The Judgment: On the night after reading this story I had a disturbing dream where I was traveling in a totalitarian country with a couple of friends, The Judgment: On the night after reading this story I had a disturbing dream where I was traveling in a totalitarian country with a couple of friends, one of whom was familiar with the country and so was able to offer suggestions about how to act. I witnessed acts of minor brutality that could obviously elevate to major brutality, and just before awakening, I, who as a visitor had so far remained untouched, had an encounter with one of the officials who monitored people at a certain checkpoint who warned me that I wasn’t acting obediently enough, was a little to “free and easy,� and, to bring his point home, half hit me in the jaw as a warning.
On awakening my mind exploded with thoughts relating this to The Judgment. (view spoiler)[The last incident was very much like Tanner’s encounter with the black actor in the hallway of his daughter’s New York apartment. Like me in the dream, Tanner was being free and easy with the actor to the point of flippancy. The actor obviously takes as an insult, even a threat, to a well guarded persona which distances him from blacks routinely subjected to insults and minor brutality, and responds with ever increasing brutality resulting in Tanner’s death.
Tanner's life-long behavior shows racism as an instance of circumscribed totalitarianism towards a certain group of people that eventually widens to include everyone, i.e., Tanner himself. As sympathetic a character as he is, he is judged more severely than any other character. He is guilty of routine condescension and brutality exercised throughout his life. He brags he knows how to treat black people so he can use them for his own purposes, and routinely intimidates them by threatening a knife in the gut. When Doctor Foley, who is “part black,� asserts his ownership of Tanner’s land and suggests Tanner operate a still for him, the thought of “working for a nigger� tempts Tanner to kill him. He is held back by realizing “he had been weakened for that kind of violence by the fear of hell.�
Doctor Foley, like the black actor, is consciously fashioning himself as a member of a ‘ruling class� in the community of Corinth, and thus turning the tables on Tanner. More subtle is the behavior of his daughter and her husband. The husband will not condescend to say more than hello to him, and they both look forward to him dying soon. When she finds him wrapped in the stairway banister at the end, there is no thought of punishing the perpetrator.
The story is similar to Martin Niemoller’s poem, "First They Came�: “First they came for the Communists\And I did not speak out . . .� I am sympathetic to Tanner because I see how easily I could be, and perhaps am, like him. It is ironic that Coleman, who he began intimidating, has become his only friend and the person he imagines will take care of him when he returns home. Since his friendship based on racist privilege, any possibility of Coleman helping Tanner is precluded. The impossibility of Coleman's help is a direct consequence of the judgment against Tanner; reality is the judgment which occurs during his life, not after death -- the whole excruciating experience of his life culminating in his murder. God comes into it as the creator of that reality. (hide spoiler)]
The Life You Save May Be Your Own: I’m puzzled about the purpose of this story. It strikes me that Mrs. Carter tries to put something over on Mr Shiftler, as well as he over her. The plot seems incomplete without her reaction to Mr. Shiftler’s betrayal. Perhaps the hitchhiker’s judgment of Mr. Shiftler’s mother and his own should be extended to Shiftler and Mrs. Carter . . . and to everyone. as per man’s debased nature after the Fall? Not sure. The original title was “The World is Almost Rotten.�
A View of the Woods: This story hits home to me that O’Connor takes very seriously God’s injunction to love one’s neighbor. The failure to enact this injunction is the root of all the evil that occurs, such as, in this story, (view spoiler)[Fortune’s murder of his granddaughter and his own probable demise as a result of her beating him beforehand. In reading her stories it’s easy to focus on the larger than life climactic incidents, but not loving one’s fellow man is the seed they spring from. (hide spoiler)]
The Enduring Chill: This is my favorite story so far. All of O’Connor’s works are comedies in the sense of Dante’s Divine Comedy, (view spoiler)[but this one is a comedy in the sense of having a happy ending, which allows the humorous incidents throughout (which in other stories have a malevolent, foreboding aspect) to be freely enjoyed and laughed at -- the bickering with his sister, Randall and Morgan visiting his bedroom.
