'Tis no man, 'tis a remoreseless reading machine

I’m reading Moby Dick right now, and I'm about 190 pages in. It was clearly a mistake to start such a heavy book so soon before my wedding, as all the planning and discussions have left my little time for reading. Also, it’s a hard book to get into with periodic short fits of reading 5-10 pages at a time - the language is too rich and the ideas too integral to the narrative to be able to dip in and out frequently without missing a lot.

I do have complaints about the book – like how Melville periodically diverts from the story to give essays of moderate interest and (to this point, at least) minimal relevance to the action – but overall I’m enjoying it, and it offers plenty to think about, from its almost poetic language and descriptions to the religious references and themes. In short, there are plenty of interesting aspects worth writing about but, as usual, time limits me to just a short comment, which is what this post will be.

So for now, I'll just point out this quote I liked, from the end of chapter 44 (they’re short chapters), obviously. It’s about Captain Ahab’s madness while lying in his cabin, and his internal torment in pursuit of Moby Dick. The Prometheus reference makes it clear what Melville's going for here, but since this passage describes Ahab’s torments as internal and self-created, to me it felt similar to an obsessive author creating a character that drives him insane.

Therefore, the tormented spirit that glared out of bodily eyes, when what seemed Ahab rushed from his room, was for the time but a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic being, a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an object to color, and therefore a blankness in itself. God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates.

Aleksandar Hemon

I was just reading this interview with Aleksandar Hemon, a Bosnian immigrant to the US and one of my favourite current writers. I'm biased towards the Eastern European experience, but there's something about his style I really find appealing. I've requested his latest book of short stories from the library, which should be available soon. I can't wait. Anyway, I just thought it was worth sharing this excerpt from the interview, as a taste of why I like his writing.

Hemon unwraps a piece of candy, sucking pensively as he begins a story. As a young Bosnian journalist, he interviewed Benazir Bhutto when she was prime minister of Pakistan. He tells how she went to visit her father, once prime minister himself and now in solitary confinement. She asked her father how he could endure long days in prison, waiting for his eventual execution. "And he said that he would pick a day from his life, and try to remember it in its entirety. One day. It's an incredible project, really."

Now Hemon the philosopher, no longer the slightly bored interview subject, is caught in this thought, staring at the candy wrapper. "Because, do you know what you did on 6 October last year? You can pinpoint existence, you can possibly look at your credit card and may notice you were somewhere. But how about a memory of walking down the street and seeing the sunlight hit at a certain angle?

"Memory is re-creation. Do you know what I mean?... The trick is to tell the truth about human life while lying."

Multitasking Muddles Brains, Even When the Computer Is Off

I think this article could have been personally addressed to me. I notice exactly this problem, even when I'm not at work or on the computer. I really struggle to block out everything but the one task I'm working on. This makes it difficult to concentrate on anything, from doing the dishes to reading a book. I've always had a fairly short attention span but I have noticed it getting worse as I spend my working day doing several things at once. And the fact that I caught myself looking at the 'Most Recent Entries' on the page while reading this article not only drove the point home, but made me realize that it's largely not my fault. Any kind of article or news page will be surrounded by links and graphics that distract you from the article you're trying to focus on, so even if you are trying to do/read one thing at a time, the way web pages are designed makes it damn near impossible.

Anyway, it's good to know I'm not the only one losing my attention span. And now I'm inspired to- has anyone noticed that building there before?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/multitasking

Whachya readin' for?

Time for your Friday-morning digital book fix. I really think this struggle for control is one of the fundamental issues surrounding e-books, since this is probably where a lot of people will start getting their books from, once e-readers get their iPod equivalent. Issues of privacy & content control are huge, and because of the role books play in distributing ideas and information, they affect book publishing in ways other industries - including music - don't have to deal with as much. These issues are too important to be left to the control of private companies, much less one private company (Google).

Maybe an alternative model would be just the digital equivalent of the way libraries work now - Google, Amazon, etc, 'publish' e-books and do what it is they want to do, but then individual libraries or library systems can purchase access to, or subscribe to, whichever books or whichever database they want. There are endless possibilities as to how it could be done. This way, as a 'reader' I can download my books from Toronto Public Library, in the same way I physically pick them up now, but it's TPL who will have the record of what books I, the individual, the consumer, the patron (however you choose to classify the person) have been reading. They have this information now, but are pretty responsible with destroying it, so it's nothing new that a library would be able to keep track of what its patrons are reading. Judging by the ALA's passionate response to the US PATRIOT Act, librarians take privacy issues pretty seriously, and I'd certainly trust a public library with my reading records more than a private company.

Regardless, it's interesting to see what the Open Content Alliance has to say about the issue.

Anyway, here's the article that got this all started:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8200624.stm

More on books

I've just started reading Umberto Eco's On literature. I managed to get through about 5 pages last night before it was time to make dinner, but so far it's pretty compelling stuff. He's talking about the importance of literature and language, not just as hobbies but as serious cultural elements, and Eco has been pretty interested in technology and its role in literature for a while, so I'm curious to see what he'll have to say about that later on. I guess I'll have to wait until I've read a little more until I can comment further

Oh, and in case anyone's thinking it I'm aware of the irony of using a google-owned blog to criticize it for its monopolistic control on the spread of information, so please don't bother pointing it out.

A waste of language

My boss is starting up a new monthly or (I hope) quarterly newsletter, to inform the office of the goings on in the library. She's not quite sure what the contents of this newsletter will be, but she does want me to contribute a 300-500 word article on something interesting about the library, some reference tips, or maybe a 'Did you know?' column. I've spent the past hour looking through old reference questions and answers, thinking about what I've done here that's worth sharing, and I've come to the unsurprising conclusion that what I do isn't interesting enough to write about. Of course, I can come up with something to write about, but there is nothing I care about enough to share it in written form - at least, unlike this particular post, nothing positive.

I do write fairly regularly on this blog so I obviously am not opposed to writing and I do have things on my mind that I think are worth putting into words. But to receive an assignment to write something, and to have to come up with a topic yourself, within the confines of a job that you don't particularly care for, is a frustrating exercise to say the least. Whichever words I do end up throwing together to take up space on the page aren't going to be interesting to read because they won't be interesting to write. I do my job and that's fine, but I can't force myself to care enough to articulate, much less encourage amongst others, an interest in what it is I do here. I take words and language seriously, because they can be used in unique and interesting ways to express thoughts or create images with a precision that can be surprising. There's a beauty to language, whether it's using your native tongue to express a thought in a new way, or just learning how to say something simple in a foreign language. It can also be simply practical, and improve our lives by allowing us to communicate important information to another person. The way I see it, like the title says, writing for such a newsletter, which I'll ultimately have to do and is neither practical nor beautiful, is just a waste of language.

But at least I got a blog post out of it.

Lobster?

This was an ad I jjust saw in my gmail. I know google scans the contents of your emails to send you targeted ads that you might be more interested in, so I'm really wondering - what triggered this one?

#1 Live Lobster in GTA - http://www.maritimelobster.ca/ - Free Delivery, Wholesale, Retail $7.95 lb, pickup at store, Fresh

Neither practising nor believing, but Catholic even so

An interesting article on secular Catholicism in Quebec. The idea of being a secular Catholic is one I think about but, despite what you read here, I'm not sure it's really possible in the way it is to be, say, secular Jewish. I've found that as my personal belief as wained over the years, I've found it harder to participate (honestly, at least) in religious ceremonies, even just out of tradition - or habit.

Questions

In response to an idea for a writing exercise on the Rose-coloured blog, I've written a little scene made up entirely of questions. I've never seen Rosencrantz & Guilderstern are Dead, so I'm not sure if I took the instructions too literally, but it was still a fun exercise. Even though I wrote this at work and could probably go through and fix it up a bit if I had the time or the inclination. Of course, I'm too self-conscious to actually share it with people who aren't my friends, so it'll just have to sit here for the enjoyment of the (as far as I know) 2 people who read this blog.

