T.S. Eliot

“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.”

• -T.S. Eliot

“Philip Massinger” (1920 essay)

Often misquoted with an attribution to Picasso, as “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” The sentiment remains the same.

• Pink Cake

Pink Cake

Fall

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell – Neal Stephenson

The biggest problem, other than the sheer size of the tomes themselves? I can come across as such a fan boy for this author’s work. But as a whole, and in places, it is considerate, well-thought out, and surpassingly nimble despite the epic proportions.

“His was a soul lacking any built-in adult supervision.” Page 34.

Always a turn of a phrase, poetic, so much information in short spaces.

There’s an element — two by the end of the first section — in part, it’s such a rich history that wends through a number of the author’s previous work, but then, too, it’s his delightful prose, somewhat stylized, and razor sharp.

“Crazytown was repelled by facts and knowledge, as oil fled from water, but was fascinated by the absence of hard facts, since it provided vacant space in which to construct elaborate edifices of speculation.” Page 267.

Yeah, we know that place. Some of us lived there.

• Sidebar: book called Hardwired, author —

There was a scenario from part way through, and I realized what it sounded like, the old world version of novel I last read some years ago. Hardwired is one of the great novels in the understanding of the myth of America and what our future might appear to be.

As I was reading, think the author is a Pluto-in-Virgo Scorpio, I had to marvel at a possible layer of satire, leavened in sandwich style. Or not.

Portions of my childhood were spent cruising up and down the bulk of the Louisiana Purchase, which echoes part of the background for some of the settings. The American West, the land of myth and mystery, lore, and not much more?

“Enoch seemed to take it as a cue to shift gears. “Suppose all of that comes to pass, Sophia, and you get that job and embark on that career. Twenty years from now, how will you know if you have succeeded?” Page 428.

I wrote a post about the up and coming 25 years of weekly horoscopes. Not where I thought I would be 25 years ago?

Good books have any number of sidebar items, why I am a fan boy of this author’s work, and I think linguists — language arts — where it all starts. After all, language is nothing more than an operating system for the brain, right?

Sidebar redux: There is no cloud.

Fall

Some years back, I had a rather sophomoric attempt at a novel. Successful as an exercise, but narrative that never took form. I let it be; doubt that are any fragments left. When the inevitable starts to occur in this novel, I was left wondering if that was what I was attempting, back then.

Moral, and metaphysical, issues open up, makes one wonder.

The term “Space Opera” came to mind, the sprawling epics from literary past?

Or a game, I played, on a computer, early years. Back when the graphics on a Mac were suddenly “advanced” compared to any other options. Yes, game that ran away with processes. Using a cheat, made it better. Much like that. Eerily reminiscent, I would suppose.

“Far outside the bounds of legit peer-reviewed research. More of a performance art project.” Page 521.

Where I find my work, and pause, think about it, much of cutting edge tech.

“It was a little bit like the world’s adoption of the Internet, which had started with a few nerds and within decades become so ubiquitous that no person under thirty could really grasp what life had been like before you could Google everything.” Page 569.

As solid an analogy as any? Don’t know if it will stand up to time, but certainly topical.

Getting to the end? Reminded me:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Arthur C. Clarke’s (Third) Law (circa 1940)

Fall

Cover Image

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell – Neal Stephenson

Work of the Devil

Simply put?

“It is the Work of the Devil.”

99 Cent Books

99 cent bookstore, it’s just a test. An idea, and frankly, one I am pleased with, as I have always found that the “pulp” price of 99 cents is a good deal.

I have a couple of “collectible” paperbacks, yellowed pages, ink sharp against the acidic pages, frail like ancient manuscripts, and merely 50 or so years old.

The mass-market paperback editions were priced from 95 cents to $1.95, with a buck and quarter being the most common.

Locally, a digital imprint that’s priced at 99 cents costs $1.07 with tax. Your mileage may vary, depending on location.

99-cent: It’s a price that I can live with, although, with the commission and marketing structure, I think I only see about 30% of that price. The advantages should be obvious, as I carry no inventory, handle no cash or charges, and don’t bear the burden of commerce.

When I set that up, the 99-cent price point thrilled me.

Further details about titles, printed versions, and even more works?

astrofish.net/books

Virgo Display

The Sun moves into the Tropical Zodiac Sign of Virgo (The Virgin) August 22, around 10:45 AM — and this means?

Looking at the cards from my EDC Tarot?

The suit is disks, an earth element, and it comes at the end — 8, 9, 10. Prudence, Gain, Wealth.

Two other cards play with this idea, though, because Mercury, putative planet for Virgo? Its card is the Magician, buzzing all over the place, spreading good-will (and disinformation). Balance of good and bad?

The card symbolism Virgo itself? The Hermit. The Hermit, in this case is chased by Cerberus, the original “hound of hell,” with his three heads, nipping at the heels of the Virgo. In the lantern, supposedly, is the light of spirit, whatever that is, guiding the Hermit.

Virgo Display

Virgo is an earth sign and mutable sign, and is associated with the 6th House in Astrology. While there’s always a strong healing influence in Virgo there’s also that nattering, nothing was quite perfect enough sense.

“You could say something nice about Virgo, for a change.”

The cards, as displayed spell out a certain solution, Prudence, even now, leads to Gain that leads to Wealth. The Magician has to work alone, though, as symbolized by the Hermit.

“See? Never anything nice about Virgo! Like the hounds of hell themselves are after me!”

Excavating a text

• The Expendable Man

“Los Angels to Phoenix, 5 hours, 8 minutes” what my phone’s map said. The opening scene for The Expendable Man is set along that stretch. Remembering, digging into my own memories, a van, half-full because we sold out of tapes, actually, I think I did that trip at least twice, highway east from LA back to Phoenix. Strange recollection spurred by an antiquated suggestion from the venerable (something something) review of books, I think titled, rereading the classics.

Or something like that.

Excavating a text

Excavating a text is taking time to dig into older novels, perhaps not “classically” classics, but worthy of note.

There was a time, as the novel sets up its plot, when metropolitan areas enjoyed printed new coverage, with both a morning edition paper, then an evening edition, usually branded separately. Two cities where I spent formative years, when newspapers still were viable, vetted sources, had the healthy morning and evening new rivals.

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• The Expendable Man
• The Expendable Man