A Look at a Banned Book

Book banning happens periodically across the world. From writings that can upset political status quo, to those that contain disturbing amounts or levels of sex or violence, various works have at various times been considered for or subject to banning. More recently, we have seen cases of books being banned for hurting religious sentiment. Since book banning happens periodically, we have times when a society decides what we can or cannot read, and times when it appears to allow and encourage its members to read a lot and widely. As such, reading has only recently become a skill almost anybody can acquire.

What this means is that, until very recently, most people simply could not read - were not literate. And, it is only recently that more people can not only read but consider reading for pleasure and growth. Thus, it is very hard to have a public, at this point in time, who can make an informed decision about banning books. In such a scenario, we find a report about an Indian judge allegedly finding Tolstoy's War and Peace inflammatory reading. One positive fallout of this unfortunate news item is that people might actually read the book.

The only reason I can find fault with the book could be for length - a person once told me that they managed to finally read War and Peace during a long convalescence. However, it is hard, beyond the question of length, to consider that anything in Tolstoy's writings can incite the reader to violence.

The best way to settle the matter is to read War and Peace.

Or listen to it.

And you can even enjoy the epic as film:

Directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, the film, made in the sixties, has been screened again this year. Which makes it a must-watch but don't take my word for it - all the reviews rave about it:

Virtuosic camerawork rendered each scene of Bondarchuk’s War and Peace its own sort of spectacle

The director’s plan to hook the masses relied on shock and awe, bending even the most stubborn detractors into submission via the sheer magnificence of his vision. ... the crew mounted a series of astonishing set pieces, continually topping themselves.

vox.com

Or as TV series:

Now, though the TV show has attracted some minor criticism, it is made by the BBC and, thus, one can expect a certain standard and never be too disappointed. 

There are three things the BBC does very well. Nature/science documentaries (narration by Attenborough or GTFO), make baking seem interesting, and most pertinently costume drama.

cinapse.co

I hope that I have convinced you that War and Peace is not a book to be banned. I also hope that I might have convinced you that book banning is never a good idea. 

Just in case this is not enough, we shall look at a banned short story in the next post.

Icy Wastes, Peril at Sea and Gold at Rainbow's End

The Worst Journey in the World was one of my father's favourite books. It is an epic account of a polar adventure.

Cherry-Garrard’s memoir of a miserable Antarctic expedition, The Worst Journey in the World, was ranked number one on National Geographic’s list of the 100 greatest adventure books of all time. “As War and Peace is to novels, so is The Worst Journey in the World to the literature of polar travel: the one to beat,” wrote the magazine.

This Catastrophic Polar Journey Resulted in One of the Best Adventure Books Ever Written

While you can dip into the book using the cover picture above, you can also listen to the book here.

And, if you're in the mood for more, here is a drama documentary based on the book.

This is a book that is worth adding to your bookshelf, even one that is virtual.

While you build up the courage to face that longer read, try a short story about a kayaker’s peril at sea:

The Edge of the Shoal by Cynan Jones

He swings the fish from the water, a wild stripe flicking and flashing into the boat, and grabs the line, twisting the hook out, holding the fish down in the footrests. It gasps, thrashes. Drums. Something rapid and primal, ceremonial, in the shallow of the open boat.

Fact and fiction aside, poetry has always celebrated adventure and has even created fantasy worlds that draw the imagination on and colour drab reality with magic hues:

Listen to Poe's El Dorado, composed to music: 

From reviewing books I return to a strategy I've adopted earlier: showcasing readings under various themes - I'd appreciate your feedback, dear reader. Does this kind of enterprise please you?

Visit next week for a look at some writings that were considered for banning. 

Jealousy and Revenge - How a Count Counters Conspiracies

As a young girl, I was enchanted with Alexandre Dumas' Le Comte de Monte Cristo. The Count of Monte Cristo remains one of the few works that I read in French. It is, basically, a tale of revenge.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, some say. Though the story is old, the relish remains fresh. Read the story to enjoy the recipe - the link also provides an audio version. I'm sure you will enjoy it as the tale has fared well across time, even made and remade as movies and TV series across the world.  

