The Just City by Jo Walton

The Just City              

A puzzled Apollo is confused when Daphne turn herself into a tree.  Why would she do that? Didn't she want to mate with him?  When he asks his sister Pallas Athene, she tells him that regardless of how many women might have wanted to mate with him in the past, obviously Daphne did not.  

He tells her that it is a game.  He chases a woman, catches her, and mates with her.  That is the way it has always been, it's fun, a kind of mutual foreplay.  The women have always desired him--so what's up with Daphne hating the idea so much she would rather be a tree?

Athene tells him that although Apollo had chosen Daphne:

"... she hadn't chosen you in return.  It wasn't mutual.  You decided to pursue her.  You didn't ask, and she certainly didn't agree. It wasn't consensual.  And, as it happens she didn't want you.  So she turned into a tree,"  Athene shrugged.

Apollo considers this--the idea of volition and equal significance.  Still a bit confused about these ideas, he tells Athene that he has been considering spending some time as a mortal. He realizes there are some things he could learn.

Perfect timing.  Athene has been considering a surprising experiment.  Some people throughout time have prayed to Athene to set up Plato's Republic.  She has decided where and some ideas about how to go about it.

Apollo decides he will become a mortal and be a part of this grand scheme.  

And so begins the idea of the Just City as Plato described it (mostly).

The beginning chapters are a little slow as characters are introduced and some basics of the plan for organizing the city are put in play.  And at first, I thought the book was going to be a treatise about the place of women over time, their rights, their abilities, societies limitations, but it expands to raise questions about...well, about all the big questions people have.  What is just, what is good, what is right--almost any philosophical question people wonder about is considered.

Mortals are mortals, however, and agreement isn't always easy; even the gods are not always right in their beliefs and efforts.

I ended up reading this as if it were nonfiction, not rushing through the book eager to find out what happens, as I do with most fiction.  I'd read a chapter and stop and think-- sometimes stopping several times within a chapter to "voice" my own opinion about the topics and about how things were proceeding.

Highly recommended if you are interested in mythology and/or philosophy!

Read in Oct.; blog post scheduled for Dec. 30.

NetGalley/Macmillan-Tor/Forge

Philosophical Fiction.  Jan. 13, 2015.  print length:  368 pages.  

Genesis

Beckett, Bernard. Genesis.


Original, unusual, unpredictable. Beckett's Genesis is a very short novel of ideas, of philosophy, of neuroscience (think Daniel Dennet, Gerald Edelman, Neural Darwinism, Conscious Robots).

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was reading Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works. His opening chapter examines the limits of AI, artificial intelligence, or thinking robots, and it was one of those neat little coincidences that having just finished that chapter, I picked up Genesis, an unexpected Advanced Reader's Copy that arrived that day.

In a distant future, Anax, a young history student, is applying for admission to The Academy (an exclusive order of philosophers/rulers similar to what Plato imagined) and is undergoing an examination.

The narrative consists largely of questions and answers as in the defense of a doctoral thesis. Anax's area of expertise is myth and the young rebel Adam Forde, but the examiners have her respond to questions about Plato and his Republic, the Great War, and other background events in the 21st century before leading her to her topic of interest.

Anax has spent 3 years preparing for this examination, aided by her tutor Pericles. She knows her stuff, but her interpretations differ from the norm concerning Adam Forde and the robot, Art.

What makes us human? What if robots began to self-evolve? An intriguing book that combines beautifully with all of the "brain" nonfiction I've been reading lately. While it may not appeal to everyone, I found this tiny novel immensely provocative , the surprising twist, unexpected.

Fiction. Science Fiction/dystopia/utopia. 2006. 150 pages.

The Mindful Woman

Thoelle, Sue Patton. The Mindful Woman: Gentle Practices for Restoring Calm, Finding Balance , & Opening Your Heart.

I've enjoyed this book for the past 6 months. Mindfulness is a particularly difficult concept for me to incorporate, but Sue Patton Thoelle makes it easier by giving simple practices to guide the reader to a relaxed, purposeful, and creative approach, choosing mindfulness over "automatic living."

Even with these simple practices that focus on breathing and intention, Thoelle is aware of the elusiveness of mindfulness: "...how incredibly easy it is for me to be seduced away from simplicity and focused awareness into multi-multitasking and rampant mind-mucking."

Part One discuss the basics, the elements of mindfulness, the differences between mindfulness and automatic living, and the benefits of mindfulness. Part Two contains the practices, and Part Three is about enjoying the benefits.

Originally, I intended to read a practice a day, but obviously, I didn't keep up with that too well, and the book would be buried for weeks at a time before I would find it again. My intention now is to go through it again, reading and considering each practice again, and not expect it to happen each day.

The book reminds me of the Upper Room Devotionals--a time to rest and remove oneself briefly from the mundane and focus on the spiritual.

Nonfiction. Instructional/Spiritual. 2008. 219 pages.

Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be

Das, Lama Surya. Letting Go of the Person You Used to Be: Lessons on Change, Loss, and Spiritual Transformation. While there isn't much really new here (after all, wisdom has a long tradition), I need to be frequently reminded. Whether approached as religion, philosophy, or ethical action, some truths just need to be reinforced.

The idea behind this book is transformation, and one of the most interesting transformations in this book is the transformation of an American-born Jewish boy greatly attached to his baseball mitt into a Lama and teacher of Buddhist principles.

In letting go of our attachments, Das notes that we are attached to more than things.

We are attached to "...our opinions and theories. We become attached to the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we think. We become inordinately attached to our status, accomplishments, and reputations--and what we think they say about us. We become attached to our biases, and habitual way of doing things. We become attached to religion and political preference; we even become attached to our fears and anxieties." And, "Often we cling to habits that aren't even comforting or satisfying simply because we are unable to let go or explore new ways to do things."

I loved this quote from T. S. Eliot: " For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business."

It is important to do the best we can, but we have no control of the outcome and should not become attached to it. This coincides (for me) with much of existential thinking (whether religious as Dostoevsky's version or agnostic/atheistic as Camus' version) -- what is important is that we live with integrity and do our best.

My favorite section is the last section about mindfulness, a quality that I need to increase in my life, and Das gives a six week practice to increase our mindful awareness, sense of peace and serenity, and aliveness. I've been working on sound for nearly a week. So many background noises that we tune out...


Nonfiction. Philosophy/spiritual. 2003. 210 pages.

Assorted books and blather

I finished re-reading The Woman in White yesterday and am happy to say that my fond memories were justified. I'll review it later, but Wilkie Collins had a mind for details, organization, and tying up loose ends.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Oh, how many years since I read Pirsig? Reading the article makes me want to revisit this one.

Time for another trip to the library, and one book that I want is Marking Time, the Vol. 2 in the Cazalet Chronicles...before all of those characters begin to fade from my mind.

Finished all but one of the books on my list for the Stacks Challenge. The one book unread is The Haunted Bookshop - which I included in my Stacks list because it was ordered in September, and I counted it as "in my stacks." However, Amazon eventually shipped all of the other books...with this one exception, although I continue to get email updates, I do not have the book.

Watched Disc 2 of Firefly Sunday night. :) Now awaiting Discs 3 & 4, and the movie; love that Netflix que!