worth consuming… with the caveat that, if you know anything about genetics, you are in for something of a disappointment.

An interesting introduction to the sweepingly large subject matter of the human genome, and worth reading to find the chapters which interest you most so that you can go and consume more in-depth books about those.

To be honest I found the format (a chapter per chromosone, looking at a specific gene to be found on that chromosone) trite and forced. Ridley’s obviously passionate about genetics and the place it has to play in modern society, and if you still think of genetic science as some kind of leering Frankensteinian creation, then hopefully Ridley’s book will make you stop and reassess that view. But the truth is, by the last few chapters, I felt that he had simply run out of things to say and was reduced to rhetoric, speculation and unfinished trains of philisophical thought. In particular the final chapter on free will was, in my view, nothing short of farcical.

An interestingly bland introduction, or blandly interesting, rarely giving enough detail to satisfy, and, given the breakneck speed at which genetic science is moving, already showing its age.

Worth reading to whet your appetite, but nothing more.

On with chapter 3. The letters from no-one are arriving, and I have learnt the words for letter box, spare bedroom and “good idea”. This morning I read a couple of articles about the state of the Japanese education system, but didn’t learn any words. Why not? Because they were all dull as hell, that’s why. Roll on Hogwarts.

I love Houellebecq. It’s said of many novelists I know, but in Houellebecq’s case it’s true: there really is no-one out there who writes like he does. So refreshing, and of course, good for expanding the old sexual vocabulary. .

If you can’t read French, the English version, Atomised, translated by Frank Wynne, won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for writer and translator, so should be worth checking out.

A bleak and desolate world view that comes highly, highly recommended.

This might just be the only Godart film I have ever understood! Hurrah for story-lines! Love the editing – even 40 years and endless copies later his jump cuts, paired with Parisien monochrome, seem fresh and new rather than the cinematic routine they have become.

Belmondo is amazing, and as for Jean Seberg: I need that dress.

Classic.

I am consuming this. In Japanese. Hampered only slightly by the fact that I understand neither the words nor, indeed, the symbols they are written in. One and half chapters down, 15 and a half to go. Potter is about to free the snake from behind the glass. I am excited on his behalf. Over and out.

I think I must have been very tired when I read the first chapter of this all those moons ago, since last night I sat down and gobbled up 6 chapters in one sitting. If anything I found it LACKING in scientific detail. I mean, there’s popular science, then there are books that populise science’s findings without giving away any of its mechanisms.

I think this might fall into the latter category.

Obviously I’ve learned a few general facts, but I was hoping to learn more about the genome itself, how it actually does things, or failing that, things that are so mind bogglingly complex that we don’t have the slightest clue how it does them.

The closest Ridley has got to that so far is an awful lot of “length” comparisons – if the genome were a book, its pages could be piled from here to moon and back no less than 57 times, etc etc. Well yes, but OBVIOUSLY the genome contains a lot of information. It contains everything we are and could potentially be. That’s a lot of things. But it also contains a lot of redundent, repeat information so waxing on and on about its length seem, to me, rather to miss the point. I want to know about the non-redundent inforamtion, and I want to know what it does.

Maybe that will come in later chapters, but I’m not so sure. Each chapter seems to be a rather, dare I say it, shallow introduction to an “aspect” of genetics, without building into more depth anything mentioned in previous chapters. Most of the time it reads more like the history of the discovery of the genome than of the genome itself.

I get the feeling that this book is expressly written for people who have never even looked at a cell under a microscope before; who had never even heard the word “genome” before they saw this book. But maybe that’s simply the book showing its age (published before the publication of the human genome project); maybe it’s just a sign of how, even in the layman, basic understanding of genetics has surpassed all expectations less than 10 years after the books’s first appearance.

Ho hum. We shall see.

I agree with the previous review that the ending left me a little disappointed. It was a fine ending for any other book, but this book deserved a little better, I thought.

Other than the plot, which held me captive most of the way though, I found it a fascinating dissection of art, and a reminder that the Western “perspective” approach with which we are all so familiar is, in fact, a fairly recent invention in the field. Interesting treatise on what it is for an artist to be possessed of talent, and how he is to go about displaying said talent. Highly recommended, but perhaps lower your expectations a little as your near the conclusion.

This was an accidental consumption, an error at the hands of the DVD rental place, but I thought I’d watch it anyway before I stormed back to the shop in rage.

I’ve never read the book so I can’t say whether the film’s a fair representation of it or not, but suffice to say it’s put me off reading Carl Sagan for the rest of my life. Science and religion on an equal footing when it comes to searching for the truth? Er yeah, obviously.

It’s my own fault, really. I knew the minute I heard that awful, heart warming, Hollywood chord in the opening scene that this was not going to be my kind of film, but I persevered. And , to be fair, doing so has allowed me to add the sentence “Contact is a really rubbish film” to my repetoire of knowledgeable things. You do indeed learn something new everyday.

Nice graphics at times, but why bother when you can look at real photos from the Hubble telescope instead, and not have to put up with a preposterous love story sidling up to you like a 39 year old man with overly gelled hair and bad breath all the way through the film.

An atheist and “a man of faith” falling in love with each other? I don’t jolly well think so.

Seriously, don’t bother. Go and read about cicadas and prime numbers instead. That’s interesting, and far more expressive of the awe-imspiring complexity of the universe we live in than this bland, over-blown, wishy washy refusal to tread on anybody’s toes. If Ned Flanders ever got round to directing a film, I have a strong feeling it might resemble this one quite closely.

In six months I have consumed a dramatic ONE chapter. Further consumption being hampered by sunny weather, kanji study, Daichi, other books, work (yes, I know), sudoku, half-hearted writing of novel, swimming and cross-stitch. Estimated finish date: February 19th 2008.

Because it’s fanastisch!

wikipedia

informs me its English incarnation goes under a variety of titles:

The King and the Mockingbird

The King and the Bird

The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird

The King and Mr. Bird

Mr Bird to the Rescue

Adventures of Mr. Wonderful

Wikipedia also informs me that, as of 1983, no full English subtitles version was available on VHS (remember good old VHS?). Glad to see wikipedia is, as ever, keeping its articles up to date. Don’t know if there’s an English DVD yet but you are strongly strongly encouraged to hunt one down/ petition whoever necessary to release one/ learn French in order to appeciate the sheer majesty of this film.

It may just be the best thing I’ve ever watched.