God Struck Me Dead: Voices of Ex-Slaves

God Struck Me Dead: Voices of Ex-Slaves
Edited by Clifton H. Johnson, with a new introduction by Albert J. Rabateau
The William Bradford Collection from The Pilgrim Press, 1993 (2nd edition)
Paperback, 204 pages

The reissue of a rare volume of ex-slave narratives is as timely now as it was when it first appeared in a mass-produced paperback edition in 1969. These autobiographical memories and recollections of conversion experiences of elderly African Americans, born under slavery, were culled from interviews conducted during the years 1927 to 1929 by Andrew Polk Watson, a graduate student in anthropology at Fisk University. Originally issued in limited circulation at Social Science Source Documents No. 2 by Fisk in 1945 in tandem with another volume of ex-slave narratives, The Unwritten History of Slavery (Social Science Source Documents No. 1), the value of these texts becomes all the more apparent when we realize that they were recorded just as the opportunity to listen to the testimony of living former slaves was rapidly disappearing. Under the guidance of anthropologist Paul Radin, then serving as a research professor at Fisk, Watson conducted extended interviews with a hundred elderly black people, asking them to recall life during slavery and to describe their religious conversion experiences. "The autobiographical narratives were then culled from long and rambling accounts, but in most cases the conversion experiences were repeated several times as here recorded, with little or no variation from one telling to the next."
- Albert J. Rabateau (xix)

The central focus in this book is the religious conversion experience, the sudden, dramatic change in an individual when realizing acceptance into the Christian faith. The book contains an introductory essay by Andrew P. Watson on "Negro Primitive Religious Services," thirty-one conversion stories, and six autobiographical sketches. In this edition's Introduction by Rabateau, he notes

the vividness of the imagery and its similarity from one account to the next. A common store of biblical sources, especially the Book of Revelations, helps to explain the frequency with which the same images appear. These were common cultural images, heard over and over again in hymns, prayers, and expounded upon in sermon after sermon. The accounts also betray a common narrative pattern due to the regular recitation of conversion experiences at revivals and "experience meetings" by the converted who were expected to talk about the inner working of the Spirit upon their hearts. Individual and unique as these conversion experiences were, they shared the common narrative construction and group norms associated with the tradition. Thus conversion was both a profoundly personal experience and an experience defined and validated within a community of church folk.
(xxiii)

Despite having many stories echo each other, the former slaves' conversion stories are interesting to read, in part because of the details of their differences but mainly from the joy you can tell the interviewee has in telling it. Common themes include individual and group visits to the woods or a particular tree, hearing voices or seeing a "little man," and sickness or loss of appetite, all leading up to a "death" experiences from which God brings them back to life reborn in faith. Their descriptions of God (and the easterly direction where he resides) sound similar, as does the joy expressed through singing and dancing, all hinting at some sort of cultural synchronicity. Without a doubt, though, the bliss expressed by the slaves feels authentic. Here's a conversion story from the "To Hell with a Prayer in My Mouth" chapter that covers a few of the common attributes:

[The] Lord would begin to work with me, saying each time, "You got to die and can't live!" I hadn't yet learnt anything about a spiritual death, so I thought he meant I would have to die a natural death. My husband and neighbors thought I had lost my mind, so they sent for my mother. She came and told me to pray. At that ver minute I was praying on the inside, "Lord, lave mercy on me. Lord, have mercy on me." After she came I picked out a way a little way from the house, in a thicket, and then I went daily to pray. But it seemed like the more I prayed, the worse I got. I felt like I had the burden of the world on my shoulders.

Finally one night I went out to a spot much farther from the house and fell on my knees. A voice spoke and said, "Lo, here is the way." I heard a noise like a rising storm, but I stayed there, and when the voice spoke I stretched out flat on the ground. God spoke to me and again said, "My little one, you got to die and can't live." I jumped up and went to the house and found my husband and children asleep. I got in bed, my heart still praying, "Lord have mercy on my soul." The voice spoke again, "You got to die and can't live." I began to die right there and was dying all night. My husband called in five doctors to me, and they gave me up and said that I would not live until twelve o'clock the next day.

About nine or ten the next day I began to see the wondrous works of God. I saw myself on the very brink of hell. I was on a little something that was swinging back and forth, and it looked as if I must surely fall at any minute. My jaws were locked and my tongue clove to the roof of my mouth, but on the inside I was still praying, "Lord have mercy! Lord, have mercy on my soul! If it be your will to send me to hell, send me with a prayer in my mouth." When I said this I took hope, for the Lord spoke to me and said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the very door to the Father. Follow me! Follow me!" (93-4)

This interviewee then tells of the wondrous things she sees, and also additional dreams/visions she has had. There are several preachers interviewed, too, and they share similar stories about how they rarely realize what they are saying during their sermon, the part that Watson calls "the coming of the spirit" in his essay. As I mentioned earlier, the repetitive nature can wear on the reader, but the differences, particularly their lives and circumstances, provide insight into the types of hardships slaves and former slaves had to deal with.

The most engaging sections of the book for me were the autobiographical chapters. Some of these are very short and don't supply more than sketches of what it was like to be a slave, but the few that are longer provide a more detailed picture on the lives of those former slaves. We see varied treatments of the slaves, from good and bad masters, and even from Union troops. There are dealings with paddy rollers, armed white patrollers making sure slaves don't escape. It's chilling to hear the former slaves recall being bought and sold, separated from family, and the decisions they had to make if they wanted to escape. These details help give the context needed to understand the joy they received from religion, one of the few areas where they had control, as well as giving them validation and acceptance. Despite some of the harrowing details, it's ultimately a book of joy and peace.

The final chapter, though, yields quite a different tone. The interviewee (apparently younger than others) says "they have not had all the varied experiences [regarding conversion] that most of the older people say they have had. ... I have seen nothing and heard nothing, but only feel the spirit in my soul, and I believe that will save me when I come to die." This is the one outlier in the interviews, and being younger than the others I have to wonder if that wasn't meant to signal a turning away from the evangelical tradition of conversion for later generations.

Because I liked the autobiographical chapters the most, I was interested in the mentioned The Unwritten History of Slavery, which I gather is sort of a "companion" to this book with oral histories of ex-slaves. While it was difficult to find at an affordable price (for me), I have placed an InterLibrary Loan on it and hope to post on it soon.

Links:

• Tina Cahalan Jones has done some remarkable research on one of the interviewees in the book, Louvenia Marshall Mayberry.


• If you're interested in other sources for slave narratives, see Jones' post on Slave Narratives. Be sure to read through her blog From Slaves to Soldiers and Beyond—Williamson County, Tennessee's African American History as she has done a lot of research on the topic.


• The Library of Congress has a collection titled Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938. It "contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA)."

Vladimir Bukovsky 1942-2019

Vladimir Bukovsky passed away this past weekend at the age of 76. Before he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1976, Bukovsky spent 12 years in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and labor camps. Vladimir Nabokov said of Bukovsky, "Bukovsky's heroic speech to the court in defense of freedom, and his five years of martyrdom in a despicable psychiatric jail will be remembered long after the torturers he defied have rotted away." Here is the obituary at the Vladimir Bukovsky site. And there's this from Juliana Geran Pilon's Monday Wall Street Journal column on Bukovsky (behind a paywall, unfortunately):

In 1992, the year after the Soviet Union collapsed, Bukovsky was asked to return to Russia as an expert witness at a trial against President Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin had banned the Communist Party and seized its property. Bukovsky’s argument, which he had always believed, was that the party had been unconstitutional. To demonstrate it, Bukovsky requested access to the Central Committee archives. Using a laptop and hand-held scanner, he surreptitiously copied and smuggled out thousands of pages before being discovered.

His findings were captured in Judgment in Moscow, first published in 1995 in French, then in Russian and other European languages. It didn’t come out in English until this year. Its subtitle, “Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity,” gives a clue as to why. When Bukovsky first attempted to publish the book in English, in the 1990s, the American publisher had asked him to rewrite “the entire book from the point of view of a leftist liberal,” he wrote. Specifically, he was told to omit all mention of media companies that had entered agreements to publish articles and cover media events “under the direct editorial control of the Soviets.” He rejected the offer, and the publisher canceled the contract.

The documents cited in the book demonstrate, he wrote, the “treacherous role of the American left”—its complicity with Moscow during the 1930s and ’40s, infiltration of the U.S. government and assistance to the Soviets during the Cold War. They demonstrate also the Kremlin’s support for Middle Eastern terrorists, Mikhail Gorbachev’s sabotage of the European Community, and the pseudoliberalism of Mr. Gorbachev’s “perestroika.”

Judgment in Moscow didn't have an English translation until earlier this year when it was released by Ninth of November Press. For a starting point, I recommend 1978's To Build a Castle: My Life as a Dissenter (see the Links section). The chilling note at the beginning of a recent edition of the book reads "Truly we were born to make Kafka live."

