Abraham Lincoln Letter

Abraham Lincoln on Living with Loss: His Magnificent Letter of Consolation to a Grief-stricken Young Woman 

by Maria Popova of "Brain Pickings"

One of the noblest leaders in Western civilization, Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809–April 15, 1865) led a difficult life punctuated by tragedy — his mother’s death when he was only nine, the death of two sons in his lifetime, and his own assassination at the dawn of his second term as president, slain by a Confederate fundamentalist shortly after a speech announcing Lincoln’s intention to advance African Americans’ right to vote.

In February of 1862, just as Lincoln was making major progress on the abolition of slavery, his beloved eleven-year-old son Willie died of typhoid fever — a plague-like bacterial infection the vaccine for which was still decades away. Elizabeth Keckly, a former slave then employed as chief designer for Mrs. Lincoln’s wardrobe and close to the family, would later recall watching the president stand “in silent, awe-stricken wonder” at the foot of the enormous rosewood bed where the boy lay lifeless, Lincoln’s “genius and greatness weeping over love’s idol lost.”

That December, just after the Emancipation Proclamation for which Lincoln had fought so hard was finally issued, loss struck again when one of his dearest friends, William McCullough, was killed during a night charge in Mississippi.

A vital characteristic of a great spiritual, civic, or political leader is the ability — or is it the unrelenting willingness? — to transcend one’s own experience, even at its most acute, and rise from the depths of personal pain in the service of another’s welfare. That’s precisely what Lincoln did for his country, and what he did in his magnificent letter of consolation to Fanny McCullough, William’s daughter. Later included in the altogether indispensable Library of America anthology Lincoln: Speeches and Writings (public library), the letter is a masterwork of sympathetic solace on par with Einstein’s moving letter to the bereaved queen of Belgium.

Drawing on his own lifelong dance with love and loss, 53-year-old Lincoln writes to the bereaved young woman on December 23, 1862:

Dear Fanny
It is with deep grief that I learn of the death of your kind and brave Father; and, especially, that it is affecting your young heart beyond what is common in such cases. In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares. The older have learned to ever expect it. I am anxious to afford some alleviation of your present distress. Perfect relief is not possible, except with time. You can not now realize that you will ever feel better. Is not this so? And yet it is a mistake. You are sure to be happy again. To know this, which is certainly true, will make you some less miserable now. I have had experience enough to know what I say; and you need only to believe it, to feel better at once. The memory of your dear Father, instead of an agony, will yet be a sad sweet feeling in your heart, of a purer and holier sort than you have known before.
Please present my kind regards to your afflicted mother.
Your sincere friend
A. Lincoln

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Laughable Loves by Milan Kundera

This book was so much more than I expected it would be - I love when that happens. 

"Laughable Loves" is a collection of about 7 short stories.  Short stories can be an amazing art form, but I do think it's hard to find a writer who does well with them.  The challenge is that a short story writer must fashion a strong story with a lot less than a novelist.  A short story writer must dive right in & grab hold of the plot quickly while seizing the details/images that pack the most punch.   I believe some writers thrive under that added pressure or challenge, while others overestimate themselves.  Well, Milan Kundera can definitely perform with the added constraints of the short story.  As a reader I didn't feel short-changed, like there wasn't enough there or that the story quit before it was really complete.

Kundera can create a viable world, situation, personalities, and conflict with only 30 pages.  I was kind of in awe of how well he did this, actually.  The highlight for me was The Hitchhiking Game - a short story about a 20-something boyfriend and girlfriend who are on a two-week holiday road trip.  Their relationship was not strong prior to this holiday but both are trying to make of the opportunity a special occasion.  Somehow, after a bathroom stop on the highway, a role-playing game evolves.  Instead of being themselves they are now playing a man who has picked up a strange, beautiful female hitchhiker.  The role-playing game coincidentally helps the young woman bypass her shyness concerning her sexuality - and suddenly she becomes a precocious, relaxed person.  However, she is achieving this by not being herself, it is not growth but playacting.  And her boyfriend becomes meaner to her as this goes on - frustrated with this fake shift in her.  It's a mean little corner that Kundera paints these people into - but it is a very believable and interesting story.

