2012 notes
Tales of Neveryon
Notes:
An epic fantasy where there is so much more going on than at first glance. The stories in this collection float around Gorgik, a slave who is freed from hard labor through a sexual dalliance with a noble woman, and eventually becomes a revolutionary figure. But along the way, there are stories about what happens to relations between men and women when money takes over in a gift/barter economy, the cultural forms that build up during class formation in state societies, and all other fascinating anthropological processes. In fact, it’s clear that Delany has read (or had, at the time) the major anthropological and archaeological works on state formation, literacy, and ““stone age economics””. As such, I (as an anthropologist) really enjoyed it, but I wonder how it would read to someone who didn’t recognize some of the common themes. Still, it’s a fascinating collection, and well worth reading as a classic piece of fantasy fiction.
Elric: The Stealer of Souls
Notes:
I finished this a week or so ago, and quite liked it. It collects the first Elric stories, and though it initially seems like they are unconnected narratives, by the end of the collection, you realize that there had been an arc to all of it. This is epic fantasy, in the tradition of Tolkien, Howard, and Leiber, but it’s ethically much murkier than any of those authors. The main character is the last of his people, having killed them all in an attempt to regain the throne. In the process, he also kills the woman he loves. He is driven to do this because the sword he wields, Stormbringer, requires human souls as sustenance, and gives Elric some of its power when it consumes them. Without the sword, he is weak and feeble, but the sword’s drive to slake its thirst makes him do things that he finds repellent.
The prose is wild and Romantic, and the world that Moorcock built is dynamic and interesting. I feel echoes of this book in so much modern fantasy that I’ve read (these stories were published in the 1960s) that it’s hard for me to see it as the groundbreaking work that it was. No one could ever say that the heroes of the Lord of the Rings were ethically suspect, and while Conan is kind of a jerk, he always winds up doing what’s right, in the end. For Elric, and the characters that Moorcock created, not only does he do awful things, but the consequences of those awful things are realized, and become points of drama.
Griftopia
Notes:
One of the scariest books I’ve read in a long time. Too bad it’s journalism, not fiction. Taibbi writes with energy and hysterical anger, and isn’t afraid to call a spade “a spade” (there’s a chapter chronicling the life and times of Alan Greenspan called “The Biggest Asshole in the Universe.")
But this style really works when he is explaining the bank and insurance mechanisms whose collapse led to the current economic crisis, and the government policies that allowed those mechanisms to exists (or did nothing to regulate them). I think I finally understand what a Collateralized Debt Obligation and a Credit Default Swap are. He even explained the basic stock concept of short-selling in a way that made sense. That clear explanation is the real strength of this book, and you’ll come away with a much better understanding of the confusing and complex nature of high financial markets.
Though he is critical of bankers, Taibbi doesn’t seem like some kind of bleeding heart liberal. He vents most of his venom at Democrats, who he argues are just as responsible for the current economic crisis as republicans. And his chapter on the passage of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) is an amazing description of how moneyed interests transform ostensible “reforms” into payouts for themselves. He doesn’t offer any solutions to any of this, and the book ends up being pretty bleak. Still, he explains everything clearly, and paints a stark picture of the state of the economy, US policy-makers, and the cozy relationships they maintain to this day.
The Croning
Notes:
I just finished this earlier today, and have been turning it over in my head since. So what follows may change as I think more on it. Also, let me preface by saying that I am a huge fan of Barron’s short story collections “The Imago Sequence” and “Occultation”.
Barron writes in the tradition of Lovecraft, about cosmic horror, and humans trapped by powers they cannot control or even really impact. But the big difference is in style–Lovecraft’s prose is all explosive adjectives and wild descriptions, but Barron goes in the opposite direction. His writing has an extreme economy to it, which reaches almost Hemingway-like proportions. And, along with this economy in prose, I have always enjoyed Barron’s allusions to the horrors he writes about, rather than outright explanation. He implies terror and sketches the edges of it, but doesn’t fill in. And of course, this makes it that much scarier for the reader.
The plot centers around geologist Donald Miller and his anthropologist wife Michelle Mock. The plot begins with a re-telling of Rumpelstillskin (yeah, the fairy tale) that is equal parts funny and unnerving, then moves into the various creepy vignettes from Don’s life heighten the tension. The story jumps across time, when they are young, middle-aged, and quite old. Events in Donald’s life gradually take on a heightened and frightful significance, even as his frequent memory-loss washes that significance away. What becomes clear is that, through his wife and her family, Donald is privy to a horrifying invasion of our world by creatures called “The Children of Old Leech”. These creatures (or references to them) have appeared in other Barron short stories as well. Barron’s gift for allusion and implication make the first half a very tense and creepy read.
But I found myself disappointed by the ending of ““The Croning””. I won’t spoil it, but suffice it to say, Barron essentially writes a complete description of the mythology of Old Leech that he’s been building in his short stories. By the end we know exactly what has been chasing Donald this whole time, what its motives are, and even a (admittedly difficult) way to defeat it, or at least check it. And that just took all the thrill out of it for me. The ending was satisfying, and the first half of the book is quite good, even if it drags in a few places (long descriptions of Don’s relations with colleagues, friends, and Michelle’s family felt a bit tedious). But the thorough (and in my mind, unnecessary) explanation of the Children of Old Leech and their abilities just felt like giving away the store.
I still like Barron’s work, and will continue to recommend his short story collections, but I feel like having the length of the novel made Barron feel that he had to fill it with too much information about his subjects, and that ultimately detracted from the ““frightful things”” he had created.
