When the songbird sings

No story has been more fraught with so much schism since Romeo and Juliet or friction since Pride and Prejudice. Still, Stephenie Meyer’s conflicted romance between a teenage girl and a handsome vampire managed to dislodge Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from the top of the New York Times best seller list.

Twilight is about the love of the ordinary human, Bella Swan and the beautiful immortal, Edward Cullen. While Bella is common, Edward is in every manner remarkable. Aside from looking breathtaking on his bad day or his wealth, strength and speed, he is gifted with the ability to hear others’ thoughts. Yet the difference between the two characters does not stop there. The real conflict is not even the about the two species as anyone who has been familiar with the lore knows, vampires and humans do not go together except in a predatory relationship where one is the hunter and the other is a meal. This is not lost in Meyer’s story, but what makes the it fascinating is that Bella is Edward’s flavor of choice in a way that if ordinary humans have their favorite food, Edward’s favorite is Bella’s blood. It is against this side of his nature that Edward must struggle as he falls in love with Bella, or as he falls in love for the first time since he turned 17 a century ago. And irony be damned, he falls for the trouble-prone Bella who attracts danger wherever she goes, so no one else can protect her better than him who could break her in a snap of his finger or kill her in one bite.

Except for their immortality and their thirst for blood, Meyer’s vampires do not die when exposed to sunlight. Instead of burning, they sparkle like diamonds under the sun, and this further explains why they choose to live in “the rainiest place on the planet.” And as much as these characteristics are unique to Meyer’s vampires, the Cullen coven is still different from their kind for the simple reason that they do not feed upon humans but hunt wild animals for sustenance, unlike non-”vegetarian” counterparts. Non-human diet and compassion are the ties that bind the Cullens and what set them apart from the other members of their kind.

Maybe because real life and adult issues are tough enough that there is a renewed interest in fantasy genre and young adult literature. According to a New York Times report, recent figures in book sales point to an increase in circulation of titles meant for young readers. A cursive stroll through a bookstore’s shelves also supports this assumption, what with the proliferation of Gossip Girl and Shopaholic series, or the massive sales of the Harry Potter that both children and adults came to embrace. However, Twilight, in its own right has a unique place in popular literature for its author’s ability to put together a not so frightening Anne Rice and a modern Jane Austen that the young (and not-so-young) reader can flip through. And as beautifully ironic enough, Twilight shows that a story can be dangerous without violence or sexy without sex. Just add a healthy does of tension to push the story forward and each page will prove just how hard it is to put this book down. For all the escapism, it is dark, amorous, and exciting.

My interest in the title was piqued when I came across a review of Meyer’s work, purporting that she just might be the next JK Rowling. It is decidedly difficult to top Harry Potter’s popularity, but the windfall from Rowling’s series is expansive. Still Twilight is not fantasy for the geek; it’s almost chick lit. Hard-core horror fans are better off turning to Rice and others. While I have my nerd moments, I am not an avid follower of vampire lore. I have listened to enough bloodsucker stories as a child, ruminated only over how lucky Kirsten Dunst was for getting her first kiss from Brad Pitt in Interview With A Vampire, thought that Wynona Ryder was insane for dumping Keannu Reeves for Gary Oldman as Count Dracula in the ’90s film version of the horror classic, and the only reason why I watch Moonlight is because Alex O’Loughlin could cause global warming. I don’t enjoy the thought of so much blood spilled either. Still, I had to visit Powerbooks Live twice to get a copy of the first book, with the second visit stretching to 9:45PM as I waited for the customer service desk to give me the unclaimed copy at the last minute in case the person who reserved it turned up before closing. At P339 per book, I managed to buy all available titles of the series and reserved the fourth one. Another title told from the point of view of Edward will hit the shelves later this year.

A film based on the book and directed by Catherine Harwicke (”Thirteen”) is slated for release in December in the United States. It stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson as Bella and Edward, respectively.

Twilight

One of the most provocative books I have read to date is Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power due mainly to its focus on gaining power through deceit and manipulation. While it does have a few “laws” that one can apply to real-world circumstances without necessarily ending up selling one’s soul to the devil, most of the rules involve either playing people against each other or leading others to believe in half-truths and veiled intentions.

