James Comey's needlessly redundant memoir, Saving Justice, feels like a cash-grab more than a substantive conversation on the criminal justice system James Comey's needlessly redundant memoir, Saving Justice, feels like a cash-grab more than a substantive conversation on the criminal justice system in America. If you've already read A Higher Loyalty, I wouldn't bother with this footnote in book form....more
Edward E. Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told is a compelling work of pop-history, which situates chattel slavery at the heart of American capitaliEdward E. Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told is a compelling work of pop-history, which situates chattel slavery at the heart of American capitalism, industrialization, and modernization. Indeed, in order to understand the meteoric rise and dominance of the United States on the global stage, it is necessary to examine the central role that slavery played in the country’s social, political, cultural, and economic development.
The book sports an unorthodox, yet equally compelling structure, which divides the narrative into chapters corresponding to segmented body parts. For instance, there are chapters for “The Heart”, “Feet”, “Heads”, “Right Hand”, “Left Hand”, and so on, each reflecting the ways in which the enslaved African-American body was broken down, objectified, commodified, and fetishized. For the “whipping machine” of chattel slavery wasn’t just aimed at ‘slaves’, like some nebulous disembodied abstraction, but real, concrete human bodies.
On the surface, this may seem like an obvious point, but it’s not. The particulars of history can be quickly swallowed up in the sheer enormity of human suffering, especially when we are dealing with atrocities on the level of slavery. Baptist tries his best to convey this complex materiality, while also reminding his audience that each slave was a person. We are physical bodies, to be sure, but we are physical bodies with rich inner lives. There is an emotional and psychological depth, a private experience of the world, that cannot be reduced to any purely objective description. Although it’s a delicate balance to maintain, I think that Baptist’s efforts pay off. The Half Has Never Been Told is well worth the read....more
Carlo Rovelli is one of my favourite pop-science authors. Reality Is Not What It Seems offers non-experts an accessible overview of the current thinkiCarlo Rovelli is one of my favourite pop-science authors. Reality Is Not What It Seems offers non-experts an accessible overview of the current thinking on quantum gravity. Aside from conveying recent developments, Rovelli is also skilled at presenting a general picture of the history of scientific thought. An enriching and inclusive book geared toward the curious and thoughtful layperson....more
Charles Bukowski hated mankind but adored cats. On Cats collects some of his poetry, anecdotes, and blurbs on the subject of our feline friends. Some Charles Bukowski hated mankind but adored cats. On Cats collects some of his poetry, anecdotes, and blurbs on the subject of our feline friends. Some are interesting; most are a bore. ...more
Don Brown’s The Great American Dust Bowl is an excellent visual representation of this fascinating period in American history. The gritty art style maDon Brown’s The Great American Dust Bowl is an excellent visual representation of this fascinating period in American history. The gritty art style matches the thematic content perfectly. The narrative and social history are accessible to readers of all ages, but kudos to Brown for citing his sources and including a bibliography for further reading. ...more
Once a year, I challenge myself to read a book that I'm pretty sure I'll dislike. Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life fit the bill, and since it's beeOnce a year, I challenge myself to read a book that I'm pretty sure I'll dislike. Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life fit the bill, and since it's been sitting on my 'to read' list forever, here we are.
The book is basically what I expected: misogynistic, homophobic, dogmatic, and silly. There's some decent, motivational advice sprinkled throughout, but nothing more profound than what you'd find in your average Ted Talk. Don't be fooled - Peterson may be a clinical psychologist by training, but this isn't clinical psychology. It's a right-wing Christian apology, dressed up as a statement on Human Nature, and clearly aimed at young, confused, and frustrated men. Peterson is skilled in the art of rhetoric, and he wields that talent unrelentingly in favour of his religious and political affinities.
In 12 Rules for Life, Peterson comes across as the humourless, angry, and pigheaded figure that he is. His tone is equally callous and ridiculous, making perfect fodder for meme-aficionados (anyone else LOL at the shots he fired at Elmo?!). It's no wonder that he's found himself in so much trouble with U of T and the College of Psychologists of Ontario. This book is an intellectually dishonest piece of self-aggrandizing tripe. As Zizek would say, it is "pure ideology" in its purest form....more
What does it mean to say that time runs faster for our heads than our feet? Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time weaves theoretical physics with poetry aWhat does it mean to say that time runs faster for our heads than our feet? Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time weaves theoretical physics with poetry and philosophy into a seamless whole. The result is a surprisingly effective piece of pop-science that avoids clichés, but also isn’t afraid to engage with the more sublime aspects of its very human subject matter. Highly recommended. ...more
Michael J. Fox is a personal hero of mine; I can't help but admire the guy. In his most recent memoir, No Time Like the Future, he presents himself asMichael J. Fox is a personal hero of mine; I can't help but admire the guy. In his most recent memoir, No Time Like the Future, he presents himself as the tough, resilient, and sweet Canadian actor that we all know and love. But he also reveals a different side of himself - one that's fearful, vulnerable and, yes, even occasionally pessimistic. I would recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Fox himself, which is no small feat. His pressured and slurred words add a layer of texture and substance to the Parkinsonian themes. ...more
Stella Maris is nothing like the other novels by Cormac McCarthy. I seem to be in the minority here, but I found it irritatingly linear, heavy-handed,Stella Maris is nothing like the other novels by Cormac McCarthy. I seem to be in the minority here, but I found it irritatingly linear, heavy-handed, and unimaginative. It lacks the subtlety and the ambiguity of his former works, which, in my opinion, is what made them so great. In a curious way, McCarthy’s final book is a work of anti-McCarthy fiction.
