tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-139817192024-03-19T04:47:16.901-04:00Kirkwood: Guaranteed AI-freePlease comment. Comments are moderated, so it may take a day or two for your comment to appear. Or send a mail to wolfmac@sympatico.ca
If you quote, please also link to this blog. If you like this blog, please follow it. Highest review rating is four stars ****
Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.comBlogger1905125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-65339197232295328102024-03-16T11:35:00.000-04:002024-03-16T11:35:43.212-04:00There's No History Here (poem)<p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>There’s No History Here</b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><i>Above Kama Bay<br /></i><br />This country has no history,<br />they say.<br /><br />Then what’s that breathing there?<br /><br />There are no stories told<br />more than a generation old.<br /><br />Musty papers in old libraries,<br />read by odd fellows<br />who believe they can rebuild the past.<br /><br />Frail quilts stored on high dusty shelves,<br />brought out into bright air<br />and fingered by old women,<br />as they tell who pieced the patchwork,<br />who ran the needle through the batt,<br />made arcs and whorls that hold<br />the coverlet together.<br /><br />These tales made up<br />of memories, misremembered<br />names and half-remembered facts –<br />they don’t make a history,<br />they say.<br /><br />Nor do those fragments<br />of a myth the elders tell.<br /><br />Oral history’s not history,<br />they say.<br /><br />Each teller adds his notions<br />of what was truly done.<br />Each teller makes a tale<br />of what she knows must,<br />not might, have been.<br /><br />And if these tales are true enough<br />(for truth in history’s a guess,<br />a fiction built on facts),<br />if then these tales are true,<br />as any history may be,<br />that doesn’t signify – <br />a generation or two back<br />is as far as memory<br />and memories of memories may reach.<br /><br />The land seems empty,<br />the sound of the truck<br />working up the hill remote, muted<br />by the space enfolding it.<br /><br />The ghosts of those who came before us<br />do not speak in the wind,<br />their language does not<br />echo in the water-filled canyons,<br />their songs have long since faded<br />into silent distances.<br /><br />And yet <br /> and yet.<br /><br />Something moves behind me,<br />touches my neck.<br />Something like a word,<br />half heard,<br />catches my ears.<br /><br />The heat feels loud as a shout,<br />the pines’ sweetness hangs<br />in the sun-stilled air – <br /><br />There is history here.<br /><br />There was history here.<br /><br />What’s left of it –<br />a few flakes struck from stone<br />the rusty stain of blood<br />bleached<br />by indifferent rain and sun.<br /><br />©WEK:2005-2020<br /></span><br /></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-21470216564906076172024-03-13T11:24:00.003-04:002024-03-13T11:24:28.938-04:00Murder Being Once Done (Rendell, 1972)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEipOq-v13BkaBIbroePPvwBr0-CRbVi1KAWOIQCr6kzjjrjq520evHidrfGh-vjbWqmL3tIVLRQx8lNXDNjASmyjUyFLUpWHsG08GRq1RoxxUlDvAuJoM2x90Ovz_kjiI6YlWZEJ-8ACtSFKqFQXlNA-T54M0rnfZaeL1jagd0ZJ_C3NYZgEAFQ/s1600/Rendell%201972%20Murder%20Being%20Once%20Done%201994.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="939" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEipOq-v13BkaBIbroePPvwBr0-CRbVi1KAWOIQCr6kzjjrjq520evHidrfGh-vjbWqmL3tIVLRQx8lNXDNjASmyjUyFLUpWHsG08GRq1RoxxUlDvAuJoM2x90Ovz_kjiI6YlWZEJ-8ACtSFKqFQXlNA-T54M0rnfZaeL1jagd0ZJ_C3NYZgEAFQ/w235-h400/Rendell%201972%20Murder%20Being%20Once%20Done%201994.jpg" width="235" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Ruth Rendell. <b><i>Murder Being Once Done.</i></b> (1972) A re-read. I also vaguely recall the video version. Dr Crocker has ordered Reg to take a break from work, with a complete change of scene. He and Dora visit Reg’s nephew Howard and his wife Denise in London. Dora and Denise get on very well supervising Reg’s diet and exercise, but Reg is bored.<br /> Howard happens to be a Detective Superintendent. He avoids talking shop with his uncle, under the impression that it would excite his heart into sudden failure. A corpse turns up in a graveyard in an insalubrious quarter of London. When Howard finds Reg at the crime scene, obviously intent on finding out what he can, he asks Reg to help him. There follows the typical Rendell plot, with red herrings, errors in judgement and interpretation, with-holding of respectability-damaging evidence, and the final revelation that rearranges everything into a psychologically plausible story.<br /> Rendell understands the dark places of the human heart, and the fears and jealousies that fester there. Here, she also sketches the cruel effects of pleasure-denying religionism. Recommended. ***½ </span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-20432824936480042132024-03-06T19:46:00.000-05:002024-03-06T19:46:24.226-05:00Remember Me (Weldon 1976)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8c65uNPbgAa6UHfQh5ppHZGLBFsjjAdwMLqf36_BQyyzYwhpZg_2t9weBBVJdAPxBSL7tW373EiPvfV8r9fMokdY-ImWwTvSdJ4BVDBPN0Zrilgo-vRZh5Q5DkPxCGVywGxNusUERHgRDS4xGX7Lo1IaqoMLX6OyebTcEOhlU6A6EXa3U96w47A/s1600/Weldon%201976%20Remember%20Me%201985.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="957" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8c65uNPbgAa6UHfQh5ppHZGLBFsjjAdwMLqf36_BQyyzYwhpZg_2t9weBBVJdAPxBSL7tW373EiPvfV8r9fMokdY-ImWwTvSdJ4BVDBPN0Zrilgo-vRZh5Q5DkPxCGVywGxNusUERHgRDS4xGX7Lo1IaqoMLX6OyebTcEOhlU6A6EXa3U96w47A/s320/Weldon%201976%20Remember%20Me%201985.jpg" width="191" /></a></div> Fay Weldon. <b><i>Remember Me</i></b> (1976) Madeleine, Jarvis’s ex-wife, wants revenge. She’s obsesses about him and his new wife Lily, who is a self-centred horror. Their circle includes Philip, a doctor (somewhat of a cold fish) and Margot his wife, who once many years ago made love with Jarvis, on the coats stacked in the spare bedroom during a party when Madeleine was still married to him. That’s the setup. Weldon tells their interlaced stories with a mix of universal and character points of view. About halfway through the story, Madeleine dies in car crash, and her ghost hangs around making trouble. Eventually loose ends are nicely knotted, some poetic justice dishes appropriate retribution, loves are rekindled, and ghostly Madeleine rests in peace.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> IOW, this is a romance, but with sharp elbows. Weldon is very good at skewering moral failings, and acute in observing how people avoid painful but healing insights. An enjoyable read that raises questions that most of us need to ask about ourselves and our relationships.<br /> Recommended. ***</span></div>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-42733113754768554682024-02-29T13:38:00.004-05:002024-02-29T13:38:34.722-05:00The Present is the Child of the Past: Elizabeth George, A Banquet of Consequences (2015)<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwnvL0sDX5Ids1rTG71JDnK99Dg836abyuZizsiZmsDC0F4IuRkym_1i7l485t3qgg7blLRnacJBhSf6Yh-GljM_7edF3C8Pq7NK_yK98W6WIhZc9qBbjDD2zd4gRi02Kln_nPeP03H_GxU7h_LiUT6LJ2M-ODSwujaif5MSjosnNDynn2S0PMQ/s1600/George%202015%20A%20Banquet%20of%20Consequences%202016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1077" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBwnvL0sDX5Ids1rTG71JDnK99Dg836abyuZizsiZmsDC0F4IuRkym_1i7l485t3qgg7blLRnacJBhSf6Yh-GljM_7edF3C8Pq7NK_yK98W6WIhZc9qBbjDD2zd4gRi02Kln_nPeP03H_GxU7h_LiUT6LJ2M-ODSwujaif5MSjosnNDynn2S0PMQ/w269-h400/George%202015%20A%20Banquet%20of%20Consequences%202016.jpg" width="269" /></a></div> Elizabeth George. <b><i>A Banquet of Consequences</i></b> (2015). DS Havers misbehaved in a prior case, and is under threat of transfer to Berwick on Tweed. DCI Lynley has promised to keep her inside the lines. She goes to a lecture by Clare Abbot, a famous feminist who later turns up dead of sodium azide poisoning. An appallingly dysfunctional family swirling around Abbot’s assistant Caroline Goldacres, and the usual bystanders keeping secrets, add to the strain of keeping strictly to the rules, but Havers, Lynley and DS Winston eventually solve the case. Arlo, a charming Personal Aid Dog supplies some sentimental relief. A fairly clued but nevertheless surprising twist at the end upends expectations, but you’ll have to read the book to find out, ‘cuz I’m not telling.<br /> I borrowed this book from our library after watching the first two episodes in the DCI Lynley TV series. It’s the 19th Lynley book. And it looks like George’s reputation has persuaded her publishers to let her write as much as she wants. The result is a book that’s too long as a crime mystery, and undefined in focus.