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1640093982
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| 4.36
| 99
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| Nov 15, 2022
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really liked it
| …it feels today that we are in the middle of a profound transformation of humanity.-------------------------------------- We don’t live in a cos …it feels today that we are in the middle of a profound transformation of humanity.-------------------------------------- We don’t live in a cosmos. We live in a cosmogenesis, a universe that is becoming, a universe that established its order in each era and then transcends that order to establish a new order.Cosmos - The universe seen as a well-ordered whole; from the Greek word kosmos ‘order, ornament, world, or universe’, so called by Pythagoras or his disciples from their view of its perfect order and arrangement. – from Oxford reference Genesis - Hebrew Bereshit (“In the Beginning”), the first book of the Bible. Its name derives from the opening words: “In the beginning….” Genesis narrates the primeval history of the world - from the Encyclopedia Britannica [image] Brian Thomas Swimme - image from Journey of the Universe So, Cosmogenesis means, at its root, the beginning of everything. Diverse cultures have come up with diverse understandings of how everything came to be. Where Swimme differs is in seeing the genesis, the beginning, the creation of everything as an ongoing process, not a one-off in deep history. Cosmogenesis tracks Swimme’s journey from math professor to spokesman for a movement that seeks to rejoin science and spirituality. The stations along this route, which runs from 1968 to 1983, consist of people he considers great minds. He gushes like a Swiftie with closeup tickets to an Eras Tour show over several of these genius-level individuals, while relying on his analytical capacity to note shortcomings in some of the theories some others propose. Swimme mixes his approach a bit. It is in large measure a memoir, with a focus on his intellectual (and spiritual) growth, along with descripti0ns of the places where he lived, taught, and studied, and the people who inspired him, providing some background to the theories and ovbservations to which he is exposed. A mathematics PhD, with a long and diverse teaching history, he grounds his work in the scientific. But he does not separate the scientific from the spiritual, from the human. In his view, we are all a part of the ongoing evolution of everything, noting that every subatomic part that make up every atom in our bodies, in our world, was present at the Biggest Bang, then was further refined by the lesser bangs of supernovas manufacturing what became our constituent parts. Even today, we bathe, wallow, bask, and breathe in radiation from that original event. It may have occurred fourteen billion years ago, but in a measurable way it is happening still. And we all remain a part of it. There is a piece of Swimme’s material-cum-spiritual notion that I found very appealing. I have experienced an ecstatic state while perceiving beauty in the world. On telling my son about one such, I remarked that it was like a religious experience. He answered, “why like?” Swimme recruits like experiences to bolster the connection between the humanly internal and the eternal of the cosmos. Bear in mind that Swimme grew up in a Catholic tradition, which clearly impressed him. There is a strong incense scent of religiosity to his work. Not saying that Cosmogenesis is a religion, but I am not entirely certain it is not. As a child I had learned that the Mass was where the sacred lived.I had a very different response to the religious world to which I was exposed as a child through twelve years of Catholic education. There was no connection for me between the Mass and the sacred, whatever that was. Mass represented mostly a burden, a mandatory exercise, communicating nothing about layers of experience beyond the material, while offering hard evidence of the power of institutions to control how I spent my time. I did not, at the time, understand the community building and reinforcing aspect to this weekly tribal ritual, separate from the religious content. I believe that what we think of as spiritual or spectral is the reality that lies beyond our perceptual bandwidth. The ancients did not understand lightning, so imagined a god hurling bolts. With scientific understanding of lightning, Zeus is cast from an imagined home on Mount Olympus to the confines of cultural history. Science expands our effective, if not necessarily our physical, biological bandwidth, and thus captures, making understandable, realities once thought the domain of imagined gods. But what of feeling? The ecstatic state I experience when witnessing the beauty of the world, is that a purely biological state, comprised of hormones and DNA? Or do we assign to that feeling, which can be difficult to explain, a higher meaning because of our inability to define it precisely enough? And, in doing so, are we not following in the path of the ancient Greeks who assigned to extra-human beings responsibility for natural events? So, I am not sure I am buying in to Swimme’s views. It is, though, something, to pique the interest of people like myself who have rejected most forms of organized religion, particularly those that focus on a human-like all-powerful being, (see George Carlin’s routine re this. I’m with George.) but who hold open a lane for a greater, a different understanding of all reality. Where is the line between the material and the spiritual? How did we come to be here? Evolution provides plenty to explain that. But we still get back to a linear understanding of time as an impasse. If the (our) universe began with the big bang, then what came before? Einstein showed with his special theory of relativity that time is not so fixed a concept as we’d thought. Things operate at different speeds, relative to each other, depending on distance and speed. Who is to say that there might not be more fungability to our understanding of time, maybe even radically so? In a way, this is what Swimme is on about, ways of looking at our broader reality, at our origins and ongoing evolution, (not just the evolution of our species, but of the universe itself) through other, more experiential perspectives, (a new Gnosticism?) while still including science. Humans have expressed their faith in a great variety of symbols, many of which have inspired me at one time or another. But today, if you ask for the foundation of my faith, I would say the stone cliffs of the Hudson River Palisades.Overall I found this book brain candy of the first order. Take it as a survey-course primer for the theory he propounds. There are many videos available on-line for those interested in going beyond Cosmo 101. So, Is cosmogenesis one of the ten greatest ideas in human history as is claimed here? That is above my pay grade. Some of the notions presented here seemed a bit much, but there was enough that was worth considering that made this a satisfying, intriguing read. Suffice it to say that it is a fascinating take on, well, everything, and can be counted on to give your gray cells, comprised of materials that have been around for 14 billion years, a hearty jiggle at the very least. Everything is up in the air. We are living in a deranged world where nihilism dominates every major state. The contest today is for the next world philosophy. Review posted – January 13, 2023 Publication dates ----------Hardcover - November 15, 2022 ----------Trade paperback - December 12, 2023 I received a hardcover of Cosmogenesis from Counterpoint in return for a fair review. [image] [image] [image] [image] This review has been cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi! =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, FB, and Twitter pages Twitter and Facebook do not appear to have ever been used you might also try Interviews -----Deeptime Network - Brian Swimme -- What's Next? Planetary Mind and the Future - video – 1:12:41 – from 6:50 -----Sue Speaks - SUE Speaks Podcast: Searching for Unity in Everything - podcast - 31:27 Items of Interest from the author ----- The Third Story of the Universe -----A Great Leap in Being - 28:56 -----Human Energy - Introduction to the Noosphere: The Planetary Minds -----Journey of the Universe Items of Interest -----San Francisco Chronicle - Science doesn’t cover it all, author Brian Thomas Swimme explains ----- George Carlin on religion ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Jan 08, 2023
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1250279003
| 9781250279002
| 1250279003
| 4.16
| 1,244
| May 12, 2022
| Jul 12, 2022
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it was amazing
| There is only one way out of this. The only way out of this outcome is that the November midterms are the final referendum on whether America truly st There is only one way out of this. The only way out of this outcome is that the November midterms are the final referendum on whether America truly stays America and a democracy or if it becomes a fascist dictatorship. If the Democrats lose the House and the Senate, then it is all over. There may never be another free and fair election in America. If the Republicans take control, we may be teetering on the edge of an American dictatorship. - from The Guardian interview-------------------------------------- There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call "The Twilight Zone." - One of several introductions used for the showIt does not take a lot of imagination to see what is happening in America today. They are coming for you. They are coming for your voting rights, your right to have your vote counted, your right not to be gerrymandered into a Jackson-Pollock-designed district that renders your vote moot, your right to be able to vote without having to stand on line for hours, your right to vote without having armed men and women watching you, intimidating you, your right to vote by mail, by drop box, your right to have someone bring your ballot to the election board if you are unable to do it yourself. They are coming for your right to privacy. An extremist religious SCOTUS whose members lied when they swore they would uphold precedent, reversed that very precedent and removed your right to do what you need, what you want, with your own body, blithely leaving hungry state foxes in charge of the abortion hen-house. They are coming for your money. Trump could not seem to do much to improve infrastructure, get us out of Afghanistan, deal with global warming or COVID, or seriously address any real public policy issues, but he managed to pass a massive tax cut for the wealthy and corporations. One guess who is supposed to make up that lost revenue. They are coming for the safety net programs that vast numbers of Americans rely on, while raising taxes on the middle class, on the working class and the poor. By Election Day 2020, the Trump-dominated Republican Party solidified itself for what it perceived was a battle to change the soul of America permanently. Trump’s financial backers saw endless opportunity for tax cuts and limitless, tax-free profits. The stock market saw a president who would ruin nearly a century of regulation and allow them unimaginable capital gains that they could pass on to their children without paying taxes. The party investors saw a middle and lower class that would pay for virtually everything Republicans wanted and divest from virtually every social program liberals wanted. In their eyes, the average American would see none of the profits of America but literally pay for the wealth and prosperity of the richest of the rich. In fact, Trump and his lieutenants managed to do precisely that in his first four years. By the end of his administration, money allocated for education, childcare, and mental health would pay for mega yachts. In Trump’s America, executive jet purchases were tax free.They are coming for your right to remain alive. Republicans have fought every attempt to enact sane gun control, untouched by the daily slaughter from these weapons. They are apparently just not that into you. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the rights and benefits that they want to take from you, from us. The right to marry, to love who you want, the right to define for yourself, and not allow the government to define your gender. Yes, they are coming for inter-racial marriage. They are coming for your right to use birth control. And they will not stop there. You have not just woken from a dream in an episode of The Twilight Zone (TZ). This is the terrifying reality of America today. Forget the reality you know, or thought you knew. You have been dragged, or maybe you ran into it. (Some superstitions, kept alive by the long night of ignorance, have their own special power. You'll hear of it through a jungle grapevine in a remote corner of the Twilight Zone. - from episode 3.12 - The Jungle) [image] Malcolm Nance - image from Macmillan Malcolm Nance is an intelligence professional, who has been dealing with foreign enemies for decades. What he has seen in analyzing terrorism and insurgencies abroad has given him a unique insight into what is now an ongoing domestic insurgency, an insurgency that is the means by which the fascist Republican right will take what it wants from you. They will try to win elections, and will win many, some fairly. But they will try to win by cheating, wherever playing fair will not get the job done. Once in office they will steal your rights, and legislate permanence to their position. What they cannot win at the ballot box, they will try to seize at the end of a gun. He calls this movement TITUS, for the Trump Insurgency in the United States. If you are among the remaining sane Republicans you might feel like the guy in TZ episode 1, who finds himself all alone in an abandoned town. [image] Earl Holliman as Mike Ferris in TZ episode 1, Where is Everybody - image from Do You Remember Nance presents a group-by-group look at the organizations involved in promoting and perpetuating chaos in our country, with the goal of seizing power. Many of these will be familiar. (Proud Boys, Three-Percenters, Oath Keepers Boogaloo Bois) Some were news to me. (e.g. Atomwaffen, the Base, Panzerfaust) He offers some history, showing how the bigotries of the past have persisted, albeit with some costume changes. He shows how the unspeakable monsters of the far right have gained increasing publicity from the right-wing media echo machine, and the main-stream media. And sadly, how the views expressed have found a home in a large portion of American households. He notes Trump’s rapid transition from distancing himself from the crazies to fully embracing them. No, this is not a Rod-Serling-generated fantasy land. The Proud Boys really are the khaki’d descendants of the skinheads. TITUS is a pre-rebellion political-paramilitary alliance that intends to use politics, instability, and violence to meet its goals. The number one goal is reestablishing the Trump dynasty as the primary operating system for America. Then they will use the power of the government to punish their enemies. The political wing of TITUS, the Trump-dominated Republican Party, has already initiated a dangerous plan to embrace the launch of protracted political warfare in America.Recent reports are that Trump even dreamed of having generals as loyal to him as Hitler’s were to Der Fuhrer, not realizing, because he is an ignoramus, that Hitler’s generals had tried to kill him on multiple occasions. It is pretty clear that this is not the only thing about Hitler that Trump envies. What we are looking at is a world in which there are people hoping to put Anthony Fremont into the Oval Office, again. You don’t remember Anthony? If you are a Twilight Zone fan you might. He was a monster, the star of one of TZ’s most famous, and chilling episodes. He was six years old, and lived in Peakesville, Ohio. Looks like a regular kid on the outside. But he was born with an unusual talent. He could make things vanish or rearrange them in horrible ways. He has already made all the world around Mar-a-Lago, sorry, Peakesville, disappear, and if you harbor any unhappy (UnMAGA?) thoughts he will do terrible things to you. The episode was called It’s a Good Life, taking its title from the ironic statement of an adult who knows it is anything but. Discussing the impeachment of President Trump on Meet the Press, Representative Jason Crow, a Democrat from Colorado, said most members of the GOP are “paralyzed with fear.” He continued: “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues. . . . A couple of them broke down in tears . . . saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment.This is what TITUS wants. [image] Billy Mumy as Anthony Fremont in It’s a Good Life, TZ season 3, episode 8 - image from NY Post Nance goes through what he calls the Psychodynamics of Radicalization, pointing out characteristics that well describe many on the right. They all see themselves as victims, are emotionally reactive, internalize negative stimuli until they burst, embrace conspiracy theories, have flexible ideological identifications (meaning there is no there there, any excuse will do to back up whatever it is they want, or are being told to do.) It goes on, but offers a fair description of many of the TITUS horde. There is certainly a lot of thinking inside the bubble going on, which leaves them with reduced capacity to think critically about the propaganda they mass-consume from the likes of Fox and Breitbart. [image] TZ Season 1, episode 22, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street - image from Noblemania – two aliens are amazed that simply by fiddling with a local electricity grid, they can cause the residents of this place to reveal their inner monsters and destroy each other One thing that I hoped would be addressed is the role Russia might have played, or is still playing in organizing or supporting some of these nut farms. Personally, I believe that Russia was instrumental in the creation of Q-Anon, but do not claim that to be a fact. It would be consistent with Russian cyber-war attacks against the West over the last few decades. There is a strong connection between Putin and disgraced former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who has been rumored to be “Q.” Nance might be in a position to have an actual informed opinion about who Q is. He does, however, offer a provocative scenario in which Q-Anon evolved from a live-action-role-playing game. An even more provocative scenario depicts a theoretical nation-wide assault on governments by the armed right. It is chilling. The violence of today’s right has been bubbling for a while. He reports on increasing white-nationalism in the police and military. The significance of this is that instead of bumbling amateurs trying to storm governors’ mansions, many of the assaulters will be combat trained, able to organize assaults, and comfortable using weapons. Military-style training camps have been increasing in number. Insurrectionist-oriented organizations joining together, or coordinating, can form a serious threat to the nation. Another huge threat is the propagation of lone-wolf terrorists, fooled by right-wing media lies into taking action against non-existent crimes. Remember Pizzagate? In its ability to inspire low-information followers to commit mortal acts of violence TITUS very much resembles ISIS. Violent extremists in the United States and terrorists in the Middle East have remarkably similar pathways to radicalization. Both are motivated by devotion to a charismatic leader, are successful at smashing political norms, and are promised a future racially homogeneous paradise. Modern American terrorists are much more akin to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) than they are to the old Ku Klux Klan. Though they take offense at that comparison, the similarities are quite remarkable. Most American extremists are not professional terrorists on par with their international counterparts. They lack operational proficiency and weapons. But they do not lack in ruthlessness, targets, or ideology. However, the overwhelming number of white nationalist extremists operate as lone wolves. Like McVeigh in the 1990s and others from the 1980s, they hope their acts will motivate the masses to follow in their footsteps.He also points out that the right has an advantage in camouflage. The January 6 insurrectionists were able to get as close as they did to the Capitol largely because they were white. Had a black mob of comparable size been breaking down barriers in DC that day, the response would have been very different. The whiteness of the assaulters allowed them to get close. Will that work in state capitols too, or again in DC? You will pick up some of the terminology used by the right, terms like accelerationism, ZOG, The Storm, zombies, sovereign citizen, constitutional sheriff, and plenty more. You will also learn about some of the books that inspire these folks. You may have heard of The Turner Diaries, but maybe not about The Great Replacement, by Renaud Camus, or Siege, by James Mason (no, not that one). They Want to Kill Americans is Malcolm Nance, with his hair on fire, trying to get everyone to see what is coming, pleading with us to take measures to forestall a bloody American insurgency. The book works in two ways, both as a warning of imminent peril, and as a resource. Use this book to learn who the relevant right-wing groups are, what they are about, who their leaders are, what their goals and methods are. There are many names named in this book. It would be good to learn as many of them as possible. Sadly, we are not in a dimension beyond time and space. We are in the dark place in which millions around the world find themselves facing hordes of fascists determined to destroy democracy as we have known it, substituting authoritarian rule. The threat is real, and unless we can fend it off we may never be able to find our way out of The Twilight of Democracy Zone. (with apologies to Anne Applebaum) …several Republican legislatures including in Florida, Oklahoma, and Missouri have made the murder of protesters by running them over in a vehicle legal. Review posted – August 12, 2022 Publication date – July 12, 2022 I received an eARE of They Want to Kill Americans from St. Martin’s Press in return for a fair review. Thanks, Sara Beth and Michelle, and thanks to NetGalley for facilitating. [image] [image] [image] [image] This review has been cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi! =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, FB, Instagram, and Twitter pages The focus on his personal site at present is Ukraine, where Nance is working with the government to fend off the Russian invaders. Interviews ----- The Mary Trump Show - Malcolm Nance & Mary Trump: They Want To Kill Americans - VIDEO – 41:21 -----Malcolm Nance: ”The Republican Party is an insurgent party” - By David Smith -----Salon - Malcolm Nance on the Trump insurgency: Jan. 6 was a "template to do it correctly next time" by Chauncey Devega ----- The Commonwealth Club - MALCOLM NANCE: BEHIND THE IDEOLOGY OF THE TRUMP INSURGENCY - video – with Pat Thurston - 1:16:52 My review of another book by the author -----2018 - The Plot to Destroy Democracy Item of Interest -----University of Ohio - Twilight Zone Introduction -----Flux - ‘Once we take control’: Far-right broadcaster lays out his Christian fascist agenda by KYLE MANTYLA ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Aug 06, 2022
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Aug 10, 2022
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Hardcover
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161620995X
| 9781616209957
| 161620995X
| 4.37
| 59,856
| Jan 04, 2022
| Jan 04, 2022
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it was amazing