Drawing anecdotes from the events of the past three thousand years, from ancient China to turn-of-the-20th-century America, 48 Laws provides cautionary examples of both great and terrible figures who managed to seal their places in the annals of history through greed, smarts or utter ruthlessness. Whether they are admired, feared or hated is not the issue, but what matters is that in their respective lifetimes counting many years on the throne, amassing fortunes and annihilating enemies were the hallmarks of their existence.

“Amoral” is surely one of the words that best describes the book, but it still provides a good lesson on how to gain power if power is all you are after and not much else. It is also a textbook for understanding the dynamics at play in any setting where power or everything that it represents is too few for the many to enjoy. In this case, the fight for power and the eventual loss of trust among its players ensues, meritocracy and outstanding ideas that serve the most be damned.

Should you read the book? Yes, by all means, but only to understand the power-hungry’s psyche and not to imitate their ways. And if you have to pick up a few lessons, here are some that I recommend:

Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life

“Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen.”

Law 9: Win through your Actions, Never through Argument

“Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion.”

Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude

“If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him.”

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself

“Do not accept the roles that society foists on you… Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you.”

Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End

“By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.”

Law 35: Master the Art of Timing

“Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually.”

I finished reading James Suorwiecki’s phenomenal book, The Wisdom of Crowds last week. While I’m gathering my thoughts for a book review, here’s something I stumbled upon:

“The wisdom of crowds works well when there is a true answer, and as long as some choices are better than others. The key is that people are mostly working on their private information, which may not be good, may be fragmented, but it is diverse. Collective wisdom does not emerge out of consensus. The goal is not to get everyone to agree – it’s to tap into people who disagree, into the diverse information everybody has. It works best when people are not paying too much attention to what everyone else is doing.”

Emphasis is mine. Read more at this blog. I encourage everyone who’s work is in anyway related to economics, marketing, communication, or management, or who is simply curious about the world around her and wants to find out more about how good decisions are arrived at to read this book. It’s smart, sure, but requires no rocket scientists’ brain waves to get what it’s trying to say.

I find this essay by an anonymous author and published on BusinessWeek, not to mention posted on countless blogs and sent to mailing lists, fascinating. I never got around to read the essay, which a former colleague sent some three months back, until today. Either I had forgotten all about it or that I’ve been busy lately with preparing my papers for a possible overseas deployment…passport renewal, visa application, bank statements, samples, etc.,…and I don’t even know if this embassy will give me the green light. So in the meantime, it’s best to slow down, stop dashing around like a headless chicken, and take some time off to share the author’s thoughts.

Slow Down Culture
Anonymous

It’s been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It’s a rule.

Globalized processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil.
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work). The first day, I didn’t say anything, either the second or third. One morning I asked, “Do you have a fixed parking space? I’ve noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot.” To which he replied, “Since we’re here early we’ll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need a place closer to the door. Don’t you think? Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there’s a movement in Europe name Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of “hurry” and “craziness” generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of “having in quantity” (life status) versus “having with quality”, “life quality” or the “quality of being”. French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hour workweeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US’s attention, pupils of the fast and the “do it now!”.

This no-rush attitude doesn’t represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the “now”, present and concrete, versus the “global”, undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans’ essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It’s time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there’s a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, “I can’t, my boyfriend will be here any minute now”. To which Al responds, “A life is lived in an instant”. Then they dance to a tango.

Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

One question, though: Isn’t Nokia a Finnish company and not Swedish? Volvo’s car business unit was sold to Ford, an American company, in 1998. And according to the CIA World Factbook, Sweden has 9 million inhabitants.

Incidentally, there is a book about the slow culture, and I wonder if the essay that went the rounds of mailing list was part of the marketing tactics employed to generate buzz for this title. Clever.