A few quick links to explore:

• The Vladimir Bukovsky site
• The Bukovsky archives—"The classified documents that make up this archive were copied secretly by Vladimir Bukovsky in 1992 as he prepared to testify at the trial of the CPSU."
• A pdf of To Build a Castle. It's a bare-bones copy, but as I mentioned earlier it's a great introduction to Bukovsky.
• From the Gulag to Brexit, The life and death of Vladimir Bukovsky, the fiery dissident who shed light on Soviet punitive psychiatry
• Remembering Vladimir Bukovsky (1942-2019): a long-ago lunch with a man who loved freedom and roses at The Book Haven

There is a lot more available online about Bukovsky and his work.

Salvador Dalí’s Reissued Eccentric Cookbook

Since I missed this when it happened three years ago...
From MyModernMet.com back in 2016: Salvador Dalí’s Eccentric Cookbook Is Being Reissued for the First Time in Over 40 Years.

First published in 1973, Les Diners de Gala was a bizarre dream come true—a cookbook filled with surreal illustrations and recipes inspired by the lavish dinner parties that Dalí and his wife Gala organized. The parties were legendary for their wild opulence, with guests often required to dress in costume and wild animals left to roam free around the table.

Acclaimed publisher Taschen is reissuing the cookbook, available for pre-order, as only 400 of the original publications are known to exist. The book, which includes 136 recipes divided into 12 chapters, is arranged by courses—including aphrodisiacs. Aside from his illustrations, Dalí’s musings are scattered through the publication, giving insight into his philosophy on gustatory delights.

I wasn't familiar with this or the "companion" book that came out in 2017, Los Vinos de Gala. Fortunately my library has a copy of the cookbook, so I've placed a hold on it just to get a feel for the otherworldly I'm sure is inside it. I have a feeling it will be The Gallery of Regrettable Food writ large. Or maybe not. As NPR notes,

Though it's Dalí's cookbook, not all of the recipes originated in the artist's kitchen. He thanks the chefs of famous Parisian establishments like Michelin-starred Lasserre and La Tour d'Argent, art-nouveau bistro Maxim's and historic railway restaurant Le Train Bleu — originally known as Buffet de la Gare de Lyon — for their "highly gastronomical recipes." But it's the presentation of the dish, not the recipe, that earns a place on the table of a surrealist dinner party.

I'm much more interested in the wine book just to see how to make viniculture surreal, but it should be a strange trip all the same. For a glimpse of one of Dalí's parties:

How to Think about War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy by Thucydides

How to Think about War: An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy by Thucydides
Speeches from The History of the Peloponnesian War
Selected, translated, and introduced by Johanna Hanink
Princeton University Press, 2019
Hardcover, 336 pages
Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers Series

I had not read any of the releases in Princeton University Press' Ancient Wisdom "How to" series but I wanted to find out what was in this volume. The title and subtitle are a little misleading since the six speeches from Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War address more than simply war and foreign policy. The speeches, just like the work as a whole, look at human nature, imperialism, justice, human behavior, power, and so much more. Regardless, the speeches provide a good introduction to Thucydides for anyone that hasn't read the History, which as Hanink notes in the Introduction, can be "long, dense, and difficult." That might be a little overstated since someone like me can stumble my way through it, but I definitely remember being turned around at times when I read it. That being said, the work is intensely rewarding for the effort put into reading it. Think of this volume as a "highlights" reel, not capturing everything but giving you some of the high points.

Hanink has chosen six of the most famous passages from the History that

are especially rich in abstract reflections on war, human behavior, and what today we call political theory. It is also undoubtedly "in the speeches that much of the most explicit analysis of the nature of Athenian imperialism appears." ... This volume seeks to make the speeches more accessible by presenting them together, in a new translation that is faithful to the Greek but which also aims to be fresh and approachable. (xviii)

I like the focus on speeches since these were set pieces in Thucydides' History. He admits that they aren't precisely what was spoken at the time but they retain the spirit of what was said. Obviously this allows him latitude in constructing the speech to make the point(s) he wants the reader to take away from the passage. Hanink quotes C. W. MacLeod, who sums up that when Thucydides characters speak, "they are doing so with something to say, something to hide, something to achieve at a particular time and place." (liv) All of the speeches are by Athenians (and who provide one side of the Melian Dialogue). This focus by Hanink on the Athenian perspective opens "a window onto one particular community's influential and fascinating, but also extraordinarily tendentious and slanted, vision of the world and of itself." (xlvi) Speeches also lay out the reasoning in the speaker's attempt at persuasion toward or explanation for their goal.

Hanink's introduction provides an overview to Thucydides and the History and her notes for each speech help place the excerpts in context and summarize the points the speaker makes. She notes a common theme within the excerpts: "Each of the speeches in this volume contains remarks upon the origin, validity, and character of the Athenian empire." (xx) On the surface, the speeches are full of praise for Athens, laying out the reasons why it is superior to the rest of the Greek world. Thucydides undermines these messages by showing Athenian actions after the speeches that could be antithetical to what was just said. Those actions can be unsettling, although they aren't shown here, so the reader of just the speeches will miss Thucydides' implied criticism of Athens (although Hanink does provide some summaries). Even so, there is enough included in the speeches to realize not everything is as claimed. Pericles' first war speech anticipates future criticism he knows he will hear when the war turns difficult, and while inciting the Athenians to war he also cautions not to make it a war to expand their empire. You hear echoes of these exhortations in his last speech where he defends his strategy. The lofty rhetoric and praise in the funeral oration sets up an ideal of Athens that is impossible to live up to, and the plague that follows will demonstrate how short the Athenians fall in measuring against those principles. The Sicilian Debate essentially turns into farce from the speakers' political maneuverings for personal gain and glory, but the pending slaughter and devastation of the Athenian army on the island looms ominously for the modern reader who already knows the outcome.

It is the Mytilenean Debate and the Melian Dialogue, though, that are the most unnerving of the speeches. In explaining the harsh reaction of Athens to cities that rebel, Athenian representatives demonstrate a political realism that makes the reader realize Athens doesn't care about justice or other lofty ideals when it comes to other cities. Their only concern is Athens' own interests, regardless of the brutality involved. Even when there is a just outcome, such as sparing the Mytilenians from complete destruction, the reasons behind it (allowing them to live so Athens can collect their tributes) have nothing to do with justice or any other lofty ideal. I've listed the speeches included below this post and linked them to my amateurish attempt to summarize and comment during my first reading of the History.

The Ancient Wisdom series reminds me of classical handbooks (for lack of a better term) that used to provide writings from a particular classical writer or extracts around a particular topic from various ancient authors. Their stated goal is to present "the timeless and timely ideas of classical thinkers in lively new translations," ... making "the practical wisdom of the ancient world accessible for modern life." Regarding translation, Donald Kagan noted that Thucydides' "style is often very compressed and difficult to understand, so that any translation is necessarily an interpretation,” and Hanink herself said "Thucydides’ Greek is so difficult that even ancient native Greek speakers struggled with it." As Mary Beard has pointed out, this has implications in balancing the quality of the translation (making it easy to read) against capturing the character and flavor of Thucydides' text. I will say Hanink's translation is more direct and modern than the "older" translations I've read (Hobbes, Crawley). I'm not sure why the Greek text of the speeches are included, maybe to pad out the book or more likely to give it the "classical handbook" feel.

I like the idea of making these classical texts "accessible," even if that means excerpts instead of the complete works. I'd like to encourage reading all of Thucydides' History since it is a master class in strategic thinking, foreign policy, imperialism, and human nature, as well as covering the complexities of the Peloponnesian War. I understand if you're not ready for that level of commitment, though, and I highly recommend How to Think About War as a suitable précis for sections of the History. Hopefully it will move you to explore more!

The Speeches
(with book and chapter numbers from The History of the Peloponnesian War; links are to my posts on that section)
On Justifying a War: Pericles' First War Speech (1:140-144)
On Dying for Your Country: Pericles' Funeral Oration (2:34-46)
On Holding the Course: Pericles' Last Speech (2:60-64)
On Realpolitik: The Mytilenean Debate (3:37-49)
On Ruthlessness: The Melian Dialogue (5:85-113)
On Launching a Foreign Invasion: The Sicilian Debate (6:8.4-24)

Links:
Johanna Hanink's website

Excerpts from the book:
     Introduction
     Chapter 1
     The Greek text presented is from the Loeb editions, which can be found online in editions 108, 109, 110, and 169), although the Oxford Classical Text edition was used for translation.

Podcasts with Hanink about the book:
     The History of Ancient Greece Podcast, which can also be found here
     Carnegie Council (audio and transcript)

Hanink's article at Eidolon: The Twists and Turns of Translation

Elemental by Tim James

Elemental: How the Periodic Table Can Now Explain (Nearly) Everything by Tim James
Abrams Press, 2019
Hardcover, 224 pages

Chemistry is not an abstract subject happening in dingy laboratories: it's happening everywhere around us and everywhere within us.