At his happiest moment in life, a young man is thrown into prison by a jealous rival. And that is it, in a nutshell. Of course, there is the second course - the hero emerges from the depths of a dungeon to avenge himself bitterly and mercilessly. Jealousy and revenge - as old as mankind.

The story of Edmond Dantès is inspired by the real life story of François Piçaud, an innocent man denounced as a spy and jailed for seven years. Similar to Edmond, a prison friendship led him to acquiring a great fortune, and upon his release, he sought revenge on those who'd accused him. In Alexandre Dumas's fictionalized version, the innocent Edmond escapes from prison, finds a fortune his dying friend tells him about, feigns the identity of a wealthy count, and sets about the business of a thousand pages worth of revenge.

How Revenge and The Count of Monte Cristo Capture Our Eternal Need for Closure

Apparently, that's not the only connection with historical incidents and people:

Dumas’ appetite for action-packed tales led him to the 1838 publication Memoirs from the Archives of Paris Police, a collection of true crime stories arranged by author Jacques Peuchet. Among the accounts featured was the particularly macabre tale of Nîmes-born shoemaker Pierre Picaud, who was framed for treason by three men who lusted after his wealthy fiancée.

15 Things You Might Not Know About The Count of Monte Cristo

But it was not all taken from the darkness. According to another account, there was a scientist Who Inspired the Count of Monte Cristo.

There is also the fact that the novel has inspired all sorts of research. One such explores the Geographies of Vengeance: Orientalism in Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo.

Not far from port of Marseille (France) this castle built in an island became famous because of Alexandre Dumas's novel "Le Comte de Monte-Cristo. Philippe Alès [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

And another that examines Cerebrovascular disease in The Count of Monte Cristo. If that is all related to the past, we also have an article about What the Count of Monte Cristo Can Teach Us About Cybersecurity.

So I do hope you will read the story and perhaps watch the upcoming New Version of ‘Count of Monte Cristo’.

By the Will of the Pike!

One of my favourite books when I was a child was Vasilisa the Beautiful: Russian Fairy Tales. I enjoyed most of the stories in it but I still remain fond of Emelya and the Pike. Please read it quickly so that I can go on to tell you why I like it so much.

Аткинсон, Джон Огастес Public Domain

What most captured my fancy in the story was the stove on which Emelya lies all day long. At that point in time I had not even seen an oven nor even a tandoor. And it's not only that Emelya spends his days dozing on the stove, he also uses it to go hither and thither!

Emelya falls into the famous anti-hero category found in many tales from around the world. For the Russians it is normally Ivan the fool. There's even a Tolstoy Ivan the Fool story - one that I like. 

Michael Sevier (illustrator) [Public domain]

Emelya's story also falls into the wish granting fish category. Of course, you can see that Emelya's pike is a much better wish granting fish than the one the fisherman found. The lack of 'moral of the story' only serves to make Emelya and the Pike a much more enjoyable story. Sometimes, it's only by resorting to extreme absurdity that we can fight limiting superstitions.

In the fisherman's tale, he is granted three wishes and, with the last wish, he's back where he was. The story is bitter and pointless given we're never going to find magic things which grant us our wishes. When we're anyway going into the realm of fantasy, why not just go with the flow?

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin, 1876-1942 [Public domain]

And that is what Emelya does. He goes with the flow in letting his sisters-in-law send him fishing. Note that he also does agree only when promised bribes of new clothes and such. In that sense, there might be a moral to the story: passive and reluctant obedience can bring rewards. 

Here's a movie version. It's in black and white and has no subtitles but it's still very enchanting!

The Vanished Pleasure of a Richard Gordon Doctor Series Book

Perhaps it was natural for me to read the Richard Gordon Doctor novels. After all, my father was a doctor and I spent a great deal of my younger years being exposed to the world of hospitals and doctors. The books are mostly quite hilarious in a bawdy sort of way but also satisfy the same desires that now lead us to watch a Doctor House or some other Hospital show. 