[Two people waiting in a long line. Neither the beginning nor the end of the line is visible. In some sort of public building. They could be men or women, but they appear to be in their 40s. Every few seconds they take a small step forward as they move up the line.]

A So how did you die?
B Why do you think I’m dead?
A We’re in heaven, aren’t we?
B You think this is heaven?
A You don’t?
B Isn’t it more like purgatory?
A Why do you say that?
B It’s not perfect here, is it? And aren’t we just waiting in line?
A Look – can you just answer my first question?
B About being dead?
A How did it happen?
B Why do you want to know?
A You’re not curious why we’re here?
B Does the manner of my death affect where I go in the afterlife?
A You don’t believe in that sort of thing?
B Is it some metaphysical worldview you just invented?
A Would it be less true if it is?
B Don’t you think how I lived my life would affect the eternal destination about my soul?
A Who said anything about a soul?
B Didn’t you?
A Is your soul separate from who you are?
B ‘Who I am’?
A Isn’t your soul just a symbol of your whole being?
B If it’s just a symbol and not real, then how does it explain our being here?
A Have we determined where we actually are yet?
B If we’re both dead, can we assume it’s some kind of afterlife?
A So you are dead then?
B But wouldn’t my death be the end of consciousness?
A Maybe you’ll learn that in the afterlife?
B Shouldn’t the afterlife be more about answers than questions?
A Isn’t that what I just said?
B Did you?
A Anyway, why do you assume that the afterlife would give you any answers?
B How else would you learn about the mysteries of existence?
A Who says we have to learn about them at all?
B Aren’t you curious about the universe?
A Does my curiosity make the unknowable any less unknowable?
B If death doesn’t provide us with answers doesn’t it make life feel kind of pointless?
A If you were waiting to die to find answers, then what did you do with your life?
B Hey – what’s with all the questions anyway?

England, philosophy, comedy...

I've started reading Christopher Hibbert's The Story of England. Despite the fact that I lived in the country for a while, and that I was an English major and have read a great deal of European history, it occurred to me how little I know about England, so I thought this would be a nice way to fill in some gaps. It's a short book, about 180 pages, and well-illustrated. I've just gotten past the Norman invasion and the end of their rule, and I've just started with the Plantagenets (whose name I was familiar with from Richard III and Henry IV pts 1 & 2 - Fetch me a cup of sack!).

[Thesis] Reading through the bits about the Middle Ages, I was finding a lot of the brief descriptions about daily life, castles, etc, familiar, and the funny thing is that most of this knowledge, and the ability to visualize things like descriptions of castles or trials by ordeal, comes from Monty Python. And this realization came a few days after I mentioned to my roommate J. that most of my knowledge of philosophers comes from Monty Python. Which is probably why I always thought Kant would be funnier than he is. What a let down that was. It truly was the antithesis of funny.

[Synthesis] But back to the book. I've used the above picture, which is a replica of a Norman helmet found at Sutton Hoo, a huge archaeological find of a Norman ship, not only because it's impressive in its detail and ornamentation, but also because I love the fact that whoever designed it took the time to put a false moustache onto the actual mask. Unless this serves some defensive purpose I'm not aware of, I really think it's one of the more comically unnecessary military decorative elements of the past 1000 years.

Jojo was a man who thought he was a loner, but he knew it wouldn't last

I was just reading through some old posts and it struck me how often I write things at work, in a short amount of time, and always want to get back to a topic to be able to discuss it further. Of course, I never do.

But in an attempt to do so at least once, I will say that, in regards to the previous post about the Holocaust, I was surprised at the author's assumption that most people's view of the Holocaust is that its victims were largely West European Jews. I never thought that myself, and have always thought of Poland and Ukraine as bearing the brunt of WWII, to say nothing of the Jews of the region. It's not really that important, I guess - who thought what and when - but while I enjoyed the article and found it incredibly informative, I can't say it really shook my previous perception of the war. Is this how people really see it? I suppose I'm biased because of my connections to, and interest in, oh, let's just call it East Central Europe. But still, I was surprised by the assumption.

So at least I got back to that topic. There's always more to say about things I guess, which is why there will always be blogs, and may strike me down were it to be otherw-

“Instead of one big shot controlling the media, now there’s a thousand freaks Xeroxing their worthless opinions.”
- Homer Simpson

Go back to Germania, German boy!

Being at work, I don't have time to get into this, but I find the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II a fascinating and world-changing event that's really worth thinking about but which not many people realize actually happened. Before the war, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe had had diverse, multi-ethnic and multilingual populations, with their cities largely populated by Germans and Jews in addition to Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Hungarians or whatever else you can imagine living between Russia and Germany. It looked very different from the region's relatively homogenous nation-states of today, and it's hard to fathom how much the murder of millions of Jews and the expulsion of millions of Germans changed those countries in a very short time. I'm not going to get into the human tragedy, which is obvious enough though truly terrible, but in case anyone's interested in the story of the involuntary post-war German exodus, I thought I'd post this article for your reading pleasure. Also, in case you're interested, and have the time, it's included with a longer article about the Holocaust and the experience of the peoples of Eastern Europe during World War II.

The Expulsion of Germans from the East
Of the 12 million or so Germans who fled or were expelled from Eastern Europe at the end of the war, the vast majority came from Czechoslovakia (3.5 million) or Poland (7.8 million). Most of the second group came from lands taken from the defeated Reich and assigned to Poland by the Allies. About half of the 12 million fled, and about half were deported—though a neat division is impossible, since some of those who fled later returned and were then deported.

In late 1944 and early 1945 some six million Germans fled before the Red Army; it was then that most of the 600,000 or so fatalities among German refugees took place. Many of these were simply people who were caught between armies; some were purposefully massacred by Soviet soldiers or died in Soviet camps. Murders were also committed by Czechs and Poles. Hitler shares responsibility for these deaths, since German authorities failed to organize timely evacuations.

The postwar deportations of Germans, a direct result of Hitler's war, were a Czechoslovak-Polish-Soviet-British-American project. During the war, the exiled leaders of occupied Poland and Czechoslovakia expressed their wish to keep their postwar German populations small, and the Allies agreed that German populations would be removed after victory. Winston Churchill recommended a "clean sweep," and the Allied Control Council issued the official plan for the transfer of six million Germans.

The (non-Communist) Czechoslovak government had Stalin's approval to expel its Germans, but also Churchill's and Roosevelt's. Poland was under Soviet control, though any Polish government would have expelled Germans. Polish Communists accepted Stalin's proposal that Poland should be moved very far to the west, which implied expelling more Germans than democratic Polish politicians would have wished. (It also entailed the deportation of Poles from the eastern half of pre-war Poland, which the Soviets annexed. About a million of these Polish expellees settled the lands from which Germans were expelled.)

From May to December 1945 Polish and Czechoslovak authorities dumped about two million Germans over their borders. From January 1946, Polish and Czechoslovak authorities continued to force Germans to leave, while British, Soviet, and American forces arranged their reception in their occupation zones in Germany. In 1946 and 1947, the Soviets received slightly more than two million Germans in their zone, the British some 1.2 million, and the Americans some 1.4 million. Deportations continued at a slower pace thereafter.

Although the expulsions were a case of collective responsibility, and involved hideous treatment, mortality rates among German civilians—some 600,000 out of 12 million—were relatively low when compared to the other events discussed here. Caught up in the end of a horrible war fought in their name, and then by an Allied consensus in favor of border changes and deportation, these Germans were not victims of a calculated Stalinist killing policy comparable to the Terror or the famine.

Correction

I just noticed that in the picture below, the naked souls entering heaven receive clothing as they arrive. So heaven is not a wild sex party after all. My apologies.

Heaven & Hell Cotillion

I’m not normally one to offer opinions on visual arts, as I really don’t know anything about it, but it's something whose pleasures I've recently discovered. I was just admiring Hans Memling’s The last judgment, which I saw on another site. Maybe I’m just looking for distractions from my work, but I looked at it closely, and it’s really terrifying – and not just the images of hell. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t picture heaven as walking naked into a Gothic cathedral. If I were naked, I have other concepts of what heaven might look like – but I’m too bashful to share them here.

What I did find interesting about the painting is how it illustrates how Medieval Europeans really saw the world as a battle ground between good and evil, or God and the Devil. Look at the centre frame, with St. Michael (I think) and his (or is it His, in the case of a saint?) angels fighting for the souls of the naked. Presumably the good and naked. I particularly like the image of the person/soul, just at St. Michael’s right hip, who’s caught in the grips of a devil, but being pulled from towards heaven by an angel – with a spear! Does this mean the forces of good use the same weapons as the forces of evil to win a soul? I’m not sure. But I do like the graphic and personal illustration of that particular struggle, as if, despite what the Church has always taught, it’s not man who freely chooses his destiny, but rather God or the Devil. Why would an angel have to fight for a soul like that if its fate had already been determined by the person's actions on earth? And does that mean there might be good souls who actually are lost to hell because an angel (I only see one in the middle frame) couldn’t get to that soul in time?

I really wonder how literally most Europeans took the ideas of heaven and hell at the time. I’d think that in a world bereft of the visual imagery that so overwhelms us, and in which most people were illiterate and so got their ideas about the world mostly through graphic arts (especially in Church), seeing such a picture must have been horrifying.

A brief post to be continued later on


I'm working on a longer and more detailed post about a couple of things I've encountered lately - namely, the artist's place amongst a larger group. This is something I've thought about before, but I recently read two things that have brought it back to my mind. Chaim Potok's My name is Asher Lev, which I just finished, looks at this from an artist's perspective, and it's also something that's always present in Philip Roth's novels. I just read a profile of him that reminded me of this, and is the reason I'm writing this. Basically, I find the 2 writers' approach to the subject complementary, and interesting for their difference - in Roth, you get characters (at least Coleman Silk is an example of this, maybe Alexander Portnoy, though his situation is a bit more complex) who are trying to escape the world they were raised in, to choose their personal "I" over the "we" of the group. But in Asher Lev, you have a Hasidic, Orthodox Jew with a great talent for painting & drawing. Pursuing this gift is contradicts the wishes of his father, the community, etc, but he does it anyway. What I found interesting, after reading several Roth novels, is that he never questions his religion, and while he doesn't necessarily try to combine religion and art - the two definitely remain separate spheres in his life - he never sees the two as mutually exclusive. For anyone this can be an ongoing struggle with different complications.

Anyway, it's interesting and there's a lot more to say, but I actually have work to do so I thought I should get this down before I forget about it. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it soon, but for now, I'll use this Degas painting to illustrate my office, which is much less scenic than the painting.


(As you can see, the inspiration of reading a book about a painter has led to the use of more classic images for the blog. The hard part is finding something relevant - the first painting is by Marc Chagall, of his shtetl in Belarus, painted after he left, called I and the village. The second, called The office. But maybe I'll pick up a book on art history one of these days. It's embarassing how much I don't know.)

Having been away for 6 weeks I'm extremely busy at work and I really shouldn't be writing this right now, but I've been playing around with font colours to try to get something legible on the background picture I've chosen (a painting of Genesee St. in Buffalo by Charles Burchfield).

I just finished Chaim Potok's My name is Asher Lev, which explores the tension between tradition and the individual, the traditions of family vs. the tradition of art, the individual vs. the collective, and other aspects of art in one's life, among other themes. I wasn't loving the book for the first 100 pages or so but luckily I stuck with it because I really enjoyed it by the end, and have taken a lot of ideas away from it that I'll have to record at some point. Maybe I'll write more on it in the near future.

But now - work. I've got a presentation this afternoon after 6 weeks away. I'm trying to remember what it is I do again...

The medium really is the message?

I had a weird moment of realization today. I was watching CP24, hoping for any news update to the strike, and the story was about the mayor’s announcement today that more building permits will be processed, up to 500 by the end of the month. To ‘illustrate’ the story there was a video clip – a close-up of a hand hammering a nail into some sort of wooden structure. I was thinking how funny it is that they must have video clips for all sorts of stories, catalogued somehow so that the editors or directors or whoever decides these things can find an appropriate one for any kind of story. I find it funny because a picture of nails being hammered into wood doesn’t strike me as necessary when doing a story on building permits – I know what building permits entail, and even if I don’t know or can’t picture it, an image of actual ‘building’, no matter how on-point and illustrative, doesn’t add anything to the story. And yet, stock footage like this is used all the time.

Then it occurred to me that I do the same thing on my blog, and so do many other bloggers. I can’t decide whether this is a sign of a universal and inherent form of thought that we think is the best way to illustrate stories – whether with a picture or a video, do we feel that text isn’t enough to get our point across? Are we that limited by language that we use a picture or video to set up or establish what we’re trying to describe with our text?

Or is the creation of blogs, and this apparently universal format, just a product of all of us watching the same television news programs since childhood? Has television –in this case specifically television news – implanted itself in the way our minds work so deeply that, even when presented with a blank canvas and the opportunity for unlimited creativity, we are still limited by what newsroom editors in Washington or London or Toronto think is the best way to present news? When extrapolated beyond blogging, it’s a disturbing thought.

This is the first personal and non-strike thing I've written since it started. I don't feel like going back and editing it for typos and continuity and whatnot, so if there are any errors, that explains it. I'm just procrastinating when I should be applying for jobs. I had a job, or I guess I technically still do have a job. And one that I like, too. I'm just not allowed to do it right now so I'm forced to apply for other jobs. That's really annoying.

On history and aging writers

I'm about 80 pages into American Pastoral. A couple of thoughts. I don't know if you remember, but he finished the Counterlife with letters between Nathan and Maria about him creating her as a character, and her writing to him that 'pastoral' settings don't suit him (Zuckerman, at least) as a writer and he turned the characters in England into open anti-Semites because he needs the controversy and conflict that it produces. I find it funny that Roth finished one novel describing pastoral settings in literature as unsuitable for himself and then uses that as the title in his next one. It's pretty clear where AP is heading - I mean, the title of the first section is 'Paradise remembered' - and the way he's establishing Swede Levov and then introduces the story about Merry throwing the bomb, it'll be something along the lines of 'pastoralism lost'. But I like the thematic continuity. Says a lot about him as a writer, as if finishing with those thoughts in The Counterlife developed into the plot for American Pastoral.

Using the school reunion as a story-telling device works well too, and it's also kind of funny (for me, at least) because it makes me think of Skvorecky. His last novel (Ordinary Lives) uses 2 school reunions (25 & 50 years, I think) to frame the flashbacks and kind of tie together old stories told in his previous novels. It's interesting to see 2 aging writers, whose works I'm fairly familiar with, and who use recurring characters with loosely continuous storylines from novel to novel, use school reunions so prominently in their later novels. You start to get the feeling that nostalgia is an inevitable part of growing old, and for a writer, that means you're not just going to think about high school, but write stories about it too. I wouldn't be surprised if reading I Married a Communist and The Human Stain changes my perspective on this, but that's at least my impression for now.

The conversations Zuckerman has with his former schoolmates - it's really similar to what Skvorecky did, though I have to say Roth pulls it off a little more successfully. Maybe that's just because of the story he's telling, about America in the 60's, has more continuity and relevance for America today than when Skvorecky talks about Communist coups and exile. The Czech Republic today doesn't seem to lean on that past as much as its exiles do, or as much as the United States does, and conversations about Communist theories and political oppression really sound dated, like they're coming out of an isolated past. Of course, the reasons for the differences are obvious - the US didn't have the same clean break that came from the radical political changes as the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe, so there's a more direct line from the 60's to today. And as for the exiles, even if they've gone back to the Czech Republic since 1989, having lived in North America for 30-40 years, they still remember the country they left more strongly than the one they visit. It's just a shame that Skvorecky (like his fellow Czechs here) hasn't moved beyond that more in his writing.

