Books and many other things.
Thu, Dec. 4th, 2003 10:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterThe boy and I just found a wonderful little restaurant hidden a little off downtown Mountain View. It's a Japanese ramen place, very hole-in-the-wall. Linoleum floors, two u-shaped counters and one or two very small tables. Two bookshelves stuffed with old manga. Random Japanese beer ads scattered around, with a sort of pictoral menu on the wall. Tv is bolted to the ceiling and plays those absolutely insane Japanese game shows. I love it! It's little and kind of uncleanly looking, like the tables have accumulated just a little too much grease. The Japanese TV station is jabbering on, there's manga, and it feels like Japan. I really want to make this a type of regular restaurant. This is one of the parts I love about settling down somewhere -- I've got my little cafe in Books Inc right next door, where the girl at the register probably thinks I'm insane because I always order the same thing and count out exact change because I've ordered it so often. Before, when it was warmer, there was the other cafe by the library where I would sit outside, or Posh Bagel. There's the little gelato store. It's nice to have little regular places to go to.
Currently, reading-wise, my non-fiction streak continues.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell felt a little glib to me in its explanations of certain trends, although I take a certain inherent satisfaction in watching these trends progress. Basically, the book argues that very small things, like keeping graffiti off the streets and preventing uglification of streets can lower crime rates, and how these small things can be used to start trends. I think that may have been where my problem with the book was, although I didn't really have that much of a problem because I was skimming during Thanksgiving. It's like a lot of the psychology books for popular reading -- everything's just a bit too pat, but I still am a bit tickled to have it all tie up.
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, by Barry Glassner, was a bit more interesting and a bit more of a real psychological/sociological study, as opposed to The Tipping Point, which sounded like (and ended up in) my section on books on How to Market. Unfortunately, Fear was written in 1999, which was very readily apparent when the author almost jibes at people being scared of terrorist attacks or air travel. I would very much like to see what he would have written had there been an added introduction, afterword, or additional chapters, because I think it could be quite relevant. Basically, he argues from a rather liberal POV (which didn't annoy me, seeing as how I agree with it, but it was definitely there and a bias) that the media or politicians will "hype" a fear to obfuscate the real problems in society. I'm still not quite sure after reading the book how much of it he thinks is deliberate and how much he thinks is a human reaction -- going on about single teenage moms instead of poverty or killer kids instead of parenting can be the easy solution to a giant problem. There was much debunking of statistics, and then adding statistics of his own. And while I think his are more accurate, part of me is also leery because he does have an agenda. But still, interesting, especially the portion on how the media/politicians/who knows generated a lot of fear about being PC so that people who argued for things such as feminism or non-racism etc. were painted as wimpy and bowing to cultural pressure. This rang rather true to me, considering all the arguments I tend to get into when people say there is no need for feminism anymore etc. etc. because aren't we already equal? Or by *ahem* people who criticize the president of Princeton for appointing a female to position when I doubt anyone would even notice when our old male president appointed *gasp* another guy. But I will get off my soapbox now.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, by Richard Feynman (and Ralph Leighton) and Tuva or Bust! by Ralph Leighton -- My most enjoyable read as of late. Feynman is just so funny and so strange that it's almost impossible to not breeze through the first book. I find I'm turning more to non-fiction right now because I simply haven't been that sucked in to any of my more normal genre books lately. Not a problem with this book (Surely You're Joking), which is basically a series of anecdotes, very loosely organized, I think all told to Leighton by Feynman and recorded during their drum sessions. Feynman has a very distinctive narrative voice, and it's just amazing thinking of what he's seen, working at Los Alamos on the bomb, talking with Einstein and Niels Bohr and etc., science names that even I know. But it's not just that -- it's Feynman's attitude about everything. He's completely enthusiastic, so when he latches onto something, he does it with everything in him. It rather amazes me when he tells stories of how he wanted to know if ants knew geometrical concepts. And instead of letting it stop there, he goes on to trace the paths of ants to sugar in color pencil to figure out how they always walk in a straight line. Or he decides he wants to learn how to crack safes and ends up driving everyone in Los Alamos mad. Or he decides he wants to learn art, and eventually ends up with a one man exhibit. Plus, there's his energy.. things are capitalized and italicized and it feels right because I can just imagine him being that excited about how very interesting the things with ants was. Tuva or Bust, unfortunately, isn't half as good -- I don't think I'm going to make it through. It's written through Leighton's POV, which, sadly, is much less interesting than Feynman's, and in fact, Feynman hasn't shown up very much at all. I think I may actually try to tackle his lectures in physics. This reminds me of how enamored I used to be of science and math as a kid, particularly astronomy, because people who can do stuff like this and get so enthusiastic about something, this small bead of geekness, makes me happy and slightly awed.
The boy and I also had an interesting conversation last night in which he rambled on about how he doesn't think math (calculus type) isn't used enough for practical applications when it'd solve so many things. This led me to come up with my theory on why the humanities/arts are so important, despite everyone decrying them as bull or something you can just make up. Because I think that's the point. When I do close readings, I never think I am coming up with the only explanation. I think I am coming up with an interesting explanation, but I'm also pretty sure I can believe in two explanations or more of text at the same time. And that's what I think literature helps with -- we all go through life never quite knowing what actually is going on. We have to extrapolate by doing close readings of people's words or body language or actions, and we come up with various explanations. But we know these are never fixed. Plus, the meta bit on POV -- what's more important? The intent of the author? The experiences of the reader? In life, both -- giant arguments come up where I misinterpret someone's words, or they strike in just the wrong way thanks to my experiences in a way that someone may not have intended. And yet, it doesn't negate the harm. Nor does my interpretation mean that that is exactly what was in their brain. And reading is in a sense an ongoing argument -- how much makes sense? Which pieces fit? I thought this was rather interesting, but the boy fell asleep =(.
