Last Week's Book: What Is the West?

This read about as quickly as First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. Needless to say the perspective was far different. For those who feel like a little Western congratulation, Nemo may be for you.

October 7-13: What Is the West? by Philippe Nemo

Politics (2006 - 121 pp.) 

What Is the West? is an ambitious project that sets out to answer the question its title poses: what are the defining characteristics that make the West distinct from other civilizations? Philippe Nemo answers this question by advancing the Greek, Roman, Biblical, Papal and democratic births that, all combined, give rise to the current West. The book is not very critical of the West, which is perhaps a criticism but is well in line with writers feeling passionate about their subject matter. The format he chooses is somewhere between a traditional academic tract and an op-ed, which allows the reader to pick up key information very quickly, if to the detriment of exhaustive historical research. 

Nemo's attempt at synthesizing all of these time periods works relatively well, following a narrative in which there are rarely more than a couple centuries unaccounted for. Perhaps the single most interesting takeaway I took from What Is the West? is the connection Nemo makes between the growth of the capitalist economy and the post-1750 world population boom. He answers the worries about rising numbers of poor in European cities around the time of the Industrial Revolution with a note that there were simply more people: "the city's poor were not people who became poor after being rich. They were people alive who would have been dead - or more exactly would have not been born. (91) [Nemo's emphasis] Another atypical viewpoint Nemo takes is the root of colonialism, as an extension of Western capitalism and technological innovation rather than as a predatory evil. The general dislike of the other is a common feature in politics, which Nemo brings to the fore with comparisons to various civilizations around the globe. (94) These are contentious points yet Nemo does well in his presentation of them. 

My qualms with the book are few but noteworthy. Firstly, the notion that the Medieval period represented the decline of anything but classicism is a notion that has been more or less debunked since the 1920s (first by Charles Homer Haskins, then by Lynn Thorndike, and the list goes on). Science indeed advanced during those centuries, which Nemo admits readily in his chapter on the Papal Revolution, so his initial suggestion that the Middle Ages were a dormant era feels inadmissible. Secondly, Nemo's boundaries of the West as given in his conclusion are mostly on point yet occasionally feel arbitrary. The most prominent example is that of Germany being firmly within the West but Poland only being partially within it. I would remedy this issue by placing both Germany and Poland within the West, as is consistent with Samuel Huntington's line dividing Europe between Catholic and Orthodox states. By that same token, I would place Eastern Europe farther away from the West than Nemo does, a main reason being that its traditional unification of secular and church power separates it from the West culturally. Finally, although Nemo braces himself for outsider criticism, I am curious to know what non-Westerners make of his conclusions. Ones like most of the world's population occurring due to Western-bred capitalism are especially interesting here. 

It is worth mentioning that the below ratings are given with an eye to mediating between a specialist's reading and that of a member of the general public. Those with backgrounds in history, philosophy or political science will likely find this an easier yet somewhat less educational book, as much of the material is summary and review. Those without backgrounds in those subjects will certainly find more undiscovered tidbits. 

Thanks to a professor for the recommendation. 

Ease of Reading: 6 
Educational Content: 6

Ars Neptis Dei

Brand new poetry blog by a bright young mind I know: http://arsneptisdei.blogspot.ca/

Check it out if you want to read classically styled poetry with lots of nature imagery and Christian themes.

This Week's Book: Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe

After all the American-themed books I read while living Stateside, I figured a Canadian book would serve me well here. That, and I found it while flipping through the collection of a used/old/rare/archival bookstore. This is only the second novel I've truly recommended myself in this way this year despite having read forty books. The other was House of Leaves, and I bought that online. Book a Week wouldn't have been the same without the feeling of stumbling across an interesting story in a bookstore and then just reading it. I'm glad I've had that. Hopefully I can do it again before New Year's.

September 30-October 6: Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart McLean

Literature (2006 - 274 pp.) 

Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe is one of those books that's part of a series, yet a loose enough series you don't have to read them in order. The books are based off of McLean's Vinyl Cafe radio series, which is most commonly associated with CBC. I've never listened to the radio series. I haven't been a radio person in years. I enjoyed the book, though. 

The front cover is deceptive. Perhaps due to my unfamiliarity with the series, I expected the book to be about all different kinds of people. The Window Peeker, the Litterbug, the Diet Cheater, the Ill-Wisher, and others who appear as caricatures on the cover seem like great potential characters in that twisted Life Is Hell-style way. Aside from the highly uncharacteristic animated introduction showing exactly this sort of thing, these characters never emerge, at least in those literal forms. The recurring characters sometimes take on these personae, albeit within their own personalities and their own situations. 

Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe is about a Canadian family, the people on their street, and the various quirks of the lives of all of them. The book's division into parts based on types of misdemeanor sins (petty theft, not returning emails on time... you know) and then into short stories gives the reader a glimpse into everyone's life. The stories are all substantially different, offering perspectives from different generations and backgrounds. Multiculturalism risks tokenism in media but McLean handles it well here, giving us realistic tales of an Italian-Canadian, Chinese-Canadian, or lived so long in Canada they don't know what their ethnicity is anymore. I can identify with the stories that take place in Toronto. Others are located as distantly as the Maritimes and the seemingly fictitious town of Burnt Creek, Alberta. 

The greatest joy of this book is when you finish. You can look back at the table of contents, reread the titles of each of these sixteen stories, and feel the smile cross your face as you remember every one in vivid detail. Some are hilarious, some are heartwarming, and to be honest, some are better than others. They fit together nicely to form a modern, contemporary light read that might just teach you a bit about Canada. 

Ease of Reading: 9 
Educational Content: 3

Last Week's Book: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

A more fun read than some recent entries, yet not much less educational. I think I can get used to that...

September 23-29: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce by Slavoj Zizek

Politics (2009 - 157 pp.) 

First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is Slavoj Zizek's take on the 2008 portion of the financial crisis. It is not a typical academic tract in the sense that it is littered with pop culture references, there are fewer citations, and the tone is casual. All of these make it that much more fun, and none detract from Zizek's perspective. His status as "the most dangerous philosopher in the West" (cover) is difficult to argue against when considering the contrarian nature of the book, as well as where he lays blame and the types of comparisons he draws. None of this may be surprising to a long-time Zizek reader, and I am sure he has many, but as a first-timer to his work some of his points are quite surprising. 

The viewpoint he details is stated refreshingly clearly: "What the book offers is not a neutral analysis but an engaged and extremely 'partial' one-for truth is partial, accessible only when one takes sides, and is no less universal for this reason. The side taken here is, of course, that of communism." (6) Objectivity in the arts is inherently impossible anyway. That Zizek takes a communist perspective means I read a book that did not conform to my own (capitalist) take on the world, which meant I would have something to engage intellectually instead of spending 157 pages nodding my head. The first section of the book, cheekily titled "It's Ideology, Stupid!" discusses Zizek's problems with global capitalism. Among the most enlightening of his critiques is the idea that the free market is not as real as capitalists would have it but merely an illusion in the mind of its adherents that exists because they think it exists. His other points, like the idea that crises are opportunities for conservative societies to renew the citizenry's faith in the system and his discussion of political fetishism, also demonstrate the connection between left-wing thought and the concept of the world as a construct rather than as a concrete thing. A more lighthearted highlight of this first part is his comparisons of Silvio Berlusconi to the Joker of Batman fame and of capitalist ideology to Kung Fu Panda. If that last teaser fails to get you reading this book, I have no idea what else I can offer. 

The second part, "The Communist Hypothesis", is less of a critique of Zizek's opponents (I assure you there are many of them) and more of a statement of Zizek's own beliefs. Alternatively, given his leanings, they may simply be what he believes are his beliefs, or what he wants the reader to believe are his beliefs, but nonetheless it is the more positive half of the book. His position on postcolonialism is one I had never seen before, namely that the Western powers are the only countries to ever sanction themselves for callous behaviour, as opposed to the typical axe being brought down by an enemy during a war that past empires have faced. This self-inflicted guilt is something other countries resist, which explains much of their anti-Western sentiment: "This insight allows us also to detect a symmetric duplicity in the way certain Third World countries criticize the West: if the West's continuous self-excoriation functions as a desperate attempt to re-assert our superiority, the true reason why some in the Third World hate and reject the West lies not with the colonizing past and its continuing effects but with the self-critical spirit which the West has displayed in renouncing this past, with its implicit call to others to practise the same self-critical approach." (115) In effect, the moral superiority of admitting one's wrongs is a kind of ideological imperalism the West projects, which is resisted through shameless blame-laying. Aside from this insight, much of Zizek's second part focuses on the key differences between socialism and communism, the former of which requiring shunning from any self-respecting adherent of the latter. Compromises to the working class are seen by Zizek as efforts to mollify efforts toward a violent revolution, which he places as the only way to dethrone established interests in the private sector. 