Anyway, my original intention was to point out the similar outlook of two aging writers and comment on how aging affects the way we look at life, and I didn't necessarily set out intending to compare Roth and Skvorecky, but I suppose it's not entirely a waste of time. For both of them, 20th century history plays such a huge role in their characters' lives, even with some cross-over in setting (Prague Orgy), so it can definitely be an interesting and worthwhile exercise.

I don't think that's selfish. We've of course discussed this before, but maybe part of getting older is accepting the inevitability that we're not as unique as we thought when we were younger, and because of this we find that we have less and less to learn from the outside world.

I think about the idea of raising a child, and one thing that's on my mind about it is that there is nothing new you can teach that child - sure, it'll all be new for her or him, but all you can do is spend the first 20 years or so catching them up with what the rest of the world already knows. So from the child's perspective - which in this case is us - as we get older we realize this, and so tend to turn inwards as we age as the world is no longer as fresh and new as it once seemed.

For myself, at least concerning my reading habits, I've found that over the past year or so I take a lot more pleasure in fiction than I used to. I think it's a combination of two things - one, I think I find comfort in seeing a subjective experience of the world that I can relate to - even if it's fictional it's still been conceived and written by a real person. Secondly, I find that I can't concentrate on non-fiction, history, politics like I used to. While they're all interesting and important, at the age of 31 I'm already seeing the world around me repeat itself, and that gets frustrating. As part of getting older, maybe I'm also finding stories more engaging than events, and that the individual is more interesting than the collective. More important? I'll have to think about that one.

On the question of what is art. Beautifully put.


Knowledge can never transform the world,' I blurted out, skirting along the very edge of confession. 'What transforms the world is action. There's nothing else.'

[...]

'There you go!' he said. 'Action, you say. But don't you see that the beauty of this world, which means so much to you, craves sleep and that in order to sleep it must be protected by knowledge? You remember that story of 'Nansen Kills a Kitten' which I told you about once. The cat in that story was incomparably beautiful. The reason that the priests from the two halls of the temple quarreled about the cat was that they both wanted to protect the kitten, to look after it, to let it sleep snugly, within their own particular cloaks of knowledge. Now Father Nansen was a man of action, so he went and killed the kitten with his sickle and had done with it. But when Choshu came along later, he removed his shoes and put them on his head.

What Choshu wanted to say was this. He was fully aware that beauty is a thing which must sleep and which, in sleeping, must be protected by knowledge. But there is no individual knowledge, a particular knowledge belonging to one special person or group. Knowledge is the sea of humanity, the field of humanity, the general condition of human existence. I think that is what he wanted to say.

Now you want to play the role of Choshu, don't you? Well, beauty -- beauty that you love so much -- is an illusion of the 'other way to bear life' which you mentioned. One could say in fact there is no such thing as beauty. What makes the illusion so strong, what imparts it with such a power of reality, is precisely knowledge. From the point of view of knowledge, beauty is never a consolation. It may be a woman, it may be one's wife, but it is never a consolation. Yet from the marriage between this beautiful thing which is never a consolation, on the one hand, and knowledge, on the other, something is born. It is as evanescent as a bubble and utterly hopeless. Yet something is born. That something is what people call art.'

-- From Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

[and seen by me here]

Some thoughts on reading

I just read the letters from a librarian post about aesthetics, art and philosophy. Well, the most recent one, at least. Pretty fascinating stuff. I wish I had the time to just sit around and think about this sort of thing. I guess it's good that other people do, as long as they share their thoughts and conversations with people like me. Hey, maybe that's the whole value of art, philosophy, even academic studying of humanities - not to live in isolation, but to produce something of value that regular people (at least, non-academics who care about this stuff) can use to improve their own lives, their understanding of the world they live in, and thereby contribute to the overall improvement of human civilization. Not through technological advancement, but through furthering knowledge of civilization itself.

Maybe because I read a lot, I occasionally feel the need to justify it in a more meaningful way than just that ‘I enjoy it’ or ‘I like learning’, so I think about this sort of thing all the time. When I read, whether it's fiction or non-fiction, I can't get away from the mindset that reading should be about more than entertainment or even personal fulfillment. To give meaning to reading, it’s important to discuss what we read, whether facts, ideas, or just beautiful usage of language (poetry, etc), and by doing so to add, in however small a way, to society's understanding of itself. This can happen even if you only share your thoughts with one or two people. If a person fills their brain with knowledge or ideas and doesn't share them, it's a waste, and turns reading into a self-indulgent exercise no different from sitting on the couch watching reality tv shows because any knowledge, insight or understanding gained remains internal and unused. To share ideas it’s not necessary to publish novels or give academic lectures - not at all. Ideas can be shared through simple things like conversations or pointless, rambling blog posts we write while at work (ahem). To quote Jacques Cousteau via Rushmore: "When one man, for whatever reason, has the opportunity to lead an extraordinary life he has no right to keep it to himself."

I have more thoughts on this, like the idea that there are too many voices out there already, so it might be nice if someone just sat and listened and tried to keep track of it instead of just adding to the cacophony (I am a librarian, after all), but I’ll have to think about it some more first.

Albania dusts off ancient treasures

I don't normally associate Albania with ancient Greek and Roman architecture, but really, why shouldn't I? It should be so obvious - Albania's right across the Adriatic from Italy, and right next to Greece. And yet, I'm still amazed at how the political map of today's world can almost completely erase the our consciousness of the historical continuity of civilization. Anyway, pretty cool stuff.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7978443.stm

Reading Proust – Swann’s Way, 2: Struggling with Proust
Page 264, end of Part I.

Well what can I say at this point? In case it’s not obvious already, I’m not an academic, I’m not a writer, I’m a person with a job who reads when I have the time. I read because it offers a subjective view of history, or a close-up view of life that you miss in non-fiction or even, to bring Proust himself into this, because it can be more truthful than reality. So that’s where I’m coming from. And now, onto the book.

Mr. Proust is capable of some beautiful linguistic photography and he has some fascinating reflections on the mind, human interactions, social class, nature, reading, memory, and whatnot. And that’s just in the first 264 pages of a 3000 page novel. It’s a work of genius.

However, I have to say, I’m really struggling to continue. I might just be too distracted by other things going on in my life, or maybe I’m not getting enough sleep, or maybe I shouldn’t have committed to Proust so soon after emotionally exhausting myself on Hrabal, but I just find myself, ok, recognizing his genius as a novelist while struggling to give a damn about what the narrator thinks of hawthorn trees, or his gossipy dying aunt’s routine being thrown off by eating lunch an hour early on Saturdays. If I were in a class where I’m forced to read this, I could come up with some interesting observations and even write a paper about it if I were motivated by a grade. But as a guy with limited free time and a shelf-full of other books I’m thinking about reading, I’m finding it increasingly hard to focus on Swann’s Way. One expectation I had when I started this is that, like War & Peace, reading such an enormous novel I’d over time become increasingly attached to the characters and their stories. But because of the perspective of In search of lost time, you only get to know one character, whose own thoughts on the novel’s events (which aren’t really events per se, but rather his memories of, well, the past). After 264 pages I’m starting to feel like I’ve been stuck in a room with the same person for too long, and I need air, I need other characters with their own lives who aren’t just shadows of this one person’s memory – as vivid as those shadows are evoked. I find myself desiring conversation.

I do have plenty of positive things to say about the novel, however, which is the reason I’m not ready to give up on it just yet. As I said, Proust’s a genius. His physical descriptions, while they can drag on and become tedious, are beautifully written (or, beautifully translated, at least). In general, though, what interests me most are his descriptions of what he calls “the life of the mind” which, “of all the various lives we lead concurrently, is the most episodic, the most full of vicissitudes” (258).

