Musical Interlude The Eighth

All the nobody people and all the somebody people
I never thought I'd need so many people

Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson

As is my wont, I sometimes will Google 'apocalyptic fiction' to see if it has discovered my blog. So far I've been disappointed. I always get left out. Today when I looked I decided to look at the wikipedia link that is at the top of the page. Nothing new there. I looked at the bottom of the page at the external links part. Just for the hell of it I looked the Post Apocalyptic Media link. I registered so I'd be able to read the forums. I get some good recommendations from PA forums. I was reading some of the posts when I stumbled on one that linked back here. A comment below the first took issue with this blog because I couldn't force myself to finish 'Wolf and Iron' by Gordon R. Dickson.

I did enjoy the basic premise of the story. World goes to shit because of economic collapse. For a while it looked as though it may actually come to pass. I had no problem with the main stem of the plot line. My problem was the wolf. I made the egregious error of reading the foreword. In this section a Harry Frank relates how this book is an expanded version of a much older (and shorter) story. He also explains his offense to the portrayal of the wolf in the original story. Harry is a wolf behavior specialist and he thinks that the wolf and the domestic dog are being conflated.

Mr. Dickson decides to revisit the short story and update it with advice/suggestions from the wolf specialist. So to be more specific I had trouble getting through all the text book type details of wolf behavior. The book should have another author listed. I feel that the chair of the psychology department at The University of Michigan, Harry Frank, Ph. D should share cover credit.

Some critics have lambasted Stephen King and claimed he had 'diarrhea of the word processor' when he reworked The Stand. Trust me, King has nothing on Dickson. He managed to turn a short story that is just a scosh under 34 pages into a rather daunting novel of 468. Too much wolf information. Way too much. I had to hit the eject button on it.

Also when I read I prefer to do it for pleasure. I do enough reading to learn in school and with my master's research an' things an' stuff an' junk.

I still have the book and now is a good time to give it a second go. Good news/bad news: I can read this for a break from my thesis and at sub-jobs without being sucked into it too badly. Might be quite awhile before I finish it though.

Not This August

Things are heating up for characters of my most recent read. Seems when China and Russia won WWIII they divided the United States nearly in half. As the book now stands it may turn into an outright PA book and shy away from pure dystopian. Events occurring in the final moments before the US surrendered has made this a very likely situation. All the scientist made off with the enriched uranium and plutonium. They were told to hide it away and conduct a 'scorched earth guerrilla war' and use their suitcase nukes to make the 'Reds' feel the sting. So if the book continues in the same vein as it has been, an explosive conclusion may be in the offing.

And in other news: I just had my six month dental cleaning last week and when the dentist was poking around he thought I should have a couple of elderly fillings replaced. My mouth is still numb as I type this, but (as I told my dentist) 'if the world comes to screeching end I won't have to worry about figuring out how pull my own teeth' (like the protagonist of Night Work). I'm good in that respect for another six months.

Further updates as events warrant.

**UPDATE**

The book never did take the mythical turn away from a purely dystopian novel and become apocalyptic. It was a fantastic read and served well as a diversion at sub-jobs but is just not deserving of a place on the list.

Strange/Random Sub-Job

Today I am at a local high school with a higher than normal Russian Orthodox population. Makes reading 'Not This August' an unusual experience.

Also have not figured out if the book is PA or dystopian. I'm leaning towards dystopian though.

Further updates as events warrant.

Musical Interlude The Seventh

"Hey I've been havin' the same old dreams,But mine was a little different don't you see.I dreamt that the only person left after the war was me.I didn't see you around."



Hey they can't all be loud screamin' punk now can they?