Arrival - Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang, 1990-2002)

Book club selection (via Lon; session held (via Zoom) 31 May 2020).

Liked this; didn't love it.  Notes on a few of the stories follow.

First story - about Tower of Babel - probably my favorite.  I of course love the original Bible story - this is very creative in describing the tower construction - ending a bit of a letdown, not understanding the water business going in a circle.

"Story of Your Life" - per the Arrival movie - all the back-and-forth with the daughter who died in an accident.  The idea of their written language as differing from verbal - didn't have to waste time with sequential-ness - that made a glimmer of sense as thinking of listening to a reader (or video/TV narrator) as compared to reading.  Knowing the future.  Interesting.

"Seventy-Two Letters" - trying to generate human life via automata; kabbalist; didn't care about anything in this story line.  Hugo movie . . . don't know what the 72 letters/nomenclature thing refers to.  Gilgamesh.

"The Evolution of Human Science" - just a few pages, something about metahumans taking over scientific research because humans can't keep up

"Hell Is the Absence of God" - angels visit; some cured, some harmed, protagonist's wife is killed and he wants to go to heaven to be with her.  another character is harmed then cured then harmed.  storm-chasing the angels.  didn't care about the characters

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" - perception of beauty; the Neanderthal who points out the next step will be suppressing appreciation for musical or athletic talent; and what about height?  probably supposed to draw parallels to other PC situations.  at the end, suggestions of software that will make speakers charismatic/effective.  follows thwarted romance of a girl that grew up with calli, turned it off at 18, now wants to go back.   referendum at the college.  This was pretty interesting.

Sometimes it feels like the author is showing off knowledge in science or math areas - doesn't add much to the storyline.

Three Comrades (Erich Maria Remarque, 1936)

(480 pages)

Book club selection (via Chris; session held (via Zoom) 24 April 2020).

Hadn't read this since 2011 (description here); I liked it even better this time around.

a favorite love story; cf'd to PJ - author got it right - the uncertainty in the early going, the mystery, the girl-part, the "that's sufficient" part
_______________

a favorite buddy story - the scene where Otto hands the pill to Robbie; the scene where Robbie thinks to contact Koster when needing help at the seashore; fundraising in what had to be a painful way
________________

WWI endlessly interesting in part because the soldiers had such a mind-blowing experience.  of course it's hard to compare from war to war - but the jump in firepower and technology (gas, planes, etc.) relative to what soldiers were familiar with, and how tactics were used - not sure what would be like this.  and they hadn't seen newsreels or really anything that would prepare visually.

survivors then come back to Weimar situation . . . after all the sacrifice and suffering (including home front folks like Pat) - no jobs, no hope

demagogues arise per usual
_________________

the spare writing style works for me - similar to All Quiet OTWF

Magic Mountain - sanitarium scenes

Foundation Trilogy (Isaac Asimov, 1951, 1952, 1953)

(607 pages)

The three books:  Foundation; Foundation and Empire; Second Foundation.

Famous, pioneering work of science fiction.  Entirely unknown to me prior to this read.

By coincidence I read it at an ideal time - right after finishing Gibbon's Decline and Fall - Asimov supposedly had just read Gibbon and modeled lots of the story after it.  Which is evident - imperial decline; generals rising through the ranks (with accompanying dynamics).  Bureaucracies.  Periphery weakening (though lacking external stimuli like Huns (since this Empire controlled the entire galaxy, while Rome didn't control the entire earth)).

Swashbuckling traders, some with souped-up starships, snappy dialogue, can-do attitude . . . hmm that sounds pretty familiar also.

Seldon Plan - story builds around this, and it works.  Too much Hayek exposure makes me way skeptical of grand plans, but I do like how this one is explained as being built around mass movements over time.

As the plot plays out over several centuries (and the author is releasing the three volumes over a few years), there are lots of characters to figure out and track.  That prevents much character development in individual cases - but again, doesn't feel like a problem.

The Mule plays a huge role starting with the second volume.  Only two female characters of particular note (maybe three), they do end up with important roles.

Fun read for me; I never seek out science fiction.  Paul Jr. recommendation.

Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World (David Epstein, 2019)

(291 pages)

Recommended by Nick Gales, who I suspect was interested in the topic as he and Maeve think about child-raising stuff.

Book primarily is taking a look at what's become conventional wisdom lately - the idea that focused training for a kid (10,000 hours or whatever) will yield results.  Author argues that greater effectiveness is gained by folks with a broader "range".  Not that we don't need the experts - we just need to recognize that - as knowledge-specialization inevitably gets deeper and deeper in each specialty area - there's more risk of tunnel vision.

Which I think we are seeing happening in the COVID-19 response (among plenty of other fails).

