The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe - Marija Gimbutas

Subtitled "Myths and Cult Images"

This is an overview of ceramic decoration and various cult figures produced in pre Indo-european Europe in the late Neolothic period.  The artifacts are arranged by ritual functions, goddess and god myths or religious roles.

The decorative art work on the ceramics is spectacular.

I find it an interesting book for several reasons:

1)  The image Gimbutas creates of  a pre Indo-european culture and society built on very different grounds from the social structures and arts of the warrior culture of the Indo-european newcomers.

2)  The fact that some of the mythology, gods and goddesses and totemic animals survive even into Greek culture, especially in their drama - animal characters, performance with masks.  Greek culture than seems to occupy an intermediary position between this very ancient world and the european culture that grew out the the renaissance rediscovery of the Ancient Greeks.

3)  It is interesting to see mythical or symbolic or totemic thinking behind some of the images and cult figures from that time period.  It is striking how grounded in daily experience of the world this type of thinking is - so different from rational, linear, causal thinking.  Almost a "sideways" kind of thinking.  The purpose of this kind of thinking doesn't seem to be power and control so much as recognition of and participation in larger cycles or forces.
At first it seemed to me that we have largely lost this way of thinking but in fact it has just changed realms - from religion and the big unfolding of life, to consumerism.  Our myths are lifestyle myths; our cult priests and priestesses are celebrities, and our totemic figures and symbolic decorations are our purchases that allow us to identify with the myth, partake of it in some small way.  (Interesting how even such  longstanding human basic psychological process or structure can be coopted by the consumer society and the drive for profit...)

Gimbutas also has another book on this period that focuses on fleshing out more fully the life, religion and society of these Old Europe peoples.

Les désorientés - Amin Maalouf

Un roman à idées, alors ce n'est pas une lecture qui vous entraine, mais un livre intéressant quand même.  Maalouf explore les identités d'un groupe d'amis du Liban d'avant la période de conflits quand il y existait une vie intercommunautaire.  Il examine les réactions et réflexions communautaires et individuelles de ces amis qui viennent de tous les groupes ethniques et religieux du pays.  Il explore les divers effets de l'emigration sur les amis tant que l'effet des conflits sur ceux qui finissent par rester au Liban.  Subtil et bien réfléchi, et intéressant pour quelqu'un qui connait un peu cette histoire et qui suit les développements actuels.

Basic Arabic Grammar - Waheed Sammy and Leila Samy

Well laid out grammar with at least some answers to exercises.  Might be better used with a teacher.

- from TPL

Origins - Amin Maalouf

Not a particularly gripping read, but an entertaining account of his attempt to trace and discover something of his family's past.  The sections where he traces down a branch of his family in Cuba is quite interesting.

From this book, you get a sense of how quickly the particular is forgotten or mythologized, and how quickly the world changes, wiping out all traces of the past.  Kind of like looking down at your life from the moon - hardly visible, and of no importance.

In the Name of Identity - Amin Maalouf

An discussion of the nature of identity.  Some interesting points, others too idealistic to ever happen.

He presents an interesting analysis of the types of situations and events that lead people to simplify and narrow their identity to one or two overriding elements of what is normally a complex web of identities.  It is interesting that the dehumanization of ones own self precedes the dehumanizing of other groups in society which are then vilified as the Other.  In a sense you also become Other in that situation.

Early in the book he also analyses complexities of his own identity from familial to national to cultural to professional.

While he makes some comments about the evolution of Muslim extremism and the rise of the exclusive Muslim identity, he wisely avoids this minefield - which is any case, in a country like Lebanon, can be turned against lots of other religious and ethnic groups also.

Under One Roof: Lessons I Learned from a Tough Old Woman in a Little Old House - Barry Martin

An entertaining read.  Written to be popular.  The story of Barry's adoption of this isolated aging woman is inspiring.  What is valuable in this book is the different view he presents of ageing and the aged.  The dignity and respect he grants her is a real gift, one that should be given more often.  He also has some interesting things to say about dealing with the challenges of Alzheimer's.   Funny too, given that it is in the U.S. but there are also some points to consider around the "Nanny State", and the arrogance of experts.

Regeneration - Pat Barker

Barker's skill as a writer shows in her ability to take a story in which nothing much really happens on the surface, and still lead you through an excellent read.  The story is set in a rehab hospital for shell shock during the last year or so of WW I.   Why does it work?  It is based on real events - some of the characters are famous people from the time.  In the flashbacks of some of the patients there are some scenes of the kind of ugly, senseless violence typical of WW I.  There is some sex. She is very good at evoking the feel of the times - society, class relations, models of personal interaction.

While it is largely a critical examination of class and British society during the war period, there are also some interesting bits that go beyond the book.
The book brought to mind "Three Day Road" by Boyden, as a contrast.  Rather than a direct social critique, Boyden's book puts the war within the context of the native myth of the man-eating Windigo.  This is a critique of western society in a larger or deeper sense, moving beyond social tinkering to questioning the whole underlying modus operandi - a society that eats its own young.  This myth-based confrontation can even be extended beyond the specifics of the War to our way of being in general; capitalism as a Windigo model.

The most interesting part for me is when the main character, the head doctor, recounts an experience he has working as an anthropologist in New Guinea.  He has been questioning the locals about social and kinship relations, but then they turn the same questions back on him.  They are amazed and astounded by his account of European social and kin relationships, find them ridiculously hilarious and absurd.  This has the effect of unseating the anthropologist's deep, unconscious culturo-centric attitude of European superiority, of Europe and the West as.."the measure of all things" or something to that effect.  This is a profound thought, but on the margins of the book.

Restless - William Boyd

An unsuspected reread.  Didn't realize it until some time in the second chapter.  A quirky enough plot   so I couldn't remember the progression, though I did roughly remember the end.

A very good read, but I'm not sure what to make of this one.  A bit Le Carre-esque in that it deals with the world of spies and international intrigue.  Perhaps some kind of reflection on the famous double agent period of English secret service history?  I almost wonder if it isn't also some kind of style exercise just to show he can write a damn good espionage novel too.  Definitely not a reflection on truth, good and human values, like Le Carre's work.  In part a reflection on the unknowable other - Hamid, the German girl, the brother-in-law all at some point seeming tied to secret political organizations, but in fact not - or even the opposite.  The mother herself - how can you not know your own mother?  How can she be other?
Also somehow a reflection on the fleetingness of life, its provisionality.  The invented selves, the masks, the hovering threat of everything "going away" as he mentions in several contexts.  The uncertainty of identity.  At least for some people.
Within the book there are also the regular folks - the police officer, her own father, the "stupid people" according to the lead male character and chief spy.  At least some of them - the father, Hamid - seem to stand as some kind of refuge, a haven.

Not Even My Name - Thea Halo

A moving account of  the life of Thea Halo's mother, a Pontic refugee from Turkey driven out in the 1920s.  The story is bookended by their modern day attempt to track down and revisit her mother's native village in the mountains on the Pontic shore.

An interesting read for several reasons:

The contrast between the political experience of a group like the Pontic Greeks in the early century, and the day to day experiences both at the time of Thea's mother's childhood and of their recent return to Turkey - both experiences feature Turks as important actors but it presents such a contrast of indifferent evil on one hand, and kindness and empathy on the other.  How does this happen?  What does this say about a society that it can show both of these attitudes, play both of these roles?  Is it something in human nature?  Is it something in the nature of society - us vs. them at times, us together at times?  Is it a comment on particular, personal vs. generic, theoretical experience of the Other?

What does it do to a dominant society when it has to work so hard to deny and cover up its past?  To concoct alternative false narratives and broadcast them far and wide?  To the point of looking foolish, ridiculous?  What does it do to the inner dynamic of the society itself?  Does it stunt the society's ability to reason, to come to grips with reality in other ways?  Does it leave the society vulnerable to oligarchy?  Evil?  Again, is it human nature or political man at the heart of this?  Turkey is not alone here - many societies live like this, including Canada, the US, Israel, Japan, Russia.  What does it mean to live a fiction so totally?

