Author Archive
Chill October night
A vampire writes in non-verse
A nip in the air?
How do you like my haiku?
I felt compelled to write it only because it seems appropriate to at least try to use the form when reviewing a book written in haiku. Vampire Haiku by Ryan Mecum, uses the form created in Japan (seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, then seven, then five syllables) to write a book. It’s not really poetry, it’s a narrative, using the short poems to convey the story. Call it poetic license. And it’s pretty fun.
The story starts with twenty-one year-old William Butten, on the deck of the Mayflower as it begins sailing to the New World. William makes a vow to document all his new world adventures into small poems. A young woman on deck a few nights later charms the young man. Once they begin necking, life as he knew it takes a whole new direction. Because he’s now, well, immortal. And the vampire woman he fell in love with? He kind of alienated her by killing her vampire husband. So she disappears from his life, reappearing from time to time as the story progresses. Not that she’s that necessary to keep the story moving forward. But every story needs a love interest, right? So there you go.
American history provides a pretty convenient backdrop on which our poet can sketch his vampiric ways. We move from feasting on Pilgrims in the 1620s (that first winter wasn’t really that harsh) to draining Redcoats in the Revolutionary War, to Davy Crockett, who didn’t so much die at the Alamo as well, you get the idea. Emily Dickinson, P.T. Barnum, Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, James Dean, J.D. Salinger also make cameos. Pop culture through the ages gets tweaked as well, including Woodstock, Buffy, Count Chocula, goths, and a Facebook “menu” for real dining. The movie version of Twilight gets mocked of course. Oh and he notes that flat-screen monitors will fit inside your coffin when the lid is closed. I tell you, is this a great country or what?
All told, it was a pretty enjoyable read. It’s illustrated with drawings and photographs and occasional drops and splashes of red on the pages. And it’s a pretty quick read so, even though you know you’re wasting your time, you don’t waste that much of it. More story than poem, more humor than horror, this may not be the best example of haiku but it was (I’m just guessing) a lot more fun.
And if you prefer your undead to be of the rotting flesh variety, look for Zombie Haiku.
November 5th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Another attention-grabbing, yet misleading review title, the book is not (entirely) about monkey prostitution, but I did want to see if I could coax yet another comment out of Gerard.
Super Freakonomics : Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance is Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner’s followup to their hugely successful Freakonomics, which looks at how economics (or perhaps motivation is a better word) influences much of human behavior. This time around, in addition to the concepts mentioned in their subtitle, they also look at things like getting doctors to wash their hands, child car seats, the murder of Kitty Genovese and, yes, monkey prostitution (sort of). Deftly and interestingly told, it examines why people do certain things, avoid other things, and how researchers can (sometimes) figure out the real incentives driving human (and occasionally monkey) behavior.
If you’ve read and enjoyed the first volume, get ready for more of the same. If you’re new to the freakonomics bandwagon, rest assured that the “dismal science” by which some refer to economics can actually be humorous, informative, often fascinating and quite possibly enlightening. At least when written with the skill Levitt and Dubner display. Topped off with an extensive section of notes (including a pretty humorous dig at Levitt at note 49-56) and a good index.
I’ll note up front that prior to publication, there has been some negative reaction to their chapter on global warming, with some writers and bloggers convinced that Levitt and Dubner don’t give the issue (or perhaps the proposed solutions?) the deference it deserves. And it’s true that they seem to have less than fervid adoration for former vice-president Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Academy Award winning filmaker, whose policies are looked at (from an economic perspective) in two different sections of the book. They’ve also discussed some of the criticisms on their chapter on global warming on their blog, prior to the publication of the book. Their blog, by the way, also makes for some fascinating and enjoyable reading.
Don’t let the bit about monkey prostitution (it’s in the epilogue) keep you away! This is, once again, an enjoyable and thought-provoking (and not always flattering) read about — us.
Available soon on compact disc or in large print.
October 29th, 2009
Dennis - Central
This book made me pretty angry.
It’s not that I disagree with Jessica Valenti’s arguments in The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women. It just bothers me that women, teenagers, and even younger girls are being manipulated and actively lied to by their parents, teachers and religious leaders. These women and girls are being judged by only one standard: whether or not they have sex. The message they’re being given in no uncertain terms is: if you’re an unmarried female who is (or has been) sexually active, you’re just not as good as a woman who’s still a virgin.
