1.10 Reading logs

Text 1:

Title: The Secret History

Text type: Novel

Author: Donna Tartt

Date read: July – August

The Secret History follows a group of American college students studying greek at Hampden College, Vermont; Henry, Bunny, Francis, Camilla and Charles and the story’s protagonist, Richard. The story starts with Richard, a young man from the small California town of Plano, who is searching for meaning in his life by going to Hampden college to escape his parents. He quickly creates a facade of a fake life that he tells everyone at the college to make up for his boring youth. Once there, he becomes intrigued by a group of eccentric students and their equally bizarre Greek classics teacher. He drops his other classes and applies to join Julian Morrow’s Ancient Greek class. 

One of the central themes of the book is that Secrets are bad and destructive. Throughout the book the secrets held by characters are shown to worsen life for every other character. The original manslaughter of a farmer caused by Henry, Francis, Camilla and Charles performing an ancient greek Bacchae ritual results in Bunny finding out, and blackmailing Henry with the information. One thing leads to the next and the gang kill Bunny to keep their secret just that; a secret. In the aftermath of bunny’s death, the story comes to a head with Henry killing himself, Charles becoming a violent alcoholic and distancing himself from his twin sister Camilla and Francis becoming suicidal. These destructive outcomes are all the cause of keeping secrets. This relates to the idea of right vs wrong because so many bad things happen to the characters because they did the wrong thing in lying for so long, and once they started they couldn’t make themselves go back. 

I found this book very intense and had a solid storyline with good character development, such as Richard’s progression from the “freshman” to one of the solid characters in the group. The main question of the book “Is living with morality the best way to live” is a very interesting one, as when one thinks of how the world could work without emotion, they come to an interesting question. “What is more important: efficiency and progress or kindness and support”. This impacted me a lot because I sometimes find myself changing my opinions between ruthless progress at any cost or helping others despite the downfalls. Any intellectual who is interested in societal thinking and group behaviour should definitely read this book as it is a good insight into how peers influence each other in a vicious circle.

Overall, The Secret History is an amazing book and societal dissection in one, combining intense storytelling and interesting questions about our world into one epic thriller of a novel. The many themes are all vast and deep and will inspire discussion about morality and human nature among those who have read this book or others like it.

Text 2:

Title: Nexus

Text type: Novel

Author: Ramez Naam

Date read: May – June

Nexus is a novel set in the near future (2040) where bodily enhancement is available through nanotechnology. It follows Kade Lane, an aspiring young scientist who with the help of his friends has constructed Nexus-5, an illegal nano-drug that allows users to not only program their brain, but link it with others. When Kaden and his friends are taken by the ERD (The USA’s newly founded “emerging risks directorate” ) and faced with life imprisonment without trial, he is given a choice. He can “rot in a federal penitentiary for the rest of his life” (as worded by the ERD agent who captured them) or go to Thailand to spy on Su-Yong Shu, China’s (And the world’s) leading nano-technology entrepreneur. Kaden is tasked on this mission with Samantha Cataranes – one of the ERD agents who helped bust him- , a cybernetically enhanced super spy. She despises brain-alternating technology because of childhood trauma from when her town was enslaved by a religious cult using similar tech to coerce her family and neighbours.

One of the main themes of Nexus is the lengths humanity will go to suppress new technology they deem as a threat. This fear of being overthrown is the leading factor that causes the ERD and the US to get involved so heavily in events in the book. They do this by outlawing enhancement so that “Normal” human’s do not get overthrown. In doing so they destroy the lives of thousands. This quote from the book sums this theme up very well: “To understand the future course of this war, one need only look at the history of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. Like those two manufactured “wars”, this one will be never-ending, freedom-destroying, counterproductive, and ultimately understood to have caused far more damage than the supposed threat it was aimed at ever could have.” In trying to postpone their eventual ousting, they try their hardest to destroy every perceivable threat against their current way of life. This can be likened, unfortunately, to the current xenophobic and isolationist environement of the USA at the moment.

This novel greatly impacted me because of its strong moral questions. As a techy person myself, I always go with the mindset of technology is always the way forward. This Novel however let me see the viewpoints of others on this topic. It shows that if people have a bad time because of something, they can take a while to be able to see it in the light again. It also raises the theme of risk vs reward. At the books climax, one of the nexus using buddhist monks asks Kaden when he is about to release the Nexus recipe to the world; “If you could teach people a way to learn in mere years what could take a lifetime, despite all the bad things would you?” Kaden replies “Yes. I think more people would use it for good than harm.” Kaden takes the risk of releasing Nexus worldwide despite knowing that some will use it to coerce others because he knows that good things will come from it.