The book's title refers to Zizek's notion that societies fall twice. They experience a tragedy that shakes them to their core, rebound from it with renewed ideological zeal, and then fall a second time amidst everyone being unable to take the system seriously. His two reference points of 2001, complete with tech bubble crash and 9/11, and the crisis of 2008, signals potential impending change. Then again, he states how successful Barack Obama can be as a conservative president, noting that a president needs sufficient conservative credentials to accomplish tasks like easing up on immigration and engaging supposedly hostile foreign countries. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is not so much about predicting the future, though, as it is about lampooning the present. At this, Zizek is successful, providing an entertaining and intellectually stimulating read even to those who may find his conclusions foreign to their lines of thought - or even absurd. 

Ease of Reading: 5 
Educational Content: 7

This Week's Book: The King in Yellow

This entry is admittedly disjointed. Read this book - you'll see why.

September 16-22: The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers

Horror (1895 - 133 pp.) 

The King in Yellow is notorious for its place in the short and often obscure history of weird tales. The combination of hinted supernatural and overt grotesque make this a chilling read, often genuinely scary. The first four stories deal with "The King in Yellow", an almost all unseen play that plunges its readers into madness and despair; the middle of the book is concerned with non-play grotesqueness and quick bites; and the last half or so consists of stories about American students living in Paris. 

The part of the book concerned with the play I found gripping in same way I enjoyed Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the White Powder" from the same year. Themes of obsession and insanity mark both, with the play's impact on its readers having this ethereal drug-like quality that eventually ruins them. "The Repairer of Reputations" especially has an incredible concept, complete with billing for the repair, and the Yellow Sign is just about the creepiest thing in literature. The stories in the middle of the book lack the play and the Sign, yet they have elements like a seemingly dead man who is seen alternately in dreams and on the street. "The Green Room" is less than a page but probably has the highest ratio of impact to words of anything I have ever read. "The Love Test" is like something out of a 19th-century LSAT if those had existed. The way Chambers twists his situations to emphasize the dark nature and arbitrary actions of his characters make otherwise absurd situations seem all the more real. (It is safe to say the chat between a clown and a Grim Reaper set to a Snow White theme could not be cast as realism, for example.) Aside from Chambers's 'cross-the-pond contemporary in Machen, there is a great deal of influence from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and even a little from The Picture of Dorian Gray. Within the drug-addled 1890s, the idea of external possession of the human body took form in supernatural horror like this. 

What I did not find quite as effective were Chambers's attempts at Henry James-style travel writing. The stories about the American students in Paris sometimes provided interesting background semi-related to the earlier stories. Indeed, Chambers is effective in his use of recurring characters. I found his students not all that interesting as people, though. Stories about American students in Paris seem like a cliché now, not so much then, so I can only hold so much against Chambers on that point. The first half or so of The King in Yellow is absolutely classic. 

"You have seized the throne and the empire. Woe! woe to you who are crowned with the crown of the King in Yellow!" 

Ease of Reading: 4 
Educational Content: 4

This Week's Book: A Tale of a Tub

Getting back to the old stuff. Apparently the 20th century is just too recent these days.

September 9-15: A Tale of a Tub by Jonathan Swift

Literature (1704 - 140 pp.) 

A Tale of a Tub is the first full-length book by Jonathan Swift I've ever read, "A Modest Proposal" having been the extent of my reading before this. I wanted to read something from relatively early in his career. I'm calling this fiction but it bleeds into non-fiction in that decidedly Swift way, satirizing the political events of the day so openly it becomes the treatise he describes rather than a novel. It centres on three brothers - Peter, Martin and Jack - who represent Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism. Most of the treatise is a figurative telling of various historical events, especially from the Reformation up until its release, with occasional digressions into the general state of literary criticism. 

Much of A Tale of a Tub is identifiable now. Some of the more blatant ones are that no one cares about good writing anymore, that two of the three types of critics are insufferable, and that Catholic clergymen adorn themselves too ornately while Calvinist clergymen are too rigid in their rejection of said ornate adornment. Swift backs Luther more than the other religious figures, using Luther's personage to reflect the idea of balance between church wealth and humility. Swift's position in the Church of Ireland is evident throughout the treatise, but in a way that offers more insight into his perspective than into any particular hatred of the others. The association of Catholic doctrine with bodily filth, for example (and Swift's example here is the unnecessary, ritualistic and ultimately fatal cure for worms in the spleen), is at least as old as The Faerie Queene's depiction of the monster vomiting papers. The attacks on literary criticism are tougher to appraise, as religions have lasted far more solidly than specific schools of literary criticism, but the William Congreve quotation that "And how they're disappointed when they're pleased" (58) is one that should continue to be appreciated as it ages. 