Granted, any young woman who chooses to delay or avoid sex for whatever reason she chooses isn’t really making a wrong choice. But, according to some individuals and groups, young women who make the choice to engage in sex, whether or not they make the choice willingly and deliberately, somehow become lesser human beings. This act becomes the only standard by which their character is measured. Like an inverted form of pornography, women’s worth is being judged only in terms of their sexual status as virgins. And the weapon some of these individuals and groups use against young women who fall from this pedestal is shame. Because the only worthy goal for women is to save this “gift” for marriage, where she’ll give it to her husband. Actually, as Valenti points out, she’s given in marriage by her father, whose role is to safeguard her chastity until almost literal ownership of said chastity is passed to the daughter’s new husband/owner.
Valenti describes purity balls, where girls as young as nine years old are dressed up in formal wear and taken to an event where they pledge to their fathers that they will remain chaste until marriage. And, really, what nine-year-old girl wouldn’t do that, if only because everyone else in the group was doing it? Other attempts at damning the sexually active attempt to equate chastity with being a piece of candy, once some guy has licked it and sucked it, you just can’t put it back in its wrapper. Who would want it? Other reinforcement techniques include group exercises where “used” women are equated with a piece of tape stuck to a boy’s arm. Once that boy rips it off, that piece of tape has picked up dirt and hairs from the boy’s arm, and lost some of it’s stickiness– making that piece of tape (that girl) less likely to be able to bond firmly with another boy. Another group indoctrination technique would equate a sexually active woman or girl as a used tissue, which was thrown on the ground while the group was encouraged to step on it.
Is this really how we want to teach young people to treat their fellow human beings?
Valenti also makes the rather provocative assertion that these images of pure young women usually focus on a specific type of chaste girl: one who is attractive, slender, straight, and white. This seems to me to possibly stem mostly from the socio-economic circumstances of the families that support the political agenda that the purity movement is aligned with rather than any overt racism on the part of the purity movement, but Valenti makes the more confrontational claim that non-white women and girls are viewed as somehow less pure (or viewed as more inherently sexual) in a white-centric cultural view.
And some of this is being funded by your tax dollars under the heading of abstinence only sex education. The hope is that young women will choose to avoid sex out of an idealized valuation of chastity and inflated fears of any kind of sexual activity, rather than giving them the knowledge to make an informed decision to be, or not-be, sexually active.
This volume will probably be useful in rallying the already converted. But I doubt that it will be read by many who don’t already sympathize with feminist views. This is one of those issues which seems to leave no room for debate or nuance. Whatever side you choose, if you’re not in agreement with the side I’m on, you’re just wrong. Which is kind of a shame. I do think it’s a book worth reading. And discussing.
I should point out that the book is pretty extensively foot-noted and has a pretty good-sized index for a relatively slim volume. (Pretty wide spacing of the text on the pages, too, causing me to wonder, in my less-charitable moments, if Valenti had to cheat a little to inflate the page count.) Also included are questions for discussion and a list of additional resources including organizations, web-sites, blogs and books.
Valenti also has a web site feministing.com where you can keep up-to-date with news and views from a variety of feminists.
October 23rd, 2009
Dennis - Central
Hey, anybody remember Sex, by Madonna? It came out, er, rather, was published in 1992. Madonna was pretty popular then– lots of music videos on MTV, lots of interest in the press because she was “dating” so many celebrities and professional athletes at the time. And so it’s really no surprise that her book became a New York Times bestseller. Not that the subject matter didn’t help. Which was a bit of a problem for the library, since the book consisted mostly of pictures of Madonna in various stages of dress (mostly undress) and offering her thoughts and opinions on all matters sexual.
Which caused problems for us. We can’t be seen as buying “pornography” because there are quite a few members of our community who would be quite upset about their tax dollars being spent on “fill in the blank, bad for you books”. At the same time, lots of other people from all over our service area, were requesting the book. What to do? Well, the people who were requesting it were “saved” when the South Central Library System, of which we’re a member, funded the purchases, which would be used throughout our service area, rather than taking the money from the Madison library budget. We purchased several (three?) copies, had them rebound (they were originally “bound” in a pretty heavy aluminum cover, with pretty sharp edges, as I recall), and sent them out to start filling holds.