The high point for me is the visit from Father Finn, also very funny (“Joyce? Joyce who?� . . . “I haven’t met him.�), but also clearly indicative of O’Connor’s own view: “You cannot love Jesus unless you speak to Him.� This precipitates his final acceptance of the Holy Spirit (superbly symbolized by the stain on the ceiling):
“The old life in him was exhausted. He awaited the coming of the new.�
With this occurrence the irony becomes almost unbearable. He was in fact dying the death that must occur before one can be reborn in order to shed his old despairing, nihilistic self. (hide spoiler)]
The Comforts of Home: (view spoiler)[The ending suggests that the greatest evil comes from the effort to preserve the predictability and comfort of one´s status quo at all costs. Sarah is not evil, but merely a huge nuisance. Her presence in Thomas´s home is sanctioned by his Mother, who presumably owns the property; to remove her he finds he must damn ¨not only the girl but the entire order of the universe that made her possible.¨ Included in that order are his own moral precepts which he abandons by refusing to admit he planted the gun in Sarah's purse. (hide spoiler)]
The Lame Shall Enter First: (view spoiler)[In regard to Rufus, his salvation hinges on whether or not his avowal of Christian dogma is sincere or not. It seems to be both: an anchor to effect his eventual salvation as well as a weapon to torment misguided do-gooders like Sheppard. Sheppard´s fate is more hopeful because of his newfound repulsion for himself. (hide spoiler)]
Revelation: A significant excerpt from a letter to O'Connor's publisher, Maryat Lee, dated 15 May 1964: (view spoiler)[“Sure you are right. She gets the vision. Wouldn’t have been any point in that story if she hadnt. I like Mrs. Turpin as well as Mary Grace. You got to be a very big woman to shout at the Lord across a hog pen. She’s a country female Jacob. And that vision is purgatorial.� (hide spoiler)]...more
This is about "The Big Front Yard" only, which I read on the recommendation of my friend Irwin after a brief discussion of Daniel Dennett's reference This is about "The Big Front Yard" only, which I read on the recommendation of my friend Irwin after a brief discussion of Daniel Dennett's reference to a pasta meme introduced in China by Marco Polo. I asked if anything substantial was contributed by the word "meme" after "pasta." Irwin replied that this reminded him of Simak's classic SF short story.
Irwin: The conceit of the story, if there is one, is that the idea of something can be more powerful than the thing itself. If Marco Polo just brought back some pasta it might not have been a big deal. But infecting people with the idea of pasta changed the world (in my opinion).
The story (which I immensely enjoyed) certainly strengthens the appropriateness of comparing ideas to gene-like memes. Viewing a situation like the growing popularity of pasta does remind one of the networking action of genes. But examining the actual details of that popularity (someone eating pasta, liking it, wanting more, recommending it to others, selling it, etc.) shows it to be made up of the individual, self-aware activities of conceptualization, recognition and communication. Saying people have been "infected" with an idea, except as a humorous analogy, seems inappropriate.
I liked the fact that "The Big Front Yard" dramatized the opposition between the initiation of force by the powers that be (self-important friends (Henry Horton), the police, world governments, the U.N.) against the civilized activity of traders (Taine and the saddled aliens. along with Beasley and Chuck). A great defense of laissez faire capitalism!...more
I lay on my bed this morning feeling rather despondent. From my blog's reading of From Bacteria and Bach and Back Dennett hasOn Reading Daniel Dennett
I lay on my bed this morning feeling rather despondent. From my blog's reading of From Bacteria and Bach and Back Dennett has almost convinced me: God is a user illusion; perhaps a beneficial one, but one of the answers my mind provides to account for certain vague intimations I experience in living my life. I know, however, that when I start praying (as I was doing then), and when I go to church next Sunday, I will be likewise convinced that God and his plan for me and the rest of humanity is a vital reality. I ask myself, will I be constantly going back and forth between these two views, depending on what I’m reading and who I’m listening to?
I must try to decide for myself . . . I must think, introspect � which Dennett claims is not necessarily the best way to learn about one’s own mind. With a second person observing you are not as susceptible to the weight of one’s user illusions. (Dennett’s Cartesian gravity). But I still must ultimately be convinced myself. So I started to introspect then and there, laying on my bed, looking at the sunlight seeping through tree branches outside my window, encased by, amongst many other random objects, a messy pile of books and a laptop jutting out from my bureau.
What is my experience, I asked. What exactly can I conclude about my conclusions about reality—the reality of the universe and my place in it? Dennett lists some of the relevant items: “colors, opportunities, dollars, promises, and love . . .� (p. 368). These are “a few valuable examples from a large set of affordances.� They are, he points out, like the icons on our computer screen that help us navigate on our computer, completely ignorant of what’s really going on within.