<br /> We read dated chapters and sub-headed segments or scenes. Any one of them works very well as character or plot development, but there are simply too many of them. George is excellent at showing self-delusion, and deliberate or unwitting evil. The dialogue is nearly flawless. She understands the conundrums of human relationships, especially when people are unable or unwilling to express unspoken or unadmitted desires and fears. She knows how to use the trivial detail to shift our perceptions of character, to control ambience, and to lay a trail of clues. The book is a pleasure to read.<br /> This is a novel about a crime, about how it originated and how it affects everyone touched by it. We also learn more about the private and professional lives of Havers and Lynley. The cumulative effect is that of a soap opera, whose characters just happen to caught up in a crime.<br /> Do I like this book? Well, I’d prefer a more swiftly told tale. On the other hand, the characters are memorable. George can make you care even about the monsters she creates. Every character is damaged in some way. They differ only in their ability to heal from the hurts inflicted on them. Most achieve a resolution of their immediate problems, but they don’t escape into a romantic happy-ever-after fantasy.<br /> Intriguing enough to make me borrow another Lynley book. As a police procedural, ** As a novel of character, ***</span></div>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-52821689861059180222024-02-27T19:05:00.023-05:002024-02-27T19:09:05.348-05:00Mini-mysteries: bet you can't read just one (!00 Malicious Little Mystreies, Asimove et al, 1981)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLwKHsQd306_4X4M9rbMdPbf-3R9zd_75AkwEvb5Jo_OTIz2c833RiypFNz4mGzgbwSVbZAZfkOcVtsi5jEmjosiBa9dm0Ni7vZlwVgNsl43qSSDFdqrqbI385Utr8imozRCCTgt9SvRrm23XRA3hmo9KIkvEFWott917haY9o2DUw55Uj0cv3A/s1600/Asimov%20et%20al%201981%20100%20Malicious%20Little%20Mysteries.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1097" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXLwKHsQd306_4X4M9rbMdPbf-3R9zd_75AkwEvb5Jo_OTIz2c833RiypFNz4mGzgbwSVbZAZfkOcVtsi5jEmjosiBa9dm0Ni7vZlwVgNsl43qSSDFdqrqbI385Utr8imozRCCTgt9SvRrm23XRA3hmo9KIkvEFWott917haY9o2DUw55Uj0cv3A/w274-h400/Asimov%20et%20al%201981%20100%20Malicious%20Little%20Mysteries.jpg" width="274" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander. <b><i>100 Malicious Little Mysteries</i></b> (1981) A re-read, and just as much fun as the first time. For one thing, I’d forgotten most of the stories, so they felt new. The few that I recognised provided the pleasure of observing how the plot was sprung on the unsuspecting reader. A short-short story works like a joke: it directs attention in one direction, then shows that another direction makes perfect sense. The joke trades on absurdity, the mini-mystery on poetic justice, reversal, and reinterpretation. Asimov’s introduction calls these tales “snacks”, and the trouble with snacks is that it’s hard to stop with just one.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> One of the tales solves the puzzle of Jack the Ripper. Several deal out poetic justice. Several others make a nice distinction between the moral and the criminal law. A good wide range of motifs and themes.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Recommended. I was thinking about donating my copy to the food bank yard sale, but I’ve decided it’s a keeper. *** to ****</span></div><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-77775883427301547002024-02-27T10:00:00.007-05:002024-02-27T19:00:40.736-05:00A Disappearance but No Body: Pictures of Perfection (R Hill, 1994)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiabJ0gry2HAuKs08xDufuFMZZKtszpP65QXtTlcSqyRxiPzqRLx4wjf88S8jdbhuylZf5rmwNOf_MNiCMjzDZHzcAnEmunX95bewy-u5LD3pXSZ_TSla7oWnZmZjmE2lMD5uchq2nRqdBfNu9i0xtYCrLpYPFmmNIXcADQpsQIrAYTF-gQPgbxPg/s1600/Hill%201994%20Pictures%20of%20Perfection%201995.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="936" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiabJ0gry2HAuKs08xDufuFMZZKtszpP65QXtTlcSqyRxiPzqRLx4wjf88S8jdbhuylZf5rmwNOf_MNiCMjzDZHzcAnEmunX95bewy-u5LD3pXSZ_TSla7oWnZmZjmE2lMD5uchq2nRqdBfNu9i0xtYCrLpYPFmmNIXcADQpsQIrAYTF-gQPgbxPg/w234-h400/Hill%201994%20Pictures%20of%20Perfection%201995.jpg" width="234" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Reginald Hill.<b><i> Pictures of Perfection</i></b>. (1994) A young cop, assigned to the small village of Enscombe to have his officiousness rubbed off, goes missing a few days before the Day of Reckoning, once the day the tenants paid their rents and now an excuse for a party. Ancient traditions crumble, new and old relationships weaken or strengthen as the case may be, people admit secrets to themselves and others, a couple of villains get their poetic comeuppance, and in general there’s a major rearrangement of the village’s social life. Because of the missing PC, Dalziel, Pasco, and Wield are sent to into this vortex of all too human lives. The PC turns up and resigns from the force, and all the other loose ends are nicely tied up. For the moment, it looks like a happily ever after state has been achieved by everyone in the village, but we know it won’t last. Hill didn’t write a follow-up book, so we’ll never know.<br /> A good read, with Hill experimenting in multiple points of view, including excerpts from several memoirs. Recommended. ***½ </span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-70210989663023476082024-02-21T09:20:00.002-05:002024-02-21T09:20:28.924-05:00Dangerous Rails: Murder on the Railways (Haining, 1996)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGs2BeG1uEjV8ZS7dZgkoHujKlc5KL0QPUmfpuk5QFZhN8qFtDDNfzY-g_aaIbax227bPk2cE0rMzicDvJatmipW9I_-a6m0YkxN8hhnO3zilxS1uv66hmQr0u8zULw1xOtiE_7fzAzK4ziWrh1KxWArVcDlvGB0_XFoOvBAbKGqwPBCDR-XMgQ/s1600/Haining%201996%20Murder%20on%20the%20Railways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1005" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfGs2BeG1uEjV8ZS7dZgkoHujKlc5KL0QPUmfpuk5QFZhN8qFtDDNfzY-g_aaIbax227bPk2cE0rMzicDvJatmipW9I_-a6m0YkxN8hhnO3zilxS1uv66hmQr0u8zULw1xOtiE_7fzAzK4ziWrh1KxWArVcDlvGB0_XFoOvBAbKGqwPBCDR-XMgQ/w251-h400/Haining%201996%20Murder%20on%20the%20Railways.jpg" width="251" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> Peter Haining.<b><i> Murder On The Railways.</i></b> (1996) An anthology in four themed parts, making a fat book that’s ergonomically awkward. The contents make the bother worthwhile. Haining provides a potted publishing bio for each author, including references to film and video adaptations. Very useful.<br /> The selections are all very good or better. Railways from the beginning were a romantic as well as a convenient way to travel. A long-distance sleeper train provides a closed setting, a limited cast of suspects, and a limited time to solve the crime. Just right for a detective story.<br />Trains are also targets for crime. The largest heist ever was a train robbery in the UK in 1963. The thieves took £2.61 million, about £45 million ($77 million) in today’s money.<br /> Section one deals with crime on the express trains. Section two introduces railway detectives. Section three shows that crime on subways forms a subgenre. The last section extends suburban, mostly domestic, crime to the commuter trains. All in all, a good spread of goodies<br /> Recommended. *** to ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-57330070500669696772024-02-12T10:40:00.003-05:002024-02-29T13:39:05.725-05:00Reporter or influencer? (Hillerman, The Fly on the Wall, 1971)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkItNTlwMhZcvAqde013RFXaIvVksu1UWugs260Dg1IN-3rK7Lr9680qIaCVZDDY0BDP_4dRliH1cZd7pYBAfW1lGJY_9QsMgSCZPEbzUqPjRvLIiBPAzxyBPcagMXpSMK1wxDUzkmytLs0jQXjrpondSE7lKJdDDn4sNbpXa3b1kbwXEq5zDRw/s1600/Hillerman%201979%20Fly%20On%20The%20Wall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="952" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkItNTlwMhZcvAqde013RFXaIvVksu1UWugs260Dg1IN-3rK7Lr9680qIaCVZDDY0BDP_4dRliH1cZd7pYBAfW1lGJY_9QsMgSCZPEbzUqPjRvLIiBPAzxyBPcagMXpSMK1wxDUzkmytLs0jQXjrpondSE7lKJdDDn4sNbpXa3b1kbwXEq5zDRw/w238-h400/Hillerman%201979%20Fly%20On%20The%20Wall.jpg" width="238" /></a></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Tony Hillerman. <b><i>The Fly On The Wall</i></b> (1971) My copy is a well-read 1979 paperback reissue of this novel, reprinted about 1982, when <i>The Dark Wind</i> (No. 5 in the Navajo Police series) was published. The hero is John Cotton, political reporter for the afternoon Tribune in Capitol City. MacDaniels, a colleague elated that he’s uncovered a story that will cap his career, dies a few minutes after telling Cotton he‘s looking for his notebook. Cotton finds the notebook (of course), and begins to decipher a story of political corruption. He nearly becomes a murder victim himself, pieces the story together, and goes to see Korolenko, a former State Governor, to tell him what he’s found.