Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, was the most banned and contested book this year. And last year. It has been banned and contested because it contains "anti-family, cultural insensitivity, drugs/alcohol/smoking, gambling, offensive language, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited for age group, violence, and depictions of bullying (Bannedbooksweek.org)." I loved it.

The story follows a fourteen year old boy Arnold Spirit Jr. as he transfers schools, from the one located on the reservation where everyone from his tribe attends school to Reardan High School, a middle class white school located off the reservation. There, he deals with culture shock and racism as he struggles to find a way to balance his past with his aspirations. The book is written in a diary format with cartoons that Junior has drawn included, which add so much to the story. Dark, honest, and extremely funny; I loved this book.

This book in particular has been extremely controversial, containing extremely dark content (violence, alcohol abuse, death) and honestly addressing these very real problems and how a teenager might handle these circumstances. This honesty is wonderful. The book often looks at differences in the experiences of children growing up on the reservation and children growing up in white, middle class towns, and how those experiences are greatly influenced by the crimes of the past.

Sherman Alexie addressed the issues that many have found with his book in a Wall Street Journal post entitled "Why the Best Kids Books are Written in Blood" and claims that those who think that by banning books they are keeping kids safer are "way, way too late."

"When some cultural critics fret about the “ever-more-appalling” YA books, they aren’t trying to protect African-American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way into school. Or Mexican-American teens enduring the culturally schizophrenic life of being American citizens and the children of illegal immigrants. Or Native American teens growing up on Third World reservations. Or poor white kids trying to survive the meth-hazed trailer parks. They aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists. 

No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children. Or the seemingly privileged."

This book was wonderful, and I really do think that everyone should read it. Even in its darkness, it was charming and funny. The issues that it dealt with were real, the characters believable.  This story was amazing. I'm really glad that I read it and really excited to read some of Sherman Alexie's other works.

Saga (Vol I & II)

Banned Book #1 (and 2) of my Banned Book week reading: Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Banned because it is "anti-family, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group." This series is awesome.

Saga is a series about a transpecies couple who are fleeing across the galaxy from both of their home-worlds after the birth of their daughter. Awesome! The first two volumes were awesome! The art was beautiful, the story is touching, with many different facets and interesting characters, toting the theme love will triumph over all.

I would like to discuss this book and the reasons it was banned. First off, I'm not entirely sure how this book could be framed as anti-family, as the main story is that of a family just trying to exist, being persecuted for there love of one another. This makes the main characters instantly sympathetic because their love for each other and their daughter is so strong that they are willing to fight everyone in the universe for each other (very romantic). Though the main characters are different species (and one is illustrated caucasian and the other ethnic for some slightly obvious symbolism), they read books together, communicate about important issues, have great sex, love each other, and have a vastly superior relationship to some of the ones I have had.

The nudity, offensive language, and sexual explicitness are objections that I can't argue with, as I am a big fan of the number of times Alana uses the word "fuck," and the book begins with the birth of Hazel.  But that is the great thing about books, if you don't want to read them for certain reasons, you don't have to.

As to the issue of whether or not Saga is suited to it age group, I went on Amazon to see which age group it is geared towards and it didn't give an age group, which is a general sign that it is not meant for children. While this is a preconceived notion that many graphic novels fight with (that they are comic books for children), I think that what each individual child is ready to read is a conversation for individual parents to have with their individual children.

I loved this story. I can't wait to read Vol 3, 4, &5. It is a fantastic story of a family just trying to find a place where they fit in a galaxy that seems so dark and cruel. The story is fantastic and I highly recommend this series.

Banned Books Week!

When the issue of banning books and censorship through print comes up, minds often turn to the imagery of the book burnings that occurred in Nazi Germany. While this image is vivid, and often charged with the romanticism of good versus evil, it feels far away; something that could only ever happen in a country that is not ours.

