Jul 24 2015

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology And My Harrowing Escape by Jenna Miscavige Hill & Lisa Pulitzer

Having just finished a bunch of Orwell, this was both mind-boggling and horribly sympathetic. She describes growing up in a state of repression more suited to communism or a paranoid dictatorship a la North Korea than to any religion that purports to help people self-actualize. I applaud her for having the intelligence to see that what was being done to her was wrong, and the courage and fortitude to escape from it. She does her best to explain how people willingly go along with the diktats of the organization, tho I have to admit that I have difficulty understanding how those who know there’s a better alternative (as she did not growing up) could possibly continue in it. People, amirite? Anyway, fascinating insight to the inner workings of Scientology. Could have used some tighter editing, and the ending seems a bit rushed in comparison to the much more clearly written first two-thirds, but otherwise a decently written memoir.

And, you know, being an adherent of a religion that’s often also vilified, I’m hesitant to write anything truly critical of Scientology. If you can get good from your belief system, if it makes you be a better person and treat others humanely and take the long view of life, then I’m all for it. But Ms Hill makes it clear that the practical application of Scientology long ago left behind any interest in really helping its adherents, as opposed to robbing them of money, identity and freedoms instead. Any religion that subsumes the happiness of its adherents to the good of the institution needs to be questioned, at the very least. If it can’t survive that questioning, then maybe it isn’t a religion worth following after all.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/24/beyond-belief/

Jul 24 2015

The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski

The Time of Contempt picks up the story of Geralt of Rivia an unspecified, but not terribly long, time after the events of Blood of Elves. Sapkowski opens the novel by following a royal messenger through several errands, and he uses that device to deliver to readers a quick burst of exposition about the state of affairs in the northern kingdoms, a state that is, to say the least, unsettled. More monsters than usual are about in the lands, and the kings are mobilizing armies. The understanding between kings and sorcerers has broken down, with the former declining to trust the latter. All of these developments mean more work for messengers, who deliver secret verbal messages as well as the more usual diplomatic letters. The developments also mean more demand for the services of Geralt, a witcher — a fighter possessed of unnatural speed and no little magical ability.

Geralt claims neutrality in all of the machinations of the kingdoms around him, saying he fights monsters for anyone who will pay his fees. But of course the plotters have other ideas about his neutrality; further, his connections to sorcerers and other elements of history mean that he will have a very difficult time staying on the sidelines. As Trotsky did not quite say “You may not be interested in the war, but the war is interested in you.”

Geralt’s ties to politics also stem from his personal entanglement with the sorceress Yennefer, and the choice the two of them made to hide Ciri, heiress to a border kingdom and child of prophecy, at the witchers’ training citadel. Those events were related in Blood of Elves, but some of the consequences become apparent in this book.

Ciri may be a child of prophecy and destiny, but in this book she is mostly a willful adolescent who likes nothing more than to escape her minders for either child-like play or heartfelt romanticism. Ciri is learning who she is, but she has neither adult powers nor adult judgement, and that gets both her and the people around her into trouble.

I have been enjoying the Witcher series, though I haven’t played the video game which is apparently the main commercial driver, and I am glad that the fourth and fifth books are slated for English translation (publication scheduled for 2016 and 2017). The set pieces in The Time of Contempt are generally good — what happens to Ciri after she goes through a magical portal is particularly good, whereas the sorcerers’ conclave was not fully convincing — and the overarching story continues to develop at a pace that confounds expectations from English-language fantasy.

Sapkowski wrote The Time of Contempt in the mid-1990s, when the initial euphoria of overthrowing Communism in Poland had worn off, the Solidarity coalition had split into multiple feuding factions, economic difficulties were all around, and the larger goals such as membership in the European Union seemed terribly distant. Indeed, it was possible that for all of their rhetoric, the Western nations might not ever welcome Poland as a peer. It would not have been the first time that Poland had been left to muddle through a time of contempt. Indeed, Sapkowski was born just three years after the end of World War II, a war that was fought with greater savagery in Poland than practically anywhere else. The author would have grown up surrounded by visual reminders of the war, and he would have heard stories of the war, while experiencing the Stalinist regime that had been imposed on Poland afterward with great contempt for its own history and institutions.

