David Harris: My brain doesn't bibliograph

50 book challenge - 2005 edition

Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:22:06 GMT

Like last year, I'm mentioning the 50 book challenge. The idea is simple, read 50 books in the calendar year and keep a list of them on your blog (or even offline if you don't have a public web presence!)

Last year, I did an appalling job of keeping track of the books I read, primarily because I had a crazily busy year, what with a magazine to launch and all... However, I did easily surpass the 50 book mark, pretty much within 6 months. I kept reading at close to that rate for the rest of the year but didn't get around to recording everything. I suspect that will happen again this year but at least I'm beginning.

The year has gotten off to a strong start because I had my first vacation in three years and I was able to lie on the beach and read for a good chunk of it. And so January's list will probably be longer than most months' although much of the reading was done over four days based on the books I was given for Christmas and my birthday.

If you are keeping a list of books you're reading, leave a note with a link to it in the comments to this post.

Perhaps the strangest thing to come out of my book list from last year is that I was contacted by a public library in New Jersey that wanted to use extracts of my list for a brochure they are producing on the 50 book challenge.

For now, check out how I have started the year in books.

Happy Bloomsday!

Wed, 16 Jun 2004 18:50:32 GMT

Although ripping James Joyce to shreds seems to be in vogue at the moment, I still think Ulysses is a masterpiece and today's centenary of the day Leopold Bloom wandered Dublin is worth celebrating.

The first time I tried to read Ulysses, I had trouble, I am not ashamed to admit. But that was simply because it was literature so unlike everything I had tackled before. I didn't make it all the way through. Yet, when I tried again a year later, my reading ability has matured sufficiently to find it quite easy going. Of course I still haven't picked up all the references and some aspects of it are cloudy, but so what? Any book that doesn't have some of those moments really isn't challenging you enough.

Unfortunately, most of the commentary decrying Ulysses seems to come from people who are proud in their inability to make it through the book. And the very nature of the book means that it is not about the summary of the story that is important - it is how the words are used and the effects to which language can be put.

I often just dip into Ulysses for fun, having read it in sequence a handful of times now, and almost always find a new phrase, sentence or paragraph that really grabs me, often because of how it relates to something that has happened to me. Bloom is supposed to be "everyman" in some sense, and the book is always effective at providing a way for a reader to connect with the text.

So to all those people who think the book is worthless just because they can't handle that it is so different to the mindless pabulum that is fed to us as literature so often - get over yourselves. Read the damn thing with an open mind and you'll discover an amazing world.

#33: The Concise Guide to Copy Editing - Paul LaRocque

Mon, 17 May 2004 02:51:20 GMT

Paul LaRocque's Concise Guide to Copy Editing is a succinct useful introduction to the skills of copy editing. Filled with practical examples and advice, the book focuses on newsroom copy editing but the ideas can be easily applied to copy editing most forms of writing. Definitely worth while as a reminder even for those experienced copy editors.

Buy from Amazon | Full book list

#32: Talon of the Silver Hawk - Raymond E. Feist

Wed, 12 May 2004 01:02:01 GMT

Having been on so many flights recently, I've wanted something lightweight to read so I picked up a fantasy novel by an author who I liked when I read much fantasy a decade or so ago.

Talon of the Silver Hawk is the first in the Conclave of Shadows series, currently in progress. It revisits the same world and some of the same characters as previous of his books, although set much later so the old familiars have aged considerably.

There's not much to say about these books, to be honest. The good ones are engaging and fun, and sometimes make a bigger point about society. Talon is fun, flows well and the most important part is that I want to read the next in the series. That's good enough for me.

Buy from Amazon | Full book list

#31: It Ain't Necessarily So (How the Media Remake Our Picture of Reality) - David Murray, Joel Schwartz, and S. Robert Lichter

Tue, 11 May 2004 23:15:33 GMT

Reading a daily newspaper is terrifying experience. A constant barrage of concerns assaults us as we skim from one story to the next, feeling a general desire not only to know what is happening in the world, but also what we might do to make life better for us, by whatever means most relevant. Unfortunately, so much of what we read is exaggerated, misleading, or flat-out wrong.

Errors of many types enter into media stories for many reasons, but very rarely because of a flagrant bias of the journalist. The trouble is, reporting is difficult. And daily news cycles in underfunded newsrooms at papers where mission statements involve profits to shareholders and nothing about news, only exacerbate the situation. Journalists often don't have time to investigate a story sufficiently deeply, and even when they do, they often don't have the appropriate training to get to the bottom of some of the issues.

These problems are worst when the reporting involves the results of studies, surveys and statistics. Every statistic can be used to tell a multitude of stories. Every study has multiple aspects that can used as the foundation of a story. Every survey hinges delicately on issues such as precisely how the questions are worded, what order they are asked, and the physical location of the survey. Without exploring all of these types of issues, it is extremely difficult for a journalist to present a fair and balanced view of any claim made in a press release or executive summary of the latest surveys.

It Ain't Necessarily So explores many of these ideas, with the main points illustrated by case studies from the print media in the US. The tales told in the book are cautionary, revealing, inspiring and sometimes scary. You'll come away from the book with a much more skeptical view of the news, when it comes to the reporting of studies and statistics.

There is no doubt that many journalists could benefit from reading this book. One of its strengths is looking at the reporting of science and social science stories, where the press release version of the story often doesn't reflect the reality of the study particularly well. Unfortunately, the science backgrounds of many journalists asked to cover these stories are not strong and it is very easy to get lost in the flow of information without a few guiding principles to help ask the right questions. This book does a decent job of identifying what a journalist should watch for.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the book is that it does its job of creating a skeptical reader too well. By the end, you'll be doubting every sentence in the book itself. Unfortunately, you find that the book breaks many of its own rules about judicious, skeptical reporting. Perhaps it is impossible to write a book of this length without some of these errors. You could go into each case study in immensely more detail and do a better job, but then be forced to cut down the breadth of the text, which would be a shame. Some of the particular claims made by the authors do not stand up to the scrutiny they recommend, especially on some politically volatile issues, where there almost seems to be a political bias lying behind the stance taken by the authors. Perhaps it is not such a bias, and just a case of the authors not sufficiently exploring the cases they discuss, one of the key reasons for many errors in reporting. I won't go into a detailed rebuttal of the book's errors, but note that you should be very skeptical of the approach taken in the case study of global climate change reporting.

Overall, the book is extremely useful and entertaining, but due to the errors, journalists would be advised to do as the authors say, not as they do.

Buy from Amazon | Full book list

#30: Skeptic - V10n4 - Low carb diets are crap

Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:30:15 GMT

OK, OK, so I'm putting a magazine in my book list but the total content of this magazine is considerably more than many books - and is definitely more thought-provoking. Skeptic is a magazine that takes a critical look at topics that go unsufficiently questioned in society. I have read issues of it before but a couple of things stood out to me in this issue. There is a great debunking of the urban legend that Einstein was learning disabled, a useful guide to avoiding creationism/evolution conflicts in the classroom, and lots of other interesting information and analysis. But to the main event...

The cover story of this issue is titled "The Skinny on Fat" and is a skeptical look at low-carbohydrate diets. I guess I was already very skeptical of things like the Atkins diet because I have never seen any convincing evidence that anything but the "first law of thermodynamics" diet, as Bob Park puts it, will work. That diet is simple: put less energy into your body than you make it expend and you'll lose weight.

Patrick Johnson's article describes the physiological processes of food consumption and compares the claims of low-carb proponents with the scientific literature. In summary, there is no evidence that low-carb diets work. However, they could lead to very serious health problems. (As a doctor friend put it to me, "the only thing Atkins is good for is turning you into a diabetic". That may be slightly overboard but carbohydrate restriction does cause your body to have reactions very similar to those of diabetes.)

Once curious aspect of this is that your heart and liver prefer to get their energy from fat metabolism whereas your brain and red blood cells work on glycolosis (which is primarily driven by carb intake). So perhaps low-carb diets are the ultimate in self-sustaining hype - don't eat carbs, prevent energy from getting to your brain, stop bothering to analyze whether or not the diet is sensible or working...

This is an oversimplification. Your brain and red blood cells can get energy another way. Glycolosis can be driven by an indirect mechanism from fat metabolism. However, this only occurs in conjunction with ketosis, a condition also seen in poorly treated diabetes (hence my doctor friend's comment). Another side effect is a change in pH of the blood which can become ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition. Once again, the body is very resilient and there are processes that kick in and use ketones (the chemicals generated in excess during ketosis) as fuel. But do you really want to be operating your body on throwback mechanisms that appear to have arisen evolutionarily to deal with conditions where starvation is likely?

Just to add a little more gloom and doom, low-carb diets have been shown to increase low-density lipoprotein - bad cholestrol. They also increase the risks of having muscle contraction difficulties and cardiac arrhythmia. It is also plausible that extended low-carb diets could lead to osteoporosis because calcium, apparently used up in neutralizing the acidic nature of blood due to ketosis, has to be replaced from somewhere and the only likely source while on these diets is the bone. (All of these claims are documented in the article with citations to the scientific literature, unlike the claims in the low-carb diet books sold to the public.)

Do I even need to mention that there is no real evidence that low-carb diets actually make you lose weight? (Of course it will work for some people, but there are plenty of anecdotes not mentioned by the low-carb proponents about people gaining weight. Overall, there is no evidence that low-carb diets are effective for losing weight, regardless of how much they screw up your body in the process.)

When it comes down to it, the only diet that is guaranteed to work is one in which you cut down your caloric intake and increase the rate at which you burn calories, i.e. increased exercise.

(Now let's watch the low-carb proponents go apeshit and pretend they have scientific evidence for the efficacy of low-carb diets, or at least try to pretend they have evidence by telling us anecdotes.)

#29: Magician: Apprentice - Raymond E. Feist

Mon, 26 Apr 2004 05:00:04 GMT

I've been doing a lot of heavy reading this year so when I was wandering through the bookstore the other day, I looked into the sections I haven't visited in a decade - science fiction and fantasy. One of the books I noticed was something I read a very long time ago but recalled enjoying so thought it would be a good brains-free read for a change.

