The Mesmeric Mountain by Stephen Crane – who died at twenty-eight and he is the author of the acclaimed The Red Badge of Courage - 9 out of 10

The Mesmeric Mountain by Stephen Crane – who died at twenty-eight and he is the author of the acclaimed The Red Badge of Courage

 

9 out of 10

 

“The Mesmeric Mountain” is a short story by Stephen Crane. It tells the tale of a little man who sits on a pine-plumed hillock, contemplating a mysterious black opening in the forest. He wonders where it leads and becomes fixated on discovering its destination. The story unfolds with an air of mystery and fantastical elements, leaving readers intrigued. If you’d like to explore more of Crane’s work, you can find this story in the collection “Men, Women, and Boats” alongside other lesser-known pieces. 🌲📖’ this is what AI tells you

 

It is getting exciting to use Artificial Intelligence, in the form of Copilot from Microsoft in my case, I ask it to summarize, and this is what it found for Mesmeric Mountain, better than anything I can put up; indeed, it looks as if I will rely on Copilot for my ‘reviews’, putting the lines from AI at the start, then digressing as I always do

Instead of staying with The Mesmeric Mountain, my mind wonders and I think of things that are barely, if at all connected, for instance, the name makes me think of one of my favorite magnum opera, The Magic Mountain https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html by Thomas Mann

 

I was intoxicated by the saga of Hans Castorp, Clavdia Chauchat, their romance on The Mesmeric Mountain, where the landscape, the majesty of the background makes the philosophical, political discussions with Settembrini, Naphta, Joachim so much more impressive, it may have changed my life to a degree

It could well be that I chose to move to our own mountains, at least in part, because of the effect of Der Zauberberg, we stayed between 2001 and I guess it was 2005 in the middle of the country, a place called Rosenau, without a sanatorium, albeit they need one for the lunatics that roam around the place, eventually, they made me Get Out

 

One of the inhabitants came with an ax at my gate one day, although he was intoxicated, it does not change the fact that these hoodlums were more than obnoxious, and the man of the law who was supposed to keep order and peace was in fact in cahoots with the felons, all for money and bribes, a corrupt cop

They filmed Cold Mountain https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/01/cold-mountain.html in and around Rosenau, the scenes with the huts only a few dozen meters from my house, nevertheless, the movie turned out to be a disappointment for yours truly, I went to see it in a special setting at some Multiplex, but was bored, and turned off, in part because of too high expectations

 

In Why The West Rules For Now by great Ian Morris https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/10/why-west-rules-for-now-by-ian-morris.html we find the answer to the question in the title, China could have been on top of the world centuries back, the conquistadors could have been received by Chinese in Latin America

Notwithstanding that, we also have a look into the future, where Artificial Intelligence is set to become smarter that humans, there is a prediction made in Singularity, used as a topic of discussion in Why The West Rules, which says that a super computer will know more than all of humanity put together, in about ten years’ time

 

Then you should read the books by Yuval Harari, one of the most respected thinkers of our times, author of Sapiens, A Brief History of Humanity, 21 Lessons for The Twenty First Century and Home Deus – A Brief History of Tomorrow https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/homo-deus-brief-history-of-tomorrow-by.html

The brilliant luminary analyzes the impact of technology, there is the example of the Japanese tourists that follow the instructions on their car guidance system and they plunge into the sea – ‘just like the Africans, who had given their land for beads, we get free videos with cats, and in exchange we give all our information…’

 

Words to that effect, only there are good things that will happen, with all the turmoil that will cause people to lose jobs, occupations – albeit I have to think what good will there be for me to continue posting ‘reviews’, when you get so much better analyses from the robot…I know, they do not have my chutzpah, je ne sais quoi…

In medical terms, an AI machine will be preferred by patients – us if need be – in situations like the need for Xray and interpretations, if a radiologist has seen hundreds of cases, X-rays, the AI will have been familiar with millions in time, hundreds of millions, and thus, the artificial version will be many times better

 

The driving job is analyzed, and though it is true that they had predicted that driverless cars will be the rage by 2020 and we are not there yet, not by a long shot, still, it makes sense to see that human error is the cause in so many – I think it is most actually – accidents that they will have to replace you, not me, I ride a bicycle

Pressure will be applied by insurance companies, I may have read that in The Economist, or maybe it was still Yuval Harari – who actually wrote a magnificent piece for The Economist, recently, in which he looked at the future of war, how the Russian invasion of Ukraine will affect sending, the pressure to get more weapons and so on – seeing as the AI driver is so much better than the human kind, in the first place, those who opt to keep driving will face enormous fees to be insured, as it is, Google and others have had computers driving autonomous cars for millions of miles, and the incidents reported were one in I do not know, half a million miles, and they involved human error of some kind

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”