Jazzy D's Soul Notes

Daniel Keyes "Flowers For Algernon" (Gollancz SF Masterworks)




Flowers for Algernon is an exploration of intelligence. In this book, scientists have developed a way to make mice super-intelligent. As their first human experiment, they take Charlie, an earnest but dim-witted man. Over the course of the book, written from the point of view of his diary, you see him become aware, begin to understand the intricacies of human behaviour, and then slowly surpass all those around him including the scientists who made him thus. It is only when the mice who were initially treated start to decline that the inevitable tragedy becomes apparent and he spends his last days in a race against time. This is in some ways a fictional Awakening where a promising treatment proves unsustainable.

The best element of the book is that it explores the social consequences of intelligence. Charlie is confused at first by the jealousies and offences he inadvertently creates. But he also has all of the arrogance and frustration that you see. Charlie shows Algernon that it doesn't take someone with high intelligence to treat anyone with love and respect. It is Charlie who sees that they are on display for everyone to see. It is after Algernon dies that Charlie takes upon his self to bury Algernon in a grave instead of being place in the lab's inferno. Even after Charlie loses his intelligence, he still remembers the one who helped him become like everyone else, even for a short while This book elegantly covers it all.

In certain ways, the author can't help but fail. How do you describe someone smarter than all the other beings you've ever known? Well, Charlie learns faster and has little patience for ignorance but he doesn't learn or interact in any particularly different ways. Having everything told in the first person becomes a problem when he's reached super-intelligence. Inevitably this is an inadequate description, but there's no better way to do it. I understand that this was initially a short story and I almost wish that I had read that instead of the novel. As a concept, it just fits a short story or novella but as a novel, Keyes gets trapped in trying to explain too much.

However , apart from the caveats, this is still a fascinating read.

Wow! I have just watched the most thrilling DVD starring Denzel Washington - Deja Vu This is exactly what he does.  It is an action thriler from  2006 with science fiction elements but is taut throughout the film. For those who want to konw what it is all about the link to wiki tells all (spoiler alert) but if you can rent it, Netfix it or whatever i highly recommend this well scripted drama.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9j%C3%A0_Vu_(2006_film)

So now we know that Agent Skye , aka Daisy, aka Quake, is an Inhuman how will the other agents consider her with her new found powers? Now that i have watched episode ten of the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D i cannot wait till the next episode after this mid season break.

Kurt Vonnegut "The Sirens Of Titan" (Gollancz SF Masterworks)




The Sirens of Titan blew me away. The plot is constantly twisting and turning and Vonnegut’s writing style is simply amazing. Vonnegut utilizes many different writing techniques from symbolism, metaphors, similes, repetition, and foreshadowing. I was constantly motivated to keep on reading because I never knew what exactly was going to happen next. At times one of the characters, Winston Niles Rumfoord who could travel through time and see the future, would give some insight on what was to happen or to come, however the details of how it happened or if it was true was not given and I had to keep reading to find out.

Vonnegut had an amazing ability to use metaphors and similes to help describe the environment in which the main characters were surrounded by. This was essential because without vivid details the reader would not be able to connect with the characters and understand the situations in which they were placed. The main character, Malachi Constant also known as Unk and the Space Wanderer, travels from Earth, which most readers are familiar with, to Mars and Titan of which I was not familiar with. Through Vonnegut’s vivid details I was able to see the surroundings perfectly. Another major writing technique that Vonnegut used was symbolism. Malachi Constant’s name throughout the book was a symbol itself and in my opinion the most important one. Vonnegut used Constant to mock society and how it was obsessed with material wealth. In the beginning when Malachi Constant is referred to as Constant he exemplifies how society is corrupted by material wealth. Then when Constant is referred to as Unk, Constant exemplifies how material wealth is not a necessity of life or society and that one can lead a productive life without material wealth. However I found that in the beginning when Malachi Constant was referred to as Constant and then when he was referred to as Unk he exemplified two different extremes. Then when Constant was referred to as the Space Wanderer he was the middle and a perfect balance of those two extremes, however one thing was still missing. That final missing piece came when Constant was sent off to the moon Titan with his son, Chrono, and mother of his son Beatrice who was also known as Bee.