It is hard to imagine the state of Thea's mother when she arrives in the US.  It is hard to imagine the level of destitution she had been reduced to - essentially the loss of everything tangible and intangible.  A life teetering on the edge of invisibility, of nonexistence.  Loss of home, loss of all family, loss of all community, loss of name, loss of any material good save the clothes on her back. loss of mother tongue.  No sense of belonging anywhere or to anyone.  Loss of way of life, but replaced only by the experience of suffering - no knowledge of any life outside the old one.
Then picture so many of the immigrants to the US at that time, all coming from a similar level of habitual destitution or similar loss.  Surely that has some effect on the shaping of a society, its understanding and its values.   Surely this goes some way towards explaining the difference between the Old World and the New World in the early and middle 20th century.

Stories like this continue in the Middle East even today (and other parts of the world too) - Syria, Palestine, Iraq, eastern Turkey.  Still on the same bases - ethnic and religious difference, the vulnerability of minorities.  You can read some of these stories in the book recently posted, Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms.

Some references:

Smyrna 1922:  The Destruction of a City, M. Housepian - Tor Ref.

The Slaughterhouse Province, Leslie Davis - Tor Ref.

The Blight of Asia, George Horton ??

Ambassador Morgenthau's Story - Henry Mortenthau - Tor. Ref.

Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms - Gerard Russell

Subtitled "Journeys into the Disappearing Religions of the Middle East".

An interesting account of the author's exploration and contacts with several ancient religions now in the process of disappearing in their homelands.  He includes some history of the region, and the religious and political conflicts as well as an historical view of the various religions themselves.  His accounts of personal meetings and experiences are also interesting, although sometimes I wish he would include more of what he learned or experiences and less of the how and what of the meetings.

Religions he looks at are:

Mandeans - Iraq, especially the south and the marshes area; latter day Manicheans of sorts.

Yazidis - Turkey, Syria, Iraq

Zoroastrians

Druze - elect priestly cast; most members know almost nothing of their religion and beliefs strangely;     more a community and collection of traditions for most than a religion

Samaritans - a pre-Talmudic Jewish sect; very ancient; very small - currently about 800 followers

Copts

Kalasha - Afghanistan - like the Druze in that most members know almost nothing about the religion; a priestly cast; more of a tradition and community for most

In the introduction he mentions how some of these religions offer glimpses of an older way of conceiving and living religion, and I can see that in the ones that have esoteric knowledge, initiation and a closed priestly cast.  What is also interesting about them, is how hard a time they have when the followers are no longer a tight, small community but a diaspora of exiles and refugees.  They don't have the open structure and generalized knowledge that allows them to continue in this sort of scattered situation.

In the Epilogue, he looks at some of these communities in the United States.  He, and several people he interviews, mention how this exile from the homeland can often strengthen someone's practice and adherence as way of shoring up identity in this new foreign environment.  The religion becomes more  of a vehicle for maintaining social and personal identity, as well as cultural values.

A list for further reading at the end of the book.

The Mandeans of Iraq and Iran - E S Drowser
The Secret Adam - E S Drowser
Chronology of Ancient Nations - Biruni (AD 1000)
Year Amongst the Persians - Browne
The Turban for the Crown:  The Islamic Revolution in Iran - Said Amir Arjomand

Life is Elsewhere - Milan Kundera

A reread.  Life is Elsewhere - kind of a critique of 19th and 20th century lyricism, which includes both romanticism and surrealism.  One of the points Kundera is making in this book is that communism falls into the same camp, which is an interesting observation.  Why is it there?  With lyricism, it shares the simplistic black and white analysis of people and society.  It shares the idealization of the "struggle".  It shares a belief in "elsewhere", in the future, in some idealized version of reality which we must move towards.
Interesting that he should make this point in the 70's - I believe John Gray makes similar observations  in some his books I've read recently.  Gray makes the point of locating both capitalism and communism within the post-Christian cultural history of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries.

As usual, he shows his deep, critical understanding of the writers and cultural movements of Europe and the West

I suspect Kundera feels more affinity with the Enlightenment period, the period of Montaigne.  I will have to reread some of his later work to check this out.

Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter

More of a Magic Realism novel than her other book, Infernal Desire Machines of Dr. Hoffmann.  I finished it but it was touch and go - to be fair, Magic Realism is not my favourite style.  Nor is the gothic imagination for that matter, and her style is also definitely gothic (true of her short stories also, of which I read a few lately).  Gothic, macabre, larger than life, fantasiste - all words that can apply.  For me, the problem is these elements tend to outweigh or replace the drive of a good narrative - which you still see in Infernal Desire Machines. The books seems to wander from one thing to the next with out much of a real progression, and then suddenly there you are at the end.  Almost a dreamlike structure in the narrative.

Body Count - Barbara Nadel

Another mystery set in Istanbul.  A lot of it takes place in and around Tarlabaşı.  The underlying Turkish social issues in this one are gentrification and its effect on gypsies and other minorities living currently in Istanbul. It brings in the current issue of urban renewal in Tarlabaşı and the failed  relocation of the gypsy community when their properties in Sulukule were expropriated for development.  This book also brings in the surviving Osmanlı community that can trace their roots to the Ottoman dynasty, and the current attempt to whitewash and revive interest in the Ottoman Empire and ruling family by the AKP and other conservative elements in Turkish society.

Nadel obviously knows Turkey and keeps up with current social and political issues.

Ordinary Thunderstorms - William Boyd

A man witnesses a crime, panics, and disappears into the big city of London.  This book is, in part, a look at how people disappear in a modern western society.  The main character disappears deliberately - essentially a withdrawal from every aspect of modern middle class life (home, cell phone, bank card, job, identity papers, altered appearance and even moral sense to a certain degree).  But it is also a look at how large groups of people disappear or are invisible in modern society, as the main character ends up living with the marginalized of our world - immigrants, sex workers, drug addicts, petty criminals, illegal aliens, nutters.
There is also a thread about rebuilding a life, and a look at the real essentials:  shelter, work, relationship, and how minimal the essential actually is.

The political/industrial juggernaut also has role, with a look at the meeting of the political, criminal and corporate world in the pharma industry complex.  This is what lies behind the crime that the main character witnesses, and what he finds himself up against when he disappears.

A good read.  Boyd is always interesting.  If I had to characterize his fiction, I would say each book focuses in on one or two of the soft underbelly spots, the points of rot, that are the hidden side of modern politics and society.  His stuff is worth rereading.

A Noble Killing - Barbara Nadel

Another novel by Nadel set in Istanbul.  Well-written.  This time the underlying social issue is honour killings, with some relation to gentrification issues.  A good read.

River of the Dead - Barbara Nadel

Another Barbara Nadel mystery set in Turkey.  While a lot of the book takes place in Istanbul as usual, a good part of the plot unfolds in the southeast of Turkey - Antep, Mardin and places in between.  The plot is centred on the drug transit trade through Turkey from points further east, and it's  a tight, convoluted plot as usual.  Better written than some of her earlier work.

This book is well-researched as usual, and brings up some interesting cultural elements peculiar to the south-east.  It highlights the complex cultural mix of Kurds, Turks, Suriani, Jews and Armenians that once existed there - mainly through observations about architecture and history - sounds like this area would be an interesting place to visit from that point of view.
There is also a glimpse into the clan and family structure that seems to dominate society there, with identifying tattoos for each clan.
Then there is this whole snake goddess cult thing called the Shameran, which apparently crosses ethnic and religious lines.  On Wikipedia, this cult is traced back to ancient Crete, where the earliest images of a goddess holding two snakes in her hand were found.   This suggests both an unusual cultural affinity and ancient historical continuity worth exploring further.

Al Jazeera means "the Island" and for some groups in the area, this is what they call the great Syrian Plain.  Another name for this area is "the ocean".

