I was introduced to Robert Anton Wilson when I was interested in Peter Carroll and Chaos Magick in the mid-to-late 90s. RAW's books were recommended as essential for understanding the modern Magick paradigm. My good luck resulted in me reading 'Prometheus Rising' as my first RAW book and I was impressed. The book mainly details Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness, with which I was not acquainted at the time, and it appeared as a very lucid and intelligible model of what might be going on in people's heads. The second book I read from RAW was 'Quantum Psychology' (I actually purchased both of these books!), which was touted as second part of 'Prometheus Rising'. I was very disappointed with this book, which seemed to me a big pile of hodge-podge (not in the discordian way unfortunatey), lots of light prose, some repeats from the previous book, some perennial 'wisdoms' and common sensical things that you don't need to purchase a book to learn - and little else. I wrote a pretty bad review for it and almost forgot about RAW until last year when I got his notorious 'Illuminatus' as an audio book, and inflicted the, by no means small, pain upon myself of listening to the first 45 minutes. I could absolutely make no sense of anything. I never liked the 'stream of consciousness' books. I still haven't read Joyce. I didn't even know 'Illuminatus' was stream of consciousness book, and that RAW was such a great admirer of Joyce.
Anyway, the audio book titled above consists of 4 sessions where RAW talks to the editor of 'Sounds True', an audio book publishing house, plus 3 recordings from his lectures. The first part is much more entertaining, as I don't find RAW to be a great speaker, though I have read that he even did stand-up comedy. The interview with 'Sounds True' is very genuine, relaxed and informative. The reader/listener gets to hear RAW's stance on plenty of controversial topics popular today as well as reminiscences of people and events inhis illustrious past, and some comments about his own books. RAW never became rich from his books, which actually sold pretty well, but he could live comfortable. That is, he lived comfortable until the last year of his life, when his life-long fight with polio consequences was beginning to be lost. He appealed for funds to cover his medical expenses on his blog and posted a reply after receiving more than he expected about how touched he was that there were people who still cared about him. He passed away less than a week after the blog post.
This audio recording is very easy-listening and very entertaining, and can be seen as the best introduction to his overall work and positions on most issues he wrote and lectured about throughout his life. One of the sessions espouses Leary's eight circuit model of consciousness, to which RAW contributed, in a clear and intelligible knowledge. The lecture recordings that follow concentrate on particular topics in his writings, and there is an interesting question and answer period recorded. I didn't like the speeches as much as the previous conversation parts, but they definitely add value. Although I don't share the excitement about Robert Anton Wilson's writings that many people seem to hold, I do recognize his place in development of modern thought and exploration of fringe areas of science, and would recommend this audio book as a great introduction to the man and his work to everyone.
Friday, October 3, 2008
"Imajica" by Clive Barker
Haven't written for a while. That doesn't mean I wasn't reading, I actually finished 2 books and am currently reading another 3. The times were stressful, new job, new apartment, GMAT, summer, beach, etc. I hope I finish the review of both books I finished today, or otherwise it might be next week , as the weekend should be filled with activities. The first book I finished was 'Imajica' by Clive Barker.
I read 'Imajica' for the first time when I was an undergrad student. I was immensely impressed by Barker's books 'Cabal', 'Weaveworld', and the lovely 'The Thief of Always', although I initially started reading Barker because I was searching the annals of horror literature since Lovecraft, and I wanted to read all of the major modern authors, just as I read all the books I could Lovecraft mentioned in his essay 'The supernatural in the history of literature'. I liked 'The Books of Blood' and 'The Damnation Game' but it was his fantasy novels that really impressed me and put Barker on the shelf of my favorite authors. I can credit primarily Barker, actually, for my primary reading interest during undergrad shifting from horror and 'hard' science fiction to a more fantasy selection, though I have been a fan of Tolkien, Le Guinn, and others since early high school. When I compare what has Barker done with his fantasy novels relative to his horror work, I cannot fail to notice that his fantasy (or as he calls it 'dark fantasy') work is way above in style and creativity, and this fact made me notice that in literature in general, the purely horror works are usually of much 'pulpier' quality than fantasy works.
I remembered, from undergrad, the vast worlds, the many fantastic creatures, the nomenclature, the unknown, the suspense, the seemingly limitless imagination that Barker has invested in this novel. This, if any, should be called his seminal work. Here he presents his worldview, his view of afterlife, God, spirituality, relationships, transcending the customary accepted ones in our modern society, and going well beyond and above them. One thing that struck me as particularly strong, and this goes also for my second reading of my favorite novel by Barker 'Cabal', is his hardly veiled descriptions, apologetics, and actual exaltation, in a sense, of homosexual, transsexual and transgender lifestyles.