All of these stories are primarily concerned with sexuality - Kundera calls them sexual comedies.  If the story doesn't include an affair, a marriage or a courtship - than it is concerned with the lusting after something even if that something is not sex.

The epigraph to my second favorite story, The Eternal Apple of Desire, is:

"...they do not know that they seek only the chase and not the quarry."

~Blaise Pascal

In this story two male friends, one of whom is happily married, chase women.  They do so very scientifically - if they get a name and an address of a woman they call that a "registration" & even if they don't "make contact" with the "registration," they may follow up with that woman some time in the future.  What makes this game strange is that there seems to be no point to their aimless seeking.  One man is happily married and wants no one else.  He pretends he is playing for the benefit of his single friend, however his friend doesn't really believe anything will come of this game.  Playing definitely seems to satisfy something in each of these men that needs satisfying, but still for the most part it all seems senseless.  I suppose that was the unsettling quality of this story.  Desire is so central to our lives and it's really important that that is so.  And yet, we are not meant to become hollow beings ruled by our passions.  And so the question becomes how do we show due respect to the desire we feel without letting it lead us around by the nose? 

So these are the themes & issues of Laughable Loves and Kundera creates memorable characters through which to explore them.   A great read. 

Find Unforgettable Art In A Most Unlikely Place: A Pittsburgh Mattress Factory

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

*************THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW****************

The last of the Millenium Trilogy & the last penned by Larsson before he died.

The climax of The Girl Who Played With Fire has Zalachenko, Lisbeth's father, shooting her.  In a trilogy concerned with hard-core misogyny, so the father trying to kill the daughter carries that theme about as far as it can go.  And Larsson pulls no punches in that scene - it is violent, cold, and horrible.  To highlight what I mean - once her father and half-brother have buried Lisbeth (not knowing she's still alive), a fox comes over to the newly disturbed earth and pisses on it.  The world seems to have no use for Lisbeth Salander.

It was difficult to conceive of how Larsson was going to proceed from the final scene of the second novel.  Lisbeth's story seemed pretty complete - she had recovered from her tryst with Blomkvist, become financially independent, returned to Sweden and set up a new home for herself, discovered who she came from and, finally, had fought back against the father who had killed her mother.  Also, she and Blomkvist finally reunite after spending all of The Girl Who Played With Fire in different places.  The one issue brought up in the second book that is not really resolved by its end is the media war against Salander.  By the end of Fire, all of Sweden had assumed that she murdered the two reporters, her old guardian, and was exactly what the media labeled her as: a violent, mentally unbalanced, lesbian psycho who was capable of anything.   Essentially, in Fire, Salander is living in a country that is seeking her arrest and presupposes her guilt.  The police force doesn't even seek other suspects.  She avoids detection, but a lot of articles are written about her and why she committed the murders she's accused of - her reputation is destroyed. 

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest backtracks to that - Salander is no longer on the run & existing outside of society.  She has been captured and now her country is putting her on trial and the trial is rigged.  The verdict is a foregone conclusion because Salander's opponents are powerful policitical figures who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden and the prosecutor has aligned himself with them and seeks to get Lisbeth committed to the psych ward. 

Lisbeth's opponents are members of the Section, a rogue section of the Swedish intelligence agency otherwise known as, Säpo.  The Section benefited from secrets Salander's father revealed when he defected to Sweden during the Cold War.  Salander cannot be allowed a fair trial without exposing the existence of this rogue section and the unconstitutional deeds it has committed.  The rights of a individual are nothing compared to hiding/maintaining these secrets.  That is the horror explored in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. 

