22 books down and 15 to go on the list. I've still got a solid 4 months in the calendar year, but with football season arriving, who knows how that might chew into my reading time. No worse than Big Brother or Survivor, I assume. Some calculations:
59% of the list completed, 41% remaining to be read
126 days left in the calendar year
I'll finish at the end of the calendar year if I read a book every 8.4 days
I started reading for the project 220 days ago.
Given that I finished Beloved on day 218, I'm averaging one book every 9.9 days
If I keep reading at my pace thus far, I'll be finished with the project in 148.5 days which is mid-day on January 29th, 2009. Which actually wouldn't be too bad for having started on January 20, 2008.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beloved is, simply put, one of the most powerful books I've ever read. Nominally the story of an ante-bellum woman's escape from slavery to supposed safety in free Ohio, Beloved is much more than that. In fact, while I was moved by the story, I was more taken by the world surrounding the story. I'm not sure I'm explaining this correctly, but to boil it down, Beloved brought home the horrors of slavery to me more than anything else I've ever read or seen. And frankly, I've read widely in the history of the era.
In this book, Toni Morrison hits the reader at a very visceral level with the physical trauma, psychological terror, and socio-political corruption of the slavery era. Not only is the physical damage of floggings and beatings (not to mention casual rapes) brought to your doorstep, but you, the reader, are forced to understand the psychological damage done to slaves. You realize what privations a runaway slave would endure to get to the "free" north. And then you understand at a very basic level what the Fugitive Slave Act was really all about and that the idea of "freedom" for blacks in the north was, at best, a very shaky proposition. You also come to learn what lengths a person would go to in order to preserve that freedom for one's family.
Morrison did several other interesting things in this book. Her take on love (man/woman, maternal, familial) in the context of these peoples lives is very intriguing. How much can one afford to love when one is a slave and your love might be torn from you at a master's whim? She also toyed with several classic notions of death, ghosts, and the spirit world in addition to a type of modified Christianity. Among the more obvious ones were death as a bridge to the afterworld and having to cross a river to get to (or back from) that afterworld.
Another aspect of the book I enjoyed was the occasional shift in point-of-view. It didn't happen too often, but when it did, it was very revealing of the characters, their inter-relations, and the wider world. It gave more weight to certain things than the exposition of the third person narrator would have.
Beloved is one of the most thought-provoking, horrifying, insightful, painful, and best books I've ever read. I shudder to think of the amount of research Morrison did in writing this book and I shudder even worse to think about how much it must have hurt to have written it which essentially meant having to have led the lives of her characters.
In this book, Toni Morrison hits the reader at a very visceral level with the physical trauma, psychological terror, and socio-political corruption of the slavery era. Not only is the physical damage of floggings and beatings (not to mention casual rapes) brought to your doorstep, but you, the reader, are forced to understand the psychological damage done to slaves. You realize what privations a runaway slave would endure to get to the "free" north. And then you understand at a very basic level what the Fugitive Slave Act was really all about and that the idea of "freedom" for blacks in the north was, at best, a very shaky proposition. You also come to learn what lengths a person would go to in order to preserve that freedom for one's family.
Morrison did several other interesting things in this book. Her take on love (man/woman, maternal, familial) in the context of these peoples lives is very intriguing. How much can one afford to love when one is a slave and your love might be torn from you at a master's whim? She also toyed with several classic notions of death, ghosts, and the spirit world in addition to a type of modified Christianity. Among the more obvious ones were death as a bridge to the afterworld and having to cross a river to get to (or back from) that afterworld.
Another aspect of the book I enjoyed was the occasional shift in point-of-view. It didn't happen too often, but when it did, it was very revealing of the characters, their inter-relations, and the wider world. It gave more weight to certain things than the exposition of the third person narrator would have.
Beloved is one of the most thought-provoking, horrifying, insightful, painful, and best books I've ever read. I shudder to think of the amount of research Morrison did in writing this book and I shudder even worse to think about how much it must have hurt to have written it which essentially meant having to have led the lives of her characters.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Olympic Slowdown
The Beijing Games are slowing down my reading. In fact, it's down to a glacial pace because I can't tear myself away from the TV or computer to get any reading done. It's a shame too, because I'm reading Beloved by Toni Morrison, which I totally expected to dislike and which is actually most excellent.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Let me start by acknowledging a few things. First, I love me some dystopian fiction. So going in, I'm obviously biased in favor of this book. Second, I'm still a bit shocked I didn't read this book earlier in my life. It's the kind of book I've always enjoyed. Enough with the disclaimers, on to the book.
