The Running Man

Synopsis:

Ben Richards is fed up with this shit. He quit his job at General Atomics because his wife wanted to have a baby, and you cannot have a baby microwaving your testicles all day long. So, being blackballed (no pun intended) from any job in respectable society, he decides to make money the only way anyone from the Co-op City can: He applies for the Games. The Games are government run, reality tv shows on Free-Vee, a government sponsored cable news entity. Little did he know, that with the right mix of derision and attitude, he could make it all the way to the top: The Running Man. He gets a head start of twelve hours, then the Hunters get sent after him. If they find him, they will kill him. If he makes it a month, he wins a billion New Dollars. Let the Games begin.

Governmental Control:

Two methods of control here. One, the most obvious, is the Free Vee. The government (called "The Network") gives free television to all the masses. On it, it runs new reports and shows and the Games. Each Game is a chance for the poor to make a bit of money, like Treadmill to Bucks, where people with heart disease or lung infections earn money by the amount of time they can spend on a treadmill. Yeah, real cool stuff. But, the other way, the less obvious but more scathingly written, is dope. "Rich folks smoke dokes." "Smooth Blokes Blow Dokes." And it is no secret that King really detests it when he brings up the subject matter.

Personal notes on this book (may contain spoilers!):

This is how a dystopian book is supposed to end. I won't spoil, but damn, was this a good book.

And also, some people would think this blasphemy, but this story would make a much better movie than that craptastic Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Seriously, read it and decide for yourself.

Important lesson of this book:

TV rots the brain, and is a control mechanism for whoever has the ability to put crap on it.

From there to here:

This is not hard to imagine. With the public's fascination with these mind-numbing reality shows (looking at you Survivor and American Idol), it is not hard to imagine that this will become the method by which the government dispenses justices and keeps its sheep in line in the future. That sickens me.

Overall:

96/100

Farenheit 451

Synopsis:

Guy Montag is a fireman. But, in a near-future twist, firemen are no longer needed to put OUT fires. The government uses these men to go to the houses of those that have broken a specific laws and, there, these men must burn everything. That is, until one day, when Guy meets a teenaged neighbor who shocks his world and shakes his beliefs. Soon, he doesn't know good or evil, right or wrong.

Governmental Control:

The government bans books. This is in an effort to control ideas and philosophies to truly make all men equal:

I hope I've clarified things. The important thing for you to remember, Montag, is we're the Happiness Boys, the Dixie Duo, you and I and the others. We stand against the small tide of those who want to make everyone unhappy with conflicting theory and thought. We have our fingers in the dike. Hold steady. Don't let the torrent of melancholy and drear philosophy drown our world. We depend on you. I don't think you realize how important you are, to our happy world as it stands now.

By controlling what people can read, the government can control what the perceptions of reality are, and thus can control the simulated states of happiness of its people.

Personal notes on this book (may contain spoilers!):

Or, at least, as spoiler you can get for a sixty-year-old book. It took me a long time to read this book, in the grand scheme of things. I have picked it up and put it down about ten times before I actually read the whole thing. Now that I have read it, I am glad that I did. It was a great book. But. Ten pages to go in the book, Bradbury invalidates all the actions of the book. And this irritated me. Montag really struggles with his new identity, the dichotomy of being a fireman who has struggled with the fact that books hold treasures, and he gets caught, which was inevitable. So, he gets out the only way he knows how. He torches his boss (that is the boss' quote that precedes this section) before he can be arrested. And there is finally a struggle of man vs. government that makes dystopian literature great. And as he's running, and the government is chasing, war is declared. It is a side note. It gets mentioned a few times through the chase, but it is not an ever-present concern. So, Montag gets out, the government captures some scapegoat because Montag has lost them, and Montag finds a group of expatriate professors and kindred spirits, but still lives in fear of the government. Then, ten pages to go, Bradbury nukes the freaking city. No more government. Montag wins! And thus, all his actions are invalidated. And the books are still gone. GOD. DAMMIT.

Important lesson of this book:

"Remember the firemen are rarely necessary. The public stopped reading of its own accord."

Read a book, for pity's sake!

From there to here:

This is a tough one to imagine. But I will try. The internet has already invalidated most books as it is. People have stopped reading long ago. In fact, I think that, of all the people I know, I can count the fiction readers who read regularly on two hands. And that is a shame. Movies, the internet, the instant gratification age has taken over. If the government convinces people that books are no longer necessary, libraries will crumble and publishers will close. The government convinces people that you can get all you need on the internet with your iPhone and your new Kindle and blah, blah, blah. Once books are gone, controlling the internet will be easy. Books can become the relics that it seems people have already made them. And, in an effort to save trees and be more green, printing of things is made illegal. Therefore, books are recycled and no more books.

Plausible, but not probable.

Overall:

First 150 pages: 9/10
Last 15 pages: 2/10

Dystopia 101

I have a love of all things dystopian. I went through a phase about ten years ago that proved, in my mind, that dystopian fiction was the genre for me. In thinking of ways to make over the blog so that it is not all cooking, I decided that each week I would try to post a review of a piece of the dystopian genre. Since a book a week is a tall order, I will expand my reviews to cover all media, be they novels, movies or, sometimes, musical in nature.

First, let's get to the bottom of the real dystopia, at least the real one to me. I see a lot of suggestions about great dystopian books that just aren't. Two guys walking through a shell of the land, burned out by holocaust is not dystopian. It is post-apocalyptic (which I may add if the dystopian fare gets low). Guys with cyberware, wetware, brain burns, etc. is cyberpunk. The main theme in dystopian literature, to me, is an all-powerful, people-suppressing government hell-bent on keeping the sheep to be sheep through all manner of manipulation.

So, for example, Neuromancer, not dystopian. 1984, on the other hand, is. The Road? Nope. Father and son walking through the land. Brave New World? Yes.

Now, the format. I will right a synopsis of the piece, then give the method by which the government controls its people. Lastly, and maybe the most fun, I will try to imagine a path that would lead us from present day to that future presented by the artist.

So, buckle in, the path may be bumpy for a bit until I find my style. The cooking blog will continue, starting with homemade lasagna (with homemade mozzarella and ricotta cheeses and a homemade sauce) next week. But, until then, on with the dystopia!

Now the Side of Hot Sauce

Did I mention I have a metric ton of habaneros staring at me every time I open my crisper? Seriously, I said 50, but I think that was WAY understating it. I used ten in the previous post, two in my homemade jerk sauce, and now 12 in this recipe and I still think I have 50 or so, and I pull about 4 or 5 off each day. Everyone should garden, it is quite a ride. (Psss... next year, I am going to plant a ghost chile plant, but don't tell my wife). So, for this sauce? 12 habaneros, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a white onion, 1/2 cup chopped carrots, olive oil (about a Tbsp.; I don't measure that), 1/2 cup distilled vinegar and 1/4 cup lime juice. Saute the onions and garlic with the olive oil (see why you don't have to measure?) until soft. Throw in the carrots with enough water to almost cover, and bring that sucker to a boil. Once the carrots soften (my advice is to cut the carrots very tiny, or to use shredded so it won't take forever), boil out most of the liquid.


Pour into a blender with the cut up habaneros, blend it all up, add the lime juice and the vinegar, blend that, too, and then throw it back into your saute vessel to stew for about 5 minutes. Now, my customary warnings when cooking with hot shit: Don't create the pepper gas as I have done, open a window, and once again, gloves, wipe down and, for god's sake, sit down to pee. After that, can her up (usual canning rules apply) and get her sealed. This one is sweet and hot.

I call it Orange Death:


And here is a video of my two-year-old trying the sauce . . . very funny, indeed:



Just kidding; what type of father do you think I am?!

Today's dish: Habanero Jelly and a side of hot sauce!

So, browsing a friend's blog, I see that she has herself a cooking section. I decide that this is, indeed, a fabulous idea, and being a cooking fanatic myself, decided to add my own entries. Maybe I can link to hers somehow and we can trade secrets. But, before that, on to the cooking. First off, habanero jelly. These habaneros are grown straight out of my own garden. I bought these plants as an afterthought several months ago; I think I got six plants for around $2, so I could not pass them up. Maybe I got 50 habaneros off these plants, so it is 50 habaneros for the low low price off $2. What a deal. Let me make a quick note about the picture on the right. This is the most important thing I have in my kitchen, I take it with me always forever. This is my in-house compost bin, that I empty into my outdoor compost bin. If you have a garden, compost. It is only smart. Anyway, the main players:







That is 3 orange bell peppers and 10 habaneros. Add 7 cups of sugar, 1.5 cups of white vinegar and a pack of pectin and you've got yourself a party, my friend.











Here we pick it up, mid-action. This is after the peppers have been pureed with the vinegar, I tossed them in this pot with the sugar and brought it to a boil. Let it go for twenty minutes, then strain through a cheesecloth (ok, I confess, I have no idea what a cheesecloth is, so I substituted with the cloth that has the loosest weave but that will still block large chunks. I actually saved the large chunks and made sort of an intriguing habanero candy). Add the pectin, bring to a boil, and Franky V., you got some habanero jelly.

One word about habaneros, if you are brave enough to try this at home, is that they hurt. For hours. Use gloves, wipe down meticulously, and for god's sake, sit down to pee. I am serious about this one. You'll thank me.

Another parting word: If you want to try it on wimp stuff, try jalapenos with green bells, or even cayennes with red bells. You are just attempting to match colors to give more volume without having to use 50 hot ass peppers. See the nice orange color there? That is the intent.