Books
Crashing Through
Tagline: “A true story of risk, adventure, and the man who dared to see.”
I’m not usually one to pick up books that could be potentially “inspirational”, but I had to read this book. One of the benefits (or curse, as some might see it) of being a professor is interacting with one’s students. I personally see it as a benefit. :) Anyway…a student recommended that I read this book after one of their classmates had given an interesting speech on stem cell research. It was stem cells that allowed the main protagonist of the book – Mike May – the opportunity to see again after years and years of blindness. (He lost his sight at the age of 3 in a freak chemical accident).
“It begins with special cells known as corneal epithelial stem cells. These are not the controversial stem cells taken from embryos or fetuses, but rather cells that exist in every person for a lifetime.” (p. 43) It was these stem cells and a fine physician that allowed May to have what is called a “corneal epithelial stem cell transplantation.” You’ll just need to read the book to get the full story of how it all works, but needless to say, it was a risky, complicated process that may not have even worked. In May’s case, it did.
The book is a good balance of interesting story and mind-numbing but fascinating facts about sight, how the brain works, etc. What really stood out to me was the spirit of Mike May. Even as a kid, the guy went “crashing through” life, refusing to sit idly by and let his blindness overwhelm him. He learned to ride bikes, play sports, excel in school, even travel to Africa by himself to help a remote village, and…this one makes me smile…become a world class skier. Yes, you read that right – skier. While blind. The guy’s drive is amazing and inspiring. He never quit at anything, ever. He lived his life with curiosity and a drive to finish everything he started.
…which was why it was odd to me to read that he (twice) suggested that he and his wife divorce. They were going through some really, really tough times financially and emotionally, and his solution was divorce. Thankfully, his wife hung in there, they went through counseling and worked things out, and they’re still together after all these years. But why would someone who lives their life with “failure is not an option” as their motto consider giving up on something some may view as “trivial” as marriage? If I ever meet Mike May, I’d like to ask him that.
The other thing that stood out to me was the complexity of the operations and the stem cells. The issue of stem cell research is not as simple as “yes/no”. There are different types of stem cells, and I personally believe that certain types should not be experimented on, etc. However, stem cell research really does have promising applications for people like Mike May and others, and to ban it outright and lump all stem cells together is ignorant and foolish. Reading this book was definitely a wake-up call to me to attempt to be more informed on the issue since, as a citizen of the U.S.A., I may be asked to vote on such issues in the future.
Overall, the book was worth reading, and I am glad my student took the time to look up the author and title for me.
According to Mike’s company’s website, a movie is in the works, and when it comes out, I’d definitely give it a look-sy. In the meantime, I’ll keep on reading…
Suggested Links:
- Sendero Group – Mike May’s company that makes these amazing GPS devices for the blind
- Travel Blog – the Sendero travel blog
- Stem Cells – Wikipedia, for an intro
How to Break a Terrorist
“It’s a new day, and I’m trying to put Yusif behind me, but it’s difficult. I’ve promised myself that when I go back into the booth, I will remember my sense of humanity and compassion. I don’t want to end up like some of our veterans here, bloated with hate for our enemy.”
Believe it or not, I first heard about this book on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Matthew Alexander, the author, was Jon’s guest of the evening, and the title of his book intrigued me – How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq. The interview was pretty interesting, and I resolved to borrow the book and read it.
That was over 5 months ago. About 2 months ago, I finally got to check the book out of the library. Unfortunately, my hectic schedule relegated the book to our bookcase where it started gathering dust. Plus, I was still trying to finish The New Kings of Non-Fiction. I kept renewing the book until the library’s website told me, “No more! Read it or turn it back in!”…or something to that effect. I cracked it open last night, read for a few hours, and finished it this afternoon.
I don’t usually read books this quickly. This one was worth it.
Torture has never sat well with me, both morally and ethically (I think there can be a difference in the two). When the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal came to light back in 2004, I was shocked and saddened. I thought the U.S. was a pretty good country and had pretty good people, but what I heard, read, and saw was appalling. It was argued that Abu Ghraib was an isolated incident; this was not common practice. Maybe it was, but then the U.S. got involved in waterboarding. Where a person stood on the issue of waterboarding unfortunately became the rubric by which his “patriotism” and “commitment” to the war on terror was measured. Personally, I think that’s pretty sad. As a Christian, I think it’s abominable.