Back to my experience. The sunlight through the trees is beautiful and gives me a sense of hope. From that hope I extrapolate a validation of my life—but not just a life lived in any old way. Only a life in which I’m confident of having a purpose consonant with the intimations of that sunlight through the trees can validate that hope. That sunlight through the trees, then, is a kind of user icon to navigate through life, trying to figure out how best to live it. And, like the screen icon, it covers an incredibly complex underlying system that I can’t begin to imagine or manipulate.
So far I’m following Dennett’s model which on completion he claims we will be able to “align our manifest-image identifications of mental states . . . with scientific-image identifications of the subpersonal information structures . . .� (p. 367). This is a model for scientists. The ordinary lay person will continue contentedly with his own manifest-image and the user icons with which he wends his way through it.
However, my conjecture about the “subpersonal information structures� underlying my hope are quite different. They are, first of all, structures in the universe, not simply my mind (e.g., the sunlight through the trees), and in the center of that structure is God. I hastily concede the concept of God (not God Himself!) is a kind of user icon. But, in order to properly align this all-important element of my manifest-image with what’s really going on out there, I find I must include a genuine, a real, reason for hope that comes from living a certain kind of life (i.e., a purposeful, moral life). Dennett might reply that I’m experiencing an illusion, albeit a useful illusion of a hope and purpose validated by some structure in the universe. But, alas, realizing something is useful only to make life more bearable and pleasant, completely empties it of worth—like discovering someone you thought loved you is only interested in your money.
In Dennett’s view we’re all analogous to church-goers who, it’s been claimed, enjoy greater longevity from living in a faith community. But of course this is only the case if they sincerely believe the dogma of their creed, just as the taker of a placebo must be confident it will alleviate his ailment. It seems, then, that the basis of their lives is a very precarious ignorance which, as Lady Bracknell points out, is “like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.� According to Dennett, we all navigate reality with the help of similar user illusions of hope, love, friendship, virtue, etc., giving our lives a sense of consequence that suggests our efforts to live a good life are not simply in alignment with bottom-down evolutionary forces, but in some way make a difference. For instance, when we resist the temptation to act dishonestly or meanly, are we simply following ‘best practices� for a reasonably pleasant life, so that honesty has value solely as a “user-illusion of the manifest image�?
Sometimes Dennett's conjectures are the basis for a rebuttal to his views, as when he cites “[t]he incessant torrent of self-probing and reflection that we engage in during waking life� as a potent evolutionary force. But surely such self-probing can bring one to realize the existence of forces that transcend blind evolution.
At one point Dennett seems to come close to recognizing the imperative our existence affords to believe in God:
“We tend to overlook the importance of the fact that we have voluminous experience of many people independently coming up with the same answer . . . but if that were not our experience, no amount of analytic reflection in the intrinsic necessity of mathematics--or the existence of a benign God--would convince us to trust our calculations.� (p. 378)
This voluminous experience we share with “many people independently� is a certain depth of feeling for which the word ‘feeling� is far too weak. Such feelings are the basis for institutions that develop and explicate that ‘feeling.� Examples are the feeling of danger (institution: police), romantic love (institution: marriage), and the apprehension of a world that cries out for an entity responsible for the rich significance of life (institution: religion). These ‘feelings� do indeed create for us an imperative that cannot be ignored....more
Georgette Heyer succeeds where dozens of mystery writers have tried and failed to combine a rollicking comedy of manners with a suspenseful, tightly-kGeorgette Heyer succeeds where dozens of mystery writers have tried and failed to combine a rollicking comedy of manners with a suspenseful, tightly-knit detective plot. The Verecker siblings are both outrageously funny and genuinely moving in their efforts to face mounting suspicion when their wealthy brother is found murdered--yes, in stocks (one of many ingenious clues). Detective novels really don't get much better than this....more
This is a second reading for my neighborhood book club, and, for once in rereading a classic, I was disappointed. That may be due to my memory magnifyThis is a second reading for my neighborhood book club, and, for once in rereading a classic, I was disappointed. That may be due to my memory magnifying the significance of certain aspects of the book and transcending what is actually there. But there's also the matter of Sydney Carton, the most fascinating character in the novel, with whom I became a bit impatient . . . (view spoiler)[G. K. Chesterton, in his introduction, is very deflationary about Carton's nobility, noting he has a bad habit he can't lick. In more modern terms, he's an alcoholic nursing his inferiority rather than finding means to pull himself out of it. Instead, he ardently seeks an opportunity to heroically sacrifice his life as the only way to redeem himself. Am I going a bit too far? He does, of course, become a splendid hero who will richly deserve the kudos he receives in heaven.
