Last Update 3/17/10
Mafeking: A Victorian
Legend by Brian Gardner, Sphere, 1968
I
had never heard of Mafeking but apparently during the Boer Wars it was an
important rallying cry, though not militarily significant British town that was
under what we might loosely call a siege for a considerable period. It was in
fact not valued by the Boers enough that they could be troubled to actually
attack it in force and the blockade was so incomplete that mail service was not
even interrupted, though it was a bit delayed. This is a detailed account which
portrays the local commander as a somewhat incompetent publicity seeker who took
advantage of circumstances to promote his own image despite his ineptness and
unwillingness to really conduct warfare. The book appears to be quite well
researched, although I shuddered when the author ignorantly announced that 1900
was the first year of the 20th Century. One interesting observation
is that the buildings were constructed of such cheap, soft materials that
artillery rounds passed through them without exploding. The Boers frequently
wrote indignant letters to the British commander complaining that he was arming
the natives and that this wasn’t cricket. The commander, Robert Baden-Powell,
was now involved with youth organizations that became the Boy Scouts. A mostly
interesting look at a side issue of the Boer Wars. 3/17/10
The Zombie
Combat Manual by Roger Ma, Berkley, 2010, $14, ISBN
978-0-425-23254-5
This
is obviously a joke book, a how-to in case you discover the world is being
overrun by zombies some morning. It’s written like a military manual, refuting
disinformation about zombies, describing their anatomy and weak spots, guiding
you to the selection of the appropriate weapon, and suggesting a variety of
strategies depending on your physical location, the number and nature of the
enemy, and so forth and so on. It’s actually quite a long book and the joke
wears pretty thin long before you’ll reach the end. There are various simply
drawn illustrations that really don’t add a whole lot to the book. Zombie fans
will be delighted and the rest of us will scratch our heads and wonder why
someone would pay this much for a single, extended joke. 3/14/10
The Armada by
Garrett Mattingly, Houghton Mifflin, 1959
The
16th Century is not a period of history about which I know a lot,
although I had obviously heard of the Spanish Armada. This was my first attempt
at filling the gap, a history told with almost novelistic detail. I knew that
it had been sparked in part by the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, but I was
only vaguely aware of the political and religious roots of the conflict. In
this account, Sir Francis Drake comes across as brilliant but a bit of a loose
cannon motivated as much by his personal hatred for King Philip of Spain as by
loyalty to Queen Elizabeth, and a paranoid egomaniac as well. One of the things
I did not know was that the sailing of the Armada was set to coincide with
successful efforts to cause a civil war in France, which might have proved a
hindrance to the war effort, and the expulsion of the ruling king from Paris,
even though he was a loyal Catholic. I discovered as well that I’d been told
another untruth in high school. The Armada was not mangled by a storm so that
it was easy prey for the English. There was a storm but the damage was
inconsequential. The English simply were better sailors and were also better
able to resupply themselves in a battle that lasted for weeks. The Spanish
preferred to believe that they were defeated by an act of God rather than men,
so the legend arose that the storm had been responsible. All in all, a very
good account, well written, well organized, and as far as I can tell, balanced
and comprehensive. 3/10/10
The Pirate Wars
by Peter Earle, Thomas Dunne, 2003
The
author opens this history of piracy by lamenting the romanticized view of
pirates that persists today and discusses at length the unrealistic portrayals
in books and movies, although unaccountably he makes no mention of Rafael
Sabatini or Richard Hughes. He then describes the different kinds of piracy
that existed from the 16th Century onward, starting with British
raids on foreign shipping from towns near the English Channel. There is a more
extensive coverage of the Mediterranean corsairs than any I’d encountered
previously, which was a definite plus. Each pirate era – there were several –
had differences in nature and effect. The book includes accounts of major and
minor battles, and all the familiar names – Kidd, Blackbeard, Henry Morgan,
Bartholomew Roberts. I had not known of the resurgence of piracy in South
America in the early 19th Century, nor that this was where “walking
the plank” was first used. Very thorough and entertainingly written. 3/9/10
River Boats
of America by John Donovan, Crowell, 1966
Time
for another history of steamboats, in this case as part of a more comprehensive
history of travel and trade on the various inland waterways. The author
establishes his independence from popular lore by stating early on that Henry
Hudson did not discover the Hudson River, James Watt did not invent the steam
engine, and Robert Fulton did not invent the first steamboat - which,
incidentally, was never known as the Clermont until well after Fulton died.
