I just read Margaret Atwood's "Oryx
and Crake" in one sitting, something I find rather embarrassing.
I'm usually embarrassed when I get hooked by a story, because, as a
master of literature, I know very well that gripping stories rarely
coincide with the type of writing that an educated individual ought
to enjoy. But what the hell, I'm anonymous here, and I feel like
talking about "Oryx and Crake", whether my undergrad
advisor would have found it "intellectually stimulating" or not.
You see, it had several things going for it from the outset. Number one, it was post-apocalyptic, and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. The old, tired last-human-on-earth-struggling-to-survive image gets me every time, ever since I stole my dad's copy of "Earth Abides" as a kid. It always seems to promise to get to the heart of the matter, to reveal something essential about what it is to be human, which is odd for a creature we hear over and over is a "social animal". Maybe it's because I'm an autistic introverted misanthrope with social anxiety? I don't know, but I know I love a good dystopia, where all the nastiness of humanity can burn itself out and maybe, if we're lucky, leave a gem among the ashes. Or something like that. I'm a reader, not a writer, ok?
So anyway, that brings me to the other thing that grabbed me: there are people with Asperger's in the book (among whom is title character Crake). Apparently Atwood did a bit of research, because they use the term "neurotypical" or "NT". Still, these aspies are very nearly your basic evil geniuses, devoid of empathy, viewing humans as cattle and blah, blah, blah, except that (and again, this may be an autistic reading) they are actually somewhat sympathetic. The world they live in is degenerate, violent, tawdry and soulless. Crake's desire to put an end to this world and replace it with a better is understandable. Even his friend Snowman, neurotypical that he is, seems to understand and, perhaps, work to realize Crake's vision in the end. I'll avoid a spoiler here, but he is left in position to pass judgment on humanity, and, as the curtain falls, that judgment passes to the reader. Very nice, actually. I enjoyed some of the symbolism: the "whuff" of air, the rakunk, the parrot, and the snowman (which, unfortunately, was spoiled when Atwood felt the need to explain it). Sometimes the writing seemed too self-conscious, but at best it was vivid and intense. I enjoyed it. But I'm embarrassed by this, because if I learned one thing in school, it's that books that keep you turning pages are never good.
Oh well.
On an unrelated note, you can participate in an interesting-looking study on word association through a link found here:
You see, it had several things going for it from the outset. Number one, it was post-apocalyptic, and I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. The old, tired last-human-on-earth-struggling-to-survive image gets me every time, ever since I stole my dad's copy of "Earth Abides" as a kid. It always seems to promise to get to the heart of the matter, to reveal something essential about what it is to be human, which is odd for a creature we hear over and over is a "social animal". Maybe it's because I'm an autistic introverted misanthrope with social anxiety? I don't know, but I know I love a good dystopia, where all the nastiness of humanity can burn itself out and maybe, if we're lucky, leave a gem among the ashes. Or something like that. I'm a reader, not a writer, ok?
So anyway, that brings me to the other thing that grabbed me: there are people with Asperger's in the book (among whom is title character Crake). Apparently Atwood did a bit of research, because they use the term "neurotypical" or "NT". Still, these aspies are very nearly your basic evil geniuses, devoid of empathy, viewing humans as cattle and blah, blah, blah, except that (and again, this may be an autistic reading) they are actually somewhat sympathetic. The world they live in is degenerate, violent, tawdry and soulless. Crake's desire to put an end to this world and replace it with a better is understandable. Even his friend Snowman, neurotypical that he is, seems to understand and, perhaps, work to realize Crake's vision in the end. I'll avoid a spoiler here, but he is left in position to pass judgment on humanity, and, as the curtain falls, that judgment passes to the reader. Very nice, actually. I enjoyed some of the symbolism: the "whuff" of air, the rakunk, the parrot, and the snowman (which, unfortunately, was spoiled when Atwood felt the need to explain it). Sometimes the writing seemed too self-conscious, but at best it was vivid and intense. I enjoyed it. But I'm embarrassed by this, because if I learned one thing in school, it's that books that keep you turning pages are never good.
Oh well.
On an unrelated note, you can participate in an interesting-looking study on word association through a link found here:
"On average, an adult knows about 40,000 words. Researchers in psychology and linguistics are interested in how these words are represented mentally. In this large-scale study we aim to build a network that captures this knowledge by playing the game of word associations. "
Neuroskeptic associated several words with "pain". Me? I repeatedly associated words with "sex".
Word association is fun!
I'm reminded of a website I found years ago (and referred to in a bullshit essay about Borges):
Now there is a database of word associations, and a degenerate and tawdry one at that. But what are words without their associations? They are like naked, lonely NTs wandering a post-apocalyptic beach, slowly dying of infected wounds. Or maybe like references with no point. Or blogs without readers.
Well, 'til next time. I'm probably going to talk about the Hobbit movie (before I see it). I may imitate the bigwigs at The Tolkienist & try to convince the masses to read the book before seeing the film. A futile task, most likely. I'm told Tolkien is too slow-paced and dry for today's young'uns (which brings to mind another fun dystopia).
No comments:
Post a Comment