Conversely, I appreciated Charles Darnay's heroism much more this time around. It would have been so easy to rationalize not returning to France to almost certain persecution in order to prevent a servant of his old estate from taking the rap for his disappearance. (hide spoiler)]...more
The Removers is my third Matt Helm novel and the best so far. The cover blurbs call it "a tense and often cruel story . . . brutal and very good . . .The Removers is my third Matt Helm novel and the best so far. The cover blurbs call it "a tense and often cruel story . . . brutal and very good . . .". So it is, but it's Helm's wry first-person narrative and his ambivalence about being a spy that make this series distinctive. Plus Hamilton has a structure that maximizes suspense down pat. There are none of the doldrums that crop up even in James Bond novels; you're on a roller coaster to the end.
I notice also that with this series Hamilton veered away from a more sober focus on the human condition that characterized earlier, non-series works, The Steel Mirror predominantly, but even more standard thrillers like Date with Darkness and Night Walker. Also The Big Country, if it's anything like the movie with Gregory Peck. I'm wondering if he ever regained any of that in later works. We'll see....more
Spectacularly virtuoso in its complex plot development abstracted from character development, and so closely analogous to a magic trick. Quite enjoyabSpectacularly virtuoso in its complex plot development abstracted from character development, and so closely analogous to a magic trick. Quite enjoyable, even if a bit too long. At several points you think you're losing the thread of understanding what's going on, but because Rawson followed through on working out all the details, you never really lose your footing. ...more
One of Christie's wonderfully ingenious, surprising detective thrillers. I read it many years ago and recall not particularly liking it. Probably not One of Christie's wonderfully ingenious, surprising detective thrillers. I read it many years ago and recall not particularly liking it. Probably not mature enough. I was in awe, this time, at her skill in character development, and Poirot shines, both as detective and life coach. The denouement was particularly satisfying, evolving logically from the plot; not the stilted, compartmentalized affair it so often is. Really good!...more
This is a pulp-type mystery, with very little attention given to characterization, but full of action, plot twists and snappy dialogue. It's interestiThis is a pulp-type mystery, with very little attention given to characterization, but full of action, plot twists and snappy dialogue. It's interesting to contrast it with, say, an Agatha Christie. Sustaining the forward motion of a plot for a whole novel is a feat seldom achieved; there are inevitable lulls for exposition and transitions. Christie fills them with interesting character development which (when she's at her best) dovetails with the mystery plot. The pulp mystery doesn't have that option, and so the lulls are dull unless the author can come up with something else of interest. Clayton Rawson does fairly well with asides on the art of prestidigitation and the various argots of circus workers and criminals which he does manage to make relevant to the action.
The one exception to the low level of characterization is the great Merlini, a superb detective: awe-inspiring in his feats of ratiocination and magic, and personable and witty to boot. The sequence where he and his sidekick are arrested for the murder and must figure out a way to escape is a very exciting high point....more
As a John Dickson Carr fan I of course had to try one of Paul Halter's. I found this one very skillfully wrought and quite enjoyable, though the charaAs a John Dickson Carr fan I of course had to try one of Paul Halter's. I found this one very skillfully wrought and quite enjoyable, though the characters weren't as credible as Carr's usually are. I will probably sample one more, hoping it to be better. ...more
One must accept a memoir on its own terms; it's not primarily a story crafted to create an effect or convey a theme, but an exploration of something tOne must accept a memoir on its own terms; it's not primarily a story crafted to create an effect or convey a theme, but an exploration of something that occurred. I found A Severe Mercy at times verbose, repetitive and self-indulgent, but recognized Vanauken's genuine effort (or record of a past effort) to figure out the significance of events before and after his wife's death. He insightfully tackles questions about the nature of love and grief, and the involvement of God in our lives. The letters from his friend C. S. Lewis are integral to the questions he seeks to answer. I was moved, and his experience is now part of mine....more
Very good, though Miss Brand is too fast and loose with possible motives. When the actual culprit is revealed (after too many feints), one thinks, "OhVery good, though Miss Brand is too fast and loose with possible motives. When the actual culprit is revealed (after too many feints), one thinks, "Oh, okay; she chose that motive," but others would have served as well. The denouement engenders no satisfying sense of inevitability. That being said, Charlesworth is a delightful detective and his tortured ratiocination generates quite a bit of enjoyable puzzlement and suspense. The love interest is well integrated into the plot, adding to the qualities mentioned above....more
