Most of us are familiar with Animal Farm and 1984; this story of a clergyman’s daughter living in 1930’s England is far more grim and depressing than any of Orwell’s totalitarian dystopias. Orwell the freethinker sees the Christian life as nothing but unrelieved hypocrisy, cant, and flummery, a way of making you feel like you are a good person as long as you are making yourself miserable. Perhaps the Anglican Church in prewar England was indeed a discouraging spectacle; certainly the manners and mores of most English people in that period seem to have been less than life-embracing. The characters in this novel are mostly shabby and small; even the better ones are hardly heroic, but I cannot believe that the English were ever such an utterly mean and joyless people as Orwell makes them out to be, and in his scant regard for the established church he misses the spirit of true Christianity. In some ways this was an informative description of English society, but it was not a good story.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/09/22/a-clergymans-daughter-by-george-orwell/
Aug 21 2012
De Anima by Aristotle
I think of “soul” as another word for consciousness, but Aristotle says remarkably little about consciousness in this book. For Aristotle the primary characteristic of the soul is that it moves or animates the body. The secondary characteristic is that it is endowed with perception through the physical sense organs. By the time he comes to the subject of intellect, imagination, and desire, his writing is very confused. There are some intriguing ideas in this work, but I find Aristotle’s writing highly technical and excruciatingly dull, not the sort of thing I would take with me to the beach or on a long flight. And much of his thinking relating to physiology we now know to be flat out wrong. A good early start in Western thought, but one that left much to be improved on.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/08/21/de-anima-by-aristotle/
Aug 04 2012
Six Days of War by Michael Oren
Excellent book. If anyone wants to know how a pitifully small nation, surrounded by implacable enemies, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, can resoundingly defeat those enemies in six days, this is the book to read. The author is a card-carrying Israeli Jew, but he gives a thoroughly balanced treatment of the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and the war’s aftermath. The figure of Nasser looms large in this account, portrayed as an inspired leader but ultimately a tragic figure who was destroyed by what for his people was a disastrous and humiliating defeat. But for Israel and for the Jewish people, the war represents a glorious triumph and a historic vindication that their God is still with them. Kola kavod!
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/08/04/six-days-of-war-by-michael-oren/
Jul 13 2012
Just After Sunset by Stephen King
Uneven, but some of these stories were pretty good. The scariest story was about an obsessive-compulsive whose condition is contagious. There is more than one story that is basically a revenge fantasy, which makes me wonder what goes on in King’s head these days. And there is more than one story featuring the stock King character of the Mean Rich Old Man of the type that appeared in *Bag of Bones*, something tells me King has come across this type of person more than once in his life. This is the kind of book to pass the time between connecting flights; none of these stories were really memorable, with the exception of “The Cat from Hell,” which is an all-time King classic. But King seems to have an ongoing propensity to churn out short stories as well as novels, which is an enviable talent.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/13/just-after-sunset-by-stephen-king/
Jul 12 2012
Einstein by Walter Isaacson
I read this book several years ago; on rereading it I was much more interested in Einstein’s science than his life story. Yet the story is still inspiring; it is a testimony to what an unconventional mind and a lot of curiosity can accomplish. Einstein remained a determinist throughout his life, and on reading a book about a successful life like this it is easy to believe that some mysterious Providence guides us through life, although Einstein’s determinism was scientific rather than religious. Alas, Fate is not so generous to all men. Einstein had the rare good fortune to not only be a genius but to have his genius recognized and celebrated in his own lifetime. And he was not a tormented genius; his biography bespeaks a man possessed of tremendous inner calm. I have not gotten very far studying Einstein’s theories, but his life as well as his science has lessons that all of us can profit from.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/12/einstein-by-walter-isaacson/
Jul 09 2012
Pulp by Charles Bukowski
When I first read this, I thought it was the worst novel I had ever read. On a second reading, however, it comes off remarkably well. It’s much funnier than I remembered the first time around, and somehow the ending seems more poignant now. It’s not one of Bukowski’s best, but it’s still Bukowski: funny, misanthropic, uninhibited, darkly philosophical. The first time I read it I would have given it a one star rating, but now I’m giving it four stars. I believe this is the last thing Bukowski published in his lifetime; it’s worth reading just to see his last printed words, which are as cynical and unrepentant as ever. And yet…there is beauty here, some roses growing out of the garbage heap. Bukowski has been dead for twenty years, but his brilliant, bitter words live on.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/09/pulp-by-charles-bukowski/
Jul 05 2012
The Social Animal by David Brooks
This is ostensibly the life stories of two people from youth to old age, but it is really a vehicle for illustrating the results of the social and psychological research that is obviously dear to the author’s heart. It’s an engaging mixture of narrative, commentary, and analysis, but it’s clear from the kind of people David Brooks writes about that he’s used to moving in fairly privileged and affluent circles. I didn’t recognize myself in any of his successful, socially integrated, well adjusted characters, and this book made me uncomfortably aware that I am not one of the high achieving A-type personalities that Brooks clearly believes are cut out for success. This book is not without merit, but Brooks clearly lives in a different world from the one I inhabit, and I suspect that his upper middle class profiles are not exactly representative of average Americans either. The book is not exactly The Great Gatsby, but it’s certainly not The Jungle either.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/07/05/the-social-animal-by-david-brooks/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/06/18/the-march-of-folly-by-barbara-tuchman/
Jun 17 2012
The Enneads by Plotinus
This work deserves more discussion than space allows, even though much of it was unintelligible to me. It represents Plotinus’ quest to know and understand God, which for him consists of a trinity: the One, the Intellectual-Principle, and the All-Soul. Part of his problem is that he is trying to describe in words something that for him is clearly ineffable. Some of his problems are familiar to all thinkers who have tackled this subject: how unity coexists with particularism, how perfection can give rise to imperfection, how evil can exist in a world created by a good God, how free will can be reconciled with necessity. Plotinus’ concept of the One is of a pure, impersonal, perfect Being; it is truly a philosopher’s idea of God: a God who exists in a state of abstract perfection, does nothing, and for all practical purposes is totally useless. His philosophy of life, inasmuch as he has one, is also not terribly practical. All in all a somewhat stimulating but not very inspiring work.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/06/17/the-enneads-by-plotinus/
May 18 2012
A Better War by Lewis Sorley
Every now and then you get a revisionist account of Vietnam that argues that the U.S. military knew what it was doing and could have won the war if not for the hippies, the journalists, and the politicians. Sorley makes a decent case that the war under the command of General Creighton Abrams was not a complete disaster, and even goes so far as to argue that the war was practically won by 1970, after the Viet Cong were virtually annihilated by their disastrous Tet Offensive. The argument goes that the process of Vietnamization was too rapid and the United States withdrew its support of South Vietnam too precipitously for the South to hang on to its gains. The American people and their government simply lost their will to win the war. So…did Walter Cronkite lose the war? There are a lot of ifs and might-have-beens in this book that incline one to think that Sorley protests too much, but he makes as good a case as anyone for the revisionist theory. Kudos for a determined effort.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/05/18/a-better-war-by-lewis-sorley/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire