Friday, August 26, 2005

On The Nightstand

Well, I finally plowed my way through the remainder of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince". The verdict, it was my least favourite of the series so far although to be fair the last quarter of the novel did claw back some of my interest.

At the other end of the spectrum, I just bought Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomas and I can't put it down. I'm only a third of the way through it so far, but the creativity of the concept has me hooked. What would it be like if overnight everything you knew changed? If you were classified into one of four 'personality types' and sent to live with others deemed to be of the same 'type'? What would it be like to live in a nation divided?

Thomson never fully explains many of the logistics of his concept, but the main character's blind acceptance is an important part of the story. Thomson also uses the premise to play with ideas of totalitarianism, eugenics and human adaptability, but his straightforward writing style avoids the story being bogged down in abstract concepts.

Meanwhile he has me turning every page, eager to find out what happens.

9 comments:

Bodhi said...

Ok, I did did the Rearrangement Test at the Divided Kingdom link you provided and got mostly C's and therefore was determined as Sanguine:

"Those who are most favoured are deemed SANGUINE, their dominant humour being blood. They are optimistic, even tempered and constructive, and must reside in the Red Quarter, whose capital is Pneuma".

I was initially excited when I saw the Rabbit symbol there, but not when I realised it was for the Melancholics: "Finally, the MELANCHOLICS, dominated by black bile, are characterised by introspection, pessimism, and an inclination towards the intellectual. Melancholics reside in the Green Quarter, whose capital is Cledge".

The poor Rabbits!

Hmmmm, now you have me wanting to read this book Andrew...

The Most Favoured
Bodhi :-)
Sydney, Australia

The Other Andrew said...

You can't be the Most Favoured, I am! :-) I too am Sanguine.

I've read about the concept of 'humours' before, it was really big in Medieval medicine. The idea that people could be classified as Sanguine, Choleric, Phlegmatic & Melancholic.

In the book the 4 types are seperated by 'Berlin Wall' style security arrangements, so at least we'd still be able to hang out and go dancing, given that we're both Sanguines. (The sanguine symbol in the book is a red peacock.)

Poor Rabbit.

worldpeace and a speedboat said...

ahahahahaaaa...

move over on the Most Favoured chaise lounge, I'm here to stay ;)

Michael said...

Another peacock incoming.

Kind of makes one question that quiz, no?

mesquirt said...

How big's that couch?

mesquirt said...

Sorry, chaise longue

The Other Andrew said...

Well, either:
a) The test is total bollocks (possible), or
b) There's a reason we're all hanging out here together...

It's time we bunch seceded from the rest of those Cholerics/Melancholics/Phlegmatics!

Anna said...

I was hoping to be a dramatic Melancholic, but 7 Cs out of 13 say otherwise. I think the vocab choice of the quiz options generally made C most favourable - who wants to be assertive, indecisive or cynical when you can be enthusiastically helpful! And how many agressive or pessimistic people actually admit to being agressive or pessimistic, eh?! Maybe there are only two groups - Sanguines and Liars :)

I think the Japanese version of this would be to divide people into their blood groups, which are treated like star signs in Japan. Would be mighty handy if you needed a blood transfusion...

The Other Andrew said...

Wasn't there a strange diet based on blood groups that did the rounds a few years back?... Weird.