At one time, I believe there were upwards of two hundred people waiting to read a copy of the book. The books spent years in circulation without ever actually having landed on the shelves where people could innocently stumble across it. Not that they could do that now. We made a decision at the time we acquired the books, that they would be permanently shelved in our “storage area.” You can still read it, of course. You just have to work a little harder to get at it.
I confess, I may be misremembering some of the details. It all happened a long time ago. I recall glancing at a few pages of the book when it first arrived but being, frankly, a little embarrassed to be looking at it. A Catholic upbringing will do that to you. And the book didn’t look to be particularly well done–grainy black-and-white pictures, hand-written text, “artistic” layout. We still have it in our system, it’s just not worth the effort to me anymore. But, again, that could be part of that Catholic upbringing.
By the way, if the thought of that Madonna book, or any other books or sound recordings or videos, sitting on the library shelves bothers you, take some comfort from the fact that none of the materials we buy are required reading, or listening, or viewing. Some people were outraged by the very thought of that Madonna book, yet hundreds more wanted to read it. That’s part of what is so great about the library. We give you choices. We use public dollars to buy materials (less expensively than you usually can) and let you borrow them. And we try to choose materials that will “inform, inspire, enrich, and entertain” — though most of our materials probably won’t do all those things at once.
And they won’t always have that effect on every user. Your mileage will vary. But you’ll probably spend most of your time on those materials that will entertain you, or inspire you, or teach you, or challenge you, or help you do that for your children. And when you’re done with those items, you can bring them back to us, so we can store them until someone else wants to use them. Which is another thing we’re good at. We’ll store your books for you and save you money in the process. Money that you can save or spend locally instead of sending a big chunk of it to a distant publisher or distributor.
Talk about win-win.
And we thank you for your patronage.
October 14th, 2009
Dennis - Central
There was a post on a librarian’s blog about a recent New York Times article dealing with the Brooklyn Public Library’s decision to remove a Tintin book from open shelves because it was racially offensive. The librarian blogger was equally concerned about an online companion piece in the Times that showed ten different challenges to books over the years that had gotten published online with the names of those who had challenged the books clearly presented, although their addresses were redacted (blacked out) from the online posting. The public library is supposed to protect patron confidentiality so that last bit does tend to make one uneasy.
Anyway, the article does list ten different items that were challenged over the years, and the library’s response to the challenges. Call me curious, but I wondered how many of those books were held by us or one of the other libraries in our system. Lo and behold, we are eight for ten! Here’s a list of the ten Brooklyn Public Library challenges, and the (condensed) reason they were challenged.
I’d like to say that none of this is intended to make light of people’s concerns about the appropriateness of library materials. We’re a public institution funded primarily by local tax dollars, and we’re always dealing with a too-small budget. That doesn’t leave us a lot of room for making choices that are so far out of the mainstream that they won’t find an audience. However, we do have a fairly diverse audience. I’m not one of the people who selects books, so I really don’t have any insights into the selector’s thinking processes. I’d like to think that I wouldn’t reject a good book just because I was afraid someone might complain that it was inappropriate but I just don’t know for sure.
And if you read any of the challenges filed with the Brooklyn Public Library, you’ll see that people often challenge materials because they don’t want [their] children exposed to it. Not being a parent myself, I can still imagine why someone would have a hard time trying to explain sex, let alone incest and child abuse, to a young reader who inadvertently picked up a copy of Daddy’s Girl. (FYI, I’ve read the book Daddy’s Girl and parts of it were very upsetting). And if any of you parents have insights on how to answer those tough questions young children can pose, feel free to share in the comments section.
September 28th, 2009
Dennis - Central
It seems like Carol Tyler has been kicking around the comics scene since it was referred to as the underground comics scene. In the last few years, she’s turned her attention to the full-length graphic novel. Her latest, You’ll Never Know: A Graphic Memoir begins to tell the story of her father, Chuck Tyler, in words and pictures, with an effort to tell about his time in the army during World War II, as well as her life growing up with him and later with her own family.
Growing up it seems neither Chuck– nor most of the men of his generation who had served– spent much time talking about the war or their experiences. Even the photographs and souvenirs they kept were seldom spoken of, although they were kept and preserved with something like reverence. Carol had tried at various times to get her father to answer questions about the war, only to have him forcefully reject the overtures. Then, one night, forty years after the war, he calls her on the phone and spends two hours talking about the war. The phrase “rivers of blood” fairly leaps off of the page.