The novel does not draw explicitly on either of these events, or on the other times of contempt that it is not hard to find in Polish history. But the overall background, the divisions, fears, and domineering neighbor, are all recognizable aspects of the Polish experience. On one level, Geralt’s stories are just fantastic, action-packed adventures. But they also reveal a different historical background for looking at fantasy adventures. That added depth, and the strangeness of a different tradition, make me look forward to the next three, knowing that they will be fun, exciting, and surprising.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/24/the-time-of-contempt-by-andrzej-sapkowski/

Jul 07 2015

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

The Bursar shrugged. “This pot,” he said, peering closely, “is actually quite an old Ming vase.”
He waited expectantly.
“Why’s it called Ming?” said the Archchancellor, on cue.
The Bursar tapped the pot. It went ming. (p. 145)

It’s a throwaway joke, of course, but it’s a perfect one. Not only can readers hear the sound that the vase makes, but they can see the Bursar’s anticipation of the conversation, somewhere between exasperated and amused, knowing exactly what is going to happen next. Everyone probably has set-piece conversations about particular aspects of their lives. Ming happens when I meet a fellow American overseas. “Where are you from?” is one of the inevitable questions early in the conversation, and nine times out of ten my answer provokes the — sometimes genuinely surprised — response, “But you don’t have an accent!” Ming!

That’s just people being people, which is exactly what the characters in Moving Pictures, the tenth Discworld novel, get up to, only more so. That’s because a little alchemical magic gets mixed together with a lot of genius loci of a place called Holy Wood, and a new industry is born. People follow a mysterious call to a sunny place by the ocean; once there, they try out new identities, become outsized versions of themselves, and look for the main chance. Within weeks of the alchemists’ discovery, the motion picture makers of the Discworld have recapitulated (gleefully satirized by Pratchett) much of the early history of making movies in our world.

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/07/moving-pictures-by-terry-pratchett/

Jul 04 2015

Good Things I Wish You by A. Manette Ansay

So I’ve long been fascinated by the relationship between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms (due to Personal Issues,) but my greatest takeaway from this novel is, in the end, who can explain these things? I’m not sure if that was A. Manette Ansay’s point (and if it was, I completely missed it) but I felt afterwards that it’s really none of our business if their obvious affection for one another ever turned into a physical affair. Because how does it affect us? How is their privacy less important than our prurient (as let’s face it, there’s no way one can label it as high-minded) interest? Every love story, like every family, happy or otherwise, is unique and dynamic and understandable really only to the people involved, though if we’re lucky, one of them is gifted enough to translate it for us. But again, what is the point of speculation, particularly in this case? They were best friends for decades, passionately attached to one another. Need we know more? This is a serious question: please chime in if you have an opinion.

As to the book itself, I found the fictionalization of Clara and Johannes far more convincing, and engrossing, than the modern half. Which I found odd, given the first-person narrative of the latter. It’s hard to be sympathetic to Jeanette’s self-sabotage, or to fathom Hart’s unreliably clinical attitude to their relationship, harder still to understand the necessity of using them to frame the narrative at all. Their story felt like filler in an already slight book. But I’m glad I read it, if only to lay to rest my own curiosity regarding Clara and Johannes with a firm “yep, none of my business.” Perhaps there’s a dash of transference there, but this exhaustive study of their relationship quite cured me of my need to know more.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/good-things-i-wish-you-by-a-manette-ansay/

Jul 04 2015

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Given my recent run of disappointment with books I’ve been rereading, this was quite the refreshing change! As muscular as I remembered, and convincing, it was yet better written and more complex than I’d given it credit for in my rememberings. And that ending! Once, I’d believed it incurably optimistic: now, I’m still convinced of its valor, but see better the layer of grimness that colors it. A terrific book for fans of sci-fi and, I suppose, dystopian fiction, with well-thought-out philosophies. The gender dynamics occasionally feel antiquated (if not outright condescending, particularly and ironically in Coker’s rant against the learned helplessness of women) but I imagine it was quite progressive for its time. A true classic, sci-fi/horror for adults, and miles better than most of the stuff being churned out today.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/the-day-of-the-triffids-by-john-wyndham/

Jul 04 2015

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

First off, it is really weird reading a book about anorexia while fasting. There are parallels (and great divergences, of course) that really help you sympathize with the narrator even as you shy away from the excesses of control. I’ve never suffered from an eating disorder, tho I know people who have, but I have to say that as far as I can tell Wintergirls is a convincing, compelling look into the mind of teenage girls who do. Laurie Halse Anderson writes with sympathy and imagination, vividly navigating a hallucinatory inner world that reminds me only all too well of my own adolescence. Harrowing and sensitive, this is one of those books that I’m glad to have read because it makes me feel like I truly understand, at least a certain subset of, other people better now and can respond with more kindness and support than I might have before.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/wintergirls-by-laurie-halse-anderson/

Jul 04 2015

Three Plays: Bedroom Farce, Absent Friends, Absurd Person Singular by Alan Ayckbourn

Bought this in college, and kept it at my bedside for years. B acted in an adaptation of Absurd Person Singular, which I think was the driving force behind the purchase (also, I love scripts,) and I found Ayckbourn on the whole witty, trenchant etc. And then I grew up and got married.

