Find Me: A Review

Laura Van Den Berg's Find Me is a pandemic apocalypse set within a malaise filled falling apart modern world. It is a the coming off age story of a young girl, who catches the usually deadly disease , and is shipped off to an odd medical research facility in Kansas.

 

Laura Van Den Berg fits in that mold of up and coming young writer.  She was raised in Florida and lives in Boston:  two areas that do feature in the story.  Her previous books had been short story collections.

 

Joy is an ironically named young lady who grew up in the foster care system in Massachusetts.  She is struggling with dead end jobs, loneliness, etc. when a plague sweeps through the country.  The first signs of the plague include memory loss, which is used as a literary device set against the difficult memories of our heroine.

 

It is a difficult story to review without giving away too many important plot moments.  There is a little bit of a medical thriller going on, along with some episodic short-story-like tales interspersed throughout the stories main theme of the young lady trying to find herself.  The plague, the weird medical story, and the depiction of a country slowly falling apart, is very well done.

 

All of which sounds great, except that the author has a less than straightforward delivery, and their is a fair amount of poorly explained oddness.  It has an odd disjointed, trippy sort of feel that diffuses the storyline into more a muddle of confusion, than a heartfelt story of discovery.

 

So I while I liked certain parts of the story very much, in the end I was disappointed.  A lot of modern readers seem to like overly confused story telling, and a coming of age stories are also wildly popular.  So combining those two elements guarantees that it will get some positive review.  But I don't think the payoff of the novel justifies the effort.  I would call it a near miss.

 

We now come to our two descriptive (not qualitative) ratings: 1 to 7 with 4 the mid-point and 7 high. Realism does not include the cause of the collapse or apocalypse, but is otherwise an assessment of how close to today's world is the setting. Could you imagine your friends, or families living through the situation. Readability is not literary merits, but literally how quick and painless of a read.

 

You have strange trippy-ness, intermingled with a fairly realistic portrayal of surviving in a collapsed economy with a very realistic portrayal of how a deadly pandemic might actually play out.  I think the trippy-ness does effect some of the realism, but mostly effects our next category - readability - so I will say its realism is a six.

 

Readability is mixed.  There is a plot line, and some elements of the plotline do move forward, and have a fair amount of resolution. But there is a lot of odd sub-stories along the way, and not all the storylines are resolved cleanly.  The symbolism is a little heavy handed at times.  So I will call it a literary 3. 

Under A Graveyard Sky: A Review

John Ringo's Under a Graveyard Sky is his entry into the "realistic" zombie-apocalypse.  By realistic, it uses about the only sensible way you might get a real zombie-apocalypse, through bioterrorism. The book is the first of the four books in the Black Tide Rising series.

 

 

 

John Ringo is famous in what I would call the modern version of the men's action novel.  These seem to have adopted their tenor from Tom Clancy's well researched near future, military-clandestine based stories.  In the case of Mr. Ringo, much of his work fits within the Military Science Fiction genre.  It is not a genre I have read much, but for the reading male populace, I would call it a welcome change from the earlier pulp fiction violent-sleaze-soft porn that dominated up into the early 1990s.

 

So what you get is a lot of detailed research on what is mostly a bunch of either utter nonsense, or over analyzed drivel used as a way to make the rock-em-sock-em shoot up combat story seem plausible.  Improbable in this case refers to the fact that two of the main combatant-protagonists, even though their parents are healthy and still around, are teenage girls.

 

So the quick run down.  Prepper, Australian special services father lives in United States with wife and two teenage daughters.  He gets special advance notice of coming z-apocalypse from secretive sources, goes and buys a boat with money conveniently given to him, and then, after a very strange trip to the least safe environ you can imagine, New York City, starts on a nautical, apocalyptic journey off the East Coast of the United States.

 

The tone of the novel is that of, in this case mostly unearned,  self-righteous heroics, sprinkled lightly some anti-Obama/Democrat Party digs,  counter poised with an insanely pro-military, libertarian-right version of reality.  A world view that I suspect is very popular with the military folks that a lot of these books are no doubt sold to.  While it is not a viewpoint I see that often in my readings, I find preachy self-righteousness annoying in general, even when it is closer to my own version of reality than most.

