Arthur C. Clarke: 2001: Vesmírná Odysea (2001: A Space Odyssey)

   Tuhle knížku jsem vybral na náš čtenářský klub, ovšem mělo se koukat i na film. Podle vlažných reakcí dvou zbylých členek klubu a zjevné neochoty debatu dotáhnout dál než k větě „No ten film byl ale vážně vopich“ (nicméně uznávám, že ten film vážně je dost vopich) jsem vydedukoval, že se u nich nesetkal s nadšením. Je teda pravda, že to nemá moc děj a že v případě filmu se prakticky nedá pochopit, co se to tam vlastně děje…a taky je docela problém u filmu neusnout…ale to je chyba Kubricka, a ne Clarka…

   Děj se dělí do několika částí, začíná v pravěku v době, kdy lidi byli ještě opice, pak skočí do budoucnosti do chvíle, kdy se na Měsíci stane cosi a americká základna se uzavře do karantény, a nakonec se posune ještě o něco dál na vesmírnou loď, která putuje k Saturnu (nebo kam) a na palubě má palubní počítač Hal-9000 (kdo by neznal hlášku Hello, Dave…no…vlastně…asi kde kdo).

   Ovšem pointa knihy (která je ovšem jasně vyřčená už na začátku) je, že když byli lidi ještě opice, tak se na Zemi objevila jakási podivná mimozemská krychle, která začala opice testovat a uměle jim zvyšovat inteligenci a zdokonalovat schopnosti. Opice se tak nejdřív naučí používat nástroje, ovšem zanedlouho objeví naprosto skvělou možnost – když opice vezme klacek a šutr, tak s ním může praštit jinou opici, a třeba tak tý opici naznačit, že tady u toho koryta už teda znova pít nebude. Oh, humanity and all the passangers.

   Nicméně tím to nekončí, protože mimozemšťani si nechali na Zemi (a v blízkém okolí) nástroje, které jim dají vědět, až se lidstvo začne hrnout do vesmíru. A až se dohrabe dost daleko, čeká na něj další „evoluční nakopávadlo“. No, přiznávám, tímhle jsem vykecal více méně kostru celého děje, ale přece jen se tam toho děje víc…o trochu.

            Nicméně ať se snaží sebevíc dostat do knížky zajímavou myšlenku, Clark je pořád spíš vypravěč než filozof, a na tom to taky stojí. Asi nejlepší část je ke konci při cestě do neznámých části vesmíru, kde je to takový snově psychadelický a člověk si říká tak akorát…wow. Ve filmu je to takový přehnaný a více méně pochybuju, že celejch těch deset minut podivnejch obrazů přírodních scenérií přes barevný filtry a kaleidoskopoidních obrazců kdy kdo viděl celý. No nic.

            No, zrovna jsem spolknul antibiotika a už chci mít tenhle článek za sebou, takže se budete muset smířit s tímhle extra odfláknutým.

Jacques Tournier: La Maison déserte

   I chose this book absolutely randomly in the municipal library, just because I wanted to read something in French and this wasn’t too long. The problem with most of the French books in that library is that they are from Gallimard and they don’t  bother with any description of books they publish or information on the author. Besides, the library obviously doesn’t bother with getting many new books in foreign languages and if you want a foreign book in other language than English, the offer is nothing much. Now, that I have expressed my discomfort with the municipal library, let’s get back to the book.

    Although Tournier has several books published, this one probably isn’t the best he has ever written. At least I guess so, as Wikipedia doesn’t even mention this book in his entry (and it is the right Jacques Tournier). For those interested, he also wrote a biography of Carson McCullers, translated Tender is the Night or The Great Gatsby into French and wrote some novels like Des Persiennes vert perroquet (I can’t help it but that’s a cool name), A l’intérieur du chien or Zelda (which is about Zelda Fitzgerald and, unfortunately, no Fairy Fountain nor princesses in distress are involved).

   Well, the story. The main character is a woman...and I can’t remember her name. It’s written in the third person and I’d have to look it up. Anyway, she moves from France to the Netherlands where she rents a little house. She lives there with almost no furniture, she doesn’t use the upstairs at all and she is totally depressed all the time. Little by little, we learn that she lost her husband, than fell in love with another man and he died too. Now, she is trying to keep hold on her dead lover and more or less pretends he’s still alive. The book treats the way she comes to terms with her lover’s death and carries on her life.

