| Books! Check 'em out. |
[Jun. 28th, 2008|12:48 pm] |
Recent reads:
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita. I'm reading this on recommendation from Madeline, and it's quite fun so far. I'm sure I'm missing some cultural references, and it's work to keep the Russian character names straight, but no more so than the terrible made-up names in much of fantasy & sci-fi. There's this wonderful writing device/style I've noticed here, reminding me of Sinclair Lewis and some others, where you're given a window into the utterly insipid thoughts of the characters the author wants you to know are stupid. I'm not sure how to describe it precisely, but it's very amusing. There is also a nice ongoing thread, where a slight disruptive force throws the lives of people into total upheaval. Probably that is one of the points of the story, and it's fun to see in action.
Leonard Mlodinow, Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life. This is half about Feynman, and half about Mlodinow figuring out life with Feynman's help. It's a pretty good read, and his troubles finding academic direction mirror some of my own. What was most interesting was the deep emotional response I felt, reading about Feynman's decline from another person. I have such affection for him, having read a few of his books. I don't see how one could not, given his personality and life and writing. It's too bad I didn't know about him till after he died, but really, I feel like I do know him.
Sam Harris, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. I could write pages on these, and maybe will. In short, if you're interested, read the latter (and later) book, as it's more polished.
Harris covers a lot of material, and makes a lot of good points. Some I already knew, some are challenging me, some I disagree with. He was successful in making me question my tolerance of religious faith. I was kind of a dick as a rebellious teenage atheist, as is typical. I've progressively mellowed out since then, as I've learned to get along better with other views. But I think I've also gotten lazy. As Harris states over and over, his problem isn't with religion or spirituality as such; it's with ignorance, dogma, and lack of reason. Religion happens to be the one major facet of our culture where people are allowed to believe things without evidence, or in direct contradiction to evidence. As a result, the US is now a faltering nation of detached morons.
The problem is not just with fundamentalists: as Harris points out, in some ways they are more rational than moderates. They actually follow the rules of what they believe in. The problem lays as much, or more, with religious moderates, who insist that we be tolerant of all faiths, including the extremists. The moderates pick and choose what to believe from their magic books, as they see fit, which isn't rational, and also leaves the door open for the truly dangerous.
Harris also has a nice, thorough response to the foolish argument that all morality comes from religion, and that secular morality is bad or meaningless. He points out some of the many examples of terrible morality in each of the religions and magic books, which is easy and probably redundant for many readers, but nonetheless satisfying. He pretty easily refutes the argument that history's greatest violence has come from secularism: basically, that Stalin and Hitler and such were dogmatists, not rational secularists, and were closer to cult leaders than anything else. He repeatedly calls for a rational approach to a science of spirituality, which I think many other atheists or religious critics fail to consider.
Against him... He really goes on and on with trashing Islam, especially in the former book. I don't think it's entirely unwarranted, but at times his argument leans toward a conservative pro-war ideology, with a bit too much gusto. (He seems to pull back from this at other times.) He also devotes a good chunk of the former book as a response to Chomsky's "9/11," using this awful, flawed "perfect weapon" argument. Not that I necessarily agree with Chomsky on this (about the US being as bad as the terrorists, more or less), but Harris's response is just facile and weak, and it made me question the rest of his logic.
Stephen Jay Gould, Evolution & Extinction: Essays. Not a lot to say: more great science writing from SJG. If you like biology at all, you really ought to try one of his books. He's one of the best science writers ever, and his writings on biology and evolution would convince (and delight) anyone with a non-calcified brain. One particular thing I liked in this one was a better explanation of some of the aspects of punctuated equilibrium than I've seen before. There was also some nice evidence toward the neutralist vs. selectionist debate, but I'm already on his side in that, so I may be biased.
Stephen King, the Dark Tower series. I finally finished this. There was much to like in it, and some of King's typical failings. The latter books included one awful plot device, which I mostly was able to ignore. Other than that, I enjoyed much about the characters and the "other" world. There were a bunch of interesting elements that were introduced late in the last book, oddly and unfortunately. Perhaps he was just keeping readers wanting, for future work. I guess there are comics and other stories in this universe, released after the series. Hopefully they have more of the fantasy world in them, and less of the parallel-Earth mess.
Steve Martin, Born Standing Up. This was a really good read. I half expected a book of anecdotes and celeb stories from his movies and SNL, but there wasn't much of that. Instead, it's more about his early life and internal struggles, and he writes it very well. When he first started making his own movies, I feared he would fall to the dark side, like half of Woody Allen's work: stories about himself being witty in various situations, while hot young actresses fawn upon him. There's been some of that, yes, but I've also consistently enjoyed his work. This book is even more impressive. The sentimentality and insecurity he shows throughout are quite endearing, and the attention and thought he has given to the craft of comedy are fascinating. Really, the amount of thought he gives to everything: he comes off as a very intelligent, sensitive person, who has grown very well throughout his life. I'd really like to see him write more.
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Unrelated to books! I just started cold-brewing coffee at home, and damn, it is delicious. Also: super easy, and good hot or cold. Now I need to make some coffee-ice cubes, to deal with the 90-degree weather coming. |
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