Posted 8:39 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Sublime?

Bridalveil Fall as seen from Tunnel View in Yosemite. I believe that this post could be used to cure insomnia.

Bridalveil Fall
Yosemite, Aug. 1995

In his essay, "Men Without Chests", C.S. Lewis illustrates his theme with an example about a waterfall. A couple of English teachers, writing in a children's textbook, had taken the poet Samuel Coleridge to task for something he'd written: Two tourists view a waterfall. One pronounces it "sublime". The other declares it is "pretty". Coleridge sides with the first tourist, and is disgusted by the second.

The textbook writers go on to say that what Coleridge really meant was that the waterfall made him feel sublime, and warn against confusing our feelings about a thing with properties of the thing itself.

Out of this thin thread Lewis weaves a shroud for humanity. No! he insists! The waterfall is sublime! To deny the sublimity of the waterfall is to reduce everything to the status of opinion. Taken to a really silly extreme, this will lead to men who are afraid to assert the intrinsic sublimity of waterfalls, or the truth of anything, at all, ever.

Sorry, perfesser. The waterfall is merely channeled water meeting a steep gradient in terrain. The "sublime" is the part the viewer contributes.

Now, I know that there will be those who jump up and down shouting, "But Lewis was right! Today we are afraid of asserting the truth of our own truths! The value of our own values!" Speak for yourselves, o hollow men.

I was wondering just what exactly Coleridge had said, and tried to google it up. But nearly every hit was referring to the Lewis essay. Except one.

Not the unabashed assertion of truths here. Try not to let your eyes roll completely out of your head as you read of the continual affront to women depicted as spectators at various events, forced to endure male companionship and even conversation.

Anyhow, here Luke Gibbons quotes from Coleridge's On the Principles of Genial Criticism:

Many years ago, the writer, [i.e. Coleridge -- AS] in company with an accidental party of travellers, was gazing on a cataract of great height, breadth, and impetuosity, the summit of which appeared to blend with the sky and the clouds, while the lower part was hidden in rocks and trees; and on his observing that it was, in the strictest sense of the word, a sublime object, a lady present assented with warmth to the remark, adding - 'Yes! And it is not only sublime, but beautiful and absolutely pretty!

I put it to you that "absolutely pretty" is no fitting judgment for the waterfall that Coleridge describes, and that he was merely lamenting the poverty of the woman's vocabulary. (And I assert this value judgment as fact, as Lewis would've wanted.) From that tiny seed did Lewis's hollow men grow, as well as Gibbons's assertion that the anecdote -- this is "clear" -- means that the female gaze is no match for the sublime, and must express itself in flippant and trivial terms.

There, now. Are you asleep yet?

Labels: California, Foto Friday

Posted 2:11 PM by Angie Schultz

Comet Alert!

From Space Weather:

Astronomers in Japan, Persia and Europe report that Comet 17P/Holmes is undergoing a spectacular eruption. The 17th magnitude comet has brightened by a factor of five hundred thousand or more during the past 24 hours becoming a naked-eye object in the evening sky. Look for a yellow 2.5th magnitude fuzzball in the constellation Perseus after sunset...
The outburst may signify a breakup of the comet's core or a rich vein of ice suddenly exposed to sunlight--no one knows. At present the comet looks more like a star than a comet; it does not have a discernable tail, but it might grow one as the outburst continues.

[my emphasis] [Persia??] More, including a pic, at the link. Not too spectacular now, but stay tuned.

Posted 10:49 AM by Angie Schultz

Matthew Hughes: Shameless Promotion

One seldom has the opportunity I have now -- to do a good deed for the richly deserving, and in return get a chance at sweet, succulent loot. In this case, it's the best booty of all: books.

UPDATE: See the update near the image of the Black Brillion cover.

Writer Matthew Hughes is offering a free book to the first 53 people willing to abase themselves and write about his books past and present. Now, I have my pride (no, really, it's around here somewhere, honest) so I wouldn't do this for just any shmoe. But Hughes isn't just any shmoe, he's a shmoe who writes like the dickens! (Not to be confused with, "writes like Dickens").

A couple of years ago, after decades of neglect, I took up the science fiction habit again -- that is to say, reading farm-fresh science fiction in addition to the comforting familiar science fiction I'd grown up with. I wasn't at all sure that I would like this new-fangled stuff. Much of it I don't. Much of it is much like the old-fangled stuff, and it's still not that great.