In order to understand chemistry, therefore, we have to understand the periodic table, that hideous thing you probably remember hanging on the wall of your chemistry classroom. Glaring down at you with all its boxes, letters, and numbers, the periodic table can be intimidating. But it's nothing more than an ingredients list, and once you've learned to decode it, the periodic table becomes one of your greatest allies in explaining the Universe. (4)

Tim James' Elemental: How the Periodic Table Can Now Explain (Nearly) Everything is a short, fun book that purports to help you understand how the world works. The title might seem a little misleading since it appears more as a history of chemistry, but James intertwines that history with explanations, experiments, and anecdotes to focus on how the elements listed in the periodic table (and how they work together...or don't) are important to our everyday lives. With the book jumping around quite a bit though, 'focus' might not be the correct word.

There are plenty of books aimed at the public attempting to explain the elements and the periodic table, several of which are listed in the notes section of Elemental. So why choose this one to read? Being a teacher, James presents the material in a way that is guaranteed to get your attention. For example, the first chapter introduces us to chlorine triflouride, "the most flammable substance ever made." Judging by the depth of the hole ClF3 burned through concrete at a chemical plant in Shreveport, Louisiana (over a meter), I'd say it's probably a fair claim. The educational part comes from investigating why ClF3 behave the way it does. You're not going to learn every detail for the elements or be able to predict how a particular compound will behave, but you'll have a better grasp of the elements based on where they are in the table, plus an appreciation on how our understanding of chemistry has developed.

Along with the educational material is entertainment. Corny jokes and hand drawings go with the conversational style, making it easy to remember the information. A sample of the humor, which probably causes as many groans in the classroom as much as it does on the page: in the section titled What is a Metal? he says,“When we hear the word metal we all picture the same thing: Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister, the bassist/vocalist of English rock band Motörhead. May he rest in peace.” I'll give him points for being brave enough to go with the cornball routine, and I'm almost embarrassed to say I enjoyed quite a bit of it. Almost.

If you have a student looking to explore the periodic table at the junior-high or high school level, Elemental is a quick and entertaining way to get a grasp of what they'll be studying in a chemistry class. The book isn't meant to cover everything, but combine this with some of the many online resources available and they'll have a solid foundation to build on in a class. In my case, I just wanted an entertaining and informative read, and Elemental fit the bill. In addition, now I know which element, if removed from human history, would have no impact on our development.

A nearby college puts on an entertaining physics show for kids and their families twice a year and they're motto is "If you can't have fun with physics, you're not a very fun person." It's clear that James takes a similar view towards chemistry, making it fun for students and readers in order for them to understand it better. Recommended.

Update: one thing I forgot to mention but meant to...if you're like me, you're going to want to get a good copy of the periodic table when reading this. I was surprised that a book about the periodic table doesn't have one in it (beyond sketches of the table). Fortunately I had picked up a couple of periodic table placemats a few years ago for school purposes and those fit the bill perfectly.

Link:
Tim James' YouTube page

Women of the Gulag film

Several years ago I posted on Women of the Gulag: Portraits of Five Remarkable Lives by Paul R. Gregory. A moving and powerful book, Gregory detailed some of the problems that five Soviet women faced when victimized by the gulag system. I believe I first found out about the book from Cynthia Haven at The Book Haven, and over the years she has posted about a film based on the book being made and the awards it was nominated for. The film was directed by Marianna Yarovskaya and produced by Yarovskaya and Gregory. Over the years I've added some of Cynthia's updates to my original post, but I'll list some of them here, too.

• Terror’s human face: Women of the Gulag – the book and the movie. Help make it happen.
• Will Women of the Gulag get an Oscar next month? Please vote yes. Putin won’t like it.
• Oscar endorsement for Women of the Gulag: “To go through such suffering without going mad is a spiritual feat.”
• Stalin loses at the Academy Awards … again.

Cynthia has also posted about a screening that the film had at Stanford and a podcast on the Q&A session afterwords. Her post includes more on the film:

The film tells the compelling stories of six remarkable women – among the last survivors of the Gulag, the brutal system of repression that devastated the Soviet population during the Stalin years. Most stories of the gulag have told of men’s experience. Women of the Gulag is the first account of women in the camps and special settlements.

Check out the links from Cynthia's post and from my post on the book. I'm looking forward to when I'll be able to see the movie. Also play the podcast she includes from the Q&A session. Yarovskaya mentions that most of the ladies from the film had died or were too infirm to attend the screening the movie had in Moscow, but that one woman was able to attend. Yarovskaya and Gregory talk about how the gulags are viewed in Russia today (if someone knows about them at all) and how the screenings and support from the government gradually occurred. (Note: it may have been my system, but the podcast froze occasionally. In case others run into that problem, I could get it to resume playing by skipping ahead 10-15 seconds.)

If you're not tired of links yet, here are two more to visit:
The film's website, which has a clip from the movie and goes into more detail of its making
An interview with the director

Picture source

Under the Big Black Sun by John Doe, with Tom DeSavia and Friends

Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk by John Doe, with Tome DeSavia and Friends
Da Capo Press, 2016
Hardcover, 336 pages

Under the Big Black Sun explores the nascent Los Angeles punk rock movement and its evolution to hardcore punk as it's never been told before. Authors John Doe and Tom DeSavia have woven together an enthralling story of the legendary west coast scene from 1977-1982 by enlisting the voices of people who were there. The book shares chapter-length tales from the authors along with personal essays from famous (and infamous) players in the scene. Additional authors include: Exene Cervenka (X), Henry Rollins (Black Flag), Mike Watt (The Minutemen), Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey (The Go-Go's), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Jack Grisham (TSOL), Teresa Covarrubias (The Brat), Robert Lopez (The Zeros, El Vez), as well as scencesters and journalists Pleasant Gehman, Kristine McKenna, and Chris Morris. Through interstitial commentary, John Doe “narrates” this journey through the land of film noir sunshine, Hollywood back alleys, and suburban sprawl-the place where he met his artistic counterparts Exene, DJ Bonebrake, and Billy Zoom-and formed X, the band that became synonymous with, and in many ways defined, L.A. punk.

Under the Big Black Sun shares stories of friendship and love, ambition and feuds, grandiose dreams and cultural rage, all combined with the tattered, glossy sheen of pop culture weirdness that epitomized the operations of Hollywood's underbelly. Readers will travel to the clubs that defined the scene, as well as to the street corners, empty lots, apartment complexes, and squats that served as de facto salons for the musicians, artists, and fringe players that hashed out what would become punk rock in Los Angeles.
- From the inside bookflap, and also at John Doe's books webpage

While I'm slowly working through Stalingrad I thought I'd try to get to books I wanted to post on but just haven't had a chance yet. The other day I saw a review of the recently released More Fun in the New World by John Doe and TomDeSavia, which I'm looking forward to reading, and realized I had never posted on Doe's first book. I'll try and fix that.

LA punk was born from rock ‘n’ roll and one of the last steps—in the evolution of rock ‘n’ roll music. Although legends were born from this scene, there were very few stars and really no celebrities. This is an attempt to tell the story. When John and I first spoke of writing this book, I told him I thought it was important for the true story of LA punk rock to be told. He replied that everyone in the scene probably had their own truth to tell. He would be interested in that story, regardless of whether it matched his own memory. So here it is—the many true stories from a mostly undocumented era in cultural history. This book is about that time. (Tom DeSavia, xxii)

The book provides stories from those that participated in (and survived) the early LA punk era. The scene began to form around 1975 but came into its own by 1977, and the book focuses on that era up to about 1982. It's interesting to see the various recollections of how this loose communal experience came into being. Former glam rock fans becomes a common source, which made more sense the more I read through the chapters. It's also interesting to see who was included in the scene, groups like The Go-Gos and Los Lobos that you wouldn't necessarily place with The Germs, or Black Flag. Like the sources, though, it all fits together. Normal people, misanthropic misfits, and addled geniuses (and plenty of just-addled) came together and formed...well, we're probably still not sure quite what.

I'll disagree on Doe's use of "undocumented era," although he's not completely wrong, either. There was plenty of documentation of the scene at the time but usually not in high-circulation media. As the contributors note, LA's punk scene consistently placed well behind those in New York City and London when it came to coverage. One of the constant themes was how tight-knit and welcoming the early participants were, which drew in writers making their own fanzines and other outlets. Slash magazine became one of the most important outlets for writers interested in the scene. Existing from 1977 to 1980, the fanzine brought info on the LA punk scene to a worldwide audience. It also was the impetus for the founding of the Slash Records label (and its subsidiary Ruby Records). Coverage also began to go beyond alternative weeklies like the Los Angeles Reader to frequent notices in the Los Angeles Times. Coverage wasn't always positive, but that doesn't seem to have bothered anyone in the scene at the time.

