[Richard]
^^^ March 18, 2004
David Harvey -- The Urban Experience
[Note, this is a very slighly modified version of the book review that appeared in the main journal (the only change I made was to edit the opening phrase). You can still find the same comments in the journal or the archives.]
The Urban Experience is actually a combination of two books that Harvey wrote in the mid 1980s, Consciousness and the Urban Experience and The Urbanization of Capital. Harvey is a geographer who often focuses on political economy or, as he is commonly called, an economic geographer (or maybe that should be a geographic economist). Economically, he is basically a Marxist, so he well understands the potential in the struggle between contradictory elements, and how that struggle and those contradictions can lead toward the creation of something progressive, a new social development or stage. (I’m not that schooled in this area, but I believe that this is what is meant by "dialectics.") So, Harvey understands that while the big city is based on large-scale capitalist development, which is something we want to fight against ("we" being progressives, leftists, anti-capitalists, those who want to oppose economic oppression, etc.), it also creates opportunities for the development of new freedoms and liberating kinds of social expression or interaction that might actually subvert the capitalist agenda. Although, then again, the "alternative" community can present problems of its own...
Harvey sums up these ideas particularly well in the following paragraphs, from Chapter 8, "The Urbanization of Consciousness":
Alternative communities find it hard, if not impossible, to survive as autonomous entities. They cannot seal themselves off from the rest of the world (though some try by moving to remote regions). It is hard to keep the “dissolving effects” of monetarization at bay. The community domination of a particular place often entails the imposition of a repressive rigidity in the functioning of social relations and moral codes. There is, therefore, much that is repressive about this sort of community. New England townships may have been models of community, but they were also bastions of intolerance. Compared to that, the dissolving effects of money and anonymity of urban life may appear as a welcome relief, and the incoherencies of entrepreneurial capitalism, positively stimulating.
The construction of community within the frame of capitalist urbanization contains a tension. Movements against the power of concrete abstractions like money, capital, space and time may spiral into fierce struggles to create an alternative kind of community. But there are also processes of community construction and community empowerment that integrate only too well into the dynamics of capital accumulation through the production of space. How the tension between these two dimensions of community formation is resolved cannot be exactly predicted in advance, but the historical record indicates how frequently they intersect. The capitalist setting of community as an opportunity for self-realization sparks alternative movements, while the latter can be coopted for the selling of community and proximity to nature as consumption goods. All kinds of intermediate mixes are possible. A community may be organized as a sophisticated coping mechanism that wards off the worst aspects of class domination and alienated individualism but in so doing merely makes the domination of money and capital more acceptable. But capitalists, in seeking to promote community for exactly such reasons, can also help create centers of guerilla warfare against their own interests. Community, therefore, has always to be interpreted as a specific resolution of this underlying tension worked out in the context of relations of family, the individual, class, and the state, under specific conditions of urbanization.
Some people would find some of this language to be a bit theoretical (I know I did at first). But I’ve found a lot in the above passage -- and in the book in general -- that I can relate to on a personal level. For me, the two paragraphs above help to explain a lot of the contradictory feelings that I continue to get trying to cope with living in the big city, though I’ve lived in the big city my whole life. In virtually the same breath that Harvey explains the strange advantages of the big, anonymous community over the routinely idealized small village or town, he also explains how/why the urban pocket of alternative community -- the kind of refuge from mainstream culture and politics that I, myself, have looked to repeatedly for a little a slice of utopia -- too often becomes more limiting and oppressive than the stuff we’re fighting against.
Then Harvey touches upon the disillusioning process of cooptation: The city offers so many opportunities to find and do something different, but, wait a minute, those different things that you are doing one year are next year’s hot commodity! But usually, there is something else to find when your last refuge has been corrupted (or has proven unpalatable) -- which may also prove to be a more effective spot from which to subvert the dominant capitalist agenda through cultural "guerilla war." And, there is always the hope that you/we can eventually succeed at achieving a more permanent kind of alternative or even a better society, although that might happen in unexpected ways, starting from places that are more integrated into the general urban experience than from pockets of too-self-consciously alternative lifestyle and politics. Of course, to work toward these kinds of goals, each one of us needs to get out there and mingle sufficiently...