<br /> But if the story is published, a corrupt opportunist will win the next election. Should Cotton withhold the story? Should he publish? Is he really the fly on the wall, seeing all, feeling nothing, utterly objective? Read the book to find out.<br /> By bibliography dating, this is Hillerman’s second novel. In style and pacing not up to his later standard, it’s still a very good read. The descriptions of political shenanigans and calculations show that politics hasn’t changed much since the 1970s. It’s maybe more openly vicious than it was back then. As a story about journalism, it’s become a historical novel with the ring of truth. Hillerman was a reporter for several years before he became an academic and a novelist. It took me a while to read this book. It’s a must for the Hillerman fan, a good read for anyone who likes crime stories, and a nostalgia-inducing experience for anyone who remembers when newspapers mattered more than any other medium.<br /> Recommended ***</span></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-75646075474999270222024-02-07T10:14:00.006-05:002024-02-07T10:15:32.610-05:00Unusual Brains: Thomson's Unthinkable (2018)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVKnKhyV2JYXNT1C2Kan3HMlAc7vxbXzWy7Hg5S61766ocQDQkhjnU_gj7r-wW09MD58NbePxcxfLinl1l_YMUKhzcJEh2FLp6vTcJeKssJKNnzLVK2y-zNRfBtpX7AJu1APnrijBcRx0mDM5gUC4FiQ7hFQDQ9C48Hq6oWJplNgNRq4wI2YGlg/s1600/Thomson%202018%20Unthinkable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1028" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizVKnKhyV2JYXNT1C2Kan3HMlAc7vxbXzWy7Hg5S61766ocQDQkhjnU_gj7r-wW09MD58NbePxcxfLinl1l_YMUKhzcJEh2FLp6vTcJeKssJKNnzLVK2y-zNRfBtpX7AJu1APnrijBcRx0mDM5gUC4FiQ7hFQDQ9C48Hq6oWJplNgNRq4wI2YGlg/w258-h400/Thomson%202018%20Unthinkable.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> Helen Thomson. <b><i>Unthinkable</i></b>. (2018) Oliver Sacks’s <i>The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat</i> showed that suitably edited case histories could help people understand the effects of stroke and other insults to the brain. His sensitive descriptions, his reports of interviews, his attempts to translate his patients’ accounts into accessible narratives, these and more have inspired generations of readers. One of them was Helen Thomson, who cherishes her interview with him a couple of years or so before he died. This book is in part a result of her admiration for Sacks, coupled with a wide-ranging curiosity, and enough neuroscience background (she has a B.Sc) to make sense of the topic of this book: how people with unusual brains manage to survive and thrive.<br /> Thomson tells the stories of nine people with congenital or acquired brain oddities. There’s Bob, who never forgets a moment. Or Tommy, whose personality changed utterly when he suffered an aneurysm. Or Sharon, whose sense of location is so bad that she has trouble navigating around her house. Thomson interviewed them all, as well as similar ones that she found along the way, and the scientists and psychiatrists who worked with these extraordinary outliers. The result is a reminder that we are our brains. When our brains don’t function as expected, we become different people. That’s the reason we are afraid of dementia, I think. Dementia shows us that what we think of as the most reliable component of our experience, our sense of self, is in fact the most fragile.<br /> The book confirms my belief that the brain constructs a simulation of reality with the Self, the “I”, not only at its centre but as the essential component, the part that holds it all together. Our “I” knows itself to be “here”, at the centre (the pathological version of this knowledge we call narcissism). If the connection between Self and some component of the simulation is broken or compromised, then not only the awareness of what’s “out there” is altered, but so is the Self. <br /> I believe that all brains, human and animal, construct such simulations, every one of them good enough to ensure that most members of a species will live long enough to produce offspring. But all of them incomplete and distorted in some way. The outliers that Thomson describes show the common features of the human simulation of reality. They also show how far from the norm any given simulation can be and still function as a human Self. So in the limited sense of the stable Self thereby implied, the Self is what makes each of us a person.<br /> Footnote: The Christian creeds assert the “resurrection of the body”, which suggests that one of the innovations of the Christian faith was the insight that a Self without a body is impossible. The Incarnation may be understood as another version of this insight. This insight has been slighted or ignored ever since the notion of a disembodied soul was introduced by Augustine and others..<br /> Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-37648495098180201522024-01-27T17:51:00.000-05:002024-01-27T17:51:16.952-05:00Math History: The Secret Lives of Numbers (Kitagawa & Revell)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEejaNYe-P6G9w7BEMcuafob1pT7iNBgLmoK5C2uTaAReQUIur6fpaREzsRQt4cUAh9EnNAd1Y2FkjNAEvV7PfZO7bs9PYzOq5HL6YjFw0fL-h5F6cPfBF7_2-kpGIo-z7i2gAfWzUv8Q5wLYRfA8mtGUzekVMtXsBO1QutdC25JUzhOFPd81Wg/s1600/Kitagawa-Revell%202023%20The%20Secret%20Life%20of%20Numbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1065" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheEejaNYe-P6G9w7BEMcuafob1pT7iNBgLmoK5C2uTaAReQUIur6fpaREzsRQt4cUAh9EnNAd1Y2FkjNAEvV7PfZO7bs9PYzOq5HL6YjFw0fL-h5F6cPfBF7_2-kpGIo-z7i2gAfWzUv8Q5wLYRfA8mtGUzekVMtXsBO1QutdC25JUzhOFPd81Wg/w266-h400/Kitagawa-Revell%202023%20The%20Secret%20Life%20of%20Numbers.jpg" width="266" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Kate Kitagawa & Timothy Revell. <b><i>The Secret Lives of Numbers</i></b> (2003) A history of mathematics taking all currently known mathematical texts into account. The Eurocentric view of mathematical development is shown to be egregiously wrong-headed. Miscellaneous theorems (and some proofs) were discovered or invented in many different places at many different times well before Euclid’s demonstration of the logical coherence of all mathematics. Algorithms for solving trade and other complicated problems ditto. The notation that freed European mathematicians to discover number theory was invented in India, and brought to Europe by Arabs. The need to plan planting and seed-time prompted the study of astronomy, which was perhaps the first science to be mathematised. Either it, or geometry, needed for land surveys. Formal mathematics is at least as old as writing.<br /> The history of mathematics is not even a winding road; it’s a maze of paths leading in all directions with surprising shortcuts, connections in unexpected places, and backtracking. What’s constant is that whenever possible mathematicians exchanged ideas and knowledge. Powerful rulers recognised the value of mathematics and other knowledge, and sponsored the collection of texts, and their study and collation by the best minds they could attract. And ever and again, barbarians with limited insight into anything beyond their immediate goals of getting treasure and women destroyed those collections. We owe a great debt to the scholars who preserved what knowledge they could and taught their students to do likewise.<br /> I think that Kitagawa and Revell deprecate Euclid’s achievement. True, pretty well every theorem he proved in his books, and many of the proofs themselves, were known before him. Compilations of all known mathematics were made centuries before him. But he seems to have been the first one to organise all known mathematics into a logical system, in which rules of inference applied to a handful of axioms, carefully defined, would connect all theorems. It is the critique and emulation of his methods that has led to new mathematics.<br /> I also think that Kitagawa and Revell don’t examine the source of mathematics in ordinary language. As far as I know, it’s possible to express distance, time, size, weight, quantity, similarity and difference, direction, etc, in all human languages. The only variation seems to be in emphasis and detail. Mathematics is the more or less systematic formalisation of these concepts when people found it necessary to do so for some practical purposes involving trade and taxes. (Aside: Where I grew up, distance was expressed as time. A certain relative lived one hour away, for example. That’s an hour’s walk. This may be one reason why I find it easy to accept Einstein’s proposal of a space-time continuum, even though I can’t do the relevant math.)<br /> A keeper, worth an occasional reread. Breezy style, often cliched, which makes it seem easier to understand the math than it really is. The title is a teaser, possibly intended to attract the unnerdy.