Sum

I've just read "Sum" by David Eagleman. I didn't intend to buy it, and I'd never heard of it before this afternoon, but I was drawn to it in Waterstones today, and am incredibly glad I was. It's one of the most unique fiction books I've read in ages. It consists of fourty short (2-4 pages) narratives explaining how the afterlife might be. It expounds beautifully on the huge range of possibilities that our universe presents, and how no-one really knows the answer to any ultimate questions.

A particular favourite quote of mine comes from 'Missing' where it is explained that God is in fact a married couple, and that when you die, you enter a parent-child relationship with them. I love how cleanly it explains the synergism between science and religion

"Every human in the world is a child to them, and they devote a tremendous effort to their parenting skills.
It is heartening to see that they learn from us in the same manner that all parents learn from their children. For example it turns out they didn't know how to express the workings of their universe as equations, so they are greatly impressed with the ideas of their physicist children, who phrase clearly for them for the first time what they wrought"

This is a fantastic book, and I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone. It's well thought out, imaginative, unique, entertaining, humorous and moving, all at once.

York

York is a beautiful town of ancient walls, cathedrals and cute little streets paved with flags and filled with quaint little shops. It has buses that bend in the middle, a ferris wheel and an Ask pizza house in the stunning assembly hall. Conversely, York University is made out of concrete. Some of the buildings are quite impressive (central hall for example), while some are just plain mad (hedgehog buildings for example), and others just ugly. However, in its favour it does have a huge lake (filled with ducks, and, I am reliably informed, Trevors*) and Heslington Hall, a lovely Elizabethan mansion house which stands opposite a slightly creepy topiaried Yew garden (Alice in Wonderland springs to mind).

As you can probably tell, I visited my sister at York this weekend. We had Friday off (shock horror, thanks to some smart lecture shuffling) so I went up in the early afternoon having gone down to the Corpus Playrooms in the morning to teach some actors the ChaChaCha. I don't really know the ChaChaCha, but mine and Alex's rudimentary knowledge of the basic, new york and turn steps proved useful in forging a bond between actor and actress. Anyway, I digress. Went up to York on the train (which only took 2 and a half hours!), and Hannah met me at the station. Pretty soon toad in the hole was being devoured at a local pub (the Cross Keys if anyone knows it), and Hannah was working through a steak (much to her boyfriend's gall later on!). We then toddled back to campus (on a bendy bus, oh joy of joys!), and sat in her (pretty nice) kitchen for a few hours chatting to her friends. Thinking about it, they are probably reading this, as Hannah often subjects them to this torturous site, so I suppose I'd better say something nice. Teddy Bears.

And so, we went to McQ's (it's a bar, not an exam**... I know, I was confused and slightly worried) and had a few drinks before coming back home. Hannah's house is... functional. Long corridors, no plaster (painted breeze blocks) and mildew, but it's homely now it's lived in and everyone looks settled.

The following day, Hannah took me on a tour of the campus (see above), and then she, George and me walked into town. We got some lunch (Ask - see above), and then came home again, because, like a great big retard, I forgot my camera. Arses. Really, though I convinced anyone it was because I was stupid, this was infact because I figured that was better than admitting that all I wanted to do was ride on a bendy bus again! So unnecessarily fun.

So, much fun was had. I ended up waiting ages for a bus back in Cambridge (as I didn't check the timetable until I'd been waiting for 30mins - I was too engrossed in "To Kill a Mockingbird"), but was greeted when I finally arrived by requests for chinese takeaway... so we did! Huzzah!

*Trevor is the name given to a black Swan that attacks Hannah's kitchen window every day. Due to their rudimentary undergraduate swan differentiation skills however, this results in every black swan being named Trevor despite the fact that many are infact named Charlotte.
**MCQ = Multiple Choice Question.

Houses, Englings and Bronte

Hello!

Recent internet obsession - scrabulous.com and also its facebook ap. They're both great ways of playing scrabble online, and I've become a little obsessed. Best move so far, involved playing "RAPpERS" on the 1st go (70 ish points) and then making it "CRAPPERS" on the next move, getting a triple word and 54 points. Huzzah!

