Assault on Reason

Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, came out this week. There is an excerpt in Time Magazine if anyone else is interested. The three pages in Time are quite good.
But I wanted to mention a wonderful, wonderful sight from Tuesday. At the large university I attend there was a group of students holding signs, apparently boycotting Al Gore, or his book, or something. I didn't talk to them. But one of the signs being held up read:
"JUST LIKE THE LUDDITES OF THE 19TH CENTURY AL GORE REPRESENTS THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMANITY."
I'm serious. The sign which was boycotting a book called the Assault on Reason made the above argument. It might be one of my all time favorite protest signs. It shows a committment to creativity while extending absolutely no interest in what the Luddites, or Al Gore, represent. Priceless.
waste some time with animated Al Gore:
To see Al Gore argue with Bender about Global Warming, click here.
To see what the world would be like if Al Gore won the 2000 election, click here.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

I recently read Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin for One Book, One Chicago. I haven't actually meet anyone else in the city who read or is reading the book, not even so much as a passer-by on the train, which is a shame. Because it's a brilliant novel. The heart of the story takes place on the main character, John Grime's, 14th birthday. Each section flashes back to an earlier time in the life of John's elders, the very people who are shaping his own life. The stories are heartbreaking, particularly when you know that Baldwin admitted to the book being a sort of biography of his own life. Langston Hughes summed the novel and Baldwin's writing perfectly when he said, Baldwin "is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing...the thought becomes poetry and the poetry illuminates the thought." Damn. I would love to read another one of his books, but he has quite a few, does anyone have any recommendations for me?

One last piece of good news, Go Tell It On The Mountain was Baldwin's first novel, published at the age of 30. This means all you slacker's out there who didn't live up to Keats still have a chance of writing the great American novel.

Encyclopedia of Life

An initiative to create a multi-media Encyclopedia of every living species was announced today. Right now that means 1.8 million animals, plants, and other forms of life. But the number of living species grows daily, for example we currently know of 4-5 thousand different species of Beetles but it is suspected that there could be up to a million more out there that we don't know about. Needless to say, nothing like this has ever been done before and it will take a massive global effort to even come close to achieving the reality. Dr. James Edwards who today was officially named Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life backs me up on my last statement, “[Amber is right,] through collaboration, we all can increase our appreciation of the immense variety of life, the challenges to it, and ways to conserve biodiversity. The Encyclopedia of Life will ultimately make high-quality, well-organized information available on an unprecedented level. Even five years ago, we could not create such a resource, but advances in technology for searching, annotating, and visualizing information now permit us, indeed mandate us to build the Encyclopedia of Life.” You can watch a video about the project at their official webpage.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

I did not know until today that Micahel Chabon had a new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and it's even out in paperback! How sad. Some of you, I know, met Chabon a few years back, I know this because I was there with you. But if you weren't so lucky, Borders has a online book club thingy, of which their latest pick was The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Mr. Chabon, and you can watch the whole event unravel right at your desk while at the same time getting all the Chabon you ever wanted. (Side note: His facial expressions are much more notable when you can actually see his face.) Still, the new book sounds dramatic and steamy and very Chabonish. It takes place in Alaska during and following WWII. The questions he is asking, "How different would the world be today if we had allowed all those persecuted Jews populate Alaska until the war was over?" So, read it and report back already would ya? Or maybe you have already read it, it has been out for a while after all.

Oh and thanks to the internet I found Chabon's personal calender, it turns out he is going to be doing a reading in Chicago soon. That is Mon May 21 6pm @ the Chicago Public Library, 400 S State St, Chicago, IL . Be there, or else.

Okay fine, if you live in Minnesota and you do not want to drive down and attend the event with the ZF's you can still see Chabon. He will be at the Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange Street, St. Paul on Tue May 22 @ 7pm.

**Chabon on the mind** Terry Gross interviews Michael Chabon today on Fresh Air. You can stream the episode at the shows website.

What are you eating?

AZF and I made a recent book purchase that I have been reading in free moments throughout the past four days. It's called What To Eat. It cuts through all the fat and tells you what's what (cuts the fat, come on). I've been thinking more and more about what we eat and what the consequences of those decisions are. It's not as much a hippification of dietary habits so much as, seriously, is it really hard to just be healthier and more aware? It's like the environment. Even if the world will not be destroyed by global warming, what's the big deal with treating the earth better? Same with food. There is no negative impact in learning a little more and doing things a little better. The opposite, however, we know has such negative impacts. And the 35 billions pounds of chicken breasts this country eats annually can't be helping our hearts.
(this is probably the most political I will ever be able to get on Luminous, so I'm taking it.)

