2011 — 30 April: Saturday
Some while ago1 our young handful "went mobile" since when there has (as it were) been no stopping him. Meanwhile, I've once again missed the glass bottle collecting chaps but my little black crate is only about 10% full so I won't be needing my "bothered" expression for a while yet.
It's 08:26 and quite a sunny morning. Time for a cuppa before contemplating any domestic duties.
Memories of SF novels past
Now here's a trick I've missed:
One of the many interesting things about reading through past Hugo award-winners chronologically is the light they shine on the recent past — even if most of
them are set in the distant future. The Forever War, a 1974 science fiction novel by Joe Haldeman is a case in point. Like the 1960 winner, Robert Heinlein's Starship
Troopers, it is, as the author says in a recent foreword to the book: "mainly about war, about soldiers and about the reasons we think we need them."
Crucially, though, it's also about the cataclysm Haldeman's generation went through in the 16 years since Heinlein's gung-ho classic won the approval of the Hugo
voters. "It's about Vietnam," says Haldeman, "because that was the war the author was in".
The youngster above bought his own copy of Haldeman's excellent book while at York University even though mine...
... was (of course) available to him. That looks very much like unacknowledged cover artwork by Chris Foss, by the way. I bought and read many of Haldeman's titles but have only kept the one mentioned here. (My local space is not infinite.) The other nine now live on Peter's shelves.
It was interesting trying to provide mostly lightweight "hands-off" parental guidance on Peter's reading over the years. And to see what he chose or rejected, too. My philosophy was that if he could physically reach it he could try it, subject to my veto (which I don't recall exercising, actually). Plus, of course, there were regular trips up to London to do the "bookshops run". Books furnish minds2 as well as rooms.
How many ex-IBMers, I wonder, are sitting comfortably, Bach tinkling in the background, and laughing like a drain while reading the new John Waters book of essays "Role Models"? Delicious way to spend a Saturday morning, I tell you. [Pause] A brief outing to gather up the next batch of foody stuff from an already horribly-crowded Waitrose. Two toddlers cheekily giggled at my hat (apparently similar to one they see their young father wearing) — he grinned when I muttered it was from Australia.
Now (12:07 already) I can resume my reading. Here's the opening of "The kindness of strangers". That's what I call a proper drop capital, by the way:
I have never read anything by Tennessee Williams but I've seen many adaptations of his work. Does that count? And it was my late, mad Aunt Peg in the Midlands (sadly-missed) who ensured I had a set of library tickets to use in the adult section when I stayed with her on my annual fortnight's respite from dear Mama.
Future thunder
Recall my little poem about Thor? Kermode and Mayo's film review podcast, and Paul Greenwood's review, persuade me to add Kenneth Branagh's "Thor" to my little list.
US v China in Africa
Or should that be "ChinAfrica"? There's some interesting material here. Some of it reads like stuff lifted directly from Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" lectures. I got there from here. What a mess we humans are busily making of the planet that is, as far as I know, the only one within reach that we can live on.
Later
Catching up — just in time — with last week's (repeat) of an "Archive on 4" programme with young Professor Cox praising Carl Sagan's 1980 TV series "Cosmos", imagine my pleasure on discovering you can now buy a boxed DVD set for £11-05. Better yet, I also just pre-ordered Ken Clark's "Civilisation" (remastered on Blu-ray) at the ridiculous price of £17-93. I actually joined an evening class when this was first transmitted just so I could watch it on the colour TV set they had. We never had a colour TV set at home :-(
Of course, SETI has just run out of money...