Magician: Apprentice is the first of Raymond E. Feist's books and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had forgotten how much fun it can be to completely escape reality and immerse myself in another world.

The version I read was the re-release of 1992, which contains some additions Feist had in the original manuscript but was considered too long at the time. I can't recall my first reading of it back in the eighties but nothing seemed annoyingly excessive in the "author's cut". The only peculiarity, and this may be common to the original release, is that Pug, ostensibly the main character, doesn't appear in the last 120 pages of the book. However, knowing that this is part of a trilogy, I am sure he will re-appear soon in the next volume, which I am now going to have to read.

And I think I'll enjoy it.

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#28: Thus Spake the Corpse: Volume 1 - Andrei Codrescu and Laura Rosenthal

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 05:05:25 GMT

Exquisite Corpse was a journal founded and edited by Andrei Codrescu that prides itself on publishing the sort of work never to be found in an MFA program. The Corpse took potshots at the establishment, attracting three never-quite-materializing threats of lawsuits. This is the first of two volumes that reprint highlights of the Corpse published between 1988 and 1998. (Earlier work was in another collection.)

The contents range over a various types of poetry and essays, and include many items that establishment journals wouldn't be caught bankrupt publishing. Whether or not they work for you is personal, but not many people should doubt that movements against the mainstream are a good thing in literature.

If you want to see the latest incarnations of the Corpse, see its website now that the print version is no longer published.

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#27: The Makeshift Miracle - Jim Zubkavich

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 07:52:05 GMT

A graphic novel available online through the BitPass micropayments system. This 172 page book is available for a mere 99c and is an intriguing, well-illustrated story. You can read the first 15 pages free as a preview.

See it online | BitPass | Full book list

#26: The Dimwit's Dictionary - Robert Hartwell Fiske

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:07:02 GMT

The Dimwit's Dictionary is a very handy resource for identifying the useless or overused phrases in English. We barely give these phrases conscious thought so this book is a way to recognize and then eliminate the inessentials of language. The book also provides alternatives to most ill-used words and phrases.

I was pleased to see my personal hobby-horse "wretched redundancy" listed: "for free", which Fiske suggests should be replaced simply with "free". I agree.

Buy from Amazon | Full book list | Related: Dictionary of Concise Writing

#25: The Dictonary of Concise Writing - Robert Hartwell Fiske

Sat, 24 Apr 2004 00:06:01 GMT

We could all use fewer words. Fiske's dictionary offers suggestions for simplifying overused redundant phrases. A browse throught the volume will surprise you with how many of those phrases you use regularly but subconsciously. Worthwhile!

Buy from Amazon | Full book list | Related: Dimwit's Dictionary

50 book challenge update

Wed, 21 Apr 2004 04:28:47 GMT

Well, I've passed the halfway mark well ahead of schedule for the 50 book challenge that I talked about a few months back. See the updated list. (Books 25 and 26 are reference books but I'm counting them as read seeing as I read all the introductory matter and a good chunk of the entries, with conviction that I'll be referring to them more this year.)

Updated reading list for 50 books challenge

Mon, 12 Apr 2004 21:16:50 GMT

Although I haven't written up my comments yet, I've updated my list of books read toward the 50 book challenge.

New issue of BookSlut

Wed, 11 Feb 2004 03:13:23 GMT

The new issue of BookSlut is online... You can see a couple of my reviews there...

The Girl Who Played Go - Shan Sa

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 05:14:46 GMT

<map><area><area></map><img>Despite being one of the two most-played games of the intellect in the world, very few Westerners have even heard of Go, the ancient oriental game. It has simpler rules than chess but is far more subtle and takes longer to master. Furthermore, it is a game that is not so explicitly structured around the theme of a small battle, like chess, that has it’s ranking pieces with different abilities. Rather it is a large scale war. In Go, every piece is identical: a stone, made of ivory or ebony, played on a square grid alternately by the contestants. And yet, each piece has the power to turn the tide of a war.

Go’s long history brings an extremely rich culture to the game, a culture typically oriental but alien to the westerner. I have only played Go intermittently over the past decade and feel that I am a raw beginner. However, I have begun to understand some of the features of the game - enough to understand why Go is such a powerful metaphor for the story told by Shan Sa in her latest novel.

The girl in the title is a teen who is something of a phenom in her small town in Manchuria. She escapes the world, but also participates in it in a vitally different way through her games in the Square of a Thousand Winds. She doesn't know her opponents, yet has a strong connection to them and begins to understand them through what she intuits from their board strategies.

In the midst of facing up to first love, peer pressure and other crises of teenage life, she meets an intriguing new partner in the Square. This player has something rather different about him but his true nature is hidden. For he is a Japanese soldier, sent to the village to spy, and attempting to ingratiate himself into the community though games in the Square. It is the 1930s and Japan is moving on Manchuria, with the relations between Manchuria and the inner territories of China still complex. This background is probably unfamiliar to many readers but a selection of footnotes in the early part of the book provide enough background to follow the elements of politics of the time.