But, personally speaking, I also have the problem of letting the pressures of urban existence wear me down to the point where I’m sometimes happy to hide in my room and not mingle with anyone. This can be a particular danger for us introverts, especially now that we have Cyberspace. In the big city, we can often avoid human contact altogether, except for mostly impersonal situations that we are driven to strictly out of the need to survive. Then, we might have to deal with a boss (which doesn't have to involve a whole lot of conversation, especially if you're a temp worker), a storekeeper (or supermarket cashier, or Chinese takeout person), a landlord (only minimally, if we're lucky), the complete strangers sitting near us on the train, bus, or ferry, and maybe some strangely talkative coworker once in a while. While Harvey touches on the potential appeal of urban anonymity, and while he does conversely mention "alienated individualism," he doesn’t discuss the fact that the big city might, ironically, encourage or foster reclusiveness almost as effectively as a cabin in the woods. Now, I’m trying to figure out where to go for good works about that problem. Maybe I’ll have to leave the sociology section and go into the psychology aisle.
^^^ August 3, 2003
Recenly Acquired Magazines
Since I tend to read magazines at least as much as I read real books (it’s been an unfortunate weakness of mine, since I usually have to shell out money for these things), I thought it appropriate to list and describe the latest batch of magazines that I got. I may continue to list magazines under the Book List, or maybe we’ll set up a separate magazine list. (Note, by the way, that every magazine listed here is a Web link -- they’ve all got at least some material online -- plus, they'll give you addresses, prices, etc., the stuff that I don't feel like listing right now.)
City Limits -- I started buying this one a couple of years ago, when someone recommended it to me as a place to find ads for nonprofit jobs. The job ads section will work best for you if you have good computer skills, some academic background studying social work, human services or nonprofit management (preferably at the graduate level), and some years of experience working for nonprofits already; it also will help if you are under 30. (The ageism in the "progressive nonprofit" sector is overwhelming -- often they’ll use code words like "recent college graduate" but sometimes they’ll even say something like "ideal candidate is under 25.") So, the job ads are so-so, as far as I’m concerned. On the other hand, the articles are pretty good. The magazine has good stories about local labor issues and local political struggles. It offers excellent coverage of New York City housing issues, whether it’s an article about rent laws (the cover story of the last issue that I picked up) or squats (this had by far the best coverage of any magazine that I saw last year regarding the history and eventual “legalization” of the Lower East Side squats). The only complaints I would have about this magazine – apart from the slim pickings in the famous job ads -- are that the writing is sometimes a little flat for my tastes, and almost every article is centered on interviews with, or features about, individual people. In other words, it’s all pretty standard "feature" journalism, while I tend to crave a greater variety of approaches. But for what it is, it’s not half bad.
Earth First! -- This has been another standard for me for a while. The writing’s pretty good, though I think it also can use some more flair sometimes. Much of the news I see in this magazine is stuff that’s already been circulating around on the Internet, like news about big protests or big police crackdowns. On the other hand, there’s a lot of stuff I’ll probably see here first as well. And there’s a lot of good news and focus on direct action, in terms of both history and execution, which can be instructive to people involved in many different kinds of movements, not just the environmental movement that is obviously this magazine’s main focus.
Green Anarchy -- Now, if you want an eco-anarchist paper with some real feisty flair to it, you should probably go hunt this one down (so to speak). The Summer ’03 issue seems particularly good to me, compared to what I’ve seen before – although it could just be that I’m actually more ready now to read Green Anarchy. I disagree with some of it, and I bet that the editors would disagree with me, in some cases, finding me too rationalist or even workerist (still), and sometimes I find it a bit difficult trying to grasp what the editorial collective wants, exactly, when they call for “the destruction of civilization” (probably, I just haven’t read quite enough John Zerzan). But I do appreciate the uncompromising outrage of these writing militant activists, especially because it is applied to a good and diverse range of articles pertaining to anti-authoritarian struggle everywhere -- for instance, the present issue covers everything from "A Non-Primitivist Revolt Against Civlization" to an article "On Sabotage As One of the Fine Arts" to "Decoding the Apocalypse of the Militant Greek Left" -- all very interesting stuff.
Monthly Review -- And now, from a completely different quarter of radical politics… This is an excellent analytical journal, which I’ve been reading since about 1996, when I heard about it at the Brecht Forum. Monthly Review is located across the hall from the Brecht Forum and actually shares many of the same participants. Politically, I would characterize this publication as Western-democratic Marxist, broadly defined. Contributors whom you might find in here include Paul Buhle, Istvan Meszaros, and John Bellamy Foster. So, this is pretty prestigious material, and they don’t need an obscure writer like me to promote them; their Web site even has a pitch from Sheila Rowbotham! But I’ll give them my good word anyway, because the articles are also wonderfully readable for a prestigious sort-of-academic journal and they even put articles from their journal on the Web “for those who cant afford Monthly Review” – which is good, because, while I might shell out the $4.50 or so once in a while for a regular single issue, I definitely don’t feel as though I can afford to pay $12 for the present anti-imperialism summer special.
