20230314 - Castle in the Air [Book Review]

...

Magic carpet chase \\ cold mist above desert dunes, \\ courtyard made of clouds.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - Castle in the Air [Book Review]

Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/03/20230314-castle-in-air-book-review.html ]

...

Hello readers,

Castle in the Air,  the second book by Diana Wynne Jones in her Howl’s Moving Castle series, follows another charming cast of characters with Abdullah, his friend Jamal, Jamal’s dog, a magic carpet, a Soldier, mother cat Midnight and her kitten Whippersnapper, a genie in a bottle, djinns, angels and strong princesses who avoid the helpless damsel in distress tropes.

A cool part of this world, which helped to distinguish the books in the series, was how the names of other locations change depending on which kingdom or country one was within, such as Ochinstan being Ingary. The cast of Howl’s Moving Castle was also hiding among these new members from Zanzib; I will avoid spoilers because I had a lot of fun trying to figure out their disguises, but Sophie’s peculiar brand of magic was still prominent and well used throughout the story.

Abdullah used his polite flowery morals as his magic charm while living the life of a carpet merchant.

He was sold a magic carpet by a djinn in disguise, and the carpet carried Abdullah, as he slept, to where the Sultan kept Flower-in-the-Night, his daughter, locked away. Their romance, along with Sophie and Howl’s, felt authentic, real and charming; Flower-in-the-Night's keen intelligence and dry wit were great trade-offs from Sophie’s in the protagonist duo.

Flower-in-the-Night was stolen, among all the other princesses across the world, and taken to the eponymous castle in the sky by a giant djinn, where Abdullah was blamed but he escaped with the carpet to embark on a dreamlike journey to rescue the missing princesses. I want to reread these books soon in order to absorb just how much thought went into little things like the thief Kabul Aqba; the plot threads were woven together and were resolved or explained with complete satisfaction.

Diana Wynne Jones wrote Castle in the Air about topics like respect--as in modesty, but also in terms of idealism and honor, such as with the appearance of a family--where social cues were described like magic spells, with examples like people crying to bully others into submission, the belief in prophecies and dreams, and sultans giving orders; this was made clear when godlike beings admitted to manipulating the cast through their fearful beliefs in fate. 

That is where the best part of this book shines, in its real life metaphors designed to be palatable for all, as the author made it known that such fatalistic deities were bound to their rules and codes of conduct in ways which a virtuous child could work with to mutual benefit. As Abdullah learns to be careful about what one wishes for, the reader learns the benefits of accepting that, rather than scorning nature, such Big Ideas do know better than humans.

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean 

P.S. Read my Howl's Moving Castle review [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/12/20211229-review-howls-moving-castle.html ]

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20230305 - Little Snow White [Book Review]

...

The Fairest of All \\ attracting the jealous Queen, \\ blood red on white Snow.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - Little Snow White

Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/03/20230305-little-snow-white-book-review.html ]

...

Hello readers,

Little Snow White is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm about an evil Queen's attempts at killing her stepdaughter (or biological child if you are reading the original version).

Under Snow White's surface, the Grimms crafted a story about the dangers of allurement and envy. What was emphasized for me was the different forms of magic used in the story, from the Queen's wish upon the blood stained snow, to her use of a looking-glass to not only compare the Evil Queen's beauty with Snow White's, but for the Queen to also verify her own fairness, while employing disguises and alternate appearances against Snow White.

The Queen grew so jealous that she hired a huntsman. In an act of persuasion, Snow White begged for her life and, due to her beauty, was spared, so the huntsman tricked the Queen into eating what she thought was Snow White's heart, all of which acted as a display of Snow White's superior abilities over the Queen's.

The princess took shelter in the house of the Seven Dwarves who found and welcomed her to stay, provided she did their housework while they were mining for gold.

Meanwhile, the Queen used her magic looking-glass to be told how fair she was, only to be told that Snow White was living with the Dwarves.

The envious Evil Queen disguised herself, tricking Snow White with affordable trinkets in order to strangle her. When the Queen found she survived, the Queen poisoned her twice; the first toxic hair brush failing, the Dwarves at last found her dead from the apple.

The main takeaway from the Queen's failures was, despite her certainty of having finished the deed each time, she still needed confirmation from the looking-glass, contrasted with Snow White's doubtlessness.