Related slow-down goodies:

• Slow Food
• Slow Movement

• Google Reader adds search
  There’s another reason why Google Reader is my favorite RSS reader: search. Suppose you subscribe to a blog that has an entry about Web 3.0. Just use the search box at the top of the page, and voila! All entries in you RSS subscriptions that use the keyword will show on the results page.
  (tags: google reader rss search tools)
• Yet another title to hit the business-slash-pop psychology shelf
  “Egonomics” by Steven Smith claims that ego costs a company some 6% of revenues, or $1.1 billion, to a Fortune 500 company. The book also provides ways to spot people with “unhealthy” egos and how to manage them.
  (tags: books self-improvement psychology management)
• You have to love reading to be a bookworm
  Otherwise, you’d only be a book collector or a pseudo-bookworm. Learn how to appreciate a literary piece, read a series, make love with words, understand what the book is trying to say.
  (tags: books reading tips)

It’s been over a month since I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I received as an advance birthday gift from Philip on the day it was released, together with a hardbound copy of its predecessor, “Half-Blood Prince”. The six books that preceded the finale had set the stage for a wildly popular book that took a decade to provide an answer to the question, “Will Harry Potter die?” Answer: Yes and No.

I’m a Potter fan, so my take on the book is a little biased. However, the popularity of this piece of fantasy is not without merit. JK Rowling delivered a dark, exciting, and ultimately, a heartwarming conclusion to the saga of The Boy Who Lived.

Deathly Hallows ties all the lose ends of the previous books, with the young hero beginning to understand the source of his power which gives him the strength to engage in a climactic duel with the Dark Lord. This page-turner leaves the reader asking for more with every exciting encounter of Harry Potter with friends, the Order, the dead, the Death Eaters and Voldemort, and its nearly too bad that Rowling has no plans anymore to extend the story of Harry Potter. A lexicon is coming up soon to provide background information about the Harry Potter universe, and, perhaps, how each of the characters that we have come to love or hate end up.

Never has a series so captured the fascination not only of a generation that grew up with the book’s central characters, but also that of an older one’s that has managed to keep the magic within and see the world as Harry does–all the sacrifices, the challenges, the hopes and ultimately, love–which push the young fictional hero towards greatness and his place in literary and publishing history.

JK Rowling created a magical world that was clearly inspired by the realities of everyday muggle living. Never has love been more emphasized in a book of fiction that in Harry Potter, and “Deathly Hallows” affirms that one does not need a wand to show how it is the best kind of magic that muggles and wizards, pure-bloods and mix-bloods, can conjure.

Rowling unabashedly used references to certain aspects of characterization and situations in other popular fantasy sagas, such as The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, David Copperfield, and at some point, even The Secret Garden (at least, its Broadway musical). Dumbledore proves that every young hero needs an experienced and wise wizard to guide him through treacherous times. On the other hand, the Weasley couple become parent figures to the twice-orphaned Harry. The inclusion of father/family figures, the central character being an orphan, well-meaning characters of humble backgrounds, sidekicks or a posse of fans and best friends, and love triangles set in a background of adventurous travels, and communities that have their own sets of customs and biases are common among popular novels. In other words, what made Harry Potter successful have already figured in other popular works of fiction: the battle between good and evil, the alliance among species, and, something that I feel strongly about, the racial issues that focus on whether one’s being pure-blood is better than being of mixed origins.

There are also a number of similarities between objects that are being fought over by good and evil in both Potter and LOTR books. For one, a horcrux, which can affect the behavior of its keeper/wearer, appears nothing short of being inspired by The One Ring. Remember how it ensnares its keeper? Moreover, these horcruxes are also where Voldemort saved his soul should anything in his plan to dominate the wizarding world (e.g., failing to kill a toddler) fail. And so in both books, the only way to ensure the death of the villain is to destroy these artifacts.

Every dark lord has a band of thugs to do his bidding, mostly not out of ardor but of fear. Their powers are so entwined that a failure by one means a rehashing of the plan or ultimately, the death of the big evil guy. If LOTR has the nazguls and orcs, then HP has Death Eaters and Dementors.

And just when I thought that Harry, Ron and Hermione would be spared the journey, they had to join Harry’s seemingly never-ending quest and camp in a number of forests scattered all over Britain. Surely, Harry would have died halfway through the story if not for his loyal friends. But the best help he got, one that he neither expected nor appreciate at first, was the one from Severus Snape. The character proved to be the series’ dark horse in spite of the proclamations by other characters that if Dumbledore trusted him, then it was enough. This further means that except for a chapter in each of the books, the story unravels nearly entirely from the point of view of Harry. No one knows for sure that role that Snape has played, nor whether Harry dies, until towards the end.

