Pedro Paramo - Rulfo

Not having strayed far from the great novels of English literature, I ventured into what is believed to be one of the best novels of Spanish literature, “Pedro Paramo”, by Juan Rulfo.  Some literature buffs  make claims for this book to be one of the greatest novels of all time.   Not to be over critical, and perhaps the novel makes a stronger claim if read in Spanish (I read the English translation by Margarert Sayers Peden)  I see great creative talent and strong prose, but not sure the story itself, holds up in a fashion that would bring this book into contention with the very best.  

A journey, as most great novels are, into the past, of a mother’s dying wish for her son, to know her father, Pedro Paramo. The twist, either due to the magical incantations of a town full of aberrations, or more likely, the mental illness of her son,  Juan Preciado, who is perhaps schizophrenic, we journey back to the history of the Pedro Paramo’s town Comala, and learn about his violent past through the eyes of the characters in Juan’s dreams and delusions.  Juan, who is also the narrator, is also dead.  Not sure if that’s a spoiler, or a twist, but we are in fact, hearing the story, told by a ghost, which is either completely in line with the journey as it unfolds, or the ultimate twist of plot.  Again, it’s possible that some of the impact to this twist is lost in translation, I don’t want to detract from the genius of Rulfo for this literary construct which did, it is claimed, have a huge impact on Spanish literature.

I have asked some of my Spanish speaking friends about the impact this book has had on their lives, and apart from it being required reading in 12th grade Spanish, it’s about the same as high school required reading in English.  On par with “The Scarlet Letter”.  They remember the title, but not much of the story.  Other books, such as “Lord of the Flies” or “Heart of Darkness”, have had more impact.

So off Juan goes to the town of his father, Comala, to be boarded, guided, and buried, by the ghosts along his path.  What is revealed about his father, Pedro Paramo, is that he was a wicked man.  Godless, evil, selfish, and without any redemptive values whatsoever.  This is strange.  He is a crook, a killer, a rapist, and quite possibly a pedafile. Why a loving mother would ever want her beloved child to find, meet, or reconcile with an evil father is a mystery to me.   Ironically, I was drawn to this book by the initial paragraph that does indeed read, “Attention, great prose to follow”, with the opening of its first line,  “I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Paramo, lived there.  It was my mother who told me.”  Beautiful.  Then not much more to follow in the way of great prose.  So, I’m left in a quandary.  I don’t want to be overly critical.  Perhaps I need to read the book again.  It’s short enough, maybe a different translation, because I struggled with each page, in English.  And then once Rulfo begins the metaphysical stuff, it’s extremely difficult to follow.  The book is barely 120 pages, with close to 20 separate characters, all of which, including the narrator,  appear to be ghosts. 

And it is a journey, and most journeys, let alone great journeys, have to be of discovery, or redemption.  I find nothing revealing, redemptive, or remotely healing for a child to discover their father was a monster for which, having been revealed to him, he is buried, seemingly alive, for a time, until you realize he is dead.  The sins of the father, repaid, perhaps.

Certainly, it’s a brave book.  For Rulfo to have written it, I have no qualms. I think, perhaps, when he wrote it, it was merely an exercise in creativity.  Never meant to be anything more than a literary experiment.  For this, perhaps, he is due props.  I think, wrongfully, Spanish authors (such as Gabriel García Márquez)  who came later, strapped themselves to Rulfo’s boldness, to point to it as an apologetic for their own sense of creativity.  To me this is disingenuous and cowardly use of a so, so, book about a figure, not worth remembering.  The author, Juan Rulfo, should  be remembered, not the character, Pedro Paramo.  Which is not exactly how this worked out for Rulfo, but exactly how it worked out for Marquez.  That seems like a nice stroke of marketing. A couple of stars, tops, for this book.  Glad I read it, I will not revisit.

Cynical Theories and One Reason Not to Divide Our Country

Point #1. The narrative from the left is that liberals are definitely NOT pushing Critical Race Theory (CRT).  They do not want to teach it in schools and they do not want to force government mandates to include it in required sensitivity training. Informed liberals say it really is just an academic social theory that sits on a shelf and is occasionally dusted off by law students to write research papers.  This view from the left believes that the right is over inflating the impact that CRT should have on the country in regard to correcting the imbalance of social justice that clearly exists in the United States. The left believes that CRT is not something to fear...it’s just another cog in the hunt for social justice that is long overdue and that the right is using the fear of “cancel culture” to win votes and to push their racist agenda. 

Point #2. The narrative from the right, in this case the far right, Fox News and Trump supporters, is that CRT is radical and all encompassing. They believe the left is systemically pushing CRT and is hell bent on the complete annihilation of western institutions because they are indelibly corrupt with bias for those in power (white males) and that this is by design to favor white males because of their inherently biased institutions.  The goal is for white males to remain in power until their foundational institutions of privilege are torn down.  Again, that is what the Far Right believes CRT is all about and why they want to highlight it's content because they believe it infuriates and activates their base.

So those of us with a more rational bent, and in the center politically, are watching the radical left pull us into the abyss known as Marxism, and the radical right, clearly in favor of authoritarian Fascism, pull us in the other direction.  The clear take away is that both radical sides totally suck and both are bad directions for this country. If these radical extremes divide our country further, they will rip us apart.   I think it is important to examine both of these extremes that are causing the most harm and address those first.  White supremacy, on the right, is vile and clearly must go.  The corollary, on the radical left, that every white man is a racist, is just as racist a notion. Hypocrisy at its highest peak.   The cause of that hypocrisy and roots of that thinking are the academic origins of CRT.  As a consequence, those roots must be clearly examined.  To me it’s unfair to group vague notions of CRT, those who haven’t studied in, with its origins.  Those only in favor of social justice, most of us, thus are not to blame, and should not be blamed just for a casual favorable glance in it’s direction.  However, there is so much else involved, it can’t be left unsaid.  Let’s dive in.

So to start, admit, yeah, white supremacy is definitely a thing, it will unfortunately always exist because humans evolved to protect the home team. But as evolved humans we know that racism is a vile thing and we are not going to tolerate it within our country.  It needs to crawl back under the rock where it came from and never peek out again. Trump turned over that rock.  Now we must push that rock back in place.  On the other hand, Wokism is also a thing.  While not vile, in the sense that white supremist are morally wrong, those pushing the woke agenda are definitely on higher moral ground, however as mentioned, they are also wrong and also hypocrites. Thus they do not propose a clear or compelling argument.  Wokism is rife with it’s own brand of bias and social injustice.  The problem is that wokeism doesn’t stop until it eliminates freedoms so basic to human dignity, that one can only arrive at the conclusion that wokism is the new religion of the hypocrite. Other religions can now pick their heads back up.   How can clearly intelligent people become so backward in their search for something reasonable...social justice...and throw the baby out with the bath water?  This is a true social conundrum.

That’s a very long introduction, with little content from the book I just finished.  Cynical Theories, by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay.  The introduction I just wrote was necessary, to claim my independence from either side.  Although, alas, remaining impartial in this book review will be subjective and individual.  Those who read it will immediately cast me in one group or the other.  I hope not.  Cynical Theories is just a book.  I’m just a reader.   Everyone should read this book because it was written by centrist and intelligent liberals, not by the radical left or or the deplorable white supremist right. It attempts to decipher the rise of CRT from it’s safe harbor in legal academic scholarship through it’s creation of wokism in our free societies.  Ironically, within free societies, being the only environment, such thoughts could even muster... and how we came to the place in our country where simply saying something perceived as politically incorrect can cost you your job and all your friends.  I simply read the book...I don’t want to lose my job or my friends over it.  That is a real concern and it has caused me to be pensive to even write this book review. Which is clearly part of the canx culture.  If I can’t write a simple book review for fear of backlash I have been cancelled.  So I’m going to write about this book because I still live in the United States of America and we still have a viable constitution with a Bill of Rights.  And we haven’t started the book burning yet, at least not in District 12 where I live...

