December 31, 2004
Mughal India and Central Asia by Richard C. Foltz
The Mughal dynasty ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from 1526 upto 1857. There are not many historical studies available that concentrate on their Central Asian roots and their later interactions with their homeland. The British tradition treats the Mughals as an Indian Muslim dynasty, while the Russian and Soviet tradition has predominantly looked at Central Asian history.
Richard Foltz's thesis in this book is that the Mughals had, since the time of Babur, longed to return to their Central Asian roots. He points out the various places in many historical documents where the (usually sentimental) nostalgia for Central Asia is evident. The documents cited in this book come from many sources: the Mughals themselves and also by the many Central Asian holy men, artisans, soldiers and artists who used to travel to India for financial gain.
After the Uzbek takeover of their ancestral homes including the prominent Chaghatai cities like Samarqand, the Mughals expanded into North India and rule this land as their new home.
Richard Foltz makes the case that the Mughals always intended to return to their homelands in Central Asia and were repeatedly unable to do so due to many problematic circumstances. He catalogs the active cultural and political traffic that existed between the Mughals, the Safavids who inhabited modern-day Iran and Afghanistan and the Uzbeks in modern-day Uzbekistan.
A lot has changed, it seems, as it is safe to say that no significant percentage of the Muslim populations of India and Pakistan considers a significant kinship with Central Asia. This is inspite of the fact that Mughal culture has remained a strong influence for all the inhabitants of North India and Pakistan.
Be aware that this is the author's PhD dissertation in revised form, and so is not written for the layman. It is prone to several pedantic interludes and you need at least a rudimentary knowledge of the history of the region to begin reading this book. You need to know, for instance, who the Safavids were (as opposed to the Sassanids and the Saffarids) since such `basics' are never explicitly mentioned (the web is very helpful here). But overall, it is one of the most entertaining books on history I have read -- mainly due to the several quotes taken from historical sources.
%T Mughal India and Central Asia %A Richard C. Foltz %I Karachi: Oxford University Press %D 1998 %G ISBN: 0195777824 (hc) %P 190 %K history
Date written: 2000/05/23
Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks
*Never* get beholden to people like that -- they'll piss on you and then charge irrigation fees.
From the master of space opera comes the most dystopian novel he has written. It is *not* a Culture novel and apart from an overwhelming moral dilemma that plagues the main character, it does not share many themes with the Culture novels.
Lady Sharrow used to be an antiquities thief. Her most infamous caper involved the bungled theft of the Lazy Gun, the most powerful weapon in existence. Her theft of the Lazy Gun resulted in the destruction of a large populated city. A religious cult called the Huhsz who consider all the Lazy Guns to be a holy artifact have finally received permission from the World Court to hunt down Lady Sharrow. Her only hope is to retrieve the last remaining Lazy Gun and hand it over to the Huhsz before they find her and extract their vengeance.
The plot is action-packed, perhaps too much so, even for a space opera. The universe that Banks constructs is very anachronistic, sometimes to such an extent that the action sequences seem to be of the kind you would find in a contemporary action novel. Unlike the galaxy spanning Culture novels, the story is limited to a single star system. I found this book to be less sophisticated than the other space opera novels by Iain M. Banks mostly because of the stereotypical action scenes, the noticeable lack of interesting alien or even post-human characters and the disappointing ending (although see the spoiler below).
The most interesting thing about this novel was the various political systems that are encountered during the quest through the Thrial star system. Each one is a parody of an existing human system, and all of them are found to be oppressive or ineffectual. Most of the planets have moved away from an aristocratic or feudal system but the aristocrats still seem to be very powerful. Indeed, the main character herself exploits her position as an aristocrat at every opportunity.
We are a race prone to monsters, she thought, and when we produce one, we worship it. What kind of world, what translation of good could come from all that's happened here?
** spoiler alert **
It seems as if the implication towards the end of the novel is that the protagonist, Lady Sharrow, is about to eliminate as much life as possible from this star system using the Lazy Gun. However, this is not made explicit in the ending for some reason.
%T Against a Dark Background %A Iain M. Banks %I Bantam Books %D 1993 %G ISBN: 0553292250 (pb) %P 515 %K science-fiction
Date written: 2000/06/01
2001 Nights by Yukinobu Hoshino
While written in the 1990s, this series is more of a look back to the science fiction written in the 1960s -- a kind of homage to the sf of that time in the form of a manga. It is a welcome departure from the typical material associated with manga or anime from Japan: mecha-obsessed military sf or sf that explores spirituality in a technological age usually with pseudo-science like psychic phenomena thrown in for good measure. There is some of the latter in this series but it does not drown out the scope of the stories.
Each of the books is loosely structured around a series of short stories. However, most of the stories are related to each other (even across books) usually in surprising ways. For the most part, Hoshino puts in a great deal of effort in making the stories scientifically plausible and tries at every point to inject some good old fashioned `sense-of-wonder' that should remind you of Golden Age sf.