News From Below -- This is a very pretty new magazine. The cover of the issue that I picked up contains a really nice picture of a wind turbine from southern Italy. This is the "green power renaissance" issue. Much of it seems to be a sort of travelogue, with reports from Japan, Hungary, etc. The politics seem to be mildly left-liberal or green-socialist, from what I can tell -- not quite with the sting that I look for in my political magazines. But I’m still reading this one, and I can’t really come up with any sort of judgment about it yet (assuming I ever do). Overall, it’s a nice magazine, and also kind of unique.
The Sun -- A good literary magazine, which I've been reading on and off for a long time. It combines a left-humanist kind of perspective with very well-written, often individual memoirs and fiction. The tone is usually a bit quiet and I get the impression that most of the contributors aren’t exactly fighting to survive. But as lit mags go, it seems pretty earthy and unpretentious, and I’ve found some of my favorite writing in these pages, especially in the contributions to their “Readers Write” section, which consists of works submitted by regular, non-famous people entering a monthly sort-of contest with a free subscription as the prize. The July issue also has a very nice interview with the famous peace activist Phil Berrigan, conducted in 2002, just a few months before he died.
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^^^ Book Recommendations
Andre Gorz:
Ecology as Politics -- This collection of articles brilliantly links
basic
Marxist analysis with left-libertarian political philosophy and ideas
about
ecological sustainability (often acknowledging the ideas of Ivan
Illich). A
breakthrough kind of work from the 1970s, it told greens why they need
to be
more revolutionary and told revolutionaries why they need to be more
green.
The result is oddly not far off from Murray Bookchin, but with more of
a
focus on basic concepts about capitalism and political economy.)
Farewell to the Working Class -- Intriguingly controversial/iconoclastic
libertarian, post-Fordist Marxism and anti-Marxism; written in the
1980s; it
took into special consideration the then-relatively-new "non-class of
post
industrial proletarians.")
Reclaiming Work -- His most recent book, this focuses on ideas about
creating
a society free of wage slavery, recognizing and considering
contemporary
social, economic, and ecological trends -- combines and further
develops
thoughts from the two books above. In a more explicit way, he also
shows
how the wage system (i.e., "work as we know it") is declining anyway,
but
the increasing lack of work is used by people in power (and ideologies
in
power) to increase insecurity and exploitation, tightening the grip of
capital on most of the people in the world. Gorz argues that we can
use the
decline of work to our advantage instead, advancing into a new and
different
kind of society.)
Ivan Illich -- The Right to Useful Unemployment (This is a right that the Common Wheel Collective most enthusiastically supports. The book clearly shows
Illich's influence on Gorz. The title sums up the concept quite well.)
Lewis Mumford:
The City In History -- In fascinating ways, this connects the development
of
cities, urban planning, and urban architecture with historical trends
in the
concentration and use of power. It challenges traditional
technological
development and urban sprawl, eventually discussing ideas for creating
a
more humanistic and egalitarian kind of city. Written in the early
1960s,
it's in many ways a precursor to most of the books above.)
The Lewis Mumford Reader, edited by Donald L. Miller -- A series of
essays and
book excerpts posing more challenges to urban expansion, centralized power, and many conventional modern notions about progress -- great stuff.)
Murray Bookchin:
Urbanization without Cities -- One of my favorite books by Bookchin
(published
1992), this not only explores and challenges modern urbanization, but
also
offers a lot of insight into the history and philosophy of real,
participatory democracy.)
Anarchism, Marxism, and the Future of the Left -- Published in 1999, a
collection of Bookchin interviews covering exactly what it says --
fascinating stuff.
Sheila Rowbotham -- Threads Through Time -- A collection of Rowbotham
essays
and book excerpts from the early 1970s to the late 1990s. This
contains a
lot of the egalitarian socialist-feminist philosophy for which
Rowbotham is
known -- and that's great. But it also contains a lot of excellent
labor
history, discussing how working people (especially women) fought
against
capitalist exploitation and poverty. There are also good articles on
the
Sheffield Anarchists of the late 19th Century and Emma Goldman's Living
My
Life.)
Serge Bricianer -- Pannekoek and the Workers' Councils -- I found this
fairly
recently in a used bookstore. It's a great summary of the ideas of the
council communist Anton Pannekoek; it also contains a lot of
interesting
biography and many excerpts from Pannekoek's work.)
Barbara Winslow -- Sylvia Pankhurst -- Sexual Politics and Political
Activism -- A good biography of the British council communist Sylvia
Pankhurst. It contains a lot of important information about the
different
perspectives and conflicts in the famous suffragette Pankhurst family,
which
helps to illustrate the basic splits in approaches to feminism into the
rest
of the 20th Century. Pankhurst emphasized the connections between
feminism
and class struggle, rather than strictly focusing on the battle between
genders. Sheila Rowbotham very much followed her example; in fact, she
recently wrote her own biography of Pankhurst, but I haven't had a
chance to
see that yet.
