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REVIEW: THE WIZARD OF OZ

Refreshing in its simplicity and messages. I was genuinely taken aback by the occasional brutality: limbs casually getting chopped off, animals dying by the hundreds, perhaps as a punishment for choosing the wrong side, and characters facing terrible prospects but somehow remaining amazingly, contagiously, cheerful. That’s what fairy tales were like in the past, I suppose.

This is a story told many times which remains more than a century after it was written very strange and counter-intuitive. Reading it actually felt like a meta-trip to Kansas for me—“how can a fairy tale be so strange? From the pacing to the characters to everything! What would it feel like listening to this story as a child? What would have made the most impression on me? What would I need most, a heart, brains, courage, or a ticket back to Kansas? Actually, wait, wh-what happened? I’m 25 years old!”

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REVIEW: THE HOBBIT

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Finally, after three years of idling, finish it I did! I was stuck since 2011 (dunno why) at the part right before the party got into the mountain. Then I watched the first and third films and disliked them, so I got very close to never actually finishing The Hobbit. However, since this is book-a-week year (just finishing books counts too!) I couldn’t resist the temptation…

I have to say I quite enjoyed Tolkien’s writing, at least in The Hobbit. I think it was the perfect balance between complex descriptions and enjoyable dialogues, and I’m saying that having read LOTR in Greek many years ago and knowing what kind of an experience having the scale lean towards the descriptions and the story of everybody, their friends and their friends’ friends’ dog’s grandmothers side is.

In a few words: The Hobbit in book format was more enjoyable than the films, while in LOTR’s case the reverse was true for me. But books such as Tolkien’s are difficult to criticise because they are so deeply influential and part of everybody’s “discovering the realm of high fantasy” phase, somewhere between the ages of 11 and 14.

Is The Hobbit the post-war Harry Potter? Will teens enjoy Harry Potter 50 years from now the way I did growing up? Will Harry Potter eventually spawn a universe of influences unforeseeable to us today? Did Tolkien ever imagine what kind of worlds he would inspire in the imaginations of others?

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REVIEW: FISH WHO ANSWER THE TELEPHONE AND OTHER BIZARRE BOOKS

Fish Who Answer the Telephone and Other Bizarre Books by Brian Lake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is a blithe and glorious (yes) collection of such amazing, curious and sidesplitting book titles as:

(double entendres)
Drummer Dick’s Discharge, Beatrix M. De Burgh, Ernest Nister, 1902
Penetrating Wagner’s Ring, John Louis DiGaetani, Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1978
Boobs as Seen by John Henry, George Vere Hobart, New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1914
Memorable Balls, James Laver, Derek Verschoyle, 1954
Invisible Dick, Frank Topham, D. C. Thomson & Co., 1926

“Jeehosophat! What a disgraceful scene!” said Dick Brett, doing a series of physical jerks behind a bush, as he began to grow into visibility.”

(authors–right or wrong)
The Ethics of Peace and War, I. Atack, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005
Motorcycling for Beginners, Geoff Carless, East Ardsley: EP Publishing, 1980
Industrial Social Security in the South, Robin Hood, Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1936
Obesity: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment, Louis Lasagna, New York: Medcom Press, 1974
Metabolic Changes Induced by Alcohol, G. A. Martini, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1971
Frozen Future: The Arctic, the Antarctic and the Survival of the Planet, Daniel Snowman, Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1993
There Are No Problem Horses, Only Problem Riders, Mary Twelveponies, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1982

etc etc, going through a wealth of subjects and book types. I feel weirdly proud of owning this book. Apart from being a little treasure all of its own, it reminds me how anybody can publish a book and indeed how many different tiles have been published through the centuries, that we’ll never know about no less. Time to start writing now then!

BTW: I’m not including this to the 2015 reading challenge because I read 95% of it in 2014. In fact it was a gift from my mother. Spot-on, wasn’t it?

