Book: The Bookseller of Kabul

"Grown-ups stole a glance at the fire and hastened by... It was obvious to all that this fire had not been lit by street watchmen to warm their hands.  It was a fire in the service of God"

There are many books written about war - the fighting, the battles, the death and the victory.  There are very few books that can offer such an insight into how it affects normal people day to day.  This is exactly what Åsne Seierstad aims to achieve in The Bookseller of Kabul, one of the best selling Norwegian books of all time.

The book tells the story of an Afghan family who Steierstad lived with in the spring after the fall of the Taliban.  The head of the family, Sultan Khan, owns a bookshop in Kabul that Steierstad visited when she was there with the Northern Alliance. 

Her story begins by detailing how the 'religious police' went through Sultan's bookshop looking for any book portraying a living thing - human or animal - and burnt them.  This was one of many attacks on his books made by authorities.

"These men considered anyone who loved pictures or books, sculptures or music, dance, film or free thought enemies of society... Heretical texts were overlooked.  The soldiers were illiterate and could not distinguish orthodox Taliban doctrine from heresy.  But they could distinguish pictures from letters..."

This is the first instance in which I considered just how different the Afghan culture was and is.  The book touches on this many times, from the burning of the books to the treatment of women - it is a difficult way of life to imagine for an independent Westerner who enjoys, if not always equality, at least the right to fight for it.  

Take Sultan for example.  On one hand I respected him for his efforts to keep selling books, to promote education in his country and to fight for a better situation where everyone has freedom.  On the other hand his treatment of his wives, particularly his first wife Sharifa, is not something that I would defend in any way.  Sultan still has absolute control over his family and that is accepted.

The book continues with the lives of each individual family member.  We look at both of Sultan's wives, including the situation that surrounded him on taking a second, much younger wife.  We travel with Sultan's son Mansur on a pilgrimage to Mazar-i-Sharif and feel his frustrations when Sultan will not allow it at first.  We follow the daily struggle of Leila, Sultans youngest sister, who is treated as a slave in the home.  We go with her to the Ministry of Education to become a teacher and feel her disappointment at her lack of success. 

It is difficult to imagine living like the Khans.  In Afghan terms they are lucky - they eat well and some are educated.  Many Afghan families are entirely illiterate and face a daily struggle to find enough food.  Even so, their situation is so far removed from our own:

"The once so enviable running water has been a joke for the last ten years.  On the first floor there is cold water in the pipes for a few hours each morning.  Then nothing...  Water reaches the second floor now and again, but no water ever reaches the third floor, the pressure is too weak... Every other day there is power for four hours... When there is power in one part of tow, another part is blacked out".

The book is intriguing to read.  When the program The Family was on television people watched it to see how another family might live.  We draw comparisons and judge our differences - this is what people like to do, it's just how it is.  It's the reason that Big Brother was a success and the celebrity following culture we are all a part of - people like to know about other people.  

The Bookseller of Kabul offers this insight into someone else's life, but we also have the opportunity to learn about another culture, to hear the reality of life in places we will probably never visit.  The openness and honesty of the Khan family in their opinions is surprising at times.  While it's true that the family doesn't represent every normal family in Afghanistan, it would be impossible to say that their story is not fascinating.

Film: Tron/Tron Legacy

"The Grid.  A digital frontier.  I tried to picture clusters of information as they moved through the computer.  What did they look like? Ships, motorcycles?  Were the circuits like freeways?"

My first encounter with Tron was the Simpson's Halloween Special where Homer finds a portal that transports him to a grid.  My Dad explained that this was a reference to Tron - an early 80s film that was quite confusing, but graphically groundbreaking.  And then I forgot about Tron for about a decade.

When Tron Legacy came out last December, I wasn't all too interested.  It looked shiny, but I didn't know much about it.  I was taken to see it, in 3D (my first 3D film) and I was almost instantly transfixed by the look of the film, the soundtrack, the excitement - everything about the film made me love it.  Tron Legacy has now been released as a box set with the Blu-ray edition of the original Tron.

The original Tron, watching it through 21st Century eyes, is unbelievably outdated.  So outdated, in fact, that I found myself having a little chuckle.  Remember, that I saw Tron Legacy first, at the cinema and so I made many comparisons, probably quite unfairly.  In 1982, when Tron was first released the graphics were astonishing, and so much effort went into making them that way.  For example, computers didn't have the ability to automatically animate images and so each frames co-ordinates had to be entered by hand.  It took the entry of 600 co-ordinates to create four seconds of film.  The other piece of technology that was lacking was that which allowed recorded film of people to be integrated with computer created special effects.  Hand drawn animation was used to meet this end, and heavy editing filled in the gaps.