However, censorship is something that hits much closer to home than everyone thinks. Book burning has occurred in the past ten years in the United States, but far more often there is a more subtle form of censorship that takes place: the banning or pulling of books from library shelves and school curriculum. It is talked about far less but happens far more often.

The issue of banning books and the restriction of ideas communicated through print is not a new one. But it is important. It calls to mind questions regarding the first amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Banned books week was launched in 1982 in response to a surge in the number of books being banned or challenged. In the past year alone there were 311 reported challenges, and some occurring very close to home (check out the 10 most challenged books this year).

Over the next week we will be celebrating and exercising our right to read the books that we want and to remind ourselves that censorship exists and to fight against it.  I invite everyone to join me in reading books that have been banned and to think about why someone thought that the book should not be read (for 5 tales of banned books...).

Ideas are powerful. Ideas are dangerous. Here is to Banned Book Week!

Loosed Upon the World

"For Grace,who I hope will inherit a better world than the ones depicted here." 

"A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world"  

Albert Camus

After the reading the Popes call to act on climate change, I figured I would read what Sci-Fi authors thought the future would look like if we didn't. Climate fiction is a wonderful genre, looking at events that are extremely close to home, at causes that are effecting us now. Loosed Upon the World is a wonderful anthology featuring authors from Paolo Bacigalupi (The Water Knife, The Windup Girl) and Kim Sanley Robinson(2312, Red Mars), to Margaret Atwood (The Handmaids Tale, Maddadam) and Durango's own Sarah K. Castle.

This collection was wonderful. The stories were diverse, showing many different possibilities from many different angles. There are stories of Mad Max justice systems and mass loss, to companies and tech firms looking for different ways to deal with the problems in a world that does not want to stop consuming. Stories that were set in a myriad of different locations, from the Amazon to Holland, the American Southwest to China. Stories that looked at how the overall trends may effect the world, and how the outliers still mattered; at the over all warming that may come with an increase in floods and how just because a person can create a snowball does not mean things are normal.

I loved this collection. The writing was amazing. I particularly liked Paulo Bacigalupi's two stories dealing with the absence of water in the west, something that the west has always dealt with, and the way that those problems might manifest in the future. I loved Sarah K. Castles story Mutant Stag at Horn Creek which deals with the adaptions of animals and possible long term effects of old mines in the Grand Canyon (lots of uranium in the Southwest, perfect fuel for sci-fi stories), which is still on the brain in Durango after the Gold King Mine incident. Everyone is thinking of ways to mitigate the risks.

This theme of risk mitigation was extremely prevalent in many of the stories, as was the idea of short vs. long term solutions, and small sacrifices of the general public vs. waiting for the possibility of the big technological fix. More efficiently built houses and water management pitted against the consumerism we have now and swimming pools in Las Vegas. Whether or not it is better to lessen our effects now or hope that technology (cloud seeding, plankton stimulation, large hydroelectric projects) will help us in the future without making things worse. 

One thing that I have been thinking about often, and was touched on in the book, is what we will loose. Our wild spaces, many species, snow; these are things that my children, or great grandchildren, may never get to see. And it will be because we, as a species, were unwilling to see our effects and do anything about them until it was too late. I try to be optimistic about the future. But, some times, it is hard.

The sense of optimism that this collection contained was amazing. While some of the stories were harsh, almost all of them conveyed a sense that we will get through these trials, and maybe we can mitigate the damage we have done, and maybe we can find a way to leave a better tomorrow for those who will come after us. 

I loved this collection. I think everyone should read it.

"The one created the other; either we pulled together as a collective or got swept away as individuals"
-Jim Shepard  The Netherlands Lives with Water

Encyclical on Climate Change & Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home

"Today, however, we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the people."

Pope Francis

On Care for Our Common Home

The Pope has come to visit America!!! And its a really big deal. Boehner, House Speaker, cried during the Popes speech; pundits are shouting "Socialist!" Our little Pope has really shaken things up. Which is something that he has been really good at for the three years of his Pontificate. 