 

I did find the heroics of the teenage girls highly annoying.  I happen to know a fair number of athletic, very educated young ladies in their age range and none of them could even come close to pulling of the heroics they are capable of.  The author greatly underestimates the learning curve in trying to pull off sophisticated maneuverings of boarding actions, and small combat units at sea.  The odd sexual overtones used when describing the younger tom-boy daughter is particularly creepy to my mind. 

 

So I was not thrilled with the novel.  But I am ambivalent.  The heavy research involved does mean you get to learn some interesting factoids along the way, and for some reason, I have a particular fondness for novelistic  high-seas escapes from the apocalypse.  I think a lot of folks who like the action adventure type of prepper-porn, will really like it.  By the standards of that genre, much of the goings on are very realistic.

 

We now come to our two descriptive (not qualitative) ratings: 1 to 7 with 4 the mid-point and 7 high. Realism does not include the cause of the collapse or apocalypse, but is otherwise an assessment of how close to today's world is the setting. Could you imagine your friends, or families living through the situation. Readability is not literary merits, but literally how quick and painless of a read.

 

It is set in the near future (a plus), it is zombie-novel (a minus because the zombie issue doesn't go away), the hero-family has access to all sorts of ridiculous intel and money (a minus), they do worry about ammo and such ( a plus), there are issues of intergroup bickering (a plus) .   So I will call it a six on the basis of the extensive research, even as I noted that the overall tone of the story is not always plausible.

 

Readability is tough.  There is a lot of action, but there is also a lot of talking, and arguing, and the story line takes some extended detours before we get to our boat bound excitement phase.  So it's not a page turner, but not a complete boar either.  Unless you think mild jabs at Democrats count for literary symbolism, it is pretty much an on-the-surface story.  Call it a six. 

Machiavelli on cycles

The concept of a cyclical nature of rise and fall of political entities goes back a long way.  Here is Machiavelli's thoughts on it.

 

Machiavelli, Florentine Histories, Book 5, Chapter 1

It may be observed, that provinces amid the vicissitudes to which they are subject, pass from order into confusion, and afterward recur to a state of order again; for the nature of mundane affairs not allowing them to continue in an even course, when they have arrived at their greatest perfection, they soon begin to decline. In the same manner, having been reduced by disorder, and sunk to their utmost state of depression, unable to descend lower, they, of necessity, reascend; and thus from good they gradually decline to evil, and from evil again return to good.  

The reason is, that valor produces peace; peace, repose; repose, disorder; disorder, ruin; so from disorder order springs; from order virtue, and from this, glory and good fortune. Hence, wise men have observed, that the age of literary excellence is subsequent to that of distinction in arms; and that in cities and provinces, great warriors are produced before philosophers. Arms having secured victory, and victory peace, the buoyant vigor of the martial mind cannot be enfeebled by a more excusable indulgence than that of letters; nor can indolence, with any greater or more dangerous deceit, enter a well regulated community.

Although I don't completely ascribe to his theory, it is notable that our move to a large standing professional army (a national mercenary force) somewhat mirrors Rome turning away from its citizen's armies toward a professional standing force.  This of course leaves the folks back home with more time to chatter and talk about things.

Men are stronger than women

I am not going to make a huge deal of this one, but I thought with the prevalence of the Hunger Game-style combative post apocalyptic (or at least dystopian) female warriors, to point out that it is not a good idea of women to rely on matching physical strength with men in real life deadly conflicts.

Hand-grip strength of young men, women and highly trained female athletes
D. Leyk , et al, European Journal of Applied Physiology (2007) 99:415-421 (Hat tip: UNZ:RK)

What we are talking about is our forearms. That is where the muscles we grip with primarily come from.  The group tested is between 20 and 25 years old. It all comes down to one chart:

As is shown, the lower bound of the average men is stronger than the upper bound of average ATHLETIC women.  The absolute high scorers of the athletic women was just barely above the average of the men.  The absolute high scorers of non-athletic (normal) women is less than the average of the males, and in fact is barely above the lowest bound of the average men.

There is a lot of anecdote evidence that shows that athletic men blow athletic women off the charts in strength, but I think most people are surprised that even average men are stronger than athletic women. Particularly when the athletic women were highly trained in sports (judo, handball) that required hand strength.  As they noted"  "95% of the females produced less force than 90% of the males".

This isn't even close to the fictional portrayal, and I think when it gets to be that out of sync with reality, there is a strong potential for a dangerous miscalculation of abilities.  It is not as if women are not good at all sorts of other things, why the emphasis on an area where they are mismatched?  That seems like a perverse sort of boosterism.



