Wednesday, April 27, 2005

i finally picked up my 2nd roll of fed5b shots - a bit better this time. i experimented with night shots, which the above was one of. shooting at night with the fed5b is a little challenging with the view/rangefinder being shaded dark (my excuse for the subject being out of focus).

i recently finished reading 'brave new world'. what a depressing story! excellent but sad. the whole, humankind-trying-to-reach-utopia-but-instead-creates-an-empty-scary-distopia is a theme that many writers have explored. unlike everybody's favourite movie gattaca 'where there is no gene for the human spirit', aldous huxley's utopia/distopia definitely defeats the human spirit. it was also interesting to read the science of huxley's times reflected in the story.

so, now i'm wondering, is the soma cafe on main st. in vancouver named after the san fran district "south of market st." or is it named after the prozac like pills in 'brave new world'?

5 comments:

[The User] said...

Or is it short for South Main (I suspect that's it). But there's another possibility:

( from Sanskrit, su, 'to press'). 1. Intoxicating or hallucinogenic juice or substance, offered in hunduism by the brahmans and other participants in sacrificial rituals...Because of its power, it was regarded as 'the food of immortality', ie, of resisting death, amrita. The power of soma is manifested in the *Vedas in the god Soma, who is associated with *Agni; all 114 hymns of Rig Veda 9 are addressed to Soma.

A great companion to 'Brave New World' is 1984. Once you've read that then go get 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' by Neil Postman (but I think I've mentioned this to you before, haven't I?).

[The User] said...

Oh, I forget to say that I'm sure Hindu mythology is where Huxely took the word Soma from.

happyd said...

OH jeez. of course! south of main .. although equating the coffee and tea they serve to the sanskrit word is a bit more deeper.

yes you did recommend the postman book. is it depressing as well?

Anonymous said...

yeah, i found that any type of sociological construct which focuses highly on regulations tend to produce unfavourable results. the virgin suicides revolved around a similar theme... read the book and loved it a lot more than the move. ;) -psycho

[The User] said...

No! Not depressing. It's a good non-fiction companion to those 2 books.