This is hard SF at its hardest. There are two storylines inIncandescence, which only meet up near the end. The first tells the story of Rakesh, a DNA-derived post-human[1] in a intergalactic post-scarcity society called the Amalgam. The second is about two alien inhabitants exploring a mysterious and primitive world called the Splinter.
Rakesh wants to be a grand explorer, but feels he was born too late. All the big problems of science are solved. Every star and planet in the galaxy has been identified and explored. People can transmit themselves across the vast distances of interstellar space with ease. The biggest problem facing the Amalgam (or at least wunderkinde like Rakesh) is boredom.
This is not a boring book. Or at least, it is not a boring book if you enjoy listening in to discussions by mysterious aliens on the nature of physics. Greg Egan claims that Incandescence is a celebration of the scientific method. I agree. But the pursuit of science has left the characterisation of the aliens[2] of the Splinter rather undeveloped.
But maybe that was the point. The social structure of the Splinterites is one of Foucauldian control, in which individuality is not valued, and with good reason, as being excessively individual will generally threaten the survival and sustainability of their world.
In terms of the grand debate between Roberts and Egan (Robert's review[3] Adam Robert's review of Incandescence is here and Greg Egan's response to Adam Robert's review is here) I come down on Egan's side. This book didn't need "strong characters", it needed largely-interchangeable drone-like scientists, which is what most of the characters are.
All in all, a good book, and strongly recommended if you enjoy science for science's sake. But not recommended if you want to read a Booker-prize-longlisted Hampstead novel about the internal lives of heterosexual middle class white people.
[1]: There are no clearly distinct "alien races" in the Amalgam. Individual post-humans identify with the ancestral chemical replicators from which they descend. Rakesh descends from "DNA", but then so do the inhabitants of the Splinter. It is never specified whether Rakesh is a descendent of DNA from Earth, but I guess worrying about that sort of thing would be chauvinistic.
[2]: As I imply in the last footnote, it would be as well to think of everyone in this story as an alien. The Splinterites are just the "most" alien.
[3]: One of the reasons I've been holding off on writing reviews is the presence of so many straightforwardly superior reviewers in the blogosphere. Roberts is one of the best. But what the hell, it's the only way I'll learn.
Wednesday 11 July 2012
Friday 30 March 2012
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Magicians is the story of Quentin Coldwater's education at the secret magical university of Brakebills College, his successful graduation, and subsequent adventures in the magical land of Fillory. It's pretty good.
The Plot
The story begins with the academically-overachieving Quentin walking to a house in Brooklyn where he will be interviewed for admission to Princeton University. Quentin is bored, depressed, and generally tired of life. He is in unrequited love with Julia, who is going out with their mutual friend James, who Quentin feels is so much handsomer and cleverer than he (Quentin) is. In other words Quentin is suffering from all the usual tiresome nonsense we all have to put up with in our late teens.
We learn that Quentin has a geekish obsession with a series of classic children's fantasy novels called Fillory and Further, which are presented as similar to C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Fillory and Further consists of five books, and tells the story of a group of English schoolchildren who are magically transported into the fantastical world of Fillory. There they have grand adventures, aided by talking animals and all the usual fantastical ephemera.
Quentin longs for the magic and wonder of Fillory, and contrasts it with the banal, dreary pointlessness of existence. He longs to escape his dull, predictable, and buttoned-down existence for something better. Then he discovers the Princeton alumnus has died just before Quentin arrives for the interview. One thing leads to another and Quentin finds himself magically transported to Brakebills College (located somewhere in Upstate New York). There he is tested, found suitable, and offered a place to study at Brakebills.
What follows is a fairly competently told story of magical education, familiar to fans of Harry Potter, Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books, and Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch (and probably a bunch of other examples I am unaware of). Grossman delivers it skillfully and thoughtfully, and takes full advantage of the possibilities offered by a magical university as distinct from a magical school (viz. lots of sex and drugs and alcohol).
The curriculum is harsh and demanding. In Grossman's universe anyone can do magic, they just have to work really, really, really hard at it. As such the educational process requires a great deal of drill and exercising.
We see Quentin graduate and begin his life as the privileged magician that he is. Needless to say he begins to find this as boring, depressing, and empty of meaning as his previous life. This is until one of his friends reveals that Fillory is real. So Quentin & co travel to Fillory and have an adventure.