 

 

Nova Scotia Apocalypse

Nova Scotia is due for an apocalypse: at least in fictional form.

 

I saw in their local paper (via a google alert) that a native was coming out with an illustrated story of the end times.

 

Halifax, Cape Breton focus of illustrator's post-apocalyptic novel

David Irish, CBC New, 19 June 2015

A local writer and illustrator has taken inspiration from Nova Scotia's much-discussed economic future — and its history — in his first novel, set in post-apocalyptic Halifax and Cape Breton.

Ben O'Liari, 39, has been a freelance writer and illustrator in Halifax for 10 years. He said he's spent a portion of those years conceptualizing a new science fiction story of which he's half finished, tentatively titled The Rogues of Novas.  

Post Apoc Halifax

 

Apparently the world is a bit more futuristic when it all ends.  So possibly we can imagine our local naked gardeners on Starwar-like speeders fleeing the local pirates. They certainly will need to upgrade from their current plans of transportation.

 

I gather that Mr. O'Liari is a comic book illustrator and writer.  Which shows an interesting split between the much grittier main stream fictionalized apocalypses (zombie, plague, etc.) and the slicker stylization of those in the comic book world.  Both The Massive and Quarter-Life Crises were more slick than real.

The rose colored glasses are getting dim: finance version No. 2

Maybe it is just an attrition thing, but I sort of think it is indicative of the shell game that is modern finance.  I have excerpted only the lead of the article:

 

 Zombie Update: the silent hedge fund apocalypse (gated link)

Dan McCrum, FT Alphaville, 19 June 2016 (hat tip: NC)

More hedge funds have closed in the last decade than were open for business at the start of it, according to industry numbers from HFR.

A total of 9,000 hedge funds and fund of funds have liquidated since the start of 2005, almost as many as HFR estimates exist now: 10,150. At the end of 2004 there were around 7,500 funds offering to manage cash.

The figures are a reminder of the transient nature of such high fee investment vehicles, which on average survive for only five years. The rapid turnover adds to questions about how such vehicles can be suitable stewards of capital for large long term investors such as pension funds.

More hedge funds have closed in the last decade than were open for business at the start of it, according to industry numbers from HFR.

A total of 9,000 hedge funds and fund of funds have liquidated since the start of 2005, almost as many as HFR estimates exist now: 10,150. At the end of 2004 there were around 7,500 funds offering to manage cash.

The figures are a reminder of the transient nature of such high fee investment vehicles, which on average survive for only five years. The rapid turnover adds to questions about how such vehicles can be suitable stewards of capital for large long term investors such as pension funds.

Interesting question for the Financial Times at this late stage of the game.

Note that I could post Chinese related stories like this forever.  They are in a bigger mess than us.

The rose colored glasses are getting dim: finance version

I frequently here from various prognosticators of doom, that the general populace is ignoring our collective current run of difficulties.

 

But what I find is that many people have two realities that they interact with.  One is the reality of getting along in the modern world they grew up in.  The other has them acting to varying degrees on the side about what they view as problems going forward.

 

So what is my guestimate of the actual amount of the concerned folks?  Just short of 20%.

 

In any case here is someone from one of the finance world breaking the bubble of silence:

 

'It's time to hold physical cash,' says one of Britain's most senior fund managers

Andrew Oxlade, The

The manager of one of Britain’s biggest bond funds has urged investors to keep cash under the mattress.

He is talking about a bank run:

He pointed out that a saver was covered only up to £85,000 per bank under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme – which is effectively unfunded – and that the Government has said it will not rescue banks in future, hence his suggestion that some money should be held in physical cash.

Not particularly imaginative stuff: but sufficient.

The tap is running dry

Underground aquifers supply 35% of the worldwide drinking water.  I gather that much of this water was left in place after the last glaciers melted off during the ice age. In other words, it takes a long time to replace.

New NASA data show how the world is running out of waterTodd C. Frankel, Washington Post, 16 June 2015 (hat tip: MR)

Satellite system flags stressed aquifer: More than half of Earth’s 37 largest aquifers are being depleted, according to gravitational data from the GRACE satellite system.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water was removed than replaced during the decade-long study period, researchers announced Tuesday. Thirteen aquifers declined at rates that put them into the most troubled category. The researchers said this indicated a long-term problem that’s likely to worsen as reliance on aquifers grows.