Kevin J Moriarity
Still the Voice of Doom and Gloom
Monday, June 5, 2023
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Book Review: Exhalation by Ted Chiang

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a book of ideas. The stories are philosophical essays tucked into sci-fi wrappers. Most of science fiction is idea-based, but these stories are more so than most. Two stories struck a chord with me, and a third deserves a special mention.
The Great Silence
This story moved me the most. It’s written from the point of view of one of the few remaining parrots in Puerto Rico’s rain forest. According to Wikipedia, as of 2021 it was estimated that only 500 existed after hurricane Maria. I learned about a gray parrot, Alex, who was quite smart and Irene Pepperberg, who trained and studied Alex. The narrator parrot says this:
“Human activity has brought my kind to the brink of extinction, but I don’t blame them for it. They didn’t do it maliciously. They just weren’t paying attention.” (Italics mine.) First, do you think humans would be so forgiving? And second, we do not pay enough attention to a lot of things.
What’s Expected of Us
This story explores the question: What if there were a device that could definitively prove that free will did not exist? What would happen to society? From the story: “Civilization now depends on self-deception. Perhaps it always has.” So true, from our conception of America versus it’s true history to our economic system, self-deception has proved invaluable.
Exhalation
A friend of mine loaned me this book (Al – I will return it next time we have dinner). He told me, before I read any of the stories, that the story Exhalation affected him deeply. I didn’t have that same reaction. This is one of the advantages of a book about ideas though. Next time we meet he’ll explain to me what affected him and I might have an “ah ha” moment. Or, he might.
It does have some interesting concepts such as the idea that obtaining sustenance is better in the company of others. It also explores the concept of entropy, though I think based on my limited knowledge of entropy that the story has the ramifications backwards. The last paragraph does have a line that we should all consider: “Contemplate the marvel that is existence, and rejoice that you are able to do so.”
I really liked the story notes at the end. I always enjoy reading what influenced an author in the creation process. In the notes for Exhalation, he notes a book that got him thinking about entropy and now I have another book on my list to read!
View all my reviews
Monday, February 20, 2023
Saturday, February 18, 2023
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Morton Arboretum Pictures: January 28, 2023
Sunday, January 22, 2023
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Ideas For 2023
Less digital. More analog.
More doing. Less reading.
More vegetables. Less vegging.
More walking and biking. Less driving.
More home-prepared meals. Less fast food.
More rewriting. Less posting sloppy first drafts.
More purging unused belongings. Less purchasing crap.
More local. Less national.
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Odds & Ends: December 31, 2022
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Change in Perspective
I went from this on Friday
Saturday, November 26, 2022
Odds & Ends: November 26, 2022
Friday, November 25, 2022
Lynne Handy's Facebook Cover Poetic Snippets
Starting in 2018, Lynne Handy asked me to change her Facebook cover image once a month. She wanted to put a different poem, or portion of a poem, on the cover each month. I got the impression she spent a fair amount of time putting this together each year. On November 8, 2022 I received her poems for 2023 (She included one by our poet laureate of the Fox Valley, Frank Rutledge!). Unfortunately, she passed away on November 20, 2022.
I don't feel right logging on to her Facebook page and changing the covers anymore. It just seems wrong, but at the same time, I want to acknowledge her work, the effort she put into choosing which poems to display. Accordingly, I'm going to post the remaining poems here, all at once.
DECEMBER 2022
Just
the worst time of the year
For
a journey, and such a long journey:
The
ways deep and the weather sharp,
The
very dead of winter.”
T.S.
Eliot, “Journey of the Magi”
JANUARY 2023
That
winter I had nothing to do
but
tend the kettle in my shuttered room
on
the top floor of a pensione near a cemetery…
“January in Paris,” Aimless Love, Billy Collins
(1941- )
FEBRUARY 2023
And
the moral of my code
is
this:
beauty
is twice
beauty
and
what is good is doubly
good
when
it’s a matter of two
woolen
socks
in
winter.
“Ode
to My Socks,” Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)
MARCH 2023
Touch
our bodies, wind.
Our
bodies are separate, individual things.
Touch
our bodies, wind,
But
blow quickly through the red, white, yellow skins
Of
our bodies
To
the terrible snarl,
Not
mine, not yours, not hers,
But
all one snarl of souls.
“Wind,” Selected Poems of Langston Hughes,
Langston Hughes (1901-1967)
APRIL 2023
I
remember this woman who sat for years
In a
wheelchair, looking straight ahead
Out the
window at sycamore trees unleafing
And leafing
at the far end of the lane.
“Field of Vision,” New Selected Poems 1988-2013,
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)
MAY 2023
Now
has come the joyous month of May,
So
gay, with such sweet delights,
As
these orchards, hedges, and these woods,
All
decked with leaves and blossoms,
And
all things rejoice.
“The
Joyous Month of May,” The Writings of Christine de Pizan, Christine de
Pizan (1364-c 1430)
JUNE 2023
The sun should be a couple of million miles
Closer
today. It wouldn’t hurt anything
And
anyway, this cold rainy June is hard
On
me and the nesting birds…
“Solstice
Litany,” Dead Man’s Float, Jim Harrison (1937-2016)
JULY 2023
But when the thistle blooms and on the tree
The
loud cicada sits and pours his song
Shrill
and continuous, beneath his wings,
Exhausting
summertime has come…
“Works
and Days,” Hesiod and Theognis, Hesiod (ca 750 BCE – Unknown)
AUGUST 2023
I am a honey locust tree
with
summer green intentions,
to
be a Mourning Dove
swallowing
twilight…
“Two
Places at Once,” Clothed in August Skin, Frank Rutledge (1962-2019)
SEPTEMBER 2023
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close
bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring
with him how to load and bless
With
fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run…
“To Autumn,” The Odes of
John Keats, John Keats (1795-1821)
OCTOBER 2023
…Autumn and winter are in the dreams…the farmer goes
with
his thrift,
The
droves and crops increase...the barns are well-filled.
NOVEMBER 2023
When icicles hang by the wall,
And
Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And
Tom bears logs into the hall,
And
milk comes frozen home in pail…
The stars, the heavens, and the elements
contested,
using all their arts and care,
to
make that living light where Nature and
the
sun are mirrored, nothing matches it.
“Sonnet 154,” The Poetry of Petrarch, Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374)
Sunday, November 20, 2022
Story Written, Edited and Posted for Contest
We submitted our story. We wrote a few, picked two that
seemed worthy of editing and selected what we thought was the strongest and
posted it in time. We won’t find out until January if we make it to the next
round. There were 5,439 writers registered. The organizers set up 125 groups of
44 (though one group must contain 43 since it’s an odd number of writers) and
they will select the top 10 out of each group to participate in the next round.
If we’re lucky we get to do it all over again in January. There is a third
round, in March. I can’t post the story we submitted until the contest is over.
I was involved with fewerthan500.com for a while. It seemed
to me that writing a story that would make an impact in 500 words was really
difficult. Now that I’ve tried to do the same thing in 250 words, 500 words
feels like writing a novel! I think it’s good to try to write short; I’ve
always thought most writers write too long. I’m glad I participated, whatever we
find out in January.
Thank you for your kind words and support. I appreciate it.