Writer Bites

Masculine writing Uses the economy of the phallus

2011-12-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

This means that:

It aims to present a unified truth (there has to be a bottom line, a point, a take home message, an argument with a conclusion).
becomes stationary static and unchangeable (It is a success if it becomes something that we can put down in history texts that will stay the same)
It places itself at the center and tries to marginalize everything else in relation to it (Bible (the plants and the animals and the garden and eve, were all created for man) and evangelism (Christianity is a rare kind of religion that entails evangelism, it is necessary to go out and conquer other kinds of ideas))
It casts everything else into the role of Other (example, what gets to count as Canon in a discipline, philosophy major)
Other things have meaning only in relation to it (an idea and criticisms of that idea – we have never studied a section on Elshtain, but we have looked at her in relation to other sets of ideas)

Masculine writing looks at the world in terms of binary opposites.

Culture/ nature
Active/ passive
Speaking/ writing
High/ low

These dualistic, binary opposites map onto the BIG dualism: Man/woman

Woman exists in man’s world, on his terms defined by the fact that she is different from him.
If woman refuses to be defined as man’s Other then she is unthinkable, there is no place for her in language or culture, in some sense, doesn’t exist.

Think of the omission of women’s perspectives in history for example

Feminine writing – the ways to escape the world that men have constructed

2011-12-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

You break the system by putting the unthinkable (women themselves) into words.

Feminine writing is flexible and moving and dynamic.

Letters -- Most of the women that have made it into the philosophy canon have done so in terms of the letters that they wrote to male philosophers ex. Princess Elizabeth, Queen Christina.
Poems: an interpretation a point of view that has no purpose but the beauty off itself or of expressing the experiences of the artist. No claims to universal Truth, just to the truth of my Truth, just to the truth of my own experience of it.
Marginalia: little scribbles in the margins of our books, where we talk to ourselves or the authors
Journals
Cookbooks – you need practical knowledge to make recipes work. They are suggestions not rules.
Emails – new grammar and style, playful icons that express more than the words of the message. They are ephemeral, once we let them go they may get deleted or may stay on some computer where the text can degrade.
Graffiti – Stop signs becoming “stop rape” signs
Novels – ex Handmaids Tale was written as a found journal

Feminine writing is a place where we can be subversive and perhaps get away with it.

It is a way to change the world

Connections between male sexuality and male writing, and female sexuality and female writing.

2011-12-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

Male sexuality

“the big dick”

the writing, like the sex, is a whose is bigger contest that is ultimately a boring game to play.

“little pocket signifier” = penis/phallus/pen

A signifier is a sign or a name or a word or a concept that we use to mark out the boundaries of things or thoughts in our culture.

Male writing, like male definitions of sexuality, is rigidly controlled and defined so that it can be used to maintain the social order that already exists

Female sexuality

The book has yet to be written about female sexuality.

Women haven’t had the words to think it, nonetheless write it.
In masculine writing, women are written as the Other that is defined by the Man
When women struggle to write themselves it is halting and creative, because we are building it as we go. It is a creative desire.
Consider it in terms of our sexuality

This lets it be free and diverse and exciting.
It is multiple and mobile and complex

Women write in “white ink”

It doesn’t draw boundaries, it opens possibilities
She creates language as she goes

The desire to write is an embodied desire,

a desire to become a self in a body,
a desire to give life to experiences and ideas -- ideas that change and grow because they are alive too.
A desire to be thought and to think using what ever concepts and language that you need

Jouissance.

15 War Books for Inspiration

2011-10-23T03:15:00.000-07:00

1. Doughboy War: the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, James A. Hallas ed. : This book is a set of excerpts from numerous and moving first-hand accounts. There are some descriptions of combat and its aftermath that leave one wondering how much a human can take and still function. The prevailing mood of the stories is somewhat dark/pitiful but something like this should be done for every war that America participated in as a memorial to that generation's unique brand of sacrifice.

Even though the United States did not enter the war until April 1917 and didn't engage in battle until the fall of that year, war's end saw over 80,000 killed in action. The poignancy of having friends buried in shallow graves on the battle fields, or seeing them mangled or "blown to atoms" by shellfire is recounted. As if the horrors of the warfare were not enough, the influenza epidemic killed thousands in 1918. The doughboy's war is vividly portrayed by these carefully edited anecdotes and should serve as a reminder of all those men who went to France "to make the world safe for democracy."

2. The First World War by John Keegan: This book illuminates the war to end all wars and captures the sweep of the first global conflict. Keegan details the primary causes and the primary instigators of the conflict. You really come to understand how about 15 individuals and a lot of national pride led to the deaths of millions. While not a truly "modern" war, many of the instruments of death were well hoaned (e.g. the rifle, the machine gun and artillery). This book describes the horror of trench warfare, details the attacks and defenses, the general's attempts to break the stalemate, the mathematics of attrition, the political motivations, and most importantly, the effect on nations that established the groundwork for the second world war.

3. Articles of War: A Collection of Poetry about World War II, Leon Stokesbury ed.: Soldiers, local civilians, and victims write about their struggles and fears, as all hope for the future seems lost. War-time experiences shake the poets to the very core of their beings, and the brutal realities of war and battles--both at home and far afield--change the writers forever. "Articles of War" features works by writers who saw the war and those who heard the stories from loved ones. With writers like Auden, Cummings, Jarrell, Hugo, and Shapiro, this book features 120 poems.

4. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose: Band of Brothers tells us everything about a group of men and how they fought. We get to laugh with them, we get to see the horrors that they have seen. We also get to see the incompetence that sometimes becomes prevalent in wartime. Ambrose doesn't pull any punches, and neither do the men of Easy to whom he spoke. They are very outspoken about the people they didn't like. Not just people, but also nationalities. One thing to keep in mind when reading this book is that the only impression of nationalities that these men had were when they were going through territory, wondering whether or not they would be running into enemy fire at any time.

5. Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose: If you are a student of military history at all, or for that matter just interested in World War II, this book is an outstanding addition to your library. Ambrose is a master of oral history presentation and has a demonstrably keen grasp of the larger issues of WWII and, more importantly, of the ultimately quite human aspects of modern warfare.

To read the stories of men, from all walks of life, all parts of the country was riveting. These men, bring back a time when they were young and brave and scared. Their innermost fears revealed. Anyone who cherishes freedom and liberty should read this book, for the men who fought so long ago, will not be with us much longer to share their stories

6. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailler

7. Poets of World War II, Harvey Shapiro ed.

8. The World War II Memorial, Douglas Brinkley ed.

9. The Coldest War by James Brady

10. No Bugles, No Drums by Rudy Tomedi

11. A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam by James R. Ebert

12. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

13. We Were Soldiers Once…And Young by Harold G. Moore

14. Road to Baghdad by Martin Stanton

15. Jarhead by Anthony Swofford

8 Books to curl up with on a Winter Night

2011-10-22T09:48:00.000-07:00

There are few things more enjoyable than curling up on a cold winter night with a good book. Here are Eight titles to get you through the cold winter nights.