The films and TV dramas based on the Doctor series were fairly funny and you can find samples on You Tube.

Doctor In the House

The books will tickle your funny bone and take you on an amusing tour of the world of medicine and the private lives of doctors. While the medical fraternity will find familiar scenes, we can all enjoy the stories as all of us get to visit hospitals for one reason or another. 

Dr. Gordon was professionally adrift, working as a surgeon on a cargo ship in the South Pacific, when he began writing his first book in 1950. “I had nothing to do except drink gin with the chief engineer,” he later told the Daily Mail. “To save myself from developing cirrhosis of the liver, I wrote about my experiences as a medical student.”The result was “Doctor in the House,” a ribald comedy about a callow, rugby-playing medical student who chases women, spends nearly as much time at the bar as at the hospital and is eventually “transformed from an unearning and potentially dishonest ragamuffin to a respectable and solvent member of a learned profession.” The protagonist, like the pseudonymous author, was named Richard Gordon.The novel sold more than 3 million copies and was reportedly used to teach conversational English in Japan.

Before writing ‘Doctor in the House,’ he was a surgeon in the South Pacific

In those days there were quite a few authors who were doctors and whose writings were set in their professional world: A J Cronin, for example. I wonder why that is not the case these days ...

Tripwire - a New High from Lee Child

I came across Lee Child by chance. Having developed the convenient habit of travel reading, I make it a point to carry a book or two on trips. For that particular journey I had a book left by someone: Make Me and it made me reach for another Lee - Bad Luck and Trouble. The trouble is Jack Reachers are addictive if you're into that sort of thing - good fight scenes, in particular.  

Tripwire offers giant doses of romance and a truly evil villain. 

The story begins with Reacher digging swimming pools in a part of the US that the author had visited during a vacation in the nineties. Someone is looking for Reacher. And that person is found dead. Two goons have also been inquiring about him. Are they killers?

Our hulk, Reacher, sets off to find out the who, what, why, when and where of it all. Which leads him to a very attractive young lady lawyer who happens to be the daughter of Gerber, an officer Reacher respects. Together the couple traverse many hair raising adventures to solve the mystery. In the meanwhile, we get to enjoy the villain and his dastardly accomplices in action.

The romance might be a bit icky to some as there's the age thing. Jodie was a teenager when they first met. The fact that Gerber was a father figure to Reacher and that Reacher met Jodie when she was a young girl and had the hots for her bring in a touch of the forbidden. 

The grotesque villain also comes in the way of full enjoyment - he's almost like Captain Hook! 

Nevertheless, Lee Child is always a satisfying read. He brings geography and technical things alive and we also get some historical perspectives. In this case, it's the ill-fated Vietnam war. What happened to prisoners? How were the injured cared for? In all the confusion of those times, all kinds of mess ups and cover ups became possible.

Even though Tripwire will not be among my top Reacher books, I'm busy devouring two more. And I leave you with a wonderful chance to eavesdrop on two great contemporary writers: 

Killing it with his First Book - Lee Child Floors Readers

Music in novels is something I've begun to look forwards to with joy. Now, there are various functions for music that goes with reading. One can read whilst listening to music and what could be better than to read to music mentioned in a book?

Lee Child has a relationship with music as you can see below: 

To give you a bit of background, Lee Child writes the adventures of Jack Reacher. Ex of the US army. Military Police, in fact. He's huge, and now walks the length and breadth of the US of A. Every novel begins with trouble he encounters on these road trips. And then he has his unique way and philosophy so that he has no credit card and owns no more than the clothes on his back and a folding toothbrush. 

Lee Child is British. Not American. And he's written some 24 Jack Reacher novels. After I'd read a few, breaking my self imposed rule of never reading more than one of any author, I decided to try and follow the chronology but then which one? The order in which they were written or the chronology of the Jack Reacher story? 