He does, but then again, he doesn’t.

Time was when I used to blog about myself and my friends. I still do so, but these personal blog posts are hosted in private networks and can be read by only a select few. Since a couple of years ago, what I’ve been posting on this blog are mostly the things that either interest me or people should be informed about.

Andy Sernovitz posted a very good slide-show about his book on WoM marketing for blogging. The central idea is to create content that people will be talking about or would want to share to their peers. And yeah, unless you are a superstar, it is never wise to write about anything but yourself (noobs do it) because nobody really cares about what you had for breakfast (why not write a restaurant review?), who you went out with (unless you went out with a celebrity or someone popular/important who wouldn’t deny they ever knew you existed) or how life treats you unfairly (life’s not fair–deal with it).

The filmmakers wasted so much effort in their attempt to reinterpret the the fifth installment of the the Harry Potter saga. The narrative suffered from trying to put together a mish-mash of sub-plots (Dolores Umbridge, The Order, Dumbledore’s Army, Cho-Harry romance, Harry’s visions) which only proved that what worked in the book does not necessarily translate well into film. In fact, if you have read the book, you could afford to sleep through much of the film until the battle among Death Eaters, DA and the Order. You could at least appreciate the effort that the CGI team had put into the movie’s visual composition. Maybe that’s another reason why the film suffered: it stayed too true to the book’s content, not to its spirit.

The story could have worked better if the writers had not given too much face time to Dolores Umbridge and focused instead on what was going on inside Harry’s mind. His battle-of-wills against the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher only served to divert attention from the real subject of the story, which was that Voldermort was working through Harry. And what’s with stupid Kreacher, anyway? Or Ginny Weasley being all-powerful than practically all her wizarding peers? Come on!

HP5 featured few of Britain’s most talented actors, but acting could only save it so much from sloppy, erratic storytelling. Daniel Radcliffe and Co. did well with each installment as they pitted talents with the likes of Gary Oldman, Michael Gambon, Jason Isaacs, Julie Walters, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, David Thewlis, Imelda Staunton (with whom Radcliffe also worked in the BBC Drama adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, David Copperfield) and Helena Bonham Carter as an emo-inspired and slightly deranged Bellatrix Lestrange. (Girl on my right: Wow, she’s goth. Girl’s boyfriend: No, that’s emo.)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix doesn’t feel like a movie that could stand on its own but a transitional episode that, hopefully, sets the stage for the last two films of the 7-part saga.

Side note: I realized that JK Rowling has been so unforgiving with Sirius Black. Harry’s godfather was wrongly accused of mass murdering muggles, and then sent to Azkaban surrounded by soul-sucking dementors for 13 years. Then, he escapes the Alcatraz-like prison and goes into hiding at his family’s grimy old place for two years with nothing but a crazy elf who kept muttering hatred for half-breeds to himself and a half-bird-half-horse beast for company. And the next time he leaves the house, he just gets himself avada kedavra’d by no other than his least favorite cousin. Quite a life.

• Young workers demand social tech on the job (InformationWeek)
  “Younger employees — like that new batch of college grads hitting the market right now — are going to be pushing employers to use Web 2.0 technologies on the job.
  (tags: web2.0 work culture socialmedia)
• ‘The Paradox of Choice’ presentation at Google
  The Paradox of Choice means ” more choices may lead to a poorer decision or a failure to make a decision at all.” (Wikipedia)
  (tags: marketing psychology video interesting google)
• 10 Ways to Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics
  “Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses.” Albert Einstein.

  If you find it hard to read the classics, I recommend starting with the easier ones, such as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility” by Jane Austen and “David Copperfield” or “Oliver Twist” both by Charles Dickens, and then progress to the modern classics. My recommendations are “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Catch-22″, “Of Mice and Men”, “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, and of course, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”.

  (tags: academic advice culture list psychology literature reading)