***</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-83193020533746224422024-01-15T11:23:00.005-05:002024-01-28T10:04:15.337-05:00Drunk or High? (Lapham's Quarterly 06-1, Intoxication)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20FK3b-3BxmwPYPU871x0WPPkgNWUNi4NAPb64GzUMGJHbavu8l1ACZZjIOSfhWbXnvOGQEVe8qJifR33DpZXgH0T8qpuv2X2bdOkn2oq1B9ioEWti18Ui1wRt4uxqsEusTLcCP1TJNP5wbPUuPdRONxITLxEwNdKQ9yXlzZh77ejBevpnUvRmA/s1600/LQ%2006-1%20Intoxication%202013.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1083" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj20FK3b-3BxmwPYPU871x0WPPkgNWUNi4NAPb64GzUMGJHbavu8l1ACZZjIOSfhWbXnvOGQEVe8qJifR33DpZXgH0T8qpuv2X2bdOkn2oq1B9ioEWti18Ui1wRt4uxqsEusTLcCP1TJNP5wbPUuPdRONxITLxEwNdKQ9yXlzZh77ejBevpnUvRmA/w271-h400/LQ%2006-1%20Intoxication%202013.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> LQ 06-1: <b><i>Intoxication</i></b> (2013) Not only about alcohol and drugs (though they figure prominently) but also about poisons. For all of our known history, we humans have taken (usually mild) poisons in small doses because they messed up our brains, thus creating an “altered state of consciousness.” We aren’t the only animals that seek this experience: not only mammals but insects and birds have been observed slurping fermented fruit.<br /> A wide-ranging selection of first-person reports on the joys of getting drunk or high, praises of the grape and other intoxicants, scoldings for over-indulgence, severe frowning on any kind of intoxicant, etc. But the one question that I would like to see some answer to is hardly touched on: Why do we do it? The evidence suggests that we mostly seek the pleasure drugs provide, and some seek what they believe are transcendental visions of ultimate reality. The hangover or withdrawal are accepted as a (relatively) small price to pay for these treasures.<br /> Intoxication I think touches on the question of consciousness. The drugs’ effects show that our experience of reality is constructed by the brain. Deflect the brain from normal functioning, and that experience changes. Drugs and alcohol aren’t the only means of doing this, but they are the most reliable. That’s why we seek them out. That’s also why moralists of all stripes condemn them: the easy alteration of the brain’s function shows that the sense of self, the “I”, is a construction of the brain. That implies no independent Self or Soul to transcend this mortal life. It also makes nonsense of the belief that the Self can be somehow “uploaded” into an abiological, possibly electronic, but potentially immortal body (as envisioned by Ray Kurzweil among others).<br /> The Matrix is real: it resides in three pounds of jelly encased in a bony shell that protects it, mostly. We can mess with the program, and we like doing that. That’s what this collection demonstrates. I’ve been drunk twice in my life, and don’t want to repeat the experience. It’s enough to get a mild buzz, which I can also get without ingesting chemicals. Knowing that my experience of the world around me is not an exact replica is strangely comforting.<br /> Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-47005440736187853822024-01-15T11:16:00.005-05:002024-01-28T10:03:47.376-05:00Existential Physics (Hossenfelder 2022)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPPzvccShuDaEYWCWpypjdZ0cBkps1hFzvi5VW0gTpZu0bj86fbaZdoAToG6nADXHEj3-w8mOA_K1qHygJeVb5fgtNUnxFxZGMXz5w0sYrEReB1gxFpJZI0JPewyh9Zl0INCJ-s3adHQiHQM0-e3GNZ0c-sRlxZq0q2WtGCNXKx35yukLVX3DUA/s1600/Hossenfelder%20%202022%20Existential%20Physics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1025" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPPzvccShuDaEYWCWpypjdZ0cBkps1hFzvi5VW0gTpZu0bj86fbaZdoAToG6nADXHEj3-w8mOA_K1qHygJeVb5fgtNUnxFxZGMXz5w0sYrEReB1gxFpJZI0JPewyh9Zl0INCJ-s3adHQiHQM0-e3GNZ0c-sRlxZq0q2WtGCNXKx35yukLVX3DUA/w256-h400/Hossenfelder%20%202022%20Existential%20Physics.jpg" width="256" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> Sabine Hossenfelder. <b><i>Existential Physics</i></b> (2022) Hossenfelder has made a YouTube reputation as a disturber and explainer. Search for her videos; they’re fun and enlightening. She believes that modern physics is in crisis because it claims more insight and understanding than is warranted by experiment and observation, especially when it comes to dark matter and energy. The theories, the sets of interlocking equations, describe what’s measured, but for consistency’s sake, theorists have added entities that haven’t been observed to interact with the entities that we know about. In her Warning, she says, “Science has limits, and yet humanity has always sought meaning beyond those limits.” Quite so.<br /> Then Hossenfelder goes on to show how science can inform some of the answers to the questions that exceed the limits of science. Science can clarify and disambiguate some of those questions. For example, do we have free will? The scientific answer (summarised) is: “No, if by free will you mean the ability to choose without being subject to the laws of physics.”</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7frnjoREjiWNeOEvleK9n1QayWa2Tmrj3ln8ddIXd2WcZA2OF6Fq53mXhBE511RpGob5FuQHjwIgfyoQi_Pa09sX9ysabvXztH_huPb738iw-yr0gcTmJVA2b8nJEQ3M_XsnkUZTQrZwLDU8cZ9xLf8n70Nc5X5wOlVxXYv31dp6cP_25GjuZQ/s1240/brain_3555818b-gigapixel-art-scale-2_00x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1240" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl7frnjoREjiWNeOEvleK9n1QayWa2Tmrj3ln8ddIXd2WcZA2OF6Fq53mXhBE511RpGob5FuQHjwIgfyoQi_Pa09sX9ysabvXztH_huPb738iw-yr0gcTmJVA2b8nJEQ3M_XsnkUZTQrZwLDU8cZ9xLf8n70Nc5X5wOlVxXYv31dp6cP_25GjuZQ/w400-h250/brain_3555818b-gigapixel-art-scale-2_00x.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> For choosing is a brain-function, and brains function according the laws of physics. This fact has funked recent philosophers, who see no way out of the answer. But there is one: when we deliberately choose we figure alternatives, and weigh their desirability. We may choose differently than we chose in the past or will choose in the future. We will often choose differently than others choose. Thus, while our choices may not be freely willed, neither are they automatic. We aren’t automatons; we are agents. But we can’t choose without preferring one alternative to the others. Since our preferences are shaped by our genetics and our experience, in that sense, the choice is not “free”. However, we can choose to change our preferences. Odd, that. Is the choice to change our preference free or not? At the neurological level, I think no. At the psychological level, I think yes. And then there's the spoiler question: How would you distinguish between free and determined choice? <br /> Hossenfelder does fall into what I think is the common philosophical error of physicists: She believes that physics reveals reality as it really is. Or at least that it is closer to doing so than the messier, less abstract sciences such as chemistry, biology, psychology, and so on. She reminds us that every "emergent property" that biology describes can be explained by chemistry and physics, and that everything that chemistry describes can be explained by physics. Neurology is solving some of the puzzles of psychology by showing how brain function varies with different behaviours, and emotions. Or at least suggesting how to reframe the puzzles.<br /> In short, she says, no so-called “emergent” phenomenon has (so far) been found to be inexplicable by the lower level from it which supposedly emerged. AFAIK, she’s right. But since the more abstract theories are derived from and explain the less abstract ones, that’s not, I think, a surprise.<br /> As I see it, physics describes the structure of reality. Einstein’s space-time makes this absolutely clear: What we observe depends on where in space-time we are relative to other entities, and how we are moving relative to other entities. General relativity (GR) describes how one observer’s worldview (measurements) is precisely transformable into another observer’s worldview: a clock runs fast from one POV, runs slow from another, and we can calculate exactly how much the measurements differ. (These calculations are necessary for GPS systems to function.)<br /> Quantum mechanics (QM) shows that what we observe depends on the event’s context: Electrons behave like particles in some contexts, and like waves in others. Or better, wave equations describe some electron behaviours, and particle equations describe others. None describe electrons. And those equations are the best descriptions we have, so far. There are probably better ones “out there”, and maybe they’ll be discovered. But not in my lifetime, I think. Bummer.