Freakonomics

I'm sure not too many would appreciate the pun that is "freakonomics" - it's about as bad as "blogerithm", none-the-less, this is a book of cute anecdotes, most of which involve stats.

Levitt's philosophy is simple: numbers cannot lie - which runs counter to the lying statistics revelations of 1954. In the spirit of this belief, Levitt's work has been rigorous and seemingly unbiased. In investigating correlations been abortion and crime-rate, I was convinced enough by the controlling variables that were investigated to believe, "yeah, crime-rate dropped in the 90s because aborted children in the 70s would be just reaching their prime criming age!".

I was also really impressed by his algorithm to detect cheating teachers (teachers who doctor some of their students' standardised tests so that they don't look like such bad teachers) and the following statistics used for support. What is interesting is, indeed, that statistics were able to form sole justification for the firing of teachers - against professings of innocence, and traditional innocent before guilty notions. Wow, I say.

There are other nice anecdotes retold in this book, one of which involves a man who brought down an entire chapter of the KKK just by revealing their secrets on a Superman radio programme.

I am always skeptical of this type of book, where the "wow" factor of mathematics and statistics is used to intrigue people, however I think the basis of Levitt's findings have been pretty solid, and he has intelligently answered questions that I'm sure would have been thrown in the too-hard-to-know-for-sure basket. This isn't just basic maths dressed up as magic - in fact, I'm pretty inspired to try and find a really interesting application for my own research. Nice one.

Hitomi Hitomi Hitomi

I'm very excited (for some reason... not sure exactly what that reason is) to see Hitomi Kanehara at MWF this thursday. I guess the chance to see, in person, authors that I enjoy reading is quite rare - most of them having died some time ago, or residing inter-australianly. I'm sure this experience will rival the reply letter from Kurt Vonnegut.

Kanehara is published by Vintage, and as a result her books look somewhat similar to Murakami - which I'll admit is what intrigued me in the first place. I was in a large bookstore in Hong Kong with my Italian colleague, Luigi, and seeing Autofiction I began to read the first few pages. Knowing nothing about it, I could not tell whether I would like it or not, and I didn't buy it until some months after I came home.

I thought it was beautiful.

We follow Rin backward, from 23 to 15, hearing the story each time of a boy misunderstanding, and then mistreating her. Rin is vulnerable, hotheaded, but she also has a firm sense of when she has been betrayed, and what she deserves from love and life.

In some cases, the boys seem as if they weren't ready for Rin's assertiveness and demanding nature. One particular scene sees Rin realise that her boy has lied to her about where he is. He isn't cheating on her, but he wants time away from her and he's perhaps afraid of how she would react for his desire to go out without her. Kana's thoughts turn inward, focusing on her body, her cleavage, breasts, and how these can be used to protect the self and heart that has just been betrayed.

Rin is the sort of girl that can be dismissed as unstable, adulterous - even a psycho, but she's really just someone who has been continually hurt by those in which she had so much faith. She experiences tragedy after tragedy, because she is ready to love and trust people but they can only ever see her as a girlish face amongst a million others that is seen devoid of intention and agency.



Snakes and Earrings - is a little more straightforward, less psychological, and certainly more disturbing. The protagonist, again, is a girl left to rely on undesireable males to get along in the world. This is the debut novel that brought Hitomi Kanehara so much acclaim - it is written simply, but with deliberate tone that leaves the reader in the belly of tattoo and piercing culture, amongst the sadomasochists and punk contradictions. Again, protection is sought in this world, and it comes in the form of a full-back tattoo of a Kirin (which I now know is a mythical animal and not just a beer).

here is some footage of the movie - it is good that the movie was made in japanese with japanese actors, however there is the consequence that there is no version with english subtitles available:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BStREUuDbc

VietNam Le

I'd heard bits and pieces about The Boat before I read it, none of them really giving much indication of what I would eventually read. I wonder what is said about this book at book-groups... I'm sure it's made its way onto the lists of book-groups as diverse as mine and my mother's.

One talking point has been Le's range of literary styles. At times it feels like you are reading a writing exercise rather than something the author has invested himself into - however when looking at this collection as a whole, there really are a few common themes and the author's world-view is gradually and coherently illuminated by each short story.

One theme in a few of the stories is trying to find an authentic approach to circumstances/history etc. In what seems to be a more autobiographical story, Nam debates about whether to use his Vietnamese heritage, the atrocities witnessed by his father, the difficulty for war-torn communities to adapt to peace, to help sell his writing. 'Meeting Elise' sees a father trying to reconcile with his estranged daughter, who was taken away from him because he cheated on his wife. He is depressed at the passing of his wife's replacement, and without dignity attempt to exploit his decaying health, his accumulated wealth, desperately trying to establish a claim to his daughter, which at some point he gave away. The theme is most openly explored in passages of 'Tehran Calling', when Sarah longs for a tragic past - something she feels could justify her existence and relieve her feelings of unfulfillment.

