A Long-Overdue Review of Reviews: Le Guin, Said, Howey, St. Clair, Herbert/Anderson, and Shea/Wilson

 

Dear reader, I have been somewhat remiss in recent months about posting book reviews. To be completely honest, I have been a bit remiss in writing them at all. I mark them "read" intending to write reviews later and then... just sort of run out of steam or get busy or whatever. I've had Goodreads tabs open for months... At last the time has come to remedy this self-inflicted promise to myself. So here are some short-ish reviews of Almost Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin, Orientalism by Edward Said, Wool by Hugh Howey, A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Clair, The Machine Crusade by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, and The Golden Apple by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

Beautiful Bleakness: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

 

My trip to Worldcon in Glasgow and Eurocon in Rotterdam was great! I may write a little about that later, but I came home to immediately start teaching for the fall semester (literally the next day), and the last month has been a whirlwind.

I'm finally ready to get back to my regular blogging with one of my most regular types of posts: a book review!

I imagine Cormac McCarthy asked himself, "What if I wrote a book filled with beautiful sentences about horrific things, set in a bleak post-apocalyptic wasteland? And what if I only occasionally used apostrophes?" And that's pretty much what he succeeded in doing with The Road.

Splendidly Scalzian Felines: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

 

John Scalzi's Starter Villain is a delight! Scalzi is as entertaining as ever. I love the cats and the dolphins.

Charlie is down on his luck when he discovers that his mysterious and recently deceased uncle left him a profitable parking ramp business. Or so he thinks. Turns out, as the dust jacket tells us, his uncle was actually a super villain, like something right out of James Bond (or really more Austin Powers). Hilarity and hijinks ensue with plenty of that patented Scalzi snark. I laughed out loud several times while reading this one.

Two points I wanted to discuss here: let's call them "evil is actually dumb" and "animals can talk, and boy, are they hilarious!"

So I Watched All the Oscar Nominees for Best Picture... Again!

 

Last year I wrote a post called "So I Watched All the Oscar Nominees for Best Picture." I didn't set out to do so, but at some point I realized I had seen a few of the nominations and figured I might as well complete my tour. So I did! And it was mostly pretty fun. It didn't hurt that my favorite, Everything Everywhere All At Once, was the winner.

Well, dear reader, as Britney Spears once said, "Oops, I did it again." 

Considering Our "Inescapable Network of Mutuality": MLK Day 2024

 

I had a great time at Chattacon this weekend, which included a fun panel on Dune and Philosophy!

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day here in the US. I was looking forward to following up my Chattacon experience with my local MLK Day march and parade, but today we're having some winter weather. The local MLK Day festivities have been postponed.

Postcolonial Hogwarts with Fun Etymologies: Babel by R. F. Kuang

 

If I had to describe R. F. Kuang's Babel, or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution in one phrase, I'd go with "Postcolonial Hogwarts with Fun Etymologies." Depending on how you feel about Harry Potter, postcolonial theory, and etymology, that may sound dismissive, but I don't mean to be dismissive at all. I really loved almost everything about this book, especially the etymologies (although I have to point out a mistake with the Devanagari script when a Sanskrit etymology is given on p. 474). 

New Article: “Pramāṇavāda and the Crisis of Skepticism in the Modern Public Sphere” by Amy Donahue (Cross-posted from the Indian Philosophy Blog)

Depiction of a debate between Maṇḍana Miśra and Śaṅkara with judge Ubhaya Bhāratī

 

I haven't cross-posted anything from the Indian Philosophy Blog in a long time, so here you go! This is about a great article from my colleague Dr. Amy Donahue. There's also some information about an upcoming conference panel where she and I will be presenting with Dr. Arindam Chakrabarti. Check it out! 

PS: You can find the original post on the Indian Philosophy Blog here.

Readers of the Indian Philosophy Blog may be interested to learn about a new article in the latest issue of the Journal of World Philosophies: “Pramāṇavāda and the Crisis of Skepticism in the Modern Public Sphere” by Amy Donahue (Kennesaw State University). The journal is open-access, and you can download the article here.