1. Still Life by Louise Penny - Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec solves a crime of passion in a quiet village with his keen powers of observation. Louise Penny has written a wonderful "cozy murder mystery." The mystery is intriguing and well laid out. It is the characters, though, that you will fall in love with. They make the story! In this book that is the first in a series, Penny does a great job "hooking" the reader so that you want to read more about Three Pines.

Not an over the top slasher gory zombie-geddan affair. No vampires, werewolves or other monster of the moment. Rather this is a a smart witty likable who-done-it. This is a perfect book to plop down on the couch with a cup of tea, under a light blanket, while the dog snoozes by the fireplace.

2. Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason - a popular author from Iceland pens an unusual whodunit featuring Inspector Erlendur Sveinnson, a veteran detective with the Reykjavik police.

Jar City follows a not-always-linear storyline that starts with a murder in a poor neighborhood of Reykjavik and moves backward and forward to bring in rape, genetics, and murder. The principal investigator, detective inspector Erlendur (almost always referred to by his given name), doggedly pursues the case as a good crime novel detective should. What makes this novel stand out is it's exotic (to American readers) setting in Iceland. In a manner that is both fortunate and unfortunate, Indridason makes the city fairly mundane. This is fortunate because he's writing first for a domestic audience, but also because it allows the general reader to move the city somewhat into the background.

The writing is awesome!! Beautiful use of the English language. Interesting plot and characters; no handsome guys with curvy gorgeous women; no manufactured sex to hook the reader. Just a fantastic story of people it's easy to relate to.

3. Mad Mouse by Chris Grabenstein - second in the series featuring the likeable New Jersey policeman and Army Veteran John Ceepak who lives by the code "I will not lie, cheat or steal nor tolerate those who do.”

If you like a good, quick paced, murder mystery peppered with humor, "Mad Mouse" is the mystery for you. Set in a normally quiet seaside town on the Jersey Shore, policemen Ceepak and Boyle track a sniper taking pot shots at people right before the big Labor Day weekend. Grabenstein uses descriptions sparingly, giving just enough backstory to allow the reader the opportunity of filling in some character details and ambience on their own... much the way horror writer Stephen King provides just enough detail for you to scare yourself silly. Even with two murders in one summer, I want to live in Sea Haven. Great story line and surprise ending.

4. Too Darn Hot by Sandra Scoppettone—1943 Manhattan is recreated in full color from the food they ate, and the clothes they wore, to the way they spoke in this fast-paced mystery starring toughtalking, loveable private eye Faye Quick.

The audience will feel as if they are transported back to 1943 NYC due to the realistic tidbits that are cleverly woven into the fine historical mystery to include idioms and slang, and references and items (artifacts?) from the WWII era. The protagonist is a tough independent Jersey girl crossing the Hudson to prove she is also a quick thinker as she connects the dots to try and does solve cases. TOO DARN HOT is a gripping private detective tale with a pulp fiction feel to its 1940s ambience.

5. The Hard Way by Carol Lea Benjamin —this time private investigator Rachel Alexander goes undercover as a homeless woman along with her pit bull Dashiell in hopes of finding a ruthless killer. This is a soft mystery book, not a lot of action, but the pace does move along from clue to clue. The books are just long enough to while away a Sunday night with a cup of cocoa. Any avid mystery reader can pick out the ending way before the last chapter; it just takes Rachel a little longer. There are moral issues involved and lots of commentary on the way of the world, so maybe this is Benjamin's soapbox.

6. The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes— Scotland Yard detective Richard Jury hears a compelling story from a stranger in a pub and sets out to solve the mystery. The book opens with a rather fantastic tale. Does one believe it or not? Then a woman is found murdered. Is the tale told to cover up the murder? Or, is the murder part of the tale? Parts of the tale are true. Parts are not. When we think we're finally certain of what happened & who is the criminal & we think he's finally been caught red-handed, he isn't.
It's an inconclusive, unsatisfying ending.

It's a tricky story - not one you'll see in any other mystery novel. It's well worth the price of a good glass of Cabernet - maybe a glass from The Old Wine Shades!

7. The Highly Effective Detective by Richard Yancey— Meet Theodore “Teddy” Ruzak, the most unlikely private investigator in Tennessee as he somehow manages to solve his first case! The protagonist is a security guard who always dreamed of becoming a private eye. An inheritance makes it possible for him to go into business as one ... except that he has not the slightest idea of how to run a business or how to detect anything. He manages to get a client ... a guy who wants him to find the person who heartlessly ran over some goslings ... and that leads Teddy into some real detective work involving a murder. He manages to solve the case in spite of himself, with a lot of bumbling along the way. Teddy, who is remarkably knowledgeable about a wide range of subjects, is given to long, rambling digressions that make for very funny and often insightful paragraphs. Teddy's free-association style of thinking is, truth be told, probably pretty close to the way we actually process and synthesize information.

8. Out Cold by William G. Tapply— the trail leads to New Hampshire for Boston attorney Brady Coyne when he finds the body of a pregnant teenager in the snow-covered yard of his Beacon Hill home. Attorney Brady Coyne's virtual spouse, Evie, is out of town so Brady and dog, Henry, are on their own. It's a snowy day when Henry brings Brady's attention to a person buried under the snow in their backyard. The young woman, discovered to have miscarried, dies and no one can identify her. Brady feels responsible and is determined to find out who she is and what happened. Others die and someone wants Brady to be one of the dead.

The Things They Carried book review

2008-09-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is a powerful combination of fact and fiction linked to leave the reader with a lasting impression of fear, love, and gratitude for the novel’s components. Through description and haze, O’Brien leaves his reader feeling burdened with the hardships of the soldiers yet doubtful of their existence.

O’Brien opens the novel by introducing the men not through personality, but through “the things they carried.” Tangible objects are listed - such as Kiowa’s Bible - while intangible objects are described through story - such as the encumbering romance of Lieutenant Cross. When describing the tangibles, O’Brien incorporates weight and number to force the pressures of the soldiers onto the reader, for example: “every third or fourth person carried a Claymore antipersonnel mine – 3.5 pounds with its firing device. They all carried fragmentation grenades – 14 ounces each. They all carried at least one M-18 colored smoke grenade – 24 ounces.” (Page 7). In combination, O’Brien uses repetition throughout the book to remind the reader of what’s happening, as if he’s talking to a child, trying to show them the severity of what they can’t bring themselves to understand. In the first chapter alone, “carried” is easily repeated more than 50 times. As O’Brien took the reader through the various deaths of his companions, he constantly repeated descriptions, such as on page 129, when he tells us of “the man he killed”: “now one eye was a star.” Prior to this, O’Brien had described the shape of the dead man’s eye five times – and that was only within the first four pages of the chapter. Through his weighted-down descriptions, O’Brien pulls the reader into the story, shaking her shoulders and repeating, repeating, repeating, amplifying, amplifying, amplifying until finally he thinks she may have an idea of what he’s trying to relay to her.

