Won the Hugo? Pfft! "The Man in the High Castle"

Our Science Fiction book discussion group met, I suppose appropriately, on May 4th to discuss Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle.

In general, our assessments of the book were mixed. One member ranked it among her least favorites and another as definitely not a favorite. The rest of us liked the book, with certain reservations. One difficulty, I think, is that The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history science fiction, which is not a popular style with some of our members, myself included. Also, having been written in 1962, the novel very much shows its age. There are strong prejudices evident especially against the Japanese. WWII propaganda against the Japanese was much more virulent and hateful on the whole and I think had a gigantic impact on the way Americans thought and wrote about them for a long time after the war.

Personally, I liked the book mainly because I enjoy Dick's writing style. It just clicks with me, I suppose. The novel is really three main story lines that intertwine in various ways. Overall, Americans are not portrayed in the best light, being shown as opportunists in a world that turned out very differently from ours. Strangely to me at least, the Germans/Nazis are not universally reviled in a way that seems fitting to me considering in Dick's imagining, they were able to put many of their most horrifying and brutal plans into action where as in our world, those plans remained merely plans.

I would recommend the book, especially to those watching the television version. In my opinion, it's always good to see the source material. PKD is responsible for shaping the way we look at science fiction in many ways because of the visual interpretations of his works - Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, etc.

As an aside, we've changed the meeting location of our book group again, this time to Carl's Bar and Grill on Main Street in Hutchinson. We had met a couple of times at the Metropolitan Coffee House, but the acoustics aren't the greatest there for a detailed conversation. Carl's, surprisingly, seemed a little better. Why aren't we meeting in the library? Well frankly, we've met and discussed science fiction there since 2012 and we got tired of looking at the same four walls! Also, it's nice to be able to enjoy a snack or a beverage that someone else has prepared!

In June, we'll be discussing John Wyndham's "Day of the Triffids". We'll be meeting at Carl's Bar again - dutch treat dinner at 6pm and book discussion at 7pm. Hope to see you there!

Does the public library matter to you?

Maybe the Hutchinson Public Library or some other public has had an effect on your life. Perhaps you just needed a place to sit and relax, perhaps you needed a source to finish a paper for school, or perhaps you needed to search for a job or needed instructions to repair your car.

Maybe you haven't been in a public library since you left school. You may not feel like something seemingly so "old school" could possibly be useful in a time of smartphones and streaming everything. If you can get all you need information and entertainment-wise by paying for it, you probably can't see the utility in such a "populist" institution as the public library. But there are millions of Americans who cannot afford or even purchase if they wanted, good, high-speed Internet access. Public libraries can help with that - some even lend WiFi hot spots for you to take home!

This is a great article from the magazine The Nation about the value of public libraries. I'd recommend a read.

Talk20

Six minutes and forty seconds is quite a challenge - but I think it will be fun. What am I talking about? We're supporting an idea here at the library that involves... sharing ideas! Here's a link to a better description of what the program is about. This isn't a one-time deal, but it won't be offered all the time either. It is something that will hopefully get the community talking and learning about the things in which our neighbors are involved.

I like the idea of a library as a place here not only is knowledge collected, organized and stored; but a place where knowledge is created.

Little Free Library

Have you ever seen one of these?  I haven't in this particular form, but I've seen the idea expressed in a number of similar ways - usually within a public library.  These are called "Little Free Libraries" and they operate on an honor system - take a book, leave a book.  The library boxes are often built with re-purposed or recycled material and maintained by volunteers or the person who created it in the first place.  The little library gets registered with the folks at Little Free Library, and gets added to their network.  They have a Google map that show you the locations of little libraries all over the country - you can browse it here.

Often in public libraries the spirit of this movement is expressed by way of a paperback exchange where library patrons bring in mass-market type paperback books for donation and then borrow some from the designated collection housed in the library.

We are interested in getting this started in Hutchinson.  There are already some interested parties and who knows?  Maybe there will be a Little Free Library here in town soon!