Here’s the abstract:

There is widespread and warranted skepticism about the usefulness of inclusive and epistemically rigorous public debate in societies that are modeled on the Habermasian public sphere, and this skepticism challenges the democratic form of government worldwide. To address structural weaknesses of Habermasian public spheres, such as susceptibility to mass manipulation through “ready-to-think” messages and tendencies to privilege and subordinate perspectives arbitrarily, interdisciplinary scholars should attend to traditions of knowledge and public debate that are not rooted in western colonial/modern genealogies, such as the Sanskritic traditions of pramāṇavāda and vāda. Attention to vāda, pramāṇavāda, and other traditions like them can inspire new forms of social discussion, media, and digital humanities, which, in turn, can help to place trust in democracy on foundations that are more stable than mere (anxious) optimism.

I enjoyed reading the article, and I found it extremely thought-provoking. I hope readers of this blog will check it out. Also, be sure to look for the forthcoming online debate platform that Donahue mentions on p. 5! Maybe we’ll make an announcement on the blog when it’s ready. Or reach out to Dr. Donahue if you’re interested in collaborating.

Here are a few of my questions for further discussion:

1. Since pramāṇavāda was an elite discourse in historical South Asian societies and it requires some educational training (as Donahue notes on p. 4 and p. 5), can it do the work Donahue asks it to do?
2. Are jalpa and vitaṇḍā so bad? While most Naiyāyikas have denigrated them as illegitimate as Donahue notes (p. 6), a few have distinguished “tricky” and “honest” forms of vitaṇḍā (Matilal 1998, 3). And then there’s Śrī Harṣa’s debate at the beginning of the Khaṇḍanakhaṇḍakhādya with a Naiyāyika opponent about whether one must accept the means of knowledge (pramāṇas) in order to enter into a debate about the pramāṇas (he mentions that one understands the discourse of the Madhyamakas and Cārvākas, perhaps thinking of Nāgārjuna and Jayarāśi; I will have more to say about the Cārvākas in an upcoming conference presentation—see information below). Matilal has also argued that vitaṇḍā can make sense as resulting in a “commitmentless denial” similar to an “illocutionary negation” (Matilal 1998, 50-56). In terms of a modern public sphere, could vitaṇḍā be a useful tactic for, say, pointing out the inherent contradictions of various harmful dogmatisms? Or maybe the deepest benefit of the vāda-jalpa-vitaṇḍā framework is a bit of self-awareness about which form of debate one is using?
3. Is vāda necessarily more prone to discrediting false beliefs than a Habermasian public sphere or the type of marketplace of ideas in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty? (p. 11) My point is most definitely not that we have nothing to learn from Indian logic and debate. Far from it! But I wonder how effective vāda can be. After all, you don’t find much philosophical agreement in the classical Indian tradition, which is precisely why I find it so interesting!
4. Is the archive (p. 12) essentially part of vāda, or is it a cultural artifact of the Indian and Tibetan tradition of commentaries? Was there something similar in Hellenistic, Roman, Islamic, and Byzantine traditions, which were also heavily commentarial?

My questions here are meant to be taken in the spirit of vāda to keep the conversation going. I hope others will read Donahue’s thought-provoking article and join this worthwhile conversation.

Also, if you will be attending the upcoming Central APA Conference in Denver, Colorado, USA on Feb. 22, 2023, you will have the chance to discuss these and other issues in person! 

Wed. Feb. 22, 2023, 1-4pm

2022 Invited Symposium: Vāda: Indian Logic and Public Debate 

Chair: Jarrod Brown (Berea College)

Speakers: 

Amy Donahue (Kennesaw State University) “Vāda Project: A Non-Centric Method for Countering Disinformation”

Arindam Chakrabarti (University of Hawai’i at Manoa) “Does the Question Arise? Questioning the Meaning of Questions and the Definability of Doubt”

Ethan Mills (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)  “Cārvāka Skepticism about Inference: Historical and Contemporary Examples” 

(More information about the conference here, including a draft program that includes several other panels on Indian philosophy.)

Works Cited

Donahue, Amy. 2022. “Pramāṇavāda and the Crisis of Skepticism in the Public Sphere.” Journal of World Philosophies 7 (Winter 2022): 1-14.