I was disappointed that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is not "almost as gloomy as a novel by Dostoyevski," as claimed by Anita Loos in her introduction, "TI was disappointed that Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is not "almost as gloomy as a novel by Dostoyevski," as claimed by Anita Loos in her introduction, "The Biography of a Book." The heroine, Lorelei Lee, is certainly on the road to considerable gloom, but her life of exploiting her male exploiters is used by the author for satirical purposes from a feminist perspective. Lorelei's life as a gold-digger itself is satirized. It reminds me in an odd way of Nabokov's Lolita which also transforms a gloomy life into uproarious satire. But even there Humbert Humbert does eventually face his dismal reality; Lorelei never does. And so it remains an effervescent period piece....more
Both stories, written, I would guess, for the pulps, were good, the second ("The Black Cross") being the better of the two. This story featured a moviBoth stories, written, I would guess, for the pulps, were good, the second ("The Black Cross") being the better of the two. This story featured a moving portrayal of a man forced to come to terms with a former fiancee he had jilted after his wife is murdered. It's psychological astuteness reminded me a bit of what I consider Hamilton's masterpiece, The Steel Mirror....more
There is one good story in this collection called "Blood Sacrifice." Its climax (view spoiler)[is the protagonist's minute examination of his own psycThere is one good story in this collection called "Blood Sacrifice." Its climax (view spoiler)[is the protagonist's minute examination of his own psyche after he's committed a crime--or has he? What comes to light is the ability to hide our innermost motives even from ourselves; the problem being it can't be done completely. Light keeps seeping in through the cracks. It sent chills of recognition up my spine. (hide spoiler)] The two Peter Wimsey stories pass muster, especially "Absolutely Elsewhere," and the Montague Egg stories are very enjoyable, mainly because of his character and endless quoting from his Salesman's Handbook. The rest are well-told--you'll definitely want to finish them--but with uniformly weak endings....more
This is a sequel to what was heretofore my favorite Percy novel, The Last Gentleman. Now The Second Coming is, but partly because it builds upon the tThis is a sequel to what was heretofore my favorite Percy novel, The Last Gentleman. Now The Second Coming is, but partly because it builds upon the themes begun in the earlier novel. Percy is second only to Flannery O'Connor in writing about the need for God, not as Christian dogma, but as a palpable fact of human nature....more
I reread Robinson Crusoe through the lens of a course I'm taking which examines the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant. The I reread Robinson Crusoe through the lens of a course I'm taking which examines the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and Kant. The idea of a contract between prospective citizens and their ruler is usually conceived figuratively as a thought experiment which reveals the nature of political relationships. But in this novel it really happens when Crusoe, who only half jokingly considers himself king and owner of his island, submits two unconditional terms for future dealings to a representative of his newfound comrades. First, they must agree to be "Directed and Commanded by me in every thing" (very Hobbesian, that), and, second, he and Friday are to be transported to England "Passage free" when they are able to leave the island. He thus very wisely provides for the inevitable time when he will not be ruler (something Charles I of England omitted to do). His conditions are agreed to, and thus a band of comrades thrown together by fate is transformed into a commonwealth--a tadpole of Hobbes' Leviathan.
So, with Robinson Crusoe as my inspiration, I conjecture such a pact occurred in history whenever a group perceived the need of an agreement making civil relationships possible when familial and fraternal bonds were strained to the limit....more
Ignorance of science is one of the unfortunate gaps in my education which this book did a lot to fill in. Weisskopf was one of the leading scientists Ignorance of science is one of the unfortunate gaps in my education which this book did a lot to fill in. Weisskopf was one of the leading scientists of the 20th century and a very good writer. He successfully conveys the wonder of the micro and macro structures of the universe, and isn't reluctant to concede how much we don't know. Though the 2nd edition was written way back in 1966, his depth of understanding and obvious excitement about the material more than make up for the lack of up-to-date information. I'll catch up with that in another book. Meanwhile, I've been introduced to a marvelous person, and am now reading his autobiography, The Joy of Insight....more
Loading...
