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RUPERT / CHRIS
I met Eales whilst at secondary school, where we happened to be
let free to ‘boogie’ on a piano in our GCSE music
lessons. Eales studied …philosophy…at Richmond Upon
Thames College and then theology at what is now Roehampton Uni
and I studied music at RUTC and then at Roehampton. I didn’t
fare so well (at least academically) during a post graduate course
in composition for film and TV at Kingston Uni but the experience
did allow me the chance to become involved with the Transit Station
exhibition/event which has taken me, as a pianist, from London
- Berlin – Edinburgh so far and Copenhagen in 2010.
Like Eales I had been, and am still interested in the affect “powerful
and endless stream of information that flows from terminal to
terminal in every town and every city on Earth” on the social
& cultural life of the planet.
THE BOOK
Chris Eales’ We All Know Too Much arrived in my
Inbox via the “Highway” that was the "Internet"
in 2006.
I recently (April 2009) asked
him to explain how he came to write it:
"Studying Philosophy &
Theology led me (as it has done for so many other troubled souls
throughout history) to a sort of existential confusion, bordering
on despair, and so I remained for many years, haunted by the ghosts
of Descartes & Aristotle, and caught in the dilemma faced
by any man who, like me, is in possession of a first-class imagination,
but a second-class mind!
Slowly but surely, the rigours of rationality and certainty, were
replaced by the illusions & delusions of literature &
art, and I fell in love with dreamers & romantics like Ray
Bradbury & Anne Rice, leading me to a more positive, more
beautiful appreciation of life.
Questions as to the nature of consciousness, and the future of
Humanity led me (like Asimov and others in the great pantheon
of Science Fiction), to write a book based in the future, that
wondered how Mankind might progress. My Theology background, and
my fascination & indignation as to the horrors of fanaticism
& religious fundamentalism, meant that these themes crept
into the book as well. And there we have my first proper
completed attempt at a novel. The title of the book & main
character came (literally) from a dream I had in August 2006.
The title was intended both as a description of the characters
in the book, whose knowledge gets them into terrible trouble,
and also as a description of Mankind, and how knowing, learning
and progressing (too much?) leads us inevitably to keep reaching,
searching, and growing towards a destiny that none of us can really
know, or guarantee.
We all know too much"
Where will the internet
take us?
"the internet
is an extraordinary & revolutionary step in Human communications"
(Eales, on Facebook)
Memory, Theology,
Philosophy, Imagination, Virtuality, Humanity, Religion, God,
Knowledge, Education, Evolutionary Metaphysics, Consciousness,
Soul, Immaterial Existence, Politics, Money, Material, Space,
Travel, The (London) Tube, Tokyo, Australia, China, Taste, Smell,
Hearing, Exploration, Technology...
"The colony of New Earth
was constructed over a period of 25 years. The UN World Government
Council, or ‘The Leaders’ as most people usually called
them, had conceived of the plan to build an entirely new habitat
for the Human Race round about 2160, in response to the multitude
of problems that had developed on Earth over the course of the
C22nd.
They squabbled over it for about 30 years, and finally somebody
somewhere managed to forge an agreement for it to go ahead. They
started planning round about 2190, collecting resources &
arranging finances. Construction was supposed to start in 2200,
however various delays meant that they missed the turn by c3 years."
© Chris Eales, 2006-2010 |
