Langdon Returns

Robert Langdon, portrayed in hollywood by the charismatic Tom Hanks, is the
Indiana Jones of the art world. His knowledge of symbology is second to none.
In Inferno this is no exception. Dan Brown was brilliant in the way the story
was portrayed. While written in a third person omniscient it was still from
the perspective of sections protagonist. Throughout the book scenes are
repeated letting the reader in on bits of the secret at a time. This was
brilliantly done, leaving the reader as suprised as Mr. Langdon at the
outcome. This adds enough suspense to the story while not revealing all the
secrets that the reader continues to be engaged even though a scene repeats
itself two, three, four, even five times.

While as a story I found it an intriging commentary on the world population
problem. The solution presented, while distasteful, is certianly more
palatable then the those presented in Logan's Run, 1984 or Brave New World.

Unfortunately, the characters are so unbelievable that is distracts from the
story. All of them claim to have the worlds best interest at heart. Humans are
just not that altruistic. Everyone, and I do mean everyone has a selfish
motive for their actions. That selfishness is usually not admitted to publicly
but deep down, you know it's true. I think part of the issue was space. I'm
sure several thousand words were removed from the original work and it
resulted in a rush at the end that left the primary characters feeling a bit
hollow in their final motivations. Possibly, Mr. Brown was on a deadline and
had to rush it out. It seemed like many of Stephen Kings' works as of late.
Big build up and a lackluster ending.

I find this story engaging and satisfing to read, despite my misgivings of
character personalities. I would give it a 7 out of 10.

The Brave New World

I recently finished Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Surprisingly, I was never required to read it high school. Since I didn't spend a lot of time in college it never came up on a reading list there either. Like 1984,  it Disturbed me deeply. Unlike It Can't Happen Here, which was thick with political propaganda, BNW shows something that is fiction but looking where the world has gone since I've been alive. It could be close to reality.

The idea that we would "manufacture" people to be slaves is just disturbing. For some reason I am appalled by this more than putting normal people into slavery. The intentional dumbing down of a person seems awful. I can't help but think that is where we are headed. An article in the Vancouver Sun shows my fears to becoming true. Not allowing students to reach their full potential should be criminal. What Calgary schools are doing is dumbing down society. Alberta will be a population of slaves and left behind because the few people who have the potential don't have the opportunity to be the best that they can be. It seems they want everyone to be the same. A generic pile of blah.

Idiocracy here we come,  "Plants love electrolytes".