Two important factors in the development of the LA punk scene revolved around where the participants lived and the venues that allowed the groups to perform and practice (such as The Masque). The stories from those that lived close to Hollywood venues allowing the punk bands to practice and play formed a community of sorts, where practice, play, and afterparties were the order of each day. Those that lived some distance from Hollywood usually talk about day jobs that funded their trips to the clubs and the groups they formed. Although not part of the closer-knit locals, acceptance was the order of the day with the scene (early on, especially). Kristine McKenna, a music writer at the time, captures both the volatility of the performances and the acceptance from audiences:

People who went to punk shows in the early days were respectful, they listened, and they were genuinely interested in the band onstage, even if they’d seen the same bank four nights earlier. We knew we’d always see something new, partly because these were mostly not professional musicians, and nobody did the same show twice, because they weren’t able to. Professionalism came later for some, but in the beginning the scene was truly experimental, and the audience was tolerant and supportive. ... We believed we were dangerous and subversive back in the day, but in fact, we were babies, yet to rub the fairy dust from our eyes. (241)

One risk for participants writing about a past movement is glamorizing what happened. While there is an occasional patina of romanticization, it's usually on a more personal level than ascribing it to the scene as a whole. Several reasons are given for the end of the "golden age" of the LA punk scene, around 1980, and these are anything but glamorized. Accidental deaths and suicides, drug abuse, incursions by violent types, record label signings, and the music splintering into various genres (hardcore, roots, country, etc.) pulled apart the feeling of community that had developed during the frenzied growth.

The sections I enjoyed the most centered on the east-side culture. Although late to the Hollywood scene, these bands mastered their own approach, paving the way for a sizable movement. Teresa Covarrubias of The Brat wrote my favorite chapter, going into detail on how the sense of geography (which was largely a factor of race), provided a healthy sense of camaraderie, competition and development within the East LA scene. In a way it was similar to what had developed in Hollywood, but there were many important differences.

I'll close with a John Doe quote that sums up a large part of the book:

This is how bonds & alliances were made & broken. This is how a bunch of outsiders, fuckups & loners turned into a bohemian, punk-rock community. People exchanged stories of where they came from, crazy shit they had done in their young lives, ideas of what was & wasn’t cool or what was or wasn’t punk rock. It was like going to the strangest, coolest graduate school of music, art & life, even though everyone was just fucking around having a wild time. (55)

What follows is of no interest to anyone else, so skip this paragraph unless you can tolerate someone strolling down amnesia lane.Regarding the noteworthy bands and names mentioned in the book, I saw X live twice. The first time was at a University of Alabama pep rally some time after their release of Under the Big Black Sun, so it must have been the fall of 1982. I can't remember if the pep rally was for homecoming or the Alabama/Auburn game. I still can't believe they got booked in Foster Auditorium! The second time was in Dallas in 1986, a bit after Ain’t Love Grand and The Knitters album was out. On this tour, Billy Zoom had left and Dave Alvin replaced him. Moving on... The Minutemen played one of the greatest sets I've seen, and I saw Mike Watt again with firehose. Strangely (or at least I view it that way), the two names from the book I've seen the most are Javier and Alejandro Escovedo. Javier was with The Zeros in LA for a brief time, while Alejandro was with The Nuns out of San Francisco, so they are minor characters in the book. It was with The True Believers I saw both of them over a dozen times, and if you add the times I saw Alejandro with Rank and File (in Memphis' Antenna Club...sa-lute!) and solo, he would be performer I've seen the most, all-time. Never sat down to try and figure that out before now. As I asked, forgive the babbling.

Links:




Review of More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk by John Doe and Tom DeSavia at Billboard.com. Includes an excerpt from the book by Charlotte Caffey of The Go-Gos.

An excerpt from Under the Big Black Sun by Henry Rollins.

There are excerpts from the book at the Da Capo Press link at the top of the post.

Under The Big Black Sun: A Conversation with John Doe and Mike Watt at SXSW Music 2016

Slash magazine archives

Punk flyers from 1977 Los Angeles, with additional, related links

Movies with appearances by X can usually be found for free somewhere. X: The Unheard Music is currently available on SnagFilms and The Decline of Western Civilization, which covers some of the LA punk scene around 1980, can be currently be found for free on tubi and Pluto channels.

Ears, Eyes and Throats: Restored Classic and Lost Punk Films 1976-1981, ten short films from punk and alternative bands of the time. See here for more information on the films.

Picture source

Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff

Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff
Yale University Press, 2019
Hardcover, 424 pages

Stalingrad by Vasily Grossman is officially released today. While I'm waiting for my copy to arrive by mail, I wanted to share a little about this outstanding biography. Alexandra Popoff has written several literary biographies and is a former Moscow journalist. In Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century she follows Grossman's life and how it was intertwined with and influenced by a large part of Soviet history. While officially a reporter in World War II, Grossman's mature writings capture two of the totalitarian nightmares of the century.

As a Jew whose mother was killed by the Nazis in his native Berdichev, Ukraine, Grossman felt the twentieth-century calamities most acutely. His mother had perished in September 1941, during one of the first massacres of Jews in the occupied Soviet territories. Her destiny became the strongest motivation force in Grossman's life. It prompted him to become an early chronicler of the Holocaust and was behind his determination to tell the whole truth about the global evil unleashed by the twentieth-century's totalitarian regimes. (page 3)

In his last and most radical anti-totalitarian novel, Everything Flows, written after the arrest of Life and Fate, he declares that "there is no end in the world for the sake of which it is permissible to sacrifice human freedom." (5)

To help in understanding Grossman's early life, Popoff describes the treatment of the Jews in Russia: pogroms, distrust, deportation. Grossman was twelve at the time of the February 1917 revolution, with promises of freedom and equality ending when Lenin seized power. As Popoff covers Grossman's life, she notes how much of his life and the experiences of his friends were used in his writings. His scientific background and job took him to various places around the Soviet Union and he was able to see firsthand some of the horror from the deliberate Ukrainian famine of the early 1930s. Members of his family were exiled or murdered, and his father lived in constant fear of arrest. Many of his early writer friends were shot as traitors to the state.

While aware of the nature of Stalin's regime throughout his life, Grossman's early works were fairly conventional even if they didn't quite fit the socialist realism (propaganda) mold that journals and censors wanted. Popoff delves into these works to find seeds for later, more confrontational writing, especially in his determination to make truthful depictions.

An endorsement from Maxim Gorky took Grossman from relative obscurity to publications clambering for his work. As Popoff details, having Gorky as a friend or an acquaintance was no guarantee of safety since there were repeated purges of those not faithful or loyal enough to the Soviet state or just simply being an inconvenience to those in power. Grossman's fame brought him close to authors who would later be suspect and/or liquidated because of relationships or publications that weren't pure enough. Some of his writings were noted for their ideological unsoundness, but he (mostly) escaped harsh treatment. His wife in the late 1930s, though, was arrested. Her eventual release was a rarity for the time.

Germany's invasion in 1941 changed Grossman's life drastically. As noted above, his mother was trapped in the former Ukraine, although Grossman would not learn of her outcome for several years. Taking a job as a war correspondent, Grossman saw firsthand the incompetence of Stalin's micromanagement and the heroism of the lowly Soviet soldier. His job also afforded him with access and information that most Soviets would never see, such as experiencing the siege of Stalingrad or the liberation of concentration camps. His reports were prominently published (after censorship, of course) and what he saw and learned provided the basis for his greatest novels.

In a book that provides exciting and moving passages, the two chapters I found the most exciting and the most moving are "The Battle of Stalingrad" and "Arithmetic of Brutality" (Chapters 8 & 9). Stalingrad provided Grossman deep insight into the Soviet (and human) psyche. Men and women fight hopeless battles, but feel more alive because of their freedom in doing so, provides some of the most stirring passages in Life and Fate. In his later writings, Grossman often focused on the ordinary...men, events, etc....for deeper looks into what it is to be human, and the siege gave him plenty of examples to use. Some of the worst aspects of the battle was the fight for recognition after it was over, ignoring the countless casualties needed to secure the victory. "Arithmetic" also looked at countless casualties, in this case those of the Jews during the war. The chapter follows Grossman during the revelations of deportations and massacres of the Jews across Soviet territory and German territory. He helped work on The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry (often shortened to The Black Book), providing a record for a worldwide audience of the special targeting of Jews during the war. While the Kremlin was uninterested in allowing such a publication, several of Grossman's articles such as "The Murder of the Jews of Berdichev" (which included his mother's death) and "The Hell of Treblinka" combined "investigative journalism, a historical and philosophical essay, and "a requiem to the victims." (173) The strain of what he saw and his work on articles to capture the atrocities took its toll on him personally, causing Grossman to have a nervous collapse. Another result is that his writing would not be the same.