Simone Weil, An Anthology -- Edited and introduced by Sian Miles --
Simone
Weil's writing is fascinating. Her thoughts about the nature of force,
violence, suffering, and oppression are at least as pertinent these
days as
they were when she wrote them, mainly in the 30s and 40s. She was a
theologian, philosopher, sociologist, and political activist. She was
born
in a French Jewish family but became very deeply committed to the
Catholic
faith. She was thought by many to be inaccessibly
intellectual, but she worked in factories and fought with the anarchist
militia in the Spanish Civil War. She died at the age of 34,
essentially
from anorexia.)
Richard W. Franke and Barbara H. Chasin -- Kerala: Radical Reform as
Development in an Indian State -- An interesting study on how a province
with
little more than 1 percent of the United States' per capita GNP can
have an
adult literacy rate of 91 percent (close to the US's) and a whole bunch
of
other social indicators that compare very well to the U.S. and other
"First
World Nations"... This explores Kerala's decentralized kind of
socialism,
which creates a very different model for successful development from
that
espoused in the past by both capitalist and authoritarian-communist
societies. Related to this book, I like Franke's discussions about the
beedi-rolling coops in Kerala, which have been remarkably egalitarian,
better in many ways than the famous Mondragon coops in Spain. We may
add a
link to an article on that subject soon.
Arundhati Roy -- The God of Small Things -- On the other hand, Arundhati
Roy
shows how Kerala is far from Paradise. But this is a very good novel.
I
wish she'd write more novels.)
Carolyn Chute -- Merry Men -- I read this novel back in the mid-1990s,
but I
haven't been this moved by a novel since. A devastating book about
poverty
and class anger in rural Maine. People might know of Carolyn Chute as
the
writer of The Beans of Egypt, Maine, which was a best-seller, or as the
initiator of the libertarian-leftist Second Maine Militia.
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[asfo_del]
^^^ October 29, 2003
Recent reading:
One Hundred Demons
by Lynda Barry (c)2002
This is so great! The demons in question are personal demons: a stressful childhood with a cold and judgmental mother and a colorful and outspoken grandmother; working-class poverty; rejection and torment by school peers; bad first job with scamming pseudo-hippies; one particularly bad boyfriend; platitudes, untruths and truths about hate; smells in different homes; head lice; San Francisco; a dead friend. All of these tales are drawn in full-color with heart-wrenching honesty and quirky, surprising insights. Beautiful art, and even instructions and inspiration on how to draw your own demons.
True Notebooks
by Mark Salzman (c)2003
Mark Salzman is an awesome, Pulitzer-prize nominated writer. I had read Iron and Silk, his true and funny account of teaching in China, and Lost in Place, his true and funny account of growing up in the suburbs obsessed with kung-fu, but this is an account of teaching writing to violent offenders locked up in juvenile hall [not too funny; in fact, unbelievably sad]. Salzman is not the typical do-good prison volunteer. In fact he makes no apology for taking on the task and sticking with it simply, he says, because he enjoys it. But he obviously has enormous respect and compassion for his students, who are at their best in his anti-authoritarian, student- and truth-oriented writing class. Throughout the book, he lets them speak by publishing page after page of their own honest and soul-baring writing. It's utterly heartbreaking that these kids are looking at a lifetime of incarceration because of a terrible and careless mistake made early in life.
The Healing Hand: the Bushmen and the Kalahari desert
by Rupert Isaacson (c)2001
The Bushmen of Botswana and Namibia, who are possibly the modern-day counterparts of the original humans on earth, from whom all other humans are descended, are stuck literally between a rock and a hard place. Ejected from wildlife preserves, which are their native hunting grounds, and having nowhere else to go, these indigenous hunter-gatherers are relegated to squalid camps at the edges of their former territory, making their scarce money by playing tourists and journalists with pretend hunting-forays into the bush [they're not allowed to actually hunt the animals] and rustic photo ops, as well as selling a few traditional crafts. The longer they wait for justice from the courts, whom they have petitioned to be able to return to their ancestral lands, the more they're losing their traditional ways, which include a vast knowledge of medicinal plants.
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^^^ October 29, 2003
These are the books I borrowed from the library recently.
One Hundred Demons
by Lynda Barry (c)2002
True Notebooks
by Mark Salzman (c)2003
Sustainable Planet: solutions for the twenty-first century
by Juliet B. Schor et al, ed. (c)2002
[I wrote about this book in a Journal entry.]