So, Salander can no longer escape what she has been ignoring/evading/trying to rectify through illegal methods.  She is now at the mercy of "social justice."  Can society at large deliver that justice?  What are the limiting factors? The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest explores that in various ways:

• Who monitors the intelligence agencies? Are they held accountable to any higher authority?

• what society can label you as based on your behavior/circumstances

• how society is capable of assuming the worst of its "minorities" while failing to question the motives of its established, sanctioned and powerful authorities

• Journalism as a watchdog in a healthy democracy exposing errant corporate/political/medical/radical/policing interests and advocating for transparency.  Also, how much misinformation exists in our media?  How does that happen and how can we protect the media from inaccuracies?

• How can the individual censure an authority when the formal channels for doing so are designed to help that authority avoid censure of any kind?  Is there any legal way to reproach the system - or is Salander correct that hacking/spying/beating the system at its own game is the only way to bring the powers-that-be to justice?

                              ***On that final point, Blomkvist is a good measure.  He begins the series with faith that journalists can expose the truth.  By this book - when he realizes that the Section is bugging his apartment and will use any means necessary to destroy him/Salander/the Truth - he is a proponent of the "spread of misinformation."  In other words, Blomkvist is willing to create the wrong impression, willing to lie, and willing to resort to illegal methods.  This trilogy began with his banishment for writing a story that was inaccurate, and by this book he is allowing the publication of untruths in his own magazine, Millenium.

Consequently, I felt that this book had a lot more of Larsson himself than just a satisfying fictional narrative.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest brings in more of his conclusions/philosophy than the other two books and I think that was the strength/weakness of this novel.  A reader can see the social consciousness and aspiration to truly strive for a well-functioning democracy in this book.  But there is also a lot of pessimism, paranoia, and conspiracy theorizing in it as well.  For me, it was too heavy handed in many places and deviated from its strength - substantial characters and telling their stories.  By the end of the trilogy he began speaking a little too directly to the reader instead of writing the story of these fictional people.

While I see that as a downside to this book I still feel I can appreciate it because these are issues that we should all be concerned about.  If we're living in a democracy that is actually deceiving its members and is more concerned about protecting its secrets from its own constituents than we are all living in a lie.  And what should concern any of us more than that?  It reminds me of a lyric from an Eminem song, "Medicine Ball."  The lyric is, "Let's begin, now hand me the pen/how should I begin it and where does it all end/the world is just my medicine ball you're all in/my medicine ball, you're in my medicine ball, friends."   To be in a sphere where every point is manufactured by the powers that be and where every point is a lie.  

One final point of criticism about this book, it refers to events in Swedish history and uses them in the plot.  Anyone unfamiliar with Swedish history will be confused and forced to find background information on the people and events referenced by Larsson.  The book might have benefited from footnotes or endnotes. 

The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares

The best book I've read in a while.  It accomplishes so much for a very small book.

This book is very difficult to discuss without giving away its plot..but here goes.  Firstly, it's a great example of a true work of art.  This is because everything that it sparingly creates (story, characters, setting) it accounts for and nothing is wasted.  This can be tricky to do with books - often the reader can get picked up and dragged along like a piece of driftwood on the tide only to feel when they've reached the end of the book that they've gone nowhere & wasted their time.  Many books fall victim to this - in fact I can only name a handful of books I've read that I felt delivered in the end on the promise set forth in their beginning.  Ha, it's not unlike life in general in that respect, I guess.  How many of us never learn to pace ourselves, or fall into a deathly trap, or get sucked into a downward spiral somewhere along the way and consequently our life gets drained of the energy, vitality, honesty, true sense of itself that it/we began with.  So yeah, as with life so it is with the life of a book and the process of crafting it.  And, therefore, it is very difficult to craft something that doesn't suffer from waste or that is taut - like a healthy/functioning muscle.  Well, this book does that. 

So, this thrifty creation that doesn't seek to just dazzle you is something I read at a time when I found that refreshing and very soothing.

