This morning I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR and Mona Eltahawy was discussing her provocative piece in the current issue of Foreign Policy, "Why Do They Hate Us?" "They" being the Arab world and "Us" being women. Go read it. On the Morning Edition segment she answers her question with the fact that women are the vectors of culture and religion. "Our wombs are the future. And if you don't control the future by controlling women's bodies, you've lost control generally." Many of these countries are U.S. allies. C.J. Cregg, press secretary extraordinaire (played by the fabulous Allison Janney) exemplifies the anger we should all be feeling in these two clips from The West Wing.
The first clip is from the episode "Enemies Foreign and Domestic" and references a real event that occurred on March 11, 2002.
And this clip is from the episode "The Women of Qumar." Qumar is a fictional oil-rich Middle East state and U.S. ally. The United States has just renewed its air base in the country by selling them an arms package.
What's happening to women in the Arab world is horrific, but even in America, as the latest in the culture wars shows, women--vis-a-vis their bodies--are under attack. Margaret Sanger stated, "No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her own body." It should also be obvious as Steven Conn says that "Free societies allow their citizens to make their own reproductive decisions; repressive ones restrict them."
"Women hold up half the sky" is a Chinese proverb behind the title of Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book Half the Sky. This book explores how educating and empowering women, especially in the developing world, is not only a moral issue but an economic and political issue for our global good. I am placing this book on hold at my library to better learn about the oppression women face worldwide and what can be done about it.
And because I just saw V for Vendetta last night at Brewvies, I will part with this quote by Gloria Steinem:
"This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution. Sex and race because they are easy and visible differences have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor on which this system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism."
So a couple of weeks ago, I watched a filmed version of actress and comedienne Julia Sweeney's one-woman show Letting Go of God. I had heard an excerpt from the play on the "Godless America" episode of This American Life. It's a very funny and poignant show as Julia asks some important questions and goes through a spiritual journey from her Catholic faith to a non-theist, naturalist worldview. Anyway, I've been thinking about the show a lot. At one-point she decides she doesn't think anything happens when we die, that our consciousness just fades and stops like our organs do, and there is no soul or spirit that continues on. Then she thinks, '“Wait a minute, so Hitler, Hitler just... died? No one sat him down and said, ‘You fucked up buddy! And now you’re going to spend an eternity in HELL!’ So Hitler just died.” I thought, “We better make sure that doesn’t happen again.”' And a little while later she thinks, “Wow. Life is so cheap and so precious.” When her parents ask her where she gets her peace and isn't she just depressed all the time, she says, “No. I mean it’s sort of turned out to be the opposite. I’m kind of astonished that I’m even here at all. The smallest things in life seem just amazing to me now. . . . If this is all there is, everything means more, not less, right?” Though she also admits that “I guess I do have less peace. I don’t think everything works out for the best, or that there is some grand plan. I don’t think that things happen for a reason other than a tangible, actual reason. The sad things in life do seem sadder.” When she first decides to try on the "not-believing-in-God glasses" for a second, she actually thinks how does the Earth stay up in the sky? Then she thinks what's to stop me from rushing out and murdering people?, and she has to walk herself through why we are ethical. In a Q&A after the show, she says that ethics are much more fascinating from a non-theist viewpoint. If you're religious, ethics are just whatever God, scripture, religious leaders, etc. tell(s) you to do. But for a naturalist, ethics come from natural rights and social norms and our internal moral sense and these things often get codified into law. But as society changes and evolves then our ethics can--and should--change and evolve too.
