Mexican Genre

 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia certainly has a great deal going for it, and is widely read and commented upon.  This book is a well told story that weaves in issues of class, gender, colonialism, among other topics.

As a writer, the science/fantasy element fascinates me.  Does it work?  When the novel is taken over by ‘genre’ in the last fourth of the book there is that strange compression of events one often finds in such locations.  Things need to be tied up, and swiftly.  Does it work?  I have mixed feelings. There is a bit of strain in making things work out, but that strain is crazy and wild, so even if this novel's dismount is, so to speak, a bit wobbly, all can be forgiven given the scope of this novel.  This is a fantastic effort to do a great deal in a relatively small space.

In Our Time

 

How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life, by Massimo Pigliucci, is one of the many recent adaptations of Stoic philosophy for our particular time.  When I was young I read the big three, Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius.  Reading their work was enriching, but I found it difficult to tease out from their sprawling books the central tenants of Stoicism, and how it can help us in our time.

Pigliucci does this work for us, staying true to the original sources, but also shaping them to suit our modern experience.  Practicing Stoicism as a mental discipline is a perfect exercise for our time – when so little – or noting at all, is in our control.

Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment

 

Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment, lives up to the promise of the subtitle.  Although the stories are about our present moment, the here and now we live in, the world Cory Doctorow creates is just ahead of us; it is the outer reaches where our present moment touches the future.  The author does a great job on this count.

The stories, or novellas, are too long.  I get the sense that Doctorow could have done this work better with less.  Some of the stories end on a bizarre note of hope, which does not mesh well with the overall tone of the collection.  So, that comes as a disappointment, as so much else is done so well here.

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh is a knee deep exploration of a pastor/theologian who would not lay down his principles before the Third Reich.  This is a long book, so the reader should be very dedicated to this topic.  Bonhoeffer’s life was intimately tied to Christian Protestant theology, so the reader should expect many page journeys in Christological topics.  This is part and parcel of Bonhoeffer’s life, and his murder, so you must read and absorb these pages to truly understand the man and his complex motivations.

Plunder: a legacy

 

Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser is a unique “descendent of a Holocaust survivor going to an Eastern European town for a journey of discovery” for unlike many books in this genre, this author does not veer away from the problems inherent in this venture.  

Kaiser examines the whole fraught enterprise.  The nature of human memory and forgetfulness, of collective and individual responses to trauma, of collective responsibly and justice, or collective revenge and anger (just to name a few), of bureaucracy and anti-Semitism.

Kaiser’s book shows that seventy-six years after the end of World War Two, both what the Holocaust wrought and its legacy continues.  Anyone who takes this trip into the blank spots of their family tree realizes this quickly enough.

Also, I think the epilogue is a piece of 'fiction.'  Golden eggs?

A Way Out of Madness

 

When I first read Marcus Aurelius in college in the late 1980s, I knew that if I followed his ideas, and lived by his example – that it was a way out of madness.  I was young and unable to do so.  But with age Stoicism has become less of an abstract promise to me, and more of a reality.  When one ages, and starts to lose things, a philosophy of how to frame the inevitability of loss is essential.

It is wonderful to see that a new interest in Stoicism has come about, propelled by the internet.  This collection of essays, Stoicism for Inner Peace, by Einzelgänger, are written adaptations from a YouTube channel dedicated to placing Stoicism in a contemporary setting.  That these originated as videos speaks volumes about our new age.  But at the heart of these teachings are core Stoic values, which were laid down centuries ago, and are here maintained.

I still believe that Stoic values, properly applied, is a way out of  madness.  And now it has become far easier to spread this message to broad audiences.

A Fresh Approach to an Old Subject

Early Judaism: New Insights and Scholarship (Jewish Studies in the Twenty-First Century Book 1) edited by Frederick E. Greenspahn, is part of a multi-book series that examines different aspects of the Jewish experience through a a distinctly contemporary lens. 

This book takes on the puzzle of how Judaism underwent the various mutations necessarily to transform from a tribal, temple, and finally a rabbinical ‘religion’.  We get very modern questions asked against the backdrop of a very disputed ancient history: were Jews a nation in the modern sense?  Is the land of Israel / Diaspora dichotomy applicable in the past?  What is and was the relationship of Judaism and the Temple?  Were ancient synagogues used in the same manner as their modern versions?  And more.

There is fantastic food for thought here.  Lots of questions asked and some even answered.  This is a fresh approach to an old subject.