This revelation was the biggest shock to me when I re-read 'Cabal' some years ago, being about 5-6 years out of undergrad, and for the first time after I read that Barker is openly homosexual and activist in the community. I saw all the names, relationships and symbols in 'Cabal' completely different. They were not arbitrary gems of a great imagination, but most of them were symbolic of the homosexual society, and the oppression against them, the ways they had to hide in order to survive and what they had to invent to keep sane. The Nightbreed in 'Cabal' are the LBGT community, driven into hiding because of the very thing they are, and mercilessly chased and destroyed by the evil 'townspeople' just for being different, being 'freaks'. In this sense much of the dialogue, person's names and actions become much more obvious and sequential. Boone is maybe Barker himself, sent by Baphometh to free the Nightbreed, that is the LGBT community from the oppression of the fundamentalists, who themselves have much bigger problems, represented by Decker.
But this review is about 'Imajica'. Here too, the themes of transcending sexuality in both substance, as in not having it limited to union of a male and female, but in many other varieties, and in structure, as in the sexual manuscript with outlandish sexual postures, in one the lovers consuming each others bodies, are greatly elaborated and presented in favorable light. Pie-oh-pah is a mystiv, thus Gentle is both heterosexual and bisexual at the same time. Taylor and Clem are very important, very positive and very openly gay characters. Judith has many fantasies of making love with other women. The other creatures that populate the Imajica, they all have their own ways of having sex, and elaborate customs and reasons around them, and Barker intentionally presents all this variety in its wonder and beauty, so to point out to the ordinary reader that the male-female union is not the only one, not even the only valid one, and far from being the best one. I think that the book cannot be understood without understanding the homosexual and transsexual apology interwoven with the main theme.
'Imajica' is also a stage for Barker to show his distaste for the 'One God - and a patriarchal one at that' paradigm. He describes the goddesses and the matriarchal rites and religion in much more positive light than Hapexamendios (only God knows how he came up with that name), who is irrational, infantile, cruel and selfish. Even the fact that Barker named Imajica's supreme deity is a kind of rebellion against the dogma of the real name of God being unutterable in most major religions. Some parts of the novel read as a straight defense and praise of Wicca, goddess-based religions and feminism, to a point that it gets boring. The supreme love of Gentle, a male, toward Pie-oh-pah, a hermaphrodite, putting it above any love he felt for a woman, which is emphasized over and over again, is also in line of Barker's defense of love as a thing in itself (not in Kantian sense though), independent of artificial limits the society has imposed upon it.
There are several faults with the novel. First, it starts way too slow. Nothing really happens for the first 250 pages. Second, didacticism, in a sense of Barker's convictions about sex, love, relationships, God, spirituality, etc., is very present, taking large chunks of the chapters, and can be annoying and superfluous at times. These two flaws I see as major ones, and with some trimming of the said content, the book could lose about 300-400 pages, and be much more readable than in its present state. Another flaw, as I see it, and which appears in many other Barker's books is his treatment of Magic, whether he calls it 'fates', 'ruptures', or something else. All magic in Barker's novels seems to come from the body od the operator, breath, spit, blood, sperm, feces, etc. This is a very modernistic view of magical operations, similar to postulates of 'Chaos Magick' and other modern currents, however he does not give a sufficient context neither in the traditional, medieval pantheon, or in the modernistic currents. Magic seems for Barker to be an afterthought, and ornament, something to 'make pretty' his primary discourses of sex, sexuality, relationships and emotions, primarily in gay homosexual contexts.
This is definitely the greatest book Barker has ever penned. It has its flaws, and is definitely not an easy-reading. There are multiple layers of meanings and most things become obvious only when looked through an LBGT prism. Barker is still described as a 'Horror Writer' but that is only accurate of the very beginning of his career. He has long ago abandoned hardcore horror and has instead craeted fantastic imaginary universes worthy of Lord Dunsany.
I read 'Imajica' for the first time when I was an undergrad student. I was immensely impressed by Barker's books 'Cabal', 'Weaveworld', and the lovely 'The Thief of Always', although I initially started reading Barker because I was searching the annals of horror literature since Lovecraft, and I wanted to read all of the major modern authors, just as I read all the books I could Lovecraft mentioned in his essay 'The supernatural in the history of literature'. I liked 'The Books of Blood' and 'The Damnation Game' but it was his fantasy novels that really impressed me and put Barker on the shelf of my favorite authors. I can credit primarily Barker, actually, for my primary reading interest during undergrad shifting from horror and 'hard' science fiction to a more fantasy selection, though I have been a fan of Tolkien, Le Guinn, and others since early high school. When I compare what has Barker done with his fantasy novels relative to his horror work, I cannot fail to notice that his fantasy (or as he calls it 'dark fantasy') work is way above in style and creativity, and this fact made me notice that in literature in general, the purely horror works are usually of much 'pulpier' quality than fantasy works.