Currently, reading-wise, my non-fiction streak continues.
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell felt a little glib to me in its explanations of certain trends, although I take a certain inherent satisfaction in watching these trends progress. Basically, the book argues that very small things, like keeping graffiti off the streets and preventing uglification of streets can lower crime rates, and how these small things can be used to start trends. I think that may have been where my problem with the book was, although I didn't really have that much of a problem because I was skimming during Thanksgiving. It's like a lot of the psychology books for popular reading -- everything's just a bit too pat, but I still am a bit tickled to have it all tie up.
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, by Barry Glassner, was a bit more interesting and a bit more of a real psychological/sociological study, as opposed to The Tipping Point, which sounded like (and ended up in) my section on books on How to Market. Unfortunately, Fear was written in 1999, which was very readily apparent when the author almost jibes at people being scared of terrorist attacks or air travel. I would very much like to see what he would have written had there been an added introduction, afterword, or additional chapters, because I think it could be quite relevant. Basically, he argues from a rather liberal POV (which didn't annoy me, seeing as how I agree with it, but it was definitely there and a bias) that the media or politicians will "hype" a fear to obfuscate the real problems in society. I'm still not quite sure after reading the book how much of it he thinks is deliberate and how much he thinks is a human reaction -- going on about single teenage moms instead of poverty or killer kids instead of parenting can be the easy solution to a giant problem. There was much debunking of statistics, and then adding statistics of his own. And while I think his are more accurate, part of me is also leery because he does have an agenda. But still, interesting, especially the portion on how the media/politicians/who knows generated a lot of fear about being PC so that people who argued for things such as feminism or non-racism etc. were painted as wimpy and bowing to cultural pressure. This rang rather true to me, considering all the arguments I tend to get into when people say there is no need for feminism anymore etc. etc. because aren't we already equal? Or by *ahem* people who criticize the president of Princeton for appointing a female to position when I doubt anyone would even notice when our old male president appointed *gasp* another guy. But I will get off my soapbox now.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, by Richard Feynman (and Ralph Leighton) and Tuva or Bust! by Ralph Leighton -- My most enjoyable read as of late. Feynman is just so funny and so strange that it's almost impossible to not breeze through the first book. I find I'm turning more to non-fiction right now because I simply haven't been that sucked in to any of my more normal genre books lately. Not a problem with this book (Surely You're Joking), which is basically a series of anecdotes, very loosely organized, I think all told to Leighton by Feynman and recorded during their drum sessions. Feynman has a very distinctive narrative voice, and it's just amazing thinking of what he's seen, working at Los Alamos on the bomb, talking with Einstein and Niels Bohr and etc., science names that even I know. But it's not just that -- it's Feynman's attitude about everything. He's completely enthusiastic, so when he latches onto something, he does it with everything in him. It rather amazes me when he tells stories of how he wanted to know if ants knew geometrical concepts. And instead of letting it stop there, he goes on to trace the paths of ants to sugar in color pencil to figure out how they always walk in a straight line. Or he decides he wants to learn how to crack safes and ends up driving everyone in Los Alamos mad. Or he decides he wants to learn art, and eventually ends up with a one man exhibit. Plus, there's his energy.. things are capitalized and italicized and it feels right because I can just imagine him being that excited about how very interesting the things with ants was. Tuva or Bust, unfortunately, isn't half as good -- I don't think I'm going to make it through. It's written through Leighton's POV, which, sadly, is much less interesting than Feynman's, and in fact, Feynman hasn't shown up very much at all. I think I may actually try to tackle his lectures in physics. This reminds me of how enamored I used to be of science and math as a kid, particularly astronomy, because people who can do stuff like this and get so enthusiastic about something, this small bead of geekness, makes me happy and slightly awed.
The boy and I also had an interesting conversation last night in which he rambled on about how he doesn't think math (calculus type) isn't used enough for practical applications when it'd solve so many things. This led me to come up with my theory on why the humanities/arts are so important, despite everyone decrying them as bull or something you can just make up. Because I think that's the point. When I do close readings, I never think I am coming up with the only explanation. I think I am coming up with an interesting explanation, but I'm also pretty sure I can believe in two explanations or more of text at the same time. And that's what I think literature helps with -- we all go through life never quite knowing what actually is going on. We have to extrapolate by doing close readings of people's words or body language or actions, and we come up with various explanations. But we know these are never fixed. Plus, the meta bit on POV -- what's more important? The intent of the author? The experiences of the reader? In life, both -- giant arguments come up where I misinterpret someone's words, or they strike in just the wrong way thanks to my experiences in a way that someone may not have intended. And yet, it doesn't negate the harm. Nor does my interpretation mean that that is exactly what was in their brain. And reading is in a sense an ongoing argument -- how much makes sense? Which pieces fit? I thought this was rather interesting, but the boy fell asleep =(.
(no subject)
Fri, Dec. 5th, 2003 12:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Dec. 6th, 2003 02:27 am (UTC)Oooo, thanks for the heads up! I always forget to check.
OoOOOOo!
Sat, Dec. 6th, 2003 09:58 pm (UTC)Re: OoOOOOo!
Sat, Dec. 6th, 2003 10:12 pm (UTC)Hey, how are you doing? I'm so bad at keeping in touch!