"Love means admiration for qualities in the lover that promise to correct our weaknesses and imbalances; love is a search for completion." - Alain de B"Love means admiration for qualities in the lover that promise to correct our weaknesses and imbalances; love is a search for completion." - Alain de Botton, The Course of Love
An interesting approach to the genre. This could have been an interesting book that explores relationships and love through all the stages, but Botton enjoys approaching things with a bit of novelty. And, for the most part, it works. Instead of breaking sections down by stage/ages, Botton uses two characters and their development/romance/love to serve as a central narrative where he can unbutton the blouse of love. The narrative is broken down into 5 major sections: Romanticism, Ever After, Children, Adultery, Beyond Romanticism. His protagonists Rabih and Kirsten make the journey and Botton hangs around and narrates with frequent philosophical asides.
This format worked for about 200 of the 225 pages. If he tried this for 300, I would probably have rejected his approach as gimmicky. But, again, he landed it. Part of the reason I only gave it 4-stars is I do wish he had accompanied this with at least endnotes for the studies, books, etc., that he references. I completely understand why he didn't include any of that in the text, it was teaching through narrative so he tried to almost remove everything that would get in the way of his instructive story (except for the italicized asides). But still, it would have been better with a bit of meat behind the scenes. I don't need to see the tubas, but I like the idea knowing who is playing the notes behind the curtain. ...more
“Because the only way to resist, our husbands had taught us, was by not resisting.” ― Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
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I read entirely too “Because the only way to resist, our husbands had taught us, was by not resisting.” ― Julie Otsuka, The Buddha in the Attic
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I read entirely too much white male fiction. I know this. It is familiar and available. Abundant even. It is everywhere. So, I'm trying to reach beyond my normal boundaries. Read more minority voices, listen to another story. Otherwise, what good is fiction?
Julie Otsuka's little novella was quick. It checks in at 124 pages or so. But it sticks with you. It carries you*. It doesn't have one narrator, but a chorus of Japanese woman who immigrated to America in the early 20th century as mail-order brides for Japanese laborers in California. She follows this beautiful and tragic chorus of woman through a new country, a new culture, new husbands, work, loneliness, work, marriage, work, children, work, racism, and eventually the FDR's Japanese Concentration Camps of WWII (Executive Order 9066).
Newly married, living in Utah, I traveled to Delta, Utah with my wife and walked around the Topaz War Relocation Center. It was haunting. The images of dust and isolation came back to me 25-years-later as I read this book. It was written in 2011, but seems to warn us against the fear we seem to always have of the other (Mexicans, Muslims, Japanese, blacks, etc). We cage them because we don't recognize they are us. One of the lines that struck me the most from this short book was on page 124. It was the mayor of a California town speaking after the Japanese have been hauled away. Some of the words, however, came from a speech by Donald Rumsfeld in October of 2001 (before Guantanamo was a household word, before kids in cages, before black sites, and waterboarding became associated with America):
"There will be some things that people will see," he tells us. "And there will be some things that people won't see. These things happen. And life goes on."
Certainly, life will go on, but Otsuka's haunting prose; her beautiful narrative mantras; the pulsing rhythm of her Japanese chorus of women; her FPP anonymous narrators -- will all haunt me for a long time.
* Although a completely different book, I was reminded several times while reading this novella of O'Brien's The Things They Carried...more
“Christian educators can work to alleviate the harsh, shame-based judgmentalism that marks so much moral teaching and replace it with teachings that g“Christian educators can work to alleviate the harsh, shame-based judgmentalism that marks so much moral teaching and replace it with teachings that give life, hope, and grace. Christian educators can give their full, critical, and honest effort to comparing, measuring, and discerning which traditions and teachings are most life-giving.” ― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy Continued: Fulfilling God's Kingdom on Earth
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I think there was a lot of potential in this book, but also several glaring weaknesses. I like it when people (religious or otherwise) are thinking about big, transformative, ideas. Dallas Willard, along with Gary Black, Jr., explores how leaders and professionals both within the Christian Church and in the professions (law, medicine, etc) can carry the positive message of Christianity forward.
