Speaker for the Dead

Title: Speaker for the Dead [amazon]
Author: Orson Scott Card
Publisher: Tor Books; Reissue edition (August 15, 1994)
Pages: 416
Book Number: 13

What’s this 52 Books in 52 Weeks thing about?

This entry contains spoilers about the ending of this book, so if you’ve not read the book yet, I suggest you stop here.

I started Speaker for the Dead immediately after finishing Ender’s Game (my post about Ender’s Game is here). My feelings about Speaker for the Dead are quite similar to my feelings about Ender’s Game: I loved it. I actually enjoyed Speaker for the Dead more than Ender’s Game, however, because Speaker for the Dead fixed most of the things about Ender’s Game that I didn’t care for. There were children in Speaker for the Dead, but they didn’t act so childish as the kids in Ender’s Game (i.e., there weren’t any taunts of “farteater” flying around). Another complaint that I had about Ender’s Game was the term “buggers”, used for the alien race the humans were dealing with. The name just sounded stupid to me. Despite Cas’s excellent reasoning as to why they were called that, I still wasn’t crazy about the term, and I found the term “piggies” in Speaker for the Dead to be even worse.

The only other gripe I had with the book were the many Portugese names, and even with that complaint, it’s more a problem with me than with the book. Being a bit obsessive compulsive about the pronunciation of words, including foreign ones, I kept wanting to check to see if I was sounding out the names correctly. However, as I’ve never studied Portugese, I kept having to dip back to the front of the book to read the pronunciation guide again. By about the 100 or 150 page mark, I was fairly confident that I had things down, but up until that point, it was fairly frustrating. But again, that’s just a quirk of mine, nothing wrong with the book.

Having said those few things, I really enjoyed the plot. It was fun to learn about the pequininos (piggies) through the eyes of what was, essentially, a group of piggy anthropologists (xenologers). I liked how the book displayed wonderfully the fact that different cultures can see things completely differently. The bits about how life in general worked on Lusitania seemed a bit stretched to me, particularly in regards to how the piggies themselves grow up, but it didn’t really detract from the story.

I think it’s safe to say that I have caught the Ender virus. I love this series. I was going to wait until I had finished reading Sharpe’s Tiger before I started the third book in the Ender Wiggins series, Xenocide, but while at the library today, I couldn’t resist. So, I am now reading Sharpe’s Tiger and Xenocide at the same time.

Apparently, I’m a dedicated reader. (Big surprise!)

Kudos to Scott for pointing the way to this little quiz: What kind of reader are you?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Dedicated Reader     You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Literate Good Citizen
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

After taking it, I must say, the little red bars are dead on. I’m extremely obsessive compulsive about my books and my reading; I read constantly (if I’m somewhere with no books or periodicals, I’ll read anything, including the backs of household cleaners or things like toothpaste); and, I have to admit… I generally look on fad books with disdain. I’ll concede that some of them end up being pretty good. However, most books that land on the bestseller list are sub-par at best. The Da Vinci Code comes to mind. It was on the best-seller list at amazon.com for what seemed like an eternity. When I finally got around to reading it, I liked it alright, but I didn’t find it amazing or anything. Certainly it wasn’t good enough to warrant being on the top-seller list for so long (and at #1 for so long, at that!) At this point I can’t remember much about it at all except the main plot-line. Then again, if people read what I do, a bunch of language books and books on ancient civilizations would be on the top-seller list, so…

What kind of reader are you?

Are books going anywhere?

A few years ago, I saw an electronic device like this for reading books. You basically downloaded a book file to it, and then the text would appear on the screen. When you were ready to turn the page you hit a button, and voila, the page turned. When I saw that, I panicked a bit: would this electronic – thing - replace my precious books? It better not.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a geek. I like technology. I like computers (love might be a better word). I own and use a cellphone. If I were placed on an Amish farm for a few weeks, I’d probably come out of the experience stark-raving mad. My first priority would be to find an internet connection. I really like computers and gadgets.  But I don’t want any gadget replacing my books.

I don’t care if they make it to where all of the digital text is the in the same print; all of the same images are included. I don’t care how “close” to the real thing an electronic gadget comes. I don’t want a gadget replacing my books. I can’t even really say why I feel this way. I don’t have any obsessive attachment to paper (that I know of, anyway); I just know that having an electronic version just isn’t the same – isn’t as comforting, even – as having the actual book. The electronic version has no weight, barring the weight of the device you’d use to read it. It has no scent, besides that scent that all electronics have. If you had an electronic version, you’d never hear that pleasant sound of a page turning. By using an electronic device to read books instead of actually having the books, you’d be taking the soul out of the book, I think.