As the soldier and the girl play, each develops their personal relationship in their own mind. Propriety prevents them from acting for a long time, the game being the only way to communicate. Meanwhile, each is in a world of trouble and the game becomes both respite and salvation.

This is a story of impossible love with great consequences. The girl and the soldier are individual go stones on the board of war between Japan and China. Their direct interactions are significant to themselves but also influence the greater movement of armies. This tension between individual role and community role is difficult for both the girl and the soldier, especially as each interacts with others in their lives - other loves, other relations.

Shan Sa wrote the book in French originally but the translation into English effectively achieves the feel of ancient oriental literature and poetry. This is a feel unfamiliar to much of Western literature but adds a critical and consistent dimension to the story.

As war progresses, tensions only increase and the players are forced into extreme situations, where sacrifice becomes a significant theme. The girl and the soldier move inexorably toward a shocking and frightening end. Yet, it is an ending that perfectly fits the themes in the book and we can only wonder if the players' lives are really just a metaphor for a much more significant game of Go.

What Every American Should Know About the Rest of the World - M. L. Rossi

Mon, 02 Feb 2004 05:07:56 GMT

I have only one remaining memory of watching the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Atlanta form the other side of the world. It isn't who performed the songs, nor what sort of stage show in the round thrilled the audience. The one memory I have is that when athletes from Georgia came out into the stadium, they received the second loudest round of applause and cheers, following only the United States of America.

I vacillated between amusement and embarrassed cringing for the audience. I realized that the majority of those in the state of Georgia, USA, had so little knowledge of the world that they didn't even realize that there was country called a Georgia. Nor was there a logical disconnect about there being (in their minds) a representative team from their home state in an international competition.

In the past few years, a few Americans have realized that there are countries beyond the USA's borders and some of them aren’t Canada and Mexico. Unfortunately, it has taken calamitous events on American soil to provoke this reaction. But how is a newly energized US citizen, keen to know what is going on, to find out about these mystical sounding places like Somalia, Kashmir, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Iraq?

There are many "World Fact Books" but most are so dry that you wouldn’t choose to read them unless you really had to. Even then, you’d dip into them to get the piece of information you sought and then close the covers. That situation has changed with Melissa Rossi's guide for the perplexed. Not only is it a useful and accessible source book, it makes for entertaining reading.

Rossi is truly a citizen of the world. She believes herself a member of a global community that has responsibilities for all of its parts. Yet she admits that she didn't know enough about all the places that should be relevant to us, despite having traveled in many of them. And so she started to seek the information that was vital to understanding the news reported on television and in the papers. She didn't just want to know the bare facts – she wanted to understand how citizens of one country felt about those of another. What are their desires, their fears, their jealousies and their antipathies?

With a quest to understand more, Rossi compiled the information she dug out from a multitude of sources and put them together as a book for fellow world citizens who needed a little extra help in piecing together the bigger picture.

Her book is a vital resource not only for citizens of the US but for all those interested in how world affairs impact on the rest of us. It is well organized so you can find the information you need quickly. The first section is devoted to the countries that are the "tickers"---global hotspots ready to explode at any time. The countries are grouped sensibly: Israel with Palestine, Kashmir with India and Pakistan. By putting these countries together, their interactions are much easier to understand than if the countries each had their own chapter without the important back and forth between their points-of-view.

Other sections on "slow tickers" and "talkers" cover the rest of the globe according to their likely impact on world affairs. The book is rounded out with a section on "the big picture" in which continent-level affairs are discussed, and then specific issues are discussed from a global perspective.

Many Americans will feel uncomfortable about how their country is presented in the book but only because they are infamously unprepared to take a critical look at themselves. Understanding global criticisms of the US is vital to understanding world affairs and Rossi is unapologetic about this approach. This is not to say the book is an anti-American diatribe – far from it. Every country is criticized for its failings as a member of the world community, but the advantages of each are also shown, especially as they relate to how other countries could be envious.

Rossi does include her own opinions but separates them into breakout sections by the "Armchair Diplomat". She keeps a sense of humor throughout, but never diminishes the seriousness of her task. These features make the book easy to read in large sections, even though she recommends dipping in and out of it.

For those inspired to more, Rossi includes recommendations of ten things you can do to combat the greatest dangers currently facing Americans---complacence and ignorance. Her recommendations are sensible and start with gaining a better understanding of the world, including going outside the limited US perspective. She provides plenty of suggestions for resources ranging from the internet to magazines to radio programs. And seeing as the world changes, she includes updates and extra information on her website The Armchair Diplomat.

Most importantly, Rossi gives us motivation to break out of our insular bubble and start living as part of a world that has a rich texture that can be of great benefit to us all.

Thoughts on the 50 book challenge

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 03:57:49 GMT

As I just mentioned, I'm going to document my reading for another year, but this time, I may as well add the name "50 book challenge" to it seeing as it is all the rage.

I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts on the challenge - just my personal take on it - but codify them as "rules" seeing as this is supposed to be a challenge.

