The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope

Immediately upon my finishing Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler I began reading The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope.

I had given myself a mission to read dystopian novels thru out April and this would be the final one.

The novel was published in 1882; the story takes place on the fictional island of Britannula in the late 1970's / early 80's. At the time of the book's publication, Great Britain was the dominant world power and with the two world wars far into the future, Trollope had assumed that in the 1980's Britain would have maintained it's dominance.

Following the story line of the novel, Britannula was settled by colonists from New Zealand around 1940 (more or less). The British government took the unprecedented step of granting independence almost immediately.

The first legislative Assembly of the newly formed country consisted mainly of young, energetic men set on establishing a modern state. One of the problems which this young Assembly wished to address was the issue of the aged. It was seen that, although there might be exceptions, the elderly were often faced with illness - physical and mental deterioration. In order to help the elderly live out their last years, a plan for a "Fixed-Period" was put into law.

After much debate, it was determined that upon reaching age 67 each citizen of the country was to be "deposited" into "The College", where he or she would stay for one year, until ultimately being euthanized and subsequently cremated .

Trollope was a very successful writer in his day, although The Fixed Period was his only dystopic novel. I've read several dystopic novels this month, and if I could only recommend one, I would highly recommend this one.

I've since learned that Trollope was best known for a series of novels collectively known as Chronicles of Barsetshire . I've downloaded the entire series which I will begin reading in May.

Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler

At first blush, Erewhon by Samuel Butler might appear to be a standard "lost world" dystopian/utopian novel, as the novel has been seen by some as a Victorian era Gulliver's Travels.

The book, however takes a bizarre turn at Chapter XXIII when Butler begins the three chapters on Machines. In those three chapters, Butler begins to explore the idea of artificial intelligence, influenced in part by Darwin's recently published On the Origin of Species. The chapters on machines give an interesting theory on the evolution of machinery into the eventual intelligent, self replicating machines that would replace humans as the furthest end of the evolutionary scale. 

Butler was certainly ahead of his time with this idea, but it's difficult to say just how seriously he took the idea when the two chapters following the section on machines deal with animal and vegetable rights.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PROPHET CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS and CHAPTER XXVII. THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PHILOSOPHER CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF VEGETABLES are obviously satirical and not serious proposals, so there is in all likelihood, the same sort of satirical leg pulling in the three chapters on Machines.

According to wikipedia, "in a 1945 broadcast, George Orwell praised the book and said that when Butler wrote Erewhon it needed 'imagination of a very high order to see that machinery could be dangerous as well as useful.' "

The novel is considered a satire on Victorian society, so a good deal of the novel goes over my head. It is, however an interesting read and an important ancestor in the evolution of the utopian/dystopian genres.

The Scarlet Empire

David M. Parry (1852-1915) was the president of Parry Manufacturing Co., Parry Oil and Pipe Line Co., and the Parry Auto Co. He was not a professional writer, but it was his love of capitalism and his hatred of socialism that inspired him to write the dystopian, anti-socialism satire, The Scarlet Empire in 1906. Although Parry was not a professional writer, the novel is actually well done....so well done, in fact, some have suggested that the novel was ghost written.

The protagonist, John Walker is a socialist activist living in New York. Finding capitalism in the U.S. too depressing, Walker attempts suicide by jumping into the ocean at a pier in Coney Island. He is rescued by a man in a diving suit who takes Walker to the lost, under-sea island of Atlantis. Atlantis has a socialist government (the only one of it's kind in 1906) and Walker is initially pleased and excited about living under a political system his has championed for years.

However, it doesn't take long for Walker to become disenchanted with socialism. Parry does an excellent job describing a system where the beliefs of socialism are carried to their logical limits.

The story was written years before the Russian revolution that brought about the Soviet Union, but the system of government in Atlantis predicts the Soviet government rather well. The idea of "equality" has been taken to absurd limits and the people are not encouraged to work hard or bring about any sort of innovations. Like the heavy use of vodka in Soviet Russia, and the advance toward legalized drugs among leftists in the U.S., the Atlantians are encouraged to smoke a narcotic weed - lethe - which dulls their mind and makes the system livable.

I found the idea of placing the story in Atlantis a bit cheesy, but overall, the novel does contain some interesting story lines, as well as destroying socialism at it's core.

The Sleeper Awakes

In 1899, H.G.Wells' novel, When the Sleeper Wakes, was published - first as a serial, then as a book. In 1910 Wells did something very few writers do - he revised the earlier novel and republished it as The Sleeper Awakes .

"Like most of my earlier work", Wells wrote in the 1910 edition's preface, "it was written under considerable pressure; there are marks of haste not only in the writing of the latter part, but in the very construction of the story."

According to an article on wikipedia, in the 1910 edition Wells also brought the ‘flying machines’ up to date. I shudder to think how these 'flying machines' were described in the earlier edition. The airplanes he describes in the 1910 edition may have been "advanced" for the  pre-World War I time period, but they are woefully out of date in the time period in which the story takes place. If one uses 1899 as the starting date, the Sleeper awakens in 2102 - using 1910 as the date the Sleeper went into his "trance", the story takes place in 2113. Either way, we see that Wells could not predict the advancements made in aircraft technology.

Graham, an Englishman living in London in 1897, takes drugs to cure insomnia and falls into a coma. In the early stages of his coma, Graham inherits a considerable sum of money (from two sources) which is held in a trust created by a relative. When he awakens, he learns that he actually owns the Earth. He also learns that mismanagement of the trust has led to a dystopian society.

Setting aside the technological issues, Wells did a marvelous job predicting the behavior and attitudes of the people of the 21st century. Wells could see the changes taking place in Victorian society and being obviously a good judge of character, his view of how people would turn out in 200 years was amazingly accurate.

If one can overlook the miscues Wells made in predicting 21st century technology, then the story is quite interesting and worth a read.

The Purple Cloud

Prior to my coming upon a wikipedia list of dystopian novels, I was unfamiliar with both The Purple Cloud  (published 1901) and it's author, M.P.Shiel. I later discovered that H.G. Wells and H.P. Lovecraft were fans of the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, the protagonist, Adam Jeffson becomes a member of a polar expedition. I immediately assumed that this work, like the one I had just finished reading, was a dystopian Lost World novel. I was expecting Jeffson to come upon some secret entrance to a lost world at the North Pole.

I was wrong.

The novel is better described as an apocalyptic "last man" novel. Jeffson is the sole survivor of the expedition, and while he is at the pole, a mysterious Purple Cloud brings about deaths worldwide. Jeffson eventually makes his return to London where he learns from old newspapers that the Purple Cloud is believed to have been generated by a massive volcanic eruption - surpassing the 1883 eruption at Krakatoa.

The cloud was made up of a poisonous gas similar to cyanide and traveled at a speed of 4 miles an hour, leaving death in it's wake. The newspapers speculated that the gas would be harmless at the extreme polar regions. This explains why Jeffson survived and why he came upon so many ships heading north (filled with the dead) as he headed south.

Of course, Jeffson is an accomplished sailor and is able to bring his ship back to London without a crew.

Jeffson begins to lose his mind and travels the world, burning major cities - London, Paris, Constantinople. It is in Constantinople that he comes upon a young female who had managed to survive, having been locked away in an airtight cell.

The novel is interesting, for the most part, and I enjoyed reading it. However, there are portions of the story that don't quite work for me. Jeffson is alone for 20 years before discovering the young woman, who turns out to be about 20 years old. The girl does not know how to speak until Jeffson teaches her. For reasons I don't understand, the girl never learns to pronounce the letter "r" - substituting the letter "l" in it's place. This speech impediment served no purpose, in my mind, and was a distraction to the story.

Of course, it isn't all smooth sailing for Jeffson and the young woman. I'll just leave it at that....no spoilers.