Nexus is an extremely good novel, with great themes about right vs wrong, risk vs reward, sacrifice, and fear of the new among others. With superb writing and an impactful story that will leave you thinking about it for days afterwards, Nexus is an amazing book that I would recommend to anyone.

Text 3:

Title: Wool

Text type:  Novel

Author: Hugh Howey

Date read: February – March

Wool by Hugh Howey is a dystopian novel set in a “silo”, an underground bunker in what was once earth. It follows the main character Juliette; a disgruntled engineer from the depths of the silo who is skeptical of the “IT” department that runs her home. The story started of as a short, following the silo sheriff Holston but was expanded into a full length novel. This means that at the start of the story there are multiple character POV swaps, which help with story exposition and give more background information as to why characters make certain decisions. 

How lies can often mask something even worse, or that the truth hurts is one of the predominant themes of the novel. In the beginning of the book, after Juliette finds out about one of the largest secrets being withheld from the silo’s public, that the suits used to protect “cleaners”, members of the silo condemned to clean the silo’s exterior sensors before dying from the toxic outside air, are designed not to defend from the deadly atmosphere but to break up on contact, providing less protection. she thinks to herself “some crooked things looked even worse when straightened. Some tangled knots only make sense when unraveled”. This shows how the lies spread by the IT department are used and mixed with the truth to disguise it. Another quote, “Truth and lies seem black and white, but when mixed together they create a murky grey” shows this as well. The IT department uses fearmongering and the segmented design of the silo “an ‘undergrounbd skyscraper’ with only one set of stairs connecting the floors” to suppress rebellion and maintain control.

Wool had a lot of personal impact as, similarly to Nexus, it talks about control and efficiency vs kindness and compassion. I find this topic very interesting for the same reasons as Nexus, and how humans use fearmongering and control tactics to do what they believe is right. This is interesting, because when you think about, you could say ISIS or other terrorist groups think they’re right. This idea of right vs wrong being relative to certain cultures, groups or people is very thought-provoking, and impacts me because I like to think about these things sometimes and find the topics very alluring.

In conclusion, Wool is an immense novel that covers vast topics and has great characters and setting. If you want to, you can also read the next two books in the trilogy which cover even more topics like Greed and Human nature. Overall, It is a very good book that impacted me with it’s themes and compelling story

Text 4: 

Title: To Kill a Mockingbird

Text type: Novel

Author: Harper Lee

Date read: August – September

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is regarded as one of literature’s great classics, and it certainly does give the impression. Set in the Great Depression era 1920’s and 30’s, in the small Alabama town of Maycomb, To Kill a Mockingbird follows the story of siblings Jem and Scout Finch, and is told through the eyes of the latter. When their single lawyer father is chosen to defend a black man charged with the rape of a white girl, their lives change in many ways as the stigma around racial segregation erupts.

A central theme of the book, and the final one covered at the very end of the story is that your preconceptions and assumptions about people can often be proven wrong. As Scout is being carried off to bed by her father at the end of the book, she says in a dreamy and tired state “, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice . . .” while recounting the end of the story Atticus had just read her, where “Three fingered fred” thinks that “Stoner’s boy” has been messing up their clubhouse by “throwin’ ink all over it”. This relates to the climax that occured pages before where Jem and Scout are nearly killed by Bob Ewell, the man who was heavily discredited in court by Atticus while he (Atticus) defended the negro, and who vowed to get back at Atticus as long as he lived. Jem and Scout are instead saved by the neighbour Arthur “Boo” Radley. The majority of the beginning story had consisted of Jem, Scout and their friend Dill trying to gain contact with this recluse, whose rumors said he killed the neighbour’s pets. They spend the majority of the story living in fear of him, but at the end he saves their lives and becomes a sort of guardian angel. This adds impact to Scouts quote of  “why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice . . .” as it sums up what she and her family had just discovered about Boo Radley themselves.

To Kill a Mockingbird contains a lot of personal impact. Centered in the segregated and racist american deep south, This novel shows some of the uglier sides of humanity. It does this impactfully by being told through the eyes of a child. This makes the story very relatable as we can all remember being or have seen an innocent child and how they behave. Scout’s naive and innocent view on the happenings of the novel impacted me because it showed how petty these large issues are. When Scout says “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks” it shows that too a child, race is no issue, so why should it be to anybody else? Events and dialogue like this added greatly to my beliefs that racism is a petty and stupid issue, and should be treated with disdain by humankind.