Matilal, Bimal Krishna.  1998.  The Character of Logic in India.  Edited by Jonardon Ganeri and Heeraman Tiwari.  Albany: SUNY Press.

Mini-Reviews of Spooky Stuff for Spooky Season, Part Two

 

Here at Examined Worlds, er, we don't say stuff like, "here at Examined Worlds." But if we did, and if there was a "we" beyond you and me, dear reader, I'd say something like, "Here at Examined Worlds, we consider spooky season to be a state of mind, not a month on the calendar."

And that's why I'm posting Part Two of my "Mini-Reviews of Spooky Stuff for Spooky Season" in the middle of November, a week before US Thanksgiving (although I may revisit some of my Thanksgiving horror favorites soon!). Enjoy!

Xenobiology for Engineers: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I seem to be one of the few people who liked Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary more than The Martian. It's mildly spoilery to say that the xenobiological aspects are what I enjoyed the most. At other times I felt like I was reading someone showing their work on their physics homework, but if you've read The Martian you know what you're in for. To mildly plagiarize a review I saw elsewhere: if you liked The Martian, you will probably also like Project Hail Mary.

Questions About “Freedom” in American Politics

 

American political discourse is drowning in freedom. After 9/11, many politicians assured us that the terrorists hated our freedoms. The Tea Party modeled itself on the American Revolution (a bit awkwardly since the government they wanted freedom from was the same government established by that revolution). Advocates for gun rights talk about freedom more than anyone else, such that one might easily believe they think the fundamental Ur-freedom of all humanity for all time has always been to keep and bear deadly firearms.

Why I Love Dune

 

I recently re-read Frank Herbert's Dune to get ready for the new Denis Villeneuve film adaptation. I was thinking of a way to review a book I've read several times over 30 years, but I'm not sure that makes much sense. 

I did notice this time that, contrary to my previous review, Paul does question his own actions in the middle of the book, even if Jessica questions them more. But... what do you say about a classic that hasn't already been said?

So instead I thought I might say a bit about why I love Dune so much, why I've returned to this series over the years as one of my all-time favorites (and maybe as a bonus why I'm excited about the new Villeneuve film adaptation).

Black History of the Future: Reading Delany, Mosley, and Butler

 

While you should read Black science fiction authors during all months, I figured Black History Month 2021 was a good chance to read books on my list by Black authors. Besides, I did another Black History Month post back in 2016, so I was overdue for another one. 

Please enjoy these reviews of Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany, Futureland by Walter Mosley, and Mind of My Mind by Octavia E. Butler!

(Note: the title of this post is inspired by another book you should read: How Long 'Til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin.)

Pandemic Journal, Part 18: Not the January I Had in Mind

 

We made it to the end of January 2021 ... and well, shit. Right after I posted my last batch of pandemic journal entries, a bunch of terrorists/insurgents/whatever attacked the US Capitol. A week later Trump was impeached (again) and another week after that he actually left office.

But the worst part of the month for me: I broke my arm and dislocated my shoulder on Jan. 15. It could be worse. But it's no picnic. Not what I needed for the beginning of this new semester.

But I did get to go to online Chattacon, so that was... honestly kinda weird, but fun.

"Politics by Means of Literary Analysis": A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Recently I was talking to a friend who has been reading the Dune series, and I noted that you don't see many books that try to emulate Frank Herbert's Dune. The Dune books are weird and work in a way that wouldn't work for any other author. Most classics spawn lots of imitators or even their own sub-genres. While you see a lot of space operas out there, none of them have come close to being much like Dune in the last 55 years.

It's not that I was looking for a Dune rip-off (nobody should really want that). But I was excited to read Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire because it sounded like it might be jumping somewhere near Dune space with a far future space empire filled with a melange of cultural influences. It even has epigraphs from historical documents before each chapter. And as I suspect is the case with many Dune fans, having a glossary at the end makes me roughly 37% more excited to read any science fiction book.

Then I saw the blurbs on the inside cover comparing it to Ann Leckie or Yoon Ha Lee. These are also apt given the space empires in both authors' works, especially with one particular idea that's very similar to an idea Lee uses in Ninefox Gambit.

