Monte Cassino - The Hardest-Fought Battle of World War II (Matthew, Parker, 2004)

I've read a fair amount about this battle (have been interested in it from Irvin Bormann perspective in addition to general interest in World War II).  At first I wasn't feeling that this book added a lot - and I still prefer the discussion about the battle (and Italian campaign in general) in this book.  But the author's technique - heavy reliance on survivor interviews - became progressively more interesting or captivating as the book proceeded, and I ended up liking it quite a bit.

It reinforces the message that the Italian campaign was messed up in so many ways, that so many lives were thrown away in the way the attacks were staged, that so little was accomplished in terms of diverting Nazi resources etc.  It's hard to be too critical of the political and military leadership in such a difficult overall situation, but it makes the thought of the losses even more depressing.

The Germans were excellent, well-trained soldiers.  The Gustav Line was amazing.  Even Hannibal was smart enough not to try to attack up the Italian peninsula from the south.  The weather was appalling.

Got a better feel for the multi-national coalition involved (which of course made everything more difficult in terms of coordination, which turns out to be pretty important in these settings).

The title here seems overblown, but some of the battle descriptions make you wonder if other battles were much worse than Monte Cassino - it certainly had elements of World War I static slaughter, as well as Stalingrad house-to-house fighting.

I keep thinking politicians should be required to read books like this, and then re-read them once or twice more, before they ever commit soldiers to battle.

The Botany of Desire (A Plant's-Eye View of the World) (Michael Pollan, 2001)

Everyone knows that humans breed plants in various ways.  The author's premise here was to try to look at the interaction from the perspective of the plants (example = the way flowers lure bees into spreading their pollen).  It was an interesting book, but not because that premise worked particularly well.  (Maybe there's a deeper game going on that I realize, but I don't think plants are manipulating humans.)

He focused on four plants:

1.  Apple (sweetness) - lots of discussion about the importance of apples on the American frontier, including lots of discussion about John Chapman.  He notes that ol' Johnny Appleseed was growing apples trees from seed - meaning that the crop would be inedible, usable only to make cider - meaning hard cider in those days - the primary hooch available on the frontier.  Author claims that the apple industry tried to reposition the Chapman story as Prohibition loomed (at which time it also invented (marketing) phrases like "an apple a day keeps the doctor away").

2.  Tulip (beauty) - lots of discussion about the tulip mania (1634-37).  Not very interesting.

3.  Marijuana (intoxication) - he discusses how marijuana seems to operate on the brain - an intensification of the senses, an ability to focus on one thing deeply (if for a limited period).  He compares this to Huxley's discussion of mescaline (peyote) - which Huxley thought aided perception by essentially turning off the perception filters we use (and need) to function efficiently. Not sure what to make of this.

4.  Potato (control) - I love reading about the potato (such as in this book).  A plant from the Americas that transformed Europe.  He went through the Ireland experience - British (anti-Catholic) laws preventing Irish from accumulating land so they are restricted to small plots; soil and climate not conducive to grains; potato (with a little milk) as a 100% complete diet for people and their few livestock; potato works beautifully on the small plots; requires so little work to plant, harvest, prepare (contributes to view of Irish as lazy); population rises from 3 million to 8 million; they all plant the same variety; blight; population back to 3 million.  So that's interesting, but the author was more focused on genetic engineering, how potatoes are grown in Idaho, the risks of monoculture.

The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene, 1948)

I liked this a lot in the beginning stages of the book, then felt it broke down toward the end - partly because I didn't think the reliance on Catholic doctrine of the period to create tension in the lead character (Scobie) was particularly effective.

Now I learn that Time magazine has this book in the top 100 English-language novels since 1923; the Modern Library ranked it 40th.  That surprises me.

Short, and definitely a good read - always held my attention.  I like Greene's writing - he sees us.

Scobie is an inspector in a West African country during WWII; his wife is unhappy; he pities her; borrows money from a Syrian smuggler to pay her passage out of the colony; inspects a suicide at an inland station; inspects a Portuguese ship and uncharacteristically doesn't bust its captain for a Germany-bound letter; Wilson keeps an eye on him (and on his wife); Scobie meets a survivor of a shipwreck and falls in love; further adventures follow.  Wilson shares lodgings with a veteran of the colony who amused himself by going after cockroaches.