</span><br /><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2M5IA_UOO8ZeL1VtouoQgYr-1751NqYYb5r0nzk8ptyfVp-Jes5kk3m3uHuykAVlPyi39kumVKSqN6YevlRDnNCBd5BAvvGghW4bzhwdt-zJL85YCxFayE62kAxnS_q7u5XSnj_H1f3stvffEQily5Os38dtn4j8OLmyuJQnAKTQ4CaZOYbbPQ/s3375/7853b312289c-studio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="3375" height="127" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA2M5IA_UOO8ZeL1VtouoQgYr-1751NqYYb5r0nzk8ptyfVp-Jes5kk3m3uHuykAVlPyi39kumVKSqN6YevlRDnNCBd5BAvvGghW4bzhwdt-zJL85YCxFayE62kAxnS_q7u5XSnj_H1f3stvffEQily5Os38dtn4j8OLmyuJQnAKTQ4CaZOYbbPQ/w400-h127/7853b312289c-studio.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> The fact that GR and QM cannot (at present) be reconciled should not surprise us either, I think. Both are highly abstract descriptions of what’s common and different in our perceptions of reality. Our experience of reality is a simulation created by our brains. We can compare each other’s perceptions, and note whether we perceive the same differences and similarities. That’s the beginning of science, and it’s already at least one level of abstraction away from the simulation which is our experience of the world around us. But that simulation is itself an abstraction, constructed (computed?) by our brains. It’s sufficiently accurate that we can navigate the world, get our food, find our mates, etc. It must be structurally similar to reality, else we could not survive. It may make sense to say that the topology of our experience (the simulation) must be similar enough to the topology of reality to enable our survival. I don’t know enough about topology or brain function to be able to say. I also haven’t a clue how the brain’s simulation becomes what “I” experience. I suspect it’s because “I” is part of the simulation, probably the essential part, but how would one test that notion?<br /> I enjoyed this book, because (as the above may show) it prompted rethinking many of my ideas. I will read it again. Hossenfelder is an excellent explainer.<br /> Recommended. **** </span><br /><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-78471554766505688202024-01-08T11:02:00.001-05:002024-01-28T10:02:48.314-05:00Magic Shows (Lapham's Quartely 05-3 2012)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i></i></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJ9Jru-1tKcb7U3Qj3xQxCvCeShPoCgzZCZFcwiUml_zoDooRD4jkCUXpqQLD0NSJQEA5K2NZRttsTGt3rh6SjGyyNZEDrtlHcGc4CvTX4uTM9ZfLKMqZ5SNtd07lMsNlkrmvrL7AViI8oMiXV8QKP0IltcA3fq9iT1Tl5jUlq_0CHLg_KdBALA/s1600/LQ%2005-3%20Magic%20Shows%202012.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1079" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJ9Jru-1tKcb7U3Qj3xQxCvCeShPoCgzZCZFcwiUml_zoDooRD4jkCUXpqQLD0NSJQEA5K2NZRttsTGt3rh6SjGyyNZEDrtlHcGc4CvTX4uTM9ZfLKMqZ5SNtd07lMsNlkrmvrL7AViI8oMiXV8QKP0IltcA3fq9iT1Tl5jUlq_0CHLg_KdBALA/w270-h400/LQ%2005-3%20Magic%20Shows%202012.jpg" width="270" /></a></i></b></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i> LQ 05-3: Magic Shows</i></b> (2012) Magicians take advantage of the way the brain constructs a simulation of reality. The brain does a good enough job that most of us survive long enough to succeed at whatever ambitions we may have. But the simulation is flawed in fundamental ways, and the magicians know how to exploit those errors to make us believe we see what doesn’t happen while we miss what actually happens.<br /> There have always been people who believe that magic is real, that the illusions crafted by the magicians aren’t illusions at all. Some scallywags have exploited this desire to believe in mastery of supernatural powers, which has always damaged people’s wallets, and too often their health as well.<br /> Of course, “magic” has many senses. The common core means something like “actually or apparently breaking the laws that govern reality as we know it.” There’s always the whiff of the supernatural about magic. At one extreme, people may believe that evil entities use magic to mislead or harm. At the other extreme, all apparently inexplicable phenomena are dismissed as fraud or delusion. Superstition and cynicism are close cousins.<br /> Me, I enjoy a good magic show. I also have more or less serious doubts about the claims for sightings of the Loch Ness monster, or abductions by aliens arriving on Earth in flying saucers. As for spoon bending, while I don’t know how to do this trick, other people do, and psychic energy isn’t part of it.<br /> Magic is designed to elicit wonder, which makes it close cousin to science and art. It requires skills useful in both. As entertainment, it satisfies. As a reminder that the universe is largely inexplicable, it may rekindle wonder and gratitude at the gift of life, and a brain able to both explain the mystery at the heart of reality, and know where that explanation shades into confabulation.<br /> Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-20642883538768147482024-01-08T10:57:00.006-05:002024-01-28T10:02:01.868-05:00The Disordered Cosmos (Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 2021)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8xHE36fdHu4X5wqX-Q9EUxz6leAvKJtV7DypZdbu9a2Jfc1oQLNRfHAv8tSGA4T0h0yuw1sAWEDOTa7yjRGFNGa7lL3eJ-yAiKg8W6lyrOZKJJHQ-WBTpYC2pNUff6eQTVfANxu35WnX29bKyNCEIcO-57xaO53W85wLsTdvtF2tZiYQV7bONw/s1600/Prescod-Weinstein%202021%20The%20Disordered%20Cosmos%202022.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1049" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM8xHE36fdHu4X5wqX-Q9EUxz6leAvKJtV7DypZdbu9a2Jfc1oQLNRfHAv8tSGA4T0h0yuw1sAWEDOTa7yjRGFNGa7lL3eJ-yAiKg8W6lyrOZKJJHQ-WBTpYC2pNUff6eQTVfANxu35WnX29bKyNCEIcO-57xaO53W85wLsTdvtF2tZiYQV7bONw/w263-h400/Prescod-Weinstein%202021%20The%20Disordered%20Cosmos%202022.jpg" width="263" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. <b><i>The Disordered Cosmos</i></b>. (2021) A mix of science, history of science, memoir, sociology, and psychology. Prescod-Weinstein’s thesis is that while Western science has given us unimaginable insight into the structure of the cosmos, it has also ignored, deprecated or suppressed the contributions of women and Indigenous people. Worse, it has often dismissed their contributions as mere superstition.<br /> I found this book both exhilarating and painful to read. Exhilarating because of her skill in explaining the abstruse and esoteric concepts that are the core of modern physics. Painful because of what it cost her to achieve these insights. She played the academic game, and achieved academic career success. She’s now using her position to try to change the culture of science. I hope she succeeds.<br /> One thing her book confirms: Modern physics is mostly about how we cannot know what we would like to know. The equations describe mysteries so well that we can predict the interactions we will measure in our experiments and observations. But exactly what the interacting entities are is unknown, and likely unknowable. Given invisible matter and contestable energy, we may never know more than a tiny fraction of the cosmos, and understand less. Perhaps we are limited by our very nature: we are stardust, electromagnetic entities.<br /> Read this book. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-8047629999890389952023-12-30T15:30:00.015-05:002024-01-28T10:01:19.749-05:00Work: Love it or hate it, you need it. (Lapham's Quarterly 04-2, Spring 2011)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFoZ1yP2wiMrvIX8Gzqd47txfVrPyedP5qJEu3QIP6qGCjzFIQXGdMwJf79XXiqdklPOrO4Nd2QFo7v20UAkLVWKqXp1nT2yOkmrT0F6SLQSHqS7qsAlHgcOiT_W1rX0HqMT_2Tu9yAxNKykfuzxKh_MLj1gz9CTeRFOBSb6Js65PLnjLxP9N0A/s1600/LQ%2004-2%20Lines%20of%20Work%202011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1091" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFoZ1yP2wiMrvIX8Gzqd47txfVrPyedP5qJEu3QIP6qGCjzFIQXGdMwJf79XXiqdklPOrO4Nd2QFo7v20UAkLVWKqXp1nT2yOkmrT0F6SLQSHqS7qsAlHgcOiT_W1rX0HqMT_2Tu9yAxNKykfuzxKh_MLj1gz9CTeRFOBSb6Js65PLnjLxP9N0A/w272-h400/LQ%2004-2%20Lines%20of%20Work%202011.jpg" width="272" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> <i><b>LQ 04-2: Lines of Work</b></i>. (2011) “Work fascinates me. I could watch it for hours.” That’s one of the quotes scattered through this collection. It expresses one end of the range of attitudes to work, adumbrated in the curse laid on Adam after the Fall: <i>In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread</i>. At the other end we find St Benedict’s <i>Ora et Labora</i>, “Work and pray”, often rendered as <i>Laborare est orare</i>, “To work is to pray.” <br /> We humans need purpose and structure in our lives, and work provides that. The lucky ones have work that satisfies. Most have work that earns enough to survive, while providing much of the social life without which we cannot thrive. The unlucky ones toil at soul-crushing labour, which as often as not is neither valued nor rewarded as the necessary effort that enables our survival and keeps the rest of us in relative comfort.