It is a very optimistic book and seems to have invested its whole pile betting on evangelicalism RIGHT as the US evangelical movement doubled down on Donald Trump. I'm not an evangelical and wouldn't even be considered a Christian by many evangelicals. But I love the teachings of Jesus and see a lot of potential in Christianity. However, I think there is something desperately wrong in US Christianity (or at least how it is messaging). Troubling and wrong. The results can be seen as the youth run for the door. Before the Church (or its leaders) can worry about transforming economics, medicine, law, and business... it needs to get its house in order. Moral leadership is not something most Americans would equate right now with the evangelical movement. That is unfortunate. Willard and Black argue correctly that an educated ministry would help. I'm just afraid that a book like this and a thinker like Willard (who taught philosophy at USC) is a bit too little a lot too late.
The book was Willard's last work, and he died before it was finished. Gary Black, one of Dallas Willard's acolytes finished the book and completed the work. Having not read much of Black or Willard, it is hard to know whose voice is whose. I find it interesting to gather tidbits from many faith traditions to see where they are as a movement. I've heard good things about Willard. This might not have been the best one to start with since it is more of an unfinished, or hybrid work than his others....more
The end of the Durant's Story of Civilization. What the hell am I going to do with my time now?The end of the Durant's Story of Civilization. What the hell am I going to do with my time now?...more
"Nothing endures that is not fought for." - John le Carré , Agent Running in the Field
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OK Boomer.
First, amazement. I can't believe JlC is still w"Nothing endures that is not fought for." - John le Carré , Agent Running in the Field
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OK Boomer.
First, amazement. I can't believe JlC is still writing great fiction at 88. There are several writers who I feel the weight of time heavy on (John le Carré, John McPhee, and Robert Caro). They all happen to be some of my favorite writers ever, so anytime one of them writes something new it is like oxygen on my reading fire.
This novel feels a bit like the 3rd* major interation of le Carré. His first novels were Cold War espionage (Smiley novels, etc), his second were post-Cold War, late stage Capitalism. This book, published when he was 88, is a hard screed against the Nationalisms of Russian, Britain, and especially Trump's America. He is angry and he writes beautiful angry prose.
Here are some of my favorite lines about Brexit and Trump:
"Do you or do you not regard Trump, which I do, as a threat and incitement to the entire civilized world, plus he is presiding over the systematic no-holds-barred Nazificaiton of the United States?"
"He's Putin's shithouse cleaner. He does everything for little Vladi that little Vladi can't do for himself; pisses on European unity, pisses on human rights, pisses on Nato. Assures us that Crimea and Ukraine belong to the Holy Russian Empire, the Middle East belongs to the Jew and the Saudis, and to hell with the world Order."
"Brexit is self-immolation. The British public is being marched over a cliff by a bunch of rich elitist carpetbaggers posing as men of the people."
The ending is a bit too clean and a bit too hopeful? I dunno. I still have to untangle it a bit. Not top-shelf le Carré, but good and solid spy fiction from the MASTER of spy fiction.
* Fourth if you count his brief flirtation with crime fiction....more
"He is writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover." - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
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Peter Wo"He is writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover." - Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
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Peter Wohlleben, who brought us the The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World is back with the Inner Life of Animals. My same critiques of his last book are still here. I think Peter tends towards a heavy anthropomorphism when dealing with both trees and animals. I get it still. It is hard to view other species outside of our own viewpoint. In his enthusiasm FOR trees and animals, he wants to give us a reason to love them. We naturally love ourselves, so why not talk about how animals share common traits with man? But I think that can be a dangerous precedent.
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That said, Wohlleben is a natural observer. And his enthusiasm is a delight. This book was just not nearly as smooth or as surprising and delightful as the Hidden Life of Trees. Still good, just not great.
Oh, and this is just Part II of Wohlleben's 'The Mysteries of Nature trilogy'. The other books are:
"Of all the audacities of science the most daring is the attempt to fling its measuring rods around the stars, to subject those scintillating beauties"Of all the audacities of science the most daring is the attempt to fling its measuring rods around the stars, to subject those scintillating beauties to nocturnal spying, to analyze their constituents across a billion miles, and to confine their motions to man-made logic and laws. Mind and the heavens are the poles of our wonder and study, and the greatest wonder is mind legislating for the firmament." - Will Durant, The Age of Voltaire
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Volume 9 of Durant's Story of Civilization focuses on the period of the Age of Enlightenment surrounding Voltaire. It primarily deals with the philosophy, religion, arts, wars, science and politics of the period between 1715 and 1756 in France, Britain, and Germany. I gave it five stars because so many interesting people, philosophy, and ideas can be found in this period. One difficulty with this volume was it lead me to buy, in reverse order:
So, I guess this is a new way for me to judge a history book. How many new books does it directly inspire me to worm into my library? I also now own some French coins of Pierre Bayle, Roger Bacon, Voltaire, and Montaigne, but that is a whole other French rabbit hole caused primarily by my last couple weeks floating in Volume 9.
