We All Came Here Together

Sequel to Spin State, and, yes, you have to read that one first. Really solid hard science-fiction where the science is artificial intelligence (real AI, not fucking Claude), cloning, ecological collapse, complex adaptive systems and complexity theory, and I took the last two straight out of the "Further Reading" section at the end (yes there's homework) because hell if I know, even though Moriarty definitely expected me to know and says as much. The closest I can get to guessing what that field is about (without Further Reading) is E.O. Wilson and his ants, which are also here.

The fiction is set far in the future in a universe where the Earth is suffering from global climate catastrophe and the vast majority of people live in orbital stations or on terraformed planets. This includes huge hives of genetically engineered corporate clones, who are no longer considered human, and transhumans who have been technologically advanced to the point where they're not considered entirely human either. The only humans allowed to live on Earth are natural ones with hereditary exceptions, which, practically, seems to mainly mean indigenous groups, whatever's left of the United States after it broke with the U.N., and people with religious wars to fight. Half of the action is set in the middle of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

So you can see how this book might be a bit too real at this stage of the horrors.

Unfortunately for both of us, due to my state of mind—and the state of the world—I couldn't concentrate on any of it. I could only read it sporadically and had trouble remembering all the spy intrigue (of which there's a lot) and who was on what side, but I'm sure it was great and tense and full of unexpected betrayals (iguess.jpg). However, I can say that even after days away from it, I could pick it up and just start reading because it's very well written and the (main) characters are all memorable and interesting.

If any of this sounds like your jam, read the first book (that one is about mining, Bose–Einstein condensates, corporate espionage, and AI), pick up this one, and then probably read the third in the trilogy, Ghost Spin. I'll pick it up one day, but probably not today, and probably not tomorrow, on account of my poor brains.

Contains: global climate disaster; Israel/Palestine; torture and interrogation; widespread infertility; unplanned pregnancy; amputation; slaughter of chickens for food; and an extended shoutout to Ender's Game.

Poetry of Chiyo-ni: The Life and Art of Japan's Most Celebrated Woman Haiku Master, edited and translated by Patricia Donegan & Yoshie Ishibashi:

An important book as it was the first—and perhaps still the only—of its kind in English, a translation dedicated to a female haiku master. The introductory material provides valuable context for the time in which Chiyo-ni lived, the forms she worked in, and the influence of Zen Buddhism on her art, but it can be repetitive, covering the same ground multiple times, and I wish the biography had stuck closer to things that could be verified and wasn't so gossipy. We know very little about Chiyo-ni's personal life, not even if she was married, and Donegan apparently felt the need to pad her bio with unnecessary—and often melodramatic—speculation.

Chiyo-ni's haiku has, you'll never guess it, a more feminine approach than those of the old male masters, and for this her poetry has been criticized—by men—as not being "as good." But here's yet another example of men needing to shut up and let women work. Chiyo-ni's poetry is different because it's hers, just as Issa's work is different from Bashō's. Chiyo-ni's haiku is often more personal than that of the old male masters, with more people, particularly women, present in them:

woman's desire
deeply rooted–
the wild violets

Bashō would never. Issa might, but he'd add fleas. (Not in a gross way, he just loved bugs!)

Chiyo-ni's haiku is perhaps also more deeply rooted in Zen Buddhism—she was a nun after all—and as a result I found many of them inaccessible to me, as they're mainly interested in expressing Zen principles and feel kind of canned as she repeatedly returns to the same images and phrases. "Cool clear water" is nice once or twice. It is not as nice the fortieth time. It didn't help that the editors were constantly in the footnotes explaining how this was a poem about impermanence or non-duality and praising the deepness of her understanding of such things. It started to make the poetry feel performative, like Chiyo-ni was trying to win some kind of contest, and it didn't offer much to this non-enlightened reader. Like they didn't even bother to explain what non-duality was. But I still found several pieces that were meaningful even without Being The Best At Zen, like this, one of her best-known poems:

a hundred gourds
from the heart
of one vine

And her most famous haiku:

morning glory–
the well-bucket entangled
I ask for water

And this, one of her best known Buddhist haiku, which is supposedly expressing the peace of detachment, but I just love how dismissively breezy it is:

anyway
leave it to the wind—
dry pampas grass

I, too, wish I could leave it all to the wind.

Recommended because it's important to keep Chiyo-ni's name out there, mentioned in the same breath as Bashō, Buson, and Issa, but there's also good poetry in here. Like this haiku, which I absolutely love because the structure suggests that the horsetails were there first and the ruins came later.

つくつくしここらに寺の跡もあり
tsukutsukushi / kokora ni tera no / ato mo ari

among a field
of horsetail weeds–
temple ruins

Or this classic:

falling down laughing
at others falling down—
snow viewing

The poems are presented one per page, with the transliteration first, which is a weird choice, then the English translation, and the Japanese (with furigana) in three staggered vertical columns, read right to left. (Personally, I think either the translation or the actual Japanese should have been offered first, as the transliteration is the least attractive on the page and not particularly meaningful if you don't know Japanese. If you do know Japanese, it's still of limited use.) Footnotes identify the kigo (seasonal word), and many include translation notes, further background, or another poem on a similar subject.

Now for the bad news: I read this in ebook because that was the only way my library had it, and it was not a pleasurable experience. It's listed as an epub in the catalogue, but it sure did act like a PDF. It was an image of the book rather than a text that would flow to fit your screen, and you could only zoom in, not increase the font wholesale. You couldn't highlight text (or search) with any accuracy, and you couldn't highlight at all if you were zoomed in. None of the many end notes were linked. I was pretty mad at this book, not going to lie, and it made my time with Chiyo-ni's poetry kind of frustrating. Definitely get it in print if you're able.