This page is still largely a work in progress. Thank you for your patience :)
1/26/18: Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence, by Timothy Morton
“Dark Ecology” is an environmental philosophy book by Rice professor Timothy Morton. In this book, Morton attempts to convey a new framework through which to view the current climate collapse. This new method of thinking he calls dark ecology, and defines as a method of ecological knowing in which one is conscious not only of their being a part of ecosystems, but also that the very nature of ecology is in and of itself a strange and dark one. Further developing this through the remainder of the book, Morton draws upon Post-Kantianism, hyperobjects, and modern art to not only convey what a dark ecology is, but to awaken the reader themselves to the weirdness of such.
12/29/18:
DMT: The Spirit Molecule, by Rick
Strassman
“Dark Ecology” is an environmental philosophy book by Rice professor Timothy Morton. In this book, Morton attempts to convey a new framework through which to view the current climate collapse. This new method of thinking he calls dark ecology, and defines as a method of ecological knowing in which one is conscious not only of their being a part of ecosystems, but also that the very nature of ecology is in and of itself a strange and dark one. Further developing this through the remainder of the book, Morton draws upon Post-Kantianism, hyperobjects, and modern art to not only convey what a dark ecology is, but to awaken the reader themselves to the weirdness of such.
This book, more than many things I’ve ever
read, walks a thin line between being a work of genius and being
incomprehensible nonsense. In many ways it’s both, and for that reason it’s a
book I’ll never be able to say with certainty that I actually “get.”
Nonetheless, in my opinion it ultimately erred toward the side of genius,
though it sure did bring a great deal of nonsense along with it.
Morton writes like an anthropologist
that’s trying to be a philosopher. Meaning his work is infused with the very
same critical theoretical jargon that in anthropology I find so nauseous, but
without the ethnographic bit that makes anthropologists worth reading. Only
making matters worse is that, alongside this, Morton filled this book with all
manner of pop culture references, muddling an already muddled collection of
cited literatures.
But much like the “joy beneath the
sadness” that Morton in the last chapter declares so incremental to dark
ecology, there shines beneath this book’s slough of words a treasure trove of
ideas and concepts. Take agrilogistics, for example: here, introduced in the
first chapter, is a concept of agriculture coming from a larger system of
interconnected logics that determine the way we rationalize every facet of our
world. And that’s just one of many of the genius frameworks which Morton brings
to the table.
Considered one of the primary texts to
have ever been published in the realm of psychedelics research, Rick
Strassman’s “The Spirit Molecule” chronicles the psychologists experiments with
injecting various volunteers with various doses of DMT, a tryptamine know for
producing vivid visions on par with the intensity of near-death experiences and
alien abduction reports. More of a catalogue of reports and Strassman’s
observations on them than a description of rigid data, this book serves as an
interesting read for those interested in fields as disparate as phenomenology
to astrophysics (yes, you read that right) to pharmacology. Ultimately, though,
toward the end the book moves from theories and descriptions of DMT’s effects
itself, to a narrative about why Strassman eventually left psychedelics
research.
While reading about volunteers’
experiences with DMT and Strassman’s theoretical frameworks were absolutely
electrifying, hearing him go on and on about his conflicts with colleagues
(both in the field of pharmacology and, strangely enough, at his local Buddhist
momentary) weren’t. What the doctor has in knowledge, he lacks in intrigue, and
so oftentimes, especially toward the end, I found myself bored out of my mind
and longing to return to the volunteer reports. Toward the very end, however,
I’d say that Strassman redeems himself somewhat, moving finally back to a main
idea in the last chapters: that is, the meaning of DMT and it’s
naturally-occurring existence in our bodies, and what future psychedelics research
should take to be most clinically-productive. Some of the ideas in the former
seem completely and totally left-field, and more often than not reliant on
vague metaphysical assumptions, but I don’t find any strong issue in that.
Eccentric though they may be, his theories offer one more way of looking at DMT
(and of my interests, alien abduction experiences), and with matters as
confusion and subjective as this, few perspectives are necessarily “bad”
perspectives.
11/04/18:
The Portable Thoreau, by Henry David
Thoreau (edited by Jeffrey S. Crammer)
Anyone who’s spoken to me in the past two
and a half years is likely to know this one thing about me: I am OBSESSED with
Transcendentalism. And while this fascination has its original roots in
Emerson’s essays and Whitman’s poetry, it was upon reading Thoreau that I
really began to feel I found a kindred spirit.
Thoreau was one of the greatest thinkers
to ever live, and as such it’s not really possible to do a goodreads-style
review of his work, so that’s not something I’ll attempt. What can be reviewed,
however, is the quality of this particular collection, and boy howdy is it
good. At over 600 pages, I don’t think “portable” is the most apt descriptor,
and yet I also don’t think this book could’ve been any shorter. Not only does
it contain the full version of Walden and Resistance to Civil Government, but
also some of Thoreau’s other landmark essays (Walking, Life Without Principle),
and snippets of some of his less famous books. And all of this precluded by a
beautiful introduction. The complete package makes for a work of art ready to
initiate the uninitiated into this wonderful mind, and perhaps motivate those
already familiar with Thoreau to dive a little deeper into his lesser-known works.
09/27/18:
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle
for the World Food System, by Raj Patel
“Stuffed and Starved” by Raj Patel is a
detailed yet concise overview of the global food system, its flaws, and the
step necessary to build a more equitable future. While Patel looks at a
kaleidoscope of food-related issues, from soybean production to the WTO’s
destruction of local economies to rural suicide rates, the book always draws
the attention back to its primary question: why is it that in today’s world we have
the duality of both the rise of chronic obesity, and the perpetuation of mass
starvation and food insecurity?
Overall, I really enjoyed this book.
Patel’s writing style can tend to veer from the bland to the sensational
without any warning, but the information he imparts in such a process is
critical enough that I’m able to turn a blind eye to such blunders. Secondly,
this book is, unlike many others on the subject, not some esoteric academic
text, but rather a call to action that can just as easily be read by the layman
as the professor.
Patel also writes from a very specific
frame of reference informed by Marxism, indigenous rights, and—of all
things—farmer’s markets and organic foods. While the former two are stances I
can get behind with relative ease, I remain apprehensive of his firm anti-GMO
stance (which asserts that we have seen no agricultural improvements from GMOs)
and of his claim that farmer’s markets are somehow less expensive than grocery
stores. Still, his stance on markets is rooted in a strong sense of ethicacy,
and his GMO opposition did open my mind to the issue of such technology being
in corporate hands (example: “suicide seeds” produced by seed companies that
keep farmers forever reliant on new seed supply), so even these views I find
issue with still offer something up to the table worth thinking about.
08/11/18:
Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology,
by David Abram
06/28/18:
Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History
of a Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana Alexievich
06/19/18:
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks
on Zen Meditation and Practice, by Shunryu Suzuki (edited by Trudy Dixon)
While I myself am not a Buddhist nor will
I likely ever be, I’ve for a few month now have wanted to read up a bit on Zen
Buddhism just so I could have a basic understanding of what it is and how it
differs from other Buddhist sects that I know about. This interest was prompted
by two separate occurrences in my life: First was becoming acquainted with the
mindfulness craze currently sweeping psychology across the continent as a way
to assuage anxiety and depression, and second was my own personal experience
with DBT, in which mindfulness is one of the four main components, and whose
creator herself actually went on to become not just a psychologist but also a
Zen roshi.
This all being said, I found this book not
only a wealth of knowledge on Zen, but also surprisingly concise and easy to
read. Each lecture only lasting a few pages, the book is easy to go through in
bits and pieces, and a vast majority of its contents I found relatable to my
post-DBT take on life. Not a rigid philosophical discourse nor an academic
text, “Zen Mind, Beginners Mind” is a layman’s approach to Zen that discards
all the ornaments of the religion and it’s history in favor of focusing on one
thing and one thing only: sitting.
05/29/18:
Mushroom at the End of the World: On the
Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
One of 21st-Century cultural
anthropology’s landmark works, “Mushroom at the End of the World,” by Anna Tsing,
is part ethnography, part commodity chain analysis, and economic theory. In an
effort to find hope in a world where, the myth of progress having failed us,
things seem increasingly hopeless, Tsing looks to the Matsutaki—a rare mushroom
which is prized in Japan as a culinary delicacy. By analyzing the mushroom’s
journey through history alongside its journey from Oregon woodlands to Japanese
markets, Tsing tries to encourage thinking “like a mushroom” and learning to
live precariously in the face of uncertain futures.
While the work is every bit as monumental
as I was led to believe, it is also extremely uneven in terms of quality. Many
of the chapters are adaptations of articles that Tsing had previously written,
and that is apparent in the book’s lack of flow and consistency. This made
reading is a chore rather than a pleasure, as I never knew if the next chapter
was going to move and inspire me, or bore me to tears. A necessary read, but
not by any means an easy one.