So what's it about?  That, as I said, is a harder question to answer without ruining the book.  Well, it's a story about a man who is a fugitive from the law and finds himself alone on an island.  It is a very small island with only a few man made structures (see the map above) that is subject to strong tides over most of its surface each day.  It is a very isolated island - apparently far away from any other bits of land and difficult for boats to approach, because of these riptides, even if the sight it.  However, suddenly, other people do appear on the island and the fugitive hides from them as he's terrified they are going to turn him in to the law.  He observes them from a distance for some time and discovers a woman among the newly arrived group that captivates him.  He wants to get her attention and her favor but is it possible to achieve this given the circumstances?  How could he achieve this if he did break his silence?  Eventually his desire overwhelms his fear and he breaks his silence.  At that point it turns out that the task is more difficult than he could have imagined - nothing on the island is what it seems.  Not to sound melodramatic or fluffy romance-y - because, in fact, that's not at all what this book is like.  It's just complicated...  So that's plot.

This book is also an example of Latin American "magical realism."  If you know nothing of this trend in literature - essentially there are "magical" twists to realistic images, life events, people, etc - so things are recognizable and yet slightly different, otherworldly.  Casares was very good at creating a character/a world in this way.

If one thinks of fantasy novels - those are usually steeped in excursions from reality (i.e. the author has changed natural laws like defying gravity, or created people who are telepathic, or created whole new types of animals than those we know to exist, or finally, he/she may have created a whole new world apart from Earth).  If fantasy is a bold departure from reality as we know it, "magical realism" is a gentle, quiet amble that takes only a few steps towards the fantastic every once in a while and then proceeds to return to the main path.

"The Invention of Morel" is a classic example of this.  For the majority of the book nothing happens that suggests that there is anything out of the ordinary occurring.  The reader wonders how the fugitive survived to make it as far as he has and wonders why the narrator provides little detail about this.  But that's it.

Then, slowly, strange things begin to happen like suddenly the narrator observes two suns in the sky.  Or when he finally musters the courage to speak to the woman he's attracted to he realizes that she isn't responding to his words.  It's as if she doesn't see or hear him standing right next to her.  Why?

I cannot mention any more specifics at this point for fear of giving away the plot of the book.  However, I can say that the effect of being in the mind of a narrator who is dubious of what his senses are perceiving is unnerving and confusing.  The reader is confused because the narrator is confused.

If you are like me, and tend to like narrators who are unreliable, even devious you may/may not like this book.  If you prefer books that do not test your reading skills to that degree - you will not enjoy this book.  That is, if you like narrators who you can take at their word.  I agree that having such a narrator makes reading an easier/more pleasant/less active experience.  And sometimes you just want to read a good story.  Even good stories can challenge a reader's skills.  But nothing is more challenging to a reader than when their ambassador, the narrator, is a tricky sort - someone that observes their environment poorly, has biases, or even lies to themselves and therefore to the reader.  It makes a reader work a lot harder than one usually has to.  But, as this book is testament to, it can also bring rewards beyond that of those books that challenge you less. 

So I hope that I have given you the bare bones of the story along with a good sense of the flavor of the book.  It was an impressive read & I'm definitely glad that I read it.

Counterattack: 10 Steps to Take if You Think You've Been Hacked

Have you ever had the sinking feeling that you just replied to a phishing email – one purporting to be from a trusted source which isn’t?

1. Keep your digital life healthy—and separate
Create an email account that will be used only for your financial accounts.  Don’t use the same email account that you use for online shopping sites, social media or other sites.

2. Is it from USAA? Look for the USAA Security Zone
USAA emails display the USAA Security Zone stamp in the upper right hand corner of the email. Security Zone contains your first and last name and the last four digits of your member number.  This is your assurance that the email is legitimately from USAA. If you’ve received a suspicious USAA email, send the information to abuse@usaa.com then delete.

