S.S.O.T.B.E. Revised: An Essay on Magic

 

S.S.O.T.B.M.E. Revised: An Essay on Magic by Ramsey Dukes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ramsey Dukes: When you had me, you really had me. But when you lost me, I wondered if you had had me or not? I'm confused.

You're not quite the savior that some readers and reviewers would have you to be. Then again, I sense that you wouldn't really want that anyway. You're a smart cookie, though, if a little muddled toward the end. But, then again, I think you want to at least appear muddled, for the sake of banishment, if nothing else. At times you are incisive, and that's when I like you best. You are, after all, writing for some kind of audience, so it pays to be clear. On the other hand, you are writing for another kind of audience where secrecy itself is the goal. I get it. I mean, I really get it, in an esoteric sense. But I don't, in an artistic sense.

Then again, you're not much of one for art in spite of having created a good piece of it in S.S.O.T.B.M.E. You outline, quite incisively, I must add, a paradigm of paradigms: Art versus Religion versus Science versus Magic. Not "versus" in terms of territory, as all of these paradigms can and often do inhabit the exact same territory at the exact same time, but "versus" in terms of direction and, hence, perspective and viewpoint.

It really is all about the attitude, isn't it? But I think that your focus on Science, Religion, and Magic entirely misses the fact that you, or your book, is utterly encased in Art. You can't escape it, so you scoff at it, like a defiant prisoner spitting at his jailors. But that spittle doesn't remove the chains, buddy. You're stuck in art, and there's no banishing it. Even a Magic circle has to be drawn, no?

Reminds me of Heidegger's critique of Descartes, in some ways. You've made some assumptions and, by doing so, you've entirely missed the opportunity of questioning those assumptions. Unable to break out of your own bubble, you're blind to your own work. But, again . . . .maybe you always wanted it to be that way.

Because, as we both know, silence is Golden. And not just reflective of that rare metal substance. This is a gold more refined, beyond the material sphere. I know you know what Gold I'm talking about. And yet, I wonder if you haven't missed the real luster of Gold and traded it in for fool's gold.

Then again, playing the Fool is not a bad thing, now is it?

I'm not telling.

View all my reviews

If you like or appreciate my writing and want to lend your support, ko-fi me at https://ko-fi.com/forrestaguirre. Every little bit is seen and appreciated! Thank you!

The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel / The Naked Sun

 

The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel / The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was probably around 1977 that I became fully aware that this specific edition of this novel had sat on my dad's bookshelf, probably since before I was born. It's strange to say, but that freakish cover with the vacuum-cleaner robot was a fixture in my house, as I said, likely from before I was born, to the day of my father's death in 2018. The stranger thing, I suppose, is that I have not read it until now. When my parents passed away (both within two months of each other - but that heartbreaking story is for another day), we got rid of most of their books. Many I had already read or owned, and most of the rest I wasn't terribly interested in. Dad had purged his collection back in the '90s or so, and, well, mom read romance novels almost exclusively, so . . .

But this one I kept. I can't look at the book without thinking about my dad. He was a huge fan of science fiction and of Isaac Asimov in particular. I gave some of the Foundation material a go some time ago, but wasn't floored by it. It was . . . good. But didn't strike me as amazing. But I had read many other books that my dad had (or had recommended to me) and he read some that I gave to him.

And what did my dad see in The Robot Novels? I can't tell you, but I can tell you what I saw.

First off, I'm convinced that Asimov wasn't really a science fiction author. At least not with this book. Sure, it's got all the trappings - robots (obviously), enclosed cities cut off from nature (the "Steel Caves" referred to in the first novel), spaceships, and blasters. But really, this is a noir novel along the lines of The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep.

Secondly, Asimov was a product of his time. The use of the term "boy" for robots, the undercurrent of sexism, etc. While these things are not as blatant as, say, Lovecraft's racism or the sexism of E.E. Smith's Triplanetary, you can sense that Asimov was writing at a time when society was starting to "deal" with these subjects.

Lastly, Asimov is a good, solid writer. But don't expect anything fancy. Like its noir predecessors, The Robot Novels are a working-man's prose work. I'm not sure if this was an intentional choice by Asimov or the next step in science fiction writerly-ness, one step removed from the pulps. But there seems to be a neo-Hemingway sensibility to the prose itself. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. And the job, as they say, needs doing.

Overall, I really enjoyed the read. The plot was a twisty as you'd expect from a quasi-noir novel in a science fiction setting. The characters, while showing their "age," were interesting and while not three-dimensional, they were also not two-dimensional, filling some fractal character space in between. Will I read it again? Probably not. But I might be convinced to dip into another Asimov down the road, who knows?

To tie this one off, one of my proudest moments as a writer came when I was able to tell my dad that my story "The Auctioneer and the Antiquarian, or, 1962" was to appear in Asimov's magazine. He was effusive in his praise, something that was counter to his demeanor most of the time. It really is one of my happiest memories of my dad. Little did I know that ten years later, he would be gone and I would be collecting from his belongings the copy of the magazine that I had sent to him.

Folks, ten years can slip away very, very quickly.

Hold on.

View all my reviews

If you like or appreciate my writing and want to lend your support, ko-fi me at https://ko-fi.com/forrestaguirre. Every little bit is seen and appreciated! Thank you!