Since this is a graphic novel, its success depends not only on the writing but also the graphic art. And this is where 2001 Nights departs from its philosophical roots in the sf of the 60s. The novelty in reading 2001 Nights is the art. While the effort put into each panel reduces as the series progresses, some of visuals are quite stunning (especially in the stories "Earthglow" and "Medusa's Throne"). The style seems quite similar to Katsuhiro Otomo's style (particularly Otomo's style in "Legend of Mother Sarah" and "Domo").
There are a combination of short stories and novellas in this collection. The most compelling stories are the shorts. The ones I found especially good were: "Earthglow", "Maestrom III", "I am Rocket", "Medusa's Throne", "A Stranger's Footsteps".
The novellas are less successful but there are fewer of them. I liked "Odyssey in Green" which is about First Contact of the kind favored by the more cynical writers like Stanislaw Lem. The introduction to the collection pays particular attention to the novella called "Lucifer Rising" (which takes up about half of the first book), but I found this story mostly uninteresting except for the ending.
The collection is easy to recommend to previous readers of Japanese manga who are also interested in hard-sf.
%S 2001 Nights %A Yukinobu Hoshino %T 2001 Nights %P 246 %G ISBN: 1569310564 %T 2001 Nights: Journey Beyond Tomorrow %P 696 %G ISBN: 1569311021 %T 2001 Nights: Children of Earth %P 696 %G ISBN: 1569311250 %D 1995 %I Cadence Books Graphic Novel %K graphic-novel, science-fiction
Date written: 2000/04/26
December 01, 2004
A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
Chinua Achebe is perhaps most well known for his first novel "Things Fall Apart" and remains one of the most famous Nigerian authors writing in English. He retains his deceptively simple breezy style in this novel as well, but the story has moved from pre-colonial times to a post-colonial setting in a modern Nigeria.
The protagonist, Odili Samalu, is a well-educated and independent man and the story is a chronicle of his gradual spiral into the corruption of politics. His political ambitions are initially in reaction to Chief the Honourable M. A. Nanga who is the representative of his district and an old friend who has changed irrevocably since becoming a politician. Odili is an idealist and philosopher who despises Chief Nanga. Odili becomes a rival of Mr. Nanga not only for political office but also for the affections of his mistress and his wife-to-be. He includes some indication in this novel of the involvement of the two superpowers (at the time) in the political process in Nigeria.
The plot of this novel seems to chronicle the coup that occurred in Nigeria in 1966 just as this novel was published. He squarely blames the corruption of the politicians for the collapse of the government and the subsequent military regime. He does this implicitly throughout the book, and then explicitly in the last chapter of the book.
Achebe's style of writing is minimalist, his style reminding me at times of R. K. Narayan. But unlike Narayan he remains mostly unsympathetic with almost all of his characters. At times Achebe displays great skill in his writing. However, this novel is never as consistently good as "Things Fall Apart". If you have to read one Achebe book, read that one. After that, give this one a try.
%T A Man of the People %A Chinua Achebe %I Anchor Books/Doubleday %D 1966 %D :Reissue edition 1989 %G ISBN: 0385086164 (pb) %P 150 %K literature
Date written: 2000/05/22
The Great Human Diasporas by Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francesco Cavalli-Sforza
There are many excellent popular science books on the subject of evolution and natural selection. Most of them pick examples that are clear-cut and easy to transmit in a pedagogical sense, avoiding the evolution of humans and the issues of similarity and dissimilarity between the various human races. In the first five chapters, the authors pursue answers to the following questions:
- How different are humans from other animals?
- What accounts for the differences between humans of different races?
- Why do scientists claim that we all come from Africa?
- Are there any beneficial mutations? (The answer is yes, and the book gives many excellent examples.)
- Can all humans trace our ancestry back to a single person? (the answer is surprising and complicated to understand)
This book answers all of these questions and more. You might find answers to some of these questions in other books as well, but for people interested in what evolution has to say about humans, this book is the most readable resource that I've found.
The primary author of this book is Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza who is an emeritus professor of genetics at Stanford University and this book is mostly a chronicle of his contributions to the field of genetics and how he used these tools to address questions about human origins and diversity.
The first five chapters deal with the author's main strength in the use of genetic drift in order to find answers about the movement of humans out of Africa and in other parts of the world. In chapter 6, the authors use archeology and in chapter 7, they use linguistics to show that these related fields concur with the genetic studies and importantly, do not contradict them. The facts in chapter 7 are a bit dated since the publication of this book and there are many recent books that give an updated picture of the evolution of language (see, for instance, "The Origins of Life" (From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language) by John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathm\'ary).
In chapter 9 and in the postscript, the authors take on the use of genetics to prove that some races are inherently more intelligent than others and thoroughly debunk these approaches. In chapter 10, however, is the weakest chapter in the book where the authors simply descend into preaching and philosophy of life discussions.
One unfortunate thing about this book is the large number of typographical errors that have been carelessly allowed to remain in the final published version. The publisher should be ashamed that they did not proof-read this document more carefully.
%T The Great Human Diasporas %T :The History of Diversity and Evolution %A Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza %A Francesco Cavalli-Sforza %A :translated from the Italian by Sarah Thorne %I Perseus Books %D 1995 %D :First Italian Edition, 1993 %G ISBN: 0201442310 (pb) %G ISBN: 0201407558 (hc) %P 300 %K science, evolution
Date written: 2000/05/21