A Tale of a Tub certainly has its place in the canon of early modern religious attack literature. It helps to have a background in early modern English history and/or literature, although I suppose this treatise could be useful background for reading Swift's contemporaries. Then, of course, "A Digression in Praise of Digressions" (83) is one of the best chapter titles I have ever seen. Swift's wit is present as always. 

NOTE: I have the Penn State ebook. That is where I've drawn the page references. 

Ease of Reading: 2 
Educational Content: 6

This Week's Book: The Satanic Bible

A friend told me he'd rather read a review of the book than the book itself. Wish granted.

September 2-8: The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey

Philosophy (1969 - 146 pp.) 

My copy of The Satanic Bible, dubbed "The Underground Edition", contains the original text plus all four introductions that have been used for it over the years and some concluding essays. It was made available as an ebook, proving that Satanism indeed keeps up with technological trends in its efforts to reach the masses. My introduction to this text comes from wanting to read substantially different material over the course of this year (and if this is not different, what is?) and from reading about the Satanism of David Vincent, bassist/vocalist of Morbid Angel. I thought Vincent's lyrics had great atmosphere, especially in "Fall from Grace", so naturally, I read the book. 

The Satanic Bible is predicated upon the Left Hand Path. Whereas the Right Hand Path contains principles like self-sacrifice for greater good, emphasis on light, and denial of temptation, the Left Hand Path is the exact opposite. Almost all major world religions belong to the Right Hand Path, as do Druids and practitioners of White Magic. Satanism, as one of the major branches of the Left Hand Path, defines itself in opposition to all of these. As a follower of the Right Hand Path (i.e. a Christian), I am inherently opposed to the broad conclusions LaVey draws. I can appreciate a compelling argument regardless of perspective, though. 

One of The Satanic Bible's charms is just how meticulously detailed it is. Truly everything about being a Satanist is explained clearly, whether it is how to embrace each of the Seven Deadly Sins or how to properly set up a room for a Satanic ritual. The book is divided very nicely into four parts - Satan (Fire), Lucifer (Air), Belial (Earth), and Leviathan (Water). Each draws on a different aspect of the Satanic faith while reiterating the initial theme of godlessness, that man is supreme yet animal. The occult bits LaVey includes throughout are educational in the sense that it is an entire body of literature he embraced more than I ever have or likely will. The field guide presentation of the last two parts makes the book seem more interactive, even to those of us who have no intention of actually carrying out any of the rituals. 

My problems with The Satanic Bible beyond my ideological opposition to Satanism more generally lie in the substantive details. LaVey is not one to cite his sources. The way in which he portrays Christian beliefs, for example his mention that gluttony is eating more than is absolutely needed for survival, is unconvincing. In light of his pillory of how Christians supposedly describe black masses, a little more understanding from LaVey would be welcome in displaying what he hates so much. The lackadaisical way in which he describes some aspects of rituals, like the desirability of a silver chalice but the admission that a wooden or ceramic (just not golden) one will serve fine in the absence of a silver one, contrasts sharply with the detail of the ceremonial setup. Then much of the book consists of blind acceptance of various occult sources, alleged plagiarism of works like Arthur Desmond's "Might Is Right", and tangential rants. The encouragement to make drawings, or to write stories or plays, directed at a desired or hated one feels like it could too easily lead to some art that LaVey even admits will not be of the highest calibre. 

The premise is incredible. That Satan has endured centuries of slander from Right Hand Path adherents yet has held his tongue makes him the benevolent one to LaVey. That Satan finally decides to speak back, and to rather unsurprisingly preach the Left Hand Path, is a concept that can perk up a reader's eyebrows if nothing else. The execution of The Satanic Bible is mixed. I was not expecting I would be convinced by its message but I needed something that presented more coherence. Besides, for all LaVey says about Satan keeping the church in business, so much of LaVeyan Satanism is derived directly from defiance of Christian practice that Satanism is likely the more indebted system of beliefs. 

Ease of Reading: 7 
Educational Content: 4