White Noise

I finally finished my first Don Delillo novel! I say finished, instead of read, because I've picked up most of his novels at least once, so I've read plenty of his novels, but I never seem to finish them. White Noise I had picked up at least twice before I was finally able to get all the way through. That said, I am aware that most of you have strong feelings about White Noise, strong positive feelings, so I want to clarify that this isn't a book bash. I am going to blame my unlove on a few things and well see if we can meet in the middle somewhere.

1. I'm told old, I don't have that dreamy college student thing going for me anymore. Point being, it just not as easy to get wrapped up in the world of White Noise, or the fame that DeLillo has.
2. Americana Literature: in general I find it "obvious". Please don't shoot! Maybe it's that it so NOT obvious I can't even being to grasp it.
3. Too many years of too much hype. Lets face it, people have been talking about how great White Noise (and Delillo in general) is for so long that it would just be impossible for me to find it as great as the build up.

So here's the thing, I didn't hate White Noise, but I definitely didn't love it. There were parts that were rather humors and I did actually laugh out loud on the train (you can imagine how embarrassing that is) and of course the writing is obviously the product of someone who is very talented.

That's not enough to make you love a book though. I was left wondering what the point was. Maybe it's that Delillo is trying to make us really look at our American way and all our White Noise, well I get that, I mean I am actually a part of this society, but then what? What does he want us to do besides admit we are so distracted we don't even know ourselves? This is how I usually feel about Americana lit (see point 2)(not that I have read a ton of it.) I spend 300 or so pages with your book but its all just to point out the obvious. I don't need a book to be reminded that I spend 9 hours a day on a computer, I read books to get away from that.

As contrived as the ending was, I did kind of like it, but it came long after I assumed there would be nothing redemptive about Jack's character. I am sure someone wants to fight me on that comment, and I wholly welcome it, please tell me why I'm so so wrong. And what does Wilder's tricycle ride across the interstate signify?

Erik Larson in the White City Tonight.

For those of you who live in Chicago, Erik Larson will be sharing anecdotes and 'war stories' derived from his books Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck tonight at the Crown Auditorium Theater. Admission is free and it should be a good time. Personally, I found Devil in the White City to be one of the more gripping stories I have read in the past few years. His writing brings alive that feeling of excitement that surly came with building a new city--making you feel like you just stumbled across some previously inconceivable technology. While at the same time being let in on the twisted events of one of the country's scariest mass murderers. The best part about it, it's non-fiction. And if you are fortunate enough to live in the White City while reading it, you can spend your lunch breaks looking for old Daniel Burnham buildings--and you probably aren't alone.

And speaking of going to readings, I am wondering what authors all our Luminous readers have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have heard speak. I have not been to too many readings myself but I think Dave Eggars (the first time) is still my favorite.

UPDATE: For a man who has proven himself to be a master in writing about murders Erik Larson was surprisingly (and welcoming) socially adept, not to mention very funny and horrifyingly intelligent albeit not in that cocky way some people are. I had a great time, and no, not just because he called George Bush, Julius Ceaser.

Cormac McCarthy wins Pulitzer

The 2007 Pulitzer prizes were anounced, and the winner for fiction is The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I am surprised to see our beloved WH has not posted upon this over at pandas, but seeing as he has gone AWOL from the blogosphere, here it is.
From what I understand The Road is a dark, violent book, scathing at times, horrible, yet you know hopeful (some say). For example, here is a quote lifted from the review by Publisher's Weekly: "Beyond the ever-present possibility of starvation lies the threat of roving bands of cannibalistic thugs." I guess it only seems appropriate to see The Road end up on Oprah's Book List, then. If you have read The Road and want to discuss the deeper messages McCarthy finds within this dark and troubling story, please direct your comments here.


Here is a complete list of the Pulitzer Winners. (I had my money on Debbie Cenziper from the Miami Herald to win best local reporting. It was Debbie's year).

The Devil and The Angels

Emak and I are taking a class this time around entitled Angels and Devils in Medieval Literature. It's pretty awesome, if you like reading Anglo-Saxon poems in prose translations (which everyone knows is not the way to read them, but do you know Anglo-Saxon?)
Our texts include the aptly named LUCIFER, ANGLO-SAXON POETRY, the wonderful VISIONS OF HEAVEN AND HELL BEFORE DANTE, and of course, DANTE.
Medieval representations of the devil are pretty damn awesome. It's not like that's news or something, but it's still worth noting. I've become a pretty big fan of the Harrowing of Hell as a theological precept from the day. It allows for me to get Judas into heaven without having to committ any grave acts of heresy. Except for maybe getting Judas to heaven. Just read the Gospel of Nicodemus.

