All Consuming : Judith Bush

A story about "Primary Inversion (The Saga of the Skolian Empire)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:25:06 GMT

Primary Inversion (The Saga of the Skolian Empire)

by Catherine Asaro

A military Sci Fi novel with an interesting twist to the casus belli between two cultures. The integration of telepathy in the story is interesting, particularly in the idea of mechanical amplification and an “internet” that exists in the “space” which makes the FTL transit possible.

There’s interesting exploration on the emotional toll of war, on perspectives of anti-military citizens, and on the corrupting influence of power which exceeds the usual in the genera. I appreciated that touch.

The heroine of the story is slowly revealed in a way that allows a slow and gradual suspension of disbelief: thinking back on the story i find myself sputtering as i realize the character who was revealed. Masterfully done.

Yet another relief from the tedium of sardine travel.

A story about "In the Company of Others"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:08:26 GMT

In the Company of Others

by Julie E. Czerneda

I picked this up in the RDU airport used book store. (More airports should have used book stores!) The universe in which the story is set is one where Earth, exploring the stars, have yet to find intelligent life. They proceed with an ambitious terraforming and colonization project, to discover the Quill have taken over the terraformed planets and kill humans with ease. Uncertain how to fight the threat, Earth quarantines the rest of space. Settlers and spacers are stuck on crowded space stations, as the planets are certain death.

I enjoyed how Czerneda portrayed the culture that developed on one space station and how she recognized how the difference would lead to miscommunication between the Earth scientist and and the colonists. The strata of privilege on the space station and the competition of rank on the science vessel provide more than sufficient conflict to power such a powerful story. It seemed deftly handled and worthy of reflection.

The Quill were also fascinating, but i dare not write more than that without spoiling one discovery or another. On the other hand, the romance that developed was not quite as believable.

All in all, the perfect diversion during air travel.

A story about "Please Vote for Me"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:19:42 GMT

Please Vote for Me

by Weijun Chen

I’m impressed by just how old and familiar this story was while being novel and fresh. Eight year olds in China, in their first experience of democracy, behave like … like candidates for the US presidency. Witness debates with coached sound bites, voter manipulation, focus groups, and so on. The unfiltered presentation leaves the viewer to draw their own conclusions. I find myself wondering about the need for civics class, indoctrination to a set of ideals where winning a race isn’t everything. I mull pursuit of power, ambition, and gendered behaviors. It is interesting, too, that for these Chinese students the opposing choice to a dictator is a manager.

A story about "Nothing Friendly In The Vicinity"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:11:13 GMT

Nothing Friendly In The Vicinity

by Claude C Conner

I picked up this book in the store for the USS Pampinito on Mechanicrawl02008. My grandfather sailed in subs in the Pacific theater in WWII. I was interested in learning more about what his day to day life on the sub must have been like, as he was never one to tell sea tales. This memoir, enriched with the stories of other men serving on the USS Guardfish and USS Extractor gives an idea of the rhythm of difficulty and threat to which the men who served lived and worked.

A story about "Nothing Friendly In The Vicinity"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:59:16 GMT

Nothing Friendly In The Vicinity

by Claude C Conner

From the US Naval Institute webpage for the book:

Claude Conner weaves a compelling tale of his experiences in the Pacific aboard the USS Guardfish, one of the Navy’s top-scoring World War II submarines. Tragically, the Guardfish also was the only submarine to sink another American warship in a little-known friendly-fire accident against the USS Extractor. This well-documented memoir chronicles Guardfish’s Hollywood-like war actions, including her perilous forays into Japanese-controlled harbors, daring rescue of personnel from a Japanese-held island, near catastrophic flooding of the submarine’s conning tower, depth-charge attacks, and much more.

The author includes rare firsthand accounts by a dozen Extractor survivors who describe actions leading up to their encounter with the submarine, the actual sinking of the ship, their rescue, and their subsequent treatment by Navy officials. Conner examines the chain of events that led to the regrettable sinking and offers details of the Court of Inquiry that followed and for which he testified as a witness. This book was highly recommended by World War II historian Clay Blair when first published in 1999.