Brave New World was published in 1932 and is an obvious reaction to the rise of fascism and totalitarian communism in Europe and Russia. Huxley shows us a "civilization" that exists solely for its own stability. Essential human constructs and behaviors, such as family and love, are completely subjugated for the greater good of the civilization's stability. The civilization of BNW is a one-world government run by a council of controllers. This government was formed in the aftermath of the Nine Years War which devastated humanity with mass killing and unrestrained use of horrible weapons such as anthrax bombs (clearly an allusion to the destruction wreaked by WWI). As a reaction, people sought a way to eliminate future wars and were willing to make the compromises necessary to bring about permanent stability. While most of the world is civilized, there are still areas (quite like Indian reservations) that are home to the "Savages."
A key compromise to ensuring stability of the civilization is to eliminate history. Other than referencing the horrors of the Nine Years War, all other history is swept clean, along with the art and literature of those time periods. This ensures that the populace doesn't aspire to anything that their ancestors had and provides no models for alternative ways of living.
One of the most important parts of the book (and most disturbing to many) involves the creation and rearing of children. Since Henry Ford is the godhead of the civilization, everything is modeled around mass production. So it is with the embryos. Eggs are harvested from women and then artificially inseminated and essentially grown in a bottle. This isn't done willy-nilly, however, because that wouldn't be good for stability. The embryos are carefully created to conform to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Not only are the sperm and egg chosen for this purpose, but the nutrients (or lack thereof) and other chemicals that are put in the bottle with the embryo are all carefully calibrated to create an infant of the proper caste. After the infant is "decanted," it's then placed in a collective hatchery with others from its caste. The infants and children are then raised and conditioned to have the likes and dislikes of appropriate to their social group. No mothers, no fathers, no brothers or sisters...just your social group.
As with many pieces of dystopian literature, the characters are more cardboard cut-outs than in your "usual" fiction. The characters are there to explain the nature of the dystopia and its problems and to move the story along. In BNW, our main characters are Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Mustapha Mond, and The Savage. Marx and Watson mark two of the discontents of the society, Lenina is a traditionalist of the civilization, Mond is a world controller, and The Savage shows us how a more "normal" human would behave in the milieu of BNW. Again, the arc of these characters isn't horribly important except as devices to illuminate various facets of the society.
For such a modestly-sized book there's a lot more that I could discuss. I could go on at length about the usee of casual sex and sedative hallucinogens to keep the masses from rising up, along with several other aspects of the book, but I figure I'll wrap up here. Brave New World is an excellent work that describes what could happen if follow blindly along one path. It also reminds us that we should question the choices that our leaders and our societies make. Further, we should question what sacrifices we're willing to make to keep our basic humanity. In many ways it's shocking that this book was written well before the outbreak of World War II, for so much was anticipated by Huxley (Hitler's eugenics program, easy transatlantic travel, several other things). Though it isn't quite up to par with the masterwork that is Orwell's 1984, Brave New World is an incredibly good book that is still quite relevant to today's reader.
Brave New World was published in 1932 and is an obvious reaction to the rise of fascism and totalitarian communism in Europe and Russia. Huxley shows us a "civilization" that exists solely for its own stability. Essential human constructs and behaviors, such as family and love, are completely subjugated for the greater good of the civilization's stability. The civilization of BNW is a one-world government run by a council of controllers. This government was formed in the aftermath of the Nine Years War which devastated humanity with mass killing and unrestrained use of horrible weapons such as anthrax bombs (clearly an allusion to the destruction wreaked by WWI). As a reaction, people sought a way to eliminate future wars and were willing to make the compromises necessary to bring about permanent stability. While most of the world is civilized, there are still areas (quite like Indian reservations) that are home to the "Savages."
A key compromise to ensuring stability of the civilization is to eliminate history. Other than referencing the horrors of the Nine Years War, all other history is swept clean, along with the art and literature of those time periods. This ensures that the populace doesn't aspire to anything that their ancestors had and provides no models for alternative ways of living.