While one could make those comparisons, in the end A Memory Called Empire is its own thing. And this is a wonderful thing. Once I realized this was not an imitator or merely a riff on old themes, I could let the book speak for itself and appreciate it for the unique work that it is. This is the first of the Hugo Best Novel nominees I've read this year, and I have a hard time believing any of the other nominees will come close to beating it.

Humanities in Space: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time is some of the best science fiction I've read recently. I love everything about this book: far future space travel, both human and non-human protagonists, a classicist as an essential crew member, deep thoughts about history, time, society, gender, intelligence, violence, biology, religion, science, and so much more.

I've put off writing a full review, because there's just so much going on in this book that I'm afraid I'll forget something important. At around 600 pages, it's not a short book, but it created a sort of time dilation in my reading experience: I read it fairly quickly (most of it in a weekend), but I feel like I traversed enough material for three or four novels in the time it took me to read one.

But I really want to review this book, so I figure I'll risk it. There's a lot more cool stuff going on in this book than I can hope to discuss in a review, so I'll focus on a few things under the theme "humanities in space" with a playful nod to "humanities" both as a plural and as a domain of intellectual activity encompassing history, philosophy, religion, rhetoric, literature, art history, languages, etc.

Modernity Expanded: The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450-1700 by Jonardon Ganeri

I thought it might be interesting to post a review on the philosophy side of my interests.  So here you go!

The Lost Age of Reason: Philosophy in Early Modern India 1450-1700 is a groundbreaking work, even for Jonardon Ganeri's always extremely high standards.  There are at least three ways in which The Lost Age of Reason breaks new ground.

Review Bonanza, Part Three: The Frankenstein Chronicles, Three Virgins, Are Prisons Obsolete?, and More!

The Frankenstein Chronicles

Welcome to Part Three of my Review Bonanza!  See also Part One, which covered Annihilation, The Laplace's Demon, River of Teeth, and More, and Part Two, which covered The Expanse, The X-Files, Infomocracy, Navigators of Dune, and More.

Here in Part Three, I've got The Frankenstein Chronicles, Three Virgins and Other Stories by Manjula Padmanabhan, Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis, The Aztecs: A Very Short Introduction by David Carrasco, and What Kind of Creatures are We? by Noam Chomsky. 

Daoism for Wizards: A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

Brilliant.  Amazing.  The kind of book that changes you for having read it.  In other words: typical Ursula K. Le Guin.  I probably need a few more readings to probe the Daoist depths of this work.  This review simply can't do it justice, but then again one of the strengths of this book is that it presents merely hints of an inexhaustible universe.  There is much more than meets the eye, or even could meet any eye.

Upon the death of the author (or a specific author: Ursula K. Le Guin), I took some time to reflect on everything I've learned from Le Guin (see my post "Five Lessons from Le Guin").  I also reminded myself that, while I had read most of her well known science fiction work, I had yet to read what is probably her most popular work: the fantasy novel A Wizard of Earthsea and its many sequels.  Part of this is that I'm generally more of a science fiction than fantasy fan.  But it seemed an inexcusable oversight when it came to someone I always say is one of my favorite authors.  It would be like claiming to be an Isaac Asimov fan without having read the Foundation trilogy or an Octavia Butler fan without having read the Earthseed duology.

So I dug out the old copy I picked up at a library sale many years ago and gave it a shot (see picture above; I believe this copy has made at least two interstate moves with me and has been lurking on my bookshelf for years).

Like most of Le Guin's work, you have to allow her to work her magic.  It takes time.  You may not find yourself turning the pages quickly.  As Le Guin herself might ask, why should "page-turner" be a good thing for a book to be, anyway?  Is it not more meaningful to savor a book, to let it seep into your being?

That's just what A Wizard of Earthsea does.

Instead of imagining what Le Guin might have said, I should let her speak for herself:

"All power is one in source and end, I think.  Years and distances, stars and candles, water and wind and wizardry, the craft in a man's hand and the wisdom in a tree's root: they all arise together.  My name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by the shining of the stars.  There is no other power.  No other name." (A Wizard of Earthsea, p. 164)

The novel isn't of course merely Daoist philosophy (although there is plenty of that!).  We meet a boy named Ged, who as many young boy protagonists in fantasy novels are, is special.  He is, it seems, destined to become a great wizard.  He travels to a wizard school (Hogwarts avant la lettre). Ged is, again like many fantasy protagonists, a bit full of himself.  A spell miscast releases a shadow (of himself?) that becomes his main antagonist.  Sure, we meet the occasional dragon (as does Ged), but are we ultimately all our own worst antagonists?  Along the way Ged becomes less full of himself and more full of all things.