But Hughes was one of the writers who really made me sit up and take notice. He's the author of not one but two (somewhat related) series, set in the same remote future. The first involves the adventures of Henghis Hapthorn, "Old Earth's foremost freelance discriminator" -- known to some as a private detective.

Hapthorn (arrogant, stuffy, intelligent, and charming) finds himself living at a time when the universe is swinging away from logic, mechanics, and science and toward an age dominated by intuition and magic. Since he has made his living and his reputation through reason and deduction, this is an extremely unwelcome change for him. Fortunately for him, he's not exactly alone in his own skull...

In (I believe) the first Hapthorn story, "Mastermindless", Hapthorn encounters a creature from a very alternate reality, who invites Hapthorn to think of him as a demon -- not in the sense of an evil entity, but that of a being with powers unknown to humans. In "Finding Sajessarian" Hapthorn receives considerable assistance from the demon, but it results in an astounding transformation to his "integrator" (his trusty assistant -- basically a glorified computer). Hapthorn's has gradually taken on a personality as the stories progress, something an integrator should not be able to do. I believe this has something to do with the impending cosmic shift. That event is finally made manifest in "The Gist Hunter" (June 2005 F&SF), and it means a profound change in Hapthorn.

These stories are all included in Hughes's 2005 collection The Gist Hunter, along with three other Hapthorns which don't really add to the story arc, although they're interesting tales on their own.

Hapthorn's adventures continue in the novel Majestrum, in which Hapthorn is called upon to investigate a threat to the Archonate (the benign dictatorship which rules Earth) itself. Hapthorn finds that the danger is much greater still. I confess that I found the beginning of this book slow (the beginning establishes some things needed at the end, but at the time it seems as if Hughes is dawdling), and I was confused in the wilder bits. But the final confrontation stood my hair on end. After finishing the book I immediately went back and re-read that part.

Now there's a new Hapthorn novel out, The Spiral Labyrinth, upon which I am eager to get my hot and greedy hands (thus this unblushing hucksterism). You can read the first chapter here, but I'm waiting until I have the whole book.

Hughes's writing style has been compared to that of Jack Vance (indeed, I think Hughes says somewhere that he was inspired by Vance's "Dying Earth" tales, Hughes's "Old Earth" being the age before that), but I've not read enough Vance to be able to comment. I will say that the writing in the Hapthorn stories is intelligent, witty, and arch -- rather like a serious, sober Nick Charles sans Nora, and with the part of Asta being played by a computer turned into a dog by powers beyond human ken.

I must say that I find reading Hughes to be a little bit of work, because he's not content to call things by their ordinary names, but must invent (or rather, adapt) new names for them -- e.g. discriminator, integrator, volante (for aircraft) etc. Here's a little sample from Majestrum:

I pointed out that when it was a disseminated device, it did not mind being decanted into a portable armature that fitted over my neck and shoulders so that it could accompany me when I traveled. I had been wearing the integrator in that fashion when we had passed through a contingent dimension to escape from an otherwise permanent confinement that would have eventually proved fatal. It was after we reemerged into my workroom that I found my assistant transformed.

I don't know about you, but I find that sort of thing a little heavy going. It was a slog to get through the first few paragraphs of Black Brillion. On the other hand, once you settle into the rhythm you run the risk of being absorbed into it and end up talking like that for the rest of your life.

His other series is even weirder. This one involves Guth Bandar, a would-be noönaut -- that is, a student of and traveler in the human collective unconscious. When we first meet Bandar (in "A Little Learning", collected in The Gist Hunter) he is making his way through the noösphere (the unconscious itself), as part of a student examination. But he finds himself sabotaged by a classmate, and must chart an alternate route back to his body. Hilarity ensues (as well as peril). (A quick skim of this story, read long ago, reveals what is possibly the least sexy sex scene in literature. This is quite deliberate, but it makes me wonder if there's ever been a Bulwer-Lytton-like contest to write the least erotic sex scene. If not, there oughta be.)

In "Help Wonted" (also in The Gist Hunter) we find that the collective unconscious may be achieving consciousness, and it has special plans for Bandar. Unfortunately, it seems to mean giving up his heart's desire -- a life as a scholar of the noösphere. There are three Bandar stories in The Gist Hunter, and a further three published in Fantasy & Science Fiction after The Gist Hunter was published. I believe that all of these will be combined in a novel, The Commons, due out just about now. (I was crushed to discover this, since apparently I've already read the last of the Bandar stories, "The Helper and His Hero," in F&SF. Sniff!)

