This book, which in reality is five different essays put together, develops some of the topics that are present in Gurdjieff's and Ouspensky's writings and system. The system is, of course, Gurdjieff's, while Ouspensky is the most advanced pupil. There are passages from the "In Search Of The Miraculous" interspersed throughout, but most of the material is from talks and answers to questions that Ouspensky gave.
In the first part, “Memory,” Ouspensky gives some insights on memory formation and durability that are not yet discovered by modern neuroscience but ring true to one's experience.
In the second part, “Surface Personality,” principles of the self are explained and the false or surface personality explained, as a necessary but, in a correct setup, subservient part of the unified personality. Unfortunately, the modern science called Psychology devotes most of its breadth to researching this surface or false personality.
In the third part, “Self-Will,” the difference between will, or Real Will, is juxtaposed to Self Will, or what is usually thought of as will in everyday language. The real will does not exist in the vast majority of humans which are thrown around by the resultant of the sum of forces of all the vectors that are influencing them, without the possibility, even the smallest one, of a personal choice, except in trivial and non-consequential matters.
In the fourth part, “Negative Emotions,” Ouspensky talks about the utter uselessness of negative emotions, which include angers, sadness, depression, patriotism, sports rooting and pretty much everything that saps and wastes energy rather than preserving and storing it. He points out to a common misconsception that a man who exresess negative emotions (in the wider, Ouspensky sense), is honest and genuine, instead saying that such a person is weak and self-indulgent.
The final part, “Notes on Work,” an emphasis is put that development on one's own is utterly impossible, but only through a school with a teacher on another level of being any kind of progress can be made. Otherwise all work would be just in the imagination, i.e. imagining one is working instead or thinking about working, rather than actually doing the work.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Monday, November 6, 2017
"The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" by Pyotr Demianovich Ouspensky
His name is Pyotr, not Peter. Let's get that straight first. No need to anglicize every foreign name out there, especially not European ones. A little foreign languages study goes a long way.
"The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" is largely biographical and the main theme is Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Recurrence, exposed in several of his writings. However, Ouspensky wrote the original Russian version in 1915, after he met Gurdjieff (the Magician), and the novel reflects that, as the idea of Eternal Recurrence is modified to include only "two or three, or in any case a few" lives, after the person learns about the idea. Nietzsche's concept is also modified by Ouspensky in the sense that each 'recurrence' is not completely identical to the previous one, but they can be different, and it is postulated that each following one is worse than the previous one, because the person has less and less chances to change anything in each subsequent incarnation.
Aside from young Ouspensky's pussy chasing (and he's not doing bad at all!), the book emphasizes the point from the Gurdjieff's system that "a man cannot do" that is, one cannot change anything, even if one knows what one wants to change and even if one remembers all the things as they were before. Ouspensky writes that from a far things look clear and obvious, but once one is surrounded by the circumstances and details - things just happen mechanically of themselves, exactly in the way they happened before.
At the end of the book Osokin is offered a deal by the Magician, in exchange for 15-20 years of his life and service, the Magician will help Osokin learn and know how to change himself, but young Osokin doesn't trust him and is still more concerned about the latest hot pussy running away from his clutches.
We all know how Ouspensky's life turned out later and his love of pussy was replaced by love of whiskey and vodka (sometimes together), however that does not prevent him from being one of the most clear-minded, clear language expositors of both Gurdjieff's and his own ideas in writing.
"The Strange Life of Ivan Osokin" is largely biographical and the main theme is Nietzsche's idea of Eternal Recurrence, exposed in several of his writings. However, Ouspensky wrote the original Russian version in 1915, after he met Gurdjieff (the Magician), and the novel reflects that, as the idea of Eternal Recurrence is modified to include only "two or three, or in any case a few" lives, after the person learns about the idea. Nietzsche's concept is also modified by Ouspensky in the sense that each 'recurrence' is not completely identical to the previous one, but they can be different, and it is postulated that each following one is worse than the previous one, because the person has less and less chances to change anything in each subsequent incarnation.