Killing Floor is Lee's first book. And an award winner. Naturally. 

Reacher is in a town looking for a Blues musician. He's arrested for murder. And somewhere during the long wait in the police station he listens to music in his head. There's fan tribute to that at The music in my head. 

Besides the internal music there's the radio:

I fiddled with the radio built into the nightstand thing. Came up with a station playing something halfway decent. Sounded like they were playing through an early Canned Heat album. Bouncy and sunny and just right for a bright empty morning.

More on the radio:

I fiddled with the radio dial and heard Albert King tell me if it wasn't for bad luck, he wouldn't have no luck at all. 

And back to inside Reacher's head:

I was leaning up in my corner running a Bobby Bland number through my head. An old favorite. It was cranked up real loud. “Further On Up the Road.” Bobby Bland sings it in G major. That key gives it a strange, sunny, cheerful cast. Takes out the spiteful sting from the lyric. Makes it a lament, a prediction, a consolation. Makes it do what the blues is supposed to do. The relaxed G major misting it almost into sweetness. Not vicious.

But then I saw the fat police chief walk by. Morrison, on his way past the cells, toward the big office in back. Just in time for the start of the third verse. I crunched the song down into E flat. A dark and menacing key. The real blues key. I deleted the amiable Bobby Bland. I needed a harder voice. Something much more vicious. Musical, but a real cigarettes-and-whiskey rasp. Maybe Wild Child Butler. Someone you wouldn’t want to mess with. I wound the level in my head up higher, for the part about reaping what you sow, further on up the road.

I started dreaming about John Lee Hooker. In the old days, before he got famous again. He had an old steel-strung guitar, played it sitting on a little stool.

To calm down, I ran music through my head. The chorus in “Smokestack Lightning.” The Howling Wolf version puts a wonderful strangled cry on the end of the first line. They say you need to ride the rails for a while to understand the traveling blues. They’re wrong. To understand the traveling blues you need to be locked down somewhere. In a cell. Or in the army. Someplace where you’re caged. Someplace where smokestack lightning looks like a faraway beacon of impossible freedom. I lay there with my coat as a pillow and listened to the music in my head. At the end of the third chorus, I fell asleep.

So, if you've not read a Jack Reacher yet, begin now. After all, you have your playlist handy!

An Unexpected Diversion - My Hobbit Habit

People have books they like to read time and again and mine was The Hobbit. And The Trilogy. It was somewhere a little before 1969. My father had returned from a posting in Boston, I think. And he had brought the set back with him. It was literally a set, set within an elegant cardboard five-sided box. As I cannot find a free to share picture of that experience, I offer you a preview of the first book of the series from Amazon:

My father told us the stories, a little bit at a time, every day, when he got home from work. And they were among the first books that I read. I continued to re-read them annually, well into the years of motherhood when I read them aloud to my son.

But, first of all, let me tell you what a hobbit is. A hobbit is like a small person, except that hobbits have furry feet. And they live in a hole in the ground. In fact, that is how the whole concept began. Apparently, Prof Tolkien was quite upset with the nonsense a student had written and he wrote as comment: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." But it was 

Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

The Hobbit can be read alone and some feel that it might be better to read it after tackling The Trilogy. For The Hobbit can be perceived by some as a book for children. Indeed, one can read all of them at any age but Disney and ilk have used business sense to convince some of us that there are books for each age as well as for each gender.

The very first chapter of The Hobbit, The Unexpected Party, is a delight. Imagine how you would feel if some thirteen dwarfs and one wizard gate crashed your place and demanded to be fed. You would be fed up! And it would not be a good morning at all. Except that that is how the story sort of begins:

“Good Morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.

Gandalf is the wizard in the story. 

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"
"All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain.

However, the wizard appears thick skinned and Bilbo, the hobbit, decides to be firm:

"Good morning!" he said at last. "We don't want any adventures here, thank you! You might try over The Hill or across The Water." By this he meant that the conversation was at an end."What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!" said Gandalf. "Now you mean that you want to get rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off.”