The Bandar stories (and all other stories taking place in the Archonate) are written in the same mordant style as the Hapthorns, although with fewer opportunities for badinage, since Bandar (unlike Hapthorn) does not have a constant companion with whom to bicker.

(By the way, it occurred to me while reading "Help Wonted" that this noösphere business would make a terrific computer game in the style of Myst.)

As a sorta kinda wannabe writer, I'm impressed (and daunted) by the amount of thought that Hughes has put into these tales. Every one of the Guth Bandar stories supplies or illuminates some little fact which is necessary for the grand climax in "The Helper and His Hero". This requires considerable planning on the author's part.

On the other hand, as a sorta kinda wannabe writer, I'm depressed by the idea that every single possible plot has already been done before (I believe Aristotle noted this 2300 years ago). When Bandar finds himself trapped in an Event in "Help Wonted", he recognizes it as the archetypal Rising of the Oppressed. In "Bye the Rules", he's placed in a Situation he recognizes as Resisting the Despot. This is seems a dangerous tactic for a writer; readers should not be encouraged to recognize these literary tropes for the golden moldies they are. They might demand something new, and that would mean hard work for the writer.

There are other stories and novels which take place in the Archonate, but which are not directly related to either the Hapthorn or the Bandar series. I believe Black Brillion is one of these, but I haven't read it yet. I know that it features the character Luff Imbry, who turns up in "The Hero and His Helper."

UPDATE: W00T! Hughes responded to my email, and I'm in for a book! He also notes that the last half of Black Brillion covers the same events as the last half of the upcoming The Commons, as seen from a different point of view.

He's also the feature of his own standalone story, "The Meaning of Luff", in the July 2006 Fantasy & Science Fiction. (That's a terrific story, in which a device is discovered that reveals the purpose of any life. Turns out most lives don't have any purpose. I'd have thought that was obvious, but it causes some consternation in the story.) I finished Majestrum and wanted to pick up Black Brillion immediately, but forced myself to put it aside to savor for later. Since the new Hapthorn novel, The Spiral Labyrinth, is out, it's time to get savorin'.

There are also two other Archonate novels, Fools Errant and Fool Me Twice, which are currently out of print, though you can still get 'em used. Read samples at Hughes's site.

Finally, I will put in a good word for the story "Go Tell the Phoenicians" in The Gist Hunter. It's a good old-fashioned science fiction puzzle story, a departure from what I've seen of Hughes's style and oeuvre.

Anyhow -- Go! Buy a book! DO IT NOW!

Posted 10:26 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: Sierra Sunset

Sunset on the Sierras
California, Aug. 1995

Almost forgot! I got some time to scan last week. I had hoped to get a couple rolls done, plus some of Mom's pictures scanned. But it took me all flippin' afternoon to do one roll of Yosemite. So here's some of it.

Don't remember where this was, and it's too late to go googling around. The clouds add a nice touch. Looks like the mountain is thinking about something. You can't really see it, but there's a river at the bottom. Perhaps I should have cropped it off, or left more sky. I usually assume a 1.5 (or 0.67) aspect ratio is best for pictures, but some require something different.

Photo needs some cosmetic diddling, but I very nearly forgot to post one, so you get what you get.

There, I think that's enough words.

Labels: California, Foto Friday

Posted 8:20 AM by Angie Schultz

Feel the Love

I live in an apartment complex where cable TV is included with the rent. We had Time-Warner cable, but recently Time-Warner sold our area to Comcast. Last week, we all got letters stating that our cable service was going to be cut off because of a problem with the bill, and that if we wanted to keep our cable, we should take it up with the apartment management. These letters were dated a full week before we got them.

So I asked about that, and the manager told me that she'd checked, and there shouldn't be a problem with the bill. She said she'd got a similar letter for her internet service, even though she actually had a credit in her account.

So I figured that Comcast was just welcoming its new customers by sending them pre-emptive threatening letters, regardless of the state of their accounts. Smooth mooove.

Came the threatened day, and the cable stayed on. But that day a tropical funk (not quite a tropical depression) passed through, and it poured with rain for most of the day. The next morning, returning from a walk, I found Comcast men fiddling with the cable box by our complex. Were they shutting off our cable? Yes. Yes they were.