Back to the book – I had heard accounts (word of mouth from friends/colleagues) of interrogation techniques used in World War 2 to get information from enemy prisoners. These all involved treating the prisoners with respect, building rapport with them, and just “hanging out” with the specific purpose of getting information. Of course, the enemy already thinks you’re the enemy, so why give them more reason to think that? “More secrets were spilled over games of ping-pong than through torture,” one friend claimed. I have yet to look that up, but it makes sense.
And what Matthew Alexander shares in this book makes sense. You alienate your enemy when you treat him like a piece of sh*t, and if you think they are, that will come out in your interrogation methods. One cannot forget that the enemy is human, too. He has concerns, motivations, and feelings that drive him to do what he does. Find those, and you can manipulate them to gather information. Abuse him, whether physically or verbally, and he will close himself from you.
No torture takes place in the interrogations shared in the book. However, different approaches are used by different interrogators. “Old school” interrogators use Control as their main method of breaking down a prisoner. If the prisoner feels he has no power, no hope, etc., then he will spill. The “new school” interrogators used knowledge of the culture, of motivation, and a basic sense of human decency to deal with their captives…and it worked.
It took one month for one interrogator to get nothing out of a prisoner, because all he did was insult him and try to “control” him. It took a few hours for another to get the prisoner – of his own free will – to admit to knowing (and promising to give up) one of the biggest leaders the military was hunting. The difference? The first interrogator spent his time demeaning the captive. The second one treated him with respect (he was an imam), asked him questions about his beliefs (stroke his ego), engaged him in discussion (he was a brilliant man, clearly, why not engage him as such…even if he is the enemy?), and used persuasive and argumentative skills to convince the captive that giving up his contact was in his best interests.
And it worked. No torture, no psychological trauma, etc.
I believe the difference between the two interrogation techniques is this – knowledge. One style rejects understanding the enemy and simplifying everything down to “They’re all suicide bombers who have pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda and sworn off all family ties, etc.” Thus, they demean them. The other style understands that things may be more complex than that – most operatives do not even fully agree with all al-Qaeda ideologies. So what motivates them? That takes work to find out, and that takes time, and it is not simple, and it is not easy.
Torture is easy; engaging the enemy and finding his motivations is not. I think there should be more of the second…it seems to work better in both the short and long-term.
Corinne’s Book Bag
Inspired by the article Barack’s Book Bag published on Slate.
The president of the United States is on vacation. Apparently, like most people on vacation, most of the U.S. presidents bring a stack (or mini-stack) of books with them for personal edification and enjoyment. According to the article above, ever since John F. Kennedy confessed to reading the 007 series, the media has speculated on what exactly a president’s reading list says about him. I wasn’t quite sure what was meant by that – says about him as a what? A person? A leader? A curious mind who happens to like reading?
The article got me thinking about what I have been reading (or attempting to read) or have read this past summer. It also reminded me of the stack of textbooks waiting for my attention next week when I return to grad school.
Should we judge a person by what they read? Or, for that matter, should we judge a person by what they haven’t read? I know if I were to plop myself down on a lawn at my place of employment with certain books in hand, I would definitely receive some curious stares, miniscule applause, or maybe even some chastisement. Were I to do the same at my local Starbucks, I may get a few stares and nothing more (maybe a few free samples?). I sometimes feel embarrassed checking out books from my local library (especially the day I checked out She’s Not the Man I Married, which I found quite by accident and discovered to be truly fascinating. Unfortunately, I did not finish…I shall return to it next summer), where some of the teenage clerks give me odd looks as I smile at them in an effort to hurry my checkout process.
Either way, here are the books I am currently reading/will be reading in the months to come. Judge me as you will.
For Grad School:
- Ethernet: The Definitive Guide – Charles E. Spurgeon (O’Reily)
- Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS – Jon Duckett
- PC Hardware in a Nutshell – Robert B. Thompson & Barbara F. Thompson (O’Reily)
- Managing and Troubleshooting Networks – Mike Meyers (no, not the comedian nor the murderer – different spelling, too)
For Teaching:
- Principles of Public Speaking – Monroe, Gronbeck, Ehninger, German
- A Rulebook for Arguments – A. Weston
- Intercultural Competence – Lustig & Koester
- Intercultural Communication in Contexts – Martin & Nakayama
- Teaching Culture – H. N. Seelye
- American Cultural Patterns – Stewart & Bennett
And a few other books I can’t remember or don’t have nearby at the moment.
For Personal Interests:
- The Holy Bible – You know, this is the book I should be reading the most of. I am praying that will be the case this coming semester.