Over all, I'd give The Purple Cloud four stars out of five. It has it's weak points, but worth a read, I think.

The Land of the Changing Sun

I'm not sure how William N. Harben's novel The Land of the Changing Sun  came to find it's way onto my list of dystopian novels to read this month. When looking for dystopian novels, I went to wikipedia, where I found this list, but Harben's novel isn't on that list.

Never the less, it found it's way onto my PC and I transferred the ebook to my Kindle.

I'm a little surprised that I had never heard of Harben before now. According to his wikipedia bio, he was born in Dalton, GA in 1858. I have ancestors on my mothers side who were living in Dalton at that time, although a difference in wealth would have made it unlikely that my ancestors would have associated with the Harben family.

I went to high school in Dalton and there was no mention of Harben being a native of the city. He was reasonably successful in his day - Queen Victoria reportedly requested a copy of his 1890 novel, Almost Persuaded . However, looking further into Harben's bio, I discovered that his father was a prominent southern abolitionist who served as a spy for the Union. That would explain why the city of Dalton would not have claimed William Harben as a native son.

I finished reading The Land of the Changing Sun and it is my least favorite of all the novels I've read this month. The story tells of an American and an Englishman who crash their hot air balloon near an island in the Atlantic ocean. The two are rescued and taken down to a "lost world" located inside the Earth.

Two reviewers at goodreads.com gave the book 3 out of 5 stars. I would not rank the book that high. I'd only give it 2 stars if I were feeling generous.

Best skip this one.

Pictures of the Socialistic Future - Eugen Richter

Going from one extreme to it's polar opposite, I recently read (and blogged on) the heavily pro-socialist novel,The Iron Heel - by Jack London only to go on to read Pictures of the Socialistic Future written by the German anti-socialist, Eugen Richter.

Written as a response to the ideas of German Socialist August Bebel, Richter's dystopian novel predicts the dire consequences Germany would face should the country follow the path put forth by the Socialists.

Written in 1891, the novel is considered the 19th century version of Orwell's 1984.

The subject is obviously a serious one, but Richter was not adverse to using humor from time to time to attack Bebel and his ideas. It's not all fun and games, however as there is enough tragedy and rioting to go around.

After being relentlessly bombarded by London's pro-Marxist cannon balls, it was a relief to read Richter's defense of economic, political and religious freedom.

The Iron Heel - by Jack London

 

In my recent blog post on We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin, I wrote that I had discovered this on wikipedia:
"Along with Jack London's The Iron Heel, We is generally considered to be the grandfather of the satirical futuristic dystopia genre".

This lead me to do a little research on both Jack London and his dystopian novel - The Iron Heel.

Although I had read Call of the Wild  in 2016, I was unfamiliar with Jack London's views on politics and religion. Reading the wikipedia article on London, I learned that he was an atheist, a Marxist, and a supporter of eugenics. His views on Asian immigration to California were less than "woke" as well.

In The Iron Heel London's Marxist views are on full display. Through out most of the early sections of the novel, we are lectured on the glories of Socialism and the evils of Capitalism, the railroads, the banks, newspapers, universities, the Church and the government. Many of the folks in ANTIFA and BLM would applaud most of London's lectures.

The novel was published in 1908 with nearly all the events taking place at a future date. The story is the "memoir" of Avis Everhard who tells the story of her husband Ernest and his attempts at bringing about a socialist revolution in the United States. It's revealed almost immediately in the novel that the 20th century socialist revolution will fail, but the "memoir" is discovered 300 years in the future, after the revolution is eventually successful.

Very little of London's predictions in the novel come to pass. His future is not our past nor our present, by any means.

When London focuses more on the action in the novel - rather than his Marxist propaganda - the story is quite good. London was a remarkable story teller even if his political views were bunk. As a dystopian novel, it's an easier read than either We or 1984.