05/17/18:
The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo
Emerson, by Richard Geldard
In “The Spiritual Teachings of Ralph Waldo
Emerson,” Geldard gives an overview of Emerson’s spiritual teachings and ideas,
utilizing literature from Emerson himself, his forebears, and his
contemporaries. Designed as a model by which the layman can interpret Emerson
for use in daily life, this book tries to translate nineteenth-century ideas
into modern sensibilities.
While many parts of this book struck a
chord with me, just as many parts didn’t. Geldard has a bad habit of
interpreting Emerson in such a way that his and Geldard’s philosophies align.
This means skirting past Emerson’s Confucian influence and rather favoring his
debt to Plato, Pythagoras, and the likes. Other times, however, he hits right
on the mark, and Emerson’s spirituality is depicted in its true light. A
worthwhile read as an entry point into Transcendentalism, but you’d be much
better off reading Emerson himself and just trudging through the linguistic
difficulty.
05/16/18:
Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of
Chernobyl, by Mary Mycio
“Wormwood Forest” by journalist Mary Mycio
is one of the only and most detailed account of Chernobyl’s ecological impact
and development, that is for people that aren’t professionals in the field of
radioecology. Some 240 pages, this book gives a fairly comprehensive overview
of the Ukrainian and Belorussian parts of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,
analyzing everything from wildlife to water to resettled peoples. As anecdotal
as it is informative, Mycio’s book offers a layman’s insight to what’s often
considered a specialists’ problem.
If this weren’t the only book of its kind,
I’d likely have given it three stars rather than four. But it is, and so it
gets that extra star for its uniqueness. While Mycio has much in the way of
information and riveting stories of wildlife encounters, her writing itself is
very dry, and often swings from the overly-technical to the overtly personal,
rather than existing in that happy medium between facts and opinion where most
good journalism is. Even worse, the opinions she does express in the book are
ones I often find disagreeable, though some readers may find otherwise. Still,
the facts of it all make up for this, and the insight this book gives to one of
the most unique places on the planet is invaluable.
05/02/18:
Emergent Ecologies, by Eben Kirksey
Emergent Ecologies by Eben Kirksey is a
work of multispecies ethnography that, marrying ecology with anthropology,
seeks to look at the way life is thriving in landscapes generally thought of as
forsaken to climate change. Examining ants in Panama, macaques in Florida, and
a menagerie of many other colorful species relations, Kirksey paints a future
for conservation science that, dismissing the popular apocalyptic narratives of
current ecology, looks for the light at the end of the tunnel in the ways in
which novel ecosystems are emerging in a shattered world.
Witty, engrossing, and insightful,
Kirksey’s ethnography has many of the positives of the discipline, with few of
the negatives. Though it still errs more than I would like on the side of
abstract academia (we get it, you’ve read a lot of French dudes), I managed to
juxtapose this with entertaining and informative thick description, and a
language that allows one to grasp its arcane concepts with relative ease even
if they are not familiar with them. Get past the jargon and this book will
change the way you look at be current climate crises plaguing our planet. I
know it changed perspectives for me.
04/01/18:
Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey is
another in America’s developing tradition of nature writing. Rather than the
beauty of the mountains or the woods this time, however, Abbey’s words take us
on an adventure through the deserts of Utah, exploring this unique world
through the eyes of one whose politics lean toward the radical, whose
philosophy is (for the most part) without spiritual embellishments, and whose
language is simple enough for the meaning to not get lost amongst the jargon.
At the beginning of this book I had very
low hopes, as from the get-go Abbey claimed that his account was going to try
and get only at “the surface” of things. Fortunately for me, I learned as I
read that this was a lie. With its scathing critiques against society,
industrial tourism, cars, roads, and (though not as scathing as I’d like it)
settler colonialism, Abbey’s account of his three seasons at Arches National
Park is, right behind Walden, one of my favorite nature books that I have read
to date. Written during the political upheaval and atomic fears of the 60s,
Abbey is able to talk about big issues without using big words, and seems to
embody much of the positives of the counterculture without many of the
negatives. Maybe it’s because I’ve to date read so many authors who, erring on
the liberal side, advocate for soft cookie-cutter capitalism free of civil
unrest, but there was something invigorating about seeing right in the preface
a call for active rebellion.
I don’t know, I don’t have much to say
about this book. Except, of course, that it’s something everyone would be
better off reading.