There’s also a more practical reason for my disdain towards electronic book reading things: they use software. Any piece of software can crash. Books, however, do not crash. Imagine being all comfy in your bed, holding your book-tablet. You’re engrossed in a great book. And then, the software that makes the book-tablet work crashes, leaving you with the equivalent of a blue screen of death. That’d kind of ruin the whole experience, wouldn’t it?

I can’t see books going anywhere anytime soon. There are, quite simply, too many bibliophiles like me. However, if there is ever any sign of electronic book reading devices taking over the market, I may do something drastic like chain myself in front of a bookstore or something.

An open letter to TIME magazine

Dear TIME,

Three months ago, I cancelled my subscription to your magazine. When I cancelled, I did so at your website. To cancel, I had to go to your website, go to the subscription area, log in, click cancel subscription, and then confirm my cancellation.

While I know how very easy it would be for someone to accidentally go through these steps, I did not do this accidentally. I no longer wanted a subscription to your magazine. I know, however, that you think I did it accidentally, or perhaps under the influence of drugs or alcohol, because you won’t leave me alone about resubscribing. Since I cancelled my subscription, I’ve received four or five letters from you, written as if I was clearly confused about cancelling, and that furthermore, I should clearly want to resubscribe. I do not. If I’d wanted to resubscribe, I would’ve responded to the first letter I got from you that essentially said, “OH DEAR! You’ve UNSUBSCRIBED! What a terrible accident! Hurry and fill this out and we’ll renew your improperly-cancelled subscription right away!” I’m sure if you’ll check your records, you’ll note that I did, in fact, not respond to this. But, being the kind souls that you are, you sent another notice, telling me that if I didn’t hurry right now, I’d miss out on issues. I did respond to that notice, in a way: I sent it back with “I do not want to renew my subscription, thank you” on it. But apparently the people in your subscription center were unable to read my writing, because since that second notice, I’ve received two or three more. So, let me make it abundantly clear:

I do not want to renew the subscription to your magazine, unless it is completely free – and by completely free, I mean forever. Not the first four issues for free, and then the normal subscription price. Free. I truly doubt you will be willing to do this for me, because you are, after all, a business, and you wish to make a profit. Certainly understandable. Having said that, I am not interested in paying for a subscription for your magazine any longer. I know you won’t offer it to me completely free. Where does that leave us? It leaves us nowhere. I must sadly break our relationship.

Stop sending me renewal notices – please. I don’t want to renew. I’m not going to renew. You’re wasting my time and your paper. Cease and desist, and all that legalese. Cripes!
Technorati Tags: time, magazine, time_magazine

Atlantic Times, a free monthly newspaper in English about Germany

I received a new edition of Atlantic Times today, a monthly newspaper about Germany. It’s a pretty interesting read; it’s also completely free if you live in the United States or Canada. I figured there might be some folks out there who’d be interested in it, thus this blog post. Here’s the blurb from their website:

In October 2004, the first issue of The Atlantic Times was presented to the American public – a German monthly paper for lawmakers and newsmakers, business and opinion leaders in the United States.

We launched The Atlantic Times to stop the drifting apart of Europe and America, and especially Germany and America; to end the transatlantic estrangement caused by the Iraq crisis; and to build on common ground while learning to live with our differences.

The Atlantic Times has featured articles by prominent public leaders – politicians, businessmen, media people and academics. In interviews and backgrounders we highlighted many weighty issues that could potentially divide us.

Our basic message, in print and online, has been, and will be: We are still friends, and we must remain friends. So let us not confront each other with swollen necks, but let us reason together.

You can read some of the articles that have been in their paper on their website, like this one on America still having friends in Europe. (Link may very well be dead in the future; I believe they only offer a few articles at a time, and I think they may just reuse the same URLs over and over.) If you want to set up a subscription for yourself, go here.

Booksprice.com – find the cheapest books

I received an email from a lady named Lucy earlier, webmaster of booksprice.com. She wanted to let me know that they’ve just launched a redesigned version of their site. The site let’s you find the best prices on books, either used or new. Simply type in the book’s title, the author, or an ISBN, and you’ll get a list of possible results back. Click on “compare price”, and you get a screen like this, with the best prices at the top. You can have it figure in shipping as well:

The price results page has links to all of the sites to purchase the book.