One thing that’s really struck me is the way he presents the relationship between reality and imagination. I’m getting the impression that the narrator is a person who prefers desire for its own purpose over the eventual fulfillment of that desire. Much of the narrative is tied up in reflection and fantasy, that leads to ultimate disappointment when that reality is fulfilled. There are two illustrations of this: when he sees the Duchess of Guermantes in her ancestral church, about whom he’d been dreaming and fantasizing for a while, and is “immensely disappointed” when he sees her in person. He says this disappointment comes from the expectation that she would be an image on a tapestry or stained-glass window, which is how he’d been looking at images of her ancestors in the church. The second illustration is just a line on the nature that surrounds him on his walks: “because reality takes place in the memory alone, the flowers that people show me nowadays for the first time never seem to me to be true flowers (260). I'm not doing a great job of evoking it but it really is amazing stuff.

I was reminiscing recently with a friend I’ve known for 30 years about growing up together, so had our own search for lost time to compare with the novel. Perhaps that could be its own post, or perhaps you’ll just have to fantasize what I could come up with on such a topic, a post which could only disappoint whatever it is you can imagine. I do hope to continue to write about the novel, though, much as Proust’s narrator does, “to appease my conscience and to satisfy my enthusiasm” (255).

There’s obviously plenty more to say about Proust, but I think this is more than enough for now. I’m taking a break from the book today after finishing Part I, but I’ll probably be picking it up again soon enough. I should also confess that I’ve picked up Hrabal again during my break, this time reading him in Czech. I’m not sure if I’ll be posting on that or not yet, but if nothing else it’ll serve as a distraction while I let the memory of reading Proust surpass the act of actually doing so. He’d be so proud of me.

Monty Python - All-England Summarize Proust Competition

As you can see, you just have to go and read the book for yourself. And for the record, I'd have given her the prize, too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8rhIw_9ucA

Reading Proust - Swann's Way: 1
About 64 pages in...

Have you ever heard about the scene in Proust with the madeleine? It's about 60 pages in. I just read it, and wow, I'm starting to get what this is all about, especially why you get books like 'Proust and the squid' or 'Proust was a neurosurgeon.' He really has a great way of explaining how memories can be lost and then evoked by certain senses.

I was actually thinking about this quite a bit earlier because it comes after a 50-page memory of how the narrator used to cry for his mother as a child. I didn't find that part very inspiring, but without it this essay or whatnot on memory would not have had the same impact. I was thinking about how I would summarize or explain this to someone who hasn't read the novel, and then it hit me that if we were capable of summing up in a few words what it took a novelist 60 pages to say, the world would have no need for literature. The novel is an art form that expresses a view of human experience in a very specific way, and the only way to get that is to actually read the novel (same goes for any other work of art, I guess). I think that's why I prefer it to straight philosophy - it kind of teaches by example or illustration instead of by theory. Being told "A man died" would not have the same impact on you as if you actually read the story of that man's life, suffering and death, even though the end result is ultimately the same. Kind of like the difference between watching a game and seeing the score in the paper the next day. Maybe that's what makes a book good, or even great - expressing that experience extremely well?

As I anticipate that reading In search of lost time will be quite an adventure, I hope to post more of these quick entries on thoughts I have on the book as I go along, partially to share my thoughts but also just to leave bread crumbs of where I've been over the course of the 2500 pages. We'll see where this leads. I also just read Hrabal's I served the King of England. I'll have to come up with something on that as well.

I've been meaning to start posting thoughts about books I've read, am reading or would like to read, but I'm far too lazy to get to that any time soon, especially considering I'm at work right now, so for now I'll have to content myself with just mentioning the books and getting around to actually writing about them at some point in the near future.

I'm currently reading War with the newts by Karel Čapek. (I'm actually reading it in Czech, so maybe I should put the title as Válka s mloky.)

I just finished Ordinary lives by Josef Škvorecký and The Lazarus project by Aleksandar Hemon.

Indifference - our mother, our salvation, our destruction

From an interview with Josef Škvorecký:

“Today I’d exclude destruction, and I’m not even sure anymore that indifference is our mother. But it is certainly our saviour.” Why, I asked him, does indifference retain its saving power? “If you were not indifferent, in a certain sense, in the days of Nazism or Communism, you would go mad,” he answered. “Because there were so many victims, you accepted it as a hard fact of life. Nobody weeps reading about six million dead, but if you read the story of one concrete, individual person, you can have a rapport with that person’s suffering. The greatness of literature is that it can move you that way.”

I just had a look at my friend J.'s blog (that his form of anonymous friend-mention, which is also suitable for my purposes) for the first time in a while. He has some entertaining, but some interesting and admirable new year's resolutions, one of which is to write more. I really want to make more of an effort to write as well, especially on my blog. I find myself with thoughts that I understand about how I see the world, but when it comes to verbalizing them in conversation they tends to come out as mumbled garbage, something along the lines of "I like boobies" (a profound and important thought but which could be certainly expanded upon and clarified). Writing forces you to organize thoughts into words that are going to sit on the screen in front of you instead of just floating as vague clouds of words that can't be expressed to another person but make sense inside the limited confines of my brain. When it comes to actually putting words onto, er, paper, I always get the feeling that my grasp of the language isn't as good as I pretend or think it is, so I should really work on that. I just wish my computer was in a more comfortable place in the house...

At work we have a resource called the wrongful dismissal database. It is basically a collection of court decisions in cases of people who have been laid off or fired, and it gives examples how much notice and severance the person should receive depending on age, years of service, their position, etc. Once a lawyer asked me to run a couple of searches and was looking at the average notice at the end of each result. I asked him, "So that's what you're looking for, a certain average?" He replied, "Well, it depends what side we're on." I found that statement shockingly revealing because it's something I've often thought about that is a problem with the nature of the law. This was an admission that he's not looking to see what the law actually says about what should be done, but how he can manipulate it in an argument.

A lawyer's job is not to find the truth in a case, it is not to get to the bottom of what a law is really about to make sure that justice is done. Rather, it is to find a law that can be interpreted in a certain way that will enforce the rights of the client. It's no secret that people with money often get away with crimes the rest of us wouldn't because they can afford better legal help than the poor and other non-rich masses. But why is that? It's because when you hire a lawyer, right or wrong, you pay them to convince the judge or jury to interpret the law in a way that favours you. An ideal, which would never happen and, besides, is also open to abuse in pretty obvious ways, would be an independent committee of lawyers who decide each case based on an impartial study of the law. You can still leave room for appeals and complaints because there's always the possibility of a mistrial, but I just think this would be the only way to have equality before the law, rather than have 2 parties representing clients (who are normally paying them) to plead their case, with the result that the one who's more convincing wins. Of course, true impartiality is impossible and there's no reason to go into the reasons my idea won't ever come into existence, but it's an idea that's occurred to me that I thought I'd share in case anyone else (if anyone ever reads this) has an opinion on it.

Yet another serious world issue which is far too complicated, and far too divisive, for me to take a stand either way. I wonder if the residents of Lisbon would like to weigh in on this one.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24386702/

Lambrou said the word lesbian has only been linked with gay women in the past few decades. "But we have been Lesbians for thousands of years," said Lambrou, who publishes a small magazine on ancient Greek religion and technology that frequently criticizes the Christian Church.

A really good article on the differences between American-style charity and the Canadian sense of the common good:

Oprah's Big Give began with 10 contestants, one eliminated each week for failing to pull in enough money for charity and the biggest winner receiving a surprise $1 million purse. Its philosophy is simple, and American: Philanthropy and the private sector, it suggests, can best provide services and solve problems, with the added bonus – and this is important – that they cause no loss of personal liberty.
....
In this country, Canadians still cling – under duress and escalating pressure – to the notion we can be a progressive society through our collective tax dollars. It's an idea being eroded as effectively as the Arctic ice cap and yet, together, we try to offer quality education and medical care, maintain the country's infrastructure and service the citizenry.
....
Although Canadian taxes, particularly corporate taxes, have fallen under both Liberal and Conservative governments, statistics still mark the differences. In 2006, OECD calculations pegged taxes as a portion of GDP at 33.6 per cent in Canada and 25.9 per cent in the U.S. Indices show you get what you pay for. Poverty rates are higher per capita in America, as is infant mortality, while the incomes of the elderly are lower and life expectancy is shorter, etc., etc.