03/15/18:
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here
and There, by Aldo Leopold
Published posthumously, Sand County
Almanac is the seminal work by American conservationist Aldo Leopold. Divided
into three sections, this book starts where the likes of Muir and Thoreau left
off, with deep readings of immediate nature, though this time through the eyes
of conservation rather than preservation: for Leopold the land is a utility,
but one that must be respected. The final section, “The Upshot,” is a
philosophical treatise that in many ways helps set the stage for modern
conservation ethics and contemporary nature-concepts.
It’s not possible to give this book
anything less than a 5-Star rating. Here Leopold bridges the gap between
Emerson and becomes the 20th century’s first true ecologist. Here he teaches us
that nature is something more to be admired for the sake of admiration, but
rather exists as something we are a part of and wholly dependent on.
03/11/18:
Wildlife in the Anthropocene:
Conservation After Nature, by Jamie Lorimer
A work of anthropology by an associate
professor of geography, “Wildlife in the Anthropocene” offers an alternative
framework through which one can view nature. Obviously influenced by “The End
of Nature,” this book rejects the concept of nature as a static and pristine
object “out there” in favor of fluid and dynamic frameworks that see nature and
city as interconnected entities, where other organisms carry just as much
agency as we do. This, for Lorimer, leads to the conclusion that conservation
is not a matter of science or biodiversity, but one of biopolitics, marred with
such subjectivities as charisma, vertebrate bias, and commodification.
While this book is full of 5-Star
concepts, it’s theories are page-after-page distorted by the language Lorimer
uses. Academic words are thrown around everywhere even when layman’s words
could be used, and Lorimer’s Marxist interpretations (along with the vast
majority of thinkers he name-drops, from Deleuze to Heidegger) are tenuous at
best. If Lorimer had decided to leave the thesaurus and his copy of
“Anti-Oedipus” at home, then this book could have been one of those revolutionary
works of environmentalism, right there next to “Silent Spring.” As it is,
however, this 200-page jargon machine doesn’t stand the chance of ever escaping
the ivory tower of academia.
02/14/18:
Coyote Valley: Deep History in the High
Rockies, by Thomas G. Andrews
A practice of “Deep History,” Andrews'
“Coyote Valley” chronicles the history of a small slice of the Rocky Mountain
National Park area from its original indigenous population to the modern era.
Looking at the Nuche, the miners, the settlers, the conservationists, and so
on, the book stands above all else as a testament to the immense changes man
can make in small spaces.
I don’t have too terribly much to say on
this book. The content, while riveting, is marred by the bone-dry tone of the
author. Coming in expecting a piece on nature, I was disappointed to see it
erred more on the side of history. Still, I am nonetheless grateful that I read
it, and grateful how it’s deep history perspective has allowed me to add some
more nuance to my own present nature-concepts.
02/12/18:
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, by
Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Part scientific study of snails, part
meditations on illness and the human’s relationship with nature, “The Sound of
a Wild Snail Eating” by Elisabeth Bailey is as much a beautiful work of art as
it is a work of prose. Bedridden for nearly a decade by a mysterious virus,
Bailey finds herself trapped in a world of utter isolation. That is, until, a
caretaker brings her a snail from the woods outside. This snail, small and slow
as it may be, becomes for a year her connection to the wider world and her
source of meaning in a life that has become entirely sedentary.
This book, in my opinion, is the perfect
expression of Emerson’s conviction that “every natural fact is the symbol of a
spiritual fact.” It is by studying not only the habits of her lone snail, but
snails as a collective, that Bailey is able to sketch a portrait of what it
means to be ill, what it means to be alone, what it means to be human. The
empirical observations of snail life are interspersed with philosophical
musings in a way that beckons to the primordial nature writings of Thoreau
(though much less pretentious).
The greatest part about this book, though,
is that it’s short length means that every sentence is as savory as the last.
Bailey knows what it means to cut the fluff, and so there is nothing in here
that shouldn’t be. The thing is so short that one could finish it in a few
hours, and yet the impact is so deep that upon turning that final page one will
likely realize this is a book they’ll never forget.
02/03/18:
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural
History, by Elizabeth Kolbert
“The Sixth Extinction” chronicles the
narrative of well, the sixth extinction, or the anthropocene extinction as it’s
popularly becoming called. This extinction is caused by a multitude of
environmental changes, but those changes all flow from a single source: us. I’m
this book, Kolbert starts first with a historical perspective on the idea of
extinction, and goes forward in time to our current era, and havoc we are
wreaking on the world around us.