I remembered, from undergrad, the vast worlds, the many fantastic creatures, the nomenclature, the unknown, the suspense, the seemingly limitless imagination that Barker has invested in this novel. This, if any, should be called his seminal work. Here he presents his worldview, his view of afterlife, God, spirituality, relationships, transcending the customary accepted ones in our modern society, and going well beyond and above them. One thing that struck me as particularly strong, and this goes also for my second reading of my favorite novel by Barker 'Cabal', is his hardly veiled descriptions, apologetics, and actual exaltation, in a sense, of homosexual, transsexual and transgender lifestyles.
This revelation was the biggest shock to me when I re-read 'Cabal' some years ago, being about 5-6 years out of undergrad, and for the first time after I read that Barker is openly homosexual and activist in the community. I saw all the names, relationships and symbols in 'Cabal' completely different. They were not arbitrary gems of a great imagination, but most of them were symbolic of the homosexual society, and the oppression against them, the ways they had to hide in order to survive and what they had to invent to keep sane. The Nightbreed in 'Cabal' are the LBGT community, driven into hiding because of the very thing they are, and mercilessly chased and destroyed by the evil 'townspeople' just for being different, being 'freaks'. In this sense much of the dialogue, person's names and actions become much more obvious and sequential. Boone is maybe Barker himself, sent by Baphometh to free the Nightbreed, that is the LGBT community from the oppression of the fundamentalists, who themselves have much bigger problems, represented by Decker.
But this review is about 'Imajica'. Here too, the themes of transcending sexuality in both substance, as in not having it limited to union of a male and female, but in many other varieties, and in structure, as in the sexual manuscript with outlandish sexual postures, in one the lovers consuming each others bodies, are greatly elaborated and presented in favorable light. Pie-oh-pah is a mystiv, thus Gentle is both heterosexual and bisexual at the same time. Taylor and Clem are very important, very positive and very openly gay characters. Judith has many fantasies of making love with other women. The other creatures that populate the Imajica, they all have their own ways of having sex, and elaborate customs and reasons around them, and Barker intentionally presents all this variety in its wonder and beauty, so to point out to the ordinary reader that the male-female union is not the only one, not even the only valid one, and far from being the best one. I think that the book cannot be understood without understanding the homosexual and transsexual apology interwoven with the main theme.
'Imajica' is also a stage for Barker to show his distaste for the 'One God - and a patriarchal one at that' paradigm. He describes the goddesses and the matriarchal rites and religion in much more positive light than Hapexamendios (only God knows how he came up with that name), who is irrational, infantile, cruel and selfish. Even the fact that Barker named Imajica's supreme deity is a kind of rebellion against the dogma of the real name of God being unutterable in most major religions. Some parts of the novel read as a straight defense and praise of Wicca, goddess-based religions and feminism, to a point that it gets boring. The supreme love of Gentle, a male, toward Pie-oh-pah, a hermaphrodite, putting it above any love he felt for a woman, which is emphasized over and over again, is also in line of Barker's defense of love as a thing in itself (not in Kantian sense though), independent of artificial limits the society has imposed upon it.
There are several faults with the novel. First, it starts way too slow. Nothing really happens for the first 250 pages. Second, didacticism, in a sense of Barker's convictions about sex, love, relationships, God, spirituality, etc., is very present, taking large chunks of the chapters, and can be annoying and superfluous at times. These two flaws I see as major ones, and with some trimming of the said content, the book could lose about 300-400 pages, and be much more readable than in its present state. Another flaw, as I see it, and which appears in many other Barker's books is his treatment of Magic, whether he calls it 'fates', 'ruptures', or something else. All magic in Barker's novels seems to come from the body od the operator, breath, spit, blood, sperm, feces, etc. This is a very modernistic view of magical operations, similar to postulates of 'Chaos Magick' and other modern currents, however he does not give a sufficient context neither in the traditional, medieval pantheon, or in the modernistic currents. Magic seems for Barker to be an afterthought, and ornament, something to 'make pretty' his primary discourses of sex, sexuality, relationships and emotions, primarily in gay homosexual contexts.