1) Don't read to hit the target
Reading just to hit a target is silly. However, reading to hit a target is a very useful excuse to have when your life is busy, you generally want to get through some decent reading, but the rest of life is dragging you away. In other words, in the absence of good time management, the 50 book challenge could be a worthwhile approach.

2) No filler
This is a really a corollary to rule 1. There shouldn't be any books on the list that are merely there to increase your count. You should want to read the books, independently of the challenge existing.

3) Re-reads can count (sometimes)
Re-reading a book doesn't count if it is done to add something to your count quickly. However, there are plenty of books that are worth re-reading and they should count. Roughly speaking, it should count if a) you haven't read it for a long time, b) you can't remember much about it, or c) it's a book that you get more out of on each re-reading.

4) No genre domination
The list should be somewhat diverse. Of course, the rules shouldn't prescribe or proscribe particular books but it seems sensible that you shouldn't be able to fill your list with trashy sci-fi or fantasy. Good sci-fi or fantasy belongs on the list but you won't find 50 good titles anyway.

5) No planning
You shouldn't plan the list beforehand. You can have some general guidelines that satisfy your personal desires but there should be enough flexibility to read new releases, or to cover a new interest, or follow up on something inspired by a title you just read.

6) Ignore the rules
You should not pay attention to any of the rules. After all, this is really about reading for enjoyment, so read whatever the hell you want. Keeping a list can be useful if you have a terrible memory (like me) or you just want to share your reading experience - but it shouldn't be about the list.

p.s. if you have a good book to suggest, let me know in the comments below. However, have a look at my list for last year to get some idea of the things I tend to like.

50 book challenge

Wed, 28 Jan 2004 03:43:55 GMT

It seems that the "50 book challenge" has become all the rage on the net this past week. (One version of it here.) The idea is to read 50 books in a year and, in some versions, blog about them.

This is roughly what I did last year with my reading, primarily as a way to keep track of what I read but I slacked off from blogging toward the end of the year, as things got a little too crazy. It looks like I read about 80 books last year but forgot to blog about them for the last few months. (My list of reading for 2003.)

Despite this, I'll try again and see if I can manage to keep a more complete record of my reading. I'll review some here, or just add brief comments at least. At times, the complete reviews will appear at Bookslut, the premiere book review magazine on the web. (Some might say I'm a little biased...)

My other blogging is going to be a little spotty as I prepare to move across the country to a new job... more about that later.

The Activist - Renee Gladman

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 06:16:15 GMT

In an era of extreme paranoia, everything is about perceptions, not evidence and so everything can be spun to suit a cause. Not even a journalist can be relied upon to see clearly. These are the lessons of Renee Gladman's powerful prose poem The Activist.

The narrator of this book is a journalist is drawn into a pressure-cooker tale of politicians versus activists. But she discovers following the activists is a dangerous business because objectivity is difficult to cling to in the presence of a swelling sense of righteousness and deepening commitment.

The cause? The cause barely matters. And it is not even easy to discern. Has a city bridge been bombed and destroyed or not? Such an apparently simple question is confused and confounded by the spin and the rest of the world looking on is required to make up its mind based on mere perceptions because there is no truth to be found.

With the administration putting its case and the evidence from others at odds with it, a specialist on perception theory and war summarizes it thus:

"This is the situation we're facing: a shockingly high number of witnesses claim that the bridge is in perfect form, the President of our nation is convinced that the bridge has been exploded, another group asserts that the bridge has collapsed, not exploded, and a handful of researchers contests that there ever was a bridge."

The Activist is almost too explicit for allegory. It is practically direct metaphor for current circumstances in the United States, where the book is set. And yet, it explores ideas that go far beyond the current situation and are applicable to any case in which civil liberties are at issue and a government is trying desperately to support its own agenda at the expense of the truth. It peers insightfully into the activities of activists and discovers their strengths and shortcomings.

Demonstrators are protesting the bridge situation but the purported ringleader, one Alonso Mendoza, is not to be found. Yet, the absence of evidence is simply not acceptable to an administration hell-bent on proving its case:

"Three men---Al Mendoza, Alejandro Mendoza, and Alpine Mencini---were questioned at police headquarters about their political affiliations."

Later, as the administration's desperation increases:

"This morning, forces stormed the homes of Altar Mendleshon, Alvin Mendocci, Alsana Mendoza, and Alonso Mitchell in search of the spurious leader of the Commuters, now accused of three felony counts of conspiratorial behavior."

You can fill in the intervening time with quotes of your choice taken from newspapers since 9/11 and particularly since Iraq War II: Bigger, Badder, Bloodlustier.

But The Activist is not a mere polemic against the current administration's actions. A critical eye is turned on the activists involved:

This last declaration calls each member's wandering mind to attention. While the pitch of the utterance can be fastly characterized as Stefani's pitch, its authenticity is entirely suspect for most of the group. Alonso recognizes her, but the rest do not. Stefani, at once, registers the discomfort and obvious fluster of concern that infects them. However, her struggle to recall the precise words of her speech, to then correct them, yields no reward.