The story is bound to make you chuckle, not only at first reading but even later, when memories bubble up.

So, the dwarfs and the wizard make themselves at home in the hobbit hole and soon begin to sing: 

Chip the glasses and crack the plates!

I do hope you haven't seen the film and I do hope you won't. The book is much better.

Bilbo's heart sinks as the purpose of the party slowly manifests: to set off on a treasure hunt fraught with dangers. 

The dark filled all the room, and the fire died down, and the shadows were lost, and still they played on. And suddenly first one and then another began to sing as they played, deep­throated singing of the dwarves in the deep places of their ancient homes; and this is like a fragment of their song, if it can be like their song without their music. 

Far over the misty mountains cold

To dungeons deep and caverns old

We must away ere break of day

To seek the pale enchanted gold.

To compound matters, Bilbo is to be a key figure in the enterprise. But I leave you to discover the joys of Tolkien's tale on your own. 

For those who are already smitten with the story, let's see what other devotees have done. A tidbit for the newbie: a hobbit is fond of food. So, it was a delight to discover AN UNEXPECTED PARTY MENU AND RECIPES. 

For music to read by, do try Music from Middle-earth.

So I leave you to gate-crash the story and hope to follow this unexpected diversion of mine with some Roast Mutton - the name of the second chapter of The Hobbit.

Psychoanalysis, a Long Poem and a Short Story - Jung, Browning, and Vonnegut

My father was a psychiatrist. Those who have some acquaintance with the field will immediately think of Freud. A few might also recall Jung. My father was averse to Freud and I have inherited that phobia. Freud appears obsessed with sex. And I admit that I have not read his works and that my bias is based on what I have heard of his theories and how I see their influence. However, as he is not the focus here, I leave you to do the digging. 

Freud, father of psychoanalysis. Google Images - CC BY-SA 4.0

When I was a child I grew up in a house where books reigned supreme and among those was Carl Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections. 

Upload by Adrian Michael - Ortsmuseum Zollikon, Public Domain

Though not without faults, Jung's was one of modern history's most intriguing minds and Memories, Dreams, Reflections presents a rare, infinitely insightful glimpse of its inner workings...

Maria Popova

Read it here. As for me, Jung brought me the concept of persona and of archetypes. Again, it's just in a crude way and so for me, persona is 

a face to meet the faces that you meet

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T S Eliot

And as for archetypes, it is a fascinating concept. 

These archaic and mythic characters that make up the archetypes reside with all people from all over the world, Jung believed, and it is these archetypes that symbolize basic human motivations, values, and personalities. He believed that each archetype played a role in personality, but felt that most people were dominated by one specific archetype. The actual way in which an archetype is expressed or realized depends upon a number of factors including an individual's cultural influences and unique personal experiences.Jung identified four major archetypes, but also believed that there was no limit to the number that may exist.

The 4 Major Jungian Archetypes

Now, that I've dangled a morsel of psychoanalysis over you, I have to confess that Adler is whom I really want to look into at some point!

Having dragged you through your subconscious, I shall now let you down gently with a poem about murder. From the past. Browning's brooding protagonist is driven by the demons of the subconscious:

Arthur Hughes [Public domain]

Porphyria's Lover 

The rain set early in to-night,

The sullen wind was soon awake,

It tore the elm-tops down for spite,

And did its worst to vex the lake:

I listened with heart fit to break.

When glided in Porphyria; straight

She shut the cold out and the storm,

And kneeled and made the cheerless grate

Blaze up, and all the cottage warm;

Which done, she rose, and from her form⁠

Withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl,

And laid her soiled gloves by, untied

Her hat and let the damp hair fall,

And, last, she sat down by my side

And called me.

Robert Browning

Click on the poet's name above to read what happened next!

And from the dungeons of the past I now fling you into a far future with Kurt Vonnegut's Report on the Barnhouse Effect.

The story reflects archetypes related to war. A good tale for those of us who appear to have forgotten the cost of conflicts between countries. Listen to it here: