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The Coming of the Toads
Penina's Letters and Other Books
Tag: Examined Life
Notes on Caleb Crain's "Overthrow"
In spite of embedded Shakespeare and sundry 19th Century potential footnotes, Caleb Crain's new novel, "Overthrow" (Viking, August, 2019), may remind readers more of the William Powell and Myrna Loy films that made noir comedies out of Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man" than to Henry James (who, it might be argued, made drama out of living room comedy). The plot of "Overthrow" might also be said to parody the best of legal action writer John Grisham. Nick Hornby comes to mind, too, his "A Long Way Down."
"Overthrow" is a protean novel. Ingredients of farce, satire and irony inform contemporary ideas of group-think, economics, media, conspiracy theory, identity and relationships, existential earworms. "The media" performs the role of Keystone Cops, as do the real cops, chasing the story controlled by puppeteers, whose rods and strings get crossed.
As essay, "Overthrow" might be subtitled: "Where we live and what we live for." And when. The slow, slow art of the novel. Who remembers the Occupy Movement, which may now be recalled as more of a campout than a revolution? If (to) Occupy is the protagonist, who or what is the antagonist? But first, what does Occupy want? To seize? To have sex with?
Is overthrow of governance periodically necessary to maintain a balance of human nature? Has human nature improved over time, or are we no better than any of our ancestors? Or, indeed, were our ancestors better off than us: non-specialized, at one with nature, unpolluted, non-alphabetic. Did our ancestors, as we do, have a picture of themselves? If not, when were these pictures invented? Were the pictures they had of themselves the same pictures others had of them? Overthrow and revolution of the I, the me, subject and object.
Not what does revolution mean, but what does it mean to make revolution? Certainly not to write a novel. But, yes, that, too, as it turns out, particularly a novel about building relationships. Is human nature capable of democracy? Can we "rule ourselves"? The question is important to Michael Hardt in Astra Taylor's "Examined Life: Excursions with Contemporary Thinkers," which predates Zuccotti Park Occupy by a few years. And while many thought and still do that the Occupy Movement was a failure, its aims unclear, its results a discredit to the possibility of change, using Hardt's thinking, it achieved a great step on the road to democracy: Occupy created relationships, corresponded directly to participant lives, illustrated (arguably) collective self-rule, or, at least, to go back and use Hardt's words, it might have created "the terrain on which the training in democracy can happen – the training and the collective ability to produce social relationships" (149, The New Press, 2009).
And producing social relationships is what "Overthrow" is about, in its most serious reading, the goofy stuff aside. Why write a book no one will read? A poem no one will ever see? A song no one will ever hear? Similarly, why a pick-up? Why a one night stand, as if a relationship requires no more investment than a moment in a head, an hour or two on a couch, or a night in bed but easily forgotten? We aren't in "City of Night."
Crain's sentences come alive, twisted and contorted as we find tree and bush limbs in nature, beautiful. Cultivated, maybe, by some unseen hands, and, at times, readers might think, they are overthrown. You can't take a comb to them. But we don't get quite as much of that as we did in "Necessary Errors" (Penguin, 2013). Maybe because "Overthrow" has more dialog. Still, consider this artwork, and note the consistent style that isn't so much rococo decorative but the way the world actually passes by, in and out of the senses, projection and reflection. The description and detail of observation suggest total control, and objective correlative emotions appear and disappear, as nostalgic fits can sometimes be brought on by certain odors or sounds, but which can only appear at random and not be called up by will, only by suggestion, asides of a sort:
From "Necessary Errors":
They passed into the black water of the shade of the bridge. Out of the corner of either eye, Jacob watched the gray, triangular battlements slide up from behind and widen, approaching them on either side, in embrace. Then the bridge itself crossed overhead with its water-blackened stones. While it covered them, hands seemed cupped over their ears; all they could hear was the water's eager lapping against the heavy walls beside them.
"Are you fair to him?" Annie asked.
The black stones lifted off, and the air was free and empty again around them. "It's not like that." He watched recede the semicircular – circular, in the water's haphazard mirroring – portal through which they had passed (391).
From "Overthrow":
After looking down, Matthew by reflex looked up, into the beautiful double rigging of the old bridge, which was unusual in that it was both a cable-stayed and a suspension bridge, doubly supported because its builders had meant for it to stand for all time. Cables that spread at an angle crossed cables that fell straight down, interlacing like fingers and creating diamonds that in their sequence of gradually varying dimension seemed to be unfolding as Leif and Matthew rode past them.
They crossed the water; they descended into downtown (55).
What is overthrown remains out of reach. One of the themes circling through "Overthrow" concerns a kind of deontological question of the value of certain activity or action, of writing for example, of writing a poem or a book. The answer seems to rest in giving way to what it is a person might be fit for:
This was something he could do, he told himself, as he kept dabbing. This was the sort of task he could safely spend his anger on. Even if he didn't save the plant and even if the plant didn't in fact need saving (298).
Substitute planet for plant in that paragraph. Matthew is looking for a way out of his cynicism:
He had written a note about Samuel Daniel, he remembered. But what if he was interested in Daniel and touched by Daniel's devotion to his vocation only because he himself, in choosing to write literary criticism, was making a mistake like Daniel's – giving his life to a kind of writing that was about to pass out of the world? To a modern equivalent of Daniel's poeticized, aestheticized history?
He picked up the forked paper, to read over the note, but the handwriting wasn't his.
"You can read it," Lief said, appearing at the door.
"I thought it was mine."
"It's the devil," Leif said. "It's one of his voices."
"I don't need to read it" (219).
What can be worse for a writer than to presume his writing won't be read? The "Overthrow" working group, which Matthew joins but only peripherally, his object being Leif, and not revolution, is apparently under surveillance, yet the authorities miss that the group has maintained a blog. So much for blogging. Crain's theme of what has meaning, purpose, and value against what is given exposure, watched, and chosen touches on every aspect of the characters' lives:
"She wondered if he would give permission. She wondered if he was still willing to fight, regardless of whether he still believed. The new order had revealed to them that poems didn't have to be published in order to have meaning as poems, but apparently the same order was also going to require the publication of all the prose of one's life" (377).
In Stalin's Russia, one had only to think a certain thing to be accused and convicted of a crime. But how did they know what one was thinking?
