Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
"The values of tolerance are one of the most difficult lessons to impart, not because people are naturally cruel but because power is naturally fearful. We're slow learners."(75)
Incredibly slow learners. And, as Adam Gopnik implies here, not just within our lifetime. It seems that we have to almost start over every generation. We have no memory as a community. That makes us unusually adept at learning very slowly.
"That for a moment or two the humanists seem to have it--that we don't really expect the Inquisition to barge into our living rooms--is a fragile triumph of a painful, difficult, ongoing education in Enlightenment values." (75)
Playing devil's advocate: With liberties being infringed by an overzealous government (e.g. the Patriot Act) and the Christian right frighteningly, inexorably on the stubborn rise (with all that rigid, holier-than-thou morality), who doesn't fear the Inquisition barging into their living rooms (the question here, I suppose, is who are "we" in the quote above?). Also consider that, as suggested by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno in Dialectic of Enlightenment, the Enlightenment allowed for the Holocaust, the greatest Inquisition of all. When lives are reduced to abstractions, as Gopnik points out, it is easy to kill. Something to think more about.
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Gopnik, Adam. "Inquiring Minds." The New Yorker, 16 January 2012, 70-75. Link [abstract].
Short Reads 2012
A list of essays, short stories and other short works read in 2012-- a running tab:
- "The Loss Library: Ivan Vladislavic Revisits His Failures" (Book review of The Loss Library). The National 12MAY12 (5/16/12)
- "The Instant Expert: All Kinds of Stories" by Rick Arthur (Genres). The National 21MAR12 (5/13/12)
- "American Isolato" by Ginger Strand (violence and the American highways). The Believer May12 (5/12/12)
- "Pop Culture's 40-Year Itch" transcript of Guy Raz & Adam Gopnik. NPR 21APR12 (5/9/12)
- "The Forty-Year Itch" by Adam Gopnik (the cycle of nostalgia in popular culture -- specifically movies). The New Yorker 23APR12 (5/9/12)
- "Suicide Is Scandalous" by Henry Kane. The Mammoth Book of Private Eye Stories (5/8/12)
- "Left, Right and Science" by Christopher Clausen [abstract] (the Right might have been on the side of science ). The Wilson Library Spring12 (4/?/12)
- "Arson Plus" by Dashiell Hammett. Library of America reprinted from Dashiell Hammett: Crime Stories & Other Writings 2001 (4/1/12)
- "How Creativity Works" by Maria Popova (a review of Jonah Lehrer's Imagine: How Creativity Works). Brainpickings 20MAR12 (3/21/12)
- "Same-as-that" by Dale Peck (signs taken for wonder written as letter). Harper's MAR12 (3/21/12)
- "Age of Ignorance" by Charles Simic (the wonderful age in which we live so wholeheartedly with out our heads). NY Times Review of Books Blog 20MAR12 (3/20/12)
- "Clean Bill of Health: The Novel's Myriad Roads to Recovery" by Chris Arnold (how the novel has not only survived but thrived and not as warring factions of experimental and realist). The Million 15MAR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Realist's Guide to Experimental Fiction" by Eugenia Williamson (an examination of her own dislike of experimental fiction and then Marcus' The Flame Alphabet and Gray's Threats). The Boston Phoenix 14MAR12 (3/20/12)
- "God and Caesar in America" by David Campbell and Robert Putnam (why mixing religion and politics is bad for both). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Man Who Broke Atlantic City" by Mark Bowden (how one man beat the odds and won nearly $15 million). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "Night Owls" by Benjamin Shwarz (how nightlife changed Western culture, plus why New Zealand is better than the U.S.). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "How We Spend" by Stephen Rose (where we spend our money now compared to 60 years ago -- good infographics). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Royal Me" by Matt Seigel (secessionism in Australia). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Secret Ingredient" by Wayne Curtis (how myths of recipes make liquor taste better). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Glove That Would Change The Game" by Daniel Fromson (a new baseball glove). The Atlantic APR12 (3/20/12)
- "The Deadliest Virus" by Michael Specter [abstract] (should dissemination in magazines like Nature and Science of information about the, now, transmittable-to-humans virus H5N1 [bird flu] be allowed? the reward outweighs the risks). NewYorker 12MAR12 (3/17/12)
- "In Syria" by Jonathan Steele. LRB 22MAR12 (3/17/12)
- "They're, Like, Way Ahead of the Linguistic Currrrve" by Douglas Quenqua (how young women shape linguistics). NY Times 27FEB12 (3/13/12)
- "Bones of the Book" by Robert Moor (the future of the ebook). N+1 27FEB12 (3/13/12)
- "The Future of U.S.-Chinese Relations" by Henry Kissinger [abstract] ("conflict is a choice, not a necessity"). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/12/12)
- "The Case for Space" by Neil deGrasse Tyson [abstract] (why the US should continue to spend money on space exploration). Foreign Affairs MAR/APR12 (3/12/12)
- "It's enough to Literally Make Your Head Explode" by A. Barton Hinkle (you will literally not believe how people use literally). Reason.com 3FEB12 (3/10/12)
- "The Implosion" by Jon Lee Anderson (inside the beginnings of chaos in Syria). The New Yorker 27FEB12 (3/9/12)
- "A Meta-Analytical Review of Selective Exposure to and the Enjoyment of Media Violence" by Andrew J. Weaver. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 55, no. 2 (April 2011): 232-250. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed February 29, 2012)
- "The Story of a Suicide" by Ian Parker (Dahrun Ravi and Tyler Clementi -- a webcam and Tyler's subsequent suicide). The New Yorker 6FEB12 (2/28/12)
- "Get a Real Degree" by Elif Batuman (review of Mark McGurl's The Programme Era). London Review of Books 23SEP10 (2/24/12)
- "The Plagiarist's Tale" by Lizzie Widdicombe (Quentin Rowan, a.k.a. Q.R. Markham, Plagiarist Addict). The New Yorker 13FEB12 (2/22/12)
- "Smaller Publishing Houses Provide for a Rich, Diverse Literary Landscape" by Gerry LaFemina. Highbrow Magazine 9FEB12 (2/18/12)
- "The Boy who Was like a 'Flower'" by Anthony Shadid (during the first part of the Iraq war, a child is killed). The Pulitzer Prizes (reprint from The Washington Post 31MAR03) (2/17/12)
- "How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy" by Kathleen McAuliffe (Toxoplasma gondii -- the parasitic microbe that reproduces in cats -- and how it affects the brain). The Atlantic MAR12 (2/16/12)
- "Body Ritual among the Nacirema" by Horace Miner ("The fundamental belief underlying the whole system appears to be that the human body is ugly and that its natural tendency is to debility and disease"). American Anthropologist JUN56 (reproduced @ Michigan State University website) (2/15/12)
- "How Language Shapes Thought" by LeraBoroditsky [preview] (argument for the idea that language does shape thought). Scientific American (reprinted in Annual Editions: Anthropology 12/13) FEB11 (2/15/12)
- "Underage sex trafficking is everywhere local law enforcement looks, but will their budgets hold out?" by Michael Barajas. SA Current 8FEB12 (2/8/12)
- "Working Titles" by Leslie T. Chang (fiction in China is all about getting ahead in the workplace). The New Yorker 6FEB12 (2/7/12)
- "A Homepage for Philosophy" by Liam Julian (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy considered). Humanities (NEH) JAN/FEB12 (2/4/12)
- "The Caging of America" by Adam Gopnik (American's are being incarcerated at astounding rates). The New Yorker 30JAN12 (2/3/12)
- "Fragmentary: Writing in a Digital Age" by Guy Patrick Cunningham (the fragmentary nature of reading online and how writing can understand that process on the creative end -- Shields' Reality Hunger & Tupitsyn's Laconia). The Millions 24JAN12 (1/27/12)
- "How Abstract Expressionism Makes for Great Basketball" by Ryan Sachetta. SA Current 25JAN12 (1/26/12)
- "Texas Soon Awash in Craft-Beer Suds" by Roy Bragg (the rising tide of Texas breweries). MySA 19JAN12 (1/20/12)
- "Has Microsoft Word Affected the Way We Work?" by John Naughton (the way tools affect our creative potential or not). The Observer 14JAN12 (1/20/12)
- Mark Rothko: Painted in Blood by Jeffrey A. Kottler (the focus here is on Rothko's troubled life and it's relationship with his creativity; he was an outsider who's success created more problems than it solved). Chapter Four in Divine Madness: Ten Stories of Creative Struggle by Kottler 2006 (1/18/12)
- "China's War against Harry Potter" by Stephen M. Walt (China demands a culture machine but will fail). Foreign Policy 4JAN12 (1/14/12)
- "E-Reader May Be Invading Your Privacy" by Marissa Ciullo (does the information stored about your reading habits compromise your privacy or even your right to free speech?). OxfordPatch 9JAN12 (1/13/12)
- "Creative Writing" by Etgar Keret. The New Yorker 2JAN12 (1/11/12)
- "Law of Escape" by Andreu Martin. Barcelona Noir, Akashic Books 2011 (1/10/12)
- "All Due Respect" by Peter Hessler (journalist Jake Adelstein and his reporting on the yakuza). The New Yorker 9JAN12 (1/9/12)
- "Inquiring Minds" by Adam Gopnik (the Spanish Inquisition revisited). The New Yorker 16JAN12 (1/9/12)
- "Happy Queue Year" by Ryan Sachetta (reviews of art documentaries). Glasstire 9JAN12 (1/9/12)
- "The Future of History" by Francis Fukuyama [abstract] (liberal politics needs to reinvent itself). Foreign Affairs JAN/FEB12 (1/8/12)
- "The Mosque on the Square" by Peter Hessler [abstract] (two weeks in the [continuing] Egyptian revolution). The New Yorker 19DEC11 (1/5/12)
- "Time to Attack Iran" by Matthew Kroenig [abstract] (arguments for strikes against Iran's nuclear sites). Foreign Affairs JAN/FEB12 (1/5/12)
- "Books that Are Never Done Being Written" by Nicholas Carr (how movable type will change the "permanence" of books). WSJ 31DEC11 (1/4/12)
- "You Say You Want a Devolution?" by Kurt Andersen (why fashion has become so stagnant). Vanity Fair JAN12 (1/3/12)
Reading 2011
The books I read in 2011. A fairly varied list, though I have found myself reading more nonfiction lately (a trend in which I have become a number). All told a fairly paltry sum.
