Proulx's story is tethered to the old Quoyle home on its eponymous Point. The wooden framed house is discovered by the protagonists in a state of decay. The structure is tethered to the rocky ground by steel cables and iron stakes. It is 20 odd miles away from town by road but only 2 miles by boat. Not inclined toward the nautical option, Quoyle initially decides to drive the lonely distance to his job at the Gammy Bird newspaper.
As Quoyle rebuilds his life he also learns his family's disgraceful secrets. The Quoyle's home initially was built on a tiny island home to other "wrackers," people who fished flotsam out to make a living. The icebergs floating past the Newfie coast made a natural hazard that caused many wrecked ships. The Quoyles and other families relied upon this loot. Proulx called them "natural pirates."
Other families knew about the rape and incest amongst the Quoyles. Choosing isolation, the family put the house on sleds and manually towed it across the ice. This image is perhaps the most compelling and memorable part of the book. The insane magnitude of hauling a house across frozen water is almost beyond belief.
The ending chapters are particularly satisfying. Proulx neatly pulls together her themes and images into a vivid human portrait.
But Atwood says she's Scottish, and there's no real hint of any kind of cultural or ethnic differences between the main characters in Blind Assassin. Which is fine since the characters are remarkably well fleshed out and vividly imagined. Their nuances, narcissistic tendencies, and desires do more to illustrate the book than any overarching social or cultural theme.
According to Wikipedia, Blind Assassin is a piece of Historical Fiction, a genre that I don't believe I've ever read before. Atwood's narrative is strong enough to take pressure off the "historical" side of the piece (which is mostly set between the 1920s and 1940s). In any case, the time period is so well documented and reenacted that it doesn't feel terribly far away.
The stories of Laura and Iris put the focus on the decline of the once-powerful and wealthy Chase family. In the entirely fictional town of Port Ticonderoga the Chases operated a prosperous button factory. The operation was profitable enough to allow them to build a large estate named Avalon, one cornerstone of Atwood's imported classical elements.
The Blind Assassin weaves together a fascinatingly complex tale. The love rhombus of the four main characters is revealed only at the tail end of the novel. Atwood uses faux newspaper clippings from the Toronto Star to break open the story in the beginning. Within the first few chapters she reveals the dates and manners of the deaths of Laura Chase and her brother-in-law Richard. Atwood pulls of a very nice illusion and twist by inserting this camouflaged fiction.
I say individuals because they're not all human or biological. In the Culture, Minds are sentient beings who have non-trivial thoughts, interests, and desires. Minds are the technological underpinning of the entirety of the Culture: the vehicles that propel them through space and their man-made habitats are controlled by these benevolent machines.
Other civilized societies are also interested in the "excession." A splinter faction of the Culture originally discovered it - a faction that insists upon persistent transformation and regeneration. The Affront, a squid-like species from a gas-giant planet, are also interested in the excession. It could be the greatest ransom in the galaxy, and perhaps the most powerful weapon.
That is to say nothing of the divisions within the Culture about what to do. The book presents these in a format not much different than an e-mail or message board conversation between the Minds. Playing on the Culture's openness and apparent lack of any true "authority" various groups of ships within the Culture set out to put the excession to forward their own interests.
The humanoid drama in Excession is a compelling counterpoint to the "large-scale" action. It might be too easy to overlook the story played out between Byr Genar-Hofoen and his ex-lover Dajeil - but their motives are as complex as the machines'. Banks finishes the book in a satisfying way that happens to leave a few questions unanswered.
Excession features several settings that are truly mind-bending and unique (as far as I know) to this book.
Tier - Picture nine concentric rings in a conical form. Each one turns at a specific rate in order to produce a specific level of gravity. Each 'tier' also has different atmospheric conditions (for instance one might be earth like while another is more Saturn-like). This habitat was left behind by an "elder" civilization who has either left the galaxy or sublimed.
Night City, Tier - A giant dome covers an entertainment center of extravagant proportions. Regardless of the time of day it is always night under this dome. In Excession, Banks says the dome projects the image of "ancient" bombers engaged in an air raid, but that it can project any image.
GSV Sleeper Service - People in the Culture can choose to be "put to sleep" for an indefinite period of time. Some may only want to be woken up after a certain time or after a specific (or hypothetical) event. The Sleeper Service carries these people around the galaxy in its enormous cargo holds. In order to satisfy its interests, the ship creates life-sized dioramas of historic battlefields and populates them with its sleeping passengers.
Affronter Table - An enormous donut shaped slab with a circular cage in the center. Affronters pit alien creatures against one another throughout their meals and often place bets on which one will triumph. The fights are always to the death.
Pittance - This rocky planet not orbiting any star has been transformed by the Culture into a weapons cache. Dozens of warships are essentially parked inside this dead planet.
Eccentric Spaces takes a gnarled journey through European painting, writing, and cities. Harbison's writing is thick and soupy in places where he gets twisted around on various tangential subjects. He succeeds when discussing the various treatments that authors of fiction (and historical fiction) give to settings.