Anyway, I enjoyed the book. Durant still doesn't appear tired of his subject. This is his third book related to the enlightenment and the only soft part of it (and it's probably more experimental than soft) is the last chapter's dialogue between Voltaire and Pope Benedict. It was good, but a bit too abstract for a Universal History. But I love it, so like all my loves, I will overlook its small faults because I hope for my own to disappear in time....more
"The more humiliating, shallow, debased or ugly we take ordinariness to be, the stronger will be our desire to set ourselves apart. The more corrupt t"The more humiliating, shallow, debased or ugly we take ordinariness to be, the stronger will be our desire to set ourselves apart. The more corrupt the community, the stronger the lure of individual achievement." - Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety
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This is my second of Botton's books. I enjoyed a lot (not just because I love gay French writers who adore their mothers) his book: How Proust Can Change Your Life. It isn't a huge, transformative book, but one of those nonfiction for amateur books that distill other's works into a product fit for mass consumption (a bit like Gladwell, etc).
The book is divided into a section on Causes: 1. Lovelessness 2. Expectation 3. Meritocracy 4. Snobbery 5. Dependence
And a section on Solutions: 1. Philosophy 2. Art 3. Politics 4. Religion 5. Bohemia
It is amazing to think this book was published the same year as Facebook was founded (2004) but before Twitter (2006) and Instagram (2010). I kept on thinking about how FB (all my vacation flexing and my need for likes), Instagram (selfies and filters), and Twitter (when will I ever get to 1M followers or verified) seem to validate almost all of Botton's points about the anxiety caused by status. Hell, status anxiety may also partially explains Trump, immigration fears, and the alteration of American Christianity the last 50 years, and even the college admissions scandal*. Part of the fun of reading this book (perhaps FUN isn't the right word) is all the ways this book makes you view one's own relationship with status, money, and others. It is also interesting to see how Botton's thesis has found fertile ground on the left and the right as we try to explain the stupid shit others do.
Anyway, it wasn't a perfect book and, at times, seemed almost too tucked in. Botton isn't saying anything super-novel here either, but his writing is always enjoyable and his points add a fold or two to my brain, and at the end of the day isn't that enough?
Finally, if you think I'm brilliant, or think I have value as a person, please like this post. Otherwise, I'm not sure if life will be worth living without my GR friend's approval. Also, you are ALL invited to my future funeral. Obviously, those of you who are REALLY my friends will show up. The rest of you, to quote Holden Caufield, are all "Phonies"!
* There is much I don't agree with this linked article. So, be warned. My linking doesn't = my agreeing with the author's point....more
"Men who made these discoveries before us are not our masters, bur our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized." - Seneca quot"Men who made these discoveries before us are not our masters, bur our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized." - Seneca quoted in Pigliucci's 'How to Be a Stoic"
It makes me sad because I wanted so much to like this book. My personal philosophy of life seems to swing a bit between the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius and the Epicureanism of Lucretius. So, perhaps, I'm a Stoic and work and an Epicurean at home. Or, maybe, I'm a Stoic during the day and an Epicurean at night.
Anyway, perhaps the book missed its target with me because I wanted a deeper dive into Stoicism, but paired with a deeper dive into the conflicts between Stocism and Modernity*. My final major critique is, while I enjoyed the major structure/organization of the book. He divides the book into four sections. The first three are the three disciplines of stoicism: 1. Desire, 2. Action, and 3. Assent. In the final and fourth section of the book, Pigliucci gives us a dozen selected spiritual excercises to get the reader started on their way to "becoming a good student of Stoicism" and as "good a person as [the reader] can be." My problem lies in the awkward path Pigliucci uses. He choses Epicetetus to be his Virgil (ok, I'm game), but then literally pretends to be having conversations mid-narrative with Epicetetus..."it was at this point during our conversation that I realized what Epicetetus was telling me had countless applications in my own life." In theory I get what Pigliucci was trying to do, but it came off awkward and a bit forced and kind of silly. At least I'm positive that the three stars aren't going to cause Pigliucci any pain. He's a Stoic. He's got the tools to survive my three-star=slight.
