William James's Gamble

William James' essay The Moral Equivalent of War (1906), which can be accessed here, provides a glimpse into what is most optimistic and most naive in American thought.  James felt that the direction that the world was going would lead to a predominantly socialistic system around the world.  Along with this, the willingness of nations to engage in expensive, destructive conflict would fade.  However, he also writes that this may not be successful, or even desirable, if the psychological impetus toward the "martial type of character" isn't given an outlet.  James, an avowed pacifist, makes the admittedly paradoxical claim that tied into the horrors and destruction of war there is an element of it that is conducive to building a moral edifice.

An Appeal for Feedback

After nineteen posts I see that I've had visitors from around the world stop by, but I've yet to see a comment on any of the posts thus far.  While an inner dialogue is always important, the reason I started this blog was to try and generate interpersonal dialogue.  Whether the style reveals it or not, I always write with the intention of the post being a starting point in a conversation, not a final statement.

If you're here on a repeat visit please take a minute to let me know why this blog appeals to you.  If you're stopping by for the first time let me know if you'll be back and why or why not.  In either case, constructive feedback is always appreciated.

Remember, if you really like what's here the "follow" link is only a mouse-click away!

Jacques Ellul's Technique

I have always been interested in the structures of thought that pattern he way we think.  I do not mean in a medical sense, but in a sociological one.  I'm referring to the belief systems, usually taken for granted and very often secular in nature, that influence large groups of people but have their fundamental origin on how successfully they affect individuals.  They can also be referred to as the mythical substructure of a society, and despite the belief that we have left this seemingly outdated mode of thinking behind, myth continues to abound.  Roland Barthe's Mythologies is perhaps the clearest statement that myth is still a driving force in society, but it is surely not alone.  Other works have done admirable jobs at unveiling how much of what we think is not spontaneously generated but instead finely formed by forces that we don't have control of.  Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media and Walter Lippmann's Public Opinion are great examples of works that reveal these forces.  I can now add another to that list.

The Three Stages of Bolano

Aside from the merits of his individual works, the literary output of Roberto Bolano presents a fascinating portrait of a writer in development.  The seemingly never ending stream of translations of his work over the last two years at one point seemed to me to be approaching the level of barrel bottoms being scraped.  From a monetary standpoint for the publishers, this seems likely to be the mentality.  However, it allows the opportunity to get an understanding of how he developed over his writing career.

A Tale of Two Articles

In the November 1964 edition of Harper's Magazine Richard Hofstadter's article The Paranoid Style in American Politics explored a mindset that was prevalent in his time, but that he traced throughout American history.  He referred to the "paranoid style" as a negative force in politics that is problematic primarily because it is employed by more or less normal people.  The people who fall into the trap are not certifiably disturbed, but average citizens and members of the public service, and the "style" they employ, whether conscious or not, create it's impact on how the ideas are perceived rather than the inherent value, or even validity, of the content of the message.

A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall

Don Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling certainly can't be judged by it's cover, at least by the New York Review of Books edition I own.  The cover shows a car speeding down a road implying, in my mind, freedom and open spaces.  On the contrary, the novel is incredibly claustrophobic.  Jack Levitt, the anti-hero, is always inside, whether this be a pub, a pool hall, an apartment, a prison cell, solitary confinement, or his own mind.  The lack of freedom comes through on every page and makes for an intense reading experience.

Ronald Wright's America

Ronald Wright's What is America? occupies a strange place: part well-researched history (there are well over 100 pages of endnotes, sources, etc.), part polemic, and, as the title suggest, part attempt to figure out why the United States makes the particular decisions it makes on the worldwide stage.  Wright is a compelling read, largely due to an seemingly effortless writing style and the ongoing sense of concern he reveals on every page.  However, this is not enough to make a flawless book, of which I'm still trying to assess it's true value several days after finishing it.

A Fantastic Voyage

When I speak with someone who has read Jose Saramago I invariably find out that the particular book they read was Blindness.  I attribute this to it being the book released in an English translation immediately prior to the Nobel Prize announcement, thus well stocked on bookshelves when the announcement came.  It's unfortunate as out of the four novels I've read Blindness was by far the least enjoyable.  Actually, it was the next work I read after the excellent Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis and, due to my disappointment with it, it took three years before I read anything else by him.  Fortunately Blindness seems to be an anomaly as the other three novels I've read were wonderful, including my most recent reading of The Stone Raft.

Been a long time comin'

I recently got around to reading Allen Ginsberg's Howl, one of the many works that has been on my reading list for well over a decade but I hadn't got around to reading yet.  Howl was published in 1956 in the collection Howl and Other Poems, and met with controversy immediately upon its release.  Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was arrested upon publication on charges that the book was obscene.  Kerouac's letters, which I discuss in an earlier post, trace the development of the publication as he writes to Ginsberg while he is in Tangier upon publication, updating him on the events following the release.  The work, and Ginsberg, was finally vindicated in 1957 when a judge ruled that the poem was not obscene.

A Needle in a Haystack

Like many people, I had a comic book collection when I was young.  Like many, I grew out of it.  The idea of people in colourful tights, speaking in slogans, using their imaginary powers to combat imaginary beings eventually lost its appeal as I aged and has never returned.  Nevertheless, the age-old tradition of telling stories with pictures never failed to provoke my interest, and having an open mind I have tested the waters from time to time to see what is out there.  Barring one exception, I have yet to find anything to give me hope.

However, it is this exception that is the focus of this post.