I have no idea what life is like in one of these colonies but trust that Greene (who worked in one) did a great job describing it.

The German Genius - Europe's Third Renaissance, The Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century (Peter Watson, 2010)

I've had the good fortune to read quite a few truly excellent, helpful books in 2012 - but this one definitely is near or at the top of the list.

I keep trying to get a handle on Germany (see here, for example) - looking to catch up a bit after a reading list too heavily weighted toward U.S., England, France.  And when I think about what I've read about Germany - for the most part my list would confirm one of the points made by this author  - it's like we tend to think of Germany in terms of a 12-year slice (1933-1945) when the country was dominated by the Nazis.


The author notes this preoccupation without minimizing the Nazi era - after all, a 12-year run like this could not have occurred in a vacuum - big and complicated things led up to it.  So his approach is to put the Nazi era into the context of German intellectual history going back to the end of the J.S. Bach era (1750 or so), discuss how the ideas developed that - seasoned with (among so many other things) late unification as a country (1870) and World War I trauma - went wrong in the Nazi era, and suggest a fuller way of thinking about Germany going forward.

But still . . . I never do get tired of watching those movies from the 1930s and after that feature Nazi villains . . .

Anyway (and to repeat) - this book was extraordinarily useful, and I bought it immediately.  850 pages; I'll guesstimate I dog-eared 50-75 pages (a very high percentage.)

There's too much here to try to summarize . . . a few ideas:

-- The role of "Pietism" in the Germanic brand of Protestantism.

-- Emphasis on "Bildung"

-- Pietism and Bildung as key elements in inculcating a culture of self-improvement - the idea of a responsibility to use one's time wisely for the long-term good of the self and of society (I am happily afflicted by this notion)

-- Delayed unification as a country; Napoleon's intervention in early 19th century as permitting educational reforms to blossom in a way that would not have happened had the country been locked in structurally.

-- Widespread education was prized and effective at all levels - surprising charts showing the pervasiveness of education in Germany via schooling levels achieved by soldiers in various national armies.  This paid off, big time, in so many areas - a large reservoir of educated, motivated citizens from which to develop talent.

-- Conflicting strands:  state was tied up in education in a way that linked graduates to the state (compare France or Russia, where the students so often stood against the state).  But repression was strong . . . a tendency for scholars to look inward rather than take on the state critically ("internal exile" - a concept also heard in Russia and other repressive states)

-- Really incredible achievements in music, education, historical method, philosophers,all things scientific or technical; military successes post-unification.  Accomplishments way too numerous to start listing, Germany predominant in so many ways.

-- Late formation into a state made insecure and self-conscious; high achievements perhaps bred arrogance; belief in narrow national character when history really wouldn't support it - the Volk - this is twisted as demagogues see fit.  Some dangerous characters emerge, anti-Semitism; WWI defeat; emergence of the term "degenerate" and application to Jews.

-- Hitler running off highly talented but tainted (typically meaning Jewish) scientists . . . Allied quote to the effect that the Allies won WWII because "our (meaning those working for the Allies) German scientists were better than their German scientists"

-- Discussion of the denial of knowledge/complicity toward Nazi state that prevailed after the war - but how else could the country move forward?  Subsequent generations start to address, criticize.  A platform from which to move forward.

Paintings in Proust (Eric Karpeles, 2008)

I've been thinking about Proust's signature book lately - maybe attaching too much significance?  But I'm pretty sure it's quite important.  (Previous discussions of the book are here and here.)  (One reason I'm thinking about the book is that during our recent and most enjoyable visit to Portland, I found a basically untouched used set at "Powell's World of Books" - nice to own it, finally.)

Proust helps me see differently.  Other authors have this effect, but not as strongly.

I have no idea how to distill his essential messages, if there are any.  But somehow he applies a combination of open-mindedness and studied preparation to see people, objects in art or nature (sublime or otherwise), everyday objects - with far more depth than most of us do.  We miss so much.

As I get older, I can better see that the "studied preparation" part is crucial.  Being open-minded and receptive is just a threshold - if you don't bring anything of depth to the process of perceiving, you cannot see or appreciate nearly as much.  Seems obvious, right?  ("Studied preparation" - not sure exactly what this involves - but at a minimum it would be steady exposure to sophisticated literature, art, music.)

