MyQuest | my thoughts on life's journey

Kennedy's vision

Jeffrey Sachs writes about John F. Kennedy and how Kennedy's vision and pratical steps altered the trajectory of the Cold War away from a series of ever-escalating crises to a path of negotiation and increased partnership.  I'm glad to have read this and recovered this aspect of our recent history.

Corpses in the barbed wire

Continue slowly reading Sir Winston Churchill's account of 1915 during the Great War.  I'm now into his account of the Battle of the Dardanelles.  While that was going on, he was on the Continent and records this startling set of images: 

I passed the day of the 18th [of March] in the French trenches among the sand-dunes of the Belgian coast.  Here the snarling lines which stretched from Switzerland touched the sea, and the barbed wire ran down the beach into salt water.  Corpses entangled in the wire were covered with seaweed and washed by the tides as the mouldered.  Others in groups of ten or twelve lay at the foot of the sandhills blasted in their charge, but with the sense and aspect of attack still eloquent in their attitude and order.  These dead had lain there for months, and the sand gradually gained upon them, softening their outlines.  It was as if Nature was gathering them to herself.  The lines were very close together, and in places only a few yards apart.  A vigilant silence reigned, broken by occasional guns.  The defences in the sand were complicated and novel.  They presented features I had not seen on any other part of the front.  It was fine weather, and I was thankful to keep my mind from dwelling on events that I knew were taking place on the other sea flank of the hostile line.  I returned to England during the night of the 18th in order to receive the account of the action.

State Violence: The Moscow Census of 1937

I'm reading the book Moscow 1937 by German historian Karl Schlogel.  It is about Stalin's purges and the terror unleashed upon Soviet society, which cannabilized those who had participated in the Revolution and were part of creating the new socialist dream.  The overall book is demonstrating the irrationality of the terror.

One chapter is on the census of 1937.  When the total population figures ended up being below what the government thought they would be -- by around 8 million -- they reacted by arresting and executing the people in charge of the census.  The numbers were low because the five year plans, the civil war, and other purges had resulted in millions dead, but rather than face reality, they eliminated those in charge of the census and accused them of being Trotskyist traitors.  

Here is a revealing section of Schlogel's analysis:

Since the census was the most ambitious, most complex and expensive attempt to draw up a balance sheet of society and to conduct a process of self-diagnosis twenty years after the Revolution--'The census was a pioneering enterprise intended to provide the fullest possible picture of Soviet life'--the suppression of its findings and the murder of those who organized it was noting less than the obliteration of the capacity for social self-analysis.  An authoritarian society, however, that is unable to form an idea of itself, whatever social engineering its leadership may have in mind, is doomed to the blind exercise of state violence.  Blindness resulting from the destruction of a society's knowledge of itself inevitably turns into blind terror.

A Cycle of the West

A Cycle of the West: The Song of Three Friends, The Song of Hugh Glass, The Song of Jed Smith, The Song of the Indian Wars, The Song of the Messiah by John G. Neihardt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Growing up in the northern plains, John Neihardt was convinced that the period from the first exploration of fur trappers through the close of the Indian wars was one of humankind's heroic ages, on a par with the ancient Greece of Homer, the era of Beowulf, etc. So, he set about to write a saga of the west in this collection of five songs published between 1915 and 1941 which were always intended to be combined into one work. It is an incredible achievement.

Which left me wondering why it is not an established part of the American literary canon. These are stories I should have had read to me as a child. Images from these songs should be familiar in the national psyche. Lines and phrases should be memorized and quoted in conversation.

The cycle opens with The Song of Three Friends about an early fur trading party that explores the upper Missouri. There they encounter an indigenous tribe and a love triangle develops. Things do not go well from there. In fact, this opening song reminded me of a Cormac McCarthy novel. The end is harrowing (Neihardt really knows how to end something, which is a skill many authors lack).

Next is The Song of Hugh Glass. I had heard the basic elements of this story before, but Neihardt has turned it into a work of art. I was surprised to encounter a gay love story (Neihardt wrote this in 1915, long before Annie Proulx wrote Brokeback Mountain). Hugh Glass was a real man who endured a horrific episode. Left for dead by friends when he came to, he was unable to walk and crawled his way back to civilization. Neihardt's description of the crawl is also McCarthy-like.

I didn't care much for the third song, The Song of Jed Smith, which Neihardt wrote last. I found the language too dense and the structure of it was unnecessarily complicated, I thought. A group of guys is sitting around a campfire years later recalling their stories of exploring routes to and from California, encountering the Great Salt Lake, the Colorado, the Sierras, the deserts. In setting this is more McCarthy-like, but I found the story mostly dull.

The Song of the Indian Wars is fourth, recounting stories of Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Custer, Fetterman, and more. This material was most familiar to me and some of it simply read like history. Some of the chapters were nice works of art that could stand on their own, though I found the account of the Battle of the Little Big Horn to be quite confusing. I enjoyed his portrayals of the Native Americans. Neihardt did his research interviewing people who were still alive or the friends and family of his characters, both Caucasian and Native.

Finally is The Song of the Messiah which recounts the coming of the ghost dance, the death of Sitting Bull, and the massacre at Wounded Knee. Also familiar material, but here mesmerizingly well told. I think Neihardt is at his best when writing about spiritual visions (e. g. Black Elk Speaks). Two of my favourite passages of this entire cycle came near the end of this song. The death of Sitting Bull is powerfully told (I blogged some favourite lines last night) and then shifts tenderly to the perspective of his horse, who sits down beside his dead master.

But no account you've read of the massacre at Wounded Knee prepares you for Neihardt's retelling. If you were horrified reading about it in Dee Brown, you will be more so here.

I look forward to reading these stories to my children, so that these great characters and stories can permeate their imaginations.

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The problem of the moderates

Fifty years ago this June The Christian Century published Martin Luther King Jr.'s The Letter from Birmingham Jail.  The April 17 issue focused on this anniversary, reviewing a new book out on the letter and publishing a cover article by Robert Westbrook entitled "MLK's Manifesto."  It is a good article, with much good material in it.  But I was specifically drawn to its discussion of moderates.

In a Century article on the silence of the southern churches, a quotation from one Alabama Baptist minister acutely summed up the moderates' dilemma: "The problem is how to lead without being appropriated by one or the other extremes which immediately destroys the effectiveness of your leadership.  When thus appropriated, you are effective only with the one faction.  Neither the opposite one nor the moderate group will listen to you any longer."  This politics of appropriation was a pivotal feature of the racial politics of the early 1960s. . . .  [King] did set out to convert or, failing that, to pressure or to neutralize white moderates by demolishing their arguments, shaming their consciences, and, not least, threatening their interests.

The letter undertook the task of demolishing the arguments of the moderates. . . .  King strikes a number of poses in it, swinging between "diplomatic" and "prophetic" modes of address.  But his overriding posture might, I think, be termed one of mock moderation, that is, a stance that put pay to the thinking of moderates by arguing against them in the very "patient and reasonable terms" that they fetishized.  Here and there ironic barbs and flashes of overt indignation suggest the difficulties that King had in maintaining his stance.  Yet it was one well chosen for the audience he imagined, hoisting them with their own petard.

Oh how the LGBT community has struggled with moderates.  Finally in the last couple of years, the moderates do seem to have joined our side mostly.  There are now new voices of caution and gradualism -- people who were once opposed to us who now realize they are losing and want to slow things down.  How frustrating this class of citizens can be.  I liked seeing King's strategy discussed.  It was direct and challenging.

Bring Up the Bodies

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I did not enjoy Mantel's second novel on Thomas Cromwell as much as I did Wolf Hall, the first one. But I will be anticipating the release of the third.

The subject matter of this novel is more difficult -- the downfall of Anne Boleyn and Cromwell's role in that. He is more villainous in this part of the story, which makes him less sympathetic, of course. There also wasn't as much of the delightful home life.

In this novel, Cromwell allows hubris, so you begin to see the foundation laid for the future downfall. He has learned from Wolsey to give the king what he wants, but Cromwell himself allows his own motives, particularly revenge on those who helped bring down Wolsey, to enter too much into his plans.

Thinking about the characters and their motives and actions is interesting, and provides engaging conversation. So, the novel is worth the read.