Regarding the Pain of Others
by Susan Sontag (c)2003
I Want That!: how we all became shoppers
by Thomas Hine (c)2002
Leaving Home: 15 distinguished authors explore personal journeys
by Hazel Rochman et. al., ed. (c)1997
Please Stop Laughing at Me
by Jodee Blanco (c)2003
+=+=+=+=+
^^^ September 19, 2003
These are the books I borrowed from the library a couple of days ago.
West of Kabul, East of New York: an Afghan American story
by Tamim Ansary (c)2002
[I wrote about this book in a Journal entry.]
Home and Exile
by Chinua Achebe (c)2000
The Healing Hand: the Bushmen and the Kalahari desert
by Rupert Isaacson (c)2001
To See and See Again: a life in Iran and America
by Tara Bahrampour(c)1999
[I wrote about this book in a Journal entry.]
Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the crusade against child labor
by Russell Freedman (c)1994
+=+=+=+=+
^^^ September 17, 2003
Recent Reading:
Puro Border: dispatches, snapshots & graffiti from la frontera
by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, ed. (c)2002
Harrowing stories, articles, photos, and poetry about those who struggle to survive by moving between Mexico and the U.S. or who dwell on either side of this heavily policed and sometimes deadly demarcation. The U.S. border patrol has authority to stop people traveling well within the U.S. territory and demand proof of identity. Not only are those who look foreign targeted, but so are people who look like they could be part of the sanctuary movement. In desperate efforts to escape detection, immigrants have perished in the desert and in the back of overheated, enclosed trucks. A particularly chilling feature of the book is an unofficial list of women killed in Ciudad Juarez over the past ten years.
Having said that, a lot of this book is friendly and discursive. There's a great blend of sobering reporting and personal narratives, many of which are optimistic, wry, or nostalgic.
Rock My Soul: black people and self esteem
by bell hooks(c)2002
Bell hooks makes the argument that a traditional style of parenting based on a patriarchal, authoritarian model crushes self-esteem and does not allow young black boys to flourish through avenues such as creativity and the healthy expression of emotions, forcing them instead into a mold of macho swagger.
One of the necessary underpinnings of self-esteem, she says, interestingly, is personal integrity. Hooks believes black people in particular sabotage themselves when they adopt the very same destructive behaviors of unscrupulous white people. Whenever someone believes that others cheat and have cheated her, and she gives up her own righteousness as a result, she is damaging herself and her own sense of herself.
"Without self-esteem everyone loses his or her sense of meaning, purpose, and power. For too long, African Americans in particular have been unable to openly and honestly address the crisis of self-esteem and how it affects the way they perceive themselves and are perceived by others." [From a review.]
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002
by Dave Eggers, ed.(c)2002
This is billed as an essay anthology of interest to the young: teenagers and twentysomethings. Reprints are from many sources. Some of the pieces I found to be unbearably self-involved. There are some good, serious articles: one is about two young brothers who move to New York from Mexico to work below minimum wage and for long hours at a car wash. They send money back home to help their mother open a tiny grocery store out of her house, but, for the most part, they are unable make any headway against the high cost of living and the lure of drugs and clubs.
A graphic story (comic) tells of a young girl's pressure to fit in by making herself sexually available to thuggish school athletes and a shy boy's attempt at finding friendship with another outcast who turns out to have creepy ulterior motives.
Included is a very funny piece about Marilyn Manson being reduced to trying to scare people by going door-to-door in suburbia.
The River's Tale: a year on the Mekong
by Edward A. Gargan(c)2002
The author did jail time for refusing to fight in Vietnam, but remains fascinated by its landscape and people: "The Mekong scours some of the saddest history of recent years."
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^^^ July 22, 2003
Recent Reading:
What Would Buddha Do?: 101 answers to life's daily dilemmas
by Franz Metcalf (c)2002
I don't wish to treat the issue of religion with flippancy or disregard, but for me personally, since I am a very skeptical person, the central problem I have with religions in general is being asked to believe something that to me seems fundamentally, even obviously, untrue. Thus, I think that Jesus had great wisdom and talked about very important things, like each person's moral responsibility to her fellow humans - which so many who say they are believers do not adhere to at all - but I don't think he was God. Buddha's wisdom is perhaps even more appealing to me - probably at least in part because I don't know it very well - but again I don't think that bad behavior in this lifetime will cause someone to return into less auspicious circumstances in the next. I just don't believe there is a next life.
