A Time Odyssey – by Arthur C Clarke & Stephen Baxter

Unless I am mistaken, Clarke and Baxter appear to have written just two books in this series: Time’s Eye and Sunstorm. I would be surprised, however, if further instalments are not forthcoming. Surprised on account of the fact that there are a number of tantalising loose ends just begging to be tied up!… or at least split into further loose ends.

The common theme throughout the two books is *alien intervention* - specifically intervention by a vastly more powerful, intelligent and remote alien species, in the destiny of mankind. Aside from this overarching narrative thread (which I don’t want to give away the details of) which connects the two books, they otherwise could not be more different, in terms of style or substance. One could even say that Time’s Eye is classic Baxter – with its sub-themes of time travel and the manipulation of human history – whereas Sunstorm is classic Clarke – amounting, in a nutshell, to mankind’s heroic fight for survival against a potentially catastrophic solar event.

It is a testament to the intelligence and imagination of both the authors that they have created a connection between what, on the surface, may appear to be entirely disparate stories. Like I said, though, I don’t want to give away what this connection is. I will, however, recommend that, whether you are a fan of Clarke or Baxter or indeed both, you add the books of A Time Odyssey to your list of Great Sci-Fi Reads to Order From the Library/Bookshop… and look forward to the almost inevitable sequel(s)!

Love Me! Praise Me! Reward Me!

You know, it’s all very well saying one should write for its own sake, for its intrinsic satisfaction, for the personal fulfilment of creative urges… but damn, it’s good to be recognised! To be praised, to even receive payment or gifts for one’s efforts! I mean don’t get me wrong, I do glean some intrinsic pleasure from putting words onto a screen or a piece of paper, for splurging a creative output into the ether, regardless of whether or not anyone ever sees it, notices it, comments upon it… but you can’t beat the warm egotistical glow you get when someone says, “That’s good, that is!”… or decides a piece of writing is good enough to get published in a magazine or whatever… or… the ultimate accolade… sends you a lovely free PS2 game! Which is another reason I’m sad at the demise of OPS2…

Coincidence?

Sometimes a “coincidence” will occur that just makes you stop and exclaim “Oh my God!” or “How weird!” or “Freaky!”… Just such a coincidence has just occurred! Specifically, this afternoon, one of my colleagues, who looks forward to Christmas with an almost child-like intensity, sent round an office-wide email today, asking, “Guess what happens six months today?”… upon which, in an attempt to impart a little ironic/sarcastic humour, I did a little Internet-based research and suggested, by way of a response to said email, that on the 25th of December this year, amongst a couple of other things, we would be commemorating the crashing and consequent loss of the Beagle European Mars space probe, on Christmas Day 2003… and then… as I was reading my latest Baxter/Clarke novel, Sunstorm, on the train earlier, a character therein - a character who had only just been introduced - who was amongst only a handful of humans who lived and worked on Mars, just happened to mention the crashing and consequent loss of the Beagle European Mars space probe, on Christmas Day 2003…

Oh my God!

How weird!

Freaky!

…and things of that nature.

National Pride

(animated Union Jack courtesy of George Dingwall)

 

I thought I’d just share this, which my colleague emailed me t’other day…

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Be very proud to be British because:

Only in Britain… can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in Britain… do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Britain… do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a DIET coke.

Only in Britain… do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counters.

Only in Britain… do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawn mower in the garage.

Only in Britain… do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Britain… are there disabled parking places in front of a skating rink.

Not to mention… 3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue.

142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts.

58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers.

31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.

19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate.

British Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker pulling accidents.

101 people since 1999 have had broken parts of plastic toys pulled out of the soles of their feet.

18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.

A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A&E in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with their teeth.

8 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of control Scalextric cars.

And finally……… In 2000 eight Brits cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet.

RULE BRITANNIA!!

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It’s Still Only a Magazine!

[ being the sequel to It’s Only a Magazine! ]

Okay, here’s the thing… yes, I miss my OPS2, but I think in a deeper sense, I miss what it represents. Or perhaps more accurately, I lament what its demise implies.

Get over yourself! – some of you might be inclined to cry; You are a 35 year old man who is about to become a dad, for God’s sake!

Well yes, there is that… but there’s no denying the weird and disproportionately intense feelings this turn of events has dredged up… feelings which I want to sort out, hopefully through the means of my writing, a.s.a.p. So may I please beg your indulgence and patience a little while longer?

I thank you!