As O’Brien moves through the war, telling various stories of love, death and friendships combining to a narrative, he incorporates interruptions of himself talking to us – like the reader is watching a movie and he keeps pressing pause to explain a scene that we might not have fully grasped. However, instead of making his story clearer to us through his style, O’Brien makes it a confusing blend of fact and fiction. While we’re watching O’Brien at the battlefield, the story is told through soldier Tim, where every pain is real beyond reality. Alternately, O’Brien tells the story as his present self, author Tim O’Brien, merely telling us a story, not an experience. He questions the definition of a “true war story,” and truth and reason in any story. For example, on page 230, author Tim makes the reader doubt the validity of his war story by telling us that stories are merely dreams: “the thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and imagination and language combine to make spirits in the head. There is the illusion of aliveness.” After statements like this one, the reader dives back into soldier Tim’s story as if looking down onto it through a thin straw – anything we don’t see could be true, for according to author Tim, soldier Tim’s story is only being dreamed, so therefore, everything outside the straw we see him through could very well be true…or could it be? Author Tim in turn leaves the reader in question regarding soldier Tim’s story, wondering if what’s being told is at all true or all a hazy, dreamed explanation of author Tim’s past.

To counterbalance the doubt of fact, O’Brien incorporates truth to nourish the doubt of fiction, feeding wood to the reader’s ever burning fire of uncertainty. On page 41, for example, O’Brien writes with confident statements within an account of soldier Tim, causing the reader to accept them – and possibly the entire story of soldier Tim - as fact: “You can’t fix your mistakes. Once people are dead, you can’t make them undead.”

In the chapter of the book entitled Notes, instead of stepping outside of soldier Tim’s world to tell us that the last 50 pages we read were in fact not necessarily real, O’Brien incorporated biographical information of his outside life, which research reveals as true. By breaking away from his past life story as a soldier to his present and true life story of an author, the reader is once again swayed to accepting the war story as non-fiction, despite the fiction label on the book’s cover.

Another of O’Brien’s works, Going after Cacciato, incorporates the same element of doubt as The Things They Carried. Another war novel, this time the story of a young soldier and his encounters of horror and hallucination in the strangest of wars, Going after Cacciato is another blend of reality and fantasy. Could that be all this book is, purely O’Brien’s fantasy of what his encounter with the war had really been? As he told the reader before leaving us alone with our uncertainty: “…when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story” – and that, ultimately, is what this novel is. It isn’t a biography, or a factual war account, it’s a story – still, a powerful and thought provoking work. Nonetheless, though O’Brien can play with the reader’s mind throughout the book, twisting it into confusion and haze, he can’t erase the fine print on the back cover of the book: “TIM O’BRIEN received the 1979 National Award in Fiction.” And so, despite O’Brien’s efforts to convince and confuse us, in the end, the reader is left with the fact that The Things They Carried was 246 pages of inspiring, capturing, powerful, beautiful, extremely believable fiction.

When You Are Engulfed in Flames Book Review

2008-06-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Is anyone in your house pooping on your towels? Do you have a sudden hankering to spend time at a nudist colony? Have you ever felt like you betrayed your apartment because you moved to a new one?

These are just a few of the experiences New York Times best-selling author and NPR commentator David Sedaris shares with you in his series of personal essay collections, the latest one, When You Are Engulfed in Flames. In this assortment of witty, often painfully revealing essays, Sedaris describes his journey to give up smoking, a loved habit he’s had for most of his life. His adventure takes him to Tokyo, where he discovers hard truths about himself, his country, and his grammar.

It is not just the entertaining quality of his stories that grab his audience. It’s

that somewhere in all of us, he touches a cord. It may be the fly in the corner of your window that you name and talk to first thing in the morning. Are you a man that shops in the the women’s department for pants that fit only to realize the problem when you are at the urinal with pants that zip up the back? Perhaps your lover has better childhood stories than you do, so you claim them as your own at parties. Whatever the secret story is in your life, Sedaris will trump it - and you will feel certain that his story is much more embarrassing than your own.

All of Sedaris’s books are offered on audiobooks at your local bookstore or library, and because Sedaris reads them himself in his deadpan delivery and subtle timing, it’s well-worth it to listen to them in addition to reading them. While enjoying his books in order is not necessary, it does add to the reading enjoyment as the Sedaris family begins to feel like your own crazy set of relatives.

The Art of Follow Up book review

2008-01-06T20:50:00.000-08:00

The Art of Follow Up by Jaime Lee Mann offers many helpful techniques Virtual Assistants can use when contacting potential clients, no matter which method (e-mail, snail mail, phone) is most comfortable to you.

If you choose to contact clients via e-mail, the author offers several templates that you can customize for you own use. Is a previously gung-ho client now unresponsive to your correspondence? Having experienced this situation herself, the author has a few suggestions on how to approach these prospects tactfully and professionally. The issue of SPAM, and how to avoid it, is covered briefly as well.

If snail mail is your cup of tea, you'll find plenty of great tips in this e-Book. The author talks about essential content that must make its way into your sales letters, including the best closing statements to elicit a response from prospects. She also shares a few sample letters, including one that can be used for initial contact and another that can be used to follow up with those you've contacted previously.

Prefer to chat with potential clients via phone but aren't quite sure what to say? You can use one of the prepared phone scripts in this e-Book verbatim or as a starting point to give you ideas for your own script. The various scripts include possible responses to client questions and show you how to land a consultation to increase your chances of signing that client. The author also tells you what to say when prospects tell you that they aren't interested in your services or that your hourly rate is too high.

The price of this e-Book is a little steep, in my opinion, but if you need some help getting new clients for your business, this is a great resource worth checking out.

Book Review: Essex County Volume 2: Ghost Stories By Jeff Lemire

2007-10-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

In the second installment of the Essex County trilogy, Lemire has hit his stride. The storytelling is worlds beyond the first (Tales From The Farm), and the illustrations - which have the appearance of wood engravings - are as powerful as any number of masterpieces from ages past.

Compared to Tales, Stories is a darker, more honest portrayal of home life, with devastating perspective spewed forth as the main character (Lou Lebeuf) goes from hero to zero - or at least he becomes mortal.

There is passion, betrayal and regret (try “She only knew me through letters and phone calls those last years. I was so wrapped up in myself...in what I’d lost” on for size). While Lou holds a bottle for comfort, his equally lonely brother Vince holds his wife and daughter. And for the skeptics who think graphic novels are kids’ stuff, think again. If I’d not been reading this 223-page book in a waiting room, I wouldn’t have been able to hold back the tears.

From Big Ol' Face Full of Monster Magazine; BOOK REVIEW: Lost Echoes, by Joe Lansdale

2007-06-24T00:49:00.000-07:00

Title: Lost Echoes
Author: Joe R. Lansdale
Length: 341 Pages
Publisher: Vintage Books
Publication Date: February 2007

There is an ageless quality to the beginning of Joe R. Lansdale’s novel, Lost Echoes. The opening to the main narrative – which arrives only after a newspaper clipping and a brief retrospective thought from the novel’s lead character – has a quiet sense of timelessness that could lead a reader to believe that this story could be taking place at any time in the latter half of the 20th century. An ill child awakens from a fevered sleep and wanders through a quiet house in the dark, reveling in his innocence by watching drive-in cartoons through his living room windows, parents all the while unaware. The sweetness of this picturesque scene is soon stripped away, when this single incident leads to a new talent that will haunt this child, young Harry, for much of his life.