The premise of the original Tron is that a hacker, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), is taken into a digital world from which he must escape with the help of a security program, Tron, created by the man who eventually becomes his business partner, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner).  Bridges and Boxleitner are the only two actors to appear in both the original and new Tron's.  

Tron Legacy, fortunately, does not attempt to remake the original but rather to extend it.  Kevin Flynn's son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) accidentally stumbles into the same cyber universe and finds his father.  Bridges actually plays the two main roles in this film (as did various actors in the original), playing both Kevin Flynn and his creation CLU.  As CLU is a computer program he hasn't aged since the original film - this was achieved using the same effects used in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to age and de-age Brad Pitt.  As well as this the entire film was shot in 3D (and it did look excellent!).  

One of my favourite roles in the film is the owner of the End Of The Line Club, Zuse (Tron trivia: named after computer pioneer Konrad Zuse), who is played by Michael Sheen.  While all the acting in the film was excellent, Sheen was almost unrecognisable as the camp bar keeper who is apparently influenced by Mae West and Ziggy Stardust.

Comparing the two films makes it possible to see just how far film graphics have come in the last thirty years.  Many of the same machines appear in both films and it's possible to draw comparison in how they move, how they look and what they can do.  Having seen the original film, you pick up on many of the smaller references in Tron Legacy that relate back to the first Tron, and there is a hidden Mickey Mouse to find in each film.  Alongside referencing the past film, there are also clever little references to technology.  CLU, for example, is actually an old programming language.

Finally, I can't go without mentioning the soundtrack to Tron Legacy.  Written and performed by Daft Punk, who actually make a small appearance in the film, it is without doubt one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard.  Another exciting development is the release of the CD R3C0NF1GURED, which involved remixes of the original soundtrack by Daft Punk by artists such as The Crystal Method and Boys Noize.  As a complete package, I'm pleased to say that Tron Legacy pushes all the right boundaries.

Book: 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

"It was not we the crew were anxious about.  'The Maelstrom! The Maelstrom!' they were crying.  The Maelstrom! Could a more frightful word in a more frightful situation have sounded in our ears?"

Often described as the man who created the genre of science fiction, Jules Verne has written many fantasy adventure novels that are still so well known a century and half after they were first published..  He was more popular in Britain than his native France, perhaps due to the British preoccupation with technological advances.  While in the mid 1800s science was not so far advanced that it would seem impossible to venture to the centre of the Earth, thoughts of submarine adventure or visiting the moon (From The Earth To The Moon) were barely just being considered.  Whether Verne had heard these ideas or if they were his original thought, his imagination caused them to grow into epic adventures of which the literary world had not yet seen.

Verne took great pains to make sure that all technical and scientific elements were accurate in their detail when writing 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea to help give a sense of reality.  Unfortunately, when the book was being published in other languages the translators didn't hold the importance of Verne's precision in such high regard.  Aside from the text being heavily edited to remove anything that could be conceived as anti-British, they had trouble switching Verne's calculations from the metric to imperial system.  Readers who were unaware of this assumed that Verne just hadn't bothered.

While the scientific detail is incredible, it does make the novel more difficult to read, and chances are you will get sick of the word 'zoophyte'.  It is important to remember that Jules Verne hadn't seen what Pierre Arronax sees in the story, it is purely down to research and imagination that we take a glimpse under the oceans.  And although at the beginning it is interesting to read the long lists of creatures and plants, along with their classifications by the end of the novel I admit that I found myself skipping paragraphs.  However, they are there to add weight to the story and do help you to believe that the three captives really were under the many oceans of the world.

Science and adventure are only part of the story.  20,000 Leagues Under The Sea combines many different elements to keep the reader interested.  It investigates conflicts between the interest of the narrator, Pierre Arronax and his two companions - the loyal Conseil and restless Canadian Ned Land.  Arronax in the beginning would like to stay aboard the submarine the Nautilus to complete his own studies and Conseil will follow his 'Monsieur' wherever he chooses to go.  However, Ned Land's only interest is to escape, and much of the novel revolves around his need for freedom.  

