Reading again...

Looks like I've found something interesting to read again...this time it's Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea Trilogy. I've just devoured the first two books - A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan. Two more to go...If you happen to like fantasy, this comes highly recommended. LeGuin has a rather strange style, or so it seems to me. On the other hand it might just be typical of the fantasy genre - I haven't read much fantasy, so I wouldn't know. In any event, the story holds the attention superbly.

I always used to wonder why fantasy titles were grouped together with Science Fiction in bookstores - they seemed like opposites to me. I've since come to realize that the difference between SF and fantasy is like the difference between physics and mathematics - physics(the theoretical part) is essentially concerned with axiomatic systems that are isomorphic to the real world, whereas mathematics concerns itself with all possible axiomatic systems, irrespective of the realities they might correspond to...People interested in the weird interplay of physics and maths should look at this paper by the Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner.

The odd thing is that I never used to appreciate fantasy a couple of years ago - why the sudden change? I wonder if this has something to do with my immersion into programming - after all, wizards weave spells and coders write classes - both of them manipulate what seems(to outsiders) to be a strange and mysterious universe...On the other hand, this might just be one of those specious analogies that you could make to relate any two things...

Also saw Batman Begins today, and the verdict is: this is definitely the best Batman movie ever made! Emphasised all the right aspects - the dark side of Batman, the way he uses the enemy's fear to his advantage, the elevation of Batman from man to symbol - brilliantly done. Katie Holmes' role is nicely downplayed - the other 'Bat babes'(Mr. Bond, forgive the paraphrase...) had too much screen time and played too central a part. Here the central character is always Batman/Bruce Wayne - the others are important, but not really central - as it should be. Add in the ninjutsu angle and the awesome Batmobile, and you've got a rocking movie. Hats off to Christopher Nolan for creating the first movie truly worthy of the Dark Knight. I hear a sequel is in the works - if it can live up to this movie, it'll be well worth the price of admission.

Wow, I'm starting to sound like a film critic...

TopCoder news: Pushed my rating up to 1100, coming in 3rd in my room. This time I heeded the lessons of the last few SRMs and didn't rush. It paid off - I still pulled off the fastest 250 and a fairly quick 500. Just have to keep this up now...

And now to dinner and The Farthest Shore.