bsag's micro blog

After years of using a Magic Trackpad, I got a Logitech MX Ergo trackball. It has taken a little getting used to, but I like it. I can put it between the halves of my keyboard which is better ergonomically, and switch it between connecting to my iMac and MacBook Air with one button. Thus really helps when I am working from home on my laptop. The angle feels very natural once you are used to it.

My husband often buys me books he thinks I will like. He’s really good at picking them, but as a result I end up with quite a stack of books and it takes me a while to get around to reading them. I therefore picked up this book without remembering quite what grabbed me about it when I received it. As soon as I started reading it, I couldn’t believe that I had let it languish for so long on the ‘to read’ pile.

The story is set in the near-ish future when Biology departments in Universities and subsequently commercial companies are able to project the consciousness of young human ‘phenomenauts’ into the 3D-printed organic bodies of animals. The phenomenauts are able to feel what it is like to be a dolphin or a spider or fox (to the extent that this is possible while still remaining human), experience their senses and move around in a real environment in the company of real animals. If anything could hit all my wish fulfilment buttons at once, it is this idea.

Initially, the phenomenauts’ job is to study and monitor animals, but the companies are starting to develop the experience for tourism. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by animals, and wanted to be able to occasionally take off my humanity like a coat and experience life as an animal. I do a much more hands-off and objective version of this professionally, and every colleague I’ve told about this book (and believe me, I haven’t been able to shut up about it) has said that it would be amazing to be able to do that. So you see where I am coming from.

The story follows the Katherine North of the title (or Kit, as she prefers to be known) who - at the age of 19 - is a veteran among phenomenauts at ShenCorp. They employ young children because their brains are plastic enough to cope with the body shock of projecting in to radically different bodies and sensory systems. Emma Geen describes beautifully what that experience might be like, and does an excellent job with the biological detail while leaving enough room for speculation and some gorgeously poetic moments. She also shows how spending so much time in other ways of being changes the phenomenauts. The altered perspective changes their own ways of being as humans. For example, Kit spends quite a bit of time as a fox, and as a human finds herself more aware of dominance behaviours, territoriality and so on among other humans. It also makes her acutely aware of the realms of information (like smell or ultraviolet-sensitive vision) that are a closed book to humans.

The book weaves an exciting thriller in among Kit’s phenomenaut experiences, but I won’t provide any spoilers about that. It is a gripping book and one that I have often found myself thinking about since I finished it. Emma Geen apparently read Psychology and Philosophy at University, and that shows itself in the many fascinating ideas she presents the reader with. I will certainly be reading it again.

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By all rights, this ought to be awful: an adaptation of the Cyrano de Bergerac story set in a boys’ public school, where the two male leads fall for the daughter of the new French master. However, I have to say that I loved it.

Alex Lawther (in the Cyrano role) does a great job as an awkward geek (as he always does), but there is so much surreal quirkiness in the peculiarities of the school (particularly the ‘Streamers’ water-based rugby game) that I found it offset any tendency the film might have to become boring and over-familiar. Great fun.

This was a beautifully shot film, with good and subtle performances by all the cast, and I found it engaging enough at the time. However, it hasn’t really stuck in my mind the way some films do. Even though it is only a few weeks since I saw it, I struggle to remember much about it.

Quirky doesn’t quite cover it, but this is a terrific film. Wonderful performances by all three leading women, but the chemistry between Olivia Coleman and Rachel Weisz was outstanding. I’m certainly going to to watch it again.

I'm of a similar age to many of these women, so I could relate strongly. Great, knock-about comedy from a very talented bunch of actors. It wasn't laugh out loud funny the whole way through, but there were some great moments.