Thoughts
If I were feeling glib, I'd describe The Magicians as "Harry Potter for disappointed muggle highschoolers." I'm still tempted. It isn't even a bad comparison. The HP series is compulsively readable adolescent fantasy. The Magicians is also compulsively readable adolescent fantasy. The prose in The Magicians is elegant. The magical settings possess whimsy.
But where The Magicians really shines is in the characters and their relationships. Quentin feels like someone one might actually know. He is a bit mopey, romantic, but also occasionally a bit of a dick. The other students at the school seem to be real people, who do complicated real-people-type things. They have rows and fights and fall in love with each other and aren't always-nice or always-nasty. There are no Slytherins or Gryffindors at Brakebills, there are normal people (well normal magicians) who have the whole gamut of human foibles.
Particular characters I enjoyed were the world-weary but wordly older student Eliot, the bitchy gun-toting Janet, and the pathologically intense and haunted teacher, Professor Mayakovsky, banished to the South Pole for Unspecified Reasons. Mayakovsky runs the magical crammer/retreat at Brakebills, and delivers intense speeches on the nature of magical practice, thus:
I felt the plot of The Magicians was a little off. It felt as if it was bolted together like a prefabricated building. There was a Triggering Event (the dead alumnus). There was a Magical Discovery. There was a Magical Education. There was a Romance. Things happened one after another, but there seemed to be a lack of internal logic.
Perhaps this was because of the complication of including an entire magical education and then a fantastical adventure. The education lasting several years, and the adventure a few days, leading to a narrative leap. It could be part of Grossman's meta-commentary on Harry Potter style magic (see below). Also there were various odd bits of exposition that were (admittedly fairly craftily) inserted into the narrative because Grossman had to Establish something for later on (e.g. the reveal of why Professor Mayakovsky is banished to the Antarctic).
I felt the actual adventure in Fillory was a bit weak. Fillory lacks the charm of Narnia, whilst retaining most of its characteristics. The magical education at Brakebills is rather more creatively involved and thoughtful than the adventure in Fillory.
The subplot of the circumstances surrounding the writing of the Fillory books is rather well done, but again is only pointed to at the very beginning and in various bits of exposition in the text. We are also never told why the Princeton interviewer died. I suspect the real reason he died was so something dramatic could happen right at the start without too much fuss being made later on. OR I could be wrong, and it could be part of Grossman's Message (see below).
This plotting issue ties in with how Grossman depicts magic. There are no muggles. It just turns out magic is really difficult and you are unlikely to ever get any good at it unless you go to a university like Brakebills. There is no internal logic to magic, as Grossman conceives it, just as there is no internal logic to the plot. Stuff happens. Sometimes magic makes stuff happen. Sometimes stuff happens because it other people make it happen.
Sometimes people just die.
But anyway. Maybe the looseness of the plot and the arbitrary nature of the magic portrayed are subtle lessons about life, the universe, and everything. Or maybe not. After all, Harry Potter style magic is of a similar sort. Harry Potter-style magic just exists and you can use it to do things. If you are a wizard or a witch of course, which brings me on to another point about The Magicians.
Quentin Potter
One could argue that The Magicians is a mild criticism of the Harry Potter series. A very mild criticism. I do wonder if this was, at some level, Grossman's intention. This criticism is highlighted most obviously by the character Julia, Quentin's crush at the beginning of the story. Both Quentin and Julia go to the entrance examination for Brakebills. Quentin passes. Julia doesn't, and thus receives a memory wipe and busfare home.
Several years into his magical education Quentin runs into Julia again. She is tortured by half-remembered dreams of a magical college. She shows him how she has learned a few, pitiful scraps of magic. The promise and possibility of magic has ruined her life. Se begs Quentin to ask that she be offered a second chance to take the exam.
The criticism here is of the automatic privilege of magic folk over muggle folk that runs through the Harry Potter series. Yes, Rowling addresses these issues to a point, but I've always found the way magic is apparently endowed on a chosen few to be one of the less satisfying aspects of the Harry Potter series. Others agree.
Magic without Voldemort?