Proust wrote "Imagine today a writer to whom the idea would occur to treat twenty times under different lights the same theme, and who would have the sensation of creating something profound, subtle, powerful, overwhelming, original, startling like the fifty cathedrals or forty water-lily ponds of Monet." That's how he writes; that's how to see.  (Also an example of how he saw painting and literature as similar arts.)

Technology brings valuable exposure to us, but (as has been lamented for a couple hundred years now) makes it more difficult to find (or, more accurately, to choose to find) the time, quiet, and/or serendipity to generate useful, original, thought or in-depth perception.  We exchange this possibility for a diet of spoon-fed mediocrity, while stalwartly rationalizing the sad trade-off via absurd assertions that a person can focus on multiple distractions at the same time without affecting cognition, depth of thought or receptivity to sensations and ideas.  Oh well.

I bought the version at left Sept 2012 - at Powell's, Portland OR.

The premise of this book:  Proust wove dozens of references to art works throughout the novel, along with lengthy passages dealing with the fictional painter, Elstir.  Karpeles had a fine idea - he went through all ~3300 pages and came up with a list of art references, then included reproductions in this book along with text excerpts from the passage in which the art reference appeared.  (Heavy stock paper, nice quality reproductions.)  This approach really works, on at least three levels:

1.  Enjoying the art even if you didn't read or are one of those who don't particularly like Remembrance of Things Past.

2.  Providing a memory refresh on the novel independent of the art references - which is valuable, it is not easy to hang onto the story line given its length and complexity.

3.  Reflecting on the way Proust used art to illustrate points in the novel; perhaps picking up the ability to do the same; the irreplaceable way in which art can accomplish this.

Odette as a figure from a Botticelli painting.  I like so many of the paintings . . . perhaps especially The Mother (Pieter de Hooch) (see the part toward the back where the small child looks out the door); and Portrait of an Old Man and a Young Boy (Domenico Ghirlandaio) (from the Louvre).

Delightful, valuable.  Will buy it.

Catherine the Great - Portrait of a Woman (Robert K. Massie, 2011)

This was interesting and a quick read, but I didn't like it as much as this book by Massie, and certainly not as much as Massie's Peter the Great and Nicholas and Alexandra.

Peter the Great rules 1682 through 1725; Elizabeth 1741 through 1762; Catherine from 1762 through 1796.

Frederick the Great rules 1740 - 1786.  Followed by three Frederick Williams; then Wilhelm I (in power at time of Bismark's unification).  (Wilhelm II rules 1888 - 1918 (his father died after about 90 days as king).)

The value here was in getting a better fix on where Catherine fits in.  The annoyance was all the gossipy content - it was mostly a distraction though I suppose it would help understand some of her behavior; I guess this is how you drive bestseller status in a biography.  Whatever.

I can see where she would be regarded as one of the most important empress/queen types, alongside Elizabeth I.

Thoughts:

1.  Not terribly remarkable that minor nobility from a minor Prussian state would become betrothed to Russia's emperor-to-be.  Very remarkable how she took the position and ran with it, to say the least.

2.  Peter III was a pretty weird guy - obsessed with Frederick the Great and Prussia, tone deaf to Russia.  Catherine basically taking his throne via coup, with widespread military support.

3.  Unfortunate and very convenient that he - and the other potential contestant for the throne (Ivan) - died in captivity.  (Catherine not particularly hurt by the suspicions as to her role.)

4.  Empress Elizabeth brought Catherine to Russia and promoted her marriage to Peter III.

5.  Potemkin (yes, of the village fame) and his important role.  Peter the Great pointing Russia westward and obtaining Baltic access; Catherine continuing this, getting Black Sea access.

6.  Catherine and the three partitions of Poland - this is where Poland essentially disappeared in late 18th century, not to reappear until after World War I.  (Which reappearance turned out to be quite temporary.)

7.  Ruled for decades, died in 1796.

8.  Pretty much self-educated; initial attraction to the ideals of the philosophes; spent lots of time with Diderot; constant correspondence with Voltaire; tried to refashion Russian law; ended up deciding that strict authoritarianism was the way to go.

9.  Horrified by French Revolution; this contributed to authoritarianism (though she had settled on that path far earlier); this also provided some slight rationale for the dismemberment of Poland.

10.  The author really seemed to promote Catherine - who no doubt was important and talented - but focuses very much on her generosity, her wisdom in purchasing art works and building palaces, etc. - without ever asking where the money was coming from and what that all meant.

A Natural History of the Piano - from Mozart to Modern Jazz and Everything in Between (Stuart Isacoff, 2011)

Quick read, useful.

I had never really thought about the history of the "piano" other than some very interesting discussion in this biography.  Even basic stuff like:  when did a reasonably modern version of the instrument become available?  how did concerts in concert halls get started?  etc.

The author goes back to the amazing-ness of Bach, including a focus on this very interesting story.

Mozart - primitive touring, good enough to try to survive without patronage of nobles; playing as an "independent" in essentially taverns; a tough go.

As discussed in this interesting book - how the piano became sufficiently developed to fill a large concert hall; Lizst among the very first to utilize this.  He was a true rock star, to use modern (if already dated - do rock stars still walk the earth?) terminology.

Interesting story about Mendelssohn - how Wagner tried to bury him based on anti-Semitism; how Mendelssohn had conducted the St. Matthew Passion for the first time since Bach's death in 1750.

Plenty of other anecdotes about Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy, Satie, many others.  Emphasis on the leadership of the Germans.

Mass marketing - particularly aimed at women - amazing success in planting pianos in private homes.  Like the one I grew up in.

Not a great book, but helps round out the picture on the development here.

Doctor Faustus - The Life of the German Composer Adrian Leverkuhn as Told by a Friend (Thomas Mann, 1947)

Not sure what I felt like after reading this.  I think it was extraordinary.  I think I like Thomas Mann an awful lot, at least based on this book, and also on this book.  I don't know much about Mann, what critics think, etc.  Maybe it's better that way.

This was an adaptation of the famous Faust tale; a story long prominent among Germans, particularly in relation to this work by Goethe.

It reminded me of The Magic Mountain in many respects - long discussions among characters, long book, long sequences with little or minor action - yet compelling throughout.

A "friend" of a famous (fictional, of course) German composer - Adrian Leverkuhn - is writing Leverkuhn's story.  Leverkuhn makes a Faustian bargain so as to be able to compose wondrous musical works.  Or does he?

Mann goes into long discussions of the nature of music and composition throughout the book - this was highly interesting to me - being long close to classical music, yet almost entirely ignorant on theory and composition.  An example:  Mann does this effectively through the character of Leverkuhn's teacher in Eisersachern - the lectures, the individual discussions - intrinsically interesting separate from the story.  Lots of references to Beethoven's 9th - the Ode to Joy, including chorus - a note of hope after all the turmoil in Beethoven's earlier works - how Leverkuhn's final composition is a sort of answer to the turn taken in Beethoven's 9th.  This element of the book was very thought-provoking, if not always directly pertaining to the plot line.

Leverkuhn studied theology before turning to music . . . interesting discussion by a theology department professor about good and evil - how a complete world needs both - how freedom granted by God would mean living in compliance - so would not a truer use of one's God-gifted freedom be noncompliance?  Or what?  This is all part of the set-up for the Faustian bargain.  If there was one.

Theology, demonology, music.

Leverkuhn 's friend is writing the story over a course of years during WWII . . . regularly updating on the course of events in WWII; these run in parallel with elements of the underlying story, which took place in the years surrounding WWI.

And of course there is political allegory here - Germany as making a Faustian bargain with Hitler - I rather expected this to be the extent of the book, but there is far more going on.

Interesting political discussion among the narrator and some acquaintances in the Nazi years - consensus forming that truth can, and should, be sacrificed to the community's needs - it's a longish discussion that I'm not capturing here, but resonated in a troublesome way with the orthodoxy/political correctness prevalent in the US these days.  Don't be too truthful, it might be uncomfortable.  The myth of the community.

Leverkuhn's musical breakthrough is modeled on Schoenberg's 12-tone work (which I know nothing about).

This was very good.  I need to spend more time with it.

Velazquez and The Surrender of Breda (Anthony Bailey, 2011)

There's just something about these newspaper and magazine writers that turn to writing books - they aren't as good at it.  Not sure how to explain, it's like they try too hard.

This was interesting, but not as much as I would have expected based on the review I had seen.  Part of the problem is that Velazquez - for all his talent and wide recognition - didn't leave much behind in terms of primary sources.  The author has quite a bit of information about what Velazquez was doing at different points in his life, but cannot really bring the biography to life because he is just guessing so much of the time.

Useful ideas:

1.  Helps connect ideas about a wealthy Spain - less than a century after Columbus showed up in the Americas - with ~20 years less since the days of Martin Luther - struggling to keep control of Protestant Netherlands.  Charles V gives up, replaced by Philip II.  Bloody, unnecessary, protracted struggle.  Gave rise to the titular picture.

2.  Velazquez talent identified early; he advances to court in Madrid and is favored with royal commissions thereafter.  Loved to travel to Italy.  Took on lots of administrative tasks.  Reminded me of the stories of Bach as more or less an employee, or of Goethe taking on governing tasks in Weimar. The idea of the artist as romantic/independent/superior hadn't arrived.

3.  The famous Las Meninas - pictures in pictures.  Parents visible in mirror, watching the scene being painted by the artist . . . who is watching them . . . etc.

4.  Spain continuing to hurt itself with expulsions of Jews and "Moors".  Closed, insular, Church-dominated.

5.  Velazquez not dominant in commercial art market because his works simply don't come to market.  But considered to be highly favored.  Proust has the Duc de Guermantes buying a painting that he hopes is a Valazquez; Swann doesn't support this.

Las Meninas

Song Without Words - The Photographs & Diaries of Countess Sophia Tolstoy (Leah Bendavid-Val, 2007)

This was very interesting and worthwhile, a great follow-on to books reachable by clicking here, to this valuable biography, and also to this quite entertaining movie.

It's pretty clear that Sophia Tolstoy was a pretty amazing person in her own right.

The author became aware that photos and diaries were available but not pulled together thematically or otherwise made readily accessible.  Thus the idea for the book.

Among the photos taken by Ms. Tolstoy:  many photos of Tolstoy - part of her goal of preserving his legacy.  Also numerous self-portraits and portraits of the children and grandchildren.  I particularly liked the peasant scenes around the Yasnaya Polyana estate.  This was in the very early days of photography, and even the description of the techniques and technology was interesting to me.

The diary excerpts were interesting and frank.

I liked this on quite a few levels.  Tolstoy (at least early Tolstoy, but even some of his later works) is a delightful author.  He and Sophia had quite the relationship (some of which, in the earlier stages, is a model for Anna Karenina passages).  The Russian history part is interesting.  It helps fill out one's picture of Tolstoy.

And as discussed elsewhere, it would be interesting to see if Tolstoy would have gone through the whole "Tolstoyan" schtick if he didn't know that Sophia was behind him making sure that the business side of his life was being taken care of.

Paris to the Past - Traveling Through French History by Train (Ina Caro, 2011)

I read through the entire book (parts of it, quite quickly).  I think it's valuable as a resource when planning a trip to Paris - it doesn't very work well to just read through it.

Saw a couple reviews, and the book looked interesting to me because we were planning a trip to Paris.  And I very much liked the idea of incorporating day trips by train.

But the book isn't really a travel book, and isn't really a history - though it attempts to be both.

That being said, I definitely could see it as something one would purchase in e-book form and use while in Paris.

The author is married to a famous biographer (Robert Caro); his biography of LBJ has been on my list for awhile.  She had a very annoying habit of constantly referring to whatever "Bob" was doing or thinking instead of just writing about whatever.

The Art of the Sale - Learning from the Masters About the Business of Life (Philip Delves Broughton, 2012)

I have a pretty firm rule against reading business books.  I broke it for this book.  The rule is reinstated.

I don't know exactly why business books are so useless; I do think this author had some useful insights about  it.

I was willing to give this one a chance because it's about sales - crucial to everyone in business, not to mention life-in-general.  But the author just went around interviewing a variety of superstar salespersons.  That's not helpful.

There were some funny passages about Apple's approach - how they deliberately set out to make customers into evangelists.  And clearly they have figured out how to do this - lots of unpaid Apple promoters out there.  "Once part of Apple's tribe, devotees tend to exhibit the zeal of converts, displaying a sense of superiority and a willingness to sing Apple's praises to the heathen.  The tribe aren't just using a different smartphone or tablet, they are living a better life."  "Its selling methods successfully erode its customers' will to do the very thing that as a company it claims to do best:  think different."