The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes

Another sharp novel of social observation by Julian Barnes.  He sketches a set of characters and then develops a moment of serious drama in their interaction.  The real heart of the novel, though, is the main character's slow attempt to understand the true nature of this drama that plays out between them.  As the main character narrates the story, it is really a novel about personal history and recollection, and how memory distorts, edits and rewrites the past - and always from a single, personal point of view.

In the first half of the book, the main character creates a fairly comfortable picture of his past and his fellow characters.  In the second half of the book, his whole story explodes and crumbles as others' points of view, and even his own forgotten personal actions, resurface and confront him.

His points can be expanded to the study of history in general, and there are comments related to this in sections where some of the main characters are in history class early on.

Interestingly, there seems to be a suspension of judgement upon the main characters, especially the two main ones.  You want to judge them, especially the main female character, but the author just doesn't go there.  Even the details of the main drama remain sketchy and not quite clear, I think to keep the main focus of the book on this theme of personal history and our edited stories of self.

Bread and Ashes: A Walk Through the Mountains of Georgia - Tony Anderson

A bit of a mix as a book.  Some good personal recollections of landscapes, people and places, mixed with a fair bit of anecdotal history from the ancient and recent past.  In describing his experiences and journeys, I find his personal point of view a bit too loud at times - too much judgement, too much commentary, not enough description or facts.  Particularly noticeable in the section on traveling in Eastern Turkey's former Georgian region.
He does present a clear picture of Georgian society and what it is like to travel in that context, if it hasn't changed in the past 10 years or so.

Most of the travels seem to have taken place in the 90s - I wonder how much it has changed since then?

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Last time I read this book was probably almost 40 years ago...

The story is very prescient, especially considering it was written in 1953.  His vision is somewhat similar to Orwell's and Huxley's but the basis of control is completely different - the elimination of social conflict through homogenization of society.  The primacy of "fun" as a method of social control.  Turns out this model is much closer to the direction of American society than the other two.  Orwell and Huxley reflect more the drift of the Soviet state and its satellite states.

Bradbury is a brilliant writer.  Not quite sure how, but he is.  In just a few simple sentences he seems to be able to express the essence of a character, a situation, a place.  You can see it in your mind's eye.
I must try some of his fantasy/science fiction works.

Masterpieces of Islamic art : the decorated page from the 8th to the 17th century - Oleg Grabar

An excellent collection of large colour reproductions.  Well worth tracking down.  With a magnifying glass, you can examine the amazing details in these works.

My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

This being the second or third time I've read this book, I can say you don't really appreciate the charm of it until you get past the rather convoluted and sketchy storyline.  The real charm of it is 1) the evocation in small details of historical Istanbul, its neighbourhoods and people  2) the information and reflections on the the nature, history and working methods of Islamic illuminated manuscripts  3) the subtle discussion of the push and pull of West and East in Turkish history (and modern Turkey).  He tries to portray a world view, a way of thinking, that is essentially lost.

A book to reread while leafing through a good collection of Islamic miniatures - it gives a new perspective on the paintings.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Very well-written book with some unusual elements:
- set in WWII in Germany, just outside Munich, but most of the characters are poor Germans
- a look at the survivors of Nazism within German society itself
- the Jewish theme comes in, but in an unusual way
- the narrator is Death

Turns out it is actually a young-adult book.  Some of those seem to be the best fiction around these days, from the "good story" point of view.

Tenth of December - George Saunders

See other books by same author.

Of the books by Saunders I have read, this is the one that held me the least.  Some of the stories were hard to get through, and the last one I just could not finish.  A bit dreary as a read.  If there is humour, it is very dark.  I felt at times he was pounding the point he was making a bit too hard and long.

Scottish Imprints in Quebec - Ray Baillie

An interesting book with text and photos looking at the Scottish influence and traces of Scottish life and architecture in Quebec.  There are sections on many areas I have visited, including Scotstown, Murray Bay, Eastern Townships, Montreal and Quebec city.
Many interesting vignettes about buildings, farms, names, people.  There is even a small section on the MacMorine farm in Kingsbury and a photo of Uncle Ian.

The Highland Clearances - Eric Richards

A clear-eyed look at the history of Clearances in the Scottish Highlands from the late 1700s to late 1800s.   Richards has a different approach from other accounts that I have read, a historian's approach, relying on contemporary accounts, reports, newspaper articles and also the accounts and papers of a few of the larger estates at the time (a relatively recently available source).

Richards creates a much more complex picture by looking, not only at the human drama and suffering, but also at the economics driving the whole process.  When you consider the evidence he brings in about the economic condition of the large estates at the time, there seems to be a certain inevitability about the whole thing.  Most estates were both overpopulated given the farming resources, and producing very low returns.  Many traditional landholders in fact went bankrupt at that time and their estates were sold off.  

The book also places the Clearances in a larger historical context where you see a number of interesting points to consider.  At the time, the Highland social and economic structure was a mix of tribal and almost feudal landlord/tenant relations.  This social structure was in conflict with the newly evolving capitalist social and economic structure which was beginning to produce much more wealth (for property holders and investors at that time) than the old arrangement possibly could.  The Highlands were stuck in that premodern period where wealth was measured in land, not capital.  Like every other society that comes in conflict with the capitalist structure, it proves impossible to stop or resist.   The Clearances are in part a story of the emergence of the modern world, and come early in the process given that England was the country where modern capitalism was born.  

Richards points out that this is a process that continues today in countries where there are still peasants.  Like all social change, it is very disruptive as it works itself out.

There is a good bibliography in the back that has some material worth pursuing.

The Highland Clearances - John Prebble

A detailed and dramatic account of  about 100 years of Highland Clearances.  The book covers them by both date and region.  It mentions many of the main characters, (who are mostly landlords and their agents as there were very few notable people who raised their voice against the clearances; it was mostly the little nameless people who fought their own evictions).  There is some attention to the economic background of the Clearances and the changing situation of the large clan chiefs/landowners, but by and large the landowners, both Scottish and English, are portrayed as greedy and heartless - which is a fair portrayal when you start considering the details and human experience of the Clearances.

This book raises some interesting larger issues.

First, the Clearances seem to have occurred right at a time when modern capitalism was taking shape in England.  One of the important ground rules was around ownership of resources whatever they might be.  The owner of a property was free to do what he pleased with it, regardless of its effect on society at large and those immediately around him.  I suspect this is the first naked formulation of man as a stand-alone being, separate and independent of the social context in which he lives.  He is neither owed nothing nor owes anything - except of course as dictated by the Law, which you clearly see here gamed for the owners benefit.  An excellent example of how Law and morality, or even human decency, can be diametrically opposed to each other.
Interestingly, one of the critics of the Clearances at the time was Swiss, and he noted how the legal system in Switzerland would never allow such rampant disregard for social fall-out by owners and  holders of large capital.  Their legal system recognized some kind of mutual relationship between peasants and landowners.

You also see the ancient link between organized religion and power, with local ministers and priests preaching submission to the Law above all even in the face of their personal experience of the misery the Clearances caused.  But this is an old story common to many cultures.

I wonder if you can also see this Clearance experience as a first trial run of colonialism that later spread throughout the British Empire and other European powers' holding.   Perhaps Ireland was even earlier - I will have to read up on it.  The Clearances as a model.  If this is the case, then you can see what a strong influence early English capitalism had on shaping the western capitalist model that has dominated.

There is also the issue of clashes of world views.  The Highlands lived in a premodern capitalist society where the main cultural values were family and clan reputation, relationship with the ancestral land, and a net of stories and histories in which the present nestles (not to say that people actually lived that way - this was life's backdrop, backstage scenery against which life was played).  After Culloden, the Scottish nobility encountered an English elite where money, wealth and consumption had already become the paramount social values, and where the earlier worldview had become a source for romantic dreaming and fantasy escapism (ie. Sir Walter Scott).

Also to note that the Highland people were essentially a mountain people and in some ways there struggle is similar to what has gone on, and still goes on, in the Caucasus with those mountain peoples.  The Caucasus people have also maintained forgotten or marginalized languages, and kept those values of a tribal warrior society - valour, honour, attachment to the land.

