santuario "Santa Gemma Galgani" in Lucca

Il Monastero-Santuario "Santa Gemma Galgani" in Lucca by Bruno Tommasi
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I mean, it barely has a biography of Santa Gemma, and the map doesn't indicate the places mentioned, and the entire last section is about the Monache Passioniste, of which St. Gemma was not a part, but apparently either wanted to be or was fascinated with (it is unclear in the biography). Anyway, they buried her body with them. 

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Review: Life In Medieval England

Life In Medieval England by Rupert Willoughby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have no idea why I own this book. Regardless, all my notes from it deal with etymology and places to visit one day. So here they are:

The Norman word for a "keep" was donjon, which is where we get our word Dungeon
'Knight' comes from the Anglo-saxon word cnihtas, which meant a youth or retainer.

To visit:
Rievaulx abbey
Places listed in the "Places to visit" section at the end



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Review: The Abbey Library of Saint Gall. The history, the Baroque hall and the collections of the Abbey Library.

The Abbey Library of Saint Gall. The history, the Baroque hall and the collections of the Abbey Library. by Ernst Tremp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm literally reading this in order to plan future trips to the Abbey. I've been there twice, but always felt like I was missing quite a bit (although I love wearing those slippers) of this important abbey in Swiss and European history. 

It's too bad that much of what is discussed here isn't open to the public.

Having said that, here are some of my notes for future travels:

Monastery plan (ms. 1091) is the oldest medieval building plan in Europe that is still intact

St. Wiborada is the patron saint of libraries (she removed the books to an island on Lake Costance to save them from the Hungarians)

www.cesg.unifr.ch has digital recordings of selected codices. 

Behind the door on the South side of the hall there is a hidden staircase leading to the gallery and the Manuscript room

The two cocks (near bookcases KK and TT) may be the trademark of the Gigl brothers (Güggel means cock in Swiss german). 

The oldest extant translation of the Gospels by St. Jerome (410/420 AD) exists in fragments

Tuotilo is the first known artist in what is now Switzerland. He designed some book covers for Charlemagne (in this collection)

The satirical verse of St. Gall was written "to test the quill"

The oldest wholly preserved music manuscript in the world: The St. Gall "Cantatorium", produced at the Abbey ca 920/930. 

The world's last surviving example of the Oracula Sibyllina, printed between 1461 and 1465. 

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Review: Painting as A Pastime

Painting as A Pastime by Winston S. Churchill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure; and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But fortune's favored children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday, and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds." 

"The most common form of diversion is reading. In that vast and varied field millions find their mental comfort. Nothing makes a man more reverent than a library. “A few books”, which was Lord Morley’s definition of anything under five thousand, may give a sense of comfort and even of complacency. But a day in a library, even of modest dimensions, quickly dispels these illusory sensations. As you browse about, talking down book after book from the shelves and contemplating the vast, infinitely varied store of knowledge and wisdom which the human race has accumulated and preserved, pride, even in its most innocent forms, is chased from the heart by feelings of awe not untinged with sadness. As one surveys the mighty array of sages, saints, historians, scientists, poets and philosophers, whose treasures one will never be able to admire, still less enjoy, the brief tenure of our existence here dominates mind and spirit" 

This book is basically an essay. It is short and very to the point, and a delightful read. There were plenty of other quotes, but I risk just copying out the entire book.

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Review: Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories

Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories by Truman Capote
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have yet to see the movie, but I'm already sure it's a highly censored version of this book. With sex, drugs, teen marriage, homosexuality, organized crime, etc., it doesn't seem like something acceptable for Hollywood movies in 1961. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and, once again, see how a classic stands the test of time. 

There were some expressions I hadn't realized already existed back then, such as "Fuck off" and "Anyhoo", but there you go. 

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Review: Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions

Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions by David R. McCann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first part of this book was excellent. I appreciated the journey through the different types of Korean Literature over time, with an introduction explaining each one followed by some examples. 

One of my favorites:

Jade Green Stream, don't boast so proud

of your easy passing through these blue hills.

Once you have reached the broad sea

to return again will be hard. 

While the bright Moon fills these empty hills,

why not pause? Then go on, if you will.

-Hwang Chin-i (#2056)

The last part, however, (Negotiations in Korean Literary Culture) was way over my head. The analyses seem to be aimed at experts in the field, and I think I absorbed very little of it all. 

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Review: Slow Boat

Slow Boat by Hideo Furukawa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

At the very end the author says this book was inspired by the story "A slow boat to china", by Haruki Murakami. I read that story recently and I confess I don't really see it. I mean, there are definite parallels. While Murakami discusses three Chinese he met in his life, Furukawa discusses his three ex-girlfriends. But while Murakami's stories seem almost incidental and inconsequential, Furukawa's ooze of importance and finality (and they all tie into the fact that he cannot leave, which becomes a life obsession almost). 

Regardless, I enjoyed this book. Only after having finished this book did I realized I had read a short story by Furukawa (Model T Frankenstein), which was also strange but definitely interesting. I look forward to reading more by the same author. 

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