A story about "The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:10:18 GMT

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures

by Dan Roam

For me, this seemed worthy of a skim but not much more. I took notes on some of the outlined process concepts. In brief, Roam has taken the list of the “6 Ws” ~~- a slightly different list of “Who what where…” -~~ and mapped those to diagram types. EG: for who or what, you are drawing a portrait; for when, a timeline. He presents five different aspects one should consider in a diagram. EG: are you showing a change or how things are at the moment?. This systematic process of reflection before one begins drawing a diagram is appears quite useful.

He notes that there are many different comfort levels on using diagrams, and so if you aren’t used to simple diagrams in you meetings and communications, he has extensive explanations on how the process will enhance communication and help address the challenge of solving problems.

A story about "Future Imperfect"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:32:24 GMT

Future Imperfect

by Keith Laumer

I finished this ages ago. And i seem to be locked into choosing worth or not worth consuming: no “unstated.” I’ll choose “worth consuming” as a pleasant SF diversion. I find Laumer entertaining.

A story about "Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:19:27 GMT

Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller

by Judith Thurman

She’s fascinating: a magical horrific tragic beautiful person.

I don’t often read biographies, but i had read some of Isak Dinesen’s stories and felt they addressed dilemmas and problems of a totally different cultural reality. And, in fact, they might, as her childhood might be considered a romantic rebellion against her bourgeois maternal family with in preference to her father’s aristocratic line, yet smack in the middle of the early Bohemian lifestyle of fin de siecle Denmark. Her stories are seeded then, and then she goes through another lifetime between 1913 and 1931: her life in Africa. When she returns to Europe, lover and farm torn from her, syphilitic, she creates something else out of herself.

A few notes from reading:

A mention of “Orm og tyr” by Martin Alfred Hansen in the book made me want to read it ~~- “a history of Scandinavian religious literature and the relationship between pagan and Christian cultures” -~~ but it seems to be only available in Danish.

Another marked page was about a challenge to write for the American magazine market. An English friend of hers, Geoffrey Gorer, advised her “Write about food. Americans are obsessed with food.” Thus, “Babette’s Feast”

Finally, through a struggle she learned, as she related to Marianne Moore, “When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, without faith and without hope . . . suddenly the work will find itself.”

A story about "Distant"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:50:17 GMT

Distant

by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Beautifully shot. The characters only slowly let themselves become known to the viewer, but the plot isn’t not the film. It is the visual meditation on distance, visual and emotional.

I'm not charmed (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:06:16 GMT

South of the Border, West of the Sun

by Haruki Murakami

I think this would have been better as a short story. Over half the novel is a slow reflective narrative about the main character’s childhood and involvement with several women. I was never engaged as Hajime shares this back story with a flat sense of self-recrimination and self-pity. Once the story catches up to the present and the choices he must make as an adult do i find myself caring about the struggles.

When the women come back into his life decades later, the story begins. The character Hajime revisits the backstory ~~- his childhood, his regrets -~~ as he reconnects with a classmate and with the woman who was his childhood best friend. In his adult context, i can care about the self recrimination and regrets.

I will likely reread Kazo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World for contrast as another reflection on regret and choices.

A story about "Kingdom of Heaven (Widescreen Edition)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:29:21 GMT

Kingdom of Heaven (Widescreen Edition)

I suspect this ended up on our Netflix list at one point because of Liam Neeson and Orlando Bloom. At a later point we watched a trailer and were not impressed. I’m surprised we didn’t yank it. So, the recent batch of Netflix came without careful selection and this movie arrived. We sat down to watch last night with the lowest of expectations, and we were delightedly surprised. An entertaining and engaging story, which had me immediately turn to reading up on the time depicted.

The character played by Orlando Bloom is highly fictionalized compared to the historic person of Balian of Ibelin but provides a nice canvas on which to paint an ideal of a war leader, one who cares about the less powerful, one who makes intelligent use of his forces in defensive contexts. I regret to read the actual Balian did not quite win free passage for all the citizens of the surrendered city, but it was close enough.

I am struck by the speech given by Liam Neeson in the early part of the film, of the East being a new world where one could find opportunity. Apparently, the Ibelin family had achieved nobility rather quickly in the East. I contrast this with the social effects of the Conquistadors leaving Spain, ponder the origins of the United States, “The American Dream”....

A story about "Best of the Best: Strange Tales of the Imagination"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:48:38 GMT

Best of the Best: Strange Tales of the Imagination

by National Film Board of Canada

What’s struck me so far is the work of Ishu Patel. “Paradise” and “Bead Game” are included.
http://www.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/filmmakers/filmmaker/overview.php?id=12772

This legacy must be part of why Christine and I are delighted whenever we see “Vancouver Film School” on a Channel Frederator short.