I liked this book, perhaps because it reinforces my priors?  Could have been edited down quite a bit, however.

Tiger Woods early years compared to those of Phil Mickelson.

Interesting discussion about early specialization/focus for music students (author thinks it's overrated if not a negative).

He discussed Phil Tetlock and superforecasting - seems more bullish on all that than say twitter-tyrant Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Good examples of specialist organizations getting stuck on a project, putting it out on the web, getting useful solutions from non-specialists.  Maybe it seems obvious, but I think it's widely overlooked - grabbing additional perspectives works.

Fortune's Distant Shores - A History of the Kotzebue Sound Gold Stampede (Chris Allan, 2019)

(159 pages)

Gift via Carol and Jim.

Book focuses on a window of a year or two where it was believed (entirely erroneously) that fortunes could be made mining gold in Kotzebue Sound (the name is familiar to us as our flight to Nome way back when had a short stop there - just north of the Arctic Circle).

I liked it - fascinating or almost exotic in that the story is remote in both time and geography - yet not so remote in either category - so it's possible if not easy to relate to folks getting caught up in a news cycle and wanting to have a go at gold mining.

Kotzebue as an alternative to the Klondike - where plenty of gold had been found, but there were some Canadian border issues for US citizens in particular.  49ers euphoria from California not so distant; plenty of appetite for this kind of thing, so a few well-placed stories go a long way.

Bernard Cogan ran ships up there and was a primary promoter - pretty clearly a crook.  Makes money transporting suckers and their goods; then he goes whaling farther north to make some more money (perhaps the suckers should have noted that Cogan himself wasn't doing any mining).

Near-complete absence of gold - at best, enough for a hard-working miner to match wages that could have been earned in a much easier job back home - even suckers could figure this out pretty early and most don't bother with much digging; some return to the lower 48 within weeks or months, others are stuck through the winter.  Interesting stories as they celebrate Christmas, fight scurvy and boredom, etc.

What wasn't funny:  a significant number of deaths and illnesses, this is dangerous work and travel in a rough country, with most stampeders understandably un- or under-prepared.

Missionaries already in place in Alaska; the gold rush to this area accelerates the pace of changes for the locals - difficult in so many ways.

Author places significant reliance on diaries of an interesting fellow (named Grinnell) - he was primarily interested in birds, signed onto the gold-mining role as an excuse to do field work up north (but nonetheless seems to have done his tasks with the gold miners, such as they were).

Photos are a pleasure throughout the book - b/w, evocative.

After an ill-fated year - real gold strikes at Nome, so some move on to there - interesting background on Nome area at this time.  A few continue to work the Kotzebue area notwithstanding no meaningful successes there.

Recommended.

The Brothers Ashkenazi (I.J. Singer, written 1933-35)

(427 pages)

story takes place mid-19th century into mid 1920s

set primarily in Lodz; the town springs up from something of a village; much heavier Jewish concentration than most places; commercial and manufacturing center for textiles

Poland then part of Russia; Lodz merchants doing business throughout Russia; growth and change

twin Ashkenazi brothers - more detailed focus on Max - feverishly working to be #1 in the local industry (textiles); Jacob less talented, less intelligent, less diligent - but natural personality and physical gifts and unnaturally good luck

two other primary characters - Nissan and Tevye "The World Is Not Lawless" - work in local factories and seek to organize them; socialist speeches, Marxist dogma that would have sounded right at home in '20 presidential campaigns (complete with deeply religious strands)

all four leading characters working hard for entirely different things but in parallel ways and with similar results

all four leading characters from deeply Jewish backgrounds; changing but some retention

lots of character development including families of the four; earlier generation deeply traditional from the countryside/shtetl (typically relatively new to Lodz, it being a new town); Hasidic; rabbis with vast authority; this changes over time

some - certainly the Ashkenazi brothers - seek assimilation; not accepted but keep trying; as shocks such as economic downturn, war, inflation hit - guess who gets blamed

boom years in Lodz; then 1905 war with Japan; WWI; German occupation (shut down businesses, strip assets and ship west); Poles reassert themselves after Versailles treaty; part of the plot moves to Russia (during the 1917 revolution and thereafter - business couldn't be conducted during German occupation)

throughout - Jews tolerated to a point especially when useful, otherwise look out;

strand about considering Palestine

Buddenbrooks comparison, which makes sense

no way to assess accuracy - but much liked that Singer painted this detailed picture of what that world must have been like - the level of detail indicates he knew all about it

recommended - there's a lot going on here

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume III (Edward Gibbon, 1781)

(527 pages)

Volume I addressed here.

Volume II addressed here.