    It’s not a particularly enjoyable book. I’d say it’s mostly boring. And very...very over-exaggerated. For example, there is a part when the heroine takes a walk to a lighthouse. The weather gets really bad and there is a strong wind and heavy rain but she sits by the lighthouse and watches the storm. Seriously? Storm, lighthouse, dead lover, raging waters? All at once? No, I don’t think so. And there are other, less extreme but still weird scenes.

   I don’t want to say it’s not a good book. Maybe someone with a similar experience would say that’s exactly what he or she felt (although I doubt many people write and actually send letters to their dead lovers...or pretend having dinner with them). But I really didn’t enjoy the book very much and I dare doubt many other people would. 

Warren Miller: The Cool World (Prezydent Krokadýlů)

   Protože písmeno „c“ v A to Z Challenge už zabrala The Children of Dynmouth, konečně taky jednou můžu kašlat na angličtinu (mezi náma, ne, že by v tom byl tak zásadní rozdíl, protože oni sem žádný cizinci stejně nelezou, ale whateva). O tomhle jsem poprvé slyšel paradoxně na přednáškách z francouzský literatury, protože to je první příklad v českým překladu, kde se objevila autostylizace…a tím se tady zřejmě míní deformace jazyka postavou (což sice úplně není to, co bych si pod pojmem autostylizace představil, ale hlavně že víme, jak to vypadá).

   Nevím, jestli jsem to tady už poznamenával, ale vážně špatně snáším, když musím luštit, co to ty lidi vlastně říkaj. A tady to nebylo jen když mluvili, ale pořád a furt. Po půl straně jsem si říkal, že tohle prostě nedám. Po sto stranách jsem vzal za povděk sudými stránkami bilingvního vydání. Takže ještě úvodem bych řekl, že překladatel (Josef Škvorecký, tohle je nové vydání překladu) na tom udělal skvělou práci, snad až na jednu výjimku, a to že postavy říkají mergle několika různým věcem, konkrétně penězům i heroinu. Nevím jak s penězi, ale pochybuju, že heroinu kdy kdo řekl mergle. Jinak respect, yo.

   Jen abyste dostali představu, dám sem několik prvních odstavců originálu a překladu:

They call him Priest because he always wear black. Black suits with thin tight pants. One day some body see him in an they say. “Man you always in black. Like a priest. You the hep priest Man.” So that how come he is call priest.

   Priest say to me. “Man I tellin you. You aint gonna find anything good as this for the kind of bread I askin for. You can go up and down this street a thousan times an you aint gonna find it.”

   I say to Priest. “Man I dont have time to go up and down this street a thousan times. I in a big hurry. But shitman that aint worth no 15 dollas.”

   Priest he laugh. He taken the piece out of the draw again. It a short-barl 45 with that crisscross lines on the butt. Priest dont flip around like a cowboy. He cool. He hold it in his big hand like somethin sweet and he smile at it.

Říkaj mu Flanďák poněvač dycky chodí v černym. V černym saku a tenkejch trubkách. Jednou ho někdo vidí a povidá. „Vole co seš furt v černym. Jako flanďák. Ty seš teda flanďák za všecky drobný vole.“ Vod tý doby mu teda řikaj Flanďák.

   Flanďák mi povidá. Vole nech si říct. Za ty prachy nenajdeš nikde nic lepšího. To tu můžeš na věky věků vobcházet po vokolí a nenajdeš. Fakt.“

   Povidám Flanďákovi. „Vole já nemám čas někde vobcházet na věky věků. Hoří mi koudel. Ale doprdele tohle je přece za 15 dolarů drahý.“

   Flanďák se zašklebí. Zase už vytáh tu stříkačku ze šuplete. Pětačtyříctku s useknutou hlavní a takovym tim příčnym rejhováním na pažbě. Flanďák s ní netočí jako ňákej kovboj. Je úplně klidnej. Drží jí v tý svý vobrovský jako dyby to byla žencká a směje se na ní.

   Takže příběh je o tom, že Duke chodí po Harlemu a snaží se sehnat prachy na pistoli, aby mohl vzít gang a rozstřílet na kusy pár Portorikánců. Během toho se mu podaří dostat se do čela gangu, vydělat pár dolarů prostitucí, utratit dost peněz na prostituci zakoukat se do prostitutky…a tak. Jo, je mu 14.

