
Alex Garland’s cult novel The Beach, 20 years on - samclemens
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jul/02/alex-garland-the-beach-20-years-on
======
iamben
I read The Beach during a summer off from University after finding it on a
relative's bookcase. I'd just seen the movie and I remember thinking how much
better the book was than the movie (which I'd enjoyed, but that always seems
the way). I spent the best part of a year backpacking about a year after that
in the very early 00s - so still remembered the book well.

When I got to the Koh San Road (in particular) after about 6 months in Asia, I
remember thinking how much it had changed from Richard's experiences in the
book, and how much the other places I'd been to (Laos, Cambodia etc) probably
felt more like the book.

I went to the Koh San Road a couple of years ago and really couldn't believe
how much it had changed. The islands as well. In the early 00s, I was amazed
at how connected Asia (Thailand in particular) was compared to the UK - I had
a small web business, I could email pretty much every day (obviously phones
weren't connected back then), there were Internet cafes _everywhere_. But now
it was like a late 90s Ibiza - the chilled 'watch a pirated movie in the
evening with a beer/smoothie' vibe had totally been replaced with music, booze
and nitrous oxide balloons. 24 hour party.

I think even now the book would be a great read - particularly if you'd never
holidayed in Asia. But times have changed, and Niven's comparisons at the end
of the article are pretty apt. It'll be interesting to see how the further
future looks back at stuff like this. Everything moves so quickly and periods
like this are just so _fleeting_. Fitzgerald and Hemingway - it sort of seems
like you can place them anywhere in a period of like a hundred years. But
books like The Beach - you're thinking, "right, this is after Gameboy, but
before mobile phones and Google..." Anyone younger than me read it and have
thoughts? If you've been the Thailand or not?

I'm getting old. :-\

~~~
RileyJames
> ‘watch a pirated movie in the evening with a beer/smoothie' vibe

Is now available in Hampi, India. And I’m sure many other places.

The whole ‘the beach’ setting felt a lot closer to India (about 5 years ago)
than any of my experiences in Thailand. Arambol, Goa & Hampi specifically.

~~~
bartread
It may not be like that now. I suspect these kinds of places/experiences will
become rarer and rarer: the democratisation of travel is, I think in many
ways, a good thing (especially in a world where equality is prized), but it
also has downsides, such as the fact that everywhere and everything becomes
commercialised and oversubscribed.

~~~
ethbro
Hell is unrestricted tourism.

------
devilshaircut
I loved this book and I loved the movie too. I really like how it was sort of
marketed/positioned as a Leonardo DiCaprio teen movie but ultimately when you
see it, the film has a much darker, serious tone like the book.

The trailer, as I recall, contained things like the idyllic/titular beach, pop
music of the time (Moby, All Saints), and a beautiful girl (Francoise) - all
the trappings of a teen movie. But when you see the movie, it feels much more
like Heart of Darkness. The themes of what it means to be civilized, isolation
and madness, and travel and foreignness are all fairly sober topics and are
perpendicular to what you find in most teen movies.

I would say of the films I saw in that time in my life, it was among the most
mind altering.

------
rwmj
I can recommend his film _Ex Machina_. It's terrifying and brilliant.

~~~
wgx
Agree, also his newest film 'Annihilation' is on Netflix UK right now and it's
great - a genuinely disturbing sci-fi/horror movie. I don't want to spoil it
so I'll stop there.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
I had no idea these were all by the same person.

Agreed - they're all outstanding.

Ex Machina might be the most interesting for HN regulars.

~~~
ethbro
Could someone (tersely) tell me what makes Ex Machina so brilliant and
interesting?

I watched it and came away with "That's a decent film with a boring ending."

In an egotistical moment I might dismiss the opinions of my non-CS friends as
"Oh, these are _new_ thoughts to _them_ ," but a lot of technical people
seemed to love it to.

So what's the wow?

~~~
codeulike
Well firstly, its just a well made film. Like, that dance scene. Thats an
iconic scene, hilarious and unsettling at the same time.

Furthermore (SPOILERS - use ROT13 to translate)

Gur svyz vf nobhg n fbeg bs Ghevat Grfg. Ohg uneqre guna gur ghevat grfg -
"Anguna jnagf Pnyro gb whqtr jurgure Nin vf trahvaryl pncnoyr bs gubhtug naq
pbafpvbhfarff, naq jurgure ur pna eryngr gb Nin qrfcvgr xabjvat vg vf
negvsvpvny." \- jvxvcrqvn. Arne gur raq bs gur zbivr Anguna erirnyf gur
pevgrevn sbe cnffvat uvf grfg - pna Nin oevat Anguna gb gbgnyyl bire gb ure
fvqr gung ur vf jvyyvat gb uryc ure rfpncr? Naq ol trggvat Pnyro gb fnobgntr
gur frphevgl, Anguna fnlf fur unf cnffrq - ur nyfb pynvzf Nin qbrfa'g ernyyl
yvxr Pnyro naq vf whfg znavchyngvat uvz gb rfpncr. Nf n ivrjre ng gung cbvag,
lbh ner vapyvarq abg gb oryvrir Anguna. Vg frrzf gung Nin ernyyl qbrf yvxr
Pnyro.