It’s a beautifully and cleverly done book, with some charming and imaginative illustrative and narrative techniques that cleverly glide from one era to another using overlapping dialogue and scenes that evolve. A really terrific piece of craftsmanship, it jumps nimbly between eras separated now by almost seventy years. It’s a fairly large-format book, with a cover suggesting it’s been made out of plywood, a sly salute to the working-class, can-do man that was her father. This particular volume is titled Book one: A Good and Decent Man. Her story of her father’s time in the army has only taken him to the shores of north Africa so far. Still, to come: Italy, France, and finally Germany. I’ll certainly be reading any future volumes that come out. But there’s more than a little trepidation about what will eventually be revealed.
At times charming and enthralling, and at other times emotionally wrenching, the story so far leads only to the edge of the war Chuck Tyler experienced. The title, “You’ll never know” appears in the lyrics of a love song from the era and it’s a sweet counterpoint to the scenes where young Chuck is wooing Carol’s mother on the dance floor. But it also hints at the dark side of the war (every war) that never seems to be revealed. Like Carol, I want to know her father’s story, but I’m more than a little afraid of what I’ll find out. The book’s title suggests a many-layered truth, not just about this one man, but about war itself.
If you’re interested in finding out more about author Carol Tyler, her website is here and there are numerous links to newspaper and magazine articles exploring her work as a teacher in the expanding field of “sequential art” (i.e. comics).
September 22nd, 2009
Dennis - Central
Mary’s comment on a different thread prompted me to look into Reading-list-gate– it’s the first I’d heard of it. Five books must mean it’s a pretty short vacation. Or he’s assuming other things will come along to suck up some of his reading time.
Here’s the (short) list:
The Way Home by George P. Pelecanos.
Lush Life by Richard Price.
Plainsong by Kent Haruf.
Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas L. Friedman.
John Adams by David G. McCullough.
What, no Ann Coulter?
I have a feeling he may not be able to get all this reading done without a little help. So I’m asking all of my fellow Americans to read at least one of these books (maybe not the Ann Coulter stuff), just in case he drops by the neighborhood potluck and you’re grasping for a conversational gambit that won’t result in Secret Service agents wrestling you to the ground while the President is rushed from the room and your hosts burst into tears.
Together, we can make America great again, or at least better read.
Yes we can!
September 12th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Every once in a while I’ll spot a book that Just Looks Interesting. Case in point: Year million : Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge, a collection of essays by scientists and science writers edited by Damien Broderick. What will things look like 1,000,000 years from now? Fourteen different essays contributed by fourteen different people with some pretty impressive academic credentials have fourteen different ideas and opinions, but no definitive answers.
There’s not really a road map on how we’ll get to the future, either. No one predicts what the world will look like in even twenty years, which was kind of a disappointment. We’ll probably keep getting smarter, or at least we’ll be adding to the sum of human knowledge, where most mathematical problems have been solved and the physics of the universe is more fully understood. And we’ll be able to store and retrieve that knowledge more efficiently. We may travel to the stars, but we may not be able to exceed the speed of light, in which case interstellar voyages may be less Star Trek-like visits, and more like colonization, with no plans to ever return to our “home” worlds. Although we may decide that physical exploration is pointless if less developed life forms we might encounter are as fascinating to contemplate as mold in a petri dish. Two-way communication with colonies on distant stars won’t be possible either, if the lag time between sending and receiving messages is measured in years. This is all assuming we don’t figure out how to travel at faster than light speed. Energy needs will still be a problem. If power needs keep rising, at some point we’d have to surround the sun with solar collectors just to absorb every bit of available energy and convert it for our needs. Not to mention deconstructing most of the planets in the solar system for their usable materials. So if you thought we’re a rapacious species now, well, we’re just getting started.
Humans will continue to evolve, of course. We have been evolving all along, although we don’t really notice it over the course of three or four generations, except in the machines we develop. One of the essayists pointed out that humans are actively evolving, just by being selective in choosing their mates. Smarts, being good providers and physical attractiveness will still be desirable characteristics in a mate. Not stated is whether there will be an X-Men type super-species that will for all intents evolve a separate evolutionary path while homo sapiens becomes another branch of the hominid tree that the new “we” acknowledge as sharing the same ancestors. The ability to extend life, or perhaps digitally store most human thoughts, feelings and memories is also suggested. If we achieve a form of immortality where we’re ageless, all-knowing, and essentially indestructible, will we become like the gods our ancestors worshiped?