So I went in to see the manager, and before I could open my mouth she said, "I'm on it!" She was on hold, said she'd been on the phone all week trying to make sure it was straightened out. Later in the day we all got notices saying that Comcast admitted they'd made a mistake and the cable would be switched on again the next day. (I was dubious, but just after 5:30pm it reappeared.)

Now I wonder if Comcast's computer hadn't just spit out dunning letters to all its new customers with no human oversight, so there was no one to say, "Huh. All our new customers from Time-Warner are behind in their bills. What are the odds...?"

Apparently we have more of this sort of thing to look forward to. Now, the first thing any cable company is going to want to do, upon acquiring a new system, is to scramble the channels around so you don't know where anything is and all your recordings are screwed up. That's just the nature of the beast. But apparently Comcast is prepared to go above and beyond this basic level of aggravation, all the way to the point of switching channels in the middle of a baseball game. A playoff game.

At least we didn't have to resort to this. Although it would have been an interesting sight if even a small portion of my neighbors descended on the local Comcast office wielding hand tools. They might have had to send a Ranger.

My title comes from the Comcast advertising brochure we got in the mail yesterday (while, incidentally, the cable was still off). On the outside: Feel the Love.

Here's a related site: ComcastMustDie.com That's actually a front for a Blogspot blog, which is awfully slow to load. How slow is it? It's so slow that Comcast will fix your problem before the site loads. Can you feel the love?

Posted 9:35 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: The Fresh Scent of Pine

The title's kind of stale, though. Oh, well.

Mt. Rainier, Washington, Sep. 2005

This beautiful view is located right off the main road, so you don't have to hike to see it or, if I remember correctly, even get out of your car.

Clouds can be very annoying.

This weekend is scheduled as a scan-o-rama, so maybe there'll be something fresh next week. I might even write a non-photo post, if you can imagine such a thing.

Labels: Foto Friday, Washington

Posted 10:09 PM by Angie Schultz

Foto Friday: An Elk

Lone Elk State Park
Missouri, Oct. 1992

Not Anne Elk. Perhaps Arnie Elk.

This is from Lone Elk State Park, a little west of St. Louis. Despite the name, there are more elk than just Arnie.

It was mating season when we were there, and there were signs everywhere warning that the elk were in rut, and that the males in particular could be very dangerous. They were not skittish, however, and stood around grazing and gazing at the tourists with unconcern. When we came upon these we would stay at a safe distance and use our telephoto lenses.

I remember once we were stalking an elk grazing right beside the road (I don't remember if it was Arnie here). I wondered if the cautious stalking was going to make it more paranoid (and dangerous) than if we'd been more obvious. And Niles, I thought, was getting too near. I tried to calculate the distance between Niles and the elk, and Niles and me, and wondered what the hell I'd do if it charged him.

So after ten minutes of fretting and calculating and futilely trying to signal Niles to be more cautious we had just about worked ourselves into a position where we had a good photo. And then two guys in a pickup drove up. Hey! Looky here! They got out of the truck and stood around pointing and shouting. One of them put his arm across the elk's back while the other one took a picture.

This is where the narrative demands the elk become enraged, eviscerating the men and trampling their intestines, mirroring the bright foliage in the earth. But this elk didn't know from narrative. It just sighed and endured the indignity, and after a few more shouts the men rolled on.

Elk are stupid.

Labels: Foto Friday, Missouri

Posted 2:01 PM by Angie Schultz

What a Burke

The first paragraph of this David Brooks article reads:

Modern conservatism begins with Edmund Burke. What Burke articulated was not an ideology or a creed, but a disposition, a reverence for tradition, a suspicion of radical change.

I'm pretty sure "radical change" encompasses pink dress shirts and hot pink ties with electric blue fishies[*], dude. (See the picture.)

Hey, it's nothing to me, but someone oughtta tell him.

You will be getting stale images for Foto Friday, late, because I have to spend the rest of the afternoon cleaning up the shrapnel from the glass bomb that went off in my kitchen when the maintenance man dropped four feet of fluorescent bulb. Oh, he swept up the big pieces, but there were little chips all over the counters. I oughta just ingest one and die, and then Niles will own this complex. That'll learn 'em.

[*]Or whatever those are.