Hardback copies with dust covers occupy the bookshelves of the conservative library. Conservative in lots of ways, but here in the sense that writers and readers want their books to retain their value, even increase in value over time. We want that piece of capitalistic system to succeed, and to ensure our own success. The economics of the body, the body of the book, its spine, sewn, its jacket, shield against the elements, nomenclature (either or fallacy of identity – "Then he began to curse and swear, saying, 'I do not know the Man!'"). Is the hardback economically efficient? Books as collectibles. What does a book become without its dust cover? Its value diminishes significantly as a collectible. Aren't paperbacks "cooler"? Is the hardback a middle class writer's heyday? "Occupy" is a novel: this is not a book review. If we are going to spend $27.00 for a hardback book with a cool dust cover, shouldn't we at least expect not to trip over any typos?
But if we think books expensive, consider the cost of obtaining legal help:
"I know your parents are already being so generous."
"How much was it?"
"About twenty-eight hundred dollars."
For a couple of days' work. The side of town where Matthew's parents lived was built on a hill, up which he and Fosco were gradually proceeding, a long, slow hill that, as was always explained to new arrivals in town, served as an objective correlative of the relative financial net worth of the households along it. Blocks ahead, at the top, were mansions with a view of the distant city. Matthew's parents lived more than halfway down, where the houses were still faced with brick and perfectly respectable but not grand (209).
In other words, middle class, but "more than halfway down," so maybe lower middle class. In any case, we are talking about a generation of a country's youth who will not live even that high up the hill, except maybe as they are now, living in the garage or the basement, trying to pay off their student loans on the income of a barista, a fact checker, a literary critic:
"Let me talk to my parents," Mathew said. "Thank you for telling me."
Was he going to ruin them?
Mathew has already explained "reversion":
"There's an old legal term, 'reversion,'" Mathew began. "You possess something in reversion if another person has the use of it now but you'll get it after they die. Someone from another branch of your family may be living in a manor, say, and it will be yours if you manage to outlive them. Sometimes Shakespeare uses the word metaphorically, to mean anything in your future, anything you're looking forward to, but legally, technically, it's something you might not live long enough to put your hands on. My thesis is that in the poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the individual is no longer thinking of himself as the subject of a king but as someone who himself has a kingship in reversion" (43).
In other words, as Harold Bloom put it, the "invention of the human," the creation of the I. Who will pay for that me? The King, in reversion, overthrown:
Mathew demurred. "Representative democracy works a little differently…."
"People don't really want to be king anymore," said Raleigh. "There aren't even any lunatics in the asylums who want to be Napoleon anymore."
"Maybe they want to be reversionary one-percenters," suggested Elspeth.
"One percenters are too boring," Raleigh objected.
"They have no charismatic virtues," said Mathew.
"They have no charismatic vices," Raleigh corrected him. "They would be charming if they would only let us see them being greedy and trivial."
"I wouldn't find them charming," Elspeth said.
"Yes you would," Raleigh insisted. "They'd be like the millionaires in screwball comedies" (44).
One thing Raleigh might have wrong in the conversation from "Overthrow" quoted above is the "lunatics in the asylums," since asylums, like newspapers, have mostly disappeared, beginning with Reagan in California.
"I think another reason the notion of revolution has been discredited is its association with misery, as if revolution would involve giving up all of the pleasures that everyone enjoys" (Hardt, 153).
But the asylum is now the streets. And Hardt and Taylor, in "Examined Life," are rowing in a boat on Central Park Lake:
"It's such an idyllic and seemingly anti- or even counterrevolutionary location, one associated with old wealth and the stability of power, the leisure activities of the rich. Maybe, in a strange way, it will help us work through some of these issues like who can think revolution, who wants revolution, where we can think revolution, and who would benefit. Maybe this seemingly strange location can help us cast away what seem to me destructive limitations on how we think about this" (Hardt, 153).
If we think about it at all. And if we do, if we choose to read or maybe even to write about it, kings of our spirals, our unpublished napkins, our unread blogs. And then, frosting on the cake we've been let eat and chocolate in the latte we've been let drink, to talk to someone about it.
At the Intersection of Above and Below Ground
Geomicrobiologists now claim life underground exceeds in size, diversity, and span life above ground. What is life? It might be easier to simply say Earth is alive, all of it, including the rocks. And does extraterrestrial life exist? Well, we exist, we think. It now appears planets are living beings. Universe is alive. And that's not counting the ghosts.
According to scientist Karen Lloyd, quoted in The Guardian: "The strangest thing for me is that some organisms can exist for millennia. They are metabolically active but in stasis, with less energy than we thought possible of supporting life." That describes a teacher I had in high school.
Meanwhile, in the basement studio, located at the intersection of above and below ground, I've continued to work on cutout paintings. The photos below detail the evolution of a recent graffito work:
Body of Christ and Body Politic: Notes on Luke J. Goble's "Worshiping Politics: Problems and Practices for a Public Faith"
In one of the early scenes of H. G. Wells's "The Time Machine," the Time Traveler discovers a group of Eloi lounging in the sun by a small river, bathing in the shallows. One of them, Weena, cramps and is caught in a rapid, and is in danger of drowning, but her screams are ignored. None of the other Eloi help her. They don't even seem interested. They don't seem to care. The Time Traveler saves Weena and learns the Eloi live lives of elite, privileged pleasure. But they pay a price. Each evening, the Eloi are summoned by a kind of futuristic church siren, a pair of giant doors slide open, and one by one the Eloi enter, walking slowly and devoutly into the underground home of the Morlocks, where the chosen Eloi are cooked and eaten. The remaining Eloi, after the siren stops and the doors close, without protest wander back to their pleasure dome to a dinner of luscious fruit and vegetables, never missing their lost ones. The Eloi have no religion and no politics.
What do today's Christians want, and why? And why would what today's Christians want be any different from what anyone else wants? And what should Christians want, since they don't all seem to want the same things?