The Dwarves shut her in a glass coffin, but the apple had only put her in a coma, so when another kingdom's Prince finds and wins her from the Dwarves with his profession of love, versus buying the sealed coffin, she awakens as a Queen.

The story ends with the jealous Evil Queen arriving at Snow White's wedding, only to be executed by being forced to wear red hot iron shoes, symbolizing the Evil Queen's fatal restlessness. 

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean 

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20230226 The Electric Tale of Pikachu [Book Review] [Pokemon Day 2023]

...

An electric mouse, \\ with positive energy, \\ found chewing live wires.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - The Electric Tale of Pikachu [Book Review] [Pokemon Day 2023] 

Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/02/20230226-electric-tale-of-pikachu-book.html ]

...

Hello readers,

It’s the 27th anniversary of the Pokemon franchise, so this Pokemon Day we are celebrating with a copy of "The Electric Tale of Pikachu" along with some anime. [This review also includes volumes two through four; "Pikachu Shocks Back", "Electric Pikachu Boogaloo" and "Surf's Up, Pikachu"]  

This Pokemon World is slightly more realistic, grounded and mature in tone and art at times than the games or anime. What was most interesting to me about this Pokemon World was how most citizens seem to have given up on training after a few months, where it is said that very few continue into adulthood, and that the majority see Pokemon as animals, pests or supernatural spirits and beings; the way people in this Pokemon World grow reminds me of how I have grown with the series, as one can argue that I have retired from training Pokemon in new regions, but I still live in a world with Pokemon and I still experience stories and adventures from the rest of the franchise outside of the mainline games.

This was the manga I read from my school library when I was six or seven years old before reading Pokemon Adventures, and along with the N64 plus the NGC games and the anime, this manga series was among my earliest exposures to the franchise; I have read online that Electric Tale was the first Pokemon manga to be translated into English.

Like the anime, Electric Tale of Pikachu follows Ash Ketchum’s journey to fight the various Gym Leaders for their badges in order to compete for the title of Pokemon Champion through the Indigo League and the Orange Islands, but these comics came with a number of refreshing differences that set it apart from its contemporaries including how Ash and Pikachu met and how often Misty and Brock traveled with them, while still managing to hit plot points like Team Rocket and the Eevee Brothers. Personal highlights of the series include Bill's story about the Venusaur, Sabrina and Brock talking to Ash about a godlike Haunter, and the Bulbasaur family story in Volume 3.

There are translation differences between localizations, to cut page count and due to some of the art by the book's graphic artist Toshihiro Ono, and the second half felt more comical than the first, but the series as a whole has that kind of charm to it too. Ash grows as a Trainer, his rivalry with Gary is revisited often, and he got to challenge another Pokemon League to iron out the mistakes he learned over the course of the story, becoming--spoiler alert!--the Champion of the Orange Islands with the help of Pikachu.

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean 

...

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20230223 - A Christmas Carol [II] [Book Review]

...

Dethaw a deep freeze, // spirits with hallowed warnings. // Wretched mindlessness.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - A Christmas Carol [II]

Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/02/20230223-christmas-carol-ii-book-review.html ]

...

Hello readers,

In "A Christmas Carol", Charles Dickens used the cold of London to describe Ebenezer Scrooge, compared to the warmth and glow of those around him. Due to his focus on his own gain and his ignorance of the poverty of others, he thought it wise to be able to determine who should live and die by his subjective view on what was in surplus.

The one weakness, in my opinion, of this book could be found in Dickens's narrator, but it was strong at times which might make up for when otherwise, depending on the reader.

The narrative made use of horror as a subgenre by not only having Scrooge deal with unbelievable yet real aspects, such as seeing himself in Marley's wretchedness, but Dickens also carried the reader through the imagery as though the narrator were another spirit following Scrooge. 

From the invocation in the preface onward, A Christmas Carol used Christian (almost Gnostic) Idealism as its subject matter, with its invisible world of ghosts having lost individuality who yet clung to what they wished to change, for the better, while being weighed down in a literal manner by their history and inaction. 

