Just Finished Reading: The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie (FP: 1930) [254pp] 

As my reading of Miss Marple’s books seems to have stalled (temporarily!) I was looking around my stacks for another (non-series) Christie to get my teeth into before actually BUYING the next Marple book. So... my gaze fell on this oddity, and ODD it was too! 

Comprising of 12 short stories this was a Christie that I’d never encountered before or was even aware of. The main protagonist in each tale was a Mr Satterthwaite who prided himself on noticing things that other people either missed or ignored. His great hobby was, therefore, watching people. Ever the outsider he compensated by being a consummate observer of humanity and human foibles. Then Christie added another element that was rather unexpected – the occult (for want of a better word) in the guise of Mr Quin. Mr Quin – indeed Mr Harley Quin – is... strange, other-worldly, mysterious. He shows up out of the blue and, without seeming to expend much energy, helps solve problems. These are not always crimes, although often they are or at least crime related. He doesn’t DIRECTLY solve, or indeed do, anything but restricts himself to asking questions and prompting both thought and action – especially from Mr Satterthwaite. I could help but think of Quin as a Dr Who type character – appearing and disappearing without anyone noticing, always in the right (or wrong) place and the right time and very hard to ignore. He makes a point of leading OTHERS to the right solution and never actually provides the answers others seek. One of the other (relatively) strange themes throughout the dozen stories is romance with Quin either bringing people together (who are fated to be such) or enabling those in bad relationships to find the right one. He’s even handed too with BOTH sides of a relationship eventually finding true (or lost) love as well as preventing people from committing suicide with The World’s End being a prime example of that. 

I think that my favourite story was The Man from the Sea which was a combination of lost love/suicide prevention and rather sweet to boot. Others, like The Sign in the Sky, were more normal detective stories revolving around things in plain sight that had been overlooked for some reason leading to the resolution of a mystery or solving of a crime. Overall, this was a fun read with the added spice of being a slice of Christie’s writing I was previously completely unaware of. Recommended for all Agatha Christie fans – but be warned... it can get a bit STRANGE! 

Just Finished Reading: Immortality – The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilisation by Stephen Cave (FP: 2012) [307pp] 

Here the author makes a rather sweeping proposition – that THE drive to civilisation since its very beginnings has been the unending search for ways to live forever. That’s quite the idea, so I was intrigued to see if he could pull it off.  

Essentially, he split the idea of immortality into four separate threads which each giving rise to different expansions of technology, ideas or beliefs each of which helped shape the world we inhabit. The first, logically, is actual physical immortality with the body and mind you were born with – mostly. This is the process where health is the primary outcome depending on medicine, vaccinations, food security and so on. Clearly such things might enhance longevity somewhat but not enough to live beyond our normal span. This means going further with progressively intrusive medical procedures, technological enhancements etc.. Going further still we have ideas such as transferring the human brain into indestructible robot bodies or ‘uploading’ minds into machines. Each step extends life a little, or a lot, further into the future. 

Then we have bodily reincarnation after death with the hope (dream?) of being brought back by future technical means or within a spiritual belief system. The next link in the chain encompasses various beliefs in ‘souls’ that are the essential you which, after bodily death, migrate into another reality or in some way re-engage with the material world for another round of life. Finally, we have the idea of living in the memories and culture of future generations as an historical figure through stories, icons and monuments left behind. 

Although the author does make some case for his thesis I don’t think he quite brings it off. I’d certainly go so far as saying that the idea of living forever – by whatever means – could be seen as ‘A’ driver behind various scientific endeavours and religious or philosophical belief systems I certainly wouldn’t go so far as to say it is ‘THE’ driver. On top of that I had a problem throughout by how the author defined immortality itself – taking it to the extreme with it meaning essentially outliving the Universe itself trillions of years hence with its predicted heat death. Personally, if someone could live for 10 THOUSAND years never mind 10 TRILLION years, I’d say that they’re as good as immortal at that point. 

But is immortality – ignoring the religious side of things – even possible? I think it's possible (or at least conceivable) that science can extend life a great deal. Even with present technology an average life expectancy of 100 years is achievable. Even something like 125-150 healthy years is probably not beyond us. Going much further will probably demand some radical breakthroughs beyond cloned organs and so on. With complete cloned bodies (or their replacing by – for want of a better term – androids) and an ‘uploaded’ consciousness we should be able to live a great deal longer. The only question would be – is that REALLY you? Is a copy of you – which is what we’re talking about here – really YOU isn’t just a philosophical question. It may look like you and might even feel like you from the inside but it's still a simulacrum. Somehow, I’m not sure if we can even get that far even in the reasonably far future – but who knows? This was an interesting dive into some rather fringe ideas (hopes?) with a scattering of religious belief and philosophy throughout. Reasonable. 

 Just because I can...... 

Not since the last time I went out (which was this morning to pick up some milk) but certainly since Covid. I don't carry cash any more - indeed I hardly use it except to pay my window cleaner. I have a card... what more do I need? Everyone accepts it. Its quick, easy and there's no chunks of metal rattling around in your pockets. Sorted.

Happy Birthday: Mary Debra Winger (born May 16, 1955) is an American actress. She starred in the films An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Terms of Endearment (1983), and Shadowlands (1993), each of which earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Winger won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for Terms of Endearment, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award for Best Actress for A Dangerous Woman (1993).

Winger's other films include Urban Cowboy (1980), Legal Eagles (1986), Black Widow (1987), Betrayed (1988), The Sheltering Sky (1990), Forget Paris (1995), and Rachel Getting Married (2008). In 2012, she made her Broadway debut in the original production of David Mamet's play The Anarchist. Winger starred in the Netflix original television series The Ranch from 2016 to 2020. She received a lifetime achievement award at the Transilvania International Film Festival in 2014.

[I LOVED her in Legal Eagles which was one of my fave 80's movies. Such a delight on screen...]