Last week was exciting. I went up to Cambridge for the day to see our new house. It looks about a million times better than it did when we went to look round before (and it still looked good then), probably because there was only me and my sister in there, as opposed to 13 people! It smells a little dusty, but apart from that should be amazing to live in! Me and Hannah had a good day in Cambridge carrying stuff to the house, finding out that the number 7 bus goes straight there, eating in a pub, hoovering (!), talking to lady about horses (?) and making videos on my camera. hehe Larks.

The following day I went to see Vicky (who is looking very well) in London. We went for cake and a drink in a pub around Leicester Square and nattered for an hour and a half before Vicky had to go and feed her family.

This week is Hannah's results week and, apart from that, not alot. I'm reading Jane Eyre (I read Jasper Fford's 'The Eyre Affair' last week, and feel like I should read the real thing) at the moment, and can't really put it down. It's an amazing book - I'm quite surprised really. I got a really old copy from Oxfam in Kingston (along with Wuthering Heights - they were the same print and I couldn't see them split up) - cost me £2.98 in total. Bargainusmaximus!

Tom

On Thursday

We are not built to cope with all the sadness in the World

"They both regretted the death, but they were middle-aged men who had invested their emotions elsewhere, and outbursts of grief could not be expected from them over slight acquaintances. It's only one's own dead who matter. If for a moment the sense of communion in sorrow came to them, it passed. How indeed is it possible for one human being to be sorry for all the sadness that meets him on the face of the earth, for the pain that is endured not only by men, but by animals and plants and perhaps by the stones? The soul is tired in a moment, and in fear of losing the little she does understand she retreats to the permanent lines which habit or chance have dictated and suffers there."

EM Forster, A Passage to India, p219.

A Passage To India

Before I start, I should just give a small warning that this post may give away some of the storyline. However, I would suggest that this book should not be read so much for the intrigue of what happens to Aziz, but for the people and politics surrounds that story. It sounds like a bold and pretentious statement, but in fact the main story framework is extremely small - it is its telling that I found most fascinating.

Aziz is an Indian doctor working in Chandrapore. From the beginning of the book he sparks a friendship with Mrs Moore and Miss Quested, two English ladies, and eventually invites them an some other friends on a trip to the Marabar Caves. During this trip, Aziz and Miss Quested become separated from the rest of the group, and the result is that Aziz is accused of assaulting Adela, who appears to run from the caves. From the moment of his arrest the affairs of Aziz are never mentioned - you have no idea of what has been happening to him, except through the biased words of the Anglo-Indians, who never once mention his name - he is always "the prisoner". This is just an example of the guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude of authority in this book. As soon as the trial falls apart, Aziz is mentioned by name again as if nothing has happened, and he re-enters the story. "From the moment of his arrest he was done for… he had despaired, not through cowardice, but because he knew that an English-woman's word would always outweigh his own." p208.

It's a fascinating insight to the years of Colonial India, and exposes the racism inherent in the system. As I read the book I was filled with a constant feeling of respect for Aziz - it's the way it's written. Because you see all that happens - you are aware of Aziz's innocence and intentions all along, all the prejudice around him is shocking. Perhaps also as he speaks perfect English, and, being a book, you do not really have any idea of the colour of his skin it feels even more shocking. I wonder if this book changed any opinions in the 20s?

Books...

This holiday, I have done much reading, which has been something I have been looking forward to doing ever since exams got to within 4 months away. I list...

• Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre. A pretty good read. Set in southern texas you follow the expoits of an incredibly unlucky and persecuted individual, Vernon Little. He has been witness to a mass murder at a local school, and as the only friend of the dead killer, he becomes a scape goat for the local police intent on "cause and effect". 3/5
  
