Distractions

 

Hello, dear Reader,

Today marks the first day of the fifth week on board. Time has SHOT by so fast that I’ve whiplash. Seriously, I’ve got a crink in my neck. I thought 8-12 would’ve been better for me than 4-8, but for some reason the time between watches feels like I sneeze, cough or fart and boom, back to work. Then, after my evening watch, to bed, and the cycle repeats.

I had high hopes for this rotation considering other things, (thesis etc.), but I feel like I’ve only been able to scratch the surface. I feel now, more than ever, as though time is not only slipping through my fingers, but also untouchable. As though I can’t even grab a hold of it.

Maybe that’s a sign of aging. I’m only 27, but it still feels like every consecutive week speeds by faster and faster.

I finished with my fifth draft, and promised you guys that I’d continue TLC, but I’ve been hit with a horrendous writers block, and I’ve only managed to rewrite the first sentence of 5-6 for the whole week.

It is AGONIZING.

Thus I come to thee with things I’ve liked and not liked this month,

 

We shall start with:

Number one. Which is something I didn’t much care for. That being: 3001, The Final Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke.

Now, before I’m keelhauled, I want to emphasize that I thoroughly enjoyed the odyssey’s from one to three. 2001, 2010 and 2061 respectfully. 2001 is BY FAR the best and feels like an acid trip. It is brilliant in its descriptive storytelling, and I could place myself in the spaces and situations of the characters and milieu. Same with 2010 and 2061 but in lesser degrees.

But… the fourth and final one wasn’t to my liking.

For context I’ll give a brief summary of the first three: Pair of astronauts go to space, one is knocked off into space while the other tries to thwart a mega-confused AI. The survivor succeeds and is sucked into an alien monolith and becomes a space baby. Flash forward, space baby helps other astronauts on a mission to salvage the ship and AI from the first book, to stand clear of Jupiter as it is condensed into a sun, which humanity titles Lucifer.

Europa

 

This new sun promotes life on Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which is also guarded by a fuck-off sized monolith. Humans are barred entry, but the rest of the solar system is theirs to exploit.

Summary over. (For better synopses see Wikipedia). [also go donate to them!]

Now. MAJOR SPOILERS. 3001 takes place a thousand years in the future, and the other astronaut that was blasted into space in book one has been miraculously rediscovered and revived. He is in awe of humanity’s development and goes off to check out an outlier settlement of the Solar system: Ganymede. There he gets the idea of going over to Europa on his own, because space baby is his old buddy and he thinks he might have a chance. He does.

Space baby says that Nova Scorpio, which had exploded some time ago, was a monolith wiping out a burgeoning civilization, and that humanity might have the same in store. Mr. zombienaut and space baby concoct a plan to infect the monolith on Europa with a virus, recognizing that the other monoliths around the solar system are just fragments of a larger whole, and thus pose a threat. Baby and Astroboy succeed in saving everyone.

The story ends enigmatically, which I shan’t spoil.

Now, why didn’t you like it? you ask.

Well, ninety percent of the book felt like A.C. Clarke’s own opinions on what a perfect society in the future might look like. It is a very matierialist-scientific view of an ideal future. Everything spiritual is scoffed at as something foo-foo or stupid, and pure science is elevated as the savior of mankind. Societal structures of today are haughtily looked down upon, but the “better” alternative of the future is never quite lucidly defined. It is only eluded that communism was and is a “perfect” system. An idea many intellectuals then, and now, sadly, hold to be true.

 

It ceased to read like a science-fiction story and rather became something with the air of, “everything I like = good; everything I don’t like = bad.” The author’s voice was overwhelming, and it ripped me out of the story more than once.

But who am I to criticize someone like A.C. Clarke. I love many of his stories. He is undoubtedly one of the best science-fiction authors ever to have been and has been and will continue to be an inspiration. But this one just didn’t fit with me.

I was expecting something grand and majestic like that which I had experienced in the first three. Something awe inspiring and breathtaking, and in some parts it had that, but most of it was a slog to get through.

Would I recommend 3001? No. Will I say, “don’t read it” ? Never. I will always encourage people to form their own opinions, and hope that you will as well.

 

We shall continue with:

 

Number two, which is something I liked. The movie, Troy (2004).

Now, your boy loves his Aeneid, and I’ve read the Iliad, so Troy as a movie was up there on my TBW (to be watched). It’s a three hour pick that depicts the sack of Troy as Troy, the Greeks campaign to get Helen back. (Sped up by decades). In the Iliad and other texts it took years for the Greeks to get to Troy, and longer still to actually breach the walls of lost Ilium. Much drama ensues, and heroes are made and killed in the process.

Now! Before you movie buffs say anything; YES, I KNOW! The movie took some liberties with character deaths, such as Menelaus, Agamemnon and Ajax, (the two former were painted as the villains of the story, because god forbid gray areas exist). Also, some characters didn’t make the cut, such as Diomedes, and of course, all the gods of the Greco-Roman pantheon. So too are there story beats that weren’t in the original cycle.

It is a creation of its time. When you go back to the early 2000’s, movies based on books or myths strip most if not all the supernatural and supranormal mythic qualities from the original stories. It was the worst time of realism in creative history, in my opinion, but it doesn’t mean the works themselves are all lacking in quality or presentation.

the horsey from the place it got its name from from the movie of the same name

It’s a thrilling depiction of battles in the bronze age, and though not 100% historically accurate, the set pieces and costumes suck you into the world. I also loved the way Troy looked! Egyptian, Hellenistic, and Mesopotamian styles are blended to create a city-state that, though now lost, felt like a melting-pot of the time, and a precursor to Rome. (which by the Romans’ account, it was).

So, in short, if you like Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom, go check out Troy!! 

 

Closing.

I’m adding this as a little sidenote on the day of posting. As of now we’re in Rotterdam, and it looks like our next voyage will be taking us to the Mediterranean! We’re alle excited over here. Looks like crew change will be there as well.

Looking forward to it if it goes through.

But thank you guys, dear Readers, for being here today.

Every read is worth it, and I am grateful for your presence.

I promise to smack my head against the big BLOCK that’s hindering me from writing TLC, and I’ll try to get 5-6 to you guys come the 29^th.

I’ll see you next Saturday!