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REVIEW (TWO IN ONE): THE LONG DESCENT & THE ECOTECHNIC FUTURE

The Long Descent: A User’s Guide to the End of the Industrial Age by John Michael Greer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I recently read two of Mr. Greer’s books,
The Long Descent and The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World. This review is for both of them, as they made me feel and think more or less the same things. For your information, both share the same ideological and theoretical ideas, but they were different in some aspects: The Long Descent’s explanation of what the myth of progress is and how and why it came about I enjoyed more, while it was the practical information, tips, guidelines, the rough sketches of the direction humanity should/will be taking in the next few decades or centuries and the different aspects and challenges of life in the future that I thought were exceptionally valuable in The Ecotechnic Future.

Some have expressed the problems of The Long Descent as in this review, especially related to the more practical aspects of recycling old technology. If you disregard these problems, or are willing to accept them for what they are or look into them for alternatives, these are tremendous books that serve as manuals on theoretical, philosophical and practical levels on how to perceive what’s imperceptible for most people in the present, prepare for the future and predict what it might look like and understand history in a different way which would raise plenty of eyebrows.

Nevertheless, Greer’s argument is incredibly solid. He presents the myth/religion of progress, the inevitability and unavoidable reality of the long peak-oik collapse and the fact that any suggested workaround that comes from the same “myth of progress” mental space as void of meaning and practicality, so convincingly, so eloquently, so overwhelmingly… I have few words left to express without exaggeration my level of admiration and approval I can show to this man.

He may be a druid (just adding it here because for some people it’s a minus, for me it’s a plus), he may have chosen to live without a cell phone or never tried playing video games, he may be “anti-science” or “anti-progress” (silly words coming from people who don’t but superficially grasp the meaning of these concepts), but few times have a I read the work of a man more in line with what I understand the true scientific spirit to be and only rarely do I come across the writings of a person who’s done his or her homework so deeply on what he or she’s purportedly against.

I’m serious. This is a challenge for you, if you’re up to it: persuade me that the points raised by these books and Greer’s work are moot. I can tell you from now that if you try you won’t be able to and will most likely resort to some variation of the typical “it will sort itself out/they will figure something out” or “it’s the next generation’s problem”, that are the popular ways of handling the prospect of the decline of industrial civilization today.

Mr. Greer’s work is not for everyone, but in my view it should be: almost every person living today, especially if their age marks them as young, would benefit from experiencing looking at industrial society and civilization through the prism future generations, who will live by scavenging iron off skyscrapers, to give one particularly memorable prediction off these books, will judge us by. It’s quite a revealing, shocking but also strangely rewarding experience.

The matters laid out by The Ecotechnic Future and The Long Descent form a significant part of what has been bothering me lately and will most likely influence my future decisions. For that I’m grateful. Not happy, at least not yet, how can one be happy when he or she has realised the profundity of his or her own uselessness, but grateful nevertheless.

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REVIEW: WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Maria, my former Danish colleague in Sofia City Library and fellow EVSer/roomie, suggested I give this one a shot after she had given me The Tale of Despereaux to read. With that book, we both agreed that it was horrible. We were in agreement about Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, too; with the only difference that this one was actually good. Very good.

Here’s a beautifully illustrated children’s fairy tale inspired by Chinese legends and folk stories. It’s been a few months since I read it now so I don’t remember very well–I’m finally writing this review since I’m currently right here in Denmark visiting Maria and so was inspired to stop postponing it. What I do remember is that the stories themselves are excellent, well-written and with messages I would like my children to come away with, were they ever to read this book (and, first things first, come into existence).

Maybe I’m rating it so highly because after reading Despereaux I was… ahem, desperate for a good book and a good story. I couldn’t have hoped for a greater contrast between Despereaux and this, which only fueled my flaming dislike for the former. This is what children’s books should be like: inspiring multicultural folktale curiosity, well-illustrated, well-meaning, well-everything. I have only praise for this exquisite book. Bravo, Grace, and thank you. Excellent cover too.