Another interesting question - how historical, place-centred, story driven identity is transformed into a personal mythology that functions as a form of entertainment and self-aggrandizement grafted onto an essentially consumerist, essentially hollow personal identity that has no awareness of the past and dreams only of future riches and material goods.

Interesting quote:

"The Highlander's soul lives in the clan and family traditions of the past, the legends of the ingle, the songs of the bards.  The master-idea of the English mind - the idea of Business - has not dawned on this soul, has not developed its peculiar virtues in his character.  He is loyal but not punctual, honest but not systematic.  The iron genius of economical improvements he know not and heeds not."

                          - from John Roberston, journalist, 1840s

This concept of economic improvement, increasing the value of the land and its products but with total disregard for the people who actually live on the land - rather like GDP growth and its relation to eating and paying ones bills; the two are not necessarily related.  Depends on who's at the receiving end of the "improvements".

Another peculiar parallel is to the way the Native People were treated in Canada and the U.S.  Their land was considered unused and, though communally held, seen as owned by no one.  They were cleared from their land and left in squalid conditions.  They too came from  culture and worldview that was considered worthless, inferior and in need of 'improvement".  The real irony is that the Scottish immigrants (among others) essentially reenacted the Clearances but now as the new landlords.

The same parallels exist to the Palestinian/Israeli situation.

What if this is a trope of history, or at least modern history in the capitalist era?  When capitalism and consumerism meet older societies and cultural groups with historical, less material values, the older society is destined to be marginalized, vilified, dispossessed and dispersed or destroyed (and then romanticized, as what has happened to Native and Highland culture - OK, the Israelis have a way to go here...).

Many and Many A Year Ago - Selçuk Altun

Similar to his other books - convoluted, complex mystery plot line; one of the main characters is a series of cities in Turkey (also South America), broadening out from Istanbul.  For me though, this book is a bit over the top.  They mystery is too convoluted to the point where you lose interest and stop trying to follow it.  It is as if the impulse to present places takes over as the driver of the story, and the plot line loses cohesion as it is bounced from one locale to another. Least favourite book so far...

Les Écossais: The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada 1763-1855 - Lucille H. Campey

Some interesting chapters on settlement around Montreal, Eastern Ontario, and also around Scotstown.  Almost nothing on the area around Richmond.  I suspect Richmond area was settled by a mix of immigrants:  Loyalists, English, Irish and Scottish.  Perhaps they all become intermingled and lost their sense of separate identities.  The most documented area seems to be the area around Scotstown-Megantic, where most of the settlers seem to have come from the outer Hebrides, in particular the isle of Lewis.  These more homogeneous communities seem to have kept up their oral traditions and history better than the mixed communities; even speaking Gaelic into the mid-20th century.

This books again reminds why many of the Scots immigrants perhaps did not keep up their Scots links, as they were mostly unwilling emigrants forced off their land and betrayed by the local chieftains, power elites and landowners.  The Scotstown communities were not so much hanging onto   a broader Scottish identity as continuing local transplanted communities tied to place of origin.

There are a lot of shipping lists with dates and ports of departure.  One thing I can surmise is that my McLean ancestors probably sailed from Greenock, the closest large shipping port to Argyll.

Les braises - Sandor Marai

Un écrivain hongrois du début du 20e siècle, récemment redécouvert il paraît.  Un roman qui explore l'amitié, l'amour et le trahison.  Tout se passe un après midi et surtout une longue nuit où deux anciens amis se retrouvent après une quarantaine d'années.  Il n'y a pas d'action; le livre plus ou moins entier consiste de leur conversation autour de la table et au long de la nuit dans le salon.  Plus un monologue qu'une vraie conversation.   C'est subtile, et c'est surprenant comment l'auteur peut faire marcher son manège aussi bien qu'il ne le fasse.  Mais je dois avouer que pour moi, c'était un peu lent, et des fois j'ai sauté des paragraphes, peut-être même des pages...
C'est un peu démodé comme livre - les grandes valeurs abstraites dont ils discutent n'ont plus de sens vraiment de nos jours.  Au fait, plutôt qu'un roman du début du 20e siècle, c'est un roman de la fin du 19e siècle.  Il paraît que c'est tout un genre dans l'Europe de l'est, surtout dans les pays de l'ancien empire austro-hongrois - la nostalgie de l'Empire, de l'identité supranationale de cette période.

Comme les livres de Thomas Mann, Zweig et Roth, mais un peu moins dense, moins long, plus abordable.

Al Qaeda and What It Means to be Modern - John Gray

The first part of this book presents in an organized way his ideas on the various aspects of the Enlightenment, and how they have informed not only modern capitalism, but also communism and also modern forms of extremism based on the remaking of man and society or the rule of pure  reason.  While I find it a bit shallower than his usual vignette style of presenting and interweaving various threads of ideas, it is presented in a clearer form.

Unfortunately, the last half of the book rambles and rants a bit.  He falls into various (delirious) imaginings of the future, and it begins to sound a  bit "mullah-ish", ranting with the pointer finger raised etc.

The Broken Road - Patrick Leigh Fermor

- subtitled:  From the Iron Gates to Mount Athos

The last of Fermor's journal of his walk from Holland to Istanbul.

For me, the least interesting of the three volumes.  Written when he was quite old, and never actually finished, it lacks the detail of the other volumes.  The Mount Athos section is interesting at first, but becomes repetitive.  There is almost nothing on Istanbul - seems he kept no journal when he was there.

Still worth reading over to say you've read them all, but not as enjoyable.

Frederick Law Olmsted Landscapes - Lee Friedlander Photographs

Finally found this book by one of my favourite photographers.
Very nice book - large images, beautifully printed.

Unlike most of his work that I know, you can see his use of different lenses and filters to play with effects and perspective.  Most of his other work seems to be fairly straightforward from this point of view.

What I like about his photographs is that they are not easy.  As you look, you can think about the structure he was trying to work with, about the trigger for that particular point of view, about his diffused, hidden focus within the picture, about the seeming surface chaos and lack of structure.  A metaphor for life...

Interesting to think about the parallels visually, structurally and intentionally between this body of work and the collection of store window photos - refraction of focus, layers hidden behind layers, a surface of chaos over deeper structures.

Find again.

Straw Dogs - John Gray

Subtitle:  Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Another brilliant social critique by this amazingly well-read author.  By shifting out of the view of the privileged place of humankind, Gray finds a point of view that seems to allow him to tunnel through many of the myths that define our modern view of man, society, the world, the point of it all.

Written in short excerpts that seemingly jump from topic to topic, behind it lies a slowly assembled critique, perspective, understanding that is jarringly clear and revolutionary (?)

It is hard to summarize this book.  Great for dipping into randomly to read a section or two.

Songs My Mother Never Taught Me - Selçuk Altun

Another book by Altun with Istanbul at the heart of the book. The main character follows a set of clues which take him to many neighbourhoods in the city to solve the murder of his father.  A look at family relations in turkish society?
One character in the book is the author.

Again, entertaining especially if you know Istanbul.

The Sultan of Byzantium - Selcuk Altun

Altun is an entertaining author, especially for those who know and love Istanbul.  His plots always weave in out of the way locations and monuments of Istanbul, and play with the sights, sounds and sensations of the city.
In this book, he builds his plot around the Byzantine history of the city, and also the Byzantium's presence in the history of other European countries.

His plots are entertaining and highly improbable.