So what's the point? Even if you're religious, I think it's important to occasionally put on the not-God glasses and examine the world from a naturalist viewpoint. It's sort of the opposite of Pascal's Wager--which basically states that God cannot be proved or disproved through reason, so it's better to believe in God (or at least fake it) and live accordingly just in case he does exist; if he doesn't exist it doesn't matter, but if he does then you'll be saved. But I think that we should set up our ethics, morals, and laws under the supposition that God doesn't exist--that this life is all we get. Wouldn't that induce us to be better, more loving, more just, more humane people? (Though I guess that depends upon if you take a more Lockean or Hobbesian view of human nature.) I don't think that justice really exists in the world, just a simulacrum of justice. But if you believe that a higher power exists and that justice will be served in the next life, then it's easier to ignore the social inequality, the social injustice, the suffering that occurs every day throughout the world. It's easier to believe that the dictators, the tyrants, the oppressors, the terrorists, the Hitlers will be judged and the victims, the tyrannized, the downtrodden, the oppressed, the exploited will have their reward. But I think that seems too easy. So if this is all we get then I think we need to do what we can to make this "the best of all possible worlds," to protect and uplift the disenfranchised through universal natural, human rights. If God exists in the afterlife and justice will be served, that's swell. But what if Hitler just died? Then we need to make sure the holocaust and other atrocities never happen again--and to solve the current genocides, unjust wars, and human rights violations--because human life is so cheap and so precious. Of course that's easier said than done. Wendell Phillips said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Eternal vigilance is no mere task, and it's a burden placed on all our shoulders. But let's get to work--let us cultivate our garden--so that we can render life tolerable, for all of us, and maybe even better than tolerable.
I just finished Mockingjay, the final book of The Hunger Games series. My sister owns the books, and I read the first two last summer. But then she went back to college in the fall and took her books with her. She’s on a mission now, and her books are back home, so I was able to read the third book. The first two took me mere days to read, this one took months. Most people kept saying they didn’t like the third book, and while there are certainly several depressing turns of events, I think the book ended on a somewhat positive/hopeful note. I think the first book is the best of the series, and I will probably reread it soon. I will also probably see the movie eventually.
I would like to briefly mention that of the three major YA publishing phenomena of the last 15 years, I think Harry Potter is the best in terms of writing, world-building, character development, and message. Jen Andrews of TBTL tells us Harry Potter matters because “Dobby is a free elf, that ‘expelliarmus’ is the spell used by someone who knows that love is always the answer, and that Percy can always come home.” Harry Potter is about the power of love in the face of evil and uncertain times. The Hunger Games satirize us as we already are and may shortly become. Therefore, it’s timely, relevant, and important. Twilight seems mostly about being passive and indulging in unhealthy relationships. and it features the worst writing of the bunch.
I still have a pile of books staring at me. This includes Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood, which is the basis of Cabaret. It’s divided in two sections, the short novel The Last of Mr. Norris and then Goodbye to Berlin—a section of autobiographical short stories, one of which is “Sally Bowles.” This served as the basis for the play and film I Am A Camera which in turn become the musical and then Fosse film Cabaret. The Sally Bowles chapter is fantastic and I am still working my way through Goodbye to Berlin. I have not decided yet if I will read The Last of Mr. Norris.
I also checked out from the library Fast Talking Dames by Maria DiBattista which is about those indomitable women of film in the 30s and early 40s, especially in screwball comedies. DiBattista is a Princeton professor and the book was published by Yale University Press, so the book has an academic bent to it, but is interesting so far. It has inspired me to finally watch several screwball comedies including My Man Godfrey, The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, Adam’s Rib, and The Lady Eve with more to come.
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. I read A Game of Thrones last summer and when I finished, I promptly bought the second in the series. The only problem is these books are l o n g and intricately plotted, so I was exhausted after the first one. I’m a little more than a third of the way through this one, and it will probably still take a while to finish.
The Tale of Telsharu. I’m a bad friend. My dear friend and former roommate Valerie Mechling co-wrote this novel and got it published last summer. Of course I bought a copy and started it, but then I got sidetracked by lots and lots of other books. So with fewer books, I’m going back to this one and won’t check out any other books until I finish this one. It’s a martial arts fantasy novel set in an imaginary Asian empire. So far it reminds me a bit of Guy Gavriel Kay’s historical fantasy Under Heaven which I enjoyed. Also, they’re about ready to publish the sequel, so I really need to finish this one.
Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim. Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. I don’t know that a book of lyrics is meant to be read straight through, though that’s what I’ve been doing, mostly. It’s also more interesting than one might presume. So far I’ve read the sections on Saturday Night, West Side Story, Gypsy, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I've skipped Anyone Can Whistle and Do I Hear a Waltz?, and have just started Company.