This is definitely the greatest book Barker has ever penned. It has its flaws, and is definitely not an easy-reading. There are multiple layers of meanings and most things become obvious only when looked through an LBGT prism. Barker is still described as a 'Horror Writer' but that is only accurate of the very beginning of his career. He has long ago abandoned hardcore horror and has instead craeted fantastic imaginary universes worthy of Lord Dunsany.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
"Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond
Mr.Diamond is a biologist by training and avid bird researcher. It is not surprising that the viewpoint he presents in this book rejects all theories that the moral, religious or social factors were decisive in establishing white man's hegemony over the world, and firmly establishes that geography and ecology were the crucial elements in civilization's rise to power, and if the black Africans were located in Europe or Asia, they would have developed just as advanced civilization and would rule the world. This might be a little of a stumbling stone to many white people who, even subconsciously, feel a little tickle of satisfaction when thinking about the superiority of the white race, but it is cold hard scientific fact, the whites just got lucky to be at the right place at the right time.
The basic tenet of Mr.Diamond's theory is that the advance of civilization was determined by the availability of domesticable crops and large mammals. The Eurasian continent had the largest number of crops that could be domesticated and the largest number of large mammals that could be domesticated. The Americas, Africa and Australia had way less suitable crops, and the large mammal species were extinct very early on, before the humans living there could figure out the advantages and procedures of domestication. This early domestication of crops and mammals allowed for abandonment of the nomadic hunter/gatherer life style. People started to group together, organize villages and cities. The population density increased, since farming could support much more people per squared mile than the very random success hunting/gathering. With large population, densely populated settlements, the precursors for complex social organizations were in place. The complex social organization allowed for specialization of the people in the settlement. Some could become only warriors, other would become scribes and learned man, there would be a chieftain and a set hierarchy. This alone provided for the spare time and resources to develop sciences, literature and advanced technologies. It is that simple. There is no racial, moral or religious reason. Everything is up to what crops are around, how good they are in providing nutrition and domestication and how many large mammals that could be domesticated were around. Bad news for racists of any kind.
Mr.Diamond further explains that most human diseases originated from animal diseases that jump onto humans at a certain point of their evolution. Humans who domesticated large animals early had been exposed to more animal diseases earlier, and after the plagues and epidemics passed, the remaining humans were left with natural resistance to the deadly diseases. Since 13 of the only 14 domestic mammals that were ever domesticated came from Eurasia, the people living in Europe and Asia were the ones most exposed to the deadly diseases and developed immunity to them early on. This proved to be crucial later on when the Europeans colonized the Americas and Australia, as the natives there had absolutely no immunity to the diseases that the Europeans were carrying and their populations were decimated.
The characteristics of Eurasia also had huge impact on developing advanced civilizations as it is narrow in height and wide in width, which allows for larger areas that share the same longitude and thus have similar climate and conditions. The civilization started in the Fertile Crescent, today's Tiger and Euphrates rivers, Lebanon, Israel and Sinai peninsula. When the soil was exhausted there, the population had plentiful of similar space to settle and spread, since the Fertile Crescent was in the middle of Eurasia, and from there spread to Europe to the west and to Persia, India and China to the east.
None of the domestic animals now so popular in Europe and North America are native to the lands. They have all come from the Fertile Crescent, just like most of the crops that Europeans have used for centuries like wheat and rye. The situation of the world today, the haves and the have-nots has primarily been decided by the geography of the originating peoples, but the hand nature dealt them, by pure chance, and not by any kind of imagined racial, genetic or religious differences.
The basic tenet of Mr.Diamond's theory is that the advance of civilization was determined by the availability of domesticable crops and large mammals. The Eurasian continent had the largest number of crops that could be domesticated and the largest number of large mammals that could be domesticated. The Americas, Africa and Australia had way less suitable crops, and the large mammal species were extinct very early on, before the humans living there could figure out the advantages and procedures of domestication. This early domestication of crops and mammals allowed for abandonment of the nomadic hunter/gatherer life style. People started to group together, organize villages and cities. The population density increased, since farming could support much more people per squared mile than the very random success hunting/gathering. With large population, densely populated settlements, the precursors for complex social organizations were in place. The complex social organization allowed for specialization of the people in the settlement. Some could become only warriors, other would become scribes and learned man, there would be a chieftain and a set hierarchy. This alone provided for the spare time and resources to develop sciences, literature and advanced technologies. It is that simple. There is no racial, moral or religious reason. Everything is up to what crops are around, how good they are in providing nutrition and domestication and how many large mammals that could be domesticated were around. Bad news for racists of any kind.
