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Jul. 2nd, 2004 11:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexsarllIn my diary there are two little numbers each day, telling you how many days of the year have elapsed and how many are yet to come*. Today they read "184-182". We're on the home stretch, or the downhill slope, depending how you look at it. Have you made what you wanted to of 2004?
China is to censor text messages. I suppose after that txt-organised revolt in the Phillipines, it makes perfect sense. But...every time there's some indication they're moving towards joining the civilised world, something like this or the ban on "queer-looking" TV presenters comes in.
I am also less than convinced by the title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It seems somehow to lack the resonance of the previous books.
And in review corner:
Market Forces by Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan made his name with the 25th century noir of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, but though there are hints that his new novel may be set in the same timeline, it's very much closer to home. Market Forces takes place in London within the next fifty years, amid the results of free market capitalism run riot. Chris Faulkner has just landed himself a lucrative Conflict Investment position - essentially formalised war profiteering. But in a world where tenders for work are decided by Mad Max-style road duels, such a job comes with executive stress way beyond anything 2004 can offer.
This world is not in itself plausible, but works as science fiction can often work, by turning elements of present society up to eleven, magnifying our world in order to show it more clearly. And here the ruthless aspects of global capitalism, the macho culture of the City and the unwanted yet inexorable collapse of a marriage are delineated brilliantly. Morgan is best known for his concepts and his action sequences, but his greatest talent is his wonderful grasp of conversational rhythms.
Occasionally, the dutiful didacticism can become overbearing -“a practising free-market economist has blood on his hands or he’s not doing his job properly” - but the edge of black humour usually prevents this. Furthermore, the portrayal of those characters who oppose the status quo avoids giving us saints; the concern of Chris’ wife and her father at the direction the world and Chris’ career have taken is tempered by their impotence, while Chris may have sold his soul but at least gets some chance to better the situation in exchange. What could have become dreary polemic, Noam Chomsky with SF trappings, is instead a socially aware but morally complex story, well weighted with taut thriller elements.
Soul Mole tonight - woo and yay! Last one there's Saddam's prison b1tch.
*Yeah, I know. Why don't they just have one of Death's hourglasses, or a visual depiction of Time's winged chariot hurrying ever nearer? Price I pay for insisting on a black diary, I suppose.
China is to censor text messages. I suppose after that txt-organised revolt in the Phillipines, it makes perfect sense. But...every time there's some indication they're moving towards joining the civilised world, something like this or the ban on "queer-looking" TV presenters comes in.
I am also less than convinced by the title Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It seems somehow to lack the resonance of the previous books.
And in review corner:
Market Forces by Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan made his name with the 25th century noir of Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, but though there are hints that his new novel may be set in the same timeline, it's very much closer to home. Market Forces takes place in London within the next fifty years, amid the results of free market capitalism run riot. Chris Faulkner has just landed himself a lucrative Conflict Investment position - essentially formalised war profiteering. But in a world where tenders for work are decided by Mad Max-style road duels, such a job comes with executive stress way beyond anything 2004 can offer.
This world is not in itself plausible, but works as science fiction can often work, by turning elements of present society up to eleven, magnifying our world in order to show it more clearly. And here the ruthless aspects of global capitalism, the macho culture of the City and the unwanted yet inexorable collapse of a marriage are delineated brilliantly. Morgan is best known for his concepts and his action sequences, but his greatest talent is his wonderful grasp of conversational rhythms.
Occasionally, the dutiful didacticism can become overbearing -“a practising free-market economist has blood on his hands or he’s not doing his job properly” - but the edge of black humour usually prevents this. Furthermore, the portrayal of those characters who oppose the status quo avoids giving us saints; the concern of Chris’ wife and her father at the direction the world and Chris’ career have taken is tempered by their impotence, while Chris may have sold his soul but at least gets some chance to better the situation in exchange. What could have become dreary polemic, Noam Chomsky with SF trappings, is instead a socially aware but morally complex story, well weighted with taut thriller elements.
Soul Mole tonight - woo and yay! Last one there's Saddam's prison b1tch.
*Yeah, I know. Why don't they just have one of Death's hourglasses, or a visual depiction of Time's winged chariot hurrying ever nearer? Price I pay for insisting on a black diary, I suppose.
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Date: 2004-07-02 06:57 am (UTC)<____<
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Date: 2004-07-02 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-02 10:35 am (UTC)at the moment, i'd have to say yes. but ask me again in 6 weeks when i will probably know if i've made a hideous mistake or not...