2006-02-05

perlmonger: (plugh)
2006-02-05 05:16 pm
Entry tags:

reality attack

I’m currently reading River of Gods; no comments yet, as I’m only just into chapter 3, but something struck me on page 10:
After the train has passed, they scramble up on to the track and look for paisa coins they have wedged into the rail joints. The fast trains smear them flat into the rail.

I spent quite some time trying to remember where else I had read of people doing that - a book somewhere, but where? - before I finally realised, remembered, that my memory was of Real Life™. Yes, some years ago, I once went out at lunchtime with my workmates at Virgin Mobile (or v.omit, as it was fondly known to us) in Trowbridge to put coins on the railway line in front of trains and, later, peel the squished remnants off.

What struck me is that I assumed that my memory was of fiction, of something I’d read, not of your actual, personally experienced, meatspace reality.

So it goes.
perlmonger: (pete)
2006-02-05 09:14 pm
Entry tags:

Books finished in January

» I Am Alive and You Are Dead, Emmanuel Carrere

A fascinating read, if a bit ragged around the edges (but, hey, so was PKD’s life). Why no index? Why no references? I’ve no real reason to doubt the truth of what’s there, but I’d feel more confident of it all with something I could follow up after the event...

» Accelerando, [livejournal.com profile] autopope

I need to re-read this; I was left feeling unsatisfied at the end, after reading passages that were amongst the best I’ve read anywhere. This could be because Charlie couldn’t quite hold the whole thing together, but I think it’s more likely I haven’t yet absorbed enough from the frenetic density of the energy and process of the book. Judgment reserved :)

» American Gods (the Directors Cut), Neil Gaiman

No reservations here at all: this really is one of the best fantasy novels I’ve yet read - and [livejournal.com profile] ramtops, currently about half way though would, I think, concur: there really aren’t many books around that leave both of us so moved. My only question (not having read the originally published version) is: what the gods did they cut? I really can’t think of anything that could have been excised without damaging the whole.