I figured maybe I should read his Encyclical on Climate Change & Inequality, as it is what he has come to the US to talk about, and it seems to be these ideas that have really shaken thinks up. This is the first religious document I have read in years. I am not religious. I do think that it is useful, though, and that it is very important, as it plays a large role in peoples lives (there are roughly 2.4 billion Christians in the world, about 1.25 billion are Catholic). This belief influences the decision making of a large percentage of the world. The Pope is a very powerful man.

This letter is a bit of an odd ball. Most encyclicals are addressed only to the body of believers. This one is also geared towards those who don't believe. I think this was a very wise move on the part of the Pope. It states that this issue is so big, so important, that we need everyone to think about it and discuss it. I also liked the linking of the issues of climate change and inequality. These two issues are not often discussed together, though they should be, because the effects of climate change will largely effect developing nations, an the poor are less likely to have the financial stability to adapt to the rapidly changing situations.

The letter is structured in several different parts. This first part discusses the effects of climate change, and how the consumer culture feeds into. The second part of the letter, directed at believers, discusses the creation story and how the creatures of the earth are equal to humans, but how humans are the keepers of the garden and they should look after it responsibly, with thought to all of Gods creatures. The third part looks into how we have gotten into the situation we are in, the human role in climate change and inequality. It focuses largely on the capitalist and consumer economies and how they are harmful to the planet and ourselves with the amount of waste they produce. The next two parts outline how we should use technology and capitalism responsibly, and steps that we can take to remedy the problem. The concluding section of the book, while dire, is also hopeful. We can fix the mess we've made. The letter is ended with a prayer. 

I really liked this letter. It is the first religious document that I have read in a while, and it was a bit difficult for me to find the rhythm of it, but it had many very important points. I really liked how the Pope acknowledge the complexity of the issues, and how they are large and far reaching. Change in climate will effect health, food production, coast lines, availability to clean water, etc.. Its a far reaching problem that will affect everyone. "The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system linked to many of the essential conditions for human life."

I also really liked that he advocated for a "culture of care" and discussed how the decisions that we will be making must be farsighted looking down the road years. This is something that America seems to have a problem with, cutting funding for education and infrastructure, which for me is just so weird to think about. Even though I don't have a kid in school, I have no problem paying higher taxes for schools because I want my doctors and engineers twenty years from now to have had a great education before they cut into my body or build the plane I will travel in.

He discusses some of the reasons for this short-nearsightedness, this lack of care, and comes to the conclusion that it is still so prevalent because "in practice, we continue to tolerate that some consider themselves more human than others, as if they had been born with greater rights." This, to me, is a profound and tragic statement which explains many of the systematic injustices that we see far to often in the world.

The one thing that I did not like in this piece was its inclusion and stance on abortion. While only mentioned twice in the letter, the way the issue is discussed, I think detracts from the Popes argument. The Pope states that 

"Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other venerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when the presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties. "If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away."  

I think that this argument is a particularly weak argument that doesn't acknowledge all of the reasons a woman may chose to have an abortion (health risks are a large one, as well as dangerous complications in carrying a baby to term). There are several arguments that are pro-abortion that grant that the life of the fetus is of equal value of the rights of the mother (for an thorough look at one of these arguments I highly recommend Judith Jarvis Thompson's piece A Defense of Abortion)  I also don't see how choosing to have an abortion could lead to a devaluing of other life, and this statement is a slippery slope argument that detracts from his argument for a culture of care. I think his argument for care of our world and consideration for all beings as equal would be much stronger if he had either not touched on the abortion issue, or elaborated on it further.

This being my only complaint with the Encyclical is pretty awesome. I'm a big fan of the Pope and his radical changes to church doctrine, the emphasis on tolerance and love. He is bringing light to issues that need to be discussed, and I really like his ideas on a culture of care. I highly recommend this letter. I think everyone should read it.