Other sentiments which make A Christmas Carol one of my favorite stories were all said by the Ghost of Christmas Present; the earth needing to pass into eternity before its good is all developed, mortal life being too short for its vast means of usefulness, no space of regret amending an opportunity misused, and telling Scrooge that men do things in the name of the Ghosts, but that such men are as strange to them as if they had never lived. 

“Cold, isn’t it?” “Seasonable for Christmas time. You’re not a skater, I suppose?” “No. No. Something else to think of. Good morning!”

These hallows were focused on establishing a sense of  mindfulness in Ebenezer; if I interpreted things right, Marley granted Scrooge's request to have all the ghosts visit at once, maybe because he was willing to do what was necessary, despite his initial resistance, rather than continue to decline Marley's offer. With the Ghost of Christmas Past, Scrooge was rebuked for failing to realize that he was wishing to cap the Ghost’s light, his own memories--shown to be a source of joy for many. The Ghost of Christmas Present told Scrooge to look upon him, to be mindful when Scrooge thought himself unworthy to, and, indeed, Ebenezer was shown that both Ignorance and Want cling to the Present, that, according to Scrooge, they seem doomed to workhouses and prisons--unless shown kindness, like the spirit of Marley had on Scrooge. Even with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, Scrooge was being shown how one’s material remains leave nothing good outside of their memories and one’s remembered love. 

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens seemed to be critical of mindless urbanization and its effects on sustaining the poor masses for the benefit of the rich; as far as I know he suffered from the effects of the uneven distribution of wealth in his youth. 

According to him, it is better to let others laugh at you, for ignorance in joy, while still rude, was still less bad than ignorance in hate; Love and Christmas Spirit are equal, and thus one will find joy in shared mindful experiences like education, dances and festive dinners. 

Previous review [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201225-christmas-carol.html ] 

Thank you for reading.

Allen W. McLean 

...

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Electric Armchair - After Party (PRE-SAVE ALBUM [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/after-party ]

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20230206 - A Boy and His Dog [ Book Review / Analysis / Summary / Essay ]

...

Survival is not \\ knowing when to kill; rather, \\ knowing what love is.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - A Boy and His Dog [II] 

Read online [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/02/20230206-boy-and-his-dog-book-review.html ]

...

Hello readers, 

I need to read the rest of the stories related to “A Boy and His Dog” by Harlon Ellison [Eggsucker, “Run, Spot, Run”, and the collected “Blood’s a Rover”].

As I referenced in the previous review, the title is deceiving, as this post-apocalyptic survival fiction story is R-rated with its descriptive gunfights, told from the protagonist’s point of view, and with its casual nudity, sex and social depravity.

I have read online that these stories served as inspiration for other nuclear wasteland franchises, such as the Fallout games, with shared features including gangs that upkeep local services, cutesy killer robots, nighttime nuclear monsters and an attention to epic gunfights or combat in a literary sense.

“A Boy and his Dog” followed Vic, a Solo from such gangs, who formed a pact with Blood, a telepathic dog; together, they were sniffing out Quilla June, a girl from a suburban downunder, which Vic later was lured into and was itching to escape from. Blood's pride in his telepathic parentage, and everything Vic learned from him, was a good way to provide readers with backstory and world-building.

Vic and Blood followed Quilla to an abandoned YMCA, but she was as depraved as him, highlighting the genre and setting through the conflicts of man vs self and nature. Blood's suggestion of burning down the YMCA, when they figured they were outgunned, was a great dramatization of this. 

Quilla later escaped, so Vic planned to chase her for revenge, and he fought Blood reasoning for them to tend to their wounds. 

Alone, Vic went downunder, where prewar suburban society had been frozen and bottled up, stopping progress. He realized Blood was right, that he was being lured into a trap. It is revealed to Vic that the men were impotent downunder and were in need of Vic.

An important aspect of the story is how resources, supply and demand, command not just one's impulsive desires, but also one's survival. 

Anyway, Vic schemed to abuse their hospitality in order to escape after killing Quilla.

But, when he had his chance, the two found she and he were legit in love. So, they teamed together to escape, killing her 'pa and fighting other townsfolk along the way out.

The line where they were climbing, where he kept telling her he loved her, was genius for being both true and for continuing the thematic thread of love being a universal idea, an evolutionary survival outline. 

