Steve's Reading
I am an avid reader, and having written some reviews of books for our local library, I decided to add those reviews here. Check back often to find other comments on books as I finish them.
A Beautiful Mind, Sylvia Nasar
My wife picked this biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics, for me at The Summit Academy’s rummage sale. It has been an immensely fascinating read on several levels.
First, Nasar’s research is exhaustive, yet her ability to weave an engaging narrative never flags, even amidst explanations of abstract mathematics and what must have been a staggering pile of notes on her desk! She does an excellent job of fleshing out the academic-political background of Nash’s life from the 1950’s through the 1990’s, both at large in the United States and at the particular places where Nash spent his time, such as Princeton and MIT. She is also quite good at unfolding necessary parts of the lives and work of other mathematicians. For example, she spends three chapters on John von Neumann, the theory of games, and the bargaining problem, all because it is crucial to understand such background in order to comprehend not only the significance of Nash’s work for the Nobel, but its application in, for example, the FCC’s auctioning of the airwaves in the mid-1990’s.
I am also keenly interested in the historical period of the 1930’s, 1940’s, and early 1950’s. In particular, I am fascinated by the explosion of mathematical and scientific work going on during those years. Having read some on J. Robert Oppenheimer, and now this on Nash, I am eager to read more about such figures as Heisenberg, Bohr, and from an earlier period, Godel.
Of course, it is not just these decades that interest me, but the concept of mathematics itself. I am awed, intimidated, and inspired by the idea of creativity in math. I create through words. Words and their syntax make sense to me. I can use words to create new things. But to do the same with the language of mathematics? To use mathematics to describe the world? I marvel with almost a certain kind of giddiness. It is not unlike my feeling toward musical composition.
I should add that Nash’s story is fascinating on a human level, as well. While I want to see the movie of the same title again, I recall that it did not touch on most of the issues unveiled in the book.
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
I first read this book when it debuted in 1992, intrigued as much by the fact that a first-time author received a $450,000 advance as by the blurbs about the plot. In some ways, this is the novel that my friends would have expected me to write. After all, it involves Latin, Greek, fountain pens, Classics students, a Mustang, and one reference to Alexander Pope. As I came near the end of this second reading, some sixteen years after the first, I felt a melancholy that I had not for some time, but one that was familiar. It was the sadness of knowing that a book that has completed captivated you and taken you into its world, is coming to an end, and like the characters whose further lives you will never know, you must face the light of life around you.
Indeed, this is the secret of the book, both for its characters and for the enjoyment of its countless readers. It takes you to places beyond yourself, yet somehow inside yourself as well, places that are at once frightening and familiar, and frightening because they are familiar.
Make no mistake, the characters are utterly amoral by Christian standards, and because of this are led to extreme immorality and crime. I can honestly say I know no one like any of the characters, nor have I participated in any of the activities that rule their lives (except for the study of Greek and Latin and the use of fountain pens), yet I know them. They and their experiences are familiar. Perhaps this is not unlike the familiarity one feels with Classical tragedies that, despite their wildly different settings and motivations from modern times, transcend time to connect with people of all ages. In this regard, The Secret History takes its place alongside the tragic works that its characters study.
Who Killed Homer?, Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath
If I had the money, I would give financial aid to any entering graduate student in the field of Classics who read and discussed this book. My only regret about WKH? is that it escaped my notice for ten years. As I told my wife, I felt that the book had been written about my own experience, or that I had actually written it myself. On almost every page it now has numerous highlights and many margin notes, some as simple as “Amen!”
The authors make a strong, clear case for the value of Greek and Roman thought in the modern age. Along the way they make much deserved attacks on the academic institution of America’s institutions, with its obscure and pointless writings, emphasis on fringe issues, general failure to embody the values of what it claims to teach. I can agree wholeheartedly with almost everything the authors say because I have been there. The issues they attack, and even some of the very professors whom they charge with dereliction of academic duty, served to end my own pursuit of a Ph.D. in Classics some years ago thanks to their focus on things that did not truly matter.