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REVIEW: ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΤΑΓΩΓΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΣΗΜΕΡΙΝΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ

Περί της καταγωγής των σημερινών Ελλήνων by Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ανακάλυψα αυτό το βιβλίο σκαλίζοντας την επιφάνεια των απύθμενων βαθών της βιβλιοθήκης της μάνας μου. Γενικά αποφεύγω να το κάνω γιατί είναι σαν να κοιτάζεις τον ήλιο κατάματα: δύσκολο να ψάξεις μέσα σε τόση πολλή και τόσο καλή πληροφορία και να μην χαωθείς. Εκείνη τη μέρα όμως ένιωθα τυχερός, όπως όταν πατάω την δεύτερη επιλογή στο Google, κάτι το οποίο και στις δύο περιπτώσεις δεν κάνω συχνά.

Εν πάσει περιπτώσει, η μάνα μου έμαθε για τον Φάλμεραϋερ όταν πήγε στην Γερμανία, πριν την πρώτη μετάφραση του βιβλίου στα ελληνικά το 1984, δηλαδή περισσότερα από 150 χρόνια μετά τη συγγραφή του. Ήταν όταν άρχισε να ανακαλύπτει την «εναλλακτική», λιγότερο εξευγενισμένη, πολύ πιο ενδιαφέρουσα και πολύ πιο ανθρώπινη εκδοχή της ιστορία της χώρας μας και των κατοίκων της, μια ιστορία πιο αληθοφανής σχετικά με το ποιοι ήταν, ή δεν ήταν, οι πρόγονοι μας. Περίπου όταν έφτασα στην ίδια ηλικία αρχισα να την ανακαλύπτω κι εγώ.

Χρόνια τώρα μου λέει κάθε φορά με έναν θαυμασμό στα μάτια της ίδιο με τον δικό μου τώρα πως το χωριό απ’το οποίο καταγόταν ο παππούς Αθανασόπουλος, κάπου κοντά στα Καλάβρυτα, λεγόταν τον παλιό καιρό Κόκοβα. Αυτό ήταν πριν μετονομαστεί στο πιο ελληνικό Κλειτορία. Την ίδια τύχη είχαν πολλά–περισσότερα απ’όσα φανταζόμαστε εσείς κι εγώ–τοπωνύμια στην Ελλάδα, των οποίων τα σλαβικά ονόματα δεν ηχούσαν καλά στα καθαρευουσιάνικα, αρχαιολατρικά αυτιά των Ελλήνων του προπερασμένου αιώνα. Δεν νομίζω ότι αυτοί οι κύριοι αναρωτήθηκαν ποτέ ποιος πρωτοέμεινε στην Κόκοβα, που σήμαινε «κότα» σε κάποια μεσαιωνική σλάβικη γλώσσα, ή αν οι κάτοικοι του χωριού είχαν παραμείνει ως τότε Σλάβοι.

Πώς και δεν ξέρουμε περισσότερα για την κατάλυση της ηπειρώτικης Ελλάδας απ’τους Σλάβους τον 6ο αιώνα; Πώς είναι δυνατόν να νομίζουμε σοβαρά ότι έχουμε ως επι το πλείστον αρχαιοελληνικό αίμα, ή τουλάχιστον να το νομίζουν αυτό πολλοί νεοέλληνες; Πώς είναι δυνατόν να υποτιμούμε τόσο ξεδιάντροπα την βαθιά ιστορία του τόπου μας και να την αναγάγουμε σε μερικούς κιτς αφορισμούς στην καλύτερη των περιπτώσεων; Μα θα μου πείτε, τι περίμενα; Είναι γνωστό ότι γενικότερα οι άνθρωποι δεν φημιζόμαστε για τις ικανότητες μας να μπορούμε να μάθουμε απ’το παρελθόν, ή ακόμα και να μπορούμε να το κοιτάξουμε και να το αναλογιστούμε λαμβάνοντας υπ’όψη τα δικά μας προσωπικά φίλτρα αλλά και αυτά της εποχής και της κυρίαρχης κουλτούρας. Ελάχιστους ξενίζει ότι όπου και να πας, και ανάλογα το πού είσαι, θα ακούσεις μια διαφορετική εκδοχή για το ποιος είναι ο αρχαιότερος λαός στον κόσμο. Μου θυμίζει κάτι Αυστραλούς ερευνητές που λένε πως οι αρχαιότεροι προγονοί μας δεν ξεκίνησαν από την Αφρική, όπως εικάζει η πιο δημοφιλής θεωρία σήμερα, αλλά από την… ναι, θα το πάρει το πόταμι, απ’την Αυστραλία. Από ένα σημείο και μετά δεν έχει καν σημασία ποιος έχει δίκιο, αλλά ότι τους περισσότερους τους παρακινεί η ανάγκη να είναι αυτοί ο εκλεκτός λαός και όχι άλλος.