One of the more interesting anecdotes is that the government built a deep
drawing, iron bound ship for the Colorado River, which was virtually useless.
Seventy years later, after the river had changed course, the wreck was found in
a near desert, tied to a tree. Donovan discusses the use of various forms of
river boats on the varied rivers of North America, and in uses as diverse as
commerce and warfare. Many of the anecdotes are fascinating and in generally
they’re told in an entertaining manner. The book does however have more
typographical errors than anything I’ve ever seen before by a major publisher.
Obviously the proofs were never read. There are quite a few photos and
paintings, several of them excellent. 3/6/10
The Werewolf
Delusion by Ian Woodward, Paddington, 1979
Despite
the title, the author of this sort of history of werewolves suggests that while
most may be psychological disorders, some werewolves actually change
physically. His reasoning for this is essentially that since there are so many
people who believe in the legend, it must be at least partly true, although he
hedges constantly. He even suggests at one point that it may be a genetic trait
and that is why the preponderance of accounts come from poor, rural regions. His
concluding chapter includes an assertion that he does believe that there are
supernaturally transformed human beings. Although there are interesting bits in
the book, the author’s irrationality renders much of what he says ridiculous.
There are lots of illustrations, however, which are quite interesting, including
stills from horror movies and woodcuts from centuries past. 2/18/10
The Splendid Magic
of Penny Arcade by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, Del Rey,
2010, $24, ISBN 978-0-345-51226-0
This
book celebrates more than a decade of Penny Arcade, an online comic strip which
has mushroomed into a major web presence. The book follows them through the
years with samples of work from each period, and also includes pieces on
controversies they were involved in and other issues that transcend the usual
timeline. The artwork is surprisingly good and the wit is often fiercely
acerbic. A lot of this is satire on the world of computer gamers, and I missed
some of the jokes probably because I hadn’t played the specific game being
mentioned, but most of it is accessible to even those who have only the vaguest
awareness of the gaming world. The book is a nicely produced full color
hardcover. 2/17/10
How to Defeat
Your Own Clone by Kyle Kurpinski and Terry D. Johnson, Bantam, 2010,
$14, ISBN 978-0-553-38578-6
I
haven’t seen too many gimmick books lately, but here’s one that mixes actual
facts with speculation and humor. If cloning becomes common in the future, will
we have to battle alternate versions of ourselves? Will the clones be enhanced
with biological advantages that we don’t have? Can we defeat our clone without
being gauche? How do you cover your tracks after disposing of your rival? What
advantages do you have being the original, if any? None of this is to be taken
seriously, of course, despite the trappings of scientific fact interspersed
among the silliness. Amusing but minor. 2/15/10
War in the
Falklands by the Sunday Times of London, Harper & Row, 1982
Since
I knew very little about the background of this war between England and
Argentina, I picked this up. The authors – though they are British journalists
– obviously feel that Argentina has a stronger claim to the islands, but they
also suggest that if the Argentine government at the time – a junta – had been
patient they would have acquired them peacefully. Having fought a war to repel
the invasion, it is unlikely that the British government will relinquish them
until at least another generation has passed. The naval, air, and land battles
are described in considerable detail, with excerpts from interviews with those
who participated. It was even more violent than I remembered. The overall
impression we are left with is that this was probably the most unnecessary war
fought during the 20th Century. It led to the fall of the Argentine
government and trouble among various western allies that has probably still not
been entirely erased. 2/8/10
Deep Atlantic
by Richard Ellis, Knopf, 1998
I
finally found a book that covers life in the deeps of the ocean in the kind of
detail I wanted, although it covers a number of other aspects of the Atlantic as
well. The history of submersibles was particularly interesting. I hadn’t
realized that the Russian empire under Tsar Alexander was the first to have a
submersible as a recognized part of its navy, although it was never used in
combat. The first Union submarine from the Civil War is still on display at the
Department of the Navy but it was the Confederacy that first used a submarine to
sink an enemy warship. Alas, it was destroyed in the process. The portions on
the biology of the ocean were well organized and fascinating, with many
illustrations by the author, a noted illustrator. It had never occurred to me
before that no plant life can exist below 1000 feet because sunlight can’t
penetrate that far, and the existence of life that functions by chemosynthesis
rather than photosynthesis contradicts one of those things I was taught in high
school that is no longer valid. Nor did I realize that there are more
crustaceans in the ocean than there are insects in the entire world or that
jellyfish can get up to one hundred feet long. I suspect that some of the
chapters were written as separate articles and later collected here because
there are several instances of duplicated information, but that’s a minor cavil.