These are extremely important issues that need to be discussed, and the more people who are informed and present the more productive the conversation will be. The UN recently met to discuss and establish 17 global goals that they want to meet in by 2030. I highly recommend checking them out here. Climate change and inequality are highly influential in 9 of the 17 goals. How we act now on these goals will greatly influence how the future will be, and so I ask everyone to read this and ask yourself what kind of a world you want to live in, fifteen years from now.

OOOOOHHHHHH, We're Half Way There!!!!

We'll everyone, I have finished book #50 today and am officially half way there. In six months I have read 50 books, 14994 pages,  43 authors. 28 of those books have been fiction, 3 have been essay collections and 19 have been non-fiction.

Because I've been reading so much, I would like to spend a little time talking about the content of my reading. In the past I have found that I read a lot of the same thing, and so to broaden my reading I am doing the Book Riot Read Harder challenge. So far I have been doing well. At the end of the year I'll make a chart with which books satisfy which criteria.

At this point I would also like some feedback. What people have liked or not liked about the blog, and things like that. Any comments and critiques would be much appreciated.

Keep reading

Notes from No Man's Land

"This impossible equation equaled out, of course, only if one was willing to assume that some human lives are more valuable than others. This, in the name of "morality."

Eula Biss

Notes from No Man's Land

A couple of weeks ago I read On Immunity, by Eula Biss, and was so impressed by it that I went out and found her collection of essays on race in America immediately after.

A couple of weeks ago I was discussing the Refugee crisis with my little sister and she said that it was so bad because "people believe that their lives are more valuable than others" and it amazed me how, while the occasions and situations are different, the underlying issues that we are talking about seem to be the same. (If you don't know about the refugee crisis, read some news, watch this video, educate yourself because this is important.)

Notes from No Man's Land is brilliant. In it are a collection of essays about different experiences the author has had in different locations in America. It is brilliant. It is split into three parts, New York, California, and the Midwest, and each offers different stories about race in America and offers brilliant insights on gentrification, various expressions of racism, and how they are linked to place. Eula Biss's prose is beautiful, her essays are well thought out and well researched, and I think that this essay collection is extremely important.

The issue of race is an extremely tender issue in America.  It is still prevalent in social policies, yet there is still a pervasive denial of it as no one wants to admit how they benefit from it (John Metta's essay discusses this wonderfully). Biss explores the subject from several different angles, class, ignorance, blatant racism, fear. In one essay, she deconstructs Little House on the Prairie, showing how the "otherness"  leads to fear, and how this fear, and the spreading of it, is a harmful action, "Inspiring fear in others is often seen as neighborly and kindly, instead of being regarded as what my cousin recognized it for-a violence." 

The essay that touched me the most was the one about guilt. I feel very guilty for how my country, and my ancestors have treated the "other:" Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, Latinos, any one labeled as "other." I've struggled with the question of how do we move forward when people still feel such irrational fear, and why people still feel such fear. "We are afraid, my husband suggests, because we have guilty consciences. We secretly suspect that we might have more than we deserve. We know that white folks have reaped some ill-gotten gains in this country. And so privately, quietly, as a result of our own complicated guilt, we believe that we deserve to be hated, to be hurt, and to be killed." To deal with this guilt, it seems that most Americans have chosen to deny it. To claim that these feelings are justified because of racist reasons and ignore the deeper problems and the lasting inequalities.

This collection was phenomenal. I highly recommend it, to everyone. The prose is beautiful, the essays filled with sociopolitical insights, and the subject matter extremely relevant.

Euphoria

"I thought we had time. Despite everything, I believed somehow there was time. Loves first mistake. Perhaps loves only mistake."

Lily King

Euphoria

I loved this book. Euphoria, by Lily King, follows the story of three anthropologists in New Guinea in the 1930's, and the story is charming, heartfelt, and wonderful. I fell in love with one of the characters, while thoroughly hating another. It was wonderful.

