It makes a great deal of sense therefore that someone would make a film about it. After all, what would the world be like if we could control our dreams?

Setting Inception against the wonderfully antagonistic and exciting world of corporate espionage is really smart; setting our feet firmly on the ground while our minds are swept away with the story. The notion that large corporations would be busy attempting to steal ideas from one another is as old as wheeling and dealing itself. It’s certainly firmly embedded in the western psyche and lends a sense of familiarity to a film that abounds with absurdity and absurdities.

Without such a mundane, yet mysterious, premise the movie might have faltered. Instead the all too believable conspiracy, greed, and straight up deception, lend almost limitless credibility to an otherwise ridiculous flight of fancy. How else could one appropriately describe a film principally concerned with very normal people going about stealing thoughts fresh out of the minds of the people who think them?

It’s fantastic.

I can’t really remember when I last found it so easy to let go. The Matrix was masterful, but had to work really hard to keep audiences in the alternate reality. The direct tuition from characters throughout the film to ensure viewers were comfortable with the mechanics of what was meant to be happening are readily apparent.

Inception is smarter. The cues and reminders are there but they’re more graceful, more refined, more incorporated.

The quality of computer generated animation leaps forward almost continuously and each new blockbuster strains to redefine what’s possible by the greatest margin imaginable. The frontiers of script writing have expanded and it is now possible to realise almost anything in a convincing and ‘believable’ fashion. New technology tends to lead to excess. Which is why I am pleased to say that Inception definitely feels like a story first effects second type of movie.

It’s all the more worth watching because of that.

Now go. What are you waiting for? Bedtime?

The book of the week this week has been Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. One of the few books in the world which created an idiom rather than bring an obscure idiom to public attention. I noticed a Vintage -UK edition on the shelf at a friend’s home and must admit that before I read it I knew very little about it. I’d read a bit about Heller and I had seen the famous Catch-22 quote when Yossarian concludes by observing “That’s some catch, that catch-22″ but I had no idea the novel was set in World War II; nor that Joseph Heller was himself a bombardier who flew 60 missions. There’s a certain credibility, honesty or veracity, perhaps needed by the novel, that his real life experience lends to the jaunty take on bureaucratic military life.

My personal reaction is one of enjoyment. I looked forward to each opportunity that came my way to dip into this wonderful novel. The chronology is vague and there were a number of occassions when I wondered if I had missed my place and would review pages before and after only to find that I was advancing quite normally through the list of pages. At first this was confusing and irritated me; I didn’t like the sensation. Later when I have grown more accustomed to the style of the writing I began to appreciate the regular returns to locations, themes and motifs. The repeat visits, sometimes under almost identical or wildly different circumstances helped to illustrate the illogicality of Yossarian’s military life.

I was also deeply impressed by the characterisation. Sometimes this came all at once and Heller would sketch out some of his character over a page or two. This taking the form of quasi-autobiographical notes made by the narrator. Again, while this felt clumsy on occassion, once I had become more familiar with the mechanics of the novel I was pleased. Heller had accomplished something dificult, wrapping personality up succinctly and openly. Openly because all of his characters are prone to not knowing what to do from time to time. The assertive resolve themselves quickly, the less assertive bumble about more before adapting to a new set of circumstances.

I though the novel was about words, beauracracy, sanity and morality. Faith is touched upon in a few places but ultimately didn’t feel like a core theme, rather a vehicle used to show that, certainly for Heller, the role played by faith is ineffectual outside of personal life. Particulalry in a large organised beauracracy. The chaplain has a wonderful family, he has been able to muster good things to him because of his own goodness. When he is embroiled in the squadron and the war, however, he finds himself a victim just as often as everyone else does, despite his willingness to be of genuine assistance to others. In fact, it is his integrity and morality, as with other characters, ultimately gets him into the most dificulty. Late in the novel when he too abandons some of his personal code, perhaps albeit temporarily, things go better for him and he reflects briefly on how easy it is to lie and cheat for one’s own advantage. I was glad that his voice is used to identify these ideas explicitly, while they pervade the rest of the book.