• The Player of Games by Ian Banks. One of his culture novels, the first I've read. It took some getting into; his writing style is horrible - very punchy sentences, with poorly worded, forced dialogues. However, the story was quite a good idea, and if you can get past the writing and the fact that the characters names are clearly produced by Mr Banks luring his cat across his keyboard (Chiark-Gevantsa Jernau Morat Gurgeh dam Hassease indeed!), it's quite good. Basically, Jernau is a game player, he plays all, and he usually wins all in impressive style. He is taken away to the empire of Azad, where their game, Azad, is so complex that your positioning in a tournament determines your status in Azad society. 3.5/5
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling. You all know what these are, and I love them. They're so well written - very few other books have presented the same interweaving and gripping story lines that the entire HP series have. Perhaps it's because there's around 3000 pages of character history, but the character developments are fantastic. An easy read, but well worth it. Not wanting to give anything away, the ending is great. I may have shed a tear or two... 5/5
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. The story slowly ducks and weaves, but it's the writing that really pulls you along in this book. It's written from 4 perspectives - three 1st person and one 3rd person. Leo Gursky writes with stacattoed, regularly punctuated sentences, and writes about his days trying to make himself noticed at the end of his life. He'll go into starbucks and order coffee loudly, and then proceed to deliberately spill it. He's written a book, but it was never published - it was given to a friend to look after when world war II began, and he hasn't seen it since. His only love, Alma emigrated from Poland during the war, while pregnant with Leo's only son. Another Alma writes exceptionally for a 15 year old - always questioning, always reasoning, and her brother "Bird" writes his own confused thoughts in his diary, which I suppose is his own was of expressing love. Their mother is translating The History of Love, a book by the main character in the 3rd person piece, Zvi... as the story unravels the stories begin to link together in breathtaking style. I really enjoyed this book, and will no doubt read it again and again. 5/5

Finals Almost Over

It's Thursday, and I've been free for 50hours and 24 minutes. Alex is in her final exam (must think statistical thoughts!) and will be finished in an hour and a half, Ella will be finished in two hours, and then this evening we have formal. Tom finished on Tuesday afternoon and arrived home with tonnes of M&S biscuits (not just biscuits) and with the phrase "I love English". This is a good sign that a) he has made the right decision moving from Physics to English and b) that the exam went ok! My daughter Vicky has finished her exams and is currently languishing in the bosom of her family back home in Somerset, Louisa is nearly done (tomorrow) and her exam yesterday on the Kuran went ok - she had some funny anecdotes of exciting points she made. The Englings Vicky, Iona and Erika finished last week, as did Reece and Bethmo finishes tomorrow.

The summary can be generalised as "Cumulatively exams are almost at 100% completed". Hurrah!

So, what have I been doing for the last few days? Well, reading mostly! I've finished "The Dawkins Delusion", which was well worth reading, probably before you an embark on "The God Delusion". See my brief review below. I've also just bought "Can a Darwinist be a Christian: The Relationship between science and religion" by Michael Ruse. The journey to understanding begins!

The Dawkins Delusion

The Dawkins Delusion - by Alistair McGrath and Joanna Collicutt McGrath.

I must admit that this was a very good read. McGrath gives a fair and well argued critique of a book he describes as "often little more than an aggregation of convenient factoids, suitably overstated to acheive maximum impact, and loosely arranged to suggest they constitute an argument". He essentially portrays Dawkins as an "Athiest Fundamentalist" who's main aim is not to pass on the message of evolution to the uninitiated, but to wipe out all world religion. One of my favourite quotes sums up how McGrath views Dawkin's world view:

"Here is Ruse's comment on what happened next:

'When John Paul II wrote a letter endorsing Darwinism, Richard Dawkins' response was simply that the Pope was a hypocrite, that he could not be genuine... Dawkins himself simply preferred an honest fundamentalist.'

Ruse's comment immediately helps us understand what is going on. If Dawkins' agenda was to encourage Christians to accept biological evolution, the Pope's statement would have been welcomed... Dawkins is unable to accept that the Pope - or presumably any Christian - could accept evolution."

It appears that Dawkins is a character who shares many attributes with fundamentalist Christians and is in fact doing more damage to the atheist/Darwinian cause than any creationist. In my opinion, and I have held this view for some time, he does genuinely believe that evolution is the be all and end all of life on earth: "no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference.” (A River Out of Eden, Dawkins 1995). However, until reading this book, I pretty much agreed with him - though I was willing to compromise for religion. Having read this book my eyes have been opened even further to the possibility of a God. One of the most important revelations (as well as the aforementioned "Real Magic" was that many scientists are religious. And, in the words of Gould "Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with atheism"). Religious belief is not infantile, or stupid.

