Good Morning Folks

Well, folks, sorry I have been away from LJ for almost a day but that was due to the fact that I headed out around two to meet Phil and Ewart for drinks at my local Wetherspoons pub.

We had a great afternoon chatting and imbibing good ale. Think I had six in total and after 23 finished I walked home and promptly fell asleep in my comfy chair. I woke around 2 am and drank some water before going back to bed.

Anyway, today I will be staying in as I have a number of covert mystery calls to do today.

National Poetry Day

A UK-wide tribute to the vigour and vibrancy of verse, 7 October is National Poetry Day.

So, to celebrate, here is my little ditty.


In all kinds of verse
Sacred, profane, or perverse
It is National Poetry Day
And hence I am with it all the way.

Poem Of The Week

Faversham At Night

I love the way my town looks at night.

Book 55 - David Deutsch "The Fabric Of Reality"

David Deutsch "The Fabric Of Reality" (Penguin)




David Deutsch's Fabric of Reality is woven from what he refers to as "four strands": the multiverse interpretation of quantum physics (credited to Hugh Everett), evolutionary biology grounded in genetic selection (Richard Dawkins), the postulate of a universal computer (Alan Turing), and scientific epistemology composed of problems and explanations (Karl Popper). Near the end of the book, physicist Deutsch admits that when first observing similarities and connections among these four, he had taken the latter three to be emergent from, if not reducible to, quantum physics. Ultimately, though, he presents them as equally fundamental and mutually illuminating. According to Deutsch, all four of these theories have arrived at the practical domination of their respective fields, vanquishing competing theories, but all four have failed to be integrated into a wider worldview. It's his contention that they need each other to fill the explanatory gaps that make them each seem "' naive,' 'narrow,' 'cold,' and so on" (346).

The book is divided into fourteen chapters, each of which ends with a glossary, a thumbnail summary of the chapter's argument, and a tease for the following chapter. This signposting structure would make it easy to cherry-pick chapters of interest to a particular reader. On the other hand, the thesis of the whole book relies on the interdependence of the concepts treated in different chapters. So--other than the philosophy of mathematics in Chapter 10, which the author himself says can be merely skimmed by those without the strong prior orientation to that field - it's probably worth reading from cover to cover for full appreciation. I enjoyed doing so, at any rate. Although the concepts may sometimes be on the forbidding side, the prose is lucid. I especially liked the philosophical dialogue in Chapter 7.

This text is now twenty years old, and most of its component ideas were at least that old when it was written. Deutsch insists that his thesis is a "conservative" approach to elaborating the worldview that is a consequence of "taking seriously" the four theoretical perspectives of the book. Considering that, by his lights, the explanations that they afford are the best for their respective fields of inquiry, he says that the worldview that he has assembled from them is the one that needs to be challenged by new ideas in the future. Despite all of the advances in communications technology in the 21st century, though, this contemporary philosophical worldview has yet to be accessed even by many readers who will find it interesting and perhaps compelling.

Book 55 - David Deutsch "The Fabric Of Reality"

David Deutsch "The Fabric Of Reality" (Penguin)




David Deutsch's Fabric of Reality is woven from what he refers to as "four strands": the multiverse interpretation of quantum physics (credited to Hugh Everett), evolutionary biology grounded in genetic selection (Richard Dawkins), the postulate of a universal computer (Alan Turing), and scientific epistemology composed of problems and explanations (Karl Popper). Near the end of the book, physicist Deutsch admits that when first observing similarities and connections among these four, he had taken the latter three to be emergent from, if not reducible to, quantum physics. Ultimately, though, he presents them as equally fundamental and mutually illuminating. According to Deutsch, all four of these theories have arrived at the practical domination of their respective fields, vanquishing competing theories, but all four have failed to be integrated into a wider worldview. It's his contention that they need each other to fill the explanatory gaps that make them each seem "'naive,' 'narrow,' 'cold,' and so on" (346).