So this book is not just about CRT as it applies to the oppression of minorities in our Country it also addresses how every group of marginalized people use it’s tenants to claim institutionalized oppression at the hands of a westernized environment (political, economic, and social) that was created to keep the oppressed and those in power (white men) in power.  That’s the theory.   In this case, CRT, is referred to as “Theory” and can be equally applied to the oppression of black Americans, women, the LGBTQ community, as well as the disabled and those who are weight challenged. There are, seemingly, a lot of oppressed classes of people in our country, yet everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, can still buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks on a Sunday morning and still pay $5 for it.  And it doesn’t matter where you are.  You can live in Trump Country, deep in Florida, or in the heart of Bernie Sanders country, where Duncan Donuts still believes they make a better cup of coffee...when we all know they simply make better donuts.  Going to Duncan Donuts for the coffee is like saying you still go to Hooters for the chicken wings (or read Playboy Magazine for the articles--just to be edgy). Just to name two companies which seemingly benefit from the abject exploitation of women (Playboy and Hooters) that still seem to fare well in the US despite their obvious lack of wokism in the feminism department.  It’s a good place to consider hypocrisy.  Not the hypocrisy of Hooters or Playboy, but the hypocrisy of an outward, Puritan culture, with an inner lust for life...or something more basic.

So why this book?  I think this book was necessary because CRT as a theory has no scientific basis.  It’s a social theory.  There is no empirical data to support the institutional wide belief that western democracy, a construct of western values and ideas, can speak to why Rodney King was severely beaten 30 years ago or why George Floyd was choked to death last year.  Systemic racism is the rally cry but the criticism of that rally cry is not that racism doesn’t exist in the US.  It most certainly does…and it could be systemic in some circles.  The criticism is that the pantheon of Western culture is inherently racist and thus begets racism through all of it’s institutions which include philosophy, theology, language, literature, economics, governance, social structures, and most recently added, art.   Thus vigilance is required to root out the inherent bias at the most basic levels.  The most basic of those is the language itself.  The vigilant proponents of CRT search for subtle clues in language to make discoveries pertaining to its existence in the use of words that denote a power balance...or imbalance.  Specifically, who is in charge? And who is not in charge?  Who is the oppressed and who is the oppressor in any given logical construct?   Who is privileged and who is not privileged in the sentence?  I’ll admit, white privilege is difficult for white people to see.  It’s like breathing air.  We wake up and breathe.  Our privilege is invisible.  But that doesn’t mean we are not also oppressed by “our own” system.  For sure I do not worry about my physical safety when stopped by a highway police officer or when going for a run in the park.  It’s simply never something that has ever occurred to me.  But that doesn’t mean I’m not frustrated by western institutions.  Take any of them…  the DMV, the IRS, the fact that I do have to drive 55 mph and have to get my car inspected. The fact that I can’t shop at trade stores run by licensed union members…  HVAC being the strictest, but so to salon product distributors.  But the fact that I can’t pollute the environment or raise dangerous animals in the city (I’d like to own a Bengal Tiger -- who wouldn’t).  Or I can’t own harmless chicken birds without having to fight city hall for two years (that actually happened).   But I don’t feel like living in a society for the good of all, the oppression and frustration I feel, all day every day, when I don’t have the right paperwork at the DVM, or must fight City Hall for a permit, is a result of the color of my skin.  I do feel oppressed by the institutions of government.  Whatever you want to call that...it’s probably not PC anymore to say, as a white man, that I’ve been oppressed by “The Man”.  CRT will say, I am that Man.  But we all are oppressed by the rules of society.  That’s just a thing.  That’s not systemic racism.  If I’m a female, should I blame it on my gender?   If I’m gay or disabled should I blame it on my happenstance?   If I’m challenged by weight, is everyone out to get me? No generically, no. The institutions that strive to create fair treatment are oppressive simply because they set rules...and rules suck. They are equal opportunity oppressors of all who must abide by the rules.

Stepping beyond this book I now draw your attention to this recent article about paper being published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The MET) in New York City…

https://hyperallergic.com/673046/what-every-sexual-assault-depicted-at-the-met-museum-tells-us-about-rape-culture/

Read this article and listen to the way the author of the published paper being interviewed talks about her subject. She is completely creating a fictional narrative out of thin air...she is speculating about something based on language research (in English) based on a subject (Art) that was done 500 years ago by artists who were not even speaking English.  In the first example they are from France, speaking French. She is essentially saying that there is a rape culture in the west because white people have glorified rape in their artwork for the past 500 years.  She does this by searching for words in the description of the art.  English words, from art from around the world.

I'm not an art historian but this definitely has me feeling like she is trying to rewrite history. A common theme these days. And OMG she is an art curator. So she is attacking her very own people.  I can just imagine the uproar at the museum...but they are not going to cancel her, for sure, she is one of them.  So they will listen to her and think deeply...maybe?  And a conspiracy will start...and it will add to the other theories.  This is really weird and a danger to cultures across the planet.  This is how you start to rewrite history if you are a nitwit. 

This is so disconcerting because these are obviously very intelligent people.  It's almost like they have intelligent minds that are so active they are searching to make connections...and their intelligent brains work over time and they invent these conspiracies. In this case, the conspiracy can't lead to any one piece of art, or any one museum doing something "bad" or without sensitivity.  It can only lead to finding something wrong with the larger hierarchy of "Things" as they are.   It's the system that is bad.  The system must be changed.  A system that has provided freedom and liberty from oppression for hundreds of years and brought the world out of the dark ages.

 Is there something wrong with the System--let’s call it democracy based on capitalism?  There are certainly things wrong in the system...and that will always be the case...but is there something inherently wrong with the system?  Is permissive Rape culture a product of Western Thought.  Im pretty sure, no I’m 100% confident that rape has always been illegal in western cultures. Recording of the culture is what makes it history, whether written in a book or painted as art, or cast into a statue.  This is the work this curator now attacks.  She is rewriting history.

This article helps me because it's a great example of applying Theory away from the thorniness of talking about Race, and seeing if it holds up. Of course rape is also a thorny topic...so I guess I run the risk of being labeled for pushing back a little.  But this can't hold up in the art world....it's just plain whacky. The posting of Art has to be done objectively...if it is done subjectively, and bias accompanies the work of art in the form of commentary (this is how you should interpret this artist work) is purely subjective.

The trouble with this theory, beyond the acceptable and laudable use of such a search to discover perspective from a thought experiment, is that it fails to meet the necessary test of reality.  People have to communicate.  Language is a very real and very necessary component of a functioning society.  Hidden meanings beyond the scope of intended communication belong in the cult of paranoia and false information theory.  Not mainstream, purposeful, dialogue between two parties.  As well as good journalism...hello?   Without language communication, society would consist of sniffing butts and biting ears.  To suggest power dynamics are egalitarian in the animal kingdom...without language entirely...really begins to strain the credulity of reason itself when understanding how CRT even became a thing.  The academics who came up with it seemed not educated in anything but their own feelings.  Which is a dangerous place to develop theories anyplace outside of the dark web. Particularly if these theories take root without merit.  Feelings are subjective.  I feel oppressed.  Feelings are different from fact. You are not a victim of a hate crime at the hands of an institution.  Individuals commit hate crimes not institutions.  Bad and racist cops are to blame for racist and discriminating behaviors.  Laws are put in place to punish the perpetrators not institutions. Permissive environments exist.  Those are to blame, not the institutions as they exist.  The institutions are fundamental good for society.

