Murder in the graveyard: Innocent Grave by Peter Robinson

     Peter Robinson. Innocent Graves (1997) The vicar’s wife, drunk on wine and guilt, talking to the angel on the mausoleum in the graveyard, discovers the body of 16-year-old Deborah Harrison. Owen Pierce, a stranger seen nearby, becomes the prime suspect. Banks’s work is complicated by class and privilege, a status-conscious Chief Constable, witnesses whose personal problems fracture their evidence, the arrival of a new Detective Inspector who has every qualification except a sense of what people are really like. A second murder complicates the case even more. The usual obstacles.
    
     Robinson handles the linked plots with his usual skill. This is a series I’ve been enjoying. I’ve found not quite half of the books here and there, and am reading them in writing order. Well done. ***

Eli Mandel on Literary Criticism

      Eli Mandel Criticism: the Silent Speaking Words (1966) A transcript of eight CBC talks given by Mandel (then a professor in the English Department, University of Alberta, Edmonton). He explores the central problem of literary and other arts criticism: What good is it? Does it have a legitimate purpose? His answer asserts that criticism is as legitimate an intellectual pursuit as any other

     This was a time when English Departments were attempting to reconstruct criticism as an objective analysis of literary works. In 1957 Northrop Frye had published his Anatomy of Criticism,  which argued that literature could be classified in terms of it content or “matter”, and its form or “plot”. Since these are objectively observable aspects of any work, Frye’s analysis liberated criticism from the subjective shackles of biography, sociology, psychology, and so on, which had dominated literary scholarship since the 18th century and had made criticism a matter of opinion and schools of thought.
     Mandel finally agrees with Frye, but takes a long and roundabout route to get there. His agreement is qualified by his admiration for Matthew Arnold and Alfred Tennyson, both of whom urged that literature is speech from one generation to another: that the “silent speaking words” on the page convey to us another mind, a person, and therefore create, preserve, and even enrich relationships with the dead.
     I think that Frye’s anatomy is accurate: it is a theory of literature that can be tested by examining and comparing different works. I think Mandel is also right: a piece of writing is made by a human, and to whatever extent the writer’s honesty and skill can do so, it records that person’s mind, that person’s experience. By reading their words, we encounter that person.
     Or as someone has said: The imagination is the only method we have to understand each other. I would add ... and the world in which we live.
     Eli Mandel was my teacher and then my colleague at U of A, Edmonton. He was man who never let a good idea stop him from exploring another one. I remember him with respect and affection. See the Wiki entry.
    On the Poetry page you’ll find a poem I wrote during and after listening to Eli at a workshop put on for high school teachers in Ontario.
    ***

British pound and US dollar heading towards parity

The Guardian has a story today about sterling's possible parity with the US dollar following a hard Brexit.

Fact is, measured in purchasing power, the pound has been close to parity with the US dollar for years. Any American and Canadian tourist can tell you that British prices in pounds are in the same range as US and Canadian prices in dollars. Which makes the UK an expensive place to visit, and a very expensive place to live. No wonder so many Brits are fed up with their politicians.

So why has the exchange rate exceeded the domestic purchasing power of the pound? The UK's refusal to use the euro is the usually cited culprit. But that isn't a reason, it's a consequence. The root cause is the pound's role as an international currency, along with the US dollar and the Swiss franc. All three currencies are used for money laundering.

