First up is the 9th book of the first volume of Penguin's Great Ideas series, Edward Gibbon's The Christians and the Fall of Rome. I purchased this before I finished The Social Contract, which Rousseau ended with a criticism of a nation existing with a religious population, and elaborating on how it re-directs their attention from trying to better the nation to religious causes instead. So I had a inkling as to where the subject matter of this one might be directed (if the title wasn't enough).
This is a great criticism of the shift of Christianity from a pattern of thought into the ultra-powerful organization, complete with hierarchy and ties to governmental structures (Rousseau, eat yer heart out.), along with the frightening ability to independently rewrite its own history. That being said, I found this to be a much less satisfying read when compared to The Social Contract, this could be because in reality it is actually a small portion of Gibbon's larger work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, had this not been the next part of the Great Ideas series, I would have skipped over it, and buckled down to read the original six-volume work as I have a feeling this would have been much better in the context of the full work.
Next up is A Very Bad Wizard, by Houston philosophy professor Tamler Sommers. Published through McSweeney's, I was expecting that this books would be good, but I was surprised by two things. The first being how great it was, between some of the groundbreaking views held both by Sommers and the various professionals he interviews (Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it, but this is a book of interviews with professionals in the fields of psychology, philosophy and in one case, biology about how morality works), and the second being how fast I was able to tear through this books, or perhaps how slow I was at putting down...the decision is yours.
The format is amazing, it's one thing to have a person explain their views in the closed environment of their own work, but another thing entirely to read them discussing it in a non-formal environment, and sometimes being forced into a position of defending them. And with that of course, you get mildly hilarious conversations about incest, Catherine Zeta-Jones and being Jewish, all totally unrelated, I promise.
Is it morally right for a sister and a brother to have one-time-only fully consensual intercourse with protection that doesn't have a negative impact on their relationship? Think about it for a while, then read this (especially the interview with Jonathan Haidt) to find out what the big guys are saying.
Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire's Essex County. Wow.
I was drawn towards this book (pun mildly coincidental) primarily due to the fact that for the most part, it's set in rural Ontario, and because it had a Canadian cartoonist, these sort of things make my wallet practically climb out of my pocket. I was entirely oblivious of the critical praise this collection had been receiving until I flipped open the cover and was greeted by a review that put forth the idea that once comics became an acceptable academic form of literature (give it 20-50 years), this book would be at the centre of graduate programs at Princeton. Wow, that is a pretty big claim to be making. But was it unwarranted? I wouldn't say so.
Originally a trilogy (Tales from the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse, this collection simultaneously tells the life stories of 5 people and their convergence with each other. I would elaborate more, but the convergence of these individuals is what makes this book so damn good. Well, than and Lemire's excellent use of beautiful, scratchy black and white drawing.
I would write a graduate paper on this book, just saying. I know at very least I will be re-reading it over and over again.
Next up is the 11th issue of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. I know, I should be working my way FORWARD in the series, and not backwards, but that will start with the next issue I read, don't worry! For now, we have this extremely attractive book, faux leather cover with some great shiny gold printing, be still my beating heart. Also, it comes with a DVD, which I will get to at the end of the review (spoiler alert, it's stupid).
Silly videos of writers reading a page of their work aside, this issue was one of the best that I have read, primarily due to three stories that entirely overshadowed the rest of the book, thankfully they were spread out. T.C. Boyle's Blinded by the Light, recounting the tale of a meddling intellectual in a rural families lifestyle, Sean Warren's What Keeler Did to His Foot in the Navy, a story about the struggles and trials of being a "boot squid" in the Navy on the pacific, and lastly, Joyce Carol Oates' The Gathering Squall, about being young, impressionable and infatuated. These were all sandwiched between other stories that were still enjoyable, but when placed between those three juggernauts, they seemed like they could just be there to take up space.
As for the DVD, despite the fact that it was included as a joke, I was really hoping for something more interesting. Although I must say, sometimes I'm happy not connecting writers to what they look like in person. It ruins the mystique, and it ruins my pleasurable delusion that writers aren't next-level nerdy. BUMMER. It was nice to see a scene from Dennis Johnson's Soul of a Whore acted out though, so maybe the redeemed it. (Actually, no. But it was still cool.)
Firstly, I want to apologize for the butchered image of this wonderful magazine's cover I'm using here. The book itself is too large to fit onto my scanner, so it looks like I'm going to have to go the camera route next time. I was doing so well, too.
The being said, if you buy this you'll realize that the A on the cover was actually grown out of cells exclusively for the 2010 Annual issue of Creative Review. How cool is that you ask? I answer "It's about as cool as the rest of this magazine!". With a focus on design in mass media, this is the sort of thing that I can really sink my teeth into. There is no intellectual masturbation going on here, just great articles about great designers and trends. (There is a small section titled "Crit." in the middle, but even then it doesn't come off as contrived as some publications would make it seem.) Highlight articles are easily "The F Word" dealing with the resurgence of northeastern European folk art in mainstream design, a trend that I have no problem with because it looks fuckin great. And the critical article "The advertising isn't working", a damning criticism of British election time political adverts. For those who don't pick up on the clever title, it's a play on Margaret Thatcher's election winning slogan "Labour isn't working", a poster design that revolutionized political advertising from 1979 onward.
(See: http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/images/cigarettes/LabourIsn%27tWorking.jpg )
Turn the issue over and you'll be greeted with 100 pages of what has been deemed to be the "best work in advertising, graphic design and visual communication". Some amazing work pops up in there, but out of sheer laziness, I will let you discover that for yourselves when you grab this or flip through it wherever this fine mag is sold. It's worth it, I swear!
Last of this round is the Jan-March 2010 issue of Relay, a neat independently produced socialist project review which focuses on, but does not deal exclusively with Southern Ontario affairs. I was picking up some other magazines when this caught my eye, mainly due to the great cover collage. And I mean, it was only three bucks, c'mon.
Most of the articles in here are written either by people in teaching positions at a couple universities (Primarily University of Toronto, but York also pops up here and there), or are graduate students in the same institutions. But I look at this as a double edged sword. On the one hand there is the assured credibility of the contributors, especially in a collection that focuses on academically reviewing past left-leaning political action. But on the other hand this leads to a lot of theory and not much real application on the author's parts, which is okay but not ideal.
Luckily there are a few outstanding pieces by individuals with no clear ties to the academic stronghold. From retired union activist Herman Rosenfeld's New Openings for Toronto Workers, to prominent Italian Fourth International and Feminist activist Lidia Cirillo's Feminism of the Anti-Capitalist Left, these articles are by far more interesting and unlike some of the articles submitted by professors, they aren't just trying to advertise a book.
As a side anote, this also includes a reprint of an article by Colin Wilson titled Russia's Sexual Revolution After 1917, which was the absolute standout of the magazine for me. Summarizing the sexual liberation goal of the 1917 Russian revolutionary movement, and following to it's decline and eventual regression following the introduction of the New Economic Policy, Stalin and the Second World War. Great article, worth the three bucks alone as far as I'm concerned.
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