The Rifle

April's digiread is The Rifle. This novel is a post-apocalyptic tale with men in a cabin struggling with the occupants of the valley below. The cabin possesses a lever action rifle. The men in the valley build a catapult. As with most wars death and destruction reign, but there is a glimmer of hope, which is usually all that remains after the shooting stops.

Digireads

I’ve opened a new discussion group on Facebook called “Digireads.” 

The purpose of this effort will allow readers to get author comments, background, and writing tidbits by reading the books written by William Behr Mueller. 

One book will have the spotlight during the month. So far there has been a good response to the forum with comments by a number of readers. Since all my books are available in the Kindle Owners Lending Library you can borrow the selected book for free. Of course, it would be serendipitous if you were to purchase a book, but that’s for you to decide. If you do buy a copy you will be able to leave a review. Amazon frowns on reviews from non-purchasers. On the other hand you can always make a comment on Digireads. And if you don’t want to have your comment reviewed publicly you can always email it to me and I’ll respond, if appropriate.

You might want to take a look at the page on Facebook to get some idea of what the effort is all about.

Politics

The political process hasn't changed that much since the founding of these United States. As reported in Fred Kaplan’s biography of John Quincy Adams the vitriol, name calling, outright lies and physical violence are much the same as they were a couple of hundred or more years ago. The real difference is that then the rent-a-mob phenom hadn't been invented to exploit the meaning of the First Amendment. Of course, the size of the population compared to Adams’ day is partially to blame for the number of participants that disrupt political events. However, the real culprit in Adam’s eyes is the quest for power that leads to the anger and hatred that makes potential politicians fear for their lives. He was convinced that his enemies (much like his father’s) would do or say anything, true or false, to keep him from having a second term.  If the outcome weren't so vital to the future direction of the country and if he weren’t such a concerned citizen it might have been a case of a pox on both their houses. But, like Adams, we have to face the fact that there will be an occupant of the White House even if he or she is antipodal to our views. Since that is a given we should forget all the negativity and ask what their policies would be. That would be the enlightened way to elicit information that might be helpful to our participation in the republic.

Climate Change

Like many of the vox populi I was skeptical of man-caused climate change, but with so many on board the climate train it was hard not to jump on. My brother was even more skeptical than I and in many ways we agreed that the ice cores showed that carbon dioxide levels were higher in the past when it was colder than they are at present.

Recently he bought a copy of “Climate Change: The Facts.” He was so enthusiastic that I borrowed and read it.

The evidence against anthropogenic climate change is vast and unimpeachable. The first part of the Al Gore/pro climate change scientists’ Holy Grail was the “hockey stick” graph that showed a precipitous rise in global temperatures due to fossil fuel burning. In fact the overall energy balance for the earth has not changed for the past seventeen years. So much for that bit of nonsense.

Another bit of science fiction promulgated by those in favor of anthropogenic climate change is the “heat sink” proposal. That is all the heat that must have been generated by the carbon dioxide in the air must be locked up in the ocean. But there is no evidence for that assertion; in fact, the ocean temperature has not varied much more than a fraction of a degree over the same time that the earth was supposed to be warming from all that CO2.

If the evidence weren’t enough there are numerous occasions where the international panel on climate change has manipulated the data to show that their models of man-caused climate change are correct. If this kind of manipulation were discovered in any other professional body the scandal would reverberate from pole to pole and around the Equator. But as some of the authors in the book point out climate science appears to be immune from a thorough investigation of not only the evidence but also the scandalous assertions that are made in the name of the IPCC.

The silver lining in this cloud of obfuscation is that the “undeveloped” countries have balked at having to meet the same carbon reduction criteria that the biggies have to meet (USA, UK, etc.). What that means is that the rush to limit, curtail or eliminate fossil fuel burning, especially coal, is on hold for who knows how long.

All in all the book goes a long way to show that climate is such a complex mix of gases, winds, solar radiation, oceans and other natural elements that have nothing to do with fossil fuel burning that one’s carbon footprint doesn’t loom as large a contributor to a catastrophic end for humanity as before the writers and editor began to analyze exactly what the gloom and doom anthropogenic climate change bloc was all about.

The statistics and charts in the book are explained in plain English so most of the scholarly approach to discussing the evidence is readable. But the book is not a page turner and one wouldn’t expect it to be so since it takes a while to digest the information presented.

Magic

“Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell” takes a six disc look at the restoration of magic in merrie olde England.