I am not checking out any more books from the library until I finish some, or even all, of these. Yet my reading list grows ever longer. Here’s a couple. Nancy Pearl has just started her Book Lust Rediscoveries which is reprinting some of her favorite novels in the last 50 years that have since gone out of print. The first on the list is A Gay and Melancholy Sound by Merle Miller, and my Seattle friends are all over it. John Irving is coming out with a new novel next month, In One Person. My friend Lillian got an advance copy and suggested that I read it. So as soon as my local library orders a copy, I will place that on hold.
Yay for books! I would love to hear if you’ve read anything amazing lately. It can go on my list! Also, as I try to be a better “slow” reader, I thought I would share this video which several of my library school friends were sharing on Facebook last month. I’m going to read so hard.
I recently came across this article in The Atlantic about a slow-books manifesto which obviously is borrowing from the slow foods and subsequent slow everything movements. It’s both tongue-in-cheek and sincere. If we’re concerned about what we put in our bodies, why not be concerned about what we put in our minds. And why not take time to enjoy the quieter pleasures of reading (fiction) to the “fast entertainment” of television and the Internet. The Pollan-esque manifesto is: Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics. and to aim for at least 30 minutes each day of literary reading. I think that’s perfectly admirable and doable, and I am going to try to be better at reading more.
For more about the amorphous slow reading movement, here are two articles from The Daily Beast and The Guardian.
Because I’ve been pretty bad at reading lately, upping my TV and movie watching while the same ten books sit on my bedside table, half-read. It had been a long, long time since I actually finished a book, but I recently finished several and the pile has shrunk somewhat. Since I love books and reading and talking about books and discovering what other people are reading, I thought I would share some of what I’ve been reading in 2012.
I received Habibi by Craig Thompson for Christmas. It’s a graphic novel about . . . a lot of stuff. It’s a bit Dickensian in its sprawl. The artwork is gorgeous, the story is troubling. But then in many ways it’s supposed to be—again like Dickens. I will say that the narrative conceit using numerology, calligraphy, and Bible/Koran stories is complex and interesting. I found the second half of the book/story to be less satisfying and rather bleak in the end. Thompson has also been charged in this book with Orientalism and sexualizing Dodola, one of the main characters. The Hooded Utilitarian has a thoughtful conversation with Craig Thompson about these issues.
Speaking of Dickens, my friend Lillian and I were reading Great Expectations last fall. Lillian finished; I did not, even though it’s my favorite Dickens. Masterpiece just showed a miniseries with Gillian Anderson as Miss Havisham. It is currently up at PBS.org, but probably only till Sunday. There is also a new film version due out later this year with Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham. Hopefully, I will finally finish the book before that comes out.
After Habibi, I read Alexandra Fuller’s new memoir Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness. It is honestly the best book I’ve read so far in 2012, and I can’t stop thinking about it. In many ways it’s the sequel to her memoir about her childhood growing up in Africa. This book centers more on her mother’s perspective. This is what I wrote in Goodreads: “Alexandra Fuller wrote of her African childhood in Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight—known afterward to her family as the ‘Awful Book’—and her fey mother, Nicola Fuller of Central Africa, emerged as the most memorable character. In Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Fuller returns to that harsh continent to chart her mother’s life and memories as a one million percent Highland Scottish woman who grew up in the perfect equatorial light of colonial Kenya, who led a hardscrabble life in war-torn Rhodesia, who lost children, land, and sanity before courageously achieving an ‘African kind of peace’ on a farm in Zambia under her Tree of Forgetfulness. A notch below the Awful Book, Fuller's writing is beautiful, engaging, and compassionate in capturing her mother's voice and a life Worthy of Fabulous Literature.” I would suggest that you read this book as it is excellent. But read Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight first if you haven’t already.
I’ve read a few different graphic novels. First was the Fables series—where familiar fairy-tale characters, after fleeing their enchanted kingdoms, are living in modern-day New York City. I read the first story arc “Legends in Exile.” It seemed like my perfect cup of tea, fractured/re-imagined fairy tales and in a graphic novel format to boot. And while I have friends who LOVE the series, it left me a bit cold. Maybe I thought it would be more like The Sandman, and it’s not really fair to compare anything to The Sandman which to me is the benchmark of adult comics weaving together myth, history, legend, and superheroes into the stuff of dreams and nightmares. I also read Maus I by Art Speigelman which is considered to be a masterpiece in itself and also of the graphic novel format. I wrote: “Art’s complicated relationship with his father frames Vladek’s own story of surviving Nazi Germany as a Polish Jew. In this graphic novel where Jews are mice and Nazis cats, the story achieves a harrowing reality.” I need to pick up the second volume. Finally I read the first volume of the Scott Pilgrim series “Precious Little Life.” While it’s a fun and clever little comic book, I had already seen the film which is a very faithful adaptation, and the source material did not really give me more.