If you want an encomium of Greco-Roman learning, if you want solid reasons why the Greeks and Romans matter very much today, this book is required reading. If you want to know what really goes on in higher education, whether before sending your own child off to study or whether deciding if you want to go yourself, then you must read WKH?. For once I am keeping the review short. You don’t need to read me, you need to read Who Killed Homer?.
Proust and the Squid, Maryanne Wolf
I received this book as a gift from a student I tutored in preparation for the Advanced Placement Latin exam. Almost as soon as I had started to read it, I began to cite it and recommend it to my teacher friends and to parents of young children. Maryanne Wolf is a professor of child development and cognitive neuroscience at Tufts University and is director of the Center for Reading and Language Research. She is also the mother of two children, one of whom has dyslexia, and has reflected deeply on the reading history of her own family. In this book, she accomplishes three major tasks. First, she explains in detail the development of language within the human species. From the first cave drawings to the symbolic systems of Egyptian hieroglyphics and Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform to the origin of the powerful alphabetic system of the Greeks, she charts the course of human literacy, including the changes in brain function required for fluency. A second theme of the book discusses the advantages and disadvantages that children face in their own journey toward fluent reading. Here Wolf describes reading and oral language environments within the home; activity inside successfully reading brains and inside those that are less successful, particularly as a result of some type of dyslexia; and various pedagogic practices that address both kinds of readers. A final theme that runs throughout the book regards the future of reading, both for children with innate challenges and for all children in the digital age.
With regard to her discussion of the development of language, I will certainly share parts of her work with my high school Latin students. She makes a strong case for the power of written, especially alphabetic, language as a vehicle that allows certain kinds of thought. I am particularly fascinated with her discussion of how the brain, which is not created for the specific task of reading, can nevertheless adapt and rearrange its own structures to allow for reading. On p. 217 she writes, “[T]he reordering of the brain’s basic computations that occurs during the acquisition of reading becomes the neuronal basis for new thoughts. In other words, the new circuits and pathways that the brain fashions in order to read become the foundation for being able to think in different, innovative ways.” This is a profound statement, elaborated on the previous pages. For example, on pp. 216-217 she writes, “Reading illuminates how the brain learns new skills and adds to its intelligence: it rearranges the circuits and connections among older structures…. The brain’s design made reading possible, and reading’s design changed the brain in multiple, critical, still evolving ways.” I could not help thinking at this point about the notion of top-down causation within philosophy of mind in which the physical brain can give rise to a non-physical consciousness, which in turn can affect the physical world. It also made me think of The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley, which, unfortunately, sits on my shelf unread, but deals with a similar concept.
Her discussions of childhood advantages and disadvantages on the road to fluency were powerful confirmations of what some of us have known all along. Admittedly, I find more application for her narrative discussions of environmental factors within the home than the more technical analysis of what takes place in a dyslexic brain. She rightly emphasizes the importance of a linguistically rich home environment that includes much oral conversation and the reading of books within the comfort of a caregiver’s embrace. According to Wolf, those lacking such a nurturing start to life can enter Kindergarten as much as 32 million words behind their peers. At one point she writes, “[S]ome educators throw their hands up with regard to English orthography and want children to learn everything in context, however ineffectually. It is essential during this phase for the semi-fluent decoding readers to acquire a good repertoire of the letter-pattern and vowel-pair ‘sight chunks’ that make up words beyond the primer level.” (p. 128) “Fluent recognition is significantly propelled by both vocabulary and grammatical knowledge. For the word-poor child, reality actually worsens because of the usually undiscussed fact that precious little explicit vocabulary instruction goes on in most classrooms.” (p. 129) I couldn’t agree more about what is needed or about the fact that this need is not being met. Foreign language pedagogy in this country has increasingly fallen into the trap of emphasizing context and the deliberate removal of explicit vocabulary and grammatical instruction. I think that there is even a latent form of racism involved in this approach, as presumable novel and “cutting-edge” techniques are often employed in inner-city and impoverished environments to save at-risk children, many of whom are of ethnic minorities. Already hindered by linguistically poor home environments, our school systems further defeat these children by not offering the kind of instruction they truly need.