The most impressive thing about this book,
besides the obvious fascination of the subject itself, is Kolbert’s voice. A
trained journalist, she fills the book with as much intrigue as the best of
news articles. Next to that comes the science and history behind every case
(the chapters are divided into “case studies” of sorts, with each case being a
different extinct species) studied. The further through the book one reads, the
closer to our time the extinctions become, until the last chapter where Kolbert
speculated that our journey of destruction may end with us driving one final
species to extinction: ourselves.
The Sixth Extinction is a book I’d
recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in biology, geology,
paleontology, ecology, or the philosophy of what it means to be human. Even if
you don’t enjoy any of these subject, read it anyway, and Kolbert will teach
you to find all of them just as fascinating as she does.
01/18/18:
VALIS, by Philip K. Dick
Not quite a work of fiction, not remotely
a work of reality, Valis is the first book in PKD’s trilogy, and, while masked
as a science fiction story, is in many ways an account of Dick’s supposedly
real-life encounter with the title character.
It’s hard to review this book simply
because it is unlike any other work of fiction I’ve read. Only perhaps a third
of it is plot and characters, while the other two thirds is a religious tract.
Still, it was a thrilling read from beginning to end, even if at times I got
bored of Dick’s exegesis excerpts.
12/14/17:
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us
Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams
“The Nature Fix” by Florence Williams is a
work of nonfiction that explores the loss of nature through urbanization, and
what this loss means for us. She does this by looking at the effects nature has
on the individual and how such effects change depending on how long one is in
nature (for example, 30 minutes can be relaxing while a week retreat can be
life changing). She does this through the lens of a deeply factual and
scientific perspective, though that does not keep her from often waxing poetic
about the smell of trees or sight of natural fractals.
The first thing that struck me about this
book was how much I found the author’s tone unbearable. Williams, being a
white, middle-class and middle-aged mother speaks from a point of privilege,
and does so frequently, often ignoring in her analyses things like
socioeconomic inequalities and institutionalized racism (things that keep large
swaths of the population from experiencing nature) similarly, her adoration of
Japan and Korea in he first few chapters comes off at times as straight
fetishization, and she ignores completely the root causes of our current nature
plight.
Despite these intense shortcomings,
Williams redeems herself some in the last few chapters, especially the epilogue
where she constructs a “Nature dose pyramid.” Likewise, the book shines through
and through in one particular area: the facts. Williams draws frequently from
surveys and scientific studies, thus solidifying her stance in rigid science.
Pulling from these studies is the book’s greatest strength.
Overall “The Nature Fix” gives what it
delivers, though that delivery is somewhat disappointing. It’s a quick fix if
you’re looking for a comprehensive review of the subject, but you’d probably be
better off reading the various authors and studies she namedrops instead (I
know I would)
08/29/17:
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality
Without Religion, by Sam Harris
"Waking Up" by Sam Harris
attempts to examine religious experience through a sort of "middle
path" between accepting such experiences and their metaphysical claims
wholeheartedly (as religion tends to do), and outright dismissing them as
nonsense that doesn't deserve attention (as can occur in the scientific
community). To do this, Harris utilizes neuroscience, current conceptions of
consciousness, and a multitude of Buddhist ideas to construct a framework
through which to view ecstatic experiences, and reaches the following
conclusion through that framework: the idea of a self is an illusion, and this
is a fact that be realized directly through meditation, the use of mind
altering substances, and near death experiences. While all three forms of
experience are talked about in the book, meditation tends to take the main
stage, as, according to Harris, it is the most effective way to realize the illusion
of a self without falling into the trap of fictional metaphysical ideas. From
this he goes on to construct a framework through which secular individuals can
experience spirituality in their lives, but without the dogma of religion.
Before I say anything else about this book
I feel like I should get something off my chest: I don't really like Sam Harris
that much. I agree with many of the points he raises in this book and think
he's a brilliant neuroscientist, but his opinions on religion are often grossly
reductionistic and almost always offensive (not to mention his fetishization of
"Eastern" religion in many parts of the book). That being said, I
feel like there is a great deal of truth to what he says in this book, both
about the self being an illusion and about how it's not only possible but that
it's NECESSARY to divorce spirituality from dogma if we ever want to be able to
coherently talk about religious experience. I felt in a lot of ways that this
book summed up what I've for years been trying to say about such experiences
but could never quite articulate. Harris uses his middle ground on religious
experience to further another of the book's main points, a point that he claims
can be realized when such transcendence is experienced outside the lens of
religion: that by recognizing ego as an illusion of the mind, we can come to
realize, through intensive practice and constant reminders, if there is no self
then we are not our thoughts and therefore it is possible to let ourselves not
be controlled by the things we think. And honestly, is there anything more
liberating than that?