When they got up top, Vic found Blood was still waiting, wounded and hungry. This was a complex situation; both Quilla June and Blood were fearful for their mortal wellbeing--both were dependent on Vic for their present situation. But Vic had to choose one of them, and choosing Blood was a given for Vic. Vic had picked both at different points in time, but he knew Blood was right about being lured, about love and history, since his love for Blood was stronger, despite the difficulty of feeding his dog. 

"A Boy and His Dog" is about, of all things, how it means to love something, the effects of love and the lengths one will go for the ones they love most.

Previous review [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/01/20210102-wip-update-boy-and-his-dog.html ]

Thank you for reading.

Please share your thoughts in a comment.

Allen W. McLean 

...

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Electric Armchair - Amorphous I (FULL ALBUM) [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/amorphous-i ]

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20230126 - Rapunzel [Book Review / Analysis / Summary / Essay]

...

Towering over, \\ took away what one loves most, \\ removed from the world.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - Rapunzel [Book Review / Analysis / Summary / Essay] 

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/01/20230126-rapunzel-book-review-analysis.html

...

Hello readers, 

I have begun a fairy tale themed series, and I am starting it off with a review of Rapunzel by the Brothers Grimm.

This fairy tale is set around the tower of Gothel, an enchantress. Gothel had taken the daughter of the parents who were stealing from her rampion garden. Rapunzel was then kept away from the rest of the world. She was kept hostage until she fell in love with a prince, who overheard Gothel's request, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down thy hair."

What stuck out to me was Gothel's desire to keep her being in direct conflict with the parents' and the prince's desire to have her.

The original fairy tale stories' gruesomeness is great at being dramatic in a dark way, with characters flinging themselves towards death or despondency over their misfortune. 'Rapunzel' succeeded in this by moving to a happy ending that is juxtaposed to highlight both the drama and the resolution. This is explored further through the symbolism of Rapunzel being separated from the world as a way to prevent the desire that afflicted the rest of the cast. In a theatrical manner, the Prince's desire to see her led to Rapunzel's awareness of the outside world and her desire to leave.

When Rapunzel revealed that she was using the method that Gothel was using to visit Rapunzel to also bring up the Prince, Dame Gothel decided to take Rapunzel's hair away and she cast Rapunzel away.

Gothel then displayed her ability to use the hair against Rapunzel to lure the Prince up the tower. Gothel's gloating over taking away both of their desired objects was genius in its display of the duality in using the love that others provide for one's own purposes.

It also displayed--via the Prince--how that can leave one lost and wandering in blindness. His reaction set the tone for Gothel as a villain who would have instead reacted by taking from anyone that had just wronged her.

Every character acted upon what they desired. Readers are thus left with an important idea to contemplate. Dame Gothel was wronged in the same manner as the others. However, the other characters reacted without malice when they were wronged. Nobody else was afraid to suffer the consequences of their acts of freely given love, regardless of the source being one's own or another's. 

Gothel could have helped the parents, I feel. She could have wedded her adopted (stolen) daughter and been related to royalty. Instead, she removed herself from the equation.

The shared suffering further cemented the love between Rapunzel and the Prince. The greatest symbolic lesson I found from this story was how that was shown to even heal their wounds; a good, short bedtime story.

Thank you for reading.

Please share your thoughts in a comment.

Allen W. McLean 

...

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April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms; Electric Armchair - The Charlatan (Official Music Video) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYROJsg98Xs ]

Electric Armchair - Amorphous I (FULL ALBUM) [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/amorphous-i ]

"Falgara the Giant" is available to order on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited! Add to Goodreads and learn more [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/falgara-giant.html ] 

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Kindle ebooks can be read on any device at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection.

20230118 - The Big Time [Book Review Analysis and Summary]

...

A bar in the void, \\ contemporary soldiers, \\ inverted vision.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - The Big Time [Book Review Analysis and Summary] 

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2023/01/20230118-big-time-book-review-analysis.html

...

Hello readers,

(This book is part of my 2022 Goodreads Year in Review) 

The Big Time by Fritz Leiber was a book I struggled to get around to reviewing.

This is a science fiction story with hints of metaphysical ideas and time travel history-manipulation.