Finally, Wolf’s musings about the possible effects on reading by a digital, hyperlinked world, are thought provoking. In my own work I use the Internet for quick reference, but rarely ponder long about what I read. Deep, thoughtful reading, with many highlights and marginal annotations, occurs only when I read a book. (Nota Bene: I just found an article related to this very issue and that cites Wolf in the July/August 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly. It can be found at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google.) I do think that the train has left the station with regard to digital texts, but Wolf gives us good reason to pause and allow our brains time to process the possible effects of not pausing and allowing our brains time to process.
Choosing Your Faith, Mark Mittelberg
The following is my review posted on Amazon.com
I teach a course called Theory of Knowledge at a large public high school in the Midwest and was thrilled to find Mark’s new book, which could easily be viewed as a theory of knowledge applied to the area faith. The overwhelming impression one gets from this book is that it is fair and balanced. Does Mark have a particular position regarding? Of course he does. And so does everyone as he rightly points out. Would he like for you to adopt his position? Yes, and he is upfront about that. At no time, however, does he force his position on anyone. In fact, that is the point of this book. Faith is not something that should be forced on someone or blindly and uncritically accepted. Faith, contrary to what many would think, is something that can be evaluated, analyzed, and considered in a thoughtful, intelligent, and logical manner. This idea alone should prompt even the religious skeptic to read the book. Let’s face it. Christianity has earned a bad name among many because of an aggressive style of proselytizing among some of its followers. Isn’t the notion of a serious, intelligent Christian who wants to explore his faith with you in a rigorous and honest way, with no hidden punches, an intriguing idea?
Mark begins by exploring the nature of faith itself, then moves into a discussion of six common paths to faith. He is quite fair in two different ways. First, he is fair in his representation of these paths to faith, frequently acknowledging where they have strengths. But he is also fair to the truth and will not shortchange the truth for the sake of political correctness. If something is wrong or inconsistent, he will draw that out. What he does not ever do, however, is ridicule any position he disagrees with. He gives it its due, points out shortcomings on solid grounds, and then moves on.
From here he moves into a discussion of the arguments for the Christian faith, including logical and scientific criteria, a solid look at the textual tradition of the Bible, and an examination of the historical and experiential criteria. He concludes with a look at barriers to belief and the benefits of choosing one’s faith wisely.
Throughout Mark employs solid logic and reasoning and references some of the greatest thinkers of the ages. What I find particularly admirable is that he makes all this accessible to a broad audience. Mark’s background in philosophy shines through every page, but at no time does one feel confused or bogged down by unnecessary philosophical terminology. His study informs his presentation, but never obscures it.
I would end by saying that he achieves a nearly impossible task of showing how much he cares about his readers and how committed he is to truth even when it is unpopular. He never pulls punches, yet is never offensive or arrogant in having obtained some moral high ground. Reading this book is like having a conversation with someone who is truly capable of engaging respectfully and meaningfully your most serious questions.
If you are a skeptic or someone who has been put off by Christians, read this book. Mark will treat you and your questions with the respect they deserve. If you are a Christian, read this book to learn how to respond to your questions and those of others. Read it, too, to learn how a thoughtful Christian engages matters that matter.
Pilot Jack Knight, A.M. Anderson and R.E. Johnson
This was one of my favorite books as a child. I read this book, which was published in 1950, over and over, checking it out many times from the library at Slate Run Elementary School. Perhaps because I am turning 40 this year, I have been trying to collect pieces of my past and recently purchased a pristine edition of this book on eBay. As soon as it arrived, I began reading a chapter a night to our seven year old son, Austin.
I am not sure what it was about this book that so captivated my imagination as a child. As I read it to Austin, I recalled some of the feelings of thrill and excitement as Jack Knight faced death, met obstacles, and made his historic night flight using only bonfires to guide him. Apparently, though, the book had the same effect on my son, for today we played in his room with Lincoln Logs, building an airfield on each side of his bed, one for Chicago and one for Cheyenne. He made airplanes for Jack, Ham Lee, Ed Stover, and Bill...all of whose names he recalled on his own. At one point I flipped off the lights in his room to simulate Jack's night flight, and Austin quickly plucked the yellow plastic chimneys from one of the airfield buildings and placed them in a line along the floor. I asked him what they were for, already guessing the answer. He said, "Those are the bonfires."