Thus, I must agree with McGrath. While Dawkins' books on the natural sciences are well argued, clear and enlightening, it appears that The God Delusion is a departure from his usual well argued, scientific, evidence based writing. Now, I have not read The God Delusion, but having read this critique I'm not sure I want to. Dawkins arguments seem to lack depth and carefully researched arguments - many of his points rely on long-defunct Christian theology, in short, if you do read the God Delusion, read The Dawkins Delusion as well - at least give religion a fair shot. McGrath has the advantageous position of an ex-atheist Christian trained in molecular biophysics and also theology. Read the book, and make your own mind up. In my mind, Dawkins has lost alot of respect.

How much is religion "blind faith" and how much of it is reasoned?

Dev Bio Saviour.

I'm posting this for anyone who may happen to study developmental biology at any point. It will seem daunting, it will seem nigh-on impossible, with genes rushing about all over the place. I hope this post will help you. I hope it'll end up on google, like most of my pages do and will direct you to this book in your time of need. PDN dev bio, Cambridge... here you go...

Instant Notes, Developmental Biology

you may think pfff instant notes, what an undetailed waste of time. Nope. This book will clarify everything - in fact, I'm regretting ever going to lectures. Instead I should have just read this book time and time again. It's really brilliant.

c u r r e n t l y

Currently reading: The Dawkins Delusion: a critique of The God Delusion - should be pretty interesting.
Currently working on: Limb Bud Development
Currently listeninging to: Interior Lulu by Marillion - an epic track from their 2000ish album Marillion.com. Not an easy one to get into if you've never heard Marillion before, but beautiful none-the-less

Finished Gormenghast

It was a really good series.

Well, the 1st 2 books anyway.

It's dark, it's beautifully written, and even in the page-after-page where the castle just undergoes it's painful and unceasing monotony, it's worth reading, and still holds you. And of course, when something does begin happening there's no way you can put it down. The last book is strange, and such a huge leap away from the first two, that I found it a little strange. Titus leaves the castle, and finds a magical land with cars, and flying space-ships. All a little weird and unexpected for my tastes. However, if you get the chance, read them. It's well worth it.

Maps from the New World

Just bought a gigantic book from Borders about Maps from the New Worlds. It's full of loads of maps from the ages of discovery. You know you've reached a strange time in your life when the phrase "I've always had a bit of a thing for cartography" starts getting bandied around!

Dogs and Views.

The holiday is nearly over; it's only one day until I go back to Cambridge, and I'm surprised. My second summer holiday has essentially flown by and now I'm starting my graduation year (yeah I have 3 more after that, but it still feels a little significant). My bedroom is a pit, owing to the first attempts at packing I tried yesterday. It's surprisingly hard to take only select stuff; when I pack to come home from Cambridge it's much easier as EVERYTHING needs packing! I have finally thrown away my filthy sauce pan (ruined in Castle End by some unidentifiable tomato burnage, and non-stick scrapage, perpetrator technically unknown), and have bought some shiny new ones from Ikea.

I arrived back from Leeds on Wednesday; I only went up for a few days to say hello (and to keep Alex and her brother entertained while their parents were away enjoying the sun, sea and sand of the Devon coast. We visited Mary, which was great fun - she showed us many photos of her amazing trip to Kenya - Giraffes, zebras, lions, tigers, leopards, buffallo, antelope, impala... everything you'd expect! We also walked the dogs to the top of the hill and took stock of the amazing view. Just one of many discoverable in the foothills of the pennines. Both Alex (Yorks) and Mary (Lancs) have views everywhere - within a few steps of their front-doors, something that I miss in the Kingston Basin, and in the Cambridge pancake. They seemed confused at my almost constant "Wow! Another view!" as we walked round. I also discovered that I like walking dogs. Thus two things for me to attain when I grow up are dogs, and views. You can see the amazingness of the landscape, Alex and Mary and the Dogs in the three photos I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure.

We also had a bonfire with a load of paper shreddings. There's something about fire that just fascinates me, and if I think correctly, every other human being on this planet. Maybe it's hardwired into our brains so that we can actually cook our food (and thus enable us to have lazy digestive systems(?)). We toasted marshmallows in the papery flames, and were merry.