The best part of this book was how conflicts were broken down through the Change War, a different kind of conflict that encapsulates the cast and influences the plot. 

The philosophy, though, is hiding behind thick character voices and dialogue. This is both a blessing and a curse, as the idealistic wisdom is sound despite the work needed to find it. Historic and geographic nuance accent the characters and their speech, directing the more impressive story, its ideas and the exploration of language. I can get behind first person narratives in most stories I have read, but this time it was a little thick. Characters can come off as lame and dramatic at times.

The story explored the Spiders' supposed conflict with the Snakes, factions that have never seen each other outside of their battles, who are worried about espionage and the interchangeability of the two sides.

The plot revolved around an atomic bomb in a confined Place and figuring out how to diffuse it and who was behind their predicament. They all philosophize different theories that shed light on the physics of the Place.

Most of the cool science fiction and metaphysics revolve around how each individual is coping with the nature of their roles in the Change War. Ideas, locations and events are said to be hard to change; the anxiety of being Introverted, or Inverted, is at its core. 

Characters are pawns in a ‘war’ between an individual and itself under two different names, in order to enact change across the multi/omni-verse through the individuals in the moments of time these characters are said to interact with and originate from.

“Great men” decline the Resurrection into a Spider or a Snake, thus these characters are self-described wretches who love their abusive occupation. 

The narrative, however, is riddled with exposition dumps and monologues. How everything is conveyed through the characters, instead of a separate and disjointed third-person narrator, is really a highlight of the story. But, again, the philosophy was hiding in the rough. 

The Big Time conveys metaphysics and wisdom through alternate history and sci-fi, with notions of Daemons, “fourth-order beings” that exist all throughout the cosmos in and out of every mind, and Conflict as a necessity for Change, a continuous process that defines evolution.

Thank you for reading.

Please share your thoughts in a comment.

Allen W. McLean 

...

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Readers are gifted a Kindle eBook on Fridays and Mondays--short story selection rotates every few weeks, so follow via email or visit My Author Profile [ https://www.amazon.ca/Allen-W-McLean/e/B0867C5D24 ]

I write mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry on my book reviews and on previews of my metaphysical stories, such as "Escape Perennial City". Learn more about my reviews here [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/book-review-summary-study-notes.html ]

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"Hector Blake" [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/hector-blake-second-edition-329c5c9309e7 ]

April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms; Electric Armchair - The Charlatan (Official Music Video) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYROJsg98Xs ]

Electric Armchair - Amorphous I (FULL ALBUM) [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/amorphous-i ]

"Falgara the Giant" is available to order on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited! Add to Goodreads and learn more [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/falgara-giant.html ] 

Kindle ebooks can be read on any device at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection. 

Read the latest Project Roadmap [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/20221230-my-year-in-reviews-project-roadmap-2022-12-6b6c671e575 ]

20221227 - VALIS [Book Review Analysis and Summary]

...

His home is no where, / He is hidden everywhere, / His home is now here.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - VALIS [Book Review Analysis and Summary]

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/12/20221227-valis-book-review-analysis-and.html

...

Hello readers, April and I hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays! We have been celebrating our tenth year together all month long, and will continue to celebrate into the New Year. 

Despite being one of my favorite books, it has taken me forever to parse my notes about VALIS by Philip K. Dick.

Like the rest of the books in the series, VALIS is a heavy Metaphysical Science Fiction story; I found it to be really reminiscent of ‘50s-’80s sci-fi TV/B-movies in a good way. 

The other books that are attributed to VALIS are done so only through this book’s themes, which featured callbacks to “The Divine Invasion,” “The Transmigration of Timothy Archer,” and “Radio Free Albemuth”.

Phil related Horselover Fat’s irrational quest to bring back a series of women who had died, who had wanted to die for various reasons, all while being close to Fat, Phil and their friends David and Kevin; from the get-go, VALIS is a story about mental illness and falling into the traps of logical fallacies, and how reality manages to deal with it through insanity.

Phil, in real life and in this fictional story, was writing the story in order to unpack his spiritual experiences revolving around the Vast Active Living Intelligence System, a quasi-conscious ‘vortex’ that ‘incorporates its environment into arrangements of information’, information which is beamed to Phil or Fat via orange-pink ultraviolet light.