Mr.Diamond further explains that most human diseases originated from animal diseases that jump onto humans at a certain point of their evolution. Humans who domesticated large animals early had been exposed to more animal diseases earlier, and after the plagues and epidemics passed, the remaining humans were left with natural resistance to the deadly diseases. Since 13 of the only 14 domestic mammals that were ever domesticated came from Eurasia, the people living in Europe and Asia were the ones most exposed to the deadly diseases and developed immunity to them early on. This proved to be crucial later on when the Europeans colonized the Americas and Australia, as the natives there had absolutely no immunity to the diseases that the Europeans were carrying and their populations were decimated.
The characteristics of Eurasia also had huge impact on developing advanced civilizations as it is narrow in height and wide in width, which allows for larger areas that share the same longitude and thus have similar climate and conditions. The civilization started in the Fertile Crescent, today's Tiger and Euphrates rivers, Lebanon, Israel and Sinai peninsula. When the soil was exhausted there, the population had plentiful of similar space to settle and spread, since the Fertile Crescent was in the middle of Eurasia, and from there spread to Europe to the west and to Persia, India and China to the east.
None of the domestic animals now so popular in Europe and North America are native to the lands. They have all come from the Fertile Crescent, just like most of the crops that Europeans have used for centuries like wheat and rye. The situation of the world today, the haves and the have-nots has primarily been decided by the geography of the originating peoples, but the hand nature dealt them, by pure chance, and not by any kind of imagined racial, genetic or religious differences.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
"Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment" by Tal Ben-Shahar
This book was recommended to my by my therapist whom I value, so I had very big expectations about it. The expectations were mostly correct! It will not automatically make you happier, but will give you insights into many mechanisms and patterns that most people are blindly repeating all of their lives. The author has drawn on Freud and Frankl for the theories of the primary motivation of man, stating that both 'pleasure' i.e. immediate gratification, and 'meaning' i.e. future gratification are necessary for a meaningful life. As an admirer of both greatest psychologists of our time, I think the author does a very good job in combining their teachings into one congruent whole.
As the author teaches the 'Positive Psychology' course at Harvard, the book is largely a primer of positive psychology, which is something that makes it even better and adds to its value. Unlike the regular psychology which deals with people with problems, anxieties, phobias, etc. positive psychology studies the virtues, happy, elevated mental states of people.
The author uses the hamburger principle to differentiate 4 different types of people: rat racers (sacrifices present happiness for future gratification - vegetarian hamburger), hedonists (sacrifices future happiness for present gratification - fatty hamburger), nihilist (stuck in the past, no present or future gratification expected - whatever hamburger) and happy people , the happy hamburger which gives both present and future gratification. It is a very catchy and memorable classification. Add to this the lasagna principle (author's favorite food) which says that although something might be the most favorite (lasagna) and important thing in the world to us, we still cannot do/think/be that the whole time, but we need a break and variety.
I found the metaphor of happiness as the 'ultimate currency' very insightful and true. We get stuck into pursuing material wealth and prestige and forget why we are doing all that - to be happy. If we start seeing happiness as the ultimate goal and not money or power or social standing then our priorities change and we become true to our core self. Also the author points out the difference between positive happiness, something that happened that made us genuinely happy, and negative happiness, when we are happy because some hardship is over, like in the case of the rat-racers achieving a hard-won goal or position.
The authors insight that self-discipline is extremely hard to do, and in order to change ourselves we need to introduce habits by ritualizing the things we want to adopt is eye-opening! If we start doing something because we know it is good for us, we cannot keep on doing it for long, like new years resolution as we fall back into our old habits, and there is nobody to blame for it, as it is human nature. No amount of will power and self discipline will help that. However if we introduce a new habit, by patiently ritualize a behavior, very specifically done at very specific time then the habit starts to change us from within. The author also attacks the myth of 'no pain - no gain' as completely untrue, hardship is not necessary for success and happiness, because we are most productive just bellow the level of hardship, and the statement that people work best under pressure is a myth.
The author also explains the concept of 'flow' when we are fully immersed in something that is interesting and gratifying that we lose concept of time. Being in 'flow' is the most gratifying state of mind for a human being. Whatever we do when in 'flow' is gratifying on both pleasure level for immediate gratification and meaning level for future gratification. He also emphasizes that having goals is a pre-requisite for experiencing 'flow' and those goals need to be 'self-concordant' to stem from our inner core and be meaningful to us. Flow is experienced much more at work than during leisure time, and the author speaks against the stigma of work which is mostly seen as a kind of punishment. The author differentiates amongst three types of employment: 1. a job, meaningless, only there for the money, can't wait for the weekend 2. a career, promotion and advance are primary motivators, not much pleasure in the job itself and 3. a calling, the work itself is a reward enough and pleasure, even without any additional rewards.
