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Twitter Annoyances

May 03 2013

It is estimated that about a third of the active global internet population now has a Twitter account. That’s over half a billion users worldwide. There are so many reasons for why mankind’s love of Twitter shows no sign of slowing down. We love Tweeting our friends, networking and getting breaking news, to mention nothing of the links to interesting articles and amusing quotes.

However as with anything in life Twitter can be annoying and anyone who uses the social media platform probably feels the same. In this post I will be discussing four of my personal Twitter annoyances.

#TeamFollowBack – Anyone who is familiar with Twitter will be aware of the scourge that is Team Follow Back. It has been embraced by those solely interested in building their numbers of Twitter Followers for no other reason than to have lots of Followers. Team Follow Back advocates do not as a rule interact with people other than through impersonal group messages such as the aptly named ‘Lazy Shout Out’. Team Follow Back is to many nothing but a infantile and futile exercise, which only gets one non-target Followers, who have no interest in what you have to say and vice versa.

TrueTwit Validation – This is when you Follow a Twitter account and get a message back asking you to prove that you are not a robot by going to a TrueTwit Validation service and typing alpha numerical codes in a field (see below). To start a relationship from a position of distrust is evidently a bad starting point. If you begun a friendly conversation with someone in your coffee shop queue, who clasped their handbag tightly to their body, as if you were going to steal it, you would probably not appreciate it and the same goes for Twitter. Perhaps it is just me but I find filling out the TrueTwit validation fields extremely taxing and it often takes numerous attempts, as they are extremely difficult to read in many instances. By the time I have attempted this several times and failed my relationship with the given person is already somewhat fraught.

Endless RTing – RTs’ are a fantastic way of forwarding information that we are interested in or amuses us, in addition to supporting other people. However as with everything in life moderation is the key not excess. Someone who only RTs’ can be perceived as idle as they never produce their own content. And then there’s the voluminous RT’er. One author I came across on Twitter had RT’d 120 instances of other authors’ books in their genre, in just one day. Finally there are the lists. What is the point I ask myself in RT’ing lists of Twitter accounts which end up going round in circles. Not much I would argue.

Bieber – Bieber has been described as being like marmite, you either love or hate him. There is no doubting however that Bieber is a true Twitter superpower. He has over 37 million Followers (known as True Beliebers) and at any one time around 3% Twitter’s traffic is dedicated to Bieber. Bieber is estimated to gain approximately 11,000 new Followers every day. Even the Bubonic Plague didn’t spread this fast.

‘I close my eyes and I can see a better day’, these are Bieber’s words not mine. They are from his song Pray. And in this one instance I have to agree with Bieber. For when I close my eyes I can see a time in the near future when Bieber is in terminal Twitter decline. A result in part because of his controversial recent behaviour, including allegedly smoking cannabis, bursts of rage at reporters, turning up very late to his own concerts and perhaps most pertinently the ill-judged comment he left in the Ann Frank visitors book during his recent trip to Amsterdam.

Perhaps you have Twitter annoyances that I have not listed.

Movie Adaptations of Books

Apr 25 2013

This week’s blog post is about books that inspired great films and others that perhaps should have remained in print form only. Of course this is a highly subjective matter and these are merely suggestions on my part.

Books that made great films

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Book Synopsis: Every Sunday during the early hours men congregate to fight one-on-one in basements and car lots. These disenfranchised young men were brought up with absent fathers and fed on a diet of mass media that led them to believe they would be superstars.

The Film: Released in 1999, the film starred Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Fight Club was nothing if not controversial and the the critics loved and hated it in equal measure.

Summary: There is no doubt that Chuck Palahniuk’s dark, menacing, brutal and nihilistic creation was not to all readers liking. However there are few films that have kept so closely to the book that inspired them. The screen writer’s job must have consisted of little more than some cutting and pasting.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Book Synopsis: As we all know the story the book is about an island off Costa Rica, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs, which end up running amok. Did I mention it’s fiction.

The Film: Directed by Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was a landmark with regards the use of computer generated imagery. It was also the highest grossing film in history at the time.

Summary: Crichton’s imaginative and suspense filled tale was perfect for adaptation and so it proved with Spielberg wielding the genius and the financial backing to make it a reality. The sequel The Lost World was a great success too, but then lamentably came Jurassic Park 3 and 4, both abject straight to DVD B movie atrocities.

The Shining by Stephen King

Book Synopsis: The ill-tempered Jack, his wife Wendy and young son Danny move to an isolated resort, the Overlook Hotel, where Jack has taken a job as a winter caretaker. But paranormal activities that involve telepathy and possession result in disaster.

The Film: Directed by the iconic Stanley Kubrick, the film was not initially well received having been criticised by many as deviating from the book. However over time the slow moving film has been widely accepted as a masterpiece.

Summary: The image of the crazed Jack Nicholson peering through the partially open door is one of the most memorable film shots of all time. However author Stephen King remains unhappy with Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining to this day. What can I say other than to praise it, after all criticising Kubrick would be an act of hubris.

Books that perhaps should have stayed in print form

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Book Synopsis: As we all know the book follows the quest of Bilbo Baggins, beginning in the Shire and culminating in The Battle of Five Armies. Ultimately it can be viewed as a book about the development of the protagonist’s character.

The Film: Directed by Peter Jackson the film is the prequel to The Lord of The Rings trilogy. A number of characters reprise their roles from the earlier films.

Summary: Many have deemed it questionable why after three great films we really need this fourth instalment, a case of milking the cow to death perhaps. The book moves at a slower pace than The Lord of The Rings trilogy and lends itself less easily to film than the first three. And then there’s the issue of reprising the roles of Hollywood stars Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood, even though their characters do not even appear in The Hobbit. Did I mention it’s 169 minutes long.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S.Thompson

Book Synopsis: The book, which is partially autobiographical in nature, follows protagonist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr.Gonzo to Las Vegas, where they discuss the 1960s counterculture, whilst indulging in a dizzying array of drugs.

The Film: Directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Depp, the film was a disaster at the box office. However over time it has become something of a cult classic.

Summary: Hunter S.Thompson voiced concerns about a movie adaptation of the book. After all Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is not a plot based story and there is no doubt that personal hallucinatory experiences do not lend themselves easily to film. There is also the fact that many viewers struggled to empathise with a character who insisted on taking large quantities of drugs at every opportunity. Personally I enjoyed it but the book is much better.

The Informers by Brett Easton Ellis

Book Synopsis: The Informers are a collection of short stories set during the decadent 1980s. The author attempts to link these stories together with the same continuity. In typical Ellis fashion the characters are mostly vapid, shallow and obsessed with image and consumption. The book can be viewed as a commentary about the decline of society.

The Film: The 2008 film saw a star studded cast acting out the mostly soulless characters from the book. There was Winona Ryder, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton and the list goes on.

Summary: Short stories involving numerous mostly vapid characters was never going to be easy to film and so it proved. The film was lambasted by the critics and viewers alike as being tedious, tepid and a disgrace to cinema. But this was not Brett Easton Ellis’s fault okay. I stress again he was innocent and can take no responsibility for how the film came out.

Twitter Authors (Part 2)

Apr 19 2013

In last week’s Blog Post I evaluated how effective it is in a congested market place for authors to be sending out blanket promotional book Tweets, especially if those Tweets are only being read, if at all, by other authors. Today’s post, a continuation on this theme, will take the form of making generalisations about the actual composition of these Tweets and commenting on their effectiveness.

The following is a simple breakdown of some of the types of Tweets that authors use to promote their book/s, along with some commentary on how effective I perceive the given method to be.

Hyperactive Hash-tagging # – I discuss authors’ embrace of the # so often in my blog posts that it is evident that I am becoming somewhat obsessed by the subject. Authors often utilise this useful Twitter feature so that people searching under that #-tagged term will come across their book. In most instances one or two #’s are inserted, but there have been instances of up to nine recorded in a single Tweet.

Comment – The # symbol is an invaluable feature when used wisely, but surely I am not alone when I ask myself if there is any value in instances like #Book or #Fiction. Do potential readers really search under this term, see your book and then go ‘Yes please’ before pressing the buy button. Surely not. And then there’s the list, e.g. #paranormal #erotica #vampires #darkness #night #mystical etc etc. One might argue that a Tweet gives an author a short window of opportunity to showcase their writing and that a long list of # tagged items is hardly an imaginative or intriguing use of syntax.

Grandiose Claim – This is when authors Tweet statements like, ‘Award Winning’ and ‘BEST SELLER!’. In many instances the author embraces capitalisation and exclamation marks in these Tweets.

Comment: Why not. After all no-one else is going to sing your praises and in many instances these Tweets seem perfectly valid. Take the self-published Only The Innocent by Rachel Abbott for example. The book was selling several thousand copies a day for months on end. However there is nothing in this world if not by comparison and it is evident that the same applies in the Twitter sphere. For examples abound when the BEST SELLER! label on closer inspection transpires to be merely a best-seller in a very small category on Amazon. Does a book ranked number 4 out of a total of 5 books in the Transgendered Retro Vampire category really justify a best-seller claim?

Aggressive Pitches – e.g. BEST BOOK SINCE THE BIBLE – BUY NOW!!! (link) or less imaginatively – GET YOUR COPY NOW! or something of that nature. This method is also often combined with the ‘Grandiose Claim’ method (see above).

Comment: The best adverts on the television are well thought out, directed at the right audience and above all memorable. However even these adverts don’t always persuade us to buy the product. So what are the chances of an unknown author successfully selling books by demanding potential readers to buy with no pitch whatsoever. Not great one would imagine.

Dialogue – This is what Twitter was set up for after all, as a way to converse with our fellow humanity without even having to move from the comfort of our desk or to get out of our pyjamas.

Comment: Personally, with the exception of a couple of instances I have only sold books on Twitter through the ‘Dialogue’ method. As it is only when people get to know the author that they become interested enough to buy the author’s book/s. It seems apparent from liaising with other authors who have successfully used Social Media that this is generally how they have also sold books through this medium, unless of course they were already famous to begin with.

What happens when Adrian, an actuary, has his banal and predictable existence turned upside down by sinister forces that he can neither understand nor control? How will he react to a revelation that leaves his life in turmoil? Will he surrender or strive for redemption in an altered world, where rationality, scientific logic and algorithms no longer provide the answers?

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Twitter Authors

Apr 12 2013

Today during an idle hour spent on Twitter, I noted that a higher percentage than ever of my Twitter feed consisted of book promotion Tweets. As an author myself this comes as no real surprise, as many authors follow me and vice versa. But the question must be asked, is it really effective in a congested market place to be sending out blanket promotional book Tweets, especially if those Tweets are only being read, if at all, by other authors. I have already devoted previous posts to how authors use Twitter, but today I’ll be making generalisations about the actual composition of the Tweets and commenting on their effectiveness.

Of course there are famous authors who have embraced Twitter, Brett Easton Ellis being a prominent example. These authors can Tweet about anything, even their choice of sandwich filling at lunch, as whatever they Tweet their Twitter disciples will lap up eagerly. Some of these followers may even find themselves wondering if the sandwich filling related Tweet is perhaps a comment about post-modernism or global warming. And then there are the rest of us authors, myself included, struggling for visibility in the book promotion saturated world that is Twitter.

The following is a simple breakdown of the types of Tweets that authors use to promote their book/s, along with some commentary on how effective I perceive the given method to be.

Repetitive Repetition – The practice of sending out book promotion Tweets 24/7, 7 days a week. In severe instances several hundred times per day. The rationale being that if you drive the message home and do it often enough, people will buy your books.

Comment: There may be instances where this method has worked, but more often than not it appears to be akin to a dog chasing its own tail – just because it keeps doing it doesn’t mean it will ever catch it.

The Spin Dryer – An author sends out their book promotion Tweet/s along with Tweets promoting other authors’ books. This in turn leads to those authors RT’ing that author’s book promotion Tweet and so the cycle continues, with the book promotion Tweet getting exposure to a wider and wider audience, as it continues to be RT’d.

Comment: As one requires exposure to become well known, it is evident that this method is a logical way of putting your product in front of as many of Twitter’s 140m users as possible. However in the majority of cases these book promotion Tweets appear to be RT’d by other authors, whose Followers also consist largely of authors, not the target readership for the given book. Another case of the dog chasing its own tail perhaps.

The Sandwich – This is the method in which an author sandwiches their promotional Tweet/s between non-promotional Tweets (i.e. quotes/links etc) as if it were a slice of cheese or ham.

Comment: If new/non-famous authors are to be welcomed in the Twitter sphere they need to be accepted as communicative/interesting people and not merely narcissists, who discuss only their own work. Thus the sandwiching method is embraced by nearly all authors on Twitter though there are some exceptions.

The Snippet – This is a much practiced method in which authors utilise the 140 character limit to insert quotes from their books.

Comment: These can be memorable and in some instances amusing, but there are many examples where they are not. Here is a slightly altered one that I read last month – ‘… and he reached into the drawer, took out a red pen, took off the top and begun writing on the piece of paper on the desk.’ And one is left asking, Why?

I also use this method to promote my book, Charles Middleworth, a humorous tale of the unexpected. Here are two examples from Charles Middleworth:

‘Well if being related by internet marriage is family, I suppose we are.’

And

‘…her skills more akin to the baking of macaroons than solving the complexities of the universe.’

Click here to read part 2.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Death of the Browsing Shop

Apr 05 2013

Most writers, myself included, spend a great deal of their time in solitary confinement, either writing or finding an excuse not to write, reading being a particular favourite, in addition to surfing the internet, watching television or on occasion going outside to walk or to pay a visit to the shops. The other morning having spent many hours at my desk working on various writing assignments, I was eager to have a break and go outside.

Unfortunately London is about as warm and inviting as Siberia at the moment, so I decided to spend some time browsing in local shops. First up was Blockbuster, the film and game retail behemoth, where one can wander contentedly down the heated aisles, occasionally inspecting a DVD or game one might be interested in buying, before going home and purchasing the given item on the internet. Unfortunately the chain has gone bankrupt and the various stores have been hurriedly selling off their stock. Today it is evident that the sale is now over, as Blockbuster is boarded up and I find myself traipsing on, in the direction of the mall.

On arrival I head eagerly to one of my favourite haunts, HMV, forgetting of course that the film/music/game retailer has gone bankrupt and that this store has also closed since my last visit the week before. Loitering outside the empty shell that had been HMV, my gaze falls on Metro Bank directly opposite me and I find myself reminiscing on the time when it had been a two floor Borders book shop, where many idle hours had been wiled away, browsing contentedly amongst its various sections.

And then I’m heading further into the interior of the mall, turning my head in both directions as I search for browsing opportunities. In no time at all I’m at the far end of the mall in the supermarket, browsing cheddar cheeses and washing-up liquids.

Having grown weary of this irksome activity I begin my return trip through the mall before turning right into Starbucks, where I discover that even this omnipresent has not been unaffected by the changes all around. The cafe was revamped the week before, it is more severe than in its previous incarnation and now resembles a laboratory, with less seats and bright lighting that leaves one feeling naked and exposed, an environment that encourages one to purchase a coffee and vacate the premises immediately.

Having spent a total of four minutes in the mall, I find myself outside again, clasping a grande mocha in one hand, heading through the bitter cold towards the park, hoping that this too hasn’t been deemed surplus to requirements and replaced with flat moving escalators that whisk us past lines of vending machines.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Book Related Twitter Experiences

Mar 29 2013

Last week’s Blog Post was about the various ways in which authors use Twitter. This week I will be talking about some of my book related experiences on Twitter. As an author myself I am always interested to see what other authors are doing on Twitter and during the last year I have read a number of books that I was introduced to through this medium.

There are essentially two reasons for me having read books that I have come across on Twitter.

1). I found the author’s Tweets to be interesting/amusing and/or they became Twitter friends.

Here are some examples (click on links to read my review):

The Squirrel that Dreamt of Madness by Craig Stone – A unique and at times very amusing book.

The Earth Shifter by Lada Ray – A well written YA book, which has proved to be popular with a wider audience. Lada also has a great blog: www.ladaray.wordpress.com

Tollesbury Time Forever by Stuart Ayris – Probably best described as nostalgic Literary Fiction set in rural England.

2). I have selected books because of the positive feedback I have heard about the given book on Twitter (from people other than the author).

Texting Orwell by Ian Little – I enjoyed this amusing and original novella, though its embrace of lavatorial humour may not be to every reader’s liking.

Only The Innocent by Rachel Abbott – This book has become a best seller. It is in my Kindle queue waiting to be read.

The following is a less positive Twitter book experience I had recently that I would like to share with you. One Twitter author, who shall remain nameless, is an example of what I classified last week as an Aggressive Agitator. Sporadically Tweets appear in my Feed from this individual that are a call to action. These Tweets that embrace capitalisation and exclamation marks are of the BUY NOW!!! AWARD WINNING! variety. The same Tweet is often repeated every minute for up to ten minutes at a time. Last week on about the eighth repetition of this abrasive approach, I found myself saying, ‘Okay okay’, before hurriedly clicking on the Amazon link.

There I discovered that the book’s cover look like vomitus, there were only two reviews and what had been promoted as an award, now transpired to be merely a mention at a rural fair type event, in an area with a population made up mostly of gators and feral hogs. But it was none of these factors that prevented me from buying the book, but rather that it was not available in Kindle, only in paperback, with a lengthy wait for delivery and an oppressive price tag.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Selling Books on Twitter

Mar 22 2013

With approximately 140 million users, Twitter continues to be the social media platform of choice for many people. Whilst many of those visit Twitter just to chat, more often than not about Justin Bieber, most of our Feeds are saturated with people promoting their wares, books probably being as prevalent as any.

I’ve come across books on every conceivable subject and others that I could never have conceived; a nuclear war allegory with My Little Ponies being the most pertinent example and Alice in Zombie Land arguably the most lamentable.

I am also on Twitter at least in part to promote my novel, Charles Middleworth, so I am always interested to see what other authors are doing and hopefully to learn from them. In this post I will be analysing authors’ Tweeting habits; for purposes of simplicity I will be classifying authors into groups, which is probably rather unreasonable, after all authors are very much individuals, but there you go.

Mellow Minglers – Mellow Minglers’ are adept at communicating effectively with their audience. They are naturally personable, energetic, fun loving and generally optimistic people, who like to share with others and make new friends. Mellow Minglers’ consistently reply to messages and are always prepared to help others wherever possible.
Tweet Composition: Tweets are made up of conversations, some RTs’ (generally not more than x5 per day), updates on their daily activities (non-complaining ones – e.g. physical activity updates/composition of meals). On average the promotion of their book/s constitutes between 10% & 25% of their Tweets.