Not recommended.

God and Gold - Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (Walter Russell Mead, 2007)

The title of the book seems to be a curious choice - wouldn't the first four nouns (God, Gold, Britain, America) be considered four of the most un-cool words in a modernist vocabulary?  Doesn't the title suggest the book will be just another triumphalist exercise by some out-of-fashion West-centric writer?

I was willing to give it a try because I'm familiar with the author via his blog - something I've added to my daily reading list (a list that I try to guard jealously) as of a couple months ago.  I don't know exactly where the author fits on the ideological spectrum, which I take to be a good sign.

In any event:  this book was full of good ideas - very much worthwhile - provides a valuable historical framework for thinking about the modern world.  To be sure, he describes the ascendancy of what he calls the maritime states, but (at least to this citizen of the current leading maritime state) it's done in the manner of reporting historical trends with eyes wide open to the shortcomings as well as achievements.

The most interesting idea (to me at least - see the list below, there are plenty of others) was the notion that societies tend to have three primary drivers, and that successful societies (exhibit A being Britain) find a way to balance them.  The three drivers are Reason, Revelation and Tradition.  I think this is important and useful.  The triad appears in various societies in different ways.  Tradition - countries like Spain and France went on for many centuries with state-institutional Church dominating life.  Proponents are religious, but power players.  Also includes populist nationalism.  Revelation - religious folks who want to get back to the religion's true roots - opposing the traditional power structure - Lutherans, Puritans, evangelical Christians, Pentecostals, Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia, Al-Quaeda, etc.  We can see what happens in states where those folks get too much power.  Reason - central planners; folks who reject religion and believe society can function by experts; "Great Society" where all goes well via government fiat - this, too, has been proven inadequate.  England - during the years it was the predominant maritime state - found a way to balance these three elements.  Kept a monarchy in place but took away its power.  Church of England - practical, didn't claim a monopoly on religious truth.  Etc.

Other ideas:

1.  Religion has mattered a great deal to peoples all over the world for millenia.  To minimze or ignore this in interpreting history or looking to the future is a mistake - something we fall into because so many folks in the West, especially in the punditocracy, are (or profess to be) beyond it in the 21st century.  Even non-religious folks often think in religious terms, if unwittingly.

2.  The Dutch, English and Americans, in that order, have been the leading players he in what he calls the "maritime system".  That it wasn't set in stone that this progression would occur, esp in the early going for Dutch and English.  (In fact, the era of Dutch predominance was pretty short.)

3.  Land-based empires are forced to deal with quarrelsome neighbors, get caught up in frightful fights over terrain not crucial to the big picture.  This hurt the Netherlands (based in mainland Europe).  Obvious examples would include Russia and Germany wrecking each other over Poland, Ukraine, etc.; France and Germany wrecking each other over Alsace, Lorraine, etc.  England and in turn the US able to play the global whole - far more effective.

4.  Looks to the Glorious Revolution (1688) as the key event for England.  William of Orange arrives from Netherlands.  Protestants hold sway thereafter notwithstanding continuing struggles to restore Stuarts or whoever (often financed from abroad in an effort to destabilize England).

5.  Interesting discussion about national debt - how England reached its heights while constantly incurring debt beyond what was dreamed to be sustainable.

6.  One of the fundamental sources of conflict:  capitalism isn't for everybody (certainly not at first blush); yet nations are inevitably left behind if they don't play the game.  Forced into something they may not want, resentful of those on top of the system that does the forcing.

7.  Wars of religion - primarily a phenomenon among the three Abrahamic religions (Jews, Muslims, Christians).  Not surprisingly, conflict results when you claim that only your religion is based on revealed truth - doesn't leave much room for compromise!

8.  Secular modernism as a fourth major religion.  Yes, it does function as such.

9.  I've always felt that Adam Smith was right because the concept of "original sin" is right (however one wishes to phrase it).  Individuals are flawed, if for no other reason than we cannot possibly avoid over-emphasizing our own importance.  And we act accordingly.

10.  Therefore Plato's "benevolent dictator" cannot exist - in any form.  We are better off with decentralized power and decision-making - the "invisible hand" may not be infallible but the idea is far more than a pretty phrase.  And it certainly operates far better than central planning, as has been demonstrated over and over.