The final missing piece for Constant was love. At the end of the book Constant finally gained the loved of Beatrice and was once again referred to as Malachi Constant. I believe that this symbolizes how Constant came full circle and in the end he learned and found what was really important, and thus the true meaning of life, in Vonnegut’s opinion.

What really impresses here is the early assertion of Vonnegut's trademark wit. He is really the 20th century Mark Twain, and seems to spear the same idiocy in our culture that Twain did in his day. This is book #2 in my quest to read the whole of Vonnegut's work within a year of his death.

Vonnegut sends up the whims of capitalism with the main character Malachi Constant, the richest man in the world. Constant is a playboy/bon vivant who, for reasons to be revealed, was born with the luck to maintain his lifestyle with very little effort on his part. At the beginning of the novel, he is summoned to the mansion of Winston Niles Rumfoord, the first man to fly a private rocket to Mars. Rumfoord is also, or so it’s understood, one of the last—having unwittingly flown into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, which effectively spread his (and his dog’s) existence throughout sort of a wormhole between the Sun and Betelgeuse. (Now you can start to imagine the types of conversations Garcia and Davis must have had.)

When Earth happens to transect the glitch, once every 59 days, Rumfoord and his dog materialize at the mansion for a short period of time where he alienates his wife, predicts the future (since he happens to actually be everywhere and when), and generally makes everyone uncomfortable. Vonnegut’s description of the first meeting of the two men is a good example of his wonderful use of language in this novel: “Winston Niles Rumfoord’s smile and handshake dismantled Constant’s high opinion of himself as efficiently as carnival roustabouts might dismantle a Ferris wheel.”

Granted, this all takes place within the first 20 pages or so. Rumfoord (and I couldn’t stop substituting Rumsfeld, especially when we begin to find out how his motives, while being altruistic from his viewpoint, are seriously fucked up) goes on to tell Constant that he will end up traveling to Mars, Mercury, Titan, and end up having a son with Mrs. Rumfoord. Awkward.

Vonnegut’s savaging of organized religion at the back end of this novel counterbalances his having peeled back the curtain hiding the machinations of the free market in the front. Along the way, Mars attacks, a shipwrecked alien manipulates all of human history in an attempt to get a part,

I enjoyed The Sirens of Titan very much. He was able to criticize the flaws of human society and attempt to answer questions deemed unanswerable. What makes him so great is the style in which he did it. He utilized many different writing techniques; he had amazing syntax and diction which molded the surroundings into perfect form for the reader.

I have been watching some very old Dr. Who programmes this morning , right to the beginning An Unearthly Child and the one which got wiped, well many episodes got wiped then, in particular The Web Planet which introduced the Zarbi and the Menoptera. At the time this was the most expensive production Verity Lambert's team had done. Looking at it now it seems so antiquated and shoddy, but then as a kid back in the early sixties it was terrifying.

I have started reading Larry Niven's classic science fiction novel "Ringworld". It has been one of those stories i have always wanted to read but never got round to. I just hope that the hype this book has received does not disappoint. I am currently half way through it.

The other classic SF novels i have on my reading list are -

Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens Of Titan
Olaf Stapledon - Star Maker
Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Philip K Dick - Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Daniel Keyes - Flowers For Algernon
Arthur C Clarke -The Fountains Of Paradise

So far, i am really enjoying the Niven book.

If you have four hours or so to spare i have found The Martian Chronicles (1980) starring Rock Hudson on You Tube here -

A visit to Canterbury and Deal today via Faversham and a few more beers on the way. One of the three visits was a charity shop and I picked up four books for a fiver -



So this time books on art, two plays by Tom Stoppard  and a classic science fiction novel.

Yesterday after a stint at the Office I popped over to the island to  Sheerness for another mystery shopping visit.




Whilst in the town on a very chilly windswept day i picked up two paperbacks from a charity shop for a quid.



"Paradise" by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Bloomsbury)
Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" (Vintage)

I also picked up a book of Exoplanets, these are those discovered around other stars and is a good overview of how they were discovered and the techniques used to identify them as such.


Posted off a couple of books today plus two CD's, one from my excursion to Bromley the previous week. Bought for a quid and sold for seven quid.

