Technology’s new soul and other matters

The lion’s share of the publicity being generated right now by the mobile phone division of Samsung has to do with their Soul phone. A real marvel and everything the doctor ordered, it’s the phone my eldest son, Quintin, got his hands on, and claimed as his in a span of one evening. At first giving off sounds about how he was “hiyang” with the phones of rival manufacturers, he perused the literature on the Soul, got wind of the Bang & Olufsen built-in speakers, the touch screen features, and in no time at all, declared ownership rights on the phone, and has been more than happy ever since. Fortunately for him, he “got” me with the statement that everyone knows I only use phones with QWERTY keyboards, and that is the inescapable low-tech truth to the matter.

Give me a phone that isn’t QWERTY, and you’ve practically asked me to operate a phone with my toes. Yup, that is a fair mental picture of how clumsy I am when it comes to regular mobile phones. On the other hand, give me a QWERTY keyboard, and I’m off to the races, thumbs flying, texting while I drive (I know, a real no-no, but how many of us can honestly say they never do it?), and feeling all at One with the wonderful Age of Technology. So, it comes as no surprise that when it comes to the new phones on the market, it’s the Samsung i780 that really has me gushing. It’s got the touch screen features of the Soul and is equipped with the Q keyboard. And it’s really packed with all the latest!

Okay, in one breath, it’s slim and sleek, the touch screen is widescreen, there’s a stylus AND an optical joystick (just like your PC), it’s got a preloaded Windows Mobile 6 program, stores appointments, enjoys 150MB of internal memory, is an mp3 player, does slideshows, stores appointments (and did I just say that? Hahaha! But that is my absolute must for any phone to be of true service to me), allows you to draw or write with the stylus, there are Transcriber and Letter Organizer programs, it’s got Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HSDPA, a 2-megapixel camera and a secondary VGA camcorder, there are shortcut buttons, you can customize the menu and theme of the phone’s start screen, and yes, dear, you can send and accept business cards with this phone. And now, I’m out of breath.

All I can say is, if you’re looking for a really cute, ever-handy, intelligent, Multimedia digital camera, look no further than the new i8. Black, Pink, Light Blue and White, it’s like choosing a car. It’s 8.2 megapixels, Advanced Movie Mode, mp3 with virtual 3D Sound, and features like Digital Image Stabilization, Face Detection and Auto Red Eye Fix. Brought it with me the other weekend, and it was really a fun hightech toy for idiots... like me!

Of men, music and madness

The three novels today take their cue from the section’s title. A Prisoner of Birth is Jeffrey Archer back in fine form (finally), giving us a modern retelling of Dumas’ Monte Cristo tale, the universal story of Man against insurmountable odds. Toby Litt’s new novel is written in fragments, a bunch of short stories that work as an organic whole, encapsulating the life and times of a rock band. And Neil Cross’ latest is a chilling, deceptively subdued tale of the descent to madness, and how one reacts to it when it’s to be found within the family.

A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer (available at National Bookstore): There’s an obvious nod to Alexandre Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo in this modern novel of Jeffrey Archer. But in spite of that, and the fact that a good number of the novel’s 512 pages are devoted to legal procedure, I have to admit that this book was practically impossible to put down, and read as glibly as a fast paced thriller. Working on the premise that coincidence makes up what we acknowledge as Fate, we are introduced to Danny, and cheer for our hero, knowing he is “innocent as charged.” It’s how extreme is the adversity he faces, how we root for him not to give up, that makes this book so compelling. A working class stiff, Danny is framed by four Cambridge toffs for the murder of Danny’s own best friend and would-have-been brother-in-law. Through all the action, Archer also ruminates on the legal system, the penal system and the class prejudices that still exist in modern England. Danny’s “escape” and his revenge kept me up till late in the night. A really wonderful read.

I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay by Toby Litt (available at Fully Booked): After his last outing, Hospital, a macabre fantasy/horror opus, Toby Litt comes back to earth with a euphonic Thud! And the “Thud” is the sound a rock band makes when it falls to the ground and breaks up. Made up of vignettes that relate to different times in the life of a band called Okay, this latest novel of Litt is a wonderful exposition of what life in rock music is all about. The reasons for entering the scene, life on the road, the clash of egos and aspirations, the varying levels of success, the delusions of grandeur and entitlement, Litt turns all of this into wonderful reading material. And using this as a take-off point, the book transcends, and becomes meditations on themes such as masculinity, ageing, mock spirituality, how we put people like musicians on a pedestal, and the corrupting influence of success on the artistic process. Band members Clap, Syph, Mono and Crab become our guideposts to this topsy-turvy music world, and the excess that’s to be found therein. Can’t wait for Litt’s next surprise.

Natural History by Neil Cross (available at Fully Booked): A terse family drama, this new novel by Neil Cross is all about brooding atmosphere. Our protagonists run a wildlife park in England called Monkeyland. One day, the primates seem to gang up on one of the older ones, and the mayhem and breakdown of social order is just a mirror of what is happening in the world of humans. The dysfunctional family becomes our petri dish for all the dread and foreboding that Cross can muster. Suspicions of infidelity, children who are alienated and seem to be on the verge of behavior that’s homicidal and/or suicidal, these issues literally weigh us down as we read through this novel. The really stark question Cross wishes to post has to do with understanding the difference between being human and having humanity. Issues of parental responsibility and whether there are limits to this become flesh and blood on the pages of this novel. In fact, at some point, it seems Cross is throwing up the question of who is more savage, ape or Man.