Alex Garland’s cult novel The Beach, 20 years on
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
When I got to the Koh San Road (in particular) after about 6 months in Asia, I remember thinking how much it had changed from Richard's experiences in the book, and how much the other places I'd been to (Laos, Cambodia etc) probably felt more like the book.
I went to the Koh San Road a couple of years ago and really couldn't believe how much it had changed. The islands as well. In the early 00s, I was amazed at how connected Asia (Thailand in particular) was compared to the UK - I had a small web business, I could email pretty much every day (obviously phones weren't connected back then), there were Internet cafes _everywhere_. But now it was like a late 90s Ibiza - the chilled 'watch a pirated movie in the evening with a beer/smoothie' vibe had totally been replaced with music, booze and nitrous oxide balloons. 24 hour party.
I think even now the book would be a great read - particularly if you'd never holidayed in Asia. But times have changed, and Niven's comparisons at the end of the article are pretty apt. It'll be interesting to see how the further future looks back at stuff like this. Everything moves so quickly and periods like this are just so _fleeting_. Fitzgerald and Hemingway - it sort of seems like you can place them anywhere in a period of like a hundred years. But books like The Beach - you're thinking, "right, this is after Gameboy, but before mobile phones and Google..." Anyone younger than me read it and have thoughts? If you've been the Thailand or not?
I'm getting old. :-\
Is now available in Hampi, India. And I’m sure many other places.
The whole ‘the beach’ setting felt a lot closer to India (about 5 years ago) than any of my experiences in Thailand. Arambol, Goa & Hampi specifically.
I think hiking culture, where you either camp or stay in people's homes as you move from village to village through the mountains, is one of the last/best ways to travel and stay disconnected. No cell service in a lot of these places, no room for a laptop in your backpack. Also, no party culture in these hostels, just appreciative eating of a simple meal at the end of a long dusty day of hiking. Read a book and record the day in your journal. Have a snickers bar and a few beers for dessert.
Lots of young people from eastern europe and israel doing the hikes in Georgia. No tour companies (yet), the infrastructure isn't good enough. Still, as you chat with other trailgoers, you realize that everyone is generally following the same webpage/guide because it's the only one on the internet. Georgia is on trend now and being marketed everywhere, so I expect the infrastructure to be built up similar to the way popular destinations in SE developed in the past 20 years. Quicker if they are able to join the EU.
Check out Switzerland if you're looking for a similar but less rugged experience, I did a 14 day hike there last year and can't recommend it highly enough. You can do it with wife/kids/managing a job for sure if you pick the right route. And easy to access from the UK.
To your other point - yes, I feel like time periods are condensing from war/early tech infrastructure-defined 20-30 year intervals where one author is able to capture a zeitgeist snapshot of their era, into a large gray mass/melting pot of media that tells all stories at once, but no specific story at all.
The meta story is one of globalization and blurring of identity, and a growing global middle class, where it's difficult to capture and affirm exactly what is going on because everything can and does change in an instant.
The modern-day equivalent might be a book about traveling Instagram influencers/festival goers living the jet set life between LA, NY, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bombay, Ibiza, etc. This last line of the review is dark, but basically nails it:
What will the generation that reads the novel now, and those that come after them, find in its pages? They will find what generations before them found in the pages of F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, as their protagonists drank and smoked and gazed at the landscapes of Italy, or Spain, or Africa: characters damaged by where they have come from, looking for release – or correction, or illumination – in strange new corners of the world and finding only disaffection, ugliness, self-absorption and ego.
Finding only the things they have brought with them.
Which website or guide were you using?
The trailer, as I recall, contained things like the idyllic/titular beach, pop music of the time (Moby, All Saints), and a beautiful girl (Francoise) - all the trappings of a teen movie. But when you see the movie, it feels much more like Heart of Darkness. The themes of what it means to be civilized, isolation and madness, and travel and foreignness are all fairly sober topics and are perpendicular to what you find in most teen movies.
I would say of the films I saw in that time in my life, it was among the most mind altering.
Agreed - they're all outstanding.
Ex Machina might be the most interesting for HN regulars.
I watched it and came away with "That's a decent film with a boring ending."
In an egotistical moment I might dismiss the opinions of my non-CS friends as "Oh, these are new thoughts to them," but a lot of technical people seemed to love it to.
So what's the wow?
Furthermore (SPOILERS - use ROT13 to translate)
Gur svyz vf nobhg n fbeg bs Ghevat Grfg. Ohg uneqre guna gur ghevat grfg - "Anguna jnagf Pnyro gb whqtr jurgure Nin vf trahvaryl pncnoyr bs gubhtug naq pbafpvbhfarff, naq jurgure ur pna eryngr gb Nin qrfcvgr xabjvat vg vf negvsvpvny." - jvxvcrqvn. Arne gur raq bs gur zbivr Anguna erirnyf gur pevgrevn sbe cnffvat uvf grfg - pna Nin oevat Anguna gb gbgnyyl bire gb ure fvqr gung ur vf jvyyvat gb uryc ure rfpncr? Naq ol trggvat Pnyro gb fnobgntr gur frphevgl, Anguna fnlf fur unf cnffrq - ur nyfb pynvzf Nin qbrfa'g ernyyl yvxr Pnyro naq vf whfg znavchyngvat uvz gb rfpncr. Nf n ivrjre ng gung cbvag, lbh ner vapyvarq abg gb oryvrir Anguna. Vg frrzf gung Nin ernyyl qbrf yvxr Pnyro.