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A Queer History of the United States (ReVisioning American History)

A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Early in my coming out I read Michael Bronski's The Pleasure Principle. I purchased it at Half Price Books. At the time I was trying to learn as much as a I could about gay culture and history. The Pleasure Principle was probably the first book of queer thought I read, arguing against conformity and for the more radical liberation perspective. It deeply influenced my thinking. Despite living a rather conservative lifestyle, my views, writings, and public advocacy have encouraged more radical liberation.

So, I was excited to see this Bronski book in Powell's bookstore in Portland. But it wasn't as good as the previous book.

Now, what I did like, is that Bronski didn't just tell a history of LGBT people and their influence on American culture, but he discussed and analyzed how America constructs gender and sexuality. This was interesting, though at times it left me wanting more. For example, "These widely disseminated archetypes -- the lesbian waiting to be fulfilled as woman, the sexually rapacious homosexual male -- were fantasies that emerged after World War II. Each served a specific cultural function that was to play out in mass-market publications." But he never explains what the "specific cultural functions" were.

There were elements of LGBT history that were overlooked or treated minimally, including the career of Harvey Milk. There was no mention of the Metropolitan Community Church or any religious developments. He also concludes the book in 1990, though it was written in 2011. An "Epilogue" summarizes developments of the last twenty years, but he contends that writing about these would be "new" and not "history." That seemed odd to me.

I liked his analysis in some places, and thought the strongest chapter was that on the 1950's and 1960's.

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Current GOP misunderstands Thatcher

In the same way that they usually get Reagan wrong, they get Thatcher wrong as well.  A good article from the Washington Post on the real leadership style of Margaret Thatcher -- she compromised as needed.  An excerpt:

The party’s allergy to spirited, but civil, disagreement has become a debilitating disease. It also is a disservice to the political legacies of Thatcher and Reagan, who would never have wanted rigidity and thoughtlessness to be hallmarks of the conservatism they championed. “I love argument,” Thatcher once said. “I love debate. I don’t expect anyone to just sit there and agree with me. That’s not their job.”

I also appreciated this Thatcher quote, in the article, from after Sept. 11, 2001:

“Don’t fall into the trap of imagining that the West can remake societies,” Thatcher wrote after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Anyone who really believes that a ‘new order’ of any kind is going to replace the disorderly conduct of human affairs, particularly the affairs of nations, is likely to be severely disappointed.”

Had Thatcher invoked such sentiments as a Republican senator during Bush’s presidency, she would have lost her primary.

 

Wolf Hall: A Novel

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I remember reading a review of Mantel's novel when it was published in 2009. The review was very praiseworthy. At the time, I put the book on "my list" of things to read, that long list that ever grows and one longs for retirement in hopes of finally really getting to it.

But I have also read novels and histories and church histories of this story. Seen movies. Watched television shows. So, I didn't rush to read it.

Then the book one all those awards, and the sequel did too. So, I finally decided I'd better read them. This winter I made the intention to get to them this year.

And yes, this is a familiar story. But one just can't imagine picking Cromwell as the protagonist from which to tell it. Except that this does give a completely new perspective, and interestingly that of someone who is not a noble, royal, or churchman. I most enjoy his interactions with his family and household.

Mantel is a beautiful, engaging writer. Here is a master of English prose, who can tell a story well (including one that one already knows) with enticing details and enjoyable phrases. She is very good at dialogue. I kept thinking, "Yes, this must have been what a conversation with Cardinal Wolsey was like."

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Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This latest biography of Jefferson was a Christmas gift from a friend. I'm grateful for the thoughtful gift, but was disappointed in the book.

Meacham wants to tell the story of Jefferson's mastery of political power, which resulted in the longest lasting political dynasty in our history. This is an interesting thesis. He also wants to restore some appreciation for Jefferson, which has suffered in the last few decades with confirmation of the relationship with Sally Hemmings and the spate of great biographies of the Federalist leaders Washington, Adams, and Hamilton.

Only in the afterword does he tell you that he has written a "portrait," that a more thorough biography of Jefferson and his times would take volumes. Hmm. Would have been nice to know this was the aim in the beginning, for I found the volume sorely lacking in historical narrative, detail, explanation, and analysis. More a series of vignettes and quotes from Jefferson or his contemporaries. Meacham seems to assume pretty good knowledge of most of the historical events and characters in the narrative, and, yes, I may know about them, but one wants to read about them again and learn something new.

And there was almost nothing new that I learned in this book.

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