A short story by Ursula Le Guin, publisched in 1974.

A short story, fairly easy to read, set in a similar universe as The Dispossed and many other  books from the Hainish cycle.

The story is about a conflict. On one side the old, military, very colonist-styled earth colonists, who rape, enslave and abuse the native population while taking their land and trees. And on the other side an native race of peaceful dreamers who knew no hate before the humans came. The book goes into detail on how both cultures operate, the natives having a mixture of females ruling and males informing, the humans being a pure male oriented race where women are little less then tools/o bjects and not to be understood. It then goes on, how some of the natives learn hate by their abuse, the murder and rapes of their partners and how they plan to solve their problem.

It’s an intresting analis how an off-world conflict could go wrong. Considering aspects as no long term contact with the home-world and major cultural-misunderstanding and the racism following from it.

It’s a nice short story, well written. The only major problem I have with the book is the one time mention of use of tabaco by the natives (besides the extreme drug-abuse by the humans of halucigens and weed), and a few pages later a full-color advertisement of a sigaret brand. But I supose that could be blamed on the 70’s.

Two books from Ursula k. Le Guin.

The Dispossed

Published in 1974, A marvelous work about 2 planets, about anarchy, it’s workings and it’s contrast and conflict with an older capitalistic world.

The story is cut in half, devided even and uneven chapters. On following a man who leaves the anarchistic homeworld founded almost 200 years ago after a revolution to visit the old capitalistic world where his people came from, and the other describing the world it’s workings and it’s faults and how the man came to the choice of traveling.

The book describes quite well how a anarchistic world could work, and what one of it’s major pitfalls could  be. It also sets a situation where a world like this could come to exist, a revolution, a conflict and a compromise. And showing how anarchy although ideal, is and can be in conflict with many other structures.

A great work, very well written and capturing, I could hardly put it down.

Voices

A more recent work by Le Guin, published in 2006.

Voices describes a fictional world, set on the coastline somewhere on a planet, in a country where books are valued greatly, a culture with many gods which are loved closely, but feared by none. A common and free society where knowledge is held in high regard.

Until the Alds, They come in fear of demons, obeying their single god from a world where books are evil and demonic, women are little more then slaves, worse off then their horses. They destroy all the books, forbid reading, rape the women on the streats and are after something in the city.

The describes the horrible conflict about 17 years later, that still goes on. The oppression of the Alds on the Ansul. About how a young girl lives in it, as a daughter and servant of the oldest house of Ansul. How things finally change.

It’s a story about religion, about politics, about knowledge and about freedom.  LeGuin seems clearly inspired by east and middle asian conflicts in this book, both cultures have a clear resemblance to existing cultures, and perhaps so does the conflict. She describes the conflict, and provides a possible solution, but as in the book. The interpretation is still up to the reader.

Another great work I think, very easy to read, read it in 3 days. I found the value added to commerce orriented society a bit downputting, but it’s not the Dispossed. And as a descriptive story, it’s certainly more realistic that way.

Both books I recommend to anyone, go read! :)

Uitgegeven in 1983 door een onbekende uitgever is ‘Kuifje in El Salvador’. Een politieke parodie grotendeels opgebouwd uit originele werken van Hergé.

Het stripwerk is een politieke boodschap tegen de onderdrukking in El Salvador. Kuifje en Haddock brengen onbedoeld een lading wapens naar El Salvador waardoor ze daar in de locale strijd verwikkeld worden.  Het verhaal speelt zich voornamelijk af rond Kapitein Haddock. waar Kuifje de rol speelt van sceptische meewerker met de staat (opzoek naar een of ander zegel), Raakt Haddock in contact en begaan met de lokale bevolking.

Hierbij de ‘kleine’ png bestanden in zip-file:

Kuifje_in_El_Salvador.png.zip

Torrent met groot formaat png bestanden.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5067314 (currently offline)

Unlundun, by China Miéville.

I read it in just a few days, could hardly stop. But digesting a good book also ought to take time I think. If you eat uhm read it all at once, you’ll lose flavour, and I wanted to savor every bit of taste. So yes, I liked it.

You might want to read the book before reading on…

Continue reading ‘Unlundun.’ »

Children of mother earth by Thea Beckman (german title: Kinder der Mutter Erde).

Children of Mother Earth is a political analasis written as a captivating story for children (12+). Thea Beckman uses a post-postapocaliptic setting to highlight certain fundamental aspects in a culture very much like our own, while at the same time providing an alternative.

The story itself is set in a sub-tropical utopian country where once greenland was, here lives a culture which is gorverned by women. A place where life is simple but good. In what was once europe however, the people have developed a dictatorial military state ruled by men. This state in it’s ever lasting desire to conquer more land sends a small mission to discover the old greenland they found on old maps. This ship of exploration&war comes in contact with the utopian world. There are many cultural differences and things seem peaceful in the beginning.

Thea Beckman doesn’t use much of one storyline, or maybe it’s more of a complex storyline. As is with most things, many things that happen have impact on many other things and Beckman uses this in her story. The visit of the new people have huge impact and creates a logical cultural tension&confusion which she describes very well. But in the mean time, there is also an impact and a change within the culture.  And one highlights the other.  All in all, it’s more a detailed description of an event where 2 cultures collide than just a story. But still packed in an exciting form suitable for anyone with a brain, young or old.
I think it is a great book, and I plan on reading the other 2 books aswell.