- The New Kings of Nonfiction – Ira Glass (amazing, so far)
- In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto – Michael Pollan
- Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife – Mary Roach
- How to Break a Terrorist: the U.S interrogators who used brains, not brutality, to take down the deadliest man in Iraq – Matthew Alexander (looking forward to this one)
I guess my lists are slightly ambitious (*laugh to self*), but I’m hoping to get through all the books. I really am.
What do my lists say about me? I’m not sure, actually. The only thing it shows for sure is that I will be mind-blowingly busy next semester.
Good luck on your reading list, President Obama. Wish me luck on mine. Let me know how the judging goes!
Related Articles on Obama’s Vacation Reading:
- Obama’s vacation reading picks: How do they stack up? (EW.com)
- Obama’s Vacation Reading List (Newsweek)
- Just In: Obama’s Vacation Reading List (ABC News)
- Scandal over Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard Reading List (Baltimore Sun) – Scandal? Really?! Just because he’s potentially reading a book he’s already read?
Haunted
Something exciting needs to happen.
Something amazing needs to happen.
I finally finished Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted last night. Again, it was one of those books that left me sitting on our couch, thinking. I believe I enjoyed it far more than I enjoyed Fight Club.
The basic summary is this – 17 people all respond to an invitation to participate in a “writer’s retreat” to create their “masterpiece”. It will last for three months; no contact with the outside world. Food and lodging provided. They are picked up by a Mr. Whittier and a Mrs. Clark, driven to the location of the retreat, and then pretty much locked in for the three months. Things are alright at first, but as time progresses, human depravity takes over in ways one generally only reads about.
The book really resonated with me, and…I must warn you…I am going to air my views on a potentially touchy subject for some in the following paragraph(s).
Artists – writers – poets – novelists – etc. Some succeed; some don’t. Some are truly what they claim to be while others claim the title and don’t actually produce anything in their given domain. I have friends who are artists, and I do love them. There are a few that I have personally known, however, who don’t go a day looking for drama…looking for adventure…and if not looking, then creating the drama, adventure, angst, conflict, etc. that they long for in order to be a “better” writer, poet, etc. To be honest, that annoys me greatly, and I will be honest and state that I am still trying to figure out why it really irritates me. By the way, you don’t have to be an artist to be like the above.
The characters in Haunted reminded me of those types of artists. Some of them had gone through harrowing life experiences; others had not, but they each had a story to tell, and they wrote them down. As you read their stories, you become disgusted, feel compassion for them, mourn their losses, empathize, etc. However, their stories are not enough; in fact, none of them view their stories as “masterpieces” in the making. Instead, they end up creating a “masterpiece” out of them all, locked in this abandoned theatre. Each one starts to sabotage their peaceful, rather comfortable existence in order to create a drama of unprecedented magnitude. They abuse themselves and others; they delve into the depths of depravity…all for this masterpiece they can sell once they are released/rescued from the locked theatre. Each one tries to outdo the others – whether it be mutilating themselves, claiming abuse from other members of the group that never happened, claiming “ghosts” are haunting them all to hider their own devious actions, etc. – all for this story. Yet, as you read their stories, it becomes apparent that reality is brutal enough without having to go out of one’s way to create it.
What I am trying to say is this: open your eyes to what is going on inside you and around you. Life is hard enough as it is. You don’t need to create drama to get a good experience or a “better story” than the person next to you. In fact, why don’t you create something beautiful? Help someone?
It really all boils down to how selfish we are…
…and I thank God that He is more powerful than my selfish ambitions and keeps me in check; by His grace, keeping me from becoming one of those who is Haunted.
Fight Club
“I want you to hit me as hard as you can.”
Until a few months ago, I had never heard of Chuck Palahniuk. I had, however, seen the movies Fight Club and Stranger than Fiction. Apparently, some of his other novels are slotted to become movies soon/in the distant future.
A friend of mine mentioned that I should read a book entitled Survivor “by the author who wrote Fight Club”. It was then I realized that these movies had all been books. Since it’s summer, I figured I’d get some personal reading time in while trying to keep up with work and craft a new class for next semester. I’m so ambitious…
I finished Fight Club (the book) a couple weeks ago. When I finished the last page, I just sat on our couch…thinking. Personally, I found the book more engaging and thought-provoking than the movie. The extremeness of the book brought out more of the anguish, ideals, actions, etc. of the characters than the movie did, albeit I believe Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter were exceptional in their roles.