Για να επιστρέψουμε στο βιβλίο: χωρίς αμφιβολία είναι ένα σημαντικό πόνημα το οποίο πιστεύω θα έπρεπε να συζητηθεί περισσότερο στην σύγχρονη Ελλάδα απ’ότι έχει συμβεί μέχρι τώρα, απλά και μόνο γιατί παραθέτει σπάνιες πηγές που ρίχνουν λίγο περισσότερο φως στο ποιοι πραγματικά είμαστε και το τι σήμαινε το να είσαι Έλληνας την 2ης χιλιετία. Ο Φάλμεραϋερ έχει κατακριθεί πολύ (έλα δεν το πιστεύω!) αλλά ακόμα δεν έχω δει σοβαρά αντεπιχειρήματα, μόνο φασιστομπλόγκ όπως αυτό (δείτε και το σχόλιο μου κάτω κάτω, για να μην αναφέρω την περίφημη «έρευνα του DNA»… mein Gott) να τον κράζουν και να τον καταδικάζουν με την παραδοσιακή άλλωστε ταμπέλα-πασπαρτού του «ανθέλληνα».

Ανθέλληνας: χαρακτηρισμός ο οποίο σημαίνει, όπως έχω μάθει πια από την εμπειρία χρόνων, όλους αυτούς που συνωμοτούν για να μην επιτρέψουν στην αρχαία φυλή των Πελασγίων να κατακτήσουν τον κόσμο όπως θα συνέβαινε αν δεν υπήρχαν αυτοί για να μας σταματήσουν. Μπόνους πόντοι αν οι ανθέλληνες είναι και Εβραίοι, οι οποίοι, ω τι ειρωνεία, έχουν μια παρόμοια κοσμοθεωρία με τους εξτρέμ έλληνες η οποία πηγάζει μέσα από την ίδια την θρησκεία τους, αλλά τουλάχιστον η δική τους Judaism vs The World πεμπτουσία ύπαρξης δικαιολογείται από τους διωγμούς τους που χάνονται στα βάθη των αιώνων. Ή μήπως διώκονταν γιατί πάντα θεωρούσαν τον εαυτό τους «εκλεκτό»; Παρακαλώ εισάγετε ρητό για αυγά και κότες και ποιος έκανε ποιον.

Αλλά φυσικά: οτιδήποτε σκάει την εθνική ψευτοπερηφάνια όπως τα μυτερά νύχια σκάνε ένα μπαλόνι, δεν μπορεί να εξεταστεί σοβαρά από όσους έχουν πιστέψει τυφλά στον μύθο της δικής τους εξοχότητας. Είμαι σίγουρος ότι ελάχιστοι απ’όσους έχουν γνώμη για το Περί της καταγωγής των σημερινών Ελλήνων έχουν ιδέα τι ακριβώς γράφει και ποια είναι τα επιχειρήματα που περιέχονται μέσα του. Ούτε το 1830 ήξεραν, όταν στον δρόμο έκραζαν τον Φάλμεραϋερ χωρίς να έχουν διαβάσει το βιβλίο καθώς δεν υπήρχε μετάφραση και κανείς δεν καταδεχόταν να την γράψει για 150 χρόνια, ούτε τώρα.