Ya know, I really hate stereotypes. Not making stereotypes, of course. Using stereotypes is much quicker and easier than trying to get to know a whole group of people and judge them all individually. What I hate is when people live up to stereotypes, when you can look at a person and accurately say "you're a lesbian" or "your'e Italian" or something like that.

I don't know why I just thought of that....

Well, I guess we can get that gun now...

And I found this interesting as well:

In what could have been Heston's most audacious Jewish role, the FBI recruited the actor amid the 1993 Waco, Texas, standoff involving David Koresh and the Branch Davidians. Heston was to have played the Voice of God to facilitate negotiations with Koresh, however the plan was never used.

In the interest of killing the last 15 minutes of a Friday, I feel I should share the following story, which is all too true, and happened not so long ago:

So, I'm practically falling asleep at my desk and I decide to get up and go make myself a cup of tea. I go into the kitchen, where we have automated machines - just insert your packet and go - I mean, who's got time to boil water? But I digress. I reached into the drawer containing the English breakfast teas, put it in the machine and waited for 21st century technology bring me the taste of England, all at the touch of a button. As I waited I started to smell something foul, something offensive, something I should not have been smelling - something that I soon realized was nothing but my nemesis - Earl Grey, whose black heart (optimistically dubbed 'Grey' by his legion of supporters) has been marring tea drinking for centuries.

Yes, you heard me, somebody had put packets containing this foul, putrid weed where the English breakfast tea should be. And because both packets are green, I didn't notice until it was, alas too late - for the cup, at least, though thank heavens I managed to stop this horrible process before accidentally tasting the vile drink.

Right now you're probably thinking, "But Michael, how on earth did you resolve the situation? And did you ever get the tea you wanted?" Yes, yes, I managed to survive this scrape with Earl Grey, and I even managed to escape with a cup of English breakfast tea, but that story will have to wait for another day, as writing this has already taken me sufficiently close to five o'clock.

Oww. I mean, how does a person survive this?

And on a slighly related note, there was a big NATO meeting in Romania this week. President Bush gave a speech that honoured the Romanian troops fighting in Iraq for naming their base camp with the necessary symbolism to bring to the forefront the morality of the mission they're currently fighting:

At this moment, 10 NATO nations have forces supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom -- including the "Black Wolves" of Romania's 151st Infantry. This battalion has given their base in Iraq a fearsome name: "Camp Dracula."

I guess this is the kind of image he wants to get across to the Iraqis:

No word yet on how the Germans' camp Hitler is progressing in Afghanistan.

Police on trail of 'fat bandit'

Although victims initially suspected that a man who robbed three banks within 90 minutes yesterday was wearing a fat suit as a disguise, police today say the man really is fat guy.

"We don't believe it's a fat suit," Det. Russ Rairey told thestar.com today.
"We just think he is fat."

Early reports indicated the robber must have been wearing a "fat suit" to disguise his identity.
But police now believe the robber is about 5-foot-9 and 300 pounds. His beard, however, is a fake.

The three robberies are not connected to the violent bank robbery on Sheppard Ave. later in which police shot a suspect.

Police can't say yet how the chubby bandit was able to get around so quickly in order to pull off the three robberies within a five-mile radius.

"He was seen leaving the bank on foot, but he's got to have some mode of transportation," the detective said.

His first stop was a TD Bank at Bayview and Moore Aves., then another bank on Glencairn Ave. and finally a third on Marlee Ave., all in the midtown area.
Police believe the "fat bandit" has pulled more than the three bank heists and the violence has been escalating.

He produced a gun in all three holdups yesterday and staff were all quite shaken.
Police are working with the Canadian Bankers Association on coming up with a reward. They hope to make an announcement sometime next week.

Iraq war botched and illegal

Linda McQuaig offers a succinct and dead-on analysis of what passes for an "anti-war" position on the American occupation of Iraq. It's encouraging to see some discussion of the fact that 'criticism' of the war in most mainstream media outlets never goes beyond lamenting the loss of American lives and dollars. It really is sad that there is no prominent serious discussion of whether or not it's right to invade another country - just whether or not they can get away with it.

Sure, there's lots of criticism of the Bush administration for poor war planning, and for squandering U.S. lives and "treasure."
All this is true, but it skirts a more fundamental problem – one that was barely mentioned in all the fifth-year anniversary commentaries last week – that the invasion was a war of aggression carried out in defiance of international law.
This is not a mere technicality. According to the Nuremberg Tribunal, set up by the Allies after World War II: "War is essentially an evil thing ... To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime."

There was an interesting post about the possibility of a Walmart moving into the city of Buffalo. Personally, I think it's inevitable as a continuing part of the recent suburbanizatin of Buffalo. By this I don't mean that more and more people are moving to the suburbs - I mean the city itself is becoming more suburban. All of the recent development in North Buffalo - along Elmwood just south of Hertel (Home Depot, etc.), along Delaware around Hertel (from IHOP to Target) - there have been more chains, strip malls and parking lots appearing, making these major arteries feel more like Niagara Falls Blvd. or Sheridan than urban strips.

All of this is a shame, too, because if you look at Hertel in the past 10 years, it's really been developing nicely into a pleasant urban village - lots of walkable shopping and restaurants. Sure, it's always had these things, but in the past few years it's been improving quite a bit. There's also been a recent spurt of both new apartments & condos downtown (600-700 block of Main St.), as well as restoration of older buildings that have been borded up for as long as I can remember (Oak St., I think). If the city wants to grow and improve itself, these are the sorts of areas and projects it needs to push, and stop selling land to strip mall developers who will continue to make any kind of positive urban landscape to develop.

Anyway, one of the commentors there mentioned the idea of Walmart inserting itself as part of a normal city block instead of a big box suburban outlet surrounded by thousands of parking spaces. This is obviously more appealing and could be a sort of catalyst for other development (depending on where it goes) but let's not ignore the fact that it's still Walmart. These are still going to be minimum wage retail jobs, and it's still going to push a lot of local shops out of business. So I'm still opposed. It's just good to see people are thinking about these things. The posts on Buffalo Rising often lead to interesting and intelligent discussions on the city's future.

Will Buffalo be hurt by the big retail giants? Well yes and no so let me explain. Buffalo is an incredibly poor, shrinking and relatively stupid/uneducated/illiterate/non-techology focused city even compared to Rochester one hour east.
The only reason Buffalo has the Airport handling 6 million visitors, and the retail and many other businesses is due to the patronage of the canadians who find it cheaper and believe it or not more convenient. Without the canadians Buffalo wouldnt even have the population or the wealth to attract the walmarts and k-marts that it has now much less higher end retail....and without the canadians Buffalo would have higher fairs than Rochester no doubt.
Now after saying this why did I have to put Buffalo down by saying its "relatively stupid/uneducated/illiterate/non-techology focused" because when people think of small business in Buffalo they think restaurants, retail and hair dressers. In other words low capital and low education.
Buffalonians need to think of small business in terms of high technology, high education, high value services across wide swaths of industry and business. The fact that we Buffalonians think in terms of the lowest intelligence/lowest skill/lowest education/lowest value/lowest technology possible says why we are continuing to fail as a 21st century city.
--------------------------
However...there is opportunity for something different. The front of a Wal-Mart supercenter tends to be shops anyway. The doctor's office, the eye glass store, a Subway, a photo shop, the grocery store, etc. Although, they're all contained behind blank walls. If you put the store basically on a city block you could arrange it so that the front of the store has windows for each individual shop to give it a retail-storefront appearance. Basically make the Wal-Mart an urban retail block in and of itself. The only skin off Wal-Mart's back is that it looks slightly different than all their other stores. But innovation is supposed to be what they're good at. Plus, in my mind, this could fulfill the need for a grocery store in an underserved area, which is a big deal.
Now, having said that, I fully understand that this might squash whatever existing locally owned businesses were trying to germinate in whatever area this thing goes. And that is very bad. But, if its going to happen anyway (as Wal-Mart has a history of doing whatever they want), the city might as well try to make the store part of an urban fabric with built-in potential for adaptive reuse. This would be a small victory in what would otherwise be an unmitigated disaster.

http://buffalorising.com/story/how_will_the_retail_climate_ch#sca

Well, if you moustache such a question....