Prolific Proselytizers – Prolific Proselytizers’ are energetic and enthusiastic Tweeters that are to be found throughout the Twitter sphere, including amongst the author population. They are generally very liberal with their use of the hashtag; eight #’s have previously been recorded in a single book promotion tweet. Prolific Proselytizers’ are voluminous in their Tweeting habits and are capable of Tweeting as much as every 19 seconds.
Tweet Composition: Tweets are usually neither part of a conversation or aimed at starting one. Prolific Proselytizers’ promote their own books constantly as well as the RT’ing and mentioning other authors within their genre. Prolific Proselytizers’ are usually well disposed towards others and will more often than not reply on the rare occasion someone responds to one of their Tweets.

Aggressive Agitators – Aggressive Agitators are very much in the minority amongst what is generally a friendly author population. Their intrusive Tweeting style embraces the use of capitalisation and exclamation marks (e.g. BUY NOW!!! AWARD WINNING!). Aggressive Agitators though universally sporadic Tweeters, Tweet in bursts, often Tweeting an identical Tweet every minute, sometimes for up to ten minutes at a time.
Tweet Composition: Tweets are generally divided into two categories, self-promotion and opinion. These opinions are often radical in nature and risk alienating potential readers. Aggressive Agitators always Follow many more people than they have Followers.

Next week I will be discussing some book related Twitter experiences.

‘An insightful and humorous tale of the unexpected’ – Reader

‘A sardonic delight. If Thackeray had lived in the 21st century, then he might have written Charles Middleworth.’ – Reader

Charles Middleworth is available through most regional Amazons on Kindle (£1.96/$3.17) and in paperback.

United Kingdom – www.amazon.co.uk

USA – www.amazon.com

Fight Club

Mar 15 2013

This week I read Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, which I review below.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The protagonist, who remains nameless, is an insomniac leading a bland corporate existence, investigating accidents for a car company, whose only concern is profit. Unable to find meaning in a faceless consumerist society, he instead seeks solace in support groups, for a wide range of potentially terminal diseases, including testicular cancer and brain parasites, ailments which he himself is not afflicted with. He is not alone in masquerading as the seriously ill: there is also Marla, a dysfunctional nihilist with a deeply troubled past, whose presence at these gatherings he resents.

Everything changes abruptly when our main character meets Tyler Durden, a fervent anarchist, who works as a projectionist and waiter. Tyler is hellbent on creating mayhem at every opportunity, even during his working hours, when he can be found inserting obscene images onto film reels and urinating in his hotel’s wealthy clients’ soups.

Tyler, whose belligerent attitude towards social norms is matched only by his organisational skills and leadership abilities, forms a fight club. Every Sunday during the early hours men congregate to fight one-on-one in basements and car lots. These disenfranchised young men were brought up with absent fathers and fed on a diet of mass media that led them to believe they would be superstars. It is only now that they have come to the realisation that their destiny is to toil in low paid blue-collar positions and office jobs, devoid of meaning. These angry individuals, now empowered by Fight Club are ready to bring about Tyler’s dream of returning the world to a hunter-gatherer society. Our protagonist had until his introduction to Fight Club been a co-operative and meek employee, but now he typifies this response and casts a sinister presence in the office, constantly bruised, bloodied and with the permanent fixture of a hole through his cheek. The Fight Club phenomena soon becomes a frenzy, with new clubs forming throughout the country and Tyler finds his dream of bringing about social dissolution gaining momentum, as his plans evolve into self-destruction and terrorism with Project Mayhem. However we discover that all is not what it initially appears to be when a revelation alters the protagonist’s understanding and reaction to the unfolding events.

Palahniuk takes us on a journey through a dark, menacing and brutal world that mirrors the film it inspired almost exactly. Fight Club is nothing if not controversial and the constant violent descriptions, nihilism and references to subjects such as human soap and descriptions of disease will not be to every reader’s liking. However whatever our personal opinion may be on these matters, it is widely accepted that Fight Club proves to be adept at both exploring the very nature of violent behaviour and commenting on society at large.

Darkness At Noon

Mar 08 2013

This week I read the influential novel, Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler, which I review below.

Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler

Darkness At Noon is dedicated to the victims of ‘The Moscow Trials’, several of whom the author Arthur Koestler knew. Though the characters in the book are fictitious, the historical circumstances of the Soviet Union under Stalin in the 1930s are not. The book follows the protagonist Rubashov, a veteran of the Revolution and a decorated war hero, who had enjoyed a distinguished position in the party and had at one time been close to the leader Stalin, referred to in the book as No.1.

The opening scene sees Rubashov confined to an isolation cell having been accused of counter-revolutionary crimes. The story follows the pensive, chain-smoking Rubashov as he awaits his fate and reflects on his past, as well as the morality and workings of the party. Rubashov’s existence is one of privation, his only communication with the outside world being initially with prisoners in other cells via a knocking system until he is later permitted the relative luxury of being allowed to walk in the exercise yard each morning.

The head of the prison is the cynical intellectual Ivanov, a member of the old guard and a former comrade of Rubashov, who had fought alongside him in the Civil War following the Revolution. However Ivanov is to become yet another member of the disappearing old revolutionaries, when he is removed from his position, accused of political crimes, probably due to his connection to the political prisoner Rubashov. The result is that Rubashov is left at the hands of the humourless Gletkin, a fervent follower of the party. Days and nights merge as one as a lengthy interrogation ensues, its purpose to prepare the sleep-deprived Rubashov for the invariable show trial. Following his confession, our protagonist is left waiting in his cell for the trial, immersed in introspection and plagued by a guilty memory.

Darkness At Noon is a powerful and poignant political novel that examines issues of morality, particularly that of justifying the means to an end. Fascist and Communist systems are considered as being indistinguishable ideological systems that are in principle the same, in that both systems view their ideological goals as being superior to freedom and individual justice.

The Life of Pi

Mar 01 2013

This week resident book reviewer Adam Riley reviews The Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Piscine Molitor Patel, an intelligent, spiritual boy who renames himself Pi after one too many jokes about the similarity between his first name and a certain bodily function, grows up in his parents’ zoo in Pondicherry, a former French colony in Southern India. By birth a Hindu, he finds himself simultaneously attracted to Christianity after a visit to a Catholic church, and Islam through conversations with a local Muslim, leading to the unusual position of practising three mutually exclusive religions.

But when the family try to relocate the zoo to Canada, all three faiths are severly tested. The cargo ship sinks, leaving Pi as the only human survivor, stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, some cockroaches and a Bengal tiger. Natural food chain hierarchies soon reduce the occupants to just Pi and the tiger, leaving the sixteen year old boy in a desperate struggle for survival against the elements, starvation, dehydration and a vicious predator. But is the tiger really a threat to Pi, or are their lives more entwined than they really know?

A very famous book, and now a very famous film, the above plot is fairly well known. I did not expect, however, the rich metaphorical turns the story would take, and its ambiguous, thought-provoking ending. Written mainly from the point of view of Pi, the style exhibits a dignified wonder at the peculiarities of existence, as well as deadpan humour, for example when Pi begins to have his doubts the crew of the ship have his safety in mind when they throw him overboard, and chapter 97, which consists of the entire story retold in two words. Obvious literary comparisons can be made to Robinson Crusoe, particularly in the detailed methods used by the resourceful narrator to stay alive, and Pincher Martin, William Golding’s stark, intense story of a drowning man clinging to the illusions in his own head.

A highly symbolical novel, exploring the manifold expressions of life’s will to live, The Life of Pi also scrutinises the central problem of human existence: the tension between our perception of ourselves as rational, moral beings, and the reality of our animal precondition. Perhaps, The Life of Pi does not see this as a problem, but merely a fact, one that a higher power might prefer to include in any story it writes.

AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

Movie Adaptations of Books

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Death of the Browsing Shop

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Fight Club

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Darkness At Noon

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The Life of Pi

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AUTHOR GUY PORTMAN'S BLOG

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