* One fascinating conflict would be Bill Clinton's well-known love of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. While it is certainly possible that Clinton read(s) Meditations yearly. After eight years as President, Clinton is not the President most would pick to exemplify a modern, stoic philosopher king....more
“Rick’s dream, though he seldom described it as such, was to someday tell a story so good that the people who heard it simply wouldn’t want to kill wo“Rick’s dream, though he seldom described it as such, was to someday tell a story so good that the people who heard it simply wouldn’t want to kill wolves anymore.” - Nate Blakeslee, American Wolf
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This book is haunted by all the John McPhee I've read. I wanted to like it more. I love wolves, adore Yellowstone, and am even planning a trip this winter to try and spot some damn wolves (even if I have to wrap my ass in bacon and tie my sorry self to a tree). But back to the book. It just wasn't that well written. I mean it was good. It told the story of 06, , but with wolf books (and wolves almost have their own fiction and nonficiton genre) this one, while popular a couple years ago, just wasn't great. I mean, sure, the periods were probably all where they were supposed to be and all, but if the book appeared outside of Yellowstone, I'm pretty sure not even Steven Turnbull (a pseudonym) would shoot it.
But that leads me to wonder why the abundance of positive reviews:
1. I am wrong and the book was brilliant. 2. I am right, but people like wolves. So, even mediocre stories told of compeling wolves evoke posiitve responses. I'd equate this to watching a wolf out of a crappy spotting scope. Yes, a Swarovski® would have been much better, but YOU JUST SAW A F#&%ING WOLF, so who cares. 3. Other readers are just dumb.
I'm old and wise enough to believe it might be a bit of all three. Anyway, not great, not horrible, just a mediocre narrative nonficiton about Yellowstone and its wolves....more
"If we interpret philosophy not as metaphysics but as any large perspective of human affairs, as a generalized view not only of the cosmos and the min"If we interpret philosophy not as metaphysics but as any large perspective of human affairs, as a generalized view not only of the cosmos and the mind but as well of morals, politics, history, and faith, Shakespeare is a philosopher, profounder than Bacon, as Montaigne is deeper than Descartes; it is not form that makes philosophy." -- Will Durant, The Age of Reason Begins
A great survey of the start of the Age of Reason (1559 to 1648). Will Durant (with Ariel Durant) continues to amaze me. Some parts drag just a bit, but for a survey this large, I'm constantly impressed that I'm rarely bored. His passion for people, history, philosophy and art jumps off every page. Volume VII starts with Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare and ends with Descartes.
“He grinned a little as he thought it; for he had always liked that pause, that fearful pause, the moment before things changed.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin “He grinned a little as he thought it; for he had always liked that pause, that fearful pause, the moment before things changed.” ― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Other Wind
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I don't have anything very revolutionary to write about this book. I've now finished both the Hainish Cylce and the Earthsea Cycle and feel like Le Guin floated above hard scifi or fantasy. She was a brilliant storyteller and used genre fiction to explore the caves, the deserts, and the forests of humanity. Her language was deceptive. You only recognized the poetry of her simple prose gradually. You only caught a glimpse of how BIG her themes were in increments. She built her literary castles, and we are lucky to have been able to walk among them.
Anyway, the novel is a near perfect ending to the Earthsea series. I loved the storyline of Alder, the Mender, and how his "narrative" seemed a low-key echo of Ged/Sparrowhawk's story. I loved the storyline of Lebannen, the King, and the Kargish princess. Finally, I loved the storyline of the Dragons, Tehanu, and the Mages. Mostly, I loved how Le Guin wove these threads all together. She harmonized the various stories and themes and told a lovely tale....more
"That’s the art, eh? What to say, and when to say it. And the rest is silence.” - Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea
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Solid. A couple of the "That’s the art, eh? What to say, and when to say it. And the rest is silence.” - Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea
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Solid. A couple of the stories really resonated with me (The Finder, On the High Marsh, Dragonfly). I cried at the end of one, and one made me pause for half-a-day chewing on it. Overall, I prefer her novels (or novellas) and this showed in this series because I gravitated towards the longer stories. Like with Tehanu, Le Guin alters the form. She is focused as much on the community as on the mages, witches, and magicians. She is looking at community, power, gender, and areas where the page folds, bends, or rips. Her magic is found in the ghost notes of fantasy. She would rather wander in the woods than travel over the expected trails of fantasy. The genre isn't where she creates. She creates in people, in weakness, in the humanity of the oppressed AND the oppresser.