Sadly this book is not available in english as it was written in dutch and only translated to german. If you have any questions regarding translations or translation-rights, please contact the publisher: Lemniscaat

A book by China Miéville, ISBN: 0-345-45940-7
The story is set a world which seems older yet newer then this one. A world driving by steam and strange and uncertain physics. A world full of strange and different species. The city is a cauldron of culture and culture clash. A city ruled by militia, ruled by the strive for indivudual power and survival.

In this place China Miéville unfolds a story that is magnificent in it’s beginning, center and ending. Involving ’simple’ humanic species, strange unspeakable multi-dimensional animals and beings and impossible physics and chemistry. Yet it all makes sense.

It’s a story threats, strange new things, inguinity, culture, strange species and about horrible dangers.
Although the story starts and ends in a rather different way then it unfolds in it’s center, Miéville works these things toghether in a story that makes sense, which binds and atracts the reader constantly.

It’s a book I can recommonend wholeheartedly, I quite loved it.

Het is al weer een lange tijd terug dat ik het boek ‘Momo en de tijdspaarders‘ van Michael Ende heb gelezen. Volgens mij is het nog langer terug dat ik naar het theater ben geweest, schandalig eigenlijk.

Nu lees ik zelden boeken meer dan 1x (al is momo daar 1 van), maar het theater blijf ik toch wel leuk vinden. En doe ik eigenlijk dus veel te weinig. binnenkort weer eens rondkijken.

De voorstelling zelf was erg goed, natuurlijk mis je een aantal onderdelen, maar het is niet makkelijk zo’n dik boek op het toneel te krijgen. Ze hebben de kern van het verhaal ook erg goed overgebracht, mooi gespeeld en erg spannend.
Ik zowel het boek als de voorstelling, erg aanraden:

Meer informatie: http://www.het-filiaal.nl/momo/

In the early 1980’s author and journalist ‘Lieve Joris’ traveled to the golf region on her own. Visiting Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates and Bahrein. In 1986 she published a book about named ‘De Golf’.

After some dificulties getting visa’s, she tries to find how people live there then and before the Oil. Something that apears still quite difficult to find out. Although she find people to talk to, few people seem interested in their history. Most people looking at fancy cars. Money plays a big role in most countries. Rich kids roaming the streets.

She also shows the differences between the countries, some being stricly islamic, others being more relaxed, allowing alcohol and women in their choice of dress. Where in Saudi Arabia women are held on a strict basis, Where in Barein they work and dress with a western-look. In general Islamic traditions seem to be the norm though.

Besides the more obvious and open world of the men, she manages to get in contact with the female side of the place in some of the countries. Talking to students and teachers, or women at home.

Although maybe a dated story, it gives good image on the Golf region during 1980’s. She talks to different types of people, from students to politicians to local workers, immigrants and expat’s.

Available in dutch under ISBN: 978-90-457-0107-03

As posted earlier in dutch, I’ve been reading the book ‘We Are Iran’ (in dutch). By now I’ve almost finished the book. I am quite happy that I have read it, it showed me new things from Iran and Islam, the combination, but also as separate concepts. Things about the history or Persia, but mainly the people that live there now and their thoughts about the current regime.

I find it hard to put a discription on the book, or find more things to cite from it. The book tells a story showing bloggers, some posts are like ‘proper’ newsarticles from regular journalists, some tell personal stories about experiences about home and others vent their personaly opinions on demonstrations or current events.

The stories gave me an insight to at least a subset of the Iranian people and a hint of it’s history. A new perspective on and maybe respect for a country so sadly abused.

The critical views on the Islam by some bloggers, with comments from the writer. Showed me side of Islam, I’m happy to see exists. People who can believe in an religion, while not needing to force it upon others.

This also made me realise more: “One cannot understand Islam by only reading it’s holy book, just as one cannot understand christianity by only reading theirs.” The same would account for any other religion I think.

Some would I supose, gladly define religions by the books it brings. But I think people give their own definition to what they read, and more often than not associate themselves through the people, not the literature.

The book gave me a new interest in Iran as a country, and a people. Somewhat sad I can’t read farsi, so I could read/track some of the blogs themselves. The latest blog entries in the book are from 2005, and many blogs cited have since disapeared already.

In 3 years many things can and will change, so I hoped to find some more information on this topic after I’ve read it. So today was a lucky day in that respect: the BBC posted an article on the subject, it gives a bit of an update on the situation arround the bloggers, without much details. But good to see that it hasn’t been crushed yet. You can find the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7782771.stm
I still got a few pages to read, but I think it’s a good book. If you care to look for it here are the ISBN numbers: English; ISBN-13: 978-1933368054 or Dutch; ISBN: 9789029078535

More information on Iranian blogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Blogs

Vorige week was het ‘boekenfestijn’ in de Rai in Amsterdam, een jaarlijks uitje voor mij om boeken te kopen (wat ik het hele jaar ook wel doe, daar niet van). Lekker goedkoop.

Een van de boeken die m’n intresse gewerkt had, en dus had aageschaft was ‘Wij Zijn Iran’ van Nasrin Alavi. Een Nederlandse vertaling van ‘We Are Iran’, een boek over de Iraanse (web)blog scene.

Uitgegeven in 2005, verteld het naar aanleiding van snippets uit Iraanse blogs over de situatie en veranderingen die in Iran spelen. Zonder de bril van censuur die de Iraanse overheid geeft over de reguliere media.

Ik ben nog druk aan het lezen, maar hier alvast een enkele quote:

Continue reading ‘Wij Zijn Iran’ »