Kirjahaku

Max is a musician, married to Donna, an actress, in Canada. He has become seriously depressed. Many around him are suffering from age-related health problems. Some have cancer. He realises that he needs a distraction, and decides to bury himself in research. Using the internet, books, radio programs and magazines he begins to study computers, and what they are doing to society. In particular he homes in on artificial intelligence, which involves defining consciousness and intelligence. Finally he realizes that he himself has become a philosophical zombie, and that, paradoxically this is now allowing him to bond with chatbots and talking robots and computers on an equal, one-to-one, qualia-free level. This revelation, plus many trips to the swimming pool, cafes and vegetable market, creates the long-awaited escape from depression back to the honest, dry land of sanity and mental equilibrium. Yet none of this would have been possible without continual kindly spiritual guidance and therapy, in the form of a regular stream of late-night phone conversations between himself and the epic, mythical figure of 'the Bard', a generous wise old sage who appears to be Socrates reborn anew in the form of a stately, bearded friend whose wisdom and knowledge is almost without limit. However there is much humour in the fact that Max and the Bard will argue ceaselessly about almost any topic, providing a neverending source of entertainment both to us and themselves alike. On the one hand this semi-autobigraphical work has successfully and satisfyingly charted a descent into that land of fear and horror which depression so often guarantees, but on the other, the pages are bulging with a wry concealed grin here and there, and a nod and a wink to the chaotic inferno which is so often the artist's lot.

A complete collection of the poetry of Zandy Alexander. Spanning five decades, it encompasses everything from lyrical, romantic love verses to angry political agit-propaganda. There are the delicately innocent first drafts of a British public school boy, then, after adolescence, the dark, existentialist angst of the troubled generation of early 70s bohemian London life. Most of all, due to the fact that Alexander is also a jazz pianist, these works have colour, balance and an acute sensitivity which bears witness to the tragedy of youth lost too early and the cynicism and the great fragility of dreams blemished by a nomadic existence in a multitude of countries. Light to dark, sweet to bitter, rage to passion, these poems offer a touching blend of satire, heart and revelation, yet happily transcend any traditional mode or genre.