So like I was saying, I lament what the demise of OPS2 implies…

I like technology and gadgets and what-have-you – I wouldn’t have a PS2 if I didn’t! – but I am questioning more and more these days the inexorability of the march towards increasing complexity and hi-tech-y-ness. I’m probably fighting a loosing battle here, but can’t we/society slow down a bit, have a look at what we’ve got and stop wanting more and bigger and shinier and games machines which are approaching levels of realism which are becoming indistinguishable from reality itself? Because we will never be satisfied. We will always want more and more. How much more of our wanting more can the world take?

The illogicality of it, in relation to PS2/OPS2, is that, as far as I can tell from the information I am privy to, the PS2 is still the most popular, most-owned games console, for which it seems that the production of new games, although it has inevitably reduced since the emergence of PS3, doesn’t look to be stopping any time soon. So the PS2, which is not the latest, shiniest, most hi-tech console, still occupies the largest section of the games market… and yet the only magazine which caters solely for such had to end! Why? It seems to me that the push towards bigger, shinier, more hi-tech is so engrained in our culture, that the economic powers-that-be were inclined to push towards these things even against what seemed to be the economic facts of the matter. Am I wrong? If anyone has evidence to the contrary, I’d be happy to hear it!

On a more general point, it’s about the inexorable (yes, that is my word of the month) marching forward of time… Tempus fugit! and what-have-you. Is it inevitable that as one gets older, one resists change?! Whether we become more hi-tech, less hi-tech, it becomes the height of fashion to wear items of office stationery on one’s head or whatever, change will happen… in light of The Biggest Change Ever happening to me at the mo, I think perhaps I need to work on being more accepting of such.

Tempus, as I said, fugit! – and by way of my attempt to positively affirm my acceptance of such, let’s end with a few smileys…

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nb. For more words on the concept of tempus fugit, see the following…

http://www.blog.slowdownnow.org/2008/06/13/tempus-fugit/

It’s Only a Magazine!

I have just bought the 100th issue of the Official UK PlayStation 2 Magazine, which also happens to be the last ever issue… and I feel so inexplicably sad! I mean, I expected to feel a bit sad at the demise of this fine publication – I have, after all, been buying it, except for a couple of breaks, for getting on for the last six years… but not this sad! It is, like someone on the OPS2 Facebook group recently said, like the last day of school – it’s that kinda sad! It’s not just about the magazine, it’s about the people – some of whom you may stay in contact with, but never again in that context. Because OPS2 was about the people – I have, for example, had quite a few letters printed therein over the last couple of years and consequently developed a bit of a pleasant chattiness with one Ms Kim Richards, the Editorial Assistant. I’ll miss our occasional exchanges of words, Kim, over what free games you have to offer, our tastes in reading matter, etc! And I’ll miss, amongst other things, your unabashed enthusiasm for Jap-RPG’s! And of course I’ll miss the delightful presences of your colleagues, Andy, Mark, Sophie, et al, as well as past heroes such as “gorgeous” George!

Of course, the world moves on… next-gen becomes present-gen, which will ultimately fall into the annals of past-gen… it’s all PS3 now, and Wii and Xbox360! What has been will be no more, or at least it will be redefined as “retro” – which in itself is no bad thing, but… I still yearn for the things of the past!

I have not yet read OPS2#100… I have started to, but… I can hardly bring myself to do so… because once I have read that last review, that last preview, that last reader’s letter… and that final little photo-montage, describing, with that inimitable ironic/sarcastic/wry humour which has become the trademark of OPS2 and which I will miss so much, how the final trio of stalwarts, Andy, Mark and Kim, put together an issue of OPS2… once that last page has been turned and the lovingly thumbed mag is put on the shelf, eventually to find itself in the recycle bin or a doctor’s surgery or at a carboot sale… that will be it! No more! Finito! And things of that nature!

I have already started to suggest on the OPS2 Facebook group (which will apparently continue to run, perhaps indefinitely) that we should, therein, continue to honour the traditions of OPS2, vis á vis continuing their most enduring and endearing features – in this way we can hopefully keep the spirit of OPS2 alive… and show those next-gen-ophiles that we PS2 fans are not to be washed away by the inexorable tide of hi-tech-y-ness! Or something. And in this fashion we can all climb to the rooftops (metaphorically speaking) and shout the following phrase (which I have already mentioned a couple of times on Facebook, so hopefully it’s beginning to lodge in people’s consciousness)…

OPS2 is dead! Long live OPS2!