Capital in the Twenty-first Century - Thomas Piketty

This is the most important book I have read on economics, politics and social structure.
A fascinating project.  Piketty decides he want to look at capitalism's workings and how it affects wealth distribution.  He notices that pretty much all economists discuss this issue from a theoretical point of view based entirely on models, which are often highly political at the base.  So he sets out to accumulate some facts and figures around the distribution of capital going back to the Middle Ages.  He works with probates for much of the period to develop some fairly reliable figures.  In France, he works with extensive tax records going back to the revolution.  In England, he uses the same date but from the mid-1800s to develop reliable data around capital accumulation and the ratio between wages/labour and capital.  He looks at some other countries also where records exist that are useful.  A monumental task - he and small team spend about 10 years on this.
Then he writes his tome.  The facts and figures he has accumulated show that most modern theoretical models of how capitalism works are wrong in major ways.
Some important points he makes:
1) Laissez-fiare economics is a fantasy.  The workings of capitalism are always highly political.  Even laissez-faire capitalism requires a structure of laws and regulations to make it happen.
2) Left unchecked, the tendency of capital is to always accumulate at the top.   This is because historically the return on capital averages 5 to 6 percent,  and the return tends to grow the larger the fortune.  Labour's return fluctuates much more and tends to average a 1 to 2 percent growth rate.
3) Economically, the period after WW 2 was an historical anomaly.  The rapid growth rate of labour returns was the result of several decades of catch-up after the destruction of capital engendered by the two world wars.  We are now in a period of returning to historical norms  ie.  slow economic growth of 1 to 2 percent.  Coupled with slow population growth, especially in Europe, this situation makes established capital increasingly significant as a source of income as it passes from one generation to the next.
4) This modern slow growth era, coupled with the historical tendency of capital, will lead to a progressive accumulation of wealth at the top, which has already exceeded 50% in many advanced western economies.  Unless political action is taken to curb this trend, it is possible for the top 10% to end up owning 80% or 90% of the wealth in a society.
5)  He looks at the american tendency of outrageous salaries for CEOs and finds no correlation between their work and the increase in company value.  Company value tends to rise and fall with the flow of the economy at large.  He sees the growth of this tendency as the result of american low tax rates on very high incomes - in countries with higher tax rates for this bracket, the same tendency has not developed.
6)  He proposes a progressive tax on wealth, not income, as the solution to this tendency of capital to accumulate at the top.  In our current period, labour income plays a less and less important role, and capital return's importance grows.  His solution will be criticized as utopian for many reasons, but he points out that we do now have the capability of tracking individual wealth and ownership around the world, at least in the advanced countries, and there is no technical reason why this could not be done to create an accurate picture of an individual's wealth.  Of course the top 10%, and especially the top 1%, are dead against this, and as they more and more control the political process (as well as the media), the likelihood of seeing this solutions in place is low for now.
Before the French Revolution, the 1% owned 90% of the wealth.  The revolution was the solution to this issue...
7)  He also looks at the issue of public debt, which is increasing in Western countries at the same time as wealth accumulation in private hands is increasing at an even greater rate.  Most western governments has close to a balance of $0 in assets/debts in that government owned equity roughly equals its debt  ie.  about the equivalent of 1year's total economic production within the country.  Private wealth, especially in Europe, is now equivalent to 5 or 6 times the total economic production, and is growing.  An odd situation - the government is broke while the citizens, especially in the upper levels, see an accumulation of wealth close to the levels of the Belle Epoque at the turn of the 20th century.  This is another reason to consider the tax on total wealth.  A low rate of taxation, 1% or 2% even, could eliminate most of the public debt within a short time.  (However, paying interest on public debt is another way for society's wealth to migrate up to to the top....)

A Time to Keep Silence - Patrick Leigh Fermor

A book about stays in several monasteries.  Reveals his fascination with things medieval.  There is one section about a visit to the rock monasteries of Cappadocia.

I found this book a bit thick and self-indulgent; not so much about the purported subject as about Fermor's image of the subject.  Loaded with charged adjectives, you really learn more about him and his view of life than you do about the monasteries.  For someone who had so much trouble with authority and structure in his schooling, he is remarkably respectful of, even infatuated with, authority in other realms.  This is equally true when you look at who he praises in this travel books too, though less evident.  As if he can have a romanticized view of authority and a life of rules, but only so long as it doesn't apply to him.

A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor

The first of the three books about Fermor's walk from Holland to Istanbul in the mid 30's, covering the walk through Holland and Germany.  It shows the same fascination with the intersection of Roman and Medieval history with the modern world.  I think in this book he has a bit more contact with everyday folk compared with the second volume where he seems to spend most of his time with the landed aristocracy that has come down in the world.  There is also more of an awareness of politics, social movements and recent history (WW 1) than in the subsequent book, which makes it more grounded and less fanciful.

I have recently also been reading Picketty's huge tome, Capital in the 21st Century, and interestingly, there is a certain intersection of the two books.  As he traces the history of capital, Piketty's charts show the huge drop in capital in Europe between the two wars, which wiped out many family fortunes and essentially destroyed what remained of the historical aristocracy.  This very class is the one with which he spends so much time, especially in the book dealing with Hungary and Romania.  You see this in the character's stories of their youth in Paris and London (pre WW 1, at the height of capital accumulation by the 10%/1%) and their current life at their country estate, much reduced but surrounded by decades, even centuries of accumulated trappings.

House of Jasmine - Ibrahim Abdel Meguid

Like Al Aswany, Meguid creates a portrait of life in modern Egypt, a life of frustration and stagnation.  Meguid though, tends to create an impressionistic portrait of this life, mostly because it is more an interior portrait of a particular character and his life.  He doesn't have the social and political breadth of Al Aswany.  It is a very personal portrait where many of Aswany's themes and ideas are present, but as a background against which the character's life plays out.  Not as engaging as Al Aswany's writing.

The State of Egypt - Alaa Al Aswany

A collection of what are probably newspaper editorials written in the years preceding the 2012 Egyptian revolution.
It covers the same social criticism as his novels but in non-fiction form.  An interesting companion to his novels, but his novels are richer.

Between the Woods and the Water - Patrick Leigh Fermor

An account of a journey by foot undertaken by Fermor in 1935/1936.  The whole journey extends from Holland to Istanbul, but this book covers the section through Hungary and Romania.  It is well written, and fun to imagine travelling like this, but the most interesting part is the portrait he draws of a world that was on the edge of disappearing in 1936.   Eastern Europe was at least 50 years behind it seems at that time.  It was still a land of landed aristocratic families and village tenant farmers, something which had disappeared from France, England and Germany by then.  It is as if this corner of the world had remained untouched by the cataclysm of the First World War, and the social and traditional norms that had been swept away elsewhere hung on for a few last decades in the world Fermor is travelling through.  Of course, you have to realize also that he is of that world, and a young romantic, so his portrait is highly coloured.
But it is still an interesting oddity to read this book that would have been produced at the same time that the Surrealist, Dadaists and other modern art movements were raging elsewhere.

The Thief and the Dog - Naguib Mahfouz

A shorter late novel by Mahfouz. Interesting to compare him to Al Aswany. Mahfouz is more a feuilleton style, a social portrayal, not a social critique - at least in this book.  Mahfouz explores the lives of the underdogs and the poor of society but there are none of the nasty, evil characters of Aswany.  The drama in Mahfouz is more melodrama - betrayal, unrequited love, greed.  No deeper social critique, but a portrayal. a reflection of Everyman, or at least Everyman's somewhat romanticized view of himself.

Chicago - Alaa Al Aswany

The most recent book by this brilliant Egyptian author/dentist.

Another biting look at a cast of mostly Egyptian characters - sycophantic religious, pious Islamic, exploitative males, government cronies, western worshippers, naive revolutionary and idealists, and more.
This time, though, as the book is set in Chicago, he also gets to look at people who have turned against their own culture, characters who have tried to assimilate american values but hit a breaking point.  In addition he also turns his gaze on some american characters - 60s leftist profs., academics who live and value only their area of expertise, naive westerners in search of the exotic ( also a theme in Season of Migration to the North).

This book is a big step for Aswany - his comments on human nature and on culture go beyond Egyptian society to become more universal.  A kind of Decameron approach, where the caricatures and satire intersect with a bigger tradition of this genre.

Friendly Fire - Alaa Al Aswany

Another book by the author who wrote the great novel, The Yacoubian Building.

This is a collection of short stories.

Al Aswany is a brilliant observer and critic of Egyptian society and politics.  Some of the stories are sad, some are bitingly sarcastic and sharp.