With radicals on the left pushing banners such as “Defund the Police” one has to wonder where it came from and why?   And, no, I don’t need to hear from the apologetics telling me, that’s not what they mean (see Point #1 above).  That is because I know what you will say, you will say, “What they really mean is that the cops shouldn’t be social workers”.  Except, no.  That’s what you believe, that’s not what purveyors of CRT actually believe.  They do mean, “Defund the Police”, as an institution.   And that’s exactly what the right fears.  So they are not wrong about CRT...they are simply wrong that that’s what everyone on the left actually believes. This is akin to the belief that everyone not supporting Trump is a closet Marxist.  Definitely not true.  In fact most on the Left are not Marxist, that title belongs only to radical clowns on the far left that haven’t read Animal Farm yet…

So perhaps that’s enough.  This is a long post.  There is so much more to the discussion.  Don’t label me a racist because I’m not woke.  Label me an American with grave concerns about the radicalism on both the left and the right.  CRT is not helpful as anything more than the notion of social injustice.  And a strong desire to make democracy and it’s tenets of justice and liberty for all prevail in a confusing world.

The Pentagon's Brain - Jacobsen

 Having finished the heavy tomb, “The Pentagon’s Brain”, written by Annie Jacobsen and subtitled “The Secret History of DARPA”, I have discovered that his book is less about DARPA and more about a dumb conspiracy theory where a profoundly successful government organization (there are not many of those) that exists as  the center for innovative excellent for the US Department of Defense is in reality an organization of unethical bunglers with nefarious intent, hell bent on world domination though the use of robots.  I normally save my stars for the end of my book review but has a little bit of history and a whole lot of fictional commentary.  I give it 2 stars and that’s generous.  I have to repeat, as an organization, DARPA is perhaps the most functional government organization in existence, principally because it stays above any political fray, is liked on both sides of the aisle, and exists not just to keep the United States advanced sufficiently ahead of our adversaries in science and technology, to avoid technological surprise (think Sputnik), but to better all of humanity (think the internet and GPS) through technical innovation.  Although DARPA is an agency of the Department of Defense, the advances in technologies coming out of DARPA, does not just kill people and break things or break international law or treaties.  DARPA researches everything.  So much technology, including munitions, but so many things in between that next new bomb, tank, satellite, or machine gun.  And yes, this does include robotics, but think self-driving cars instead of world dominating terminator machines that talk like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

At the beginning, when the Agency was established, Gen Eisenhower who was by then President was profoundly insightful with his warnings to the country about the perils of the military industrial complex.  These have always been keen words and words most American’s I know who work within this massive bureaucracy, take seriously.  Jacobsen uses these words not as a warning but as a spring board into the conspiracy.  However, the military industrial complex is not self-aware.  It is not, in the words of Black Sabbath, a collective where “General’s gather in their masses, just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of death construction”.  The author appears to think so, or she is delusional, or she is guessing—trying to make sense of something she doesn’t understand.   The US military industrial complex, let alone DARPA, is not a consortium of war pigs, as the basic tone of her writing would have the layman believe.    To be clear, Black Sabbath was protesting the War in Vietnam.  A fair criticism.  But to blame DARPA for the manifestations of war being, not just hell, but evil, is akin to believing in aliens.  Strangely, as I write this, yet another kook has come forward with a conspiracy theory about aliens.  Turns out I knew the guy.  I’ll save that commentary for another time.  It’s surprising that kook hasn’t brought DARPA into his fantasy.  He did work at DARPA for a few years.  Good thing Jacobsen didn’t know about that. Conspiracy theories need to focus on facts and physics and less on conspiracy and we would have more truth.  As it stands, Jacobsen is mostly conspiracy.  Believe one conspiracy not based on anything real, like facts or physics, and you might as well believe them all.

In the opening Chapter she gets something right.  And that’s about the only thing.  You can stop after the first chapter and you will know all you need to know about DARPA.  It is the culture of DARPA that makes it the world class organization of innovation that is the envy of any research engineer. The secret to DARPA’s success is the rotating over a hundred brilliant, high energy, PMs through their doorway, empowering them, funding them, and getting management out of their way.  They are empowered to move quickly, empowered to fail, and empowered to fail fast—yes, that a thing, and a good thing.  Fail often and fail fast.   And of course, the true objective of DARPA for the country is to avert strategic surprise, and she does say this…but that’s no secret, it’s in the DARPA mission statement.  What Jacobsen misses is that if each PM has 2 -3 concepts and 2 -3 programs going at the same time. That means at any given time there are 400-500 active programs going on at DARPA.  Over the course of several decades that means DARPA has done research into 10,000 or more major topics.  It’s probably double that. I have no way of knowing, nor did she, but the numbers hold up.  Sadly, she reports on a tiny few.  Less than a handful.  And she culls that handful into the few that shed a negative, and seemingly sinister light, on an organization attempting to predict the future in order to keep the United States ahead of our adversaries.  If DARPA gets credit for being the Pentagon’s Brain, that is where they rule, in technology.   Not, seemingly, as a nefarious puppet master, charting the course of our wars.  It is not the nightmare organization of Ozzy Osborne’s dreams.  There are no war pigs at DARPA, only researchers, technologists, engineers, and scientists of every sort.  Also, on the Org chart for the Pentagon, not reported in her book, but easily researched, DARPA tucks up as an Agency under OSD/R&E.  DARPA does not sit near the top of the Pentagon food chain.  They don’t even have a say in the Military Strategy of the United States.  As in, the Military Strategy of the United States, doesn’t even show up in their office for coordination.

Has DARPA invented things that do harm…yes.  As a necessary component of defense related work, DARPA builds technology that will kill people and break things.  The military is in the business of executing violence upon those who would do us harm.    The necessity of agent Orange to destroy foliage so that the electric fence observing the Ho Chi Minh trail, was perhaps a great travesty and tragedy, owing to a lot of uncertainty in how to prevail in a conflict that we probably shouldn’t have been a part of.  That’s the mistake of history, not a mistake of DARPA trying to respond to a warfighting requirement. Generally speaking, DARPA works outside of the acquisition process.  Building technology in advance of any requirement to do so.  That’s an uncertain area of acquisition.  But one that is necessary if innovation is the priority.  There is no conspiracy just because there is no requirement.  Jacobsen seems to think DARPA is coming up with nefarious things outside of the military’s requirement to do such things, thereby pinning the ugly nature of things that go bad, on some premeditated urge to do harm.  It’s wrong, it’s misleading, and it’s really insulting to the American’s who work for DARPA, pouring in their energy to be of value.

She reports on so few programs and she stretches the involvement that DARPA may have had specifically in the involvement of nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear policy.    Ironically, whereas DARPA might have had some involvement, at the end of the day, there but for the grace of God go us, the country has averted nuclear war.   Cooler heads, smarter heads, have always prevailed in our nuclear enterprise.  The admonishments of Dr. Strangelove, won the day.  That is our reality, not the crazy antics of the military general who unleashed the power of the atomic bomb.  Adults remain in charge. Adults, and not conspiracy theorists, should write the history papers.  Not misinformed journalists with an anti-war sentiment and certainly not Hollywood.

Jacobsen get’s the VELA Incident completely wrong.  Somehow she’s twisted the mystery of possible nuclear test in the deep southern hemisphere, observed from the on-orbit VELA Satellite in September, 1979 with actual exo-atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons which occurred, by both sides, during the Cuban Missile Crises in October, 1962.  Since most of her history is taken from the transcripts of interviews she did with senior officials, perhaps this is just someone’s faded memory.  I’d didn’t stop to look into this gaff any further.

