Monthly Archives: October 1997

Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer

By lytspeed Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Writing Leave a reply

Word Work:  Surviving and Thriving as a Writer

By:  Bruce Holland Rogers

Type:  Writing/Self-Help

Setting:  n/a

Description:

Word Work grew out of a column called “Staying Alive” that Bruce Holland Rogers writes forSpeculations magazine.  Though the Speculations readership is primarily a science fiction bunch, the articles and subsequent book are not geared to any genre in particular.  Writers in general can benefit from the book.

It’s important to note that the subtitle is not How to Write in the Style of Bruce Holland Rogers.  In fact, there is little about the actual nuts and bolts of grammar or mechanics in the book.  This is a book about being a writer.  It’s about the daily mental and emotional struggles that underlie the false glamour of the writing profession.  It’s about the shiny metal — and the rust patches — under the paint.

Comments:

Rogers writes in a very personal, conversational style.  Having participated in a Rogers workshop, I can say with confidence that his written voice in this book is very much like his teaching voice in person.  Rogers doesn’t come across as a writer resting on his laurels and disseminating advice to the writing rabble; his conversational writing voice establishes a level of trust and equality early on.  The book is written more on the level of peer teaching than mentor teaching, though it will likely spawn more than a few Rogers protégés.

The book is arranged in sections, with further breakdowns by chapter within the sections.  (This organization is a good example of atomizing, Rogers’ recommended procedure for breaking large projects down into manageable chunks.)  The table of contents includes one-line summaries of the topics covered in each chapter, so it is easy to find and re-read specific pieces.  I think this will be a very handy feature for future review.  On first reading, several sections seemed more applicable to my situation than others, but I can see how others could come to the forefront later.

The introduction is one of my favorite parts of the book.  In it, Rogers introduces the concepts of Hunter and Farmer as personality types for writers.  The Hunters are the writers who are always full of ideas and start many projects.  They also tend to have trouble bringing most of these projects to fruition.  Farmers, on the other hand, are able to stick with a project until it is done, but they are sometimes frustrated by the lack of ideas or the flatness with which their ideas hit the page.  These personality type descriptions come from Thom Hartmann, a psychotherapist and writer from Vermont who has written several books about Attention Deficit Disorder, identifying ADD patients as “Hunters in a Farmer’s world.”  Rogers, it turns out, has ADD, and makes it clear that he is writing from the perspective of a Hunter, but that writers need to create a balance between the Hunter and Farmer personality types to succeed in their work.  His goal in the book is to give Hunters the tools to be better Farmers and vice versa.

To that end, the Hunters win out.  Rogers has much more experience with being a Hunter, and is able to give more suggestions on how to deal with Hunter-type problems than Farmer problems.  For me, this is good.  I tend much more toward Hunter than Farmer in my life, and I was able to pick up some excellent motivational nuggets.  Rogers doesn’t leave the Farmers completely out, though.  He makes what suggestions he can, and defers to others with more experience in those matters when necessary.

For me, the most insightful and useful chapters of the book dealt with discipline, procrastination, rejection/acceptance (two edges of the same sword), success, and writing in a family environment.  Down the road, other sections may appeal to me more, and each reader will find that different topics will appeal more to him than others.  This is where Rogers’ wide range of writing experience comes into play; if you are experiencing it, chances are good that he has too, and he may have some valuable insights for you.

Recommendations:

I found this book to be very easy to slip into.  It dealt directly with some of my writing difficulties and aspirations.  I also found the style to be refreshing, and less of a “this is how it should be done” manual than some of the other writing texts that I have read.  For me, it worked, and I suspect that my copy will become well worn over time.

The book contains quite a lot of modern psychology, and some people will be tempted to dismiss it out of hand because of that.  If you are resistant to the ideas of affirmation, neurolinguistic programming, and dream analysis, you would do well to take a deep, centering breath and overcome some of those prejudices before reading the book.  If, after reading it, you still don’t want any part of the squishy science, that’s fine.  Chances are good that you will have found something worthwhile in the book anyway. 

The Tomorrow Makers

By lytspeed Posted in Computers, Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Science Leave a reply

The Tomorrow Makers

By: Grant Fjermedal

Type: Non-fiction survey with touches of biography

Setting: N/A

Description:

Based on interviews with some of the most notable cognitive science researchers in the country and their students, Fjermedal’s book walks the line between non-fiction and biography. Without going into the messy details, he shows that many people in the world believe in the possibility (probability?) of building robots and computers “smart” enough to hold carbon copies of a human mind and continue its thinking processes after the download. 

Comments:

Fjermedal realizes something that not many other survey interviewers do: in an institutional setting, the big names aren’t necessarily the ones who do the most work. Fjermedal not only concentrates on the big fish in the AI pond, such as Marvin Minsky, Joseph Weizenbaum, John McCarthy, Allen Newell, Gerald Jay Sussman and Danny Hillis. He also focuses on the students. Many of them stay up for days at a time working on projects with the kind of dedication that most people don’t give to their careers. They deserve a round of applause, and Fjermedal gives it to them. The student viewpoint is also interestingly fresh because they are accomplished dreamers. They are not afraid to speak of what they think will happen twenty or thirty years down the road. Whereas some university professors will pad their opinions and say, “Well, that might happen someday,” the students respond with, “That will happen. And I’ll do it.” This approach may not be entirely realistic, but reality is not necessarily a good culture for new ideas. 

Recommendations:

This book, combined with Machinery of the Mind, by George Johnson, works well as a non-technical survey of the directions of artificial intelligence and the people driving there. Fjermedal goes a little more into the personalities and the distance possibilities than Johnson does, but the two books give a consistent view of the field. Specifically, Fjermedal tries to show why the researchers are trying to create intelligent computers and shows the energy with which they are working.