The range of countries explored in setting and heritage also shows that Nam Le focuses on the growing relationships that exist between people of the world, and how these affect our sense of identity. The differences in the world are accentuated when a woman, oppressed in Iran, could just as easily have left the country a decade earlier and settled somewhere else. How do we respond when we are confronted with one teenager who is attempting to retain his pride by fighting a drop-kick from school, and another teenager who is meeting his fate with his employer after failing to assassinate his best friend? What does it mean to hear in passing that a woman was beaten to death for no other reason than her being born in China, when afterward we hear of the desperation experienced by oppressed Vietnamese attempting to escape to Malaysia? Whether Nam Le is actually that good that he is able of capturing the plight of these characters, or just that good that he seems to capture the plight of these people, many of these stories left me quite overwhelmed and depressed.

In some stories he seemed to get vague toward the end, which Murakami does at times too - sometimes I think this tendency is nice and poetic and sometimes I think it is lazy and confusing! I will give Nam Le the benefit of the doubt here, since the collection certainly proves the worth of his writing. Any preconceptions I had could not have stopped me from realising this.

I wonder how he would approach a novel.

is The Virgin Suicides more about suicide or virginity?

As I have discussed, I found many parallels between The Virgin Suicides (movie) and Picnic at Hanging Rock. The blurb on the back of The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides would lead one to believe that the once-off party held at the Lisbons' house is central to the story - which would have worked well with my preconceptions, however I don't think is the case. I could have linked nicely the excursion to hanging rock and the house party - both representative of a rare excursion for strictly kept girls where the problems of sexuality and men might reveal themselves. The Virgin Suicides, however seems to be about much more, at least at a semi-conscious level (who knows how many hidden meanings are in Picnic?)

From my understanding, the book has two potential foci. 1) The virgin suicides: why? what are the connexions between virginity and suicide? etc; and 2) The voyeuristic attention paid by the boys across the street; Or perhaps these themes can and are meant to be reconciled?

2) The boys (i'll use the term collectively even though there is a distinguishable narrator) collect items from the girls' lives, treasuring Lux's bra, a photo of her cervix, pictures of the virgin Mary that Cecilia clung to in a bloody bathtub, doctors' reports etc. The obsession seems somewhat unhealthy, almost paedafilic, since the story is told retrospectively and the girls cannot age - there also seems to be mention of the house beginning to smell like "trapped beaver"...? We could blame this on Eugenides's own thoughts being tendered, however it is more likely that the perturbation that comes through from the narrator is a result of the incomprehensibility and fascination with the event. Pressing further (it would probably be appropriate to use some kind of metaphor here about vagina's but I'm not sure I could pull it off), the disparity between how the boys see the girls and how the girls clearly see themselves could perhaps be key to the suicides themselves. This ties in nicely with Cecilia's statement after her first suicide attempt (wrists) "clearly doctor, you don't know what it's like to be a 13-year-old girl.

The girls, because there are five of them and because their parents are strict, are objectified and distorted by the typical suburban American community. Lux (labelled promiscuous... but I think this adjective is misleading) is sought after by Trip: he pines after her for almost a year until finally scoring with her on the football field, afterwhich (of course) he's a bit sick of her because she confides that she always ruins everything.

When focusing on the boys and their perceptions, memories, I felt constantly confronted and annoyed with their authenticity. This is somewhat acknowledged, when it is realised that the boys were too interested in deciphering and marvelling at the call for help to respond to it. Alas, this is not atypical of suicide in general.

1) Virginity is referred to in different ways throughout - The Virgin Suicides is an old rock song, but Cecilia also held a picture of the Virgin Mary (apparently it should have been Jesus - therefore she's a devil worshipper), and things like Virgin oil pop up now and again. It's difficult to know whether we should be looking at the suicides as representative of suicide in general, perhaps even a code for something else, or whether we should succumb to the reality of the book and be intrigued by the 5.

The book explores the theme of suicide quite well, capturing the alienation that follows a suicide attempt, the despair of loved ones dealing with suicide and indeed the varying reactions that people can have. When trying to accept the mass suicide, one has to expel the crazy theories of infexion and cults etc, and try to deal with what this type of mass suicide really means. However in some ways, the idea is quite convincing - a girl attempts suicide because (this is a massive simplification) she is frustrated in confronting the world as a teenage girl. The response to this is inadequate, with those close to her acting strangely, distancing themselves, so she finishes the job. The sisters, whilst trying to make sense of the terrible loss, are also gradually ostracised from society, until they can no longer reconcile themselves with a future. The depressive moods fester and then finally it is suggested - it's not uncommon for suicidal teens to seek affirmation for the act or to find people complacent with its planning.