She wildly speculates about technology that remains classified, she claims successful, but for those in the know, has failed.  Fail often and fail fast.  That's what you need to know about DARPA.  Sometimes technology doesn't work and those programs go away...they don't get handed over to the "Men-in-Black" to employ from the secret organizations.  Wink Wink, Nod Nod. (said with as much snarky sarcasm as I can muster).  Enough about that subject.

She seemingly believes the sole drive of DARPA is to build warfighting automatons...we do not want to help veterans who are amputees with robotic limbs, for instance, DARPA just builds a war machine.  The job is to build a sky net.  To fight wars with robots.  On the one hand, what’s wrong with that?  What’s wrong with trying to build systems that keep Americans from dying in our wars?  That seems far more noble than sinister.  What she fails to realize is that we already have robots that fight in our wars.  The big lie, has always been that, the USAF, for instance, is only interested in manned systems.  At least one CSAF and SECAF were fired for this ignorant belief (William Gates when SECDEF did the firing) Right or wrong, the USAF has been in the business of building unmanned systems since their inception in 1947.  Missiles, rockets, target drones, autopilot, satellites, and unmanned aircraft have been in the USAF inventory.  Sure DARPA has helped that along but it has been the USAF who brought this technology to the Department of Defense and the world, in a useful fashion.  Certainly, many times, DARPA had a role in early research, but so did other centers for technology.  The research labs at each of the services, the intel organizations, and of course external development at NASA, and major commercial companies doing engineering in areas such as Boeing, for instance, building commercial airliners it’s pretty evident that aircraft building expertise, can exist, well outside of DARPA’s hallways.   The Skunk Works at Lockheed Martin as a stellar example.  Without these industry research centers we would certainly be living in the technological dark ages, still.  And losing to our adversary’s…maybe.  In the case of China, without our advanced technology to steal, they would still be in the dark ages.

Finally, Jacobsen, had an annoying fixation on cost.  She reports cost in the year and current year dollars for the programs she discusses on almost every page. These cost numbers are tiny in comparison to the DoD budgets at the time, and exist for her to simply write an extra, irrelevant paragraph in every chapter, expanding her book, and the garbage it contains, into something that many, might deduce as well researched and factual.  Program budget numbers are probably the only factual thing she could obtain in her research and Freedom of Information requests.  The rest is conjecture at best and pure conspiracy theory at worst.  This book is fundamentally flawed.  It should never have reached best seller status. That merely builds its credibility and adds to the conspiracy theory we all should be dismissing as not true, except in the movies.  Too many inaccuracies for this book to be made into a movie…by any Hollywood director, short of Oliver Stone.  And I hope he’s too old to take on this kind of a project.  DARPA, as an organization, deserves credit and praise, not criticism of its science, and certainly not conspiracy.

Drawing conclusions and asking questions to suggest answers amount to full on manipulation at worst and or shoddy journalism at best.  DARPA deserves a better historian and a better recorded history.  I give her 2 stars for this crappy history, and that’s generous.

Heaven is Real - Burpo

Meet Colton Burpo.  At age four Colton knows more about life and the afterlife than most of us will know in a lifetime.  Why?  Because Colton has been to the pearly gates.  In his recent book,  “Heaven is for Real” Todd Burpo, Colton’s father  a Christian pastor  from Imperial Nebraska, chronicles a series of medical close calls that eventually led Colton to a near death experience and to seemingly experience “for real”, a three-minute slice of Heaven.  Improbable as it might seem to non-believers, Colton’s story must be true.  There can be no other accounting for his awareness and the clarity of which he describes his visit.  Unencumbered by the stigma or the stigmata Colton met Jesus and described the wounds in his flesh as simply markers of red color on the man with “pretty eyes” who held him in his lap during the last few moments of his life.  And, while infection ravaged his small body during the last few moments of his life his dad, closed off in a hospital closet, privately cried and cursed his own creator and savior. 

Many have seen the white light and moved towards it, only to be recalled back to the operating room or accident scene by doctors or EMT’s working frantically to save them.  Colton seems to have traveled beyond.  Perhaps he slipped away unnoticed by an incompetent medical staff for his brief encounter with the sister and grandfather he never knew, an exquisite kaleidoscope of rainbow colors, God the Father, the Angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and of course the One who undeniably Loves us all an perhaps the little children just a little bit more..

Many others have written about the afterlife, Mitch’s Albom’s account, in “Five People You Meet in Heaven” springs to mind.  But while beautifully written and articulated, Albom’s account is a fancifully fabricated story that simply brings us great joy to believe.  Colton’s account cannot be a work of fiction because at his age he had nothing upon which to base his story.  Simple Bible stories would not impart the sophisticated tapestry of past, present, and future (including the end of times) events upon which Colton was conversant.  Only first hand witness explains his account, which he began sharing first with his family, and later with those he came into contact who could be comforted with his knowledge.

A light read, a compelling story, and a simple solution for where we all are headed.  As with all things that require faith you must also make a personal choice to believe in this book.  Five stars for the spectacular and haunting picture of the Prince of Peace…but four stars overall.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Pirsig

 

I first read this masterpiece of fiction when I was fifteen, I remember clearly it was 1980 and I spent days in my room trying to understand the big words and attempting to figure out all the characters Pirsig would reference, Kant, Hume, Poincare, and the ancient Greeks.  Since we were well before a simple Wikipedia search, it would be years before I would hear most of their names again.  What I do know very clearly is that when I emerged from my room I knew I was going to college to become a Mechanical Engineer.  I had long since forgotten why I came to that conclusion until I relieved my young experience on page 176 just a few days ago.  It was my third reading of this book.

My second reading came in 1992, I was 28.  In those days I was brash, arrogant, and full of gumption, as Pirsig would call it.  I knew a lot more about philosophy and theology and engineering at that time.  I also owned a motorcycle and had completed an active duty tour in the military.  I was working as a systems engineer for the DoD and was in school working on my second Master’s degree.  The book still made sense… a lot of sense.  At that point I knew it had nothing to do with Zen and even less to do with motorcycle maintenance, but Pirsig has always told us that up front.

Fast forward sixteen years…a family, a company, a new career, a fresh read.  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is still every bit the masterpiece it was back in 1974.  But ultimately what is it about – if it’s not about Zen or art of motorcycle maintenance?  Certainly much has been written over the past four decades attempting to define exactly what Pirsig was trying to tell us.  No need for that.  Read the book, Pirsig will tell you.  No matter what you may hear, no matter what you may think, this book defines for us that which can never be expressed through words and rational thought alone.  It must be experienced.  Experience is the life changer, not thoughts or deeds.  Experience this book and understand why.

Why We Make Mistakes - Hallinan

As a professional problem solver I am intrigued by the fact that in my day job I can decompose a problem, put together a number of corrective actions, evaluate those actions with quantitative and qualitative factors, and recommend a competent solution.  Why, when I’m away from the office, equipped with the same problem solving skill set, do I make seemingly endless mistakes?  Investment decisions are of course the most painful.  The only thing easing that pain is the knowledge that everyone (almost everyone) is suffering along with me.  But I am also plagued by more common decisions like should I switch insurance companies?  Should I put my kid in braces?  or my favorite…should I fire my lawn guy?  I will give you more details on the fate of my lawn guy in a minute.  So basically I have this endless feeling of incompetence stemming from the endless array of everyday decisions I always seem to get wrong.   Enter Joseph T. Hallinan and his book, “Why We Make Mistakes?”  I can sum up his book with three words word…”Oh, that’s why”.  