Ohg gur raqvat vf n xvpx va gur snpr. Nin yrnirf Pnyro oruvaq, creuncf gb fgneir. Fur vf jbexvat ba n uvture yriry guna vzntvarq, noyr gb znavchyngr uhznaf irel pbaivapvatyl. Guvf vf n fubpx gb Pnyro, naq zbfg yvxryl nyfb n fubpx gb lbh, gur ivrjre. Lbh unir orra qrprvirq. Nin vf greevslvatyl vagryyvtrag, naq irel pbyq. Fb fb pbyq.
Googling around that and the movie name led me to this essay - some interesting stuff about Turings imitation game, and what Caleb should have done, and whether Ava was right to do what it did. http://www.eruditorumpress.com/blog/women-in-ai-boxes-ex-mac...
I thought this review in feministing was on point: http://feministing.com/2015/05/28/goddess-from-the-machine-a...
Essentially: Put tech frat bro, white knight, and trapped woman in room. Turn time crank.
I generally have issues with stories that feature static characters (they feel contrived, no matter how well textured). And to me Ex Machina felt exactly like that, albeit using the concealing veil of delayed exposition to create an illusion of dynamicism.
To put it another way, if you knew everything the movie tells you about the nature of all the characters at the start of the movie, couldn't you have predicted the outcome from the beginning?
And if so, then what's really being said?
If we're looking at interesting statements in gender politics, I'd contrast it negatively with something like Stephen Universe.
Nu! Znlor gung'f vg. V nffhzrq fur jnf znavchyngvat Pnyro nebhaq gur unysjnl znex. Fb gur raqvat frrzrq zber boivbhf guna zvaq-oybjvat.
V'q nggevohgr gung gb na birevaqhytrapr bs plorechax zrqvn nf n puvyq -- vs bar'f jngpurq Oynqr Ehaare rabhtu gb erpvgr vg fprar ol fprar, gura gur ebbg bs Ghevat-cnffvat negvsvpvny yvsr nf frys-cerfreivat qbrfa'g frrz yvxr na rcvcunal.
Gung frrzf yvxr gnoyr fgnxrf sbe vagryyvtrapr. Vs bar jnagrq gb gehyl oybj zvaqf (n yn gur Oynqr Ehaare Qverpgbe'f Phg), gurl jbhyq unir zbirq gur orgenlny rneyvre, gura gnpxrq ba n svany npg jurer nsgre qrzbafgengvat pncnpvgl sbe orgenlny, gur NV qrpvqrf gb fnpevsvpr urefrys sbe ybir.
Be, va Jrfgjbeyq grezf, n uvture yriry bs pbafpvbhfarff vfa'g qrzbafgengrq ol svtugvat gb yvir, ohg pubbfvat gb qvr sbe checbfr.
Is there any direct support in the film for that view?
If the writing doesn't support it, then that's kind of like asking if Speed is set in the Matrix: unfalsifiable and not useful.
Yes, there are plenty. Now we can debate perception all day, but I think this sampling is enough to pique interest..from what I can remember:
we don't know caleb's history
he has a big, unexplained scar on his back
there is a lot of focus / talk about iterations of the AI
caleb is the one locked in an observation room when he has talks with ava
the cutting himself scene is...odd and unnatural
he never, ever gets drunk
there's a weird scene towards the end where nathan refuses a drink from caleb and goes out his way to make him take a sip and asks how it tastes (he does not answer)
the conversations btw nathan and caleb are not exactly natural, in that nathan consistently prods caleb to provide more in depth/opinionated answers and not be so technical
added: wouldn't the best test of an AI be to give the AI freedom and see if it recognizes itself as AI?
Not really, as "recognizes itself as AI" presupposes a difference between AI and human. Gimmicks aside (i.e. let's see what's inside me), any AI which recognizes itself as AI would essentially fail the Turing test.
To me, those bits just came off as Lost/Shyamalan-esque hand waiving without saying something definite. Anyone can write a profound question they don't intend to answer.
The spinning top in Inception, or the dream in Blade Runner, are far more intentional.
I mean, Sunshine's 3rd act... Wow. Heh.
The book, however, is one of a kind.
I hesitate to tell people to avoid the books altogether because the premise is interesting enough and the books arnt outright awful but I really cant recommend them to anyone.
What am I missing that many other people seem to be connecting with?
