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Both-And Monday

Tags: Danish Me Review Science fiction

Review of Baade-Og Mandag (Both-And Monday) (gratis), by Jesper Knallhatt - Lene Andersen.

Outline: Celebrity Cornelius and journalist Tenna have a long talk. Or rather, Jesper Knallhatt has written a long talk between two fictitious persons. Or rather, editor Pamfilia Severinsen finally publishes the manuscript of Knallhatt in 2035. -- Knallhatt is sort of a mystery, it might be a pseudonym. Or rather, Lene Andersen holds the copyright for a novel, with the names Jesper Knallhatt and Pamfilia Severinsen on the cover.

Is it SF? Even though it pretends to be science, interviews and other stuff (non-fact in other words), then yes, it's a novel, and it's SF. Both “writers” refer to stuff we know hasn't happened (yet). So we're in something like an alternate history / the future.

Themes: As the book says: 'Using the headlines What are we Doing? How is Everything Connected? Who are We? the book describes the latest technological development, as well as theories of the “mechanisms”, according to which the world develops: chaos theory, complexity theory, and the theory of scalable networks. The book also has 15 hypotheses for societal and global development, and finally, the book ends with a tour de force through the idea history of the last 2,500 years.'

Is it good? No. It's kind of fun reading 2035-Danish, that's much closer to English than 2010-Danish. Then it got a little tiring reading Tenna and Cornelius fight (“I want to interview you”, “well, you can't”). And when it finally got rolling, it was just a long speech from Cornelius (even though Pamfilia meddles with small footnotes that are kind of funny). A lot of tell, not a lot of show. So I only reached page 35 of 409. Which is sad, because I know this series is about stuff, I find exciting! It's just very un-excitingly presented.

Created: 9 November, 2011 - Last changed: 9 November, 2011 - Comments (0)