One of the most important parts of the book (and most disturbing to many) involves the creation and rearing of children. Since Henry Ford is the godhead of the civilization, everything is modeled around mass production. So it is with the embryos. Eggs are harvested from women and then artificially inseminated and essentially grown in a bottle. This isn't done willy-nilly, however, because that wouldn't be good for stability. The embryos are carefully created to conform to one of five castes: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Not only are the sperm and egg chosen for this purpose, but the nutrients (or lack thereof) and other chemicals that are put in the bottle with the embryo are all carefully calibrated to create an infant of the proper caste. After the infant is "decanted," it's then placed in a collective hatchery with others from its caste. The infants and children are then raised and conditioned to have the likes and dislikes of appropriate to their social group. No mothers, no fathers, no brothers or sisters...just your social group.
As with many pieces of dystopian literature, the characters are more cardboard cut-outs than in your "usual" fiction. The characters are there to explain the nature of the dystopia and its problems and to move the story along. In BNW, our main characters are Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Mustapha Mond, and The Savage. Marx and Watson mark two of the discontents of the society, Lenina is a traditionalist of the civilization, Mond is a world controller, and The Savage shows us how a more "normal" human would behave in the milieu of BNW. Again, the arc of these characters isn't horribly important except as devices to illuminate various facets of the society.
For such a modestly-sized book there's a lot more that I could discuss. I could go on at length about the usee of casual sex and sedative hallucinogens to keep the masses from rising up, along with several other aspects of the book, but I figure I'll wrap up here. Brave New World is an excellent work that describes what could happen if follow blindly along one path. It also reminds us that we should question the choices that our leaders and our societies make. Further, we should question what sacrifices we're willing to make to keep our basic humanity. In many ways it's shocking that this book was written well before the outbreak of World War II, for so much was anticipated by Huxley (Hitler's eugenics program, easy transatlantic travel, several other things). Though it isn't quite up to par with the masterwork that is Orwell's 1984, Brave New World is an incredibly good book that is still quite relevant to today's reader.
Friday, August 8, 2008
A Reflection on My Reading Habits
I realized last night as I was reading a bit of Brave New World, that my reading habit or style is starting to annoy me. I now realize that I'll jump right in and knock out the first 60 to 100 pages of a book really quickly. And then I'll drop down to do like 15 pages or so at a sitting for a while until I'm done.
I don't think it's a symptom of a short attention span, but I think I get into a book and get a feel for the atmosphere, the characters, and the writing and then I get bored with it on an unconscious level.
Ah, who knows? I annoy myself on so many levels that this is really something minor. But it's related to the "Errand," so I figured I'd post this confession here.
I don't think it's a symptom of a short attention span, but I think I get into a book and get a feel for the atmosphere, the characters, and the writing and then I get bored with it on an unconscious level.
Ah, who knows? I annoy myself on so many levels that this is really something minor. But it's related to the "Errand," so I figured I'd post this confession here.
Monday, August 4, 2008
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
Finished reading Jack Kerouac's On the Road on Saturday. I have to go in saying that I fully expected to hate this book. Given all the hype and adulation from the hippy-dippy crowd over the years, I expected something much more, um, how to put this nicely, "drugs-are-freakin'-awesome-dude!" And while there was some of that, it wasn't the whole point of the book, though it was important.
As many folks know, On the Road, is about Kerouac's adventures with several of his other "Beat Generation" friends. All are very scantily veiled under pseudonyms, and apparently it didn't take a genius to figure out which character was which person. William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg are among the luminaries represented in the book. Most prominent however is Neal Cassady in the guise of Dean Moriarty. The book is largely about how Cassady lived and thought in the late 1940s.
Kerouac's novel revolves around four road trips he took in 1947 to some indeterminate time before 1950. Through hitch-hiking, buses, shared cars, friends cars, and if I recall correctly, even a train, Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the book) made his way throughout the U.S.A. He recalls the rides he got, the rides he didn't get, and the blow-out parties he had with his friends in Denver, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Booze, marijuana (and other drugs), easy sex, all set to a jazz soundtrack made up most of the good times in the book. He lived a bohemian lifestyle and largely enjoyed it. He grooved on the free-thinking philosopy, poetry, and writing of his friends. But more than anything, he talks about his adulation for Dean Moriarty (as mentioned, the real-life Neal Cassady). Cassady was, it would appear, a totally free-spirit and Kerouac worshipped him for it. I, on the other hand, would characterize Moriarty-Cassady as a total, complete, and unredeemable douchebag. No other term could express how much of a jerk this guy was. He stole, connived, conned, used, abused, and generally mistreated everyone he ever met. All of this because the man was seemingly completely self-centered and self-absorbed and always in the pursuit of a good time (only under what I would call a phantom pursuit of experiencing the world in a philosophic way). I really and truly wished at times I could reach through the pages of the book and punch him repeatedly in the face. Did I mention repeatedly? Maybe a few good kickings after that.
