I loved this book! I hope that Mann's goal of getting more precolumbian American history taught in schools catches on. People in the Americas shouldn'I loved this book! I hope that Mann's goal of getting more precolumbian American history taught in schools catches on. People in the Americas shouldn't reach adulthood thinking that history started here in 1492. I especially liked Mann's even-handed discussion of how history (real and imagined) affects the political and social status of Indian (First Nations, etc. - your favorite term here) people across the Americas today.
I wholeheartedly appreciate his point that the original people of the Americas were, well, people. They did brilliant stuff, strange stuff, amazing stuff, awful stuff, and everything in between. There's a tendency in popular culture to either demonize or sanctify them and, above all, to use them to prove some point or other within our own agenda. But we can only learn what history can teach us if we acknowlege, then discard, our need for our (or anyone else's) ancestors to be one thing or another.
The people of the Americas were busy getting on with life, art, politics, religion, war, farming, and sports, and had been for millenia prior to 1492. The waves of pestilence and cultural devastation that they and their descendants experienced afterwards has eclipsed the history of their accomplishments. It's wonderful what archaeological researchers have reconstructed since. And while I'm not generally a violent or vindictive person, I do hope that whoever ordered the destruction of the vast majority of Inca quipu and Maya codexes have been duly punished in whatever afterlife they may be experiencing. ...more
My favorite part of this book was that Lisa See did not try to superimpose 20th-century American values and sensibilities on 19th-century Chinese charMy favorite part of this book was that Lisa See did not try to superimpose 20th-century American values and sensibilities on 19th-century Chinese characers. Instead she seemed genuinely committed to telling her story as a woman of the time might.
Considering that my pet peeve in historical novels is the (apparently requisite) anachronistically feminist character, I loved that "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" was so respectful its time, place, and people. In large part because of this, See told a deeper and truer story about human nature than is told in most books of this genre. I recommend it. ...more
This book is entirely thought-provoking. Kathryn Schulz is my new hero.
I've been looking forward to reading Being Wrong since some interviews Schulz dThis book is entirely thought-provoking. Kathryn Schulz is my new hero.
I've been looking forward to reading Being Wrong since some interviews Schulz did last year in Slate magazine, and it delivered on my high expectations.
Why *isn't* Shakespeare's Richard III performed Rocky Horror-style -- to the audience, for the audience, by the audience -- everywhere in the English-Why *isn't* Shakespeare's Richard III performed Rocky Horror-style -- to the audience, for the audience, by the audience -- everywhere in the English-speaking world?
Okay, this book is not exactly deep. But it's hugely entertaining, the plot moves right along, and it made me laugh out loud. ...more
There is a certain kind of book that, when I reach the end, I want to open it back up at the beginning and read it again. This is one of those books.
IThere is a certain kind of book that, when I reach the end, I want to open it back up at the beginning and read it again. This is one of those books.
It isn't because I enjoyed reading it - although I did. But I got to the end of the book feeling like there was so much in it that I didn't quite pick up on, and that if I read it again, I would find new layers of image and meaning.
This is a book about art, and delusion, and God, and egotism, and kindness, and the general silliness of humanity. I'm glad I don't live in an Iris Murdoch novel, but I'm glad I get to visit them once in a while. ...more
A fun read. I enjoyed the stuff about the World's Fair more than the stuff about the serial killer, although he kept the plot moving along nicely. I hA fun read. I enjoyed the stuff about the World's Fair more than the stuff about the serial killer, although he kept the plot moving along nicely. I have spent a couple of weeks now noticing how many things around me were associated with the Fair, from Bisquick to spray paint. ...more
I really enjoyed this book. It's written by an Iranian who grew up and lives in the West, but who retains personal and familial ties with high-level oI really enjoyed this book. It's written by an Iranian who grew up and lives in the West, but who retains personal and familial ties with high-level officials in the Islamic Republic. Might have been titled, "What are those guys under the turbans really like?"
Interesting reading for anybody who wants to learn about the people behind the sound bites. I've found that if you read one book about Iran, say, "Reading Lolita in Tehran," you might think you know something about the country. Read three, and you'll know you don't have the slightest idea.
I've been reading a lot of memoirs set in Iran, which is such a "blind man and the elephant" experience. Each one has been a rich and intimate story of a single person's experience. Together they make a mosaic of similar places at various times that is so much more three-dimensional than reading a single, "objective" book might be.
