Living Buddha, Living Christ

Posted on December 17, 2009 by smellincoffee

Living Buddha, Living Christ
© 1995 Thich Nhat Hanh
240 pages

One interpretation of Jesus that I’ve grown used to seeing in books writing on the necessity for religious pluralism is his depiction as an enlightened teacher in the same manner as Buddha, hoping to improve the quality of human life radically with his teachings centered on love. This is essentially the tack Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk, took in writing Living Buddha, Living Christ.  He compares the Buddhist idea of mindfulness and the Christian “Holy Spirit”, regarding them as accomplishing the same thing: “being one with the spirit” translates in his opinion to being mindful. It’s..an odd idea, but somewhat useful, I think. If Christians take it to heart, they could adopt meditation and mindfulness into their own tradition without practicing them and wondering if it makes them hellbound.

For the non-Christian reader, there’s not a lot of content here other than a few contemplations that reminded me of the Dali Lama’s own work in An Open Heart. The book is essentially readable, although sentences tend to be short and choppy — perhaps a product of the translation. It focused less on the historical persons of Jesus and Buddha than I had hoped, but the book should be of some interest to Christians interesting in makming their own tradition more responsive to the needs that mindfulness meets.

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This (Month) at the Library 9/12

Posted on December 9, 2009 by smellincoffee

Books this Update:

  • The Zinn Reader and Marx in Soho, Howard Zinn
  • Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories (Volume I), Isaac Asimov
  • The Best of Robert G. Ingersoll, compiled by Roger Greely
  • Saints Behaving Badly, Thomas J. Craughwell
  • Cicero, Anthony Everitt 

It’s been a while since I wrote a review post: until Thursday of last week, I was properly innundated by papers. The semester is, by and large, done with: I only have finals week to look forward to, and thus can start doing a little more reading. It’s been a while since I did any science reading, so I would appreciate reccommendations from those of you who read in those areas – particularly in the fields of biology and physics.

Nearly a month ago, I read two works by historian and social activist/critic Howard Zinn — both inspired by the documentary You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. The first, The Zinn Reader, is a large collection of articles, essays, columns, and book forwards written by Zinn over the course of his lifetime and covering a range of subjects — history, social activism in the United States, civil disobedience, politics, and Marx-esque social criticism. Given the scope of the material,  I was able to see Zinn continually reacting to the social changes of the United States from the late thirties to the late eighties. The book is easily one of the best I’ve read this year, and it being the pick of the week in the next update — this one — became a foregone conclusion. On a similar note — Marx-esque social criticism — I read a bit of fiction by Zinn in Marx in Soho.  The powers that be allow Marx to return to the world of the living for an hour to defend himself and his ideas, which he does. Zinn sought to portray Marx not just as a professional intellectual, locked away in his office writing about economics, but as an on-the-ground-revolutionary in his own sense. There were a few choice quotes in there, but I can’t share any at the moment as I’ve lent the book to a friend. You can look up performances of the play on YouTube.  (I’ve linked to a couple of my favorite performances here.)

After this, I read a selection of quotations from Robert Ingersoll entitled The Best of Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll was a late nineteenth century personality — a celebrity of sorts in his day, drawing massive crowds to hear him lecture. He was an extraordinarily gifted speeches: even reading the text of them rivets me. I’ve been meaning to share some of the quotations on my philosophy/humanities blog: one of them will eventually be inserted into this post the next time I access the book. Although the book doesn’t contain any full speeches by Ingersoll, it contains an abundance of pithy quotations that will be appreciated by skeptics, atheists, rationalists, skeptics, the liberal religious, science supporters, and especially humanists.

At the beginning of this month, I finished Asimov: the Complete Stories, volume I. It contains two of his short-story collections (Earth is Room Enough and Nine Tomorrows) and is a mix of fantasy and science fiction pieces, with science fiction dominating.  It contains some of my favorite pieces by Asimov, but I can say little more about the stories than I have about Asimovian stories in the past. They’re readable, typically contain interesting ideas, and do not bother the reader with gratituous violence, sex, or slams against people Asimov disagreed with.

