The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester

The Professor and the Madman:  A tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English dictionary by Simon Winchester was a book that I saw briefly described in a column and the subtitle drew me in.

Started:  4/22/2020
Completed: 6/13/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

What an interesting way to cover a truly boring topic.  Lexicography in general and the creation of dictionaries in particular are deadly boring.  Linking in a murder and a madman, well that makes it more approachable.  This book is broadly a sad account of a man whose grasp of reality was tenuous on a regular basis (at least nightly).  As a result of murder, however, the madman in resigned to a sanatorium and because he was a gentleman, he was given a lot of latitude which included occupying two cells and the acquisition of his own library of precious books.  This gave the madman the resources in both time and literature to be an enormous contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary.

My first encounter with the Oxford English Dictionary was in high school where I stumbled across the enormous number of volumes making the dictionary over 20 books.  It was on a corner shelf and, if memory serves, was an edition printed in 1932 (if that is possible).  I remember looking at the date when I could not find a word I thought was commonplace, but it was clearly a word that only became common after 1932 (maybe it was something like, "jet").  I can remember just flipping through the dictionary and finding definitions that were antiquated for common place words (I remember "fag" being a bundle of sticks or a cigarette).  I also found quotations that explained how the word was used (it was helpful later to be able to occasionally recall such a quotation when playing Scrabble).  For me, it was fascinating.  I remember looking up good words for hang man.  "Quiffe" was such a word which I will both never forget and doubt that I will ever have the courage to use.

I was also stunned to learn that Trench had been the person who had proposed the dictionary (I have a first edition of "Trench on Words" which is really interesting).  So, all in all, this book was one I really enjoyed.

MBS, Ben Hubbard

MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard is a book that came recommended by the New York Times.

Started: 6/9/2020

Completed: 6/12/2020

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By: The New York Times

Review:

It is odd that a book about MBS and his rise to power focuses so much on Jamal Khashoggi whose murder occurred after MBS was rather solidly in power.  It feels like a look at MBS through the lens of Khashoggi.  I don't particularly have a problem with this, but it is odd to have a book about a person (MBS) that quotes someone else (Khashoggi) more extensively.  The stuff that is quoted from Khashoggi is not even about MBS, rather it is about Khashoggi and his point of view.  All of this is very interesting, but it feels like the title of the book is wrong.

It is also odd how the author injects his visa application woes into the tale.  It seems to put the narrator in the story of MBS' rise to power, but, at the same time, the narrator has absolutely nothing to do with that rise.  Maybe this is included in an effort to point out how difficult it is to get information about MBS, but it seems like if that is the point, then maybe don't write a book about MBS.  I don't know.

Similarly the digression and emphasis on women driving seems to go nowhere.  It is an interesting detail, but it is not a subplot.  It feels like the author thought this would go someplace, he followed it, but it really never went anywhere.  It is unclear whether women driving has made a huge difference for good or ill in Saudi Arabia.  One hopes that it is an improvement (clearly the author does), but the author does not make his case.

The author seems to have anticipated that either MBS would be deposed as the crown prince or MBS' father would have died propelling MBS into the kingship.  Neither happened and so it seems the author is awash in "I don't know."  In hindsight, I realize that this is a history written by a journalist.  Journalism, and particularly political journalism, is truly a thing of the moment.  Ben Hubbard saw the moment as the death of Khashoggi, but it appears he was wrong.  This was neither MBS' downfall, nor the obstacle over which he climbed to rise to power.

The afterword amounts to speculation and calls for revision once current events have actually become history.  This is an interesting book, but it is a book of the moment.  There is still too much to happen in order to climb to explain how MBS rose to power.

Under another title (like, "The Impact of the Murder of Jamal Khashoggi" or "Khashoggi and MBS;  Lives Intertwined") this book might have more value, but I think that the author (or editor) just overreached.

Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a book that I have had on my book list for a very, very long time.  I think I had it there as something that I could read with my children who have all aged past this book, but I cannot remember.  I think I have had it on my list of things to read since high school.

Started: 6/7/2020

Completed: 6/9/2020

Recommendation: Recommended for Young Adults

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Good and evil are not muddy by nuance in this book.  There is an adequate amount of mistaken identities which offers a certain degree of humor.  Everything is tied up neatly in the end and, effectively, everyone who should lives happily ever after.  A good story for kids to enjoy.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard P. Feynman

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman:"  Adventures of a curious character by Richard P. Feynman is another Feynman book.  I tend to find these irresistible.

Started: 6/5/2020

Completed: 6/7/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

Feynman was an interesting fellow.  This book recounts how diverse his life was and what pleasure he took in annoying people.  It is just a collection of stories and it gives a rather rosy picture of Feynman telling stories on himself that he most enjoyed.

The End of the Myth, Greg Grandin

The End Of The Myth: From the frontier to the border wall in the mind of America by Greg Grandin is a book about the USA from a Yale Historian.  Yeah, so, gotta read that one...

Started: 6/1/2020

Completed: 6/5/2020

Recommendation: Recommended

Recommended By:  Nobody

Review:

This is an interesting look at how the concept of a "frontier" has strongly affected the way America grows and views itself.  One thing that is very well done is the effort to show how a border has morphed from a concept of an area of defense against attack, to a concept of an area where America is simply undermined by adding people to the country.  In the past, expanding into the frontier resolved problems because it was possible to just go somewhere else which was virgin territory.  Now, the frontier represents the last barrier against others infringing on the increasingly reduced availability of virgin territory.