Today I am catching up with reading some of my books from my reading pile and listening to some jazz. The "z" on my laptop is misbehaving again as well so might have to get underneath the tab to see why it is so difficult sometimes to press it.

Addendum - fixed it

This morning my “Doctor Who And Philosophy” book arrived in the post. Over 400 pages of interesting philosophical ideas that underpin the series. Another good book to dip into.



Also from Play to come is “Dr. Who, The Unfolding Text” and “Timeless Adventure”.



Tomorrow in Sittingbourne at the Office and then over to Faversham.

After the imbroglio of the last week it was, with relief ,that I took flight to Faversham for some catharsis,specifically book buying and topping up of the pipe shag. Beforehand, I took the opportunity of playing some avant garde jazz on the music system, since cousin had to go to Sittingbourne. I picked out an Eddie Prevost Quartet CD “Continuum +” (Matchless) to listen and rediscover the plangent melange of sound created from studio and live recordings. The epiphenomenal cacophony of abstract sounds delineated the frustrations of the past week succinctly.

Bought four paperbacks today -

“Nova “ Samuel R. Delany (Gollancz)

The balance of galactic power in the 31st century revolves around Illyrion, the most precious energy source in the universe. The varied and exotic crew who sign up with Captain Lorq van Ray know their mission is dangerous, and they soon learn that they are involved in a deadly race with the charismatic but vicious leader of an opposing space federation. But they have no idea of Lorq's secret obsession: to gather Illyrion at source by flying through the very heart of an imploding star.




“Young Stalin” Simon Sebag Montefiore (Phoenix) , purchased for a mere 25p

Stalin remains one of the creators of our world - like Hitler, the personification of evil. Yet Stalin hid his past and remains mysterious. This enthralling biography that reads like a thriller finally unveils the secret but extraordinary journey of the Georgian cobbler's son who became the Red Tsar. What forms such a merciless psychopath and consummate politician? Was he illegitimate? Did he owe everything to his mother - was she whore or saint? Was he a Tsarist agent or Lenin's chief gangster? Was he to blame for his wife's premature death? If he really missed the 1917 Revolution, how did he emerge so powerful? Born in poverty, exceptional in his studies, this charismatic but dangerous boy was hailed as a romantic poet, trained as a priest, but found his mission as fanatical revolutionary. The secret world of Joseph Conrad-style terrorism was Stalin's natural habitat, where he charmed his future courtiers, made the enemies he later liquidated, and abandoned his many mistresses and children. Montefiore shows how the murderous paranoia and gangsterism of the criminal underworld, combined with pitiless ideology, taught Stalin how to triumph in the Kremlin




“Madam Bovary” Gustave Falubert (Penguin Classics)

Emma Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.






“Up The Walls Of The World” James Tiptree Jr. (Pan Books)

I had read this science fiction novel back in the late seventies. Years later I was delighted to find that I was correct in my assumption then that the author was a woman. "You have got to be kidding" I thought, reading the author biography on the dust jacket. It could only have been written by a woman - no man could possibly have perceived any world from that perceptive. I found the threads of psychic humans picking up the desperate telepathic cries for help of flying aliens great fun especially as the offspring of said aliens were raised by the males of the species - child-rearing being much to important to the race for it to be left to females. I ask you, what man in 1978 would have come up with that concept?

This is a pacey read and a great deal more optimistic than many of Tiptree's short stories. It has all the pizazz of her writing before she was outed as Alice Sheldon after which a certain fire seemed to have gone out. Perhaps the anonymity of the alias together with the buzz from the fact that this "guy" was so highly praised in the SF world were energising factors in her creative life. At least the derogatory attitudes then aimed at women writers in the genre were further dismantled by the discovery of her real identity. Too much egg on too many faces to retract.

This novel which has never been easy to find (I've never seen it in a bookshop till today) is well worth a read, it's a milestone if not a classic. Praise must go to Past Sentence for having a copy.




Reading science fiction again seems to be a recent idee fixe of mine, having just finished reading “A Scanner Darkly” by Philip K Dick as well as having an omnibus of short stories by the same author.

I also have started reading another Le Carre novel from the library "Call of The Dead" featuring the author's alter ego George Smiley.