<br /> William Morris (not included, an instructive omission, I think) was one of many starry-eyed reformers who recognised the inhumane aspects of industrialised work, and wanted a return to what he believed was the golden age of craft. He thought of craft as work that not only earned a living but engaged the worker’s skill and imagination. Morris failed to see that even craft relies on the toil of labourers that relieves the crafter of the necessity of spending time in the work that sustains their life.<br /> There are many descriptions of actual work in this collection, most by people who found a way out of the labour that they describe. One is by Orwell. His account of how the workers at the grand hotels of Paris discharged their duties would have convinced me never to stay at anything above a one or two star establishment. Maybe things have changed since the 1930s. I would have included an excerpt from Pirsig’s <i>Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</i>.<br /> The other pieces describe or discuss the context of work, or of the relations that working with others makes possible. Work makes up the single largest part of our lives. Irksome or satisfying, necessary or optional, we can’t escape it. It’s the necessity that irks. When we choose how to occupy ourselves, that freedom erases the negatives.<br /> Most of my jobs have been more or less interesting, at least until I mastered the requisite skills. But usually, my co-workers were more important than the work. I worked most of my life as a teacher, work that was sometimes frustrating enough that I wondered whether I could continue. I did, and now I miss the classroom and the staff room.<br /> As always, recommended. **** </span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-86388399056491607492023-12-30T10:42:00.003-05:002024-01-28T10:00:30.613-05:00Banks and his Brother: Strange Affair (Robinson, 2005)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYnrAfzVeSZdImxkwU6zeoXmMEqTw7BxvMF9_6NrURpOlLjtpo8Z_w5xmVO-Tu2YPA1pHLnH2x9WwMlddwWYW3BtV_mLucRPcSp45NToI5sUg_x2xBBdqNSdOUtC-dRTiavcQHC4EJIM4brX__o09ykTsAV8IzihVgGYEKakQUDqDFvZayZ_H8Q/s1600/Robinson%202005%20Strange%20Affair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="964" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsYnrAfzVeSZdImxkwU6zeoXmMEqTw7BxvMF9_6NrURpOlLjtpo8Z_w5xmVO-Tu2YPA1pHLnH2x9WwMlddwWYW3BtV_mLucRPcSp45NToI5sUg_x2xBBdqNSdOUtC-dRTiavcQHC4EJIM4brX__o09ykTsAV8IzihVgGYEKakQUDqDFvZayZ_H8Q/s320/Robinson%202005%20Strange%20Affair.jpg" width="193" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> Peter Robinson. <b><i>Strange Affair</i></b> (2005) Banks is recovering from nearly dying in the fire that destroyed his cottage. His estranged brother Roy leaves a message asking to speak to him about a matter of life and death. Banks goes off to London to find Roy.<br />Meanwhile, DI Annie Cabot investigates the murder of a young woman shot at close range in her car. The two threads intertwine, of course. More murders, international sex trafficking, shady business deals, etc, and we have a nicely done puzzle satisfyingly solved. But the story telling is dilatory, the a ambience sometimes pure cliche, and the characterisation too often 2D. The title’s link to the story is obscure, like a bad cryptic crossword clue. Below Robinson’s standard, which still makes it a cut or a half above average. **½ </span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-1886679769507236782023-12-10T11:58:00.007-05:002023-12-10T11:58:52.293-05:00Celebrities: A culural constant (LQ 04-1)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>LQ 04-1: Celebrity </i></b>(2011) There are times when our worship of celebrities seems like a </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3P43CrRWuZNH1EvF9PRksZ3OXet6zCtkPo27yI-HUgycrVdAH6wm-MFelfQBSsEP_hNTfzZmGisNJhFeLSWjqRfIU6wTTHukGZ5NjgZbOVBrum7k6MDT9fGLrLymGkoF8juY8VhFrTh5W_B3CwYni3UAR2zu9yblWhCXOYC5P588PlGaCEGCt1g/s1600/LQ%2004-1%20Celebrity%202011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1077" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3P43CrRWuZNH1EvF9PRksZ3OXet6zCtkPo27yI-HUgycrVdAH6wm-MFelfQBSsEP_hNTfzZmGisNJhFeLSWjqRfIU6wTTHukGZ5NjgZbOVBrum7k6MDT9fGLrLymGkoF8juY8VhFrTh5W_B3CwYni3UAR2zu9yblWhCXOYC5P588PlGaCEGCt1g/w269-h400/LQ%2004-1%20Celebrity%202011.jpg" width="269" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">peculiarly 21st century aberration. This collection may cause a revision of that opinion, and perhaps a more sanguine attitude. It had that effect on me, and prompted a number of reflections. Herewith a small sampling.<br /> True, there are now probably more people famous for being famous than ever before, but such people have always existed, and humans have always paid them more attention than they merited. True, much celebrity is founded on genuine achievement, but even more genuine achievement has gone uncelebrated. Our century may be unusual only in the intensity of celebrity worship. But every historical era is an outlier in some aspect of human possibility; that’s how and why we mark them. Cultural expression varies over time and place, but the range of cultural options is remarkably small. One of them is celebrity, labelled fame in earlier times.<br /> The desire for fame was often considered a virtuous ambition, especially by the Greeks and Romans, for it prompted striving for excellence. The desire for notoriety has been seen as the corresponding vice. While the great religions have praised the one and condemned the other, they have also expressed some ambivalence. For glorying in fame, even that earned by virtue or excellence, is too close to pride, especially its pathetic variant, vanity.<br /> Celebrity belongs to the suite of social dimensions labelled “reputation.” Our public persona is our reputation. We know ourselves in the tension and contrast between that public persona and our self-perception. That makes reputation important: We want outer and inner self to be as closely aligned as possible. It may be that our focus on celebrity is in part an attempt to learn how to create a reputation that meets our expectations or fantasies about ourselves.<br /> There’s a lot to chew on in this collection. One is P T Barnum’s discussion of how to make celebrity pay: Manufacture it. Reading his comments, one sees that marketing is the commodification of celebrity, which in turn explains phenomena such as the Kardashians. That’s progress of a sort, perhaps.<br /> Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-76093876456214983202023-12-10T11:50:00.001-05:002023-12-10T11:50:15.388-05:00Maliick's Pillow Book: Random musings and barbs.<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ_t9-FCPlYBKQQdGSQ2w7cb3g3rQFOhU662QDpOO5m4FDudfXA1A-syaa8Fov_7VLdSijM2LFSEf0uJPytmfeNAuZZnS0p9gYrH3SE4AUsCOteSALSFhr-XWHKGLv5Su8PLvCXejO0S0EnByI862PxN_FnOzT2xoc8x7tnaIm_Glma1wxi6iptA/s1600/Mallick%202004%20The%20Pillow%20Book%20of%20Heather%20Mallick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1195" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ_t9-FCPlYBKQQdGSQ2w7cb3g3rQFOhU662QDpOO5m4FDudfXA1A-syaa8Fov_7VLdSijM2LFSEf0uJPytmfeNAuZZnS0p9gYrH3SE4AUsCOteSALSFhr-XWHKGLv5Su8PLvCXejO0S0EnByI862PxN_FnOzT2xoc8x7tnaIm_Glma1wxi6iptA/w299-h400/Mallick%202004%20The%20Pillow%20Book%20of%20Heather%20Mallick.jpg" width="299" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> Heather Mallick. The Pillow Book of Heather Mallick (2004) Mallick was still writing for The Globe and Mail when she published this book. The Globe eventually dismissed her because of her caustic remarks about rich twits who think they’re the Universe’s gift to the rest of us. She titled this collection of notes “Pillow Book” in homage to Sei Shonagon. Like a commonplace book, a pillow book is a collection of quotes. Like a journal, the quotes are written by the collector. <br /> Mallick is about as open a writer as I’ve ever read. She seems to hold nothing back. I’m sure she’s left out some of her rawest bits, after all, one’s readers’ sensitivities must be respected. What she’s included adds up to a portrait of a person on whom nothing is lost, one who finds nothing human alien to her. But Mallick does show her distaste for the detestable. Fundamentally, she’s a satirist in the Juvenalian tradition, which means she’s a moralist. Her morality is simple: Don’t hurt people. But otherwise, you can do (and say) what you want.<br /> As you might guess, I enjoyed this book. Even the bits that annoyed me. Mallick’s sharp eye is matched by a clear style. Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-51071068819509457612023-12-01T13:33:00.008-05:002023-12-01T19:28:39.487-05:00Past Reason Hated: Early DI Banks Shows Robinson's Skills<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BvzAtn2cAvd5wM_a8Py78vMh-VDicwtnYIhCVUtZ_qxcsxs7ksqzXUMZQxH7pPx6LWfvFXTSLez5d-xJwTDhyphenhyphen_TEA1iDrHHB7MXbp2c9zhHtwNfMRqJc8y_lpacIA0eDh1h361Sg4KeB-WxGUKT0m05Tm4T_FIQB44qABA8AVHR5MtwogJjDbg/s1600/Robinson%201991%20Past%20Reason%20Hated%202006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="973" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BvzAtn2cAvd5wM_a8Py78vMh-VDicwtnYIhCVUtZ_qxcsxs7ksqzXUMZQxH7pPx6LWfvFXTSLez5d-xJwTDhyphenhyphen_TEA1iDrHHB7MXbp2c9zhHtwNfMRqJc8y_lpacIA0eDh1h361Sg4KeB-WxGUKT0m05Tm4T_FIQB44qABA8AVHR5MtwogJjDbg/w244-h400/Robinson%201991%20Past%20Reason%20Hated%202006.jpg" width="244" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />Peter Robinson. <b><i>Past Reason Hated</i></b>. (1991) Caroline Hartley, a beautiful childlike woman is found stabbed to death, with a recording of Vivaldi’s <i>Laudate Pueri</i> playing on repeat. Banks believes that the answers he needs will be found in her past. Newly promoted Detective Constable Susan Gay, newly married Detective Sergeant Jim Hatchley, the cast of an amateur production of Twelfth Night, (directed by Susan’s former teacher), the dead woman’s lover, a mysterious poet, the dead woman’s dysfunctional family, and other obstacles on the path to enlightenment delay Banks long enough that there’s almost another murder.<br /> An early Banks, but Robinson’s ability to develop character and ambience make for a satisfyingly long read. My copy was well-used, and will be passed on. Recommended. ***</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-8090727585400641442023-11-26T11:19:00.003-05:002023-11-26T11:19:14.098-05:00The City (Lapham's Quarterly 03-1, 2011)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b><i>LQ 03-4: The City </i></b>(2010) The city is, I think, one of humankind’s great inventions. Through</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfQjhbBZhBzUwx_nJDi_vAn_CeuJb-AyPmJDWCyOgthtUhdpdIN7VmfL-LLQ8TBWRRJbf26rm-A5wZlBqg04wIX7qnzardc21tUPWTSr04Bak49pQ24JZjflBwHl9pnmgmwvOAp7NPgMBe59BL7vUCbvDWdZaleqO3RZYnUierZd9XNePKSloWQ/s1600/LQ%2003-4%20The%20City%202010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1144" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtfQjhbBZhBzUwx_nJDi_vAn_CeuJb-AyPmJDWCyOgthtUhdpdIN7VmfL-LLQ8TBWRRJbf26rm-A5wZlBqg04wIX7qnzardc21tUPWTSr04Bak49pQ24JZjflBwHl9pnmgmwvOAp7NPgMBe59BL7vUCbvDWdZaleqO3RZYnUierZd9XNePKSloWQ/w286-h400/LQ%2003-4%20The%20City%202010.jpg" width="286" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> most of our existence on Earth, there were no towns and cities. They became possible when agriculture improved enough to support a fairly large proportion of non-agricultural workers. Nowadays, in technologically advanced countries, about 5% of the population works directly in agriculture. It’s likely that building towns began when agriculture enabled supporting about 5% of the population as non-agricultural workers. But even so, pretty well every household raised all or most of their food well into the 18th or 19th century. Cities in the modern sense required not only more efficient agriculture but more efficient and cheaper transport. This may be why the first large cities were all on navigable rivers and/or next to good harbours.<br /> But from the beginning, towns and cities were disliked. Most of the excerpts in this collection attack the moral laxity and material excess of cities. The tension between the city and the country has varied, but it’s always existed. Cities have been targets of robbery, a.k.a. wars of conquest. They concentrate cultural and intellectual resources. That in turn fosters innovation, which raises suspicion and worse in the surrounding rural communities. In the relation between city and hinterland, exploitation and mutual dependence are often hard to distinguish, another reason for rural suspicion of the city. The first states, hierarchically organised societies with large power and economic differences, were cities. Larger States resulted from wars between cities. <br /> I like cities. I also like the small town in which I live. I doubt I would like it so much if I couldn’t get most of the advantages of city life as easily as I do. Communications technology provides more choice than we can manage; we’ve learned to limit our sources to make choice easier. Materially, pretty well everything I would want from the city is available by mail or special order when not available locally. Still, cities are increasing in size and number. Almost half of humankind now lives in cities. It’s will be more than half within a decade.<br /> Many comments in this collection indicate express praise not for human cities, but for the City of God. That golden city is not only the expected destination of the faithful, it is a counter example to the human cities that failed to live up to the expectations of their detractors.<br /> Recommended. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-28441036556356462452023-11-23T11:56:00.005-05:002023-11-26T11:19:53.860-05:00Humans at Play (LQ 03-4 Sports & Games)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYMW84stogmHlYTouAunwzn4Ga6odcemD69RbhBmLmsov9OwoY_Nh59nsGdyQeQRdfPoQ8oM4JTT5znjf_ZW8SHYymyuABALAhLzLWw6-EVfRi6j3EoaruH72gIFHCxwYWu1uFv9gKyTaj8zqIVkIMkbkr_W5tYHVoOH6VURWJUMxi-a2b0yvXCQ/s1600/LQ%2003-3%20Sports%20&%20Games%202010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1082" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYMW84stogmHlYTouAunwzn4Ga6odcemD69RbhBmLmsov9OwoY_Nh59nsGdyQeQRdfPoQ8oM4JTT5znjf_ZW8SHYymyuABALAhLzLWw6-EVfRi6j3EoaruH72gIFHCxwYWu1uFv9gKyTaj8zqIVkIMkbkr_W5tYHVoOH6VURWJUMxi-a2b0yvXCQ/w270-h400/LQ%2003-3%20Sports%20&%20Games%202010.jpg" width="270" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> <b><i>LQ 03-3: Sports & Games</i></b> (2010) In 1938, Johan Huizinga published <i>Homo Ludens</i>, in which he argued that play was necessary for the creation of culture. His insight has become a cliche. This LQ collection demonstrates its truth, albeit indirectly, since it focuses on what we North Americans mean by its title. Huizinga included the arts, politics, etc in his concept. It seems to me that Huizinga’s argument amounts to saying that inventing ways of living that go well beyond finding food and reproducing is species-specific behaviour for humans.<br /> Play in the narrow sense is widespread among mammals. All young mammals play, and many species of adult mammals play, too. That is, they engage in some behaviour for no apparent reason other than they like doing it.<br /> Humans of course do more than that. We invent rules and customs around play, and spend an amazing amount of resources on it. Extend the concept to include the arts, and we humans act as if play is the purpose of life. But we find elements of play in all other aspects of human culture. It’s obvious in fashion, for example. The use of science to create useful technologies disguises that it, too, is a form of play. And all technologies eventually become at least adjuncts to play. Huizinga’s relabelling of our species is apt.<br /> Like other aspects of human culture, the variety of sports and games tends to distract attention from a fundamental unity. Sports and games range from pure pleasure to intense competition. All cultures engage in sports and games for both purposes. This collection shows that while humans have invented an astonishing variety of sports and games, their use is bounded by this range.<br /> Recommended. **** </span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-30345487858791199052023-11-18T11:36:00.002-05:002023-11-18T11:36:42.033-05:00Trivia Quizzes: "Quote...Unquote"<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOo4I9_mSRuAtQ6o0XZD1botp3HA-UY92iNPjUuztLaO7F5fUmduFqAs9nhvKqPEiD7v_Qt92kFyo5wGsWOdWK-4iT3swwyXtoZJAh9Q59kLhyphenhyphenRxoZwPVYdwp1AEEHpq27vdnD06DhWzJ8nEFyoHPC_XK8ZgFd4Sw4yP_iuKDFEqzLXcsbmuRMg/s1600/Rees%201978%20Quote%20Unquotw%201980.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="955" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOo4I9_mSRuAtQ6o0XZD1botp3HA-UY92iNPjUuztLaO7F5fUmduFqAs9nhvKqPEiD7v_Qt92kFyo5wGsWOdWK-4iT3swwyXtoZJAh9Q59kLhyphenhyphenRxoZwPVYdwp1AEEHpq27vdnD06DhWzJ8nEFyoHPC_XK8ZgFd4Sw4yP_iuKDFEqzLXcsbmuRMg/w239-h400/Rees%201978%20Quote%20Unquotw%201980.jpg" width="239" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Nigel Rees. <b><i>Quote...Unquote</i></b> (1980) We like trivia. Maybe because every now and then some trivial fact turns out to matter. It may link some new fact to our store of knowledge, thus reassuring us the universe has a meaningful pattern. Or it may become the significant bit needed to solve a puzzle, or reveal some secret, or lead us to some deeper insight. All this helps explain why collections of trivia sell. Like this one. It’s an amusing selection of semi-esoteric quotations. Most are presented in quizzes, thus flattering the reader in its expectation that they will recognise most of the quotations. Taken as a whole, they make up a pointillist portrait of the 19th and 20th centuries.