| If her years as a reporter had taught her anything, it was these two things: One, the world was filled with people who were adrift, rudderless, and If her years as a reporter had taught her anything, it was these two things: One, the world was filled with people who were adrift, rudderless, and untethered. And two, the innocent always paid for the sins of the guilty.-------------------------------------- …their traditions mean more to them than their humanity.While reading Thrity Umrigar’s latest, novel, Honor, her ninth for adults, my thoughts kept drifting to Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, not the totality of the story so much as the classic opening sentence. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.In the case of Honor there are not exactly two cities. Mumbai certainly counts, but Birwad is a remote, rural village. It was the best of times for the reporter, India-born, but American since age fourteen, an international correspondent for a major New-York-based newspaper. It was the worst of times for the local woman, a young widow, living a terrible life in Birwad. Her brothers had murdered her husband, the light of her life, in plain sight, happily including their own sister in the conflagration. It was the spring of hope for a crusading lawyer, Anjali, desperate to find a woman willing to press charges against abusers like these, very grateful to have finally found one. She is hoping to establish a precedent, maybe even gain some justice. It was the winter of despair. But even if Gorvind and Arvind can be convicted and sent to prison, Meena would still be stuck living with her mother-in-law, who hates her, blaming her for the death of her son. It was an epoch of belief. The brothers had torched their own sister because she, a Hindu, had dared marry a Muslim, which the brothers believed was an abomination. They also hated her because she worked, while they did not, again somehow shameful, even though she gave them her entire salary. It was an era of incredulity. Really, this medieval bullshit is still going on in the 21st century? [image] Thrity Umrigar Smita Agarwal had not wanted to go back to Mumbai, but the veteran reporter cut short her vacation in the Maldives when she got a call from Shannon Carpenter (broken hip, in hospital), a friend, and the South Asia Correspondent for her newspaper. Smita expects to be hanging with her pal for a while as she prepares for surgery, then recovers. But Shannon redirects her to taking on reporting duties for a grim story. The trial of brothers Gorvind and Arvind is due for a verdict soon. An associate of Shannon’s is sent along to help with translation, and coping with local cultural issues. Mohan is not a reporter, but someone is needed to help smooth things for Smita, who will need a translator. She has not been back to India for decades, and very much needs the help. What Smita finds in this remote place is incredibly disturbing, a primitive society riven by a particularly deep and violent religious division and a legal system that is a caricature of bias and corruption, although sadly far too real. Smita interviews Meena, her mother-in-law, the brothers, the village leader who had encouraged them to commit the crime, and the lawyer who is handling the case against them. There is no ambiguity about guilt here. The only legal question is whether there will be any sort of justice in such a backwater. Honor is a tale of two tales. It is not only in Birwad that bias crimes are committed. Alternating with the tale of Meena is Smita’s attempt to address the reason her family moved to the states from Mumbai when she was a teen. She revisits her old neighborhood and speaks, or tries to speak with people she knew back then. Her story is revealed bit by bit over the course of the novel. Later she tells Mohan the full tale of her family’s experience. It is clear that it is not only remote, rural India that has a problem with mindless us-versus-them bigotry. The parallel stories incorporate contrasting elements. The novel looks at old versus new, faith versus materialism, rationality versus extremist religiosity, corruption versus honesty, modernity versus tradition, right versus wrong, kindness versus cruelty, understanding versus blind rejection, patriarchal abuse versus gender equity. There is the contrast between the cosmopolitan Smita and the rural Meena, the comfortable Mohan and the struggling villagers. Smita wrestles with her feelings about India, mostly repulsed by it because of the treatment her family had received, the ongoing religious warfare, and a million small miseries the nation inflicts on everyone. But she also recognizes some of the kinder sides to life there, particularly as epitomized by Mohan. She is also confronted with a woman in Meena who had actually done a radical thing, standing up for love in the face of extreme bias, and then standing up for justice in a cruelly unjust place. She had opened herself to huge peril by attending to her heart. Whereas Smita lives a solo existence, sustaining barriers that prevent her from ever committing to anyone emotionally. Even though Smita’s reporting for a western newspaper is expected to benefit the fight against religious bigotry, this is not a trope of westerner coming to the rescue of a desperate third-worlder. Here, the illiterate local has much to teach the sophisticate. The novel had dual inspirations. First was the reporting of New York Times reporter Ellen Barry, who documented some of the worst outrages of Indian injustice during her years working there. There are a couple of links in EXTRA STUFF to Barry’s NY Times work, and one article of hers in particular that was an obvious source for this novel. The second inspiration was Umrigar’s family’s history. In 1993, my middle-aged father stood on our balcony and watched helplessly as the apartment building across the street burned. It had been set on fire by a mob of angry Hindus who had heard that a Muslim family lived on the ground floor.So, the two places may be dramatically different, but the underlying problems are remarkably similar. In addition to continuing her writing about India, in which she focuses on class and gender issues, there was another stream that flowed into her work this time. I wrote ‘Honor’ during the Trump years,” she says. “I was writing about India, but I was also writing about my own adopted country. This othering of others is not a phenomena you can assign to any one country. The trend winds are blowing across the world’s two largest democracies, India and the United States. I am sometimes appalled and bewildered and dismayed by the parallels.” - from the LA Times interviewIt is certainly no stretch to see in people who erected a gallows for a vice president who would not do what their leader wanted the very group madness Umrigar shows us in India. The Indian version gives us a village leader stoking the violence, encouraging the brothers to commit an atrocity. Here we have Trump, Tucker Carlson, Fox News and a host of fascist demagogues screaming lies about “the other.” A major focus in Honor is on how the word has been misused to support unconscionable policies and actions. The word honor has been abused and shorn of its meaning in traditional, male-dominated societies, where it is simply a cover for the domination of women by their fathers, brothers, and sons. The sexual politics of the so-called honor killings are impossible to avoid. Women are raped, killed, and sacrificed to preserve male pride and reputations.Honor is a tale of two loves. We get from Meena’s POV her history with Abdul, and how that love survives his murder in her love for their daughter. Smita has never really had that kind of relationship, but finds herself increasingly drawn to Mohan, as she sees him in action, helping her maneuver a culture she does not really understand, sees what a good, kind man he is, and begins to wonder if there is some way to sustain their connection after her work on this story is complete. She also struggles with her feelings about India, which have been hostile, but as warm memories from her youth return, as she learns from Mohan of the many good things about her birth country, she warms to it, and regains some of the affection she once had for her homeland. I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day’s disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice.Shift the boy in Dickens’ tale to Meena’s daughter, Abru, in this one and it also fits right in. Honor is a gut punch that will being you to tears of grief and rage. Hopefully it will make you aware of the currents of group hatred that flow in far too many places, probably one uncomfortably close to home. But it will also offer you cause for hope, cause to see beyond the storm clouds of conflict to the clearing skies of hope. Honor is not a far, far better book than Umrigar has ever written. Really? With her dazzling oeuvre, what could be? But it is certainly among her strongest works. And that is saying a lot. Despite the darkness of the subject matter, Umragar sustains a positive outlook. In the LA Times interview, she references Tony Kushner. He says something to the effect of: Hope is not a choice. Hope is a moral obligation. I try and live by those words. I may sometimes not feel hopeful about my own personal circumstances, which is absurd because I’ve had every opportunity and privilege in the world. But I always feel hopeful about humanity.” Review first posted – March 25, 2022 Publication dates ----------Hardcover - January 4, 2022 ----------Trade paperback - September 27, 2022 [image] [image] [image] [image] This review has been, or soon will be cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi! =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages Interviews -----Bookbrowse - An interview with Thrity Umrigar - there are two parts to this, first, an essay by Umrigar re Honor then an interview from 2006. Both are excellent -----LA Times - A book of horror and hope in India, inspired by extremists closer to home BY BETHANNE PATRICK My reviews of prior books by Thrity Umrigar -----2018 - The Secrets Between Us -----2016 - Everybody’s Son -----2011 - The World We Found -----2009 - The Weight of Heaven -----2008 - The Space Between Us Items of Interest from the author -----Book Club Kit -----excerpt – Chapter Five -----Workman Library - Thrity Umrigar discusses her upcoming novel, HONOR (Jan 2022) - video – 3:22 Songs/Music There is a play list in the Book Club Kit Items of Interest -----NY Times - articles by Ellen Barry -----Read this one of Barry’s in particular - How to Get Away With Murder in Small-Town India -----Wiki on Honor Killing -----Gutenberg - A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – the entire text Reminds Me Of -----The Heart of Darkness ...more |
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not set
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Mar 20, 2022
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Mar 20, 2022
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1250273609
| 9781250273604
| 1250273609
| 3.22
| 811
| Sep 21, 2021
| Sep 21, 2021
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really liked it
| When I first learned that Raiders of the Lost Ark, my favorite movie, might have been based on an actual archaeological expedition, I felt like my fac When I first learned that Raiders of the Lost Ark, my favorite movie, might have been based on an actual archaeological expedition, I felt like my face was melting off. - from The Untold Story… articleBefore he was the Police Commissioner stuck having to deal with Jack the Ripper, (who was at first, BTW, called, much less memorably, “Leather Apron”) Captain Charles Warren, a Royal Engineer, spent parts of several years near Jerusalem doing archaeological work for the British Crown, digging out some ancient tunnels, and laying the groundwork for explorations to come. About thirty years later, a Finnish scholar believes he has found a code in the Book of Ezekiel that addresses some of the tunnels Warren had excavated. Dr. Valter Juvelius’s code-breaker, he says, points the way to the secret location of the Ark of the Covenant. [image] Brad Ricca - image from Amazon Of course, today this guy would be one of a thousand cranks flogging his wares on the internet, generating eye-rolls, and maybe trying for a spot on Shark Tank. But in 1909 he was taken seriously and was embraced by a group of men willing to spend some of their considerable excess cash on an adventure, and look to their wealthy friends and associates to provide the rest of the needed funding. They formed a group called J.M.P.V.F. Syndicate, for their initials, but referred to it as The Syndicate (nothing sinister there), hoping to find the Ark, reputed to have properties that allowed one to communicate directly with God. Whether it provided an early version of the iPhone, a Star Trek communicator, an eight-ball, a metal can with a very, very long string attached, or no comms-capacity at all, they estimated it to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, or something on the order of twenty three billion dollars in today’s money. Adigging they will go. [image] Charles Warren in Palestine, 1867 - image from The History Reader We follow the progress of the digs over several years, noting the discoveries that were made, and the challenges the participants faced. Some very Indy-ish adventures are included. The point of this book is not to tease you about the location of the Ark. Ok, maybe it is, a bit, but rest assured that if the Ark had been found and the author had figured out where it is, I seriously doubt he would be telling us. He would be living VERY LARGE somewhere, and who knows, maybe having daily chats with you-know-who. (Sup, G?) True Raiders is my love letter to Raiders of the Lost Ark, but also to the conspiracy-minded genre of eighties properties like In Search Of, Amazing Stories, and Holy Blood, Holy Grail…I…want to ask real questions about the intersections between fact, story, and truth. Did Monty really go after the Ark? Yes, he did. What did he find? That answer is more complicated. - from The Untold Story… article [image] Monty Parker - image from Wiki If you picked up this book without having examined the flap copy or inspected the cover too closely, you could easily mistake it for a novel. Ricca has taken liberties, fleshing out the structure of known events with bountiful interpretation. It makes for a smoother and more engaging read than a mere recitation of facts might allow. I was reminded of the shows aired on The History Channel in which actors portray historical events. Ricca does it with panache. A sample: Ava Lowle Willing Astor was in a mood. She reclined back on her chair and paged through the Times to take her mind off things. She pushed through the headlines to the society pages, to look for the names of people she knew and parties she had attended—and those she had ruthlessly avoided. The Sunday-morning light was streaming through her high windows. Her daughter Alice was around, somewhere. [image] Ava Lowle Willing Astor - image from Wikipedia Ava and Monty flirt. But it seems she is here more for social context, and to offer a take on what challenges were faced by uber-rich women with more independence than was thought proper at the time. There are few women playing a significant role in this story. One is Bertha Vester, a Chicago-born local, brought to Jerusalem as a child. She became a towering figure in Jerusalem, internationally renowned for her charitable work with children of all faiths, through the organization her father had established, The American Colony. She was also a major source for Parker, connecting him to local experts able to help in the dig. And offering him the benefit of her knowledge of area history, including Charles Warren’s work. [image] Bertha Spafford, (later Vester) age 19, in 1896. - image from IsabellaAlden.com In the Notes that follows the text of the tale, Ricca says: Rather than a history, this is a history of the story. Chapters are grouped into parts that are based on the point-of-view of the person or source used.That is true enough. Monty Parker’s expedition was the one looking hard for the Ark, but Warren’s work thirty years before had done the initial digging, and the de-coding by Dr. Juvelius provided the actual spark. The stories merge when Parker is helped by Bertha Vester to connect with Warren’s work, and with local archaeological experts. [image] Valter Juvelius (left) around 1909–1911 in the Siloam tunnel. There are personalities aplenty on display here. Ricca gives us some individual histories, although nothing that might smack of a stand-alone biography. Some of the characters were involved in newspaper headlines or related notoriety. Ava Lowle Willing Astor was involved in a front-page divorce from John Jacob Astor IV, who would later sail on the maiden voyage of an ill-starred ship, prior to her involvement with the expedition. As noted earlier, Charles Warren had the misfortune of being the Police Commissioner when Jack the Ripper was cutting his way through London. Monty and his pals gained notoriety of an unwanted sort after one of their (certainly unauthorized) digs. Their hasty retreat was an international incident, garnering coverage in the New York Times, and generating mass outrage among the locals in Jerusalem. [image] NY Times headline about Parker absconding …on May 14, 1911, The New York Times ran a story titled “Mysterious Bags Taken from Mosque.” In it, the expedition is described as having worked for two years just “to reach that one spot.” And though the article asserts that “what they really found no one knows,” it notes that the expedition “told different persons that they are ‘very satisfied.’” The article claims that four or five men, including Parker, Duff, and Wilson, invaded the Haram at midnight, having gained entrance by bribery, and that they lifted up a heavy stone, entered a cavern, and “took away two bags.” Before they left on their white yacht from Jaffa, they had a cup of tea. The caretaker they had bribed was in jail and suffered a further indignation: his great beard and mustache had been shaved off in public.The book raises questions of where found relics belong, not, ultimately, showing Monty and his partners in the kindest light. Part of that portrayal is to show the self-regard of the upper crust, presuming that their privileged upbringing carried with it not just an inflated sense of entitlement, but an enhanced level of self-regard as being of strong, moral character. Juvelius was relieved. He knew that one would have to have mediocre intelligence to think they could milk secrets from an English gentleman.Another participant, Robin Duff, let on to Rudyard Kipling that he was responsible for raping local virgins in Jerusalem. Maybe not quite the highest moral character. [image] Father Louis-Hughes Vincent There is a far-too-lengthy where-are-they-now series of chapters at the back of the book that might have been more alluring in a longer work, one that had offered more beforehand about the people involved, made us more interested in their stories. It makes sense in the overall intent, but seemed too large a tail for a creature of this size. [image] (the unfortunately named) Warren’s Shaft - image from Wikimedia You will learn some interesting intel reading True Raiders, such as where the Indy writers got the notion of that gigantic boulder rolling through a tunnel, a possible origin for a Scandinavian deity, and how George Lucas decided on the Ark as the target of Indiana Jones’s first great quest. It seems possible that Monty Parker was one of many real-world models for the fictitious Indy. The location of the Ark should surely spark some interest of the did-they-or-didn’t-they find it sort. You will see the sort of competition Parker faced while attempting to find the Ark, from both the rich and powerful billionaire sorts and more local interests. Ava Astor has some interesting whoo-whoo experiences, unrelated to Monty’s dig. Ricca offers a sense of adventure in a real-world story, however embellished the details might be. He brings actual archaeological knowledge along, showing the significance of the finds made by both the Warren and Parker digs, gives us a look at some of the social mores and activities of the times, and loads it all up with a wonderful sense of fun, allowing readers to wonder, Would I have done this or that if offered the chance? No fedora, leather jacket, or whip needed. True Raiders is definitely worth exploring. No snakes involved. [image] Fake, but fabulous Raider - image from Mental Floss Review first posted – September 21, 2021 Publication dates ----------Hardcover - September 24, 2021 ----------Trade paperback - December 13, 2022 I received an e-ARE of True Raiders from St. Martins through NetGalley in return for doing some digging. Thanks, folks. This review has been cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Come say Hi! [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, FB, and Twitter pages Interview -----Constant Wonder - Searching for the Ark of the Covenant - by Markus Smith - audio – 40:34 Items of Interest from the author -----Excerpt from The History Reader - True Raiders: Charles Warren -----The Untold Story of the Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant I try not to think about it too much, but I think I spent a great many lonely years earning a doctorate solely because of Raiders. I may not have been lost in Egyptian tombs or navigated ancient mazes, but I have found lost documents and have taught for many years out of cramped offices that resembled utility closets. And it was all great. But I never thought it would lead me to the Ark. Somewhere, I was disappointed not only that it hadn’t, but that I had foolishly believed it would.Items of Interest (Wikions?) -----Wiki on Charles Warren -----Wiki on Monty Parker -----Wiki on Cyril Foley -----Wiki on Book of Ezekial ----- Library of Congress - The Bertha Vester diaries -----World History Encyclopedia - The Moabite Stone [Mesha Stele] by William Brown ----- Wiki on Ava Lowle Willing Astor by Mark Meredith ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 18, 2021
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Sep 18, 2021
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Hardcover
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1947793780
| 9781947793781
| 1947793780
| 3.86
| 1,563
| Mar 26, 2020
| Nov 10, 2020
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it was amazing
| …the way Una thought about it, without folklore and traditions, surely Ireland didn’t really exist? Surely it might just as well be England or Fran …the way Una thought about it, without folklore and traditions, surely Ireland didn’t really exist? Surely it might just as well be England or France or anywhere else (give or take an endless soak of rain)? So just as there were those who preserved the country’s mother tongue and those who saved up all the country’s native stories, there were those like her father who devoted their lives to maintaining the country’s old beliefs.-------------------------------------- …these days you heard less and less about those ancient superstitions, and all the old tales cast aside for future progress.The story opens in 2018. A photographer is about to have a long sought solo show in New York City. We get a look at the shot that could define his career, of a clothed dead man hanging upside down from hooks that pierce his feet in a small Irish farm building. It is called The Butcher. He took it twenty-two years earlier. Sooooo, what happened? Who is this person, and how did he wind up in such a position? We will return to 2018 in three interludes and a resolution. But the story takes place back around the time this outrage occurred. [image] Ruth Gilligan - image from The Irish Times 1996. Ireland. A time of change. The old being replaced by the new. The border between Ireland and it’s northern, UK portion, despite both nations being members of the EEU, remains a fraught line. The arrival of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (aka BSE and Mad Cow Disease) in the UK has put Ireland into an enviable position, as Irish cows have not been found to be suffering from this, yet. The result is a boost in demand, great for any in the meat business, and not half bad for the economy overall. But will greed spoil the boon? Some are looking to make even more money by smuggling Northern Irish cows and meat south, and selling them as Irish, endangering the entire Irish meat industry. The Celtic Tiger boom of the ‘90s into the aughts was in full roar. A backwater economy was becoming one of the wealthier ones in Europe, as Ireland engaged more and more with the world beyond. But there were still remnants of the ancient, the lore and story of the land, and there were still people who were committed to old ways, birthed by legend, but still practiced in the real world. She explained how a farmer’s wife had lost her entire family a way back in some ancient war, so in her devastation she had placed a curse which dictated certain rules around killing cattle.People called The Believers continue the ancient tradition. The Butchers of the title consist of a group of eight men who travel to farms owned by other Believers, to slaughter their cattle in a prescribed ritual, traveling much of the year to ply their trade. We follow four characters, flicking back and forth between County Cavan and County Monaghan both bordering Northern Ireland. In the first, Una’s father, Cuch, is setting off for his lengthy tour of the nation as one of the team of Butchers, leaving his wife and 12-year-old daughter for eleven months of the year. Una is new to regular school, having been home-schooled until recently. Her family’s old-time religion makes her an oddball, so she endures the sort of social hazing one expects of creatures that age. But she dreams of becoming a Butcher herself, and practices, using trapped mice and lego men. Gra, 41, is Una’s mother and is plenty tired of having her husband gone for so much of the year, not just for herself, but for the fathering their daughter is missing. She is changing from acceptance of an unsustainable existence to wanting to define her own life, eager to pursue her own interests Fionn McReady, in County Monaghan, a “small-holder” now, has reduced the size of his farm, is semi-retired, but still keeps some livestock. His wife, Eileen, has been diagnosed with a tumor, and the usual treatments are ineffective. He learns, though, of a new experimental, and thus not covered by insurance, treatment, available in Dublin. But, dear God, the cost. Fionn had engaged in a bit of criminality as a youth, with his father, and now the only way he can hope to cover the expense of treating Eileen is to step back over the line to illegality, with the obvious risks, and not just from the Garda. The fellow he would ultimately be working for is known to have a short temper and zero tolerance for failure. But what other options are there, really, to have a shot at saving his beloved wife? Davey is Fionn’s disappointment of a son. Not exactly farmer material, Davey is