The idea is fairly simple: the story of a young man, who, as a result of this childhood illness, sees and hears what is not there. Or, rather, what once was there, but has long since lapsed into the forgotten memories of countless villains and their hapless victims. Where Lost Echoes differs from a bevy of other paranormal thrillers is that the focus is not on the hero learning to use his gift to save the day, but rather learning to cope and bear the weight of knowing, seeing and feeling what others have left behind.

The novel is broken into three basic components, all centered around the story’s major player, Harry: a battle against the self, a battle against alcoholism and a twisted little mystery that draws both together. These major components of the story arc are oddly segregated, with the mystery crime-drama aspect relegated to the last and least important position. While the mystery of an accidental suicide that could be a murder, wrapped in the perfumed cloud of a returned childhood crush, is intriguing, it plays only a supporting role to the real drama of the traffic hero Harry’s battle with his alcoholism and the terrifying visions – the title lost echoes – that come to him carried on waves of seemingly harmless sound.
This is in itself an intriguing idea, bring realism to the idea of a human being plagued by haunting visions of the past. Visionaries, psychics and mediums are a dime a dozen in fiction of a paranormal bend, but rarely do they possess such depth and reality. Lansdale presents Harry as sympathetic figure, plagued by visions he does not want and cannot stop. He is no sage mystic, using his supposed sight when and if he feels it necessary; he is just a tired, overwrought kid, attacked daily by a barrage of horrible images, vestiges of the inhumanity man wreaks upon himself and others. The evil med do, the author seems to subtly remind, can never truly die away, and while most can forget it with the passing of time, there are some, like Harry, who can never ignore it. He must deal with everything the rest of us leave behind; all of our fears, our horrors and our hates, invading the life and mind of the young man.

Unable to escape his gift – or, rather, curse, as Harry himself seems to see it – he draws himself into an obsessive compulsive cocoon of padded walls, planned ‘sage routes’ and avoidance. Anything he cannot control, Harry drowns in a flood of liquor, numbing his senses and halting the flow of the echoes that torment him. It is only after meeting a fellow barroom regular – an older man, perhaps representing the only future Harry will have if he continues on his self-destructive ‘safe’ path – and an unscheduled deviation from his normal routine that Harry begins to believe that there must be a better way. Enter Tad, a middle-aged martial arts master gone to seed, who drinks a nightly tribute to his own sad memories, a startling contrast to young Harry, who instead uses the alcohol to blot out and numb away everyone else’s lingering echoes. Together, the two embark on a quest to regain their control – find their centers – over their own lives.

Lansdale creates the world through Harry’s eyes – or, better, his ears; readers find the idyllic quiet of what seems to be modern day small town perfection shattered by the silent reverberating screams left only for Harry to see. Hidden here, and perhaps everywhere, are the dirty little secrets and softly spoken lies that are the underbelly of even the happiest of settings.

Book Review: Fruit, The Ripe Pick by T. M. Gorman

2007-02-06T06:11:00.000-08:00

Have you ever bitten into a luscious-looking peach only to find it dry, mealy and tasteless inside? Or sliced into that 20-pound watermelon you just lugged home from the store, anticipating something crisp and sweet but finding it bland and anemic instead?

It’s a common occurrence among fruit lovers. Little-known signs of perfect ripeness elude even the most experienced shoppers.

T. M. Gorman understands; she often eagerly sampled fruit only to experience profound disappointment. After some heavy research, she learned the secrets of proper fruit selection and shares her expertise in her new book, Fruit, The Ripe Pick.

This pocket-sized quick-reference guide describes 50 different fruits, from common everyday varieties to exotic rarities. Chapters are organized alphabetically for quick and easy access and show how to use sight, touch and smell to find prime ripe specimens.

Learning these valuable tips and techniques not only yields great-tasting fruit, but also saves time and money. You learn to identify the most popular varieties of each fruit, discover peak seasons and best times to buy, and acquire essential nutritional information, including vitamin and mineral content, calorie count, and fat/carbohydrate content.

If you crave a lusciously perfect watermelon, peach, pear, or one of those exotic tropical fruits showing up in produce sections these days, this handbook will show you how to select fruit for optimum freshness and taste.

This book also abounds in interesting historical facts and fascinating trivia about fruit that make it fun to read. At a retail price of only $9.95, this pocket-sized quick-reference is an affordable and entertaining way to uncover the mystery of proper fruit selection.

How to quote effectively

2006-12-09T19:37:00.000-08:00

The most effective way to use quotations from literature (or other texts) is to work them into your own ideas. To do this, you rely on summary, paraphrase, and transitions to lead you into the most important supporting phrases.

GUIDELINES TO USE WHEN QUOTING:

(1) Never begin a sentence with a quotation. You must use an introductory statement

to give context to the quotation and show its purpose in your essay.

Some examples of introductory statements are given below (they are underlined).

A. James says, “The death penalty is inefficient and inhumane” (41).

B. According to Leu, “Our society would be uncivilized without the death penalty” (42).

C. James believes there is no logical reason to use capital punishment: “The death penalty is inefficient and inhumane” (41).

D. Although some critics say the death penalty is unconstitutional, Leu argues that “our society would be uncivilized without the death penalty” (42).

(2) Never quote an incomplete sentence. When using ellipsis (…), to indicate you’ve removed words, make sure the parts of the quote you are connecting form a complete sentence.

(3) Never leave a quote floating in the middle of a paragraph without an explanation before and/or after the quotation. Before the quote you want to provide enough background from the text so that the quote makes sense. After the quote, you need to explain what it means, how it connects to the topic sentence, and why this is important to your topic overall. In other words, always explain what the quotation is doing in your paper.

(4) Use a colon (:) when you are using a complete sentence as your introductory statement (see example 1(C) above). This is a good option when your sentence leads nicely into a full sentence quote from the text.

Use a comma (,) when you are using an incomplete sentence (phrase) as your introductory statement (examples 1(A) and 1(B) above).

If you weave the quote into a sentence (example 1(D)), then you do not have to use any punctuation.

ADDITIONAL GUIDELINES

· Always use present tense when discussing an author’s ideas (notice that the quotes

· Always cite all quotations with quotation marks; if you use a writer’s exact words. Failure to do so, constitutes plagiarism.

Book Review - The Starbucks Experience

2006-12-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

Currently I am reading the book "The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary" by Joseph Michelli. This is a very interesting book giving details of five principle followed by the Starbucks staff - starting from the CEO to the Partners (the Baristas).

The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary covers day-to-day incidents in Starbucks on how they handle various scenarios that a business could face. The most interest principle I found was "Embrace resistance". Very few corporate in today's world would take a resistance and make it a business opportunity. Examples varying from taking note of community feelings to quick response on complaints / suggestions have been mentioned. Starbucks is a true example of the phrase: "A TRUE entrepreneur is one who sees opportunities where others see problems". Each Partner is trained to owned the company and hence be an Entrepreneur in his / her own right

The five principles of Starbucks (according to Joseph Michelli) are:

1. Make it your own: all people in the organization feel a true sense of ownership and believe that they have a stake in the success of the company.