   Duke sice vypráví příběh v přítomném čase (no, částečně asi kvůli tomu, že v Harlemu se zjevně nikdo moc nezabývá gramatickýma koncovkama), nicméně z pár kusů vyplyne, že příběh vypráví retrospektivně někomu, komu říká „pane doktore“. Čímž se více méně potvrdí závěr, který se nějak očekává už  začátku (protože v takový knížce se prostě musí stát několik věcí – musí umřít kamarád, hlavní nepřítel a hrdina nakonec musí dokázat nějak reflektovat, jak to bylo všechno úplně špatně). Takže nějaký extrémní originality se tu člověk nedočká. No, mám dojem, že tohle už nějak mluví za všechno – jde o vážně drsnej popis vážně drsnýho života ve vážně drsným Harlemu, kde jste buď vážně drsný dítě ve vážně drsně nízkým věku, nebo s váma někdo vážně drsně vymete, popřípadě vážně drsně sejme. Nechci to tím nějak snižovat, jen tím chci říct, abyste popřípadě nečekali nějaký velký překvapení.

Kit Whitfield: Bareback

   I came across this book some time ago while browsing on some blogs about literature. It caught my eye (obviously) but I completely forgot about it. And than, I was going through some cheap books in those wooden boxes in front of Palác Luxor and I found myself keeping this book in my hands. As this book is quite well known and (more importantly) well received in the GB and the US, the fact that it cost half money than Eat, Pray, Love is really sad.

   Well, why did it catch my eye? It’s called Bareback (Benighted in the US version). For those unfamiliar with this word…look it up on Urban Dictionary. And the second reason - it’s about werewolves. (Un)fortunately, it’s not about werewolves barebacking each other…although I might enjoy reading something like that too. (My BF was like What the f******ck are you reading???).

   Anyway, it has nothing to do with anything naughty. The story takes place in an alternative world where almost everyone is werewolf (but the word is not used in the book, which is actually quite logical). When I say almost, I mean more than 99 % of population. The rest are called nons or, in slang, barebacks (oooooh). The main heroin Lola works in DORLA (Department of Ongoing Lycanthropic Activity) – as every other non has to. At the beginning, one of her colleagues and friends gets his hand bit of by a lyco and than he gets shot in head. She is to investigate the case, which leads her to many, many, many and (yeah, I am about to repeat it once more) many discoveries she would prefer not to have done.

   So we have a detective story. But the book was also compared with 1984, which is quite a good comparison. The whole point of the story is a classic anti-utopia. But Whitfield is also great in describing psychology of Lola. Barebacks are a very small minority, which has a huge impact on them. They also feel they are crippled or that they have some kind of defect – and in the world they live in, they actually do have a defect. But the main aim of DORLA is to keep guard during full moon nights. For centuries, there has been a law that when people “fur up” on the full moon night, they have to be locked up indoors. Of course, there are accidents, people don’t get into shelters, they get out of their houses and so on. And then, there are prowlers – those who break the curfew intentionally. DORLA agents have to catch these lunes (metamorphosed lycos) and get them into shelters. So there is a paradox – people (often) hate nons but they also need them. Mainstream society can’t actually afford not to have DORLA. Imagine that once a month, everyone would get crazy, run through city, fought with each other and destroyed everything that gets into his or her way. That would hardly work.

   Nons have to start working for DORLA when they are 18 and they leave at the age of 60 (or…something like that). The only problem is a quarter of them are heavily injured or dead by that time. On the other hand, DORLA is not a bunch of nice, smiley guys either. They tend to arrest people and not give them any human rights (like lawyer or a phone call). And than they beat them. Brutally. Which is OK because only heavy wounds don’t heal when they fur up.

   Lola has to deal with much. She doesn’t speak to her mother at all and her relationship with her sister isn’t the best one either (but it gets much better during the book). She is under pressure of everyday life in society which hates her, her friend is dead, her sister is obviously worried that her coming baby might be a bareback and DORLA is more understaffed than ever so she has loads of work.

   But she copes. She has a whole system to protect herself. She wears gloves (palms of non are much softer compared to lycos). She fills her life with work so she doesn’t have to think about other things. And she is very perceptive when speaking to someone. She listens to little words people use and immediately deducts things others would easily overlook. She controls herself and her emotions extremely well but as she is confronted with some tough situations, she sometimes loses it.

   Oh, and there is a new word into “weird vocabulary”. Loten. It’s supposed to be “moonlight so bright you can see in it” in Old English. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t know this word so either Whitfield made the word up or Google is a really bad source for Old English vocabulary. In this case, I guess it’s the former.