fascinated by classics. The story of the minotaur is far more interesting to him than the livestock out back. He tends to see life through the lens of classic mythology. He is about to take his final exams, which will determine his future, and he is counting on testing well enough to earn a spot in college in Dublin. He is desperate to go. The odds are good. Davey and Una are both going through coming of age adventures, complete with forms of sexual awakening, finding their strengths, defining their edges and forward directions. Gra is going through her own burst of self-confidence and actualization. Together these reflect the changes in Ireland itself, becoming more involved with the world, for good or ill, expanding their sense of self, trying new things, experimenting, taking chances, becoming more. Fionn’s journey is less about personal transformation than it is about a willingness to cross the line to fill a need. It is not a big leap to see in this the overreach, the greed and corruption that helped skin The Celtic Tiger, leading Ireland to a major recession. The central tension of the book is between the old and the new, the old being not just the social norms, but the lore of Ireland, and by inference all societies. Homosexuality, for example, had recently been decriminalized. Legalization of divorce had been approved in a referendum and was soon to be signed into law. How jarring this must be to rural communities that have long been wedded to ancient tradition. How we define ourselves, as individuals and as a people, a nation, is tied up in the stories we tell about ancestors, our past. Davey’s interest in the classics offers a look at how Greek, and thus western culture, has a rich history, an iconographic lens through which we understand common human experience. He applies Greek mythology to his contemporary Irish life. Gilligan offers a passel of examples of local lore. These are delicious. There is a superstition of lame cows giving the sweetest milk. An old woman down in Carrickmacross…was said to have “The Cure”—the ancient Irish gift for healing. Naming your dog Blackfoot would somehow offer extra protection to your cows. Locals…still believed rowan berries kept you safe from being captured by the fairies. And if you were thinking of checking the google machine for the historical Butchers, don’t bother. In an interview with The Irish Examiner: Gilligan admits to having made it all up. “The butchers themselves, as an idea, they are a conglomerate of loads of different kind of traditions and superstitions and myths about cattle that I just found in my research, and I just brought them all together and formed the butchers.” Part of the fun of it, I suppose is that like, it kind of could be real. It’s as real as any other set of the many, many traditions and superstitions that we still hold on to.”The triumph of this book is that Ruth Gilligan has incorporated into a set of coming-of-age stories, that already carry the payload of looking at the changes in Ireland during a period of great upheaval, a wonderful mystery. Who is the dead man hanging by his feet? How did he come to be there? And who is responsible? The Butchers is a prime, choice cut of a read, a whodunit, who-am-I, what-are-we, where-are-we-going literary feast that is as satisfying as it is delicious. Trust me on this one. I wouldn’t steer you wrong. (view spoiler)[And you’ll loin something too. Sorry. (hide spoiler)] There were days Ireland felt modern, and days it felt anything but. Review posted – November 27, 2020 Publication dates ----------November 10, 2020 - hardcover ----------November 16, 2021 - trade paperback I received an ARE of this book from the American publisher, Tin House Books, in return for an honest review and a boneless ribeye roast. It was published by Atlantic Books across the pond on January 2, 2020, as The Butchers Thanks also to MC, who did not have a steak in its being reviewed, for pointing me to this. You know who you are. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, FB, and Twitter pages Interviews -----The Irish Times - Ruth Gilligan Q&A: ‘the tension between modern and ancient Ireland fascinates me’ -----Irish Examiner - Ruth Gilligan's new novel timely published during Covid-19 crisis by Eoghan O’Sullivan -----Narrative 4 - Ruth Gilligan and the Butchers Songs/Music -----Eimar Quinn - The Voice - mentioned in Chapter 6 – Ireland’s winning entry in the 1996 Eurovision contest ----- Underworld - Born Slippy Items of Interest – by the author -----Gilligan on the sources of her ideas for the novel - 13:34 -----On writing body language - 3:49 – video -----On writing dialogue - 4:30 -----Short story on Bansheelit - The Night of the Big Wind Items of Interest -----Contagion Biopolitics and Cultural Memory - Mad Cows and Eco-Pandemic Irish Literature -----The Butcher Boy - Gra gives this book to Ronan during the time she is helping him with his photo project ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 24, 2020
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Nov 10, 2020
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Nov 10, 2020
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Hardcover
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006298442X
| 9780062984425
| 3.19
| 425
| Jun 30, 2020
| Jun 30, 2020
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it was amazing
| “You ever get the feeling,” she said…”that somebody else already did all this shit? That we’re, like, just watching it happen?”------------------ “You ever get the feeling,” she said…”that somebody else already did all this shit? That we’re, like, just watching it happen?”-------------------------------------- Short, thin, with narrow shoulders. The head just a little too big for that slight body, skull-like, all forehead and cheekbones, narrow as a trowel at the mouth.First, let’s get something clear straight away. While there is a sci-fi-ish element extant in Nine Shiny Objects, this is not really a sci-fi novel. We never really get more sci-fi than a newspaper account of Kenneth Arnold’s seminal saucer sighting. The only actual extra-normal element is a bit of fantasy in the final chapter, and a bit of dream work. The novel is a linked-stories narrative of historical fiction. Just so’s ya know. It begins in 1947. Oliver Danville had just washed out of a not very promising acting career. But, in a local drinking establishment, he got to see the curtains close on a charmer named Necky, someone Oliver feared mightily, someone to whom Oliver owed two hundred bucks, someone who was expected to take partial payment in the form of broken bones. Knowing a sign when he sees one, and now relieved of that particular debt, Oliver heads out, determines to straighten up, live an upstanding life, maybe marry a librarian. He slips into a booth at the local automat, and, over his tuna, coffee, and apple pie, reads about a pilot over the Cascades who reported seeing nine shiny objects that reminded him of tea saucers. With twenty eight bucks to his name, Oliver begins hitchhiking west, feeling a calling, (…he felt the buzzing coming on, like a drug.) and the game is afoot. The nine shiny objects of the title refer not only to the UFO MacGuffin, but to the interlinked stories of Oliver and eight other characters. The tales cover the period from 1947 to 1987, a look at the United States over that forty-year span. Central to all the stories is the notion of ideals, of dreaming. (Everybody’s looking for something.) Maybe American dreams, maybe just human dreams. Everyone wants something that feels, or is, wrapped up in a maybe someday. Castleberry presents us with a range of hopes. But there is a dark undercurrent as well, whether we call it a stain on the American soul, or the presence of evil in the world, light versus dark, hope versus despair, optimism versus pessimism. The challenge is there, and few hopes slip past its Argus-like gaze unaffected. Claudette Doneo, twenty years old, had aspired to emulate her high school teacher, Mrs Garfield, and see the world. She would also love to find someone with whom she could share life’s adventure. But her aggressive boss at the greasy spoon where she is getting by in Del Mar, CA, definitely ain’t it. When she meets Eileen (Oliver’s sister), who is running a new local church from an old warehouse, some new possibilities are revealed. They are an odd lot, looking to space ships to take them up to heaven. But Eileen seems pretty nice. Marlene Ranagan, in 1957, is living a life of suburban despair. She and her husband are a Jewish couple in a not-so-welcoming NYC suburb, one featuring covenants no deity would inspire. She yearns for something better than having to pop a mother’s little helper whenever her feelings get the better of her, and having a husband who is content to spend his free time in front of the TV watching cowboy movies and drinking beer. She is not without her interests, though, a neighbor who might become more than just that, and an education in art she had ignored to become a homemaker. A stranger comes to town looking for a war-buddy who had taken up with some crazy UFO cult, and the town does not know how to deal with him. [image] Brian Castleberry - image from his site Stanley West is a struggling black writer, living in Harlem with his uncle, a professor at the City College of New York. A bit of a poser, he is trying to find himself, poet, painter, ne‘er do well. He has a very dark run-in with a suburban crowd that find him a convenient target for their misplaced fear and rage. Take one Black man. Add a dollop of Bircher-level mentality leading a fearful suburban enclave, and the results are grim. In 1967, Skip Michaels sells Great Books subscriptions door to door, partaking of the product in hotel rooms, diminishing day by day in a soul-suck of a marriage, and tries to cope with being a northeasterner living in very southern Jacksonville. But in his heart of hearts, he always had an artistic yearning. He never got far with it, but fate has a surprise in store, in the form of a gumdrop-shaped insurance salesman, who passes on some information that sparks Skip’s long-sidelined dream anew. Alice “Listen Up People” Linwood is a forty-eight-year-old counterculture radio personality in 1972 Phoenix. She spouts what a lot of people see as conspiracy theory folderol. But her audience is growing, particularly since she began focusing on Nixon and Watergate. Alice used to belong to a group whose motto was “Look to the Stars,” but after JFK was assassinated she cast her gaze a bit lower. The big deal impending is that her primary source is in town, on the run, with major dirt for her that can change her world. Joan Halford still lives in Long Island’s Ridge Landing in 1977, about ten years after her bigot of a husband passed. The guy was so sweet that their son, Scott, a drummer in a band, declined to return home for the funeral. She and her husband had done some damage with their intolerance, but time and reflection have taken a toll. Joan may be ready to move past some of her boundaries and enjoy a wider vista. This was the hankie tale of the bunch for me. If she had a choice, if she’d learned anything tonight, she would never speak to any of them again. But she knew, here, too, that this wasn’t how things would work out. She would find a way to call Stacy, and later find a way to ask Wolfboy’s forgiveness. And inside she would hate them both a little for knowing her too long, for not letting her change, not letting her find out who she really was. What she was, what she wanted to be, or what she wanted others to see in her was that song “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols, just emptied out and gone, as if someone better than Ted or Chris or anyone ever asked her, that’s what she would say and if they laughed, she would beat them to the ground like she had Wolfboy. Or she wouldn’t. Of course she wouldn’t.1982, Debbie Vasquez is playing Ms. Pac-Man at the Crazy-Eight Arcade in Waterbury, CT. Her friend Nathan, aka Wolfboy, invites her to a party being held by Brain-Dead Ted. (She’d rather dig her eyeballs out with sporks.) But Nathan’s brother’s band will be playing at the party and she’s got it bad for them. Her father is/was a rock star, so music permeates, but he was not much of a father. She’s got issues, which manifest in her being tough-as-nails. She has very push-pull relationships with her friends. Debbie lives with her mother, and has not yet found her dream, but grows a piece over a tough night of experiencing and remembering. I grew up in a small town in Oklahoma. In the late ’80s a mall was built in the next town over, and at its center — as far as I was concerned — was this dark arcade where I would occasionally run into people I knew from school or others of my age from nearby towns. I feel like in my pre-teen imagination the place was a kind of salon for dorks like me. Of course, I’d only have 15 or 20 minutes to roam around wasting quarters while my mom was looking at shoes or something. But it’s buried deep in there, and through that memory I discovered the character of Debbie, who is much cooler than I ever was, and much tougher. - from the Bookweb interviewIn 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan were talking treaty, the former trying to hold the wolves at bay over his Perestroika and Glasnost policies, the latter contending with his Robert Bork failure and Iran-Contra scandal. Jack Penrod has troubles of his own. Originally, he’d pictured retiring at fifty-nine to be filled with travel and projects around the house. Instead he’d spent most of his time puttering from room to room and getting on his wife’s nerves. She wasn’t used to him being around all day…what he really wanted to tell her he couldn’t put together in words. Something about how he missed her so desperately, how it seemed anymore they were strangers passing on a sidewalk, how he’d started to itch with this feeling that he’d wasted all his life doing next to nothing.His dead brother keeps appearing to him, alive as you or me. He is not, sadly, visible to Jack’s long-suffering wife, who had thought her husband was done with this delusion years before. It seems Jack’s brother has a mission, a twelve-step-like need to make at least some amends. The late brother had not led the most exemplary life, although he did hold the family together after their parents left, when the brothers were teens. There was a particular apology he needed Jack to give for him. Road Trip! Jack speaks of the past with the partner of the apology recipient. As she spoke about it all, he began to see it in his mind, and as it formed, he felt a warm glow at the base of his neck. Here was a dream, yes, and the two of them, connected to it only by hearsay, frolicked in its possibilities. A town was more like a family, spreading out in all directions, changing its neighboring towns like falling dominoes. The vision of this better place seemed so easy to make true, and he had to stop himself from reaching out and taking her hand in his. To his surprise they had already become friends.There are two seminal events from which the rest emanate like shock-waves from a blast, the UFO sighting in 1947 and a Tulsa-like pogrom years later. They serve to tie the tales together, giving the hum of historical background sound a structure. Cults come in for a bi-polar look. The Seekers of the 1940s may have had some nutty canon, but they were a benign, hopeful group, forward-looking, cheerful, friendly, warm. A very different sort of cult forms around a rock star, based on hedonism and nihilism. That musician is another character who gets minimum direct screen time, but whose influence permeates the stories. Characters are linked to each other from story to story, one or two at a time. The image I kept in my head as I wrote and revised was of a painting with a foreground and background. In the foreground are these characters in each of their stories, but looming behind them is this shared background…this structure allowed me to create a sense of characters flowing through history, absorbed in their personal lives even though we (readers, I mean) can see and understand that history, those bigger shifts happening around and to them. - from the Vol. 1 Brooklyn interviewCastleberry has given his characters range, even if we only see them for a ninth of the book, and a smattering beyond. They question their lives, their futures, and their pasts. There is, however, a character who appears in person or by reference in most of the stories, Zelig-like, whose goal seems to be to make the most misery for the most people, to pour buckets of cold water on the fires of passion, to spark fires where the potential exists to cause a conflagration, to lie, deceive, and worse, much worse. He embodies the antithesis of hope, the line you may not cross. Castleberry gives him a human form, and banality to boot, although I wondered in reading if he may have hopped off one of those 1947 saucers, if it had come from a hostile civilization. Overall, this is an exceptional book. The linked-stories form succeeds in offering close looks at a diverse cast of characters while still taking us through a stretch of 20th century America. Castleberry looks at hopes and dreams, the challenges they face, and how they might vary from era to era. For this first novel, we might refer to Sam Spade, in The Maltese Falcon, misquoting Shakespeare, for a suitable summary. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of. He looked up into the deep vastness above, hoping for a shooting star to arc earthward, something he could take home as a sign. But there was only the chill in the air and the big country around him, floating loose, unmoored, starved for meaning. Review posted – July 10, 2020 Publication dates ----------June 30, 2020 - hardcover ----------August 17, 2021 - trade paperback ==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below. [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jun 07, 2020
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Jun 16, 2020
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Jun 16, 2020
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ebook
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0062905325
| 9780062905321
| 0062905325
| 3.41
| 3,719
| Jun 11, 2020
| Jun 16, 2020
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really liked it
| An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind - Buddh An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind - Buddha--------------------------------------- The beginning I know for sure. Once upon a time, My father went to the Levitation Center. I also know the next part: and he never came back.Sixteen-year-old Olivia Ellis is on a mission. Her father vanished about a year ago. Not on the best of terms with her mother, she has left home and signed herself into the last place she had known him to be, hoping to dig up some clues to his current whereabouts. The Levitation Center (not its real name), which Olivia calls Buddhist Boot Camp for Bad Girls, (dare we suggest Dharma Drilling for the Damaged? No? Oh, ok) runs an annual summer program for teens. Learn some Japanese floral arranging, meditation techniques, archery, and gardening, among other things over the eight-week session. The campers are a motley crew, with a diversity of dark tales to tell. They were slick-finish girls, cat-eye girls, hot-blood girls. They were girls who reveled. They were girls who liked boys and back seats, who slid things that weren’t theirs into tight pockets, who lit fires and did doughnuts in the high school parking lot. They were girls who left marks. They were girls who snuck. Girls who drank whiskey and worse by the waterfront…They were girls who ran away, who inked their own arms with needles and ballpoint pens, who got things pierced below the neck. (none of them named Heather, as far as I can recall)And then there is Serena. She has been at the camp for some years, more of an institution than a regular. She does not sleep in dorms with the other girls, but lives in a fancy tent, among those available for the more fiscally able. She is one of those people who draws all eyes to her. Wicked smart, attractive, but not necessarily the prettiest, there is a presence to her that is compelling. She has two acolytes, Lauren and Janet. Olivia is drawn to her, becoming a part of their small circle. Serena sets the group a mission, by summer’s end, learn to levitate. [image] Emily Temple - image from her site - maybe searching for a cabin? Serena and her crew go through a range of activities designed to elevate their consciousness, or something. The Feeling exercise they engage in is a fun bit of ASMR nerve stimulation. I get all tingly just thinking about it. They try to ease the heavy lifting with a bit of weight reduction, in a nettlesome way. And see what they might do to seduce the studly 23 yo gardener, who is reputed to know things, into giving them the lowdown on how to elevate their game. Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals- BuddhaThere is a fairy tale aspect to The Lightness, from using Once upon a time to having to go through the woods to learn truths. From there being the equivalent of a huntsman’s cabin in those woods, to a magical meeting place. From a local legend about a weeping willow carving lines in a cliff-face with its tears to Laurel’s idyllic vision of what American teenage life looks like. Rumors abound about Serena being maybe a witch or a werewolf or engaging in bizarre, dire activities involving blood. …she seemed to have sprung from the ground, as much a part of the landscape as the rock beneath her thighs, as unconcerned and constant as the punishing heat itself.And the girls engage in plenty of magical thinking to fill this motif out even more. My disappointments in the book are slight. Olivia is pretty well organized to have gotten herself into the Center, yet does remarkably little to actually dig into dad’s records there. It seemed to me that settling, for the most part, on connecting with daddy dearest by learning what he might have learned seemed inconsistent. But, then, teenager. This is, after all, a coming of age novel, so inconsistency is a part of the landscape. A big piece of Olivia’s growth is experiencing a range of desires, and sustaining an inner dialogue about them. She wants what she wants, but struggles with what is right, although she is well aware that she is corruptible. She is far from alone in facing such challenges. And they are not all sexual in nature. Ambition looms large. What is she willing to do, to herself or others, in order to realize her desires? What are her limits, our limits, physically and morally? There is a thriller/suspense core that Temple manages to keep aloft throughout. We know from the prologue that something terrible has happened. The story is told from adult Olivia’s perspective, so we know she gets through it all, physically, anyway. But she keeps reminding us, in case we forgot, that something awful happened that summer and we should keep wondering what it is, how it will happen, and who will not make it through. This worked well enough, I suppose, in sustaining, even ramping up tension, but I sometimes felt like I was in a classroom in which the teacher clapped his/her hands very loudly every so often to make sure everyone was paying attention, when I was one of the people who had been awake the whole time. If I had known what was going to happen that summer, maybe I would have paid more attention to HarrietOne feature that I found fun was Olivia’s word dives into the etymology of words, phrases, or passing thoughts, things like our need to destroy cuteness, the expression ”what’s the matter?”, the word thrall. I expect some readers might find these distracting. Not me. I quite enjoyed them, in fact, as they were not only informative but contributed to the surrounding subject matter. Adolescence can be (was) a fraught time for many of us, male and female, featuring volcanic emotional angst even under normal conditions. Toss in the misery of your favorite parent disappearing, then falling in with a charismatic sort who is inspiring, compelling, and possibly dangerous, stir the cauldron with some specific sexual attractions, and a group of other teens coping with their own forms of madness, trying to overcome, or at least trying to gain some mastery over the weight of desire, the heavy load of becoming and maybe the clutches of gravity. And, in the telling, knowing that it will all go to hell in a terminal way. The Lightness is an engaging, coming-of-age suspense thriller that will make you smile, fret, wonder, and consider where limits lie. Not saying you will bang your head on the ceiling while reading this, but it may very well lift your literary spirits. No one saves us but ourselves - Buddha Review posted – June 12, 2020 Publication dates ----------June 16, 2020 - hardcover ----------June 22, 2021 - trade paperback =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram pages Emily Temple is the managing editor at Literary Hub. The Lightness is her first novel. Other Writing by Temple -----Literary Hub - Emily Temple on Translating a Decade of Internet Writing into a Debut Novel -----All her stories in The Atlantic -----All her stories in Literary Hub -----All her stories in Refinery 29 -----All her stories in Redef -----Links to other writing in her site -----A story by Temple - Plan of the Peak Cavern -----A story by Temple - Better Homes Items of Interest -----Wiki on Dhammapada -----The Dhammapada Full Text -----Tummo Meditation ...more |
Notes are private!
