Have a book to read
Nice to know it’s always there
Subconscious presence
So I decided to plunge into Anne Rice’s world of vampires once again. I felt I had to get those stupid wimpy Twilight vampires that sparkle in the sun out of my head! Of course, I was a bit wary after her last book “Memnoch the Devil” began to show her increasingly christian themes which I didn’t care about.
But Armand has always been such a mysterious figure for me that I thought it would be real neat to find out more about him. And overall I wasn’t disappointed. Lots about the supercool and ancient Marius as well as some nice reunions with old friends like Louis, Pandora and David (Lestat is in some kind of stupor on the floor throughout). But there was also a lot of the heavy christian stuff as well. Not very surprising in this book given Armand’s initial christian upbringing.
Image Credit: endovalswhisper.blogspot.com
Armand - A Devil in an Angel's skin
I found myself glazing over large tracts of text about jesus and god and about how he loved everyone – blah blah. Get to the cool vampiric stuff already! But as I said, we find out all about Armand and his relations with Marius – including sexual ones. Oh didn’t I mention that? There’s sex. Lots of it- and explicit. With Armand being at the center of it all. He coolly frolics with men and women alike showing no particular preference for one over the other. Marius of course, being a vampire can’t screw in the traditional way but there are plenty of kisses, as well as handjobs and (not so subtly) implied blowjobs.
But it’s all done very artistically in Anne Rice’s impeccable style. It’s very refined and naturally we can’t imagine Marius being coarse. He finds Armand irresistible, as does everyone else apparently and Armand is mightily pleased about the whole situation.
So if you’re comfortable with skipping over tedious christian themes, and you want read more about Rice’s awesome vampires, then get a hold of this book. Lots of succulent backstory that you would no doubt be thirsting for (no pun intended) after finishing her big trio – “Interview with a Vampire”, “The Vampire Lestat” and “Queen of the Damned.”
Oh and one more thing – those who’ve seen the movie “Queen of the Damned”, please please forget it. The book is nothing like it. The movie is quite simply pathetic and my wife and I almost puked while watching it. “Don’t judge a book by its movie” seems to be the latest mantra these days, and it applies in this case particularly well.
After many months, we now see the true colors of the Unique Identity (UID) number that Nilekani is so keen to foist on the Indian public. At a function organized by the Indo American Chamber of Commerce, he admitted that the real motivation for the UID was to track people. He also said that in time, if someone didn’t have a UID, that would in itself be suspicious.
Long ago, it was feared that the UID will be used for mass surveillance. Nilekani goes so far as to say that all hotels might be required to demand a UID from those who stay there – not for purposes of credit or to ensure payment, but simply so that the government will be able to keep track of who is where.
Image Credit: Aquila
Mass surveillance around the corner with the UID
The obvious question is, where will this stop? If hotels demand a UID before you can stay in them, will it be long before a theater asks for it before you can watch a movie? Even worse, can a policeman randomly stop you on the road and ask for it as well? This isn’t the same as being asked for a driver’s license since not everyone should be allowed to drive if they’re not qualified. But asking for an ID “just to check up on you” is an invasion of privacy. However, since privacy is a legal right in India, I wonder how such procedures would stand up in court.
To assume that the government won’t become more and more intrusive if it has the ability is stupid. Whenever governments get too much power, disaster ensues. We can rest assured that slowly, bit by bit, the uses of this UID will continue to increase and become more and more pervasive if technologically feasible. Most of us still don’t realize how much the loss of privacy will hurt. They will learn once they do lose it. In that way, this whole experiment is a good thing. It’ll be painful, but it might just be the start of an experience that will teach us the value of what we take for granted in a free country like India.
Today I watched the last episode of an awesome series called “The Prisoner” (1967). I won’t tell you what it’s about, but it’s pretty mind bending and makes you think about new and interesting concepts. Unfortunately, as the series progressive, it becomes more and more “arty” and begins to stray into allegory. The finale called “Fall Out” turns out to be a total mess with the entire episode seeming like a disjointed nightmare. The worst of it was that this episode was hailed as a major accomplishment and a testament to the skills of the director.
Now let’s get one thing straight. I’m a barbarian. I like things to be straightforward and have a clear meaning. Movies should have good and interesting plots – otherwise they’re pretentious crap. Those who praise “Artistic” movies that rely on “style” and “technical accomplishment” should, in my opinion keep their views to themselves. And for good reasons. There are a class of people (I’m sure you’ve met them) who need to feel superior, and when they’re told that such and such a thing is “classic”, will harp on about it even if it bores them to death – perhaps because it bores them to death.
Image Credit: emurray
Wine - Snobbery at its finest
Here’s a powerful illustration of what I’m saying. You know how “sophisticated” people talk about wine? They’ll drone on and on about how each wine is unique and reflects the vineyard it came from. Then they’ll taste it and pretend to pass judgment on its quality and talk about it’s “history” etc etc. I’ve always itched to do a proper randomized double blind test on these pretentious snobs who just want to look “cultured”. Well, we recently found out that the notion of “minerality” – being able to taste the soil of the wine is a complete and utter myth. And people have been believing this crap for centuries.
I can find similar examples of people claiming to be able to distinguish between good and bad art. There is no such thing as good art and bad art. If people didn’t know they were supposed to appreciate Van Gogh, almost everyone would say his paintings are childish and immature. But because they know it’s a Van Gogh painting, they’ll ooh and aah over it and find hidden mysteries that only their eyes can see. Coming back to movies, there are similar tides flowing here as well. Movies that are crappy as hell are praised by critics merely because they’re supposed to be praised. Once again, I would love a randomized double blind test to be done to weed out these phonies.
Citizen Kane - A boring dump of a movie
Citizen Kane is one such overrated movie. The American Film Institute however, thinks it’s the greatest movie ever made and has repeatedly put it at the top of its list of best 100 movies of all time. The truth however, is that it’s one of the most mundane movies I’ve seen. And if a movie is boring, it deserves not to be seen. I’m throwing down a challenge to whoever reads this. Watch “Citizen Kane” and tell me if it’s interesting. I don’t care about how groundbreaking it was in 1941 and how much it’s affected film making since then. I want to know if you think you can stay riveted on the plot and whether or not you can bring yourself to give a shit about a boring rich man who says “Rosebud.”
How a movie can be called the greatest of all time when it’s like watching flies fuck (to borrow a quote from the immortal George Carlin) is something I can’t understand. Movie connoisseurs who cream their pants thinking of Citizen Kane feel that just because a boring movie introduced new techniques in 1941, it has a right to be called the greatest.
2001: A Space Odyssey - Slow paced with no plot
Next in line is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Another movie that’s as interesting as watching paint dry. Nothing happens until half an hour into the movie. We actually have 20 minutes of watching a space ship fly through space (and nothing else) with Beethoven Strauss music playing in the background. Mind, I enjoyed watching Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange” immensely. It has a plot. But A Space Odyssey is an exercise in frustration. The only reason I forced myself to watch it was because I was waiting for the supercool computer villain HAL 9000. But even that wasn’t enough to make up for the sheer boredom of the experience. And the ending is confusing as hell. You don’t know what happened!
Of course, we see the same trend in literature and poetry too, where snobbery is the norm and a means of showing superiority. It’s so pervasive and frustrating, that it’s more noble to take a stand on the opposite extreme. So here’s my message to the “sophisticated” ones: I’m a philistine. I don’t understand all the “arty” stuff. Give me movies and literature with proper plots, paintings that are easy to understand and don’t expect me to know better. I’m sure you don’t really understand either.
I have to admit I’m embarrassed to be reading a book with such a clichéd title. I mean the whole idea of a magic sword is so passé, it reminds me of He-Man. But let’s face it – almost all epic fantasy novels are set in a middle ages atmosphere and the attraction of a special sword can be too powerful to resist.
Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind is the first book in the Sword of Truth series and my feelings about the book are mixed. I don’t know if I’m going to move onto the next one or not. There’s something missing for me that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t really care about the characters in the book. The only really interesting ones are the bad guys who engage in some pretty unusual practices to say the least.
Wizard's First Rule - Sword of Truth Series
There are a few new concepts that I kind of liked, but really not as much as the “endowment” logic in the Runelords series or the Saidar/Saidin concept in the Wheel of Time. In those two, the magic system is just that – a system. So far in the Sword of Truth series, there’s not much logic to how magic works. It’s haphazard and things become possible as and when the plot dictates it must.
Also, unlike the Wheel of Time and the Runelords series, I’m not really keen to find out what happens to the hero. Perhaps the problem is that I don’t really feel the sense of destiny that characterized the protagonists in the other two despite late references to “prophecies”. Another problem may be that he has things a little too easy. He has a tutor right from the word “go”, and the realization that he’s more than just the sword he carries comes a little too late.
It also pisses me off when close friends in the story keep vital secrets from each other for ridiculous reasons. This is a flaw shared by other series’s too by the way. People must tell each other everything. Only then is it believable. I’ve decided to read an “in-between” book before I determine whether or not to read the second book in the series. Let’s see how I feel about it then. I might give the series another chance and see if I start caring more.
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