2. Everything matters: What goes on behind the counter is just as important as what customers see. Cleanliness, atmosphere, a desired product, customer service, are all important and no detail should ever be overlooked.

3. Surprise and delight: Using as an example the success of Crackerjacks as a snack that people enjoyed that also caught them by surprise when first introduced, Starbucks tries to have new and innovative ways to attract new customers and keep committed customers interested so that the business never becomes static.

4. Embrace resistance: Starbucks, unlike many businesses, does not rely on good public relations to be rid of problems and criticisms. Instead, Starbucks tries to engage in discussions with its dissenters to convince where it's necessary and change when change is what is necessary.

5. Leave your mark: Making money may be a goal of any business, but businesses also have a responsibility to contribute to the greater good. Starbucks does this through financial transparency, involvement in the community, a commitment to making sure that its suppliers are justly paid, and delivering a quality product.

Overall The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary is a good read for someone who wants to practice a culture of entrepreneurship and service quality in their enterprise

How to write articles fast?

2006-10-08T06:32:00.000-07:00

With the internet business blooming off late, more and more people get into the business and various job opportunities available online. There are so many affiliate programs and various ways one can earn money. The most popular and in boom at this time is the content writing job. Often people ask and want to know the best and fastest way to use for writing articles relevantly and error free. I am sure there are many people who want to know the way to go about this. So let me share some of my experience about writing articles and content for web.

One of the most important and key factor to be kept in mind about article writing is the knowledge. There are two ways one can opt for while writing articles either use your knowledge or use research as a resource. However as said earlier definitely the knowledge is the better and faster way of writing articles. Lets say for an example that you have an interest and follow soccer closely and have zilch knowledge about computers and the applications used in this fast paced environment. Put this simple logic and examine yourself and you will realize that you can write double the pace and fast than what you can write for computer applications and the simple reason behind this is that while writing soccer related articles your knowledge helps you write faster whereas when it comes to the latter on you waste your time doing research.

Article writing can prove to be time consuming and stressful initially but one can get acquainted to it if kept practicing. With time you will also see the difference in the speed of writing, it is already beneficial you can do multi work that is one who has good typing speed as well as runs the thought process at same pace. This helps particularly if you have knowledge about the topic you are writing on.

Talking about the articles which need lot of research to be done before you type anything is usually time consuming initially. However once you practice, gradually you will learn the tricks of getting information faster and at the right place. Let’s say you are writing articles on video games, the first time you need to do a bit of research, search for various details however once you have already written on this topic, you have a fair idea of what it is all about and whenever in future if you get a similar topic you can use your knowledge as well as a bit of new research which might be needed. However it makes things a little simpler. This way one gets to learn a lot about things belonging to various niches.

It is also advisable to follow a set pattern like if it is 500 words article, you can divide the words depending on the importance of the topic into various headlines like introduction, causes and symptoms, methods and ways to solve the problem and why solving the problem is essential. One can also finds various ways of writing articles and a guide for same online.

The Career Novelist - A Book Review

2006-02-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

THE CAREER NOVELIST by Donald Maass
Heinemann Trade
a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
Copyright 1996
ISBN 0-435-08134-9
$15.95

If you read only one book on writing this year, make that book THE CAREER NOVELIST by Donald Maass. I have added Mr. Maass to my list of Unknown Mentors. These are the people who have helped me hone my natural talent, master the requisite skills, and taught me about the writing business.

Why buy this book? What makes it different from all the other books on writing? Donald Maass is a successful literary agent who knows writing and publishing. What he has to say about the importance of fiction echoes my own thoughts: that it’s a way of understanding ourselves and the world around us and that the world needs storytellers. “In our world of dislocation, of declining institutions, it is imperative that the values that bind us together be reaffirmed.” He asserts that the solo storyteller can show us “new ways of seeing and new paths toward understanding.” (The Career Novelist, p.xvi)

THE CAREER NOVELIST is not a writing primer. Rather it is book that offers hope in this difficult marketplace. Yes, Mr. Maass tells us, there is plenty of bad news out there for writers, but, there is also good news. Read this book, and you will feel hope blossom in your writer's heart like a cactus flower after unexpected rain.

In a conversational style so intimate one feels as if Mr. Maass is sitting next to the reader, he reveals what a writer needs to know in order to be a successful career novelist.

When you finish the book, you will be able to write your own business plan, which is what all writers want a good agent to do for them. You'll know where you have failed in the past. You'll know what the next logical step in your career should be.

Whether you are just beginning to write and wonder if you have the skill and talent needed to create a career as a novelist or you are a writer who feels stuck in midlist or you are a writer who wonders what you are doing wrong, this book is for you. Everyone jokes about the secret of getting published. Well, this comes as close to a secret as anything I've read.

In closing, let me say, in case you didn't get the message loud and clear. Buy this book! You'll thank me, and you'll thank Mr. Maass for writing it.

Book Review: Justin Cronin’s The Summer Guest

2006-01-06T06:34:00.000-08:00

Justin Cronin’s follow-up to his short story collection Mary and O’Neil is a

haunting novel that takes the reader on a journey to the deepest, most secluded parts of New England. The Summer Guest takes place primarily in a fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. A wealthy entrepreneur named Harry Wainwright who is dying of cancer visits the camp, which has been a special place of refuge for him. He has returned one last time to catch his final fish. The story also focuses on the camp owner, Joe Crosby, his wife Lucy and daughter Kate, and Jordan, Harry Wainwright’s favorite fishing guide. Cronin weaves the lives of the characters together, bringing the reader along on a fifty year journey that reveals the significance that this fishing camp has to each character.

The Summer Guest is skillful and guides the reader through several decades of family history with ease. The most interesting feature of the story is its point-of-view; each chapter is told in first person from alternating viewpoints. Harry, Joe, Lucy, Jordan, and finally Kate each get an opportunity to reveal their journey to the moment when Harry visits the camp for his final time. In this way Cronin slowly draws the reader into an understanding of the camp’s significance to the people who live and play there, and the place itself becomes the most important character of all.

6 Steps to Never being published

2005-11-08T05:50:00.000-08:00

Things You’ll Need:

Procrastination
Too much pride
No discipline
No effort
Many phone calls to publishers
Certain literary elements

Step 1:
For children's literature, make the moral of the story really obvious. Just state it at the end. How about at the beginning and middle too? Remember, you want to TEACH those kids something. That's your purpose. Featuring talking animals as your characters can also be an easy way to have your work rejected by many publishers.

Step 2:
For children's magazines, rely on your own personal memories and nostalgia to write your stories. Pay no attention to the real world of children today, with its new technological realities, etc. In fact, just depict that wholesome Dick and Jane 1950s childhood and pretend that time has frozen. The kids today will just have to deal with it!

Step 3:
For adult literature, especially fiction, don't get an agent. Don't even consider it. Figure that your work is so good you don't need one. Also, put off doing today what you can do tomorrow. Let your addictions take over. Whatever you do, eat or drink or surf the Internet, but don't sit down and work on that manuscript.