Scratch, Troon McAllister
As you can read elsewhere on this page, I enjoy golf novels and particularly enjoy the character of Eddie Caminetti created by McAllister. There is not as much actual golf in this one as in the other Caminetti novels. This story focuses more on the bogus advertising tricks used to lure foolish golfers. One problem I have with this novel is that the use of profanity is unrealistic. I find it implausible that judges, lawyers, and professors curse in such a cavalier way in such situations as open court testimony. McAllister also has a tendency to make all his characters sound the same. For example, if the expression should be "What in the word's wrong with you?" every single one of McAllister's characters will say, "World's wrong with you?" This is an interesting speech pattern, but one hardly shared by the diverse characters that people his novels. With those caveats in place, it was an enjoyable read...for the second time.
Education's End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life, Anthony Kronman
Anthony Kronman is former dean of the Yale Law School and teaches in Yale's Directed Studies Program. His foundational assumption is that the humanities have little of value to say to the modern world in the way they are currently engaged in today's higher education. What they should be saying, according to Kronman, is, "We can help you find the meaning of your life."
After an immensely thought provoking opening (at least for me, and perhaps because I was reading this during Lent, when questions of life's meaning seem most at the forefront of my thought) in which he explores the importance of asking the question about life's meaning, he moves to a historical survey of American higher education. He begins with what he calls the classicism of the antebellum institutions in which it was assumed that there was one right way of living and that it was the duty of the college to help young people discover and develop it, then moves on to a description of the secular humanism that followed. Next he explores the invasion and conquest of the research ideal that was imported from the German universities. From here he shreds the idea of political correctness and diversity, despite their laudable origins in the social world, as epistemic tools in the academy, while at the same time acknowledging that this is precisely how they have been used, to detergent and deleterious effect. He concludes by arguing that only with a return to secular humanism can the humanities have anything of value to say to the world, but that this is entirely possible, for humanities teachers possess great freedom in what and how they will teach. What they need is the courage to reclaim the secular humanist tradition.
I agreed with at least seventy-five percent of this book, departing from Kronman's view only at the point of complete and unqualified acceptance of secular humanism as the saving vehicle for humanity. This, of course, is because I am a Christian. Yet, because I agreed with so much, and quite frankly felt my heart thrill to his laudatory passages on the humanities, I had to ask yet again the age old question of Tertullian, "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" This led me to explore the ideas, works, and authors the Christian humanist tradition, and I suspect that there will be reviews of these works here.
The Scandal of the Season, Sophie Gee
For me there could have been no better premise for a novel. Since quoting some lines from Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism in my high school valedictory address, I have been enamored of the poet and his works. When I discovered Sophie Gee's debut novel in a review in the Indianapolis Star, I had no choice but to run out and buy the book.
This novel tells the story of high fashion and high culture in early 18th century England and details the secret love and subsequent tonsorial scandal involving Miss Arabella Fermor and Robert, Lord Petre that provided the subject for Pope's The Rape of the Lock. Miss Gee does a superlative job giving flesh and blood to historic characters. It was sheer fun and delight to encounter Richard Steele and Charles Jervas, or to have a casual encounter with Tonson and Lintot. Miss Gee's characterizations are most defined regarding the Blount sisters, Teresa and Martha. We genuinely feel Martha's desire that Alexander notice her over her sister, and Teresa's shallowness comes off with all its mean-spiritedness. It was wonderful to imagine the now immortalized Pope as a young man confronting all the pressures that young people face, especially in a society such as 18th century London with its rigid rules of social order. Particularly delightful, however, was the scene in which Alexander and Martha are in the midst of a beautiful moment on the River Thames, only to have that moment interrupted as Alexander experiences the flash of inspiration. Even love suddenly takes a back seat to his muse, and this is something all true artists experience and all those who love them must accept.