Aside from young Ouspensky's pussy chasing (and he's not doing bad at all!), the book emphasizes the point from the Gurdjieff's system that "a man cannot do" that is, one cannot change anything, even if one knows what one wants to change and even if one remembers all the things as they were before. Ouspensky writes that from a far things look clear and obvious, but once one is surrounded by the circumstances and details - things just happen mechanically of themselves, exactly in the way they happened before.
At the end of the book Osokin is offered a deal by the Magician, in exchange for 15-20 years of his life and service, the Magician will help Osokin learn and know how to change himself, but young Osokin doesn't trust him and is still more concerned about the latest hot pussy running away from his clutches.
We all know how Ouspensky's life turned out later and his love of pussy was replaced by love of whiskey and vodka (sometimes together), however that does not prevent him from being one of the most clear-minded, clear language expositors of both Gurdjieff's and his own ideas in writing.
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
"La Grande Bretêche" by Honoré de Balzac
This is a short story, one of the few that deals specifically with a subject that could be loosely called "Horror" by Balzac. Balzac used to get paid by the word, so all his novels are very wordy, though not less enjoyable for that.
This story can be seen from multiple perspectives: as a plain horror story, as a portrait of the power relationship between a husband and a wife in 19th century France, or as a critique of "Christian" morality and fate, which seems to crumble when strong enough biological impulse is introduced to the equation.
The story has to do with a doctor from Paris who comes to a rural part of France and is enamored of an old, isolated house which seems to be abandoned. He gets the initial story from the town Notary, and then the Inn Keeper (who has a problem with theft) and finally by bedding a former maid from the house he was interested in.
The story has to do with a very-Christian wife who takes in a lover, imprisoned Spaniard, but falsely swears to the husband that there's no one in the room, though the guy is hiding in the alcove. The husband, who can compete in cruelty with the best, orders the alcove closed with a brick wall and spends several weeks in the wife's room to makes sure the guys inside is completely dead and decomposing before he leaves her.
This story can be seen from multiple perspectives: as a plain horror story, as a portrait of the power relationship between a husband and a wife in 19th century France, or as a critique of "Christian" morality and fate, which seems to crumble when strong enough biological impulse is introduced to the equation.
The story has to do with a doctor from Paris who comes to a rural part of France and is enamored of an old, isolated house which seems to be abandoned. He gets the initial story from the town Notary, and then the Inn Keeper (who has a problem with theft) and finally by bedding a former maid from the house he was interested in.
The story has to do with a very-Christian wife who takes in a lover, imprisoned Spaniard, but falsely swears to the husband that there's no one in the room, though the guy is hiding in the alcove. The husband, who can compete in cruelty with the best, orders the alcove closed with a brick wall and spends several weeks in the wife's room to makes sure the guys inside is completely dead and decomposing before he leaves her.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
"The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury
This book is not a novel, but a collection of short stories, very loosely relating to Mars, which were stitched together by small vignettes and intermezzos.
It doesn't really work well. Although I respect Bradbury and his seminal novel "Fahrenheit 451" had strong influence on me when adolescent, the "Martian Chronicles" fail short of the vision, depth and breadth in his other novels.
Bradbury writes "soft" science fiction, so don't look for plausible science, or even an emphasis on accuracy. Science fiction is used as a narrative device, while the actual topics of the stories are quite different; oppression of women, treatment of black people, cohesion and viability of the family unit, etc.
All these topics and their mixing with Science Fiction is not a problem in itself, the great Ursula LeGuin has mixed and matched with great success, but in this novel/short story collection - it just doesn't work.
Many of the stories could be classified more as horror than science fiction, but I guess the "speculative fiction" moniker covers all that ground. The first story, Yilla (and Yill), seems completely out of place in this book, but then again we had to have a 'first' expedition to Mars.
