J's Pages

by Simon Hawke

Book 10 in the Time Wars series. This is even more of a history lesson than The Nautilus Sanction. Mr. Hawke uses the Headless Horseman, but nothing else from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The rest of the background is culled from historical events around 1765 Boston. That's not really a bad thing, because even though I still enjoy Mr. Hawke's characters, I'm getting tired of the recurring bad guys. There's also way too much explanation of back story. It wasn't so bad when I was picking up these books piecemeal from the used bookstores, but having just read the events being retold, it's boring as all get out. I would have much preferred that space to be used for new narrative. Oh, well. He has two more chances to get it right. The Hellfire Rebellion, however, is just waiting room material.

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Labels: SimonHawke, TimeWars, WaitingRoomMaterial

by Jonathan Swift

I had mixed feelings about this classic book, first published back in 1726. In case you missed in in your high school literature class, Gulliver's Travels is a tale about Captain Lemuel Gulliver, an Englishman who manages to get stranded in not one but four amazing lands. But this extraordinary travel tale is really a vehicle for Mr. Swift's social commentary and the lands Capt. Gulliver visits are but reflections of 18th Century England and her neighbors. Not being up on my English history, I'm sure I missed the significance of most of the barbs. But a lot of Mr. Swift's message is clear enough, and the story itself is rather entertaining. However I found the book to grow less appealing as it progressed. The last two lands in which Gulliver sojourns seem less fantastic than the first two and so are less entertaining. I don't know if Mr. Swift just runs out of steam or if my ignorance of his society makes me miss out on the subtleties of his satire. Either way, I found this to be only very good waiting room material.  

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Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial

by Rachel Simmons

I've really got to stop reading my wife's books. This one is about bullying among grade school age girls. That's not a subject which really touches me directly, never having been a girl nor oppressed by bullying. But I had seen enough to be interested in the subject and since it was lying about the house anyway... well, I decided to have a read. Like the feminine mind itself (to indulge in stereotype), it was quite alien to me. As Ms. Simmons described the culture and mindset of the middle class girls of whom she was writing I felt like I was reading a science fiction novel. She writes about girls who are being socialized to be nice and quiet and gentle, and thereby have no legitimate outlet for their feelings of anger, ambition or independence. To cope, she reasons, girls have developed subtle ways of dealing with these negative feelings. She calls these alternative aggressions--teasings, shunnings and manipulations which escape the notice of teachers and parents. And school boys, too, I think. I know that when I was in school, I had no clue all this was going on! (Well, except in eighth grade when Lynn got dumped on so bad she transferred out. It was hard to miss that one.) As the book went on and the case stories were related, I just had to shake my head both in disapproval of the evil of which those children were capable and in disbelief that the victims didn't just haul off and slug their antagonists. (But of course, it's always easy to give advice about problems one never has had to face.) At one point, I had to ask my dear wife (my resident expert on things girlish) if this was really true to life, or if this was a case of stringing together some exceptional horror stories to try and prove a point. She assured me that it absolutely fit in with her experiences and it was very helpful to her to know that the tsuris she endured was not unique. She also agreed with Ms. Simmons assessment as to why this bullying occurs. So I went back to the book, reading in a spirit of amazement. But, alas, that spirit didn't last. Eventually, Ms. Simmons presented a chapter on working class girls whom she interviewed--girls who have been raised to take care of and speak up for themselves. No alternative aggressions there! To me, it illustrated that this phenomenon is less an inherent problem of being a girl than it is of the social structures in which they are placed. This made it harder for me to accept her suggestions for solutions. She didn't suggest any changes to the institutions of school or middle class society, but rather made suggestions as to how teachers might be made more aware of the existence and signs of alternative aggressions and how parents might be more supportive of their daughters who face this crap. Not bad ideas, really (though I have hard time accepting parenting tips from a childless twenty-something and a bunch of schoolgirls she's interviewed), but it seems like it really only addresses the symptoms of the problem. My wife's solution, of course, was to recommit to homeschooling our girls. I must admit that it does work. But you can't expect our society as a whole to do that. (That was sarcasm, in case your web browser isn't set up to recognize the <sarcasm> tag.) Anyway, this was a very interesting read, so I'll advise youse to check out. 

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Labels: CheckItOut

by S. David Sperling

(I have to be nice here, the author is kin.) (Actually, I'd be nice anyway, but I felt like bragging.)
Sometimes you just have to read something with which you don't agree. Okay, I didn't have to read it. My wife got it as a gift and I could have ignored it. But hey, it's a theology book, subtitled "The Political Intent of the Bible's Writers", and I was intrigued. Basically, Professor Sperling is trying to figure out why the writers of the Torah--the first five books of the Bible--wrote what they wrote. He's coming from the mindset that the Bible is a human creation and the parts that are written as history aren't necessarily true. So when he looks for motives as to why these stories were created and written down, he sees political agendas. In other words, various Israelite kings invented the tales of the patriarchs and the Exodus to add creedence to their own actions and agendas. It's an intriguing thought. However, I'm too much of a conservative to buy it. Granted, I haven't really looked into the historical-critical method of Biblical interpretation, so maybe I'm speaking in ignorance. The problem is, my few encounters with such interpretation haven't been all that convincing. To give an example--an example that is an example used by Professor Sperling--Numbers 34:25 reads "Of the tribe of the Zebulunites a leader, Eli-zaphan, son of Parnach." Now the histo-crit scholars would claim that passage was written in the sixth century B.C.E. rather than the thirteenth, since "Parnach" is really the Persian name "Farnaka" and the Jews didn't come into contact with the Persians until the sixth century. The problem I have with their reasoning is that nobody knows why Parnach's folks named him Parnach. It could have been a Persian name. They also could have made the thing up and it just happened to sound like "Farnaka". I mean, I read an article how a girl in the 13th century (C.E., that is) was named "Diot Coke". I really don't think for a moment that Coca-Cola's marketing department is that good. Anyway, like most folks, Professor Sperling makes some assumptions, builds on that with some interesting connections and occasionally fills in the gap with some speculation. Interesting reading, but even when I tried to suspend disbelief to consider his theory, I couldn't swallow the whole concept of the Bible as a fairy tale of human invention. I suppose I should keep that in mind when talking with folks who think I'm weird for believing the concept of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Anyway, I honestly enjoyed this book enough to classify it as waiting room material. 

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Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial