Blog Archives
EIGHT NOVELS BY MARTIN KNOX
Available from Amazon at the links below, the fiction stories are speculative, optimistic, scientific and uplifting.
THE GRASS IS ALWAYS BROWNER
250 years from now, will neighbours in adjacent countries caste envious eyes on Australia?
Can Australia be united by a central, rational, scientific government under Prime Minister Abajoe? The story has a manifesto to avoid sectarian conflict in secular Australia.
PRESUMED DEAD
In a city governed by a bipartisan duopoly, could self-interest of political parties corrupt politics and cause the disappearance of Jane Kenwood, an iconic woman city councillor?
Can her boyfriend Phillip Keane, a forensic scientist, unravel the political skulduggery?
SHORT OF LOVE
Tom and Vicki meet at university but their affair is delayed by their careers, which involve
unethical corporate trading between Canada and an African country. The story is a satire. It exposes Tom’s corporate capitalism and his attempt to trade his girl friend in a commodity short. How will Vicki respond?
TIME IS GOLD
Maxi, an elite marathon runner, trains following advice given by a physicist, psychologist, neuroscientist and a Zen Buddhist. Her think tank discuss philosophies in endurance performance. Her boyfriend Jack depends on her success for his PhD thesis. When sports promoters try to stop her using a winning training technique, will they succeed?
ANIMAL FARM 2
The story sequels George Orwell’s satire Animal Farm (1945) and updates it to recent times. The pigs’ totalitarian control continues on Caruba, where the Social Republic installs missiles adjacent to the Democratic Union. The animals learn English and climate science in order to contest the closing of their coal mine, their only source of employment. Will the animals overthrow the pigs? Can the animals farm without the pigs?
TURKEYS NOT BEES
Megan is an Australian pole vault champion in training for the 2032 Olympic Games, whose career is halted by nanny state overreach, preventing her from using a new training method. She and her boyfriend Chance are individualists, opposed by collectivists who level competitions to bring success to outsiders and profits to investors. Will Megan and her boyfriend Chance be able to successfully oppose mandatory restrictions in a pandemic with non-violent resistance?
BRISBANE RIVER ANTI-MEMOIR
A fresh look at the floods by Cartesian and then Heideggerian phenomenological analysis, identifies actions river authorities should take to protect homes from flooding and damage. For people whose homes are exposed to risks of all kinds, the author’s prescription, based on Nietzsche’s philosophy, could be enlightening.
THE CAMEL, THE LION AND THE CHILD
A self-determined man’s career is transcendent, trying to end the Cold War and parallels Nietzsche’s story Thus Spake Zarathustra, when his spirit adopts roles of a camel, a lion and finally a child, in this fable of self-realisation.
Links to Amazon bookstores are shown above.
Reviews, excerpts and posts are on my blog martinknox.com
SOCIAL CLASS DIFFICULT TO MATCH
Vicki’s class is a cut above Tom’s. He is besotted and wants a relationship. They are in Britain, where social class is determined by breeding, old money and privileged education. Tom tries to raise his class, drops his regional accent and adopts BBC English. Will his lower class breeding, lack of old money and his redbrick university, thwart their love?
When Vicki plays hard to get at university with him, Tom moves her on to a back burner, so he can concentrate on getting a first class degree. He frames his interest in her as a short transaction in the commodity love, with delivery delayed until after graduation. Vicki won’t be compromised, making out with his flat mate and breaking Tom’s deal with him. Rebuffed, Tom has another girl, until he goes to a job in Canada.
Tom returns to the UK on visits, staying in touch with Vicki and trying to rekindle their love. When she continues to reject him, he marries another girl and has children. He still wants Vicki but is faithful to his family.
This is a story about personal ambition trying to displace social classes and family loyalties, dishonouring love. Tom rises to be CEO of an international oil company and tries to act morally and ethically against corporate greed. If he succeeds, will Vicki finally accept him?
Eventually his marriage fails and he plans to return to the UK to be with Vicki who is single. Should he have realised that her different class would inevitably come between them? Should he have looked for a girl friend from his own class? Will Vicki want him, after all this time?
Short of Love is fast-paced biographical fiction, a true love story, interwoven between the stylised lives of an ambitious engineer and an idealistic activist.
Available on Amazon. For reviews see martinknox.com
COVID-19 AFFECTS AGES DIFFERENTLY
Normally, with say influenza, the public takes responsibility for vaccinations, seeking diagnosis, treatment, self-distancing and isolation. When there is a dangerous infectious disease like COVID-19, because the public is unable to recognise infected people and avoid dangerous contact, they expect to be protected, with infected people separated and treated. Voluntary control is displaced by public authority.
When a large part of the population is not very vulnerable, for example only 8% of worldwide COVID-19 deaths to March 30th were people aged under 60 years, the social and economic costs from restrictions to young people’s education and careers should be weighed against the small probability of significant health benefits when restrictions are being considered for renewal. If under 60s act as vectors in transmitting the disease to the vulnerable 92% of over 60s, the latter might not regard their own voluntary social distancing and self-isolation as sufficient to protect them. The calculation of what age groups to compulsorily restrict would require more transmission data than I have available. Authorities have usually imposed the same restrictions whatever are peoples’ ages.
http://www.martinknox.wordpress.com
Cat and mouse?
Is simultaneity possible? Who should make the first commitment?
The fiction novel ‘Short of Love’ is about a couple for whom commitment is ephemeral and elusive despite intervening lovers and children. There is overthinking in this satirical treatment of the vulnerability of love.
http://www.martinknox.wordpress.com