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nb. As regular readers of my blog will know, I don’t presently own a working PS2, and haven’t for the past three-and-a-half weeks (ish), so you might be wondering why I am expressing here such determination to keep the memory/spirit of the official mag of said console alive. Well, it’s like this… (a) inasmuch as I will be a dad soon, and no doubt my priorities and things will change significantly in the ensuing weeks/months/years, the demise of OPS2 has made me realise how much I do enjoy playing on this console, that there are so many good games out there I am yet to play, and therefore I consider it pretty likely that I will replace said pleasure-giving machine at some point in the hopefully not too distant future – because although my dadhood will probably mean a reduction in the amount of hours I spend on the PS2, the thought of the possibility of not spending any hours on it… is a thought I don’t want to think about!… (b) as I said above, it’s not just about the magazine! It’s about the lovely/funny/enthusiastic people who made it happen! So the fact that it’s a mag about PlayStation 2 is almost irrelevant… & (c) it’s a matter of principle! Why does everything have to be about the latest, the shiniest, the most hi-tech? The PS2 is still extremely popular! There are still new games being released, to be reviewed and previewed and get excited about! And don’t even get me started on the back catalogue, which is of such a vastness that hundreds of pages could still be written about it, in one form or another! So it’s a principle that goes beyond PlayStation… it’s a principle about keeping the pleasures of the past alive!

Difficult Questions

A couple of times recently, my dad’s partner has asked me questions relating to my writing and where I want it to go. I have found it difficult to answer these questions, because thinking about it, generally speaking, although I would obviously like make money out of my writing, be a “professional” writer and all that kind of stuff, I do feel, when all is said and done, quite satisfied about the path my writing is, as it were, travelling down. So to speak. I am writing regularly – mainly in the form of my various blogs. My writing is being seen by the public. It is being responded to, generally quite positively. And it is fulfilling my creative urges.

Do I want to write more? Do I want writing to be my whole life, in the sense that it is my “job”? Maybe… but then… would I want it to become my work, and to feel pressured to perform, to meet particular standards and deadlines, in order to be able to, at least in part, support myself/my family on it? Hmm… well… perhaps not…

I feel that I am already, by the criteria described above, a successful writer! And perhaps that is, and always be, enough…

All of Human Endeavour…

…is, one could say, and always has been, about boundaries – seeking them, exploring them, pushing them. Boundaries of knowledge, physical/geographical boundaries, moral boundaries. “So far” is never far enough for us Homo sapiens – we always want to see how much further we can go! We want to conquer, we want to acquire, we want to learn more and more about X, Y and Z. We want to advance, we want to grow, we want to see what we can do that we have never done before. But then…

Why does it feel as if we keep going round in circles?

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The above was inspired by… http://beinwonder.blogspot.com/2008/06/boundaries-freedom-and-cooperation.html

Technology is Rubbish

My girlfriend’s mobile phone, for example. Coz although it’s a pretty top-end model, every time I try to use it to text someone, I always end up writing in a code that would baffle Dan Brown, taking half an hour to write “Hi! How RU?” or sending it to the wrong person. On account of the keys being too small.

Yes, technology is rubbish.

“August Rush” (*** ! spoiler alert ! ***)

What a soppy, beautiful film! How has this one passed under the radar? I don’t normally get all blubbery at films… okay, maybe sometimes… but I was in bits by the end of this one. This may have something to do with the fact that I am about to be a dad and get all emotional and teary-like whenever anything relating to such comes up… or it may just be because it was a soppy, beautiful film!

The plot in brief…

Keri Russell plays Lyla Novacek, a professional cellist, who shares one special night on a rooftop with Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a guitarist/singer in a band. Due to the inexorable tide of fate and what-have-you, Lyla and Louis then go their separate ways, after which Lyla discovers she is pregnant with Louis’s child. After a car accident, Lyla is rushed to hospital, upon which she loses her child, who for the next eleven years she presumes is dead. On his deathbed, however, her father confesses that he had secretly given her child up for adoption. In the meantime, the son she never knew she had, Evan Taylor (Freddie Highmore), who has an uncanny ability to hear music all around him, becomes lost in the system and ends up on the streets of New York City. A Fagin-like character, who goes by the name of “Wizard” (Robin Williams), takes him in and ingratiates him into his merry band of runaway kids/musicians/buskers. It turns out, however, that Evan – who adopts the “stage” name of “August Rush” – is destined for far greater things that busking in Central Park, and so, upon enrolling himself in the Juilliard School of Music, ends up composing the August Rhapsody, to be performed to an audience of thousands in Central Park. Lyla and Louis, through separate and ultimately conjoining twists of fate, literally hear of this concert, find their way simultaneously to the front of the audience, and, upon the playing of the final chord, and the turning of August to face the appreciative crowd, the three of them catch each others’ eyes and become instantaneously aware of the bond of love and music which connects them.

*sniff sniff*

Moving! Touching! Poignant!

Sad, but ultimately infused with hope that “fate will find a way” and such gubbins!

And a beautiful testimony to the enduring power of love and music!