Overall, I think the decision of the Author to tell the story through the eyes of a child is a great one that was impactful and helped get one of the central themes across better. I really enjoyed this story and the insight it offered about one of america’s most interesting cultural periods. 

Text 5:

Title: Manifold: time

Text type: Novel

Author: Stephen Baxter

Date read: January – February

Manifold time is the first novel in Stephen Baxter’s Manifold trilogy. It follows many characters, but mainly the washed up astronaut turned businessman Reid Malenfant. While attempting to fly a rocket piloted by a genetically engineered super squid “Sheena 5” to space, a mysterious mathematician approaches him and says that humanity will end unexplainably in 200 years, and that the solution is somewhere in the stars. 

One of the major themes of Manifold: time is that intelligence is what makes us human. When Sheena 5 says (or squid-motions) that “My children are me. I am hive. I am deity”, it shows that in the process of giving Sheena high intelligence, she becomes remarkably similar to humans. She gains a love for her children and even hides the fact that she is pregnant so she can keep her children, similarly to the maternal instinct shown in humans and other intelligent animals. Once on the asteroid, she also risks everything to dismantle the spaceship and build colonies for her children, constructing ore mines on the surface made out of bits of her spaceship. 

This novel impacted me as it contained a LOT of information about quantum physics. While difficult to understand sometimes, especially as Stephen Baxter kind of invented his own theories for the book, It was still full of information. Things like how, even if humanity stays alive forever and creates a star spanning civilisation, the inevitable heat death of the universe will claim us eventually. The “Downstreamers”, people from the future who do cool stuff like build dyson spheres, which are “shells” built around stars to take their solar energy. I enjoy technological novels like this, especially ones that incorporate themes of human nature and ambition aswell, so this one impacted me in terms of new knowledge.

Manifold time is a great novel, albeit filled with some kind of sketchy quantum physics. It has a great message but does cover some depressing topics like the end of the human race and life as we know it. However, it is a very good novel and I would reccomend it too anyone who thinks they can handle the science jargon.

Text 6:

Title: DNA

Text type: Play

Author: Dennis Kelly

Date read: July

DNA is a british play written by Dennis Kelly. It tells the story of a group of high school students who cover up the death of their bullying victim whom they accidentally killed. The group becomes lead by Phil, a quiet and intelligent boy who the others live in fear of. He devises devious plans to keep the group out of danger throughout the story. When Jane Tate says to him near the start,  “Cathy says you’re clever. So what do we do?” it shows that everyone expects him to be the one to come up with plans, as Jane is the groups leader before he takes over.

A central theme of DNA is group dynamics, and how people will be effected by events around them. When Leah talks to Phil about how the group has been getting on following the death of adam she says “Maybe it’s just having something to work towards. Together. Do you think that’s what it is? Are we really that simple?”. This shows that the group is changing and getting better after Adam dies, as if their killing of him releases all of their perverse and negative thoughts. Similar is how the motive behind “the purge” works, where one day of legalized crime releases the populations criminal desires. At the end of the play however, Richard talks about how the group has gotten worse after they find Adam alive and actually kill him. He says that Cathy is “ insane. She cut a first years finger off, that’s what they say anyway” and that “Jan and Mark have taken up shoplifting”. This may be because when Adam fell down the hole, they still had a perception that he may still be alive, but once they all see him killed it fills them with grief and negative thoughts.

This Novel impacted me greatly while working on it. The storyline is similar to that of The Secret History’s, a group of kids killing one of their peers. Infact, my mother put me on too that novel after she read the script for DNA. Both cover significant themes around group dynamics and morality, as well as good vs evil. In both there is a strong leader who pushes the group with their intelligence and ruthfullness to cover up the events. I would like too explore these similarities further, especially around how people will change to accomodate roles in a group. Similarly is the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo, where random volunteers were assigned to be prisoners and prison guards in a mock prison. They quickly filled their roles with the guards establishing authoritarian rule and employing torture techniques.

Overall, this play was very good. A combination of great script writing and distinct characters convey the messages that the play is getting across. If you are interested in large psychological and social themes, I would definately reccomend you to come along to a viewing of the piece.