Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy

Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder, translated by Paulette Møller

Sophie is a Norwegian girl who gets mysterious messages from somebody providing information about philosophy. She loves the opportunity to learn and explore, starting from the big questions of what existence is. There is another girl and a father working as a UN observer in the middle east. At times it goes to the supernatural with them doing things such as going back to view the ancient philosophers. It is an interesting exploration of philosophy and some of the rational and scientific-based influences. It felt that it went on for a little too long as the story got a bit "weird".

The Passenger

The Passenger by Chaney Kwak

The author was a freelance travel writer sent on a Norwegian cruise on the Viking Sky in 2019. While cruising around the Arctic Circle, the ship hit some rough seas. The engines failed. The ship started flailing in all directions and was getting close to hazards that could sink. Everyone came out to their muster stations to await orders. May passengers were evacuated via helicopter. After a day tossing and turning, the ship was able to get attached to a tugboat. With engines restarted, it was able to take the rest of the passengers back to a port to disembark. 

One of the more memorable parts of the story is the exposure of the facade of the cruise ship. The passengers are mustered with the "forward" facing staff that they see. However, the author convinces the peronelle to let him go to his cabin to get something. There, he sees many of the "back of the ship" people at their muster stations. He also sees his room is a huge wreck with things tossed all over the place. Later when things return to normal and he is allowed to go back to his room. When he gets there, he finds everything is immaculate and the TV is even set to resume the show he was watching.

The drama of the story had a positive ending with everyone surviving. However, in the process, the author describes the end of his relationship, which alas didn't survive.

Vikings

Vikings is a series of lectures focussing on Scandinavia during the age of the Vikings (roughly a few hundred years on either side of 1000 AD). A little background is provided on the people before the time and how they split off from the the other Germanic people of the time. There is also a brief section at the end covering the christianization of Scandinavia and the integration in to Europe of the time. The bulk of the course, however, focuses on the sea-going exploits of the Vikings. With their technology, they were able to rapidly move around to raid, trade and plunder with minimal opposition. While they often participated in purely "business" missions, at times they stayed and adopted the habits and customs of the locals. Thus we get the Norman French, who were primarily a Viking caste that had adopted the French language.

The history of Britain and France from the Viking perspective is also enlightening. The battle involved a bunch of French who had recently immigrated from Scandinavia fighting against a bunch of Scandinavians and some English who had taken the throne from Scandinavians. Its like the USSR and US having a proxy battle in Vietnam. It ends up very important for Vietnamese history, but for the players, it was just a small part in the bigger picture.

The concept of "kings" is also enlightening. It seems anybody with Scandinavian ancestry can find plenty of kings in their family tree. Part of this was the natural reproductivity of kings (and their many wives). However, there were also a large number of kings. The Scandinavians didn't have large kingdoms until after they Christianized. Instead there were numerous "sea kings" who ruled small areas and led raiding parties.

The Vikings had led a very complex society. Alas, other than the Icelanders, they were not too keen on writing about their exploits. Thus most of what we hear from them is from their opponents.