A map that mutates as some of the activists study it is a metonymic representation of the overall plan. The activists have trouble keeping track of their goals and end up doing what they are able to do rather than what they planned to do.

As time passes, the activists' become less coherent as a group and less effectual. The administration is not any more successful but its force of overwhelming power leads directly to war. A war on what or whom is never made explicit, and nor does it need to be. Meanwhile, the activists turn inward and make their own war on each other.

Our narrator journalist has been drawn in to the battle, unable to remain an independent observer. But what did she experience? In the haunting chapter, "The State", the journalist is psychologically tortured - but who got to her? Is it really the State or is it the Commuters? In any event, independence is gone and truth has lost it's only potential champion for this battle. The proliferation of extremism has won, with barely anybody noticing.

The specialist on perception theory and war made the ridiculousness clear at the beginning, but we still had to watch it all unfold: "Now imagine how this sounds to people in other countries, or just on the other coast."

The Activist by Renee Gladman
Krupskaya
ISBN: 192865018X
146 pages

Buy from Amazon

Ultimate Punishment: A lawyer's reflection on dealing with the death penalty - Scott Turow

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 06:04:09 GMT

Everybody has an opinion on the death penalty, and usually a fairly strong one. That is why logical discussion on the topic is so hard to conduct. Those pesky emotions keep getting in the way.

In January 2000, George Ryan, Governor of Illinois declared a moratorium on the death penalty in his state, concerned with the large number of those on death row who were later shown to be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted. He named a fourteen member Commission of mixed backgrounds and political allegiances to provide recommendations on how to reform capital punishment in Illinois. One of those appointed to the Commission was Scott Turow, best known to most of the public as the author of best-selling legal thrillers but an accomplished and experienced attorney in his own right, and who had had various professional experiences with the death penalty.

Turow was one of the few people who might be termed a death penalty agnostic. Every time he thought he had formed a well-reasoned solid belief, he found it challenged by a new argument. This book is a reflection on his two years of detailed research and examination of the death penalty in Illinois.

I come from a country that does not impose the death penalty so all of my thinking had been relatively abstract. Until you face the reality of the situation, how can you really be sure that you are convincing yourself of anything? When I moved to the US, I was thrown into a society that elects its leaders on the basis of promises of how many people they will put to death. Everything suddenly became so much more real. But that experience is still abstract - I wasn't involved in the proceedings of the cases and nobody's life depended on what I thought of capital punishment. Perhaps I was in a position to think more closely about the topic than most because I'm married to a criminologist who has thought hard about these things and some of that extensive knowledge has rubbed off on me. And yet, reading Turow's book brought me even closer to the reality of capital punishment and helped me clarify so many of the arguments both for and against that have swirled through my head as I've contemplated this most difficult problem. His direct experience, clear reasoning and frank acknowledgement of his and others' beliefs all make for very convincing and logically sound argument.

A topic as emotive as the death penalty cannot be dealt with purely in abstract terms. Turow expains and motivates arguments for and against using a wide variety of examples that he knows inside out from his two-year study. Fortunately, he doesn't stoop to attempted titillation with the gory details of heinous crimes. This is not voyeurism - it is reason in the face of strong emotion.

Even if you have never thought hard about the pros and cons of the death penalty, you are sure to have heard many of the arguments. Turow dissects each of the main ones and shows how just about all of them are red herrings. They seem appealing on the surface but once you look to the facts underlying them, many of them fall apart.

As a minor example, arguments both for and against look at the cost of imposing the death penalty. Some proponents argue that executing somebody costs less to society than keeping them imprisoned for the term of their natural life. However, a proper study shows this to be flawed. Opponents of the death penalty then use this knowledge in support of their argument. Yet Turow shows that the cost, while in truth less for lifelong imprisonment, is really of no concern when compared with the overall budget for corrections in the state of Illinois. The death penalty is still a relatively rare occurrence and so economic arguments are essentially worthless.

Of course, there are much stronger arguments for and against capital punishment. Turow approaches each of them by examining what the research literature has to say. Far too much of the argumentation about the death penalty is based on instinct and hearsay, even among lawyers.

One of the most common arguments for the death penalty, as opposed to life imprisonment, is that the ultimate punishment serves as a greater deterrence. However, this is fairly convincingly shown to be untrue. Statistical analyses do not show that imposition of the death penalty has any deterrent effect. Turow also points out that the academics who argue that it does are principally free-market economists who base their analysis on the assumption “that social choices are the work of rational decision-makers responding to incentives”. He suggests that they have a vested interest in showing the deterrent power of the death penalty as support for their wider beliefs. However, that support is not forthcoming. And yet, in the end, Turow concludes that even the data presented in the research literature is not enough to decide either way whether the death penalty is a deterrent. Because of that, deterrence cannot be used as a primary argument for or against the death penalty.

Turow examines all of the other major arguments regarding capital punishment. Most are shown to have little determining relevance on the decision to execute or not.