Rankings are not easy, but I'm thinking Gibbon is definitely up there with my very favorites - Proust, Thomas Mann, Chekhov.  I'll keep thinking about this.  Gibbon's writing style really works for me.  (Also he's the only one in this group who wrote in English, not sure what that tells me.)

This volume ends with the fall of Rome and the end of the western empire - dated here to 476 - concluding the more well-known part of Gibbon's work.  (Volumes IV-VI pick up with the eastern empire through the fall of Constantinople).

This volume continues the themes from Volumes I and II - decline of civic virtue; transition from paganism to Christianity; emperor as a highly dangerous occupation; barbarian tribes moving to perimeter and then into heartlands of the empire, pushed from the east.

I keep thinking I've underrated Rome's accomplishments - a world of relative security and prosperity - sure it was selective, but isn't that always the case?  Look at how Europe lived for centuries after Rome - cowering behind walls, ruined trade (therefore lost prosperity), lost technical skills, lost learning of all types.

Amazing that Christianity entirely supplanted paganism; this volume discusses the continuation of this process, all the way through formally outlawing paganism.  Gibbon has quite the way of describing Christian hierarchy - sounding mild if not laudatory (to get past censorship) but absolutely skewering various folks.

He picks up on the martyrdom/relics scam and the many bad consequences - such a rac.ket.

Learned a bit about Ravenna - I hadn't realized that surrounding water features made it very difficult to capture (unlike Rome itself) - thus attractive to emperors in this days when "the army is our wall" no longer worked well.  Not as difficult to capture as Constantinople.

Lots of discussion about the various barbarian tribes, what motivated them to migrate.  Vandals in Africa; Visigoths taking southern France and into Spain; etc.  Many were Arian.  Then along comes the Huns - lots of discussion of Attila.

Down to Odoacer.  Talk about "end of an era."

Furious Hours (Casey Cep, 2019)

(276 pages)

Book club selection (via Nick; session held 16 February 2020).

Main hook here was Harper Lee - super trendy/popular right now in view of current politics - author researched a serial murder situation in Alabama that Lee - stuck for another hit after her one-time success - wanted to turn into another novel.  But she wasn't able to finish it.

Some interesting stuff here about Alabama in those days, but the core concept wasn't enough to carry along a book.

Or maybe I'm the wrong person - I am baffled that anyone can ever be interested in crime stories, let alone serial murderers.

Harper Lee may have written a popular book, but it seems she had trouble with life in general - sudden wealth, unclear personal connections, landing in NYC (rather a foreign place), some alcohol issues, etc.

Connected from childhood with Truman Capote - another hook for the author - but doesn't really solve the issue about lacking a coherent story line.

Quick read.

The Second Sleep (Robert Harris, 2019)

(298 pages)

I like this author's writing style quite a bit (this one, for example).

Here, a young priest travels into a somewhat remote area west of London to attend to the burial of the local priest.  The setting is a world reminiscent of the Middle Ages, but the time is hundreds of years after an unspecified apocalyptic event that caused devastation starting in early 21st century.

Knowledge of pre-deluge events is prohibited; technology is feared.  But of course there are a few folks who insist on digging around, and get in trouble with the authorities (some of whom also are interested in digging around).

Young priest encounters impoverished noble lady; wealthy local interested in improving weaving technology; various others.

I liked the book; somewhat overlapped with (but didn't run nearly as interesting) as this one (which is among my very favorites).

The Complete Works of Isaac Babel (compilation 2002; mostly written early 1920s)

(1,051 pages) (though I skipped the screenplays)

I keep seeing favorable references to Babel, but never read him before this.  His biography is compelling - war correspondent (reminded me of Vasily Grossman) so lots of access - then he becomes disillusioned and out of favor.  Rare, at least for me, reporting on the Red v. White (and other splinter groups) immediately following WWI.  Early 1920s Russia hadn't yet implemented systematic censorship so his war reporting was more open, I think, than what Grossman could have done (Grossman had to do it via his smuggled-out book).

Babel eventually executed by Soviet regime.

I'll just mention a few of the categories in this quite-wonderful collection.

***

1920 Diary - perhaps my favorite war writing (and I've read lots of this)?  Can't-miss content, and not even prep'd for publication (though this was basis for much of the Red Cavalry tales)

dense.  highly effective . . . at least at the level of battles, skirmishes, movement between towns (cart transports. horses).  towns taken and lost.  confusion, exhaustion, merely finding food or forage.  billets.

constant movement, constant commandeering of horses, provisions, shelter - locals get expert at hiding things

airplanes new - being used by the Poles - terrifying though not all that effective

just being tired, and depressed

interspersed with descriptions of age-old interactions - Poles and Jews, Cossacks, the borderlands, Galicia, shtetls, centuries of getting along and then sudden butchery.  like forever.

