John Fowles - The Magus

 

Eventually I realized that all this cleverness was going nowhere,

but until then ……. Wow!

Right from its first words, this novel has a precision of narration that has me hanging on every word. The prose as spare and elegant as a Greek statue. The story moves from ordinary to possibly supernatural , making the reader as uncomfortable as the protagonist. A charming effect! 

 Up to chapter 20, it promises to be the story of a well educated young man in his mid twenties ,Nicholas, learning how to live from a man born about thirty years earlier, Conchin. Serving in the army right after WWII, he could not relate to his own, recently deceased, military father, and was a bit lost as he began to live independently. He was intensely critical of others and so critical of himself he contemplated suicide. He believed in nothing other than his own critical acumen. He reminds us that he graduated from Oxford about a dozen times. No career or woman had yet captivated him. Like myself at that age, he was a well educated incompetent. 

 The older man embodied success and profound mystery. He was wealthy, well read, independently minded, aesthetically astute, and claimed to have psychic as well as medical abilities. He was apparently living a good life - but why choose isolation on such a tiny island? How did he spend all that time? This book was published two years after “Meetings with Remarkable Men” and he may have been one of them - a kind of spiritual adept like a Sufi, Yogi, or Taoist master. He has met with two of Nicholas’ predecessors at the island school, but suggests that only Nicholas has been “elected” to be what might be called his student. The first exercise, a kind of Russian roulette, assaults his self esteem in both perceptual ability and character. Things are not as he sees them, including himself. Perhaps he will learn how to undermine his hyper critical ego. 

 And then the character of the novel begins to change. The old man shares stories that soon appear in the flesh - presumably performed by actors in costume. The characters become more like mouthpieces for ideas that interest the author, and less like people who might ever have roamed a Greek island, or anywhere else for that matter. The romantic prologue of Nicholas makes him feel quite real. His affair with the smart, sexy, intellectually inferior, Australian flight attendant is a bleeding slice of life. But once on the island, that realism fades behind a cloud of provocative ideas that often set self against society. Conchis tells his life story - is it real, or just a kind of teaching tool? His youth is certainly different from that of Nicholas. But he doesn’t really feel like a real, possible person. He may as well just be one of the inner voices in the young man’s head - a pastiche of his teachers at university. If the stories are real, perhaps all the playacting is an attempt to mitigate the shame of past failures. 

 Eventually we learn the source of his wealth - a casual acquaintance died and left him a fortune - at which moment we, and Nicholas, are given two documents to study. One is an idealized commitment to reason - the other suggests that some people can communicate telepathically with minds in distant parts of the universe - and two Greek gods, Apollo and Artemis, make their appearance. Then, since one of the characters represented is a long dead girl friend, Lily, the Egyptian god of the dead, Anubis, appears at her side. Will someone now living soon be actually killed? The tension is building - just as it now occurs to this reader, that escape from boredom is the primary motive for both characters.  Nicholas feels stuck teaching school and Conchis ended up with a boatload of money and talent,  but no purpose in life. 

 Then, radical changes happen again. The story shifts to Nick’s romantic interest in Julie, the woman acting the part of Lily. Conchis reveals that all this play acting was created as therapy for her mental illness. Surprisingly Nick has little curiosity about how that treatment is supposed to work and he readily submits to be drugged/hypnotized to assist. His description of the subsequent psychedelic vision takes too many pages not to mark some kind of turning point. And indeed it has. He awakes to find the estate deserted, so he takes his weekend in Athens for a reunion with the Australian girl. Predictably, it results in a firm break up. The girl wants Nick as husband; Nick needs to pursue his enchantment with Julie. 

 This is where I’m beginning to disconnect from the story. Up to this point, I’ve identified Nick as an English version of myself at age 25. He doesn’t really have any direction, but sex will do for now. Is  Julie really damaged or just an adventurous young adult like himself ? I’m beginning not to care. 58% of the novel is ahead of me, and there’s nothing more i really want to get out of it - except perhaps for a few more fascinating references to English literature. Never heard of Robert Foulkes before. Never knew Dryden marked the turning away from Renaissance English literature. Never knew about the English Helicon; a period collection of Elizabethan pastoral poetry Nicholas invoked when seeing his girlfriend romping in a mountain field. 

 I’m afraid that I know as much about Nicholas Urfe as I care to - or as Fowles will reveal - so I’m stopping at page 296. Had lots of fun before that, however.