Saints Behaving Badly is a collection of short chapters about various Catholic saints, attempting to entertain  and encourage traditionally Christian readers who fear their lives aren’t up to snuff compared to the saints. The book was rather poor: sources (sometimes legends and rumors) were never criticized, and some of the “sins” seem silly to make a fuss over. The most entertaining thing about this book was the cover art.

Lastly, I read a biography of Cicero, a pleasant high note to end the week (month) on. The book presents a balanced view of Cicero’s life and gives the reader plenty of historical and political context to understand the drama of Cicero’s life, and the information is presented in a well-paced narrative.

Pick of the Week: The Zinn Reader, as mentioned before.
Quotation of the Week: “Is life worth living? Well, I can only answer for myself. I like to be alive, to breathe the air, to look at the landscape, the clouds, the stars, to repeat old poems, to look at pictures and statues, to hear music, the voices of the ones I live. I enjoy eating and smoking. I like good cold water. I like to talk with my wife, my girls, my grandchildren. I like to sleep and to dream. Yes, you can say that life, to me, is worth living.” (Robert Ingersoll, The Best of)

Upcoming Reads:

  • Living Buddha, Living Christ, by Thich Nhat Hanh. I think it’s meant to establish dialogue between Buddhists and Christians, which may become increasingly important if Americans continue to leave traditional western religion behind for more philosophical worldviews like Buddhism.
  • The Triumph of Caesar  by Steven Saylor: I intended to read this last week, but forgot which library it was in. 
  • Black Edelweiss: A Memoir of Combat and Conscience by a Soldier of the Waffen-SS, Johann Voss. The Waffen-SS, for those not well-versed in World War 2 information, was the military arm of the SS. They saw a lot of action in Russia, and helped maintain the concentration and death camps. I’ve read about the leaders of the SS before and am interested in what led men to join the darkest part of the Nazi state.
  • When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs, Charles Kimball. 
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Cicero

Posted on December 9, 2009 by smellincoffee

Cicero: the Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician
© 2001 Anthony Everitt
359 pages

I’ve been intending to read this for a few months now, but other books have always gotten in the way. As I plan on continuing in Robert Harris’ biographical novel trilogy of Cicero’s life, it seemed proper to read a standard biography of Cicero for comparison’s sake.

I’m rather taken by the book. It’s written in a narrative style, increasing reability and keeping the reader interested. The title is accurate, for Everitt not only writes about Cicero’s life, but establishes plenty of context about Roman history,  Roman government, and Roman lifestyles. The emphasis on Cicero’s historical context continues throughout the book: the Republic’s waning years and death are covered in detail, given Cicero’s role in attempting to preserve it, even as Marc Anthony and Octavian’s armies clashed.Thus, the book functions not only as a fairly thorough treatment of Cicero’s life, but allows the reader to get a handle on late-Republic politics.

The portrayal of Cicero seems balanced, on the whole: Cicero’s politics only slightly overshadow his philosophical and literary contributions, while Everitt seems neither unjustly cynical or romantic about Cicero’s life, but generally portrays him in a positive light with a few caveats. On the whole, Cicero is readable and informative treatment not just of Cicero, but of late-Republican Rome itself.