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May 23, 2020
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Jun 06, 2020
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May 23, 2020
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Hardcover
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1250621569
| 9781250621566
| 1250621569
| 4.28
| 15,458
| May 05, 2020
| May 26, 2020
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it was amazing
| What do you do when you’re a scared-shitless kid that’s been faking it for so long? You bury it. You polish your smile and study until you can’t ev What do you do when you’re a scared-shitless kid that’s been faking it for so long? You bury it. You polish your smile and study until you can’t even focus your eyes. You buy yourself a big red sweater with an S across the chest, just like the superchild you once were. You try to prove them all wrong. You attempt to outrun it. But then you get injured and your mom goes insane and a kind man in a blue shirt with a trim black beard uses the words. Emotional abuse. Crossing physical boundaries, Trauma. Neglect. I feel like a blank space covered in skin.Who is that masked man? If all of your life you’ve worn a mask, what do you see in the mirror? A reflection of someone you aren’t. How can you know who you really are, or who you might become, if you see your world through cut-out holes? And the world never gets to see you, never gets to relate to you, the real you, behind your facade. Kinda tough to live your best life that way. Kinda tough to live a real life that way. And how did that mask get there in the first place? And how did it impact the nuts and bolts of your life? And is there any hope you can tear it off without losing the you beneath, pull it off slowly, maybe un-sew it from your face, a stitch at a time? [image] Mikel Jollett - image from his Twitter Who is that masked man, the kid from the cult, the pre-teen looking for thrills, the teenager who nearly killed himself, the long-distance-runner, the Stanford student, the substance abuser, the serial spoiler of relationships, the music-world journalist, the successful rock musician, the wonderful writer? Or are they all just different masks? [image] Synenon leader Charles Dederich - Image from San Diego State University The impetus to write the book was a recent one. Jollett had been writing and performing music with his band, Airborne Toxic Event, since 2005, a step sideways from his intention to pursue a writing career, and a closely linked redirection from his work as a music journalist. Then, in 2015, his father died, and Jollett says he was overwhelmed with grief and confusion. “I wondered why it hit me so hard, so I went back into my past—that day my mom took us out of the cult. I went in to lockdown and started to write.” He stayed with it for three years. - from the PW interviewThere was a lot to write about. This coming of age story begins when he was five. Jollett had the bad luck to be born into a bad situation. His parents were members of Synenon, a place that came to public prominence in the 1960s in California, a goto drug rehab community for a while. People charged with substance-related crimes were often sent there by California courts. It probably did some good in the beginning, but as the leader of Synenon, Chuck Dederich, became more and more unhinged and power mad, his not totally crazy community became a totally crazy cult. Not the best start for a new life. One of the rules in Synenon was that children were to be raised communally. So, even though mom and/or dad might be around, they were not the ones providing care. Have a nice life. “It was an orphanage!” Grandma screams. “That’s what you call a place where strangers raise your kids!” Grandma says that mom doesn’t even know who put us to bed or who woke us up or who taught us to read. She says we were sitting ducks. (We did play Duck Duck Goose a lot.) “You made them orphans, Gerry!” Grandma will point at us from her chair as we pretend not to listen.We follow Mik’s journey from his earliest memories of Synenon, raised by people other than his parents until Mom flees with him and his older brother in the dark of night. Most orphanages do not send goons to track down people, including children, who leave. Even out of the Synenon cult, Mik, his brother, Tony, and his mom, Gerry, were not safe. Mik gets to see a fellow “splittee” get beaten nearly to death by Synenon enforcers outside his new home. [image] Facing your dark side - image from Narcissism and emotional abuse.co.uk If this decidedly unstable beginning was not enough of a challenge, his mother was not the best of all possible parents. Is that a mom? Someone who you can’t ever remember not loving you? I know Mom doesn’t think that’s what it is but I do…She tells me I’m her son and she wanted kids so she wouldn’t be alone anymore and now she has us and it is a son’s job to take care of his mother.Gerry was just a weeeee bit narcissistic, to her children’s decided disadvantage. It would take Mik years to learn that the usual arrangement was that parents take care of children. [image] Image from collectiveevolution.com Jollett takes us through many stages of his life, successfully modulating the narrative to fit the age he is portraying in each. As he grows, his awareness increases and his interests broaden. It makes him, appropriately, an unreliable narrator as young Mik does not yet have the tools to see past the misinformation he is being given. It took my brother and I a long long time to piece together the reality that a functional adult might have about the situation, that we’d escaped a cult that had once done good things for addicts (including our father), that our mother was severely depressed, and that these experiences were very unique in some ways and quite common in others. So I wrote the book from that perspective, at least at the beginning: that of a child trying to piece together the reality of the changing world around him; because that’s how I experienced it. There were mysteries. What is a restaurant? (We’d never been in one). What is a car? A city? And, most devastatingly, what is a family? Because we simply didn’t know. - from the Celadon interviewBeing born into a cult and having a depressed, toxically narcissistic mother were two strikes already, but then pop, and other paternal family members had spent considerable time behind bars, and in both his paternal and his maternal trees there was a history of substance abuse, of one sort or many. You’d think Mik was destined to wind up an alcoholic and/or a drug addict and in jail. Is genetics destiny? This is a core battle he faced in his life. Another was to come to terms with how his strange upbringing affected how he related to other human beings, particularly to women. He talks a lot about how he presented a façade to the world, while keeping his truest self well back, if he even knew his true self at all. [image] Robert Smith mask - Image from funkyBunky.co Jollett endured years of poverty, and emotional abuse. He found outlets in criminal acts and substance abuse. But he also found other ways to fill his needs and channel his creativity. A close friend introduced him to the music that would push him in a new constructive direction. I go to a place in my head where I can be alone. Listening to Robert Smith sing his happy songs about how sad he feels is like he’s there too, like he has his Secret Place in his head where he goes and since he wrote a song about it, he’s right there in my headphones, so we’re in this Secret Place together. Me and Robert. It’s a place where we are allowed to be sad, instead of feeling like freaks of nature, us weirdos and orphans.A major change in Mik’s life is when he begins spending time with his father, Jimmy, and his father’s significant other, in Los Angeles, first summers, then, at age 11, moving there more permanently, Gerry having moved to Oregon with the boys when they were fleeing Synenon. It is a whole new world for him there, not just offering different ways to get into trouble, but the opportunity to get to know Jimmy and his father’s family, something that was not really possible in his earliest years, particularly as his mother had portrayed Jimmy negatively. I’d been told so many terrible things about him at a very young age. He was a heroin addict, an ex-con who’d done years in prison. He “left my mother for a tramp.” That was a common refrain. But none of it turned out to matter. He was clean by the time I was born and all I ever knew once I got to spend time with him, was this guy who would do anything for me. He was affectionate. He took us everywhere. He cared so deeply about our basic happiness. He had a great laugh and a quiet wisdom about him. He never cared what I became in life. He wanted me to be honest, to be interesting (or simply funny), and to be around. - from the Celadon interviewThe emotional core of the book is connections Jollett has, for good or ill, with the people in his life, friends, and particularly family. Jimmy was fond of betting on the ponies. He took Mik with him once he started visiting LA. Hollywood Park is the track they attended. It is where Mik has meaningful heart-to-hearts with his father. It is a place that lives in his imagination as well, a place where he can connect with his family across time. Will Mik grow up to be a ”Jollett Man,” a bad-ass tough guy who leans hard toward wildness, or something other? There are certainly strains in him that offer other possibilities. His athleticism, intellectual curiosity, academic licks, creativity, musical talent, and stick-to-itive-ness offer hope for a future different from his father’s. [image] Image from The Smiths and Morrissey FB pages As an adult, Mik finds a career in music, and gains insights into the musical creative process from some household names. He gains as well insights into his emotional state that help him understand the life he has been living. But the real core is how he got to that place to begin with. [image] Image from Invaluabl.com Jollett employs literary tools to great effect. For example, as an eight-year-old in Oregon, his family raised and slaughtered rabbits for food. In addition to this being a sign of the family’s poverty, it is clear that young Mik senses that he, too, is being raised in an emotional cage to provide sustenance of another sort. His writing is smooth and often moving. There are sum-up portions at the end of chapters that pull together what that chapter has been about. These bits tend toward the self-analytical, and are often poetic. …music makes me feel like I belong somewhere, that this person I don’t know, the one who swims beneath his life in a dark, chaotic, unknowable place, this one has a voice too.Mikel Jollett has written a remarkable memoir, offering not just a look at his dramatic and event-filled personal journey, but a peek out from the masks he wore to the times he lived through. While his actions and experiences covered a considerable swath, there is always, throughout his moving tale, a connection to family, to his mother, father, brother, various step-parents, his extended family, and closest friends. The power of these connections caused him considerable difficulty, but also made it possible for him to weather some major life storms. The odds are you will be moved by Jollett’s celebration of real human bonding, cringe at some of the challenges he had to endure, mumble an “oh, no,” or worse, as you see the missteps along his path, cheer for the triumphs when they come, and luxuriate in the beauty of his writing. Whatever else you may get from the book, it is clear that Mikel Jollett is unmasked as an outstanding writer. Hollywood Park is a sure winner of a read. Bet on it. One sentence [in The Scarlet Letter] stood out to me as I read on the edge of my bed. I marked the page: “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” It made me think of the Secret Place, the place I hide with Robert Smith. I know this face. I’ve learned not to tell anyone at school about Synanon or Dad in prison or…Mom in the bed staring up at the ceiling. It’s a mask, this face you create for others, one you hide behind as you laugh at jokes you don’t understand and skip uncomfortable details, entire years of your life, as if they simply didn’t happen. [image] Jollett (l.), with dad Jimmy and brother Tony -image from Publishers Weekly Review first posted – May 15, 2020 Publication dates ----------May 5, 2020 - hardcover ----------March 22, 2022 - trade paperback I received an ARE of this book from Celadon in return for an honest review. But, do they really know who they gave this book to? I could be anyone, pretending to be anyone. Thanks to MC, too. [image] [image] [image] [image] This review has been, or soon will be, cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi! ==========In the summer of 2019 GR reduced the allowable review size by 25%, from 20,000 to 15,000 characters. In order to accommodate the text beyond that I have moved it to the comments section directly below. [image] ...more |
Notes are private!