Two Cartoon Collections

Bill Stott. The Crazy World of Gardening (1987) Any gardener will enjoy these cartoons, and non-gardeners who read this book will be glad they’ve avoided the pastime. One of my faves: Garden expert to troubled customer: “Yes, it’s a very common condition in plants that have been over-watered and kept in drafts. It’s called ‘dead’”. ***





Gary Larson. Wildlife Preserves (1989) The cover shows why Larson’s cartoons are still considered classics. I pretty sure he’s an acquired taste, though: the mix of logic taken to absurdity, disingenuous literalism, bland suburbanisms applied to non-human animals, allusions to scientific oddities, riffs on old movie cliches, and so on, doesn’t appeal to everyone. It does appeal to me. ****

Larson's Far Side (Gallery 5)

      Gary Larson. Far Side Gallery 5 (1995) I like Gary Larson’s cartoons. The absurdity of logic, the silliness of literalness, the effects of shifts in point of view, visual puns, send-ups of cliches – Larson was master of them all. Reading one of his collections expands your mind, twists it into new shapes, makes you laugh, and gives your imagination the kind of workout that liberates. We have a few of his collections, not nearly enough. More at his website.
****

Hitchens essays: And Yet (2015)

     And Yet... (2015) Posthumous collection of essays, mostly from periodicals such as Slate, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, etc. His book reviews are thorough and sometimes occasions for polemics. His polemics are always interesting. He was a libertarian who detested totalitarianism, including religion. He became an American citizen late in life, and immediately began digging into the history that is glossed over by the myths. He tried to be honest and rational; one of his heroes was Orwell, because Orwell tried to be as truthful as humanly possible.
     Picking any one essay as an example won’t do Hitchens justice, but here goes: Bah, Humbug attacks Christmas, not because it’s religious but because the relentless urging to buy gifts promotes hypocrisy. The holiday instills guilt: if you don’t lavish gifts upon your nearest and dearest, you obviously don’t love them. Along the way Hitchens reminds us that, as soon as Cromwell’s victories gave them the power, the Puritans banned Christmas in England. It was a pagan feast, not a Christian one. Thus those who wish to “keep the Christ in Christmas” betray both their historical and theological ignorance. In any case, what we now think of as time-honoured Christmas traditions were invented wholesale by the Victorians. Prince Albert and Dickens have a lot to answer for.
     Beware: if you start reading, you will want to read the next essay and the next and the next, and before you know it, you’ve spent a hour or so immersed in this book. ***

Doug Ford’s Cabinet shuffle

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has shuffled his cabinet, demoting some of his most senior ministers, and bringing in untried and inexperienced new people. Why did he do this? Will it make a difference?

He did this because his popularity is now below that of the previous Premier, Kathleen Wynne, at the time of the last election. He was booed at three recent public events, the last being the victory celebration for the Toronto Raptors’ NBA championship win. His party is now in third place after the Liberals and the NDP, with the Greens coming fast behind them. A cabinet shuffle looks like he is doing something positive. At his news conference today he emphasised two points: his government’s achievements; and that he was going to do better.

Will this shuffle make a difference? No. Ford is a puppet. He’s beyond his depth as a Premier. He had no experience in Provincial politics, and I suspect he had close to zero knowledge of Provincial powers. His promise of a Buck-a-beer shows how little he knew and understood. I think that apart from his vendetta against Toronto, he is not in fact the originator of his government's policies. He has to rely on his political team for advice. That team is cabal of self-styled Libertarians who hate government and have attempted to inject their minimal-government philosophy into Canadian politics. They are using Doug Ford to carry out their political aims.

Moving people around the offices at Queen’s park will make no difference to the damage that’s been done to Ontario.

Update 10 July 2019: One of his demoted ministers misbehaved at a concert recently: she attacked the owner of the Ottawa Senators, blaiming him for their poor performance. The new Minister of Educatiion has said he wants to negotiate with the teachers' unions as soon as possible, and that he is willing to listen. In the meantime, several schoolboards, having crunched the enrolment numbers, have announced cuts to programs because of Doug Ford's raising the average high school class size to 28 from 22. Innumerate people tend to think of averages as typical. Does Ford hold this mistaken idea? I don't know.