This is truly a mysterious book that belongs in no genre. It would function well as a starting off point for architectural conjecture or urban planning debates. Nevertheless the book feels dated and too deeply European and it too often gets mired in unmanageable comparisons.
Good non-fiction answers a question you hadn't thought to ask. I had not realized how difficult it was to measure longitude. This short book details the scientific and political struggle of John Harrison, a British clockmaker. Although a volume of this size or much greater could explain the intricacies of clock mechanisms, this volume doesn't particularily do that. It does show how Harrison had to fight the entrenched scientific idea that longitude could only be found using astronomy.
Indeed, before Harrison, that was the case. On land longitude was measured using telescopic readings of Jupiter's moons. At sea, however, telescopes couldn't hold an image long enough to be accurate. Harrison's clocks attempted to measure the difference between a ship's port time and the local time. This works because one hour of longitude is actually one twenty-fourth of the earth's daily rotation. Before Harrison, nobody had built a clock sturdy or accurate enough to use for navigation.
British Parliment came up with the Longitude Act, a sort of early request for proposals, that would reward the winner with a large cash prize and fame. The prevailing academic notion was that the Moon's cycles could be used to cipher longitude. This was pushed by Isaac Newton, and a host of other astronomers who thought mechanical solutions were too fragile. But the moon is not visible behind clouds, during the day, and when it's obscured by the earth. Furthermore, the moon-method required at least 45 minutes of calculation by a ship's navigator.
Despite the political pressure not to use mechanical clocks for navigation, Harrison's worst enemy was his own perfectionism. His dealings with the Board of Longitude (the people in charge of awarding the prize) were tumultous largely because of how he dispariaged his own craftsmanship. Regardless, the H-4 (also known as The Watch) was a masterpiece of timekeeping that demonstrated extreme precision and ease-of-use.
Last Night I finished reading Dave Eggers' proto-fictional memoir. I really had no idea what to expect when I started this book, it seemed to be popular and interesting among some of the well read people who I also happened to read. I was familiar that the subject was something involving death, but not in that sad and mournful way.
AHWOSG flies by like a blur in the night: a blur that has plenty of time to contemplate the lack of meaningful emotion or unique experience. Dave Eggers starts the book with the deaths of his mother and father, both from cancer and about 5 months apart. His description was so intense that I couldn't put the book down - I read through the first 100 or so pages without a break. Dave goes on to describe how he took custody of his brother Toph. The two, along with their sister Beth, moved to San Francisco after everything was settled with their parents' property. Dave recounts his work at Might Magazine, his addiction/recovery prone friend, and his attempts to understand his parents in their absence.
The book seems to drag out for several chapters where Eggers describes some of the more mundane aspects of life as a creatively-oriented twentysomething living in the 1990s. A rash of minor happenings and temporary associations (such as his application to MTV's The Real World when they located the show in San Francisco) take away from the crystalized and heartfelt prose that began AHWSOG. His return trip to Chicago, however, brings the picture back into focus.
The postmodern flavor of Eggers' perspective is pervasive throughout the book. The enormous preface and supplemental pages that precede the text try hopelessly to sort out how the author is distinguishing fact from fiction.
Is nutrition bad for us? This seems impossible. We all know what things we should look for in foods and what things to avoid, right? Don't we?
Lately, a few authors have taken the entire food-nutrition research establishment to task. News-watchers with good memories already know the drama between fat and carbohydrates played out, how our feelings toward eggs have been manipulated, and why chocolate and red wine are the newest health-foods. So with these new findings, the food industry reshuffled the deck to either eliminate the nasty bits or to enhance the good nutrients. Low-fat cheeses, calcium fortified orange juice, no-carb breads, etc.
But has that done any good?
Michael Pollan in the New York Times thinks not. He argues that an ideology of nutrition, "Nutritionism" has hi-jacked our dietary expectations. Pollan seperates Nutrition from Nutritionism since the ideological variety accepts an un-scientific assumption: the value of a food can be understood by its component nutrients. Nutritionism promotes the concept that people must trust the experts' opinion in terms of our diets. Since these experts must analyze foods and nutrients one-at-a-time, they often miss important interactions, the "relationships" between the food and its eater.
Pollan's suggestion: "Eat less. Not too much. Mostly plants." While nutrient-infused foods and supplemental pills have some application for people with serious deficits of specific compounds, they are not necessarily a way to promote health. Since the early 1980s when nutrient-loaded foods hit the markets Americans have become more obese and more prone to cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Food industry lobbyists have spread confusion by promoting nutritionism as opposed to senable, realistic eating-patterns.
Like the 9/11 Air-Traffic contrail studies, World War II gave medical researchers a historic precident to measure coronary disease and diet. During WWII meats and dairy products were tightly rationed. Medical records for the period showed a dramatic drop in coronary disease. When rationing ended, coronary disease rose again. This large-scale evidence cannot be supported by nutrition-related claims.