08/09/17:
"A", by Louis Zukofsky
"A" is a 24-part epic poem by
Objectivist (not Ayn Rand objectivism) poet Louis Zukofsky, in which Zukofsky
tries to create an experimental work which captures his life as it is lived. As
a consequence poem is filled to the brim with references to Zukofsky's multiple
interests, ranging from the writings of Marx and Adam Smith to the music of
Bach and Handel, and ends with "A 24," which is four different pieces
of Zukofsky's writings set to the music of Handel.
I honestly don't have much good to say on
this piece. The two-star rating expresses more than enough that I didn't really
enjoy it (as does the fact that it took me so long to finally finish trudging
through). While at first many of the poem's experiments with language feel
exciting and the insight into Zukofsky's life illuminating, after some 50 pages
or so it becomes stale, and the writing just feels superfluous, self-indulgent,
unnecessarily esoteric, and for the most part nonsensical (seriously, there are
whole sections that read like the predictive text on an iPhone). In his attempt
to capture the world he lives in, Zukofsky falls prey to a bad case of
intellectual masturbation that leaves much of this poem unreadable (either that
or I have missed some fundamental point of the poem). Even section 24 seems in
my eye to fail at its goal, being as it requires five separate readers for it
to be realized in its fullest (one for each of the four voices, then I fifth
for the sheet music), though the concept itself seems a brilliant one.
It isn't all bad, though. Certain portions
of the poem (such as section 11) feel beautiful and are a joy that I could read
again and again. The differences between these sections and others are that,
while still heavily experimental, they offer just enough clarity to decipher
the tenderness they contain. Unfortunately, portions such as this are few and
far between.
07/31/17:
The Complete Poems, by Walt Whitman
(edited by Francis Murphy)
I first encountered Walt Whitman through
my reading of a first-edition version of Leaves of Grass back in April. What
captivated me then captivates me now, and that is the pure personality behind
Whitman's tradition-defying poems. This book offers the "Deathbed"
edition of Leaves of Grass along with other non-Leaves WW poems. While when
Whitman shines he shines like no other, reading his complete works has taught
me that he is also capable of boring one to sleep. Given however that he wrote
some 400+ poems I believe it can only be expected that some will be duds, and
besides the great poems far make up for the ones that are lacking.
Perhaps just as important as the poems, in
this book are the some 200 pages of notes in the back and an introduction in
the front, both of which shed light on the history of each poem and allow the
reader an insight into how as Whitman aged and the nation changed (this being
the period of the Civil War) so did the intentions and meanings behind his
poems.
While I have several issues with Whitman
and those aspects of him expressed in some of his poems (such as his praising
of an America that at the time deserved no applause, and his rampant egoism), I
also believe that there is a reason he's been remembered the way he has. Whitman,
despite all his faults, was able to, in perfect Transcendentalist praxis, break
away from the trappings of the old world and create a work that was truly
original, and in the process help cement for America its own poetic legacy. And
while his poems did not overturn organized religion and create a religion of
Personality, nor did they free the culture from patriarchy and the suppression
of sex, I believe that the best of Whitman's works accomplish easily at least
two of his numerous goals: they stir life within the reader, inspiring instead
of lecturing, urging the reader to find within themselves that which is their
truth, and secondly they document in complexity the life and thoughts of a
single soul living at a single point in time. Whitman's poetry was an effort to
reach out across space and time and make a connection to the reader, and with
his leaves he has done that and so much more.
07/06/17:
The Conquest of Bread, by Peter
Kropotkin (introduction by David Priestland)
Conquest of Bread is a book by Peter
Kropotkin in which he establishes the vision of a future anarcho-communist
society, and defends from criticism how such a society would function and
sustain itself without use of state or market to incentivize and organize work.
