Clifford

Finished June 26

Clifford: A Memoir, a Fiction, a Fantasy, a Thought Experiment by Harold R. Johnson

This is an intriguing book, and the subtitle gives you an idea of the scope of the book. Johnson talks about his older brother Clifford, a man who had a major impact on Johnson's entire life. Early in life, Clifford helped him overcome a speech impediment, so important as formal assistance wasn't an option for them in their small northern Saskatchewan community. We get a great sense of what it was like growing up there and how their lives changed when they were forced to move away into a larger community. 

Their father was from Sweden and their mother was Cree, and their father assimilated into the local Cree community. Clifford died in a vehicle accident, and it was a loss to the family and the community and we get a real sense of this here. Clifford cared about people and showed it through his actions. There is humour and there is sadness, but overall we are shown an extraordinary human being. 

The book is framed as Johnson camping near the abandoned house that he and his family lived in when he was young. It encompasses memories, the nature around him, the feelings he has about the loss of his brother, the what-ifs, and the way they move forward.

From the examples of scientific discussions we get a great sense of how Clifford's mind worked, so open to new ideas and being able to connect disparate ideas across subjects. His ideas changed over time as he learned new things. 

Johnson is a true storyteller and this book is a great example. 

Kiss Me First

Finished September 7

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach

I found this novel hard to classify into a genre. The narrator is Leila, a young woman who has felt that she doesn't fit in most of her life. She was raised by her mother, but her mother was diagnosed with MS, and died when Leila was a young woman. 

The book begins with an online conversation she has with a woman called Tess, which she describes as the last conversation that she would have with her. 

The next section is dated in August 2011 where Leila is at a commune in Spain. She is living in a tent and has gone there looking for Tess. While she is there she has decided to "write an account of everything that has happened'. And that is what this novel's structure is. As a reader, I felt a bit like I'd come into the middle of a story, as Leila talks about people she's interacted with and describes her life and the situation that she entered into with Tess.

Leila hadn't gone to college, and the two made a plan for her future together. Leila would do online training for computer coding and they would sell the house and buy an apartment for her to live in when it came time for her to live by herself. 

One thing that Leila was interested in was philosophy, and she found her way to a site called Red Pill where she discussed philosophical questions. There she interacted with a man called Adrian who offered her a job he calls "Project Tess" where she will get to know Tess, a woman who wants to disappear from her life, so that Leila can interact with people Tess knows later once Tess is gone. Tess is a little older than Leila, but still a young woman, and as Leila lays out her interactions with Adrian and with Tess, we get a sense of the unusual situation that this is. 

To me, Leila seemed bright in some areas of her life, but very naive in others. She also seems to have a lack of emotions at times when it would be normal to show emotion. 

As the story unfolds, and we see Leila's business-like and organized approach to this job, we get a sense of what her own life is like and how she has trouble connecting with people in real life. 

A strange and intriguing look inside someone else's head. Some have labeled the book as mystery or suspense, and I can see aspects of that, but it is also a sort of dark character study of the narrator as we get to know so much about her and how she thinks. 

Dissipatio H.G.

Finished September 21

Dissipatio H.G.: the Vanishing by Guido Morselli, translated by Frederika Randall

This novel takes us into the mind of the narrator, who appears to be the last man on earth. He is an unhappy man, and had decided to end his life by dropping into an abyss within a cave near his mountain home. But somehow his thoughts took him elsewhere and he, instead returned home. But he soon finds that the world is not as he left it. All humans have disappeared, along with whatever they were wearing at the time. Cars have crashed or sit idling, homes are empty except for any pets or farm animals, 

We watch him explore this world from looking into his neighbours homes, to venturing to the nearby city of Chrysioilis (a city reminiscent of Zurich), to train stations, airports, and hotels, looking for humanity. He wonders whether he was spared by his location, deep within the earth, and venture to a nearby mining site. He listens for radio reports, makes phone calls to distant locations, but never finds another human. 

This is a story of both wonder and sadness, of questions unanswered, and hopes unfulfilled. 

The author was ahead of his time in the themes he wrote around, and after many rejections by publishers, he committed suicide in 1973. A good friend was instrumental in getting nine of his books published after his death, including this one, and they were generally very well received. 

I found the initial passages much more readable than the more philosophical and intellectual questioning that happens towards the end of the book, but the book is an interesting exercise in possibilities. 

X + Y

Finished December 31

X + Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender by Eugenia Cheng

I was looking for a book to help meet a reading challenge and came across this book which got me thinking about many things in different ways. The author is a mathematician and an artist. She teaches mathematics at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. In her career, and in other aspects of her life, she has encountered sexism and racism. She has thought a lot about this and how often gender issues are substituted for behaviour issues. She outlines how our society favours more aggressive, competitive, individualistic behaviour, and about how that behaviour has come to be seen as masculine. 

