Der Buddhismus übt auf die westliche Welt eine große Anziehungskraft aus – das hat auch …
Was ist Buddhismus...
short plot description: ein Sachbuch aus der Reclam-Reihe "100 Seiten". Die Autorin (Professorin für Antike Religion und Kultur an der FU Berlin) gibt einen Überblick über die Geschichte und Entwicklung des Buddhismus.
my thoughts: fachlich sicherlich in Ordnung, aber die Präsentation fand ich etwas seltsam. Die Form ist die eines persönlichen Erfahrungs- und Reise-Berichtes aber die Sprache ist stark wissenschaftlich geprägt, was ich etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig empfand.
my advice: Ich halte das Buch für eine gute und kurze Übersicht über die verschiedenen Formen des Buddhismus. Wer sich nicht an dem teilweise sperrigen wissenschaftlichen Jargon stört kann eigentlich nicht viel falsch machen.
Was ist Buddhismus...
short plot description: ein Sachbuch aus der Reclam-Reihe "100 Seiten". Die Autorin (Professorin für Antike Religion und Kultur an der FU Berlin) gibt einen Überblick über die Geschichte und Entwicklung des Buddhismus.
my thoughts: fachlich sicherlich in Ordnung, aber die Präsentation fand ich etwas seltsam. Die Form ist die eines persönlichen Erfahrungs- und Reise-Berichtes aber die Sprache ist stark wissenschaftlich geprägt, was ich etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig empfand.
my advice: Ich halte das Buch für eine gute und kurze Übersicht über die verschiedenen Formen des Buddhismus. Wer sich nicht an dem teilweise sperrigen wissenschaftlichen Jargon stört kann eigentlich nicht viel falsch machen.
After the twentieth century’s devastating series of wars, the world’s governments banded together into one …
When computers rule the world...
short plot description: after a devastating third world war national governments are abolished and policy making is turned over to an advanced computer called "Vulcan 3" and its directives are implemented by the "Unity" organisation which higher members are the only ones with access to "Vulcan 3". As the novel starts things are going bad, the "Unity" organisation suffers from infighting, a movement called "Healers" is rebelling against "Unity" and "Vulcan 3" has been silent for some months. One man tries to find out the cause of these problems...
my thoughts: this novel from 1960 (an expansion of a 1956 novella) has a pulpy scifi feel to it, lots of action but the characters are thin, the plot threadbare and technology (never PKD's strong side) hasn't aged very well. The ideas which will turn up in later PKD's works are only present in …
When computers rule the world...
short plot description: after a devastating third world war national governments are abolished and policy making is turned over to an advanced computer called "Vulcan 3" and its directives are implemented by the "Unity" organisation which higher members are the only ones with access to "Vulcan 3".
As the novel starts things are going bad, the "Unity" organisation suffers from infighting, a movement called "Healers" is rebelling against "Unity" and "Vulcan 3" has been silent for some months.
One man tries to find out the cause of these problems...
my thoughts: this novel from 1960 (an expansion of a 1956 novella) has a pulpy scifi feel to it, lots of action but the characters are thin, the plot threadbare and technology (never PKD's strong side) hasn't aged very well.
The ideas which will turn up in later PKD's works are only present in trace amounts.
If I hadn't known from the beginning that this is a PKD novel I would never have guessed after finishing the book, could have been written by most of the scifi authors of the 40s and 50s.
Also the techno optimism is jarring and untypical for PKD.
Quote:
"...Machines were free of the poisoning bias of self-interest and feeling that gnawed at man; they were capable of performing the objective calculations that for man would remain only an ideal, never a reality..."
Sure, after more than sixty years of progress in the field of Artificial Intelligence since PKD wrote this novel, do tell me how that has worked out.
my advice: if you are new to PKD, don't start here. His next published novel "The Man in the High Castle" is way stronger. More of a read for completists.
