The Friday 56: The Stand

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

I was re-reading The Stand by Stephen King before The Golden City was released so I went back to it when I finished. Here's this week's 56:

Frannie, you've no business having such an old man for a father, but I can't help it. I never married until 1956.

hmmmm, why have all my 56 from such fascinating books been so boring lately?

The Golden City by John Twleve Hawks

The Golden City is the third and final installment in John Twelve Hawks' trilogy The Fourth Realm. If you've missed my previous discussions on these books, you can see them here and here.

Before I get into the actual review of this book, I have to say I waited a very long time for it. I know, there are people who waited something like 15 years for Stephen King to finish The Dark Tower series, so I guess I should count myself lucky. AND, I started this series long after I started Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and I'm STILL waiting for that ending so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. At least Hawks didn't die before finishing! But I feel like I've waited even longer for this last book because it seemed so important in a way that other fiction doesn't. These books opened my eyes to the craziness around us. Yes, this is fiction but the technology he talks about is real. These terrible things that the Vast Machine uses to control people in this series are things that are actually being used today. I won't go all crazy talking about that again. My first post on this series pretty much says all I wanted to say on that.

I also started this book later than I wanted. I wanted to re-read the other two books before this one came out in order to remind myself of any parts of the plot I had forgotten. I had loaned a friend The Traveler and didn't get it back until the day before The Golden City was released. Then, I had to deal with fleas in the house. Oh, what a joy. That took a lot of time to wash everything and the dogs and I am still not sure they're completely gone. YUCK! Then, I got the flu and didn't feel like reading. So, all this waiting and anticipating can build an excitement for a book that can either make it all the more wonderful or a big let down. This was not a let down.

I think Hawks has grown as a writer since the first book. His style is the same but there is more flow between passages. I have no idea if this really was his first book as is claimed but if he was already an accomplished writer like some have speculated, I don't think this growth would have been obvious. If you're confused by that statement, then you're not aware that no one really knows who John Twelve Hawks is. His name is a pen name and he never makes appearances. All interviews and online commentary are through a third party and he claims to live off the grid. I wasn't aware of this when I first picked up The Traveler. I simply saw an interesting book at the store and decided to read it. I was so blown away by the ideas presented in it that I began looking for more information. There are whole sites dedicated to discussing who he might be. In the older posts Dan Brown seems to be the major contender but I read a lot of Dan Brown's books and unless he's REALLY good at changing his style, I don't think that's it. Plus, he also just released a book. Not likely. Some other interesting candidates were J.K. Rowling, Michael Cunnigham, and Stephen Hawking. I'm intrigued by the Rowling suggestion. What better way to fend off the naysayers if you want to put out something completely different than what you're known for. However, I don't buy it either. I think my favorite is the Stephen Hawking suggestion. I'm not sure where this idea came from but it's a wonderful one, even if it's not true. I don't really care though. If Hawks wants to be mysterious and never show himself, I say so be it as long as he gives me another wonderful novel.

The Fourth Realm series is centered around Maya and Gabriel. Maya is a wayward Harlequin. She was born into the life and taught by her father from a very young age to fight, be independent, and avoid being a part of mainstream society in order to best protect the Travelers. The Travelers are people who are able to leave their bodies and travel to one of 5 other dimensions (or realms). Gabriel is just learning in the first book that he is a Traveler. Along with his brother Michael, he has inherited this gift from his father. The Traveler mainly introduced these characters and showed us the power of the Vast Machine. Gabriel and Michael early on chose different sides in the conflict. The conflict appears to be almost over by our time. The people in power behind the governments are a group called the Brethren. They have over time amassed a great deal of power and lead the world quietly without ever being detected by the majority of the population. Travelers come into every generation and learn from their travels to other realms. They see the world in a different way and are able to lead people toward true freedom. I imagine if travelers were real then the ones from the last century would be people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and John Lennon. Obviously this makes this a threat to the vision the Brethren have for the world and they have been hunted throughout time. Until now. Now Michael has joined their team.