There is currently an interesting discussion of the beard and society going on at Maltirish, and it has moved me to reflect on my own beard growing experiences. I've grown two beards in my lifetime, neither time for more than a month or two. Anyway, the way I see it, there are two main aspects to the beard - physical and social.

The physical aspect concerns things like grooming and itchiness. A beard can be convenient because it eliminates all that time normally spent shaving. Of course, for those of us with he luxury of only shaving once a week (more out of laziness than a mere lack of facial hair), the time spent trimming a beard isn't really all that much of an improvement. It also becomes necessary because of things like neck itchiness and hairs hanging over the lip from the moustache.

The social aspect of a beard is basically how people see you and react to your beard. Everyone who knew you before the beard will inevitably have questions about why you're doing it and comments on how well (or badly) it's coming in. But people who meet you for the first time are more likely to keep their judgments silent, andmay think you're a hippy, a communist, a Muslim, or a 19th century politician. Of course, once you shave the beard the same people will have a whole new round of questions for you, and perhaps even new-found honesty like finally telling you they never liked your old girlfriend anyway. This is all just something you have to be prepared to deal with.

Obviously, there's more to say on this, but I'm at work right now and can't really offer this subject the attention and depth it deserves. But hopefully the discussion will continue. Also, in the meantime, for those with the luxury of a surplus of facial hair who can choose what style of beard to grow, Wikipedia has a useful and brilliantly-illustrated guide.

To me it all seems like a case of over-zealous propagandists putting the cart before the horse....

This is a pretty incredible display of journalistic arrogance. I find it amazing how many influential voices of the mainstream American press were just unable to consider even the possibility that, perhaps, the American invasion of Iraq would involve more than a quick ass-kicking, where nobody would get hurt except the bad guys.

(For the record, I wouldn't expect them to question the war's morality - I know whose side the people quoted here are on and their "interpretations" of events aren't surprising. But you'd think they could at least open their eyes and acknowledge the piles of evidence predicting the tragedy that eventually did unfold. If thousands of people hadn't died unnecessarily I'd say it's hilarious.)

"Now that the combat phase of the war in Iraq is officially over, what begins is a debate throughout the entire U.S. government over America's unrivaled power and how best to use it."
(CBS reporter Joie Chen, 5/4/03)

"The war was the hard part. The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war."
(Fox News Channel's Fred Barnes, 4/10/03)

"This will be no war -- there will be a fairly brief and ruthless military intervention.... The president will give an order. [The attack] will be rapid, accurate and dazzling.... It will be greeted by the majority of the Iraqi people as an emancipation. And I say, bring it on."
(Christopher Hitchens, in a 1/28/03 debate-- cited in the Observer, 3/30/03)

Take a look here for more of the same.

In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in His cosmic loneliness.

And God said, "Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done." And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak. God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke. Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely.

"Everything must have a purpose?" asked God.

"Certainly," said man.

"Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God.

And He went away.

- Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, p. 265

A Review of “Renewing the Information Infrastructure of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek” by Theo van Veen

The article I selected is titled “Renewing the Information Infrastructure of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek,” or the National Library of the Netherlands (KB). The author is Theo Van Veen, who is a member of the KB’s research and development department. This department is currently evaluating its information infrastructure and remaking it in order to “improve the integration and exchange of information between internal and external services, and lowering implementation barriers for new functionality” (van Veen, 1). Van Veen’s primary goal in this evaluation is “to be able to offer services that can understand the data coming from other services and to offer data from the KB in such a way that other services can understand and use it. Interoperability is the key to his evaluation, in fact.

The article itself begins by mentioning these goals. It then looks at the current information infrastructure of the library and goes on to consider possible changes to implement. It concludes by pointing out how the staff of the KB no longer see its infrastructure, as well as that of similar organizations, as closed systems, but rather “as a part of global knowledge, with users accessing various services to obtain information.” On the whole, it is a useful article to read because the ideas and solutions it offers are not unique to the KB – the author deliberately attempts to make them relevant to other, similar organizations. In addition, Van Veen rightly stays focused on the user’s needs throughout the article, making it clear that his intention is to improve users’ access to information as well as the KB’s visibility and usefulness.

The discussion of the library’s goals is particularly interesting as it calls for both the interoperability of various services and a minimizing of “development and maintenance efforts” for the KB’s services. Van Veen points out that although the current project mainly concerns the internal infrastructure of the KB, they expect that the methods discussed in the article will “support integration with external information infrastructures, such as those of other national libraries and museums, archives, Google, etc.” This is important because the integration of several sources of information, such as the ones mentioned above, increases the influence and usefulness of each. Creating a structure that can be integrated in this way is a good idea for the KB, and also serves as an example that other large or national libraries can follow. The author has also worked on the European Library project, which integrates the national libraries of several European countries, and so is able to offer practical experience as to what this entails.

After discussing the library’s problems and current situation Van Veen briefly discusses his approach, which is basically a concern that “integration of data takes place under the user’s control.” In other words, he wants a system whose search results can be used by other services, eliminating the need to copy and paste from one program to another. If we look at the European Library project’s online catalogue we can see this in practice.

He then offers recommendations for five areas of the KB’s information infrastructure that he feels need to be addressed:

1. Search and Retrieval
2. Search Results: text, objects and semantic relations
3. Metadata
4. Resolution
5. Authentication

Basically, he points out that infrastructures need to be “more generic, more powerful and extensible…while at the same time retaining low implementation barriers.” His team then looked at a number of available standards with these needs in mind to see which would be most appropriate for the library.

Regarding Search and Retrieval he recommends indexing all metadata in a single index, and prefers central indexing versus federated searching. This is a particularly way to integrate different databases, and the European Library’s site is a good example of this.

Metadata is another aspect of the information infrastructure that he focuses on. He suggests making metadata available in standard XML formats. He also suggests using Dublin Core (at a minimum) for the organization’s metadata in order to make it available to as many services as possible. Dublin Core, he says, “will allow access by generic search and retrieval applications without these applications needing to know the organization’s specific schema for those metadata.” This is important for interoperability, and the European Library project on which he worked can once again serve as an example of this. As his focus is largely on integration of various libraries’ databases this is an important issue to raise – the technical methods of implementing the ideas he has discussed.

Van Veen concludes his article by reiterating his belief that the KB is part of “global knowledge” which must be able to accommodate various services that users have to obtain information. In order to overcome barriers to interoperability he calls for “integrating information from open, non-monolithic systems.” Basically, he hopes that “when a user finds information elsewhere, [the KB] should provide the functionality to link this information to the local services (e.g., to order a copy of that article held by the KB).” On the whole, I found the article useful because the issues it raises are relevant for any large library and are valuable for librarians to be aware of. The integrated databases that Van Veen discusses are more or less the new incarnation of the union catalogue, and knowledge of the technical makeup of such databases, and a basic understanding of the nature of their integration, can greatly improve a librarian’s ability to implement and maintain such a system at his or her library.

Source:

Van Veen, Theo. (2005, March). Renewing the Information Infrastructure of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek. D-lib Magazine, 11(3). Retrieved February 25, 2006.

Quote of the hour 1 March 2006 (8:21pm):

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities — the political, the religious, the educational authorities — who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing — forming in our minds — their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself.

- Timothy Leary

Fortnightly quote 1 March 2006:

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

- Douglas Adams

Open Source-a-me: the Potential Benefits of Ubuntu for the Public Library

Ubuntu is a free, open-source, Linux-based operating system. It is based on the Debian Linux project’s architecture, but unlike Debian it has “regular releases (every six months), a clear focus on the user and usability (it should "Just Work", TM) and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of support for every release” (ubuntu.com). It has several aspects that would make it advantageous for adoption by the public library, such as cost, flexibility, and freedom from dependence on one corporate vendor. While it may take time to transition from a Windows-based system, it is certainly worth it to do so – not only because it would greatly benefit the library itself, but also because it would further encourage diversity and innovation in the software development field that is currently being stifled by the domination of one company. In addition, the precedent of using open-source software in public institutions has already been set by several local governments, from Massachusetts to Munich, and it would be useful to consider the experiences of these other public bodies when determining Ubuntu’s potential benefit to the public library.

