Meme Update #1
In this issue:
Book/Movie Reviews
MOVIE: THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES (**1/2)
Outstanding performances by Jeff Bridges and Barbara Streisand
highlight
this female romantic fantasy about an irresistible man (Bridges)
who wants
everything but sex from his willing and devoted inamorata
(Streisand).
Looked at through the lens of evolutionary psychology, this film
attempts
to resolve the female's twin mating drives (power and security)
at least
for one glorious, musical moment. NOTE TO VIRIONS: Be prepared to
stifle a
chuckle when you see the title of the book Bridges's character
has written.
=)
NEW BOOKS AT THE MEMETICS BOOKSTORE
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/books.htm
Memetic Science Fiction:
Barnes, John. Kaleidoscope Century (Tor, 1996). It's the
(not-so?) far
future and Earth has been transformed into a battleground for
viruses of
the mind, commonly known as Memes with a capital M. Our hero and
his fellow
commandos work as mercenaries in the employ of one Meme or
another, surfing
through life as they struggle to re-create memories periodically
lost to
them--the price they pay for a secret treatment that gives them
eternal
youth. Can an all-American boy find love and happiness in a
universe where
an innocent conversation may leave you infected by a mind virus
such as One
True, doomed to spend the rest of your existence in its service?
Not the
tightest or best SF ever written, but a graphic illustration of
one
possible outcome of meme evolution.
Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash (Spectra, 1993). More than a dozen
people
recommended this science-fiction novel to me as a work of fiction
dealing
with memes, so I finally read it. I .have to say it's one of the
best SF
novels I have ever read. Stephenson really seems to grok viruses
of the
mind, and paints a future in which cultural viruses such as
franchising,
religious cults, pizza delivery, and the Mafia have spread wildly
at the
expense of today's laws and governments. Meanwhile, is someone
trying to
come up with the perfect designer virus that will allow them to
take over
the world? This fast-paced, literate story is a must-read.
Biography
Feynman, Richard P. 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman':
Adventures of a
Curious Character (Bantam, 1990). Richard Feynman, winner of the
Nobel
prize in physics and member of the Los Alamos them that built The
Bomb,
shares what it's like to live life at Level 3 in this hilarious
and
touching autobiographical collection of anecdotes. I laughed out
loud a
dozen times while reading this short book, which covers
everything from how
he fooled people into thinking he was even smarter than he really
was to
how he learned to pick up Las Vegas showgirls. One of my favorite
books
ever. And if you loved this one and are hungry for more, read the
sequel,
'What Do You Care What Other People Think?' : Further Adventures
of a
Curious Character (Bantam, 1992). The highlight is a detailed
description
of his solving of the space shuttle Challenger disaster,
demonstrated by
dipping a defective O-ring in ice-water on national TV.