Week 6: All quiet on the western front

So, now that I've really started reading this book, I am in fact liking it. It's set during WW1, and it's interesting. A lot of it is introspection on the part of the main character about events that are going on. Like one of his group of good friends is dying, and another good friend, although he's mourning and doesn't want the friend to die or anything, still gets a bit focused on the dying friends VERY fine pair of boots (his suck). That would never be acceptable in the majority of society, but in war, it's just par for the course. "For the good of all of us (except the ones that are dead)," cakeisalie right?
He also criticizes how the army is in complete reliance of always having someone above who can boss you around and humiliate you if they so desire.

Week 3: Neuromancer

Neuromancer is a cyberpunk book. Scratch that, neuromancer is THE cyberpunk book. Not only was it the first one, but it's the one that most embodies what cyberpunk IS. It's the book that invented the term Cyberspace, and contained the concept of the internet (albeit under a different name) some decades before it's invention. In fact, there are theories that this book is the REASON the internet exists as it did, that it inspired the real thing. Cyberpunk books depict a world where highly developed cybernetics, AI, and other technological wonders are completely commonplace. It's rarely utopian (which is part of where the "punk" part of cyberpunk comes from) but is rarely quite DIStopian either, the preference usually being to depict a world where technology has solved some problems while opening up completely new ones. Cyberpunk is the inspiration for a wealth of new genre/settings (for they really are both), from the Genetic engineering of Biopunk to the supposedly low tech Clock and Steampunk. And this book is the book that started it all off.

Past book: The Illuminatus! Trilogy

So, I just had this idea, I'm going to occasionally talk about books I've previously read. I'm starting off with The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It is the most brilliant example of carefully manufactured confusion I've ever seen or heard. After the first page, you are never more then say... 90% sure what's going on at a given moment? Usually you're as low as 30%. For instance, it claims that there were no less then 5 people trying to kill kenedy when he got assassinated. He was not in fact killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, now was he killed by the professional hitman that hasn't ever killed anyone but his target always dies for unrelated reasons, NOR was he killed by John Dillanger, who was there to assassinate the would-be assassins but realized there were too many of them and he should just kill kenedy himself to confuse them (he was the one on the grassy knoll) but he was in fact killed by a man who had invested heavily in the space program before it was canceled the first time and was angry at Kenedy for reinstating it.
The ENTIRE BOOK is like that.
It would probably be a good idea to read the Principia Discordia online beforehand, it'll make more sense.

And now, a quote:
The most thoroughly and relentlessly Damned, banned, excluded, condemned, forbidden, ostracized, ignored, suppressed, repressed, robbed, brutalized and defamed of all Damned things is the individual human being. The social engineers, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, market researchers, landlords, bureaucrats, captains of industry, bankers, governors, commissars, kings and presidents are perpetually forcing this Damned Thing into carefully prepared blueprints and perpetually irritated that the Damned Thing will not fit into the slot assigned to it. The theologians call it a sinner and tries to reform it. The governor calls it a criminal and tries to punish it. The psychotherapist calls it neurotic and tries to cure it. Still, the Damned Thing will not fit into their slots.