2/7/10
In The
Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick, Penguin, 2001
This
is an account of the sinking of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, which
inspired parts of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. The Essex was attacked and sunk
by a sperm whale in the Pacific, and twenty survivors set out for what would be
the longest journey by open book ever recorded. Only eight survived, after
cannibalizing the others. Two of the survivors wrote lengthy memoires, one only
recently discovered, and the author has combined them with other research to
recreate the sequence of events. He opens with a very evocative look at life in
Nantucket in the early 19th Century, a predominantly Quaker community
which had evolved its own culture. Their subsequent efforts to survive in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean are epic and at times one wonders how they found the
strength to go on. A nicely done though often disturbing book. 1/29/10
In the
Days of the Tall Ships by R.A. Fletcher, Brentanos, 1928
This
is a nostalgic look back at the days of the sailing ship, written at a time when
people still remembered them. The book opens with a description of the
different types of ships which is often too technical for me, but did give me an
idea of the differences among barqs, brigs, ketches, and the like. Then there’s
a discussion of the East Indian company’s ships and exploits, and a brief
discussion of pirates and privateers – which repeats a good many of the myths of
that era as though they were factual. His discussion of the development of
faster, safer ships is quite interesting. England’s maritime laws, designed to
protect its own commerce, actually worked against its interests, coupled with a
reluctance by British shipbuilders to adopt techniques developed in the United
States. Further chapters deal with various aspects – gold rushes, emigration,
and so forth. The chapter on disasters and rescues is probably the most
interesting in the book. A bit dated in language and the prejudices of the
author are rather obvious, but overall an interesting look at a less than
obvious side of history. 1/25/10
The Anatomy of
Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm, Holt Rinehart Winston,
2003
I
read this one over the course of a couple of weeks because it poses a lot of
thought provoking questions. Back in the 1960s, a handful of writers – Konrad
Lorentz, Robert Ardrey, Desmond Morris – popularized their theory that the
killer instinct is a part of humanity’s nature and that we will always have
wars, murders, and so forth. Although their books were debunked at great length
by others who pointed out that their conclusions were not supported by any
evidence, works like On Aggression, The Territorial Imperative, and
The Naked Ape were written for a popular audience and the ideas in them took
root and flourish even today. Fromm opens his book with a painstaking analysis
of Lorentz which reduces each of his arguments to nonsense. Lorentz studied
geese and attributed to them human emotions such as cruelty and kindness, even
decided that some animals choose to act selflessly for the good of others rather
than playing out instinctual mechanisms. One of the flaws in Lorentz occurred
to me even when I first read his work back in my college days. He suggests that
war was the way in which primitive man selectively bred more aggressive males.
Since the more aggressive males were necessarily more likely to die in battle,
the effect would be to reduce the incidence of aggressiveness, not increase it.
The wide acceptance of the killer ape school of thought is probably akin to the
one time popularity of belief in ancient astronauts – if we’re being manipulated
by forces we cannot control, then we’re not really responsible for our misdeeds
or failings. Lorentz’s theories could, after all, be used as an excuse for Nazi
Germany, Stalin’s repressions, and any other mass killing you choose to
champion.
Having demolished Lorentz, a relatively easy target, Fromm
moves on to Skinner and the behaviorists. When I was at Michigan State, I
considered majoring in psychology – it ended up being one of my minors. MSU at
the time was firmly in the grip of the behaviorists – yes, I trained a rat to
press a lever – which was not the kind of psychology I was interested in. So I
read Abraham Maszlow, Erich Fromm, Rollo May, and majored in English.
Oversimplifying, behaviorists believed that since we can never be sure about
motives or intent, they were outside scientific study. To them all observable
behavior that appeared the same was the same. Fromm points out that there is a
very large difference between a man who spanks his son to discipline him and one
who does so for the love of inflicting pain, a distinction which behaviorists
would ignore as out of their realm.