This book is one of the best self-help books I've ever read, and I've read many, many. It is short, to the point, replete with practical exercises and sound advice, and best of all, it is not an airy teaching of some eastern guru or new age quack, but solid science, psychology based on scientific research and peer-reviewed literature.
As the author teaches the 'Positive Psychology' course at Harvard, the book is largely a primer of positive psychology, which is something that makes it even better and adds to its value. Unlike the regular psychology which deals with people with problems, anxieties, phobias, etc. positive psychology studies the virtues, happy, elevated mental states of people.
The author uses the hamburger principle to differentiate 4 different types of people: rat racers (sacrifices present happiness for future gratification - vegetarian hamburger), hedonists (sacrifices future happiness for present gratification - fatty hamburger), nihilist (stuck in the past, no present or future gratification expected - whatever hamburger) and happy people , the happy hamburger which gives both present and future gratification. It is a very catchy and memorable classification. Add to this the lasagna principle (author's favorite food) which says that although something might be the most favorite (lasagna) and important thing in the world to us, we still cannot do/think/be that the whole time, but we need a break and variety.
I found the metaphor of happiness as the 'ultimate currency' very insightful and true. We get stuck into pursuing material wealth and prestige and forget why we are doing all that - to be happy. If we start seeing happiness as the ultimate goal and not money or power or social standing then our priorities change and we become true to our core self. Also the author points out the difference between positive happiness, something that happened that made us genuinely happy, and negative happiness, when we are happy because some hardship is over, like in the case of the rat-racers achieving a hard-won goal or position.
The authors insight that self-discipline is extremely hard to do, and in order to change ourselves we need to introduce habits by ritualizing the things we want to adopt is eye-opening! If we start doing something because we know it is good for us, we cannot keep on doing it for long, like new years resolution as we fall back into our old habits, and there is nobody to blame for it, as it is human nature. No amount of will power and self discipline will help that. However if we introduce a new habit, by patiently ritualize a behavior, very specifically done at very specific time then the habit starts to change us from within. The author also attacks the myth of 'no pain - no gain' as completely untrue, hardship is not necessary for success and happiness, because we are most productive just bellow the level of hardship, and the statement that people work best under pressure is a myth.
The author also explains the concept of 'flow' when we are fully immersed in something that is interesting and gratifying that we lose concept of time. Being in 'flow' is the most gratifying state of mind for a human being. Whatever we do when in 'flow' is gratifying on both pleasure level for immediate gratification and meaning level for future gratification. He also emphasizes that having goals is a pre-requisite for experiencing 'flow' and those goals need to be 'self-concordant' to stem from our inner core and be meaningful to us. Flow is experienced much more at work than during leisure time, and the author speaks against the stigma of work which is mostly seen as a kind of punishment. The author differentiates amongst three types of employment: 1. a job, meaningless, only there for the money, can't wait for the weekend 2. a career, promotion and advance are primary motivators, not much pleasure in the job itself and 3. a calling, the work itself is a reward enough and pleasure, even without any additional rewards.
This book is one of the best self-help books I've ever read, and I've read many, many. It is short, to the point, replete with practical exercises and sound advice, and best of all, it is not an airy teaching of some eastern guru or new age quack, but solid science, psychology based on scientific research and peer-reviewed literature.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
"Gandhi An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth" by Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
I must preface this by saying that Gandhi is one of the three men that I respect more than anything in the world. The other two are Jung and Einstein. I believe these three men have given more to humanity than any living soul in the last 100 years. I am trying to educate and familiarize myself with every little detail of their lives, with their background, all the writings etc. just to be in a position to better understand their ideas and worldviews.
This book is very important for gleaning the real Gandhi. It is not an autobiography in the standard sense of that word, i.e. as a chronological presentation of events and people. Gandhi skips over large periods of his life, like the struggle in South Africa, and although he does present the events chronologically, it doesn't put equal emphasis on all of them. He talks in length about his veganism, the need to be without desires (brahmacharya) and not hurting any living being (ahimsa), and goes in depth about the different religious exploration and his final conclusion that the supreme God to which everything is subordinated is The Truth. One needs to spend one's life being completely truthful to oneself and to the others.
