Sunday, February 29, 2004
Book #38
Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham
Sex, Lies and Headlocks: the Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment
2002: Three Rivers Press (reading the 2004 PB edition)
Begun: February 26, 2004
Finished: February 29, 2004
Pretty nicely done, although it makes me feel dirty for watching pro wrestling at all. But, it's the gypsy nature of the business that drew (and still draws) quite a rough element.
I don't have many complaints, except that in the name of expediency, it glosses over a few things. Japan, which is only mentioned a couple of times, and is made to seem like the land where the freaks go to wrestle.
But on the whole, it's a nicely done look at Vince McMahon and the WWE, and the fights fought by the man and the company, especially over the last 20 years or so.
Shaun Assael and Mike Mooneyham
Sex, Lies and Headlocks: the Real Story of Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment
2002: Three Rivers Press (reading the 2004 PB edition)
Begun: February 26, 2004
Finished: February 29, 2004
Pretty nicely done, although it makes me feel dirty for watching pro wrestling at all. But, it's the gypsy nature of the business that drew (and still draws) quite a rough element.
I don't have many complaints, except that in the name of expediency, it glosses over a few things. Japan, which is only mentioned a couple of times, and is made to seem like the land where the freaks go to wrestle.
But on the whole, it's a nicely done look at Vince McMahon and the WWE, and the fights fought by the man and the company, especially over the last 20 years or so.
Book #37
Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe and Everything
Started: February 25, 2004
Finished:March 2, 2004
Very funny. I'd never read it before. Excellent.
Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe and Everything
Started: February 25, 2004
Finished:March 2, 2004
Very funny. I'd never read it before. Excellent.
Book #36
Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Started: February 23, 2004
Finished: February 25, 2004
A funny, funny book. Don't know why it took me so long to get around to it after reading the Hitchhiker's Guide a while back The whole conversation with the Ruler of the Universe was comic gold.
Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Started: February 23, 2004
Finished: February 25, 2004
A funny, funny book. Don't know why it took me so long to get around to it after reading the Hitchhiker's Guide a while back The whole conversation with the Ruler of the Universe was comic gold.
Monday, February 23, 2004
Book #35
Stephen Jay Gould
Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life
1999: Ballantine Books
Begun: February 18, 2004
Finished: February 23, 2004
Gould's essay on the religious/scientific conflict, which Gould states is largely conjured and is unneeded.
It's a throwaway comment, and Gould admits that it would be fodder for another essay for another time, but I liked this speculation on the human disposition to establish dichotomy:
Still, I want to raise serious poit about our usual approach to complex problems....Our minds tend to work by dichotomy--that is, by conceptualizing complex issues as "either/or" pairs, dictating a coice of one extrme or the other, with no middle ground (or golden mean) available for any alternative resolution. (I suspect that our apparently unavoidable tendency to dichotomize represents some powerful bagge from an evolutionary past, when lmited consciousness could not transcend "on or off," "yes or no," "fight or flee," "move or rest"--and the neurology of simpler brains became wired in accordance with such exigencies)....."
His basic standpoint is that no viewpoint or line of thinking should be all-encompassing, or actively be designed to disclude another line of thinking, and the frameworks of both scientific rationale and religious spirituality are both designed so that they might co-exist and even be used to support one another.
Gould's was a voice of reason. I think he left us too soon.
Stephen Jay Gould
Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life
1999: Ballantine Books
Begun: February 18, 2004
Finished: February 23, 2004
Gould's essay on the religious/scientific conflict, which Gould states is largely conjured and is unneeded.
It's a throwaway comment, and Gould admits that it would be fodder for another essay for another time, but I liked this speculation on the human disposition to establish dichotomy:
Still, I want to raise serious poit about our usual approach to complex problems....Our minds tend to work by dichotomy--that is, by conceptualizing complex issues as "either/or" pairs, dictating a coice of one extrme or the other, with no middle ground (or golden mean) available for any alternative resolution. (I suspect that our apparently unavoidable tendency to dichotomize represents some powerful bagge from an evolutionary past, when lmited consciousness could not transcend "on or off," "yes or no," "fight or flee," "move or rest"--and the neurology of simpler brains became wired in accordance with such exigencies)....."
His basic standpoint is that no viewpoint or line of thinking should be all-encompassing, or actively be designed to disclude another line of thinking, and the frameworks of both scientific rationale and religious spirituality are both designed so that they might co-exist and even be used to support one another.
Gould's was a voice of reason. I think he left us too soon.