The Tao of Physics

By lytspeed Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Science Leave a reply

The Tao of Physics

By: Fritjof Capra

Type: Non-fiction

Setting: n/a

Description:

In a sweeping series of chapters that read more like essays, Capra gives descriptions of the main Eastern religions, their differences and similarities and the parallels between many of these faiths and the path of modern physics. 

Comments:

Though a little over the head of the common layman, The Tao of Physics is an excellent treatise on interconnection. Modern physics, more and more, is suggesting that the reality we perceive is illusory, and that the “real world” is something far beyond our current level of understanding. We have deduced numerous equations to predict how the world works, but none of them apply at all levels of existence; Classical physics breaks down when used to predict the actions of subatomic particles and subatomic physics can not measure with certainty the actions of anything larger than subatomic size. Light appears to be a wave at some times and a stream of particles at others. Electron spin information can be transferred instantaneously — seemingly faster than the speed of light — even when an isolated electron pair is separated by millions of miles (at least in a gedankenexperiment.) The world of modern physics is rife with wonderful contradictions, so what better to compare it with than the mystical wisdom of the orient?

Obviously, the Zen Buddhists come to mind, with their famous koans — hypothetical paradoxes which a student of Zen is to meditate upon to attain enlightenment. Capra focuses much of his comparitive study on this metaphysical faith, but also brings in aspects of Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism and even jujistu and kendo. It is obvious he is well versed in both theoretical physics and eastern mysticism, and it is refreshing to see a scientist brave enough to step away from the fold and still bring scientific evidence to bear to support his position. This is no Eric von Daniken or Velikovsky talking; Capra knows his work, and is simply pointing out that western science and eastern mysticism may simply be two different paths from which to approach the same enlightened goal. 

Recommendations:

People who are not at least familiar with developments in modern physics may become bogged down in this book. They might be better off starting with Capra’s other popular book, The Turning Point, or reading Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore to get a light brushup on the ideas covered. Similarly, those with no exposure to eastern mysticism may find that they do not grasp all of what Capra says. Good building blocks for these people can be found in The Spirit of Zen by Alan Watts and any number of good survey texts on eastern religions and thought systems. If you happen to be a master physicist and Zen master, you probably don’t need to read this book; you need to write one!

The Spirit of Zen

By lytspeed Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews Leave a reply

The Spirit of Zen

By: Alan Watts

Type: Non-fiction

Setting: n/a

Description:

This is a small text that introduces us to some of the riddles of the Zen mindset without giving away the answers. (The book would be stripped of its buddha nature if it contained “the answers.”) 

Comments:

Though written in the 1930s, this book still applies to Zen buddhism today. The concepts haven’t changed much and the source material is still carried down. Watts also updated the book at least twice before his death to keep it current, though he was never happy with the introductory chapter. Especially interesting is a description of life in a Zen monastery. In the description, Watts avoids “telling” us what’s happening, and simply shows us through words, a very Zen thing to do. Zen masters are known for never answering questions about Zen enlightenment directly but for exhibiting the path to enlightenment in their manner. Watts tries to do this as well, while still maintaining the interest and satisfaction of western readers. 

Recommendations:

A basic research book into Zen. That’s about all there can be, really, for a true understanding of Zen can only come through devoted study in the discipline itself. It can not be communicated in words, only through the mind-jarring koans, regular meditation and the simple procedures of living everyday life.

The Planiverse

By lytspeed Posted in Computers, Opinion, Reading, Reviews, Science Leave a reply

The Planiverse

By: A.K. Dewdney

Type: Pseudo-nonfiction based on scientific extrapolation

Setting: A computer lab in Canada and the two-dimensional world of Arde

Description:

In a style reminiscent of an extended gedanken experiment, Dewdney explores the possibility of a two dimensional universe and attempts to chart its scientific, social, religious and artistic rules. Aided in this project by a battalion of colleagues and students, he creates a believable paradigm and weaves it nicely together with a story about how a group of students and himself achieve connection with this world through the development of a computer simulation called 2DWORLD. 

Comments:

Dewdney so carefully treads the line of speculation versus reality that I found myself often wondering whether he really believed in the story. He repeats several times in the text that hedoes belive that he has met an inhabitant of Arde, named Yndred, and that Yndred showed up in the University’s DEC-10 computer when the 2DWORLD simulation program attained a certain level of sophistication. He is most insistent on this at the end of the introduction, and at that point in the work he seems to almost transform into a Randolph Carter type of character, á la Lovecraft. The science is engaging and the touch of mysticism adds flavor.

Still, I found it hard to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the story at times. The way in which the Ardean world and ours relate is shaky, especially when Dewdney claims that Yndred spoke in English (despite having a completely foreign alphabet) and that the computer screen automatically takes on a different focus and detail than its programming dictates when they are in contact with Yendred. If Dewdney had not taken the Lovecraftian approach in the introduction, I think I would have been able to enjoy the story more. No doubt, Dewdney believes that two dimensional universes exist, and makes a good case for us to believe it too, but his tactic of trying to draw the reader into the story by describing the events as if they actually happened to him distracted me. 

Recommendations:

Despite the minor difficulty I had with the approach, I like the book. it is a good exercise in thought experimentation and shows a wide range of intelligence and credit to the reader. It is easy to read; in fact it is hard to put down at times. If you are able to suspend your disbelief on a few practicalities and jump into the culture of a two-dimensional world, you are likely to have a good time with this book and learn something about alternate perspectives.