Grossman saw his duty in writing as becoming a Soviet Tolstoy, recording a War and Peace for the Soviet era. Fortunately for us, this yielded Stalingrad and Life and Fate, a deliberate comparison to Tolstoy's sweep and storytelling. Unfortunately for him, his work on such an epic would show his dedication to the truth, which was at odds with Soviet politics. Popoff mines Grossman's personal journal for the circumstances and difficulties of publishing his novel For the Right Cause (the published title for Stalingrad). He constantly had to rewrite large sections while fighting to keep central storylines in the novel. Since Stalin was still alive, many hurdles and restraints surrounded publication and it was a tortuous path before the bowdlerized version was released.

One of the low points of Grossman's life was adding his name to the letter by prominent Soviet Jews denouncing the Jewish physicians who were part of the so-called "Doctors Plot" against Stalin. His character Viktor Shtrum signs a similar document in Life and Fate and it's fair to infer that the guilt of character reflects Grossman's feelings of complicity. After Stalin's death and a slight thawing of restrictions, Grossman began work on Life and Fate in order to show the dehumanization of both the Communists and Fascists against man's needs for love, compassion, and freedom. It's still a wonder that the novel was arrested instead of the author. Despite this escape, Grossman didn't have long to live. He died from stomach cancer in September 1964 with several of his works unpublished, and those that had been released mangled by censors.

Alexandra Popoff does a superb job or recounting Grossman's remarkable life, fleshing out the political and social background of his life and times in order to fully appreciate his writings. She also details how parts of his life and his experiences make into his stories. For anyone wanting more of a background on Grossman and how he fit into the "Soviet Century," start here. Very highly recommended.

Update:
For more on Grossman, see Yury Bit-Yunan and Robert Chandler's article Vasily Grossman: Myths and Counter-Myths on sorting out facts of Grossman's life from “Soviet intelligentsia folklore."

The Voynich Manuscript, deciphered? (see update for more doubt)

Picture source from Old Maps, Expeditions, and Explorations blog
(See the link for more background on the manuscript from Gordon Rugg)
The Voynich manuscript has been in the news off and on over the past few years. From Wikipedia:

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and it may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish-Samogitian book dealer who purchased it in 1912.

Yale University Press released a beautiful facsimile edition in 2016. If you get a chance to look through the book, please do. It's a thing of beauty, and the accompanying essays go into detail about what was known about the manuscript at the time.

There have been recent claims on deciphering the manuscript, one here declaring it a guide to woman's health, but most claims have been debunked or withdrawn. Now comes the article The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, providing a detailed explanation of the language and writing system used in the manuscript and details of the story. From the article:

It was written by an entirely unknown and ordinary figure from the past, and without any deliberate code but a language and writing system that were in normal and everyday use for their time and place, yet the linguistic and historic information it holds are of unparalleled importance. So it turns out that the manuscript is remarkable after all, but in academic ways rather than sensationalistic and fantastical ways.

Translations reveal that the manuscript is a compendium of information on herbal remedies, therapeutic bathing and astrological readings concerning matters of the female mind, of the body, of reproduction, of parenting and of the heart in accordance with the Catholic and Roman pagan religious beliefs of Mediterranean Europeans during the late Medieval period (Cheshire, G. 2017. “Linguistic Missing Links.", Cheshire, G. 2017b. “Linguistically Dating and Locating Manuscript MS408.”). More specifically, the manuscript was compiled by a Dominican nun as a source of reference for the female royal court to which her monastery was affiliated.

Within the manuscript there is a foldout pictorial map that provides the necessary information to date and locate the origin of the manuscript. It tells the adventurous, and rather inspiring, story of a rescue mission, by ship, to save the victims of a volcanic eruption in the Tyrrhenian Sea that began on the evening of the 4 February 1444 (Wilson, J. 1810. A History of Mountains: Geographical and Mineralogical. Vol. III. London: Riddell of London.; Ward, P. 1974. The Aeolian Islands. Cambridge: Oleander Press.).

The manuscript originates from Castello Aragonese, an island castle and citadel off Ischia, and was compiled for Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, (1401–58) who led the rescue mission as regent during the absence of her husband, King Alfonso V of Aragon (1396–1458) who was otherwise occupied, having only recently conquered and then taken control of Naples in February 1443. Incidentally, Maria was great-aunt to Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), first wife of King Henry VIII (1491–1547) and mother of Queen Mary Tudor (1516–58).

The island of Ischia is historically famous for its hot volcanic spas, which exist to this day. The manuscript has many images of naked women bathing in them, both recreationally and therapeutically. There are also images of Queen Maria and her court conducting trade negotiations whilst bathing. Clearly the spa lifestyle was highly regarded as a form of physical cleansing and spiritual communion, as well as a general means of relaxation and leisure.

The article contains a lot of detail on the language and writing system used in the manuscript, which helps explain why earlier attempts to decipher it ran into problems. The article contains many illustrations from the manuscript and an explanation of their meaning or significance.

The last part of the article discusses a memoir "written by Loise De Rosa (1385–1475), who lived and worked in the court of Naples. It is titled De Regno di Napoli (The Kingdom of Naples)," written in a similar style and using similar letterforms, and helps explain why the Voynich manuscript "is so dominated by female issues, activities and adventures and why so few images of men appear." As with quite a bit of literature, sexual frustration comes into play.

Even if the Voynich manuscript doesn't fascinate you, I highly recommend the article for the "detective" aspect of deciphering a text that has baffled experts for years.

Article citation: Gerard Cheshire (2019) The Language and Writing System of MS408 (Voynich) Explained, Romance Studies, DOI: 10.1080/02639904.2019.1599566.

Update (2019 May 16): OK, maybe not. See this article at Ars Technica for some skeptical responses (to put it nicely) to Cheshire's claim.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Alfred A. Knopf, 2018
Hardcover, 352 pages

Bad Blood, the true story of the rise and collapse of a medical device start-up in Silicon Valley that blew through $900 million dollars on a product that never worked, was on many "Best Of" book lists for 2018, and for good reason. Told by John Carreyrou, The Wall Street Journal investigative reporter who broke the story of the company's fraud, has the makings of a great fictional thriller...except it really happened. To quote Bill Gates, “This book has everything: elaborate scams, corporate intrigue, magazine cover stories, ruined family relationships and the demise of a company once valued at nearly $10 billion.” And it has more, including high-profile investors used to give the company legitimacy, dysfunctional people running a dysfunctional company, and scorched-earth tactics to block bad press.
The first two-thirds of the book covers the story of the meteoric growth of the start-up company Theranos and its young and charismatic CEO Elizabeth Holmes. Modeling herself after Steve Jobs, Homes sold a dream of quick, accurate blood tests from only a few drops of blood from the fingertip. She wrapped the dream in moving anecdotes, tapping into the desire to significantly improve health care.

There were many problems with her dream, though. Theranos didn't have any breakthrough technology. They were simply trying to miniaturize existing technology, significantly compromising analyses and results. Skirting normal clinical rigor, Holmes tried to bring the product (such as it existed) to market without proper regulatory oversight. Bringing in the shady and arrogant Sunny Balwani as president and COO of the company was a guarantee for disaster. Bullying anyone inside or outside the company that didn't believe in the smoke and mirrors provided by the company couldn't help, either.

The biggest problem of all was the dysfunctional corporate culture in which it [the product] was being developed. Elizabeth and Sunny regarded anyone who raised a concern or an objection as a cynic and a naysayer. Employees who persisted in doing so were usually marginalized or fired, while sycophants were promoted. (164)

Despite bringing in impressive talent, the company had to engage in deceptive practices at every step in order to give the appearance of progress on their blood-test machines. It was a case of everyone wanting to believe in something so much they became blind to what was actually going on. "Elizabeth told the gathered employees that she was building a religion. If there were any among them who didn't believe, they should leave. Sunny put it more bluntly: anyone not prepared to show complete devotion and unmitigated loyalty to the company should 'get the fuck out.'" (173) Having overpromised on results, Holmes had to cut corners and deceive when it was time to deliver.

The last third of the book details how the cracks in the Theranos story eventually brought in Carreyrou and his arduous task in bringing the deceptions to light. It took enormous courage displayed by a handful of people, at great personal and monetary cost, to reveal the danger of the company's product. If the story was fiction, it would almost read as a clichéd take on personal greed, revenge, evil intent, etc. from a thriller. What provides the force felt when reading the book, though, is knowing this actually happened. Regardless of any good intentions when starting the company, it quickly devolved into a nightmarish tale for many people.