Babel as "more like me" - bookish, not cut out for soldiering - but somehow finds himself right smack in the middle of everything - reminds of Vasily Grossman (Red Star writer)

little context is provided (as to what was going on in the larger political/military sphere, who was backing Poles - etc) - I think this heightens the immediacy of the war reporting, limits the distractions

running throughout - author as Jew - don't know if he tried to hide it, but he couldn't in any event.  he feels connectedness to Jewish communities that he encounters.   most in dire circumstances

the excitement around communism fading for Babel . . . he eventually characterizes as "fairy tales" the grand stories he tells locals as part of his job.  as in all these settings, others are true believers and/or opportunists; discussing the International, worldwide uprisings, free everything (modern US politics might buy it, however)

***

Odessa stories - mostly about Jewish gangsters

***

Red Cavalry stories - genuinely excellent - but not quite as compelling to me as the raw notes in the 1920 Diary (though I read Red Cavalry first).  One aspect here:  Babel made the mistake of being too honest, naming commanders who were ineffective - several became leading figures in Soviet army, and they didn't forget.

**

Stories from Leningrad 1918 - just a few, great, raw

**

Stories from [Georgia?] - propaganda feel, I didn't like these very much.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (Yuval Noah Harari, 2015)

(464 pages)

Book club selection (via Rose; session held 12 January 2020). (PJ and I missed - colds.)

in general I very much like this type of book

not nec new, but a useful way of discussing man's rapid ascent - competitors had no time to adjust (see e.g. large animals in North America)

slower - more deeply wired - is the group-affinity, or tribalism - need to recognize how strong this is, not fear it; at the moment it's co-opted by politicians, community organizers, grant-seekers

hadn't thought about how cooking simplified digestion, or why humans went after marrow

my twitter feed is full of controversies about genetics - this gets into it but I don't understand

idea of the Cognitive Revolution - 70-30,000 years ago - use of language to rise up.  the idea of myths and abstractions for groups >150

the ridiculousness of characterizing Peugot as a myth.  it's a nexus of contracts.  limited liability as something awesome . . . a simple way to encourage investment

similar for trade characterized as "fiction" = yes credit comes from credo

ridiculousness of forager societies as an ideal - the original affluent societies - come on "wholesome and varied diet"

faculty lounge discussion of ecological issues, capitalism in particular - yuck - bogeyman of economic growth; Adam Smith cliches

whining about how tough jobs are, how much work is required - come on

equality - look around your high school - nothing could be less natural (or more "myth")

trying to cover too much

but yes this is worth reading notwithstanding the above complaints

Bleak House (Charles Dickens, serialized 1852-53)

(989 pages)

Famous novel built around the fictional interminable chancery case Jarndyce v. Jarndyce.

Dickens masterful at painting scenes . . . early/favorite example is the three spending an evening at Jellyby's (interested in Africa, children bouncing 'round the premises, unkempt) - perhaps not an obviously entrancing scene, but he makes it so

Tulkinghorn counsel for Dedlock (Chesney Wold); Ms. Dedlock recognizes handwriting, Tulkinghorn investigates, opium-taker dead

distantly related to Jarndyce of Bleak House, his niece Ada, her cousin

Esther as Ada's companion; raised by aunt; placed for a few years at a school for governesses where she thrived

Jellyby a do-gooder in London

some other do-gooder near Bleak House; she visits the brickmaker's family, where infant dies

so many threads left dangling until the end, but it works

interesting to think of the serial approach

divided between Esther's narrative and "regular" writing

little things that give a sense of life in those days . . . I appreciate . . . on the journey with Mr. Bucket (who turns out to be a significant character), Esther gets cold and wet . . . including from the need for passengers to alight and walk up slippery/slushy hills when horses struggled

Esther, her guardian, and Dr. Woodcourt as idealized characters

long, but well worth reading - I enjoyed this a great deal

There There (Tommy Orange, 2018)

(304 pages)

Book club selection (via Nicole; session held 1 December 2019).

Intersecting story lines of Native Americans mostly resident in Oakland, California - and generally struggling.  Leading up to a major pow-wow at the end.

Value to me was it gave some way of thinking about how that struggle might feel and play out.

Seemed like a lot of it was the "Native American as victim" story line.  Which I'm sure is quite accurate, but I'm not sure how helpful it is to keep focusing on.  I don't think America in 1491 was idyllic, either - shifting populations, violence, etc. - the odd notion that failing to freeze 1491 status quo was somehow wrong.  Populations were conquered around the globe since forever - whether via Romans, the tribes that conquered Rome, the Arabs, whatever it might be. 

Alcatraz sit-in is part of the story, I remember that as getting a lot of attention in the '70s.

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