April 20, 4:20 am Literature
While updating this website for the Australian trip I am reminded of reading some Guy de Maupassant short stories. I also received an email yesterday notifying me that the latest issue of Dumbo Feather had arrived on my iPad. I must set aside an hour/day for reading both of these items. Early morning (i.e. now) is a fine time for this.
"Complete Original Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant" (Volume 1)
- Lieutenant Lare's Marriage
- A French lieutenant saves a young peasant girl while on a mission and marries him the following year. Simple & true.
- The Horrible
- A man gives two examples of the difference between horrible and terrible.
I have just finished reading an interview with Sir Ken Robinson in the latest issue of Dumbo Feather. Excellent but ... e-magazines do not have a yellow-highlighing feature. Now I will have to make a few notes for myself. By the way, try typing TED Ken Robinson into google and watch Ken give a number of talks on education and creativity. Stunning stuff!
Here are a few sentences from the interview:
- I've always been struck by the fact that all people have amazing natural abilities and talents.
- People are very different, very, and that diversity is a key principle of human life.
- ... it's very hard to draw a straight line between one event in your life and your overall disposition - but there's a cumulative effect.
- I've always thought of people as being multidimensional, and the more that I think about it, I know that's the case.
- ... some people live lives where they feel that they've absolutely discovered their own authentic purposes and talents, and love what they do, and very many people go through their entire lives feeling more-or-less disengaged; they endure their lives rather than enjoy them.
- There aren't enough incentives in education to encourage the big cultural shift that I believe we have to see if education is to do the right thing by the most people.
- ... at the heart of education is the relationship between a teacher and a learner.
- all education is personal
- If education had been personalized in the first place, a lot of these kids wouldn't have dropped out.
- ... teaching is not a delivery system, it's an art form ...
- And you don't need to upend an entire system to show teachers how to do that within the frameworks that they have
This has been a great start to the day.
April 7, 5:20 PM Literature - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
Perlman: (chap. 2): This chapter introduces a second character to the story - Adam Zignelik. His background is quite complex and he often has nightmares about events that he has read or been told. His father was a lawyer in the American civil rights movement and there are some graphic sections of some of the early events. There were also descriptions of some mob activities as well as Lincoln's decision to draft men to fight in the civil war, and the riots that took place in New York.
Me: This is described in terms of specific details involving particular people - not in a generic overview - making this much more effective, and disturbing. How soon we forget. Real people were involved, and some of them were murdered, tortured, and lived in terror.
I have now read the first 4 chapters. This is a very powerful novel. I had high expectations for this book, and they have been exceeded. I definitely need to go back to chapter 2 and make more notes before continuing. There is a lot of detail about history that I want to get a better handle on. But already I suspect the implication is really about the future and that there is much that needs to be done, soon.
Perlman: (chap. 2): "... the character of the light would only add to the surreal quality his unconsciousness was spraying in a fine mist over his perception of the new and already fugitive day. [p. 19]
- 1861 - 1865 American Civil War over the emancipation of slaves.
- Emmett Till, 14, tortured and murdered in Chicago in August 1955 for speaking to a white woman.
- 1954 - The US Supreme Court in Brown versus Board of Education passed a law desegregating schools. Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court successfully argued for the end to segregation.
- Elizabeth Eckford, 15, was attacked by a mob in Little Rock, Arkansas in September 1957 while attempting to enter Central High School.
"Three years is a long time to hold your breath, right? Is it a long time to change the mentality of more than half the nation? Is it a long time to shift vested interests? Is it a long time to break down generations of fear? [p. 26 - 27]
"It [racism] can paralyse even good people. It can paralyze government. We have to fight that wherever we find it. That's what good people do." [p. 29]
- Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11 - all killed in Birmingham, Alabama when a bomb exploded in their church in September 1963.
April 6, 11:00 am Literature - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
Perlman: The book begins with a quote by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova.
Me: I love it. She is one of my favorite poets (I have a large book of her collected poems). She is relatively unknown in the West, and this is the first time I have seen her mentioned in another context. Perlman and I have something in common. Great.
Perlman: (chap. 1): The first character we meet is Lamont, who is remembering his time in prison.
Me: There are a number of impressive statements in this chapter about the nature of memory - penetrating asides that apply to us all.
Perlman: (chap. 1): "... seventy-two months was the national average of time served for robbery. ... What did it mean? Did this cover all states? What about federal cases? Did it include armed robbery? What about cases with more than one charge, where only one of the charges was robbery? What if you had no prior convictions?" [p. 2]
Me: Beautiful! An excellent short course in applied statistics. This should be read by everyone.
Perlman: (chap. 1): "The trick was to stay calm, and to avoid or outlast the problem." [p. 3-4]
Me: This seems a simple rule of thumb for getting through prison, and through life, but in the story it soon becomes problematic when a passenger on the bus becomes unruly and begins to harass the driver. What should one do in such a situation? It could happen to anyone. Regardless of what one decides to do, or not do, the consequences are not clear and the situation remains fluid. As a reader I can feel myself being enmeshed in the situation as well. And I am only on page 4.
Perlman: (chap. 1): "Lamont wondered, what does reason have to do with memory?" [p. 4]
Me: Indeed. How could one even address this question? I have many books on memory, but I doubt any of them would be of help.
Perlman: (chap. 1) After the incident in the bus resolves itself without any action by Lamont, he arrives at work. It is his 4th day as a hospital services man while on probation for 6 months. His supervisor has failed to appear and an elderly patient in a wheelchair asks Lamont to wheel him back to his room on the 9th floor. This is strictly against hospital rules for Lamont to do this, but the man whispers in Lamont's ear, "To hell with the rules" and Lamont takes him to his room.
Me: Lovely. Life is a balancing act, and Lamont is capable of personal autonomy as he navigates everyday decisions. This is a great introduction. Yet even something as simple as deciding to help a stranger may have life-altering consequences.
April 2, 5:00 PM Literature - McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
I have begun reading Elliot Perlman's "The Street Sweeper". As I expected, it is powerful. There is going to be a lot of man's inhumanity to man in this. His description of some of the events of the early civil rights movement in the US is horrifying - how quickly we forget many of the details and how lives were affected and destroyed. It will be interesting to see how the book is received in the US.