3. Strengthen logins
Opt for multifactor authentication methods wherever it’s offered, including your email, social media and financial accounts.  This requires more than one method of authentication (such as one-time code to your mobile phone plus your password) to verify your identity. Change passwords often.

4. Protect your whole household
Fraudsters can gain information about you, your spouse and kids through their accounts. Remind them to monitor their accounts and take the same security precautions as you have.

5. Set up and respond to alerts
USAA and most financial institutions will alert you when suspicious activity is detected on your accounts. Promptly review and respond to these alerts to help ensure that fraud is prevented or detected early.

6. Monitor your credit report and scores
Sign up for USAA’s free Experian CreditCheck to monitor your credit score and changes to your credit profile.

7. Report suspicious activity to counteract threats and get your accounts locked down
USAA can take action to secure and restore your accounts.  Review and respond to security alerts and if you suspect fraud, report it here.

8. Complete an Identity Theft Affidavit
Complete and print an Identity Theft Affidavit at identitytheft.gov or call the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-438-4338. Then you can have the fraud alert extended for seven years. This will notify potential creditors or lenders that you are a victim of identity theft and that they must take extra precautions to verify your identity to gain access to your information.

9. Be proactive
If you are not a victim of identity theft but would like to proactively protect your information, you can place a credit freeze by contacting each credit bureau

10. Active Duty Alert for service members
Service members who are deploying are strongly recommended to place an Active Duty Alert on their credit report which means businesses must take extra steps before granting credit in your name. This alert is renewable for the term of your deployment.
Going forward, Aguirre says, “It’s really about being vigilant and taking the right steps to protect and monitor your accounts.” Visit USAA’s Security Center to learn more.

What to do after a car accident

January 16, 2019

(UPDATED 4/2021)

By Damon Poeter

 

Car accidents range from minor fender benders to catastrophic wrecks. It’s important to prepare yourself and others who might drive your car for what to do after an accident -- before it happens.

 

Handling the aftermath of an accident

 

Here’s a step-by-step process to help you put everyone’s physical safety first, followed by your financial safety. It’s a good idea to think this through and rehearse it.

 

Step 1: Determine if you or your passengers are injured, then move to a safe location, if possible.

 

• If it’s safe to drive your vehicle, move it away from the flow of traffic to minimize danger to yourself and others.

• Position yourself away from the stopped vehicle(s) in a safe and secure location.

• Don’t leave the scene of the accident before completing the following steps, regardless of the circumstances.

 

Step 2: Call for help.

 

• If you or others involved in the accident have been injured, call 911 immediately and follow instructions.

• If there are no injuries and all parties are safe, call your local police department for assistance in filing a report and follow their instructions. In minor accidents involving another vehicle, the police may instruct you to exchange information and contact your insurance company.

• If you’re a minor, call your parent(s) or legal guardian as soon as you’re able.

 

Step 3: Exchange information if a police report isn’t being filed.

 

• Limit the information you provide to others involved in the accident to (a) the name and phone number of your insurance company, (b) your policy number and (c) your driver’s license number. Avoid sharing other info on your driver’s license such as your home address.

• Collect at least the same information from the other party involved.

• Note the other party’s license plate number; the make, model and color of their vehicle; and the names of their passengers.

• If there were witnesses to your accident, collect their contact information.

• Don’t exchange details about the accident and don’t let the other party try to pressure you into determining who’s at fault — let your insurance companies determine that.

• Take pictures of the damaged vehicles, insurance documentation, the scene and the people involved, if you’re able to do so safely.

 

Step 4: Leave the scene once information is collected and everyone is OK.

 

• If possible, return to your vehicle or go to a safe location and review the information you’ve gathered, making sure you’re satisfied before leaving the scene.

• If your vehicle isn’t safe to drive, call a towing company to retrieve your vehicle and make arrangements for transportation from the scene – from a friend, family member or ride-sharing service.