Update 11 July 2019: Bombardier announced that it would be laying off half its Thunder Bay work force by November as the orders run out. Result: Douig Ford blames Ottawa, and  Federal Labour Minister Pat Hadju blames Ford. Doug Ford claims he's "signed the cheque" for Ontario's share of the infrastructure projects. Hadju released a number of letters from her ministry to Ontario asking Ontario to get with the program. Which they haven't done. Ford apparently doesn't want the Trudeau Liberals to get any credit for roadbuilding and such. Meanwhile, transit and other infrastructure in Ontario isn't being built.

Incompetence rules.

Eccentrics and obsessives: a clickbait book

     Eccentric Lives, Peculiar Notions. (1999) A collection of journalistic pieces about eccentrics, most of them British or American. Either other nations don’t produce and nurture their eccentrics as well as the Brits and Americans do, or else Michell has some difficulty reading other languages. Whichever, this is an entertaining look at a number of well-known daftnesses via mini-bios of their originators or publicisers. The book begins with an obsessed lover, who nowadays would be put behind bars as a stalker. The book ends with the beginnings of Ufology. In between we discover an arch-Druid,  Atlantis, Flat-Earthers, British Israelites, a Hollow Earth inhabited by left-over Atlanteans, or maybe star-people, etc.
John Michell.
     Michell has a soft spot for Baconians, Marlovians and other people who can’t believe that a mere country bumpkin could have so much learning in his plays. I guess they didn’t realise that Shakespeare was a great adaptor of other people’s work. He would have thrived in Hollywood.
     Adequate illustrations, which in the British manner are not keyed to the text. Workmanlike style, with occasional sparks of wit. A pleasant way to while away a couple of hours. Pretty well all the material in the book has been the stuff of many, many YouTube videos. **½

92 pages aren't enough: Debt of Honor (Star Trek graphic novel)

  Chris Claremont et al.  Debt of Honor A Star Trek graphic novel. It begins with a flashback, apparently a grievous memory of Capt. Kirk’s. Then we switch to the present: he’s on a boat with Dr Taylor, a nubile 20th century woman who’s helping re-establish dolphins in Earth’s seas. The following story involves tracking down some nasty not-quite-bug-eyed arthropodic monsters who’ve arrived in the neighbourhood via a “rift” in space-time. The old Enterprise crew, all somewhat greyer and wrinklier, assemble on the new Enterprise. There’s more flashbacks to explain the relationship between Kirk and T’cel, a Vulcan-Romulan woman from his past. Klingons also participate: this story explains the eventual rapprochement between Klingons and Humans. Everything ends well, of course, with a hint of future adventures when T’cel decides to go exploring on her own. Oh, and Kirk ends up back on the boat with Dr Taylor.
     The book is confused and confusing. If you know enough about the Star Trek universe, you can piece together a reasonable time-line, and the central plot is well enough told that its hokiness (as you should expect) doesn’t intrude.
     But the flashbacks aren’t well handled. I’m one of those people who expects clear demarcations within a graphic novel, either chapter headings or subheadings, or noticeable shifts in graphic style, or both. I also like a good deal more character development than this book offers. I want to a few more insights into Scotty or Spock, for example, not just allusions to past events. So as a story, this book is merely average.
     The graphics are also somewhat lacking. Faces aren’t consistent enough. There’s sometimes far too much text. IMO, if you need words to clarify what’s happening, the story is either not suited for graphic treatment, or the story-boarding was skimped. Or, and I think this the underlying issue here, the story is too large and complex for the 92 pages allowed for it. To put it another way: as a text novel, there would be plenty of room to develop all the plots, past and present, and to interlace them clearly.
     For all these reasons, I assign **.

Wise fools: New Yorker Cartoons

    Bob Mankoff, ed. The New Yorker Cartoons of the Year 2016. (2017) Grouped in categories such as Animal Instincts, What the Doctor Ordered etc. New Yorker cartoons are known for being insightful, wittily, sometimes bitter, but always worth a look. I leafed through this book at one sitting, then looked through it again. It’s that kind of book.