The rest of the stories vary in quality: from silly contraptions about the first hot dog stand on Mars (built by a psychopath) - to meditations on loneliness and companionship, even if not with true human beings.
Interesting book from a historic perspective, but not much else.
It doesn't really work well. Although I respect Bradbury and his seminal novel "Fahrenheit 451" had strong influence on me when adolescent, the "Martian Chronicles" fail short of the vision, depth and breadth in his other novels.
Bradbury writes "soft" science fiction, so don't look for plausible science, or even an emphasis on accuracy. Science fiction is used as a narrative device, while the actual topics of the stories are quite different; oppression of women, treatment of black people, cohesion and viability of the family unit, etc.
All these topics and their mixing with Science Fiction is not a problem in itself, the great Ursula LeGuin has mixed and matched with great success, but in this novel/short story collection - it just doesn't work.
Many of the stories could be classified more as horror than science fiction, but I guess the "speculative fiction" moniker covers all that ground. The first story, Yilla (and Yill), seems completely out of place in this book, but then again we had to have a 'first' expedition to Mars.
The rest of the stories vary in quality: from silly contraptions about the first hot dog stand on Mars (built by a psychopath) - to meditations on loneliness and companionship, even if not with true human beings.
Interesting book from a historic perspective, but not much else.
Monday, May 1, 2017
"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester
There's nothing likable about Gully Foyle. He's a rapist, murderer, thief, swindler, uneducated, unmannerly. But he is the main protagonist of this novel and even if the reader does not like him, the reader at least learns to appreciate his point of view, especially towards the end of the novel.
This novel is a great mixture of the old and the new. Published in the mid-50s, this novel is a proud representative of the pulpy 30s and 40s with their melodramatic plots, paper-thin characters, unfeasible science and generally being written like pirate stories in space. However, there's much of the new. This novel is the direct precursor of the Cyberpunk genre, with its corrupt corporations more powerful than governments, sarcastic and resigned view of life and death where everyone is expendable, straying away from "hero" main characters. Gibson's "Neuromancer" is just the next step.
Gulliver Foyle was a nobody dock worker who happens to be in space. Large, dumb, uncaring, with no plans, motivation or aspirations, his life was looking like a dead end at 30. However, after his cargo ship Nomad was attacked by Outer Satellites and he, as the only survivor, left to die, and was passed over for pickup by the Vorga, a ship owned by the Presteign corporation, the most powerful one on Earth and the Inner Planets. Gully is enraged by the Vorga passing him by and his life gets only one meaning - to exact revenge on the Vorga and its crew.
Gully moves the Nomad with some spare rockets and lands it on the Sargasso asteroid, where leftover humans have formed their own primitive civilization - "The Scientific People." Gully is accepted into the tribe and his face is tattooed with a hideous tiger-like mask by Joseph, the leader and priest of the Scientific People. However Gully finds a working ship on the asteroid and flies to Earth where he meets Robin, a one-way telepath, whom he rapes and threatens with exposing her as an Outer Satellites agent.
Further Gully is found by Presteign and his minions and thrown into a jail deep in a gorge in France from where "jaunting" - teleporting, is impossible. However Gully meets Jizzbelle in the jail and they escape together to find the money on the Nomad, but Gully abandons Jizz. Later Gully takes the name of Geofrey Fourmyle from Ceres with his enormous fortune from the Nomad, but everyone is looking after the PyrE, which can be telepathically exploded and could be the key in winning the war with the Outer Satellites. Here Fourmyle meets Olivia Presteign, a blind albino daughter of Presteign, the head of the clan and incidentally the one who ordered the Vorga not to pick up Foyle from the Nomad.
Eventually Gully learns to jaunt through time and space, goes around the galaxy to scout some new inhabitable planets, appears as the "Flaming Gully" several times in the past, and with Robin's help, he finds his way back to the present when he goes back to the Scientific People and falls asleep.
