We're Not Worthy!

This is why I spent countless hours straining my eyes to cheat off of Cameron while sitting behind him in high school. Bad eyes, a 5 on the AP US History test, and a permanent memory of "C-squared"s backside...it was all worth it. Dude takes a three month vacation from book club and comes back to put us all in our place, reminding us yet again of our own inferiority.

I can agree with Cam's take on "Daniel" thus far. I think the discomfort and confusion is absolutely what Doctorow is trying to portray. I still those "extremes" with which we precariously flirt are relevant in today's political environment. It wasn't what Doctorow had in mind, but Cameron is right--a small push in either direction and we really aren't so far different today than we were then.

I especially liked Ben's thoughts on how society will always be divided along some line.
In a way, though, that very idea disproves anything that Daniel's parents would have agreed with. Their support of the communist party was based on Socialist ideals, and the hope that a perfectly "equal" society could one day exist. Such a society is impossible, and it always will be, as evidenced by Cameron's thoughts as well as Ben's--there will always be extremes, there will always be "haves" and "have-nots". This is why every society in the history of the world that has been based on Socialist ideas has failed.

I'm hoping to finish the book as soon as possible because finals are rapidly approaching. I've really enjoyed it so far.

The book

I don't know if it is my ADD or what but I am struggling with this book. I don't even know what is going on half of the time, maybe that is because it is in my car and I only read it at stop lights? I doubt it though, that book is deep. I will keep forging ahead though, just glad we got the band back together! First we get MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice together and now the book club is rolling, what a month.
I am reading at a verocious pace the book, "The Lone Survivor" and it is a page turner. It is all about a Navy Seal guy, his training and then his trip to Afganistan. His unit gets attacked and it is pretty intense. These guys were getting shot 4-5 times before they went down. Almost cried reading it. Highly recommended. You would think our Army friend Smurf would have recommended that instead of that terrible Epicenter book, which he didn't even read. Anyways, anyone else notice that a North Korean that won the silver in Air pistol shooting got caught using roids? How heavy are these air pistols?

Just The Tip

That's how far in I am, just the tip. 30pgs. Good to be back though, and apologies for the hiatus.

My initial reaction to this book was pure emotion. Every page so far (IMO) is meant to be a slap in the reader's face. Jarring. From the unflattering character descriptions, to the explicit sex scenes to the syntax and story flow (or lack there of), I think Doctorow is really trying to make the reader uncomfortable, and evaluate where they stand in the world with regards to politics, love, family, etc. By highlighting extremes it makes us wonder aloud if we could be pushed to those outer bounds by some uncontrollable circumstance. It's not about being "liberal" or "conservative" or "communist", its about the environment and people and chance that tip us in one direction or another. Obviously, you can choose to react in several different ways once on that path, but once a train has been set in motion its much harder to change its course.

I think Frank was on the right track in his last post to warn of the dangers of extremist behavior, but to call extreme left immature and extreme right bigots is a wild oversimplification. Not only is there an enormous amount of nuance associated with people's belief systems, but the "left" and "right" are merely constructs that couldn't exist without each other. For example, say I waved a magic wand and all the "right wing" people on the planet disappeared. Would conservative views disappear? No. The remaining "liberals" would have to redefine themselves from the other liberals and half of the population would then be "conservatives" again. So if Frank's theory held true, would the previously slightly immature then become the extreme bigots? I would argue no.

I've never read any Doctorow before, but I must say he is one of the most powerful writers I've encountered in a good while. Great choice Benny, I look forward to the journey.

Favorite Quote so far, page 25 of my copy:

"There are no decent settings for joy or suffering. All our environments are wrong. They embarrass our emotions. They make our emotions into the plastic tiger lilies in the window boxes of Howard Johnson restaurants."

Discuss.

Out of My League?

Boy, I feel like Ben picked a book that is maybe 10 IQ points higher than my reading level! I'm 80 pages in and I'm only able to follow the main story, but I feel there is a lot of subtlety going over my head. It's an interesting read thus far.