"Worshiping Politics: Problems and Practices for a Public Faith" (2017) is an even-tempered argument exploring the place and practice of politics as a consequence of religion. Definitions (what is politics, what is justice) are patiently unpacked and assumptions and predispositions brought to light and questioned within an academic shell (researched citations, references, extensive bibliography), but the text is written in an accessible, at times almost conversational, style. Written in the first person throughout, the book is carefully organized to include discussion of multiple opposing, diverse, or varying viewpoints. Each chapter closes with personal reflections and concrete examples of practices of political importance showing politics as a necessary, wanted, and useful element of daily life. The target audience is probably the thinking Christian, but as in Kwame Anthony Appiah's "Cosmopolitanism," which argues for a citizen of the world, a more diverse, broader audience is implied and addressed. The tone of "Worshiping Politics" is not arrogant or preachy. The occasion is not knocking door to door, evangelical Bible in hand. The book's claims are challenging and their opposition anticipated, acknowledged, and handled respectfully.
The author of "Worshiping Politics," Luke J. Goble[1], a Harvard graduate, professor of history, and adoptive parent, does not simply break with the old convention of etiquette that advises one not to talk about politics or religion. He argues that religion is politics. To ignore talking about either is to miss the point in a vapid exercise of politeness. But to talk about politics and religion in a qualified academic argument is not to rant and rave, attack or scare, browbeat or arm-twist, inflict guilt or wish perdition. In any case, that's not Luke's style. Militant atheists might be surprised by this book, as might many militant Christians. We should not ignore, or worse, scorn, those in need of help, and, arguably, our politics and religion need help, separately and together. But how do we help a drowning victim if we don't recognize a call for help when we hear one, or we can't swim either, or we just don't want to get wet, or when we do jump in and reach them they are in such a panic they drown us with them?
Common words and terms are carefully qualified: "Based on my emerging definition – that politics means engaging in the process of debating, negotiating, and pursuing the good of a particular community – and by almost any definition of church (other than a building), it should not be difficult to grasp the political nature of church. If church is a kind of community with a common call, goal, or good, then participating in that community is inherently political." That is what effective argument does – defines, specifies, draws a field of play. Goble references the Bible, but his book is not simply a collection of biblical quotes selected to create a convenient credibility. Whatever else it might be, the Bible is a historical artifact, and Goble uses it for proof and backing of claims in a historian's voice. For some readers, Christian and non-Christian, this might come as a kind of revelation, that the Bible is not necessarily read literally, that there are insider questions regarding how and when its books were written, and why, and how some writings came to be included and others left out, while at the same time the Bible does provide historical evidence. The Bible is history, or at least a part of history. That the Bible is interpreted in various ways and often used for what might seem cross-purposes should come as no surprise; the US Supreme Court interprets the US constitution – no one questions the historical fact of that constitution, but what any part of it might mean today is backlogged with case reviews.
Early in Goble's text, five foundational claims are examined: "1. The Bible is political 2. Jesus was political 3. The gospel is political 4. The church is political 5. Christians are called to be political." But if everything is political, what remains? If "Come follow me" is a political invitation to vote one's religion, how authentic are the called who only vote, or vote their conscience, as the saying goes? Of what is the conscience made? But Goble isn't talking about simply voting, or voting at all. He's talking about living a political life as an outgrowth of the religious life, what he calls a formative life, which, in one sense, means making an existential decision to break from one's learned, emotional reasoning to reach a more clear understanding of why and how one thinks and behaves and what one wants to do and how to go about doing it. Formation is not an easy process. We are easily and naturally formed, but our formation does not necessarily inform us. We are rather like the Eloi. When the siren goes off, we get in line and follow. We don't always choose what is good for us or for others. We may not know what is good for ourselves or for others.
"When it comes to negotiating power and pursuing the good of a community beyond ourselves (i.e., politics), we are deceived about our capacity to be fair, honest, and objective. So, while most of us tend to represent our political views and activity as what is best for the community (or country) overall, we are not very good judges of what is good for others" (30).
Central to his argument about how we think and behave (what informs decisions such as how we vote or who we help or who we scorn), Goble closely examines Jonathan Haidt's work on decision making informed by rationalizations and justifications that suit us comfortably, that make us comfortable with our decisions and behaviors. Conscience is a deeply embedded magician performing sleight of hand tricks we come to believe are real.
"We are not as good as we think we are. Our behavior is conditioned by factors like 1) our natural propensity to want to be liked by those around us, 2) our need to protect the group(s) that comprise our core identity, 3) our desire to preserve our current self and path unless otherwise forced, and 4) our need to be 'ok' with our existing behavioral patterns and our ability to find ways to do so. In the studies referenced by Haidt, these conditioning factors all take on a negative light. But the same propensities can also make us the kind of human beings that can live well in community – to seek compromise, to build commonality, to operate according to convictions. What they show most of all is that we are creatures whose deep feelings drive our behavior even though we think it is our reason" (42).
Or we don't think about it at all. We behave first, then we create a reason that seems to give that behavior some kind of sense. We do something similar when judging or trying to explain someone else's behavior. What were they thinking? Likely they weren't thinking at all. Their siren went off and they behaved accordingly, according to assumptions and predispositions so deeply rooted they are not thought out at all. This may be particularly true of religious behavior, which presupposes and assumes good. If we behave a certain way for what we or others take to be a religious reason, that behavior must be good.
"Does that mean people of faith operate under an illusion of moral superiority? Does it mean that religious convictions do not have anything significant to contribute to public justice or cultural mores? I would say yes and no. Yes, sometimes people of faith operate under an illusion of moral superiority. Research in moral psychology seems to defy any claim that beliefs or religious identity labels are accurate predictors of behavior. But perhaps convictions that come by way of belief also have something significant to contribute to the ways in which our deep feelings are formed, and subsequently the kinds of actions that emanate from those ways of being formed" (43).
Goble's book, an argument that religion is politics and politics means caring for others, "opening up to the interests and circumstances of others" (57), takes turns that lead down paths of psychological work; historical precedent and interpretation; practical applications for regular community exercise; works of classic and contemporary philosophy; popular expressions of contemporary life (for example, scenes with dialog from the television series The West Wing); scripture and the history and practice of reading, studying, and passing down scripture, his discussion of Talmudic study compared to contemporary Christian reading of the Bible, for example: "…when we read the Bible, we don't typically read the most important interpretations or debates alongside" (57); and his own personal reflections from his experience of "living in the world," of "being in the world."
How does one be in the world, working outward from nature to self to family to community to state to a world where one feels safe, and why does being in the world often seem so fraught with conflict that all we can think to do is run and hide to the supposed safety of our own affective emotional constructs? Or, as Appiah puts it in "Examined Life": "There's a certain kind of philosophical universalism, which is often associated with evangelizing religions, where, yeah, we love everybody but we want them to become like us in order to love them properly. There's a great German proverb, which says, 'If you don't want to be my brother, I'll bash your skull in'…And that's the opposite of cosmopolitanism. It's the universalist who says, 'Yeah, I want you to be my brother, but on my terms,' whereas the cosmopolitan says, 'I want to be your brother figuratively, your fellow citizen, but I don't make it a condition of that that we come to be the same'" (p. 92 of the text of the film). And "but the Bible says," regardless of what we might think it might say (i.e. how we interpret and determine what's most important in the Bible), is an inadequate response.
"Once certain connections between guiding narratives and political dispositions are made explicit, it is easy to see how political biases shape interpretive choices…the tendency to interpret Scripture according to intuitive frameworks of meaning but to see and declare our own interpretations true, absolute, and unchanging. Our intuitions lead us to choose different narratives to emphasize. This approach leads to deadlock and disunity among Christians, not to mention a confusing and compromising witness to those who put little or no authority in Scripture to begin with" (back to "Worshiping Politics," 56).
At least one reason some citizens may give no authority to Scripture might be found in the history of the Church. One is tempted to take the metaphor to its rhetorical end, its reductio ad absurdum, the body of Christ so infected by the worms of heresy and hypocrisy it is now a skeleton hanging in the closet of a high school biology class, a dried up framework that without muscle supports nothing. Goble recognizes the fickleness of the Church though the centuries: its WASP-ish table settings; its compromises, treaties, or concessions; its contradictions; its inquisitions – in short, how for many of the world's people, the body of Christ has been either a turned back or an experience of acculturation. That history though is fascinating reading. Goble's book includes a survey of changing church paradigms over the centuries, including "the early church, the early Roman Church, the medieval church, the Lutheran 'Two Kingdoms' model, Puritan Theocracy, Kuyperian Calvinism, Christian Realism, Amish/Anabaptist Sectarianism, Christian Anarchy, Liberation Theology, Yoder's Middle Axiom Model." Readers may begin to wonder what held the body of Christ together throughout time and the world, the good news continually subsumed by the bad.
"Not only has theology excluded voices, but like other forms of dominant discourse, it has participated in constructing and maintaining structures of power. A huge blind spot in each of the previous paradigms is in the conception of the social body or society itself. Taking society or 'the world' for granted without thinking about the political implications for those who do not wield dominant power, essentially multiple societies or social bodies, is a gap in the paradigms that come after the Middle Ages" (116).
It seems ordinary members of the faithful may have over time held more sway than Church leaders in restoring what health we might find currently in the body of Christ.
"Corresponding with the cultural and national liberation movements that came about after World War Two, new spaces of reception opened up for previously marginalized voices in theology. One of the most important developments out of that milieu has been liberation theology. In short, liberation theology grew out of the struggle for justice by Latin American peasants who had long experienced marginalization in all aspects of society – politically, economically, and spiritually by the (mostly Roman Catholic) church. Many Catholic priests, already living and working in solidarity with the poor also recognized the contradiction that the gospel should be 'good news' for the poor, yet the institutionalized church and other forms of power in society that it reinforced were not good news at all" (116).
Who were these Catholic priests (and nuns), where did they come from, and from what were they formed and how were they informed?
"Our political behavior is not thought or even taught but 'caught' – meaning it is shaped affectively and, at least to some degree, out of our control" (31).
At the end of Wells's "The Time Machine," the Time Traveler, having returned to his present and met with some friends and told his story of the future, decides to return to the future: "I came back through the corridor. The Time Traveler met me in the smoking room. He was coming from the house. He had a small camera under one arm and a knapsack under the other." Wells did not tell his reader what was in the knapsack. In the 1960 film version of "The Time Machine," staring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux, it's suggested that the Time Traveler takes with him back to the future two books. In the film, the Morlocks are destroyed in their underground caverns by a giant fire fed by the Time Traveler assisted by the Eloi. The Eloi will now no longer be food for the Morlocks, but they will now have to care for themselves, take care of one another, work, worry. The addition of the question of what books the Time Traveler selects is an interesting Hollywood edit to the Wells text.
The Time Traveler wants to help the Eloi. But then why would he take anything in his knapsack from his own time, his own time having proven to be such a disaster? If there is good in the world, where and what is it? Is what's good for Christians also good for non-Christians? Goble explores good and justice and explains why we should be careful imposing our own values of what is good or just on others. How do individuals influence the future, their own or that of others? What is the extent of an individual's influence over religion or politics? How can we be sure our actions in the present are good for the future?
"Belief in the lordship of Christ allows for patience, peacefulness, hope, and sacrifice now. It allows for Christians not to try to force peace through violence, justice by imposition, or well-being through coercion" (129).
There is in Goble's book a dichotomy at work that readers may find puzzling or problematic. That isn't Goble's fault; it comes with the territory. In one sense, the dichotomy is shown in Augustine's "two cities," the City of God and the City of Earth. In another sense, the dichotomy might be seen in the insistence that Christians maintain a distinction from other entities also working toward good and justice. And here not that their ideas of good and justice might be different than secular ones, but that the impetus to work toward them "should flow out of our [Christian] identity and not our ambition" (128). That, because the Christian's identity presumably includes the idea of a happy ending for the good. Phrases like, "…the last thing, the end event, when the Lordship of Christ is full realized" (129) may sound a bit mystical or esoteric to the general reader. Metaphor is always at work. Words like kingdom and lordship suggest a state and subservience to that state as well as class distinctions, from peasant to knight. These are images that enable views. Goble wants to make sure his reader understands he is "not a biblical scholar" (129). (Had me fooled.) Readers might also feel a dichotomy between the old and new testaments. Thomas Merton said that God is un-seeable, unknowable, almost unthinkable – that we can only approach an understanding of God through our human images or symbols or rituals – but those images are human images. They're not wrong, but they are human-made and serve only a human purpose. Yet there are times the word God appears in Goble's text as if God's a go-to-guy. Goble acknowledges that language translations and cultural contexts add to our confusion. Is God's love for his people a human love or divine love? Does God love everyone, or only his chosen ones? Another dichotomy. We can add love and God to our list of difficult concepts to unpack: good, justice, love, God. God so loved the world that he sacrificed his only son. What the hell kind of love is that? I have seen many sons sacrificed by their fathers, beginning with Vietnam, some on the battlefield, others at the kitchen table. But I digress. Onward, Christian soldier.