Kurt Vonnegut, book writer, humorist, dies

I learned my lesson last time I mentioned the death of a certain philosopher to use no wit or humor when reporting these stories. So this time, I will just link to the story from the Old Grey Lady about the death of Kurt Vonnegut. He was 84.
Here's a wonderful little note from the Times about the same author who wrote Slaughter House Five. "To Mr. Vonnegut, the only possible redemption for the madness and apparent meaninglessness of existence was human kindness." Or, as Mr. Rosewater puts it in God Bless you Mr. Rosewater, "God-damn it, you've got to be kind."


So. Mr. Vonnegut, adieu.
I found this picture on Google. It seemed appropriate.

Kurt Vonnegut Dies

Kurt Vonnegut died last night in Manhattan at the age of 84. According to the New York Times, his wife, Jill Krementz, said that after a fall several weeks ago, the author had suffered brain injuries. Born in 1922, Vonnegut was the youngest of three children and lived through the Depression, his mother's suicide, and being captured as a prisoner of war during World War II. His famous book, Slaughterhouse-Five, is based on his experience during the war. After the war, Vonnegut worked as a newspaper reporter and studied at the University of Chicago before his first book, Player Piano, was published in 1952. Vonnegut, who wrote fiction, plays and essays, is known for his 14 novels including Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat's Cradle and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

HIP! HIP!

CZFinke took his MA Comprehensive Exam on Saturday, there was lots of reading and studying that went into the test over the last five months!! And lots of partying when it was over! Lets all give him a big pat on the back...blogger style!

In case you haven't already read

The Road by Cormac McCarthy, now is your chance. Oprah has made it her most recent book club pick. Dear oh dear she annoys the crap out of me...

And if you live in Chicago (or Illinois in general) the new One Book, One Chicago pick has been selected: Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin. I haven't previously participated in One Book, One Chicago-- but I plan to this time around and I am awfully excited about it. It has proven in the past to be a great way to unite our large and diverse city AND Chicago (i.e. Daley) sponsors all sorts of great (AND FREE) lectures and films surrounding the book pick. (Truth be told, I don't think anyone in Chicago reads this blog--so mostly I am writing to express how excited I am to read this book.)


And another book club option , which can have a bit of action via luminous if you are so interested, White Noise by Don DeLillo. I am reading the book here in my home city with a few other friends who also haven't read it yet, I think we are the last people alive to have not read it, which leaves me hoping many of you will have all sorts of opinions about it.

Tolkien Jr. finishes Tolkien Sr.'s final Lord of the Rings book

Children of Hurin, the last book J.R.R. Tolkien began in the Lord of the Rings series, in 1971, has been finished and will be published next month. What? I don't know anything about Christopher Tolkien, but could the stakes be any higher? Is there a more beloved series than Lord of the Rings?

Here's another story from the old grey lady about Tolkien fans and Children of Hurin.

Stanley Cavell and the end of the exam series

As the 7 people who stop in at Luminous know, I have been studying for my comprehnsive exam for my masters. Now, it's down to the wire, 7 more days to study and read from those wonderful texts I can nearly recite backwards. "wife a of want in be must, forutne good a of possession in man single a that, acknowledged universally truth a is It." See.
Anyway. I've been reading (over and over) Stanley Cavell's chapter on It Happened One Night from Pursuits of Happiness. He's pretty smart. I'm in to posting pictures of these scholars and philosophers. It makes a litte impression on me when I've been reading these people, and eventually to come around and take a look. They are usually older, white, often bespectacled, balding. Stanley here appears to be clutching his chest, which is never a good sign. Just hacking on you Professor Cavell. Love your work.


This isn't that interesting. Well it's a bit interesting to me.

The Year of Magical Thinking

I picked up Joan Didion's most recent work this past weekend, The Year of Magical Thinking, and basically plowed through it. I found the book very moving and comforting, but how could you not? Its so personal and about such a difficult subject. I suppose the big shocker for me was that someone could have the ability to give others such a detailed inside look at their grief. In this case, it seems very self sacrificing--I suppose I think that because so many of the people who will pick it will be doing so because they need something to relate to, but personally I just don't know how she did it.

Here is an interview with Didion if you are interested.

Some books about books...

It took me a while to get through Matthew Battle's book, The Library: An Unquiet History, but once I finally picked it back up I breezed through it and learned all sorts of interesting new stuff about the Library: from the burning of the Library at Alexandria, to Swift's arguing the Ancients over the Moderns, to just how crazy and backwards the genius of Dewy was. Each chapter had an over arching time frame it focused on and within the chapter a more specific event of that period meant to bring the reader in. Personally I would have been fine with out the fifty pages that focused on Swift (but maybe that's because of the aversion I have had towards him since college) which also happened to the part of the book that stopped me up for two moths, but I think some of you would really enjoy that part (namely, my husband). In short, if you find yourself in awe when you go into the library and would like to learn a bit more about it's history this book is a good place to start.