Carreyrou does a good job of describing the problems faced in trying to provide tests from a few drops of blood that Theranos touted their device could provide. No wonder many in the industry doubted the veracity of their claims, but obviously it wasn't enough to deter investors, who were kept as marginalized in the overall picture as were the company's employees. Many notable people who should have known better end up looking worse for their part in corporate misgovernance.

Some of my experiences add to my enthusiasm for the book. One factor is that I work in Silicon Valley, so startup anecdotes are commonplace. It's amazing how small the valley can be at times. Another factor is that I worked in the medical device field for over a decade and experienced a concern for clinical results and regulatory compliance that was blithely ignored by Holmes and Theranos management. Also, having worked for startups in several phases of development, I understand that credulity provides a huge factor in funding and other aspects of these companies, but at some point reality has to be faced. Those people that decided to blow the whistle on a fraud of this magnitude despite the firepower Theranos could line up against them have my respect. It's difficult enough at times to leave employment at a company, whether it crosses ethical lines (sometimes blurred, sometimes clear) or not, but to knowingly set yourself up as a target for people that have the power and the motive to destroy you deserves special credit. Very highly recommended.

Update (2019 May 11):I just watched The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley and wanted to recommend it, too. To me, the movie complements the book well, with the added benefit of seeing and hearing the people involved in the company and stories. The book goes into more detail on the science behind blood analysis and how tests are done, which I think is an important part of understanding the overall story of Theranos. Carreyou's book also has more depth on how his story finally made it into print, highlighting additional people key in revealing the fraud. Even with those caveats, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley is a very good introduction to this remarkable story.

Link:
Author Q&A at the publisher's site

Q: What does the Theranos saga say about Silicon Valley?
A: It tells us that, while there’s real innovation taking place in Silicon Valley, there’s also a huge amount of hubris and pretending going on there. The staggering amount of money that has poured into the Valley’s startup ecosystem over the past decade has given rise to arrogance, excess and outright fraud. Moreover, these companies are staying private much longer than they used to, which makes it harder to pierce their veils of secrecy and expose their problems. As a capitalistic society, we tend to lionize tech entrepreneurs. This tale is a reminder that the reality is often more complicated and less glossy than the myths we’re fed by Silicon Valley’s PR machine.

They Shall Not Grow Old (2018)

On the centenary of the end of First World War, Academy Award-winner Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy) presents the World Premiere of an extraordinary new work showing the Great War as you have never seen it. This unique film brings into high definition the human face of the First World War as part of a special London Film Festival presentation alongside a live Q&A with director Peter Jackson hosted by Mark Kermode.

Using state of the art technology to restore original archival footage which is more than a 100-years old, Jackson brings to life the people who can best tell this story: the men who were there. Driven by a personal interest in the First World War, Jackson set out to bring to life the day-to-day experience of its soldiers. After months immersed in the BBC and Imperial War Museums’ archives, narratives and strategies on how to tell this story began to emerge for Jackson. Using the voices of the men involved, the film explores the reality of war on the front line; their attitudes to the conflict; how they ate; slept and formed friendships, as well what their lives were like away from the trenches during their periods of downtime.

Jackson and his team have used cutting edge techniques to make the images of a hundred years ago appear as if they were shot yesterday. The transformation from black and white footage to colourised footage can be seen throughout the film revealing never before seen details. Reaching into the mists of time, Jackson aims to give these men voices, investigate the hopes and fears of the veterans, the humility and humanity that represented a generation changed forever by a global war.
(Synopsis from the official movie website)

I went to see this movie last night wondering if it would live up to the hype it has received, and for the most part I'd have to say it did. There is a wealth of information and reviews about the movie available online so I won't go into great detail here, but if you're interested check out some of the links in this post. A quick online search will turn up much more.

The half-hour documentary that follows the movie provides information on the task that Jackson faced and details the challenges his team had to address. They had 100 hours of film footage from the time of the war, much of it copies instead of original shots, and 600 hours of audio interviews with World War I veterans from the 1960s and '70s. Clips from these interviews "narrate" the movie, and it's interesting to hear the participants' perspectives of what we're seeing on the screen.

Jackson lays out his thoughts on the approach he chose. While noting the importance of the participation of British subjects and other countries as well as women on the homefront and the war theater, he wanted a specific concentration: “I didn’t want to do a little bit of everything. I just wanted to focus on one topic and do it properly: the experience of an average soldier infantryman on the Western Front.” This narrowed focus makes for an effective storyline. We see and hear about enlistment and training in Britain, arrival on the continent, life in the trenches, experiences on leave, what it was like to go "over the top," engagement with German POWs, and the bittersweet return home. It leaves you wanting more, but that is exactly Jackson's goal—for us to find out more about those who experienced the war, especially participants in our own families.

Since most of the family and acquaintances I knew that had been in a war would rarely (if ever) talk about it, I'm always interested to hear other participants' experiences, not just what happened but also how they tell it. In the early parts of the movie, the men relay lively tales of signing up and training. As the movie progresses, the tone changes. It's not exactly somber, but more matter-of-fact. The most moving moment for me was a veteran recalling shooting an ally to put him out of his misery after he had an arm and leg blown off. As the veteran's voice cracks, it's easy to imagine him living with that moment in the years since the war.

There were a few more things I'll note, but these are more of a personal taste. Or lack thereof. I'm not a fan of the 3D feature. While it adds some nice touches, it seems to me that the quality suffers from it. I guess I'm reminded too much of my old ViewMaster discs. I would have loved to have seen more of the corrected and enhanced black-and-white footage as well. Colorization techniques have improved, but I wouldn't honestly say it appeared "as if they were shot yesterday." What it did, though, was give an additional appreciation for what it was like beyond any realistic recent movie recreation.

If you get a chance to see the movie, I highly recommend it. For now you'll have to be on the lookout for additional screenings and check the Fathom Events site for locations. Hopefully this will soon be released for home viewing, but it is definitely a great experience on a big screen.

Links

• The New York Times weekend feature by Mekado Murphy: How Peter Jackson Made WWI Footage Seem Astonishingly New With They Shall Not Grow Old
• YouTube video from the Daily Mail: Director Peter Jackson on his new WW1 documentary film
• YouTube video from Kermode Uncut on the making of the movie
• Images at Fathom Events

The Elements by Euclid

And now for something completely different...

I've been slowly working my way through The Elements by Euclid and recreating the propositions. What a strange, nerdy thing to do, right? I'm not completely sure why I decided to do this, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it. At the rate I'm going, it will take until the middle of the year to work through the book, but that's fine with me.

A summary of Euclid's contribution to mathematics from the Ancient History Encyclopedia:

Euclid did not originate most of the ideas in The Elements. His contribution was fourfold:

• He collected important mathematical and geometric knowledge in one book. The Elements is a textbook rather than a reference book, so it does not cover everything that was known.
• He gave definitions, postulates, and axioms. He called axioms "common notions."
• He presented geometry as an axiomatic system: Every statement was either an axiom, a postulate, or was proven by clear logical steps from axioms and postulates.
• He gave some of his own original discoveries, such as the first known proof that there are infinitely many prime numbers.

St. Andrew University's page on Euclid of Alexandria adds "The book was a compilation of knowledge that became the centre of mathematical teaching for 2000 years. Probably no results in The Elements were first proved by Euclid but the organisation of the material and its exposition are certainly due to him. In fact there is ample evidence that Euclid is using earlier textbooks as he writes The Elements since he introduces quite a number of definitions which are never used such as that of an oblong, a rhombus, and a rhomboid." (Their site also has a lot of links and additional material on Euclid.)

I've been using the Green Lion Press edition (Euclid's Elements) and a couple of online resources to help me through the book. The Green Lion Press edition comes highly recommended and I agree with all the positive things people have said about it. It includes the "complete unabridged text of all thirteen books of Euclid's Elements in T. L. Heath's translation with minor corrections to text and translation, along with introductions, terminology and biographical notes, bibliography, index and glossary." It's a wonderful edition that I highly recommend.

There are many online sites and tools for working through The Elements, so I'll only list the two I've been using. The first is at Furman University's site and compiled by John T. Poole. What I love about this tool is that it walks you through the propositions, giving visual aids to help you understand the text step by step. (Walk through Book One's Proposition Nine as an example and you'll see what I mean.) Everything is clear and since the T. L. Heath translation is used, it is consistent with the text I'm using. I find his statement that "Every interested person, ninth grade student to ninety year old retiree, should be able to read most, if not all, of the material" to be true in my case.

The second site I use is at Clark University and compiled by David E. Joyce. There is additional information and techniques shown that help me understand the propositions better. Weaknesses in Euclid's logic are provided as well as help in construction of the propositions. See his page on Book One Proposition Nine for comparison with the Furman site. I find both sites extremely helpful when used in tandem.