Captain Nemo takes the three men on a journey around the world, through hidden tunnels connecting seas, to the extremes of the South Pole and the hidden continent of Atlantis.  While they are free to roam his submarine they face a lifetime aboard the vessel - Captain Nemo provides the best hospitality but at the price of never leaving.  There is one other condition and that is that when it is requested the three men must be locked in their rooms and not question the reason.  While investigating the depths of the ocean, the reader is also given glimpses of Captain Nemo's darker secrets and personality.  Nemo and his crew are enveloped in mystery - from their language to their purpose.  Many questions are left unanswered allowing the reader to exercise their own imagination.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is a book that should be on everyones read-before-they-die lists.  It is hard work to read, but it is worth the effort.  It is easy to be put off by a book described as science fiction but some of the most famous books and films are covered by this genre.  HG Wells and his War Of The Worlds or Time Machine, Arthur C Clarke with 2001 - A Space Odyssey, A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, Nineteen Eighty Four, Fahrenheit 451 - we must wonder whether any of this would have happened without Jules Verne.

Comedy: Micky Flanagan

"You know a relationship is going well when the casual c**ting starts"

Regent Theatre: 5th April 2011

Micky Flanagan: Tipped by almost everyone going as the next big thing, Edinburgh Comedy Awards Nominee, used to pack fish... apparently.  Micky Flanagan's Out, Out Tour hit Stoke-on-Trent in early April and I was lucky enough to get a last minute ticket.  Not knowing much about who I was going to see, I didn't go with much hope.  Yes, he was good at the Comedy Store on television but when you go to see a comedian who isn't extremely well known you just sort of hope they don't die on their arse.

He didn't.  In all honesty, we all nearly died laughing.  Not just having a chuckle, it was the kind of laughter where you wonder if you'll be able to breathe in before you pass away.  Moving from his cockney upbringing where Alphabetti Spaghetti is a treat and the local paedophile is considered harmless, to gaining an education and living in a nice area where he encounters the awkward fourth hello (that horrible moment where you walk past someone you kind of know in the street... again... and again...).

Micky Flanagan is just a delight to go and listen to for a couple of hours.  His support - who said his name at least three times but not once did I understand what he said - absolutely deserved to be there, and has a most interesting section on his Uncle Rasputin.

I urge you to go and see Micky Flanagan before he's so popular that tickets are like gold dust - he's on tour until the beginning of June and venues are selling out (so hurry up).  At least visit the Micky Flanagan website, watch some clips and then master than cockney walk.

Micky Flanagan Tour Dates

TV: An Idiot Abroad

Image courtesy of Tom Curtis

"Chicken - why is it orange in Chinatown?"

When an idiot abroad first aired, I caught ten minutes of it and turned it off. Watching Karl Pilkington antagonise a group of people by trying to push into a queue wasn't my idea of prime time viewing.  Subsequently, I spent the next month or two telling everyone who raved about it that they were wrong and shouldn't be celebrating such ignorance. 

Turns out, I was wrong.  Having watched Episode 1: China in it's entirety I can now admit that Karl Pilkington is the most hilarious man on television.  The episode is memorable quote after memorable quote as he rants about the things that no one else would think about.  On finding out he's going to China, the first thing he worries about is "Why do they have to be so different... Chicken - why is it orange in Chinatown".  Food is a touchy subject and within seconds Pilkington has convinced himself he's going to spend the whole time eating toad. 

Despite being offered a holiday that most people dream of their whole lives, Pilkington gives the impression he would be happier at home.  When he gets there, without exception, everything he sees he has a perfect complaint to apply.  He moans about the Great Wall of China, he moans about Kung Fu, he moans about the fortune teller (but then proceeds to do everything he's told to do - just in case).  He moans about the traditional Chinese massage, admittedly because it involved the masseuse holding her gloved hand in burning oil and rubbing it over his legs.  Needless to say, he moans when he actually does end up being force fed toad.

If you like watching Grumpy Old Men/Women you will love watching Pilkington stumble through China, and indeed the world.  At the end of the day he is just honest.  He doesn't say he's impressed if he isn't, he doesn't like something because he's been told he should.  He can't help being so narrow minded - he knows what he likes and he sticks to it.  Ending on a reflective note Pilkington compares himself with a toad in a well only seeing part of the sky - if you come out of your well you'll see the bigger picture he muses.  But in keeping with the rest of the episode, he decides that actually if you were a toad in China you would be better off in the well where no one will eat you.