True. During COVID, only the Boomer colleagues were all there at work in person. I’m eternally grateful because they were there in the trenches with me when nobody else was.
Another AI Experiment
I conducted an experiment which, I believe, is very illustrative of the kind of intelligence that AI has. I asked it to explain what a certain work of literature we are reading in class was about.
The result really puzzled me. I started figuring out what prompted the AI to produce this particular, very strange response. I figured out that AI found an interview with the author and developed his reply to an interviewer’s question into a mini-essay. This is something a human being wouldn’t do because we understand context. And we understand other humans. Of course, an author wants to talk up his own work. He’ll want it to sound more profound than it is. A human being with even a modest intellect that self-presentation by other humans who are trying to sell something needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Or, ideally, a few bushels of salt.
The really funny part is that this work of literature has a very descriptive title. You could figure out what it’s about without even reading it.
What I Do and Don’t Like in the Mystery Genre
Reader XYKADEMIQZ suggested that I talk about the mystery genre books I’m reading, and I’m happy to do that. I’ve been disappointed with my recent findings in the genre, and here’s why.
What do you usually look for in a mystery? Twists and turns and a surprising ending, yes. But the surprise at the end is only valuable if it happens within a plausible story. If the surprise is that the murder inside a locked room was committed by a killer who developed a skill of walking through walls, that will be disappointing to readers.
There must be something in such novels in addition to plot twists. Writers like Ruth Rendell and Sophie Hannah, for example, have a brilliant insight into psychology. Each has a whole series of characters who illustrate different kinds of psychopathology. It’s clear that Hannah, in particular, reads widely in the field to make her characters plausible and fascinating.
Another possibility is to offer an insight into the intricacies of the American legal system. John Lescroart is such an author. His novels are interesting because their characters navigate the complexities of the courts that are realistic. Like Hannah, Lescroart clearly does a mountain of research before writing.
This is a sort of a tacit compact that a mystery author has with the reader. I’ll surprise you, the author says, and I’ll manage to do it without abandoning reality. The snake that bit a young woman in the English countryside in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mystery was a real snake that the girl’s evil stepfather had brought from India. It wasn’t a magical snake brought over by fairies. Fairies are a different genre.
Unfortunately, the authors of the recent novels I have read in the genre either don’t know or don’t care about its conventions. Jeneva Rose’s The Perfect Marriage and Whiskey Sour by JA Konrath heap one senseless surprise upon another amidst a stock of cartoonishly unrealistic characters. These novels are pure dopamine factories. They don’t offer any insight into the human nature. They give you no questions to ponder. All they give is a succession of dopamine hits.
A Mystery Box of Novels
I won a mystery box of 4 novels. Imagine my joy and excitement. Four novels! I was over the moon.
And then I opened the mystery box. Whoever the insane bastard is who put it together must never be allowed around books. Or people.
The mystery box contained four novels, all set during WWII and all featuring on their covers a woman standing with her back to the reader. Four female backsides during WWII. Is there a weirdo who would want to read four books in a row that are identical on subject and cover art?
I haven’t had a similar book-related letdown in years. I hate WWII novels ever since we were veritably persecuted with WWII content in the USSR. Plus, I’ve read five trillion novels about the Spanish Civil War. I’m so over war novels.
Post Suggestions
Can anybody suggest any interesting conversation topics? I’ve uncharacteristically got nothing because all my energy goes to not going off on people who are eating my brain out with a little teaspoon.
A Life Sentence
I use this notebook called A Life Sentence to write down one sentence about every day of my life.
It’s such a great thing because I can go back to any day that I recorded and remember the most important thing about it. The memories come back so vividly.
I highly recommend this practice. One can have many wonderful days simply slip one’s memory.
The Death of the Soviet Service Sector
One thing that blows my mind completely is that the service sector in Ukraine is now better than in Europe or the US. Service was Soviet-type in the post-Soviet space up until 2005. My sister traveled back to Ukraine in that year and reported rude, contemptuous shop assistants and shamelessly defrauding waiters.
It was normal back then to charge a customer who ordered apple juice twice, for the juice and the apple. It was also normal to mock a customer’s appearance and mental capacity loudly and obnoxiously. It was normal to pretend you aren’t noticing a customer or laugh contemptuously in their face. This was the remnant of the Soviet era when shop assistants guarded the access to prized consumer goods amidst endless shortages and could afford to torture desperate customers.
Then it all magically changed, and today Ukrainians in Europe and America politely inquire why the service is so bad. My sister met with her Ukrainian colleagues, and they told stories about service in Ukraine that truly stun the imagination. I had no idea such dramatic improvement can occur so fast and on such a large scale.
A Realization
I asked my Ukrainian Fulbrighter about the most important thing she realized in her stay in the US.
She said she realized she wants to go back to Ukraine and have another baby.
The Mother of Evil
Why would it be so much more unacceptable if they marched with swastikas? Especially since there would have been no swastikas if the red flags hadn’t come first. What is it with people that the mother of great evil is considered cute and quaint? How do people break it up in their minds? Hitler is bad but Stalin who brought him to power, trained his army, kissed his ass, and partitioned Europe with him is wonderful?
Where are the calls for Dem leaders to disavow the Commie attendees? We’ve had years of outrage over Charlottesville. Where’s the outrage about this?
Against Self-driving Cars
There’s a trillion reasons but here’s one. The GPS software doesn’t allow the option of choosing a safe area to drive through. Because it’s racist to create routes that specifically avoid high-crime areas. My GPS is insanely dedicated to having me drive through East St Louis. But I’m behind the wheel, so I ignore its directions.
A self-driving car will self-drive you into gang territory, and you won’t have a way of preventing it. Of all the people on the planet, one would expect Charles Murray to understand how this works but somehow he’s failing to see it.
We are three seconds away from our cars reporting our efforts to racistly avoid places like East St Louis and compiling a file on the most egregious offenders, and here’s Mr Murray, happily promoting these carceral devices. I’m learning my routes by heart and preparing to take the SIM card and the battery out of the phone for every ride. It’s going well. I can get in and out of St Louis safely through countryside back roads if necessary.
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