*********

What does Nicholas know about Julie by page 296?  Conchis says he is treating her for schizophrenia - and he is known to be deceitful. But why else are she and her twin sister on the estate ?  She is also deceitful - either to Nicolas or Conchis or both.   If she’s not mentally ill, she is a very skillful collaborator of Conchis - and what possible good could they be up to?  Relieving boredom? Testing the limits of credulity?

Nicolas is either an opportunistic sexual predator or an eager victim of who knows what  - or both. Either way, his destiny is not compelling.

The core of this story is nihilism.  

Erudition,  brilliant storytelling, and taut, delicious prose can not elevate it.

Waysun Liao : Dimension One

Waysun Liao —- Dimension One : the Laws of the universe according to Tao

Does theoretical physics affirm the Tao Te Ching ?

The technical sounding title of this book led me to hope this issue might be addressed.  But all we get are dumbed-down affirmations like:  "old Taoist wisdom is no different than the latest findings and most brilliant theories coming from today’s modern scientists". As the author calls  those ancient Taoists "scientists", he joins that propagation of populist ignorance that has  become so successful at undermining expertise on issues like climate change and pollution. Yuck!

The essential content here is a spiritual cosmology and guide to living - accompanied by relevant passages from the Tao Te Ching.  And apparently the target audience has  been identified as "suffering": 

 "The lessons of Tao can also help you navigate the ups and downs of your personal life. How? By explaining what has confused so many for so long: why, despite our best efforts, we cannot individually or collectively seem to pull ourselves out of suffering. Through understanding why suffering is inevitable and what causes it, you can employ the laws of the universe to reduce your distress and start on a path of more effective living."

I can’t really relate to this.  Sure, I occadionally suffer from  tooth ache or illness - but mostly I’ve had a very easy, rich, and pleasant life. I also can’t relate to the idea that most human thoughts, emotions, and creations  can or should be dismissed as "artificial".  I like being human.   We talk, build, argue, ponder, give, take, bargain, scheme, love, meditate —- and the last is no more authentic than all the others.

Nor would I deny what appears to be the reality of evolution: cosmic, biological, social, personal.  I see progress:  from lifeless rock to living planet; from one-cell organism to whales and elephants; from huts and caves  to great cities; from group chants to grand operas.  I live for progress - to both benefit and contribute - not just to have "more power and potential"- the goals which the author has presented for meditation.

Finally, I reject the notion of "heaven’s net" -  a big sticky spiders web of inevitable karmic consequences - complete with big hungry spiders - eager to respond to every errant thought or deed without exception or time limit.

But still I found many of the ideas and metaphors to be useful. For example;  universal consciousness as an infinite sheet of paper that crinkles up to create all the stuff in our world. And I’m charmed by the notion that it is characterized by the ability to think - rather than any specific thoughts.  Though I would disagree that it is more to be feared than loved.

From the passages quoted from the Tao Te Ching it does appear that such pessimism has had  a long history in China.  I respect that - but it’s not the world I inhabit.

So this book has helped me grasp just where I stand with Taoism.  I love the meditations - but the philosophy is in serious need of update.  (Just as with Christianity.  I love the art and music but ….. ). Has anyone ever called himself a Taoist-Humanist ?

It’s also gotten me more acquainted with the inner life of its author.  Though I once attended his school, I’ve never met him.  But he has trained or collaborated with every Tai Chi teacher I’ve ever had and  I continue to rent some of his many videos.  

Federico Faggin : Irreducible - Consciousness, Life, Computers, and Human Nature

 

The premise of this book - as suggested  by the title - is that consciousness is an irreducible whole, greater than the sum of its parts.  And so is life - in each of the myriad forms it may  take. Computers, however, well —- that’s a different matter.

And I agree - which is my major problem with a book mostly devoted to repeatedly - and repeatedly - and repeatedly again  - arguing a point that seems self evident. The book offers hundreds of validating quotes from the great philosophers, scientists, or spiritual leaders of the past - but no footnoted references for those like myself who are inclined to dive down whatever rabbit hole looks intriguing . Though as it turns out - most of the quotes were contributed by Faggin’s daughter-in-law - so quite possibly Faggin himself never read all those authors.

