ASE

 

Food for thought

No Limits: A
Virtual Worlds
Novel by Nigel
D. Findley

 

by Trent

have a confession to make. I
like Kraft Dinner. I know that
it’s not the best thing to be

putting*into my system, but every
once in a while I need that pasta/
phony cheddar fix. Add a few
spices, maybe change the milk-to-
butter ratio, and it tastes different.
Oh, not wildly different, but
enough to make it palatably
different.

No Limits is enjoyable in much
the same way. It’s not gourmet
literature, and it is awful similar to
a lot of other books out there, but
boy, did it taste good on the way
down. The story centres around a
typical (stereotypical?) hard-as-
nails commercial pilot who
discovers that her dying grandfa-
ther and her long-dead father were
involved in a secret government
project. She (yes, the hard-as-nails
pilot is a she, just one of the plea-
sant spices added to the story to
make it flavourful) slowly unravels
a plot that is at once familiar and
delightfully new.

The mystery unravels at a lux-
urious pace, and more than half
the book is spent building up to
the discovery of a super-secret
organization, the Virtual Geo-
graphic League, that is engaging
in cross-temporal (or was that
dimensional? In the end it doesn’t
really matter...) travel and adven-
ture, enlisting hot shot pilots and
geniuses and explorers. (Einstein,
Richard Burton (not the one that
married Liz Taylor, the other one),
Amelia Earhart, Nicola Tesla and
Alexander Graham Bell are all part
of the conspiracy.)

After discovering the VGL, Sam
breaks into a super-secret installa-
tion, wanders about unnoticed,
slips into a cross-dimensional
(temporal, whatever) travel-
machine (which sort of resembles
the cockpit of a plane, surprise,
surprise) and snows a technician

 

The Other ~ 9

 

 

into sending her off to “elsewhen.”

This last series of events is the
weakest part of the entire book,
and the less said about it, the
better. But considering the twist-
ing, tangled and enjoyable road
that the reader has followed to get
to this point, the glaring plot holes
can be forgiven, depending on how
magnanimous the reader is.

The “elsewhen” she winds up in
turns out to be a strange planet
where gladiators ride in huge
BattleMechs (kind of like...
RoboTech, maybe?) and engage in
large-scale, televised battles for
fame and fortune.

The book reads like the first in a
series, which, indeed, this one is.
But the knowledge that there are
more books to follow allows
author Findley time to develop the
plot. If there is a problem with the
pacing it is that the last part of the
book seems rushed, especially after
the long, slow build-up. The last
half could have easily been
developed into a separate novel.

The alternate world plot is in no
way new to this book. Neither are
the characters. Or, really, anything
about this novel. Not even the
cover is vaguely original. But for
all its typical elements, the book is
still good. Like Kraft Dinner with a
dash of curry. Or with an extra shot
of butter. Or, my favourite, with
stewed tomatoes and basil. Mmm,
good.

spiracy,

slas College's autonomous

student newspaper, is now accepting applications

for the : positions:

ee lies eles Geass eee
es

  
  

apt

to amigas

source

   
   

  

chy

Preference will be given | to DC students, but anyone
with a journalistic/student press background is
encouraged to apply. Only selected candidates

will be contacted for an interview. Deadline, Feb. 17.

Ser.d résumés to: Board of

  

er Press

email amcor: douglas.bc.ca

Noon at New West

Twenty-two year old pianist spans
Classical, Romantic & Modern eras

 

by Cynthia Ashton Styles

Libby Yu has already crammed

in more knowledge about
piano performance than most
students can hope to do in an
entire lifetime. Currently a student
of Lee Kum-Sing both at UBC and
the Vancouver Academy of
Music, Yu won First Prize at the
27th CBC Radio National
Competition for Young Perform-
ers and was also awarded a
Diploma of Honour at the 13th
International Frederic Chopin
Piano Competition in Warsaw.

In her recital in the Noon at
New Westminster concert series
last Thursday (January 30),

Libby Yu spanned the Classical,
Romantic and Modern eras in
works by Haydn, Bartok and
Schubert.

Opening with Haydn’s ‘Andante
con variazioni’ from the eighteenth
century, Yu displayed a clear
understanding of classical interpre-
tation combined with a sensitive
reading of the work. Each note had
its proper value and yet there was
room for meaningful musical sighs
and pauses, almost to a
Chopinesque degree.

The gloves came off, however, in
Bela Bartok’s ‘Out of Doors Suite,’

I n her short twenty-two years

letters continued fom page 2

In the January 21, 1997 issue of
The Other Press, lvana Kumptu
presented an opinion (Women have
bigger brains than men) suggesting
that biological and psychological
evidence exists indicating that
female brains are larger than male
brains. She then proceeds from this
premise to imply that women are
better equipped than men for
mental functions involving plan-
ning, executing actions, handling
multiple tasks, switching

efficiently between tasks, Paes F logically like males? Or,
and so on. To conclude, Similar studies have been used to since the cerebral cortex
she implies that some demonstrate that successful regulates intellectual
form of injustice might Se 5 activities, perhaps womel
exist as the planet is capitalists have larger brains than need larger brains to
controlled by males with Hi hoor people, that men have larger —-*d¥! the mental abilities
their greater collective ; of males equipped with
muscle mass rather than ff Drains than women, and now, smaller, more efficient
by females with their ; : ; brains? As just demon-
scientifically proven TS on in this fine strated, it is possible to
larger brains. tradition....ssomeone at Douglas use the interpretation of
Se College claims that women have one ar oe ae
Kumptu’s argument for political conclusion a
two reasons. First, her larger brains than men person wants to prop up.
premise that biology But arguments based on
indicates that the brain one or two unsupported
size of one gender is larger than the white groups and/or Jews,Catho- _ scientific” facts” eventually collaps
other is simply false. Second, the lics, and liberals. They too refer to when the argument is closely

interpretation of the significance of
this alleged difference is shallow,
self-serving, and political. This said,
I will now attempt to support my
challenge to her argument.

In reading the history of Biology,
I have encountered many studies
claiming that the cranial capacities,
or brain sizes, of two identifiable
groups are significantly different.
Generally, such studies have been
discredited by the scientific com-
munity due to sampling, statistical,
and interpretive problems (for a
review of such studies, and what is
wrong with them, please read The
Mismeasure of Man by S.J. Gould).
As a biologist familiar with these

when Yu proved emphatically that
she can play modern music too. In
the opening movement, ‘With
Drums and Pipes,’ Yu made the
lower notes of the grand piano
reverberate like drums with
coarse, heavy beats. In the final
movement, ‘The Chase,’she kept
up the relentless bass ostinato

It is the mark of a great
musical performer when
the player no longer

interprets the composer,

but becomes the
composer

thythm of horses’ hooves while
the melody plunged and leapt
above.

To conclude the program Libby
Yu gave a virtuosic performance of
Schubert’s ‘Wanderer Fantasy
Op.15.’ Although Schubert fits into
the 19th century Romantic era of
music, Yu made him sound very
modern, his rapid scales and
arpeggios becoming recklessly
dramatic. There were some
interesting intervals too, including
ninths, which would test the ability
of a lesser pianist. The chromatic

cranial capacity studies and their
flaws, I reject the initial claim that
female brains are larger than male
brains.

The history of science is filled
with similar claims about brain size
differences and associated nasty
interpretations of what such
differences reflect. For example, for
at least 150 years, white
supremacists have argued that the
cranial capacity of Caucasians is
larger than that of various non-

“biological facts” to support a
personal social or political philoso-
phy. Similar studies have been used
to demonstrate that successful
capitalists have larger brains than
poor people, that men have larger
brains than women, and now,
carrying on in this fine
tradition....someone at Douglas
College claims that women have
larger brains than men.

Ms Kumptu’s interpretation of
the “fact” that women have a larger
cerebral cortex than men, which
enables females to perform certain
mental tasks more efficiently than
males, is not supported by Biology.
Other interpretations based on the

passages shimmered and scintil-
lated, sometimes soft, sometimes
loud, always unpredictable.

By the time Yu commenced the
final fugue she seemed to have
been taken over so completely by
the spirit of Schubert that she wa
capable of the excesses of his
prolonged pyrotechnical finale,

bringing cheers from her audi-
ence—just as Schubert did in his
time. (Apparently 19th century
ladies used to swoon at
‘Schubertiads,’ where the com-
poser played his own works!)

It is the mark of a great music
performer when the player no
longer interprets the composer,
but becomes the composer. With
this magical ability already unde
her belt at age 22, Libby Yu has

an exciting future ahead.

Another great talent comes to
the Noon at New West stage this
week when soprano Nancy
Hermiston will sing, accompanied
by Ellen Silverman on piano.
Hermiston is well-known on the
international concert circuit and
we will have the chance to hear
her in the Performing Arts Theatr
on Thursday, February 6 at
12:30pm. The concerts are subsi-
dized by Douglas College, so
admission is free and open to
everyone.

same alleged “fact’’ could be
dreamed up to support a different
political agenda. Some males could]
start with the same premise that
females have a larger cerebral
cortex than males and yet interpret
this “fact” to support a different,
pre-conceived conclusion. For
example, there is agreement that thi
cerebral cortex regulates control of
emotions. Perhaps women have
larger brains than men because the
always react emotionally to new
situations, rather than

examined. The conclusion of an
argument based on false premises if
worthless.

If I may, I'd like to direct a closing
comment to all who were im-
pressed with Ms Kumptu’s opinior}
The size of the brain, like the size o
all other organs in the human body,
is variable from person to person,
and is not set by gender, race,
religion, or economic class. Please
remember people ... it is not the siz
of the organ that you use that is
important, it’s how you use it.

Allen Bill}
Biology Departmen

 

6 February3 1997 The Other Press