11.  "The greatest wealth of countries like the United States and Great Britain is not their mineral deposits or their agricultural land.  It is not the money that they have in the bank.  It is the mentality and habits of the nation at large.  These are peoples accustomed to governing themselves, accustomed to promoting enterprise, ready to join in spontaneous and private activities of all kinds - but also accustomed to an ordered liberty whose roots now are many centuries old.  This human and social capital is by far the most valuable to have - and by far the hardest to get."

12.  #11 is critically important.  Compare how most other countries function.  Yet it is not an eternal, immutable situation.  The modern welfare state - yes, including Obama - destroys this ethos - a straightforward example of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

The Master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov, written in 1930s, published 1966-67)

Similar to this novel in two ways:  translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky; gift from PJr and Nedda (this was for Father's Day).

The devil and his devilishly delightful retinue visit Moscow in Stalin-era 1930s.  The novel incorporates two intertwined stories (i) the devil's doings in Moscow; and (ii) a version of the Pontius Pilate story that is readily recognizable, but different from the version in the gospels.

The book was way too hot to be printed in the author's lifetime - he died in 1940, his wife (Margarita supposedly based on her) held together the manuscript and had it printed in the west in the 1960s.  After samizdat versions had circulated (reminded me of descriptions of circulated literature in this book).  So it had a publishing history not unlike works such as this one and or this one; just remarkable to think what life was like for these writers in Soviet-era Russia.  Esp. in 1930s.  Too hot to be printed because of the spot-on descriptions of issues under the Soviet system

Just delightful, though I now need to learn more about what Bulgakov was doing - pretty sure I missed lots of what was going on.  His use of language, literary allusions, writing style - all great (at least insofar as we can tell through lens of translation).  Much enjoyed reading the entire book.  Unexpectedly found the Pilate portions every bit as compelling, if not moreso, than the main tale.

"The Master" was writing a Pilate novel as part of the main plot - his work is rejected by the literary bureaucrats.  Faithful Margarita - willing to go a long way to support the Master.  Various officials at The Variety - bad consequences from the black magic seance.  Foreign currency; foreign currency store (foreigners only!).  The cat (Behemoth) - always entertaining, loves the primus stove (a cooking device mentioned often in this book).  Koroviev; Azazello.  It all started with Ivan and Berlioz showing off their atheist bonafides to Woland - and Berlioz being unceremoniously beheaded shortly thereafter in an unrelated, I think, incident.

Pilate and his secret police force; his subtle way of approaching the Judas Iscariot issue; KGB (or its predecessor) would have been proud.

Numerous echos of this book, naturally enough - very helpful to have read it.  (At the gym, I'm currently in the middle of Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus, which will fit in quite nicely with all this.)

LACMA (August 5, 2012)

As mentioned in this post, EPG took us to LA County Museum of Art on Sunday, August 5.

After the visit, we were discussing LACMA in comparison to the Getty (where EPG took us last year).  Both are wonderful places, to be sure.  The Getty grounds are more impressive, for whatever that's worth.  We probably prefer Getty, would gladly revisit both.

I thought the German expressionism - if that's the right term, I don't really know - was the most interesting exhibit of our 8/5/12 visit.  Really ties into WWI and inter-war stuff I've been reading.  How a wrecked country looked for some answers, or something - they faced a level of change that is unimaginable.

Click any image to enlarge all.  (And how about this look at LACMA?)

First item - caption immediately beneath it - self-explanatory.  Done by some poor guy that lived through the eastern front.

Second item - communist party - a serious contender for influence in Germany during these days (and elsewhere in the world, including the US).  Rosa Luxemburg.  Description beneath is useful.

Third item - the "Orator" - 1920 - eerie precursor to Hitler, one might say in hindsight - desperate people prone to falling for someone who appears to lead them out of the abyss.

Fourth item - just read the below description - this is detail from a large work - since it's from the French Revolution, it was interesting to me.

Item 5 - this looked great in the gallery, especially the sand.

Item 6 - they had some pop/folk contemporary work from Iran.  We were leaving so I didn't get a chance to figure out what this is supposed to be

And then there's the previously posted "Madonna with Child, Times Two".  Best in show.