You can understand the propositions fine by following along in the book or the sites, but I wanted to get the most out of it and recreate the steps. If you decide to work through them yourself, you can get by with a simple geometry set (such as this one by Mr. Pen) for everything I've come to so far. I'm awful with a compass, though, so I also ordered a bow compass (this one by Mr. Pen, also, does fine).

In The Gargoyle Hunters, the author John Freeman Gill talks about meeting artists across time when you contemplate their work, which I find perfectly describes how I feel when working through the beauty and logic in the proofs of these propositions. I'm sure not everyone will enjoy it to the same extent as I am. Regardless, I would give The Elements one my highest recommendations.

It's great! It stinks! A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow by Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev

And in 1790, he [Radishchev] wrote, anonymously, one of the immortal works of Russian literature: Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Nationalistic, insightful, mindful of the human condition, and understanding of the forces of human history, Radishchev envisioned a better world: His book was both a document and a pamphlet, the narrative of a simple pilgrim’s fantastic journey and wondrous musings about it. It was also a deeply subtle and learned work, and, at bottom, an ardent tirade against the evils of serfdom and corruption in Russia. It paid homage to religious orthodoxy, yet it assailed the superstitions of the clergy; it professed obedience to the monarchy, yet it justified popular rebellion against rulers who ran roughshod over the law, whether “a tsar, shah, khan, king, bey [or] nabob.” It described the dismemberment of families by conscription, and the abuse of serfs by masters…. He did not advocate revolution, but he asked for a merciful understanding of its advocates. … His language was poetic: “Let yourselves be softened, you hardhearted ones; break the fetters of your brethren, open the dungeons of slavery.”

- From The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World 1788—1800 by Jay Winik, Chapter 8

He [Radishchev] has come to be regarded by the radical intelligentsia as its first spokesman and martyr. The sincerity of his book has been questioned both by his early advocates and by his later detractors. It would seem that he wrote it merely out of literary ambition and that it is no more than a rhetorical exercise on a subject suggested and familiarized by Raynal. However this may be, the book is devoid of literary merit.

- From A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900 by D. S. Mirsky, Chapter 3

More coming on this work soon, but I love the comparison of comments. Not that they are mutually exclusive or fully contradict each other, as I'm finding out.

I seem to be suffering from literary ADHD, following leads of interest while postponing what I want to finish. I'll get to things mentioned yet, I promise (to myself), but wanted to post on these comments I found the other day.

The "inevitable" Peloponnesian War

S. N. Jaffe has an article at the War on the Rocks site titled "The Risks and Rewards of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War" that should be helpful to anyone attempting to read or write about the war. Jaffe is the author of Thucydides on the Outbreak of War: Character and Contest, a study of the first book of the History. From the "Description" tab on the book at Oxford University Press:

The cause of great power war is a perennial issue for the student of politics. Some 2,400 years ago, in his monumental History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides wrote that it was the growth of Athenian power and the fear that this power inspired in Sparta which rendered the Peloponnesian War somehow necessary, inevitable, or compulsory.

In this new political psychological study of Thucydides' first book, S.N. Jaffe shows how the History's account of the outbreak of the war ultimately points toward the opposing characters of the Athenian and Spartan regimes, disclosing a Thucydidean preoccupation with the interplay between nature and convention. Jaffe explores how the character of the contest between Athens and Sparta, or how the outbreak of a particular war, can reveal Thucydides' account of the recurring human causes of war and peace. The political thought of Thucydides proves bound up with his distinctive understanding of the interrelationship of particular events and more universal themes.

The article at War on the Rocks provides an overview of the History and provides a nice summary of why it's wrong to accept Thucydides at face value when he states “the growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm (or fear) which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable … or necessary or compulsory.” The whole article is worth a read and I sincerely hope to read Jaffe's book for more on his interpretation. For now, here's part of the article's summary on that inevitability:

I maintain that Thucydides does not mean inevitability as efficient causation, or in any sense that suggests that the forces involved are fully external to the actors. Instead, I argue that the objective inevitability of a Peloponnesian War is in fact the product the subjective views of the actors themselves, rooted in the deeply opposing characters of Athens and Sparta, or in the ways that the cities differently privilege security, honor, and profit. To abridge a complicated story, what Thucydides means by necessity is perhaps best understood as the imperatives of the national interest, as the actor in question understands those interests, while these interests are themselves conditioned by overarching world views or disparate cultural outlooks.

To draw these threads together, a Peloponnesian war became “necessary” when the actors themselves came to see no alternative to it. This does not mean that they were correct to arrive at that decision, or that there were no alternatives to war. Instead, Thucydides illuminates the interactive chain of events by which the protagonists themselves became locked into path dependencies, firmly convinced of the reasonableness of their actions or policies, which, in fatal combination with one another, led to a mutually destructive war.

As Jaffe points out, there is "vigorous disagreement" on the study of Thucydides...what the author meant and how to apply his lessons. Whether or not you agree with Jaffe's remarks on Thucydides, his framing information should be of use to anyone wanting to read the History.

To Know a Fly by Vincent G. Dethier

To Know a Fly by Vincent G. Dethier
Foreword by N. Tinbergen
Illustrated by Bill Clark and Vincent Dethier
Oakland, California: Holden-Day, Inc., 1962

Although small children have taboos against stepping on ants because such actions are said to bring on rain, there has never seemed to be a taboo against pulling off the legs or wings of flies. Most children eventually outgrow this behavior. Those who do not either come to a bad end or become biologists. (2)

In the forward, N. Tinbergen looks at the distance that had grown between scientists and the public (keep in mind this is in 1962) because the knowledge had become incredibly detailed and technology techniques so specialized. Tinbergen notes that outstanding researcher Vincent Dethier's gift of clear communication helps bridge that gap, especially in works like To Know a Fly, and I have to agree. This book is a delight to read, a time-capsule look into a branch of scientific study and scientific life as it stood over 50 years ago.

Vincent Dethier was a scientist in several fields over his career, but it was his work in entomology that he is best known for. His writings went beyond academic papers and industry-related books, including works on natural history for the general reader as well as humor and children's books. To Know a Fly could be described as a combination of those last three categories, with Dethier detailing some of the work he does as a researcher. He lays out the concerns, discoveries, experiments, and observations in his work with flies, engaging the reader all through the different areas in a lively, anecdotal manner.

Some of the areas he features highlight the ingenuity in developing experiments, coming up with ways to measure the behavior of flies, especially in regard to their senses and feeding habits. As Dethier puts it, "An experiment is a scientist's way of asking nature a question." The most obvious problem when it comes to flies is the subjects' size. The resourceful and innovative ways Dethier and his lab partners develop experiments, despite that issue, portrays the scientific method in action. This is conveyed in a humorous, droll manner, and also demonstrating his claim that properly conducting an experiment can be "an adventure, and expedition, a conquest."

The book can be read and understood from ages 10 and up, although adults would probably appreciate it the most. More than just a cultural artifact from over fifty years ago, Dethier succeeds in bridging the "gap" between scientists and nonscientists to make some of the scientist's work understood and appreciated. As he mentions in the closing, something as insignificant as a fly plays a role in our universe. Demonstrating the work done to unravel the mysteries of a fly, Dethier helps the reader appreciate both nature and those working to understand it.

The instrument of a scientist's destiny may be many things from the ultimate space of the farthest reaches of the universe to the ultimate particles of matter, and all things in between, not excepting man himself. It is of this the scientist partakes. A fly is just as much in the scheme of things as man. No less a person than St. Augustine remarked in the Fourth Century: "For it is inquired, what causes those members so diminutive to grow, what leads so minute a body here and there according to its natural appetite, what moves its feet in numerical order when it is running, what regulates and gives vibrations to its wings when flying? This thing whatever it is in so small a creature towers up so predominantly to one well considering, that it excels any lightning flashing upon the eyes." To know the fly is to share a bit in the sublimity of Knowledge. That is the challenge and the joy of science. (118-9)

Brutus: The Noble Conspirator by Kathryn Tempest

Brutus: The Noble Conspirator by Kathryn Tempest
Yale University Press, 2017

To a considerable extent this book will examine how Brutus' life has been recorded and transmitted from antiquity to today: a central contention is that, to appreciate Brutus the man, we must really probe the sources we use, to understand who is speaking and shy. From there, my aim is to make a significant contribution to the way we think about Brutus' life, as well as the conclusions we reach about how he conducted his political career. ... [T]his book will take an integrated approach to the topic, combining biographical exploration with historiographical and literary analyses. In so doing, it will offer a sense of who Brutus was and why he acted in the way he did, while simultaneously digging far deeper into the presentation of Brutus in the ancient evidence than has hitherto been attempted. As far as possible, then, it places his decisions and actions back into their real time, and it always prioritises an evaluation of the contemporary over later evidence for studying them. Wherever the evidence allows, Brutus is made to speak, argue and justify himself in his own words. Even when we do find ourselves having to rely on the works of later historians, I shall try to take us back to an understanding of them from the point of view of Brutus and his peers.
(Preface, page xi)

In a year where I've read a lot of impressive and enjoyable nonfiction books, Tempest's Brutus: The Noble Conspirator may be my favorite to date and gets my highest recommendation.