He is an interesting observer of social mores of the Middle East - he captures some of the essential differences in social outlook, social patterns and relations.  He also has a sharp eye for the power relations of the society and the role of hierarchy, and how it is exploited by those at the top.  An interesting read if you have spent much time with people from the middle east - it gives you a sense of what kind of social landscape they have to navigate to accomplish things and be happy.

An interesting glimpse of a society whose asabiya is low (see War and Peace and War entry)

Season of Migration to the North - Tayeb Salih

A great novel about emigration and return.  Also about colonialism and its complex threads.  It is a classic novel expressing a classic idea, but with such power and mastery of style.  It is in the tradition of European literature with big themes and big symbols.  A real achievement for Salih as writer from a different culture and tradition.  His manipulation of the symbolic language of western literature reminds me of Joseph Conrad, who was European, but who wrote similar rich novels in a language that was not his mother tongue.

The novel is an exploration of the tragedy of those émigrés who remain trapped between two cultures, never quite belonging in their new home, but also unable to return and be satisfied in their home.

Masterful use of the symbolism of the river with most of the story unfolding on the banks of the Nile.

A classic.

War Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires - Peter Turchin

Fascinating new perspective on cycles in history.
He looks at long cycles in history from several points of view which overlap.

His first idea is that empires and dominant civilizations arise at points where two distinct cultural and social groups meet.  This clash of groups heightens intragroup identity and creates a one for all, all for one survival mentality.  This is how a smaller cultural group can coalesce and in the end defeat a much larger rival culture with a weaker intragroup identity.  He calls this intragroup dynamic the group's "asabiya".  As examples of this phenomenon he examines in detail the Roman Empire, looks at the Cossack expansion east and south, and also examines the rise of the Carolingian Empire in Medieval Europe.  Convincingly argued.  A dominant civilization's cycle can last for 1000 years even, with some up and down cycles along the way.

The next cycle he looks at he refers to as a secular cycle (there is a recent book with this title).  This is essentially an economic cycle but with cumulative social consequences.  It is a cycle where economic inequality increases over time due to various social and political processes that seem to be hard to regulate.  At the same time, there is a disproportionate growth of numbers in the elite of society.  In the end there is a shortage of resources for everyone - the bottom end of society has limited economic resources; the elites have little opportunity for advancement and limited access to political power.  This leads to a weakening of group asabiya, a breakdown in social cooperation, increased conflict and finally revolution, civil war or some such catastrophe.  This phase continues until everyone is thoroughly sick of it.  War and subsequent disease, disorder and famine, eventually reduce the number of elites and the number of people in general, and there is a return to cooperation and a more equitable distribution of wealth simply because there is now a higher proportion of opportunities and resources available to everyone.
This secular cycle however, eventually weakens the group asabiya to the point where it can no longer be rebuilt and the civilization crumbles, fades, in subsumed by another new stronger group.

He also has an interesting section on southern Italy and how lost its asabiya centuries ago due to repeated conquering by foreign rulers.  It is essentially a look at how it can be next to impossible to rebuild asabiya, trust, a civil society once it is gone.

This book provides and interesting perspective on current social and political events around the world.  It offers a very long view framework into which these short-term events and trends can be placed.  For me, it provides some intriguing points from which to think about what is going on economically and politically in our own western societies and in other societies around the world.

Worth owning for occasional dipping and refreshing.

Saints of the Shadow Bible - Ian Ranking

A post-retirement Rebus novel.  Another meditation on the self-serving self-involvement of the members of society's leadership.  Also another look at how the vacuous, impersonal rights and respect babblings of modern corporate culture blind us and make us incapable of engaging with elements that endanger our social order.  There are crossovers in Rankin's view of the modern police force with the ideas in John Gray - this living in a mythical, fantasy world that in the end blinds us to the world around us, leaving us in a hollow echo chamber of our own babble.

Another great book by Rankin.

The Cellist of Sarajevo - Steven Galloway

A fictional account of a part of the siege of Sarajevo told from the point of view of three or four different characters.  Based on a real series of cello recitals given in the street in Sarajevo during the siege.  He does a good job of conveying the inner reality and experiences of the characters who all play different roles in the city.  He also conveys the casual horror of the experience without overdoing it.  A look at different ways of staying human in this extreme situation and of refusing to be defined by the horror and inhumanity of what is going on around you.

A good read.

The Silence of Animals - John Gray

Subtitled "On Progress and Other Modern Myths"

Collection of short essays that flow from on to another but shift between topics.

Interesting examination of his usual issues, but also of our very concept of what it means to be human and how we set ourselves apart from the natural world - again a reflection on the role of Christianity (and other Eastern Mediterranean religions) in shaping the mythology (personal, historical, political, social of our time).

He also spends time examining the concept of our "true self, real me" that is at the heart of modern western economics and social mythology.

In sections he explores the experience of animals and the world from other nonwestern religious points of view.

A book to reread repeatedly if you want to get everything out of it.

False Dawn - John Gray

A look at the ideological (or perhaps better "ideological" roots of the 2008/2009 economic collapse.  Through this event Gray explores a wide-ranging set of ideas, dreams and fantasies that underlie our current understanding of economics, progress and society.  He brings in environmental issues, historical overviews of how western economies have worked, how christianity has mutated into the post-modern neoliberal ideology, underlying assumptions and wishful thinking at the heart of the globalization project.

One of my favourite ideas he explores is the close historical and developmental relationship between communism and neoliberalism - both western, both an aberration of protestant christian religion, both messianic cults of bringing perfection on earth.  The defeat of communism as in fact the beginning of the end for dominant western economic and social ideology in general.

Another - the post war period in Europe as a social and economic aberration, where labour actually gained value almost as fast as invested capital, and how this has distorted our view of the nature of politics, social interaction and the role of government.  An interesting but unsettling idea, given that this implies my whole experience so far has been in an aberrant historical era, and that we are now living through a readjustment to a different social and economic reality.

There is crossover with the risk and probability ideas of Nicholas Taleb (where I picked up the reference to this book...)

Heresies - John Gray

A collection of short essays by Gray.  You can get a sense of the main themes or ideas he explores - the illusion of modernity; the social, political and economic fantasies of the "modern" era; progress and technology as religious doctrine in our modern time; the christian roots to much of what defines the ideology of modernity in the west.   The essays can be quite biting and sharp in their focus.  It is  to the best book to get an overview of his ideas, however - False Dawn and The Silence of Animals both offer a more coherent view of his ideas.  Still worth reading, although the sections dealing with politics of the Blair Bush era are now dated - though it would be interesting to spend some time looking at Gray's predictions and compare them to what really happened.

Still Life - Louise Penny

Penny's first novel, and very successful too.  Interesting that (in my opinion) it has taken her a few years to get back to the same level of complexity of tapestry.  Gamache and all the other characters are born fully developed in this book, along with some characters in embryo that will slowly unfold over the following books.

She has some great quotes in this book - the Ruth Zardo character is a challenge, but her being a poet also opens certain doors for the author.  Myrna the ex-therapist has a similar potential.

p. 140 '... I think many people love their problems.  Gives them all sorts of excuses for not growing up and getting on with life....
Life is change.  If you aren't growing and evolving you're standing still, and the rest of the world is surging ahead.  Most of these people are very immature.  The lead "still" lives, waiting.'
     'Waiting for what?'
     'Waiting for someone to save them.  Expecting someone to save them or at least protect them from the big, bad world.  The thing is no one else can save them because the problem is theirs and so is the solution.  Only they can get out of it.'




A great poem quote

Jenny kissed me when we met,
jumping from the chair she sat in;
time, you thief, who love to get
sweets into your list, put that in:
say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
say that health and wealth have missed me;
say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.

          Leigh Hunt, Rondeau.

Kolyma Tales - Varlam Shalamov

Tales of the Siberian political convict camps created by Stalin.  Horribly wonderful tales.  Horrific lives recounted an indifferent and matter-of-fact voice that mirrors the indifference that overcomes the convicts in this inhuman environment.  No idealogical or political analysis, though there is an portrait of the bureaucratic and inhuman absurdity of the prison rules and environment.  In a sense it is the logical extension of the absurdity revealed in the biography of Stalin that I read recently.

