Darkness at Noon (Arthur Koestler, 1940)

(288 pages)

Book club selection (via Chris; session held 22 October 2019).

I very much like this book; had read it several years ago, my summary is at this link.

Here are book club notes from the current reading -

so what to make of this?

photos disappear

today's progressives are similar to this?  taking down statues, removing books, banning speakers, speech codes, cancel culture, prescribed behaviors - ?  French Revolution - the left so often seems to end up so aggressive.  maybe because the right tends to start from a position of authority so seems less so (because can filter aggression through police/authorities)?

ends justify the means.  lying in service of getting elected, holding and keeping power.  Trump a caricature.  E Warren - opioids, health care caused bankruptcies, tax not being progressive, etc - obviously materially false - this is ok?  let alone native american fantasy, getting fired for being pregnant - ?  endless other examples from each party, these two just in current news cycle

politics as ultimately a power exercise - so true - here in US we are so sheltered - borders redrawn in Europe definitely through 1945, and in many places to this day.  Stalin's foreign policy reached as far as his army.

so all the blather about political theory - is it irrelevant?

how to connect these 1930s episodes to today?

why do some humans want to dictate how other humans behave?  why do so many humans look for a savior/parental figure?

Israelites in the desert imagery - there is no promised land - and this is ok

the excitement around the early days of socialism/communism is quite understandable.  that anyone can continue it is inexplicable

Russia's so-rapid industrialization; Gletkin with some plausible observations

Arabs: A 3000 Year History (Tim Mackintosh Smith, 2019)

(536 pages)

I found this consistently interesting and useful - recommended. A motivation for reading is my confusion about the term "Arab" - so few of them it seems, yet widespread use of the term around the Middle East and Northern Africa, etc.

Notes follow -

opening segment explores period before Islam - seldom read about this - points out, that as one might expect, Islam didn't arise out of nowhere.  ideas attributed to Mohammed had roots

pilgrimage to a town mentioned cb Mecca precursor

settled areas in the south - current Yemen - including Saba (OT refers to as Sheba, as in "Queen of").  north interacting with Fertile Crescent.  wanderers in the center - nomads, raiders - referred to as a'rab, though origin unclear.  greener at one time, though that's so long ago.

as mentioned in this book - superpowers would use/abuse these folks (Babylonia, Assyria; Rome, Persia) in their own contests - became important power brokers over time - unique ability to travel and raid in unfriendly terrain. as superpowers exhaust each other, opportunity arises; combination of camels and horses - lethal!

organizing thesis for the book is the language - I think meaning "high Arabic" - not really spoken, but widely understood - Koran as highest expression

deciding to administer lands in Arabic probably saved the language, rescued it from fate of Latin/Greek, overcame thinness on the ground of actual Arabs

conquest and language spread first . . . then Islamization - hard to define it - Tom Holland discussion, this is a couple hundred years after the fact and with specific political and social needs to address.

Arabs from "the island" (saudi arabia proper) are few in number and swamped by locals in many or most places conquered during the outburst.  prime example = Persia - culture and numerosity overwhelmed - even in terms of Mohammed's [sons?] marrying Persian women

deep divisions from the very beginning

reactionary forces strong, seemingly significantly stronger than in other cultures - the idea that everything stopped with the Koran [and whatever approved interpretations] - rather amazing lack of progress that persists to this day

oddity of contemporary Egypt as an Arab state in many respects (other states in the area as well) - Arab, really?

complicated to say the least

The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus (Hans J.C. von Grimmelshausen, 1650s or 1660s?)

(462 pages)

Author was a soldier in the Thirty Years War - so this book is quite unique in providing an authentic voice.

The first part of the book famously describes some of the horrors of that conflict, but it turns out that most of the book goes elsewhere - the protagonist is a bit of a roustabout.  Relevant to the war - participants switching sides; way too much wanton cruelty; the difficulty of separating war from brigandage.

Entertaining, but not as interesting as expected.