Step 4:
For children's poetry, try some really complicated meters and subtle half-rhymes or sight rhymes. Go for a very serious theme. Inject absolutely no humor into the work. (What was Dr. Seuss thinking?) For adult poetry, write something totally obscure that is comprehensible to yourself and only to yourself. No one needs to understand what is actually going on.

Step 5:
Email, or better yet phone the editor or publisher over and over again after submitting an unsolicited manuscript. They love to be hounded. Be sure that this is the most effective way to get your work noticed and read.

Step 6:
For all types of writing, just give up on the dream. It'll never happen anyway.

Literary Genres

2005-09-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Genres in Fiction:

“Genre” is the term used to describe the various types of literature.

            “Genre is a French term derived from the Latin genus, generis, meaning "type,"
            "sort," or "kind." It designates the literary form or type into which works are
            classified according to what they have in common, either in their formal
            structures or in their treatment of subject matter, or both. The study of genres
            may be of value in three ways. On the simplest level, grouping works offers us
            an orderly way to talk about an otherwise bewildering number of literary texts.
            More importantly, if we recognize the genre of a text, we may also have a better
            idea of its intended overall structure and/or subject. Finally, a genre approach
            can deepen our sense of the value of any single text, by allowing us to view it
            comparatively, alongside many other texts of its type.”

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/genres.

Fiction includes stories that are made up in the mind of the author. They are “make-believe” or imaginary. The stories are not true, although they may be based on truth, including scientific, historical, or geographic fact.

Some of the major subdivisions of fiction are realistic fiction, historical fiction, and fantasy.

· Realistic fiction includes stories that seem like real life, and stories that could happen in today’s world. The situations are true to life or could be true, but the characters are made up.

o Adventure stories are a type of realistic fiction that are exciting and usually have an aspect of peril, threat, or danger. Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is an adventure story.

o Mystery stories are also a type of realistic fiction that include an element of suspense and secrecy. Something puzzling usually needs solving and a crime is frequently involved. There are typically good guys and bad guys. Examples are The Dark Stairs, by Betsy Byars and Nate the Great, by Marjorie Sharmat.

o Humorous stories refer to stories that are primarily intended to entertain and amuse. Events are frequently exaggerated. An example is Harris and Me, by Gary Paulsen. These may also include family stories such as Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume and school stories such as The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Veronica Robinson.

· Historical fiction includes stories that take place in the past and that are based on historical fact. Usually the setting and the events in the story are close to the facts, but the characters are made up. However, historical fiction may include real people as characters. Examples of books with real people included among the characters are Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes and I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino. War stories and biographical fiction are types of historical fiction.

o War stories are historical fiction books set during a period of war and conflict. Examples are Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, and Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki.

o Biographical fiction includes stories in which the main character is one who really lived in an earlier period of history. The “Dear America” and “My Name Is America” series are biographical fiction stories written in a journal style.

· Fantasy books are make believe stories that are so fantastic that they can't possibly be true. They often include animals behaving like people. Examples are James and the Giant Peach, by Raold Dahl and The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, by Louis Carroll.

o Fantasy animal stories are stories in which the animals are given human characteristics, such as wearing clothing, speaking or making decisions. Examples are Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White; Babe the Gallant Pig, by Dick King-Smith and Clifford, the Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell.

o Ghost stories or supernatural fiction are stories in which one or more of the characters may be visitors from the spirit world. Examples are Jade Green, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor; and Wait Till Helen Comes, by Mary Hahn.

o Time fantasy and space fiction are fantasy stories in which the characters travel back and/or forward in time. Examples are Time Train, by Sid Fleischman and The Castle in the Attic, by Elizabeth Winthrop.

o Science fiction includes stories that are based on scientific fact. It can include space fiction and time travel. In time travel and space fiction, the characters travel back and/or forward in time. In stories for children, the characters often begin in the real world, go off on their adventure, and then return to the real world. The author tries to make the facts as realistic as possible so the reader believes the event could actually take place. Although fantastic, science fiction contains elements within the realm of possibility because of scientific discovery. Examples are The Giver, by Lois Lowry; Running Out of Time, by Margaret Haddix; and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle.

o High fantasy series are stories that are epic in nature, usually include a quest of some sort that continues over many volumes, including many that echo the Arthurian quests for truth and justice. Series such as C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, Lloyd Alexander’s Prydian cycle, and Jane Yolen’s "Young Merlin" series are in that category. The Star Wars saga and the Harry Potter series are also in this genre.

· Nonfiction books are books are factual books, and are usually classified with Dewey Decimal numbers There are some special genres within the nonfiction category, such as biography, poetry, drama, and folk or traditional literature.

o Biographies are, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, “the history of the lives of individual men and women as a branch of literature.” Biographies for children differ somewhat from biographies for adults. For example, they don’t usually include footnotes, although modern biographies for children usually include a bibliography of sources. Whereas fictionalized biographies are included in historical fiction, factual, authentic depictions of a person's real life story are biographies. Collective biographies are books that group short chapter-length biographies together around a theme. For example, Black Stars in Orbit, by Khephra Burns, a collective biography of black astronauts. Biographies are written by persons other than the subject of the story, whereas autobiographies are books people write about their own lives.

o Poetry includes single, illustrated poems (such as Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, illustrated by Susan Jeffers) and collections of poetry by one poet (such as Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein) or collections of many poets’ works compiled by an editor (such as For Laughing Out Louder, edited by Jack Prelutsky).

o Drama includes works written in dramatic form. Books can include collections of short plays or book-length plays, such as the works of Shakespeare.

o Folk literature or traditional literature includes stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. Myths are stories of the gods and heroes of ancient times, and are sometimes classified in the religion section of the Dewey Decimal Classification System (292), whereas folktales, folk riddles, nursery rhymes and Mother Goose are classified in 398, 398.2, or 398.21. These stories often contain elements of cultural identity, such as traditions, cultural mores, and rituals. Sometimes, elements of religious belief of the people are included. Epics are long stories that originate as poetry or song and that celebrate a national hero. Beowulf and El Cid are epics, as are The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. Hero stories and legends include the American tall tales, such as stories of Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill. Tall tales usually include hyperbole, or exaggeration, about the hero. European hero stories and legends include stories of Robin Hood and King Arthur and his knights, many including elements of mythology within the stories.

o Fables includes narration demonstrating a useful truth, especially in which animals speak as humans. A legendary, supernatural tale.

· Cross-genre books are books that fall into more than one category. A book may be a mystery fantasy; or a historical fiction time travel story. An example is The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen, that is a story that includes time travel back to the Holocaust while the main character lives in modern times.

Websites about Genres:

Bizic, Mim (Librarian, Quaker Valley School District, Sewickley, PA): http://www.qvsd.org/Teacher%20Pages/bizicm/genres.html

Gabb, Carolyn: http://www.drgabb.com/AA_GABBHOME/Childrens_Literature/genres/indexpage_genres.html

“Genreflecting”: http://www.genreflecting.com/

“Helping Children Understand Literary Genres.” ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication, Indiana University, 2805 E. 10th St., Suite 150, Bloomington, IN 47408-2698.