The Naming of the Dead - Ian Rankin

Another exploration by Rankin of the structures of bureaucratic governmental power in the modern world - inflexible, inhuman, sterile - and the links to corporate power.  Also a look at links and crossovers between the private sector and the various levels of the police.  His crimes always explore the vagaries of human emotions and psychology in opposition to the sterility of the bureaucratic world - which indulges in a different, more cold-blooded type of crime.  Similarities here to Michael Dibdin.

A Darker Shade of Sweden ed. John-Henri Holmberg

An anthology of stories by well-known swedish crime writers.  Some good ones, but short doesn't work that well for me.  Many of them very psychological.

A Trick of the Light - Louise Penny

Another one of Penny's more successful books.  The characters are more alive, and there are more and more threads passing from one book to the next.  Part of the series that begins with the book where Gamache and Beauvoir get shot in a raid to rescue a kidnapped officer.

Nice little scene in this book where she takes a page from classic detective fiction - the stormy night gathering of suspects around a table for the final revelation of the guilty party.

Stalin Breaker of Nations - Robert Conquest

An excellent account of Stalin's rise to power and some insight into him as a person.  Not overly detailed nor sidetracked by too much detail on side shows.  A fair case to be made for Stalin as sociopath - I don't know how one man can fool/dominate/dupe so many people, an entire nation basically.  A study in the exercise of raw power and fear - come with me or die, agree with my absurdities or disappear.
Over the years Stalin seems to have been able to create a completely alternate reality, but one that only existed in his mind, in a universe of propaganda and by force, in other peoples' minds.  Imagine the effect, and the aftereffect, of living for decades in a universe where the mental, social and public reality, and discourse, was completely at odds with your everyday experienced personal and social reality.  A world where everyone lies, everyone pretends (nothing new - we all do this) but in the same lie, the same fantasy universe - that's what's weird.  No wonder Russia is such a messed up place.  I wonder if this is why Putin is so popular - he is working to restore a mythologically great Russia;  after decades of the communist illusions of greatness, maybe they can only feel comfortable in a fantasy universe of communal greatness as an antidote to the tawdry daily personal reality of corruption and repression.

Some other interesting points:

"Hitler had also said that while Communists could easily be converted to Nazism, Social Democrats could not."  A point Conquest takes up further in his book, "Reflections on a Ravaged Century".

The mystery of Communism's and Stalin's rise:  "First of all, the peasants, still the majority, overwhelmingly loathed the system.[communism]  The intelligentsia, or a large part of it, had little use for a regime which suppressed all but a particular orthodoxy of thought.  The supposedly favoured 'workers' lived a miserable existence, mainly in hovels and huts around the new blast furnaces."

The first bureaucratic nightmare society of the 20th century.  The domination of the many by the few through ideology, reason, and bureaucratic process.

Cabal - Michael Dibdin

The Vatican, fashion, family disfunction and madness, old family aristocracy and corruption.

Vendetta - Michael Dibdin

Village honour culture, business corruption, madness.

Ratking - Michael Dibdin

Corrupt links between political and business worlds.  Kidnapping.  Family infighting, greed.

Medusa - Michael Dibdin

A very good mystery writer.   His books are set in Italy, and Dibdin does a wonderful job of evoking the setting, the people, the ethos with well-chosen brush strokes.  His characters are solid rather than just instruments for the action.

Dibdin's mysteries are also built around Italy, Italian history and Italian political culture - he must know that country very well.  Each book is built around some aspect of Italian social culture - kidnapping, fascism, behind the scene machinations of big business, webs of influence between the political class and the business class, family empire infighting, feuds and old village culture.  In the end, though, the crime usually comes down to individual foibles - greed, revenge, madness.

Good but completely different from Rankin.  In Rankin, the individual comes more to the fore, with the social and political element further in the background.  His underlying themes have more to do with social criticism and less to do with social portrayal.

Macedonia: Warlords and Rebels in the Balkans - John Philips

An account of the post-Yugoslavia ethnic conflict in Macedonia between Macedonians and Albanians.  Some background information on preexisting situation during Yugoslavia period.  A bit too detailed for my purposes - at times it is told event by event, kidnapping by kidnapping.  With all the detail it's hard to get the general overview of the shifting relationship between the two sides, or develop an understanding of how the situation has come to a relatively stable state.

The Scarlet Plague - Jack London

A different side to the author of White Fang.  A post-apocalypse book in the vein of Ridley Walker, it takes place a few decades after the complete collapse of industrial society.  A mix of memories of the narrator and glimpses of what life has become after the collapse.  A strongly socialist book, with the rich elites exploiting the lower classes, who are of course the survivors after the fall.  Politics is clear but as a book it is a bit simplistic - there is not a lot of depth to the story.

Journey to Karabakh - Aka Morchiladze

A rare Georgian novel translated into English.  A plot that really goes nowhere - the book is all about atmospherics and moods, which is different.  It portrays the life of young people as fairly desperate and purposeless, caught between the old ways (village life, connections, "who you know") and the more anonymous modern life.  Everyone is small-time on the make.  The characters, the plot lines, the locations, they all come across as seedy.

The Sudden Disappearance of the Worker Bees - Serge Quadruppani

A mystery set in northern Italy.  Plot line incorporates several modern issues - technologisation of life, biotechnology, the state within a state of Italian politics.  Unfortunately, not that successful as a book. The characters and setting are weakly developed; the details stand out too much as significant details.  The story is also a bit contrived and improbable.  If this is Quadruppani's first, he could get better. Have to wait and see.

About Looking - John Berger

A collection of essays reflecting on photography, painting and the act of looking.

The first few essays are about photography. "Why Look at Animals" is a reflection on the objectification of animals in the modern world, and the disappearance of the look of recognition between living beings across the species barrier.  It relates to the Winogrand book of photos about animals I read recently.  p. 13 "This reduction of the animal, which has a theoretical as well as economic history, is part of the same process as that by which men have been reduced to isolated productive and consuming units... The mechanical view of the animal's work capacity was later applied to that of workers..."

The other really dynamite essay is "Uses of Photography", reflections on Susan Sontag's book.
p. 58 " During the second half of the 20th century the judgement of history has been abandoned by all except the underprivileged and dispossessed.  The industrialized, 'developed' world, terrified of the past, blind to the future, lives within an opportunism which has emptied the principle of justice of all credibility.  Such opportunism turns everything - nature, history, suffering, other people, catastrophes, sport, sex, politics - into spectacle.  And the implement used to do this - until the act becomes so habitual that the conditioned imagination may do it alone - is the camera.

- from Sontag: "Our very sense of situation is now articulated by the camera's interventions.  The omnipresence of cameras persuasively suggest that time consists of interesting events, events worth photographing..."

There is another interesting essay, "Francis Bacon and Walt Disney."  He argues for a basic similarity both in underlying style and ethos  between the two - similar distortions of the human body, violence, colour ranges.  Both explore alienation - Disney makes it funny, Bacon makes it banal, the subject of art.  No moral judgement in either.  Interesting idea.

Didn't get through all the essays.  Some interesting ones on seminal figures in art in the first half of the 20th century.  Need to have another look.

How the Light Gets In - Louise Penny

The best novel yet I have read by her.  Much surer style, much tighter plot, better balance of veracity details and action.  Still the odd jump in the plot that remains unexplained though...  In this novel, she ties her plot to current and historical events in Quebec history, especially issues of governmental corruption.
Definitely will continue reading her.

The Hanging Garden - Ian Rankin

Another great books by Rankin - one of his early ones, I think.  It has an interesting introduction where he talks about the overlooked genre of detective noir fiction, and how it can be used to explore bigger themes.  (Another example of this being Le Carré)
Brings in the growing presence of the eastern european and caucasus mafia, and the globalization of crime and criminal organizations - the Yakuza even make an appearance.
As usual, digs at corporate ladder-climbers and those motivated by the egotism of professional position and power.