The vocabulary was less dificult that that I encountered in the Bostonians but was still broad enough to throw up some new terms for me. I’m still not sure if intralinear is really a word although I can follow the logic of its construction. I’m not going to write an analysis of the novel here, perhaps 2011 will open with my opinion of myself as a literary critic and author much improved. Until then I shall refrain from all but personal notes and thoughts. I can summarise those by saying that Catch-22 is a must. It’s brief and easy enough that to ignore it and the ideas it contains would be, I think, a mistake.

While I don’t generally watch television (do you watch it as often as you used to?) I must admit being quite keen on Heroes. We’re well passed the opening series and in some ways it’s an established show but there is much that feels experimental about it too, and not the sort of toeing-the-line experiemental that a producer might be hoping for but more of the sort of learning what everyone else knows experimental stuff. In short, despite my hopes for the show, I often find myself disappointed with the plot, the characters and the overall feel of the programme.

I suppose I should first explain my hopes. Production technology has certainly reached the stage where Heroes and other similar shows can incorporate regularly and efficently effects which were once the reserve of medium to large budget feature films. The everyday use of supernatural powers being a staple of the Heroes diet makes it an excellent programme to produce today in an environment where the impossible can be made to appear reasonably plausible to a tight schedule. Think about the classic six million dollar man and some of the things they had to resort to to convey speed and power and then think about some of the effect deployed in Heroes.

All of these possibilities led me to believe, perhaps erroneously, that the effects would take a back seat and the drama and plot would shine through, even against such a ridiculous premise. Certainly for much of the properly maligned series two, this wasn’t the case.

The plot arcs are just too complex to be enjoyable. Contrast the goings on in Heroes with the Simpsons. Perhaps two extremes of the plot salad bar. At one end you have a show where every episode is entirely self contained. At the end of your thirty minutes all of the characters are returned to their original status and made ready for essentially any other episode to follow. The weather is the same, the characters don’t age or improve their circumstances. It’s the perfect sandbox for writers who can explore an idea and its permutations at their leisure in a controlled environment. Many of the most popular television series use a similar model. Think about Star Trek, they just kept on boldy going and did so until not enough people wanted to boldy go with them.

At the other end of our illustratory salad bar you have shows like 24, Prison Break and Heroes. While each episode is largely self-sufficient, and those that aren’t form explicitly linked pairs or triplets of story, there is a progressive story arc. Each episode develops the overall story and the characters who feature in an episode are changed by that episode to a lesser or greater extent. For example, if Homer gets shot he will heal completely in time for the next show, if you shot a character in Heroes then they’ll carry a scar for the rest of the season. Let me be straight, I think that’s a mistake!

There are several reasons for my opinion. First, continuity in a fictional universe is hard going. There are whole communities out there dedicated to identifying and publishing continuity errors and illogical decisions. Think about the head in the box in Prison Break… That wasn’t so much an error as a massive inconvenience when audience surveys revealed that practically everyone wanted that character back! You could also think about 24 where working within the constraints of the show just isn’t feasible all of the time. What sort of president calls eight cabinet meetings in one 24 hour period?

A second reason is that the lack of a sandbox environment really makes it hard on the writers. If you have one writer, like Babylon 5 did then the multi-season story arc works really well. After all, one person has the whole thing mapped out from start to finish and that makes keeping things coherent much more straightforward. At least they should do. If the writers or Heroes know where the story is going then they really aren’t doing the best job of showing it. Think about Voyager, a solid example of how to progress without ever making any progress, while the episodes are sometimes bizarre all of the characters have a clearly defined purpose and role which best of all is achievable and yet entirely beyond their grasp. The ship is so far away from home that progress as much as they want, home stays firmly out of reach. In short, Voyager managed to make ongoing progress part of the sandbox model and is a successful example of a multi-series story arc which delivered progress and development in a very stable plot environment.

Finally the characters. While I appreciate a bit of character development I think that it’s a bit too epic for a TV show. The regrettably late Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time consumed eleven large books to convey Rand’s development as a person. Even then you could argue convincingly that the series constitutes an investigation into his character, through his associations and experiences over an extended period rather than his personal development. The characters in Heroes are so changing and dynamic that it is hard to associate with them, to identify with them. When you do, they change on a whim and you are left longing for the consistency of Bart or the recalcitrance of House’s dislike for the world.