“I am Horselover Fat, and I am writing this in the third person to gain much-needed objectivity.”

During this quest to find God while curbing insanity, the group began to believe that the universe itself was alive, that humans should be able to hear its information as a neutral voice in one’s mind.

An interesting spoiler (but not really because Phil and Fat’s identity is disclosed at the very start) for when one wants to reread the book! One of my favorite parts of VALIS is how I can merge Fat’s abstracted and Phil’s logical points of view, where Fat talking after Phil can be seen as just the first person narrator pausing before saying the next line in the third person. By the end, it was hard to tell who was real and where Fat or Phil really was, as Phil watching TV being his mind interpreting the symbolism of Fat’s travels was just as likely to be true as Fat’s travels being a fantasy made during Phil’s vigil.

While writing to process the deaths he wished to revert, Phil described the failure of his own suicide attempts as acts of God and debated whether or not He was merciful in saving him while being Just in letting others die. While Kevin’s opinion was that the universe was hostile and ‘consisted of misery’, this dynamic can be explained: Phil, in the past, had no idea why the divine intervened in his son’s death but not any of the girls’, while Phil, narrating in the present, realized he would not have gone on his quest otherwise.

Phil, needing the logic, displayed how he was the real person (or his own demiurge or Intellect), yet Fat was the main persona and continued to meditate on death by attaching himself to dying women, but Phil instead grew to reject Fat from the bodily system (a twist on a similar plot thread in Albemuth).

Unable to trust himself, after having personified the aspect of oneself that wishes to die, Phil had become afraid of Fat.

"It is the Empire in its various disguised polyforms which tells us we have sinned."

The group decided to meet with the Lamptons who made a movie named VALIS, which was a stylizing of Radio Free Albemuth's plot (and that achieved what Saddassa Sylvia and Nick Brady’s music was made to do). If you had read that book first, you should enjoy the callback as much as I did.  

The two groups meet, and Phil meets their daughter Sophia who was said to be the Saviour reborn; it was my interpretation that She and the idea of the Saviour were a manifestation of the aetheric fabric of spacetime, a single expression of the universe in itself, that by being mindful of anyone her thought-forms also became the physical forms of every point in spacetime.

The dread arose from the realization that they were being told how to escape from a prison that one had become lost within, that achieving unity with Sophia or VALIS or God meant that they would soon be freed, but that the time was yet to come and that they were still trapped; the cast began to display their failure to truly understand this soon after meeting Sophia, most evident in Phil’s failure to realize that VALIS’s immortality was an intangible one, that no real physical resurrection would occur outside of VALIS’s own.

Everyone, Sophia included, agreed that the blind-god Lamptons were crazy, but that Sophia was legitimate, however their little Society had seen themselves in the Samaels (said to be Ikhnaton's race) and realized that meant that they too were insane. 

A prevalent theme is the fear that someone you love will kill you, for the greater good; Phil was attempting to heal Fat, and I found that Phil being straightaway averted toward the cure to Fat's illness foreshadowed the threat of Mini and the Lamptons toward both him and Sophia.

Sophia had healed Phil by unifying him with Fat, however Phil failed to see that God, wearing a mask of Death under another mask of Love, was ending suffering by the merciful killing of the dying individual--Phil was asking for the dead to return, which was asking for a different thing.

Sophia’s death made the Lamptons complicit, while leaving Phil's group unaffiliated and thus legally and socially protected from them, but this caused Fat to return and continue his quest to find the Saviour.

It was unfortunate that Fat's entire premise stemmed from a misunderstanding of the necessity of suffering, mistaking the Demiurge for the One, and failing to see that Sophia indeed foresaw her own death.

When Kevin relapsed into talking about his dead cat, the group started to display how they failed to realize they could just think of the question and that VALIS would answer--the past and future were real, as present as the present, as accessible as the restroom; for me, that meant physical space and time were the true Black Iron Prison, that the intangible conception of the aetheric spacetime was considered "true reality". 

Fat's later quests returned fruitless because the Savior was intangible and within everyone and everything, but, despite this, Phil (his logical brain) realized he was told to keep vigil while Fat (his creative brain) continued to search the globe over.