It is worth noting that while individuals experience the border as a limit, changes to agreements (like NAFTA) allow for corporate growth without really looking at borders while, somehow, also providing within the structure of the agreement concepts that give the corporation supra-governmental control.  Built into these agreements are legal defenses that allow corporations to sue governments for profits that have not been realized due to legislation detrimental to the corporation (like clean water restrictions).  It is simply staggering.

As part of the post-Vietnam restoration, Reagan, the GOP, and the Tea Party have worked to destroy the social support structures that country.  More than half the population of the United States is living in poverty.  The country has turned over to a government that protects corporations at the cost of real people.  This is done through the concept of the frontier and protecting the border.  The wall is a "kind of geo-political realism" that argues that growth is a zero sum game (if I grow, you must recede).  The New Deal argued that "social citizenship" was important because growth was no longer the simple outlet to allow people to move to new areas.  Instead, we face corporations and governments that "exploit slave and cheap labor."  The very people who were once exploited for gain, become reminders that they can no longer be exploited in the same way.  Somehow, the conservatives (via Trumpism) have resulted in outrageous consumerism (like pulling out of the Paris agreement, which represented a restriction).  "Cruelty itself becomes a brazen show of American freedom."  How ghastly.  Once more, we see that cruelty is the point.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is a book I picked up at the Labor Day Festival.  I enjoyed The Goldfinch.

Started: 5/26/2020

Completed: 6/1/2020

Recommendation: Mild Recommendation

Recommended By: Nobody

Words for which I sought help:

bilious -- affected or associated with nausea or vomiting

chiton -- The chiton was a simple tunic garment of lighter linen and usually pleated that was worn by both sexes and all ages. It consisted of a wide, rectangular tube of material secured along the shoulders and lower arms by a series of fasteners. Chitons typically fell to the ankles of the wearer, but shorter chitons were sometimes worn during vigorous activities by athletes, warriors or slaves.

exegesis -- critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture

Review:

This book is an odd mix between a coming of age story and a mystery.  There is an immense amount of drama but the drama makes sense given the context.  It is about young people maturing under huge pressure.  As the pressure grows, the weather seems to change with huge swings and, itself, generates complications.  School, oddly, plays a small role, but serves as a structure for the whole story providing a framework for keeping track of time.

It is also interesting how important pay phones are to the story.  I wonder how well this concept of a pay phone will last as the book ages.  It seems like the current generation is having a hard time imagining a time without connectivity and the lack of knowledge of each other and outside world (see through the lens of pay phones and the occasional television references suggest that it might be hard to generations increasingly removed from this story to understand how the misunderstandings in location and time (both leveraged and unleveraged) might somehow exist.

The book is rich in characters (some of whom are simply unpursued).  The sense of this being a story (as told in some kind of 1950s novel or as in a movie) that is aware of itself leads to a disconcerting effort to "tie things up" while leaving plenty of areas incomplete--thus, the book becomes a sort of claim to completion without really being complete at all.

Heaven and Hell, Bart D. Ehrman

Heaven and Hell:  A history of the afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman is a book that I saw reviewed somewhere, but cannot remember where.  I have had a fascination with the concept of hell for a long time and so books like this tend to catch my eye.

Started: 5/24/2020

Completed: 5/26/2020

Recommendation: Not Recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

I never understood Hebrew poetry.  I assumed that the lack of rhyme and meter was due to an effort to translate literally and that the Hebrew would be more beautiful.  Not so.  Hebrew poetry uses parallelism (two lines espouse the same or contrasting ideas).  That is pretty cool and a type of poetry that I understand much better.  I love learning stuff like that.

The book opens with a good survey of information about how early Jewish populations and the populations with which the Jews interacted viewed the afterlife.  This was a good foundation for further analysis.  The review of the Torah and Old Testament, more broadly, also seemed reasonable and consistent.

The latter part of the book became, "here's how I interpret the Bible."  That is OK, but the author states up front that he is not trying to shape beliefs or views--basically, let's just get the facts out.  His interpretation, however, is one-sided (maybe that is simply the right side, I don't pretend to know).  The author rarely mentions any possibility of inconsistency in his view while railing about other forms of inconsistency.  When he does (with the case of how to interpret Jesus' words to one of the thieves, the author makes clear how an interpretation inconsistent with his views makes more sense, but then just moves on.

Before the book is over, almost every format of afterlife has been considered ranging from reincarnation to everyone being saved.  I think it would be better to think of this as a biased survey.  The author pretty clearly thinks the afterlife is unlikely, but attempts to provide an opportunity for everyone to take a look at all the different varieties of afterlife available along with the arguments against pretty much all of them.

This is less a history and more of a Judea-Christian inspection of the afterlife.  It seems to come from a philosophical perspective, but philosophy seems to be the wrong tool when looking at religious matters.  Philosophy thrives on understanding, but religion thrives on belief.  Not exactly oil and water, but it is exceedingly difficult to find the overlap.  There comes a time when religion quotes:

• "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
• "But the righteous shall live by faith." Habakuk 2:4
• "As for those who fear their lord unseen, for them is forgiveness and a great reward." Quran 67:12

I'm sure that there are others.