And let me tell you, I’m one of those people who thinks very dimly of the sitcoms where the married couples just bicker and are mean to each other and this is somehow supposed to be funny. It’s not, it’s awful, and I feel desperately sorry for anyone who thinks this is acceptable or, worse, aspirational. To a certain extent, I do blame Ayckbourn and his ilk for making that sort of bedroom farce (if you’ll excuse the pun) the standard by which so many drearily untalented “comedy” writers measure themselves, as at least 85% of the latter forget that the entire point isn’t that these miserable people are married, it’s that they’re miserably married, and honestly probably shouldn’t be married at all (but we’ll save the rant for the Western world’s fetishization of death-do-us-part marriages for another time.) Ayckbourn used comedy to highlight the absurdity of the (ostensibly British, but really quite universal) middle-class and its ambitions, and nothing was more symbolic of such than their marriages. When I was younger, before marriage and motherhood, I thought these plays much funnier than I do now. Nowadays, while I’m thankful to have enough self-awareness to avoid most of the traps these poor, unhappy people fall into, I can’t laugh at them as easily as I once could. Nowadays, I can’t help seeing the tragedy lurking just beneath, and it takes away a little of the pleasure these plays once gave me.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/three-plays-bedroom-farce-absent-friends-absurd-person-singular-by-alan-ayckbourn/

Jul 04 2015

Treatise on the Diseases of Women by Lydia Estes Pinkham

Fascinating insight into the world of medicine and health at the turn of the 20th century. Lydia Pinkham was certainly a pioneer in her frank discussions with women regarding their health. Essentially a collection of the advertising material created for her medicines, this book presents the most up-to-date (for the time) science regarding women’s health in a way that’s accessible and candid, with none of the squeamishness so often attendant upon discussions of such. Some parts are incorrect, some parts questionable (it’s basically an advertising tract, after all,) but on the whole, a valuable trove of material on the times.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/treatise-on-the-diseases-of-women-by-lydia-estes-pinkham/

Jul 04 2015

Pavane by Keith Roberts

So that was weird. I first encountered this book in college where, haunting the oddly stocked shelves of the library, I stumbled across the Gollancz version: no blurb, no explanation, just a bright yellow dust jacket with the title, author and the symbol of the Crab people in brick red on the cover. Desperate for any reading material, I checked it out, and after a slow-ish start (because I did not give a shit about trains and I felt that The Lady Margaret chapter went on and on about their handling,) I was plunged into a world so different yet similar. And then the ending! The ending! The book has haunted me since, and when it finally came back into print, Jay got me a copy for a recent birthday. Finally had time to read it, and… I dunno. I think it’s a book that doesn’t bear re-reading. The surprise of it is so overwhelming that going into it again, you expect the same experience, and it just can’t happen. Also, with time and experience, certain things stand out, such as Roberts’ discomfort with writing adolescent women and, worse, the odd gaps in logic and story-telling. Almost two decades later, the ending doesn’t make sense to me any more, though it was perfectly mind-blowing to me at the time. But other things have become better: my annoyance with train talk, for example, matured into an appreciation for the love behind it. And I wonder, too, if my own style of reading hasn’t become more demanding of an author, less demanding of my own imagination to fill in the intellectual blanks.

I’m wistful, still, for that first experience of wonder now colored by a more adult disappointment that what I once thought exquisitely beautiful and strange just wasn’t as much as I’d thought it.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/pavane-by-keith-roberts/

Jul 04 2015

How To Be Both by Ali Smith

So I got the Eye/Camera version, and I’m probably in the minority of people who found Francesco’s side more compelling than George’s, if only because it felt like a whole arc, unlike George’s half, which just sorta ended. But I’ve never been a fan of the grief narrative, as evidenced by my disdain for the vast majority of autobiographies written by people 40 or under: too much wallowing, not enough art.

Which is something that could never be leveled at Francesco’s half. Art abounds! I loved the imaginative invention of Francesco’s history, even as I’m not entirely sure why B sent this to me. We’d been discussing a boy I know, whose pre-Raphaelite beauty sneaks up on you unexpectedly, prompting her to send me this book. And there are certainly passages that spoke to me of love and reality in ways other books didn’t. One of which I’ll quote to end this review (ironically from George’s half):

You can’t just make stuff up about real people, George says.

We make stuff up about real people all the time, H says. Right now you’re making stuff up about me. And I’m definitely making stuff up about you. You know I am.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2015/07/04/how-to-be-both-by-ali-smith/