- Brain Worms 087 / The Third Policeman by Flann O'BrienThe Star of the East, London
The Third Policeman is Flann O'Brien's brilliantly dark comic novel about the nature of time, death, and existence. Told by a narrator who has committed a botched robbery and brutal murder, the novel follows him and his adventures in a two-dimensional police station where, through the theories of the scientist/philosopher de Selby, he is introduced to "Atomic Theory" and its relation to bicycles, the existence of eternity (which turns out to be just down the road), and de Selby's view that the earth is not round but "sausage-shaped." With the help of his newly found soul named "Joe," he grapples with the riddles and contradictions that three eccentric policeman present to him.
Available from all good libraries and book shops.
You don't have to have read it to join us - but it'll probably help.
We will be meeting in the Function Room upstairs in the Star of the East. It is a 3 minute walk from Westferry DLR station. It has a wide selection of food and drinks: https://thestaroftheeast.co.uk/
We hope to see you there.
...
To join the Brain Worms WhatsApp Group please click here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvFibn1d6AsEwdVGmwkhko (in order to stop spam bots this will take you to a Waiting Room. Once in please write your name and we will join you to the main chat).
Meetup charges subscription fees. If you would like to make a donation please click here: https://paypal.me/philosophycollective
- Brain Worms 088 / The Year 200 by Agustin RojasThe Star of the East, London
A disparaging examination of the Castro regime that combines cryogenic freezing, artificial intelligence and surveillance with evil wizards, time travel and killer robots in a gripping adventure story. The peace of Tranquil Grove is violently disturbed when the Imperial Service's Hydras awake from a 200-year sleep and implant the consciousness of a sadistic, lascivious torturer and a desperate aging secret agent into the minds of a film-obsessed boy and his mother, an 'emotional engineer.' Drawing as much from the realms of the adventure novel, spy thriller and political satire as from hard science fiction and fantasy, THE YEAR 200 is on the one hand steeped in hard science and prophetic in its address of cryogenic freezing, artificial intelligence and surveillance, and on the other full of the action and intrigue brought on by evil wizards, time travel and killer robots. A cult classic and Cuban SF father Agustín de Rojas's most popular work, de Rojas critiques the Castro regime by holding it against its own impossible standards. An imaginative and bold social extrapolation and nuanced political parable, THE YEAR 200 brings contemporary trajectories to their logical extremes and asks, What does 'the greatest good for the greatest number' really mean?
Available from all good libraries and book shops.
You don't have to have read it to join us - but it'll probably help.
We will be meeting in the Function Room upstairs in the Star of the East. It is a 3 minute walk from Westferry DLR station. It has a wide selection of food and drinks: https://thestaroftheeast.co.uk/
We hope to see you there.
...
To join the Brain Worms WhatsApp Group please click here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvFibn1d6AsEwdVGmwkhko (in order to stop spam bots this will take you to a Waiting Room. Once in please write your name and we will join you to the main chat).
Meetup charges subscription fees. If you would like to make a donation please click here: https://paypal.me/philosophycollective
- Brain Worms 089 / Translation State by Ann LeckieThe Star of the East, London
The mystery of a missing translator sets three lives on a collision course that will have a ripple effect across galaxies in this powerful new novel by one of the masters of modern science fiction. Translation State is at once a sweeping space adventure and a brilliant exploration of how in order to belong, we must first become. Qven was created to be a Presger translator. The pride of their Clade, they always had a clear path before them: learn human ways, and eventually, make a match and serve as an intermediary between the dangerous alien Presger and the human worlds. The realization that they might want something else isn't "optimal behavior". I's the type of behavior that results in elimination. But Qven rebels. And in doing so, their path collides with those of two others. Enae, a reluctant diplomat whose dead grandmaman has left hir an impossible task as an inheritance: hunting down a fugitive who has been missing for over 200 years. And Reet, an adopted mechanic who is increasingly desperate to learn about his genetic roots - or anything that might explain why he operates so differently from those around him.
Available from all good libraries and book shops.
You don't have to have read it to join us - but it'll probably help.
We will be meeting in the Function Room upstairs in the Star of the East. It is a 3 minute walk from Westferry DLR station. It has a wide selection of food and drinks: https://thestaroftheeast.co.uk/
We hope to see you there.
...
To join the Brain Worms WhatsApp Group please click here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvFibn1d6AsEwdVGmwkhko (in order to stop spam bots this will take you to a Waiting Room. Once in please write your name and we will join you to the main chat).
Meetup charges subscription fees. If you would like to make a donation please click here: https://paypal.me/philosophycollective
- Brain Worms 090 / The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas PynchonThe Star of the East, London
Suffused with rich satire, chaotic brilliance, verbal turbulence and wild humour, The Crying of Lot 49 opens as Oedipa Maas discovers that she has been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her. But gradually, death, drugs, madness and marriage combine to leave Oepida in isolation on the threshold of revelation, awaiting The Crying of Lot 49.
Available from all good libraries and book shops.
You don't have to have read it to join us - but it'll probably help.
We will be meeting in the Function Room upstairs in the Star of the East. It is a 3 minute walk from Westferry DLR station. It has a wide selection of food and drinks: https://thestaroftheeast.co.uk/
We hope to see you there.
...
To join the Brain Worms WhatsApp Group please click here: https://chat.whatsapp.com/EvFibn1d6AsEwdVGmwkhko (in order to stop spam bots this will take you to a Waiting Room. Once in please write your name and we will join you to the main chat).
Meetup charges subscription fees. If you would like to make a donation please click here: https://paypal.me/philosophycollective