TPM Summer Reading
This week, I've asked all TPM staffers to write a brief post about what their summer reading picks are. This seems especially fitting today, when a federal court review on alleged enemy combatants at Gitmo used a Lewis Carroll reference to make a crucial point in the ruling:
The judges compared the argument to the logic in Carroll's nonsense poem. The Bellman lead his crew across the ocean, guided by a map that was just a blank piece of paper. He rallied and reassured his crew simply by repeat himself.It's a dark comparison. But Lewis Carroll's writing-- the opposite of a blank piece of paper in more ways than one-- can serve as a real map in times like these."I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true," the Bellman says in the poem.
"Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has 'said it thrice' does not make an allegation true," the court wrote.
So, without further delay, my top summer picks.
I'm half way through Atmospheric Disturbances, by Rivka Glachen. The story follows the course of a New York psychiatrist who becomes convinced his wife has been replaced by a simulacrum. He travels to South America, madness ensues. Mystery, the twinge of the scientific unknown, and the relentless drip of fading love-- perfect beach material.
Consider: "Are you seeing someone?" she [the alleged simulacrum] then asked, which struck me as funny, because there are so few people in the world that I like even a little bit."
In further magical misanthrope reading: Lolly Willowes or The Loving Hunstman by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Think Jane Austin meets Joss Whedon meets H.P. Lovecraft. I've read this one a couple of times before. It's great feminist literature-- about a woman who sheds the demands of cloying English society and follows her own twisting path-- and a unique perspective on some old questions (the Loving Huntsman in the title is referring to the Devil.) I also plan on dipping into a new-ish book by Yuichi Yokoyama, Yuichi Yokoyama: New Engineering, a graphic novelist who's equal parts Sol LeWitt, J.G. Ballard and William Blake.
I am on my second reading of Notorious in the Neighborhood by Joshua D. Rothman. It is an exploration of the social dynamics during the antebellum period in the South. I think it is an excellent resource for understanding the context of Loving v. Virginia circa 1967.
In the last couple of nights I really could not put the book down even though I previously read it. There is something to be said about savoring the moment. So I would only read a few pages and then put it down so I could read and enjoy it the next evening. All I can say is this part of the book has to do with someone being set on fire, incest and whether the State of Virginia was going to punish by death the persons responsible for the fire which killed the person committing the incest. It is so twisted and wrapped around the arbitrary notion of race. This book changed my perspective on colonial America.
The second book on my list was just published by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The press release says Forgotten Patriots isn't so much a narrative as much as it is fact with some stories about African and Native Americans who served during the Revolutionary War.
I think I will read Joseph Ellis' "Founding Brothers" again because it was so good the first time.
I will also finish Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton. I am on page 173.
I have Dark Bargain by Lawrence Gladstone to finish and to start My Face is Black is True by Mary Francis Berry
June 30, 2008 7:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Genius of America: how the Constitution saved our country--and why it can again / Eric Lane and Michael Oreskes
The Napoleon of crime : the life and times of Adam Worth, master thief / Ben Macintyre... THIS man was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's model for Professor Moriarty!
The Golf Omnibus/ P.G. Wodehouse...non-golfers welcome
June 30, 2008 8:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
. . . a New York psychiatrist who becomes convinced his wife has been replaced by a simulacrum.
And does he, ultimately, come to realize that it is, per Baudrillard, the simulacrum which is the true wife?
June 30, 2008 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well... I haven't finished it yet, but I have a feeling that may be where it's headed.
June 30, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm intrigued -- and meant to ask . . . .
Does anyone agree with the husband's observation that his wife is a simulacrum? What does the husband think happened to the real wife?
Assuming the husband finds the simulacrum to be less appealing than his recollection of the appeal of his real wife -- and maybe, he doesn't -- what, if any, actions does he take to destroy the simulacrum?
Who created this particular wife-simulacrum? The culture? society? the couple's friends and acquaintances? the husband?
June 30, 2008 10:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who created this particular wife-simulacrum? The culture? society? the couple's friends and acquaintances? the husband?
I haven't seen the book, but I already suspect the husband psychiatrist's poorly monitored, overly anti-psychotics medicated patients of this fiendish scheme! Some of them may have felt they'd been 'messed with' more than necessary ...
July 1, 2008 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
If we're going along with Baudrillard, Ellen, there would be no "real wife" at all. In "Simulacra", B defines it as "the endless replication of something that has no original."
July 1, 2008 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
which would hint at the likelihood of one of the shrink's patients, in a quirky transference glitch, confusing him into believing that she's actually his wife, even though he's never been married ...
July 1, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably the book's on sale somewhere, Ellen. Try the internets!
June 30, 2008 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
This might help her http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&qi=i2ac2xeNd2YbGp1xzj3snfU63hA_0391637463_1:18:1098&bq=author%3Drivka%2520galchen%26title%3Datmospheric%2520disturbances
July 1, 2008 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lila, you are just way too deep for me. :
I mean that as a high compliment, BTW. Looking forward to reading more from you.
July 1, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, this has been deep, a little too deep for me.
Let's kick it down a notch. In anticipation of the release of THE DARK KNIGHT, I plan to be re-reading BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland (the art by Bolland is fantastic). This story is the semi-definitive origin of the Joker, and in its own way a tragic tale. I also want to re-read BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, from which I understand a good deal of the new movie is inspired.
After that, I've got HELLBOY, Volume 1 on its way from Amazon. I've never read the books, and for years thought Mike Mignola was a terrible artist. Flipping through his work on Hellboy has changed my mind. I think inking his own work has a lot to do with it...that and breaking away from Marvel.
But we've also got a campaign coming up. I just finished WHAT HAPPENED By Puffy McMoon--eerrr, Scott McClellan, which in its own poor written way, was veerrry illuminating about the Press Corps. I'm also wading my way through POWER, FAITH and FANTASY by Michael Oren about the history of the U.S.'s involvement in the Middle East. Good stuff. If anything, it's enhanced my enjoyment of the recent John Adams Miniseries on HBO.
After that, I've got YOUR GOVERNMENT FAILED YOU by Richard Clarke standing by. I want to read about the challenges (and possible solutions) facing the next President. And if I have the strength, I want to finally read TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Goodwin. I think it'll be good to see how someone so new to Washington can build a Presidency, and an immortal one at that.
July 1, 2008 8:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
admiralmpj, I'm so right there with you. I actually just purchased a copy of The Absolute Dark Knight, which I plan on reading over 4th of July weekend. So excited about this movie.
July 2, 2008 9:44 AM | Reply | Permalink