If, before reading this book, my interest
in anarchy was minuscule, fleeting interest is no longer the case. Kropotkin
explains with efficiency and simplicity nearly all conceivable issues one could
raise, and along with this the book, despite being over 100 years old, has aged
so well in terms of its references to science and technological advancement and
labor automation that it almost reads as if it could've been written today
(though it does lack any real compelling intersectional theory). I believe that
if this were the famous radical text that was known by all rather than the
Communist Manifesto, then there would not only be a great deal more people
enthused at leftism, but also there would be far less people who hear the word
"communism" and recoil with the terror Cold War era propaganda has
instilled in their heads. And in a world that's becoming more and more
disenfranchised with not only capitalism but political bureaucracy on the
whole, in a world that has ability to harness both wind and solar energy and
emancipate ourselves from fossil fuels, in a world where bioengineering has
made the idea (if poverty is removed and equity established) of food scarcity
absurd, in a world as connected as ours is in this age of information,
Kropotkin's work is more relevant than ever as a vision of a future that,
though utopic, is very much achievable if passion for change were strong
enough.
06/24/17:
Infinite Jest, by David foster
Wallace
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is a
gargantuan novel which doesn't so much have a plot as it has narrative
fragments of (dozens of) character's lives. The three main characters that we
follow are Hal, a tennis prodigy attending an academy for tennis prodigies;
Gately, a recovering opiate addict who helps manage a halfway house next door to
the tennis academy; and Remy, a Canadian in search of the master copy of a film
which is deadly in its addictiveness. The book weaves in and out of these lives
and many others without much a point other than to watch them unfold.
This is a very hard book to review, and an
even harder book to give five stars (though I also can't bring myself to give
it a lower score). It is by no means a perfect book. In fact it's one of the
most flawed books I've read in a long time. Wallace's writing is so purple it's
nearly unreadable at times, and about 250 of the book's first 300 pages
could've easily been cut without doing any harm to the novel's splendor. There
is, also, the issue of Wallace's frequent sexism and even more frequent racism
in the novel (for example, in a handful of scenes Wallace commits what could
only be considered the literary analogue of blackface).
Bar all these enormous flaws I still give
this book 5 stars because when it shines it SHINES, and does so unlike any
other work of fiction I've read. While at its worst Infinite Jest is
reprehensible, at its best it is a faultless mirror of our own humanity and all
our flaws and all our gaps and all our attempts to repair those flaws and
bridge those gaps. At its best Infinite Jest is Wallace bleeding with sincerity
and emotion onto page unlike any other author. And Infinite Jest's lack of a
plot, though at times confounding, is part of what makes it so great: without
any grand goal to work toward the characters of the novel reveal themselves not
in heroic acts, but rather in living their lives as they are on a day-to-day
basis. Though not always the most thrilling read, this makes them much like us
in that we also have no true goals besides those we set for ourselves, and
sometimes upon achieving those goals (as happens too to some of the novel's
characters) we find that they weren't really ever what we wanted, that there
still exists within us that aching hole of desire for a thing we can't name.
Infinite Jest acknowledges that hole through its lack of closure or predicable
narrative, and in doing so makes us feel less alone in our aching, makes us
feel more human.
05/30/17:
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret
Atwood
"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margret
Atwood is a dystopian novel which takes place in a hyper-religious,
hyper-patriarchal society which many right-wing politicians would likely find
utopic, and tells the story of Offred, a handmaid whose job it is to provide a
child for her commander.
The book provides not only one of the more
realistic (though still improbable) ideas of a dystopian future, but also
insightful commentary on gender politics of the current day and of the time of
the book's publication (1985 I think). Through interesting use of flashbacks to
the days that brought about this dark future Atwood manages to create a world
that, despite being contained only in 300 pages, seems every bit as vivid as
those crafted by fantasy authors.
While it's setting and history are
astounding, this novel also has the fatal flaw found in all dystopian novels in
that nothing really happens. We follow along uninteresting characters as they
go through their uninteresting tasks, just willing them to do something to
advance the plot rather than sit there passively and let the plot advance them.
In this department The Handmaid's Tale is another in a long line of
historically significant but rather boring dystopians, ranking up there with
books like 1984 and Brave New World, which also give us cardboard-cutout
characters and little to no plot just so they can spend all their time crafting
a spooky future.
05/23/17:
The Ego and Its Own, by Max Stirner
(edited by David Leopold)
Ego and It's Own by Max Stirner is an
essential read for anyone interested in leftist politics. In this book Stirner
attacks just about every human institution from God, Man, morality, state, and
even altruism, stating that nothing in this world truly exists but the world
itself and us, our egos. This advocates for an anarchist way of living in which
one disregards all senses of collectivism and common good for pursuit of the
individual wants and needs, culminating to Stirner's stance that property is
that which one can aptly defend, and that what one has might over belongs to
them if they wish to take it.