Much of the plot is ripped directly from the Count of Monte Cristo, but it is interesting to see it set up in space. No good characters in the book - everyone has a flaw - even Robin who gets raped by Gully later accepts him and betrays him again. Same with Jizz who has sex with Gully before discovering his tiger tattoos and hates him afterwards. An interesting pointer in the 1950s as to where would the genre go next.
This novel is a great mixture of the old and the new. Published in the mid-50s, this novel is a proud representative of the pulpy 30s and 40s with their melodramatic plots, paper-thin characters, unfeasible science and generally being written like pirate stories in space. However, there's much of the new. This novel is the direct precursor of the Cyberpunk genre, with its corrupt corporations more powerful than governments, sarcastic and resigned view of life and death where everyone is expendable, straying away from "hero" main characters. Gibson's "Neuromancer" is just the next step.
Gulliver Foyle was a nobody dock worker who happens to be in space. Large, dumb, uncaring, with no plans, motivation or aspirations, his life was looking like a dead end at 30. However, after his cargo ship Nomad was attacked by Outer Satellites and he, as the only survivor, left to die, and was passed over for pickup by the Vorga, a ship owned by the Presteign corporation, the most powerful one on Earth and the Inner Planets. Gully is enraged by the Vorga passing him by and his life gets only one meaning - to exact revenge on the Vorga and its crew.
Gully moves the Nomad with some spare rockets and lands it on the Sargasso asteroid, where leftover humans have formed their own primitive civilization - "The Scientific People." Gully is accepted into the tribe and his face is tattooed with a hideous tiger-like mask by Joseph, the leader and priest of the Scientific People. However Gully finds a working ship on the asteroid and flies to Earth where he meets Robin, a one-way telepath, whom he rapes and threatens with exposing her as an Outer Satellites agent.
Further Gully is found by Presteign and his minions and thrown into a jail deep in a gorge in France from where "jaunting" - teleporting, is impossible. However Gully meets Jizzbelle in the jail and they escape together to find the money on the Nomad, but Gully abandons Jizz. Later Gully takes the name of Geofrey Fourmyle from Ceres with his enormous fortune from the Nomad, but everyone is looking after the PyrE, which can be telepathically exploded and could be the key in winning the war with the Outer Satellites. Here Fourmyle meets Olivia Presteign, a blind albino daughter of Presteign, the head of the clan and incidentally the one who ordered the Vorga not to pick up Foyle from the Nomad.
Eventually Gully learns to jaunt through time and space, goes around the galaxy to scout some new inhabitable planets, appears as the "Flaming Gully" several times in the past, and with Robin's help, he finds his way back to the present when he goes back to the Scientific People and falls asleep.
Much of the plot is ripped directly from the Count of Monte Cristo, but it is interesting to see it set up in space. No good characters in the book - everyone has a flaw - even Robin who gets raped by Gully later accepts him and betrays him again. Same with Jizz who has sex with Gully before discovering his tiger tattoos and hates him afterwards. An interesting pointer in the 1950s as to where would the genre go next.
Thursday, April 6, 2017
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Cien años de soledad) by Gabriel García Márquez
I've read this book, in Serbian (or was it Croatian?) translation when I was in 9th grade and it remained my favorite book for several years after. This is the first time I am re-reading it in English translation, and some of the finesses of the language and the phrasing seem to have been lost in translation. My Spanish is far from fluent, unfortunately, and I cannot read it in original (one day!), but I like the Slavic languages translation better, as those languages are closer in spirit and form to Spanish and less is lost during the translation.
What can be said about Cien años de soledad that has not already been said? Marquez received a Nobel prize in literature and not in small measure because of this book. It is one of the most amazing books you will ever read - not in a cheap thriller/mystery/romance way like current pulp fiction - but in a way that makes you see your life and the life of people around you. The big things seem trivial, like the massacre of the 3,000 people at the train station in Macondo by the corrupt government's army, while the small things are magical, like the hive of yellow butterflies following Babylonia.