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not set
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Apr 25, 2020
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Feb 07, 2020
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Hardcover
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1324003316
| 9781324003311
| 1324003316
| 4.07
| 7,719
| Oct 08, 2019
| Oct 08, 2019
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it was amazing
| Yes, the universe wants to kill us. But on the other hand, we all want to live. So let’s find a way together to deflect the asteroids, find the cur Yes, the universe wants to kill us. But on the other hand, we all want to live. So let’s find a way together to deflect the asteroids, find the cure to the next lethal virus, mitigate hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes, etc. This can only be enabled by the efforts of a scientifically and technologically literate public. Therein lies a hope on Earth far greater than ever promised by the act of prayer or introspection.It can be a bit of a challenge when talking about Neil deGrasse Tyson, deciding just where to start. Overall, one would have to say that He is the public face of space, this side of fiction, anyway. And speaking of fiction, he was cast in a recent Neal Stephenson novel, SevenEves, albeit with a nom du plume. He has published 14 books, hosted several science-focused TV series, including Cosmos, Star Talk, Origins, the Pluto Files and more. He is only the fifth ever head of the New York Planetarium, served on presidential science advisory councils, has been awarded NASA’s highest non-government-employee award. He is the teacher you wished you had for science, enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and encouraging, and with a wonderful sense of humor. [image] Neil deGrasse Tyson - image from his site And if that is not enough, he is a remarkably charming guy, and a wonderful writer. In a recent Late Show interview with Whoopi Goldberg (at 7:21 of the clip), when Stephen Colbert asked her who her favorite ever guest was, she said Tyson, because he could talk for three hours straight, and they would all be wonderful, informative hours. And if Whoopi loves spending time with the guy, really, who are we to argue? How do you defend yourself when you have received a letter that proclaims you a “pooh-pooh head” for your role in downgrading Pluto to dwarf-planet status? What can you say to people who challenge you on religion, God, philosophy, who see responsibility for the 9/11 assaults in celestial alignments? This book consists of NDT’s responses to about 75 letters he’s received over the years, on a wide range of subjects. He also writes about some personal feelings and events, like his relationship with his father, or more ethereal considerations of nature. And some are just for fun, like his selection of the most scientifically BS movies of all time, or a museum visitor picking up a display information error that had been there for a very long time, and which NDT had had a hand in approving. Oopsy. There are some very heart-warming passages in which he encourages young learners. He opens with a look at his early exposure to NASA, not as the inspiration it was for so many, but as consistent excluder of people like him. He writes a birthday note to NASA, which was born the same month as he was. …you should know that among my colleagues, I am the rare few in my generation who became an astrophysicist in spite of your achievements in space rather than because of them. For my inspiration, I instead turned to libraries, remaindered books on the cosmos from bookstores, my rooftop telescope and the Hayden Planetarium.NASA moved forward in its employee selection with time, and Tyson would serve as an advisor to America’s space agency. He looks at extraordinary claims, the Cosmos, science denial, philosophy, matters of life and death, his experience with 9/11, religious faith, school issues, and parenting. A chapter titled “Rebuttals” is reserved for special smackdowns. Some chapters are more potpourri than focused. There is a fair bit of overlap among the chapters in subject material, but not enough to negate the structure of the book. Some notions are repeated maybe a time or two too often, but that is a small blemish. Tyson, above all, defends science as the way to understand the workings of the world and the universe. And castigates those who would substitute scriptural revealed truths for the objective, testable approach science offers. His correspondents include men, women, children, prisoners, celebrities, folks of diverse political stripes and religious persuasions. He responds to scientists, teachers, athletes, and morons. All with charm, knowledge, and wisdom. The incoming letters are querulous, admiring, and sometimes hate-filled. Tyson offers some surprising observations on things like the value of IQ, the best books to read, and an actual diamond in the sky. He remembers some people he admires. There is occasional snark in his replies, but, IMHO, not nearly enough. He offers a moving message to a fan who is about to lose a dying mother, and tells how Richard Holbrooke’s interest in science informed his diplomatic work. Like Whoopi says, listening to Neil for three hours is perfectly fine, and I expect you will find the time you spend with him in the pages of this book to be just as rewarding. Not only is NDT great at what he does, which is working to educate Americans about science, he is very warm, human company, who is blessed with a gift for explaining science, and an ability to write that smooths that educational element even more. In that interview Stephen Colbert did with Whoopi, she notes that after spending time with Tyson, she remembered more, of the science things he had been talking about, than she’d expected. Maybe you will too. It most certainly won’t hurt to try. And you have any questions, you could always just send the guy a letter. Review first posted – October 4, 2019 Publication date – October 8, 2019 I received an ARC of this book from Norton in return for a review that would stand up to scientific scrutiny. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages It would be redundant to add here the vast number of links one could use to connect with Tyson’s various activities. His primary site, at the Planetarium, offers those in abundance. But here's one anyway -----NY Times - April 17, 2021 - Neil deGrasse Tyson Thinks Science Can Reign Supreme Again by David Marchese ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 13, 2019
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Sep 20, 2019
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Aug 18, 2019
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Hardcover
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0393292436
| 9780393292435
| 0393292436
| 3.74
| 100
| Mar 26, 2019
| Mar 26, 2019
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really liked it
| The very gears that make Facebook socially wonderful—its ease of connecting and sharing—are the same ones that facilitate trolling, the flourishing The very gears that make Facebook socially wonderful—its ease of connecting and sharing—are the same ones that facilitate trolling, the flourishing of hate groups, the dissemination of fake news, and dirty political tricks. In a similar way, the gears that make science work—the fact that it is done by collectives, is abstract, and always open to revision--also provide fuel for science deniers…The chapters that follow will explain how the current state of affairs came about, and what will be necessary to change it. Aristotle, one of the most practical and wise of all philosophers, wrote that, while it is easy to become angry, it is harder to be angry “with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way.” This book is about how to get angry about science denial in the right way. [image] Robert P. Crease - image from Physics World Crease is a world-renowned teacher and writer on things pertaining to philosophy and science. He chairs and teaches in the Department of Philosophy at Stony Brook University in New York, is co-editor-in-chief of Physics in Perspective, and, for almost twenty years, he has been writing a column called Critical Point in the publication Physics World. There is a lot to be learned in the very reasonably-sized The Workshop and the World. [image] Francis Bacon - image from Philosopher.co.uk The core intent of the book is to show how, throughout history, science and math, what Crease calls “the workshop,” has had to contend with rival forces in the world. Some great thinkers have gone to considerable trouble to analyze this tension and attempted to figure out why that was, and still is. Each of these luminaries came up with interesting theories on how things should be vs how they are, and offered their takes on the forces underlying that battle. One primary core is that people will accept the findings of science if it is backed with the imprimatur of authority. At one time, authority vested mostly in trans-state entities like the Church. Thus, if the Church decried the findings of the workshop (meaning you, Galileo), authority was denied to the science being presented, and thus people at large were less likely to embrace new findings. There have been other sources of such authority over the years, each with interests that sometimes ran (still run) counter to the findings of the workshop. What constitutes authority today and how can science successfully gain its protection in order to best serve to inform and assist us all? [image] Galileo - image from Smithsonian Crease traces the history of this conflict, taking us through brief bios of ten great thinkers. (which is definitely not the same thing as ten great people. Some of these folks you might want to admire from a great distance). There are some names here I confess were news to me. Giambattista Vico, of Naples, was an ardent defender of study of the humanities, fearing that reducing human interaction to mechanical and math-based rules would cause us to “go mad rationally.” Speaking of madness, the likely unbalanced Auguste Comte was a name I had heard, but frankly knew nothing about. He held a very high view of science, seeing it as a way to explain nature without reliance on gods of any sort. He promoted a theory called Positive Philosophy, where you might substitute the word “scientific” for “positive.” It did not help that the guy was a world class jerk, egocentric at a Trumpian level, unkind to his wife, getting into constant battles with employers and peers, generally detested. Think Ted Cruz anywhere outside a Texas voting booth. Edmund Husserl was another unfamiliar name. He argued for scientific exploration that was well attuned to immediate human experience and not locked away from the world of people in a lab. [image] Rene Descartes - image from Target Health Inc. There are some core concepts to take away from this book. The authority thing is first, noted above. Science has innate uncertainty. Every observation, every experiment, every measurement, has the potential to be overturned by the next advance in observational, or analytical technology or the next great theory. Religion, despite the vast array of conflict within each brand, sub-brand, and sub-sub brand ad infinitum, claims its truths to be divinely revealed and eternal. Once you settle into whatever set of beliefs you choose, there is no need to re-adjust when extant circumstances change, or new ideas offer better explanations. There is comfort in holding close the accepted, the revered, the worshipped, and considerable distress to be had by allowing in alternate understandings. So, right off the bat, to many with a firm religious perspective, (and that religion could just as easily include ideologies as well), upending the extant scientific view of the world is gonna be a hard sell. Francis Bacon came up with an ingenious strategy, maintaining that nature was the other book that God gave to man, and it was up to us to use the tools we found in studying that book to better obey God. [image] Giambattista Vico - image from Wikipedia Another core element is that there has to be an arena in which people with a contrary scientific view can take action, which, in this context means bringing their ideas to a public forum, where they can be examined, debated, refuted, maybe even improved, without the person bringing the new view being put in fear for his or her life. (publish and perish?) This has particular impact in places where there is limited or no free press, namely totalitarian countries. Our friend Galileo, for example, was denied the right to teach, or to espouse his views in any public way, by the Church. He espoused a third source of authority, independent of religious and civil, the scientific. There is a gap between the world of science and the world of human experience. Go head, try explaining string theory to just about anyone. It makes science, a lot of it, anyway, almost entirely remote from day-to-day personal experience, and thus easier to dismiss. Also there is a real challenge with applying first-hand, worldly knowledge based on experience to research based on theory. There is not always, but certainly can be a tension there, if those on the ground feel that their perspective is not being heard. [image] Science does not exist in a sociopolitical vacuum. It requires interaction with the world outside the workshop, connection with human values. Mary Shelley certainly offered a resonant image of what science might do, uninhibited by social (meaning either state or religious/moral) control. We still think today about Franken-this and Franken-that as a dark result of science being done in the absence of adequate foresight and control. [image] Auguste Comte - image from Vision.org In addition to the household names, others were familiar, the material here offering reminders of information once known, but adding other info that had never found its way through my personal screen of ignorance. Max Weber is a giant in the foundations of social sciences. Crease focuses here on Weber’s concern that the so-called rationalization of scientific and social enterprises would ultimately rob both of their humanity. He believed that it would take charismatic leaders to lift societies out of their bureaucratic ruts. Of course, that can lead to even bigger problems if your charismatic turns out to be a lunatic. The chapter on Hannah Arendt grabbed me the most. No doubt one element of this is that she is the most contemporary of the great minds under view here. Also, the subject matter to which she dedicated so much of her attention is alarmingly relevant today. Factual truth is essential to the public space and the ability to act. “Freedom of opinion is a farce unless factual information is guaranteed and the facts themselves are not in dispute.” She concludes: “Conceptually, we may call truth what we cannot change; metaphorically, it is the ground on which we stand and the sky that stretches above us.” To threaten facts is to threaten human existence, and freedom itself. [image] Max Weber - image from Crisis Magazine There are some fun details to be found in here. Galileo, for one, made a big deal out of trying to figure out the physical shape of hell that was described by Dante in The Inferno, and screwed up the math. The tale of Comte’s ongoing unpleasantness was entertaining if quite bleak. And the dark existences some of these folks endured, with less than happy endings, is interesting, if a bit grim. [image] Hannah Arendt - image from WomensNews.org Ok. Let’s be real here. People whose approach to science is to hold their hands over their ears and repeat LALALALALALALALALA as loudly as possible to drown out any potential incoming information, will never be persuaded by an argument offered in the past by world-class scientists who had to contend with the mindlessness of their times. Unscrupulous political and religious leaders, fueled by self-interested corporate interests and/or personal faith or ideology, will do whatever it takes to keep reality-based positions from gaining too much power. Consider that there are still morons in our legislative bodies who contend that global warming is a hoax. And some (yes, I mean you, Louis Gohmert, MTG, et al), and the people who vote for them, who are simply too dumb to understand much of anything, and too mean to admit their error should they ever actually acquire understanding. Don’t waste your breath. You could drown their communities a hundred times and they will still insist that the river will never overflow again because global warming is a hoax, or, better, find a way to blame scientists, immigrants, Muslims, minorities, or liberals for deliberately flooding them, just to, I don’t know, maybe make them feel bad. [image] Edmund Husserl - image from Literariness.org The solutions, the approaches Crease offers seem pretty obvious, and not necessarily a product of the preceding journey. They are of a short and long-term sort. On the short stack is getting politicians to Sign Pledges - This has worked pretty well for Grover Norquist and his toxic, and dishonest Taxpayer Protection Pledge, so I suppose it might be of some use, but pols are nothing if not flexible in figuring ways to either not sign or to interpret a pledge in whatever way best suits them. Next up is Exposing Hypocrisy - This minimizes the talent most politicians have for dancing around uncomfortable questions and limiting our ability to get answers. And some seem immune to any sense of shame. Trump, for example, seems to thrive on hypocrisy. For some, hypocrisy is not so much a bug as a feature. To the cult member, it is a non-issue, easily parried as fake news. Use comedy or ridicule - Has Crease not been watching any of the late night talk show, the huge number of people posting disparaging comedic material on pretty much every available venue, print and digital? Tell Parables - I really like this one. If people come up with resonant metaphors they might have the capacity to slip past the bars of political bias He offers a pretty good example. Prosecute – Well, we are working on that, but when the polluters decide who the prosecutors are, that approach is doomed – See the deal Exxon made with the state of New Jersey under Chris Christie. Like Trump installing onto courts the people who will ultimately judge him. These suggestions are not useless, but they are not exactly news. I was hoping for something a bit more surprising than tactics that are already ongoing. The long-term approaches are minimally different from the short-term ones noted above. So, if the goal of this book is to provide new tools to do battle with the forces of ignorance, I would call it a miss. However, and this is a big HOWEVER, there is a lot of interesting information in these pages, and it is at least somewhat reassuring that the battle between illumination and darkness has been going on for a long time, and we are still here, alive, able to carry it on. Also, it is worth refreshing our familiarity with some of the major progenitors of our world, and understanding the foundation on which demagogues build their Potemkin Villages of fear, misinformation, rage, and doubt. The Truth is what you make of it, so we need to remain vigilant and keep ours and succeeding generations from descending into another know-nothing dark age. US politicians who attack science are like the Islamic State militants who bulldozed archaeological treasures and smash statues. Is such a comparison really over the top? Science is a cornerstone of Western culture, not only to ward off threats but also to achieve social goals. In seeking to destroy those tools science deniers are like ISIS militants in that they’re motivated by higher authority, believe mainstream culture threatens their beliefs, and want to destroy the means by which that mainstream culture survives and flourishes, If anything, ISIS militants are more honest, for they openly admit that their motive is faith and ideology, while Washington’s cultural vandals do not. It’s disingenuousness, prevents honest discussion of the issues, and falsely discredits and damages American institutions. At debates and press conferences, such politicians should be asked: “Explain the difference between ISIS religious extremists who attack cultural treasures and politicians who attack scientific process.” How they respond will reveal much about their values and integrity. Review first posted – March 22, 2019 Publication date – March 26, 2019 I received this book from Norton in return for an information-based, unbiased review, but one based in real-world experience. [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, and GR pages Items by Crease -----a list of articles for Project Syndicate -----Co-author of an article in Physics Today - The New Big Science Further Reading -----Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis -----Descartes’ Discourse ...more |
Notes are private!
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Mar 04, 2019
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Mar 19, 2019
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Mar 04, 2019
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Hardcover
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1683318404
| 9781683318408
| 1683318404
| 3.71
| 222
| Nov 13, 2018
| Nov 13, 2018
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really liked it
| Some have asserted that witchcraft is nothing in the world but an imagining of men who ascribed to spells those natural effects the causes of whic Some have asserted that witchcraft is nothing in the world but an imagining of men who ascribed to spells those natural effects the causes of which are hidden… But such assertions are rejected by the true faith whereby we believe that angels fell from heaven, and that the demons exist, and that by reason of their subtle nature they are able to do many things which we cannot; and those who induce them to do such things are called wizards.The above epigraph of the novel Those Who Go By Night sets the stage nicely. Are we dealing with a story about dabblers in arcane, dark arts, or the Church’s considerable belief in such things? The question of magic lingers throughout the book. Are people actually practicing magic, or are there non-spectral explanations for the bloody events that take place? It is 1324 and one Roger Lacy, erstwhile respected steward of a successful family property, has been down on his luck for quite some time. Having recently discovered and employed particularly valuable papers, Lacy has a new lease on life, and is in a celebratory and grateful mood. Unfortunately for Mister Lacy, his celebration will be as short-lived. Stopping in Saint Mary’s Church to offer up some thanks, he finds darkness rather than light. His body is found the next day, splayed across the altar in a blasphemous manner, and the game is afoot. [image] Arthur Gaddes - image from the Crooked Lane site Every dark cloud has a silver lining. Lacy’s untimely demise has offered Friar Justus, an ambitious inquisitor, the opportunity to drum up some business, maybe add a few notches to his belt. No one expects the Spanish Inquisition, but maybe an English version? And wherever this proto Joe McCarthy travels accusations are sure to fly like turbo-charged witches, and confessions to whatever suits are sure to be produced handily with the usual toolkit of threats, torture, bribes, and manipulation. Any truths that emerge will be entirely incidental. All of which is terribly inconvenient for the guy whose land is about to be thus embroiled. Henry Burghersh, the Bishop of Lincoln, which includes Bottesford, has a good thing going, and would like to see this unfortunate death handled quickly and discretely. He sends his fixer, Thomas Lester, (Think Ray Donovan with an extra scruple or two) to clean up the mess. The local bigshot, de Bray, is eager for the help, fearing that his holdings may be at risk. But Lacey’s untimely death is not the last, and may not even have been the first. Can Thomas save the day? Will Justus be denied? Thomas is a nice combo of intelligence and military experience. He has a personal quest that is noted in the story but not given a whole lot of ink. Mostly he is just trying to figure out who done it, how, and why, and restore the peace. Friar Justus is pretty much pure evil, straight from the Snidely Whipsnade closet in central casting, complete with arrogance, a fair bit of intelligence and knowledge, a talent for bullying and manipulation, and predictable personal weaknesses. There are several notable females in the mix. Dame Alice Kyteler, (an actual historical character) lately driven out of Ireland, charged with witchcraft, and leaving behind a suspicious number of dead husbands, has taken up residence in a local hut in the woods. Is she merely hiding out from the law, or what might she be getting up to out there? She does have a considerable knowledge of things herbal and chemical. Does her knowledge extend to matters beyond science? Cecily DeBray is a powerful force, the daughter of the master of the house, she does not have much concrete power, but is a force to be reckoned with nonetheless, with a powerful, analytical mind, a knowledge of herbalism and considerable sex appeal. Hunydd is a servant in the deBray household, but there may be more than meets the eye to this appealing maid. Finally Lady deBray is a bit of a nutter. A stunner, she spends maybe too much time in front of a mirror she has been attached to since childhood. She talks to it. We don’t know if she asks if she is the fairest of them all, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. It does seem that a knowledge of herbalism is rather rampant in Bottesford. Maybe the local YMCA had a class? Gaddes has some fun with trade in religious artifacts, a business made for fraudsters. He tosses in a bit of 14th century background color with mentions of rebellions, some of the personalities involved, and dark doings of diverse sorts by people in, or wanting to be in power. There is also info on what several of the Catholic religious orders think of each other. Deliciously catty. There are several priestly types meandering about, Father Elyas, another character with considerable knowledge of things herbal, is deBray’s chaplain. Part of the fun is trying to figure out who is telling the truth, or rather what lies each of the characters is putting forth, and why. There are some lovely pieces to this puzzle. Chapter 17 contains the best scene in the book, Friar Justus and Thomas Lester having a go at questioning Lady Isabella DeBray, with all of them putting on theatrical performances. Just loved that. Also, there are multiple discourses on the legal position of women at the time. As you might imagine, it was not enviable era in which to be of the female persuasion. We do get some details of the awfulness though, and that is definitely educational. You could certainly see how women with any intelligence might be drawn to a practice that would give them some agency. I did enjoy Those Who Go By Night, but had a few issues. It felt to me that the whodunit reveal was a bit too sudden. Of course that may be my dull instrument not picking up the proper cues and figuring them out within a decent time frame, but it did feel a bit out of the blue. There were times when one is offered a sinister smile, or studied look, but the followup explanation was not immediate enough to connect. Finally there is the book title. I’m sorry, but Those Who Go By Night summons all the wrong sort of responses from me. Things like…Don’t we all, at some point? Or, as a person of a certain age, I see a book about someone who wakes frequently to urinate, maybe leading to a Rear Bathroom Window scenario, where a 3am pee-er becomes witness to something unspeakable. Or hordes of vampires with poor bladder control. Maybe a school for bed-wetters, (The Whizzer Academy?) I would have gone with something else. Sorry, but this was too obvious for me to let go. But please do not let my compulsive subservience to jejune impulses detract from the rest of this review. I really did enjoy the book, and I expect you will too, particularly if you enjoy medieval mysteries like The Name of the Rose and Cadfael. So, does Thomas clear up what is going on before the entire town is wiped out? Does Friar Justus get to burn anyone? He really, really wants to. Do the obvious sparks between Thomas and Cecily ignite? Who is the mysterious beauty seen dashing about in the wee hours? What is Hunydd up to? Is there any witchcraft involved in the Bottesford killings? Is Alice a witch or just one tough broad? And when is the next herbalism class? Review first posted – November 30, 2018 Publication date – November 13, 2018 I confess that I received a free copy of the book (an Advanced Uncorrected Proof) from Crooked Lane in return for telling the truth as I know it about my reactions. Now please put that bright orange poker away, pleeeeeeeaaaaaaaasse! =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s GR and FB pages A nice, brief bio of the author on the Crooked Lane site. This is Gaddes’s first book A bit of info on the historical Dame Alice Kyteler ...more |
Notes are private!