You can also add a bunch of books to your cart, and then get a combined price check. This basically finds the site where you can buy all of the books together, for the cheapest price. It’s a pretty nifty feature if you’re looking for the best deal on that set of books about ancient Oriental edible weeds that your weird little cousin has been wanting for the past few years.

One of the few complaints I have with the site though is that it isn’t fluid in width, and the main content goes well beyond the right side of my browser when using 800×600 resolution. I know that most folks have moved up past 800×600, but isn’t it still the standard to design by? Oh well. Minor annoyance, especially when you consider that the search box is clearly visible without scrolling at all, and that is after all the main point of the site.

Just a bit of disclosure here (full disclosure, in fact): Lucy asked that I blog about their newly redesigned service, to let my bookish readers know about it. Whether I did or didn’t blog about it, as compensation for my time, they offered to send me a free book, either Snow or My name is Red by Orhan Pamuk. After reading the reviews and checking out the overviews of them, I opted for the latter. I appreciate the gift, but I’d like to point out that it didn’t change how this blog post came out. If I thought the service sucked, I’d say as much. As it is, though, I like the service, and will most likely be using it in the future. Maybe I’ll be the one buying up the cheapest copies of those books about edible ancient Chinese weeds. So, there you have it. I am fully disclosed, or some such.

The various translations of Bilbo Baggins

I posted a couple of days ago about Frodo and Gandalf apparently being of Norse descent. In the post, I asked folks if they knew why in the German version of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Bilbo’s last name was changed to Beutlin. Amidst the comments (and a bit of further searching on my part), I came up with the answer. Apparently, the last name is translated based on the German word for bag, Beutel. Furthermore, this translation ‘tactic’ has been used in just about all of the translations of Lord of the Rings. From the Wikipedia page for Bilbo Baggins:

• In the Slovak he is called Bilbo Bublik
• In the Czech it is Bilbo Pytlík (pytlík = small bag)
• In the Danish translation he is called Bilbo Sækker (sæk = bag)
• In the Estonian translation he is called Bilbo Paunaste (paun = bag)
• In the German translation he is called Bilbo Beutlin (created from Beutel=bag).
• In the French translation he is called Bilbo (or Bilbon) Sacquet (sac = bag).
• In the Norwegian translation he is called Bilbo Lommelun.
• In the Finnish translation he is called Bilbo Reppuli. (reppu = backpack)
• In the Dutch version he is called Bilbo Balings. (baal = bag)

I know very little (nothing, actually!) about professional translation, but this really struck me as a bit odd. I thought that in translations of books, they generally didn’t translate personal names like that. For example, Harry Potter in German isn’t Harry Töpfer, is he?

Kristin said in the comments of my first post:

All names in LotR and the Hobbit are translated because they are made to give specific meanings which would be lost if you didn’t translate them.

That mostly makes sense to me. I can certainly understand translating Bag End, for example, or names of places that have real English words in them, like the Falls of Rauros. However, I just find it a bit odd translating a made-up name, based on the root English word within the name.

While writing this post, I remembered that I have a copy of The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve not dug through the index in full yet, but in looking up Baggins in the index, I came across a letter concerning the Polish translation of The Lord of the Rings. From page 299 of the book, letter 217:

I am sorry that owing to domestic troubles and turmoil I have neglected Mrs. Skibniewska’s letter.

It is quite impossible for me to write a lot of notes for her use. . . . As a general principle for her guidance, my preference is for as little translation or alteration of any names as possible. As she perceives, this is an English book and its Englishry should not be eradicated. That the Hobbits actually spoke an ancient language of their own is of course a pseudo-historical assertion made necessary by the nature of the narrative. I could provide or invent the original Hobbit language form of all the names that appear in English, like Baggins or Shire, but this would be quite pointless. My own view is that the names of persons should all be left as they stand. I should prefer that the names of places were left ountouched also, including Shire. The proper way of treating these I think is for a list of those that have a meaning in English to be given at the end, with glosses or explanations in Polish.

Based on that, it looks like he didn’t have the final say in the translated versions of his books.  Hmm.. I’ve not seen the German version of the Lord of the Rings movies. Anyone know if they say Bilbo Baggins or Bilbo Beutlin?