<br /> One of the quizzes asks the reader to amend such misquotes such as “Money is the root of all evil”, “ I knew him well, Horatio”, “Play it again, Sam”, etc. Misquotes like these are an example of our tendency to recall meanings but not the words used to express them.<br /> Cheeky illustrations by ffolkes. Fun, recommended if you can find a copy. **½</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-1847264117900741962023-11-11T12:01:00.008-05:002023-11-26T11:20:30.246-05:00Trickster tricks make for a good life<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGPD3doB093c3-R9SLzxLnt34v-ztup8XEjjUUnSmH43zsDEkg6PJdEeCOV8BmDhtsm_OEQTH7xI1vVAIvnGPNQthmo2ElvkdoWnvs69xMIsVN03V90jhyKbll3FxwKI5kMsRFULz8KCBnG1-dJhVIcLcXww96JSqsok83aRYbulOV_T8Wiu_Fg/s1600/Highway%202022%20Laughing%20With%20The%20Trickster-%20Massey%20lectures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="939" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGPD3doB093c3-R9SLzxLnt34v-ztup8XEjjUUnSmH43zsDEkg6PJdEeCOV8BmDhtsm_OEQTH7xI1vVAIvnGPNQthmo2ElvkdoWnvs69xMIsVN03V90jhyKbll3FxwKI5kMsRFULz8KCBnG1-dJhVIcLcXww96JSqsok83aRYbulOV_T8Wiu_Fg/w235-h400/Highway%202022%20Laughing%20With%20The%20Trickster-%20Massey%20lectures.jpg" width="235" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> Tomson Highway. <b><i>Laughing With the Trickster</i></b> (CBC Massey Lectures, 2022) I learned that what I had learned about First Nations cultures was woefully incomplete. Read this book. It will educate you, and entertain you. Highway shows what he means when he says that Indigenous people laugh a lot. Life’s a blast, even when it isn’t. The Trickster deludes us, but also makes life interesting. The Creator made us for enjoyment.<br /> Threaded throughout this hugely exuberant romp through life is the dark narrative of the clash of Indigenous and Settler cultures. We Settlers have a lot to learn. A brighter thread, told mostly through Highway’s life story, is that Indigenous peoples are adaptable. Their cultures thrive because they have been able and willing to adapt. They don’t try to preserve their way of life, but to live it. And if that includes telling their stories in Settler languages, well, that’s life. And if that adaptation causes Settlers to adapt, too, well, that’s even better life.<br /> Highway ends with a brief account of his brother’s death. Rene told him, “Don’t mourn me, be joyful”. The last sentence of the book is, “ I have no time for tears; I’m too busy being joyful.”<br /> Read this book. ****<br /><i>Footnote: Another essential book is Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian. </i></span><br /><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-74179660682752548712023-11-07T16:50:00.009-05:002023-11-10T11:38:12.316-05:00Social Media and Social Disruption<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcXzZThTFYRINoYbSfnq0puXRUv5qpIxA1BZrExHTknabgJ7DhAEfW2knLe2Z3aEMpTLhsdkP8NvoWwl7qJcLH96NRunWmD8xAmD6XgrHFJseJUZfe_5SHW-tzC9Uke-wwrB59OR9DsjDdzO8wwBlJT5ycRu_qqGVmCKxhfn2JJ3jriBcpqDU-Q/s1000/Lutherbibel.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1000" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXcXzZThTFYRINoYbSfnq0puXRUv5qpIxA1BZrExHTknabgJ7DhAEfW2knLe2Z3aEMpTLhsdkP8NvoWwl7qJcLH96NRunWmD8xAmD6XgrHFJseJUZfe_5SHW-tzC9Uke-wwrB59OR9DsjDdzO8wwBlJT5ycRu_qqGVmCKxhfn2JJ3jriBcpqDU-Q/w400-h304/Lutherbibel.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> The media are still obsessing about the effects of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, and his rebranding it as X. It seems to me that Twitter was always more important for the media than
the rest of us. If the media hadn't reported on the latest Twitter
kerfuffle, I wouldn't have had a clue. Without the media, Twitter would
have had no presence in my life. That's still so.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> From where I sit, "social platforms" differ from previous media in one
crucial respect: the audience controls the content. Newspapers, radio,
TV all had a passive audience. You bought the paper, switched on the
radio/TV, and got the news the purveyors thought was fit to tell.
Despite different political/etc viewpoints, those media created a mass
audience with a common culture. Cable began the shift to audience
control. The internet has made it the default. We now have a fractured
culture, with no common narratives, and hence no widely held
understanding of how the world works. Worse, we have an increasing number of people who believe that they and those who agree with them know the truth. Too many people no longer understand that all insights about the world are provisional and at best merely good approximations to the truth; and at worst they're delusional.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> In many ways, this fracturing repeats the fracturing of the common religious
culture when print made books cheap, and so fostered reading. The
almost immediate effect was individual interpretations of the sacred texts,
which led to disagreements about creeds, which triggered wars. It took two centuries before something resembling a consensus about the social role of religion emerged in Europe.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> Every time a disruptive communication medium appears, there is cultural
reconfiguration. People "do their own research". The effect is profound disagreement and mutual distrust. It is always painful, and often bloody. We're living
through such a reconfiguration. It's more complicated, difficult and
dangerous than previous ones because we're also living through a major environmental
change. It's going to be a very rough ride.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Edited and extended version of a comment posted in the New York Times 2023-10-19</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i> <br /></span></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13981719.post-64629893585754966772023-11-05T10:23:00.009-05:002023-11-05T10:28:29.278-05:00Travelling (Lapham's 02-3, 2009)<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i> Lapham’s Quarterly 02-3: Travel</i></b>. (Summer 2009) Migration is forced, travel is chosen. We</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHZzW1i5hthD54Uc1d0Gx7BpN9iyJcrfErohq3NfOB9uGU32cKUFaUlzSyzOoY6exdkgIIH0fBNcSR_jMNMCZKexyrgRaqaZj8l65AgBUI86A5aZFnWKwMmadrB8IFgjCADlLKHs32Pj-6_drfUzb8u6paj3F9pROdf6rIVXMxQlF5U50ot2z4A/s1600/LQ%2002-3%20Travel%202009.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1140" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHZzW1i5hthD54Uc1d0Gx7BpN9iyJcrfErohq3NfOB9uGU32cKUFaUlzSyzOoY6exdkgIIH0fBNcSR_jMNMCZKexyrgRaqaZj8l65AgBUI86A5aZFnWKwMmadrB8IFgjCADlLKHs32Pj-6_drfUzb8u6paj3F9pROdf6rIVXMxQlF5U50ot2z4A/s320/LQ%2002-3%20Travel%202009.jpg" width="228" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> succeed at both because humans have survived by keeping on the move, whether within a territory suitable for hunting and gathering, or by removal into a new territory. We share wanderlust with other animals, which suggest that it’s a condition of species survival.<br /> This collection tells us what we already know: Travel confirms our conviction that there’s no place like home, and prompts wonder and even delight at the variety of human ways of living and making a living. Which effect predominates depends on the traveller. The evidence shows that the self-centred make poor travellers.<br /> Tourism is the invention of the leisure class, of people who did not depend on trading profit to finance the journey. But apart from that, there’s little difference between tourism trading, and exploration. Travel reveals as much about ourselves as about the places and people we meet. The modern variety of tourism developed from the Grand Tour, paid for by parents anxious that their offspring would acquire experience useful for a successful career in the higher branches of capitalism and government. The educational component still predominates: the tourist industry offers education as the reason and excuse for spending time being carried across water and land while being cosseted by “the staff”.<br /> Many of the pieces here are firsthand accounts, which satisfy the reader’s wanderlust without requiring the tiresome nuisances of actual travel. The fictions use the differences between the traveller and the strange lands as opportunities for allegory and satire, or demonstrations that growing up entails self-discovery. Hence the many plots strung out along the roads taken, or not taken, by the hero and their companions.<br /> I enjoyed the collection as much for its reminders of my own travels as for the experiences of the narrators. ****</span><p></p>Wolf Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14869518575685752096noreply@blogger.com0