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Nov 19, 2018
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Nov 26, 2018
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Nov 19, 2018
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0316449717
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| 3.83
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| Nov 13, 2018
| Nov 13, 2018
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really liked it
| When you dance with the Rite of Dreaming, you dance with the gods.Mehr’s got it made, I guess, There were perks to being the Governor of Irinah When you dance with the Rite of Dreaming, you dance with the gods.Mehr’s got it made, I guess, There were perks to being the Governor of Irinah’s daughter—even an illegitimate one. People obeyed you. Servants rushed to your bidding. Even the ones who loathed you—and there were many—were forced to veil their contempt and keep their loathing eyes lowered. All people faced hatred. All people suffered. Few had the cushion of wealth and privilege to protect them as Mehr did.nice wardrobe, plenty to eat, time on her hands, but it comes with downsides. Her father’s grounds constitutes a golden cage. And mom’s side presents a whole other problem. [image] Tasha Suri - image from her Twitter pages While dad is a member in good standing of the Ambahn clan, the ruling caste in the empire, Mehr’s mother was a member of the oppressed Amrithi clan. Not your usual ethnic minority. The Amrithi began ages ago when a magical being called a daiva (djinn-like, with both a physical and a more ethereal nature) got jiggy with a human, making the Amrithi not entirely our sort. The magical side DNA comes with some benefits, though, for some Amrithi anyway. An ability to communicate with the daiva who still roam the world. And how do they communicate, you may ask? Here is the genius of the book. Amrithi communicate with the daiva via physical movement, specifically through dance and sigils,something between magic spells and prayer. (If you have ever seen the TV show, The Magicians, they do a lot of hand sigils there, and not all are of the middle finger variety) They also have dance rites that are the equivalent of the prayer rituals common to many religions. Mehr keeps up the rituals she learned from her mother and from a mentor her mother asked to look after her when she left. The rituals give her a sense of connection not only to her heritage, and her mother, but in a very real sense to the magical events in this world. Suri took some inspiration from her own upbringing. Kids in Indian dance training make abundant use of hand symbols. She also wanted to incorporate that signaling with an element of martial arts. Her characters’ hand sigils are no mere form of artistry. They have real world impact. They kick ass. [image] Author Suri likes Anneika Rose for the role of Mehr More family enters into it. Mehr has a little sister she loves and wants to protect, (and whose safety can be used as leverage against her) and then there is the evil-stepmother, Maryam, (a true bloom of Ambhan womanhood) who does her best to hiss and sneer her way across the page whenever she shows up. She is particularly eager to keep Mehr from continuing the practices of her Amrithi heritage. There’s more. In this fantasy world, which is inspired by a Bollywood version of what the Mughal Empire might have been, reality is not the relatively consistent universe we have come to know. It is a product of the dreams of the gods. Only sometimes those dreams get disturbed, generating hurricane-like storms that dump a whole new type of precip, a thing called dreamfire. Way beyond oobleck. The dreamfire was everywhere now. It was in the air she breathed, in the sweat at the nape of her neck. She could feel the strength of it churning the city into a storm. The buildings were drenched in light, debris flying through the air as if the world had tipped on its side and sent everything sprawling. Even the earth felt like it was moving beneath her feet. It was dizzying, terrifying. Exhilirating.Dad, who clearly loves Mehr, and evil-step-mom, who clearly doesn’t, may have Mehr’s best interests at heart in keeping her confined to the grounds. Seems the talent she has for things magical is in high demand by dark sorts. So, when Mehr slips out and puts her skill to the test, word gets around and she is in a whole mess of trouble. Way worse than being grounded. [image] I like a young Oded Fehr for the role of Amun – image from GirlsAskGuys.om (Yeah, I know Amun is supposed to be dark skinned, but this guy’s face just kept popping into my tiny mind) The religious leader of the empire (midway between Thanos and the High Sparrow), has sent a delegation of mystics and a not-so-subtle Like so many other of the other mystics Mehr had seen in Lotus Hall, his face was swathed by cloth. Only his eyes and bridge of his nose were revealed but his head was lowered, hiding his gaze. The little of his skin she could see was dark She couldn’t tell if he was young or old, ugly or handsome. He was simply male, broad-shouldered and intimidating with footsteps that were soft, too soft. He had a predator’s tread.It is an offer she cannot refuse. No more mani pedis for you, dear. Mehr hits the road with her new associates and the game is afoot. No, really. No saddles or palanquins. They walk across the desert to the evil leader’s oasis-centered temple. His name is Maha, and the similarity to mwahahaha cannot possibly be accidental. Ok, entire-world-fantasies can really get you bogged down in describing everything, (like the above) and then you lose track of the thread. Ok? We got all our words straight, Daiva? Sigil? Amrithi? Ambahn? Jeez, can we move on with it already? The change of scene also signals a change in approach. What ensues is not just learning what dark plans Maha, who is entirely cruel and not entirely human, has in store for Mehr, and taking on that challenge, but getting to know Amun. Is this bad boy really so bad? Why does everyone think he’s a monster? What’s the deal with all the blue tats? And what else will be forced on Mehr? A challenge for sure. The book heads in two directions here. First is getting the lay of the land and finding out who you can trust, and where you can get the best figs. Part of this is dealing with being invited to hang by one group, when you really want to be doing something else, figuring out who can be trusted, deciphering the palace politics in her new town. Very relatable, particularly for the younger set. The other major element is the reveal of what the Maha has in mind, and how Mehr will cope. But the major bit for what seems the largest chunk of the book is Mehr getting to know Amun. They have to come up with modus vivendi in order to accomplish the tasks with which they are charged, and not get, you know, murdered. It was not the fastest read. I enjoyed the first 100 pps of intro to the world and Mehr’s situation, and I enjoyed watching her face diverse challenges and overcome, or not, yet still grow in the process. But I did not enjoy the pace or duration after that. It was reasonably-paced and engaging at first, but settled into a slower, drawn-out tempo that was a bit frustrating. The book might have lost about fifty pages, maybe more, without suffering too much. There are a few interludes when we see events away from Mehr from the perspective of other characters. These offered a break from the central pillar of the tale, and added in a few details Mehr could not deliver to us. There was an element of romantic interaction that was appropriate and engaging, but which took up way too much of the book, detracting from the much more interesting magical, and palace intrigue elements. You know I like a good romance. Well, I read a lot of romance…That’s something that romance series do really, really well. they create books that draw on each other but they’re also kind of discrete stories in themselves. You’ve got a beginning, a middle and end. You’ve got a satisfying conclusion. You know if you pick up the next one you’re going to get the same thing. So, that’s what I’m trying to do with the series. - from the Reddit sessionNot the romance thing, per se, but the beginning-middle-end thing. It was a bit unclear to me whether this was intended for YA readers or adults. Certain tropes made me think YA. Things like a sheltered girl being forced to face life’s realities and find out if she will face-plant or be the stuff that dreams are made of. We have certainly seen plenty of examples of kids or teens with hidden powers that emerge as they grow and confront danger of one sort or another. Evil stepmothers are a dime a dozen in YA tales. And Mehr has a little sister she is eager to protect, like that Everdeen kid. But then, the challenges that Mehr confronts extend well beyond showing the world her stuff. She has to contend with complex moral questions. Suri is also looking at larger issues relating to women. She is interested in how women could exercise power in a heavily patriarchal society, and not settle for invisibility. She shows them choosing paths for themselves, despite the external limitations on their freedom, and sometimes having to hide their true feelings. She managed to catch herself on her hands before her skull met the floor. Then she bowed to the floor, her forehead to the cool marble. She allowed herself to tremble; feigned being a thing bent and broken by his cruelty. She did not have her jewels or her fine clothes, but she had this power, at least: she could give him a simulacrum of what he desired from her. And hold her crumbling strength tight. Let him think he had broken her. As long as he believed he already had, as long as she fooled him, he would not succeed in truly doing so.I very much enjoyed the extreme creativity that went into the literary construction of this world. The magical concepts were impressive, exciting, and fit well with the story. Mehr is an engaging character you will find it easy to root for, particularly when she is faced with wrenching decisions. The writing is beautiful and evocative. I enjoyed much less what seemed a shift from the magical elements and court machinations to an excessive focus on the romantic. But was brought back by the action, twists, and resolutions at the end. I expect there are many castles to be made of Suri’s sands. She has a second book in the series planned, The Realm of Ash, set many years later, looking at the consequences of the actions in book 1. Some dreams can be made real. Published – November 13, 2018 Review first posted – November 30, 2018 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Instagram, and FB pages Interviews -----Definitely check out this audio interview with Suri on InkFeather Podcast -----Not really an interview, Suri takes questions on Reddit - worth a look Other -----The use of dance for communication reminded me of Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s award-winning work Stardance ...more |
Notes are private!
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Nov 2018
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Nov 19, 2018
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Oct 25, 2018
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Paperback
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1683317211
| 9781683317210
| 3.77
| 155
| Aug 07, 2018
| Aug 07, 2018
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liked it
| Abbie was sure Church leaders had hoped that changing the temple ritual would change history. You could talk about it; you could expand your view Abbie was sure Church leaders had hoped that changing the temple ritual would change history. You could talk about it; you could expand your view about it; but you couldn’t change it. Blood atonement was part of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It had always been and always would be…Early Mormon leaders had taught that certain sins were so egregious that not even the blood of Christ was sufficient to wash away the stain of sin. Such sins required the sinner’s throat to be slit from ear to ear and his blood spill to the earth.Thus the fate of one Stephen Smith, found with one smile too many, dressed in special garments, having dripped red in quantity. Maybe Pleasant Valley, Utah, was not so pleasant. Certainly wasn’t for Steve. Enter Abish Taylor, the sole detective in town. Abbie is thirty-something, model thin, a widow, seems filthy rich, (having to do with a dead rich husband, on top of her family resources) worked as a detective in NYC, Princeton graduate, and was awarded an FBI medal for Meritorious Service. She’s obviously been pretty busy. Her father is a religion professor at Brigham Young University. They are descended from the third president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS to those counting characters. But there is some discomfort there, as Abbie is no longer an insider, having thrown off her religious allegiance some years back. Makes family connections awkward, as most remain observant. But it does leave her with an appreciation for the social nuance that informs this book. [image] D.A. Bartley - image from Google Plus Smith was done in as per the banned LDS ritual noted in the book quote at top of this review. So, who is keeping these old rites alive? And what did Steve do to merit such an unhappy ending? It does not take long to determine that Steve had been a very, very bad Mormon, a sleazebag of the Trump variety, multiple bankruptcies, stiffing his workers, protecting his personal money from company failures, shady real estate deals, using some of his company money for personal expenses, grand theft everything, very conspicuous over-consumption of the gluttonous sort, not to mention being less than an ideal husband, all of which offers up a nice long list of suspects. It is good fun going through the steps as Abbie and her very capable partner, Officer Jim Clarke, follow the breadcrumbs. Clarke is an appealing second, young, intelligent, curious, respectful, professional, and connected to the community in ways Abbie is not, so a good source of local intel. Easy to like. Also, he has a range of talents that made me think of Inspector Gadget. What’s he gonna pull out of his personal talent pool next? Wish he was a bit more flawed though. Jim could have used some closet skeletons or annoying habits, acne, a hangnail, something, to make him a bit more human. The primary payload here is, of course, Mormonism. The author, like Abbie, was born into LDS-world, but found a different path forward. So Bartley knows of what she speaks when pulling the curtain aside on the Mormon world. There are many nuggets of information about the religion, its history, and local culture. A lot of this is fascinating. Did you know that there is an LDS organization, The Strengthening Church Members Committee (SCMS), that takes in tales of apostasy? News to me. It makes them the Latter Day Stasi. How about the set of four books that all Mormons are expected to have? Or the special garments that full members receive, what protection they afford, how often they are worn. How about the Mormon view of heavenly levels? And what they call the place where Satan kicks back? Contemporary practices and nomenclature are introduced smoothly and effectively. Abbie/Bartley is an agreeable and informative Virgil through the levels here. An element of most procedurals featuring a female lead is the inevitable presence of chauvinism. Check. Add in planting our female detective in one of the most paternal, hierarchical places and cultures in the United States, to ramp up the real and potential conflict. Blessed be. My personal contact with Mormonism is minimal. In 1971, I was in Montreal and stopped in to an LDS pavilion in what had been EXPO ’67. Caught their promotional vid. The image of a heaven populated solely by white people was laughable, and I dismissed the organization as cultish. Many years later I found a copy of the Book of Mormon in a Southwest hotel room and spent some time poring through. While I found the reading quite interesting, and continued it beyond that trip, I got the impression that at least one of the book’s authors had been chewing a bit too much peyote, as the images portrayed seemed particularly psychedelic, reinforcing my initial take. And for any who believe I am singling out the LDS for a particularly dark view, rest assured, I take a dim view of most religions. Still, it is way interesting learning details about Mormon history, beliefs, and practices. Gripes concern surfaces that I felt were too smooth. The book would have benefited from, would have felt more balanced with, a bit more imperfection. I understand that having a wealthy lead offers writers a bit of freedom to do more things than might be available using a more down-and-out investigator. But I would imagine that I am not alone in being sick and tired of the one percent. Tossing their wealth at us is not a great selling point, at least not to me. I do get that it might hold appeal to a different demographic. Wealthy characters do not represent escape for me. They feel more like rubbing my nose in my lack of wealth. Had to roll my eyes over sections in which Abbie expounds on her familiarity with and taste for expensive wines, notes some brand name details that indicate her six-figure wardrobe, even while tossing it all aside for a more modest local brand of camo. I was not thrilled with the super-rich, super-studly, impending boyfriend. Dude needed some downsides a bit weightier than an ex-wife. And how many ridiculously expensive cars does he have? Really? You need that many? I am presuming that a lot of this is a nod to the romance genre, which features such things in abundance. Thankfully, the “R” word was mostly applied by inference here. Also, I do allow for the possibility that there are probably complicating elements of various characters that are being held in reserve for future volumes. I get that, but I wish more rough surfaces had been presented in this volume. The interfering higher-up, a bit of a trope in books centered on police, is trotted out again here. Why Is Chief Henderson making Abbie’s life difficult? Is he being told what to do by higher ups? Is he somehow involved? Is he just eager to avoid any sort of scandal involving the LDS? Did he used to be a less tropish character? Inquiring minds want to know. Abbie is smart, capable, and her knowledge of the one percent (the upside of placing her in that group) offers her insight into the doings of well-to-do baddies. Jim Clarke is probably too good to be true, but if his ups can be offset, even a little, with some downs, he can be a wonderful partner. I particularly enjoyed the growing connection and mutual respect between him and Abbie. One character in particular caught my eye, an insufferable, know-it-all of a young lawyer who has the brains and insight, but who is seriously lacking in people skills. Loved the scene with her. It would be great to see her back again as a foil for Abbie. I don’t know it for a fact, but will believe until I hear otherwise that this person was inspired by a pushy Noo Yawkah that the author must have encountered. Bring her back! Make her an ally! Or just a factor. Abbie needs some tough women cohorts to battle with and/or against. Most of the other women we see here do not leave much of an impression. Overall, despite my class whingeing, I still felt that Blessed Be The Wicked was a solid procedural, introducing a character who can offer us insight into a culture that is unfamiliar to most, but which does have some national significance. The mystery was a good one. I found myself eager to return each day for my daily dose. It is easy to see how Detective Taylor can move forward. I am sure there is much more payload to be had on Mormon religion and culture. And then there is the outdoorsy element that was touched on here, but which could offer considerable material for future books. And lots of family dynamics to peck away at. In short, while I would do some touch-ups, the core seems solid, and should offer a strong central foundation on which Bartley can build an engaging and informative series. Review posted – August 3, 2018 Publication dates ----------Hardcover - August 7, 2018 ----------Trade paperback - August 16, 2022 I was not made to wear any special garments in order to receive this book from Crooked Lane. I did promise, though, to provide an honest review. But if you really need to know, the book was mostly read and the review mostly written, while wearing some lovely blue Eddie Bauer pajama bottoms, spattered with images of tiny moose, and a pair of fifteen dollar slippers from Boscov’s. They protect me from very little, except the loss of modesty to peeping toms with poor taste in subjects, and the full brunt of spilled liquid. They do a terrible job of fending off cat claws that seem to find any uncrossed leg with a foot planted on the floor in need of scaling. =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, Linked In, and FB pages The author bio page in the book offers a nice and exhausting list of Bartley’s peregrinations. A member of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, Donna Alison Bartley‘s (aka Alison von Rosenvinge) Mormon stock is significant. She was born in Scotland, lived in several European countries, (looks like her parents were moving about on Church assignments) studied international relations, politics, and law. She worked as a lawyer, an academic, and a freelance writer. She currently lives in the place Abbie left. And her husband, unlike Abbie’s, is very much alive, as are her son and daughter. Interesting Mormon items ----- Mormon Reformation - Includes intel on the Danites and blood atonement -----Even more on Blood Atonement ----- Strengthening Church Members Committee (SCMS) - the Stasi of the LDS – takes reports of apostasy – in case you missed the link in the review -----Degrees of Glory, or heavenly levels. Excuse me, young lady, could you tell me where to get off for home appliances? -----A very nice piece of choir music. You know the band. Other books I have read that deal with Mormonism ----- Educated - reviewed this year -----Under the Banner of Heaven - not really reviewed ...more |
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Jul 22, 2018
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it was amazing
