Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley

Huxley starts this novel with two Hollywood types discovering a screenplay by William Tallis. They track him down only to find out that he has passed on, and the rest of the novel is his screenplay. Taking place in the year 2108 we come to find that there has been a Third World War and North America and other parts of the world have been nuked. The danger of the radiation has subsided and people are beginning to explore these parts of the world. The main character Dr. Alfred Poole happens to be with an exploration crew from New Zealand and they are studying California.

We come to find that the people are mutated from the radiation, are experiencing the bottleneck effect and know that their race will eventually reach extinction. They've also created a Satanic theocracy to govern their lives complete with rituals and societal values that are realistically exaggerated versions of what actually exist in the world today in regards to sexism and religion.

While vastly different than Brave New World, both novels carry Huxley's ability to evaluate his current society—the scientific and technological advances, as well as political corruptions—and imagine them forward into scarily accurate and possibly prophetic depictions of the future of the human race.


Interesting note: Pay attention to how William Tallis wanted to buried and how he is actually buried. 

Excerpt I love:

From the beginning of the industrial revolution He foresaw that men would be made so overweeningly bumptious by the miracles of their own technology that they would soon lose all sense of reality. And that's precisely what happened. These wretched slaves of wheels and ledgers began to congratulate themselves on being the Conquerors of Nature. Conquerors of Nature, indeed! In actual fact, of course, they had merely upset the equilibrium of Nature and were about to suffer the consequences. Just consider what they were up to during the century and a half before the Thing. Fouling the rivers, killing off the wild animals, destroying the forests, washing the topsoil into the sea, burning up an ocean of petroleum, squandering the minerals it had taken the whole of geological time to deposit. An orgy of criminal imbecility. And they called it Progress.

Ape and Essence @ Amazon.com

Misquoting Jesus by Bart D. Ehrman

This book is a good start if you have some questions regarding how our modern day bible came to be. However, I wouldn't use it as your only source. I like how he gives you an idea as to his strict background and how some of his ideas changed as he began to question the text. There are many instances where the author mentions examples of certain concepts and will cite the text, but doesn't show the text. Since we don't have easy access to these historical bibles (nor can I read Greek or Latin) it would be nice if he provided a translation of the text he is referring to, otherwise we are supposed to take his word for it.

This book raises some interesting questions regarding the formation of the bible and how numerous interpretations have altered the text over many centuries. It is important for it to be translated accurately, one physical example of that would be Michelangelo's Moses with horns. It also raises many questions in regards to the origin of the text. If the New Testament books were written at least a century after the people who had spoken the words how can you trust the accuracy of even the earliest existing documents? Really this book helps open your eyes and makes you wonder why more modern day followers of these religions don't know or choose to ignore the history behind their main source. Next I want to learn about how the Torah was put together, and find more viewpoints on Bible history.

Misquoting Jesus @ Amazon.com

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Egan follows the lives of several different characters over decades in this novel. The way she shifts the point of view from each character highlights the flow of time and the effect it has on all of us. Each of the characters we experience relate to one another in some way—as family, old friends, or a one time acquaintance.

The last chapter in particular was one of my favorites, as it raises some interesting questions in regards to the implications of technology, especially hand-held devices such as our cell phone computers. When discussing this section of the book at a recent event, held by Columbia College in Chicago, Egan said she was "picking up on things in the air and imagining forward." Her imagination proved pretty accurate to the present day and our near future with children being inundated with technology from their birth. She foresaw,"class issues between off-the-grid people (without internet) being divided from those that have internet." As a society we will notice people starting to fall through the cracks unable to get into the flow of information.

This point reminded me of a local news show (not Chicago) where the vapid reporter "took to the streets" to interview homeless people and had the idiocy to ask them if they'd heard of the media buzz surrounding a homeless man in another state that went viral on the internet for his radio voice. Then seemed shocked when they didn't know what she was talking about. Egan made one of her characters, Scotty, one of the disconnected. In complete irony he becomes a sort of icon because he is seen as mysterious since no one can look up any information on him.

Another feeling that is present in the novel is how we fall in love with certain times and memories in our lives, and how the nostalgia can either affect us as a fleeting memory or we can dwell on the past. Dwelling on the past can cause us to compare our trajectory in life to others that were once close, Scotty resents Benny when he hears that he has become a big-shot record producer while Scotty resorts to fishing in the city's river for food. It's a quick read and you'll love relating to how certain characters completely change over time. Overall this book is an entertaining, there is variety in the characters' personalities and points of view. Sometimes we even receive different characters' takes on a significant time period—which is always fun. I look forward to diving into some of Egan's other works.

A Visit from the Goon Squad @ Amazon.com

Save the Grand Canyon!

Sign the Petition Against Mining the Grand Canyon

I was appalled when I got this in my Twitter feed! Why would anyone even think of mining for uranium in the Grand Canyon?
Growing up in Arizona, I feel attached to the natural beauty that you find there, there is nothing else like it in the world. Once you tamper with it there is no getting it back. The Grand Canyon shows approximately two billion years of geological history, and took millions of years to form. It is a national treasure, and should be left alone.

There are some places in the world that you'll visit to remind yourself just how magnificent and breath-taking nature is, to remind yourself how small and short your time on the Earth is, and to remind yourself how you are part of something greater than yourself.