A review of "Hamlet"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 03:37:57 GMT

Hamlet

by Michael Almereyda

We’ve watched this slowly and found it absolutely wonderful. I find Bill Murray’s Polonious captures the pendantic pomposity and political posturing i associated with the character more powerfully than i’ve seen.

The movement of the setting and characters into year 2000 while keeping the language of Shakespeare provide wonderful ways to invite more commentary on the well known text. When Hamlet delivers the soliloquy in Block Buster, the repetition of the signs saying “ACTION” “ACTION” “ACTION” “ACTION” give a wonderful urgency to the familiar words.

Why I gave up consuming "School of Rock (Widescreen Edition)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:34:43 GMT

School of Rock (Widescreen Edition)

by Richard Linklater

When the library DVD started failing, we were completely unmotivated to try to fix it or get the movie running again. I didn’t care about any of the characters, and could not be compelled down the path of watching them transform. I preferred reading the community college catalog of courses; an ironic preference, i suppose. Why did Christine’s sister recommend this?

A story about "The Dharma Bums (Penguin Modern Classics)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:17:31 GMT

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Jack Kerouac

There are many reasons to find this book delightful, but i particularly found the evocation of place wonderful. San Francisco, Berkeley, Mill Valley, and ~~- i was surprised to find -~~ Rocky Mount. I know the landscapes myself, and i delighted in visiting them in the ebullient descriptions.

I’ve Turtle Island by Gary Snyder to read soon—that answers some of the question about where Japhy Ryder ended up.

A story about "Planets of Adventure"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:51:58 GMT

Planets of Adventure

by Murray Leinster

Stories from 1920 through (and mainly from) the late 1950’s, a main character in the stories is often the planet itself, often in the role of antagonist. There are a few stories on the line of “clever space patrol officer saves the day,” but often the planetary conditions are the focus—not tech, not politics, not social conflict. Nothing screams that its out of date except for the role of women; yet there’s a respect for women as intelligent and competent agents that comes through clearly and rather obscures the dated roles.

I particularly liked the series about the “Colonial Survey Officer” and the thread of his struggle with ego and confidence as well as the puzzles of how certain problems would be solved.

A story about "8 Women"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Fri, 25 May 2007 21:19:44 GMT

8 Women

by François Ozon

“Worth consuming” may not be quite the right descriptor—utterly surreal? The juxtaposition of the 1960’s film style (including the musical numbers), the clothing and colors, the polished French country home against the banal and horrible is unforgettable.

A story about "Death to the Tinman"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 03:22:59 GMT

Death to the Tinman

by Ray Tintori

IMDB notes

I enjoyed this, having recently readThe Wizard of Oz so i knew a great deal more of the backstory on the Tin Man. His story is a bit of the tragic romance, briefly told, and then apparently elaborated upon in a later Oz novel. Wikipedia has a nice overview of Baum’s story.

This retelling has some great contemporary twists, and is quite well told and acted. It’s distilled movie making and story telling, and in just a short time packs more emotional and thoughtful content than evenings of some full length movies.

A story about "Interview"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 03:10:47 GMT

Interview

by Charles Burmeister

Simple yet powerful and raw. “The IMDB notes”: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0933745/ have a good review.

A story about "Edvard Munch"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:30:25 GMT

Edvard Munch

by Peter Watkins

Definitely a challenging film, constructed with documentary realism at the beginning, progressing to be more layered and collaged towards the end. This effect parallels, to some extent, the progression of Munch’s challenging content. Very powerful and as a work itself it can stand in context with Munch’s art.

The film is also useful in illuminating European fin de siècle attitudes around politics, sexuality, the role of women.

I do wish i had known “it was originally created as a three-part miniseries” as it is a bit long for one sitting.

A story about "Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (Judith Bush) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:57:04 GMT

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

by Guillermo del Toro

It’s a fairy tale without any Disney sentimentality or comic humor. It’s a war movie without the glorification. It’s violent without lulling you into the cartoon detachment of James Bond. It’s horrific, tragic, and incredibly uplifting—although i expect i’m a rare viewer who finds it uplifting. (I may find it uplifting not for the story but that such such storytelling exists.)