The impact on families of victims often arises in capital punishment arguments. Turow shows that although this is a particularly emotive aspect, it fundamentally should have no bearing on the decision to execute, primarily because the decision to execute is made by a jury on behalf of the democratic society as a whole and the society at large should be the main beneficiary of any decision. Furthermore, responses from the victims families are so varied that it goes against equitability to decide the fate of a criminal depending on the personal values of an individual connected with the victim.

When all things are considered, the major factor that seems to influence whether or not the death penalty should be imposed is the fairness and equitability of its application. And this is where things really fall apart. The factors that get in the way of fair application range from the desires of victims, the experience of legal teams, the sometimes fraudulent and dishonest behavior of lawyers, and subconscious biases that, in effect, make a white person's life more valuable than a black's.

By the end of the Commission's work, the majority of its members came down against the death penalty, with some of those having changed their minds since the beginning of its work. Turow says he is now against the death penalty and his mind has remained fixed in that view for some time. He believes that the death penalty will eventually be abolished in the US but that significant societal changes need to occur before that happens.

Turow admits he still has gut feelings that want the death penalty to be imposed in certain cases. In his own words:

“But if my time on the Commission taught me one lesson, it was that I was approaching the question of capital punishment the wrong way. There will always be cases that cry out to me for ultimate punishment. That is not the true issue. The pivotal question instead is whether a system of justice can be constructed that reaches only the rare, right cases, without also occasionally condemning the innocent or the undeserving.”

As a result of the Commission's work, Governor Ryan commuted the death sentences of all 167 persons left on death row in Illinois. The Illinois legislature has implemented some of the Commission's recommendations but seem unwilling to have the courage to implement them all. A similar study in Maryland was completed in 2003 and as a result, Governor Parris Glendenning declared a moratorium on death sentences due to the biases in application of the ultimate sentence. However, when Glendenning resigned, the new conservative Governor, Robert Ehrlich, overturned the moratorium and resumed executing people. And perhaps that example is enough to show the inherent danger in the death penalty, as expressed so clearly by Turow. When a single politically-motivated individual can ignore the results of studies which are representative of the greater principles of law and justice and done by professionals in the field, can we ever claim to have a system that is truly unbiased and fair?

Ultimate Punishment: A lawyer's reflection on dealing with the death penalty by Scott Turow
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux
ISBN: 0374128731
176 pages

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Alpha & Omega - Charles Seife

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 06:02:38 GMT

Cosmology is a field in the midst of exciting times. For the first time in history, we have some very good ideas about how the universe began and how it will end. And yet, we have also discovered that we can only see about 5% of the universe. That is not to say we haven't looked far enough into the distance or only looked in certain places. Rather, we know that if we count up every single thing that is even potentially visible to us at this time, we can only account for one twentieth of what is around us. The rest, appropriately called dark matter and dark energy, has not yet been illuminated to us. That's an exciting challenge for physics, and an exciting story to watch unfold.

In fact, it is this grandest story of all, the history and future of the universe, that Charles Seife, award-winning science writer and staff journalist for Science magazine, tells us in his second popular science book, Alpha & Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe.

Until February 2003, physicists could only say that the universe was somewhere between 12 and 15 billion years old. But now, they can pin this done much better - to a relatively precise 13.7 billion years. They have a reasonably good picture of the early stages of the universe. They also know pretty well how the universe will evolve in the future and what sort of fate awaits us. And although they've been able to guess at these things in the past, 2003 marks the time when scientists entered the age of precision cosmology, where they can stop saying things happened at “roughly” such-and-such a time or in such-and-such a way. Ingenious experiments and observations are allowing them to hone many of the wildest theoretical conjectures about the universe.

At the same time, physicists are discovering how little we know about the universe. The sense of adventure that comes from making quantifiable progress in a vast and progressively more ambitious venture is well captured by Seife in this admirable book.

Seife guides us quickly through a brief history of cosmology but concentrates on the most interesting ideas currently discussed in cosmological circles. His coverage is right up-to-date including the important results that were being announced just as the book was due to go to print. You'll find out about dark matter and energy, the shape of the universe, supersymmetry, the most elusive particles we know of (the neutrinos), and the particles that theorists expect us to find but for which we do not yet have strong evidence. Rather than trying to summarize any of these topics here, read Seife's book because he explains it efficiently and clearly.

Many popular science books try to capture the lay reader's attention through the use of superlatives and grandiloquent phraseology. However, Seife sticks to a no-frills journalistic style and lets the story of cosmology speak for itself. It is a surprisingly effective technique if you are used to reading the purple prose of so much popular science writing. Most pop-sci writing is replete with extended metaphors, with the writers seemingly unable to trust the readers to put together the pieces in their own minds. Many authors seem to want readers to believe that the science they are describing really is completely equivalent to a story about the world already familiar to them. But cosmology is different to everyday experience and Seife knows that telling the story straight, with concision and clarity, is a powerful technique. It seems we have his extensive journalistic experience and detailed knowledge of the field to thank.