We learn a bit about Mahatma's early life, how he was married early, about his schooling in India and the subsequent trip to get a barrister (law) degree in England "because it is cheaper, easier, and takes less time." The accounts of his first trip to South Africa and about are very powerful, as he describes the inrooted racism and discrimination within the apartheid society, which sound even more striking when told by Mahatma's calm, compassionate and forgiving voice. He truly practiced what he preached and loved his enemies and felt sorry for them even though when he was physically abused and forced out of a first class compartment because he was a 'koolie' a colored person, and when he wasn't allowed inside a stage coach with the white passengers, but had to sit next to the coachman, outside.
Although there are much better books to learn about Mahatma's life and also the wonderful film, this is a very important book, written directly by The Great Soul himself and explaining the roots of his ideas and behaviors in his own words.
This book is very important for gleaning the real Gandhi. It is not an autobiography in the standard sense of that word, i.e. as a chronological presentation of events and people. Gandhi skips over large periods of his life, like the struggle in South Africa, and although he does present the events chronologically, it doesn't put equal emphasis on all of them. He talks in length about his veganism, the need to be without desires (brahmacharya) and not hurting any living being (ahimsa), and goes in depth about the different religious exploration and his final conclusion that the supreme God to which everything is subordinated is The Truth. One needs to spend one's life being completely truthful to oneself and to the others.
We learn a bit about Mahatma's early life, how he was married early, about his schooling in India and the subsequent trip to get a barrister (law) degree in England "because it is cheaper, easier, and takes less time." The accounts of his first trip to South Africa and about are very powerful, as he describes the inrooted racism and discrimination within the apartheid society, which sound even more striking when told by Mahatma's calm, compassionate and forgiving voice. He truly practiced what he preached and loved his enemies and felt sorry for them even though when he was physically abused and forced out of a first class compartment because he was a 'koolie' a colored person, and when he wasn't allowed inside a stage coach with the white passengers, but had to sit next to the coachman, outside.
Although there are much better books to learn about Mahatma's life and also the wonderful film, this is a very important book, written directly by The Great Soul himself and explaining the roots of his ideas and behaviors in his own words.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
"Of Love and Other Demons" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I am not sure if I can claim that I have read this book, but I have listened to the radio drama adaptation by BBC radio, and as this is the only book which Marquez has ever allowed to be adapted in such a way, my only guess is that it should be pretty truthful to the book itself.
Marquez is a master story teller, and this one is no exception, although shorter than his other novels at about 160 pages. The story starts with an excavation in a Latin American country to make way for a shopping mall build on top of an ancient monastery when bones of a young girl are discovered deep underground in one of the prison cells. Then one of the excavators recognizes the remains as that of which his grandmother told him of the beautiful and damned Maria Cierva. Cierva was a daughter of a spanish nobleman and half-indian woman, spent her childhood living with the black slaves and learned their language and ways. When she is bitten bya a rabid dog she is thought to be possesed by the devil, and a young, book-loving priest is sent to exorcise her. However the young priest falls in love with the beautiful girl and she falls in love with him, although less than half his age.
This love doesn't go undiscovered and unpunished by the Bishop and with the help of the strict monastery's chief nun. The young priest is send to a leper colony as a punishment and the bishop takes upon himself to perform the exorcism. However the priest finds secret tunnels by which he visits Cierva Maria every night and they profess their love until one day the chief nun finds the tunnel and closes it. Soon after Cierva Maria dies during the barbaric exorcism rites or from the torture in her cell, and the young priest spends the rest of his life in the leper colony.
A beautiful love story from a master story teller, and strong political activist, Gabo Garcia Marquez.
Marquez is a master story teller, and this one is no exception, although shorter than his other novels at about 160 pages. The story starts with an excavation in a Latin American country to make way for a shopping mall build on top of an ancient monastery when bones of a young girl are discovered deep underground in one of the prison cells. Then one of the excavators recognizes the remains as that of which his grandmother told him of the beautiful and damned Maria Cierva. Cierva was a daughter of a spanish nobleman and half-indian woman, spent her childhood living with the black slaves and learned their language and ways. When she is bitten bya a rabid dog she is thought to be possesed by the devil, and a young, book-loving priest is sent to exorcise her. However the young priest falls in love with the beautiful girl and she falls in love with him, although less than half his age.
This love doesn't go undiscovered and unpunished by the Bishop and with the help of the strict monastery's chief nun. The young priest is send to a leper colony as a punishment and the bishop takes upon himself to perform the exorcism. However the priest finds secret tunnels by which he visits Cierva Maria every night and they profess their love until one day the chief nun finds the tunnel and closes it. Soon after Cierva Maria dies during the barbaric exorcism rites or from the torture in her cell, and the young priest spends the rest of his life in the leper colony.