I hope political tensions with Iran simmer down in my lifetime. I would love to visit there someday. ...more
Interesting coincidence that I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles right after finishing Richardson's "Pamela." Not at all tedious, and with powerful insigInteresting coincidence that I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles right after finishing Richardson's "Pamela." Not at all tedious, and with powerful insight into human nature.
A must-read for any conservatives nostalgic for the "good old days" of village life and social order. ...more
A fascinating story. I think the Apaches' nihilism, in the face of their culture's destruction, was so powerfully illustrated in this book because Mr.A fascinating story. I think the Apaches' nihilism, in the face of their culture's destruction, was so powerfully illustrated in this book because Mr. Lehmann seemed entirely unaware of it. Of course, as an eleven-year-old, he would have assumed that the Apaches had always been as they were when he met them. He and his compatriots were men of action, not introspection. Stories have so much more power when the narrator doesn't tell you what to think about them.
This book was particularly enthralling to me since I am so familiar with the landscape where it took place. ...more
**spoiler alert** I hadn't read any Zola since _La Bete Humaine_ in college which I don't remember at all. I enjoyed reading Zola much more this time **spoiler alert** I hadn't read any Zola since _La Bete Humaine_ in college which I don't remember at all. I enjoyed reading Zola much more this time around. A wild and thought-provoking read.
Part of what made the story so satisfying was how he balanced the experiences of pairs of characters. Take Therese and the elder Mme. Raquin. Mme Raquin takes in her brother's child. This is an expression of her nature - kindly, maternal. However, in doing so, she does not take into account Therese's wild, intense, and nervous nature. Therese was made for drama and freedom, and instead she's thwarted, trapped in a cozy sickroom. She suppresses her urges and becomes outwardly passive and compliant; inwardly grim and stifled.
Enter Laurent, who wakes up Therese's true nature. Unused to her power, she wreaks destruction on everything around her, and finally upon herself. Balancing this path, her mother-in-law begins as active as Therese is passive. She moves the family from Vernon to Paris. She sets up the shop and runs it. As Theresa kindles under Laurent's influence, the two Mme Raquins' powers are balanced at the pivot point of the novel, Camille's murder. Then Mme Raquin collapses in grief, becoming weaker until she is literally paralyzed and entirely at Therese's and Laurent's mercy. Still she keeps her essential nature of motherly affection, until she is forced to see the terrible truth of her "children's" characters. She ends her days imprisoned in her immobilized body, seething with hatred while Therese tortuously uses her to satisfy her emotional needs.
It's interesting that Camille and Laurent both posess the fatal flaw of animal self-absorption brought about by overindulgence; while the women are twisted into evil by conformity and passivity. Recalling the time in which this book was written, the message is clear; extreme power imbalance harms the mighty as much as it harms the weak. ...more
Chewy and gripping. Re-reading this book about 25 years after I read it the first time, I was happy to find that it's just as good as I remembered.
WhChewy and gripping. Re-reading this book about 25 years after I read it the first time, I was happy to find that it's just as good as I remembered.
When I read this book as a teenager, I remember being absorbed by the adventure story, the political commentary, and the gender commentary. Reading this book again, I noticed the quality of the writing. Le Guin's prose is strong and economical. Her folk-tale "excerpts" are genius. I enjoyed the Handdara religion, which maintains an intense and ancient oracular tradition in order to demonstrate the pointlessness of having the right answer.
I liked the way the main character, Genly Ai, is perecpetive and skilled and well-trained for his job, but still often clueless, the way normal people are.
Some of Le Guin's speculations feel dated and weird - would a world without gender really be a world without war? Would a civilization really have trucks for centuries yet never drive them more than 25 mph? But even these served a purpose. Like travel, such questions highlight the things I *think* I know, and help me question why I hold onto certain ideas so firmly. I know so many people who develop a worldview sometime in their twenties and thirties, and by the time they hit their forties they automatically fit every piece of information that comes their way neatly into that framework. Slowly over the years their worldview is hardened and smoothed by the facts they've glued onto it like decoupage. Eventually they've stopped thinking altogether, and are just frustrated at how wrong the rest of the world is and how foolish its inhabitants.
To prevent this, I try to read books that challenge the solid worldview my mind keeps trying to form for itself. Noticing when I want to quickly dismiss something ("oh you wacky sixties lefty") is a great opportunity to reopen a question, and spend some time genuinely not knowing the answer.
So this is one reason I try not to re-read much. If I read the same thing too often, it forms a track in my mind that ideas run on so smoothly. That said, reading an old favorite many years later is a rich experience. The Left Hand of Darkness was a formative book for me, maybe even more than I realized at the time. ...more
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