Peter Straub

The last few posts ( 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5) have been largely book related. That tells you the amount of free time I have these days. But talking about works of fiction that I thoroughly enjoyed, I do feel it would be criminal to not mention Peter Straub and his works. Yes - I know most of y'all (except for BrijWhiz) probably haven't heard of him.

Straub is usually classified as a horror writer - much like the more famous Stephen King, probably because he's collaborated with King. But it's tough to call Straub a horror writer. Usually his stories are built around a premise that you'd find in psychological thriller type novels. But his novels go much deeper than that. His characters hold up a mirror for you, compelling you to introspect, while his writing compels you to turn pages. And in that sense, he has very little in common with King, much less with most other authors I've read.

I picked up The Throat written by Straub for a train journey from New Delhi to good ol' Mumbai in '98. I thought I'd picked up a cheap, slasher novel. Instead, behind that cheap sounding title was a self-indulgent, but utlimately superb psychological thriller. The Throat, the third and final book of what's known as the "blue rose" trilogy, deals with the return of a serial killer to a small American town, who scrawls "blue rose" besides his victims. And here everyone had thought that the killer had been caught after the first spate of murders died out (no pun intended). By the time the book was over, I was looking for others from Peter Straub.

I did pick up the remaining books from the "blue rose" trilogy including Koko and Mystery, thereby ending up reading the whole "blue rose" trilogy backwards. No harm done though. I found the experience extremely rich. The Throat and Koko, especially are two of my favourite psychological thrillers. And I highly recommend both these avant garde psychological thrillers by Peter Straub to start with. The links should lead you to Amazon pages for the books along with summaries/ editorial reviews.

Special props to Brijwhiz for helping me keep my interest in Straub before.

Crichton and Programming

My good friend Brij discussed earlier a fantastic piece of fiction - Dune by Frank Herbert here. My cousin Sanjay first lent me the book - although I had heard much about it before. Idle reading these days (being unemployed and all) involved finishing Prey by Michael Crichton. The connection between Prey and Dune being that they're both categorized usually as science fiction (i.e. sci-fi). And you're right - that connection I made was the result of some serious analytical skills. I do understand though that sci-fi is generally classified into hard and soft. With that in mind, Dune's probably on the soft side, while Prey's probably on the hard side.

I know I wasn't all that excited about wanting to read Prey. Crichton's last book that I read i.e. Timeline was a good thriller incorporating quantum science in interesting ways, but pretty much typical run-of-the-mill in terms of writing quality. I decided to give Prey a read anyways however, since I am prone to rushes of magnanimity and Crichton's been begging me for a while. I won't go into the book summary and all that - you'll find a much more detailed account here. But the story deals with the confluence of nanotechnology, genetics and computer science, and the implications of it all to the future of mankind. Food for thought indeed!

While some of the notions and ideas in the book are far fetched given that Crichton's works are usually based on current ongoing or proposed scientific research, there were a few that I did find relevant. Especially those about computer programming. In the book, programmers of the Silicon Valley regularly indulge in designing and developing virtual, autonomous agents to work in distributed computing scenarios. Also, most programmers know how to power these agents with evolutionary or genetic algorithms that allow them to combine with other agents and come up with efficient solutions for a broad range of complex problems. Just like people getting together with other people to solve problems. (Or stone other people - probably the same as solving problems actually!)

It is my understanding, based on what is normally taught in programming that such programming is still far from the norm in the Silicon Valley or any valley. Most programmers are still rooted to using algorithms for which upper bounds and lower bounds, both in terms of memory use and time are known or can be evaluated. Such algorithms are essential for commercial software development right from analyzing the cost-benefit of program code at the lowest level, up to the setting of milestones, deadlines, etc. up at the higher, project management levels.

But, while such programming is still pretty essential, the truth is - the theory and practical applications of genetic algorithms may soon become important for all programmers to study. Besides off-the-shelf resusable code or code libraries are used extensively for known problems. Why keep re-inventing the wheel? More importantly, complex problems are solved better using a combination of traditional as well as heuristic techniques just as humans tend to problem solve.

Off-late, several computer science as well as bio-informatics graduate programs across the world do offer courses on genetic algorithms and such. And while programmers armed with this knowledge may not quite be the norm in Silicon Valley, not quite as Crichton potrays, they will probably become necessary in the not-to-distant future.

A mildly compelling page turner at best, Prey however is nowhere close to Crichton's best. I do think that this phase of reading paperback quickies may not last too long.

BrijWhiz grows older!

Many happy returns of the day (August 25th) to BrijWhiz, my personal pioneer and more importantly, one of the very best of buddies a guy ( and/or a woman) can have.

Brij, may your hopes and aspirations for the next year of your life be fulfilled. May your wealth and stock options continue to grow. And may you finally be able to stay away from the hookers and the booze. Oh right! Sorry! You're way past that phase of your life, and your wife wouldn't want to hear of your past exploits. Or rather, I mean the lack thereof (for Megz's sake!).

Continuing on then; may your wife have something sexy and naughty planned for you - and may you help her out a little more by taking a shower finally. (I did that on my birthday and it was received with the most heartfelt expressions of gratitude. One needs to do good deeds as mentioned above annually. Too often though, and you risk diluting the enormity of that particular expression of love.) Shaving your facial hair may be a little too much of a shock for the poor thing though. So go easy on her. One thing at a time.

Ok. Ok. All that roasting aside, a toast to all the good times and bad we've all shared over the last several years, and to all the good people we've met, and the bad ones we dissed, and the pretty ones we ogled. And to your continued presence online and offline (whatever offline and online means). Don't need a share of the stock options though to say life is immeasurably richer with you around (but would definitely help)!

P.S. Just found out that BrijWhiz shares his birthday with ... Sean Connery - whoosh 76 yearsh old today! Now I know why you've had the luck with the ladies, and a penchant for Scotch! Cheers buddy!