Light Emitting Pickle here to bring you the most recent open thread. First, a few words about Pickle Pony Parties:
Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one. There will be another along in a few hours.
I’m currently reading two books: Shock doctrine by Naomi Klein, which describes the neo-liberal takeover of the world and Rough Crossings by Simon Schama, which covers the topic of slavery during the American Revolution. Both are extraordinary books – informative and compelling.
The juxtaposition of the treatment of slaves at the end of the 18th century with government-imposed terror tactics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries is frightening. Aren’t we supposed to have come a long way since the abolition of slavery? Aren’t we supposed to consider all humans as beings worthy of life and liberty? Apparently, for a certain fragment of the population, this isn’t true.
Klein’s book, in particular, has caused me to consider the mindset that leads to the ability to torture. Unfortunately, as Bob Altemeyer and John Dean point out in their respective works here and here, this ability is all too common.
So, now I’m grappling with the idea that the veneer of civilization is thinner than I’d originally thought. Or maybe it’s just Monday and I’m feeling gloomy.
Are any of you reading something cheerful?
13 comments
Skip to comment form
The news of late really has me down. And that, I can assure you, is a briny mess.
Colbert’s Masterpiece
Laughs per page meter ranks at about a 10.
I’m usually reading a number of books. The non-fiction books I usually trade off, based on my mood (and/or they are too heavy to read in a single or concentrated multiple set of readings). The fiction I usually read quicker. The poetry is mentioned only if I have a new book and am reading it with more than usual avidity.
The Manor — early I.B. Singer
The Hamlet — William Faulkner (the parallels between this book and The Manor are eerie, as both detail the rise of a new social-economic order, and the passing of an old order, even if the cultures are widely different — The Snopes and Calman families have quite a bit in common, though I’d rather have dinner over at the Calmans than break bread with the creepy Snopes clan.)
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln — popular history book on the Lincoln Administration by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Professionalization of Psychology in Nazi Germany — Ulfried Geuter (a monograph dissecting the rise of professional psychology during the Nazi years in Germany; very interesting, and of some interest to those tracking the controversies in the American Psychological Association over their collaboration with Bush’s Terror War)
The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam — the war most of us know little to nothing about; the parallels with the current war are startling
The United States and Biological Warfare in the Korean War by Stephen Endicott and Edward Hagerman — did the U.S. use biological warfare during the Korean War against both North Korea and China, and did the U.S. conduct a cover-up on this that persists to the present day? Is the Pope German?
“the last of her kind” by Sigrid Nunez written from the perspective of a working class woman who meets a wealthy one at university. The wealthy woman becomes a radical activist and jailed after shooting a cop and the working class woman embraces a middle class lifestyle. Their paths cross indirectly many times over the years. Good book.
Just started “The God of Animals” by Aryn Kyle which is supposed to be a portrait of class and family.
but mostly I’ve been sleeping thru a cold.
and dear pickle, I need your help! My adventurers will soon have an encounter with a wee tiny pixie named Light Emitting Pickle Extrodinaire, LEPE to her friends, and I need to know some ‘magic’ tricks for her to do…what can be thrown into a fire to make huge smoke? Are there two or three ingredients that can be combined quickly to produce an explosion? And somewhere I read that Ben Nye (first Great specialFX guy) used something that you wipe on your arm then when you run a rusty(?) blade over it, it ‘bleeds’ like a cut…do you know what that is??
any other ‘magic’ type help would be greatly appreciated!
…of Pratchett’s Making Money. Next will be a book by Kim Stafford about his father, poet laureate William Stafford, who lived next door to my elementary school and whose wife was one of the teachers. Kim’s older brother Bret was in my classes.
“Unbowed: A Memoir” by Wangari Maathai. Here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
The writing is a bit elementary – but so far the story is amazing. As much as we know about the damage that was done by colonialism, its still pretty brutal to read a first-person account.
“Legends and Romances of Brittany”, collected and retold by Lewis Spence, and “Idylls of the King” by Tennyson.
Finally finished the Divine Comedy (hipster translation by Birk and Sanders), just the other day.
Just got the book this weekend…cause everyone needs truth!
Not sure how cheerful it is going to be…probably not much.