Huxley's Brave New World

Continuing along in my quest to read (or re-read, in some cases) dystopian novels, I've just finished re-reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. I last read that novel in 2014.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post on Russian writer, Yevgeny Zamyatin's dystopian classic, We , George Orwell had once claimed that Brave New World. was derived from Zamyatin's novel. Huxley denied this, saying he had never known about the novel until after the publication of Brave New World.  I wrote yesterday that I sided with Huxley on this, and now having just finished re-reading We, Brave New World , and 1984 , I am convinced that it is Orwell's novel that is derived from Zamyatin's novel.

I suppose it's only natural to compare Huxley's classic with Orwell.  1984 is, to me, the more frightening of the two and has the potential of becoming an accurate picture of society. I don't think we're quite there, yet.

Brave New World is disturbing in it's own way, and is closer to an actual portrait of society today. I can see Planned Parenthood's eugenics program in the novel. The, so-called, elites of today have managed to manipulate the "lower classes" thru sex without consequences and the legalization of drugs.

I am puzzled by one particular theme in Huxley's novel.

In the novel, children are not created thru normal sexual activity. Babies are mass produced thru a type of artificial insemination. Huxley was unaware of the concept of cloning at the time; cloning would fit well with the novel. Following a eugenics program, embryos are manipulated to create a set amount of Alpha individuals, Beta, Delta, and on down to moronic Epsilons. Most individuals are sterilized and unable to reproduce sexually, although for reasons which are clear to me, some individuals did not undergo sterilization, but are conditioned not to want to reproduce and are given contraceptives. All individuals are encourage to engage in sexual intercourse with anyone and everyone.

Two high caste individuals, one male and one female are permitted to vacation in an uncivilized Indian reservation in New Mexico, where life goes on as it has for centuries. While there, the woman, Linda somehow gets separated from the man. She becomes hopelessly lost and given up for dead. As it turns out, she survives but because she had made some sort of mistake with the contraceptive program, she becomes pregnant by her Alpha lover.

It is her child who is finally discovered and with her, brought back to civilization. Now here is the part that is puzzling to me. While living among the "savages", Linda continues her "civilized" habit of promiscuous sex with several men on the reservation. Although using contraceptives while having sex with her Alpha partner, she accidentally gets pregnant, yet she manages to not get pregnant again while having "unprotected" sex with numerous partners over what is probably a 20 year period.

That problem seems to have escaped Huxley, and he doesn't address it.

"We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Continuing along my quest to read a number of dystopian novels this month, I recently finished re-reading George Orwell's 1984 . Next on my list was a re-read of We by Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin.

According to my book lists, I first read the novel in 2014. I searched my PC for a copy of the mobi file to upload to my Kindle with no luck. I wasn't surprised at not finding a copy - my PC had crashed last year and I upgraded my operating system. Some files were saved in the process, others weren't. After searching the internet for a replacement, I located the novel at Project Gutenberg.

In a number of places online, I read that George Orwell had made the claim that Aldous Huxley's Brave New World was derived from We ,which Huxley denied. In 2014 in addition to reading We, I re-read Brave New World to see for myself if Orwell had been correct. As I mentioned in a blog post at the time, I didn't see an obvious connection between the two novels.

After the recent re-reading of We, I concluded that, if anyone had used the novel as a guide, it was Orwell with 1984. I find too many similarities between the two for it to be coincidence. This article, written in 2015 further supports my thoughts on this.

In 1984, Winston Smith has memories of past events which contradict the official history of Oceania. Upon reading We this second time, I was experiencing the same sort of confusion as Winston Smith when faced with contradictory memories. Immediately, as I read the novel, I told myself that it was all completely new to me. I could not remember having read anything I came upon in the novel. According to my posted book list, I had read the novel in 2014, yet nothing in this novel seemed at all familiar.

Upon further investigation, I discover that the 2014 reading was from a ebook downloaded from Amazon.com - a modern translation by Natasha Randall. The Project Gutenberg copy was in the original 1924 translation by Gregory Zilboorg. Perhaps the answer could lie in the differences in the two translations. I was able to download a copy of the Natasha Randall translation to my Kindle. I don't intend to read this translation again soon, but I did read enough to notice some slight differences. There doesn't appear to be such a difference as to cause this confusion.