I found myself totally engrossed in Maureen Corrigan's book, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading-so much so that I felt disgruntled existing in any world other than hers. I highly recommend picking it up if you are an avid reader, she not only gives you an amazing book list to look into but she also discusses so many great and new ideas that are fun to ponder. I particularly loved her idea of the "female extreme adventure novel" in which she argues that female characters, more often than we recognize, have extreme --life suspending--adventures that get passed over because they don't speak to that outward notion of adventure we have become so used to. She also discussed the "honorary male" or "learned androgyny" status women adhere to to be taken seriously in the world of reading--both in real life and in stories, an issue I struggle with in my life and therefore found very eye opening. If there is one book you should pick because of this blog, this is the book. It's wonderful.

Fun with Norton Critical Editions.

As I continue to study for my comps, I get to read all kind of randomness published in the back of Norton Critical Editions. After readingthe Norton Importance of Being Earnest cover to cover, I am now reading through the Pride and Prejudice. Let me tell you, there is a wealth wonderful oddities and fun in there.
Here are two of the pleasures that I read.
The first is from some early Austen writing, called Love and Friendship. It is a dialogue about someone knocking on a door.

"My father started--"What noise is that," (said he.) "It sounds like a loud rapping at the Door"--(replied Mother.) "it does indeed." (cried I.) "I am of your opinion; (said my father) it certainly does appear to proceed from some uncommon violence exerted against our unoffending door." "Yes (exclaimed I) I cannot help thinking it must be somebody who knocks for admittance."

Seriously. This continues for about a page or so. Dizzyingly circular discussion about how they all agree someone is knocking on the door, and that whoever it is wants to come in. It's wonderous how it goes on and on.
The other fun thing has less to do with Austen. It comes from a critic named Richard Whately, who wrote an essay called "Modern Novels," published in Qarterly Review 24, in 1821. He's talking about how well Austen handles her Christianity by just not talking about it. I must say I was a tad surprised and comforted to read his great reasoning.

"For when the purpose of inculcating a religious principle is made too palpably prominent, many readers, if they do not throw aside the book with disgust, are apt to fortify themselves with that respectful kind of apathy with which they undergo a regular sermon, and prepare themselves as they do to swallow down a dose of medicine, endeavouring to get it down in large gulps, without tasting it more than is necessary."

Isn't that lovely. I think so. For kicks, Whately ends his essay with, "We know not whether Austen ever had access to the precepts of Aristotle; but there are few, if any, writers of fiction who have illustrated them more successfully." I couldn't agree more. There are few, if any, novels I know of that are more perfectly crafted and and exectued as Pride and Prejudice. I love it.

Speaking of taking an hour...

I picked up O Pioneers! this past weekend as part of goal I set for myself, which is currently (not so cleverly) called Ten in Ten. Over the remaining ten months of 2007 I plan to read ten books I have had on my shelves for over a year- in addition to my normal reading. The first of which was O Pioneers! Needless to say, I am pretty excited about this. I have more books than I would like to admit that have been collecting dust for sometime now-and this is a fun way to pick up those books I have always wanted to have read but never really felt like reading. As for my reaction to O Pioneers!--well to begin with there is an exclamation mark in the title and that is just awesome. I think of this book as high school reading, and by that I mean, it is often required that highschooler's read it. Which is a damn shame. If I had read it in high school I know I would not have appreciated it at all, instead I am sure I would have found it boring and pointless. As it is, I have been out of high school for quite sometime, and I have to admit: I loved it! The characters, the long crafted speeches about the land, the heartbreak, I felt as though I was allowed in to this part of history that was formerly not open to me...and now I have some sense of how people lived and thought in the early 20th century. I should say, at no point did I feel I could empathize with the characters but Cather's prose really brought the time period alive. And for that, I am thankful. Not to mention, its so short there really isn't anytime to not like it.

As for the remaining 9 in 10, I plan to read:
Heart of the Matter
All the Pretty Horses
My Antonia
Big Rock Candy Mountain
White Noise
The Street Of Crocodiles
The Sea, The Sea
A Handful of Dust
& Cold Mountain

breaking news: Importance of Being Earnest, Wilde, Funny

I've been pouring over Importance of Being Earnest, one of the texts on my comp exam. It is so damn funny. I know we all know that, but man, it's awesome.
For example:

If I am occasionally over-dressed, I make up for it by being immensely over-educated.

Algy: The truth is rarely pure, and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were, and Modern Literature a complete impossibility.
Jack: That wouldn't be at all a bad thing.
Algy: Literary Criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don't try it. You should leave that to people who havne't been at university.

It goes on and on. I just wanted to remind everyone. Take an hour and read it, it's good stuff.