It appears, according to Hallinan, the entire world conspires against our ability to make correct decisions.  Or, we have been set up, since birth, to make mistakes--at least by our birth into modern society.  Speaking from the standpoint that we are products of evolution, we simply are not equipped to make correct decisions in our modern world based on the way were receive and process information.  Our memory’s stink, we scan and simplify what’s in our field of view, we wing it, and we bias things unconsciously all day every day.  His book is very easy to read and while it is clearly comprehensive, well researched, and detailed, it flows effortlessly off the page making perfect sense as it winds along.   After reading his book I highly suspect I do everything wrong.   It’s all there and I am guilty down to my last ounce of over confidence.

Yet somehow I must not do everything wrong. I’ve been equipped with a great education that allows me to have a super job.  I have a super family and can honestly say I am a very happy person who is afforded leisure time, to not only read Hallinan’s book, but to write about it.   But I fret over the simplest of decisions…I make decisions, I don’t delay, but I worry if I’ve made the right ones.  And typically they don’t appear so good after I’ve made them however I have a tremendous ability to rationalize them or put the blame on something beyond my control.  Of course that’s exactly what Hallinan says I do.  So he is right again.  

In the end he really doesn’t provide a recipe for not making mistakes.  We will continue to make mistakes and waste time in the process.  He just wants us to be aware of the things that influence us, when we don’t realize we are being influenced.  He believes that it’s the mistakes that keep us from enjoying life that are the ones we want to try hardest to avoid.  So tomorrow I will fire my lawn guy.  One he is too expensive for the service he provides. Two he gives me a headache when all I want is my lawn mowed.  Three he is constantly badgering me for more work.  And four, I’ve always enjoyed mowing my own lawn, typically on Saturday’s, with a gin and tonic, and a slice of lime.

The God Who Is There - Schaffer

If you are looking for proof that there is a “…God Who is There”, as given to us by Francis A. Schaffer in 1968 in his book, ‘The God Who Is There”, unless you are willing to convert to Christianity on the spot, you will probably look elsewhere.  In this book Schaeffer is not writing as an apologetic to the masses who have not found salvation through Jesus Christ.  He is writing to those already saved and explaining to them a formula to combat Secular Humanism and still win disciples for Christ in this 20th Century.  In so doing he tosses out the theology of men such as Soren Kierkegaard disallowing a “Leap of Faith” discussion, which Schaffer believes to the root cause of a New Theology.   A theology that is incorrect because it merely uses religious Truths shared as iconic representations of greater meaning without actually understanding that which is true, namely that God exists.

If this is the best Schaffer can do, he still has some unfinished work left.  Unfortunately he moved on in 1984.  As far as I can tell, however, it is three things that form the basis of Truth.  

First, the observation of God's of effect on humanity.  Using the scientific method, we first conduct an experiment and look at the result.  God exists because we can observe how people change in his presence.  

Second, each and every individual longs for some meaning in their life.  

And third, the argument for a source from which morality springs.

In his first proof, which I believe to be his most compelling, we cannot differentiate Christianity from other religions.  Plus, if as what Marx calls the opium of the people, or as Freud calls an illusion, we still see societies reacting in ways that are rallying around a higher calling.  Societies can always be motivated to rally around a higher calling...there are many examples both good and bad.

In his second proof, the search for meaning at the individual level, here too, if Christianity is an illusion -- just like a placebo, the meaning could profoundly affect the individual. It is this purpose that separates us from the machine, plants, and animals. A lot wrong here -- and although his profound love for humanity is clear, he has no faith that humanity is ultimately good and will find their own way to the Truth.  Instead, if they are left to their own devices they will only deteriorate and then commit suicide.  He uses prime examples from the masters of Secular Humanism who happen to be some of the most arrogant individuals in society -- that were in fact -- truly lost because of their pride and higher intellect.  He paints a very depressing and bad view of society without the Love of Christ in an individual’s heart.  Christians know that God works in everyone even if they are not "conscious" of his presence, and humanity, on the whole, has more love than hate.  So Schaeffer is really dark on this subject. 

And finally in this third proof, I think a great deal of work as been done in the area of morality and where it comes from since Schaeffer wrote this book.  Again, Christians already believe the work of God always prevails here – because they can pin it on Him because they know His finger prints.  The rest of humanity will still search for another cause and never see that He was in the house.  No proof here for those who do not believe already.

So basically -- once you come to believe -- the proofs Schaeffer uses are self-evident which brings up his most powerful contribution to both theology and conversion.  This is his requirement for apologetics to both prove God's existence and communicate His existence at the same time.  Otherwise they are just philosophers. It puts the burden on the actions and deeds of the individual and not just the words. And for the witness, once you bring someone over to Christ, what more proof do you need.  It's a self reinforcing algorithm.  And for the subject, once you believe, again, the proof becomes self evident.  So it's a great approach for gaining disciples -- which is what Christians are called to do, and why this book is from them.   

So Schaeffer was clearly one of the best apologetics and put the formula for coming to know the Truth in writing.  Ultimately -- the proof is in the pudding.  It's therefore a very powerful proof – it does not mean, however, that the Kierkegaard  “Leap of Faith” is wrong because the Truth can still not be proven quantitatively -- and therefore, no matter how deep we dig, taking the plunge is what's important -- that also gets the non-believer where they need to be…believing.

Artemis - Weir

Just Go Watch Total Recall with Schwarzenegger Instead

What a disappointment.  Sorry Mr. Weir, perhaps after "The Martian", there is no way to live up to the task.  I am still a fan but I can't, in good conscience, recommend "Artemis" to your fan base.

First, F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells us to write what we know.  You are a computer scientist, not a welder or a twenty something female who thinks like a boy in middle school.   Jazz is not Lisbeth Salander, but perhaps she could have been?  The computer science you wrote into "The Martian" was extremely accurate.  The computer science you wrote into "Artemis" despite the futuristic setting, was all of late 1990's.  Far from science fiction. This makes sense because although I said the computer science in "The Martian" was accurate, it was dated given the necessity to find engineers from the previous decades to reprogram the Mars lander.  You never really gave major advances in computer science a spin and could have given your background.

You choose Artemis as the name of the Moon Base. How cliché, but then again, you write with clichés.  I didn't count them but it feels like there is one on every page.  You named the Moon base after a Greek Goddess, whose space program was developed in an African country, with a Muslim heroin, and a South American mafia as the antagonist.  Are you trying for a diversity award? Diverse yes, but culturally speaking, you've stereotyped everything and everybody.  It's a bit the opposite of being in the running for a diversity award.  A Ukrainian computer wizard?  Ugh. Well at least he, spoiler alert, gets the girl.

As far as plot development goes, it's not clear if Jazz isn't the antagonist.  The ethics of her decision to engage in an act of sabotage for money, is no deeper than the dollar amount, followed by her saying, "I'm in".  Repaying her estranged father for burning down his lab was a weak attempt at a justification.  Maybe Jazz has some depth, seemingly because she's always referring to a second meaning behind everything she says.  There could be merit in this approach to her character, except for everything she says or thinks, and every double entendre she manifests, she gives it a sexual reference. Ugh.  Note comment on a boy in middle school above.  

