Hypotyposis on a Good Day

Good stuff in the latest NYRB

I'm pleased to see that the New York Review of Books decided to provide free access to a number of articles in the February 9, 2006 issue that I wanted to point out to friends:

• Jimmy Carter & the Culture of Death is Gary Wills' review of Jimmy Carter's new book, Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis.

• The Passion of C.S. Lewis, which I found entertaining because unlike many of my friends, I have never liked the Narnia books or film(s). I've read only one of the seven books (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and then only as a disenchanted adult. Alison Lurie offers plenty of insight into Narnia as children's literature. Unfortunately, she overreaches in the concluding paragraphs with:

  It is no surprise that conservative Christians admire these books. They teach us to accept authority; to love and follow our leaders instinctively, as the children in the Narnia books love and follow Aslan. By implication, they suggest that we should and will admire and fear and obey whatever impressive-looking and powerful male authority figures we come in contact with. They also suggest that without the help of Aslan (that is, of such powerful figures, or their representatives on earth) we are bound to fail. Alone, we are weak and ignorant and helpless. Individual initiative is limited—almost everything has already been planned out for us in advance, and we cannot know anything or achieve anything without the help of God.

  This is, of course, the kind of mindset that evangelical churches prefer and cultivate: the kind that makes people vote against their own economic and social interests, that makes successful, attractive, and apparently intelligent young men and women want to become the apprentices of Donald Trump, or of much worse rich and powerful figures. This mindset could even be called deluded, since in this world a giant lion does not usually appear to see that the right side wins and all the good people are happy. In Narnia faith in Aslan, who comes among his followers and speaks to them, may make sense: but here on earth, as the classic folk tales have told us for generations, it is better to depend on your own courage and wit and skill, and the good advice of less than omnipotent beings.

  Nice rhetorical flourishes here -- but associating The Apprentice with Narnia and conservative Christians?? Is Lurie saying that anyone who believes in a God who will ultimately set things right is "deluded"? Figuring out what authority is and what authority to follow are not easy tasks. Some of us do believe in ultimate authority that looks like neither Donald Trump or the "giant lion" that Lurie delights in poking fun at.

• Genocide in Slow Motion is a review of two books on the genocide in Darfur. I miss reading Nicholas Kristof's columns in The New York Times (but not enough to pay for TimesSelect. It was through Kristof's writings that I first learned about Darfur. I'm grateful for writers such as Kristof who help to keep the Darfur conflict in front of people like me, who are so prone to forget. I've been meaning to write a letter to the editor about Darfur but have not been able to do so. A good starting place as I look to act is A Million Voices for Darfur.

Away from one home

This morning, I took in the news of the new minority Canadian government to be led by Stephen Harper. When trying to explain the results to Laura, I realized how out of Canadian politics I've been. At best, I could parrot what I read on the CBC website and New York Times (!). One interesting wrinkle for me is the speculation that Michael Ignatieff might contend for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada. Years ago, while I was a student at the University of Toronto, I went to a book reading of Michael Ignatieff's. He was just a rising young star at that time. I had since followed his career, primarily reading his articles in The New York Review of Books. The jump from young writer to Harvard professor to Canadian-bigshot-returned-from-USA professor at the University of Toronto to MP was startling to take in this morning. Read what the CBC writes:

Ignatieff has been called "the new Pierre Trudeau" and was labelled the "thinking woman's crumpet" when he served as a BBC commentator and arts program host in the 1990s. His decision to move back to Canada in the summer of 2005 was greeted by breathless profiles in national publications, with his future as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada taken for granted. However, Ignatieff has rejected suggestions that he was drafted to come home as part of "an anti-Martin leadership campaign," adding: "I would not have taken part in such activity."

Prairie Fire and Indigo Children

Laura and I both read and discussed with great interest, "Prairie Fire," an article by Eric Konigsberg in the Jan 16?? issue of the New Yorker. (The article is not available online.) It is a terribly sad article about Brandenn Bremmer, the super high IQ boy from Nebraska who committed suicide at the age of 14. Have any one of my readers also read the article? I'm thankful for the Web that allows one to read what others have to say about magazine articles that we read:

• emdashes: Eustace Google: The strange, sad case of Brandenn Bremmer

• Gifted Exchange: The Life and Death of a Prodigy

The article was also the second mention for me of "indigo children." The first came from the New York Times:

Are They Here to Save the World? - New York Times: If you have not been in an alternative bookstore lately, it is possible that you have missed the news about indigo children. They represent "perhaps the most exciting, albeit odd, change in basic human nature that has ever been observed and documented," Lee Carroll and Jan Tober write in "The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived" (Hay House). The book has sold 250,000 copies since 1999 and has spawned a cottage industry of books about indigo children.

sky and clouds over Berkeley

sky and clouds over Berkeley
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I like to take walks in the afternoon to get away from my desk and to clear my head. Sometimes I feel down when I leave the building. I was reminded yesterday by these beautiful clouds and the winter light that there's a lot more going on in the world than my own preoccupations. I sigh at the recognition, delight in the view, and then head back to my office, re-energized.

cross in the sidewalk

cross in the sidewalk
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

This pattern on the sidewalk outside of Tolman Hall caught my eye.

Bollywood Fashions

Bollywood Fashions
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I didn't even know there were "Bollywood fashions".

Notelets for 2006.01.13

eastbayexpress.com | News & Features | City of Warts | Let the Bulldozing Commence | 2006-01-11:

On to the California Department of Health Services laboratory, at the corner of Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way. On one end, you have the Gourmet Ghetto. On the other end, you have downtown Berkeley's movie theaters, restaurants, and nightclubs. But for some reason, there's an eerie no-man's-land that keeps the two from becoming one grand boulevard of eateries and nightlife. That'd be the intervening parking lot and hideous eight-story monolith, where worker bees once toiled in research laboratories run by the state Department of Health Services.

Yes, tear it down -- but just keep the parking lots!

More Companies Ending Promises for Retirement - New York Times. Another story about how companies (even companies that are doing really well) are moving away from their pension plans, shifting the long-term risk to employees.

Last weekend, I learned about the Jewish concept of Lashon hara, making me more conscious of my own need for good talk.

Plethora of long distance options

I've installed Skype, considered Vonage, but I might try Compare 10-10 phone rates and save on long distance service! for long distance calls. I'm not happy with the calling cards I've used, with their terrible voice quality and nasty sorta-hidden-use-or-lose-salting-away charges. Calling From Abroad at Reasonable Rates - New York Times is a helpful article in this area.

Talking to the great but imperfect

Boy, I wish I could talk directly to Milosz or a prophet of old. As a Christian, I believe that we can pray directly to the One In Charge, the Lord God Almighty. Alas, that isn't enough for me. I want to consult unearthly wise people who had walked before me on this planet, who struggled with pain, doubt, temptation, and defeat. I believe that Jesus did all those things, and hence, God can sympathize with our plight as humans. Yet Jesus did not sin. I want to commune with great but frail people who sinned as I have. I want to ask how they kept going even while they bumbled and messed things up. To his credit, Jesus never screwed up -- he was perfect.

Let there be no mistaking me: it's the greatest news that Jesus was both like us and not like us. He showed us that there is a way beyond our own individual and collective quagmires. I don't need a besmirched Jesus. Yet, even as a card-carrying Protestant, I confess to the appeal of holding up a pantheon of capital-S Saints, those who fall between us and perfection.

Losing courage at night and the importance of stopping

For the vast majority of nights when I turn off the lights for sleep, I have been blessed by a clear conscience. Last night, I started to lose the courage of my convictions, which is a terrible thing to happen when I'm trying to sleep. I need to put a stop to working too late. The demons of self-doubt are strongest when I set out to work on a task that is greater than the time I have before me. It's time to reapply what I learned when writing my Ph.D. dissertation: set a time to stop work well before bedtime (regardless of how much I accomplished or didn't accomplish that day), and honor the Sabbath. When I was feeling most desperate and helpless, working long hours for six days a week, Sundays were the most sweet. I long to come back to that experience of rest and freedom in the midst of busyness.

Ballets Russes

On Saturday, Laura and I saw the film Ballets Russses. It was not our first choice; we had ended up at the Shattuck Cinemas mistakenly looking for another movie. I was so pleased to see Ballets Russes. I expected to like movie but did not come prepared to be moved to tears. It turns out that I'm not the only one who was moved by the film. Joining many other critics, A. O. Scott of The New York Times called it "a moving, invigorating elegy to the civilization that sustained it." I had the feeling that because the movie tapped into a lot of my particular interests and current "issues," I found Ballets Russes to be even more affecting than a typical viewer dialing into the universal themes of the fragility and timelessness of beauty, the redemption of suffering, the folly of power struggles and giant egos, the tradeoffs between age and youth, the desire to make art (and all that other stuff.)

