2012

Wed, Mar 28

<20:22 EEST> The end of a long March is nigh, so I better jot down something to keep the log (that everyone loves) alive. My current working schedule, all the way until summer, is particularly nice and compact, but I often find myself doing extra hours as a substitute in some random subject, with little or no preparation. One reason is that I have too little hours compared to my pay, due to general bureaucratic glitches, which makes me an easy target for extra duties. Of course, I would rather take a lowered pay, but changing that seems like too much work for the paper pushers.

On a cultural side — not that education isn't — there has been an interesting string of events. About two weeks ago I went to see the play Sarasvatin hiekkaa, based on the book by Risto Isomäki, with which I am naturally familiar. The limitations of a small stage and budget were, in many places, cleverly worked around with real-time video effects. For example rock climbing was done horizontally, while another actor videoed the scene into a more realistic angle.

This being a one-off show in a national tour, several like-minded friends were spotted in the audience. One of them is currently involved in the play Fundamentalisti, which I recalled reading about a few years ago, but never managed to see the original. I imagine this version worked better on some levels, as restricted by the intimate basement of Vakiopaine. The story was surprisingly interesting and intelligent, well surpassing my expectations. In a vague synchrony, it reflected many of the themes I had recently read in Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

In the meantime, I managed to find Isomäki's latest novel Con Rit in the town library. Since about Sarasvati, it seems that his fame among the mainstream readers has exploded, and the book was rarely available. As with most of his novels, I sense a kind of naïve continuation in that the same ecological action thriller is being told over and over, but every time there is also some progress. Here the story arc deviates from expected, resulting in somewhat disparate sections, but then again it is a freedom that Isomäki can afford, and in the book format it works. Moreover, the ecological rant takes a back stage, and I feel echoes of the pure, observative SF that dominated his first book of fiction, the Kristalliruusu collection of short stories. Some of the action scenes seem a little forced, though. The main story would be strong enough without them.