Random randomness of Random City
Just saw Psych ep "Dual Spires". It made me quite curious to see Twin Peaks. Considering how funny I found the ep just based on what I know from osmosis, I'd probably have a blast with it after seeing the show. (I wasn't allowed to when it first aired, and never got around to it later.)
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Also finished reading Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y. It's quite a fascinating novel about a grad student who discovers a very rare book, which contains a secret that can lead her to another world. The plot itself is pretty basic, but the story is steeped in philosophical questions concerning what reality is, if anything is real, what thoughts are made of, what quantum physics mean for our perception of the world, and so on, all grounded in the PhD the protagonist is writing on thought experiments. And any book that makes me go, "Huh, maybe I should take a deeper look at quantum physics/Derrida/phenomenology" is good with me. :-)
In a way, based on the questions about the structures of reality, as well as the "if you knew a book was cursed, would you read it?" angle, it reminded me of Danielewski's House of Leaves, except that I liked this book. The only thing that stopped me from loving it was that I couldn't quite connect with the characters. (Though I didn't care to punch them in the face, so that's a step up.) It's also told as a straight-forward narrative (although with passages from the book-in-the-book), and in general doesn't quite give off the same smug air of "I am so clever I could cut myself," so stylistically speaking there's no similarity at all. Just in terms of themes.
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A bit of news for those of you who don't already know: I'm moving to Linköping after Christmas, so my desk is full of important papers to either sign or keep, as well as lists of things I have to do. Today I was supposed to go buy some warmer clothes, but I missed the window on that one. And boy, will I need those warmer clothes! Linköping isn't that far north of Lund, only about 400km, but this winter is unusually cold for everyone. Down here we have -5C to -10C, which is manageable. In Linköping, they have -20C to -25C. I went up for a course, and after a minute outside at night, my nose felt made of ice. Even during daytime, I actually had to go buy some warmer mittens because the ones I had on didn't cut it. I'm so glad I'm not moving to Norrland! (And I'm sure there are people on my flist who are used to -30C or colder and think I'm a wimp right now, which, maybe I am. It's still pretty darned cold.)
I had a dream about moving tonight, too. For a while now, I've had a recurring dream where I find a new room in my apartment and it's full of unfamiliar things: furniture, carpets, board games stacked on a shelf. In the dream, I don't know if it's stuff the old tenant left behind (and if so, if I can keep it) or it's a room in another apartment that just happens to have a door leading to mine.
This time, there was a variation. The stuff was clearly left behind - some of it very nice, most kind of icky (like stained old plates), and behind the room, there was this narrow passage that led to a much larger, common-room type area, where people were playing singing games and welcomed me as their new neighbour.
I'm not sure how to interpret this dream, but it definitely seems hopeful. :-)
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/522935.html and has
comments there.
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Also finished reading Scarlett Thomas's The End of Mr. Y. It's quite a fascinating novel about a grad student who discovers a very rare book, which contains a secret that can lead her to another world. The plot itself is pretty basic, but the story is steeped in philosophical questions concerning what reality is, if anything is real, what thoughts are made of, what quantum physics mean for our perception of the world, and so on, all grounded in the PhD the protagonist is writing on thought experiments. And any book that makes me go, "Huh, maybe I should take a deeper look at quantum physics/Derrida/phenomenology" is good with me. :-)
In a way, based on the questions about the structures of reality, as well as the "if you knew a book was cursed, would you read it?" angle, it reminded me of Danielewski's House of Leaves, except that I liked this book. The only thing that stopped me from loving it was that I couldn't quite connect with the characters. (Though I didn't care to punch them in the face, so that's a step up.) It's also told as a straight-forward narrative (although with passages from the book-in-the-book), and in general doesn't quite give off the same smug air of "I am so clever I could cut myself," so stylistically speaking there's no similarity at all. Just in terms of themes.
***
A bit of news for those of you who don't already know: I'm moving to Linköping after Christmas, so my desk is full of important papers to either sign or keep, as well as lists of things I have to do. Today I was supposed to go buy some warmer clothes, but I missed the window on that one. And boy, will I need those warmer clothes! Linköping isn't that far north of Lund, only about 400km, but this winter is unusually cold for everyone. Down here we have -5C to -10C, which is manageable. In Linköping, they have -20C to -25C. I went up for a course, and after a minute outside at night, my nose felt made of ice. Even during daytime, I actually had to go buy some warmer mittens because the ones I had on didn't cut it. I'm so glad I'm not moving to Norrland! (And I'm sure there are people on my flist who are used to -30C or colder and think I'm a wimp right now, which, maybe I am. It's still pretty darned cold.)
I had a dream about moving tonight, too. For a while now, I've had a recurring dream where I find a new room in my apartment and it's full of unfamiliar things: furniture, carpets, board games stacked on a shelf. In the dream, I don't know if it's stuff the old tenant left behind (and if so, if I can keep it) or it's a room in another apartment that just happens to have a door leading to mine.
This time, there was a variation. The stuff was clearly left behind - some of it very nice, most kind of icky (like stained old plates), and behind the room, there was this narrow passage that led to a much larger, common-room type area, where people were playing singing games and welcomed me as their new neighbour.
I'm not sure how to interpret this dream, but it definitely seems hopeful. :-)
This entry was originally posted at http://katta.dreamwidth.org/522935.html and has
comments there.