The book follows the story of Nell, Fen, and Bankson: three anthropologists studying the tribes in New Guinea. Nell and Fen are married and share the work, but there are tensions in their marriage that stem from the inability to bear a child, their different styles of research, and Nell's success that Fen feels he lives in the shadow of. They meet Bankson after hastily fleeing the tribe they were studying, and the lonely Englishman gets to know them and gets drawn into their lives as they study new cultures.

I loved this book. I didn't think I would at first because I don't generally like books with love triangles, but this one was pulled off so well. I loved that it touched on several big issues. Death is talked about a lot, and King seems to contrast the ritual homicides that the tribes of New Guinea practice with the mass deaths of World War I. In one scene Bankson describes the war to a native man who can't wrap his head around the number or the reason for all the death, and Bankson struggles with the meaninglessness and brutality of the number. It also examines the idea of suicide, containing the most well done suicide scene that I have ever read. 

Nell was a fascinating character. Based loosely on the life of Margaret Mead, she examined some of the most fascinating ideas in the book. Kind, hardworking, and passionate about people, she examines the issues of people belonging to other people and the control we exert on them. This ideas she teases out while working with Bankson, while living with Fin and his efforts to control her life. She states "my loves remain wine to me, yet I become too quickly bread to them." She is referring to how new relationships are exciting and new, but how they eventually become a staple like bread. I fell in love with Nell, she was so fascinating and brilliant and kind.

The twist at the end of the book took me completely by surprise. It was the perfect ending to the story. I loved it. I highly recommend this book, to everyone.

  

Never Cry Wolf

"I had made my decision that, from that hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually are."

Farley Mowat

Never Cry Wolf

Originally published in 1963, Farley Mowat book Never Cry Wolf changed the way we think about large predators in North America. The wolf has been stigmatized for its role as apex predator, and for a long time was actively hunted in the lower 48 states to near the point of extinction, and for the longest time it was believed that wolves hunting patterns were driving the deer and caribou herds to extinction. Mowat's research showing that apex predators were necessary to keep the herd healthy, and that wolves weren't mindless killers, was crucial to their conservation.

This is a conversation that I feel is important to have again and again, considering all of the stereotypes that surround the wolves, the wolf hunts still being conducted in Alaska and Canada, and the poaching that occurs in the lower 48 states. It is important to educate people, especially when there are movements to reintroduce the wolf to Colorado (read more here).

This is a truly amazing piece of nature writing, chronicling Mowats time in the tundra researching the wolves, and his particular interactions with a small family group. It's well written, its informative, and its hilarious. The amount of humor packed into it blew me away, I especially loved the story about when Mowat ran across the tundra naked to witness a hunt, only to find that his friends mother had run out with the teenagers of the family to save him, thinking that he had gone mad. The prose was beautiful and elegant, and the relationship that the author establishes with the wolves is so wonderful. 

I think the best thing about this book was the subtle but underlying theme that humans embody all of the horrible things that have been said about the wolves, and that we are missing out on something by disrupting the natural stream of things. Our fear of nature and the unknown is so debilitating that it has caused us to loose where we fit in in the grand scheme of things. This feeling is driven home by his concluding sentence, which is just to beautiful not to share:

"for me it was a voice which spoke of the lost world which once was ours before we chose the alien role; a world which I had glimpsed and almost entered...only to be excluded, at the end, by my own self."

This book was fantastic. I think its a very important read, and a beautiful one at that. And if you don't want to read the book there is also a wonderful movie based on it, which I highly recommend.

On Immunity: An Inoculation

"It spelled 'munity,' from the Latin munis for service or duty."

Eula Biss

On Immunity

Over the past few days I have been sick. Yesterday was horrendous; fever, vomiting, shakes that were so bad I thought my teeth were going to rattle out of my mouth. Today has been better; aches, pains, drowsiness, dizziness. I figured I might try to read a little about Inoculation and the discussions concerning it with the 'anti-vaxer' movement. 