She has come up with new descriptors for this issue around behaviour that take the gender out of the discussion, eliminating one red herring to change. She describes two behaviour types as ingressive and congressive, where ingressive is the current valued type of behaviour that values competition, winners, contests, and individual success. The other type of behaviour, congressive, values understanding, sharing, working together, collaboration, and societal success. She makes a great argument for this new set of descriptors and how using them and thinking of them more in the behavioural sense and not tying them to gender norms can overcome not only gender bias, but also other biases in our society that favour the status quo. 

I found myself easily understanding her descriptions of category theory mathematics (I was a math major in my first year of university) and seeing how it applies to this idea of behavioural categories. She advocates gradual change, using congressive approaches and responses to replace ingressive or passive ones, and finding a way forward that will benefit not only society as a whole, but individuals more broadly as well. 

This is a fascinating book that needs to be read by more people and have them seriously consider her suggestions. 

Machiavelli

Finished April 20
Machiavelli: The Art of Teaching People What to Fear by Patrick Boucheron, translated by Willard Wood

This is a close look at Machiavelli's life and writings. It's split into six sections covering different periods of his life, with each section having five chapters.
The introduction starts with a quote from Trump, one that could have been written by Machiavelli. It was a statement made in March 2016 "Real power is -- I don't even want to use the word -- fear." It definitely relates to both men. It speaks to the fact that we really don't know how to feel and think about Machiavelli. This book stays in that uncomfortable zone of thought. It is a deep analysis of the man and his writing, some drawn from a series of talks on French public radio about using Machiavelli to sharpen our understanding of our own times. It shows how people can be so worried about a pending threat that they don't realize that it has already happened.
Youth - this section begins by setting the context for Machiavelli's life, a time period of great upheaval. Those times we are drawn to reading him are also times like these, which should alert us to that in our time. It also talks about how his name became associated with the practice of violence and tyranny, one that he didn't actually profess, but that his worst opponents assigned to him. One of the works he drew on here was a diary kept by Machiavelli's father, showing that the house owned thirty books (an extravagance at that time) and valued education. One of the books was Lucretius, and Machiavelli read it and transcribed it, a very humanist book
A Time for Action - This section talks about the influence of Savonarola's rise and fall, Machiavelli's first government role, first secretary to the second chancery. He created a team of young men that would stay with him for nearly fifteen years. It also marked the beginning of his travels away from Florence to observe what happened elsewhere, and allow him to compare. It also had him writing: dispatches, reports, and diplomatic letters, forming a base for his later work. It is said that this time and place in history invented diplomacy, so it was a valuable experience. It also brings us to the beginning of his exile when the Medicis were reinstalled as rulers and he was implicated in a conspiracy.
After Disaster - His first writings from exile are covered here, where he spent time conversing with the men of his community and his evenings reading. The Prince is looked at, with his intentions to "write something useful for discerning minds," and his determination to look at the truth of the way government worked. He wasn't describing good government, but more the government that he had observed and these are principalities, not republics, an important distinction. He talks here about self-preservation, what a ruler needs to know how to do to stay in control. He ends this famous work by calling on patriotism to deliver Italy from barbarians, the French, but also this is a cry to be noticed, to be brought out of exile.
Politics of Writing - The Prince gained some attention, but the Pope warned the Medicis against him, so he turned to theatre successfully. In the plays, he used the same themes as his previous work, but added humour and variability to them. This section also talks more about his personal life, his marriage and family and draws from personal letters written to his wife and his friends. His work also ventured beyond the diplomatic language of the time to include idiom and street language.
Republic of Disagreements - This section ventures into his orations, beginning with those on the Roman republic. They can be seen as a counterbalance to the Prince in that he acknowledges the role of the voice of the people. He notes that although the general populace is ignorant, it is capable of truth, and they don't want to be dominated. One of the points he makes is that which damages the public spirit "to make a law and not observe it, particularly when it is not observed by the person who devised it." This section also looks at his work Art of War, and the role of military force and his arguments against the dependence on mercenaries. It also reveals his idea of peace as violence in abeyance, useful for its vagueness of threat. Here, this book also tackles the common line "the end justifies the means" as being associated with Machiavelli. He never wrote such a line, and it doesn't fit with his philosophy. For him "The end will always occur too late to justify the means of an action. To govern is to act blindly within the indeterminacy of the times."
Never Too Late - The final section of the book begins with the death of Lorenzo de' Medici at the age of twenty-seven, and the ascendency of his cousin Giulio, who provided more opportunity for Machiavelli, beginning with  a commission to write a history of Florence. When Giulio became Pope Clement VII, Machiavelli had more opportunities, including diplomatic missions and travel. This takes us to the capture of Rome in May 1527 and the topple of the Medici reign, but now that the republic was restored, Machiavelli's services were not wanted, and he died soon after. But the body of work he created survived and was interpreted in various ways by various parties. Boucheron points out the Machiavelli often comes up when a storm is threatening. His quarrel "is rekindled every time a Caesar subjects Europe anew to servitude and war." We may not have reached that point, but the truth of Machiavelli's words are worth considering.