Despite all of this you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be watching the next episode. After all, they might get it right this time.

Word of the Day: Abacist
- adjective

1 – A person using an abacus

My own travel was almost as easy as being flown. At least it was after I discovered that my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson C903, includes an efficient route finding programme called, easily enough, Navigator. It was that discovery that brings me to my topic for today. Satellite Navigation systems or Sat Nav’s.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about roads which lead across farmers’ fields, through buildings, off cliffs and across impassable gorges but the more common problems are always the most unsavoury, not least because the common problems are the ones you are probably going to have to experience yourself. After all, no one worries too much about the person who drives off a cliff following a merry yet authoritative voice’s instructions. We can console ourselves with the sheer remoteness of the possibility that this might ever happen to us. It is horrible of course, yet most people have untold capacity for ignoring those horrid things which happen to others as long as their personal occurence remains most improbable.

When the probability of something untoward occuring personally increases, man’s ability to defer his concern reduces in directly inverse proportion. Terror becoming certain when the terrible thing itself become certain. So it is with satellite navigation. The notions that your battery might give out on you, that you may lose that precious signal or that you may pay too much attention to the screen and not enough the world in which you are driving are not only unpleasant but pretty likely too.

What surprises me really is that we render so little attention to the fact that a pocket portable device which can retain a charge for over a hundred and twenty hours can tell me where I am and show me where to go so that I might arrive at where I am going. Most of us are less concerned with the how than we are with what it sounds like when it rings or the colour of the case it comes in. For example, did you know that sat nav systems have to account for relativistic differences in time, produced by the distance and relative speed of the satellites, when calculating your location from the signals they receive? Thank you Einstein. Thank you Sony Ericsson.

Now, if only my C903 had come in glossy red.

Word of the Day: Insatiate
- Adjective

1 – Insatiable: insatiate greed
2 – not satiable;  incapable of being satisfied or appeased

It concerns an establishment called PFC in Stratford. That’s Stratford as in 2012 Olympics Stratford not “To be or not to be” Stratford-Upon-Avon. It’s awful. The food is Ok, but orders when you wait for ages only to find that what you have carried away with you certainly isn’t what you paid for. Well, something needs to be said. Given the profusion of such establishments in south east London I would gently recommend that you find another. I’m not even going to reveal the exact location of this place. If you see a sign proclaiming PFC (a humourous UK take on KFC used by smaller kebab and fried chicken establishments) then avoid at your leisure.

Not too shabby eh? There’s more but I don’t want to bore you. What’s that? You’re not bored? Righty o!

Ooh, you can see the Big Hungry Giant in the background of this one. How cute! The baby, I meant the baby!

After a visit to our preferred Indian restaurant last night I thought it only right that I make a recommendation. After all, why should I keep this valuable information to myself?

A mistake often made by restaurants, especially given the emphasis the web receives today, is the failure to maintain an informative and interesting website. The Spice Island in Plumstead is no exception. It emerges very quickly that there is an appropriately named website listed. Unfotunately this is registered to a venue in another part of the country so I wouldn’t use their menu too much if you are going to be visiting their, completely unrelated, counterpart in south east London. On second thoughts I’m not sure I should mention it as using those place names will only cause confusion for googlers. (Edit).

So about the restaurant. You can find them here:

196-212 Plumstead Common Road
Woolwich
LONDON
SE18 2RS

There’s a small car park behind the building so if there’s no space available on the street to the front of the premsises you can try and park there.

The real appeal of the place is in the take away menu. If you place an order of more than ten pounds then you can choose a vegetable dish as a free extra. What this means practically is that you can have a delicious Indian for two hungry giants or three more normal appetites for a little over a tenner. Our usual arrangement is to place an order and put some rice on at the same time. Food is normally ready for collection after 20-25 minutes and the range and quality of the dishes is excellent. Like most small restaurants, if what you want isn’t listed then they will do all they can to accommodate your tastes.