Η κριτική κατα του Φάλμεραϋερ την οποία δέχομαι πάντως είναι ότι ήταν καθεστωτικός μές την αντικαθεστωτικότητα του αντιφιλελληνισμού του. Με άλλα λόγια, παρ’όλο που ο φιλελληνισμός ήταν πολύ τρέντυ για την πολιτική διανόηση της εποχής, ο Φάλμεραϋερ ήταν συντηρητικός «αυτοκρατορικός» και κατα των επαναστάσεων. Ήταν υποστηρικτής του Όθωνα (η τελευταία παράγραφος του βιβλίου εξυμνεί τον πρώτο βασσιλιά της Ελλάδας μάλλον επειδή ήταν Βαυαρός, και ο Φάλμεραϋερ έκρινε ότι μόνο ένας Γερμανός θα είχε τα προσόντα για μια τόσο σοβαρή και υψηλού κύρους δουλειά) και γενικότερα περισσότερο με τον Μέτερνιχ και λιγότερο με τον Καποδίστρια, αν με πιάνετε. Αλλά τα πολιτικά του πιστεύω δεν θα έπρεπε να επηρεάζουν το πώς εμείς βλέπουμε και αξιολογούμε την εγκυρότητα της έρευνας του. Έστω ότι ήταν ανθέλληνας, λοιπόν, ό,τι κι αν αυτό σημαίνει. Τι έχουμε να πούμε για τις παραπομπές του, για την επιχειρηματολογία του; Αν μη τι άλλο, ο τύπος έκανε σοβαρή δουλειά για την εποχή του και κοιτώντας την καθαρά λογικά, την πιστεύω. Ειμαι σίγουρος ότι υπάρχουν ανακρίβειες στο έργο αλλά δεν έχει πολλή σημασία: καμία ανακρίβεια στα στοιχεία του δεν θα επαρκούσε για να ανατρέψει ολόκληρο του το επιχείρημα.

Ήδη έχω γράψει πολλά αλλά θα μπορούσα να γράψω άλλα τόσα κι άλλα τόσα γι’αυτό το θέμα. Ίσως το βλέπω πιο καθαρά γιατί, όντας μισός αυστραλός, δεν περιορίζομαι από την «καθαρότητα» του ελληνικού αίματος, την ίδια καθαρότητα βλέμματος η οποία από άλλους πολύ πιο «καθαρούς» από μένα ερμηνεύεται ως έλλειψη πατριωτισμού. Νομίζω ότι αυτό το βιβλίο, αν και δεν αξίζει 5 αστεράκια ως πόνημα, είναι πολύ σημαντικό για την Ελλάδα του σήμερα. Μέσα σε λίγες προτάσεις μπορεί να χτυπήσει απίστευτα πολλά νεύρα, και πιστεύω ακράδαντα ότι τέτοια είναι τα έργα που ακριβώς πρέπει να διαβάζονται και να συζητιούνται περισσότερο από τα υπόλοιπα που απλά συμφωνούν με όσα είναι κοινώς αποδεκτά. Κι όποιος αντέξει.

Θέλω να μάθω την ιστορία της Κόκοβας, στην τελική, όχι της Κλειτορίας.

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REVIEW: THE BOTANY OF DESIRE: A PLANT’S-EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD

The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Got this from Audible. Actually, no: I got it for free as a kind of gift for being a subscriber but got tired of Audible and its DRM bullshit so I downloaded and listened to a pirated version of this and subsequently unsubscribed from Audible. Ahem.

In this surprisingly old book (it was written in 2002) journalist and plant aficionado Michael Pollan takes the well-worn trope of humans using the evolution of plants for their own benefit (i.e. agriculture) and turns its on its head: what if plants have actually used the evolution of humans for their own benefit?

Just to clarify, and Mr. Pollan was well-aware of this too, anthropomorphising evolution or nature and endowing it with such properties as intelligence and design (or intelligent design) is a figure of speech: as far as we know evolution is as purposeful as the flowing of the rivers and the burning of the stars. I’ll leave that one to you.

So, Michael Pollan’s idea was to take four species of plants–the tulip, cannabis, the apple and the potato– and examine how not just we humans have used them for our own needs, but also how the plants themselves, in an evolutionary tango with our own species, played on our desires and took advantage of us, too. The book has four chapters, one for each human desire responsible for the propagation of each of the four species of plant: sweetness for apples, beauty for tulips, intoxication for cannabis and control for potatoes.