Still, Buddha inspired some pretty great remarks:
On living your life:
"Just be normal, without trying to act any special way. Move your bowels, piss, put on your clothes, eat your food, and lie down when you're tired." -Zen Master Linji
On materialism:
"Since this world passes away, with everyone fooling everyone - it is unwise for us to think of anything as yours in the midst of this intermingling, this dream." -Buddhacharita 6.48
On what's important:
"A monk then asked, 'Can you say something that transcends the Buddhas and Ancestors?' The Master said, 'Sesame flatbread.'" -Blue Cliff Record 77
---------------
The Newman's Own Organics Guide to a Good Life: simple measures that benefit you and the place you live
by Nell Newman (c)2003
This is a wonderful book of sensible information on how to live one's day-to-day life more sustainably. It makes me feel kind of inferior, however: dirty, sluggish, plastic. My own attempt at sustainability is to consume as little as possible, but as far as making use of specific green products and technology, most of that is beyond my reach, both monetarily and practically. I'm also a little put off by the chapter on investing: this is not a book written with the proletariat in mind.... But setting aside my fruitless whining, the author, Paul Newman's daughter, gives thoroughly researched tips that apply to every aspect of a person's life.
A random selection:
- - Capture Rainwater. Water from the sky is just the thing for outdoor jobs like watering plants.
- - It's more efficient to use the dishwasher than to wash dishes by hand, but only if you do full loads.
- - In the Northern states, plant deciduous trees on the south and west sides of your house. They'll shade your abode in summer and let sunlight warm you in winter after leaves have fallen.
- - Observe the cardinal rule. Buy not what you want but what you need.
- - Switch to rechargeable batteries for small appliances. Alkaline and dry batteries release poisonous oxides. Rechargeable NiMH batteries are non-toxic and can be charged hundreds of times.
- - Houseplants that clean the air: palms (areca, lady, bamboo), rubber plant, Boston fern. More: www.wolvertonenvironmental.com
- - To reduce toxins in your home: take off your shoes when you come home, open the windows more often, stop using toxic cleaners; when you see an ant, instead of reaching for the spray, ask yourself, "Why is it here?" More: www.checnet.org
[Not a tip but a factoid: Cotton is grown on 3 to 5 percent of the world's cultivated lands - but is sprayed with 25 percent of the world's pesticide each year.]
The Worst Offenders: [chemicals found in many household products; may or may not be listed on packaging]:
Air fresheners: Formaldehyde, Phenol, Paradichlorobenzene
Ammonia
Antibacterial cleansers: Triclosan
Antifreeze: Ethylene Glycol, Methanol
Carpet and Upholstery Shampoos: Perchlorethylene, Ammonium Hydroxide
Car Waxes, Polishes: Petroleum distillates
Chlorine Bleach: Sodium Hypochlorite
Disinfectants: Sodium Hypochlorite, Phenols
Drain Cleaners: Sodium or Potassium Hydroxide, Hydrochloric Acid, Trichloromethane
Flea Powders: Carbaryl, Dichlorophene
Laundry-Room Products: Sodium or Calcium Hypochlorite, Linear Alkylate Sulfonate, Sodium Tripolyphosphate.
[Abridged list from pp. 142-4]
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Free for All: defending liberty in America today
by Wendy Kaminer(c)2002
In the period immediately after September 11, 2001, when some journalists were fired and talk-show hosts publicly reprimanded for questioning the actions of the government, Wendy Kaminer steadfastly and eloquently wrote about the dangers of abridging civil rights, particularly freedom of speech, in times of national crisis.
She remarks - and this was written on November 5, 2001! - that in the aftermath of September 11, George W. Bush went from being "a relatively unpopular, arguably unelected, and widely unrespected president to a 'leader' with practically unanimous support." She argues for the responsibility of every person to become actively engaged in shaping and analyzing the actions of her government. "Patriotism requires us to judge our leaders coolly and criticize or even satirize them freely."
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^^^ June 29, 2003
Recent Reading:
When I picked up the book, Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons, a paperback whose hip cover is a close-up photo of a fifties jukebox, (the buttons you would press to enter song selections are arranged into the letters of the title), I thought it might be an insufferably hip and self-congratulatory review of the author's ineffably clever knowledge of the trivial minutiae of popular culture, rendered with ironic distance and superiority. I borrowed the book because I thought it could be fun to read an analysis of the cultural significance of The Simpsons, which seem like a great topic to think and write about.