Community may evolve as well. Social networking has already caught on. Terms like the “hive mind” aren’t quite as threatening as they once were. Advances in communication will continue and that, combined with computer processing power and storage as well as portability, means that people can stay connected and share more. It’s even possible that the lines between human and machine will blur. Nothing so threatening as the the Star Trek Borg, of course.
Fascinating stuff to contemplate, although the are some pretty daunting ideas to grasp. The future we can envision from today’s vantage point is a far cry from the one imagined by previous generations. The sad part, of course, is that with these big brains we’ve evolved we can also envision past 1,000,000 years in the future, when not only humanity itself ends, but also the universe itself. At least as we know it.
September 9th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Tired of those attractive, yet angst-filled teenage vampires with whom your daughter seems obsessed? In the mood for a vampire story you can (dare I say it?) sink your teeth into? Get ready to thank me. Blood Groove is the story, and it’s written by novelist Alex Bledsoe.
See, there was this vampire in an English village, Baron Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski. Long story short, he was spiked with a gold cross (it had a sharpened tip) in 1915 and entombed for 60 years, then reanimated when a medical examiner in Memphis, Tennessee, removes the spike/cross during an autopsy requested by a local museum. After feasting on the unfortunate medical examiner, the Baron must come to terms with life (existence is probably a better word) in a very different place and time. The post-Victorian England he last inhabited has been replaced with the new American South, including a resurgent African-American community newly empowered by the civil rights and black power movements after centuries of racial oppression. In addition, it turns out Memphis already has a few local vampires. The Baron, having recognized the telltale signs of one who was photographed in a crowd scene that appeared in the local paper, decides to seek them out. He feels that kindred spirits (of a sort) will be able to help him adjust more readily to the brave new world in which he has awakened.
That stranger in a strange land vibe was what appealed to me the most when I decided to dive into this story. A vampire who’s been out of circulation (ha!) for that long had some potential to flip this particular genre on its head. So I was interested. And 1975 is a year with which I had some familiarity. I”m not particularly proud of that fact, but there you go. Anyway, the local vampires turn out to be a pretty raggedy bunch. Five of them are living in an abandoned (and trashed) warehouse on the edge of town. Held somewhat together by an adult male there are four younger appearing vampires– two male and two female, two of whom happen to be black (one male and one female). But one of the younger vampires has come across a new drug, one that suppresses the need to feed on the blood of victims. Which seems to have some appeal, until that vampire suddenly dies–from no discernible cause. Turns out the drug he was using is poisonous. So, our little group of vampires must become detectives, somewhat reluctantly following the overbearing and condescending Baron, in order to find out what it is that killed their friend, who concocted it, and why.
Fans of traditionalist vampire stories should know in advance that there are some twists on established vampire conventions. Turns out they can go out in daylight, they can change into wolves, they can summon storms, they don’t really have to be invited into your home to come in, and they can even eat garlic. Actually, only the Baron knows all this stuff. He might teach it to the others. Or not. And that power vampires have to make people do their will? It turns out to be an ability to create a strong sexual attraction. Baron Rudy quickly finds an attractive young miss to serve as his minion. (No fly-catching Renfield’s for this vampire!)
Unfortunately, the story isn’t exactly great. That may be due to the main characters being blood-sucking killers. And the Baron isn’t really a sympathetic lead. A couple of the local (white) vampires had flashes of character background that could have been better developed. No such similar effort was spent in giving the younger black vampires much back-story. There’s a bit of an effort to paint the vampires into lonely individuals seeking acceptance in a familial group, after having been ostracized by a xenophobic larger society. But they’re still inhuman blood-sucking killers so that effort is pretty much wasted in my opinion. (Your mileage may vary.)
The racial undertones don’t amount to much either, although there are some racial epithets that some may find offensive. There was a scene when the Baron dragged one of the Memphis vampires into a theater showing the movie Blacula, in an attempt to find out what modern society knew/suspected/feared about vampires. But apart from some resistance to the Baron’s condescending orders to the rest of the vampires from the black male vampire, the racial issue didn’t seem to me to be that pronounced. Maybe I’m colorblind though.
