Philosophy Made Simple

Title: Philosophy Made Simple

Author: Robert Hellenga

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 0-316-05826-2

Pages: 277

Spoiler Alert – This book does not have a happy ending. I like happy endings. I think there is too much sad news in the world, that when I read a book of my own choosing, I would like it to have a neat, tidy, happy ending. I like to escape from the real world of drought, tornadoes, child pornography, cancer etc. I guess I expected this book to include painful examinations of life, since it does have philosophy in the title, but as I was carried away with the story, it seemed like it was building to a happy resolution, but on the “inauspicious day” of the main character's daughter's wedding – everything fell apart, and I was sad.

This is one of the Off the Shelf Challenge books that I've been meaning to read. Several years ago, when it seemed like I had more “free” time because I was only working one job and going to school full-time, I started listening to undergrad course online. One class that I especially enjoyed was PHI 110: Introduction to Philosophy by Missouri State University on iTunes. It was a nice review of the foundations of philosophy that I was supposed to get as an undergrad, but never did. Around that time, I stumbled on Hellenga's book at the University Bookstore and thought it might show how someone “really” thought about philosophy in everyday life. So, I ordered it from Paperback Swap and it has sat on my shelf since.

I really related to the introduction of the book. Everything had changed for Rudy – his wife died, his three daughters moved away to live their lives, and he was left alone with the dogs in the family house in Chicago. The girls and grandkids would visit, but it was no longer their home. Since my parents are about that same age, it made me think about how they must be feeling with us kids out of the house, living our lives and only visiting briefly. I too am nostalgic about the family memories we created in the house – the Christmases, birthday, confirmations, graduations and other paties but also the little things like letting the rabbits run around the living room while the cat watched uninterested, eating pizza on Sunday nights and watching the Wonderful World of Disney, turning off the lights during a thunderstorm to watch the lightning out the picture window and eventually sharing our home with Grandma during the last years of her life. These memories are a part of me – but are they a part of the house?

Rudy decides to sell the house and become an avocado farmer in Texas. At first the girls are supportive, but as reality sets in - they dread the loss of their family home and seem to be afraid of recognizing that their father is a person in his own right with hopes, regrets and a life. What accompanies Rudy through all the changes is a college textbook Philosophy Made Simple. His wife has been an art history professor and he acquired a lot of her knowledge, but not all of her tastes for art, history and philosophy. With a new space and open time, Rudy begins contemplating the big questions of life – What is beauty? What is happiness? What is the meaning of life? How do I know?

Plato's Allegory of the Cave and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, the thing-in-itself (das Ding an sich) are his touchstones throughout his philosophical meanderings in the midst of living life. He builds a life in Texas, farms avocados, plans and hosts his daughter's Indian wedding, and makes peace with the affair his wife had in Italy a few years before she died of cancer. Along the way, he tries out his philosophical understandings on his Mexican foreman, a Mexican paramour, the author of the textbook (who is a charismatic uncle of his new son-in-law), and a Russian and his artistic elephant Norma Jean that paints and is eventually abandoned to Rudy's care.

One of the interesting conversation in the book was about happiness – not just what it was, but when are we the happiest, or what was our happiest moment. “The pandit was quick to disagree: “Trying to reach happiness by fulfilling your desires is like trying to reach the horizon by running toward it. True happiness is to found not in the fulfillment of desire, but escape from desire.” (p. 212). Rudy counters with the idea “I think people are the happiest when they're standing on the threshold of a new life . . . “ His daughter continues with the illustration of the urn in Keat's poem Ode to a Grecian Urn, “It is not the kiss, but the moment just before the kiss that's the moment of real happiness” (p. 213). As soon as we get what we desire, we begin to desire something else. It is the absence of desire – the contentment of what we have, and being grateful for it.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Author: Stieg Larsson

Publisher: Knopf

ISBN: 978-0307269997

Pages: 576

I mentioned to a friend the other day that I was reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest and she said, "I don't think I'm going to read those books. I heard that they are violent crime books that lean toward pornography." I hate to admit it, but that description is fairly accurate. This is the third book in the series of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. (I also have to admit that I mistakenly picked up and read book 3 before book 2. Oops!) I'm generally not a crime book type person, though I did enjoy several V. I. Warshawski novels, mostly because of the Kathleen Turner movie of the same name. However, "everyone" was reading the Girl with Tattoo series a few years ago, my father-in-law gave me the books, and then the American movie came out. BTW - glad I read the book before the movie - like is often the case, the book was better than the movie, but the movie was good if you hadn't read the book (according to my husband).