The last chapters of Goble's book are the most difficult, not to read, but to reflect upon, to perhaps put some new way of being or thinking into practice. The arc of the book is threaded. We see how we are predisposed to think and behave and we learn to self-justify our dispositions. We then see examples of that at work in history, philosophy, popular culture, psychology. We then discover how we might work to change our dispositions, change ourselves from being driven by emotional affective design toward being more intentional about how we think and behave, about who we are. Here is an example of the book's arc. This is just one thread. Goble talks about how we self-deceive: "We are self-justifying creatures who construct narratives about the world necessary to maintain the views of ourselves that we hold" (41). We might think the more educational experience we gain the less likely we would be to self-deceive and be forced to self-justify, but Goble cites research that shows "IQ and education levels do not markedly improve one's ability to see an issue more objectively, but they do increase one's capacity to support and defend one's initial judgment. In other words, greater intelligence or education can help us defend our ideas better, but they do not necessarily result in better thinking" (39). Those quotes are from Chapter 3: "The Problem of Self-Deception." In Chapter 10, "The Problem of Practice," the thread of how we think is picked up again, under the sub-heading "Against Closed-Mindedness": "Intellectual humility describes perfectly rational, disinterested truth-seeking, involving openness and willingness to accept information because it is true…involves an established sense of one's self and worth apart from how one's intellect, accomplishments, or legacy are viewed, and a genuine intrinsic concern for knowledge and truth" (165). Since most of us are probably not intellectually humble, but we might agree such humility might make us more effective working and being with others, the question becomes how do we intentionally change our dispositions. Related threads that form the arc include "self-promotion, tribalism, self-justification, self-deception" that "are [not] easily overcome by the cultivation of counter-virtues through material practices" (166).
Goble's book concludes with an existential examination of formation. Existentialism suggests that existence precedes essence. That means we are born into a circumstance and predicament not of our choosing, but we do have a choice – to decide for ourselves what the essence of that existence might be. For cradle Christians (those born into a Christian circumstance and predicament), that choice can be profoundly difficult. A Franciscan Friar once told me Catholicism was not a religion for children. I thought, then I might want to stay a child forever. As an existentialist, I might successfully make that choice. But Goble suggests the Christian's choice is not existential, because "Desire for God is not willed, it is a gift" (172). "How [then] does [intentional] formation happen?" (172).
Goble's idea of formation does seem to share with the existentialists the idea of freedom. It might seem paradoxical, but he seems to think that belonging to God differentiates in a way that creates a freedom from the world that continually works its formation of us without our approval or even awareness. Borrowing from Jesus's prayer for his disciples, Goble says Jesus is saying something like don't mix up me with "where you live, who you are with, or the trappings of religiosity or culture that you might mistake for me" (190). In other words, we might want to be very careful with the alliances and treaties we make with the powers that be, because we will be formed and reformed by whatever accommodations we might make. It's not enough to be born again once. If you really want to be a Christian, you must be born again every day. The existentialist also renews the choice of essence, of existence preceding essence, on a daily basis. The Body of Christ must be very careful not to get too cozy and fall into bed with the Body Politic. Goble summarizes this problem: "How can the church faithfully engage the world while still being set apart? Being in the world makes being formed by the world inescapable. Withdrawing from the world makes engagement impossible. Wherein lies the balance?" (193).
That's an important question, because one wants to maintain one's freedom. In the last chapter, Goble provides an example, what he calls a "Model for the Moment," of a possible balance. The example involves Embrace Oregon, a coalition of diverse forces attempting to care for the needs of orphaned, vulnerable children. "Real relational knowing is mutually formative, and only by being formed by significant relationships with those who are 'other' in multiple intersectional ways (race, class, gender, socioeconomic, class, education, nationality, language, sexual orientation, religion) can we live out a culture forming faith. There is always a dynamic movement between formation and culture creation" (200).
The text of "The Time Machine" suggests a characteristic of the Eloi not seen in the film version referenced above. In the text, the Eloi are little people. In a sense, they are children, or they are like children in that they are completely vulnerable. Their caretakers, the Morlocks, care for them. It might be said that the Morlocks may even love the Eloi, but the Eloi are not free.
In Goble's very last "Practice," he says, "Cultivate and struggle for relationship in the face of rules that remove, economics that exclude, addictions that alienate" (207).
I don't know if H. G. Wells, in naming the Morlocks, had in mind the biblical Moloch, but it seems likely he did. Goble recognizes the need for Christians to work with the Morlocks to free the Eloi, without themselves becoming coopted by the Morlocks, becoming a new Moloch, or putting the Eloi at risk of a new captivation.
[1] Disclosure: Luke teaches at Warner Pacific College, where I've done work as an adjunct instructor.
Worshiping Politics: Problems and Practices for a Public Faith
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1498225888
Publisher: Cascade Books, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Notes on Youssef Rakha's "The Crocodiles"
Instead of page numbers, "The Crocodiles," a novel by the Egyptian writer Youssef Rakha, is marked by 405 numbered, block paragraphs, the whole symmetrically framed by references to Allen Ginsberg, the US Beat poet, to his "The Lion for Real," signed "Paris, March, 1958."
Opening Rakha's book, one finds a hand drawn map labeled "The Crocodiles' Cairo," which includes a drawing of the head of a lion, which might somewhat resemble, in caricature, the photo portrait of Youssef Rakha that appears on the inside back cover of the book, at least the seemingly ironic smile of both suggests they know something one or the other or the reader may not.
Napoleon's March to Moscow, 1812: Description. Lineal novel. Variables. How to tell the story? What happened along the way, and back? They were marching through snow, in below freezing temperatures, and you want to know the exact temperature at daily geographical interval locations? Body counts alone won't tell the story. How to present data and information? Multivariate analysis in a single photograph. How to revision history? On the way back, there were no ramparts, just fields of snow and a sea of time. Napoleon may well have dreamed of warmer days, when he lived in Egypt, of unlocking a language, and of a code that would provide protection for all against the cold. A wise leader rules with allowances, and instead of burning books, gets everyone reading.
