I just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s new book, Little Brother. I thought I was paranoid before. I thought I had a healthy paranoia, but now I know I was sorely mistaken. NOW I’m REALLY paranoid.
I always knew that anyone could spy on me at any time. I never had an illusion of privacy. That’s probably why I’m so comfortable writing about every facet of my life on the Internet. I never had any privacy to begin with, so I don’t really have a problem telling my side of the story.
My sense of security used to lie with the idea that there is safety in numbers. There are SO many people out there in the world that it would take the CIA or the Department of Homeland Security or the Ministry of Trust or whatever, too much manpower to watch everyone. There is just too much data out there for the government to spy on me, so I felt safe.
Well, all that data is EXACTLY what could be used to spy on me. Using the same technology that filters out spam from my email, the government could look for anomalies. Anything that is out of the ordinary could be flagged by a computer and then the goons could swoop in and watch me in person.
THAT is exactly what happens in Little Brother. Our hero, Marcus Yallow, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and suddenly his innocence didn’t matter anymore.
The scariest part of this book for me was how Marcus’ father reacted to the whole incident. His father had been part of the fight for equality and to end the Vietnam war in the sixties, but after seeing the terrorism, he bends over backward to allow our liberties to be taken away. I have seen the same with my own mother, who was a staunch Democrat all during my childhood. To see her agree with the Republican party line right now is a mirror to this world of fiction that makes me sad and scared.
As with every good book, I started reading Little Brother and found myself, hours later, exhausted and wanting to read more. Give yourself a good weekend to burn through this book with no other obligations to get in the way because you won’t want to stop reading.
It’s the tale of life as a vampire. Here is the review from Amazon:
Life sucks for Dave Marshall.
The girl he’s in love with doesn’t know he exists, he hates his job, and ever since his boss turned him into a vampire, he can’t go out in daylight without starting to charbroil.
Undead life in its uncoolest incarnation yet is on display in this cinematic, supernatural drama told with gallons of humor and hemoglobin. In striking, colorful, B-movie style artwork and light-hearted, intelligent writing by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece, Dave Marshall’s story comes alive – in a vampiric kind of way.
If it has been a while since you enjoyed a good vampire novel, then Life Sucks might be perfect for you. Here are some other vampire novels you might like:
In case you didn’t get all the knee-slapping jokes, Herman Melville was the author of Moby Dick. It’s the famous story of Ahab, the obsessed whaler, who chases after Moby Dick, an elusive whale and ends up sacrificing all in the quest.
I’ve never read it.
I don’t know what’s stopping me. I could read the book for free here:
I quickly found out that I was wrong and poor Samuel Taylor Coleridge didn’t get enough attention from my public school education. Instead, I found that the most recognizable quote (at least for me) is this one:
Of course, I thought Khan said it to Captain Kirk in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Little did I know that Star Trek II was really a re-imagination of Moby Dick. Here is a good summation of Moby-Dick references in Star Trek and other sci-fi:
Sheldon had a well-read laugh at Herman Melville, but the truth of the matter is, despite all the references to the book in our society, I suspect that few of us have read it. I, for one, am putting it on my list and will start it as soon as I’m finished with my current book.
I had the pleasure of watching Ghost Rider yesterday. Even though it came out a year ago, it took me this long to see it. I don’t know how it fell through the cracks, but I’m sure glad I put it on my Netflix queue, because it showed up in my mailbox. I had forgotten all about it, but last year I put it on my list and it finally floated to the top.
It’s rare when I get a quote from a movie, but yesterday while watching Ghost Rider, I wrote down this quote:
You would think that with such a great quote that the movie would be about making good choices in your life, but it seemed to be more about getting a second chance at life.
Here is a preview of the movie:
My favorite bit of inside joke from the movie is the fact that Peter Fonda plays the devil in this movie. Peter Fonda is known for his role in Easy Rider, which is a very different motorcycle movie. You can see the opening credits here:
The complete circle of Peter Fonda as a sort of anti-hero of the sixties to the devil of the present time is my favorite sort of inside joke. It’s probably no coincidence that Ghost Rider was named with such a similar name to Easy Rider (plus the play on words with the famous phrase “ghost writer”).
Ghost Rider was based on the comic book series by the same name. You can purchase the complete comic book collection on DVD-ROM here:
I have never been able to enjoy magazines on a computer; my Mad Magazine collection is sitting in the basement relatively untouched. I prefer REAL books, so here are the trade paperbacks for Ghost Rider.
I love comic books and their movies because they deal with the simple story of evil vs. good. Sure, a lot of them try to blur those lines a little, but in the end, I love to have a good guy to root for.
I just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s new book, Little Brother. I thought I was paranoid before. I thought I had a healthy paranoia, but now I know I was sorely mistaken. NOW I’m REALLY paranoid.
