In this video, I recommend three books (Solaris, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the I-Ching) in just over three minutes. I also discuss their mutual theme: interrogation.
In this video, I recommend three books (Solaris, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the I-Ching) in just over three minutes. I also discuss their mutual theme: interrogation.
Awesome Andrew! I really like this video setup, it’s so personable. And nice background setup with the bookshelf and whiteboard. Perfectly place to do videos, really.
Love your selection this week. I have to admit to being a poor science fiction reader for having read all ABOUT Solaris and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, watched their Hollywood renditions, but never read them outright. I hope to change all that after the MA degree. My pile of fiction books has grown and grown.
Despite that, I still second your recommendations. These books ask very interesting questions for our time and are have aged well, I think over the past few decades. Still pertinent. Especially because some of these fictional worlds might come true (with Ray Kurzweil and others working on that).
The I-Ching I’ve dabbled with and found it to be very intriguing, mysterious. I know Jung wrote quite a bit about it and used it semi-regularly because it fit well with his intuitions on synchronicity.
Right on, Andrew! I’ll share this around the networks.
(Tried to leave a comment on the other Reading Wednesdays post, but I think it failed, so I just want to start by saying again that I love Reading Wednesdays! Such a great idea.)
Andrew – I enjoyed your video and insightful comments about the theme of interrogation as well as your idea that there’s a trend in non-fiction these days to offer manufactured one-size-fits-all solutions… I’ve been thinking about this trend, and wondering if the reason it’s sprung up is because of the increasing intensity of the global crisis. That aside, I do agree with you in believing that the questions are more important than the answers. I personally feel that the greatest art is the best at raising questions.
Jeremy – You really must read Solaris! I think you would love it. It’s probably one of my favourite works of science-fiction hands down. I’m one of the few people I know who actually like the Soderbergh + Clooney version, but the 3-hour Tarkovsky original is a must-see. (You can watch it online for free here:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3370449932379913979 – but I don’t see any subtitles!)
I think what I love most about Solaris is the utter alien-ness of the alien life they encounter. It’s like nothing we could ever really conceive of, let alone relate to. And yet, the idea of a conscious ocean planet makes me think of Terence McKenna’s ideas of the Gaian mind…
Thanks Abigail!
I’ll bump up Solaris on my scifi reading list, right with Philip K. Dick. Funny: my last reading of scifi was Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Telling.” Have you read her work?
Many years back I saw the Clooney version and thought it was good. I’m going to have to re-watch it now though. All this scifi talk is making me want to do a marathon one of these nights! Thanks for the link!
It’s funny that such a being appears so alien to us, even though perhaps from a Hillman/Jungian perspective it would be quite natural for them to view the alien encounter in characteristic of the soul. Such a rich inquiry!
I have yet to watch a film version, but I concur. It’s a great book. I also thought a bit about Gaia theory, but also wondered why we assume that consciousness can only emerge from something akin to a human brain, or, perhaps, if our notions of consciousness are too human-centric, and what we might discover once life starts to be spotted on planets in the Goldilocks Belt. (We need a better name for that…maybe the “Super Awesome Potential Life Zone”