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Saints Behaving Badly

Posted on December 9, 2009 by smellincoffee

Saints Behaving Badly: the Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints
© 2006 Thomas J. Craughwell
208 pages

This is a short little number intending to amuse and perhaps reassure people that they’re not all bad, compared to people who have become saints. It made for very light, and -unfortunately — not enjoyable reading. Perhaps the expectations I brought with me to the book — namely, that it would point out self-righteous hypocrisy in the lives of people who are supposedly a cut above the rest of us — hampered my enjoyment of it, but I have my doubts. The book is not about hypocrisy: although the book’s short chapters each tell of the “sins” committed by the Catholic church’s many saints, all these sins took place before they “got religion”. The book is definitely written from the perspective of a committed Christian, and I doubt anyone else would enjoy it:  the author is utterly uncritical of his sources, drawing on legends for some of his facts, and sometimes — as in the case of St. Patrick — the chapters aren’t even based on legends, but mere rumors. The chapter on St. Patrick also reflects another of the book’s weaknesses, namely that many of the so-called “sins” aren’t going to bother very many people. St. Patrick’s alleged sin is that sometime in his youth, he may have participated in a pagan rite.On the basis of this utterly undefended claim, the author labels Patrick a ‘devil worshipper’.  There’s nothing in here about the medieval popes living in splendor while peasants starve outside the gilded gates of the Vatican: nothing at all substantial, and very little to amuse. Frankly, the only enjoyment I got out of this book was looking at the cover art .

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No Less than Victory

Posted on December 7, 2009 by smellincoffee

No Less than Victory
© 2009 Jeff Shaara
449 pages

This was released only a month ago, and completes Shaara’s WW2-Europe trilogy, the previous titles being The Rising Tide and The Steel Wave. The books are historical fiction, although most characters — perhaps all in this book — are historical personalities. Shaara borrows from his father’s style in writing the book in a way that depicts the soldiers’ and generals’ reactions to the war as it develops around them: sentences are often styled to convey the thoughts of each chapter’s viewpoint character. Eisenhower and Patton have been viewpoint characters throughout the whole of the series, but they are the only two carry-overs: grunt soldier George Benson joins the cast on the American side to give readers both an overview of the war (the generals’ chapters often serve as exposition and move the plot along) and the soldiers’ view on the ground. As is typical of Shaara, viewpoint characters are drawn from both sides of the conflict, and at least two German officials make their prescense known throughout the book. An elderly German general who is expected to take the blame for the Wehrmacht’s defeat in the west serves the same function as Rommel in previous books, — giving the reader a “good” German who loves his country and is frustrated by Hitler’s refusal to listen to reason, — while Albert Speer serves as the reader’s eyes into late-war German government given his role as one of Hitler’s familiars.

The book opens in December 1942:  in the past sixth months, the Allies have liberated most of France, but have slown down to a near-stop as winter visits Europe. Rather than sit and twiddle its thumbs all winter while  American and British bombers continue to bomb them, the Wehrmacht launches a counteroffensive against American lines, resulting in what history will call the Battle of the Bulge. This conflict consumes over half the book, since it is the last gasp of German military capability. The book’s plot is much slower in the first half of the book, and varies from chapter to chapter depending on the viewpoint character:  soldiers experience plot minute by minute, while months can pass by during a general’s chapter rather quickly. Shaara’s books are expressly about American history, drawing as they do from American sources, so readers hoping to visit the eastern front will be disappointed. Narrative flows more slowly than it might in say, Harry Turtledove’s works, but it doesn’t bog down too much — and it picks up swiftly after the book’s halfway point, when American troops begin marching into Germany proper and seeing the ravages of war.

Shaara sometimes seems present in the book. Unlike Steven Saylor, he doesn’t mention to the readers what his sources were, or how extensively he drew from them, so — except in the case of Albert Speer, whose work I am familiar with — I do not know which of the characters’ opinions belonged to their historical personalities or which belong to Shaara. At one point,  Winston Churchill pays Eisenhower a visit and gripes about the Yalta Conference: England was largely ignored, to his believable annoyance, but what really gets Winnie’s goat is that Roosevelt wrote Poland off. It’s difficult for me to believe Churchill cared for the people of Poland, although in a more cynical light I can easily believe in his being outraged at Russia growing in strength. Interestingly, Shaara’s characters often compare and contrast Allied and Nazi morality, particularly after Dresden but before the discovery of concentration camps. While Shaara’s narrative isn’t too romantic, it’s definitely friendly to warm and gushy patriotism. Perhaps that’s appropriate: the reader must decide.