As it turns out, I could not have been further from the mark. The author, David Dark, is deeply religious. His insights on what can be learned from pop culture--those aspects of pop culture that are honest enough to offer themselves up as a distorting lens through which we can see ourselves at our least flattering--are based on deep spiritual beliefs. It is our willingness to learn from our tangible daily experiences, with humility and patience, self-mockery and compassion, that leads to a greater wisdom. The term "apocalypse" is used here to mean "epiphany." The apocalyptic is any vehicle that allows us to glean some truth about ourselves behind the facade of a culture that is always putting a spin on itself in an attempt to sell us ideology and products; the everyday apocalypse written about in this book is
"all manner of media that highlights, exposes, or lampoons the moral bankruptcy of our imaginations while teasing us toward a better way of looking at, and dwelling within, the world." (p. 19)
::**::**::**::
^^^ June 29, 2003
These are the books I borrowed from the library yesterday.
What Would Buddha Do?: 101 answers to life's daily dilemmas
by Franz Metcalf (c)2002
Money Makes the World Go Around: one investor tracks her cash through the global economy
by Barbara Garson (c)2001
Chicken: self-portrait of a young man for rent
by David Henry Sterry (c)2002
Free for All: defending liberty in America today
by Wendy Kaminer(c)2002
The Portable Sixties Reader
edited by Ann Charters (c)2003
Naguib Mahfouz at Sidi Gaber: reflections of a Nobel laureate 1994-2001
from conversations with Mohamed Salmawy (c)2001
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^^^ June 29, 2003
Roundup of Recent Readings:
The Best case Scenario Handbook
by John Tierney (c)2002
This is a compact little compendium of humor. The premise is that this is advice on how to cope with unexpected, wildly lucky breaks. However, I myself wouldn't consider it a pleasure to become queen and have people be forced to serve me, or to have some unpleasant information about an employer so that I might torture him with it, or to be mistaken for a celebrity and get red-carpet treatment...you get the picture. Most of these impossibly rosy scenarios would actually be a nightmare to me. Some of us actually do not yearn to oppress others. Huh?
Earthly Signs: moscow diaries, 1917 - 1922
by Marina Tsvetaeva (c)2002
I only read this very cursorily, a few pages here and there. Marina Tsvetaeva, a poet, found herself destitute and having to care for two small children when the Russian revolution hit. The introduction makes the disturbing allegation that Tsvetaeva was indifferent to her youngest daughter to the point of cruelty, leaving the child alone to starve to death in an orphanage when she was only a few years old. After reading that, it became much more difficult for me to summon interest for the brooding and poetic descriptions of the author's hardships and deprivations.
War Torn: stories of war from the women reporters who covered Vietnam
by Tad Bartimus et al. (c)2002
Although sometimes very moving and, in some installments, filled with very personal, unabashed revelations--as well as a sobering account, driving home, essay after essay, the absurdity, bloodiness, and dehumanizing savagery of so much of the Vietnam war--I found this collection slightly disappointing. The authors, all women journalists who reported from Vietnam, were asked to write the pieces specifically for the project, so the results sometimes seemed slightly forced by a sense of obligation to explain how being a woman made the experience of war reporting different. In many cases, it seems that it didn't much matter: that the war was so overwhelming for journalists, soldiers, and civilians alike that no one had the time to notice or care that there were women journalists.
The High Price of Materialism
by Tim Kasser (c)2002
Not surprisingly, materialism, both as a yearning for and as the acquiring of material possessions, does not make you happy. Indeed, it only contributes to greater anxiety and dissatisfaction. The author has conducted a sociological study that proves this point. I find the premise, and the introduction to the book, which examines the premise, more interesting, in fact very pointed and relevant, than the actual study, though I'm glad it was done.
See the journal entry for excerpts of this book.
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^^^ June 5, 2003
These are the books I borrowed from the library yesterday.
The High Price of Materialism
by Tim Kasser (c)2002
The Newman's Own Organics Guide to a Good Life: simple measures that benefit you and the place you live
by Nell Newman (c)2003
Hermit in Paris
by Italo Calvino (c)2002
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^^^ June 5, 2003
Updates on library books:
To Afghanistan and Back: a graphic travelogue
by Ted Rall (c)2002
[Year after year, wildebeest follow a migration path that takes them through a crocodile-infested river where, inevitably, several members of the herd perish. Why do they continue to do this? Because although some animals will certainly die, the vast majority will not; therefore, the odds for any given individual wildebeest are quite good. So it is, says Ted Rall, for people living in wartime. Bombs are falling by the hour all around, but the likelihood that you personaly will be hit is relatively low--although someone somewhere will be harmed for sure. Therefore you carry on, fatalistically beleiving that you will probably be all right. Rall describes the long, unrelenting tediom of war, punctuated by moments of utter terror. A member of Rall's own journalists' group is killed, simply because he answered the door to his bungalow when others hunkered down. Being a journalist covering a conflict in a country where the average income is $1.40 a month means constant haggling over the price of services; $50 car rides are not uncommon.]