Lost Enlightenment - Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane - S. Frederick Starr

A fascinating account of one of the great forgotten ages (and regions) of intellectual and artistic achievement.  A worthwhile read for a number of reasons:

- the sheer contrast of the historical region with its current state

- the tantalizing hints of what must have been there as an intellectual and artistic tradition before the arab invasion, which was really the arrival of the barbarians by then central asian standards

- the underlying theme of the importance of persian culture and cultures of the persian linguistic families in the flowering of this great age; underlines that this culture was a highly influential culture in the whole middle-eastern and central asian region

- the historical importance of this central asian intellectual tradition to the later flowering of european thought and development, both as a source of ideas and as a source of ancient texts 

- Starr's speculations on the reason for the decline of the region:  increasing focus on religious dogmatism in a conflict between the two versions of Islam leads to intolerance and a narrowing of the field of thought - something to consider in this age of dogmatisms, religious, cultural, social, political as so on...

- Starr's observation that, even excluding the possible highly advanced society preceding the arab invasion, this Central Asian Golden Age lasted longer than any other similar historical golden period in any other society world-wide

- great source for thinkers and poets to chase down

This book is a great reference to put any writers (Rumi, Khayam etc.) in their political and social context.

Not a fast read, as it is very detailed and explores central intellectual themes as well as social, political, and economic milieux. 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

This books starts off as a very entertaining read - the image of the old man, trapped in the dreary routine of a seniors residence, climbing out the window and escaping, is a delightfully capricious image.  The chain of crazy improbabilities that make the story unfold is also quite entertaining.  And the collection of misfits that form.  And the main character's stumblings into the main political events fo the 20th century.  The author's nonchalant tone in the recounting of all these events adds to the humour.
So far so good up to about the introduction of the elephant.  After that, the chain of improbabilities becomes a bit repetitious, the lack of direction in the story becomes rather obvious, and the links to historical events become just too tenuous.
With the author's attempts to link the main character to the political history of the 20th century, this books reminds me of "Any Human Heart" by William Boyd and its connections to the main figures of the 20th century art world.  But unfortunately, a less successful book...

The Animals - Gary Winogrand

An early collection of photos by Winogrand - self-published.  Apparently, quite a flop when it came out in 1969.
Especially for that time, a disturbing collection of photos - nothing romantic or ennobling in his representation of the animals in the New York City Zoo.  As photos, you can see his style of flirting with chaos within the frame, however, in many of the photos I don't see the one element that brings a focus to the photo, or else the element is not strong enough, or doesn't carry enough meaning or emotion or surprise to support the weight of the rest of the chaotic frame.  There are some good moments, however.

A good accompaniment is to read John Berber's essay, "Why Look at Animals?" at the same time.

Maybe what you see in these animal photos is the same alienation, the same sense of loss and hopelessness that can be found in some writers of the 50's and 60's - for example Sylvia Plath, Gwendolyn MacEwen.

Winogrand: Figments from the Real World - commentary Szarkowski

A well put together overview of Winogrand's work over his working life, from his early years to the less well known later period.  (Amazing that he died with 3000 rolls of undeveloped film!)
Some interesting points in the commentary:
- his acknowledged debt to certain aspects of Frank's work in The Americans
- his comment that he photographs things he finds interesting to see what they look like in photographs
- the discussion of his use of leaning lines (ie. non-vertical and non-horizontal to the frame) in composition - it strikes me that this is the solution to the problem I have struggled with in regard to shooting in cities and other man-made environments where everything is too geometrical - two things bring the kind of hidden order beneath chaos that is easier to find in wild environments:  1) the lean and 2) use of wide-angle lens, which Winogrand talks about
- his comments on wide-angle lenses and how they allow him to include more things, more information in the frame, while at the same time maintaining the presence of the subject - the wide angle introduces more information, which then becomes the overlay of chaos that masks, but not quite, the compositional order in the photo - this tension between chaos and order  p. 21 "He had a special affection for those of his pictures that were almost out of control, the pictures in which the triumph of form over chaos was precarious.  He believed that a successful photograph must be more interesting than the thing photographed..."
- p. 29 "As Winogrand grew older and his ambition grew more demanding, the role of luck in his work grew larger. As his motifs became more complex, and more unpredictable in their development, the chances of success in a given frame became smaller."

The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

A book recommended to me by Talia.

A very emotional book, so emotional it is hard to focus on some of the subtler messages in the book.
Big themes on the surface seem to be death, dealing with mortality, overcoming adversity, etc.  But I think underneath it all, it is really about living your life well.  The dad in the book has, for me, the best line:

(Remembered prof. comment) "Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed."

(Dad) "That's what I believe.  I believe the universe wants to be noticed.  I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed.  And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it - or my observation of it - is temporary?"

Here's another good section from Augustus' last letter at the end of the book:

"We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants.  We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths...

Hazel is different.  She walks lightly, old man.  She walks lightly upon the earth.  Hazel know the truth:  We're as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we're not likely to do either.

...

The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention..."

Ways of Seeing - John Berger

A reread from quite a while ago.

An interesting discussion of the nature and permutations of images in the west.
Some interesting points about how text changes the perception of the image - how language turns the image into an illustration of the words, nailing down a meaning instead of being a more open extra-lingual (?) experience.

He also points out the frequent cultural referencing of classic paintings in modern advertisements.  The classical images have a reference, a weight, a story, a value, that advertisers want to carry into their advert., associate with the product.  As if this almost unconscious collection of classical images is a language in itself.

An interesting chapter exploring the nude in western art - inherently voyeuristic.  This comes out of a larger tradition in western art, possibly because of its emphasis on realism.  The painting as a metaphor of ownership, and thereby of social status.  This implies an inherent awareness of the viewer, almost as if the painting is a way of speaking to the viewer.  There are some interesting indian illustrations of sexual activity as a contrast.  The indian images simply show - the subjects in the images show no awareness of the viewer.  This is in sharp contrast to many of the classic nudes, where the subject is looking out directly at the viewer, or presented as if offered to the viewer.  This is possibly a mirror of the awareness of self as individual that is so strong in western tradition since at least the Renaissance.

Is there a way to create images, and yet stay outside that tradition that has been so co-opted by the advertising industry.  I still feel we have too many images loaded with subliminal fantasy messages.

Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny

Another mystery with Inspector Gamache.  A great read for a reading holiday (a day when you read a book cover to cover without stopping except for tea and a bit of food if necessary).  I think her style has improved - a bit surer, more solid.  Some good observations about people and what makes them tick.

The Overcoat and Other Tales of Good and Evil - Nicolai Gogol

I remember reading Dead Souls and finding it a good read, but perhaps my tastes have changed.  While some of the stories carried me along - the famous Nose story is in this collection - I found the style too overwritten for me.  I guess I'm into a sparser writing style these days.  The book just seemed to go on and on...  Cultural sacrilege, but what can I do?  The social criticism, while perennially valid, is just set in a context a bit too distant from me at this time.
Not Gogol's fault.  I recently tried reading some Balzac, which I have enjoyed in the past, and gave it up for the same reasons regarding writing style.

Balkan Ghosts - Robert D. Kaplan 2005 edition

Balkan Ghosts focuses mainly on the period around the transition from Communism to independence, at least as a travel narrative.  Included are many historical asides which shed light on how and why each Balkan country has ended up in its particular situation.  Well-written, informative, little detectable bias, although at one or two points there are some highly charged statements about Ottoman rule.
The chapter on Greece is quite interesting, as I know very little about Greek politics, the various 20th century Greek wars (aside from Anatolia), the various coups and dictatorships.  A real eyeopener in terms of how the country became such a mess.  Worth exploring further.
An interesting source for off-beat travel information on the various countries.  Of particular interest to me are Macedonia and Romania.

To find:

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Rebecca West

Judgement on Delchev, Eric Ambler

Crowds and Power, Elias Canetti