The tragedy, is that little can be made of the girls. We are given barely a glimpse of their persona's, shrouded as they are by the distorted impressions of others. The misconceptions of the neighbours, the town and the country, seem only to support the worth of the girls' decisions. Why bother living in a world that seems so stupid and oblivious?

William Hazlitt Essays

On the Pleasure of Hating encompasses 6 essays, the last of which bears the same title. I am led to believe that Hazlitt was an important radical of his time, and it seems like many of these essays would have been published in journals or newspapers.

The first piece details a boxing match - the difficulty to get there, the hype. What is most impressive about this short depiction is perhaps how well the reader is drawn into the excitement of the coming event.

The remaining essays could be considered little more than opinion pieces, lacking the theoretical or philosophical support to be perceived as anything else. Given this, a few I found interesting while others seemed to lack relevance.

The Indian Juggler begins by discussing the unrivalled talents of a juggler - but gradually leads to Hazlitt's contention: Men can't be great through dexterous feats, but rather through artistic pursuits (like writing).

His writing about the legitimacy of the Monarchy seemed a little redundant, especially given my location in time and space - however I guess there are some interesting points made.

Perhaps the most contemporary essay is that concerning reason and imagination. Although it does not purport specifically to do so, this essay provides the main basis for ethical arguments grounded in subjective reactions rather than in objectification and distance. i.e. Philosophers such as Singer hold that philosophical explorations in ethics should exist outside our human emotions and reactions, creating a hypothetical world in order to determine right or wrong. What this fails to do is acknowledge that ethics is very much tied to the society in which morality and choice are considered, and furthermore the emotional consequences to actions should be considered along with the objective consequences. For instance, Singer's example of a chimpanzee with more brain capacity than someone suffering severe retardation has more of a right to live - the problem with this argument is that it neglects the consideration of the following: the connections between the family and the severely disabled person, the instinctive recognition of the disabled person as a human - that is, we project our innate understanding of what it means to be human onto him, the responsibilities implicitly taken up by those close to the person.

(I am not anti-singer as such, I don't think he's a Nazi, I just don't agree with his take on ethics in this regard.)

It feels like Hazlitt is someone that it is a good idea to be aware of, although I'm not sure where I would use his arguments in academic writings etc - i.e. i'm not sure whether he's an authority on much. Perhaps he could be seen as indicative of the changing times?

Ignatius J. Reilly

In the introduction to A Confederacy of Dunces, Ignatius J. Reilly is described as some combination of characters I've heard of, but am unfamiliar with (Don Quixote for example). It worried me that this whole "branching out" as a result of bookgroup might be leading me books whose inter-textual references go unnoticed - resulting in the reception "it was good but i'm sure there's something i'm missing...".

Indeed, there's probably a lot in this book that might have got passed me, however Ignatius J. Reilly, however his character could perhaps be placed alongside those of Kafka, Vonnegut, Beckett. I was unable quite to locate him until the end, whereupon I decided that whereas Kafka's characters are in confrontation with an absurd world, Reilly seems to be an absurd character confronted by a normal world. At least, it is something like this. There is a comic absurdity in the depiction of a man sitting in his room reading a letter, "she must be lashed until she drops" overheard by his mother; or Ignatius' retaliation to an insurance claim against his mother, "A thousand dollars? He will not get a cent. We shall have him prosecuted immediately. Contact our attorneys, Mother."

There is certainly a disparity between what Reilly believes to be at his command, and his reality: an unemployed and obese white man, uncomfortable with the cultural "abortions" rampant in New Orleans - however at times you feel that his obliviousness is a front, protecting him from the disappointments in his life. His indictments against popular and modern habits are reminiscent of teenage/indi manifestos - so perhaps I'm laughing at myself as much as him.



::

after thinking on this somewhat I noticed that Ignatius perhaps has the same demeanor as Stewie from Family Guy... who i also find funny

Love in a cold climate

I found Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate quite funny. As a book, its main purpose seems to be to ridicule aristocracy of 20th century England, however all fun is poked somewhat endearingly and we end up liking the characters for their idiosyncrasies and eccentricities. My favourite of which is a character modeled on Mitford's father, who believes that if you write someone's name on a piece of paper and put it in a drawer, death will meet them shortly. Some passages find him frantically scribbling an enemy's name and jamming it in the draw, however we find that if (by coincidence) one of the named ends up meeting their fate, he does feel a little guilty for a day or two. The homesexual inference toward the end of the book surprised me with its blatancy, however I guess this is part "the rich can do what they like" - one of the points being presented in the book, and part "I don't know anything about the dates of progress of progressive ideas".

The story mentions Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway which prompted me to go out and read it. Mrs. Dalloway is amazingly written, some of the passages seem to perfectly capture that camera movement we see in films where a character is focused on then up and away we fly, through the window and to another. The style was sometimes hard to for me to keep track of, however the story is able to articulate depression and disillusionment authentically through its characters Mrs. Dalloway and Septimus who act as opposing poles of English society.