“Great art is born when Apollonian form and Dionysian ecstasy are held in balance.”

In the first part of the book, I enjoyed Pollan’s comparison between the Dionysian and the Apollonian; chaos and order; female and male; yin and yang; nature and culture; the apple’s story and the tulip’s story, which both hold the sperms of their opposite inside them, in true dualist nature. I found this quote particularly interesting: “Great art is born when Apollonian form and Dionysian ecstasy are held in balance”, and it becomes more and more relevant as one goes through the book, seeing in every plant’s story the art manifesting itself through the tug–which at the same time is a balancing act–between human structures imposed on nature and nature’s tendency to defy control. Then there’s structure in nature’s chaos and a part that is natural in human structures and so on.

The chapter on cannabis was a little more daring, given marijuana’s legal status (which is, however slowly, changing around the world) and Mr. Pollan shares his insights on that topic and how human societies brought a species underground, where it’s found new life, too. The Apollonian has won, even though the desire itself is Dionysian. Hm. Are all human desires Dionysian, I wonder?

The last chapter was about GMOs and Monsanto’s control on patented potato seeds, including many many other agricultural plants of course. It’s amazing and telling that this chapter, written 12 years ago, seems to sketch the current situation so eloquently. Even though I come from a family background which is 100% anti-GMO, the arguments posited here about the pros and cons of GMOs as well as the pros and cons of organic agriculture seemed very well balanced and neutral to me, and most of all well-argued; in a few words, as close to an objective view as I could hope for. It’s still pro-organic, but cleverly so: it adds an interesting twist from a philosophical, pragmatical and experiential perspective–e.g. the story of the writer’s own batch of GMO potatoes. I would even suggest reading this chapter alone for a nice eagle’s eye view of what’s wrong with GMOs, what they’re supposedly trying to solve and why they’re most probably not going to solve it, creating other unforeseeable problems along the way.

Pollan managed to blend personal experience with journalistic research quite seamlessly and enjoyably, and I feel as though I came out of this ~~read~~ listen more complete and with a greater sense of appreciation for agriculture. Cause you can’t have agriculture without culture. I’m not giving it five stars because… oh I can’t come up with a reason, but hey, I don’t have to give you one, it’s my gut score! It might have to do with the reader of the audiobook whose voice and intonation sometimes annoyed me. I’d give it a 4.5 though, easily.

Thanks go to Karina for first telling me about this book two years ago or so.

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REVIEW: THE SELF ILLUSION: WHY THERE IS NO ‘YOU’ INSIDE YOUR HEAD

The Self Illusion: Why There is No ‘You’ Inside Your Head by Bruce M. Hood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Found out about this book from the You Are Not So Smart podcast and read it on my Kindle.

It reeked of a mechanistic, sterile, matter-of-fact “you are your brain” worldview which I must admit I’m tired of and find boring, but I should have expected as much since You Are Not So Smart comes from pretty much the same mental place.

I don’t find fault with the idea that we don’t have an integral self; obviously, just like Bruce Hood thoroughly and with rich supporting bibliography demonstrates in this book, we’re largely shaped and influenced by our surroundings, our society and our biological limitations, first and foremost those of our brain. But that doesn’t mean that the notion of self is an illusion; rather, it means that the self is not a constant and that it is mutable. In fact, in which case would the self not be an illusion? When would we be in a position to say that the self is a real, concrete, quantifiable thing?

It seems to me that Mr. Hood’s proposition could have just as easily been called “The Soul Illusion”, for his assumption of what a self looks like–or should feel like–closely corresponds to our, for better or worse, highly intuitive notion of what a soul is: an immaterial cohesive agent between all of our experiences, thoughts and actions that creates a feeling of identity. In other words, the definition of the “me” in “I am me”. But is that what the self is, what it should be or all it can be? Is it possible to define what our selves are differently? In “I am me”, who would be the “I”? Who is the consciousness, like Eckhart Tolle would comment with his ultra-calm voice? Who is it–what is it–that reads this book and goes “huh, so I’m an illusion”? You might argue that the sense of self and consciousness are two separate things in order to question my qualms with the central point of the book; “precisely!”, I’d exclaim then, happy that you could intuitively grasp my point.