My question is pretty abstract. Do you think the more well adjusted a person is, the more politically moderate they are? Maybe that is an obvious yes. Maybe not. I am just trying to line up Daniel's odd behavior (at times it seems disturbing) with his political outlook. Offensive or not, political radicalism in our day seems juvenile and immature. If you are really on the far left, you are irresponsible. If you are on the far right, you are a bigot. It seems to me as you grow up and experience things, you find the middle ground - where reasonable resides. It seems to me that the extremeness of both Daniel's parents and their political polar opposites are the cause of major conflict in this story and in current events. What do you think?

Is the Cold War Over???

Great book thus far by Ben. I'm only about fifty pages into it, but I don't think we could have chosen a book more relevant to today's political environment. It's the fascist, extreme Right vs. the radical communist Left. I haven't quite figured out Doctorow's agenda here. I initially thought he would be fighting against all the conservative "red-scared" nut jobs that sent their neighbors to the electrical chair at the height of the Cold War, but he has been critical of BOTH sides in his novel. How is this anything like today? Well, while John McCain may not be seen as a right-wing extremist, Obama has CERTAINLY (and with some justification at times) been called a radical, Marxist, left-wing communist. We've sort of tip-toed around politics at times on this blog, but I think this book won't allow that. Perhaps that's why Doctorow has had just about every one of his books on banned-book lists all over the country--he brings to the forefront topics that make people uncomfortable, scared, and angry. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book. And even if you aren't reading it, take some time to think about the politics that are happening right now. It would be interesting to hear everyone's point of view, even at the expense of things getting heated and people disagreeing.

As an aside for Ben--midterms are in the summer because 2nd-year med students in the UTMB curriculum have class for 11 months. I had an 8-week "summer" during which time I did research in plastic surgery. Have you (or anyone) seen The Onion movie? I haven't seen it or heard anything...is it worth renting?

Hurricanes and Midterms...

I'm glad people enjoyed The Alchemist. It's an easy read that seems to bring things into focus. A little self-meditation is good for everyone.

For those of you who were worried about me surviving Tropical Storm Eduardo...scratch that, did any of you even know that Eduardo was a big deal down here? I even called Dave when his entire state was underwater, but does he make any attempt at checking up on me when the hurricane is about to hit? Actually, the whole thing was way overblown. We were worried for awhile...gas stations were out of gas, people were fist-fighting over water bottles and beer at the grocery store, and in the end it was just a bad rain storm.

As if the possibility of a hurricane wasn't enough, I have been dealing with midterms all week. I'm heading out now to buy The Book of Daniel and I'm putting all studying behind me this week, so I can read what I want!

Congrats to Ben on the move to Colorado...maybe Hillary and I will see more of you now (her family is there). From what I understand, the further south you get, the better lawyer you are. Soon enough, you'll be down here by us!

I'm also gearing up for the olympics...


The Beijing Olympics: Are They A Trap?


...notice my favorite guy from the Sonic commercials! "What else did your body tell you to do? Did your body tell you to wear that sweater today?"

Good Book

I enjoyed The Alchemist. I think the thing that I liked the most was the character Santiago. I thought he was extremely intelligent and thoughtful. Throughout the book I liked how he was so perceptive and caught onto things. I especially liked how he picked up on unspoken cues, the language of the universe, and acted on them.

To me the whole book seemed to symbolize life for most people. Santiago thought he had it all planned out but then another opportunity came up and he was wise enough to follow through with it. Most people aren't. I'm not sure if my life is following my personal legend or that I believe such things have been concretely ordained. I guess I need to watch the omens a bit more carefully! In the end though, his life became much more than he imagined it to be.

I thought it was clever that he ended up back in Andalusia. The story is obviously showing that the journey was just as important as the destination. It's good to be reminded about such eternal truths.

I can get behind Ben's suggestion and Nick's vote of The Book of Daniel despite Nick's obvious bias! As if we haven't had enough Russian themes in the previous books we've read (Epicenter and Asher Lev)! Just kidding. I read a small summary and it does sound good. I'll look forward to it!