     If you need some solace, or a reminder that the world won’t go away, there’s a New Yorker cartoon that will fit your mood. One I liked: a theatre full of cats watching a movie. The screen shows a boot with a loose shoelace. Our cat can’t stay away from anything that looks like a string. ****

Love and Loss: the Rhythm of Life.

     Lauren Carter. Following Sea (2019) Lauren is a friend. Don’t think that makes this review any easier.
     I read this sequence of poems almost at one sitting. It’s a page turner, unusual for a poetry collection. Several things kept me reading: the story of some of Lauren’s ancestors pieced together from the fragments revealed in the poems; Lauren’s grief for her childlessness, which surfaces partway through; Lauren’s skill with the sound of language, there’s much alliteration and internal rhyming, and a loose, wave-like rhythm.
     The setting for most of these poems is Manitoulin Island. Lauren’s evocation of that place and its history impressed me.
     I recommend this book. ***

Trump on tariffs: Does he really not get it? Or is he pretending?

Mr Trump has once again  "imposed tariffs on" Mexico. He talks as if the Mexicans will pay these tariffs. Well, whoever pays, the prices for Mexican goods will rise, and American consumers of those goods will pay more. Mexico not only makes consumer goods but also components for products made or assembled in the USA.

A tariff is an import tax, levied to bring the prices of imports up near (or even above) the prices of domestic products. Their net effect is to raise domestic prices.  They are sometimes coupled with export subsidies, so that prices of domestic products in foreign markets will be lower. The justification has always been to protect domestic industries so that they can thrive on the domestic market. The effect has always been that domestic prices are higher.

I wonder: does Mr Trump not understand this? I've seen Facebook posts that show the poster believes that tariffs will be paid by the foreign manufacturers, and that the money will flow to the USA. So is Mr Trump playing to this misconception? Or does he make the same mistake?

Update 20190907: Trump has now imposed tariffs on Chinese goods. Steve Paikin (host of TVO's The Agenda) chatted with a Michigan boater this summer while on vacation. This man knew the tariffs would hurt his business, but believed that "We have to stick it to the China." I think this attitude shows a general misunderstanding of both tariffs and international trade. Econ 101 again: International trade is about goods, not money. Money is merely a method of tracking the relative values of the trade goods, which encourages both fair trade and efficient resource allocation.

Cheaper foreign goods prompt domestic producers to use domestic resources more efficiently, and/or to reallocate resources to unmet needs and wants. In the short term, there will drops in production, hence drops in profits and employment. However, as long as people believe that the business exists to make money and provide jobs, attempts to alleviate the pain will be misplaced. Instead of supporting shifts in domestic production, there will be attempts to prop up failing industries. When the other country imposes countervailing tariffs, healthy industries will be hurt as their foreign markets shrink. Either way, domestic resources will be wasted.

We see both these effects in Trump's trade war. The steel and coal industries have not recovered as Trump's base expected. Steel has used the tariff protections to shift into even more specialised product, and employment has not (and will not) reach pre-Rustbelt levels. Coal continues to be replaced directly by gas and indirectly by solar and wind  power. The soy and pork farmers receive billions of dollars to replace their lost sales. And domestic vendors have not repatriated production as expected, but are shifting it to countries that Trump has (so far) ignored. 

Drugs and other decadent indulgences: Ian Rankin's Hide & Seek

     Ian Rankin. Hide and Seek (1990) The second Rebus tale, and a dark and troubling tale it is. Rankin knows how to create ambience and character, and to tease out a plot that convinces. This one starts with Rebus called to the apparent overdose of a junkie, but niggly little weirdnesses hinting at witchcraft bother him. They widen into a network that ensnares the high and the mighty of Edinburgh.
    
     I first encountered Rebus in the first TV series starring John Hanna, and liked the edginess of the stories. I started reading  his novels,  this is the third one I've finished. I couldn't get far into several others. I don’t think I’ll read another one. I’ve lost my taste for dark and troubling tales. But if you like well written crime novels, read Rankin. He has few equals. ***