Jose Arcadio Buendia founds Macondo after he kills a man during a cock fight in the previous place he used to live with his wife Ursula. Macondo is found after passing a magical area on the way out of Riohacha and north of the swamp areas. The 100 years between the founding and the destruction of Macondo are the subject of the book, and in some way the town of Macondo is the main character of the book.
Macondo is a place where magic is found in the small things, like the magic that the travelling gypsies brought early on, especially the intriguing mystic Melquíades who teaches Jose Arcadio Buendia alchemy. The sons of the Buendia family are called either Jose Arcadio or Aureliano. And Colonel Aureliano fought 31 civil wars and lost them all. Then we have Remedios the Beauty who is so unworldly beautiful that she ascends to heaven in her corporeal body. And finally Amaranta-Ursula and Aureliano Babylonia who finish the 100 year cycle when their incest baby dies and is eaten by ants, while they both die in the final disaster of humongous wind destroying the entire town.
In between are the evil Americans with the Banana Company which destroys the life of the people in Macondo but is staunchly defended by the corrupt and evil government, who'd rather see thousands of people die at the American plantation than lose the bribes they received, even going so far as to claim in court that the company never existed and neither did the people who worked there and were murdered in the strike against the horrible working conditions.
This is a mind-blowing book that every human should read at least once in their lifetime.
What can be said about Cien años de soledad that has not already been said? Marquez received a Nobel prize in literature and not in small measure because of this book. It is one of the most amazing books you will ever read - not in a cheap thriller/mystery/romance way like current pulp fiction - but in a way that makes you see your life and the life of people around you. The big things seem trivial, like the massacre of the 3,000 people at the train station in Macondo by the corrupt government's army, while the small things are magical, like the hive of yellow butterflies following Babylonia.
Jose Arcadio Buendia founds Macondo after he kills a man during a cock fight in the previous place he used to live with his wife Ursula. Macondo is found after passing a magical area on the way out of Riohacha and north of the swamp areas. The 100 years between the founding and the destruction of Macondo are the subject of the book, and in some way the town of Macondo is the main character of the book.
Macondo is a place where magic is found in the small things, like the magic that the travelling gypsies brought early on, especially the intriguing mystic Melquíades who teaches Jose Arcadio Buendia alchemy. The sons of the Buendia family are called either Jose Arcadio or Aureliano. And Colonel Aureliano fought 31 civil wars and lost them all. Then we have Remedios the Beauty who is so unworldly beautiful that she ascends to heaven in her corporeal body. And finally Amaranta-Ursula and Aureliano Babylonia who finish the 100 year cycle when their incest baby dies and is eaten by ants, while they both die in the final disaster of humongous wind destroying the entire town.
In between are the evil Americans with the Banana Company which destroys the life of the people in Macondo but is staunchly defended by the corrupt and evil government, who'd rather see thousands of people die at the American plantation than lose the bribes they received, even going so far as to claim in court that the company never existed and neither did the people who worked there and were murdered in the strike against the horrible working conditions.
This is a mind-blowing book that every human should read at least once in their lifetime.
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
"The Forever War" by John Haldeman
I dislike Military (Science) Fiction, but make exceptions for the classics of the genre like "Starship Troopers" and Haldeman's 1974 masterpiece. Unlike "Starship Troopers" there's less emphasis here on the virtues of camaraderie, building a cohesive fighting unit, or even 'winning' for that matter. Haldeman is more interested in depicting the alienation soldiers feel when coming back from the front, the inability to fit in, the feeling of not belonging, all of which forces the soldiers back to the front, to the military, as it is the only constant in their lives they can rely on. Haldeman's Vietnam War experience and the subsequent adaptation (or lack thereof) to civilian life served as the main inspiration for this book.
The Forever War Haldeman speaks of, although just a metaphor for the Vietnam War, or all wars, is fought between the Earthlings and the Taurans, a humanoid race which seems to be at about the same technological level. The greatest scientific breakthrough is the Collapsar Jump, which allows space ships to cover enormous distances in no time at all. However, because of relativistic laws, this incurs what other sci-fi writers have called "Time Debt" where although subjective time of mission might be 10 months, relativistically back on Earth, decades and centuries have passed. Such "time debt" is a great allegory for the alienation Vietnam Vets felt when they came back from the front.