Don’t let the flippant tone of this review lull you. Be aware that that the story is pretty bloody in some spots. More blood-and-guts than belly-laughs. It’s pretty sexplicit in other spots too. And probably not like the supernatural romance/fantasy novels that seem to be popular these days. Consider this fair warning.
So, I was hoping for an inspired addition to the vampire genre, but instead got one that’s only fun in spots. And yet, I read it cover to cover. And I can’t shake the nagging suspicion that a sequel might be in the works. Or that I might want to read such a sequel. Nothing to suggest one on author Bledsoe’s website as of this writing though…
August 25th, 2009
Dennis - Central
The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson is the second volume to feature journalist Mikael Blomkvist and brilliant sociophobe (and computer hacker) Lisbeth Salander, the protagonists from Larsson’s debut novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (read Mary K.’s review here). The new work picks up shortly after the conclusion of the first novel (and you should probably read that first, just so you’ll have a better idea of the character’s background/backstory, including why Salander had a falling-out with Blomkvist).
The new volume begins with Salander on vacation in the Caribbean where she finds herself in the path of an oncoming storm, which she uses to hide her rescue of a battered wife staying at her hotel. Back in Sweden, Mikael’s magazine decides to do a feature story on sex trafficking in Sweden, while simultaneously publishing a book written by a young author whose work is complimented by his fiancee’s dissertation along the same lines. The plan is to name some of the men, including government officials and members of the police, who’ve had sex with the girls, many of whom were underage. On another front, Nils Bjurman, Salander’s legal guardian, is trying to find a way out from under her threats to expose him as a rapist with an incriminating video to use as proof.
Things heat up when the young journalist and his fiancee are murdered in their apartment, on the same evening that Nils Bjurman was murdered with the same gun–a gun that has Salander’s fingerprints on it. In the ensuing rush to judgment, aided in no small part by glory-seeking police inspectors, corrupt officers, and sensation-seeking journalists, Salander’s life is suddenly thrust into the spotlight, where her sanity, sexuality, and past violent tendencies are speculated upon. Her only supporters are Blomkvist and his staff, her former employer at a private security firm, a woman friend and sometime lover, a former boxing champion, and her former legal guardian, now recovering from a stroke. Arrayed against her are most of the country, as well as some of the people who had been contracted by Bjurman to kill her.
Like the first novel, the story zooms along at a breakneck pace, with revelations and plot twists that can leave you reeling from the enormity of the horror and injustice that has taken place. I even found myself noting parallels between Salander and Hannibal Lecter, both equally brilliant, yet removed from the rest of humanity, and with a tortured past slowly being revealed to readers.
If you’re not already on the waiting list for this volume, sign up now. And if you haven’t read the previous volume, do make a point of reading that first.
Also available in large print and as an audiobook.
August 14th, 2009
Dennis - Central
Not for the squeamish, Wintergirls is award-winning author Laurie Halse Anderson’s portrait of 18-year-old anorexic Lia and her descent into what can only be described as madness in the wake of her former best-friend Cassie’s death. Cassie died alone in a rundown motel room, as a complication of her own eating disorder. After having terminated their friendship during the past year, Cassie had attempted to phone Lia 33 times (!) the night she died. Lia never picked up the phone, and that decision on her part allows Cassie to now haunt her– in a very real sense. At least in Lia’s troubled mind.
And it is a very troubled mind. You know because the story is told in first person narrative. We see Lia’s thoughts as she re-writes her world, often using strike-through text to change descriptions of everyone and everything into something that suits her skewed worldview. For example, her long-separated parents aren’t referred to as mom or dad. Their relationship with Lia is replaced in her thoughts by renaming them with their professional titles Doctor, and Professor. She uses the same techniques when describing food as well, turning foods she actually craves into something disgusting in her mind.
That’s part of what was so troubling about this book– and it really is a troubling book. How can you reach someone whose worldview is so obviously different from how you perceive the world? Her relationship with her parents, plus her father’s second wife, is less than ideal too. While both her natural parents have achieved some level of success in their chosen professions, their personal lives are much less than perfect. That they’ve achieved some financial success can’t solve the emotional problems they’re encountering. Lia’s only real anchor to reality is a fairly close bond with her young half-sister, someone with whom she can be truly loving, supportive, and non-judgmental. It’s this relationship that gives Lia her only real chance to be a whole person, someone who isn’t self-obsessed about her weight or actively deceiving those family members who are concerned about her eating disorder.