Back to Mid-World I go

I stopped in at the public library today to browse a little bit. I decided to get the next book (for me) in the Dark Tower series,   Wolves of the Calla. After the letdown of Ringworld Engineers, I wanted to return to a fiction author I knew I was quite fond of: Stephen King. I also wanted to get Wolves so I could get back on the path of finishing the series. I’ve got a dreadful habit of starting a series and not finishing it because I start reading other things while in-between series books. I think I’ve been reading the Dark Tower set off and on for at least a few years now. The Belgariad series is in the same longship: I’ve read the first three books of it, and stopped. I even own the next one in the series, I’ve just neglected to get around to reading it. Too many books, not enough time…

I also picked up John Keegan’s The First World War. I saw it and it occurred to me that I know pretty much nothing about the first World War. So, I decided to grab it to get at least a cursory knowledge of the war and its causes. I’m not sure if I’ll be reading it just yet though. Based on the title, I assumed that it was just a general history; however, it turns out that its main focus is the military aspect of the war. I enjoy a good military history (Stalingrad was amazing), but I’d really like to have a decent grasp of the non-military factors before I start digging into different campaigns. I suppose I could get a decent newbie’s understanding of the war from the ‘net, and then read it.

Abandoning Ringworld Engineers

I don’t do this often, but I do do it occasionally: I’m giving up on a book. I’ve been trying to get through Ringworld Engineers for quite a while now, and it just hasn’t been going well. I enjoyed Ringworld well enough, even though I didn’t find it exceptionally good, so I picked up the sequel when I saw it at the library. When I first started reading it, I liked it more than the original, mostly because things seemed to be moving faster instead of puttering around a great deal. Unfortunately, my liking of the book fell like a rock once the cast (Louis, Chmee, and the Hindmost) actually reached the Ringworld again. I don’t really know why. Same characters (mostly); same general plot (wander around the Ringworld trying to accomplish something, run into lots of interesting things along the way). Whatever the reason, I just haven’t been enjoying it much.

I don’t really like abandoning a book, particularly one I’ve read almost halfway through. After reading so far into a book, I almost feel like I have an obligation to finish it. Does that make any sense, or am I just a bookish nutjob? I’m trying to get over that weird “I should finish this” feeling, though. I’m well aware of the saying, “There are too many good books in the world to waste time reading bad ones.” That’s not it exactly, but it’s close enough, and it’s true. Even if it’s not a bad book (and judging by the amazon.com reviews, it’s not), I haven’t been enjoying it much. So, I figure I might as well move on to pastures that are greener.

Too bad I don’t find Ringworld / Ringworld Engineers to be half as good as Lucifer’s Hammer was. That book was amazing. It was one of those that held me hostage until I finished reading it.  Ah well. I’m not sure what fiction book I’ll be picking up next, but I’ll post about it tomorrow most likely.

Did the Buddha really exist? Answer: It doesn’t matter.

One of my professors and I started a Buddhism study / meditation group about a month ago. We’ve met once so far, mostly as an organizational meeting to find out where we all stood and what we wanted to do. One of the things that we decided we wanted to do is to have a group reading.

As the first book we’ll read, my professor picked Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha. I’ve read some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s other books and enjoyed them, so I was happy about the selection. I requested the book from OhioLINK, got it a few days later, and started digging in.

Old Path White Clouds is a biography of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, with expositions on Buddhism sprinkled throughout the text. From amazon: “Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, has drawn from 24 Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources to create this highly acessible retelling of the story of the Buddha.” I’ve read about a third of it so far, and it’s been quite enjoyable. However, the more I read it, the more I question the existence of a real historical Buddha. I’m having a hard time believing that the sources are accurate, i.e., they haven’t been altered over time, embellished, etc. There are just too many things in the Buddha’s story that are … well, perfect. Things seem to work out perfectly. It all seems very fiction-like, and not very historical. To borrow the word from the amazon snippet, it seems more of just a story – a framework to put the teachings in.

In thinking about this, I realized that whether or not I believe there was a historical Buddha named Siddhartha Gautama doesn’t really matter. The Buddha was not a god; he was not a messenger from a god; he was just a human. Buddhism does not call on its followers to worship the Buddha (or anything, for that matter), so one doesn’t have to worry about whether or not he really existed. Even if he didn’t exist, the teachings that he supposedly taught are still here. It’s kind of similar to how the Buddha (real or not, heh) responded to his disciples when they questioned whether there was a god or not. Essentially, he refused to answer the question, because whether there was or not didn’t make any difference. They’d still all be in the same situation, facing the same life, with the same problems.