The first come back to Earth finds it in poverty and violence, with most of the population homosexual, encouraged by UNEF, the world government, in order to control population growth. William Mandela, the protagonist of the novel, does not feel he fits well in this new society, although his mother is still alive (now in a homosexual relationship with another woman), and has to walk around with armed bodyguards because of the omnipresent violent robberies.
He leaves for the front for a second time, the military tricking him by offering him a training job in Earth's orbit, and then substituting the orders for a front posting within the hour. When he comes back a second time, this time to a R-and-R planet called "Heaven" - he learns that now limbs are artificially grown nowadays and there are no prosthetics, although the process is quite painful. He also finds out that sex between humans is being deprecated and all new humans are grown in a lab, from genetic materials selected and combined by UNEF, which causes most of the human population to be of the same skin color and racial characteristics.
Mandella calculates his odds of surviving his 10 year posting and it comes to about 1.2 in 60,000, which is a commentary on the casualties in the Vietnam War and other wars. Eventually his team, he's an officer now since he is one of the oldest surviving soldiers in UNEF, gets sent to the edge of the Galaxy, and by the time they all come back several centuries have passed, the human population is all a single clone nowadays and they communicate telepathically, turns out that the Taurans are also a million-year old civilization of telepathic clones and once the two clone-entities get together - they realize that the entire 7-8 century war was a mistake based in misunderstanding and overzealous-military-crackpots in UNEF who see the whole universe as a nail because all they've ever got was a hammer.
A fine meditation on the futility and utter stupidity of a war, any war, for whatsoever reason.
The Forever War Haldeman speaks of, although just a metaphor for the Vietnam War, or all wars, is fought between the Earthlings and the Taurans, a humanoid race which seems to be at about the same technological level. The greatest scientific breakthrough is the Collapsar Jump, which allows space ships to cover enormous distances in no time at all. However, because of relativistic laws, this incurs what other sci-fi writers have called "Time Debt" where although subjective time of mission might be 10 months, relativistically back on Earth, decades and centuries have passed. Such "time debt" is a great allegory for the alienation Vietnam Vets felt when they came back from the front.
The first come back to Earth finds it in poverty and violence, with most of the population homosexual, encouraged by UNEF, the world government, in order to control population growth. William Mandela, the protagonist of the novel, does not feel he fits well in this new society, although his mother is still alive (now in a homosexual relationship with another woman), and has to walk around with armed bodyguards because of the omnipresent violent robberies.
He leaves for the front for a second time, the military tricking him by offering him a training job in Earth's orbit, and then substituting the orders for a front posting within the hour. When he comes back a second time, this time to a R-and-R planet called "Heaven" - he learns that now limbs are artificially grown nowadays and there are no prosthetics, although the process is quite painful. He also finds out that sex between humans is being deprecated and all new humans are grown in a lab, from genetic materials selected and combined by UNEF, which causes most of the human population to be of the same skin color and racial characteristics.
Mandella calculates his odds of surviving his 10 year posting and it comes to about 1.2 in 60,000, which is a commentary on the casualties in the Vietnam War and other wars. Eventually his team, he's an officer now since he is one of the oldest surviving soldiers in UNEF, gets sent to the edge of the Galaxy, and by the time they all come back several centuries have passed, the human population is all a single clone nowadays and they communicate telepathically, turns out that the Taurans are also a million-year old civilization of telepathic clones and once the two clone-entities get together - they realize that the entire 7-8 century war was a mistake based in misunderstanding and overzealous-military-crackpots in UNEF who see the whole universe as a nail because all they've ever got was a hammer.
A fine meditation on the futility and utter stupidity of a war, any war, for whatsoever reason.
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