- Foreword - nonfiction introduction: ★★★☆☆ - "The Finder" - School of magic is established (largely by women; or the Women of the Hand) on Roke island: ★★★★★ - "Darkrose and Diamond" - Romance between the daughter of a witch and the son of a rich merchant: ★★★★☆ - "The Bones of the Earth" - Ogion the Silent deals with an earthquake: ★★★★☆ - "On the High Marsh" - Mysterious healer arrives in a remote village with a livestock epidemic: ★★★★★ - "Dragonfly" - Postscript to the novel Tehanu: ★★★★★ - "A Description of Earthsea" - Fictional reference material*: ★★★☆☆
* Most of the story descriptions were lifted/based on the Wikipedia page for Tales from Earthsea....more
Ugh. I bought a copy with Harris’ signature in it from B&N. If not for the neat autograph, I’d ask for my money back. The best thing about this book wUgh. I bought a copy with Harris’ signature in it from B&N. If not for the neat autograph, I’d ask for my money back. The best thing about this book was the cover. Someone needed to pay-off a mortgage, a mistress, or send their kid to Harvard. I feel like I did when I was a kid and saw Tom Clancey jump the shark. It is so bad, it makes me question all his other books a bit....more
"But it took more than a revival of antiquity to make the Renaissance. And first of all it took money—smelly bourgeois money: the profits of skillful "But it took more than a revival of antiquity to make the Renaissance. And first of all it took money—smelly bourgeois money: the profits of skillful managers and underpaid labor; of hazardous voyages to the East, and laborious crossings of the Alps, to buy goods cheap and sell them dear; of careful calculations, investments, and loans; of interest and dividends accumulated until enough surplus could be spared from the pleasures of the flesh, from the purchase of senates, signories, and mistresses, to pay a Michelangelo or a Titian to transmute wealth into beauty, and perfume a fortune with the breath of art." -- Will Durant, The Renaissance
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Probably my least favorite of the first five books in Durant's 11-volume "Story of Civilization". That said, I still give it four stars. Durant a philosopher/historian LOVES art and artists. A lot of this book seems like an expanded version of Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects: Illustrated - Biographies of the Greatest Artists of Renaissance, Including Leonardo da ... Giotto, Raphael, Brunelleschi & Donatello. The book focuses on the Renaissance in Italy (and not the later expansion of Renaissance ideas into Europe). So, a majority of this book focuses on Art, Sculpture, Popes, Literature, and the great Italian cities of the Renaissance (Rome, Florence, Venice, etc). The narrative isn't driven by time as location (genearally, exluding the Prelude w/ Petrarch and Bocaccio), and Durant's brush. His narrative brush goes from Florence and the Medici, to Milan, Tuscany, Mantua, Ferrara, Venice, Naples, and Rome. In each city he explores the major artists from those towns, their relationship with Rome, and the major Renaissance artists associated with those city states. He ends the book by discussing the moral, religious, political, and economic changes that were associated with the end of the Italian Renaissance.
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Again, let me add, although this is my least favoite of the first five, it is still pretty damn good. Durant does a pretty good job of putting a lot of the myths about the Renaissance to rest. He's a moderate historian. He's unprepared to criticize too harshly; knowing the worst said about someone often has little to do with truth and more to do with who is in power and gets to have the last word. His prose in this book is a bit more restrained than in other books. I'm not sure why. Perhaps, it is only when dealing with philosophy and ideas that Durant is able to write without restraint (and the Renaissance was heavy on art, and light on ideas, excluding exceptional cases). When discussing art, there is often less room (for Durant) to wax poetic. He seems content with describing the art well and puting the artists and the geniuses of the age into their proper context....more
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