Classics Considered

I've decided to share these quotes in the order they appear in the book, plus occasional commentary. All quotes are from the 2018 hardcover edition. Key: plaintext - Worthy quotes bold - Favorite quotes italics - Quotes I disliked 12 Rules for Life: Best and Worst Quotes The dominance hierarchy is not capitalism.  It's not communism, either, for that matter . . . We (the sovereign we , the we that has been around since the beginning of life) have lived in a dominance hierarchy for a long, long time. (p. 14) - Agreed, seems pretty self-evident. . . . the familiar Western images of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and the Pietà both express the female/male dual unity, as does the traditional insistence on the androgyny of Christ.   (p. 42) - "traditional insistence on the androgyny," what is he talking about? You should take care of, help and be good to yourself the same way you would take care of, help and be good to someone you loved and valued. ...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn by Evstafiev [ CC BY-SA 3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons "No one could stand up for communism after The Gulag Archipelago - not even the communists themselves." ( 12 Rules for Life , p. 310) I would like to think that's true.  Unfortunately, admiration for Joseph Stalin is, by all appearances, far from dead .  The mass murderer has been rebranded as a WWII hero first and dictator second. While not all Russians subscribe to that narrative , there are some who are nostalgic for the USSR. I once briefly dated someone who felt that way.  It wasn't apparent on first impressions, but, as we got to know each other better, I learned he was an ardent Stalinist, fully heroizing Stalin and believing all the bad to be exaggerations, lies, or American propaganda, or (barring all that) nothing any worse than what U.S. presidents had done.  Though born in a former Soviet republic, he was not really old enough to remember life in the Soviet Union, yet ...

...I seem to have everything, except my one true friend.  All I think about when I'm with friends is having a good time.  I can't bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things.  We don't seem to be able to get any closer, and that's the problem. As I read The Diary of Anne Frank for the first time, two things really struck me.  The first was that humans, ordinary humans, can turn cruel so quickly and completely.  The second was that, even as an adult, I could see pieces of my own life in Anne's, because her writing, in so many ways, is ageless. It's one of the most famous memoirs of all time, so many people know the story: a Jewish family in Holland is compelled to go into hiding after the Nazi takeover, and the youngest daughter records their experiences in her diary.  I had heard much about the book but put off reading it, due to my emotional experience with similar memoirs ( The Hiding Place, Night , and From the Ashes of Sobib...

Occasionally you stumble across some historical story so weird it could only have happened in in real life.  Exhibit A: the mysterious lover of Nikolay Gumilyov. Nikolay Gumilyov Who was Nikolay Gumilyov?  Born in 1886, he grew up well educated and began writing poetry at a young age, becoming first published, in fact, at around age 16.  Gumilyov spent much of his life as a man of letters and established poet, but he also served in the Russian cavalry in WWI.  He was executed in 1921 on suspicions of being part of a monarchist conspiracy.  When he was still a young man and writing for a journal called Apollon , he fell in love with the author of some poems which had been submitted for publication.  Here I quote Wikipedia : In August 1909, the famous Russian artistic periodical Apollon received a letter with verses on a perfumed paper with black mourning edges, signed only by a single Russian letter Ch . The verses were filled with half-revelatio...

Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty wherever ordered?  Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, to any other foreign government, power or organization?   No-No Boy follows the post-war lives of two young Seattleites: Ichiro Yamada and Kenji Kanno.  Published in 1957, John Okada's only novel takes a raw cross section of Japanese-American society and examines it through the eyes of these characters who made very different choices. When called to the draft, Ichiro followed his mother's guidance and answered "no" to both "loyalty questions," resulting in imprisonment.  After two years, he is released from prison to a community which abhors him for his decision, almost as much as he hates himself.  Kenji, on the ...

The Congo and the Cameroons contains excerpts from Mary Kingsley's memoir Travels in West Africa , published in 1897.  The first two sections cover some observations and anecdotes about West African flora and fauna, while the last two-thirds of the book follow Mary's climbing of Mount Cameroon.

I knew Isabella Bird was a Victorian solo traveler, who had visited far-off places such as China on her own. What I didn't know was what a great writer she actually was. Adventures in the Rocky Mountains contains excerpts from her book, A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879). Surprisingly for a travelogue, here you'll find a variety of experiences and emotions - from courage and trepidation to hilarity and friendship. I was really impressed by Isabella's fearlessness, paired with her knitting needles and an honest confession of her physical weaknesses. Still, this middle-aged lady exhibits far more stamina than I could ever dream of, whether it's braving out the freezing cold in a cabin or helping cowboys round up their cattle! Through it all, she focuses on the exhilarating beauty of the Rocky Mountain landscape, which is the subject of all her voluntary hardships and a lesson to all of us (privileged to travel comfortably) not to take it for g...