What I was hoping for was some connection between consciousness and the  bizarre world of  the sub-atomic - deep down where quantum mechanics defies the laws of reason and the natural world as we know it.  It’s been 90 years since Schrodinger’s  cat exemplified a typical quantum paradox by being both alive and dead - and still the greatest minds of humanity have not been able to sort things out. So it’s not too surprising that those with a poetic or mystical bent have been suggesting that the foundation of everything is a universal consciousness that, like your consciousness or mine,  is utterly unknowable,- only more so.

There really can’t be any knowable connection to the quantum world - so it was foolish of me to hope for one.  As Faggin puts it, it’s private.   It’s as unknowable as the personal lives of discreet parents to their children.  In addition to being a brilliant electrical engineer, however, Faggin  is also something of a mystic.  He had a vision one evening by the shores of Lake Tahoe - and it was life changing.  Regretfully, he does not share his subsequent  spiritual journey - but this book does sketch out the beginnings of a metaphysical cosmology - possibly best studied in the glossary of his special terms, many of which he invented. The cosmic consciousness, which Faggin calls the "One", in an eternal quest to know itself, generates other conscious, free-will entities on a similar quest. With an ongoing expression of love, they have built out a larger world of atoms, elements, and  compounds to share their self knowledge and remember it.  The laws of classical physics are whatever these entities have agreed upon.  There is a hierarchy, though no elaboration of it. One of them is planet earth - or the goddess "Gaia" as Greek mythology would have it.  And one of them is associated with each and every living creature which the conscious entity controls much as a player controls an avatar in a virtual reality game station.  When that creature dies, it’s as if its conscious entity jolts awake from a dream. 

There’s no explanation for how conscious entities can do such things - or elaborations on similar theories from earlier  writers - or even how Faggin came up with some  ideas himself.  The emphasis on universal love and the extended family of everything recalls Francis of Assisi and "brother sun, sister moon".  It’s so Italian - in the very best way.

I can only partially relate to it. I can appreciate a universe based on the love of learning.  I’ve wasted a lot of time being curious.  Studying this book being the most recent example. But it doesn’t really feel like I’m being curious about myself.  That seems too small an issue to be worth much attention.

In his next book, Faggin will probably elaborate the technicalities of this cosmology.  He’s an engineer - and that’s what engineers do.   But I do hope he gets more personal about his own spiritual journey.  Has he had a mentor? Does he meditate?  Does he attend a Franciscan church?  At this point, I think I’ll learn more about his vision by becoming more familiar with him.  The kind of universe he describes is better known by looking inward rather than outward.  At least for me. 

My Promised Land - by Ari Shavit

 A review of My Promised Land by Ari Shavit

A thoroughly entertaining and informative trip through the history of Zionism and the state it created - coinciding, to a limited extent, with the author’s family history.  The story is framed by references to his distinguished ancestor, Herbert Bentwich. And the whole book feels personal.  Rather than the distant, clinical view of the historian, we get interviews with the men who made it happen. ( I can’t recall meeting a single woman)

As the title makes explicit - the author is a Zionist and he lives at the center of the world he observes..  There is no hidden agenda here - it’s all upfront. He acknowledges that Israel needs American support to survive - and this book follows the grand tour he made throughout American universities to pitch the case for the survival of a small Jewish state in the heart of the Arab Muslim Middle East. He is a passionate advocate - but he has not written propaganda.  He presents his case even handedly. He respects the intelligence of his readers - and his own as well.  He exemplifies the adage: "Two Jews, three opinions"

As an American, I have no greater, or lesser, responsibility than any other citizen to consider that case —- and that is how I will respond to this book.  Full disclosure:  I am one of those totally assimilated Jews who - as the author sees it - exemplify the tragic disappearance of secular Judaism outside of Israel.  My mother’s parents were Jewish.  My Jewish connection, however, goes further than that.  As a young man, my German/Norwegian father chanced to meet a Ukrainian born Jew who was teaching art at a small Midwestern college.   Milton Horn’s mission was the creation of Jewish liturgical figurative sculpture pretty much in the style of  the medieval Christian art he collected. That chance meeting transformed my father’s life — and eventually provided a path for mine as well. 

Antisemitism was a good reason for Jews to want  their own country - and the Holocaust was a good reason for other countries to get on board.  But the project looks even more impractical, if not reprehensible,  today than it was in 1948.  What was supposed to  happen to all the Muslim Arabs who were living there?  Why would Arabs elsewhere be any less eager to help their own kind than the Jewish diaspora has been to to help theirs?  Looking at a map of the Middle East, it’s so much easier, and almost unavoidable, for them to do so.  Israel is so very small and isolated.