1. half of The Calculus Diaries by Jennifer Ouellette ***
2. Gilded Latten Bones by Glen Cook ****
3. Lint by Chris Ware *****
4. Weathercraft by Jim Woodring ****
5. The Notting Hill Mystery by Charles Felix *****
6. Topology of a Phantom City by Alain Robbe-Grillet *****
7. I Is an Other by James Geary ****
8. The City & the City [Kindle] by China Mieville ***
9. Swan Dive [Kindle] by Michael Burke ****
10. Music of the Spheres[Kindle] by Michael Burke ****
11. Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker ***(*)
12. A Game of Thrones [Kindle] by George R.R. Martin ****
13. The Egyptologist [Kindle] by Arthur Phillips ****
14. The Text of Shelley's Death by Alan Halsey *****
15. Noir by Robert Coover *****
16. Coming through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje *****
17. Anticipated Results by Dennis E. Bolen *****
18. Netsuke by Rikki Ducornet *****
19. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson ****
20. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain *****
21. What Language Is (And What It Isn't and What It Could Be) by John McWhorter *****
22. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris by David King ***(*)
23. War Wounds by Jacques Leslie ****
24. Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield *****
25. World War Z by Max Brooks ****
26. The Sea: A Cultural History by John Mack *****†
27. El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo *****
28. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø ***
The short story revives.
"Who, turning the page from a spread of photographs from Abu Ghraib or investigative pieces about CIA prison sites, would want to come upon another lighthearted exercise in irony? The 1990s experimentalists simply weren’t equipped for the 2000s."
Are these (Abu Ghraib, CIA prison sites, exercises in irony) really so disparate that a reader wouldn't? I think the point is an interesting one, but incomplete here. Perhaps it is exactly that irony that barred the wounds to the bones making the futility of it all all that more embarrassing and impossible to look at.
"What a Difference a Decade Makes" by Ruth Franklin in Prospect Magazine on 14DEC11.
B&W photos… Why?
Some very strange photos (B&W). Some of them must have been "doctored" either in analog or later digitally. Still they beg the question: why? In this way they break the suspension of disbelief to the point where the viewer necessarily asks who the photographer was and wonders what they were thinking. Bad choice or absurd worldviews or gruesome silliness? Maybe all that and more.
El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency by Ioan Grillo
Ioan Grillo produces a clear book about the "criminal insurgency" in Mexico. Charles Bowden's masterful Murder City: Ciudad Juárez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields was written to depict the absolute muddiness and ineluctable nature of the quagmire. The confusion of events going on south of the border is indeed terrifying and though the book doesn't make any of the events less cruel or all-encompassing it does clarify what is going on and why. For anyone interested in understanding the history, culture and politics of El Narco, this is a must read.
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Vincente "Fox touches on the central points raised for years by the drug-policy reformists in the United States: that drug prohibition hasn't stopped drug taking; that it creates organized crime with catastrophic consequences; and that the whole idea of a government telling you what to put in your body is illogical." (278)
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Grillo, Ioan. El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2011.
Richard Duardo
Robin Greeley. "Richard Duardo's Aztlán Poster: Interrogating Cultural Hegemony in Graphic Design." Design Issues 14.1 (1998).
"To rethink design praxis as a cultural manifestation of such struggles means addressing the increasingly sophisticated contemporary efforts to control every aspec of the product cycle—not simply the realm of production, but also the realm of the symbolic (the production of the 'desire' for a particular product), and of product reception—in order to feed capitalism's continual need for new markets." (24)
He was at SAC a couple of weeks ago giving a talk and then a silk screening demonstration. Intelligent, hard-working man. He knows how to work the system to be sure.
The living and the dead
"Grief and Solemnity" by Colin Dickey. LA Review of Books. 27Nov11.
"Death is a thing to be acknowledged but not dwelled on, not faced head-on."
"Reading the history of all these American reburials, what becomes clear is a paradox that haunts all cultures, particularly ours: the body is of utmost importance, and yet it must not only be removed from sight but symbolically scrubbed from existence. For all the efforts taken to ensure that these reburied remains were authentic — the lengthy verification process of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Jones’s remains when they were exhumed in Paris in 1904, for example — the monuments built to house these remains, with their massive granite walls, columns, and bronze statues, bespeak neither the living nor the dead, but something inorganic, as though architecture alone could supplant the fact of death."
I've often wondered about that myself. This necessity to not lie about who's remains are buried where or if there are actually remains. The difference between a shrine and a grave...
"The essays here are eloquent reflections on grief, but they are not grief itself."
Using words to say what words cannot say. They can always say that and more. In this case they choose not to.
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Books reviewed:
Michael Kammen. Digging Up the Dead: A History of Notable American Reburials. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
David Shields and Bradford Morrow, eds. The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death. Norton, 2011.
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