No Less than Victory is definitely a fair read. I enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed Shaara’s other works, and I suspect those interested in American military history would eat it up. I read the book mostly out of loyalty to Shaara: I’ve been reading him since high school, and it would seem strange to stop, particularly in the middle of a series. I understand he’s planning on writing about the end of the war in the Pacific.

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Asimov: The Complete Stories, Volume I

Posted on December 7, 2009 by smellincoffee

Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Volume I
© 1990 Isaac Asimov
614 pages

I finished this book over a week ago, but academic responsibilities have seen my writing limited to papers for class and my creativity beyond that slightly dampened. I acquired this book a few months ago and have read from it ever since, little by little. The set it is part of was never completed: only two of the three planned books were ever released. Volume I contains two of Asimov’s short-story collections, Earth is Room Enough and Nine Tomorrows. The former is a mix of science fiction and fantasy, while the latter is straight science fiction with humorous and — as always with Asimov, self-depreciating — poetry rounding things out. This collection contains some of my favorite pieces by Asimov, and of course I would recommend it to any fans of the good doctor or to classical science fiction fans. Here are a few of the stories you might be interested in:

  • The classic “Nightfall”, a short story about a world with six suns and a history of civilization-destroying madness. Scientists and cultists both predict the end of the world is at hand. 
  • “The Feeling of Power” depicts Earth in the future, where reliance on computers has grown to the point that humans can no longer do simple arithmetic: computers themselves design and manufacture the newer generations of computers. A technological historian sorts out how to work through simple mathematical formulas and begins teaching them to his fellow citizens, only to be horrified when the military realizes math’s uses.
  • “Profession” is one of the more interesting stories, at least for me, and shows an Earth similar to the Earth in “Feeling of Power”. Technology is used to teach children to read and to train them for their professions, but when one man tries to beat the system and learn on his own, strange things happen.
  • “The Last Question”, one of Asimov’s favorites: can entropy be beaten? 
  • “The Fun They Had”: children in Earth’s far future puzzle over the existence of books and communal classrooms in an age where they are taught by robotic tutors.
  • “The Immortal Bard”: William Shakespeare is plucked from his own time and finds himself in an English class devoted to analyzing the collected works of Shakespeare.
  • “The Gentle Vultures”: Aliens puzzle over why Earth has not yet destroyed itself in a nuclear war.
  • “All the Troubles of the World” features Asimov’s “Multivac”, the ultimate computer that knows all…which turns out to be too much.
  • “Breeds There a Man?” is another interesting one, also involving aliens and nuclear physics. 
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The Best of Robert Ingersoll

Posted on November 25, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Best of Robert Ingersoll
© 1993 Roger Greely
175 pages

Photobucket

This week, I was able to read through a collection of quotations by Robert G. Ingersoll under the title of “best of”. The quotations are introduced by a biographical essay of Ingersoll, then organized by alphabetical topic and take up most of the book, with a few short speeches — one for his brother’s funeral and others honoring recently deceased poets, scholars, and other men whom Ingersoll admired — near the end. The book’s appendices are written by the editor of the book and concern the history of his birthplace museum and various things said about him by contemporaries after his death. The book is shorter than I expected, and did not contain the text of larger lectures as I anticipated before seeing the page count. The quotations included, however, are some of his best — and even included some I have never encountered before. The image of Ingersoll that comes forth through these selections is one of a passionate and intelligent man, every bit the “preacher of humanity”. His quotations regarding religion are particularly strong, displaying why I like Ingersoll so much: he doesn’t just roar at orthodoxy, he celebrates humanity and exhorts his listeners to think for themselves and live more deeply in love. He is the quintessential Humanist.

The book is an obvious recommendation to Robert G. Ingersoll fans, but should have strong appeal to skeptics, atheists, rationalists, skeptics, the liberal religious, science supporters, and especially humanists.

