Axolotl!: Fun Facts About the World's Coolest Salamander - An Info-Picturebook for Kids (Funny Fauna)

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Literature is a form of human expression wherein human beings have devised various forms which have evolved over the years to produce literary works which might bring it closer to real life, in a way that it mirrors our life. We have seen that the literature has evolved over the years from outside to inside, which means that we have turned inwards towards our existential angst and quest, and in the process we have witnessed the blossoming of modernism and other art and philosophical movements of 20th century; the postmodernism rises in response to it underlining the relativism, skepticism, absurdity, randomity and non-sense of life in association with post-structuralism, and some experts say that beyond post-modernism we have progressed towards meta-modernism. The various styles of literary fiction took birth in the advent of exploration and depiction of human condition- such as metafiction, surrealism, and magic realism which portrays realistic view of world by infusing magical elements to it.

Before I begin: I'm not a fan of Dukaj's newspeak - I find it hard and exhausting to follow. 1/3rd of this edition consist of footnotes explaining the wording used throughout the book. On positive side at least I'm understanding what I'm reading (which I couldn't say about "Król Bólu" - another book of this author). On negative one, it's a very lazy way of introducing a reader to a presented universe at best. In this sweet and beautifully designed small book, a little alien peers through a telescope at all the bedtime rituals on Earth. Using mixed media, Bondestam creates rich, layered illustrations featuring animals all across the globe…. Delicate pen-and-ink applied over the colors give the animals very expressive faces…. [I]t neatly resembles Margaret Wise Brown’s classic Good Night Moon, and fans of that book will appreciate the contrast.”A stílusról Rajaniemi ugrott be, csakúgy mint az Extensa olvasásakor. De a finn ecset valahogy vastagabban, színesebben fogott, nekem ez a Dukaj-verzió túlságosan be volt zárva egy fémtojásba, egyetlen robot fejébe - aki hát valljuk be nem a legvagányabb indián a poszthumanista klubban.

Bishop, Sherman C. " Handbook of Salamanders: the Salamanders of the United States, of Canada and of Mexico", 1943, 1994, Cornell University Press. Evolving - as the story (& time) is progressing, everything changes: way of thinking, systems of values, priorities, language itself. It may sound ridiculous, but this can be as engaging as the good plot itself :) Honestly, I'm not sure what Cortazar is trying to say with this story. Is he talking about the Aztecs?Overall plot idea is VERY interesting, but there are some inconsistencies / oversimplifications that could have been avoided or walked around (I think) Petranka, James W. " Salamanders of the United States and Canada", 1998, Smithsonian Institute Press. El libro nos cuenta que un hombre va a visitar al Jardín Des Plantes ubicado en Paris en donde se encuentra con un animal llamado muy peculiar llamado Axolote. Tanto fue su encanto por estas peculiares criaturas que se termina convenciendo en que es uno de ellos. Era tanta su curiosidad por estos animalitos que comenzó a visitarlos hasta tres veces al día, se fijaba en su contextura con mucho detalle, le llamaba mucho la atención sus cuerpos translúcidos y lechosos, sus espectaculares colas de lagarto, sus rostros en forma de triangulo, planas y de color rosa, sus manos con dedos muy similares a los de un humano, los ramilletes que salen desde sus branquias, el gran brillo que proyectan sus ojos, su forma de desplazarse por los acuarios en forma muy lenta que hace pensar que no se mueven y el movimiento de sus branquias y cuando nadan lo hacen solo con un movimiento ondulatorio de sus cuerpos. Esto los hace fascinantes para él, creyendo tener una relación muy cercana con ellos, de alguna manera siente que estos les piden ayuda con sus grandes ojos, un día estaba observándolos en el acuario hasta que llegó a un punto en el que se sintió que estaba dentro del acuario siendo un miembro más de ellos. El cuento finaliza en que estás criaturas tienen la idea que el hombre entendió lo que ellos le querían comunicar y este se encuentra haciendo una redacción respecto a ellos motivó por el cual no volvió más a visitarlos.

Smith, Hobart Muir; Smith, Rozella B. " Synopsis of the Herpetofauna of Mexico", 1971, University Press of Colorado. It's not an easy read. I can be confusing as the main character is a program never really in 'one' body, which is why the story often jumps (think of Ancillary Justice). It can be even more confusing once the main character obtains a dream module, after that the novel is constantly hallucinating. There's no real motivation or character development or even anything close to a 'character' here, but that is part of the message: Instrucțiunile preliminare privind întorsul ceasului” (și în cele pentru întorsul ceasului), totul este deturnat de la ritmurile și percepția normală și amplificat apocaliptic. În „Instrucțiunile privind întorsul ceasului”, dar și în alte povestiri, simt incantații nichitastănesciene. At the bottom of a lake in a busy city, our axolotl narrator goes to underwater school, collects treasures tossed away by the big lugs on land, and has dance parties with tiger salamander friends. Life is good! Length of the book is well tuned to the actual content. Obviously, I'd like to read more, but sometimes form exceeds the content by too far (vide "Lod" <"Ice">, also by Dukaj).El cuento nos muestra a un narrador que se queda horas mirando a los axolotls en el jardín de plantas solamente observando su inmovilidad, hasta que se transforma en uno. Como empieza a ir todos los días al acuario se obsesiona con estos anfibios, por sus miradas y sus facciones. Él cree que ellos les piden ayuda y siente algo de humanidad en estos ajolotes. De igual manera él sentía temor, no dejaba de pensar en estas criaturas, era algo agobiante pero lindo a la vez, puesto que nunca había sentido una conexión tan grande con otro animal, quería saber absolutamente todo de cómo vivían y pensaban. Hasta que se transforma en uno y por fin puede sentir esa perspectiva. Estaba inmóvil, incapaz de expresarse, él solo con sus pensamientos. Condenado a moverse entre criaturas insensibles.