In Astra Taylor's "Examined Life," Michael Hardt sets out in a rowboat in a privileged pond to argue the meaning of revolution. What does it mean to make revolution? What is the relationship between freezing temperatures, direction, and a line of march that grows thinner with each step each man takes? "Carte Figurative." Data flow, "one ruling elite replaced with another" (Hardt), credits and discredits following, merits and demerits, kudos and kicks upside the head. Note: Hardt rows backwards – he can't see where he's going – at one point "…running aground, shipwrecked." Figurative language, the hyperbole of revolution.
"Carte Figurative." Figurative language. Not to be taken literally. And don't confuse Minard the author (cartographer) with Napoleon the character. Regression analysis becomes necessary. What is the relationship between the author and the narrator? Perhaps none, except that one sees what the other does not. Irony. "The Crocodiles" is a figurative map of multiple variables that attempts a regression analysis to explain past events and predict future probabilities. Note that Rakha is also journalist and photographer; each paragraph of the novel may be taken as a still photograph, a variable, part of a portfolio.
"On the Road" with Kerouac (para. 248) and Bonaparte. My kingdom for a 1949 Pontiac Chieftain. Interactive notes: what was the cost of a 1949 Hudson new using the value of today's poem to that of a muscle car driven by a youthful single male in 1964? Sal knew to take a southern route on his winter trip: The novel as map of a trip.
Custom as costume. Napoleon as grammarian, his Code a multivariate blending of revolution, revelation, and reform. The novel as procedure that everyone can follow, the interaction of nouns with verbs. Custom as vernacular, empire as formal attire. Due process as drug.
The Beatnik as attitude, beatitude. Jazz as revolution, the novel of improvisation. Notes out of context. Bonaparte's men dropping (like) seeds (para. 256). Napoleon as lion.
At times, reading "The Crocodiles" is like watching a foreign film with subtitles, because while all the common characteristics of the novel are included (plot; narration; characters – major, minor, dynamic, static, protagonist, antagonist, foil; dialog – though sparse, and blended with the prose, the paragraphs all block formatted; setting – places, times, seasons, dwellings, streets; diction that creates style; irony, satire, and sarcasm), something strange appears, and that strangeness is what the Crocodiles' group calls poetry: "self-sufficiency…desire…intention" (para. 316).
Like Minard's "Carte Figurative" of Napoleon's march to and from Russia (1812-1813), Rakha's "The Crocodiles" is a figurative coming of age graphic that plots multiple comings and ages (decades, variables) packed into a single view.
The juxtapositions of disparate subjects and actions (of real Lions with Visions of Lions; of Beats with Crocodiles; of poetry with prose; of people with bridges – para. 80) connote something new, new views: the flower children having dropped their petals now sticks of thorns ("just ask the nearest hippie," Scalia).
Transparency does not necessarily lead to transcendence. Neither honor nor shame stand alone as values, but they are the crossroads at which people gossip, tell stories, barter and eat and drink.
Affinities, themes, motifs: the Beats, poetry, revolution, change, maturation, growth, body, sex, predicament, society, margins (paragraphing, units of composition, sentences), ambiguity, protest, independence, exploitation, reflection, writing, file, premature, people, obstacles, brain, chemicals, women, work, matrix, publishing, poverty and ignorance, position in group, generations (lost, beat, hippie, next), translation, drugs (real and imagined), neighbors, values, wants, needs, humor, music, violence, aggression, excuses, decadence, pop culture, misinformation, criticism, destruction, suicide, sacrifice, counter-culture, lion (cat), crocodile, logic, argument, howl, pain, Ginsberg (Howl and Moloch), dissolution, analysis, invasiveness, love, ambition, relationships, disdain, synchronicity, human nature, signifiers.
There is something too of the noir to "The Crocodiles," a mystery, with the narrator, "Gear Knob," whose nickname suggests some 1950's hard-boiled detective story character, assuming the role of the detective as corrective if not moral force. But noir is cartoon. Or "The Crocodiles" might have been a graphic novel. Instead, it is a poetic novel that breaks with genre convention and creates formal purpose and revisions value, what people want.
"The Crocodiles," by Youssef Rakha, 2013. English translation 2014 by Robin Moger, Seven Stories Press, New York, November 2014.
Is Privacy the New Plastic?
In February, I posted on the film "Examined Life." One of the featured philosophers in the film, Peter Singer, has an interesting article on ethics, privacy, and social networking and technology in this month's (August) Harpers: "Visible man: Ethics in a world without secrets." Is privacy the new plastic? (Use library if no Harper's subscription.)
"Examined Life": Socrates on Ice; or, Engaged Life: Riding the Clutch with Today's Philosophers
In Astra Taylor's film "Examined Life" (2008, DVD 2011), the camera captures contemporary thinkers walking through everyday environments that reflect and frame their dialogue. But there's not much dialogue, more monologue, which is what I assume is Martha Nussbaum's complaint in her upset and defecting review in The Point Magazine, "Inheriting Socrates" (Winter, 2010).
I can only assume, since part of the point of The Point Magazine seems to be open conflict with open access. In any case, Nussbaum's point in what we do have is clear: "…I found Examined Life upsetting…a betrayal of the tradition of philosophizing that began, in Europe, with the life of Socrates…." The film is upsetting to Nussbaum because the cast features "figures in cultural studies or religious studies or some other related discipline (I'd call Cornel West a political theorist), but what they do is not exactly philosophy as I understand it."
Philosophy as Nussbaum understands it is no doubt Socratic dialogue that admits "no special claim, no authority." Socrates "doesn't like authority," and certainly "doesn't like long speeches." But the segments in "Examined Life" run only ten minutes; the real problem for Nussbaum, and, perhaps, for the film, is the lack of dialogue and what Nussbaum considers the lack of "rigorous argument, or with the respectful treatment of opposing positions."
We may find, however, the opposing positions in the filmed environments, for philosophers live in the world, the same world the rest of us live in, and why we should saddle the film with any kind of philosophical expectation is unclear. Why would we criticize a film for not being what it was not intended to be? Wouldn't we all agree that "Jaws" is a terrible romantic comedy? "One might quarrel, first, with the choice of participants," Nussbaum argues. "Peter Singer, Anthony Appiah and I are all solidly within philosophy, as that discipline is usually understood." Understood by whom?
