I decided to return to the classics of science fiction. I have read science fiction for a number of years but there are some standbys that I missed the first time through. Most noticeable on the list of works I missed on the first go is Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation trilogy: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Alright. That is not entirely true. I did not miss it entirely. I attempted to read Foundation when I was eleven. I remember it being promoted as “the most important work of modern science fiction.” The Foundation series collection of novels and short stories won a special one-time-only Hugo Award for “Best All-Time Series” in 1966.

But here is the thing-the thing that I could not get past at the wise age of eleven. The premise of the series is the fall and renaissance of a galactic empire of astounding scale. Quadrillions of people scattered across tens of thousands of worlds, the plot moves forward at a pace of approximately a hundred years per chapter. The characters I just met in the last chapter are all dead at the beginning of the next. Asimov’s humans do not live much past eighty. But I wanted a hero! I wanted someone who was there from the beginning and would ride off into the sunset at the close of the last page-to return in the next sequel. This business with the main characters dying every chapter just would not do.

So, after about eighty pages it was out with Hari Seldon and in with John Carter. John Carter and the princesses, the gods, the warlords, the chessmen, the master minds, and the swordsmen of Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs knew how to tell a story for young boys! Because what I wanted was pulp fiction not this psychohistorical drama played out over a thousand years. Besides, the editions I read all included fantastic covers illustrated by Michael Whelan. I remember those covers, alone, were worth the price of admission.

So it is more than twenty-five years later. Asimov wrote four more books in the series: two sequels and two prequels. In addition he worked to tie in his Robot series and his Empire series into the same fictional world. After Asimov’s death other science fiction authors added an additional six books to the whole endeavor. I decided that I owed it to myself to read the original trilogy all the way through.

And that is exactly what I have set out to do. It is amazing what a little personal history can do for your perspective.

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I perused a couple of the local bookstores a few days ago. I was looking for a copy of The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. I found it. I bought it. I have completed reading it. At the time I was looking for it, however, I stumbled upon Rock On by Dan Kennedy. I picked it up, read the back cover and thought of my friend Smokes. Some of you may remember that Smokes was one of the champions of the Best Rock Song Evar! discussion from a couple years back. Smokes is also a consummate fan of all the Harmonix/Neversoft music video games: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, and the most recent addition, Rock Band. Where some kids play Madden NFL because they dream of being a football star, John plays Guitar Hero because the little boy inside of him still dreams of being a rock idol.

So when I find a book where the back cover reads …

When Dan Kennedy is hired by a major record label in 2002, he thinks he’s chanced upon a dream job in the world of full-blown gonzo rock-and-roll excess that has pockmarked his dreams ever since he was a suburban teen. The sobering reality: he’s basically walked into a nine-to-five world that’s equal parts This Is Spinal Tap and The Office.

I think of Smokes. I tell him about the book. The next day he runs out to scour stores. He finds the last copy at the third store he visited. He runs home and starts reading. Ten pages in and he’s falling out of his chair laughing. So, now that I’ve finished with Phillip Marlowe, I’m going to join him in this strange, strange land. I may not be– or even want to be– a golden god, but I sure enjoy laughing with one.

Twice a year– once in the spring and once in the fall– the Chicago Public Library selects a book for the entire city to read. This spring, “One Book, One Chicago” enters its seventh year as a program to promote reading and discussion among all city residents. The selection is the 1953 Raymond Chandler crime novel, The Long Goodbye. The choice of The Long Goodbye marks the first time that the committee has selected a mystery novel. I do not usually read mysteries or crime novels. Those tend more often to be Whirl’s preferences rather than mine. Occasionally she will recommend one for me to read, most notably novels by James Ellroy. I am also somewhat amused that the 1974 Robert Altman film adaptation by the same name arrived in the mail yesterday. I do not remember which of us added that to the movie queue, but the accidental timing was perfect. And I should probably also note that another Chandler adaptation sits on my short list of favorite films: The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart. Suffice it to say I am excited to read this book.

The Long Goodbye is the last book Chandler wrote. It features his iconic detective, Phillip Marlowe. From the back cover:

Marlowe befriends a down-on-his-luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, who he’s divorced and remarried and who ends up dead. And now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

I better go find out what happens!

Three years ago, in January 2005, I suffered a serious traumatic brain injury. The injury placed me in a coma for ten days and the hospital for weeks more. The injury changed my life. Since that time I have looked for voices and means of expression of what I went through and continue to carry with me.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the English translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon written by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby served as editor-in-chief of the French fashion magazine ELLE. In December 1995 at the age of 43 his life changed. He suffered a massive stroke. The results of the stroke included complete and permanent paralysis of almost all his voluntary muscles while retaining nearly full awareness of his senses. Vision, hearing, tactile sensation remained absent any ability to act upon the information those senses provided. This rare condition is known as “locked-in syndrome”. For Bauby, his sole means of communication to the outside world was the ability to blink his left eye.

Using that one remaining ability, Bauby wrote and edited this book– painstakingly, tediously, letter-by-letter, two minutes per word, he wrote the book over the course of a year. The book gives voice to his thoughts and feelings about his life and the situation in which he found himself. The title serves as a clear description: the diving bell refers to the empty shell he considered his body, the butterfly refers to his spirit. The book was published in 1997. Two days after publication, Bauby suffered a heart attack and died. His astonishing book continues to give cheer to those who face life’s ultimately impossible odds and the confrontation of the sudden, merciless, fickle nature of life. The book serves as an inspirational reminder of mortality: the plain fact that swift and sudden changes can sweep away anything we might have taken for granted.

From the book’s back cover:

In a voice that is by turns wistful and mischievous, angry and sardonic, Bauby gives us a celebration of the liberating power of consciousness: what it is like to spend a day with his children, to imagine lying in bed beside his wife, to conjure up the flavor of delectable meals even as he is fed through a tube. Most of all, this triumphant book lets us witness an indomitable spirit and share in the pure joy of its own survival.

I knew the Oscar-nominated film There Will Be Blood was inspired by the novel Oil!. What somehow slipped through my awareness was that Upton Sinclair was the novel’s author. This would be the same Upton Sinclair who wrote The Jungle, the seminal novel about the Chicago stockyards in the 19th Century. I ran across the recent printing of the novel browsing the bookstore last week. I picked it up.

Contemporary society’s need for oil continues to dominate the social, economic and political landscape. I believe it is to this end that this edition’s back cover reads:

As he did so masterfully in The Jungle, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair interweaves social criticism with human tragedy in this glorious 1927 novel to create an unforgettable portrait of Southern California’s early oil industry. Enraged by the oil scandals of the Harding administration in the 1920s, Sinclair tells a gripping tale of avarice, corruption and class warfare, feature a cavalcade of characters, including senators, oil magnates, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist. Sinclair’s epic drama endures as one of our most powerful American novels of social injustice.

Today’s oil fields may no longer be in America’s back yards of Texas and California but I do not think that makes them any less important or relevant. On the contrary, I believe that makes them all the more relevant, their impact all the stronger. While I do not live in The Jungle back of the yards, that particular Chicago that novel portrays continues to haunt me. Also, while I do not own an automobile– and thus avoid a more visceral connection to oil through the ritual of the gas pump– I suspect Oil! will likely have a similar effect.