Montaigne in Barn Boots

Finished April 1
Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles through Philosophy by Michael Perry

In this book Perry talks about his discover of Montaigne's writings, his affinity for many of his musings, and his own take on the philosophical ideas in Montaigne's work. This is an intensely personal book, as he talks about his own moments of doubt and his worries.
I've always enjoyed Perry's books, and this was no exception.
Perry has read Montaigne in translation, but also read many of the critical works about both Montaigne himself and his writings. He cites some of these ideas in his nine essays, as he delves deeper into the ideas of Montaigne.
His essay titles here illustrate the way he brings his own life into the ideas. In the first Reading Like a Chicken, where he talks about pecking his way around Montaigne gives us a glimpse into his approach to his philosophical reading. In Roughneck Intersectionality, he talks about the differences in background between himself and the philosopher and the things they have in common. In Confound the Fool, he talks about the unending quest for understanding human nature. In Shame, he reveals his own angst and failures around expectations and outcomes. In Marriage, he talks about Montaigne's unusual relationship with his wife, and his own marital dynamics. In Amateur Aesthetics he talks about his own cultural influences, the subjective nature of beauty, and about the importance of context. He says

I am free to savor six kale chips and an episode of It's Okay to Be Smart then dive into a tub of Costco Cheese Balls and a four-hour Reno 911 binge-watch. "I now, and I anon, are two several persons," Montaigne once said, the upshot being, the "other people" necessary to achieve the cosmopolitan state of generative tension required for aesthetic fruition sometimes reside within the same body.

something I can definitely relate to. In Kidney Stone Wisdom, he compares Montaigne's experiences with the plague of kidney stones, and his own. While Montaigne talks about his ongoing experiences as a chance to strengthen his character before witnesses, Perry summarizes his less dignified response to the experience and expands it to include other bodily frailties more evident with age, and how some of these have provided edifying lessons.
In Meditating on Faith, Perry discusses his own experiences with religion, meditation and yoga. From his fundamentalist Christian upbringing to his introduction, via his wife, to yoga and meditation, he shows his questioning nature. He talks about the struggles with monkey mind, yet how

Whether it is due to having been raised in a large family or just general wiring, I am able to withdraw deep into my head in nearly all circumstances. As a shy person I sometimes go into public to write, which may seem counterintuitive but in fact self-consciousness is a catalyst for withdrawal. The presence of strangers compels me to lower the louvers and focus directly in on the task at hand.

He ends with What to Do, a summary of what he takes away from reading Montaigne. He says,

It seems that somewhere around my current life stage, people make one of two moves: Some stiffen, dig in their heels, and attempt to block the future; others reinvigorate life by blending it with the spirit of youth. I hope I will -- and I am working to -- bend toward the second. I am not talking here about the embarrassment of an oldster trying to vibe with the kids. Nor am I talking about abdicating principles. I am talking about offering a hand, opening new doors, and sometimes -- when new blood is best -- stepping aside and standing down. 

An edifying and satisfying read.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Finished December 5
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

This has been sitting on my bedroom bookshelf for a while, and I finally pulled it off, and quite enjoyed it. The central character, Eddie, works as the lead mechanic at a coastal theme park. He's had a long life, and on his 83rd birthday we see him go about his day as normal, getting ready for work, making the rounds at the park checking on everything, and interacting with his co-workers and the public. Then, an unfortunate accident causes Eddie to react in a selfless way, and he is killed.
From here on the book takes Eddie through meetings with five people that influenced his life in some way. Some of them he recognizes right away, but others have to explain themselves.
As he hears the stories of these five people, he learns of their influence on his life, and his influence on their lives.
This is a story of a man looking back on his life with mixed feelings, regret, fond remembrance, guilt, and love. It is of a man who hopes that he has done well, but is afraid that he is not.
The view of his afterlife is a unique one, and one that brings comfort.

The Consciousness of Cats

Finished May 1
The Consciousness of Cats by Nigel J. Borthwick

This short novel tells the story of Nathan Blakemore, a young man with a master's degree in philosophy, who, as the story begins works as a part-time professor of philosophy and as a salesman for music equipment. When he was a bit younger, he was a sound engineer for a moderately successful rock band. He has a good friend that he talks philosophy with, Charmaine, who is a few years younger than him. Charmaine works as a cocktail waitress and is at university studying psychology. Her mother has had some issues with alcohol as well as psychological challenges. Charmaine is a very calm, reasoned young woman, and even as the two become closer, she holds Nathan at a distance.
Nathan feels his life is missing something, so he is determined to move on and not wait for Charmaine to tell him what is holding her back. He volunteers for a long-term assignment in the Philippines and enjoys the projects there and the people he meets. When a crisis occurs that changes his life forever, Charmaine re-enters his life briefly, and then leaves him to recover on his own. As Nathan learns strategies and tools to help him live with his new reality, he also finds that his life has grown larger and more satisfying.
This is a book of a man learning how to deal with his life more thoughtfully, taking a step back to control his impulses and gaining something for that.