• If you’re in a rented vehicle, contact your rental car company to determine what documentation is needed before leaving the scene.

 

Step 5: File a claim and get your vehicle repaired.

 

• Contact your insurance company and file a claim via mobile app, online form or phone call.

• Arrange for repairs to your vehicle – if it’s repairable – and calculate your out-of-pocket costs for the work.

• Find alternate transportation if you need it.

 

Prepare yourself and your vehicle ahead of time

 

You can’t always avoid a car accident, but you can reduce the risk of getting into one by following some best practices for safety on the road.

 

Additionally, keeping certain items in the car can help keep you and others safe in the immediate aftermath of an accident. Follow these safety steps and teach them to any young drivers in your care as well.

 

1. Pack a safety kit and keep these items in your vehicle:

 

• A fire extinguisher

• A charger for your smartphone

• Road flares

• A flashlight

• Food and water

• A first-aid kit

• Pen and paper

 

2. Always carry up-to-date copies of:

 

• Your ID

• Auto insurance policy

• Vehicle registration

• Health plan information

 

3. Maintain the safety systems in your vehicle, including:

 

• Brakes

• Tires

• Air bags in older cars dating to the mid-1990s or earlier – non-deployed airbags in newer vehicles are designed to last for decades and shouldn’t require replacement

• Seat belts

• Child car seats – always strap kids in according to manufacturer specifications, and replace car seats after even a minor accident

 

4. Become a safer driver by:

 

• Avoiding certain habits that lead to distracted driving

• Taking a defensive driving course

 

Staying prepared and following the steps above can go a long way toward helping to keep you physically and financially safer after an accident.

 

Remember that car accidents can also be psychologically traumatic. If you’re experiencing such effects, consider consulting a mental health professional.What 

Quote of the day

Homo sum : humani nil a me alienum puto

I am human : nothing human is alien to me.

~Terence, The Self-Tormentor

Alice in Wonderland - by Lewis Carroll

I must admit that I had expectations going into this book that it would be something worthy of having survived its 150 years.  However, most of the time I was wondering just that, "why do people love this book so much and how has it survived so long?"

Because in my opinion it was this book is reflective of that awkward attempt at humor that you sometimes find amidst the British.  I don't mean that to insult, in fact I sympathize with the person who has difficulty relaxing and making with the funny and maybe even the foolish.  Some British humor is fantastic, perhaps for this very fact that they are serious but have learned to make fun of themselves for it.  Some British, and now I would call Lewis Carroll among them, make a haphazard path towards comedy/absurdity/fantasy/experimentation.  I argue this because Alice begins without much substance, life, or purpose.  I suspect that Carroll meant for this to mirror the aimlessness of childhood.  There is a strong desire for the path to reveal itself to you, but you are waiting for a lot of necessary ingredients first (some education, some space from your parents, maturity, a growing circle of experience, etc.)  And that's where Alice is - she is napping under a tree and the scene is full of ennui, sluggishness, sludge, and malaise.

However, and this is less obvious, I think Carroll only could have used a child as a vehicle for writing this story.  This is because he has no idea how he wants to experiment and grow beyond his own limitations, and as such he is very similar to a child. But he hides behind Alice, letting her ignorance and naivete be obvious whereas his is not.  I was annoyed with this approach even though I understood it.  I think it creates a poor relationship between writer and character and hurts the book.

That said, the book's vignettes became better and better as the story wore on.  I thought the last two chapters had a rhythm that really fit the story (sorry, I can't explain it any better than that, ha, because my writing skills are not so excellent!).  And I wonder if Through the Looking Glass isn't an even better book.

So while I don't necessarily believe this book is a classic based on the merit of its story and writing, there are other reasons that books are considered "classic."  One of these reasons is that what it did it did first and I think that's the answer to why Alice has lasted so long.