The story begins with Mr. Segundes attending a meeting of the Yorkshire magicians. They scoff at his desire to restore magic to a reputable place in England. In fact they don’t believe that there is the possibility of anyone performing the kind of magic that went out of style three hundred years before the story begins.

The group of magicians attends a demonstration in one of the local churches. Mr. Norrell is a bookish sort of magician who has been convinced that to restore magic to a respected place he must demonstrate something to the gathering. He uses the device of a metal bowl filled with water and a magic incantation.

At the church the stone figures come to life and scare the bejeesus out of the attendees.

As the story progresses, Jonathan Strange is set upon by his erstwhile love to get an occupation. By chance he receives two spells from an itinerant magician. He is able to make magic with one of them and decides to become a magician as his preferred occupation.

With one problem after another all compounded and related to a fairy that is intent on keeping magic where it has resided for the past three centuries Norrell and Strange find themselves caught up in a struggle to overcome the power of the fairy.

Strange is called upon to aid the army in its struggles on the Iberian Peninsula. He does so and the government is grateful as is one of the ministers whose wife was restored to life by Norrell.

As more complications pile upon the magicians they are forced to confront the fairy in his netherworld of endless dancing.

There is a price to pay for the confrontation and even though Strange regains his wife and the minister his wife, Strange and Norrell are doomed.

In the last scene Strange revisits his wife as a reflection in a fountain in Venice. She wants more, wants him to return to her, but alas he cannot.

The final scene has Norrell’s faithful companion, Childress, pontificating that Strange and Norrell have gone beyond the rain (one of Norrell’s magical devices).

The episodes will keep your interest as will the performances and sets, but by the time you get to disc number four you will probably wish that the BBC production was much, much shorter.” 

Go Set a Watchman

Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman” probably should not have been sub-titled “A novel.” It’s more like a collection of short stories: Scout (Jean Louise) attempting to disprove Thomas Wolfe by coming home again, reliving the past with her white trash friend Henry, going to a ladies’ tea and finding out that she can neither abide nor fit in with this hallowed Maycomb tradition, finding out that her father is part of a town council dedicated to suppressing the blacks, getting strange advice from her uncle who really loved her mother and finally coming to an understanding of who she is and why she is the way she is.

Lee’s book has some interesting dialog; lots of southern argot and characters who are somewhat memorable but in a way are almost stereotypical of the south.

The book is not a page turner and reminds me of many of the other southern women authors I read back in the day (Carson McCullers’ “The Member of the Wedding” comes to mind). However, it does provide conversational material for book enthusiasts, and will, no doubt be required reading in academic circles. 

Jules Verne

Jules Verne wrote using the conventions of the 19th Century. That way of telling a tale appears stilted and formal and makes a modern reader want to skim as much as possible without losing the thread of the story. Whether his audience was awed by the spectacular abundance of flora and fauna might well be a moot point. Even so he went to great pains to include as much description of what the voyagers encountered as would fit. He may well have been paid by the word and that would be another explanation of the somewhat cloying abundance of this animal and that plant. So with those caveats in mind let us begin his tale of 20,000 Leagues under the sea.

During the 19th Century a strange phenomenon appears in the sea. It wreaks havoc on sailing ships. Many think it is something akin to the Kraken of myth that rises up from the depths to destroy wooden ships on the surface. Academics and other experts present their opinions that drive to what appears to be an agreement that it is definitely a crazed cetacean. Finally it’s decided to send an expedition to find out exactly what sort of abomination threaten seafarers of all nations.

A French academic, M. Arronax, his servant Conseil, and Ned Land, a Canadian whaling man accompany the intrepid crew setting off to determine the nature of the danger that ships face in the open sea.

Day after day and there is no sighting of the dangerous creature. Then strange lights beneath the sea are sighted and the ship veers to investigate, but the closer the ship gets to the lights the faster they move away.

After many attempts the ship lowers a boat to give Ned, the experienced whaler a chance to throw a harpoon to see whether it will have any effect on the plated thing they have observed. Ned gives a mighty heave but his harpoon simply bounces off the creature’s back.

As Ned, Arronax and Conseil try to determine exactly what the thing they have attempted to harpoon it crashes into their boat and leaves them adrift as it moves off and goes in pursuit of the ship. They are left helpless in the wake of the creature. And they have little or no hope of regaining the ship.

After much searching Ned, Arronax and Conseil find that the ship has been sunk. They wonder whether they will be next on the creature’s destructive schedule. And they are as the creature comes back to their location. Just when all appears to be lost, the castaways are rescued by the very creature that has caused their distress by destroying their ship and their long boat.