  Anyway, the title doesn’t sound like it, but this is actually a good book. Sure, it’s mostly the story but not just that – Whitfield has a nice English and some of her descriptions and similes were absolutely amazing (like when Lola describes her feelings after beating a man as if her bones were cold and empty…I think it’s a rather impressive image). And obviously, there are piles of stuff about xenophobia, hatred between classes, manipulation of society, etc. Read it…but it’s still a good idea to cover the book (the looks guys in public transport were giving me…).

   And there will be a movie under the title Benighted. 

Émile Zola: Thérèse Raquin (Tereza Raquinová)

   After quite a long time, I came back to the good old classic literature – when people got sued for what they wrote and when writing about sexual intercourse was really something different (where’s the fun today when no one minds a woman on a stage yelling I LOVE MY CUNT). Yeah, those were different times…when Zola was the most read French author, Baudelaire was more that “the only French poet I have ever heard of”, Madame Bovary was an upsetting novel and Maldoror walked the streets of Paris and forced dogs to molest little girls.

   The story has four main characters – Thérèse, Camille, Madam Raquin and Laurent. Thérèse grows up with her aunt Madame Raquin and her cousin Camille. Camille is a sickly, feeble boy and Thérèse spends quite a lot of time with him indoors, taking care of him. In reality, she has temperament and she would love to be running in the woods and enjoy nature. But little by little, she falls under influence of her cousin and Madame Raquin and submits.

   Later, she marries Camille but she is never really happy. Camille meets his old friend Laurent and introduces him to his family. Thérèse falls for him immediately and it doesn’t take long before they start a sexual relationship. Thérèse changes completely and the nice, calm girl turns into a crazy, passionate lover.

   Gradually, their relationship becomes obsession and they decide they want to be together. Obviously, there is a problem – Camille. Which may possibly turn out not to be such a problem. You just have to take him for a ride in a boat. And than throw him into the water. And than jump in and pretend you were saving his dear wife when the boat turned about.

   So far, the plan goes great. No one suspects them and they pretend not to care about each other. They even play Madame Raquin and her friends to propose the idea of their marriage.

   On their wedding night, they find out that this might not have been the best idea ever. They can’t sleep, they can’t sleep with each other, they actually can’t be in the same room. Such a situation is unbearable and drives both main protagonists into utter madness.

   This is the third book by Zola I have read so far and I liked it the best. I can’t really remember Nana, I read it a little bit too fast, and Germinal was good but a little slow. This one is short and something keeps happening all the time. Not that I would mind lack of story in books but in case of naturalism, you really need some that will catch you. It’s one of Zola’s early work, I believe it’s his first published novel, and he already uses his aesthetics of analysis and scientific approach to literature. But I guess we all know that.

   What seemed really interesting to me was that Zola was the first to realize (according to our literature professor) that human emotions are physical. There is of course insight into Thérèse, Laurent and Madame Raquin (interestingly, there is almost none into Camille…he is probably just too dull so even Zola didn’t care what he was thinking) but when they feel something, they feel it through their bodies. He goes in his analytic approach so far that his characters are based on four major temperament types. At least wiki says that Thérèse is choleric, Laurent sanguine and Camille phlegmatic; I dare say that Madame Raquin is melancholic.

   I think there is a lot to like about this book. Sure, there are those yucky parts some people could mind (like the description of Camille’s putrefying body) but you can’t read Zola without them… So if you get over them (or you skip them or you weirdly enjoy them) you get to his description of life in its brutality and savageness. Those people are hideous but they also can’t help themselves, it’s in their nature.

   The only thing I really disliked was the fact that Thérèse’s mother was from Africa. Given the philosophy of predeternism Zola uses in his work, her mother’s origin is a direct reason of her temperament and her savage and in a way primitive nature. Sure, using Africa as a symbol of barbarism and primeval instincts in humans wasn’t weird or offensive in that time (and few…many…decades later) but still…it feels weird nowadays.

Douglas Adams: Holistická detektivní kancelář Dirka Gentlyho (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency)

   I bought this book like zillion years ago to my Mum for her birthday or Christmas or whatever. She was reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and she loved it so I thought Dirk Gently would be a great gift. Unfortunately, she over-adamsed herself and she never touched this book. I thought that at least I should read it so it wouldn’t be a complete waist of money.

   I will be quite brief on this book, especially as I didn’t like it very much. The story begins with a weird, alien, mechanical monk who somehow gets on the Earth. He has no idea where he is and gets completely confused.