I read Chris Hedges’s polemical book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. It’s a very interesting book that exposes the fascist elements of some fundamentalists, evangelicals, and dominionists. I think the book deserves its own post, but in case I never get around to finishing it, this angry book, which sometimes gives way to the “left-wing paranoia about a looming evangelical-led theocracy,” is thoughtful, provocative, and relevant. I think it’s definitely worth taking a look.
I decided to read The Paperboy by Pete Dexter after seeing this retro-looking movie poster. The film will star Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman, and David Oyelowo. I read the first third of the book in about a week and the final third in another week. The middle third took about three months when I didn’t feel like reading much of anything. I had to renew the book four times from the library. Here’s my brief annotation: “Paperboy Jack James recounts the story of a death-row groupie, a terrifying inmate and his clan, and Jack’s taciturn brother, half of a star investigative team who stir the remote backwaters of 1960s Florida with shocking consequences.” The movie, directed by Lee Daniels (Precious), should be . . . interesting.
I recently finished Kitchen Confidential, Anthony’s Bourdain’s jumbled mixture of memoir and food writing—two genres I love. But I did not love this book. Part of it is Bourdain’s debauched behavior, smug assholery, and machismo—though he is at least aware of these qualities. Anyway, his whole personality rubbed me the wrong way. However, there are worthwhile chapters. If you have every wanted to be a chef or open a restaurant—or even have a romantic idea of being a chef or opening a restaurant, he will quickly disabuse you of such notions. If you eat out a lot, he will tell you, as a chef, what he eats and what he avoids when dining. If you would like to cook like a pro, he will tell you some of the tricks and tools of the trade he uses. If you enjoy the shocking tales of degenerates, you will like the rest of this book. Otherwise, I feel the parts are greater than the sum.
So I’m sure you’ve heard by now that I finally got a job! It’s the same job I had before I moved to Seattle and spent thousands and thousands (and thousands and thousands) of dollars getting a "first-rate" education that has so far failed to proffer any actual professional library jobs, but I’m not bitter. It’s OK though because I loved my job before. I like the work, my supervisor loves me, and I can listen to podcasts all day. I also enjoy the commute—driving through downtown SLC every day on my way to and from the U listening to NPR. Lovely. It’s also good because I just ran out of money and wouldn’t have been able to pay my bills next month. Crisis adverted! (for now.) It’s part-time, so I won’t be going from no structure to a full-time job, but it will impose some outside structure on me which is really necessary. And while it won’t use any of my fancy library education, it is a library job which has to count for something. And it pays more than minimum wage! I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the plan—that at nearly 26, with a BA and MLIS, I would be stoked about a part-time job that pays a bit more than minimum wage, but there you have it.
About a week ago or so, I spilled some water on my laptop keyboard. Eek! It seems to have only affected the “N” key, so I have to copy and paste all of my “n”s which is super annoying. My laptop also makes upsetting beeping noises when I shut it down or restart it. I should probably find the removable hard drive I got for Christmas a couple of years ago, and back up important files and my music library in case the whole machine goes. And maybe look into replacing the keyboard—see how much that will cost. Good thing I got a job. For now it’s a livable problem—but seriously why couldn’t have been the “X” key or something? “N” is a fairly common letter, and it makes playing online crossword puzzles very difficult.
For Easter I was in charge of preparing dinner, and I decided to go with a lamb. Lamb is seriously expensive, you guys. The lamb leg I had to prepare was also intimidating. and large. and cooked unevenly. I think I should have gone with a smaller and supposedly easier to prepare rack of lamb, especially since my family are not huge lamb eaters. However, the mint sauce I prepared to go with it was delicious!
Anyway, before I start work next week, I need to get a haircut and an overdue oil change and return several books to the library. And sleep and read and watch lots of TV.