One day, my Dad came home with a used 1949 Ford pickup truck, a six cylinder, three speed on the column, no air, no heat, no seatbelts, no radio, no-nonsense truck. He handed me the keys, and I backed the truck out of the driveway, my first stick shift experience. Hardly anyone drives sticks anymore – most of our transmissions are automatics; so too are our philosophies, automatic shift transmissions that allow for smooth acceleration through the busy vicissitudes of our popular culture. Automatic too, it seems, is Nussbaum's insistence on the so-called rigor of an automatic philosophical tradition transmission. In other words, I think Socrates would have enjoyed Astra Taylor's film "Examined Life."
Nussbaum also gets ten minutes in the film, so it's a bit surprising she winds up finding the film "upsetting." Indeed, her segment is one of the most speech-like presentations, as she appears raw-nosed and cold walking along Chicago's Lake Shore Drive. Still, her point in her ten minute segment is clear: she wants all of us to be able to live rich and capable lives. But that seems consistent with what the other philosophers in the film want for us also.
According to Cornel West, the lover of wisdom must have courage: "Courage is the enabling virtue to think, love, hope." West, if not a philosopher in Nussbaum's understanding of the tradition, is certainly a character, and characters make better film subjects than philosophers. West is the star of the film. His ten minutes are spread across three segments, and his reappearances create a happy motif, for his love of life is apparent and contagious – and his syntax moves in curious, unexpected directions.
Meanwhile, Slavoj Žižek strolls through a London dump, where he advises don't idealize, accept, learn to love the world in all its imperfections. "We should become more artificial," Zizek says, and give up the romantic notion of becoming one with nature. He's a realist, as is Cornel West, who seems to agree with Zizek when he says give up on the idea of having the whole, a romantic notion, he says, that inevitably ends in disappointment. As it turns out, Nussbaum comes across as the romanticist philosopher. She can't love Zizek's garbage. And it's ironic, in the end, that the most romantic philosopher seems least comfortable out in the cold and trash of everyday existence. Still, she has a point: we shouldn't go to philosophers for how to live our lives, and most of the philosophers in the film seem bent on just that, telling us what we should do, what we need to do, how we should live – well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but it allows for a closer examination of Nussbaum's point, which is that the true philosopher (as I understand how she understands it, and I could certainly be wrong here) doesn't tell others how to live, but tries to help them become capable of making and living their own "human dignity." But exactly to that end, "Examined Life," if not a great film, if an imperfect film, is a necessary film.
And what about riding the clutch? Saves on the brakes, my Dad told me. Your brakes will always last longer with a stick shift, he said.
Note: Scott McLemee reviewed the film for Inside Higher Ed before Nussbaum's defection was published, and he used the word "transformative" to describe the segment with Astra's sister, Sunuara. I agree; Sunara's segment transcends all the other arguments.
Update, Nov. 12, 2011: The Point Magazine, since I wrote the above post, has improved its website. The full text of an article from Issue 2 (the same issue as the Nussbaum article) discussing the film "Examined Life," by Jonny Thakkar, "Examined Life: What is Popular Philosophy" views the film with Nussbaum's concerns but leaves the theatre with different conclusions. Thakkar's discussion of philosophy in the streets versus in the academy is definitely on point: for what is philosophy, who does philosophy best, where should philosophy be done, and what happens when philosophy gets into the wrong hands? Thakkar's quote of Bernard Williams is more than mere touching: "…his [Williams's] last essays reveal a man disillusioned with his academic career, which had 'consisted largely of reminding moral philosophers of truths about human life which are very well known to virtually all adult human beings except moral philosophers.' It was, he owned, 'less than clear that this was the most useful way in which to spend one's life, as a kind of flying mission to a small group isolated from humanity in the intellectual Himalaya.'"
"The Coming of the Toads" by Joe Linker is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, and Copyright 2007-2020 Joe Linker.
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The official language in Grenada is English, though the inhabitants are also talking a mix of Creole-English and French-African languages, which are formally known as 'Patois' or 'Patwa'. 'Oh my god!' for example means 'Bun jay', what is actually deduced from the French 'Bon dieu'.
It seems that there is no language history in Grenada- and the people are simply living in here and now. Still, to understand at least a little bit, you have to listen quite closely- but the citizens are very patient and know how to deal with tourists.
The official currency is the East Caribbean Dollar which is closely linked to the US Dollar. For instance, is there an increase at the US stock market and the US Dollar rises, the EC Dollar will rise, too. The current exchange rate is 1 EC$ = 0, 25 EUR (updated June 2011).
For travel checks you get mostly a much better exchange rate than for cash money and banks are likely to exchange better than hotels do.
Major international credit cards like American Express, MasterCard and Visa are accepted at most hotels, restaurants, shops and car rental companies. It is always recommended to take the first few days a few U.S. dollars and exchange them later because not all hotels convert Euros.
All rates in hotels and restaurants do not include a tax of 8% and 10% service charge. Tipping is not expected, but still gladly accepted. So, do not be stingy if someone has done you good and you were satisfied.
Although the climate is tropical, the humidity is not really oppressive because of the trade wind. Average temperatures are between 24 and 30 ° C. The lowest temperatures are between November and February - but still so high that we Europeans will envy them. The driest time of year, are the months from January to May.
From June to December it can rain sometimes- but rarely more than an hour. Though, if it rains, the rainfall can be quite boisterous. However, the sun will come back quickly and laugh from the blue Caribbean sky. In Grenada the rain is called 'liquid sunshine'- what basically hits the nail right on the head.
In the hills of the islands there are also differences in climate, depending on the different heights. So, a small hike can indeed provide cooling. Throughout the whole year, Grenada can be recommended as a perfect place for holidays.
Due to the fact, that Grenada is situated 'Windward' on the edge of the traditional hurricane belt, the country is fortunately very rarely affected by the effects of tropical storms and even more rarely of real hurricanes. In September 2004, Grenada was struck by Hurricane Ivan, which has damaged the islands significantly.
Fortunately, the damages have been resolved in the meantime and the government has used this opportunity in many areas for improvements and renovations. The residents of Grenada understand precisely how to get something good- even from a natural disaster!
According to the generally mild weather light cotton clothing clothes can be recommended- just as locals do. Bathing suits, miniskirts and hot pants on the streets are frowned upon and should stay at the beach. This dress code should be respected as a vacationer. The same rule applies in churches: legs and shoulders must be covered and men have to remove their hats.