The magic system relies on finding the true names of things, perhaps reminiscent of the first line of Laozi's Dao De Jing. This line is variously translated, but Laozi may be suggesting that true names cannot be spoken.  Is this true in the novel?  Or can true names only be spoken by wizards?  Does the very speaking remove us from the names of all things?  Are there other, more direct ways of realizing our connections with the way and its power?

A Wizard of Earthsea can work as a straightforward fantasy, maybe even a YA fantasy.  But it's not merely entertainment.  It teaches you something about the universe and most deeply about yourself.

One of the lessons of the novel seems to be in line with the Daoist idea of wu wei (literally "non-action," but really more acting as skillfully and minimally as possible).  Thus, it seems appropriate to end my review here, to review more by writing less: my words can merely gesture toward the novel's fathomless depths, which I encourage you to experience for yourself.

Polyphonic Games: The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe

The two-volume version of The Book of the New Sun

Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun is not for the faint of heart or shallow of mind.  It is equal parts challenging, beautiful, incomprehensible, maddening, and intriguing, a multi-tiered, polyphonic literary game the reader plays with the author.  The reader is playing in Wolfe's house -- and the house always wins.

The Book of the New Sun was originally released as a series of four novels: The Shadow of the Torturer (1980), The Claw of the Conciliator (1981), The Sword of the Lictor (1982), and The Citadel of the Autarch (1983).  There is some truth to the idea that this is a series, but, as with all appearances within the novels, there's a greater truth: it's really one long novel in four parts.

Ten Rules for Public Discourse as Internet Comments Section

Back when Donald Trump's candidacy was still funny, there was a joke going around that he was the personification of an internet comments section. But the real joke has turned out to be that all public discourse now happens at the level of an internet comments section.  Or if not all of it, far more than is healthy for us as a society or as individuals.

One consequence of our comment section discourse is that we spend so much time telling people what they think that there's no time to ask them what they think and why.  We’re so busy cultivating cynicism and trying to be edgy that we forget to be kind and compassionate.  This situation has been the source of some of my melancholic mood as of late.

Alas, if we are to live in the era of public discourse as internet comments section, we ought to know what we’re getting into.  So without further ado...

Ten Rules for Public Discourse as Internet Comments Section

1. You must never think critically about your own beliefs. Your view is automatically right because it is yours. USE ALL CAPS INSTEAD OF REASONS!!!!

2. You must never empathize with people who disagree with you.

3. You must never admit that people who disagree with you might be decent human beings. 

4.  If people tell you that your view dehumanizes them, you must never reflect on whether they have a point. Remember: your view is automatically right because it is yours (see Rule 1). How dare they question it?

5. All issues must be black-or-white, with-me-or-against-me.  There can be no coalition building with people who disagree about a few issues; there is no such thing as an in-house disagreement. You are either 100% in my house or 100% outside of it.

6. All positions must be believed with the searing zeal of the martyrs; your enthusiasm for your position must burn as hot as your hatred for any opposing view. USE ALL CAPS TO EXPRESS YOUR COMMITMENT TO YOUR VIEW AND CONTEMPT FOR OTHERS!!!!!

7. Godwin’s Law is in full force: your opponents and/or their associates must be compared to Nazis as soon as possible.  It doesn't matter whether you're talking about powerful politicians or your local PTA.  No issue is too trivial to be compared to genocide.

8. Bombastic, hastily generalized claims must be made and clung to irrespective of nuance, truth, or new evidence.

9. You get to choose your own facts! If people disagree with your facts, direct them to a conspiracy theory or partisan website as evidence. Bonus points for hour-long YouTube videos of people rambling in their basements.

10. And of course, if your view can’t be expressed in 140 characters, it is not a view worth having. Sad!