On Immunity, by Eula Biss, is a well researched book that is part micro-history of vaccines, part commentary and critique of how we talk about disease and vaccination, and part memoir as she explains the choices she made and how she felt about vaccination before and after her son was born. This book was magnificent. It wasn't judgmental, as so many discussions about this argument are (I can be very judgmental about this topic), but instead explained the information available and how it could lead to the conclusions that both sides come to. She explains how one parents decisions to vaccinate their child can come from the same place as another parents decisions not to. We are all afraid, and the issue is complicated.

My favorite parts of the book were when Biss examined the metaphors we use to describe diseases and vaccines. She went back to Dracula and examined the myths of filth that surrounded sickness throughout various times in history, examining how class effects how we view sickness, and how being sick is often thought of as a crime of "otherness" and how this effects the way people make the decisions on what vaccines their children will receive. It was fascinating, to see how the language used effects the way people think about the issue, and how the metaphors used on this particular issue can effect the way one thinks about another issue. 

Another thing I thought this book did really well was explain the history of vaccines and the plethora of information that exists about them. It was fascinating to learn about. I had a fairly good idea of how vaccines work and are manufactured, but the history of them is really cool. China began vaccinating people against small pox in the 17th century, well before they began vaccinating in Europe. The earliest vaccines seem incredibly odd and unsafe but even back then they were considered a necessary risk.

This book was amazing. I definitely think that it a must read for everyone, especially if you have the opportunity to make the decision whether or not to inoculate your child. I personally think that vaccination is a no-brainer, the rewards, in my mind, greatly justify the risks. I think anyone who has been exposed to the information and life experiences I have will come to the same conclusion. But the issue is complicated, and it is understandable for there to be differing conclusions. After all, the rejection of inoculation is not a new thing, though the reasons change from region to region and time to time, as the idea of whether or not to vaccinate is often tied up with different issues, like class and race, and ideals like freedom and autonomy. This was a wonderful read and I highly recommend it.

George

I love kids books. I love how they deal with issues a lot of kids face: bullying, family problems, all the problems of growing up. This was the first time I have seen a kids book tackle this issue, and it did it in such a charming and wonderful way.

George, by Alex Gino, is about a fourth grade girl who was born a boy, and her struggle to fit into her own skin when she can't self express. When her class puts on a play of Charlotte's Web, George wants to play Charlotte but is told she cant because she's a boy. Her friend Kelly (who is such an amazing character) conspires to switch places with her during the school play so that everyone can see George for who she really is: a girl.

This book was wonderfully charming. It dealt with the issues that transgender children face when they are learning to self express themselves. I love how Kelly never questioned the fact that George is a girl, once she found out, and neither did Scott, Georges older brother. It dealt with Georges mother wrapping her head around the Georges identity and being worried because "life is already hard."

This book was wonderful. I'm sure that it will be challenged in schools, but I feel that books that deal with anything of substance generally are. I hope a lot of people read it. It is such a charming story with a very wonderful message that I feel more children need to hear, regardless of their gender, age, or sexual orientation: "Be who you are."

Slaughterhouse-Five

"It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds."

Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-five

I have been told, multiple times by multiple people, that the firebombing of Dresden was the cross that Vonnegut carried his entire life. Those exact words: "the cross he carried." I wonder what it is about that particular phrasing that latches those words to this story. No matter, they are fitting. 

This is the Vonnegut book that it seems most people have read. Its common high school reading. "So it goes" is often referenced. I am happy that it wasn't the first book by him that I've read. I feel that I wouldn't have understood the context as well, the complex emotions he felt, and the guilt he experienced if I hadn't read some of his other books first. Kilgore Trout, from so many Vonnegut novels, is present to explain why science fiction is important and how people make up their own fictions every day to live with what has happened. Mr. Rosewater, of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater,  shares a room in the veterans hospital with Billy Pilgrim (our protagonist) after he accidentally shot a fireman during a flash back. Howard W. Campbell, Jr., from Mother Night, appears to convince the prisoners of war to join his all American platoon to fight for the Germans against the Russians and then waits out the firebombing in a meat locker with the prisoners of war while the rest of the city burns. The intricacies and the absurdities pulled in from the other novels provided a wonderful backing to the story, and an intricate back story that made the absurdities Vonnegut points out more profound.