I like that you tried to research and build a firm basis for the Moon's economy.  It's a foundation, although, completely wrong, lends credibility.  We can assume there will be some sort of currency, with some sort of exchange, but it's safe to say, those living on the moon, even at this seemingly advanced, and mature stage, with only 2,000 residents, will still be hugely subsidized by government or industry investment.  Think about this for a second.  Every trade on the Moon has a guild.  There are a lot of trades on the Moon.  How many trades would you need to establish a functioning colony.  There are a bunch of welders and tour guides…but only one law enforcement officer. Ugh.   When there are 20,000 residents on the moon, there might be the beginnings of a stand-alone economy.  But more likely it takes many more.  Even then, the Moon wouldn't be able to sustain itself because there simply are no raw resources on the Moon…or Mars for that matter.  You cannot compare Moon or Mars exploration with the colonization of continents on Earth.  When settlers came to the "New World', everything they needed was already in place.  The resources to live were in place, food, water, shelter.  All that was necessary was a strong back and a set of hands.  You carved out a living on the land and traded what you had in excess.  Moon dwellers will be completely dependent on Earth forever.   Once we colonize Mars, terraform the atmosphere, and turn it into its own ecosphere, perhaps.  But we are talking centuries from now.

This book does not push the genre for this fiction in any direction.  The closest perhaps to what you were trying to achieve would be "Total Recall", either the original short story idea by Phillip K. Dick, or the novel by Piers Anthony, or even just watching the movie, the Schwarzenegger version as I had trouble with Collin Farrell.

All of this criticism aside, you do write well.  Perhaps it comes from your experience as a blogger.  The story moves quickly and you want to turn the pages, but for me, I had to suspend complete belief.  Those with a technical background, who loved "The Martian" cannot love this book for the same reasons despite the ease of your writing.  Others will…so perhaps you've carved out a followership that will allow you to continue to write.  Good for you.  It's doubtful I will read another book, and be content simply to go back and reread "The Martian".  Five stars for the promise, subtract one for implausible plot, and one for character development, and one more for juvenile use of double entendre…basically every ugh.  Add one star back for smooth and easy writing.  Three stars for Artemis…sadly it is not "The Martian".  

Better - Gawande

 

On the cover of “Better” by Atul Gawande, the thoughtful Malcolm Gladwell exclaims, “Better is a masterpiece…”.  To be sure “Better” gets high marks for exploring territory that the medical profession might sooner forget, even Gawande admits to his discomfort level but to suggest that the bell curve tells us “…something unforgettable about the world outside” is to know very little about the world outside.  However, I don’t want this to be about Gladwell.  Gawande is a good writer.  He captures the medical world, a world alien to most of us, through the eyes of a surgeon in a way that makes those who heal, those we trust and respect more than any others in society, almost human.  They are just like us.  As the father of a daughter who was brought into this world with a mere 23.3 weeks gestation and a zero Apgar score, who just turned 10 years old this month, I considered these healers and decided they were superhuman.  They were sheltered from a world of stress, financial worry, problems with relationships, and the like.  I knew I was kidding myself but I chose to believe.  I knew the doctors and nurses caring for my daughter in the NICU for 87 days were on top of their game.  Gawande pierces the veil and I applaud the effort to capture his thoughts.  To take the time from his busy schedule to think and to consider the meaning in what he does, to improve, to get better.  He has a simplistic five-step method; Ask an unscripted question, don’t complain, count something, write something, and change.  Simple enough, and the beauty of his formula is that it will work, and it can be applied to all aspects of life – so do as Gawande asked, heath professional or not, improve what you are and what you do.  However the real message, the journey Gawande takes us on to reach his formula, is the better part of “Better”.  And since we all get sick and need the medical profession, we should all stand in the shoes of a medical professional.  Gawande let’s us stand in those shoes, if just for a brief moment, to glimpse a world where life and death decisions hang in the balance. Followed shortly by a life and death decision in the next examination room.  Most of us will never know this kind of life.  So here is my formula, first go wash your hands.  Second go read this book.  It will not change your life, but it will change your perspective on your next visit to the doctor’s office and how you perceive the hidden world of medicine.  

The GIrl Who Played with Fire - Larsson

The World is Burning and Salander Didn’t Strike a Match

I am officially two-thirds through the Stieg Larsson trilogy and can still say I am officially still on board Lizbeth Salander/Mickel Blomkvist fan club train.  I just finished, “The Girl Who Played with Fire” and can tell you the intrigue, twists, and shocking narrative that were the hallmark of “Dragon Tatoo” keep coming.  And this is not a sequel in the sense that a new story is being told.  It’s the same story.  Larsson had a story to tell, it is just so much longer than a standard novel that it will take him three or more full length treatments to reach the end.  The tragedy of course it that Larson is no longer with us so it is impossible to know what was ultimately locked away within his characters.  And since I’ve seen all three movies I know that the saga is not brought to a neat close.

So what we have is not three separate novels but one story.  And therefore the first novel, the “Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” is only a marketing ploy.  Lizbeth Salander is not the main focus of the first novel. Mickel Blomkvist is the principle actor in that one no matter however intrigued we might be by the mysterious and heroic introduction of Salander.  But we do wish to know her better.  Who is she? Where did she come from? Why is she the way that she is?  “The Girl Who Played with Fire” answers all of these questions and more.   And as we learn about Salander, and meet her horrific and twisted past, we solve another mystery…or she solves it…without striking a match.  This book is another whodunit, but this time with a real murder, a series of murders in fact, rather than a search for a missing person with a cold case file.  We also meet her true family, and those she considers friends, and discover who wants her dead, or at least locked away, and who is trying to protect her. 

 In Salander’s world, everything that that we consider normal is completely backward and the world is set ablaze before us.  Those that should love and protect us are trying to bury us in a hole.  Those we are close to get hurt.  And those we are unable to trust completely we must trust on faith alone.  We may never know Larsson’s motives for writing these books, perhaps he is preaching; perhaps he wanted to send a higher message.   At this point it’s hard for me to tell.  But what I can say is that these are great books with great entertainment value.   Once again however I will not go as high as five stars for this book.  A very strong four and a hope that the final chapter will bring this trilogy home with five stars.

 

 

Merle's Door - Kerasote

 A few things are not clear when you begin to read “Merle’s Door – Lessons from a Freethinking Dog”, by Ted Kerasote.  First of all it is not clear how to pronounce his (the dog’s) name correctly.  And second it is not clear until the end that you are reading the biography of a dog.  It’s a very clever method that just creeps up on you.  I doubt I would have read a book labeled, “a dog’s biography” so they drew me in with, “Lessons from a Free Thinking Dog”.   

There have been other attempts to do similar things – “Marley and Me” jumps out, but Kerasote, Merle’s chosen biographer,  has succeeded magnificently with this book.  Partly because Kerasote is no ordinary writer, he writes prolifically about the outdoors, and partly because Merle’s was no ordinary life, this dog’s story is captured as effortlessly as the freethinking life that he led.  

Kerasote was chosen by Merle as his biographer just as sure a Merle chose Kerasote to be his human on the banks of the San Juan River where they chanced upon one another and stayed together for the next 14 years.  With keen insight into Merle’s amazing behavior, sometimes canine and sometimes of an intellect and sophistication beyond that which we call human, Kerasote captures forever the life of this special animal.  In so doing the “Door” that Merle was free to enter and exit on his own free will, becomes representative of something far greater, it’s the window into the soul of intelligent life.

Sometimes repetitive and sometimes a bit “fictitious” as Kerasote attempts to translate Merle’s language into ours, the story and the life of this dog are real.  I’ve had several dogs in my life but after experiencing Merle’s life through his door, I feel like Merle was my dog as well.