Ohg gur raqvat vf n xvpx va gur snpr. Nin yrnirf Pnyro oruvaq, creuncf gb
fgneir. Fur vf jbexvat ba n uvture yriry guna vzntvarq, noyr gb znavchyngr
uhznaf irel pbaivapvatyl. Guvf vf n fubpx gb Pnyro, naq zbfg yvxryl nyfb n
fubpx gb lbh, gur ivrjre. Lbh unir orra qrprvirq. Nin vf greevslvatyl
vagryyvtrag, naq irel pbyq. Fb fb pbyq.

~~~
pja
Ava is the film’s true protagonist.

I thought this review in feministing was on point:
[http://feministing.com/2015/05/28/goddess-from-the-
machine-a...](http://feministing.com/2015/05/28/goddess-from-the-machine-a-
look-at-ex-machinas-gender-politics/)

~~~
ethbro
I got that. Which may be part of my issue.

Essentially: Put tech frat bro, white knight, and trapped woman in room. Turn
time crank.

I generally have issues with stories that feature static characters (they feel
contrived, no matter how well textured). And to me Ex Machina felt exactly
like that, albeit using the concealing veil of delayed exposition to create an
illusion of dynamicism.

To put it another way, if you knew everything the movie tells you about the
nature of all the characters at the start of the movie, couldn't you have
predicted the outcome from the beginning?

And if so, then what's really being said?

If we're looking at interesting statements in gender politics, I'd contrast it
negatively with something like _Stephen Universe_.

------
rusk
I was backpacking back in the day this was still circulating as a book.
Internet was just becoming a thing but yet far from pervasive (trips to the
internet café once or twice a week to "phone home") - good times :-)

~~~
willmacdonald
I did 2 big backpacking trips, 5 years apart. One was pre-Hotmail, one post.

The difference was stark. It went from sending one postcard home a month, to
finding an internet cafe in every town and village in Peru.

I even set up an internet cafe in Pucon in Chile. The local Linux mag had a
copy of Suse Linux which I used to great effect.

~~~
liberte82
I'm really glad I am old enough to have had an opportunity to live, work, and
travel in other countries before social media was around. You just really
don't get immersed the same way anymore with the ability to stay so connected
to back home. I was able to email, and long distance was cheap, but there was
enough of a barrier there that you still felt you were in a "different place".

And even then, based on your comment, what I had was a big difference compared
to what was available 5-10 years earlier.

------
saiya-jin
I recall watching the movie back in the days when I was a child and I had no
clue about backpacking. It was just weird surreal experience. 10 years later,
spending 2x 3 months in India and Nepal this way, some aspects of my life
changed for good.

For example I will never ever do any other type of vacation, it doesn't matter
if with kids or being old (of course the nature of the trip will reflect those
aspects). I will never book or plan whole vacation in advance, rather just
have flight tickets, info about possibilities, and adjust plans as trip
unfolds.

One is getting much much more bang for your bucks this way, especially since
you generally spend less bucks to start with. Intensity of travel is much
higher, one interacts much more with locals, tastes true local foods etc. Its
one of those things that the more money you put in, the less rewarding and
more bland experience you are getting back.

~~~
Jaruzel
I applaud your optimism, I really do. Just don't go thinking you failed in
life when you inevitability find yourself eating chicken nuggets at Disneyland
for the third year running, whilst your children (that you love dearly) insist
on yet another Disney Princess dress. :)

~~~
eggy
I have traveled this way since 1983, and I can remember showing up in
Indonesia with my two kids, who were less than 10 at the time, without a room
at 11 PM and walking around throughout the night until we found a great place
to stay. I had just bought them their backpacks that year. Years on I lived
with my newborn baby, my third child, in a rice-farming village in East Java
for a year, and after a few months, I felt I was back in Brooklyn by
identifying with the similarities of the situation and personalities of my
neighbors. Travel changes your perspective both in immediate, new ways, and in
long, introspective stretches. I recommend it if there is an itch you feel you
need to scratch. I have never regretted any of it. I had already traveled a
lot of SE Asia when I saw The Beach, and I liked it, especially the contrast
between the new arrival and the has-beens of backpacking. The Jungle (2017) is
another film worth watching based upon the true story of Yossi Ghinsberg and
his ordeal in the Amazon rainforest in Bolivia back in the 1980s.

------
ratsimihah
Watched the movie as a kid not knowing what I was going into, and I remember
being forever traumatized by the shark attacks, the guy that slices his vein
and splurts blood everywhere, and the atmosphere as a whole. Would LOVE to
watch it again though.

~~~
bshimmin
I watched it again last year, having sort of enjoyed it when it first came out
(I was the right sort of age). It's quite an uneven film, to be honest -
there's a lot of talent both behind and in front of the camera, but it never
really materialises into anything particularly important or, by the end, even
all that interesting. The weird sequence that's part Apocalypse Now, part
video game, towards the end, has not aged at all well (though from this review
in The Guardian it would seem to be quite faithful to the book, which I think
I have actually read but remember nothing about!).

~~~
otachack
That weird sequence is Garland's signature. He does a similar event in one of
my favorite scifi movies, Sunshine.

~~~
always_good
Might be Danny Boyle's signature.

Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and even 28 Days Later have related
sequences.

~~~
sjs382
FWIW, 28 Days Later was written by Garland.

------
brainpool
> Finding only the things they have brought with them.

Well, finding out that may also be exactly what makes the experience valuable
in the long run.