Seife also knows that anybody who picks up a book about the story of the universe is probably prepared to turn their mind on rather than off. That is not to say you need to be genius to follow the text. In fact, this is some of the easiest-to-read science that you are likely to come across. This is partly because Seife judiciously uses metaphor to help the reader construct their own pictures, piece-by-piece, and helping them follow the logic of how scientific arguments are put together. But each metaphor serves only to help you understand a small piece of the jigsaw and isn't overstretched. That is really quite important because the problem with metaphors is that they always break if you stretch them far enough. Rather than try to make you believe you understand the science because you believe the metaphor, Seife uses the metaphor to help you understand a small piece of the science and then you can put together the pieces of the science to reach an understanding of the bigger story. It is a very effective style and one that I wish were used more often.

Even though this might sound like the science comes piecemeal, never do you feel that are bombarded with a laundry-list of facts that you are just expected to believe and absorb. At every stage, Alpha & Omega steps you through the reasons why scientists believe what they do, using the evidence collected in experiments to justify each step. The idea is to take you through the process so that you both understand and believe the results at the end. Both strengths and weaknesses of scientists' understanding are pointed out along the way so you never feel that you are being brainwashed into one specific point-of-view. Seife manages to avoid the trap that many scientists who also write fall into, that is, of overqualifying every statement in the name of absolute accuracy. He keeps his text accurate by relegating to footnotes those picky little details that scientists feel are necessary but might impede a lay reader's progress. If you feel comfortable with the ideas in the main text, extend yourself with the footnotes. Seife also keeps most of his opinions separate from the fact by moving them to footnotes.

Cosmology is a field that abounds with cranks and crackpot theories. Seife wisely avoids discussing the obviously crazy ideas but does include those ideas that might be termed “highly speculative” - ideas that have a good chance of being wrong, but for which there is not yet any concrete evidence to rule them out and the potential for them to lead to greater understanding. In this, he follows the methods of science itself. Emphasize the ideas that have the most evidence but also consider other plausible ideas that could influence the results. As the saying goes, keep your mind open, just not so open your brain falls out.

As the subtitle of this book says, the story is the search for the beginning and the end. We clearly do not have all the answers yet. But Seife convinces us that these answers really can be found, because the nature of our current understanding is demonstrably guiding us ever closer to them and the future plan for physics is well-aimed at the gaps in our knowledge.

Seife predicts that in a decade, we will know the answers to many of our outstanding questions. But he also knows that a whole new set of questions, as yet unconceived, will take their place. We can look forward to another version of this book at that time, clearly showing how physicists achieved such great advances but imbuing us with a new excitement about the new questions on their minds.

Alpha & Omega by Charles Seife
Viking Press
ISBN: 0670031798
294 pages

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Ulysses illustrated

Wed, 15 Oct 2003 06:14:47 GMT

An amazing artistic project is underway by Chris Miller. He is creating collage-type images to accompany the eighteen chapters of Ulysses by James Joyce. The images are beautiful and well worth a look.

I have actually seen a number of other imagistic representations of Ulysses before but I think this is one of the best.

(Thanks to the Bookslut for the link.)

Haiku: Volume 1: Eastern Culture - R.H. Blyth

Tue, 07 Oct 2003 03:46:32 GMT

Haiku is probably not what you think it is. Forget the elementary school exercises with 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. Haiku is a way of life that happens to have one manifestation as few words.

R.H. Blyth has been regarded as the leading English-language expert on haiku since he brought the first deep analysis of it from Japan. His four-volume series Haiku includes an introductory volume on the way of haiku and then three volumes collecting all reasonable haiku written during the times of the Japanese masters. Those three volumes are organized in the traditional Japanese way, by season.

The first volume looks at the nature of haiku and how it has grown in concert with Eastern religion, Zen, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, No theatre, Ikebana (flower arrangement), and Cha no Yu (the art of tea).

Haiku Vol. 1 is written for the English-speaking reader who has limited awareness of Japanese culture and religion and shows how haiku voice similar themes as English-language poetry over the past six centuries.

Toward the end of the first volume, there is a short section on the four great haiku poets, Basho, Buson, Issa and Shiki. Although this volume by itself does not give a comprehensive selection by the masters, the other volumes make up for that lack. Instead, Blyth devotes his pages on the masters to a comparison of styles, characterizing each with reference to the others. For a fuller comparison of the masters, other books exist as important supplements.

Despite the 350 pages of this volume, a mere 25 are devoted to the technique of haiku. If this book were re-written now, there would undoubtedly be more because of the vast quantity of discussion on the topic and the fact that there has been so much misrepresentation of the form. Fortunately, the web now provides many resources for those interested in exploring haiku more deeply and understanding the discussion and technique and form that is vital to understand before contemplating writing haiku in English. The World Haiku Club is a useful starting point.

In all, this is a vastly important book for English-speakers wanting to understand the historical and religious roots of haiku without dedicating the time to a full historical text. If you have never looked into haiku, this book will change your preconceptions dramatically.

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Candide - Voltaire

Tue, 23 Sep 2003 06:47:15 GMT

Comments to appear

The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science - Robert Crease

Tue, 23 Sep 2003 06:46:28 GMT

Review to appear