Genre Lesson Ideas:

All genres:

Students complete library search worksheets using the online catalog to identify up to five other books related to a specific genre that they would like to read in the future.

Fantasy:

The children make and bring to the library/classroom an object from their book that has magical powers and write about how it fits into the story. For example, a magic wand that they made, a book, a slipper. This works if the teacher can follow up in the classroom to remind them.

Historical Fiction:

Students create timelines of ten events that really happened in history at the time the book takes place. They could be events that happened in the book.

Mystery:

Make up clues for several groups. The clue for each group led to another clue somewhere in the library. When the students found the second clue, it led them to a mystery book on the shelf. They pulled it and sit down until everyone has finished. Read the titles of all the books found and ask what these books have in common. Show students a poster with criteria for a good mystery book:

-Characters are well developed.

-Reader can solve mystery along with main character because all clues are given

-Plot engages the reader and propels the reader on through the book.

-The mystery is solved at end of the book.

Professional Books about Genres:

Asher, Sandy, ed. But That's Another Story: Famous Authors Introduce Popular Genres. NY:

Walker Publishing Co, 1996.

Buss, Kathleen, and Karnowski, Lee. Reading and Writing Literary Genres. International Reading

Association, 2000.

Fletcher, Ralph, and Portalupi, Joann. Craft Lessons: Teaching Writing K-8. Stenhouse Publishers,

1998.

Fountas, Irene C., and Pinnell, Gay Su. Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6): Teaching

Comprehension, Genre, and Content Literacy. Heinemann, 2001.

Harvey, Stephanie. Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3-8. Stenhouse

Publishers, 1998.

_____, and Goudvis, Anne. Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance

Understanding. Stenhouse Publishers, 2000.

McCarthy, Tara. Teaching Genre (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 1999.

_____. Teaching Genre: Biography (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

_____. Teaching Genre: Historical Fiction (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

_____. Teaching Genre: Humorous Fiction (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

_____. Teaching Genre: Journals & Diaries (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

_____. Teaching Genre: Mysteries (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

_____. Teaching Genre: Myths and Legends (Grades 4-8). Scholastic, 2001.

Portapouli, Joanne, and Fletcher, Ralph J. Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing

K-8. Stenhouse Publishers, 2001.

Withington, Janice J. Genres of Literature: Thematic Study Guides & Bibliographies. Torrance, CA:

Good Apple, 1996.

Why Nations Go to War - A book Review

2005-06-02T21:41:00.000-07:00

The book of Stoessinger Why Nations Go to War opened very many historical facts that were in shadow until today.

Starting from the introduction part I have already noticed the author’s unusual approach to the matter. Looking for a deeper understanding of insight he realized that it can be a pattern leading to its healing. Also a very deep thought making him to develop an idea that usually during the discussions about war the fundamental feature of human essence of the problem was always being anticipated. The questions that he’s asking in the beginning are very useful as during the reading we already have a problem that we’re going to find a salvation mixed with codified information which will be clear at the end.

I think that if I answer to several aroused questions my mission to disguise this book will be more efficient and organized.

The first question is at which particular factors or components can be viewed as a cause of starting a war. The first and the most apparent reason for this will be the ambitions of the leader mostly being executed from the self concentrated position. Those ambitions or actions at all can be derived from different consequences. I will share the opinion of the author that in general it’s the fear that dominates during such important decision making processes as going to war. That preoccupied state of mind rather than conscious makes them to take desperate steps trying to do everything which will help them to escape it.

As a vivid example we can take the Kaiser’s decision to support Austria –Hungry which proved his misunderstanding between such fazes as political verdict and personal moral values. His idealistic conclusions weren’t precise on behalf what he named it Nibelungentreue.

In general my point is that all the war roots were deep in the statesman’s misleading observations about the real potential of the opponent and whether the second state-actor should be considered as an opponent or not.

Another although not less significant factors of the cause of war are religious conflicts. Among them the most brutal as well as continual in the twentieth century is Hindu against Moslem. As to me this type of war- provocation is just an “excuse” to privilege.

Other war-stimulators are considered to be territorial claims, economic imbalance, and nationalist aspirations, nuclear or simply weapon competition etc.

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

2005-02-23T20:07:00.000-08:00

Reading a book by Chuck Klosterman is like reading a letter from your best friend. Like any of your friends, you may not agree with everything he says, or even care about everything he’s talking about, but Chuck doesn’t care and neither do you because he writes in such a way that makes you feel comfortable, entertained, and like you want to keep him as your friend.

The book reads somewhat like a comedian’s monologue. But it’s an unexpected comedic path you’re led down. Indeed, some parts of it will suddenly make you giggle or cackle when you least expect it. It’s like being jumped out at from behind the corner of a dark alley, but instead of a knife the perpetrator squirts a water pistol and you’re startled into laughter. Killing Yourself to Live is a non-fiction book. Mostly non-fiction, that is. It’s subtitled 85% of a True Story, giving Chuck a fifteen percent margin of error for details and conversation recall. The subtitle is meant to be humorous but it also sets an irony for the tale Chuck is about to unfold. By stating upfront that his book is only partially true it becomes more true and hence a more believable and visceral experience than other “non-fiction” books.

Like in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck’s previous book, Killing Yourself to Live examines the world under a pop culture microscope. But unlike Cocoa Puffs, which is a series of essays on different topics, Killing Yourself is strung together by a thematic road-trip Chuck takes from New York to Seattle. He stops at various towns along the way, small and large, to visit places where rock musicians breathed their last breath. That’s right, dead rock n’ rollers. After going into a diatribe about packing, Chuck states early on in the book, “Let me begin by saying this: Death is a part of life. Generally, it’s the shortest part of life, usually occurring near the end. However, this is not necessarily true for rock stars; sometimes rock starts don’t start living until they die. I want to understand why that is.” And so Chuck invites us along shotgun, with a humorous gesture you can’t resist, on his journey of deceased musical icon exploration. That in itself would be enough subject matter for the average pop culture book, but Chuck goes beyond that (or should I say egresses that?) and shares with us, among other interesting and humorous social commentaries, intimate details about his own life, most predominately being the various women in his life. Like a kind of Eagles song subject matter, Chuck digresses into long sections about the loves of his life, past, present and future. It’s off the track of the book’s main subject matter, yes, but it’s so voyeuristic in a literary sense that we don’t care. More importantly, it endears Chuck to us the readers and makes us trust what else he has to say.

The book is subdivided into the days of his trip, wherein each chapter is the current trip day. You might think you’d find yourself wondering in a book about dead rock stars why is the author taking time to tell us about his football practice glory days, the Arkansas Victory Television Network, his adoration of KISS, how to get high with a drinking straw and a car cigarette lighter, how Radiohead’s Kid A predicted the events of September 11th, or about his semi-annual “strange summers”, but Klosterman writes in such a reader friendly free-flow style that it all seems to coalesce into a unified whole. At the beginning of the chapter titled The Eighth Day, eight days into his road trip, Chuck writes: “You know what’s the best part of driving by yourself? Talk radio. Talk Radio offers no genuine insight about anything, but I always feel like I am learning something; I always feel like I suddenly understand all the people I normally can’t relate to at all.” This, and other digressive passages, like death itself, seems perfectly natural in Chuck’s writing voice.

