On a Berkeley Saturday afternoon marked by weather that is the envy of friends who don't live in the Bay Area, I trotted over to my local branch of the Berkeley Public Library to pick up the latest book on hold for me: Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science The book first entered my consciousness when I encountered an essay in The New Yorker by Atul Gawande, the book's author. When my friend Grace then emailed me some of her thoughts about Complications, I threw the book on my Berkeley Public Library hold list (a la Netflix), looking forward to reading the popular book whenever it happened to come my way.
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WANTED: compelling portraits of Jesus in film
Last night, eight of us went to see Nicholas Ray's King of Kings. As I have written previously, I would not have seen this film save for the fact that it was by a great film maker; I'm a Christian who is prejudiced against Bible films. I write and speak out of ignorance, however, since I have actually seen very few films drawing from Biblical stories (and specifically the life of Jesus). But that hasn't stopped me from writing them off as schlock.
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There is more than one way to love
"But I love Bach."
"You don't love Bach -- you analyze Bach."
Multiple genres and voices
In all my blog writing so far, every time I've written "I", I have been speaking for myself. I've also been very careful in what I've written, to be as honest and truthful and accurate as possible -- stating what I do know and don't know.
I'm getting tired to writing in just this way.
So how can I write a poem or a story or a blob of text or drop in a drawing in this space without the "I" literary being "me"? Should I depend on context? Should I use some type of typographic or graphical convention? Should I mark it "story" or "fiction". I hope that if I'm writing a parody (say a parody of myself), that I wouldn't have to explicitly mark it with "Warning: self-parody".
How do others do this? There are probably examples in my own blogging community of such doings -- forgive me for not paying closer attention and missing out. Something I think that Laura might have something in her blog of this nature. Maybe Chris or Lloyd or Catherine. I thought tonight that textism might be what I wanted to study -- but my initial look did not yield what I wanted. Actually, maybe it's Ray Davis who has blogs that address this issue.
What does Kenneth Pollack think today?
Both Lloyd and I wrote about Kenneth Pollack's Threatening Storm some time ago in our blogs as a must-read book in assessing the case for an invasion of Iraq. Pollack's book made me think, "hey maybe there is a sound case to be made for war given how Iraq might become an even more terrible menace to the world". So as I mull the current post-Iraq war situation, as I wonder whether the Bush administration misled the American public about how much it knew about weapons of mass destruction -- indeed wonder what is really true and who I can really believe in such a complex morass of spin -- I've been wondering how Pollack now stands.
Salon.com | Joe Conason's Journal points to a recent NPR interview with Kenneth Pollack. Now is Pollack back-peddling or was he duped or did we misinterpret Pollack? He seemed to one of the more credible analysts on the scene, but I don't know what to think right now.
Twenty-two holds already!
When I decided to see whether I could put a hold on Hillary Clinton's new book Living History at the Berkeley Public Library, I discovered that 22 people had beaten me to the punch. The BPL hasn't even taken ownership of any copy of the book. I look forward to reading the book sometime this fall....
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Resources (KQED)
Although I missed all the programming from KQED during Asian Pacific American Heritage month (May), I do appreciate KQED's KQED | Asian Pacific American Heritage: Resources 2003, which is described as "only a small portion of the many resources that serve the Asian Pacific American community in the Bay Area." This list should come in handy as I get increasingly involved with the Asian American/Canadian communities.
I’m looking forward to reading David Ledbetter’s book
Because I've been listening intently to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (Books I and II) for a year now, I was thrilled to see a new book on the subject: Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier: The 48 Preludes and Fugues. I was disappointed that someone beat me to putting it hold at the music library -- but I need to be patient! I'm hoping the book will explicate some of the wonders of the music and pinpoint the whys and hows of the power of the WTC.
(Hmmm...using the Amazon "see related items" feature, I found another book that is currently on the shelf and can therefore be in my impatient hands sooner: Bach: The Goldberg Variations.)
MT experiments on a Sunday afternoon
This afternoon, I was going to sit down to do some leisurely modification of
my new blog. It was supposed to be a low-stress activity -- but as I got into
it, I got sucked into an obsessive-must-figure-it-all-out-right-away-or-else-I'll-go-crazy
frenzy. That's when a nice walk helped me to break free from the infinite loop.
Now I feel free to move on to other matters more conducive to restful contemplation
on a Sunday afternoon. However, I also decided that I wante to write up what
I've looked at instead of just leaving my thoughts in a disorganized jumble.
Steven Winn on truth and truth-telling
From today's SF Chronicle, I read Lies are no longer damned lies / Americans reduced to expecting deceit, an article that comes at a good time for me, especially as I reflect on the challenges of getting at the "truth". The article calls for a more nuanced response than what I can give immediately -- but my off-the-cuff reaction is this: The fact that I'm not surprised by the great amount of deception half-truths, mistruths, failed attempts to convey the truth, delusions does not mean that I don't long for the truth to be told or for a system in which we can trust each other and our leaders to be truth-tellers (and perhaps, more importantly), truth-bearers. I am tired by the amount of effort it takes to figure out what's going on. It's hard enough when well-meaning people try to communicate. Add to the mix people who are struggling for power over each other and we start to get this incredible mix. I don't exempt myself from the class of people who add to the mess -- for I am deeply sinful too. Hence my dependence on a hermeneutic of self-suspicion in addition to skepticism of others. And to throw in something else I will want to elaborate as I go along -- even well-intentioned self-suspicion is insufficient!
[If I get back to revising this post soon, it would behoove me to deepen my understanding of the "hermeneutics of suspicion" -- an article on Paul Ricoeur might be a place to start for my own self-education.]