Hey there. I haven’t written anything longer than two paragraphs for quite a while. I’m talking about maybe a month or two or somewhere along that span of time. But I haven’t stopped writing. I just preferred creating and sharing short reveries like these:
That’s the intro. What I really wanted to talk about is this book.
Have you got a copy yet? Well, I’m not here to promote. But I’d really like to say that this is an interesting piece of literature. It’s a perfect clash of tradition and modernization all clasped in 352 pages of intricate imagination. It’s about unfolding a five century old conspiracy theory under the watchful eyes of a very organized cult. It somehow resembles the movie National Treasure but the contrast and implications of the time lapse between then and now is much more vivid, it’s so overpowering that it hits you right between the eyes every single time.
I read it for the second time around in just one night (thanks to a full mug of ice-blended espresso) and the thrill and mystery of it all really just seeps through my skin. Robin Sloan (the author) is not like Agatha Christie who’ll get all your brain folds in a knot and then punch you in the face with an ending so unforeseen it’ll leave you feeling like an idiot. He’s also not like Ray Bradbury whose every line sounds like a double-edged sword adored with the most beautiful words you can ever find in the face of this planet. In short, every line delivered by Bradbury is like a quote in itself unlike Sloan’s writing which pretty much sounds like an everyday conversation.But although his words sound light, its implications are not.
I see this novel turning into a movie probably 2-3 years from now. After all, it’s in the best-seller section of the bookstore when I bought it and a lot of young people will probably be hooked to it too (at least I think so).
Now if you’re going to ask me what I consider as the moral lessons of the book. I’d tell you two things: first is that you don’t have to go looking for an adventure just to experience the thrill of unveiling something. Life itself is already a big mystery. How do you trace the seams of your existence to find out what you’re here for? How do you collate random facts, established truths and social expectations in one big quilt to corroborate that you are indeed making sense of the world? How do you spend each unit of time that only goes toward the same horrific ending to build a story that, when everything’s said and done, will bear your name in gold encrusted letters?
Get what I mean? (I hope so.)
The second thing is pretty much summed up in this quotation by another favorite author of mine, Chuck Palahniuk:
If you want immortality, you don’t go looking for the fountain of youth. You look at yourself and ask “What can I possibly create that will transcend a thousand lifetimes and still survive?” Here, you don’t go looking for the X that marks the spot in a faux map created to lure people into believing that we can live forever. What you do is make something feasible given your current resources but unparalleled enough for future innovations to not dare touch it. No matter how deep science goes, our bodies will wear off. We can extend our time but we can’t completely put a halt to it. We’re organic. It’s the way of life. We simply have to die. But it doesn’t mean that you’re not capable of making an impact in this world of ours. So make yours now.
That’s pretty much it. If your curiosity got stirred, why not get a copy of the book to know exactly what I’m talking about. Also, I’d be glad to take any book suggestions you might have. Happy reading!
beauesprit12 