Chuck does adhere to a structure throughout though. There’s plenty of factual and opinion related material in regards to non-living music makers. (Cobain, Michael Hutchence, Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson, and yes, Elvis too.) In the middle he states: “So here is the big question: Is dying good for your career? Cynics always assume that it is, but I’m not so sure anymore. And now that I’ve been to Memphis, I’m not sure if I even care.” And neither do we. By this time, so imbued with Chuck’s rambling journey as we are, we’ve forgotten what this trip was supposed to be about. We just want to read some more from our friend.

In the end, Chuck makes no conclusions, has no epiphany, and doesn’t sum up any findings about why the death of a rock star makes them the admired rock star they are. Instead Chuck only laments about his eventual loss of love and what death of love or life means to him. Suggesting that any posthumous popularity that comes from anyone’s death, rock star or not, is up to the individual. George Harrison probably said it best when he sang, “Life goes on within you and without you.” Although he ends on a sad but quirky chord, it’s exactly consistent with what we have come to expect from Chuck. And in a book that examines death, an ending of flowers and sweetness would seem out of place.

Killing Yourself to Live is a fun, funny, and fundamental read. Chuck’s jovial observations about life, death, and love will keep you reading and smiling. The book’s subtitle is 85% of a True Story. This mostly non-fiction tale has a cinematic milieu to it. Don’t be surprised if you see Killing Yourself to Live splashed across the marquee of your local milliplex in the near future.

The Human Soul in Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’

2003-09-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

Writing around 380 BC, Plato concerned himself with metaphysics, epistemology and political philosophy in his seminal work The Republic. In his attempt to define the qualities of the just man and the just city, Plato explored the role of the philosopher in society and the natures of knowledge and reality.

In Book VII of The Republic Plato introduces his ‘Allegory of the Cave,’ which presents itself in the form of a Socratic dialogue between Glaucon, the brother of Plato, and Plato’s teacher, Socrates. In it, Plato attempts to, “make an image of our nature in its education and want of education,” and presents his Theory of Forms as it relates to the discernment of reality. The concepts that Plato conveys in the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ even find practical applications, especially in his notion of a society governed by philosophers. Most significant, however, is Plato’s examination of the human soul and the human condition in The Republic and the role that this plays in presenting his ideas as concretely as possible. Thus, one finds that in his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ Plato has much to say about the search for understanding and enlightenment, man’s perception of the world, and the intricacy of the human soul.

Plato’s initial focus in his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ is almost entirely metaphysical; he is concerned not with knowledge, but rather with the nature of reality. Socrates, speaking to Glaucon, describes a group of prisoners chained to a wall in a cave who have been there since birth. Behind them is a fire, which lights the cave, and between this fire and the prisoners is a road where people carry all sorts of human, animal and other forms, which are then reflected onto the opposite wall of the cave. Unable to turn their heads, the prisoners are only able to see the shadows that these forms cast upon the wall and Socrates makes the point that, “such men would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things.” Plato makes an interesting point about human nature in this case, emphasizing the idea that human beings have a tendency to accept the reality that they are presented with. He goes on to say that, upon being introduced to the world outside of the cave, a man would “be at a loss and believe that what was seen before is truer than what is now shown,” a natural human reaction when facing the realization that one’s entire concept of reality has proven to be false. After his discovery of the world outside of the cave, the man would begin to adjust, “first he’d most easily make out the shadows; and after that the phantoms of the human beings and the other things in water; and, later, the things themselves…then finally I suppose he would be able to make out the sun.”

Here, the process of adjusting to the light outside of the cave can be likened to the learning process in that it is a gradual process that builds upon itself and the world outside the cave is likened to the intelligible realm. Plato explains that, “in the knowable the last thing to be seen, and that with considerable effort, is the idea of the good; but once seen, it must be concluded that this is in fact the cause of all that is right and fair in everything.” As in Plato’s ‘Metaphor of the Sun,’ the sun acts as a metaphor for the source of enlightenment, which Plato believed was the Form of the Good from which all just things gained their utility. Thus, the intelligible realm is composed of the ideas of things, rather than the things themselves, which exist in the sensible realm and are constantly changing.

Plato further argues that once a man is able to see this “idea of the good,” it is his role to “go down…into the common dwelling of the others and get habituated along with them to seeing the dark things.” He makes an interesting point about the role of the philosopher in society here, arguing that it is not the goal of the philosopher to remain in the intelligible realm, but rather to see the good and share it with his fellow man for the common good. It is with this that Plato suggests a city governed by philosophers would be the most just, both because philosophers are able to access the intelligible realm and because, as he says, “that city in which those who are going to rule are least eager to rule is necessarily governed in the way that is best and freest from faction.”

Plato’s concept of a city governed by philosophers was novel in its time, and the idea of governance by those whom least desire power remains a logical means of avoiding the violent struggles for power which have be seen throughout history. But perhaps the most critical assertion that Plato makes in his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ concerns human nature, and the inability of the common man to move beyond the sensible world into the intelligible world. Thus, what Plato stresses is the importance of the philosopher in society and the philosopher’s role in aiding others to see the Form of the Good. In the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ Plato notes that should a man be freed from the cave and allowed to see the outside world and the sun, which represents the Form of the Good, “he would consider himself happy for the change and pity the others.” Here, Plato offers all of us the opportunity to take on the role of philosopher, to question our reality, to seek out knowledge and to eventually see the good.

Though Plato is clear that a society governed by philosophers would be most just, he presents this simply as an ideal circumstance in a hypothetical situation. The important point that Plato has to make about the human soul is its stubbornness, greed, and desire for power. Though he extols the philosopher who is able to see the good and move beyond the sensible realm into the realm of intelligible things, he has little to say about the common man whom, according to Plato, is in need of the guidance of the philosopher and is unfit to rule. He presents them as being comfortable in their world of illusions and both unwilling and unable to move outside of the cave to experience the intelligible world.

This theme is common in both literature and film, with books such as Philip K. Dick’s Ubik and George Orwell’s 1984 exploring similar themes, along with films such as The Truman Show and The Matrix. Plato feels it is the philosopher’s role to govern society not because they have no desire to rule, but rather because he may exist in the intelligible world and is therefore superior to the common man who is limited by his inability to recognize the disorder and irrationality of the sensible world.

The Republic forms the basis of Western philosophical thought and continues to be influential from both a philosophical and political perspective into the 21st century. Plato has much to say about the just man and the just city, and in formulating his concept of a city governed by philosopher-kings, he reveals much about the human soul. What is most intriguing, however, is his notion of the intelligible world, a state of enlightenment, which results from an understanding of the Form of the Good. With this, Plato’s argument that only the rational members of society, the philosophers, should be allowed to govern finds credence, as they are the only ones capable of grasping the Form of the Good. But, beyond this, Plato offers the opportunity to all of his readers to practice philosophy and to use their reason to access this intelligible world. Above all, the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ emphasizes the fact that one should not simply accept the reality that they are presented with, but that they should question the nature of knowledge and reality and attempt to move beyond the sensible world.