A postapocalyptic novel where a mysterious death ray destroys all organic life on Earth, but a handful of nerds and gamers manage to upload their minds into machines using a weird consumer electronics gizmo - or do they? Now they can spend the following aeons wondering if they are really themselves or just superficial, error-prone duplicates. Dukaj nije previše zainteresovan za uobičajen zaplet, za likove se ne bi trebalo odviše vezivati (iako sve vreme pratimo Barteka, odnosno Bartekov konstrukt posle apokalipse) niti očekivati neke velike avanture, svaki put kad naivni čitalac pomisli "Aha! evo sad ćemo se ovim problemom baviti!" autor to razreši uz akademsku hladnokrvnost i idemo dalje. Njega zanimaju... pa... mogući pravci razvoja čovečanstva pod takvim okolnostima. Nije nimalo slučajno što je moto preuzet baš od Stejpldona. I treba reći da Dukaj na vrlo malo prostora (ovo moje izdanje ima nekih 140 strana sa ilustracijama) uspeva da nabaca neverovatan broj intrigantnih koncepata, svaki malo osvetli i gura dalje. Recimo, neki od gikova uspeli su da aplouduju i svoju decu, tako da po opustelom svetu u raznoraznim robotskim telima, od dizalica do seks-botova, tetura i nekoliko desetina večite virtuelne dece od dve-tri godine... i jedan ker. Frakcije se formiraju prema ideološkim i verskim ubeđenjima koja su u početku prepoznatljiva (jao, on je od onih linuksovskih fundamentalista) ali ubrzo evoluiraju, baš kao i sami post-ljudski likovi. Ponovno stvaranje organskog života i kloniranje ljudskih bića rešeno je ubrzo i sasvim uzgred - i tu Dukaj samo odškrine vrata prema bezbrojnim implikacijama koju nosi takvo stvaranje čoveka 2.0 i nastavlja da se bavi svojim ni-ljudima-ni-robotima koji nikako da se odluče šta su i da li uopšte žele da to budu. Jedan fenomenalno apsurdan momenat jeste formiranje novog horoskopa u zavisnosti od toga čime se neko aploudovao - tako npr. svi koji su koristili Xbox imaju suicidalne sklonosti, korisnici uralske piratske verzije s vremenom padaju u depresiju (usporavaju im se procesori, koje god da koriste) i tako dalje. Drugi takav momenat jeste potraga za programom koji bi mogao da zameni spavanje i sanjanje i koji, posredno, vodi do naslovnog motiva aksolotla. nem viccből. Ez a történet teljesen komolyra, sőt, melankolikusra lett hangolva, egyáltalán nincs kedvünk heherészni a jobb híján szexbotokba és többtonnás munkagépekbe tömörülő tudatok emotikon-párbajai felett. Si bien el cuento relata la fascinante vida de los Axolotl, su particular manera de vivir y que una persona llegara a entenderlos de tal manera que se sintiera como uno de ellos, a través del relato del libro se puede llegar a conocer a este extraño animal no se salva de tener sus partes inconclusas llegando a dejar una sensación de vacío en el lector al saber que el cuento tiene final abierto.The soft palette and mottled textures of the water contrasted against the more angular and crowded human world make striking visuals. . . The initial playfulness invites young viewers to see the world as the axolotl does so when disaster (after disasters) strikes, they understand the stakes. To što je Zemlja uništena nije bilo slučajno. Upornim istraživanjem i dedukcijom potvrđena je hipoteza da su napredni vanzemaljci procenili da je ljudski rod teška štetočina (živa istina) i da je najbezbednije spržiti nas na vreme. I tu gde bi neko tek zapodenuo SF serijal - ne, zapravo, na polovini nekog hipotetičkog serijala - Dukaj zaključi da je stigao do logičnog završetka razvoja svog junaka, počasti nas sa još nekoliko elegično-filozofskih stranica u stilu Lema ili pre Bredberija i aj ćao. The horror began—I learned in the same moment —of believing myself prisoner in the body of an axolotl, metamorphosed into him with my human mind intact, buried alive in an axolotl, condemned to move lucidly among unconscious creatures. We hear the cry of soul of the narrator trapped inside the body of an axolotl, the narrator cries from the depth of his being as if he is being thrown in to this hell of nothingness wherein he can’t express himself as if his entire existence is shred to nothingness, just like the vermin Gregor Samsa of Franz Kafka turns into, in The Metamorphosis. The readers find the consciousness of the narrator being confined to the body of an axolotl, severed from the entire world as if the world turns deaf to him, he watches with soul stirring horror that he is reflecting upon his own being through glass of aquarium, it marks the intense loneliness of human life which he can’t escape even after the transformation. However, the treatment here is more optimistic and humane since the narrator soon realizes that axolotls are human like consciousness beings who are trapped in their bodies so as to say condemned to exist, contemplating upon their doomed reality without realizing their true existence.