In The Magicians there is no major existential threat to Brakebills or magicians in general. There are Beasts and Threats. But these are presented more as occupational hazards of doing magic than agents of tyranny. Quentin is not a chosen one. In the absence of a Dark Wizard to defeat, what is it that magicians are actually supposed to do? Well. It turns out that once they graduate they go out partying a lot and get drunk and have bad sex and get drunk and take drugs and live lives of extraordinary privilege (Brakebills is fully comped and even provides its students with a line of credit for the first year after they graduate (!!)).
In other words, graduate magicians do what any of us would do if we were suddenly gifted magical powers. They lounge around doing fuck all. They do, in short, what the children of the rich do[1].
We catch a glimpse of what life is like as an adult magicians. It turns out it is mostly dull and empty and meaningless. With no Dark Wizard to defeat magicians are reduced to engaging in eccentric hobbies in darkened rooms, like Howard Hughes with a pointy hat[2].
Ultimately then, The Magicians is a story of privilege, how it consumes those who do not possess it, and spoils those who do. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter, and to fans of thoughtful fantasy[3].
[1]: The OC is a documentary, right?
[2]: Howard Hughes may well have worn a pointy hat, of course. I don't know.
[3]: Not necessarily a non-overlapping set.
The Plot
The story begins with the academically-overachieving Quentin walking to a house in Brooklyn where he will be interviewed for admission to Princeton University. Quentin is bored, depressed, and generally tired of life. He is in unrequited love with Julia, who is going out with their mutual friend James, who Quentin feels is so much handsomer and cleverer than he (Quentin) is. In other words Quentin is suffering from all the usual tiresome nonsense we all have to put up with in our late teens.
We learn that Quentin has a geekish obsession with a series of classic children's fantasy novels called Fillory and Further, which are presented as similar to C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Fillory and Further consists of five books, and tells the story of a group of English schoolchildren who are magically transported into the fantastical world of Fillory. There they have grand adventures, aided by talking animals and all the usual fantastical ephemera.
Quentin longs for the magic and wonder of Fillory, and contrasts it with the banal, dreary pointlessness of existence. He longs to escape his dull, predictable, and buttoned-down existence for something better. Then he discovers the Princeton alumnus has died just before Quentin arrives for the interview. One thing leads to another and Quentin finds himself magically transported to Brakebills College (located somewhere in Upstate New York). There he is tested, found suitable, and offered a place to study at Brakebills.
What follows is a fairly competently told story of magical education, familiar to fans of Harry Potter, Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books, and Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch (and probably a bunch of other examples I am unaware of). Grossman delivers it skillfully and thoughtfully, and takes full advantage of the possibilities offered by a magical university as distinct from a magical school (viz. lots of sex and drugs and alcohol).
The curriculum is harsh and demanding. In Grossman's universe anyone can do magic, they just have to work really, really, really hard at it. As such the educational process requires a great deal of drill and exercising.
We see Quentin graduate and begin his life as the privileged magician that he is. Needless to say he begins to find this as boring, depressing, and empty of meaning as his previous life. This is until one of his friends reveals that Fillory is real. So Quentin & co travel to Fillory and have an adventure.
Thoughts
If I were feeling glib, I'd describe The Magicians as "Harry Potter for disappointed muggle highschoolers." I'm still tempted. It isn't even a bad comparison. The HP series is compulsively readable adolescent fantasy. The Magicians is also compulsively readable adolescent fantasy. The prose in The Magicians is elegant. The magical settings possess whimsy.
But where The Magicians really shines is in the characters and their relationships. Quentin feels like someone one might actually know. He is a bit mopey, romantic, but also occasionally a bit of a dick. The other students at the school seem to be real people, who do complicated real-people-type things. They have rows and fights and fall in love with each other and aren't always-nice or always-nasty. There are no Slytherins or Gryffindors at Brakebills, there are normal people (well normal magicians) who have the whole gamut of human foibles.
Particular characters I enjoyed were the world-weary but wordly older student Eliot, the bitchy gun-toting Janet, and the pathologically intense and haunted teacher, Professor Mayakovsky, banished to the South Pole for Unspecified Reasons. Mayakovsky runs the magical crammer/retreat at Brakebills, and delivers intense speeches on the nature of magical practice, thus:
"You need to do more than memorize, Quentin. You must learn the principles of magic with more than your head. You must learn them with your bones, with your blood, with your liver, your heart, your deek." He grabbed his crotch through his dressing gown and gave it a shake.