I think one of the most interesting aspects of these books is the 6 different realms, which Hawks borrowed from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The First Realm is a type of Hell, or Hades, or whatever you want to call it. It is a place where violence is constant and a way of life. The Second Realm is the place of the Hungry Ghosts, where the people can never be satisfied. The Third Realm is the forest of animals. No humans live here and it is speculated that this mirrors the biblical Eden. The Fourth Realm is where we live. The Fifth Realm is a place of the half-gods where the dominant trait is jealousy. And the Sixth is the realm of the gods where the dominant trait is pride.

During The Traveler we are given a chance to experience the Second Realm. The First is prevalent throughout The Dark River and The Golden City. In The Golden City Michael meets the half-gods and is shown by them how to manipulate the governments of the world to take over. By this time he is truly one of the bad guys. It seemed to me that the Sixth Realm was a version of what our world would be if we don't wake up and demand our rights not be taken away "for our own good." Both he and Gabriel briefly visit the Third Realm and I wish they had spent more time exploring. Maybe it would have dragged the book a little but I feel this was the most beautiful Realm. It sounds like a place I would like to visit. Gabriel also gets a surprise when he finally makes it to the Golden City in the Sixth Realm.

I think Hawks did a good job of wrapping up the story in this book while still leaving us wanting more. On his site he answers questions from his fans. In response to one about this book, he said he can't answer questions that would have spoilers. But he also put in this tidbit that I'd like to leave you with. I think it sums it all up nicely:

In general, I can say that those characters that are alive at the end of the trilogy are going to continue those lives.
At the end of The Golden City, the implication should be that what happens is up to all of us (myself included). Are you going to defend your own freedom? How will you stand against the Vast Machine?

The Friday 56: The Dark River

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Ok, Last week's was The Traveler and this week's comes from The Dark River. Seriously not done on purpose (or maybe it was...), it's just the closest to me because I finished it last night and finally started on The Golden City. YAYYYYY! The whole reason I re-read these other two is because it's been so long and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything while reading the new one. I'm a little disappointed in this week's 56 though. It does sum up the book fairly well but it's simply a boring passage, describing events that have already taken place.

The Tabula mercenaries came searching for us, but they only explored the main level.

Audio: Twenties Girl

Once again I chose a chick-lit book for my car driving entertainment. I am actually liking Sophie Kinsella's books, against my better judgement! I still don't think it's the kind of thing I would want to sit down and read on my couch when I feel like being taken away by a book, but I really like listening to them in the car.

Lara is a 27-year-old head hunter trying to make a go of her new business, which she started with her flaky best friend. The best friend who ran off to the tropics with some man and left her holding down the fort. The best friend who actually knows something about being a head hunter, unlike Lara who has never worked in the business before. In the midst of this Lara is required to attend the funeral of her 107 year great aunt. While there, Lara hears a strange woman screaming, "WHERE'S MY NECKLACE!" Oddly enough, it turns out to be the ghost of Sadie, her recently deceased great aunt. You know, the one they're having the funeral for...The story is a hilarious journey to find Sadie's necklace and the changes she brings to Lara life.

Personally, I think this is Kinsella's best book yet. The Shopaholic series really did nothing for me, though I enjoyed the movie. Domestic Goddess and Remember Me? were pretty good but I simply don't think they hold a candle to this book. Lara's growing relationship with the great aunt she never met when she was alive is hilarious and beautiful. The capers they get into are just ridiculous, but not unbelievably so. This is a definite must read for someone looking for a fun book.

Short Stories: Brainworms

I took so long getting this posted today because I 1) have a migraine that's going to kill me and 2) wanted to give you a little more than just more Oliver Sacks. First I'll start with the Sacks because it's actually interesting

This comes from Chapter 5 of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes. Maybe I should explain what Sacks means about Brainworms before I lose everyone! Here's the sentence that explains it best:

Many people are set off by the theme of music of a film or television show or an advertisement. This is not coincidental, for such music is designed, in the terms of the music industry, to "hook" the listener, to be "catchy" or "sticky," to bore its way, like an earwig, into the ear or mind; hence the term "earworms" - though one might be inclined to call them "brianworms" instead.