A beautiful love story from a master story teller, and strong political activist, Gabo Garcia Marquez.
"Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl
I must say that I sabotaged my own experience of this book. I was so impressed by logotherapy as reading the other books of Dr.Frankl, I left this one for last, as his most famous book, in order to enjoy it more aided by the fire of expectation. The book was excellent. The part about the concentration camp was deep, moving, genuine and insightful. The detached and in the same time compassionate voice with which Dr.Frankl describes his sufferings, the sufferings of his fellow men, the sadistic behavior of the Kappos, and his psychological explanation of their reactions, his analysis of the guards, the desensitization and mechanisms of dominance and will to torture other human beings are fascinating.
There is much written about concentration camps, most of it forgotten in the 21st century, and much was written from the first person perspective, from the inmates, the lucky few who survived, but there is no other account written by one of the fathers of modern Psychology and the founder of the third school of Viennese psychotherapy, Dr.Viktor Frankl. He is able, if only for a few moments, to abstract himself from his daily torture, the numbing cold, the bone cracking forced labor, the few scraps of food, the cramped freezing quarters, the complete lack of means for personal hygiene, and to rise above it and observe the psychological mechanisms at work, some for coping, some for dying.
Dr. Frankl notices first hand that the will for life equates with the will to meaning. Whoever of the inmates had perceived their lives as having meaning, usually surviving to see a love one, or to perform a task after the war, no matter how mundane, those people would find strength to survive, to somehow extract yet another ounce of energy from their starved, beaten, bruised, wounded, skeleton-like bodies and go on. On the other hand the people who gave up were the people who could not see any meaning at all, nothing to live for, nothing to continue the torture for. These people could be recognized, Dr.Frankl says, because they were smoking their cigarettes, which in the camp were used only as currency for obtaining food or clothing, and only the Kappos and guards would smoke them.
It is from these experiences that Dr.Frankl solidifies his theory of logotherapy which he started to develop already before the war and it is here that he coins the main maxim of logotherapy that life has a meaning under ANY circumstances.
I was a bit dissapointed by the second part, since I was expecting a more in-depth explanation of logotherapy, but by the very nature of the essay it is short, concise and does not go into many issues and concepts in the necessary depth. It is a very good introduction to logotherapy, but having already read several full-length books on the subject by Dr.Frankl I did not extract too much value from it.
It is often mentioned that this book was ranked as one of the 10 most influential books of the XX century by the reader's survey of the Library of Congress. I was never able to obtain the survey and the ranking, so I don't know which are the other 9 books, but this book is definitely a required reading for every human being on this planet.
There is much written about concentration camps, most of it forgotten in the 21st century, and much was written from the first person perspective, from the inmates, the lucky few who survived, but there is no other account written by one of the fathers of modern Psychology and the founder of the third school of Viennese psychotherapy, Dr.Viktor Frankl. He is able, if only for a few moments, to abstract himself from his daily torture, the numbing cold, the bone cracking forced labor, the few scraps of food, the cramped freezing quarters, the complete lack of means for personal hygiene, and to rise above it and observe the psychological mechanisms at work, some for coping, some for dying.
Dr. Frankl notices first hand that the will for life equates with the will to meaning. Whoever of the inmates had perceived their lives as having meaning, usually surviving to see a love one, or to perform a task after the war, no matter how mundane, those people would find strength to survive, to somehow extract yet another ounce of energy from their starved, beaten, bruised, wounded, skeleton-like bodies and go on. On the other hand the people who gave up were the people who could not see any meaning at all, nothing to live for, nothing to continue the torture for. These people could be recognized, Dr.Frankl says, because they were smoking their cigarettes, which in the camp were used only as currency for obtaining food or clothing, and only the Kappos and guards would smoke them.
It is from these experiences that Dr.Frankl solidifies his theory of logotherapy which he started to develop already before the war and it is here that he coins the main maxim of logotherapy that life has a meaning under ANY circumstances.
I was a bit dissapointed by the second part, since I was expecting a more in-depth explanation of logotherapy, but by the very nature of the essay it is short, concise and does not go into many issues and concepts in the necessary depth. It is a very good introduction to logotherapy, but having already read several full-length books on the subject by Dr.Frankl I did not extract too much value from it.
It is often mentioned that this book was ranked as one of the 10 most influential books of the XX century by the reader's survey of the Library of Congress. I was never able to obtain the survey and the ranking, so I don't know which are the other 9 books, but this book is definitely a required reading for every human being on this planet.
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