   The main hero, Richard, works as programmer and he comes to Cambridge to join a dinner with his old professors and to meet one of them and have a drink. After few hours, he realizes he was supposed to bring his girlfriend with him. While he is drinking with the old professor, a horse appears in the professor’s bathroom.

   Richard’s boss Gordon is murdered in his car. He leaves a message on his secretary’s answering machine. Later, he becomes a ghost.

   Susan is Richard’s girlfriend and Gordon’s secretary. They both piss her off. She has a dinner with Michael.

   Michael leads a little literary and art magazine. The magazine is not very good and his mother – the actual owner of the magazine – gives the job to someone else. Michael doesn’t like it. He is also an alien.

   Dirk sees someone climbing a building and getting into someone else’s flat. Later, he finds out that it was Richard and that the flat belongs to his girlfriend.

   Everyone thinks Richard murdered Gordon.

   There are more aliens involved in the story.

   There are also many quotation of Kubla Khan. Considering the end of the book, the poem is probably really vital for the story.

   I actually forgot the ending of the story. But I can remember I didn’t understand it. Someone wants to do something and someone else wants to stop him and travels in time and Coleridge is involved. Ehm. Maybe the problem is not in the book.

   Anyway, it was quite fun but it wasn’t anything special. I probably expected too much after the Hitchhiker. I don’t know what the problem is. I didn’t like the characters very much – Richard is boring and Dirk is an ass. The story didn’t catch me either. I really didn’t care who and why killed Gordon. It’s probably because it is not very good as a detective story (but it was probably never meant to be an actual detective story) – you don’t know anything about the victim and his surroundings so you can’t try to find the murderer on your own.

  It has good and funny parts but I never actually laughed loudly. And that’s what I expected from this book. Next time, I’ll take something by Pratchett, next time.

William Trevor: Děti z Dynmouthu (The Children of Dynmouth)

   Well, after a few weeks with no review, I am back. I read this book quite a long time ago so I can’t remember it very well. But I will do my best. We chose this book for our reading club, I had had no idea what it was about, who was the author…I really didn’t know what to expect. But the book surprised me – it is really good.

   It takes place in Dynmouth – an imaginary little town on English coast (in the exact place where Francis Drake destroyed the Spanish Armada…it’s probably somehow meaningful for the book, I just didn’t find out how exactly). The main character is a young guy called Timothy who spends most of his time on his own, watching telly. His mother and sister have to work and even when they are at home, they don’t pay him much attention. As expected, Timothy seeks attention elsewhere.

   As he has very little to do, Timothy browses the town and watches people. Unfortunately, he watches them more or less all the time (except for the time he watches TV) and with no regard to their privacy.

   There is an annual festival where people have different performances and they can win some totally worthy prizes (something like British Hillbillies Got Talent). Well, Timothy thinks he can participate. Not only participate, he can win. He makes up a funny scene about a serial killer and his three victims (young brides) who he drowned in bathtub. Obviously, no one thinks it would be even remotely funny but Timothy is resolved to get all the props he needs (a bride’s dress, a bathtub and a curtain).

   He may be a complete weirdo and the most antisocial guy in the town, but it doesn’t mean he’s stupid. He starts blackmailing his neighbours in order to get all those things and when they don’t agree to give what he wants…well, that’s when the real fun starts. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter if people obey him or not, he tells their secrets to everyone anyway.

   There is no point in describing the whole of the plot so I will proceed right to the core of the matter. Timothy is an ass (obviously) but he is a) still more honest than most of the town and b) unlike the others, he sees the life of the town as it is. On the other hand, he might see through people’s masks but when it comes to his own life and the way he lives it, he is just as delusional as everyone else. Another point of the book is that people never really change. Timothy forces some of the inhabitants into really tough psychological struggle, they get through it and than…they carry on as they always have. An lastly, Trevor shows not only particular stories but he also presents the town as a unit. There is an old crazy religious lady, a divorced couple, an unfaithful husband with a young mistress, an old couple, a spinster who has spent all her life waiting for her beloved man to leave his wife, etc. Not only you can find almost same pattern in basically every town and village, people themselves repeat it – the children in the story begin their way to become some of these people themselves.

   It’s not a very nice book. I really hated Timothy. I wanted the little sod to die (I somehow expected that someone will lose their nerves and do him in). People in the city are all weak and when he threatens them, they run or they just let him hurt them. But…that’s probably how it is.