I’ve been trying to articulate why I think Stella Maris is a failure, and I think I have an answer. Toward the end of the novel, the psychiatrist asks the protagonist, Alicia, if mathematics is “magic”, to which she replies: “I think that it’s magic if you don’t understand it. As you learn more about it, it becomes less magical. Then as you realize that there is a clear sense in which you will never understand it, it becomes magical again.” As always, Alicia’s words are emblematic of McCarthy’s take on science and mathematics, but also literature itself. The more the artist explains the meaning of their work, or the motivations of its characters, the less mysterious the work becomes. Unless the author works to subvert the familiar, thus making it unfamiliar again, the text squanders its interpretive potential and loses its source of wonder.
Much of McCarthy’s understanding of language refers to the question of ineffability, or the attempt to express the inexpressible. For McCarthy, language springs forth from an ancient, deeply unconscious, pre-linguistic imaginary. This philosophy of language informs his own writing style, which is thickly layered with symbols, allusions, and images. The Passenger is a fine example of McCarthy’s form – it’s open-ended, intensely allegorical, and structurally complex. On the other hand, Stella Maris, as a prequel to The Passenger, restricts the range of interpretations to the words spoken by Alicia. The result is that Alicia becomes a mere literary tool that McCarthy uses to get his own philosophical points across. I might even suggest that in Stella Maris, Alicia is less a fully-realized character than simply a talking-head. Her character struck me as more substantial in The Passenger.
In the final evaluation, I found Stella Maris to be a cheap and unnecessary prequel, which actually depreciates The Passenger as its own work by over-explaining ideas and symbolism. Unfortunately, in his final book, McCarthy comes across like an expert magician who has made the fatal mistake of revealing his secrets. Forget this prequel and treat The Passenger as its own self-contained work – you’ll thank me later....more
Cormac McCarthy's The Passenger is a woozy, head-trip of a novel, overflowing with gnostic symbolism, Freudian themes, and quantum mechanical indetermCormac McCarthy's The Passenger is a woozy, head-trip of a novel, overflowing with gnostic symbolism, Freudian themes, and quantum mechanical indeterminacy. It was disjointed and more than a little perplexing, but I really enjoyed it overall. After watching "Part 8" of David Lynch's Twin Peaks reboot, I could totally see him adapting this for the big screen - that would be cool. ...more
COVID Chronicles is an anthology of American comics, curated and published by Kendra Boileau at Penn State University Press. The comics were created bCOVID Chronicles is an anthology of American comics, curated and published by Kendra Boileau at Penn State University Press. The comics were created between April and October 2020, and each one offers a unique take on the COVID-19 pandemic from within. Some are uplifting, others are depressing; some are hilarious, others are challenging; all of them are worthy of contemplation.
Although COVID isn’t ‘over’, enough time has passed to allow for sober reflection and some preliminary historical assessments. As we begin to reckon with our collective experiences of pandemic-life, resources like this anthology will surely become invaluable to integrating and understanding the place of COVID in human history. That said, beyond fans of comics and graphic novels, COVID Chronicles will be of particular interest to historians of society, culture, and disease.
As Boileau notes in her preface, comics are strangely well-suited to the exploration of weighty issues. It is through this paradoxical relationship between content and form that comics can function as “graphic medicine”, and represent something more than mere satire or entertainment. COVID Chronicles proves that they can also describe, project, critique, and record. Cartoons are – and have been – vital historical resources, and no serious attempt to understand an event can occur without confronting them in some way. ...more
In A Higher Loyalty, James Comey describes Donald Trump as "sad" and "frightening". The same adjectives apply to the fiasco which ended in Comey's firIn A Higher Loyalty, James Comey describes Donald Trump as "sad" and "frightening". The same adjectives apply to the fiasco which ended in Comey's firing. Although the memoir smacks of propaganda here and there, the insights that it does offer are worth the read. It will be interesting to see how Trump's legal troubles pan out, as Comey settles into his life as private citizen and witness....more
Bill Schutt spends too much time on the anthropological talking points, such as the Donner Party, to properly cash in on his claim that Cannibalism isBill Schutt spends too much time on the anthropological talking points, such as the Donner Party, to properly cash in on his claim that Cannibalism is "a natural history". His zoological evidence for cannibalism is fascinating, though....more
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