The title is very appropriate for the book, which I especially love! The metaphor of Salander stirring up the hornets in the secret government conspiracy is absolutely spot on. The story begins with Salander being carted off to the hospital after being shot in the head. Blomkvist "rescued" her from almost certain death, but then has to deal with backwoods cops who think he had something to do with not only Salander's injuries, but the murders and assaults of several other people. Disentangling the 30 year conspiracy and clearing Salander's name becomes Blomkvist's mission. It begins with Salander's father, as ex-Russian spy who defected to Sweden and concealed for his valuable information - even though he abused Salander's mother mercilessly. As a teenager, Salander took revenge by throwing a Molotov cocktail, but rather than killing him, it resulted in Salander being committed to a mental institution and abused by a twisted psychiatrist, which was alluded to in the first book. Since the government didn't want people looking into the incident, "The Section" continued to hide and cover-up the unpleasantness. I now realize that there was a whole lot of stuff that happened in book 2 that I missed, like the murders of some of Blomkvist and Salander's allies, which led to Salander tracking down her demonic father and half-brother, which resulted it her current situation of a bullet in her head.

While Salander is operated on and recovering in the hospital, the conspiracy begins to unravel. Salander's father is murdered by The Section to prevent further confessions, but this leads to more people suspecting illegal and unconstitutional dealings deep within the government. Blomkvist continues to get help from his part-time lover Berger (editor of his magazine) who transfers to a rival newspaper. She is involved in petty office politics and a stalker/harasser, which had no bearing on the central plot, other than to make Berger edgy. Blomkvist makes a deal with another secret group within the government to investigate The Section, and through this, finds several more allies - including a new lover, a fitness fanatic security guard.

One of the most interesting character, which isn't developed fully, is Blomkvist's lawyer sister, Giannini, who agrees to represent Salander, even though Giannini's specialty is civil cases. However, it turns out that Giannini's background in psychology is useful, as is her background in abuse cases.

Even though Blomkvist and Salander don't meet again until the last few chapters, they have an ongoing conversation via chat. Even though Salander is under hospital arrest without visitor, Blomkvist manages to smuggle her a PalmPilot (Hee-hee, modern readers would not have a clue what this is - but I had one!) and she "taps" out to her hacking group for help in the investigation.

Having read the first book, I realized that Larsson spends a long time setting up his stories. To me, it was like watching the show Unchain Reaction based on Rube Goldberg's machines. In the show, the first 25 minutes is all about the concept, design and sorting out the problems and the finale lasts all of 2 minutes. In Larsson's book, the set-up takes 3/4 of the book, but once I was that invested in it, it felt like hitting the top of the hill on a roller-coaster - I just held up my hands and screamed!

Returning to my friend's comment about the violence and the prom - yes, it was pronounced. There are graphic descriptions of the murders, abuse (physical and sexual), and various altercations. As horrible as this all is, it makes Salander seem all that more amazing - to have survived and thrived under conditions that took away her freedom, rights and dignity. I can't say I would recommend this book to everyone - even though it was an the best seller list and such, I think it would appeal to a particular group of readers, unfortunately none that I know, so this book is going to The Little Free Library!

Names and Naming in YA Lit - Nice tidbits

Title: Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature

Authors: Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L.F. Nilsen

Publisher:Scarecrow Press

ISBN: 0-8108-5808-0

Pages: 165

 

This is one off my shelf. I bought it awhile ago but haven't gotten to it. I've often had students ask me about the intentionality of authors when they name characters. When I've attended readings by authors, that question is often asked also. Some authors don't name their characters until well into the writing and as the personality develops. Other authors state that the character just existed, and the author just wrote down the story. I was finally prompted to pick up this book because of finishing The Hunger Games and I was impressed with the author's ability to use names to foreshadow and extend the depth of characterization. Katniss – an edible water plant that is known for arrow shaped leaves. Rhue – or rue, to regret or be sorrowful. Peeta – close to pita bread, which reminds the reader of his origin. And, although Haymitch doesn't seem to have an origin, I kept thinking “hayseed” which is slang for a bumpkin or a yokel, which in the beginning, he certainly seems to be. There is a nice summary of names in Hunger Games here: Name Meanings.

The Nilsens had the honor of interviewing Robert Cormier many years ago about his use of names in novel such as The Chocolate War, I Am the Cheese, and After the First Death. This interview turned into an article, which turned into a book. Although the book isn't hefty, there's a lot of interesting tidbits, which are even more interesting for anyone who as read the authors the Nilsens highlight such as: M.E. Kerr, Gary Paulsen, Louis Sachar, Francesca Lia Block, Karen Cushman, Gary Soto, Nancy Farmer, Orson Scott Card, and Ursula K. LeGuin. In many cases, the Nilsens have communicated with the authors directly, plus they link historical naming trends and facts to how the authors selected names.