Without giving away too much, the mental state of the character D-503 makes following the plot of the story a little confusing. I believe it is the confusion in his diary that has lead to my forgetting so much of the novel.

According to a wikipedia article:
"Along with Jack London's The Iron Heel, We is generally considered to be the grandfather of the satirical futuristic dystopia genre".  

We is a definite must read for anyone interested in the dystopia genre. I was unaware of The Iron Heel when I posted my list of dystopian novels to read this month. I have since downloaded a copy and have placed it in the queue.

Two Minute Hate

 

As I once mentioned in a post on another blog, with every U.S. Presidential election cycle, a reference to 1984 and Big Brother is leveled against one - or sometimes, both - candidates. In that post, I included images of Presidents Bush, Obama and Trump as Big Brother. The post also includes a similar image with Hillary Clinton.

In an earlier post on this blog, I wrote that I would be reading (and re-reading) a number of dystopian novels this month. I've just finished re-reading 1984 and I noticed something that has been frequently used in Presidential elections, but never mentioned out loud, as far as I can tell.

Early in the novel, Orwell writes of the Two Minutes Hate where Outer Party members of Oceania view a film of enemies of the State - usually Emmanuel Goldstein - and are encouraged to openly display their hatred for the enemy. While I was reading this section, I immediately thought of the Left's reaction to Donald Trump. The hatred is similarly coming from raw emotion, rather than logic.

It didn't take long for me to understand that not only were these "Two Minute Hates" recently directed at Trump, but had been used earlier by Republicans against Obama and Hillary Clinton. The Left had also used the same tactic against George W. Bush.

As I write this, I haven't noticed the same "Two Minute Hate" technique used against Biden. Perhaps because his persona as a tried old man works better for the Republicans.

Unfortunately, noticing this doesn't help stop it. Just more evidence of the U.S. going to Hell in a hand-basket.

Butchering The Beatles

I opened Spotify this morning with the idea of listening to some old Zappa music. I put on one of my favorites, One Size Fits All. I'm particularly fond of the song, Sofa, and while reading a wikipedia article this morning as I listened, I learned that Steve Vai had covered the song on a Zappa tribute album, Zappa's Universe. Although I was able to locate Vai's cover on Youtube, I was unable to locate the entire album on Spotify.

Looking thru Vai's albums on Spotify, I also scanned the "also appears on" section where I learned that Vai had appeared on a Beatles tribute album in 2006, Butchering the Beatles.

As I mentioned in my review of Al Di Meola's 2020 release of Beatles' material, I do not live in the center of the musical universe, and often an album is quite old when I discover it. That's certainly the case with Butchering the Beatles which I was able to listen to this morning on Spotify for the first time.

On the cover of the album, it says that it is a "headbashing tribute to the Beatles". I would have said "headbanging" rather than "headbashing" but what do I know? I'm an old fart, after all.

There are several musicians on this album - I'm sorry to say that most are unfamiliar to me. That doesn't get in the way of my appreciating the music, however.

If you're the sort that appreciates, loud, aggressive, head banging music - which I do on occasion - you're apt to love this album. I do.

The musicianship on this album is incredible. Instrumentally, each cut is, in my humble opinion, superior to the original Beatles' version. Unfortunately, not every vocal lives up to the music.

To Beatles purists, you may not particularly care for this album, but I loved it. The music is exactly what you'd expect from looking at the cover of the album. 

 

 

Leaving a Facebook Group

I recently became a member of a private Facebook group which deals in photography. The name of the group is not important.

Although I haven't been a member for very long, I'm happy to say that a few of my photos have made it into the finals of some of the monthly contests. Unfortunately, I have decided to leave the group over editorial practices.

Last night, when posting into the "Human interest" category, I was notified that my photos would need approval before they would be accepted. This had never happened to me before, and I was a bit puzzled.

After a little investigation, I concluded that one or more of my earlier photos were deemed inappropriate. It appears that at least one of my photos was guilty of "poorism". I had no idea that such a word existed.

I had uploaded photos of homeless people living on the streets in Dumaguete. I believe that visual images of the way the homeless are treated in a community are important, even if those images put a bad light on the community.

While the owners of this page have every right to exclude any photo they choose, I also have the right to cancel my membership in this group. I will be cancelling my membership to this group today and will request that all my photos posted to their group be removed. 

 

 

Dystopia

 

Toward the end of March, when I had very nearly finished reading For Whom the Bell Tolls , I had considered re-reading either Lord of the World  by Robert Hugh Benson, or Stanislaw Lem's Memoirs Found in a Bathtub. As it turned out, before going to those two novels, I read two by Christopher Morley - Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop .

The two, above mentioned, dystopian novels would be the first read in April. I've already written something on Memoirs Found in a Bathtub.

I first read Lord of the World in March of 2012. The novel is very popular among conservative Catholics, having been called "prophetic" by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. I am a fan of the novel, although I consider it slightly over-rated.

While reading these last two novels, I decided I would read additional "dystopic" novels this month. Following these, I read The Republic of the Future; or, Socialism a Reality by Anna Bowman Dodd and the U.K. version of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.

The Republic of the Future was first published in 1887 - the story taking place in 2050. The novel is satirical in nature, with Dodd's targets being socialism, animal rights, and radical feminism. In her novel, New York Socialist City is a dreary conformist society, in which the inhabitants live in identical homes and men and women dress alike. The novella is, in my view, far too short. I wish Dodd had taken the ideas further.

Although I've seen the film many times, this was my first time reading A Clockwork Orange . Fortunately, I was able to get a copy of the original version released in the U.K.. I hadn't known that when the novel was first published in the U.S., the American publisher felt that the final chapter would not appeal to American readers. The U.K. version, with this 21st chapter ends "less dark" than the U.S. editions. When Stanley Kubrick wrote the screen play to the film, he was unaware of the 21st chapter. He based his film on the American version (which Burgess considered to be "badly flawed"). I, for one agree with Burgess. The 21st chapter puts a different take on the ending and is absolutely necessary.

I'm going to finish out April with more dystopian novels - some I've read before, others I haven't. So far, the seven books on the list include 1984 - Brave New World -We - Pictures of the Socialistic Future -The Land of the Changing Sun -The Purple Cloud - and The Sleeper Awakes .

My Current Cycling Routine

 

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since I bought my new bicycle and, for the most part, I've been riding every morning. There were a couple of days when I had a little congestion in my chest; naturally, I took a break those mornings.

Prior to buying this bicycle, it had been 40 years since I last rode. Through out the years, I've kept active. Until recently, my routine was walking two miles a day and weight training 4 days a week. I knew I wouldn't be able to zoom along for long distances any time soon, but I thought I was fitter than I actually am. It's been slow going.

I decided at the start that I would concentrate on improving my stamina and cardiovascular health. Rather than go thru several gears while biking, I've chosen to stay in basically one medium level gear.

The front chainrings have three gears, with an 8 speed cassette on the rear. I leave the front chainring in the medium "2nd" gear. Not too easy....not too hard. With the rear cassette, I keep in a gear which will allow medium resistance on a flat road. The side road leading into the Diversion Road has a slight incline. I don't adjust the gear going up this incline. I have a bit of difficulty going up, but I'd rather increase my stamina than make it easier.

Once on the Diversion Road, the road flattens out.....more or less. Looking at the road, I don't notice an incline, but I can feel the increased resistance peddling.

I have a predetermined stopping point where I will turn around and come home. On the way to that point, I'll rest for a moment or two. Usually three times. Once I turn around, heading home, I can feel the slight decline in the road. This slight decline allows me to coast a little. When the road does flatten out, the gear resistance is about perfect.

I know this doesn't sound very exciting. I'm seeing some slight improvement, but it continues to be a slow go.