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^^^ May 21, 2003
Updates on library books:
The Parrot Who Owns Me: the story of a relationship
by Joanna Burger (c)2001
[The author is a prominent ornithologist, so her insights about her parrot companion are unusually perceptive and well-informed. Most interesting are the parallels she makes between parrot and human customs (parrots live for up to 70 years, and they mate for life): the practice of preening (or grooming each other's feathers) to solidify a pair-bond or to apologize after a tiff is not unlike the affectionate cozying up of long-established human couples; the need for autonomy, which the parrot establishes through testiness and screeching--even biting--when he's ordered around; and the bird's need for and reward of unconditional companionship from a trusted mate. (The parrot in the book considers his human caretaker his mate).]
[When we lived in Texas, my former boyfriend Bill and I had a parrot for several months. He was fascinating, ornery, diffident, and very funny. It was like having an odd little man around the house, stuffy and self-possessed, perching on picture frames to peer down at us, fluttering around the house (he liked his cage only as a perch to sit on top of), and screeching and sqwaking in the most unbelievably loud, eardrum-shattering way. (The book's author says it sounds as if the bird were being set on fire every morning). That, and his flamboyance when it came to bathing (splashing ecstatically in a small dish of water with as much gusto as a wet dog shaking himself) and eating (taking one bite out of a piece of fruit and then gleefully catapulting the remainder into the air and onto the swamp of soggy newspaper, seed husks, and bits of produce on the ground below his perch) made it necessary for us to give him away. He had been a foundling and was too scared to make any utterance or move when we first got him, so I hope we helped to bring him back to sturdiness and health.]
Dog Days and Dandelions: a lively guide to the animal meanings behind everyday words
by Martha Barnette (c)2003
[Some choice words:
Limacene: (pronounced like "lima beans") Slug-like, as in (this is a quote from the book): "When are you going to put aside your limacene ways and start giving me a little help around here?"
Comedo: Blackhead (as in "non-comedogenic" make-up, which supposedly does not clog pores). It derives from the word maggot, because apparently somebody, centuries ago, thought the contents of a blackhead, once squeezed, resemble a maggot.]
www.funwords.com
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^^^ May 17, 2003
These are the books I borrowed from the library yesterday. I haven't read them yet.
(In order of size, from smallest.)
The Best Case Scenario Handbook
by John Tierney (c)2002
The Parrot Who Owns Me: the story of a relationship
by Joanna Burger (c)2001
Earthly Signs: Moscow Diaries, 1917 - 1922
by Marina Tsvetaeva (c)2002
Dog Days and Dandelions: a lively guide to the animal meanings behind everyday words
by Martha Barnette (c)2003
The Grouchy Grammarian: a how-not-to guide to the 47 most common mistakes in English made by journalists, broadcasters, and others who should know better
by Thomas Parrish (c)2002
Everyday Apocalypse: the sacred revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and other pop culture icons
by David Dark (c)2002
To Afghanistan and Back: a graphic travelogue
by Ted Rall (c)2002
War Torn: stories of war from the women reporters who covered Vietnam
by Tad Bartimus, Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas, Edith Ledered, Ann Bryan Mariano, Anne Morrissy Merick, Laura Palmer, Kate Webb, Tracy Wood (c)2002
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^^^ Recommendations
America's Undeclared War: what's killing our cities and how we can stop it
by Daniel Lazare (c)2001
["Having subsidized the suburbs, hollowed out our cities, defaced and polluted the landscape, what have we gained?"]
Disposable People:
new slavery in the global economy
by Kevin Bales (c)2000
[Modern slavery no longer depends on racism or institutionalized prejudice as a rationale: people are made slaves simply because they are vulnerable and exploiting them is profitable. Profit has become its own justification. The author looks at modern-day slavery in Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and India.]
Read a review: dannyreviews.com
How De Body?: one man's terrifying journey through an African war
by Teun Voeten (c)2000
[A personal account of a Belgian journalist who finds himself in Sierra Leone during wartime and is sheltered by the village schoolteacher's family, with whom he hides out in the bush.]
www.teunvoeten.com
The Shadow of the Sun
Ryszard Kapuscinski (c)2001
[Amazing, insightful accounts of decades of reporting from Africa, including both historical background and personal stories, by a Polish journalist.]
Urban Injustice: how ghettos happen
by David Hilfiker (c)2002
[An inner-city doctor gives an exceptionally clear-headed account of how urban poverty is shaped and abetted by public policy and the collective disinterest of society.]
Where We Stand: class matters
by Bell Hooks (c)2000
[People are willing to talk about race to a certain extent, but class is still largely a taboo subject. By chasing after deceitful fantasies of wealth we contribute to our own oppression and keep ourselves poor.]
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