| On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes On the highway below, the school bus rolls past without stopping. I am only 7, but I understand that it is this fact more than any other that makes my family different. We don't go to school. Dad worries that the government will force us to go, but it can't because it doesn't know about us. Four of my parents' seven children don't have birth certificates. We have no medical records because we were born at home and have never seen a doctor or nurse. We have no school records because we've never set foot in a classroom.Educated is both a tale of hope and a record of horror. We know from the first page of her book that Tara Westover is a bright woman, a gifted writer with an impressive, poetic command of language. But her early life offered no clue that she would become a Cambridge PhD or a brilliant memoirist. She was the youngest of seven children born to Gene and Faye (not their real names) Westover, fundamentalist, survivalist Mormons, in rural Idaho. [image] Tara Westover - image from her The Times We had a farm which belonged to my grandfather, and we had a salvage yard full of crumpled-up cars which belonged to my father. And my mother was a - she was an herbalist and a midwife. And as children, we spent a lot of hours walking on the mountain, gathering rose hips and mullein flowers that she could stew into tinctures. So in a lot of ways, it was a very beautiful childhood. - from NPR interviewThe children constituted his workforce in Gene’s scrapyard. Father was the law in their household, but it was a rule informed as much by significant mental health issues as it was by his ardent religious beliefs. In a less rural, less patriarchal, less religious community, theirs could easily have been deemed an unsafe environment. The scrapyard was a particularly dangerous place. …he just didn't have that bone in his head that said, this is dangerous; don't do this. And he had a really hard time understanding injuries even after they had happened and how severe they were. I just - I don't know what it was about the way his mind worked. He just wasn't able to do that. - from NPR interviewRuby Ridge had occurred when Tara was five, and fed her father’s paranoia. Everyone had to have head-for-the-hills bags for when the government, Deep State, Illuminati, choose your own boogeyman, would come for them. He had a profound distrust of the medical profession, believing that doctors were agents of Satan, intent on doing harm. He saw the herbalism Faye practiced as the only true, righteous treatment for one’s ills, calling her products “god’s pharmacy.” And he practiced what he preached, for himself as well as for his children, even after suffering a devastating injury. Maybe not an ideal way to make sure your kids reach adulthood in one piece. [image] View from Buck Peak - image from Westover’s site Home schooling was also less than idyllic, with mom’s attention spread not only over seven children but to her work as an herbalist and later, in addition, a midwife. Luke had a learning disability, frustrating mom, who really had hoped to educate them all. Dad undermined this, dragging the kids out to do chores and learn practical skills. Eventually mom gave up. Education consisted of Faye dropping them at the Carnegie Library in town, where they could read whatever they wanted. Dad rustled the boys at 7am, but Tyler, who had an affinity for math, would often remain inside, studying, until dad dragged him out. …there was not a lot of school taking place. We had books, and occasionally we would be kind of sent to read them. But for example, I was the youngest child, and I never took an exam, or I never wrote an essay for my mother that she read or nothing like kind of getting everyone together and having anything like a lecture. So it was a lot more kind of if you wanted to read a book, you could, but you certainly weren't going to be made to do that. - from NPR interviewSuccessful schooling or not, Tara acquired a desire for and love of learning. Tyler, a black sheep, not only loved books but music, as well. This was a major tonic for Tara, who was smitten with the classical and choral music her brother would play on his boom box. Not only did she find a love for music, but she discovered that she has a gift for singing. Being a part (often the star) of the town musical productions gave her greater contact with peers outside her family than she had ever had before. It formed one pillar of her desire to go to school, to college, to study music. (I included a link in EXTRA STUFF to a music video in which she sings lead, so you can hear for yourself.) At age seventeen, Tara Westover attended her first school class, at BYU, clueless about much of what was common knowledge for everyone else, resulting in her asking a question in class about a word everyone, I mean everyone, knows. Oopsy. Her intellectual broadening and education forms one powerful thread in her story. How her natural curiosity emerged, was nurtured, discouraged, and ultimately triumphed. The other thread consists of the personal, emotional, psychological, religious, and cultural challenges she had to overcome to become her own person. The world in which Westover was raised was one in which a powerful patriarchy, fed by a fundamentalist religious beliefs, applied its considerable pressure to push her into what was considered the proper role for a young woman, namely homemaker, mother, probably following in her mother’s dual careers as herbalist and midwife. And what about what was the right course for Tara? There was some wiggle room. Once dad sees her perform on stage, he is smitten, and softens to her musical leanings. Male siblings had been allowed to go to college. But every step outside the expectations, the rules, came at a cost. Do something different and lose a piece of connection to your family. And family was extremely important, particularly for a person whose entire life had been defined by family, much more so than for pretty much anyone who might read her book. [image] Westover as a wee Idaho spud - image from the NY Post A piece of this proscribed existence was a tolerance for aberrant behavior. Father was domineering, and was feckless about physical danger, even as it applied to his children. And distrustful of the medical establishment. His solution for infected tonsils was to have Tara stand outside with her mouth open to allow in the sun’s healing rays. Severe injuries, including Tara having her leg punctured by razor-like scrap-metal, a brother suffering severe burns on one leg, and even dad himself suffering catastrophic third-degree burns in a junkyard explosion, were to be treated by home-brew tinctures. He was also extremely moody, a characteristic that carried forward in some of the family genes. Tara’s ten-years-older brother, Shawn, was a piece of work. She felt close to him at times. He could be kind and understanding in a way that moved her. He even saved her life in a runaway horse incident. But he had a reputation as a bar brawler, as a person eager to fight. Sometimes his rages turned on his own family. And it was not just rage, sparked by trivialities, but cruelty, to the point of sadism. Tara was one of the objects of his madness. Dare oppose him and he would twist her arm to the point of spraining, drag her by her hair, force her face into unspeakable places and demand apologies for imagined offenses. Possibly even worse than this was her family’s denial about it, even when it occurred right in front of them. It is this denial that was hardest to bear. If your own parents will betray you, will not look out for you, in the face of such blatant attacks, then what is the value of the thing you hold most dear in the world? All abuse, no matter what kind of abuse it is, foremost, an assault on the mind. Because if you’re going to abuse someone I think you have to invade their reality, in order to distort it, and you have to convince them of two things. You have to convince them that what you’re doing isn’t that bad. Which means you have to normalize it. You have to justify it, rationalize it. And the other thing you have to convince them of is that they deserve it. - from C-span interviewHer brother, aliased as “Shawn” in the book, was a master manipulator, who, for years, succeeded magnificently in persuading Tara that what she had just experienced had never really happened. One frustrating aspect of the book is Tara’s dispiriting, but also grating ability to doubt herself, to allow others in her life, bullies, to persuade her she does not think what she is thinking, that she does not feel what she is feeling that she did not see what she has seen. She was living in a gaslit world in which multiple individuals, people who supposedly loved her, were telling her that what she had seen was an illusion, and that bad things that other people did were somehow her fault. Honey, wake the hell up. How many time ya gonna let these awful people get away with this crap? That gets old well before the end. I was very much reminded of victims of domestic abuse, who convince themselves that they must have done something to cause, to deserve the violence they suffer. One can only hope that she has been able to vanquish this self-blaming propensity completely by now. Years of therapy have surely helped. [image] Tara at Cambridge - image from Salt Lake City Tribune She struggles with the yin and yang of her upbringing and finding her true self. Her father was extreme, but also loving. Her abusive brother had a very kind side to him. Her mother was supportive, but was also a betrayer. Her parents wanted what they truly thought was best for her, but ultimately attempted to extinguish the true Tara. The dichotomy in the book is gripping. At times it reads like How Green Was My Valley, an upbringing that was idyllic, rich with history and lore, both community and family, and featuring a strong bond to the land. Their home was at the foot of Buck Peak, which sported an almost magical feature that looked like an Indian Princess, and was the source of legends. At others, it is like a horror novel, a testament to the power of reality-bending, indoctrination, and maybe even Stockholm Syndrome. How she survived feeling like the alien she was in BYU and later Cambridge, is amazing, and a testament to her inner strength and intellectual gifts. Westover caught a few breaks over the course of her life, teachers, one at BYU, another at Cambridge, who spot the diamond in her rough, and help her in her educational quest. Reading of this support, I had the same weepy joyful feeling as when Hagrid informs a very young lad, “Yer a wizard, Harry.” When setting out to write the book, Westover had no clue how to go about it, well, this sort of a book, anyway. She had already written a doctoral thesis. But she did have stacks of journals she’d been keeping since she was ten. In figuring out how to get from wish to realization, one important resource was listening to the New Yorker fiction podcast, with its focus on short stories. And she took in plenty of books on writing. It is certainly clear that, just as she had the wherewithal to go from no-school to doctorate at Cambridge, she has shown an ability to figure out how to write a moving, compelling memoir. Educated is a triumph, a remarkable work, beautifully told, of the journey from an isolated, fundamentalist, survivalist childhood, through the trials of becoming, to adulthood as an erudite and accomplished survivor. It is a powerful look at the ties, benefits, and perils of families. Ultimately, Educated is a rewarding odyssey you do not want to miss. Review first posted – 3/23/18 Published – 2/20/18 November 29, 2018 - Educated is named as one of The 10 Best Books of 2018 December 2019 - Educated is named winner of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Award for memoirs, beating out Michelle Obamas's blockbuster hit, Becoming. From a GR interview with Westover Goodreads: Congratulations on your win! What does the award and all the support from Goodreads readers mean to you? [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages Although the internet yielded no vids of Tara singing lead in her town’s production of Annie in the wayback, here is one of grown-up Tara singing lead vocal on The Hills of Aran with John Meed Interviews ----- C-Span - interviewed by Susannah Cahalan – video – 1 hour – If you can manage only one of these, this is the one to see -----CBS This Morning - video – 6:41 -----Penguin promotional video – 7:01 -----Channel 4 News - 8:46 -----NPR - with Dave Davies – the link includes text of the interview. There is a link on the page to the full audio interview – 38:18 - This is the source for several quotes used in the review, and is definitely worth a look and/or listen -----GoodReads interview A sample of the audiobook, read by Julia Whelan, , on Soundcloud A brief interview with Westover and Whelan re the making of the audiobook - on Signature -----NY Times - 2/2/2022 - I Am Not Proof of the American Dream - a powerful essay by the author on the need for help to get an education - MUST READ STUFF ...more |
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Mar 07, 2018
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Mar 18, 2018
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Mar 18, 2018
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0735212171
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it was amazing
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Mariette is a strange, beautiful young (20) woman who has just entered a convent, the second daughter of a wealthy doctor to enter that order, to dad'
Mariette is a strange, beautiful young (20) woman who has just entered a convent, the second daughter of a wealthy doctor to enter that order, to dad's chagrin. There is the cut and paste of varying timelines, as we jump back and forth between a later interview with and about her, juxtaposed with earlier events as they unfold. The writing is lush, incorporating rich color set against a plain background, scents permeate the senses. A splash of red on the young woman's bathrobe offers the merest hint. Poetic understatement illuminates each chapter and verse, as do the hints of undercurrents of things less than pure. This gives the book an almost painful level of suspense as we wonder just what is the strange revelation toward which the author is building. Mariette manifests stigmata that seem to heal, or vanish, far more quickly than nature unaided would allow. Is she a saint or some sort of somatizing lunatic? [image] Ron Hansen - image from PBS This short novel is not so much about events but ideas. What is the nature of faith? What role does it play in our lives? What is Mariette in the absence of her beliefs? Hansen was inspired by two 19th century saints, who also manifested the wounds of the crucified Jesus. I developed this idea of the stigmata as a kind of metaphor for a passionate love affair with Christ, and that was the stumbling block for the other nuns. - from the PBS interviewThe structure is organized around the names of each day's Mass. I do not know if this is merely an affectation, or if there is meaning behind the names of the saints for whom a given Mass is said, relative to the actions within that section. I suspect the latter. Something worth checking out on a second reading. Ron Hansen is a beautiful writer, offering intelligent considerations of real human issues with a poet's appreciation for language. He is a big fan of the work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, and it shows in his prose. Mariette in Ecstasy is not a book for everyone, but if this sort of writing appeals, it is a delectable treat and a religious experience. Review Most Recently Posted – 4/23/2021 Publication date - 1/1/1991 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s Wiki and FB pages An interesting item - On Being a Catholic Novelist: Questions for Deacon Ron Hansen - by Sean Salai, S.J. A fascinating PBS interview - Catholic Writer Ron Hansen - by Bob Faw Writer Ron Hansen - by Bob Faw A must-read interview with Hansen in Image - A Conversation with Ron Hansen by Brennan O'Donnell - it covers several of his books, including Mariette ...more |
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Apr 13, 1999
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0735221154
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really liked it
| In his discussion of Genghis Khan’s career, Gibbon inserted a small but provocative footnote, linking Genghis Khan to European philosophical ideas In his discussion of Genghis Khan’s career, Gibbon inserted a small but provocative footnote, linking Genghis Khan to European philosophical ideas of tolerance and, surprisingly, to the religious freedom of the emerging United States.The journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single steppe. (sorry) In this case the author’s twelve-year sojourn began with a single footnote (among about eight thousand) in Edward Gibbon’s six-volume history of the Roman Empire. Was it possible that the notion of religious freedom that has been a hallmark of the United States since its inception as a nation (despite the many over the years, and even today, who seek to impose their religious views on the secular country) was inspired, at least in part, by the notorious Mongol conqueror? Well, as that famous champion of religious freedom, Sarah Palin, might say, “you betcha.” [image] Jack Weatherford From Macalaster College The book is a Genghis Khan sandwich. The slice of bread at the bottom is the notion of GK having had an impact on America’s core value of freedom of religion. Did he or didn’t he? The slabs of meat in the sandwich would be the extensive look at GK’s life, accomplishments, and laws. And finish up with the covering bread slice that brings the analysis to a close. I suppose one might, alternatively, see it as being structured like a mystery. Present an initial notion (instead of a crime) and then look for clues that might offer evidence, whether confirming or exculpatory. Finish up with a Miss Marple-ish, Poirot-ish, or Sam Spade-ish explanation that connects the elements for a final understanding of where the truth lies. [image] Omar Sharif in the lead of the 1965 film, Genghis Khan - from Dusted Off Genghis Khan and the Quest for God makes for a very meaty sandwich. It is so meaty in fact that you might forget the initial question of impact on US history and get lost in the biographical details. It is not a straight-up biography of, arguably, the greatest conqueror the world has ever seen. The Secret History of the Mongols, written soon after GK’s passing was that, and provides a major resource for this book. Weatherford has made it a major portion of his life’s work to study GK, and ferret out how his Olympian accomplishments have influenced the world. His best known book, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, published in 2004, looked at how the Mongol empire might have influenced European civilization. It was a NY Times best-seller, taking on the popular view of GK as a barbarian, showing him as a wise ruler, if brutal warrior, whose innovations were significant in fueling the European Renaissance. In this work, Weatherford puts on a different set of lenses and focuses on how spiritual beliefs helped mold Genghis and how he changed the way nation-states did, or at least could deal with religion. We get the biography but also a consideration of what the extant belief systems were during his life, and what he took from them. As a child I became engrossed in reading about Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan and developed a fascination with Mongolia. In college I tried to go to Mongolia to continue that interest, but the Cold War prevented it. I put aside that interest and continued with others that I had, but when Mongolia opened in the 1990's I went to visit more out of curiousity than for any planned work. Once there, the passion of my childhood flamed higher than ever. Although I did not speak the language I felt spiritually, intellectually and emotionally at home. - from the Asia East interview [image] Tadanobu Asano’s GK in the film Mongol - from Metroactive.com I came to this book with little knowledge of Genghis Khan, so it was eye-opening for me. Definitely brain-candy. Khan’s quest was not merely for ever-greater swaths of real estate. He was also very interested in examining the religions of all the peoples he conquered, as well as the religions of other nations, and ferreting out the wisdom from the BS. He was a sincerely religious individual, with a belief system that might find plenty of resonance with seekers of truth in the 21st century. The guy was truly interested in finding out whatever underlying truths each religion might offer. [image] Odnyam Odsuren - Temujin as a boy in Mongol - from Movie-roulette.com The book follows GK from when he was a boy named Temujin, practically an orphan. We see his initial acts of brutality. Do not, I repeat not, pick on that Temujin kid. We see his stepwise rise to power, and gain an appreciation for the lessons he learns along the way. As well as presenting the spiritual elements that impressed the boy and later the man we learn a lot about the family and community structures and values of diverse groups during the sixty-some-odd years of GK’s life. (1162 to 1227). We see him adopt a standard written language for his empire, practice relative meritocracy in managing his widespread lands, unite diverse nomadic tribes, through alliances and conquest, encourage trade along the now stable Silk Road, and implement a core notion of freedom of religion. Some barbarian! Of course, that whole genocide thing puts a crimp in the rosier view one might have of Ghenghis. Of course, it may have been somewhat exaggerated by the history writers of antiquity as well, as it was their class of people GK looked to eliminate when conquering new territory. Still, fairly barbarous, but barbarity is pretty much the only image many of us might have of him. There was clearly a lot more to Khan than wrath. [image] John Wayne as a cowboy GK in The Conqueror (1956) - from Media Pathfinder The only quibble I have with the book may better described as whining. There are a lot, a serious lot of names to try keeping track of here. It may take a village to raise a child, but one does not necessarily need to know the name of every villager. Ditto here. While there are many names to track, the arc of the story will flow along just fine if you only latch on to a few. One thing the encyclopedic name inclusion does is make the book a slower read than it might have been. On the other hand, the actual hardcover text takes up only 362 pages, so it falls far short of tome. And if you spare yourself the form of self-mortification I indulge in while reading, that being writing down every name I come across, it should be a much quicker read for you than it was for me. [image] The standard image of GK - from BBC Genghis Khan and the Quest for God was an eye-opening read, introducing as a real person what had been a stick-figure character of myth, to me, anyway. Weatherford offers a persuasive case for GK’s implementation of religious freedom having had an impact on the American founders. But, as with mysteries, we know that the final explanation is only a part of the joy. The bulk is in the characters, the settings and the language. So too with this. Whether you buy Weatherford’s argument for GK’s influence on the newborn USA or not, the journey through the life of Genghis Khan is worth the price of admission. Go ahead, conquer your ignorance. Lay waste your lack of knowledge about GK. This book is bloody fascinating. Review first posted – 11/24/16 Publication date – 10/15/16 The folks at Viking sent this book, along with some goats and a few horses, in return for an honest review. =============================EXTRA STUFF The film Mongol, on Youtube, covers the earlier portion of GK’s life and is quite beautiful to look at. Liberties are taken with history, but it is a treat. Videos ----- Jack Weatherford speaks about Genghis Khan at Embry-Riddle Honors Series – 1:15:05 -----A nice undergrad lecture - The Mongol Impact on World History by Ed Vajda – 52:29 ----- Genghis Khan - Great Khan Of The Mongol Empire And Great Destroyer - a kitschy documentary that looks at GK from a psychological perspective, among other things, follows the tracks of an ancient book about GK, The Secret History - from Documentary Lab ----- BBC Genghis Khan ----- Mongol – the full movie – 1:56:34 -----Captain Kirk goes monosyllabic - Khan! The Wrestler Princess - a fascinating telling by Weatherford of a Mongolian princess selecting a mate – from Lapham’s Quarterly A 2008 interview with Weatherford – by Daniel White for Asia East – this is a very slight interview There is variation in how Genghis Khan is pronounced. Is the initial G hard, as in goal, or soft as in gypsy? It is the latter, with maybe a tilt toward a "ch" as in cha-cha. What is surprising is that Khan is actually pronounced like Han, as in Han Solo. The Wikipedia page for GK includes a pronunciation app so you can hear it. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 06, 2016
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Nov 17, 2016
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Nov 18, 2016
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Hardcover
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4.22
| 31,950
| Aug 15, 2009
| Aug 15, 2009
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it was amazing
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Notes are private!