I felt the plot of The Magicians was a little off. It felt as if it was bolted together like a prefabricated building. There was a Triggering Event (the dead alumnus). There was a Magical Discovery. There was a Magical Education. There was a Romance. Things happened one after another, but there seemed to be a lack of internal logic.
Perhaps this was because of the complication of including an entire magical education and then a fantastical adventure. The education lasting several years, and the adventure a few days, leading to a narrative leap. It could be part of Grossman's meta-commentary on Harry Potter style magic (see below). Also there were various odd bits of exposition that were (admittedly fairly craftily) inserted into the narrative because Grossman had to Establish something for later on (e.g. the reveal of why Professor Mayakovsky is banished to the Antarctic).
I felt the actual adventure in Fillory was a bit weak. Fillory lacks the charm of Narnia, whilst retaining most of its characteristics. The magical education at Brakebills is rather more creatively involved and thoughtful than the adventure in Fillory.
The subplot of the circumstances surrounding the writing of the Fillory books is rather well done, but again is only pointed to at the very beginning and in various bits of exposition in the text. We are also never told why the Princeton interviewer died. I suspect the real reason he died was so something dramatic could happen right at the start without too much fuss being made later on. OR I could be wrong, and it could be part of Grossman's Message (see below).
This plotting issue ties in with how Grossman depicts magic. There are no muggles. It just turns out magic is really difficult and you are unlikely to ever get any good at it unless you go to a university like Brakebills. There is no internal logic to magic, as Grossman conceives it, just as there is no internal logic to the plot. Stuff happens. Sometimes magic makes stuff happen. Sometimes stuff happens because it other people make it happen.
Sometimes people just die.
But anyway. Maybe the looseness of the plot and the arbitrary nature of the magic portrayed are subtle lessons about life, the universe, and everything. Or maybe not. After all, Harry Potter style magic is of a similar sort. Harry Potter-style magic just exists and you can use it to do things. If you are a wizard or a witch of course, which brings me on to another point about The Magicians.
Quentin Potter
One could argue that The Magicians is a mild criticism of the Harry Potter series. A very mild criticism. I do wonder if this was, at some level, Grossman's intention. This criticism is highlighted most obviously by the character Julia, Quentin's crush at the beginning of the story. Both Quentin and Julia go to the entrance examination for Brakebills. Quentin passes. Julia doesn't, and thus receives a memory wipe and busfare home.
Several years into his magical education Quentin runs into Julia again. She is tortured by half-remembered dreams of a magical college. She shows him how she has learned a few, pitiful scraps of magic. The promise and possibility of magic has ruined her life. Se begs Quentin to ask that she be offered a second chance to take the exam.
The criticism here is of the automatic privilege of magic folk over muggle folk that runs through the Harry Potter series. Yes, Rowling addresses these issues to a point, but I've always found the way magic is apparently endowed on a chosen few to be one of the less satisfying aspects of the Harry Potter series. Others agree.
Magic without Voldemort?
In The Magicians there is no major existential threat to Brakebills or magicians in general. There are Beasts and Threats. But these are presented more as occupational hazards of doing magic than agents of tyranny. Quentin is not a chosen one. In the absence of a Dark Wizard to defeat, what is it that magicians are actually supposed to do? Well. It turns out that once they graduate they go out partying a lot and get drunk and have bad sex and get drunk and take drugs and live lives of extraordinary privilege (Brakebills is fully comped and even provides its students with a line of credit for the first year after they graduate (!!)).
In other words, graduate magicians do what any of us would do if we were suddenly gifted magical powers. They lounge around doing fuck all. They do, in short, what the children of the rich do[1].
We catch a glimpse of what life is like as an adult magicians. It turns out it is mostly dull and empty and meaningless. With no Dark Wizard to defeat magicians are reduced to engaging in eccentric hobbies in darkened rooms, like Howard Hughes with a pointy hat[2].
Ultimately then, The Magicians is a story of privilege, how it consumes those who do not possess it, and spoils those who do. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Harry Potter, and to fans of thoughtful fantasy[3].
[1]: The OC is a documentary, right?
[2]: Howard Hughes may well have worn a pointy hat, of course. I don't know.
[3]: Not necessarily a non-overlapping set.
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