Children's literature, believe it or not, has not always been the raging business it is today.  Once upon a time, no one worried about what children would read and to write for children was to dumb down ideas and why not wait for the children to grow up into adult, fully-formed ideas instead?  And there might be something to be said for that argument - but that's another story.

This book was apparently one of the first to write to a child audience.  Also, it's fantastical elements were not common to books either at that point in time.  So as with a book like The Interpretation of Dreams - which was written to be a scientific text but has been dismissed by the scientific community and now is read as a relic of its time - you can argue that Alice's content is not worth it's reputation.  But both books were seminal texts - they went first and for that we remember them. 

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

A curious little book - my thoughts about it are still percolating....

I can say it consists of short stories whose characters are animals.  But they're clearly not animals - they're actually personality types, characters you might know from life that Sedaris is personifying as animals.  

My favorites stories were: "Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk," "The Vigilant Rabbit," "Vomit-Eating Flies," & "The Judicious Hen." 

Most of the stories are almost like fables, there's a moral to take away from them.  The moral, across all stories, tends to be, "don't be that guy."  These are personalities that have gone wrong somewhere and now are wreaking havoc on themselves and those around them. 

A good example is "Vigilant Rabbit."  There are all these creatures in a forest that are having troubles with their neighbors.  They want to build a fence to keep the unwanted out.  Suddenly, a rabbit assumes the role of protector of the area and takes it to heart, a lot to heart.  He is going to guard this forest at all costs.  And he keep some unwanted things out too.  But then, a unicorn tries to enter - and so yeah okay who believes in unicorns???  but that's kinda the point. This rabbit guards the wall, but he can't exercise his own judgment, simply nothing past. 

The unicorn is so fantastical and absurd a creature that one might expect this "challenge" to the rabbit's authority to make him less adamant, less insistent.  Or, you might say, that the unicorn is considered the ultimate symbol of good luck and fortune and that the rabbit might be so impressed that one is actually standing before him.  But rabbit continues to say "no one shall pass me."

So - this is an example of "don't be that guy."  Vigilance - at times a good quality - in rabbit has gone horribly wrong. 

"Vigilant rabbit" is also a good example of the mixture of somber thought and absurd humor that Sedaris weaves in these stories.  Sometimes it is over the top, sometimes it hits closer to the mark.  Throughout though it is a little hokey. But mostly I didn't mind that.  However, I would say that absurd beats out somber in this book for the most part.  Sedaris doesn't always succeed in creating the very difficult to create: dark humor. 

The Slade House by David Mitchell

 

I read this book only because it fit the bill for my book club.  I thought other people would like it more than I thought I would like it.  But I am glad that I read it.

David Mitchell is an ambitious contemporary writer.   His most ambitious theme, in my opinion, is to reconcile modern science with a new breed of spirituality.  This spirituality would not be at odds with science but could somehow accommodate it.  

Basic backstory: the Slade House sits on a very small alley that would be easy to walk by without even seeing.  People who visit this place, have been know to disappear.  To say more would give some of the book's surprise away - but I can say that reading this book requires the reader to constantly readjust their expectations.  By this I mean : nothing is certain and take nothing for granted.  

That is what I liked most about this book.  It challenged me to flex my reading skills - something I can't say I've been doing for quite some time.  I like that the book challenged me in this way.  David Mitchell's writing was not fantastic, but it wasn't awful either.  I think that there's not much better you can ask for these days among the contemporary writers.  

David Mitchell probably is a little too ambitious - and this is his downfall as a writer.  He's not quite satisfied selecting a story (or allowing his story to select him) and following it where it leads him.  In my scant experience trying to put pen to paper I think I can say that to do that is very difficult.  More difficult than it sounds like it should be.  David Mitchell inserts a lot of twists or ploys into this story - like supernatural phenomenon - that become the glue that ties the story together.  I don't think a well-written story would be that way.  There were a few times in the book that I actually wondered how he would make the story consistent or, in other words, keep it from becoming ridiculous.  In the books I read, I rarely have occasion to ask myself that and I don't think it's a good sign that a writer has succeeded.  