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Jul 18, 2020
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Jul 18, 2020
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May 25, 2016
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ebook
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0062395564
| 9780062395566
| 0062395564
| 3.77
| 1,924
| Jan 01, 2015
| Mar 17, 2015
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it was amazing
| …violent apocalyptic groups are not inhibited by the possibility of offending their political constituents because they see themselves as participa …violent apocalyptic groups are not inhibited by the possibility of offending their political constituents because they see themselves as participating in the ultimate battle. Apocalyptic groups are the most likely terrorist groups to engage in acts of barbarism, and to attempt to use rudimentary weapons of mass destruction. Their actions are also significantly harder to predict than the actions of politically motivated groups.For most of us the acronym ISIS conjures up an array of images, mostly of a dark sort. Beheadings, suicide bombers, desert fighters, usually of Middle Eastern extraction, fanaticism, in short, and bloody. All this is pretty much the case, but there is so much more to know about this entity, the latest in a long line of international boogeymen. How did ISIS come to be? What do they want? What differentiates them from other extremist groups? And what might be done about them? [image] Jessica Stern - image from Backlight, a Dutch news program ISIS: The State of Terror, attempts to look past the Kalashnikovs and keffiyehs to get a deeper understanding of this very scary organization. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, aka The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent, aka The Islamic State, did not arise, whole, from the sands. Stern and Berger trace the growth of ISIS from its beginning as al-Qaeda in Iraq, headed by a career criminal, through the chaos in Iraq and Syria to a rejection of al Qaeda in favor of a more local, territorial aim. [image] J.M Berger - from The NY Times One of the very interesting distinctions made here is between al Qaeda, in a way a more removed entity, interested in catalyzing this or that AQ franchise, playing a long game, and ISIS’s more direct immediate territorial ambitions. There is enough in here on the many battles, political and kinetic, among many of the like-minded groups in the area, but not so much as to glaze your eyes. [image] From the ABS News piece With chronic instability in Iraq, and growing instability in Syria the table was set for many groups to try to seize pieces, and ISIS had a compelling selling point. They claimed they were about re-establishing the caliphate, a centuries old dream of uniting much of the Middle East under Islamic law ruled by a caliph. Al Qaeda had been promising this, but in the long term. ISIS, every time they gained more real estate, proclaimed it ever louder as a reality. And ISIS has gained a considerable swath of real estate in the area. This became a major selling point. The most interesting element of the book for me was following how ISIS mastered communication skills, using expertise from contributors across the planet, including from Americans. It grew from exchanging information on restricted sites, to using Facebook and Twitter. How successful is the West’s Whack-a-mole strategy against the proliferation of jihadi sites, FB and Twitter identities? How does ISIS try to get around it? ISIS has been very successful at getting out their message. Well, that should be messages, as it is of two general sorts. ISIS is fond of creating videos showing extreme violence, combat, and executions, the bloodier the better. This serves several purposes, not least of which is to encourage folks with a sociopathic bent to come on down and let their urges loose. ISIS really is recruiting an army of psycho killers. Such hateful propaganda has an impact on their enemies as well, as Iraqi soldiers, for example, when faced with ISIS fighters, have been more inclined to flee than to risk capture and certain execution. Not only did [ISIS] implement a draconian regime of crime and punishment, which its members believed to be divinely ordained, but it celebrated and painstakingly documented the process in its propaganda, publicizing everything from the destruction of cigarettes and drug stashes to the amputation of thieves hands “under the supervision of trained doctors” to the genocidal extermination and enslavement of Iraqi minorities.One of the many extreme measures ISIS employs has been called “total organization.” This is an attempt to remove all influence from prior or outside cultures. It includes a monopoly on education and control of all aspects of life, a truly totalitarian approach. This technique was employed by Pol Pot in the 1970s in Cambodia. A related ISIS practice is to recruit and train children for combat, an internationally recognized war crime. Long term exposure to extreme violence can erode moral concerns, as young people become inured to death and killing. It encourages an extreme quest for purification, and woe to anyone deemed inadequately pure. [image] - From the Express article But ISIS also promotes a civilized image, portraying a growing caliphate where devout Muslims can live the good life among their peers. Of course, the peers part may not really hold for women, who are likelier to find themselves sexually enslaved and traded among Islamic fighters than they are to live an idyllic life closer to Allah. ISIS also produces slick, action-oriented videos instead of stale single-frame lectures by old guys, instructing viewers on a particular interpretation of a Koranic issue. They cover diverse subjects, including global warming. There is a look as well on the impact of Western involvement in Syria and Iraq. One unintended consequence has been that the West has done an excellent job of clearing paths for ISIS by taking out Syrian rebel groups that were hostile to them. What one comes away with is at both ends of the spectrum. You can see how disturbed and disturbing these folks are. Scary, crazy, homicidal people, no question. Also, giving the devil his due, how smart and contemporary they have been in mastering social media, leaving al Quaeda in their dust. You will also gain a much more nuanced understanding of what al Qaeda is, and how it functions. Add in an appreciation for the difference between terrorism and insurgency. What is to be done? Opinions differ, of course. It begins with a vision of the threat. Is ISIS an existential threat to the West? Clearly not. They lack the sort of global destructive capacity of, say, the Russian, or American nuclear arsenals. Are they a threat to Western access to Middle Eastern petroleum resources? While ISIS can certainly cause mayhem in their neck of the woods, they are not yet, and may not ever, be strong enough to take on Saudi Arabia or Iran. At the point at which such a threat presents, the West can be expected to ramp up its military engagement, whether directly or through client-states. The more immediate, specific threat to Western resource access, IMHO, is to the oil fields of Iraq. If those are threatened, more than they have already been, expect the big guns to get involved. Some seem to believe that dropping daisy cutters wherever ISIS has planted a flag is the best way to eliminate the threat. It is also an excellent way of ensuring a continuing supply of anti-Western sentiment in the region. You do not save a village by destroying it, and one would expect that there is plenty of anti-ISIS sentiment within areas ISIS controls. Who would know better how awful these people are than those subject to their rule, and why would you want to eliminate a potential source of anti-ISIS rebellion? One option would be to direct military resources to containing ISIS (or trying to, anyway) within a defined area and let them drown in their own inability to rule. Terror does not produce crops, distribute clean water, or manufacture desirable consumer goods. An ISIS-led society is quite likely to collapse from within, given some time. Of course, enforcing a territorial limit on ISIS has not exactly been successful so far, so this maybe purely a theoretical option. It is also worth examining why it is that so many Islamic folks in the West, whether their heritage is Middle Eastern or not, have been radicalized to support ISIS and other crazies cut from the same cloth. Also, it is worth considering that ISIS did not arise from some peaceable society, like a sudden disease. Syria and Iraq have been something less than idyllic for quite a while. From the iron-fists of Saddam Hussein and Bashir Assad, to the ham-fisted approach of Western militaries, there is plenty of blame to go around for ensuring ongoing misery. While I found this to be a fascinating, information-rich book, there was one item that I found puzzling. At the beginning of the book the authors offer a very useful glossary, and a timeline of relevant events. I was struck, in the latter, by the absence of an entry for the date (in May 2003) when the USA-led Coalition Provisional Authority dismissed the Iraqi army, putting over two hundred thousand young Iraqi men, with guns, on the street. Surely, providing a vast pool of resentful, potential recruits for a jihadist movement deserves a place on that list. The paperback version begins the timeline with April 2005, but the original, hardcover version starts with March 20, 2003. Not sure why they chopped off the first ten entries from the earlier version, but, in any case, the Army dismissal is quite significant and should have been included. The challenge of ISIS is likely to be with us quite a while, a generation at least, and the residue of their crimes will echo for decades to come, even were they to be eliminated as a political/military force tomorrow. It is more important than ever that approaches to meeting this challenge be based on knowledge rather than bombast, on nuance rather than nonsense, on facts rather than falsehoods. Stern and Berger’s insightful look into one of the most dangerous political players in the world is a must read for anyone interested in gaining an informed view of what ISIS is, how they arose, and what they are planning. We need all the intelligent analysis we can get if we are to stop their reign of terror before they becomes a global threat. Published March 12, 2015 The paperback edition was released February 9, 2016 This review posted March 18, 2016 =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages Four excerpts are available on the Brookings blog Lawfare ------ Smart Mobs, Ultraviolence, and Civil Society: ISIS Innovations -----The Race to Caliphate -----ISIS and Sexual Slavery -----ISIS as Cult Some news reports of interest -----To Maintain Supply of Sex Slaves, ISIS Pushes Birth Control - NY Times - By Rukmini Callimach – March 12, 2016 -----ISIS – Trail of Terror - ABC News - By Lee Ferran and Rum Momtaz -----Now depraved ISIS militants encourage children to execute their parents - The Express - 1/13/16 – by Patrick Maguire You might want to check out The Management of Savagery - a how-to for terrorists that has been a field manual for ISIS An interesting piece on how ISIS terror on the continent - How ISIS Built the Machinery of Terror Under Europe’s Gaze - by Rukmini Callimachi - New York Times - March 29, 2016 The US is adding more boots on the virtual ground in the war with ISIS - U.S. Cyberattacks Target ISIS in a New Line of Combat - by David Sanger - April 24, 2016 - New York Times This fascinating piece in The Interpreter feature of the New York Times looks at commonalities between what it calls intimate terrorism and its broader manifestations, in light of the outrage in Orlando - Control and Fear: What Mass Killings and Domestic Violence Have in Common By Amanda Taub - June 15, 2016 August 1, 2017 - NY Times - a sad piece on the devastation left behind by ISIS and the war on it - In Mosul, Revealing the Last ISIS Stronghold - by Ivor Prickett November 21, 2018 - The growth of cyber-tooled terrorism is alarming. This Politico piece by former assistant AG for the DoJ's security division John P. Carlin should cause you some lost sleep - Inside the Hunt for the World’s Most Dangerous Terrorist ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 19, 2015
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Nov 26, 2015
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Nov 19, 2015
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Kindle Edition
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0062400797
| 9780062400796
| 0062400797
| 3.01
| 643
| Jul 05, 2016
| Jul 05, 2016
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it was amazing
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Cuthbert Handley is a man on a mission. Never mind that he is 90. Nor that he is obese. Nor that he is a drug addict, and a member of the underclass k
Cuthbert Handley is a man on a mission. Never mind that he is 90. Nor that he is obese. Nor that he is a drug addict, and a member of the underclass known as Indigents. Never mind that he is probably psychotic. Never mind that the particularly unpleasant police branch known as the Red Watch have a BOLO out for him. [image] Bill Broun - from Philly.com Consider instead that Cuthbert has a heart as big as England, and I don’t mean his medical condition. Consider instead that he may be the last carrier of an ancient tradition known as The Wonderments. Consider instead that the horror he seeks to foil may be real, as an American-based death cult is eager to exterminate all animal life on Earth, although Cuddy knows only that something bad is coming and he needs to act now. When you consider that the London Zoo is the last working zoo on the planet in 2052, and that it contains not only the last wild animals on earth but the DNA of thousands of species that no longer exist, it makes Cuddy’s urge seem less peculiar. Cuddy may be a ponderous Lancelot, but his grail is no less noble, just because it is not an object you can hold in your hands. He wants to let all the animals out. The seed for Broun's story was planted one day in the 1990s when he was living in Texas and went to the Houston Zoo with a friend who has schizophrenia. "He started talking to the howler monkeys," Broun recalls. "It just lit a fuse for me. - from the McCall articleNight of the Animals is both horrifying and heart-warming, a dystopian vision rich with the technological details of oppression, but not so much as to interfere with wonderful story-telling. Cuddy may be damaged goods. Having had an abusive father did not help. Seeing his brother, Drystan, drown while out in the woods when he was six sealed the deal. There is a part of Cuddy that still expects Drystan to reappear someday. Despite some regrettable moments in his life, Cuddy is damaged goods you will very much root and care for. But his youth held more than misery. There was his Gran. since their earliest childhood, their gran had told them various tales, notions, and advices she referred to collectively as The Wonderments. All along Welsh Marches, where Offa’s Dyke once bullied the Welsh with Mercian royal might, a dwindling number of families bound “neither by rank nor nation,” as their gran put it, had for centuries quietly bequeathed the Wonderments, from granddad to granddaughter, then grandmother to grandson, and so on.Is it from magic or psychosis and a lifetime of substance issues that this Dystopian Doctor Doolittle can converse with animals? Is it hubris or a religious summons that makes him feel he has been chosen to carry out this mighty task? Will his quest to be reunited with his long lost brother prove a fool’s errand? At the time, there were news reports about mentally ill men trying to enter animal enclosures in zoos, often alluding to them being religiously motivated. In creating his protagonist, Broun could draw from personal experience with his own struggles with addiction and mental health problems... "I'm a recovering alcoholic and addict. I've been clean and sober for 25 years." Broun said he quit drinking when he was 24. "It was either quit or die and it was so clear," he says. Twice, he was voluntarily hospitalized for mental health issues. - from the McCalls articleAs for the nutters, they are drawn from far too real an example. Called Heaven’s Gate in the book, they are based on a cult that was founded in Texas and moved to California. Also named Heaven’s Gate, they believed much the same things ascribed to this cult. Even the leader has the same name as the model on which he is based. Difference is these folks have some pretty nifty tech, and a huge, global following. I guess if humanity has pretty much spoiled the planet, offloading one’s being onto the spaceship contained in a passing comet might seem appealing. No crazier than building a gigantic wall. And if that entails committing suicide to free one’s spirit, well, it wouldn’t be the first time suicide has been sold as a gateway to paradise. (I have included a link to information about the real Heaven’s Gate cult in EXTRA STUFF) [image] The Penguin Exhibit at the London Zoo The bulk of the novel takes place during and around Cuddy’s attempt to spring the caged, with looks back at his childhood, and early adulthood. There is much that is dark in Broun’s near future world. It is a place where the current extraction of all wealth by the wealthy has continued apace, with civil liberties following suit. There are plenty of tech details offered. Google Glass taken a step further with eye-implants. Spray-on video screens, a new addictive, hallucinogenic consumable called Flôt, that has generated enough addiction to merit its own Anonymous. It is Cuddy’s drug of choice. There is an overarching theme of Anthropocene destruction. And a hearkening back to a sylvan, magical ideal that is at odds with the very anti-nature nature of much of modern civilization. I didn’t consciously think much of the story of the ark as [I] wrote until later in the drafting process. I did think constantly of the post-flood covenant between God and humanity, as depicted in Genesis 9:13: “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.” This line promises that God will protect the animals of earth, but as humans, we must be God’s stewards. - from the Qwillery pieceBroun calls on the history of talking animals in English literature for some backup and some fun. Cuddy has conversations with the four-footed that made me smile with a Hitchhiker’s sort of gleam, particularly during Cuddy’s exchanges with an Islamic sand cat, which also made me think of Sheherezade. A lion is given a particularly fitting name. But these are not all sweetness and light cuddlies. There is plenty of tooth and claw, and attitudes that would be right at home in homo sap. There is a bit of a fairy tale sensibility at work here, but this is definitely no book for the kids. More of a parable about the Fifth Extinction, or, as Broun notes in the Houston Chronicle article, “a modern-day saint story.” [image] The US embassy at Grosvenor Square looms large - from Architectsjournal.co.uk Some things to keep an eye on include the color green with all the hearkenings you would expect. Moths flit in and about with some frequency. You might look for a parallel, or a contrast between Cuddy and the cult leader in their relationship to the magical. Tony Blair comes in for a mention or two, and the dictator offered is one who you might recognize. Religion permeates, from the Druidic through Christian and Islamic into the darkly new ageist. As Winefride [Cuddy’s gran] remembered it, the Wyre Forest before the Second World War seemed like the last verdant haven against all this, a place of glory and grief somewhere between Eden and Gethsemane.This is a special and very unusual book, with large ambitions that are mostly realized. The grand finale was certainly booming and lively. I confess that parts of the big finish were a miss for me, as a bit of tech, that goes a long way to explaining a lot, is introduced late enough to qualify as a deus ex machina contrivance. Given its significance a few clues to its existence should have been inserted earlier on. There is a bit of murkiness with the big show at the end that slowed it down for me. But that is really my only gripe, enough to knock it down to 4.5 stars, but not enough to keep from rounding up to five. [image] What Muezza the sand cat probably looks like - from bigcatswildcats.com There is so much in this book that is wonderful that one glitch should not keep you from giving it a go. I fully expect that you will enjoy Night of the Animals immensely and that it will be a breakout hit this summer. Publication date – 7/5/2016 Review first posted – 7/8/16 [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] [image] =============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author’s personal, Twitter, and FB pages Interviews and Articles -----The Qwillery interview -----Local writer Bill Broun lets the animals out - into a fine new novel - by Lynn Rosen - from Philly.com -----'Night of the Animals': Novel by Hellertown's Bill Broun gets strong reviews by Margie Peterson for The Morning Call feature of McCall.com Intel -----Marshall Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate -----The Undley bracteate is an item that figures in the story’s iconography – the link is to Wiki -----a collection of photos of the Wyre -----A wiki on the Wyre Forest -----A Druidic take on the yew tree, a significant item in the story. (It’s not me, it’s yew) ----- Saint Cuthbert comes in for some attention. Here is a bit of information that should enhance your read. Other -----An audio sample - Read by Ralph Lister – 5 minutes -----What muezza might have looked like when younger - ta die faw - link found by GR friend Mary Duckworth Demis Mimouna ...more |
Notes are private!
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Jun 19, 2016
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Jun 29, 2016
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Nov 11, 2015
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Hardcover
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my rating |
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4.36
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really liked it
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Jan 08, 2023
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Jan 10, 2023
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4.16
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it was amazing
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Aug 06, 2022
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Aug 10, 2022
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4.37
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it was amazing
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Mar 20, 2022
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Mar 20, 2022
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3.22
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really liked it
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Sep 18, 2021
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Sep 18, 2021
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3.86
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it was amazing
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Nov 10, 2020
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Nov 10, 2020
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3.19
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it was amazing
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Jun 16, 2020
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Jun 16, 2020
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3.41
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really liked it
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Jun 06, 2020
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May 23, 2020
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||||||
4.28
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it was amazing
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Apr 25, 2020
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Feb 07, 2020
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4.07
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it was amazing
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Sep 20, 2019
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Aug 18, 2019
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3.74
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really liked it
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Mar 19, 2019
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Mar 04, 2019
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3.71
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really liked it
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Nov 26, 2018
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Nov 19, 2018
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3.83
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really liked it
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Nov 19, 2018
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Oct 25, 2018
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3.77
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liked it
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Jul 30, 2018
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Jul 29, 2018
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4.47
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it was amazing
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Mar 18, 2018
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Mar 18, 2018
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3.75
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Jan 12, 2018
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Jan 01, 2018
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3.75
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it was amazing
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Apr 13, 1999
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Apr 27, 2017
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4.03
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really liked it
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Nov 17, 2016
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Nov 18, 2016
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4.22
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it was amazing
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Jul 18, 2020
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May 25, 2016
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||||||
3.77
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it was amazing
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Nov 26, 2015
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Nov 19, 2015
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||||||
3.01
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it was amazing
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Jun 29, 2016
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Nov 11, 2015
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