The 47 Ronin Story, John Allyn
A friend of mine who teaches English recommended this book to me during a discussion of Homer's Iliad and issues of war, honor, and the like. Let me begin by saying I devoured this book. Allyn paints characters so vividly, yet minimally, not unlike other forms of Japanese art, that the reader truly cares about them. I felt deep sadness in many parts, and genuine, pulse-pounding excitement toward the end. It is a beautifully told story. So what is the story? The tale takes place at the turn of the 18th century in Japan, where the court of the Shogun has grown excessive in its luxury and excessive in its legalistic approach to the taking of life. A local lord, or daimyo, who can take no more of this has a fatal confrontation with the Shogun's Master of Ceremonies. This unleashes a chain of events that brings about the downfall of the daimyo's house, leaving his samurai leaderless and in search of how best to maintain their honor and loyalty. These leaderless samurai, or ronin, endure much to achieve their goals, but in the end, honor prevails. The main character, Oishi, has a discipline unmatched. For me this was an interesting comparison with the western culture I am more familiar with as a Classicist. I am sure I will discuss with my friend comparisons and contrasts between Achilles and Oishi
. Roma, Steven Saylor
Famous for his series of historical detective novels featuring Gordianus the Finder, Steven Saylor has expanded his vision to take in over seven hundred fifty years of Roman history in this latest novel. He begins with salt traders moving up and down the Tiber River before the first hut was built on the famous seven hills and ends in 1 B.C. with the emperor Augustus. His imaginative re_telling of history, based largely on Livy, centers around two families, the Potitii and the Pinarii and a family heirloom that is passed from generation to generation. The sheer delight of this book is being drawn into the lives of the characters so deeply as to be surprised when a well_known episode of history began to unfold. One result is that even those famous stories become personal, and the reader is pulled into the life of Camillus or Sulla or the Gracchi. Another is that Rome itself becomes a character, one that I, at least, came to care about and hated to bid farewell when the book ended. The last time I felt that way was upon finishing The Civilization of Rome by Donald Dudley as an undergraduate.
Lessons of the Masters, George Steiner
As with all of his books, Lessons of the Masters is a virtuoso display of Steiner's almost impossibly wide-ranging erudition. His subject this time is the nature of the master-disciple relationship. In relating the rise and, according to Steiner's thesis, inevitable fall of both famous and notorious exemplars of this relationship, he makes a poetic and impassioned defense of the relationship itself. It is at once a panegyric and a manifesto. With regard to the calling of the teacher, he writes: There is no craft more privileged. To awaken in another human being powers, dreams beyond one's own; to induce in others a love for that which one loves; to make of one's inward present their future; this is a threefold adventure like no other. Even at a humble level, that of the schoolmaster, to teach, to teach well, is to be accomplice to transcendent possibility. Steiner's book is a must read for all involved in the educational enterprise. It should be read and wrestled with by teachers, administrators, board members, parents, students, and government leaders. It is, quite simply, required reading for every thoughtful member of society.
Tales from Margaritaville, Jimmy Buffett
We had just returned from a family vacation in Florida and I was in a Jimmy Buffett mood. This is a light-hearted book, but his writing style did not really grab me. There are many references to his songs scattered throughout, but the songs tell the stories better than these stories do. It was a fun read, but in literary quality does not hold a candle to the Steven Saylor novel I am reading now.
The Foursome, Troon McAllister
This is the second time I have read this book, itself the second by Troon McAllister. I love golf novels, and this is a fun read. It chronicles the complete emotional and moral breakdown of four supposed friends on a golf vacation with the world's greatest hustler, Eddie Caminetti. Whenever I read McAllister, I always want to grab my clubs and head out to the links.
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe
It has been twenty years since I read Marlowe's classic drama. I was impressed with how effective were the comic relief parts. As the clowns would enact lesser versions of what Faustus was encountering, it would give the mind time to process the gravity of Faustus' situation. This is truly excellent poetry and drama. The key to this tragedy is Faustus' belief that God does not love him, and it calls to mind the famous line by Melville in a letter to Hawthorne, "The reason the mass of men fear God, and at bottom dislike Him, is because they rather distrust His heart, and fancy Him all brain like a watch." This is the tragedy of Faustus and the very reason why such a play holds contemporary significance.