On the beach applies the "full gear" rule - women have to wear bathing suits or bikinis- complete with shell. In the evening, some of the fancier hotels expected more elegant clothes. So, this means for the lords of creation that they should wear long pants, though jacket and tie can still be left at home as well as the lady's ball gowns.
The voltage in Grenada is -as well as in Germany and most other European countries- 220 volt (AC, 50 Hz, say the experts). The outlets, however, look differently. They originate from the colonial period and therefore look like the British sockets -for plugs with three pins. Thus, travel adapters are recommended.
The phone is also quite simple: the code for Germany, Austria and Switzerland for talks to Grenada is: +1-473 (the plus stands in Germany for a double zero), followed by the seven-digit subscriber number. This code applies to all phone and fax numbers in Grenada.
For calls from Grenada towards home (or elsewhere), there are plenty of coin and card phones on the main islands. Phone cards can be bought in the agencies of the telephone company Cable & Wireless and also in tourist offices. From most hotels direct-dialling is possible and they even have fax facilities and access to the Internet. But who depends on creating such opportunities should check the hotel carefully whether they are available there or not.
Not all German mobile phones can be used because the network operators in Grenada still operate largely under the old (analog) American standard AMPS network. The mobile network-operators of Grenada - Cable & Wireless, Cingular and Digicel – do not provide a net for the whole area.Therefore, ask the network operator in Germany about the availability of mobile phones in advance, so you don't experience any unpleasant surprises.
The post is called 'Grenada Postal Corporation' (GPC) and is headquartered in the Lagoon Road at the Port of St. George's. But there are plenty of post offices in all towns and villages, which are usually housed in small wooden stalls. It is common, that the locals meet there to read their post together. Courier services, such as UPS, DHL and FedEx also have branches in Grenada.
Television should not be your priority when visiting Grenada. To be precisely, the country has three television and eight radio stations and some cable operators. Many hotels have satellite TV and offer their guests, foreign television programs.
and St. Paul's (tel. 4406173) and a smaller clinics in Carriacou in Hillsborough (tel. 443 9198) und Windward (tel. 443 6415).
At Petite Martinique is a small medical practice, which is staffed once per week by a medical officer of Carriacou. There a doctors of all medical branches across the country. A doctor's visit costs about EC$ 80, approximately € 20. Overseas health insurance is always wise to have- just in case you need medical treatment. The emergency telephone in Grenada is the same number as in the United States: 911.
The hygienic conditions in Grenada are also very good. Tap water can be drunk safely. Meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables as well as milk and milk products can be enjoyed carefree. The dreaded "Montezuma's revenge" is correct but its cause is not a lack of hygiene – in most cases, the tourist's stomach has to get used to the foreign cuisine. Vaccinations are not required for a travel to Grenada, except if one has stayed less than a week before arriving in a yellow fever infected area.


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Reviews / TechRadar Reviews 5 days ago 13 Views 0
While we've heard plenty about the camera specs on the Samsung Galaxy S20 / S11 range, there was previously some confusion as to which models would get which lenses, but that has now largely been cleared up thanks to not one, not two but three huge leaks
First up, UniverseIce (a reliable leaker) has tweeted that the Samsung Galaxy S20 has a triple-lens camera with a 12MP main sensor, backed up by 64MP and 12MP ones, while the Galaxy S20 Plus has a quad-lens camera with the same three sensors alongside a fourth time-of-flight one for depth sensing.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra meanwhile supposedly has a 108MP main sensor, backed up by 48MP and 12MP secondary sensors, along with a time-of-flight sensor. So this phone is quad-lens too, but with a quite different setup and a lot more megapixels. No lenses are mentioned for any of the sensors, though.
S20:12MP+64MP+12MPS20+:12MP+64MP+12MP+ToFS20U:108MP+48MP+12MP+ToFJanuary 14, 2020
UniverseIce doesn't go into any more details, but XDA Developers does have more information, at least about the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus, which is set to be the middling of the three devices.
Thanks to screenshots seemingly taken from the phone and shared with the site by an anonymous source, we can see that there are at least four rear snappers and one on the front. Those rear cameras include a 12MP 1.8μm Sony IMX 555 sensor, which is currently unreleased, so it's different to the 12MP sensors on the Samsung Galaxy S10.
That's alongside a 64MP secondary sensor, and there's also said to be a telephoto lens, capable of 3x optical zoom and 30x digital zoom. Plus, the Galaxy S20 Plus is also shown as having the same 10MP front-facing camera as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.
The rear camera appears to be capable of recording video at up to 8K quality at 30fps, or 4K at 60fps, and there's mention of several camera modes, some of which we've seen before.
There's 'Smart Angle Selfie', which will automatically switch to a wide angle when there's more than two people in the frame, 'Single Take Photo', which lets you pan around an environment while the S20 automatically takes photos and video, and a 'Pro Video' mode, which lets you manually tweak more settings when recording video.
One mode that isn't present despite previously being rumored is 'Director's View', which would have let the camera automatically track a subject. XDA Developers suggests this mode won't be available at launch, but might be added later, or land on another phone.
Confirmations for the Galaxy S20 Series! The S20 Ultra 5G will indeed have 108MP Main Camera with Periscope Camera that will allow up to astonishing 100X of Hybrid Zoom. S20 and S20+ will continue with 12MP, 6.2 and 6.7" Dynamic AMOLED, respectively. (1/2https://t.co/bRiuKw9OwxJanuary 13, 2020
But we're still not done with camera rumors, because Ishan Agarwal (another fairly reputable leaker) has also shared some details with MySmartPrice.
They say that the basic Samsung Galaxy S20 will have a 12MP main camera and a 10MP selfie shooter, as we've heard before. They also say to expect a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen and a 4,000mAh battery.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus is said to also have a 12MP main and 10MP selfie camera, but a significantly bigger 6.7-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen.
Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra will apparently have a 108MP main camera as other sources say, along with 100x hybrid zoom capabilities, which is massively more than the 30x rumored for the Galaxy S20 Plus (and likely the standard S20).
With the three phones likely all using the Snapdragon 865 or Exynos 990 chipset, and rumors of 12GB of RAM coming as standard, it seems like the camera could be the main difference between them. And on that front, the Galaxy S20 Ultra looks like it could have a substantial advantage.
Via GSMArena
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