One Thousand and One Ways to Die Alone

Stanislaw Lem once said Philip K Dick was the only author writing good science fiction in America. Naturally, Dick accused him with conspiring with communists to gain control over public opinion. This link between Dick and Lem stands though—two writers trying to write philosophically leaning science fiction with heavy jabs at ‘the system’.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub reads like Kafka writing science fiction. An unnamed narrator arrives at The Building, supposedly the last refuge of capitalism on Earth sunk in the middle of a mountain. He is a spy who never receives his orders. He flits from office to office and sleeps in a bathtub. The people around him are executed and commit suicide at random. When he receives his orders, they are his internal monologue of his experiences in the building. Then they are stolen from him.

Lem wraps this narrative in another future, where the novel is a fossilized text, found by a civilization very different from ours. In that futures past, a bacteria destroyed all the paper on the planet, grinding civilisation to a halt, and destroying our legacy and literatures.

Memoirs Found In A Bathtub: 4 Stars

On reading Dave Eggers novel Zeitoun, a non-fictional account of the 2005 New Orleans floods, I was reminded of the flood faced by my state last year. It rained heavily for days, and the river in the heart of our city grew. The rains filled the drying Wivenhoe Dam. 

This is Queensland, Australia. I remember being on the train when they evacuated the city. I remember seeing houses painted with rank mud. Our flood was not of the same magnitude as the New Orleans, but there were similar aspects as told by Zeitoun. For instance, the heart-warming altruism of Zeitoun and other residents. In the wasteland of water Zeitoun canoes around, searching for people who need rescue, and delivering food and water.  

In the wake of our floods, strangers came together to clean up. In an underground car park, a friend and me saw rusted wrecks of cars and helped people throw away expensive paintings, Christmas decorations and surfboards. The car park had been used as a storage space for residents.

Zeitoun should be read for its message of human compassion. Simultaneously, it is a document of atrocities committed by the forces sent to protect the citizens of New Orleans. I will not give anything away, but prepare to be outraged.

Zeitoun: 3.5 stars.

Holy fucking shit. Jorge Luis Borges is a revelation. Labyrinthsis his collection of short stories, non-fiction and parables. His stories are deep. They explore the immortality of man across time and possibility and delve into storytelling and its effects upon humanity. In Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius the narrator discovers a new world in a misprinted Encyclopaedia, which has unforseen effects, while the title character in Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote attempts to recreate Don Quixote line by line.

Borges has a breadth of influences and styles, noticeably his love of detective fiction and admiration for Edgar Allan Poe. Death and the Compass has Erik Lönnrot investigating a spate of murders by reading the works of theology in the room of the first victim. Borges’ fiction emphasises our capacity to influence the world with words and imagination, and for that world of stories to influence us in turn.

Interestingly in the essay The Argentine Writer and Tradition, he says, “[…] my friends told me at last they had found in what I wrote the flavour of the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Precisely because I had not set out to find that flavour, because I had abandoned myself to a dream, I was able to accomplish, after so many years, what I had previously sought in vain.”

Labyrinths is necessary for those caught up in the world of stories.

Labyrinths: 5 Stars.

Dawkins’ polarizing The Selfish Geneexplains the theory of evolution in a clear way, steering clear of scientific and mathematical jargon. Specifically, it explains evolution from the perspective of the gene itself, positioning it over the body or group as the driving force. By taking this perspective, Dawkins is able to reason why animals are altruistic to their kin; develop behavioural tendencies and sexual preferences, and even why we are here at all.

The Selfish Gene is less polarizing than the idea of evolution itself. Indeed, its claims are derived from a Darwinian view of life and evolution. An interesting, and perhaps, necessary read for anyone interested in science and evolution.

The Selfish Gene:  5 Stars.

Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona combines comedy with flighty reflections on love an friendship. Rife with backstabbing and cross-dressing, TTGOV is a perfect quick read for those falling behind on targets.