“But underneath all the names there is only one Immortal Man; and we are that man.”

VALIS was a product of the exegesis of Philip K. Dick being turned into Metaphysical Fiction, along with the other books that are attributed to this book’s themes of the author’s interpretations of his own real life spiritual experiences. 

Above all, I thought that the author wanted to teach how Pity is love, how through sympathy does one's pain become a source of love and lessen the pain by securing a loving memory; by the Spear of Longinus metaphor, the deaths of the women would be what would heal the wound their deaths had made, so by pitying oneself, one can take a dispassionate perspective to their own situation and allow themselves to love themselves instead of grieve.

According to Phil, by labelling danger as a sin within all of us, Samael promoted the use of sin before tricking us into believing that it was our fault. By allowing phenomena to pass, one allowed that which prevails to shine and destroy the prison. By appealing to intangible thoughtforms, one burned away the illusions and secured the wisdom from otherwise insane discourse.

The Living Idea was found in the lowest levels of reality, "where you will least expect to find it," which is why Phil took up his vigil at the close of the book, to find Sophia in the things we write. To him, the “supra-temporal expression” of all life is what we actually mean by the term ‘god’ and “is what we worship, without realizing it, when we worship ‘god.’”

Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts.

Allen W. McLean 

Read the rest of my VALIS reviews:

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/11/20221120-transmigration-of-timothy.html ]

The Divine Invasion [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/11/20221105-divine-invasion-book-review.html ]

Radio Free Albemuth [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/09/20220927-radio-free-albemuth-book-review.html ]

Original VALIS review [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2020/12/20201227-valis.html ]

...

Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Banner: The Cannon by Allen W. McLean

Readers are gifted a Kindle eBook on Fridays and Mondays--short story selection rotates every few weeks, so follow via email or visit My Author Profile [ https://www.amazon.ca/Allen-W-McLean/e/B0867C5D24 ]

I write mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry on my book reviews and on previews of my metaphysical stories, such as "Escape Perennial City". Learn more about my reviews here [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/book-review-summary-study-notes.html ]

Connect with HaikuPrajna and Electric Armchair via email [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/follow-on-social-media.html ] 

Thanks to you, over 900 readers have joined us on Medium! Need to stay in the Medium Partner Program? Please follow and turn on email notifications; I'll follow you back! [ https://haikuprajna.medium.com/subscribe ]

I have free short stories available to read, right now, on Medium:

. "Ado the Owl" [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/20221027-ado-the-owl-official-tell-a-story-day-flash-fiction-story-e4c8a8ec8563 ]

. "Hector Blake" [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/hector-blake-second-edition-329c5c9309e7 ]

April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms; Electric Armchair - Pixie Lead (Official Music Video) (Amorphous I) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIzyLZimX_I ]

Electric Armchair - Amorphous I (FULL ALBUM) [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/amorphous-i ]

My metaphysical short story "Ado the Owl" is available as an eBook on digital bookstores! Add to Goodreads and learn more [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/ado-owl.html ]

Kindle ebooks can be read on any device at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection. 

20221211 - Animal Farm [Book Review Analysis and Summary]

...

Pigs standing above \\ the good, worse than the better, \\ a greater idea. 

#HAIKUPRAJNA - Animal Farm [Book Review Analysis and Summary]

https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2022/12/20221211-animal-farm-book-review.html

...

Hello readers,

Was procrastinating on writing this review of George Orwell’s Animal Farm; the last time I read this story was back in May.

Nonetheless I have always thought it was a fun-to-read political allegory. The book follows a colourful cast of characters and is about the rise and fall of the world’s only Animal Farm. The narrative exposition and dialogue put the reader in the middle of the action, but does often gloss over things like confessions before deaths.

Other reviewers have touched on all the parallels and metaphors, so I am going to approach the philosophical aspects portrayed by the animals’ manipulation of ideas.

However, as others have said, it is impossible to separate the story from the history. Due to its satirical nature, every action is steeped in Orwell's political philosophy.

 “He would say that God had given him a tail to keep the flies off, but that he would sooner have had no tail and no flies.”

While reading, I was focused on how Napoleon and Snowball interpreted different belief systems from Old Major's radical philosophy--having upon death become a kind of godlike guiding principle--between relieving and exploiting the inherent suffering of others.

Napoleon employed fear tactics as a means of transcending his own hindrances and hurdles to meet his ill intended ends.

His group of pigs hindered the rest of the animals to keep himself above the Farm by withholding knowledge and resources, from writing to food; he met rebellion with lethal force. 

The pigs renounce a multitude of human vices before then being consumed by their attempt to pursue them, fixing their laws to be beneficial to the leaders.

Napoleon used stories about Snowball to twist real and fake events, which kept him in control of the narrative and thus the actors within it, and met with the humans they were warring with to revert the Animal Farm to its past, except for the pig's new power and control. 

"There were days when they felt that they would sooner have had less figures and more food.”

Beyond the Stalinism criticism, Animal Farm demonstrated what happened when the systems one had faith in changed the beliefs of the system; some animals continued to dream of a Sugar Candy Mountain and all the promises of prosperity, at least until the very end.

Their hardest worker was sent to death while believing in the Farm's original cause, despite Napoleon's manipulation. 

The Farm operated with clear social class divisions and managed to generate an income, but the dreams of improved living conditions are lost over the generations.

The pig’s adopting of human vices made them indistinguishable from humans, a reversion to the previous oppressive lifestyle they had broken free from, which is a dire warning about the nature of philosophical ideas in applications like politics and history.

Animal Farm is an informational story about the effects of philosophical and political ideologies on not only the leaders, but also the common population. 

Despite restricting information, hiding general poverty and faking otherwise from the world outside, the Farm was yet still suffering, implying that it is what is happening in the outline that defines the idea.

“They were glad to believe so.”

Orwell had a grasp on metaphysics and its sociopolitical applications; the pigs burning the human’s things and becoming obsessed with and absorbed in using them seems, to me, to imply knowledge of how viral ideas root themselves in our society, such as seen in the current manifestation of information warfare with manipulation and disinfo campaigns; the pigs filling papers to burn the info was reminiscent of Orwell's 1984 and Bradbury's 451. 

For both the upper class pigs and the common animal, their own songs and myths were the greater symbol than that of Napoleon's ideal, sustaining them through the years until everyone was old or dead.

The new farm's generation of animals were doing fine, but without the same level of insight, and had to rely on their dream's better ideas instead of reality's worse experiences.

Thank you for reading, please share your thoughts.

Allen W. McLean 

1984 [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/08/20210804-doublethink-review-1984-annual.html ]

Fahrenheit 451 [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/2021/09/20210922-review-fahrenheit-451.html ] 

...

Need more Bite-sized Insights to relieve your stress and suffering?

Banner: The Cannon by Allen W. McLean

Readers are gifted a Kindle eBook on Fridays and Mondays--short story selection rotates every few weeks, so follow via email or visit My Author Profile [ https://www.amazon.ca/Allen-W-McLean/e/B0867C5D24 ]

I write mindfulness meditation scifaiku and haiku poetry on my book reviews and on previews of my metaphysical stories, such as "Escape Perennial City". Learn more about my reviews here [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/book-review-summary-study-notes.html ]

Connect with HaikuPrajna and Electric Armchair via email [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/follow-on-social-media.html ] 

Thanks to you, over 700 readers have joined us on Medium! Need to stay in the Medium Partner Program? Please follow and turn on email notifications; I'll follow you back!

I have free short stories available to read, right now, on Medium:

. "Ado the Owl" [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/20221027-ado-the-owl-official-tell-a-story-day-flash-fiction-story-e4c8a8ec8563 ]

. "Hector Blake" [ https://medium.com/haikuprajna/hector-blake-second-edition-329c5c9309e7 ]

April's psychedelic music videos, art and poetry is available on all streaming platforms; Electric Armchair - Pixie Lead (Official Music Video) (Amorphous I) [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIzyLZimX_I ]

Electric Armchair - Amorphous I (FULL ALBUM) [ https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/electricarmchair/amorphous-i ]

My metaphysical short story "Ado the Owl" is available as an eBook on digital bookstores! Add to Goodreads and learn more [ https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/ado-owl.html ]

Kindle ebooks can be read on any device at www.read.amazon.com

These poems will be collected in future editions of the HaikuPrajna Collection.