The book is divided into fourteen chapters, each of which ends with a glossary, a thumbnail summary of the chapter's argument, and a tease for the following chapter. This signposting structure would make it easy to cherry-pick chapters of interest to a particular reader. On the other hand, the thesis of the whole book relies on the interdependence of the concepts treated in different chapters. So--other than the philosophy of mathematics in Chapter 10, which the author himself says can be merely skimmed by those without the strong prior orientation to that field - it's probably worth reading from cover to cover for full appreciation. I enjoyed doing so, at any rate. Although the concepts may sometimes be on the forbidding side, the prose is lucid. I especially liked the philosophical dialogue in Chapter 7.

This text is now twenty years old, and most of its component ideas were at least that old when it was written. Deutsch insists that his thesis is a "conservative" approach to elaborating the worldview that is a consequence of "taking seriously" the four theoretical perspectives of the book. Considering that, by his estimation, the explanations that they afford are the best for their respective fields of inquiry, he says that the worldview that he has assembled from them is the one that needs to be challenged by new ideas in the future. Despite all of the advances in communications technology in the 21st century, though, this contemporary philosophical worldview has yet to be accessed even by many readers who will find it interesting and perhaps compelling.

Book 56 - Paul Auster "Travels in the Scriptorium"

Paul Auster "Travels in the Scriptorium" (Faber & Faber)




This was my second experience of Paul Auster and my appetite has certainly been whetted. More novella than a novel, this slim book tells the story of a day in the life of Mr. Blank. An old man, he sits in a sparsely furnished room with no idea of who he is or where he is. He can't tell whether he is a prisoner or a guest, and he is connected to the wider world only through the series of people who come to visit him. To say much more would be to risk giving things away. There is something very stylized about the action, in which every small gesture or action is faithfully recorded, but this doesn't bother me too much because Mr Blank is starting from scratch, almost, and everything may have significance. Perhaps the thing which I did find tiresome was Auster's emphasis on Mr. Blank's bodily functions, which I don't believe we need to know about in quite so much detail.

On the plus side, this is a quirky, clever story that simply presents a series of facts and leaves the reader to gradually draw their own conclusions. Although I might have found the knowing conceit a bit trying if it had lasted throughout a full-length novel, Auster gets away with it here. His blend of playfulness and pathos reminded me a bit of Borges, although I suspect that comparison also sprang to mind because of the themes of reading and reality that underpin Mr. Blank's existence. In the long run, this book probably won't stick in my mind, but it provided a welcome diversion, and I'll certainly be more likely now to give the rest of Auster's novels a try.

Book 56 - Paul Auster "Travels in the Scriptorium"

Paul Auster "Travels in the Scriptorium" (Faber & Faber)




This was my second experience of Paul Auster and my appetite has certainly been whetted. More novella than a novel, this slim book tells the story of a day in the life of Mr. Blank. An old man, he sits in a sparsely furnished room with no idea of who he is or where he is. He can't tell whether he is a prisoner or a guest, and he is connected to the wider world only through the series of people who come to visit him. To say much more would be to risk giving things away. There is something very stylized about the action, in which every small gesture or action is faithfully recorded, but this doesn't bother me too much because Mr Blank is starting from scratch, almost, and everything may have significance. Perhaps the thing which I did find tiresome was Auster's emphasis on Mr. Blank's bodily functions, which I don't believe we need to know about in quite so much detail.

On the plus side, this is a quirky, clever story that simply presents a series of facts and leaves the reader to gradually draw their own conclusions. Although I might have found the knowing conceit a bit trying if it had lasted throughout a full-length novel, Auster gets away with it here. His blend of playfulness and pathos reminded me a bit of Borges, although I suspect that comparison also sprang to mind because of the themes of reading and reality that underpin Mr. Blank's existence. In the long run, this book probably won't stick in my mind, but it provided a welcome diversion, and I'll certainly be more likely now to give the rest of Auster's novels a try.

Just Wondering

What's the oddest thing you like to read on a regular basis?

What's the oddest thing you've ever collected (to date)?

What's the oddest museum you've ever been to?