Monday, February 16, 2004
Book #34
William Faulkner
Light in August
1932....reading the October 1990 Vintage International Edition
Begun:February 8, 2004
Finished: February 16, 2004
Joe Christmas, ya'll.
More comments forthcoming...I'll just say that newspapers make us lazy. Newspapers are the one common thing that the greatest majority of Americans read. With their one inch paragraphs that contain 11 words. And these books with all the dialog. Makes the eye lazy. Can't let yourself be lazy. So you gotta read a little Faulkner, or maybe some Virginia Woolf, just to get your eyeballs back in shape.
Boy my eyes is tired.
William Faulkner
Light in August
1932....reading the October 1990 Vintage International Edition
Begun:February 8, 2004
Finished: February 16, 2004
Joe Christmas, ya'll.
More comments forthcoming...I'll just say that newspapers make us lazy. Newspapers are the one common thing that the greatest majority of Americans read. With their one inch paragraphs that contain 11 words. And these books with all the dialog. Makes the eye lazy. Can't let yourself be lazy. So you gotta read a little Faulkner, or maybe some Virginia Woolf, just to get your eyeballs back in shape.
Boy my eyes is tired.
Book #33
Will Brooker
Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon
2001: Continuum Books
Began: February 5, 2004
Finished: February 16, 2004
I didn't read this one as closely as I wanted to. It's dry, and it's repetitive.
You know, I've been reading Batman comic books for nigh on 20 years now. And never once was I so distracted by a homosexual interpretation of the book. And ever once did I believe that I was succumbing to the hegemonic interpretation of the character.
But apparently I have been.
That's not the entire message of Brooker's book. I'm oversimplifying and hyperbolizing all at once. But even in the sections Brooker focuses on some other aspect of the Batman character, he keeps coming back to it (Which is, Look how Gay Batman Is!)
I guess that's the trouble...I pick up an analysis of a work of fiction whose mythos is the product of literally dozens, and even hundreds, of different minds....and I disagree with the over-riding analysis that any one idea at all is all-encompassing.
Let alone one that I don't agree with entirely. It's kind of like working a geometric theorem, when you believe that the second step in the proof is incorrect.
I'll give Brooker praise, however, for his look at Batman and the impact the comics code/anti-red raiders had on his character in the 1950's. That was the most interesting reading of the book, to me.
I'll maybe go into it later. I'd have to write my own book, I guess.
Will Brooker
Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon
2001: Continuum Books
Began: February 5, 2004
Finished: February 16, 2004
I didn't read this one as closely as I wanted to. It's dry, and it's repetitive.
You know, I've been reading Batman comic books for nigh on 20 years now. And never once was I so distracted by a homosexual interpretation of the book. And ever once did I believe that I was succumbing to the hegemonic interpretation of the character.
But apparently I have been.
That's not the entire message of Brooker's book. I'm oversimplifying and hyperbolizing all at once. But even in the sections Brooker focuses on some other aspect of the Batman character, he keeps coming back to it (Which is, Look how Gay Batman Is!)
I guess that's the trouble...I pick up an analysis of a work of fiction whose mythos is the product of literally dozens, and even hundreds, of different minds....and I disagree with the over-riding analysis that any one idea at all is all-encompassing.
Let alone one that I don't agree with entirely. It's kind of like working a geometric theorem, when you believe that the second step in the proof is incorrect.
I'll give Brooker praise, however, for his look at Batman and the impact the comics code/anti-red raiders had on his character in the 1950's. That was the most interesting reading of the book, to me.
I'll maybe go into it later. I'd have to write my own book, I guess.
Book #32
Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front
Read the August 1982 MMPB Fawcett printing.
Begun: February 2, 2004
Finished: February 3, 2004
I really ought not read war books before I go to sleep. The Stephen Ambrose did it to me, and the Ferrol Sams WW2 book did it to me. This one did it to me, too.
Erich Maria Remarque
All Quiet on the Western Front
Read the August 1982 MMPB Fawcett printing.
Begun: February 2, 2004
Finished: February 3, 2004
I really ought not read war books before I go to sleep. The Stephen Ambrose did it to me, and the Ferrol Sams WW2 book did it to me. This one did it to me, too.
Book #31
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: the Bad Beginning
Begun: January 30, 2004
Finished: February 1, 2004
A bit twisted in the Gorey vein.
Lemony Snicket
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the First: the Bad Beginning
Begun: January 30, 2004
Finished: February 1, 2004
A bit twisted in the Gorey vein.