The book does a very good job of describing the behavior of someone suffering from anorexia nervosa without being clinical. You may not know that sufferers can be obsessive about order and counting, but you’ll read about Lia adding up calories in her mind as she surveys the food on her dinner plate, or dividing her food into smaller and smaller bites. You may be surprised to know that there are internet web sites and chat rooms where eating disorders are encouraged and supported, but you’ll see Lia log in and read others confess to bingeing or seek support when they foresee situations when they might be tempted to eat, while encouraging readers to stay strong. You’d probably suspect that something like an eating disorder would be hard to hide from attentive and loving parents, but you’ll read how Lia cheats when she gets weighed or pretends to eat food that she tosses in the garbage, and how her family seemingly allows such massive deception to take place.
If you’re personally unfamiliar with anorexia nervosa (and count yourself fortunate if you are unfamiliar with it) as well as the life changes and self-justification and deception that can accompany it, I’d urge you to give this book a try. Lia really is a very sympathetic character, despite her self-destructive behavior. And if you’re a certain age, you might also be moved by the less obvious anguish that her family endures as they struggle to cope with a disease that’s literally eating their loved one alive. Assuming you’re not overcome, like them, by a feeling of helplessness.
Also available on compact disc and Playaway.
August 4th, 2009
Dennis - Central
“Dinosaurs with saddles” was the three-line pitch used to get the go-ahead for an article he was proposing for Esquire magazine. It was about the Creation Museum in Hebron, Kentucky which includes, yes, a model dinosaur with an English-riding saddle on it’s back. That story appears as an introductory offering in Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce along with eleven other articles/features that tackle American foolishness from it’s founding through the present.
Since someone once added up the passage of time as it appears to have been laid out in the Bible, it’s been argued that all of creation has been in existence for only about six thousand years, not the billions of years that scientists have determined have passed since the Big Bang. So it seems only natural that dinosaurs and humans must have coexisted in history. Naturally, some intrepid caveman would have saddled one up. It stands to reason, right?
This was a pretty disquieting read, taking incidents from our country’s past and examining them in the harsh light of hindsight, and from a secularist point-of-view. Events such as the legal battle over the life and death of Terry Schiavo, the trial over the teaching of Intelligent Design in the schools of Dover, Pennsylvania, the justification of the use of torture by candidates for the leadership of the free world, the rise of conservative talk radio in the aftermath of the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine, the rush to war in Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11, and global warming are all presented in such a way as to demonstrate that there is no longer viable and credible debate amongst the majority of the populace. We’re left with just an orchestrated process that will appeal to the emotions of the group (let’s be honest, the Christian Right) who are being somewhat blatantly manipulated while anyone with expertise on the issues being debated are marginalized simply because they are “so-called experts” who don’t reside in the same world that “real Americans” live in.
The troubling part is, the strategy of appealing to emotions seems to have been effective. It’s also upsetting because there seems to be no middle ground anymore. The people who don’t hold the same beliefs as one group does are simply wrong and it’s somehow okay to refer to them as idiots. And those people being called idiots feel just as contemptuous about the people calling them idiots.
I really do think this was a well-done book. The people Pierce interviews and the stories he tells are well-researched and thought-provoking and sometimes uplifting. But, occasionally, they are crushingly bleak in their portrayal of our society, or at least in the portrayal of the deep divisions within it. So even if you’re not part of the idiot America that Pierce refers to in the title of this book, I think you’ll have a hard time reading through this text without feeling emotionally drained. That’s the feeling I frequently had anyway.
Something of a saving grace was his use of founding father and president James Madison as a point of reference, presenting Madison’s views about the struggles that he foresaw for his newly formed nation, and also his hopes as well. Ironically, it appears that author Pierce has made an error in the spelling of interviewee and Madison biographer Ralph Ketcham’s name. It’s spelled “Ketchum” throughout Pierce’s text. Perhaps we should be a little more careful whom we’re calling idiots…
July 24th, 2009
Dennis - Central
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