What was good about the book? Kerouac's style. He supposedly wrote the book in just three weeks (but apparently put a lot of groundwork together beforehand), but the novel doesn't read like it needs editing. It's well-crafted and not at all choppy. It's not a difficult read and more importantly, the book flows like a good road trip should. Movement, ever forward, ever onward. The book did awaken a nostalgia for the good old days of college and my early 20s. Yeah, it sucked to be broke, but we could go and have a blast of a time and not really care what anyone else thought. Especially on a road trip. But, unlike Dean Moriarty, we all have to grow up sometime and catch our good times where we can.
On the Road inspired many other writers and artists. And since the travelogue is one of my favorite genres, I have to give him a lot of credit for this. Perhaps I wasn't inspired by it because I don't have the soul of a bohemian artist. I just wish he would have concentrated less on Moriarty and more on the people he met on the road, like Terry, the Mexican woman he fell in love with while they were riding on a bus together. More vignettes like that (and given the extent of his travels, I'm sure there were many more) and less of the insufferable Moriarty would have moved this book up into the "very good" category for me. As it is, I'd have to just call it OK. I don't even know that I can bring myself to call it good despite the quality of the writing. In closing, did I mention that I hate the character of Dean Moriarty?
As many folks know, On the Road, is about Kerouac's adventures with several of his other "Beat Generation" friends. All are very scantily veiled under pseudonyms, and apparently it didn't take a genius to figure out which character was which person. William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg are among the luminaries represented in the book. Most prominent however is Neal Cassady in the guise of Dean Moriarty. The book is largely about how Cassady lived and thought in the late 1940s.
Kerouac's novel revolves around four road trips he took in 1947 to some indeterminate time before 1950. Through hitch-hiking, buses, shared cars, friends cars, and if I recall correctly, even a train, Kerouac (Sal Paradise in the book) made his way throughout the U.S.A. He recalls the rides he got, the rides he didn't get, and the blow-out parties he had with his friends in Denver, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Booze, marijuana (and other drugs), easy sex, all set to a jazz soundtrack made up most of the good times in the book. He lived a bohemian lifestyle and largely enjoyed it. He grooved on the free-thinking philosopy, poetry, and writing of his friends. But more than anything, he talks about his adulation for Dean Moriarty (as mentioned, the real-life Neal Cassady). Cassady was, it would appear, a totally free-spirit and Kerouac worshipped him for it. I, on the other hand, would characterize Moriarty-Cassady as a total, complete, and unredeemable douchebag. No other term could express how much of a jerk this guy was. He stole, connived, conned, used, abused, and generally mistreated everyone he ever met. All of this because the man was seemingly completely self-centered and self-absorbed and always in the pursuit of a good time (only under what I would call a phantom pursuit of experiencing the world in a philosophic way). I really and truly wished at times I could reach through the pages of the book and punch him repeatedly in the face. Did I mention repeatedly? Maybe a few good kickings after that.
What was good about the book? Kerouac's style. He supposedly wrote the book in just three weeks (but apparently put a lot of groundwork together beforehand), but the novel doesn't read like it needs editing. It's well-crafted and not at all choppy. It's not a difficult read and more importantly, the book flows like a good road trip should. Movement, ever forward, ever onward. The book did awaken a nostalgia for the good old days of college and my early 20s. Yeah, it sucked to be broke, but we could go and have a blast of a time and not really care what anyone else thought. Especially on a road trip. But, unlike Dean Moriarty, we all have to grow up sometime and catch our good times where we can.
On the Road inspired many other writers and artists. And since the travelogue is one of my favorite genres, I have to give him a lot of credit for this. Perhaps I wasn't inspired by it because I don't have the soul of a bohemian artist. I just wish he would have concentrated less on Moriarty and more on the people he met on the road, like Terry, the Mexican woman he fell in love with while they were riding on a bus together. More vignettes like that (and given the extent of his travels, I'm sure there were many more) and less of the insufferable Moriarty would have moved this book up into the "very good" category for me. As it is, I'd have to just call it OK. I don't even know that I can bring myself to call it good despite the quality of the writing. In closing, did I mention that I hate the character of Dean Moriarty?
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