This one was fun to read because who hasn't had this happen? We have all at one point be driven insane by some snippet of music stuck in our heads, whether we even liked the song or not. But I'll bet you've never had it happen for 43 years straight and felt locked inside yourself by it. This is what happened to one of Sacks Parkinson's patients described in his more well known book Awakenings. He says, "seven pairs of notes (the fourteen notes of Povero Rigoletto)...would repeat themselves irresistibly in her mind. She also spoke of these forming "a musical quadrangle" who four sides she would have to perambulate, mentally, endlessly. This might go on for hours on end, and did so at intervals throughout the entire 43 years of her illness, prior to being "awakened" by L-dopa."

Sacks talks of some ways people have found for getting rid of this problem, such as singing the song to it's actual conclusion (which I've heard of but never seems to work for me, I just get another part of the same song stuck in my head) or singing another song purposefully (of course then THIS may become stuck too!).

He gives an interesting theory, which I'll leave you to ponder, of the possible evolutionary reason for this phenomenon.

It may be that brainworms, even if maladaptive in our own music-saturated culture, stem from an adaptation that was crucial in earlier hunter-gatherer days: replaying the sounds of animals moving or other significant sounds again and again, until their recognition was assured.

The next short story is a real short story. I'll leave Sacks where he belongs for now, in my head! hahaha. It comes from Orson Scott Card's Keeper of Dreams, which I bought a year ago at his book signing. Yes, it's signed! It says, "To Tonya, A fellow dreamer," probably a common statement but one I enjoyed nonetheless. This story The Elephants of Poznan.

It is set in the future, as most of his books and stories are. It is in Poland after a devastating plague has not only killed most of the human population but also left them sterile. I'll start with the opening paragraph because I think it conveys so much:

In the heart of old Poznan, the capital of Great Poland since ancient times, there is a public square called Rynek Glowny. The houses around it aren't as lovely as those of Krakow, but they have been charming painted and there is a faded graciousness that wins the heart. The plaza came through World War II more or less intact, but the Communist governement apparently could not bear the thought of so much wasted space. What use did it have? Public squares were for public demonstrations, and once the Communists had seized control on behalf of the people, people, public demonstrations would never be needed again. So out in the middle of the square they built a squat, ugly building in a brutally modern style. It sucked the life out of the place. You had to stand with your back to it in order to truly enjoy the square.

Now I'm not sure if he is exaggerating or if the pictures I found simply didn't show the building he's talking about, but I thought it was beautiful!
This is an interesting story. After the plague, the elephants come to Poznan. The have journeyed from Africa and everyone is a little confused as to what they are doing here. Shortly afterward, a family comes to Poznan. The mother, father, and daughter came through the plague together, though they lost their two sons. Miraculously, the daughter is fully healthy and the parents believe she may be able to conceive. Since she is the only hope of the human race to survive, she agrees to an experiment of sleeping with one man every three months (in order to know which man is fertile). The narrator of the story turns out to be that man. Shortly after his son is born, he begins focusing on the elephants and why they seem to be watching the people, almost as if they are conducting an experiment...

I would love to tell the whole story but it would be the same! Please read this wonderful story!

The Traveler: an excerpt and discussion

I talked about this and the second book, The Dark River, in John Twelve Hawks series The Fourth Realm a little bit last year. The third book came out this week and I will be reading it as soon as I finish the second book again. These books have made a big impact on me and I hope anyone who has ever been interested in politics, REAL privacy, and freedom brought about by activism not war will read these books.

I won't spend the time reviewing them again since you can read that other review here if you're interested.