• Films watched: 2. Some like it hot (v.good), and This Boy's Life (a bit dull and drawn out, but it finished well).
• Books read: 1. The Blind Watchmaker. Read it on the trains, and well worth reading. Just ignore the chapter about taxonomy because it's dull.
• Miles Travelled: ~500 including Alex's first venture onto a motorway behind the wheel (and very well she did too).
• Packed: 60%
• Kisses from drunk 30something's on tube trains: 1. My hand I hasten to add.

Darwin, Dawkins, God and Me. All in 417 Words

This is not a radical post – it is my opinion.

If, all those million years ago, the tiny life-like particles had come together and “discovered” a DNA-like way of copying themselves, but, one that was perfect, I mean 100% perfect, letter for letter, chemical for chemical, then we’d still be sitting in a primordial soup. The sheer fact that we cannot copy ourselves perfectly has enabled us to become what we are today, and isn’t that incredible? – Me, 2006

Evolution by natural selection is an amazing thing, and in my opinion, explains everything there is to know about the origins of us, and every other living thing on the planet. Richard Dawkins also believes this, and I am currently reading his book “The Blind Watchmaker”, and it is fantastic. Full of beautiful metaphors and well explained theories (though his analogy of DNA to the ROM of a computer was extremely confusing), it is well worth reading. However, I think if he is going to more widely spread the amazing news that is neo-Darwinism he is going to have to divorce it from his arrogant atheism.

Now, I’m not religious, and I don’t really believe that there is a God – perhaps I’m hedging my bets – an agnostic. As I’ve said, my beliefs about the origin of life are the same as Dawkins’s, but that’s not the point. That does not immediately disprove the existence of a God. God and evolution (even evolution by natural selection) are not mutually exclusive, it just simply gives a different role for a deity. All the species we have on this earth today are descended from an original (or a few original) ancestors, and that’s great, but so what? Maybe once all religious experts realise that evolution did happen, and that natural selection is the perfect, most logically perfect way to explain this, and people like Dawkins realise that while it may disprove the book of Genesis as a literal fact, it does not prove organised-religion to be a breeding ground for unintelligent, uninformed, brainwashed fools perhaps we can all get on. Religion in general makes a lot of people happy, and I believe has helped us set up a large majority of the moral codes we hold today. I have no problem with peaceful religiousness; it’s just not for me.

Aside from these religious misgivings, the book is well worth reading and shines a glorious light on all that is natural. Completely natural, and beautiful.

Anyone else’s opinion would be welcomed!

Tom

Magic and vocab.

Have just finished Dr Bainbridge's Pregnancy tour-de-force. It was only a simple skimming over the science of pregnancy, but was actually extremely interesting, and should make re-revising my repro notes from last year much easier. As I was reading it it reminded me just why I am studying Development and Reproduction next year - just because it's as close to magic as you can get in science.

I've now started to second book in the Gormenghast trilogy - the first few pages required me to have a dictionary at my side. I realised how I read books and simply ignore any words that I've not heard of before. "With her arms akimbo" for example... would have glossed over it, but now I know that it means to have your hands on your hips and your elbows sticking out sideways. I've been writing the really complicated ones down in my old french "Lexique" book from GCSE year, so maybe they'll stick!

b o o k s

Currently Reading: A Visitor Within (The Science of Pregnancy) by David Bainbridge. Written by one of my lecturers no-less, the infamous Dr Bainbridge. While this is going to be a relatively basic coverage of the science of pregnancy, seeing as I'm doing development and reproduction next year it can do no harm. It'll also be fascinating to read one of his books!

Just Finished Titus Groan. It was fantastic. A surprisingly simple story of the first few years of Titus's life, interspursed with the foreground of Steerpike's rise to fame within the Castle ranks. Well written, and thoroughly enjoyable. 10/10. I'm going to read the other two books in the series after Dr Bainbridge's. I'll feel better about reading some fiction when I've read a book relavent to my course!'

g o r m e n g h a s t

Currently Reading: Titus Groan by Mervin Peake (1st Book in the Gormenghast Trilogy). I randomly picked up the entire trilogy in Victoria Coach station on the way to Alex's, and it cost me £15 so I hope it's good. I read the first 90 pages on the coach, and must admit that although nothing happened, it was great fun to read. Mervin Peake's writing style is vividly descriptive, and simply in describing the daily lives of a number of characters within Gormenghast he kept me hooked. Hopefully this bodes well!