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Marx in Soho

Posted on November 22, 2009 by smellincoffee

Marx in Soho

© 1999 Howard Zinn
88 pages


“Oh, ja — ‘capitalism has triumphed!’ — but over whom?” – Marx, Marx in Soho

Although The Zinn Reader held a near-monopoly on my attention last week, there was a brief thirty-minute timeframe in which I visted my post box, discovered to my happy surprise that a book had come in early, and excitedly read through it. As you might guess from those comments, Marx in Soho is not a lengthy work: it is not even a book in the usual sense, but a play written by Howard Zinn. I came to Marx in Soho by the same means I came to The Zinn Reader:  You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,  a documentary on Zinn’s life.  Film from a production of Zinn’s speculative play in which Karl Marx visits the present day from the “beyond” featured in the movies, and it intrigued me enough that I started looking for recordings on YouTube. Those were well-done enough to merit my looking for the book, which I did.

As said, the play’s premise is one of speculative fiction. Karl Marx, annoyed that his name and life’s work are being slandered in the modern world, is able to badger the Powers that Be into letting him visit the living world just for one hour — although, due to a bureacratic mix-up, he finds himself in Soho, New York instead of Soho, England. The play is a monolouge, although we hear from other characters through Marx’s reflectings on the past. Most of his attention is focused firmly on the present, as he admits that his predictions of class revolution and Communism were off, muses on why, and applies his criticisms of capitalism in the 19th century to capitalism in the 20th. Marx is portrayed not as a sage-like Gentleman Scholar in this play, but as an ordinary human who loved his wife and children, endured a bad cough,  turned his home into a salon for the dicussion of economic and political matters, and who is passionate about his work. Zinn’s Marx has a sense of humor, sometimes making wry comments to the audience after his more spirited rants have attracted negative attention from “Heaven” — lightening flashes whenever Marx becomes too animated.

Marx in Soho is a fun little read. It’s almost a modern Communist Manifesto, communicating Marx’s ideas to a lay audience. It’s nowhere near as thorough as the Manifesto, but the 21st century’s attention span may be too short to endure even the short work that is the Manifesto.  Marx in Soho is fairly well done — it’s readable, presents the Manifesto’s basic tenents, entertains, and humanizes a figure who is more legend than man. My only raised eyebrow comes from Marx speaking in Zinn’s voice toward the end.

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The Zinn Reader

Posted on November 21, 2009 by smellincoffee

The Zinn Reader
© 1997 Howard Zinn
668 pages

When I pulled this book from the shelf, I did so with the intention of checking it out and reading it over the Thanksgiving holiday. I did not anticipate the book monopolizing my interest from the moment I peeked inside on my way downstairs to the circulation desk to check it out until the minute I finished it. That a book of nearly seven hundred pages, often about politics, never lost my interest is impressive indeed.

Last week I watched a biographical documentary about the life of author Howard Zinn, a historian whom I read in the early spring. His People’s History of America and People’s History of American Empire were historical narratives with political messages, wholly interesting to me.  The man who emerged from the documentary and from this book is fascinating: he grew up poor, in the slums of New York, back when the United States had its own labor and socialist movements. He was part of a B-17 crew during the Second World War, and afterwards became a historian and political activist, a combination of roles he sees only as natural. By chance he was sent to the South just as the Civil Rights movement began in earnest, and has written commentary on seemingly every major social and political event of the sixties, seventies, and eighties. This book contains a large sampling of articles, essays, newspaper columns, book introductions, and other literature he produced during the period, and it is a staggeringly communicative book.  Zinn is easily the most captivating political author I’ve ever read, communicating not just history, but the emotional effect of history. Zinn’s indignation, sadness, and anger are obvious, but never overwhelming.