In Slaughterhouse-five we follow the story of Billy Pilgrim, a time challenged man who jumps from occasion to occasion in his life. He doesn't understand this until he is abducted by aliens who see the fourth-dimension, While he can't see his life as they do, he knows what will happen, how he dies, how he is born, and everything in between and nothing will change because that is how the moment is structured. The story is his life, bouncing around but centered around the firebombing of Dresden, an event which killed more people than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. There's a certain helplessness as Billy struggles to find the reason behind the things that he has seen, the things that have happened and will happen. 

This is a struggle that I think Vonnegut grapples with in most of the books I have read by him. The question of how do we make sense of the terrible things that have happened, and, since we are "so much the listless playthings of enormous forces," how and why should we go on? These are questions I feel like many people struggle with.

In Slaughterhouse-five there is a novel, written by Kilgore Trout, about a time traveler who goes back in time to see the Crucifixion of Jesus. The first time he goes back, he goes to far, and finds a twelve year old Jesus learning the trade of his father: carpentry. Roman foot soldiers come up and ask Joseph and Jesus to build a contraption to execute a rabble-rouser and they do, a simple thing made up of two posts. I think this story was significant, especially to Vonnegut. I think he was making a point of how even though we may make our crosses without knowing it, we still must bear them, and it wont make the pain any less. He made his, he went over seas and participated in war. But it doesn't make the burden any easier. Everyone is just doing the best they can and hindsight is 20/20. 

I loved this book. I would love to hear what everyone else thought of it, it was so intricate and emotional, clever and funny in places I didn't think possible. I love the way he brings out the absurdity and the humanity in frightful, terrible things. I think that everyone should read this book.

 

The Revenant

"Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath:

for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

Rom. 12:19

I love a good revenge story. I think a lot of people do. I think it makes us feel better when the bad guys get their just rewards and when its at the hands of the good guys, all the better. It is what makes books like Moby Dick, and Terentino movies so popular. It makes us feel better to see that someone is seeing justice served in a world that seems to be so very unjust. So when I stumbled across The Revenant, by Michael Punke, I jumped at the chance to read it. No just a revenge story set in the west, with trappers and traders and bears, but a revenge story based on the life of a person who lived, and an extremely interesting person at that. 

The Revenant tells the story of mountain man Hugh Glass, who was mauled by a grizzly bear and then abandoned and robbed by his comrades. He then worked his way back to civilization, healed, and went back into the wilderness to find them and settle the score (historically, these things really happened). He had an extremely interesting life, starting out as a sailor, then an involuntary pirate, and then a fur trapper. It seems odd that this is the first tall tale story I've seen told of him, though there are several non-fiction books that tell the tail.

I really liked this book. The story is fascinating, and the author did a very good job describing what the Rocky mountains were like in the 1820's from the weather to the interactions with the several indigenous tribes (touching on the racism and vaguely on the beginnings of the wars that would expand to that part of the continent later in the century).  I really liked the writing. It was blunt and concise, but also filled with wonderful little bits of poetic writing when talking about the landscape and the wild life that lived there: the wolves and the buffalo. Even the way he talks about how the "colder weather settled into Glass's wounds the way a storm creeps its way up a mountain valley" waxes poetic. I feel like this style of writing reflects how Glass (or maybe even the author) felt about the world. Men are corrupt and blunt, yet nature is innocent, and beautiful in its untamed state. 

This book was wonderful. I highly recommend reading it, especially before the movie starring Leo DiCaprio comes out later this year. It looks particularly hair raising and awesome though it seems to focus more on the action, which is fairly sparse in the book. Read it before you see it!