Perhaps the biggest and most obvious benefit of a public institution switching from traditional proprietary software is in cost. Using free software releases public institutions from the need to pay thousands of dollars in licensing fees and other costs associated with organizational purchases of software such as Microsoft’s. Public libraries must always be conscious of their costs, and by reducing the amount they pay to private companies they can keep more money in the public sector, increasing the level of service they provide and thus overall improving their profile in the public eye. Of course, these savings could be partially offset by the costs of qualified Linux engineers (which will inevitably be higher), but this is something the library will have to consider.

Regardless, however, open formats have the additional benefit of keeping public records public. When discussing his state’s decision to use only OpenDocument and PDF formats in government systems, Eric Kriss, Secretary of Administration & Finance in Massachusetts, said that, “It is an overriding imperative of the American democratic system that we cannot have our public documents locked up in some kind of proprietary format, perhaps unreadable in the future, or subject to a proprietary system license that restricts access” (www.mass.gov). While the records held by a state government will not be exactly the same as those held by a library, it is important to keep in mind that dependence on private companies weakens the public institutions that are supposed to be looking out for the public’s interests. Thus, the use of open-source software based on some sort of standard creates independence for the library without sacrificing compatibility with other organizations’ systems.

Beyond external considerations such as cost and independence from vendors, Ubuntu has several inherent characteristics that make it potentially beneficial for public libraries to use. For example, Ubuntu comes with several applications, including a word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software suite called OpenOffice, which is open-source software as well and yet compatible with Microsoft’s Office suite. Libraries using a Ubuntu OS would therefore be able to save on their technology costs but still offer all of the same services for business and personal needs as they do now. They would not have to sacrifice quality for price.

Ubuntu also offers quality translations in several languages. As public libraries are often of central in communities with large immigrant populations, having the possibility to set one or more terminals aside to be setup in one of the other languages of the community could be of great benefit to the library’s users. It could alleviate the technological transition by first easing the cultural transition many immigrants face.

When considering the conversion to an open-source operating system there is, of course, the issue of support. It is important to remember that Ubuntu offers two types of support offered – free and paid. With Ubuntu you not only get a new operating system but also an entire community of people, many of whom offer their services free of charge to assist other users of Ubuntu. These volunteers provide free technical support through the Ubuntu Documentation Project (which is their official help page), the Ubuntu IRC channel, mailing lists, web forums and the Ubuntu wiki. These all allow users to get direct, personal help with any technical problems they may have completely free from cost.

However, there is also the option of paid technical support through private companies such as Canonical Limited. This is a company that provides broad support to companies using Ubuntu, but they do offer direct, individual support as well. Ubuntu by default includes support for certain of its components, but it is important for the user (whether an individual or organization) to remember that the option for sustained support does exist and that public libraries are not on their own just because they have chosen open-source software.

Choosing Ubuntu over proprietary systems such as Microsoft allows institutions such as the public library to lower their costs without having to risk poor quality technological services. It has been done before so a public library system choosing to do so would be able to learn from the experiences of others before braving such a considerable transition. It is interesting to note that some of the strongest opposition to the Massachusetts’ decision was in an article by James Prendergrast of Americans for Technology Leadership, written for foxnews.com. In a follow-up statement foxnews.com revealed that Microsoft was actually a co-founder of the ATL, seriously undermining Prendergast’s case against the use of open-source software. As Bernd Plank, a spokesman for the City of Munich, said after his city decided to unload Microsoft in favour of open-source products for the city administration’s 14,000 computers, open-source software gives them lower procurement costs and a higher degree of vendor independence, which encourages greater competition in the software market (PCWorld). Using open-source software not only benefits the organization using it, but actually encourages further innovation and diversity and so serves to benefit the software industry at large.

Sources:
Informal comments on Open Formats
Eric Kriss, Secretary, Administration & Finance
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
http://www.mass.gov/eoaf/open_formats_comments.html

Massachusetts set to switch off Microsoft
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: August 31 2005 | Last updated: September 1 2005 http://news.ft.com/cms/s/80033a76-1a71-11da-b7f5-00000e2511c8.html
Munich Makes the Move to Linux: City government drops Windows in favor of open-source software
John Blau, IDG News Service
Friday, June 18, 2004
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116568,00.asp

Ubuntu homepage
http://www.ubuntu.com/

Your Mail: Open Debate About OpenDocument (follow-up to Prendergast’s commentary, with link to the original article)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172063,00.html

Quote of the day 10 February 2006:

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln ... how was the evening?"
--Author Unknown

I'm sittin' here, drinking a beer, reading about what makes a good dictionary, what makes a bad one, and how they're made. This is livin, huh?

In order to learn more about me you can take a look at some of my posts below. I originally created this blog for another course but I have refurbished it and adapted it to the needs of FIS 1311.

Swearing competition. I can't tell if this has been altered or not.

http://www.wimp.com/competition/

I came across this quote in a required reading for 1310. Hilarious. But then, how else could a librarian be characterized?

It is important to have a democratic spirit in dealing with readers in popular libraries. The librarian is not, of course, to overlook the neglect of deference which is due him, or to countenance in any way the error which prevails to a considerable extent in this country, that because artificial distinctions of rank have been abolished here, there need be no recognition of the real differences among men in respect to taste, intellect, and character. But he runs little risk in placing readers on a footing of equality with himself. The superiority of his culture will always enable him to secure the respectful treatment which belongs to him when confronted by impudence or conceit.

- Samuel Green, 1876 [Personal relations between librarians and readers. American Library Journal, 1:74-81].

This is an interesting article from the Economist. They're basically saying that falling populations in rich countries aren't necessarily bad for economic welfare. Makes sense, though I think the article would be a bit more, what's the word - relevant? Maybe 'compelling' is what I want. So - I think the article would be a bit more compelling if it made reference to the fact that an overpopulated planet leads to overconsumption of limited resources, leading us all to a future of unknown horrors.

Or something like that.

Anyway, here's the article. Enjoy the theme music. Goodnight.

The shrinkage of Russia and eastern Europe is familiar, though not perhaps the scale of it: Russia's population is expected to fall by 22% between 2005 and 2050, Ukraine's by a staggering 43%. Now the phenomenon is creeping into the rich world: Japan has started to shrink and others, such as Italy and Germany, will soon follow. Even China's population will be declining by the early 2030s, according to the UN, which projects that by 2050 populations will be lower than they are today in 50 countries.

I don't know why this stuff still amazes me.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1682246,00.html

American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home
of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing
bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and
children.

Ali Fadhil, who two months ago won the Foreign Press Association young
journalist of the year award, was hooded and taken for questioning. He
was released hours later.

Dr Fadhil is working with Guardian Films on an investigation for Channel
4's Dispatches programme into claims that tens of millions of dollars
worth of Iraqi funds held by the Americans and British have been
misused or misappropriated.

The troops told Dr Fadhil that they were looking for an Iraqi insurgent
and seized video tapes he had shot for the programme. These have not
yet been returned.

The director of the film, Callum Macrae, said yesterday: "The timing and
nature of this raid is extremely disturbing. It is only a few days since we
first approached the US authorities and told them Ali was doing this
investigation, and asked them then to grant him an interview about our
findings.

"We need a convincing assurance from the American authorities that this
terrifying experience was not harassment and a crude attempt to
discourage Ali's investigation."

Dr Fadhil was asleep with his wife, their three-year-old daughter, Sarah,
and seven-month-old son, Adam, when the troops forced their way in.

"They fired into the bedroom where we were sleeping, then three
soldiers came in. They rolled me on to the floor and tied my hands.
When I tried to ask them what they were looking for they just told me
to shut up," he said.