While many of Stirner's points about the
social construction of the world around us are in fact true and significant, a
bit more of his work than I am comfortable with dips into territory later
explored by Ayn Rand. More specifically his statement that it is the fault of
the poor that the rich are rich is one which seems to ignore the complexities
that go into the dividing of rich and poor. While I feel that many of the
things he says are true I don't agree with all of them, but rather find myself
thinking that certain lies (such as humanitarianism) are better than certain
truths.
04/05/17:
Leaves of Grass (1855 Edition), by Walt Whitman
Every now and again you come across a book
that, once finished, you realize will have a permanent impact on how you view
the world. Leaves of Grass is, for me, the first book in a long, long time to
do that. In eleven short poems (and one long one) Whitman manages to capture
the thrill of existing better than anyone else, while at the same time
shattering all barriers that separate our conceptions of life and death,
existence and nonexistence. Maybe it's just cause I'm a sucker for this kind of
stuff, but reading Leaves of Grass felt more like an exploration of the human
experience than a set of unmetered poems.
04/02/17:
The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx
(introduction by Gareth Stedman Jones)
It feels strange to write a review on a
book like this, impossible even, so I'll keep things relatively short. Three
stars for the manifesto itself and a fourth star for the 200-page introduction
which gives the reader more than enough insight on the manifesto's creation.
As for the manifesto itself, I found the first
two sections equal parts compelling and important. After that, though, it felt
somewhat underwhelming. Nonetheless it's the essential must-read for anyone
getting into leftist politics given how much has taken from it.
03/11/17:
The Secret History of Twin Peaks, by
Mark Frost
Not much to say on this one. Not the most
well-written book by a long shot (so much of it just dragged), but still decent
and an absolute must-read for fans of the show.
01/08/17:
Bird Box, by Josh Malerman
Bird Box is one of those thrillers that
once it gets going it's hard to put down. Taking place in a world where to see
is to die, the novel places the reader in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is
both more frightening and more familiar than disease, nuclear winter, or good old-fashioned
zombies.
While pacing and setting and plot are all
areas which the book excels at, I found it's characters to be a bit of letdown.
Though not two-dimensional they're not quite fully three-dimensional either,
existing somewhere between cliches and authentic human beings (I could tell,
for example, which role each character was mean to fulfill almost as soon as
they were introduced). This leads to a lot of predictability in their motives
and action which detracts some from the suspense of the book.
Nonetheless Bird Box remains a fantastic
read, adding something fresh to a genre that has been exhausted of just about
every trope imaginable. Be warned, though: once you pick the book up you won't
want to put it down till you reach the end.
01/02/17:
Roadside Picnic, by Boris &
Arkady Strugatsky
A hauntingly bleak novel which manages to
avoid the pitfalls of science fiction at the time while delivering a dark,
ironic message about human nature. Rather than bringing humanity to the
forefront of greatness and elitism as most SF novels do, Roadside Picnic
focuses on mundane characters and takes an approach more in the vein of
Lovecraft's cosmicism to tell us that no, we are not all-powerful, that in the
grand scheme of things intelligent life would regard us as no different than we
regard animals, that we should fear not some invading race but rather the
impulses of our own species.
This book has few noticeable flaws, and
many of the flaws which I did come across could be attributed to the limits of
translation rather than fault of the text itself. At times I found myself
wishing it was longer, that it went into more detail about the Visit and the
Zone and all the other mysteries it only hints at. In the end, though, I think
this lack of explanation works in the novel's favor no matter how frustrating
it is. Sometimes in life horrific things happen without a why or a how, and no
matter how hard we try to rationalize these disasters there is no way to do so
without putting our own anthropocentrism at risk. Roadside Picnic is a
depiction of just that.
12/15/16:
The Giant's House, by Elizabeth
McCracken
The Giant's House reads more like a
character study than a novel, and I mean that as a compliment. Every face
introduced in the book seems real enough to touch and the ways they interact
with one another are magical. This makes it unfocused at times in terms of plot
direction, but then again so is life. The best way I can describe this book is
that it offers a wonderful world of people for the reader to get lost in. A
vacation into others' lives, and a great one at that.
12/06/16:
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxely
Though there are many points which Brave
New World addresses that I find both profound and significant, the prose style
itself, much like 1984, leaves something to be desired. Should it be read? Yes,
but only for its social significance, not for the quality of the writing.
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