The Cobra's Heart is a succinct yet expansive book about a Polish journalist's experiences and observations in 20th-century Africa.  Just under 100 pages, it's merely an excerpt of Ryszard Kapuściński's full-length book, The Shadow of the Sun .  Upon finishing it, I was happy to find the full version already on my to-read list (added, though forgotten apparently, in 2013) as well as pleasantly surprised that this miniature made me want to read the full book.

Traditional setting of the Christmas Eve table in Poland by Przykuta [ GFDL , CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC BY-SA 2.5 ], from Wikimedia Commons What was life like for the Polish immigrants in Pe Ell, Washington, one hundred years ago? As told in the words of their descendants today, this book preserves their experiences; their joys, their sorrows, and their struggles to make a better life for themselves and their families as they assimilated into a new country and became Americans. I stumbled across this book at the thrift store this past summer: Pe Ell's Polish Pioneers by Leo E. Kowalski.  It seemed really obscure but I decided to give it a try.  Lately I've been hankering to learn more about local history, beyond Lewis & Clark and Captain Cook (though their stories still excite me), and I've been interested in Polish history since encountering pieces of it in college courses.  The lesser known episodes of history are my favorite, so I thought I might like t...

My sister shared this with me - a new documentary called They Shall Not Grow Old by Peter Jackson (director of The Lord of the Rings ).  He took film footage from WWI, restored and colorized it, and added voiceover so you can get a sense of what it was really like.  Hoping this makes it to the U.S.!

In A Room of One's Own , Virginia Woolf takes us through a history of women in fiction, from the unknown poets of Elizabethan times to 18th and 19th-century writers like Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë.  This little book is not only for feminists, but for anyone interested in the life and classic writings of female authors. Apologies for the intermittent background noise, near the beginning of the episode.  It was probably me leaning on my "lectern" - i.e. a white cabinet on wheels, which may not be the most stable setup...  I'll be taking extra precautions in the future! Sources / Further Reading: "Virginia Woolf Was More Than Just a Women’s Writer" - Humanities magazine Virginia Woolf's suicide note (Wikisource) Napoleonic Code (Encyclopedia Britannica)

How does one become the President of China? If the electoral college seems at times hard to fathom, an election in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is even more esoteric.  According to Kerry Brown, author of CEO, China and former diplomat, the rise of Xi Jinping to the supreme leadership role in China "belonged more to the realm of magic than political science" (p. 92).  The process by which Xi replaced Hu Jintao (2003–2013) was unlike a democratic election, in part because it required a consensus amongst the Party: a one-party state cannot be seen as divided.  This image of unity is one which brought Xi to power and which continues to challenge him as he seeks to maintain that power. (Note: This is a multi-part review, though each part can be read on its own.  Please see Part I and Part II , if you'd like to read more.) U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, 2011 - by Jerry Morrison Coincidence and Conviction Xi's life has ...

As president of China, Xi Jinping presides over 18% of the world's population, and he is set to do so for life.  How did Xi rise to such prominence, and what can we learn from his life that will help us understand his future?  Kerry Brown's book, CEO, China , offers some clues as to the man behind the mystery. (Note: This is a multi-part review, though each part can be read on its own.  You can read Part I here if you like.) George W. Bush and Xi Jinping, August 2008 - by Eric Draper The Young Xi: Two Sides of History "The issue of whether Xi is a 'Maoist' is a live one in China," writes Brown (p. 10).  As he goes on to illustrate, Xi's historical and cultural relationship to Mao is not only complicated but personal, with origins that go back to Xi's childhood and his father, Xi Zhongxun. Xi Zhongxun began his career as a distinguished communist soldier, fighting  both the Japanese and the Chinese Nationalists throughout the 1930s-1940s.  This was an ...

For lovers of Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre , Eugene Onegin takes us back to Imperial Russia, where young Tatyana Larina falls for her brooding, Byronic neighbor. More than a romance, Alexander Pushkin's epic poem is a classic of Russian literature and history, as well as a glimpse into the 19th-century dueling culture which proved to be so fatal for him. Sources / Further Reading: Why the Russian aristocrats spoke French - Reddit discussion with academic sources Eugene Onegin - Translation by Henry Spalding (not my first recommendation, but it's free) Pushkin's African Background - Article by the British Library List of Alexander Pushkin's duels - By blogger Rina Tim Russian Ark (2002) - A creative documentary surveying 200 years of Russian culture.  I was able to watch this on loan from the library, and while it's a slow film (not gripping), the visuals are interesting. Opening quote read by MaryAnn (LibriVox)

"What do you know about the man who runs China?" the blurb demanded. "Nothing," I blinked.  Well, basically nothing. I couldn't believe it...I knew basically nothing about Xi Jinping, one of the most powerful leaders in the world today.  (I also have some Chinese heritage, which makes it even more embarrassing.) Xi, in fact, may wield more influence than any other secular leader.  He functions not only as General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) but also as their "core leader" - putting him in the same league as Mao.  In parallel, he shows the other communist nations (nominally very few) what a strong communist leader looks like.  With a GDP on track to overtake the United States' in the next decade , China's version of socialism is not to be ignored, and Xi is well placed to be more than just a figurehead. Search Amazon for "xi jinping biography" and relatively few books come up.  Remove the word "biography...

In The Sea and Poison , we find one Japanese author's perspective on the horrific human experimentation carried out by Unit 731 "doctors" in World War II. A small addendum to my comment in this episode, that there were "no Nuremberg trials, to speak of."  The Soviets actually staged their own show trials for some of the Unit 731 personnel.  However, sources indicate that the sentences were light and may also have been exchanged for data.  To me, this is hardly the equivalent of the Nuremberg trials, where several nations (not only the USSR) took part in the trial and the sentences included 12 executions and seven imprisonments. Sources / Further Reading: "Unmasking Horror -- A special report.; Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity" - NYT article, 1995 "Unit 731: Japan's biological force" - BBC article, 2002 "Japanese veteran admits vivisection tests on PoWs" - Guardian article, (2006) "Department of ...

Today, we venture back to 19th-century Imperial France, in two vivid novels of Émile Zola: The Ladies' Paradise ( Au Bonheur des Dames ) and The Kill ( La Curée ). Links / Further Reading: Zoladdiction 2018 - FandaClassiclit blog

A magazine article provoked me to re-read H. G. Well's sci-fi horror classic, The Island of Doctor Moreau. Join my trip back in time as I talk about a Soviet scientist, a British author, and human-chimpanzee people . Sources / Further Reading: "It’s Time to Make Human-Chimp Hybrids" by David Barash Articles referencing Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov: Smithsonian Magazine Laboratory Primate Newsletter (Brown University) Wikipedia discussion H. G. Wells's The New World Order H. G. Wells vs. George Orwell ( The Conversation ) "The Comprachicos" by John Kaiser (JSTOR) "Wanting Babies Like Themselves, Some Parents Choose Genetic Defects" ( New York Times )

For this recap, something a little different.  I was mighty pleased with the little mountain of to-be-reads I climbed, so everyone's a winner - and they all get awards!  Thanks to Bev for hosting this challenge! *** The Unexpected New Favorite Award ***   An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro This was a thrift store find I bought on a whim.  I was greatly moved by this fictional historical memoir, written by Ishiguro (of The Remains of the Day fame).  An aging Japanese man realizes his past is not creating the bright legacy he had envisioned.  Subtly written, yet incredible. *** The Finally, Finally Read It Award *** The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane I liked the beginning of this book a lot.  That made the ending somewhat disappointing.  However, I had to admit it is a worthy American classic, with good writing and thought-provoking scenes. *** The History Is Disturbing Award *** Evita: The Real Life of Eva Peron - Nicholas...

T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935) If you've been following me on Goodreads, you'll understand I have been reading books this year , while blogging at a record low.  Far from a lack of interest in blogging, my motivation was the need to take a break...I still consider myself on break as I write this.  However, I wanted to say a few thoughts on my longest read of the year (thus far) before removing all my markers in it and packing it off back to the library.   A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence was written by psychiatrist John E. Mack, published in 1976, and came highly rated (based on my internet research).  Let me take a moment to dissect that sentence:  First off, I felt uncomfortable with the title.  The quote is not by Lawrence, and while it's provocative, I had no idea going into the book what the "disorder" refers to.  What a great and awful title for a biography. The author is not a historian by profession, but a different type of so...