Inside the-what-can-this-creature-be is found to be some kind of ship. The castaways attempt to communicate with the crew but all they hear is a strange incomprehensible language as they are fed but kept in a confined space not knowing what their fate will be.

At long last the commander appears. He is Captain Nemo who has abandoned any further contact with humanity and the land. Everything that the sea provides will be what he uses to feed his crew. The ship named Nautilus is propelled by electric power, something that strikes Arronax as marvelous and mysterious.

After some time the castaways are treated to a survey of the ship and even are invited to an undersea expedition using diving gear perfected by Nemo’s genius.

The Nautilus proceeds on its twenty thousand leagues under the sea journey with Arronax describing in great detail all of the marine flora and fauna that they encounter.

Finally arriving at the island of New Guinea and becoming fastened to a sandbank the Nautilus must await high tide. In the meantime the castaway guests go ashore and find various animals, birds and other flora for consumption. They also arouse the curiosity of the natives and hurry back to the ship before they can be attacked.

High tide arrives, the natives are shocked when they try to enter the interior and the ship sails away.

The first half of the book ends with one of the Nautilus crew being buried in an undersea graveyard.

In the second half, Nautilus continues on her voyage and Conseil lists page after page of sea life, which to a modern reader wanting to “cut to the chase” drags the story down in a hurry.

Arriving at Ceylon, the crew stops to watch and explain the oyster fishery and the nature of the pearls that the animals produce.

Captain Nemo decides that he will head the Nautilus in the direction of the Red Sea and ultimately to the Mediterranean. The only problem is that the newly opened Suez Canal isn’t deep enough for the Nautilus to operate in Nemo’s manner. Arronax is amazed that Nemo would tell him that even though they wouldn’t transit the canal they would still be in the Mediterranean the next day. It turns out that Nemo had discovered an underground tunnel he named “The Arabian Tunnel” through which the Nautilus would pass beneath the Suez Canal on its way to the Mediterranean Sea.

After an extremely fast passage through the Tunnel, the voyagers arrive in the Mediterranean. Nemo takes them to experience an underwater volcanic activity before turning the ship toward the Strait of Gibraltar. Ned Land contemplates taking the ship’s pinnace and escaping but is thwarted by the speed of the ship.

Heading toward the port of Viga where a treasure fleet was scuttled to save it from the English, Nemo sends his crew out of the ship to retrieve all the gold and silver still remaining in the wrecks. His ultimate goal for the specie since he has no use of it is to help the poor, which M. Arronax finds laudable.

Ned Land’s plan to escape the ship is thwarted again by Nautilus heading southward. Reaching the Sargasso Sea more information about the environment is forthcoming. Then Captain Nemo turns southward again.

The ship finds a passage to an underground grotto formed by an ancient volcano. Arronax provides a running commentary on all the flora and fauna the voyagers encounter.

Again, Ned cannot escape the ship because it is in the open sea after Captain Nemo shows the voyagers the remains of Atlantis. It appears as though Nemo intends to take the Nautilus to the South Pole.

And after a dangerous passage beneath the ice and land they arrive at the South Pole (years earlier than it was actually discovered). Attempting to exit the ice traps Nautilus and the voyagers appeared doomed to die from either suffocation or being crushed by the ice.

Escaping the frozen prison Nemo heads Nautilus north toward the Amazon River nexus with the Atlantic Ocean.

Another catalog of fauna and then more travel northward.

Somewhere off the Antilles, the voyagers run into giant poulps, a type of cuttlefish. One of them attacks the crew and kills the man. Nemo and the others use axes to hack off the arms of the poulps before the attackers leave and the Nautilus can go back to its normal cruise.

Off the American coast Nautilus runs into a hurricane and has to dive to a considerable depth to escape the fury of the waves.

Continuing north and east Ned determines that they can escape the ship when they are near the coast of Norway.

Unfortunately Nemo steers toward the Maelstrom, a vast whirlpool in the sea that swallows ships. Ned, Arronax and Conseil work the side of the ship to gain entrance to the pinnace.

Verne wrote himself into a corner and had to rely on that ancient device of the deus ex machina to get the pinnace free of the Maelstrom while Nautilus was sucked into the depths.

If you saw the movie of the same name you will have no trouble getting through the sometimes difficult and oftentimes boring passages that Verne used to captivate his audiences. The book is not a page turner and many readers will either skim it or put it down after reading some of the catalogs that Verne was keen on using. As far as a grade goes it probably lands in the B category, although that might be generous.