On a more prosaic front, I've noticed that the Wikipedia article on the Ballets Russes does not mention the movie -- and that there is no article on the movie so far. Time to correct these deficiencies?

"Putting Your Passion Into Print"

"Putting Your Passion Into Print"
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I've put an inter-library loan in for Putting Your Passion Into Print : Get Your Book Published Successfully! I've been daydreaming about a number of books I'd like to write. Will I move beyond daydreaming at this point?

spiral to the sky

spiral to the sky
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

Not only was the sheer number of books overwhelming at Doe Library, but also the beauty of the books going up in a DNA-like helix.

First impressions of "Total Truth"

I've started reading Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity, partially in preparation for "Keeping Religion in its place?" conference to be held at First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley on Friday, January 27 and Saturday, January 28. I don't know whether I want to spend most of a Saturday at the conference, but I'm sure the Friday lecture will be worth hearing.

I have mixed feelings as I start the book. I can sympathize with many of the things Pearcey has to say: the fundamental way in which worldviews consciously or unconsciously shape everyone's ideas, the marginalization of Christian thought from much of high academic intellectual discourse, the call for Christians to live out their convictions in every sphere of their lives. But I wonder, why does she seem (at my early stage of reading) to accept so heartily and uncritically intelligent design and compassionate conservatism. I'll have to see for myself once I read further along.

"Organize!" and "Well-behaved women rarely make history"

"Organize!" and "Well-behaved women rarely make history"
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I like reading witty bumper stickers but have not gotten into placing bumper stickers on our own car. I could even take the next step beyond passive consumption and create my own bumper stickers, say, by using Cafepress.

polluted elegance

polluted elegance
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

I hate to admit to seeing beauty in abandoned furniture on a quiet Sunday street.

a quick self-portrait

a quick self-portrait
Originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

My folks told me that they wanted to see more pictures of people they knew (including me) in my photostream. This photo is in the spirit of honoring that wish. More to come!

Notelets for 2006.01.02

Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray is on David Horowitz's efforts to push for "academic freedom" legislation. I am sympathetic to those who feel that academia as a whole has a lot of liberal biases and that academics often don't even understand their own predilections. (They aren't as fair and open minded as they often believe they are.) Legislation is not the answer, and Horowitz's effort is clearly motivated for partisan conservative ends.

I jus saw an interview on CNN with Stanley Renshon, the author of The 50% American: Immmigration And National Identity in an Age of Terror. I wasn't impressed with either the author or CNN. I was surprised by the shared, unquestioned, and blatant assumption that in order to be loyal to the USA, one has to detach completely from other countries. There doesn't seem to be any room for being both fond and critical of the country. That is the gist of what I got, but I could be wrong. Important questions on immigration – but wrong answers confirms my impressions though.

Often, I need encouragement -- even a kick in the pants -- to pursue the biggest ideas and problems that intrigue me. I found such encouragement in Paul Graham's latest Good and Bad Procrastination that points to Richard Hamming: You and Your Research. Hamming would go around asking fellow Bell Labs staffers what the most important problems were in their respective fields, whether they were working on said problems, and if not, then why.

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right. Thinking is overrated. (inside joke)

Twenty Years Later, Buying a House Is Less of a Bite:

In high-profile places like New York and Los Angeles, home to many of the people who study and write about real estate, families buying their first home often must spend more than half of their income on mortgage payments, far more than they once did. But the places that have become less affordable over the last generation account for only a quarter of the country's population.

On Sunday morning, I read The New York Review of Books: The Strange Case of Chaplain Yee, a review of For God And Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire. It astounds me and saddens me that such egregious abuse of power is tolerated in this country. You can listen to an interview with James Yee at NPR : Muslim Army Chaplain Recalls Guantanamo Ordeal.

Best of Youth

Rome in Six Hours and Four Decades - New York Times includes a big plug for Best of Youth:

No movie did that quite as powerfully or completely as "The Best of Youth," Marco Tullio Giordana's six-hour chronicle of recent Italian history told through the lives of an ordinary Roman family. Originally made as a mini-series for Italian television, this film gestures back toward the tradition of politically astute historical filmmaking exemplified by masters like Luchino Visconti and Bernardo Bertolucci. It is an intellectual as well as an emotional feast, with dozens of superb performances, especially from Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni playing two brothers caught up in the social and political turmoil of the 1960's and 70's. Mr. Giordana has made a movie so full of life that even after six hours of screen time and four decades of history, you wish it would go on.

Laura and I just can't make it to the showing at the Balboa Theater so we'll just have to see it on DVD.