March Reading List

Following a new tradition, begun in January and carried over to February, I'm posting today a list of the novels I've read during the previous month.

For the first three months of this year, I've read, on average, nine books a month. In March, I read books by four different writers - Stendhal, Ernest Hemingway, Christopher Morley, and Grazia Deledda. Of the four, Grazia Deledda is my leading favorite.

The books are as follows:

The Red and the Black                Stendhal (Henri Beyle)
After the Divorce                         Grazia Deledda
Ashes                                            Grazia Deledda
Nostalgia                                      Grazia Deledda
The Woman & the Priest            Grazia Deledda
A Farewell to Arms                     Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls             Ernest Hemingway
The Haunted Bookshop              Christopher Morley
Parnassus on Wheels                  Christopher Morley

For those who may have read yesterday's blog post, I finished reading Memoirs Found in a Bathtub on April, 01.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub

I first read Stanislaw Lem's Memoirs Found in a Bathtub in the late 1970's - either 1977 or 1978. I don't recall, however, just how I came to discover the novel. I imagine that I must have read a review of the book in a magazine. 

This was long before the Internet and Amazon.com. - the local bookstore was not the sort to have that book in stock - so I'm not at all certain how the book came into my possession. I may have ordered the book thru the public library - we could do that in those days.

I do remember portions of the book and I recall being impressed with what I read at the time. It's been at least 43 years since then, and I have no clue as to what may have happened to my original hard bound copy.

I have been meaning to re-read the book, and was able to locate an e book online recently. I've just finished with this second reading. 

Although the novel is not included among Dr. Jordan Peterson's list of Great Novels, I would rate the book as high - or higher - than some books that made the cut. Some might argue as to whether the book belongs on the same list as Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina or even The Master and Margarita but it certainly equals 1984 or A Brave New World . There's no question in my mind that Memoirs Found in a Bathtub is far superior to the three Hemingway novels which made Dr. Peterson's list, not to mention The Maltese Falcon or Stendhal's The Red and the Black. If you can imagine George Orwell having spent more time reading Franz Kafka, then you'd have Lem's novel.

The novel takes place in two time periods - the "introduction", written thousands of years in the future - and the larger portions of the novel, written in the, so-called, "Late Neogene" era, corresponding roughly with our time period. The introduction explains to the reader, the Neogene era's dependence on paper (papyr) and how a papyralysis epidemic brought to the planet from space, destroyed all paper on Earth and brought about the Great Collapse of civilization.

The "Notes of the Neogene" (the memoirs found in the bathtub) were discovered in a building that had been preserved in volcanic lava.

The Neogene section takes place in an area called Ammer-Ka. The people of that time and place were believed to worship the god, Kap-Eh-Taahl.

The novel was written during the early 1960's in Poland. Although the story might have been based on a Soviet-style bureaucracy, I imagine placing the story in America allowed Lem to have the novel published behind the Iron Curtain.

The only weakness the novel may have in regard to it's being predictive of the future, is Lem's not foreseeing the wide spread use of computers and the Internet in the time when the destruction of paper was to take place. Imagining a civilization destroyed by a papyralysis epidemic seemed likely to those of us who came upon the book when it was first translated into English.

Fortunately, the loss of paper doesn't really play such an important part of the story after the introduction. The "memoirs" section of the novel works fine - even read today.

Anti-theft Device

It's been two weeks since I purchased my new bicycle. Not long after buying the bike, I wrote a blog post, recalling a few memories of bicycles I've owned years ago. 

I mentioned in that post that, prior to this new bicycle, I've owned two others - both having been stolen not long after I acquired them.

I wanted to make certain that this bike wouldn't disappear like the previous two. While we had workers building a patio/driveway on the western side of the house, I looked at the materials available and had them put up something outside that would help me keep my bicycle secure. There were sections of pipe leftover from the installation of the posts. Of course, the men had access to a welder, and there was a bit of extra concrete. The result was this post positioned next to the house.

There was even enough leftover red paint to cover the post.