Fromm then goes on to discuss individual contentions that
humans are instinctively violent, pointing out flaws and contradictions in
each. His view is that organized violence, warfare, came relatively late in
human development and is a function of civilization, i.e., the more primitive
the culture the less likely it was to wage war. This obviously contradicts the
theory that the killer instinct developed early and has been carried forward. He
suggests as an alternate possibility that the widening of cultural identity into
the nation state has made it more difficult for individuals to feel like parts
of a coherent community and that this stress is a contributing factor to
violence. He points out as supporting evidence that experiments placing animals
in confined spaces does not usually lead to violence unless members of different
communities are mixed together. A human example offered is World War II
concentration camps, where violence among prisoners was almost unknown. If
Fromm’s suggestion is correct, modern media has inadvertently aggravated
conditions by exposing individuals to so much of the world. He also speculates
that two social organizations might eventually evolve, and I wondered what he
might have thought of organizations like Al Qaeda, the Teabaggers, and other
social groups.
There is also a discussion of territoriality and dominance,
which Fromm contends are not as prevalent in nature as some writers would like
us to believe. Many animals share territory, and dominance is not always
physical. For example, among some groups of animals, the “leader” during
hunting might not be the leader during other activities, and this is also true
in many primitive human tribes. In fact, many tribes have no equivalent of a
chief at all. There are several sections that posit thought provoking concepts,
like the rise of “character” as a replacement for our lost instincts. Fromm
also attributes much of the violence in modern society as a reaction to boredom
– not the simple boredom we might feel from time to time but a deeper, systemic
ennui that affects a large proportion of the population. There are also
penetrating analyses of the characters of Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler.
I’m not sure I agree with all of Fromm’s conclusions, but he certainly provided
me with considerable raw material for speculation. 1/19/10
Writers Workshop
of Horror edited by Michael Knost, Woodlands Press, $21.95, ISBN
978-0-9824939-1-5
I’ve
seen quite a few writers’ guidebooks over the years. They all contain pretty
much the same elements – guides to formatting, marketing, elements of story
telling, personal anecdotes, perhaps something on getting an agent or the
current state of the market. This one is slanted toward writers of horror,
which presents some unique problems because the market is so depressed. The
editor has gathered here articles and interviews with a very large number of
horror writers including Rick Hautala, Clive Barker, Joe R. Lansdale, Elizabeth
Massie, Tom Monteleone, and others, and there’s a lot of good advice here and,
as the editor points out, the majority of it is applicable to any other genre as
well. Some of the articles are also interesting for what they tell about the
techniques used by the individual authors. So if you want to be a writer, or
want to learn more about how writers work, this is an excellent place to start.
1/8/10
Egyptian Magic
by E.A. Wallis Budge, Dover, 1971, originally published in 1901
Still
pursuing my interest in ancient Egypt, I tried this survey of the role of magic
in that civilization. The author provides a well organized survey of the
different forms magic took – amulets, incantations, and so forth, and its role
in their society. The different aspects are illustrated by ancient myths and
stories, some of which are very interesting in their own right. Given the time
it was written, it came as no surprise that the author occasionally contrasts
Egyptian and Christian belief systems, characterizing the former as superstition
and the latter as enlightened reason. There are some interesting illustrations
as well. I actually got more of a feel for Egyptian culture from this than
from of the more comprehensive books I’ve read on the subject. 1/3/10
Opus Dei by John
L. Allen Jr., Doubleday, 2005
Having
read Dan Brown, I knew very little about Opus Dei, the conservative Roman
Catholic group, and I didn't need Brown's various critics to tell me that his
description was likely a wild caricature. I did a little reading on the
subject and concluded that as with any large organization - there are close to
100,000 members worldwide - it contained a variety of people and inevitably some
of them would have gone beyond what the organization would normally tolerate,
just as would happen in any similar organization. I knew about most of the
criticisms - that they are a coercive cult, that they segregate the sexes,
require demeaning activities including self inflicted corporal punishment, and a
few other questionable practices. What I wanted was an objective
discussion that would allow me to draw my own conclusions. When I saw this
in the bookstore, I was initially put off because the author is a journalist
working for a Catholic magazine, which was likely to prejudice him. But
the cover copy said that it was an "objective" look and a glimpse inside found a
passage in which the author said that he draws no conclusions, simply presents
the arguments on either side and lets the reader decide. Both the cover
copy and the author's statement are bald faced lies. The introduction
reads like a puff piece and during the course of the book we discover that
contrary opinions by critics, ex-members, and others are the result of
exaggeration, misinterpretation, individual aberrations, or practices which have
been abandoned - although in the lattermost case the author doesn't appear to
have done much to determine whether or not this is true. He seems to have
accepted anything Opus Dei officials chose him because they obviously were too
devoted to truth to lie. Personal accounts of abuse are characterized at times
as "unlikely", hardly an "objective" analysis.