While I enjoyed Fight Club immensely, I would not recommend it for very many people I know. It’s a deep read. Some may not understand the point Palahniuk is trying to make (or points…and I don’t claim to understand them all). Others may read too much into the story and just mess it up for themselves and others (know those kind of people?). Either way, if you choose to read the book, it’ll give you a lot to think about.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”
So states the back cover of new classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, “co-authored” by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. A parody novel combining the much-beloved classic Pride and Prejudice with zombies (lots and lots of zombies…and ninjas!), this book is sure to bring entertainment…and a fresh take on Austen’s classic…to whomever dares to pick it up and open its pages. It will definitely not disappoint.
I was one of those daring, curious souls to buy a copy and read it. According to the L.A. Times, it contains 85% of the original text of Pride and Prejudice while the rest is zombie-killing, ninja-fighting awesomeness. A strange plague has somehow struck England, and several have fallen prey to “Satan’s armies”. The famous Bennett sisters are “brides of Death”, sworn to fight off the “unmentionables” who roam around their beloved Hertfordshire, looking for brains. They are all trained in martial arts, shooting, and other forms of defense, but the eldest Bennett sisters are exceptional in skill as well as beauty. Bingley, Darcy, and company are pretty much the same with their own fun skills thrown in.
Here are some of my favorite passages:
“A few of the guests, who had the misfortune of being too near the windows, were seized and feasted on at once. When Elizabeth stood, she saw Mrs. Long struggle to free herself as two female dreadfuls bit into her head…As guests fled in every direction, Mr. Bennett’s voice cut through the commotion. “Girls! Pentagram of Death!”
From a corner of the room, Mr. Darcy watched Elizabeth and her sisters work their way outward, beheading zombie after zombie as they went. He knew of only one other woman in all of Great Britain who wielded a dagger with such skill, such grace, and deadly accuracy.” – p.14
“’For my part,’ she rejoined, ‘I must confess that I never could see any beauty in her. Her midriff is too firm; her arms too free of loose flesh; and her legs too long and flexible. Her nose wants character – it is unbearably petite. Her teeth are tolerable, but not out of the common way; and as for her eyes, which have sometimes been called so fine, I could never see anything extraordinary in them. They have a sharp, knowing look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self sufficiency and composure which is intolerable.” – Miss Bingley about Elizabeth Bennett, p. 217
“As they made for the house, Elizabeth and Darcy happened upon a herd of unmentionables, no more than a dozen in number, which had quartered itself in a garden not ten yards from the road. The creatures were crawling on their hands and knees, biting into ripe heads of cauliflower, which they had mistaken for stray brains. Elizabeth and Darcy laughed at the sight, and for a moment, resolved to keep walking – as the zombies had failed to take notice of them. But, sharing a glance and a smile, the pair realized they had stumbled onto their first opportunity to fight side by side.
And so they did.” – p. 302, (awwww!)
Why did I find the book so entertaining? Other than reading Austen English combined with one of my favorite fictional genres, I appreciated how the story still flowed smoothly to the same conclusion as Pride and Prejudice. In fact, the added elements made each character’s pride, prejudice, thoughts, actions, etc. more extreme and obvious. Mrs. Bennett was still as loathsome (if not more so), and Mr. Bennett a relatively weak sap, even if he had provided training for his daughter. Pain was felt more strongly, urgency more urgent, and love more gripping during a time of such distress.
Plus, there is a “Reader’s Discussion Guide” at the end of the book in case you need some guidance in focusing your thoughts on the main elements of the story. ;-) How can you ignore a book with a discussion guide?!
Pick up a copy or borrow one..and join the hordes.
P.S. – It has pictures. At least read it for the pictures!
I hope they make it into a movie someday.
Articles/links:
Book Arrangement Fail…or Win?
Over the weekend, I found this fascinating arrangement of books at our local Barnes & Noble bookstore:
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Initial thought: “It’s by Tennessee Williams! This should be interesting…”
Thought after reading the book: “Wow, humans can be so depraved and desperate.”
I closed this book/play with a sigh and stared at the wall for a few moments, trying to digest all that I had just read. This is not a “happy” play in any sense of the word. It has unhappy, unfulfilled wives…lying, depressed husbands (or just plain proud husbands – and abusive)…bratty kids that you just want to smack…and a sense of desperateness from all involved. All of the characters, even the children, seemed to say, “Look at me – aren’t I important to you?” in their own ways, but the ways they chose were terrible and hurtful at best.
Misery loves company. People will fight for what they want at the expense of others. Charm is definitely deceitful.
Thank God He sent Someone into the world to show us that this is not the way to live – that there’s a better way – Him.