All that said, I’m giving The Self Illusion three stars instead of two because I must admit that it is well-researched, well-written and has plenty of interesting case studies of various psychological and psychiatrical disorders, “nature vs nurture”, sociological phenomena etc that do a good job of proving that the concept of self, or at least what Mr. Hood understands it to be, is an illusion insofar as it’s highly unpredictable and dependent on environmental and social factors. I particularly enjoyed reading about babies and how their brains develop and about conditions such as Tourette’s and how miming, laughing and facial expressions work in socialising and the development thereof. All this is interesting and rich from a clinical perspective, so it’s worth reading if you’re out to come closer to understanding how the human brain works–a task I personally believe to be impossible anyway. But if you’re not convinced that the brain is responsible for every little thing a person does, thinks, or thinks of doing, in view of the evidence that, contrary to what Mr. Hood quite often and emphatically repeats in the book, does exist, this book will provide little insight.

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REVIEW: THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Maria, my former Danish flatmate and co-volunteer at Sofia City Library, recommended this book to me. She was disappointed that a lot of people on Goodreads were knocking it as too melodramatic or for “forty-year-old housewives” (or something like that) but she thought I might enjoy it.

I never knew I was an unemployed forty years old, let alone a woman. Wait; I am unemployed…

It was short, well-written–especially the parts describing Eddie’s early years at the amusement park, or his time at the war–and made me feel as if I was right there as part of the action. I have a soft spot for books that manage to get this right: not having too many details when describing a scene or situation, instead carefully disclosing the right ones that will most effortlessly evoke your imagination. Scents, colours, bodily sensations, random observations or the protagonist’s train of thought (that one doesn’t even have to be relevant to the plot) and metaphors work particularly well.

I didn’t take away from it any kind of profound message. It doesn’t seem to have changed my life in any significant way as it seems to have done for some people who include this title in their relevant lists of life-changing books. Nevertheless, it did make me go through the obligatory and entirely foreseeable process of pondering who my five people I’d meet in heaven would be and conversely who it would be that I would hang around for a while waiting to meet. The idea that I might not have met some of them yet, or even never will, seems comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. I wonder: is it necessary for us to die in order to have a good hard look at our time on the physical plane and what it taught us?

I’ll stop here. This is going too deep too fast and I’m not prepared to responsibly go on–supposedly–unknowable philosophical musings.

On a final note, reading this made me feel very calm. Maybe it’s because I went through it almost exclusively while travelling on trains.

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REVIEW: NOT THE FUTURE WE ORDERED: PEAK OIL, PSYCHOLOGY, AND THE MYTH OF ETERNAL PROGRESS

Not the Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Eternal Progress by John Michael Greer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Quick read, rich in information, read on Kindle. John Michael Greer is my recent obsession I discovered through Ran Prieur and the links he posts on his blog.

Having been a regular reader of JMG’s blog The Archdruid Report for a few months now, the content and topic of Not the Future We Ordered didn’t come as a surprise. In short, it’s about how progress is our contemporary “civic religion” and myth; what the psychological impact of living through peak oil and its aftermath will look like in the wider population (surprising and fascinating to read) and what people should be doing to build some foundation for the future and for young people to improve their chances of survival in the future, the current situation being what it is. Made my current desire to go find some land somewhere, cultivate it and develop my hardly existent practical skills even stronger.

Overall, if the topic interests you–it absolutely should–but you’re kind of put off by the fact that JMG is, well, an archdruid, take my advice and allow yourself to be surprised by how eloquent, backed up, bulletproof and to the point his argumentation is. I’m giving this book just three stars out of five because a lot of the information I felt I had already come across in the blog (albeit in the book it was more structured) and because it was short! What can I say? I love me some JMG.

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