Allen interprets some of the actions of the group's
founder, Escriva, intuitively rather than factually, particularly his relations
with Franco and Pinochet. There are also several instances where bad actions are
characterized as okay because other religious groups also engage in them.
Every criticism is undermined by the author's commentary, but he makes no effort
to undermine any of the statements by Opus Dei officials. In other words,
he presents the opposition's case but tells us that we'd be crazy to believe
them, or when they have been substantiated, crazy to think this was typical. He
even apologizes if he has offended anyone by discussion the various criticisms.
The self mortification - flagellation and the wearing of a spiked wire around
one thigh - are justified as personal choices, less painful than a workout at a
gym, even though he admits that some participants are physically disfigured.
He dismisses many of the criticisms as anecdotal, but refutes them by
interviewing two low category members.
Allen has the most difficulty with the order's segregation
of the sexes - they have separate entrances, separate telephone switchboards in
the same building, etc. His justification for this - and even he seems a
bit uneasy - is that many members are celibate and this removes temptation.
That's an absurd argument since they interact with the rest of the world on a
regular basis, and if anyone is led to sin by hearing a female voice on the
telephone, then they'd better not ever dial the operator. The explanation
of why all of the menial housekeepers are female is, according to Allen, simply
that women are better at cleaning and cooking. His argument about
conditioning is also full of holes. He asserts that most of those who left
the order with complaints did so early in their vocation and had not progressed
to the point where they recognized the freedoms they would enjoy and that's why
they said they were being conditioned. And that's exactly what the author
is describing. He also justifies the secrecy about Opus Dei's
constitution. It is in Latin, he explains, and officials believed it might
not be translated properly (and naturally had not done so themselves).
Allen also offers the explanation that some of the concepts were still fluid and
subject to interpretation so that no completely accurate translation would be
possible. This seems to contradict his assertion elsewhere that Opus Dei
has not changed some of its less appealing practices because that's the way
Escriva set it up and they can't change anything.
Despite his assertions of objectivity, he summarizes the
criticisms at the end of the book and "refutes" each as inventions of the
organization's enemies. It is probably significant that the charges of
misogyny are not mentioned in this summation. He also insists that the order is
not a cult, but given the flexibility of that word - all Christian religions are
based on a charismatic founder after all - the argument makes no sense on either
side. I came away from this book knowing little more about Opus Dei than
when I started and with my opinion still uncrystallized, but I have no doubt at
all that the book is heavily one-sided. I read some reviews online and
discovered that he didn't even interview some of the more prominent critics,
even within the Church itself. Propaganda, not reportage. 1/2/10
Raj by Lawrence James,
St Martins, 1998
This
is a lengthy, detailed examination of the history of British India, although it
skips over the first years of contact fairly quickly. The nature of the British
domination – which is astonishing given the number of inhabitants of the
subcontinent relative to that of the invaders – changes considerably during the
course of time. Initially it was just the East India company, then with support
by the government of England, then primarily dictated by Parliament and the
military. One of the more interesting discussions is of incidents leading up to
the sepoy mutiny in 1857. I had known about the rumors that the new cartridges
being provided were tainted with forbidden animal fat, but I hadn’t been aware
of the background that made this rumor so persistent. Militant churchmen had
forced the government to prohibit officials in India from participating in Hindu
and Moslem ceremonies, which had formerly been the case, and flooded the country
with missionaries who were not answerable to the local authorities or
particularly respectful toward their hosts. There was widespread belief that
all of India was going to be forcibly converted to Christianity, and the
widening gap between the British officers and the Indian soldiers didn’t help.
There was also an obvious double standard since they condemned the Indians for
arranging marriages for girls as young as twelve, but the age of consent in
England was also twelve until late in the 19th Century. Rudyard
Kipling also takes some telling blows here. In addition to his understandable
paternalism, he was a supporter of the general who fired on unarmed
demonstrators in Amritsar, killing almost 400 people and wounding hundreds more.
Winston Churchill and Mohandas Gandhi don’t come across as very nice people
either. His conclusion is that there were benefits as well as drawbacks to
British rule, that the disengagement was handled very badly, but that a peaceful
solution was probably impossible given the circumstances. Very well written and
organized, but this edition at least was riddled with misspelled words and
occasional sentences from which it appears one or more words were inadvertently
dropped. 1/1/10
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