Well ok - I know it's not exactly high end stuff but I finished it a week or so ago and yes - I admit it - I thought it was fun. Browns trick with his Langdon series [and it's a clever one] is to go to a major tourist destination - Rome, Paris, Washington etc - and write an adventure/mystery story that pulls in all the major tourist sights that it is likely you have been to, and weave a plot around them. Thus in Inferno, the narrative is set in 3 centers, Florence, Vennice and Isanbul, and takes in the main visiting spots of each. Thus if you are fortunate enough to have been to the places involved [I have been to two of Inferno's settings and am now hankering to go to the third] you are treated to a sort of 'deja-vu' trip around the holiday you enjoyed whatever many years before. In these circumstances the somewhat fascile nature of the plotlines [not to mention the pretty bad writing] almost fades to insignificance and there is much enjoyment to be had.
One point - as always Brown begins his work with a preamble stating that the science, art works and organisations in the story are for real even though the story itself might not be. Well, yes - I suppose up to a point; there have been a few criticisms of this claim tied to previous such statements in his books - but I would like to explore the one made in Inferno just a little deeper.
Without giving too much away the suggestion is made in the book that there is a strong following among population experts for the idea that the virtual exponential growth of population size seen over the course of the 20thC. is totally unsustainable. Malthusian theory states, they say, that under circumstances such as we are currently experiencing re the increase in human numbers that not only will some factor 'kick-in' to reduce population size, but in all likelyhood that factor will be 'catastrophic' in nature rathar than effecting a controlled reduction in numbers. In Dan Browns world this catastrophic reduction will be such as to threaten the very survival of the species as a whole; ie If we don't get our numbers under wraps - and fast - it's game over! Can antone tell me - is this view-point 'for real' amongst population scientists as Brown would have us believe - or is he just hamming it up for the audience as he has been wont to do before?
Dan Brown's Inferno
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peter
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Dan Brown's Inferno
President of Peace? You fucking idiots!
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
Well according to Agent Smith it's real.
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.
Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.
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peter
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When I walk to work early and see a little of natures works, just waiting by the roadsides and in the hedgerows, for the day that we are gone, when once again they can flourish and repair the damage we have done - I'm not so sure I'm that far from agent Smith's position!
President of Peace? You fucking idiots!
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'
We are the Bloodguard
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Orlion
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There are such things as "invasive species". European Sterling being one of many. It's more of a matter of 'environment' then numbers. If an environment can support a million humans, population does not become a problem until we reach that mark.
So, that's the main issue: at what point is the planet unable to support x number of the human species? This is further complicated by advanced farming techniques and the ability to genetically modify plants to produce more. And since humans (in civilized countries, anyway) are incredibly wasteful with food, I imagine we are far from any international catastrophe that would be brought about by population growth.
There are other factors, but I view them as self-correcting...much like how if the deer population gets out of control, a bunch will starve to death but the species itself still survives to get out of control again.
So, that's the main issue: at what point is the planet unable to support x number of the human species? This is further complicated by advanced farming techniques and the ability to genetically modify plants to produce more. And since humans (in civilized countries, anyway) are incredibly wasteful with food, I imagine we are far from any international catastrophe that would be brought about by population growth.
There are other factors, but I view them as self-correcting...much like how if the deer population gets out of control, a bunch will starve to death but the species itself still survives to get out of control again.
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
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