Robot Artists and Black Swans

Een nieuw boek van Bruce Sterling! (“The Difference Engine”, met William Gibson, cyberpunk als “Heavy weather” en “Islands in the net”).

Dat viel tegen.

Verzameling korte en soms wat minder korte verhalen, die Italie (op verschillende momenten in de tijd) als verbindend thema hebben. Slechts een paar waren interessant/leuk genoeg om met plezier door te lezen, de rest voelde toch een beetje alsof ik het boek voor een leeslijst aan het lezen was...

“The Chief was safe from surveillance inside his sumptuous Shadow House—that was the purpose of the house, its design motif, its reason for being. However, safety had never satisfied the Chief. He was an Italian politician, so it was his nature to flirt with disaster.”

“There was no more Italy. The Chief had outlived his nation. Becoming ex-Italian meant a calmer life for Tullio and Irma, because the world was gentler without an Italy. It was their duty to keep this lonely, ill-starred old man out of any more trouble”

““The Pope wrote courtly love songs. The Pope loves printed books. The Pope has traveled all over the world.” “Does the Pope know that the world is round?” said the Queen of Jerusalem. “Well,” said Agnes, “that's a hard thing, given a literal reading of the Scriptures; but I never heard that he decreed that it was flat.” “We could tell the Pope about the roundness,” said Ugolina, “and then beg him to confess all three of us. If the Pope is a good writer, he's bound to take an interest in such wonderful sins as ours.””