There is a preview of the book here: Names and Naming in Young Adult Literature 

Although a bit old, here is Alleen Nilsen's YA BookPage

The Red Queen - The Cousin's War Rehashed

Title: The Red Queen: A Novel (The Cousins' War)

Author: Philippa Gregory

Publisher: Touchstone

ISBN:1416563725

Pages: 400

Having read The White Queen, it seemed only proper to read the sequel, The Red Queen. However, it seemed like a cross between Twilight and Desperate Housewives. The main character, Margaret, was whiny and unlikable, set in the midst of a power struggle in which the females used whatever assets they had to get their way. In contrast to The White Queen, she was pious and nun-like, hoping people would see her as the next Joan of Arc (which didn't end well) in contrast to the "witch" of the white queen. Since it covered much of the same events as the other book, just from a different view point, it was quite familiar. Margaret didn't hang out in London, which was a huge draw for me in the first book so it lost my interest early on, but I soldiered through, hoping I would get hooked, but I never really did. It ended, as expected, with King Henry taking the throne.

The Hundred Secret Senses - Future Regrets vs. In the Present

Title: The Hundred Secret Senses

Author: Amy Tan

Publisher: Random House - Ivy

ISBN: 978-0804111096

Pages: 399

When I was teaching high school English a few years ago, I had the opportunity to introduce my students to The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, mostly because we had copies of it at the school and it was on the AP English list. Since my students tended to straddle multiple cultures, the struggles between the daughters and the mothers seems an appropriate topic. But, for students, it can be a difficult book to understand - there are vignettes, flashbacks, and a constant change in narrator voice. However, most students enjoyed it, as did I. Amy Tan was all the rage in the late 1990s and early 2000s and received critical and popular acclaim for her first book The Joy Luck Club, but it seems that her work has been eclipse now by other authors of color in the United States. However, it was at that time that I picked up The Hundred Secret Senses (1995) because "everyone" was reading it. But, it sat on my shelf through two moves because I found Tan's work to be intense in its exploration of relationships and the disintegration of them.

LitLovers has some brief discussion questions for the book.

Robert Fletcher provides some study aids or background to the events.

The Hundred Secret Senses is also an exploration of relationships - between two half-sisters and a marriage. Libby, born in America to a Chinese man and American woman, finds she has a Chinese sister who was left behind when her father immigrated to the US. As a young child, when her father dies, her mother promises to find and raise the child. Kwan, 10 years older than Libby, is boisterous and strange in Libby's eyes - a person who says and talks to "yin people", the dead. Sharing a bedroom growing up, Libby is nearly raised by Kwan and is acculturated into the word of Chinese mysticism. Eventually, Libby "tattles" on Kwan and she is sent away to receive shock treatments and returns with frizzy hair but still seeing the yin people.

As Libby goes off to college, she attempts to separate herself from her sister, who continues to interpose herself in Libby's life. When Libby brings home her boyfriend, who can't release the memory of his dead girlfriend, Libby enlists Kwan's help in speaking for the dead girlfriend to help Simon move on with his life. Eventually, Libby and Simon marry, but the specter of the dead girlfriend hangs over Libby and eventually pushes them apart.

However, Kwan persuades Libby, as a photographer, and Simon, a writer, to accompany her to visit her mother and home village in China. Kwan is convinced Libby and Simon are destined to be together. There is a secondary story told throughout the book of Kwan's past life in which she befriended Miss Banner, a missionary, who died waiting to be reunited with her beloved. Kwan believes Libby and Simon are these two people and need to be reconciled - but by using their hundred secret senses, to recognize who they really are.

I was intrigued by the introduction to the book - the blunt description of how Libby struggled with dealing with her "weird" sister who was unconditionally devoted. I think we all have people in our lives who insert themselves in ways we don't appreciate a the time, but over time, we realize who much we needed their "interference." Unfortunately, we don't often get the opportunity to let them know how much their influence impacted us. Tan also documents the fizzling and re-kindling of a romance. The ghost in Simon and Libby's marriage is more of a ghost to Libby, than to Simon. With the petty demands of life - getting a house, career etc - the larger dreams and intimate talks tend to be pushed aside. They no longer "saw" each other for who they really were and stopped growing and changing together. When they went to China, they encountered new ideas, but also re-discovered themselves and in returned, their interest in each other. The typical joke of married life is that the longer you are together, the more you look and act alike. I think there needs to be a continued balance of predictability and novelty. There is comfort in knowing who your spouse will react to situations and things but there is also excitement in discovering new aspects of your spouse. Are people destined to be together? Do we really have "soul mates" that complete us? In Tan's world, yes, and the future regrets prevent one from moving on. In my world, I prefer to live in the present and appreciate what I have in front of me, rather than pining for the past or regretting the future.