Huxley's Short Stories and More Koontz

Defying Gravity has graciously helped me to learn how to put pictures with posts (I'm still getting used to computers) and so I offer her many thanks.

Huxley's short stories strike much the same tone as the earlier mentioned Chrome Yellow. They mostly about affluent people who simultaneously want to be accepted by their peers because of their artistic or intellectual qualities, but also feel disgust for society and the world at large. They know the world is hollow, but want to live in it anyway. It's certainly a common feeling and easy to identify with.

The stories have a strange way to being mostly lighthearted affairs, and then suddenly and without warning offering deadly serious insights into death or loneliness. There are at least half a dozen in the volume that are top shelf and deserve to be read and remembered more than they are. "Little Archimedes" is a standout, among others.

As far as I can tell, this collection is the only way to get ahold of Huxley's stories, so there are no alternatives with which I can compare it. Unfortunately there is no introduction or commentary on the stories, but given the available options I consider this book to have been a good purchase.

Also recently completely was another Koontz novel, The Key to Midnight. Originally published in 1979 under a pen name, Koontz re-wrote it and it was re-issued in the 1990s under his name. It is better than the last couple I have read by him, and I get the feeling that his newer work is a real improvement over his early stuff, so I think the re-write probably did the book a lot of good. It's a sort international mystery spy story, involving Russian KGB operatives and hypnosis and false memories, etc, etc. Pretty common Koontzian elements. It mostly takes place in Japan and features a ridiculous love story as well. It's completely unremarkable, which is actually about the nicest thing I've said about a Koontz book. A more or less straight ahead thriller, but hard to see how someone would get famous writing books like this.

Words on the Rapture

A few days ago I finished The Rapture, the grueling third and final prequel to the Left Behind series of novels. This is now my third post on these books, so without going into much detail, I will say again that each and every volume is deficient in almost any conceivable way. Bad writing? Check. Poor characterization? Check. Unbearably preachy? Check. Offering no insight into philosophical or theological issues? Big check. Portraying God as a monstrous, abusive father? Again, enormous check.

There were a couple of passages so offensive that I made a note so I could reproduce them here. From page 199 of my version (the following is a scene that takes place after the rapture, when God's faithful have been transported to heaven):

"Irene did not even have to listen to learn the simple song. It was as if the words and the melody had been written on her heart. The great multitude, led by the angel choir, blended beautiful voices, drawing Irene to her feet and causing her to raise her chin. And with a dramatic, crystal-clear soprano she had never heard--and certainly never produced--she raised her hands high and joined the triumphant, majestic multitude, singing, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.

"Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!"

Okay, I'm not entirely sure if this is a direct quote from Revelations, from some other text, or if LaHaye/Jenkins are just making this stuff up, but this is supposed to be the very first song the elect will sing in paradise. Really? In heaven, this is the sort of thing people are saying? Giving thanks for God's revenge on the harlot? This is deranged.

Example two is another scene in heaven, from page 316 (not 3:16):

"Irene shrugged. 'We have new minds and bodies, but we have memories. Maybe in a million or so years we'll be completely free of our humanness.'

Raymie laughed. 'We already are.'

'I know.'"

In case it's not clear, they are celebrating being free of their "humanness". Now that they're in heaven they can develop into the robotic non-entity praise machines that God always intended they should be, until Adam went and ruined the whole plan. Can you imagine a more childish and depressing vision of eternity? I know Jesus exhorts us to have the faith of a child, and there is a sense in that statement--to see with innocence and trust. But there is also a time for the putting away of childish things, and a time to see the complexity in the world instead of denying it. Somebody should tell these authors they are old enough to get out of the nursery and into the sanctuary.

Transformers

Regarding Transformers, let me just say that if you are a fan of movies that disappoint, you will not be disappointed!

Benchley Shows His Sensitive Side

A couple days back I finished The Girl of the Sea of Cortez by Peter Benchley, the novelist famous for writing Jaws. I have long felt that Jaws the film is quite a bit better than Jaws the book. The movie is full of strange quirks and interesting characters, that come across as stock in the novel. There are also some additional, unappealing subplots in the book that are left out of the movie, to good effect. Anyway, Benchley followed up Jaws (his first novel) with two more ocean related yarns: The Deep and The Island. Both of those were nearly unbearable. Finally we come to The Girl of the Sea of Cortez. As you may be able to tell from the title, this is a novel of different sort than Benchley's others.

A brief description of the plot: a native girl, Paloma, living on an island in the Sea of Cortez spends much of her time snorkel diving off a seamount near her village. She is the only person who knows of the seamount's location. It was shown to her by her now deceased father, who was an outsider on the island. From her father she learned an attitude of respect for the sea; she learned to enjoy the sea, but also to harbor what is essentially a conservationist viewpoint. Others on the island, including her fisherman brother, see the sea as an adversary, from which sustenance must be taken. They live on the water, but not in the water. Naturally, her brother eventually discovers the seamount, along with the sea-life that is abundant there and wants to fish the area, creating a confrontation with Paloma.

The novel is a serious and admirable departure from Benchley's earlier work. I understand that Benchley felt a certain amount of guilt for the rest of his life after writing Jaws, because of the fear that novel created toward sharks. It seems he is trying to make up for some of that here. Unfortunately, I don't think you can really call Girl a success. Though not as sensational as his earlier novels, Girl still suffers from characters that are poorly drawn, only now there is not even plot to drive the story forward. Instead we have a very slow read without much in the way of an emotional payoff. There is also some magical realist type of writing going on at the climax that does not seem to fit with one of the novel's major themes, namely that animals need to be respected but not anthropomorphized. It is difficult to reconcile the conclusion with the bulk of the novel; it is almost a direct contradiction.

At any rate, I do give Benchley credit for leaving behind the formula that he used to create an enormous bestseller. No doubt his publisher had doubts about this book. My suspicion is that Girl probably did not sell all that well and that is one reason why Benchley found himself returning to the "monsters of the sea" prescription in some of his later books. A for effort, C- for execution in The Girl of the Sea of Cortez.