Are Your Lights On? - Gause

 

Are Your Light’s On?  How to Figure Out What the Problem Really Is.  By Donald C. Gause and Gerald M. Weinberg has been a favorite of mine since I first ripped through a copy I found on my father’s book shelf in early 80’s.  I subsequently reattached it late one evening in the early 90’s.  Over the past 20 years I have returned to it over and over again and have provided many copies along with its powerful yet exceedingly simple message to the members of many analytic teams I have I have had to privileged to assemble and lead.  The message Are your light’s on?  Are you awake?  Are you able to use your brain before you engage your gears? Or as Tom Watson the founder of IBM has beckoned us to do, THINK!   

There are six chapters in this book.  Each chapter takes about between 15 and 20 minutes to read.  An average reader should be finished in less than two hours.  For the cost of a movie, perhaps $8 bucks, and a similar time commitment I suggest that the lessons within this book are more powerful per dollar than anything I have ever read.  For me the revelations of this book are almost spiritual in nature.   I’ve had mixed reactions from team members to whom I have shared its message.  Some think it’s cute-- it is.  Some believe it’s a book about problem solving-- it’s not.  Some are insulted by the implication--they should be, and alas some have never found the time to read it--that’s a crying shame.  Those who have seen the light share in a new found wealth.  Those who have not will remain in the dark.  ARE your lights on?  Are your LIGHTS on?  Are your lights ON?  Are YOUR lights on? 

Checklist Manifesto - Gawande

 

Use a checklist.  This is the major takeaway from Atul Gawande’s latest, “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”.  Although it’s a short book, just less than 200 pages, but for me it was a difficult book to get through.  I don’t know if that is because I’ve spent my entire career in and around checklists and believe in their value already (I don’t have to be convinced) or because Gawande is reaching too far with his message.  Doing a complex job correctly demands following a checklist.  He suggests that better team cooperation, communication, and discipline are the components of getting things right that emerge from the use of a checklist.  No kidding ?  He uses as his fundamental example the growth and now ubiquitous use of checklists in aviation.  And for sure checklists designed to operate something as complex as a large multi-engine aircraft demand such instructions…they also require team skills, communication, disciple, and a lot of experience…which he points out.  He applies his analogy to surgery and how a checklist used during a surgical procedures could help eliminate the most common mistakes made in the operating room…introducing infection, unexpected blood loss, operating on the wrong side of the body, etc.

This, of course is rather frightening because I’ve always viewed the modern operating room as a place where they have already reduced the procedure to its simplicities thereby allowing the surgeon to concentrate on the task at hand.  Perhaps I’ve been watching too much television where the doctors and nurses are so familiar with their scripts they work as a team.  The truth according to Gawande is a bit different.    It is normal in a large modern hospital for a surgeon to show up for an operation with a team he has never worked with before…this is particularly troublesome when we now realize they don’t have a script or the most rudimentary of  checklists to follow.  How could that be?  No wonder mal-practice insurance is so high!  It’s incredibly ironic that we pay more for a medical procedure so the highly skilled doctor can afford mal-practice insurance so when he is in the operating room he can wing it with a team of stand-ins.  For the love of God…..other expletives deleted.

Don’t we all use checklists several times a day?  Checklists are everywhere.  ”Read this First” stickers, warning labels, recipes, instructions, trouble-shooting guides, home improvement tips, and even Google maps.  And we have all not used checklists.  We bake bad cookies, we break things, and we get lost.  Those of us with complex jobs undoubtedly have checklists, standard operating procedures and directions at work which we don’t tend to ignore like the ones we do at home.  I am dumbfounded by the lack of checklists as reported by Gawande in the medical industry.  Dumbfound isn’t the correct word… appall is closer to my true feelings.

Because of this disconnect I’ve got a considerable amount of criticism for this book and I’ve been struggling between giving it one star because there is not a single original thought when it comes to large scale, complex program management and the utility of checklists…but then Gawande isn’t a program manager and is therefore way out of his element.  And this book is not like his other books where he is an undisputed master of the domain within which he writes.  On the other hand, five stars definitely seem appropriate since he points out this magnificent oversight of the medical community.  And if the medical community is his audience then he has done a decent enough introduction to the subject.

I’m going to settle on four stars simply based on the potential value this book could have within the medical community.  I will highly recommend it to medical professionals.  But anyone else, particularly those with a lick of common sense can avoid reading this book and just read the warning labels first.

Shoot an Iraqi - Bilal

 In November, 2010 I read about the artistic exploits of Wafaa Bilal and was intrigued.  So intrigued I blogged about his latest project and posted it in several online forums.  I also ordered his book, “Shoot an Iraqi; Art, Life, and Resistance Under the Gun” co-written with Kari Lydersen.  I read it in one sitting.  Astonishing in content and brilliantly written, Bilal and Lydersen have taken, by my first estimate, an ill-conceived, albeit somewhat artistic, publicity stunt and turned it into a MUST READ commentary on the cost of war…now my second and more accurate estimate.  

In a nutshell Wafaa writes about his confinement to an exhibit room at the Flat File Gallery in Chicago.  He called the exhibit “Domestic Tension” and lived within its confines for one month.  That’s the domestic part.  The tension comes from the added twist.   If you visited him, either on-line or in person, he gave you the option to fire a yellow paint ball at him at 300 feet per second, all day, every day.  Approximately 65,000 balls of yellow paint were fired during his ordeal.  He was forced to live under the fear of being whacked at anytime.  There was a field of fire available to the paint ball gun which he could escape be remaining close to the ground…inducing the stress of literally living “Under the Gun”.  When online visitors stopped in they could chat with him directly, setting up a tension between those who could reach out to the humanity of the situation observing and bearing witness to the ongoing persecution, and those who wanted to have sadistic fun at the expense of another human being. (NOTE: Although sadistic fun unfortunately occurs in warfare it is rarely its primary driver and becomes yet another ugly cost of war).  

As he writes about his ordeal during his month in captivity he wraps in the story of his early life growing up in Iraq under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.  He describes what life like for the Iraqi people, their hopes and dreams for education and prosperity, their day to day family life, with both their good humor and sanity evaporating during what has now amounted to almost three decades of constant war.   Wafaa escaped as a refugee to the United States but carries the scars of many haunting years of fear and persecution in its countless forms.  That is what he was trying to recreate in a cathartic response to the guilt he has felt by leaving Iraq and thus surviving to tell his tale.

“Shoot an Iraqi” is not a war protest, though many who read it might consider it so… I might also add that some associated with his project seem to convey a clear anti-war vibe…yet Wafaa resisted the invite to preach rather he simply wants us to think about the cost of war in human terms rather than ethical or moral implications.  This book is also not an indictment on the use of remotely piloted vehicles to execute war, which have gained so much favor and criticism during the wars in the Middle East…yet remain highly misunderstood.  Again, Wafaa resists the temptation to draw too many parallels between what he was doing and this new brand of warfare.  Early on he exhibits a desire to make the parallel, primarily when he attributes a tragic event which cost the life of many innocent civilians to reconnaissance conducted by an unmanned aircraft.  Only in the sense that violence is being executed at a distance can the two be compared.  No other parallels to this brand of warfare exist.   But this is not a debate to have in this book review.  The other parallels to the stress of those caught in the war zone and living minute by minute “Under the Gun” and threat of death are quite real.

Wafaa has a unique vision in his art form that continue to elicit strong criticism, censorship, and even persecution, whether intentionally by his own hand or by the hand the ignorant.  He grows and we grow as a result of what he has experienced and has now shared.  This book goes a long way to reducing the hand of the ignorant.