I would go on to recommend some specific dishes at this point but before I do I want to point out that I am yet to be disappointed by anything I have order from this place. We often eat this food with friends and the inevitable mixing and matching that goes on with Indian food means that I have now tried a very large number of their dishes. They are all, even if I happen not to like ‘em, very good. The chicken tikka masala, a mainstay of British Indian orders, is excellent and very creamy and mild. Their Madras dishes are excellent and the Dansak dishes. A type of sauce which is hot and slightly sour and based on lentils is wonderful. Try it with the lamb!

I do enjoy my food photography and next time we order I’ll take some photos for you all to salivate over. In the mean time, why not give them a call yourself. Spice Island is open from 6pm. You can call them on 0208 316 5207. Do it now. Well, if you’re hungry and it’s after six!

When I made a comment along these lines to the host of the party he smiled and indicated that Andrei had taken photographs of his own children; as well as some portraits of his wife. One small conversation led to another until I found myself speaking with Andrei. His name is russian and russians roll their r’s. Something I’m not the best at really. After a couple of tries he smiled expansively and invited me to call him Andrew. It soon emerged that Andrei had been involved in photography professionally for around fifteen years. Photography had moved from an enjoyable hobby or pastime right through to a business, Creative Photogenic.

Ok, I admit it, I’m jealous. My opinion of my own photographic abilities is pretty high and I was crestfallen when my wife pointed out that I could use a photographer for an ongoing project. Nonetheless, when I took a look through the portfolio at creativephotogenic.com I was really impressed. Several shots stood out to me particularly. One was a grey scale with elements of colour in it; they draw the eye and give the image movement and focus. Another was an artistic grey scale and his portraits of children which really capture their vivacity and energy, like this one. 

If you live in London and you are looking for an affable and affordable family, wedding or fashion tographer then you could do little better than look up Andrei.

What a wonderful word. Interlocutress. The vocabulary, punctuation and style of Henry James writing is most rewarding. his characterisations so extreme and yet so palpable so as to elicit your approval of character’s actions as befitting their disposition. It also tends to push one towards longer sentences and more complete, if not more deep, circles of thought.

As a final thought it is a strange thing to be reading fiction which includes, as a matter of course, sections on further reading, appendices and a lengthy and scholarly introduction. Should you worry that the Bostonians is in any way oppressive then you need not continue in such a vein. It is a wonderful book. Well written and styled. I particularly enjoyed the review of ideas and behaviours so entirely alien from those popular today. I suppose Basil was always going to lose the war but the account of the battles and skirmishes between Olive Chancellor and himself filled many a minute of otherwise restless commuting. More please!

Representatives from the radical international organisation Tfos Orcim who normally refute utterly and automatically any claim made by their counterparts at Elppa, the conservative monopolistic data giant, stand today shoulder to shoulder, like brothers of unestablished parentage, against the embryo of a common enemy, for there can be no doubt that the fourth of these dates is no present cause for concern, but perhaps represents a shadow of policy to follow. Evets Workless of ELppa, raised from the sick bed to do verbal battle said this morning, “The free sharing, deliberate or reckless, with or without malice aforethought, of any and all data, no matter how carefully obtained, accurate or inaccurate, and however personal is the absolute right of every American and every citizen of the free world. This careful manipulation of the facts by the oppressive regime now in power in the Tyrannic States of Europe is a clear example of why the people of the free world must stand together against responsibility, against privacy, and ultimately against public accountability!”

He continued, while in a breathtaking display of approbation his counterpart nods and smiles.

“Failure to prevent the adoption of so-called ‘responsible data use’ will lead to personal details being kept that way. Will lead to greater trust of politicians, will lead to reductions in crime, improve the profits of data sharing organisati and identity theft, will improve citizens’ relations with systems of government and ultimately undermine and perhaps, though I cannot for a moment believe it would happen, dilapidate and destroy our system of government, Anarchy.”

Despite their emphatic delivery Mr Workless comments may have fallen on deaf ears; only two hundred people were in attendance at his press conference in Sand Hill, Gambia while the TSE press release has been viewed more than three hundred million times and over a million hard copies purchased through the Nile.com internet shopping portal.

This is a GDMNW news bulletin by Gareth Newton-Williams, GDMNW, Alternative News.