The Lathe of Heaven

Bill Moyers interviews Ursula K. Le Guin about the film adaptation of her excellent (and phildickian) novel, The Lathe of Heaven. What I love about her work is it exemplifies how Le Guin and Philip K. Dick shaped each other's work, in addition to their correspondence. Indeed, I am still amazed that these two titans of SF went to the same high school and supposedly never crossed paths. Both also allude to The Beatles in powerful ways for their novels, particularly John Lennon in Dick's The Transmigration of Timothy Archer. As for the novel, it's an entertaining read on ethics, dreams, metaphysics, and even climate change, race, power, and gender. Like the old saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as Haber's character illustrates in his twisted use of Orr's power. 

Si Yo Pudiera

The parang music of Trinidad is a tradition with which I am largely unfamiliar. But this, I love. It's reminiscent of Venezuelan music and guitar-driven music of the Hispanic Caribbean. In fact, it is somewhat reminiscent of the jibaro music of Puerto Rican Ramito and similar artists, which I also adore. 

Souvenir d'Afrique

Delectable piece from Boulpik, a Haitian group with an earthy twoubadou aesthetic. Beautiful banjo playing. Coupé Cloué would be proud...

Nochero Soy

Living the night life with one of the best of tango. The tango obsession continues!

Milonga del Angel

Beauty is a rare thing. Bask in the pulchritude. 

William Gibson

Interesting talk with William Gibson for all fans of science fiction. Highly recommend. He admits outright that part of his fiction is just transporting the horrid conditions of life in the Global South to North American cities, which is partly why dystopia in science fiction is already part of 'reality' in much of the world. 

No Pain Like This Body

Harold Sonny Ladoo's No Pain Like This Body quite different from Yesterdays. Although both novels share a raw, earthy, and unsentimental portrait of the lives of Indian peasants on a fictionalized Trinidad, local dialect for the dialogue of the uneducated, poor characters, and a bleak future, No Pain Like This Body features children as central to the plot, especially in their worldview, one in which jumbies, jables, lougawou, God, and death can be flexible to meet their shifting fears, hopes, and comprehension. Furthermore, the plot is not as straightforward, and the early chapters are dedicated to describing the experience of Rama, Panday, Sunaree, Balraj and their Ma after the abusive father beats his children and chases them into the rain on a tempestuous night on Carib Island. So, Ladoo's book is a slice of life in these downtrodden characters with some dark humor at the wake for Rama, yet one in which there's no escape from the black, heartless sky. Incredibly dark read but worthwhile for a different approach by an Indo-Trinidadian writer on their community.

The wake chapter actually brought to mind Roumain's magnum opus, believe it or not. Yet, I have never encountered any peasant family or community in other Caribbean literatures in which despair is so perfectly captured by the locale, family, village, and writing. Sure, urban settings in some other Caribbean writings have come close, but nothing quite like this. The other writer who came to mind is Arundhati Roy, particularly Rahel and Estha in The God of Small Things. One wonders if Roy ever read Ladoo. Perhaps she took an interest in the Indian diaspora of the Caribbean while writing her excellent novel?