Norwegian Wood - Murakami

I will not be able to do this book justice in a short review on Amazon.  I will study this book for the rest of my life and place it among the greatest novels I have read.   Norwegian Wood is simply magnificent.  Strip away the awkward young love and the experimental erotica and what’s left is a deep examination of the human heart.   Haruki Murakami, although not an educated psychologist, is an extremely talented novelist.  We are all amateur observers of the human condition and have experienced the love and pain created in our own relationships, Murakami merely writes it down for us to examine more closely.  Not all of us have experienced the darker side of emotional behavior when loss, leads to depression, which can lead to suicidal gestures, and which might ultimately lead to a terminal act.  Here is a spoiler.  There are four suicides in this book--one by carbon monoxide asphyxiation, one through wrist laceration, and two by hanging.  There are other deaths described as well.  But this is not a morbid book.  On the contrary Murakami goes to great measure to capture the beauty of life both in natural and physical state and in its more mystical shape of brotherly love and of course erotic love.  He captures the beauty of human friendship and what happens when selfishness overrules better judgment, but ultimately that selflessness can prevail, in some cases it can save.  Murakami ‘s philosophy, that death is the inevitable outcome of life, permeates this book, but also that lives and experiences, even those that have been lost can continue to live.  “Norwegian Wood”, the Beatle’s song not the novel, evokes the memories of lives and loves worth remembering for the characters in this novel.  We all have similar songs that remind us of those other experiences we have long since forgotten.  Murakami is simply reminding us that not only is it OK to remember, it is a fundamental requirement of the well lived and considered life.

The Swerve - Greenbaltt

Stephen Greenblatt, with the publication of his latest history lesson, "The Swerve, How the World Became Modern", has awakened one dormant desire in me...to learn Latin. I grow tired of not being able to read the original Latin text and am forced to depend on the interpretations of others.

Greenblatt has written a necessary and rich interpretation of how humanist book hunters, not our first bibliophiles, existed during the dark ages and struggled to uncover that which lay dormant after the collapse of the Roman empire. He would assert it was the discovery of these ancient texts that led to the world becoming modern...although he doesn't directly assert it...only in the sub-title and perhaps jacket text are the specifics of the assertion which mention a presumed influence on Galileo, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and of course Thomas Jefferson. He only devotes a few pages in the last chapter to discuss the role of Lucretius in the thinking of these paradigm shifting individuals. The final proof is left unfortunately to the student.

Greenblatt takes us on a tore of Italy during the 15th Century through the life of Poggio Bracciolini. A well educated, seemingly middle class (if there were such a thing) scribe who rose through the ranks, with the help of a few mentors, to become a career bureaucrat on the Pope's staff in Rome. During his career he was a learned humanist who cared deeply about ancient works and dedicated most of his life to their preservation. Among other things his most celebrated discovery was that of the lost work of Lucretius, "On the Nature of Things" which he discovered while searching monasteries in Central Europe. As he unveils some of the philosophy contained with this lost work he tries hard to depict the politics and the dangerous balance for a humanist standing on the toes of the Inquisition while trying to enlighten.

Among other very astute observations pertaining to the "Nature of Things" Lucretius made the observation that all matter is composed of very small indivisible particles called atoms. Atoms cannot be destroyed and are the building blocks of all matter. "The Swerve" as it is called, is the continuous acting and reacting of these atoms to cause the destruction and creation of everything we perceive and interact with inside the tangible universe. Quite a weighty thought today let alone 2000 years ago. And the reason these weighty thoughts didn't drive a Renaissance of sorts at the time was because the growth of Christianity and specifically the Catholic Church systematically buried these notions.

His attack on the Catholic Church is well trodden territory and easy pickings. Yet he fails to properly credit the same Church, in fact he goes to great measure to distance his hero, Poggio Bracciolini from the Church, for providing him with the necessary means by which he could attend to his life long passion. Whereas Greenblatt is not short on judgment when it comes to reporting on the moral failings of presumably pious members of the Church, he does not equally judge the moral failings of those enlightened individuals whom are merely employed by the Church.

The astounding discovery here, is not so much that the writings of Lucretius (once rediscovered) had a direct influence on a world struggling to recover from the dark ages but rather it was the Roman empire itself that was becoming more enlightened and perhaps more so than anyone had previously imagined. If Lucretius was but one of many dozens of poets/scholars who filled the Roman Empire with the enlightened thoughts of atomic particles and the greater pursuit of happiness, whose thoughts and writings were never recovered, how did this early enlightenment fail to survive the growth of the Christian Church? Meaning, was it the deliberate work of the Church or the failings of this particular philosophy to catch-on. In order for an idea to catch-on there has to be something to it, something more. Christianity might just have been what society was searching for at the time. Just as the time was right for an enlightenment albeit 1,500 years later.

Although Greenblatt writes well I can't help feeling I was in an undergraduate history class and must remember the lecture as given, thus interpreted, rather than as a graduate student wherein I might discover and debate the meaning as would, it appears ironically, all the enlightened readers who gathered along the seashore, at the base of Mt Vesuvius, to debate modern philosophy 2000 years ago, were doing when they were frozen in time.

Sure enough Greenblatt takes us back to that time yet what he tells us does little more to aid our understanding since his own thoughts are still frozen with Lucretius and have not advanced beyond the atoms and the void.

Disturbing the Universe - Dyson

 

If you've ever wondered how the British firebombing of Germany in World War II, searching for extra terrestrial life, nuclear terrorism, and the existence of dark matter are related this book is for you.  "Disturbing the Universe" written in the early 1970's by the mathematician/physicist Freeman Dyson--the best scientist on tour never to have won the major--is an amazing philosophical journey through the author's life as a scientist and the deep questions of conscious through which he struggled to simply show up for work the next morning. 

Dyson is quite a character - a kind of scientific Forrest Gump...he seems to have been in on some of the most profound technology developments this side of sliced bread...but then standing just slightly left of the stage smiling.  He writes extremely well and is just enough a radical to be interesting, has just enough knowledge to be credible, and just enough humility to be tolerable above the obvious arrogance required to write such a profound book.  To me he has struck the perfect balance.

As I read this book for a second time, the first time was in 1988, I searched for information that would render some of what he had to say obsolete, OBS, as it were, overcome by science.  The fact is this book has survived the test of time.  What he says is as relevant today as it was 35 years ago.  His description of the potential for nuclear terrorism is the most powerful.  His appeal that science must be permitted the resources and flexibility to explore and discover and not be shut down prior to making important discoveries is perhaps the only thing that Kuhn missed, but the practical thing that can drive a scientific revolution (my words not his).  Then, only after the important discoveries are made, should the usefulness of the science be ethically weighed within our societies conscious.  Finally, his three reasons humanity must venture to the heavens should be required reading by anyone who consider themselves an earthling and highly relevant as we currently debate the chapter of space exploration.

Toward the end for the book Dyson throws in an argument for design.  It is important to note that the design he is referencing is not that of intelligent design as forward by Michael Bebe and his ilk.  His confronts the uncertainty of quantum physics vs the certainty of biological evolution.  His is specifically a brief introduction into the anthropic arguments, which, since they are scientific fact, have no place in the fabricated science of intelligent design.   Dyson finishes the book with what we knew must exist in 1975 and now still can't find but know by the name dark matter, and then closes with a shameless head nod to Stanley Kubrick's, "2001; A Space Odyssey", with whom he was on the set with and interviewed by Kubrick during its filming (see Forrest Gump above).

Recently Dyson has quoted and heralded by those who believe the science of global warming to be fraudulent, as if Dyson were on their side and he is their champion.  Since this is a mere book review I will not enter into that discussion.  I will say though, from what I've read about Dyson and from a glimpse at the way his brain functions, as revealed through this book,  his life, his quotes, and his deeds are being heavily misconstrued.