Instead I'd like to discuss an interesting passage that I either didn't really think about last time I read it or forgot about in the larger scheme of the novel. One of the smaller characters in the book is a neuroscientist, Dr. Richardson, who's world gets turned upside down when he is introduced to the existence of the Travelers, Harlequins, and Tabula. Before this though, he gives a lecture on the non-existence of God. I got the impression from the description of this man that he is based on Richard Dawkins who wrote The God Delusion, but I might be wrong about that. I'm about to quote quite heavily from this part of the book in order for you to understand my argument. He says:

For the last decade, I have studied the neurological basis of the human spiritual experience. I assembled a sample group of individuals who frequently meditated or prayed, then injected them with a radioactive tracer whenever they felt they were in direct connection with God and the infinite universe. The results are as follows...

When the person prays, the prefrontal cortex is focused on the words. Meanwhile the superior parietal lobe at the top of the brain has gone dark. The left lobe processes information about our position in space and time. It gives us the idea that we have a distinct physical body. When the parietal shuts down, we can no longer distinguish between our self and the rest of the world. As a result, the subject believes that he or she is in contact with with the timeless and infinite power of God. It feels like a spiritual experience, but it's really just a neurological illusion...

The individual having a religious vision is actually reacting to flashes of neurological stimulation in the temporal lobe...In order to duplicate the experience, I've taped electromagnets onto the skulls of my experimental volunteers and have created a weak magnetic field. All of the subjects reported an out-of-body sensation and a feeling that they were in direct contact with a divine power.

Ok, if you read all of that you're now primed for my argument and (hopefully) will even have some arguments of your own to either add to mine or dispute mine. I realize this is fiction and these studies are probably not real, however I have heard this argument from scientists before; most notable Richard Dawkins. I like Dawkins' work, I find it intriguing. I do not, however, agree with everything he says. So, taking into account this is fiction, I'm working from the premise that there are people that do believe this and I am making my argument to that.

My first thought when I began reading this was bull****. When I eat I will have brain activity that can be shown on scans. That does not mean the food is a figment of my imagination. When I hear music, I will also have brain activity that will show up on brain scans. Again, the music is not a figment of my imagination. I can cite a dozen similar examples but I think you get the point. If these people he was studying showed no change in their brain activity when in the midst of their out-of-body experiences or connections to God, then he would probably show that as evidence that they were making it all up. The reason? Because if there is no change in brain activity then nothing different from the ordinary is taking place. Clearly he is proving that SOMETHING different from the ordinary is taking place. I am not going to get into a religious discussion. I've done that before on here and it was fun. I enjoy talking about the differences and similarities in religion in my personal life too. Joseph Campbell is one of my favorite writers. What I want to say is that I think a study like this proves the experience was real, not the other way around. In fact, what if it is necessary to have this particular brain activity in order to have the experience? Some of the Eastern philosophies believe that you must have certain physical conditions met before you can achieve a spiritual goal. That's why meditation is so important. It is also why people sing and pray at church, it puts them in a certain mind frame. It is why some people fast for long periods of time. The group-ness of it helps too. Having people around who are experiencing the same thing you are, makes it easier to enter that physical space in order to achieve the spiritual goal. I believe this may be one reason why Christians (and even those groups before them) originally needed to gather in one place. So, when the scientist in the book creates the physical experience, maybe the subjects really did have a spiritual experience.

Please, I would love opinions on this!

Friday 56: The Traveler

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Hey! Don't forget to try my Jane Austen Quiz!

The third book in John Twelve Hawks series, The Fourth Realm, just came out and I'm re-reading the first two so I can get the maximum experience from the third book. I've been waiting a long time for it and am VERY excited! So here's this week's 56 from The Traveler:

"What did she say to you?"
"She told me she's going to die."

Jane Austen Trivia

I just created a Jane Austen Trivia Quiz on Facebook. Come check it out and tell if you think it's too easy, too hard, just right, or just plain silly. You can also click on the fan page on the right side bar of my blog. Have fun and Happy Quizzing!

Friday 56: Musicophilia

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Well I haven't gotten back into my blog as much as I thought I would but to be fair school did just start again and I have been working a lot more than I was over the summer. This week's selection is from Musicophilia because it just stayed next to the computer after I wrote about it last time on the Short Stories. I know, that's terrible. Oh well, what I can say?

Mrs. C was fond of Charles Ives and another worry she had was that she might have "an Ives hallucination."