Brutus has been a controversial figure through the ages, including during his own lifetime. Some of the earliest references to Brutus treated him with respect. While the works covering Brutus of Titus Livius, Gaius Asinius Pollio, or Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus have not survived, mentions of their passages referring to him reveal that often the conspirators against Julius Caesar were regarded in a positive light. While Plutarch’s biography of Brutus paints a glowing picture, we have to keep in mind the author’s concern, which was drawing moralistic lessons in the comparisons of key historical figures. Plutarch’s pairing of Brutus with Dion, who overthrew the tyrant Dionysus II of Syracus in the 4th century BC, highlights the author’s praise for men who put Platonic ideals into action. Criticisms of Brutus and the conspirators appear early, too, with charges of parricide and banditry common in addition to that of tyrannicide. The letters between Cicero and Brutus and other letters of Cicero that speak of Brutus help provide a portrait of the conspirator, but these also have to be weighed against the concerns and agendas behind the correspondence. Tempest’s approach presents many points of view regarding Brutus in order to let the reader arrive at their own evaluation of the man. As Tempest puts it, “As we go in search of Brutus, this book will take an approach that combines history and historiography, in order to examine what we can learn not just about his life, but about how that life has been recorded and transmitted from antiquity to the present day.” (11)

An issue that is obvious but not always stated is that insight into Brutus' private life before the assassination of Caesar is clouded at best. Works he wrote before the Ides of March 44 B.C., such as On Duties, On Virtue, and On Endurance, now exist only in fragments. On his life after the assassination there is a considerable amount of surviving material but, as mentioned earlier, the views are slanted depending on the author's viewpoint. The sources also muddle actions and dates. What is clear, though, is Julius Caesar's assassination vaulted Brutus from a historical figure into the realms of mythology.

Tempest develops a theme from the sources that Brutus was intent on shaping how he was viewed, from early on in life up to his death. He stressed his family lineage, with ancestors on both his mother's and father's sides deposing or killing kings and tyrants. Although little is known of Brutus' early life, Tempest sets the scene for what a son of nobility would have experienced in Rome, Athens, and Rhodes during his studies and development. She also examines likely influences that would have shaped his thinking during these years. While privileged, Brutus faced challenges from this father's early death and the political climate (such as Sulla's changes in the laws, and Pompey's and Caesar's domination in politics). Since the book is geared for a general readership, Tempest's look at the late Roman republic is a helpful summary, especially when examining the tumultuous 50s (B.C., that is).

During the civil war between Caesar and Pompey, Brutus chose to support Pompey despite Caesar's overtures. After Pompey's loss at Phrasalus (August 48 B.C.), Brutus turns to Caesar and is accepted into his camp, although it's not always clear where Brutus was at various times. Tempest notes, "Brutus' whole career displays a remarkable knack for political side-switching," (66), but it's difficult to fully know how much was opportunism and how much was due to his personal philosophy.

My favorite section of the book is when Tempest turns to Brutus' "philosophical leanings to understand more about his ethics and motives leading up to the assassination" (13). (For more on this topic, also see the article by David Sedley mentioned in the links below.) It must have been quite a struggle in his mind to join (and help lead?) the assassination plot. He was dependent on Caesar for his office, but if he had sworn an oath to and was assisting a tyrant, what were his options to escape such a dilemma? And how much pressure did he put on himself in having emphasized his family's history of insuring Rome's freedom? As stressed here and elsewhere (especially Ronald Syme's book The Roman Revolution), judging Brutus' actions because the assassination led to the final dissolution of the Republic is to judge from the results. The years before and after the assassination show Brutus as having singled himself out as a man with an upright code of conduct and virtue. It's difficult to determine how much his philosophical basis was behind his impetus for participation in the assassination plot, but it did make such involvement consistent with his declarations. There are additional considerations to take into account, such as Brutus' thwarted political ambitions because of Caesar's control on the city's machinery. As Tempest puts this point, "In short, if we want to understand what united the men who conspired to kill Caesar, we need to consider the one thing they all shared in common: political ambition, the desire to accrue dignitas and win glory—both in their lifetimes and beyond."

In conflating their concern about Caesar becoming a tyrant with that of tyranny as criticized by the Greeks the conspirators seemed to severely misread what the populace wanted. They simply wanted the return to the rule of law they had enjoyed beforehand, not the murder of Caesar, which is why there doesn't appear to have been popular support for the assassination. Include the mayhem after Caesar's funeral into the mix and much of the populace may have wished the assassination never happened.

Since there are a great number of extant letters of Cicero, Tempest concentrates on what is in those letters as well as what is between the lines in order to understand how the assassination was received by Brutus’ contemporaries. The conspirators seem not to have thought too far ahead about what would happen after the assassination. Within a month of Caesar’s death, most, if not all, of the assassins had left Rome. By failing to seize the initiative immediately after the assassination, they were at the mercy of what followed from the backers of Caesar. “[O]pinions in how Caesar’s rule was to be remembered represented a new battlefield," (128) and the political and military jockeying had just begun. Routine events and annual spectacles became ways to influence public opinion, and with Antony in Rome he had advantages over the conspirators. Even with a lot of friction between them, Antony and Octavian were able to make a public display of unity which would work against the conspirators.

The conspirators (or liberators, as they billed themselves) and their supporters began to disagree on how best to handle the aftermath of the assassination. Misidentifying the problems they needed to address didn't help.

Yet, here and elsewhere, Cicero has underestimated the extent of the problem; as had Brutus, Cassius, Decimus and the rest of the Liberators. For, as we have seen repeatedly ..., Caesar was more than a man and, dominant though he was, there were far more players batting on his side than we sometimes remember, all with far too many vested interests. In other words, his celebrity, popularity with the veterans and plebs, and the movement Caesar spurred in Roman political life were far greater than the force of the assassins’ daggers. As the disagreements between Cicero and Atticus reveal, from the differing perspectives of two friends and contemporaries, each with his own view of Brutus, there is no simple answer to the question of why the conspiracy failed. Fear, anger, jealousy and pride have all played their part in this narrative, as indeed they did for a large part of republican history. But one thing appears certain: the real enemy was not Caesar, but Caesarism—and that was proving far more difficult to stamp out. (141)

The conspirators mostly separated in order to follow their own agendas although Cassius and Brutus, despite having sizable differences before and after the assassination, continued to work together. They headed to the eastern Mediterranean in order to gather support, funds, and troops. Brutus was able to masterfully take control of rich eastern provinces. What he did once he had that control, though, stained his reputation. His brutal rule called into question his stated defense of the republic. The mass suicide at Xanthus (in Lycia) as a result of his command reflected badly on him, although part of the event may have been driven by Roman rule in general. Cassius' actions were aggressive and cruel, too, which made it easy for opponents to conflate the actions of these two conspirators. Later, the results of the battles at Phillipi were mixed, but they led to the deaths of Cassius and Brutus. The battle for the shaping of public opinion on Brutus, though, didn't stop with his death.

[T]he wrangle over Brutus’ reputation generated competing sides to the man, as his friends and enemies alike tried to shape the memory he was to leave behind; already at his death, different ‘endings’ were being written for Brutus’ life. But these competing narratives in the historical material are a blessing rather than a curse. The legend of Brutus, the complexities of his character, and the questions that surround his legacy are all significantly enriched when we trace them back to the beginning, ... to the life of Brutus and how he was received by his contemporaries. (210)

As Tempest points out, a study of these contemporaries leads to a wide variety of responses, making definitive statements about him difficult beyond noting there were many sides to Brutus. Far from feeling disappointed in the recognition that Brutus was an enigma, Tempest makes the study and analysis of these many sides enjoyable.

In addition to the clear and detailed text, the book has everything I want in such a book (even if I didn't know I did). The maps are relevant and helpful. One appendix lays out the chronology after Caesar's assassination, laying ancient sources side by side so the reader can see where they coincide and when they differ. The endnotes fill in more information and point out alternative opinions, while the bibliography provides a great list of sources to explore. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope it gets the wide readership it deserves.


Links:
An article on the book at the Yale Books Blog

In Chapter 4 (Thinking about Tyrannicide), Tempest looks at the motives, personal and political, that would have spurred Brutus on toward the assassination of Julius Caesar, including his study of philosophy. One article she uses as the basis for part of the chapter is "The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius" by David Sedley, The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 87 (1997), pp. 41-53. An online search may provide you with access to this article.

Kathryn Tempest is the Educator for this lesson in the TedEd Lessons Series: "The great conspiracy against Julius Caesar"

My notes on the book