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The wine of violence James Morrow 9780030590511 Books

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The wine of violence James Morrow 9780030590511 Books

My second read by Morrow and just as good. In fact, dangerously close to great. If not for some minor drag, it would have been. Conceptually ingenious, this book is an exploration of the violence as an entity that may or may not be innate and inherent. Sorry, that's much too vague. How about...it's a book that makes you think about how integral aptitude for violence is to the concept of essential humanness. Which makes this the best sort of story, the one that deals with serious topics while thoroughly entertaining with fictional settings. And so when a group of Nearthlings (New Earth residents, lazy abbreviations) crash land onto a planet whose inhabitants are pacifistic to a fault, there is a culture/mentality clash of epic proportions, told with Morrow's terrific humor. Mind you, this isn't merely a philosophical exercise, this is a genuinely fun book with action, love story, awesome world building...just imagine a genuinely nonviolent society, how would they process their anger, how would they deal with their emotions...Morrow's world has some very clever methods for this. The moat of hate alone is priceless. And there are cannibals. Point is you don't need do any serious thinking while reading this book, it can be just purely entertaining, but for me the fact that you can do both was the best part. It's not merely thought provoking, it has a staying power, because the subject is timeless, so it has the sort of Brave New World or 1984 quality, though objectively neither as serious nor as horrifying. And to think this was Morrow's debut, that good right out of the gate, wow. Great book, strongly recommended.


Tags : The wine of violence [James Morrow] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Stated first edition bound in black cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket that has tiny rub marks at the spine tips. The author's first science fiction novel.,James Morrow,The wine of violence,Holt, Rinehart and Winston,0030590515

The wine of violence James Morrow 9780030590511 Books Reviews

Morrow has a gift for an unforgettable image. In Towing Jehovah, we have God's 2 mile long rotting corpse being towed by a supertanker, and here we have a river of liquefied hate. If you think the book is totally unrealistic (even by sfnal standards), you're right. But that's not the point-- read the cover it's "A Science Fiction Fable." In between the satire runs the very serious question of how far we should bow before the altar of expedience. This book is deeper than it seems.
Subtitled "A Science Fiction Fable," The Wine of Violence was a wonderful beginning to Morrow's career. The central plot element is a fabulous (as in "fable") river into which planetary inhabitants routinely "decant" their violent impulses. The book begins when an outsider makes a forced landing on the planet, and discovers the society that results when violence is all but eliminated. It takes off when the protagonist's new lover partakes of the wine of violence. For me, the book was a tour de force of characterization, as the main characters remained real throughout their transformations. Ever since I read it, I have eagerly looked forward to Morrow's work.
This is certainly a pretty good book. However, it also certainly has some problems. Personally, I feel that the book is basically completely pointless. The plot is interesting, to a point (...) The last part of the book is basically completely linear and boring, (...)
Anyways, now that I am done dissecting the plot, it is time for the theme. I find that the theme of the book is more like 'agression vs. pacifism'. However, if the book was supposed to be an arguement for pacifism, it did not work very well. If it was supposed to be an arguement for agression, it did even worse. It did not seem like it was an argument for anything, however.
The characters were kind of piddly-ish. Burne especially was flat and kind of lame (although he was the coolest character). He was also the least believable. I mean, come on, he is archaelogist! Who does he think he is, Indiana Jones? D
To sum it all up, this is book without any sort of external motives for being written or read. It is purely a story, although it (is bad) (somewhat). In short, do not expect anything amazing. I wouldn't pay more than 5 bucks for this - and I doubt you could get it for that much. Just borrow it.
I met James Morrow at Worldcon in Boston in 1980, and he began to frequent a horror-film society I was helping run. At some point early on (I'm not sure if he had advance copies upon our first meeting), he gave me a copy of his new book "The Wine of Violence," and I was worried. I'm a slow and picky reader, and fatally honest, and I didn't want to have to tell the author himself that I didn't like his book. That turned out to be a totally unfounded concern--it's a witty and thoughtful book, as Jim's later works have been as well. It's a great theme--trying to make, and keep, utopian pacifism a reality in a world riddled with chaos. It's a page-turner even for this slow-poke, and the characters' painful choices are emotionally resonant. Over the years, I've bought a few copies and have given them out to others who have also loved it, and I'm glad to see it's back in print (or at least e-print). Highly recommended.
Take a most successful science-fiction trope (the civilization on another planet whose rules and habits are different from ours) and mix it with the distinctly witty and satirist style of James Morrow, and you get a delightful—and at times very serious—reading experience in The Wine of Violence. The people of Quetzalia on the planet Luta enact no bloodshed, which seems mighty strange to the two Nearthians shipwrecked there. The story that ensues can be read for its well-structured plot or its penetrating cultural commentary, or for just its great lines—the writing makes entertainment on every page and the paragraphs often end with zingers “She couldn’t decide whether to call her discovery a planet, a planetoid, an asteroid, an escaped moon, or a stable comet. Francis called it trouble.” Morrow is a quirky and devious Merlin whose sharp intellect works on Arthur’s funny-bone to keep him awake all night long—at first laughing, and then thinking. The thought-experiment’s social pondering maintains its humor even when the real dilemmas arise—for you’ll see that non-violence has more than expected. And the style (where asteroids float “like croutons”), seemingly effortless and yet brilliant, will make writers sigh with envy. Enjoy!
My second read by Morrow and just as good. In fact, dangerously close to great. If not for some minor drag, it would have been. Conceptually ingenious, this book is an exploration of the violence as an entity that may or may not be innate and inherent. Sorry, that's much too vague. How about...it's a book that makes you think about how integral aptitude for violence is to the concept of essential humanness. Which makes this the best sort of story, the one that deals with serious topics while thoroughly entertaining with fictional settings. And so when a group of Nearthlings (New Earth residents, lazy abbreviations) crash land onto a planet whose inhabitants are pacifistic to a fault, there is a culture/mentality clash of epic proportions, told with Morrow's terrific humor. Mind you, this isn't merely a philosophical exercise, this is a genuinely fun book with action, love story, awesome world building...just imagine a genuinely nonviolent society, how would they process their anger, how would they deal with their emotions...Morrow's world has some very clever methods for this. The moat of hate alone is priceless. And there are cannibals. Point is you don't need do any serious thinking while reading this book, it can be just purely entertaining, but for me the fact that you can do both was the best part. It's not merely thought provoking, it has a staying power, because the subject is timeless, so it has the sort of Brave New World or 1984 quality, though objectively neither as serious nor as horrifying. And to think this was Morrow's debut, that good right out of the gate, wow. Great book, strongly recommended.