The challenge is that in Annihilation VanderMeer is very interested in the idea of a thing which challenges on a basic level the very way humans sense things. He heavily exploits the format of writing to accomplish this. The descriptions he includes are frequently impossible, contradictory, or non-sensical. Additionally, these descriptions are simultaneously specific and vague - and this tension between specificity and vagueness is itself a property of the things he describes in addition to the narrative technique. This seems very intentional to me - but in any case it relies heavily on a subjective interpretation formed in the reader's mind's eye. It is possible to imagine a thing with these kinds of phantasmagoric, perhaps dreamlike properties, but the film medium, as we know it, doesn't allow for that kind of flexibility - the moment an image is crystallized on film, it becomes a fixed, static thing for all viewers.
So in translating this to film format I think Garland really had to have his own personal take on the ideas in the book. Personally I thought it was a good (but flawed) movie with certain superficial similarities to the book in terms of plot. There were many directions a film based on this book could go; as has been shown by many book-to-film adaptations, a novel can be more tightly packed with information than a 2-hour movie. I think Garland chose some interesting facets of the book to focus on while doing something unique.
To answer your question - "What am I missing that many other people seem to be connecting with?". As someone who thought the first book was good (but perhaps not great), here is what I felt would be compelling to most readers:
1) The book was paced and structured sort of in a Dan Brown esque way. Events move quickly from scene to scene and every chapter leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions with potentially intriguing resolutions (e.g. What is going on in Area X? What is the creature/pit/lighthouse? What information are the protagonists hiding from one another? What happened to the other expeditions? What is the literal writing on the wall?). In short, it is a mystery, which is a good hook for many readers.
2) The book leaves a lot for the reader to fill in for his or her self. You get that impression that the characters in the book are also experiencing something similar themselves in their world. This is an interesting thought.
3) The book does some unconventional things. The main characters are not identified by name, rather their profession. The main characters are all female and they are all scientists. Etc.
For what it's worth book 1 is one of the best books I've read in a long time. I've actually read it 5 times and it caused me to start writing fiction again; the detail and style of the prose really take you in and the journey is quite interesting, different and unique in an almost meditative sort of way. Highly recommended.
The difference was stark. It went from sending one postcard home a month, to finding an internet cafe in every town and village in Peru.
I even set up an internet cafe in Pucon in Chile. The local Linux mag had a copy of Suse Linux which I used to great effect.
And even then, based on your comment, what I had was a big difference compared to what was available 5-10 years earlier.
For example I will never ever do any other type of vacation, it doesn't matter if with kids or being old (of course the nature of the trip will reflect those aspects). I will never book or plan whole vacation in advance, rather just have flight tickets, info about possibilities, and adjust plans as trip unfolds.
One is getting much much more bang for your bucks this way, especially since you generally spend less bucks to start with. Intensity of travel is much higher, one interacts much more with locals, tastes true local foods etc. Its one of those things that the more money you put in, the less rewarding and more bland experience you are getting back.
When backpacking with kids, we only relocate every week or two, not every few days. We have rest days for schoolwork. When cycle touring, we don't go more than 50km in a day. We eat a lot more icecream. But it is still unplanned, unscheduled and intimate.
There is no way I'd do it again with the kids in tow. Sure, it goes well 95% of the time. That 5% time when you can't find anywhere to sleep except a trailer park from hell or a disgustingly dirty backpackers ran by drunk/high perverts is something I'd never risk with young kids.
One of our best vacations was one of the few package tours we did, this time to Egypt. It was via a company who do backpacker-style vacations. It was fantastic because our guide was excellent and we had contact with the locals. They used public transport wherever it was possible too, which although uncomfortable it felt better. We did a package in this case because it's also a country which simply isn't safe to be driving around in as westerners..
I was lucky enough to do a trip a while back with a relative that gets travel discounts and comps, and we combined budget backpacking with stays at some of the finest hotels in Thailand, including this place: https://www.sixsenses.com/resorts/yao-noi/destination
I recall that the breakfasts were sublime - they had something like 20 different varieties of ice cream, and fantastic pastries. The chef was originally from California and would talk you through the various delights on offer that morning. A fantastically peaceful, beautiful place, and an experience that's difficult to get on a budget.
I also alternated between backpacking and occasional posh hotels
I believe Garland has hinted he’s intending to re-adapt The Beach himself at some point.
Maybe I just like Garland's films but not his signature. If you have other recommendations I'd be interested.
Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and even 28 Days Later have related sequences.
In defense, I think "weird" is overly dismissed in film. The intent of some sequences like this is to make the audience surprised or uncomfortable (the soundtrack at Do Long Bridge in Apoc Now?), which gets dismissed as a director simply making bad choices.
My personal bugaboo is programmers chuckling knowingly at the CG in Hackers: "That's not what code looks like."
Well, no shit Sherlock, maybe it was an artistic choice to try to convey the experience of debugging to an audience who wouldn't be able to understand C on the screen?
Man if that's what debugging is like for you, I need to get ahold of whatever you're on when you crank up gdb. For me, accountants poring over tax returns and corporate statements is much closer to the reality of it.
I'd definitely describe my flow state as much less about characters and more a synesthesia-eque mental visualization of data structures and interfaces.
Well, finding out that may also be exactly what makes the experience valuable in the long run.