A story about a future society in which godlike beings called Eternals control time. One of them falls in love, which is Forbidden apparently. I skipped, appropriately enough, to the end: Long story short, he changes the past, eliminates his own world with the exception of him and his girlfriend, in order to create our world (by moving the first A-bomb tests from the 30th century to the 21st) and ensure that the world never has to be ruled by demigods.
Eh, I think I'll give this one a miss.
Discard.
Friday, 8 August 2008
Supernature by Lyall Watson
A book of kookery, by the looks of it.
Did you know that
A blunt razor blade left overnight inside a cardboard model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops will be sharp again in the morning?
A Chicago hotel porter can produce photographs by staring into cameras?
A potted plant registered emotion on a lie detector when an experimenter just decided to burn one of its leaves?
Doesn't sound promising, does it? These sort of factoids fascinated me when I was little, and thought that being published in a book indicated at least some degree of veracity. Let's take a look inside:
John Addey, an english philosopher, has found such rhythms in human birth times. He [found no corellation between being Pisces and dying of polio, but he] found a wave pattern running through the year. This was a regular pattern, which had 120 peaks in the year - it was vibrating in the 120th harmonic. A horoscope is built around an ecliptic circle of 360 degrees, so if the wave pattern is applied to this, it peaks every 3 degrees. Addey went back to his test data and found that a child born every third degree was 37% more likely to contract polio than a child born at other times.
He seems to be arguing that astrology has some scientific validity and is based on interference patterns in the various radiations from stellar bodies. Which sounds like typical pattern-seeking kookery to me.
I expected the book to be written by some fucking hippie, but according to wikipedia he was a respected zoologist and a disciple of Desmond Morris. He died the month before last.
Discard. This book is older than me, if I want to read about kooky theories there are fresh ones on the internet. I feel a little sad to see it go, as though a little of my inclination to seek the unknown is going with it.
Did you know that
A blunt razor blade left overnight inside a cardboard model of the Great Pyramid of Cheops will be sharp again in the morning?
A Chicago hotel porter can produce photographs by staring into cameras?
A potted plant registered emotion on a lie detector when an experimenter just decided to burn one of its leaves?
Doesn't sound promising, does it? These sort of factoids fascinated me when I was little, and thought that being published in a book indicated at least some degree of veracity. Let's take a look inside:
John Addey, an english philosopher, has found such rhythms in human birth times. He [found no corellation between being Pisces and dying of polio, but he] found a wave pattern running through the year. This was a regular pattern, which had 120 peaks in the year - it was vibrating in the 120th harmonic. A horoscope is built around an ecliptic circle of 360 degrees, so if the wave pattern is applied to this, it peaks every 3 degrees. Addey went back to his test data and found that a child born every third degree was 37% more likely to contract polio than a child born at other times.
He seems to be arguing that astrology has some scientific validity and is based on interference patterns in the various radiations from stellar bodies. Which sounds like typical pattern-seeking kookery to me.
I expected the book to be written by some fucking hippie, but according to wikipedia he was a respected zoologist and a disciple of Desmond Morris. He died the month before last.
Discard. This book is older than me, if I want to read about kooky theories there are fresh ones on the internet. I feel a little sad to see it go, as though a little of my inclination to seek the unknown is going with it.
Destroying the Library
I have a lot of books, gathered over a childhood of rummaging through jumble sales and second hand stores. I'm old enough now that I realise I'm never going to read all of them. Having resolved to sort through them and get rid of the ones that no longer interest me, I nonetheless don't wish this part of my memories to simply disappear.
On this blog I'm going to take at least a cursory look at each title and decide whether to keep or dispose of it. I may even read some of the books and post summaries, although I've become increasingly illiterate in my old age.
So let us begin. Oh, why Doomdark? It was an old character name, and probably the one I identified with most as a child. I wasn't a little goth, I just liked the sound of it for some inexplicable reason.
On this blog I'm going to take at least a cursory look at each title and decide whether to keep or dispose of it. I may even read some of the books and post summaries, although I've become increasingly illiterate in my old age.
So let us begin. Oh, why Doomdark? It was an old character name, and probably the one I identified with most as a child. I wasn't a little goth, I just liked the sound of it for some inexplicable reason.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)