A speculative mind

  Back in the day, if you were a king, or a ruler of any kind, the idea of marrying your children off to the offspring of another kingdom was a common practice. That’s how alliances were formed. If you were worried about country “A” invading you, you could marry your daughter off to the prince of country “A”. A show of kinship. Attacking your in-laws was frowned upon (that was the theory, but it didn’t always work out that way in practice). Also, countries "B" and "C" might think twice about invading you. This intermixing was so commonplace in European history that no one thought twice about it. There was also the prejudice that only someone of noble blood was worthy of another with noble blood. Royal children were pawns in a royal chess game. Take the case of Lucrezia Borgia. She was royal in some sense of the word since her father was the Pope (Alexander VI). We all know that priests and popes were not supposed to have children, but such things were winked at in...

  A girl born in a small French village in the 17 th Century, sees the life that is laid out for her, sees the marriage that has been arranged for her to an older man with kids from a previous marriage, sees the toil and heartache that is in store for her, and decides to run. She prays to the gods of nature that her friend has told her about, but the one who answers is darkness. We never really know if he is the Devil or a demon. She just refers to him as the Darkness. She buys freedom and life for as long as she wants it in exchange for her soul. When she wakes, she discovers that no one knows her, not even her parents. She further discovers that once she disappears from someone’s view, they no longer remember meeting her. The title says invisible life. She is not invisible, but her "life" is, her existence is. No matter how long she lives she will leave no mark on the world. It is hard not to put yourself in her shoes and realize how problematic such a life is. She can...

  Is a Shakespearean actor better than another actor? We do tend to elevate Shakespearean actors, put them on a pedestal. When Patrick Stewart was cast as jean Luc Picard on Star Trek The Next generation the announcement was always prefaced: “ . . . Shakespearean actor, Patrick Stewart . . . “ You often hear of certain actors referred to that way and we are supposed to be impressed. But should we be? Is being a Shakespearean actor make you a better actor that anybody else? Shakespeare was a great writer. He wrote wonderful lines of dialogue. Maybe actors just sound better, smarter, cleverer when his word come out of their mouths. Perhaps, but isn’t there a technique to Shakespearean acting? Don’t you have to know about iambic pentameter and all that? You don’t just spew the words forth and expect to sound brilliant. True, it is a little different when acting in a Shakespearean play. Actors have to recognize a rhythm to the speech. There are some tips and tricks to be learned, but...

  What a bizarre little story. When I say bizarre, I mean that mostly in a good way. The House of Rust   by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber is a fantasy that takes place in and around Mombasa, and out to sea in a very strange sea. Our main character is Aisha, a girl who does not fit into the mold that everyone keeps trying to place her. When her father is lost at sea, she takes it upon herself to go out and bring him back (with the help of a talking cat). There be monsters here. Yes, Aisha finds monsters at sea. Monsters that she has to either outsmart or be eaten by. And on land it turns out the world is far more complicated than she could have imagined. It is not just cats who can understand her. Many animals can, though they pretend not to. It is an interwoven tapestry of a story that is filled with wonder. But at times the story takes a twist that leaves me puzzled. The world is just too strange and wonderful for Aisha to possibly settle down. She has seen a glimpse of somet...

  A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is one of those gigantic worlds in a book. An epic start to what will surely be an epic series (the Teixcalaan series). But if epic series scare you, don’t worry. This book has a nice resolution and is a complete story unto itself. The main character, Mahit is an ambassador from a small system with no habitable planets (everyone lives on space stations, and they call themselves Stationers). She has been assigned as an ambassador to the gigantic Teixcalaan Empire. Her job is to keep her system from being gobbled up by the empire. She is replacing the previous ambassador who is dead. How he died is one of the first things she must figure out. The Stationers like Mahit may not have the rich culture of the empire, but they have a secret. They have a machine (an Imago) infused in their brain that gives the host access to the memories of a previous host. It’s not really immortality, but it is a way to keep memories and experiences alive. In ...

  It takes courage to tell people what they don’t want to hear. Often times doing the right thing is not doing the easy thing. Politicians struggle with this and usually fail. It is a rare politician who tells an inconvenient truth to his constituents. With good reason; said politicians are usually not reelected. And that serves to reinforce the problem. “You see, I told you not to tell people that bridge needs to be replaced. You deserved to lose!” “But it’s going to collapse and kill people!” “That’s somebody else’s problem.” The fault is not really the politician’s. The fault is the voters. As Walt Kelly’s character said “We have met the enemy and he is us.” We enable this behavior.   If you are not willing to vote for, or even listen to someone who is telling you bad news, then you are in trouble. If you only listen to a news source that reports the stories you want to hear, then you are deluding yourself. This problem is not limited to one political party. It appl...

  Andy Weir, best known for writing The Martian , wrote my latest read: Project Hail Mary . I have seen the movie The Martian , but not read the book. After reading Project Hail Mary , I think I need to read it. Andy Weir is a good writer. Project Hail Mary begins as a “how did I get here” kind of a story. The mystery slowly unfurls as the story progresses. We gradually see that because of an unexpected development, the Earth is facing a mass extinction event that will drastically change the habitability of Earth over the next 30 to 40 years. There are two ways humanity can react to a situation like this. They can deny it. Or they can take it seriously and throw every resource at it. In this story, I am glad to say, they took it seriously. This is good because in this case anything less than total commitment would be the end. The world leaders have given administrator Stratt almost total power to acquire whatever team and resources she needs. She latches onto our hero, Ryland Gr...