So I would say that consistency is what was missing from Slade House.  It captured my attention but often I didn't really give it willingly or with much excitement.  There was one piece of the book that was an exception to this though called, "Oink Oink."  This section was about one's willingness to suspend disbelief.  That's always been one of my favorite aspects of story telling.  It's the nexus that makes the journey between reader/writer a collaborative one.  Without it, you're either reading something didactic, or uninteresting, or anyways altogether different than a good story that you're enjoying.  In this section, I liked and cared about the characters - I thought that Mitchell hit his stride - and I enjoyed the book the most.  Sometimes just a little gem makes the time investment of reading something worth it - you remember that one bit.   

If you like supernatural stories, I would recommend giving this book a try. 

Newly found collection of classic books....

I recently began reading "The Invention of Morel" by Adolfo Bioy Casares and have been enjoying it.  The publisher is New York Book Review Classics and I've noticed other books of theirs all around.  Turns out, it's a really cool collection of books.  You can find it here:

http://www.nyrb.com/collections/classics

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

I first discovered James Baldwin in high school when I read, "Sonny's Blues."  It's a short story about two brothers, one responsible, the other a recovering heroin addict.  The addict seems to have nothing going for him except his ability to play music.  When he plays his music his brother has reason to envy him.  I enjoyed the story, and in particular the writing. 

In college I took a class on the Harlem Renaissance.  We didn't read James Baldwin, but he was interviewed in many of the AV sources we watched during the semester.  And then, he was interviewed by my favorite writer, Robert Penn Warren, for his book Who Speaks for the Negro? about the civil rights movement.  I heard the interview and it was excellent.  You can listen to it here: http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interviews 

Anyway, James Baldwin has been on my radar, on and off, for a long time. 

A friend of mine liked this book so I decided to start with this.  It is my first James Baldwin novel - and I was not disappointed.  A book about homosexuality written in the 1950's already piqued my interest.  It takes place in Paris which has a two-faced way of seeming to accept homosexuals/transvestites and yet persecute them as well. 

The protagonist has had homosexual encounters before the book begins - but at the moment he is dating a woman.  She is away in Spain when the narrator meets Giovanni.  They begin an affair.  Their relationship has few problems on an interpersonal level (there seems to be some difficulty creating roles in a relationship when the pair is of the same gender, and Giovanni is financially unsuccessful - but otherwise the two get along) but the burden of being in a relationship that is not recognized by the world at large is tremendous.  This got me thinking. 

Every relationship is both private (as it should be) and yet also somewhat public.  When/where others recognize you as a couple is the public place of that partnership.  I suppose if you proceed without difficulty that is something you never have to think of.  But here are two people who must think about it.  I find people who must experience life in a different way than most others to be interesting because they reveal something about life you probably didn't know about. 

The problem with Giovanni and David (the narrator) is they react to the public implications of their relationship differently.  That causes them to suffer.  Giovanni is willing to accept public ridicule because he has found something for himself that he values - his relationship with David.  David, however, is extremely at odds with himself.  He doesn't identify as a gay man - he considers homosexuals to be marginalized and he doesn't want to identify himself with a minority.  He struggles with that so much that it's more important than how he feels about Giovanni, who appears to know him better than anyone else in the novel. 

I don't think that Baldwin develops these subjects as well as he might have.  The novel could have done much more with the story it was exploring.  Perhaps, it was too personal for Baldwin to write (he was homosexual and David seems like autobiography).  But occasionally this book has great moments.  I'm glad I read it.

Trees seen resting branches while ‘asleep’ for the first time

Trees seen resting branches while ‘asleep’ for the first time: Birch branches droop by as much as 10 centimetres at night, and return to their usual positions at daybreak. It’s not yet clear whether the effect is deliberate or passive

How to Take in the Good