The Zinn Reader is one man’s commentary on his and the United States’ history and development. Zinn is a character in a larger story, responding to the historical events that unfold around him. Zinn is very much involved with history: for him, the idea that the historian is and must be  neutral is wrong, fallacious even.  Historians, and scholars in general, have the right and duty as human beings to respond to what is happening in their world — to champion the causes they see as righteous and to attack with fervency what injustice and lies they can. He doesn’t write simply on the major events of his life — World War 2, the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam — but on the minor parts as well (Boston University’s “battleground” role during the rise of the student left) – -and on the whole scope of American history, from Columbus to the Gilded Age and beyond.

The highest praise I can give to any book is that it added depth to my life in making me think: Zinn addresses questions of mine in regards to civil disobedience (when is it “right”, namely), and makes me examine old ideas and new ones alike. The book swept me away, and I imagine it will be holding sway over my mind for a good long while, in the manner of Neil Postman. I don’t know if I’ll read anything more memorable this year — I doubt I could. I recommend this to you utterly.

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This Week at the Library (12/11)

Posted on November 12, 2009 by smellincoffee

Books this Update:

  • A Gladiator Dies Only Once, Steven Saylor
  • The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins
  • Off the Books, Sudhir Venkatesh
  • Caesar’s Judgment, Steven Saylor
  • An Honorable German, Charles McCain
  • Robert Ingersoll, David Anderson

In this past two weeks, I have been continuing in the Roma sub Rosa series, first with A Gladiator Dies Only Once — a collection of short stories set in the beginning of the series — and Caesar’s Judgment, one of the last books in the series proper.  Both books are examples of Saylor at his best, putting together interesting stories, believable characters, and a lively historical setting. Caesar’s Judgment is more of a political thriller than a mystery novel, but this certainty doesn’t detract from the experience. A Gladiator Dies Only Once in particular is now a favorite.

The Roma sub Rosa series wasn’t the only bit of historical fiction I read, as just recently I finished the excellent An Honorable German, one of the finest WW2-era novels I’ve read. Author Charles McCain’s main character is a German naval officer named Max Brekendorf, and the story follows him as he matures both as a military officer and a person. Characterization is particularly strong in this book, and it tells a story that should be more known — that of Germans who were neither Nazis nor helpless and impotent bystanders.

In terms of nonfiction, I read Richard Dawkins’ latest release –– The Greatest Show on Earth, a rather thorough and quite readable case for evolution complete with Dawkins’ usual wry humor and fantastic color plates, following it up with Sudhir Venkatesh’s Off the Books, a detailed look at the underground economy of urban slums, that gives the reader a grim look at what people do to get by in the absence of job opportunities and effective law enforcement.  I finished with a biography of “beloved Colonel Bob”, Robert G. Ingersoll. I started the biography in the spring but wasn’t able to finish it before summer arrived and I lost convenient access to my university library, but the book gave me plenty of background information about the life of a man I find admirable, and made my mental image of him a bit more polished, as author David Anderson doesn’t shy away from Ingersoll’s faults.

Pick of the Week: I’m leaning toward either A Gladiator Dies Only Once or An Honorable German.

Quotation of the Week: “Gentlemen — we are arguing about words, not reality.” – Richard Dawkins, pointing out the problems in scientists, historians, and others who attach themselves too strongly to labels and descriptions that may limit their perceptions. The necessity of breaking label-boxes is especially salient for me as a history and sociological student.

Upcoming Potentials:

  • No Less Than Victory, Jeff Shaara: the final book in his WW2-European Theatre trilogy. It’s a new release, so I may have trouble getting it from my local library…
  • The Best of Robert G. Ingersoll: Selections from his Writings and Speeches, ed. Roger Greely. Guess why I decided to finish that Ingersoll biography this week?
  • The Triumph of Caesar, Steven Saylor. This is the last book in the Roma sub Rosa series: it’s also the only book I’m sure I’ll be reading next week.
  • Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Volume 1.  I’ll be reading this in the next week, but I probably won’t finish it for a while: like my Black Widower collections, I prefer to read this a little at a time.
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