In 1972, historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. published a book called “The Columbian Exchange.� If I understand correctly, it attempted to map the impact ofIn 1972, historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. published a book called “The Columbian Exchange.� If I understand correctly, it attempted to map the impact of the world-wide trade routes that arose after Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Mann reports he bugged Crosby to update the book so many times that Crosby finally snapped at him “you do it.� 1493 is that update. It tells the tale of the world’s transformation into one integrated financial, cultural, and biological system.
The general shape of the story is well known. Mann fleshes out a lot of details. Brutally summarized, it comes down to “it was worse than I knew and faster.� Among other things, I learned:
� Scotland finally joined the United Kingdom after England agreed to pay Scottish debts related to a failed colony in Panama. � Many British investors in Jamestown believed it was only a few days march from the Pacific and were quite peeved the colonists hadn’t gotten there so they could get on with the serious business of trading with China. � Sir Francis Drake led a raid on a Spanish mule train carrying silver that would have been terribly successful except for one drunk French guy. � But for malaria, the North likely would have won the Civil War so fast that there would not have been the political will for the Emancipation Proclamation or the 14th Amendment. � 17th Century Chinese tax policy led directly to massive deforestation and loss of top soil despite royal decrees that would have stopped the land management systems that wrecked so much havoc. � An African princess and general, sold to Portuguese slavers, escaped and founded a military settlement in Brazil that controlled a large area of the coastal mountains for decades. � Cortes fathered children on several of Moctezuma’s daughters. He also successfully petitioned the pope to legitimate a child he fathered on his interpreter. � Pizarro fathered several children on different Inca princesses. One married his brother.
The book is sprawling and occasionally self-indulgent but utterly engrossing. Well worth the time. ...more
A well meaning, inexplicably be-kilted necromancer raises the dead presidents of the United States from their graves to Save America. They come back hA well meaning, inexplicably be-kilted necromancer raises the dead presidents of the United States from their graves to Save America. They come back hella grumpy. Believing the optics of SHIELD killing presidents wasn't good, they call in Deadpool. Wackiness ensues. Probably shouldn't be read near children. ...more
I liked it when it was zany. The Wrath of the Discontinued Brethren and the Annual General Meeting of the Edinburgh Establishment (feet level) charmedI liked it when it was zany. The Wrath of the Discontinued Brethren and the Annual General Meeting of the Edinburgh Establishment (feet level) charmed me. Not so much all the Day In The Life Of Ordinary People stuff. That was hard to get through. ...more
Funny and well crafted, especially on the prosy level. A little disappointing based on the billing: I was told it was like unto Sir Terry Pratchett. TFunny and well crafted, especially on the prosy level. A little disappointing based on the billing: I was told it was like unto Sir Terry Pratchett. There were some similar surfaces, but if there was that little deeper level, I missed it. Did made me laugh out loud many times. ...more
Lot of death in this book. Ground up in the dirt, walled into caves, weighted down and thrown into the endless ocean. And a few heroes � Sherlock HolmLot of death in this book. Ground up in the dirt, walled into caves, weighted down and thrown into the endless ocean. And a few heroes � Sherlock Holmes, The Doctor, Snow White, Shadow � who each defeat it a time or two. Also an evil that wears the face of Margaret Thatcher. Shudder.
Goes from before the Big Bang to after the death of the Earth.
Would have made a great bus book if I could have endured so long. ...more
“If you walk the path, eventually you must arrive at the cave,� we are told, a cave full of gold there for the taking in return for just a little pric“If you walk the path, eventually you must arrive at the cave,� we are told, a cave full of gold there for the taking in return for just a little price. And the truth is a cave in the black mountains. Maybe.
The story begins and ends with just a small tree, not a cave, with just a thing tangled in the branches. Life and death, tangled together.
Our hero is a father who finds a guide to take him to a cave in the black mountains. He finds no truth there, though he does find something sharp. I do not know if it was a gift from the thing in the cave (a dark memory of something hungry) or a trade. Our hero does not cheat the ferryman. I do not know what he left in exchange for what he took.
I go hot and cold � or at least, hot and mystified � on Grant Morrison. Sometimes, I think he sees all the way through. Sometimes, I think that he’s tI go hot and cold � or at least, hot and mystified � on Grant Morrison. Sometimes, I think he sees all the way through. Sometimes, I think that he’s thought deeply about the same tropes that hold my attention and offer me comfort and meaning in this haunted world. Sometimes, I think he’s just varying the literary tropes of the death-denying baby boomers, which doesn’t speak to my traumas. But I just listened to an EPIC two part “Fat Man on Batman� wherein Kevin Smith interviews the death fearing Scotsman, so I thought I’d stretch a little into his broader catalog, take a little piece of Doom Patrol and see if it grabs me.
And once again, I am mystified. I’ve tried Doom Patrols several times. Steven Shaviro, my critical literary studies prof who blew my mind once upon a time titled one of his books that, and wrote rhapsodically about it. See . And, even with Prof. Shaviro’s gloss, I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
I think there’s something in here about making stories to keep death at bay; something in here about death breaking through anyway; something in here about vanishing into your own stories; something grandiose about that vanishing being integral to the universe; something about suicide; something about being your own worse enemy; something about the bomb; something about alienation; something about integration of consciousness; something about fracturization of consciousness; something about metatexts; something about the role of art in an age of mechanical reproduction; something about the anxiety of influence . . . but nothing that ever came into focus for me.
It’s probably brilliant. But it is hella inaccessible. ...more
“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don� like to bug you, but I need a second opinion.� “Wow, that’s someth
“I didna want to spread this’un around, skipper, but it’s a two-wetsuit job. I don� like to bug you, but I need a second opinion.� “Wow, that’s something out of the ordinary. A two-wetsuit job means kinky beyond the call of duty.� (4).
And so Detective Liz Kavanaugh begins investigating a wave of murders that involve repurposed house hold appliances and criminals, seemingly petty and not, worldwide. She’s assigned to the Rule 34 squad, specializing in meme-crime � memes that may jump from the imagination into the real world to bloody or disturbing effects. And something’s jumped.
The first chapter’s titled “Red Pill, Blue Pill,� and it ends with the line “Keep taking the happy pills, Liz. It’s better than the alternative.� (16). Great recapitulation of the first world existential trauma problem.
The book’s disorienting in large part because it’s written relentlessly in the second person, with different persons to second, like a Chose Your Own Adventure book or certain ancient text based video games. The chapter titles helpfully clue us into whose perspective we’re watching, but even so, it’s tough going. The amount of information that goes past is staggering. Stross does a nice job of letting us live one of the problems of the Total Awareness Society from the standpoint of those trying to solve murders � *way* too much information. If Liz had figured out the connection between grey market medium for the ubiquitous 3-D printers and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu’s enema machine, a lot of deaths might have . . . well, probably gone down exactly as they did, but she would have understood what was going on faster.
Not surprisingly for a book so titled, it has introduced me to a concept 1. that I never considered and 2. that is frelling terrifying. Are you ready?
The Spamularity.
.
I’m dead certain we’re not ready for that....more
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