The decit of the food-industry is deeper when we consider weight-control products. Until this summer, no serious scientist had looked into the validity of the Body Mass Index measurement (BMI). The BMI was intended to discover if an individual was overweight or obese based on a factor of their height and weight. It turnd out that the BMI was without merit. While nobody says obesity is OK, now people realize that their measurement-of-fatness was "badly flawed."
Michael Shermer joined the fray in the latest issue of Scientific American. His "Eat, Drink, and Be Merry" article reveals some fascinating new research about nutrition and culture. He quotes Barry Glassner's findings,
"Swedish and Thai women were fed a Thai dish that the Swedes found overly spicy. The Thai women, who liked the dish, absorbed more iron from the meal. When the researchers reversed the experiment and served hamburger, potatoes, and beans, the Swedes, who like this food, absorbed more iron. Most telling was a third variation of the experiment, in which both the Swedes and the Thais were given food that was high in nutrients but consisted of a sticky, savorless paste. In this case, neither group absorbed much iron."
...
Glassner reviews research showing that heart disease, cancer and other illnesses are significantly increased by "viral and bacterial infections, job stress, living in distressed neighborhoods, early deficits such as malnutrition, low birth weight, lack of parental support, and chronic sleep loss during adolescence and adulthood." Another study found that such diseases "are higher in states where participation in civic life is low, racial prejudice is high, or a large gap exists between the incomes of the rich and poor and of women and men."
If taste has a significant role in nutrient-absorption, and non-food factors weigh large in terms of heart disease then what are we to make of the nutritionism argument? Is it an argument or an excuse to eat whatever we want in any quantity? Regardless of the science and people's eating habits, it will certianly take a long time to digest any relevant findings from this debate.
My parents were shocked when they learned about the 'Strip Search Prank Call Scam' where a Florida prison guard called chain restaurants. David R. Stewart impersonated a local police officer following up a complaint. He eventually convinced managers of various fast food establishments to lock-up ans strip search their own employees. Although he is almost searingly the perpetrator he was found not guilty.
The incident raised many questions about how people react to the perception of authority. Fast food is an industry where standardization is critical. Franchise owners, managers, and employees each have specific roles and duties. When unexpected circumstances arise they are normally unprepared.
Obedience to authority has been a topic of interest to psychologists, researchers, sociologists, and school teachers for decades (if not much longer).
- When his 1967 high school class pressed him for the reasons behind the Holocaust, Ron Jones chose a novel approach to reveal the essence of obedience. His first steps were to instill a sense of discipline and conformity inside his class. Then he told them about The Third Wave, "As the class period was ending and without forethought I created a class salute. It was for class members only. To make the salute you brought your right hand up toward the right shoulder in a curled position. I called it the Third Wave salute because the hand resembled a wave about to top over. " Discipline turned into Community, the class took on a new identity. Ron eventually handed out Third Wave ID cards and assigned specific tasks to the members. The ranks swelled with new members who pledged their loyalty to the Third Wave, a vice principal gave the salute to Ron in the hallway; this experiment had taken on a life of its own. Eventually, needing to bring the lesson to a halt, Ron Jones announced that a rally for a Third Wave presidential candidate would be on live TV in the auditorium. He turned off the TV and turned on a projector slide of the Nurenburg Rally and Adolph Hitler. The packed auditorium was stunned into silence and horror about what they allowed themselves to believe.
- The Stanford Prison Experiment was a wholly different affair. In my opinion its methods were sloppy and haphazard and it revealed little about actual prisoner or guard mentality. In spite of that shortcoming, the Prison Experiment did show quite vividly that "predominantly white, middle-class young males. All ... college undergraduates" could carry out and accept sadistic behaviors. Sanitation in the mock prison deteriorated rapidly, guards segregated prisoners into "good" and "bad" cell blocks to play off the "informers." Long hours of forced exercise, restricted bathroom rights, cumplsory nudity, and phony parole offers were used to torment the "prisoners." Finally, a hunger strike by #416 and an outside researcher's horror at the ordeal forced the experiment to end early.
- Where Stanford demonstrated people acting inhumanely toward one another for no purpose whatsoever it hardly proved anything about a population's capacity for sadistic behavior. Stanely Milgram at Yale conducted a thorough, and much more scientificly rigorus experiment. While the method is a bit complex, its essence is that human volunteers were told to "teach" another person several word associations. Wrong answers were to be punished by an incramentely increasing electric shock. (No shock was ever delivered as the "learner" was always an actor and a plant.) Milgram showed that 65% of his volunteers continued the experiment to the final trio of 450 volt shocks. Furthermore, "none of the participants who refused to administer the final shocks insisted that the experiment itself be terminated, nor left the room to check that the victim was well without asking for permission to leave,"(emphasis mine).
What is the role of seperation? In my life has it become necessary to divide my professional and personal identities? I still don't know, but I consider this the first toe in the water.
Blogger will always be home to my academic and professional interests: buildings, architecture, cities, geography, real estate. Personal issues have been forced upon it from time to time. I get the distinct impression that Vox will allow me to integrate a stronger personality and identity to my internet-identity.
The experiment begins.