So 75 years later ( I know the number because I was born the same year), what can be done now?  Shavit is optimistic because Israelis remain vigorous and inventive, regardless of the changes in their demographic (being now more oriental than European in background).  He is pessimistic, however, because their problem with Palestinians and the Arab/Muslim world has not gone away - while their support from other countries is growing ever weaker. 

Ten years after the book was published, the recent breakout from Gaza exemplifies both Arab intransigence and incompetent Israeli leadership. Their solution to the Gaza problem was to build a super-wall to lock the Arabs in.  When they failed to monitor it, 1200 Israelis were brutally murdered.  Then their response was to invade and kill the Palestinian leadership.  So far, more than 20,000 Palestinians have died.  Will this work any better than the violent responses that began with the Arab revolts in the 1930’s and continued through several international wars and popular uprisings ? 

Why couldn’t Israel just rebuild the Gaza wall and monitor it much more carefully? Probably because that would be unacceptable to the nationalist Israeli public - just as peace and reconciliation is a minority, if not extirpated, voice in Palestinian politics.

I can see America helping Israel fend off the neighboring autocratic Arab states.  We usually help small states resist invasion from larger ones - especially if they are democratic,

 But should America help Israel fight the residents of their own occupied territories ? Should America help them exact a revenge that’s not going to make anyone safer?  Why should Americans be more concerned with the destiny of the Jews who sought refuge in Israel -  than Israelis have shown concern for the Palestinian population trapped in the struggle between two belligerents ? Even Shavit, who interviewed leaders across Israel's diverse society, including a Palestinian attorney, gives no voice to anyone living in the occupied territories. 

So as much as I enjoyed this informative, passionate  book -- it did make me less sympathetic to the author’s cause.  Shavit asserts that secular Judaism will eventually disappear without Israel - but he hasn't even tried to convince me that this problem is serious enough to merit warfare, much less a century of it.  He regrets that Israeli policy is currently driven by right-wing nationalism - but he asks for American support regardless. 

Looking back, Shavit has documented Israel’s survival as an ethno-centric state - and it is indeed a remarkable, thrilling story.  Looking ahead, however - the next remarkable achievement might  be to transform itself into a pluralistic nation with a Jewish minority.  But Shavit, the Zionist, doesn’t really want to look ahead . The other  two possible scenarios are endless war or nuclear annihilation.

And  given my own proclivities, I am less pessimistic about the future of a secular Jewish identity without Israel.  I am never going to raise Jewish children or keep the Sabbath or any other Jewish holiday.  But the Jewish tradition in literature, sacred and otherwise, has always fascinated me - and the literary importance of this book may outlive its subject matter - along with books by other great secular Jewish writers of recent times.  (my favorite being Isaac Singer).  Every character that Shavit introduces is succinctly and passionately drawn.  And as amazing as many are, they all feel true to life.

All good things must come to an end - but as long as free inquiry is protected, Jewish intellectual life , from the Torah to the latest Shavit, will live on — whether waxing or waning.  The rule of law in a pluralistic democracy is worth fighting for.  Other stuff — not so much.

 

Chetan Bhagat : One Indian Girl

The protagonist in this pulp fiction is hardly just "one Indian girl"

She's brilliant, attractive, ambitious, and hardworking.  She gets a job with a multi-national financial firm and soon makes half a million USD a year. Her only problem is that she also  wants  to be loved and  wants to have children.

Can this "one Indian  girl" ever have it all?

Men find her attractive -- and here are her choices:

*a creative artist in  advertising,  He wants her to be a housewife.
*a wealthy, married, partner in a financial services business. He wants her to be a playmate
*a tech-nerd who was picked by her mother from a marriage website for desis

Min Jin Lee : Pachinko

Looks like the toy section in a Walmart, doesn't it ?    It's actually a pachinko hall in Japan - pachinko being a mechanical device that's  fun to play like a pinball machine, and gambles your money away like a slot machine.

For many Japanese, it's addictive to play --- but it's also low-class to operate,  so most of the industry is  run by  the shunned Korean  minority --- and that's how it fits into this melodramatic  novel about a Korean family living in Japan.

As demonstrated in WWII, the Japanese don't show much respect for Asian ethnicities other than their own   - and they are especially contemptuous of Koreans. So there is some degree of revengs as pachinko makes some Koreans rich and some Japanese poor

The author tells us that she was inspired to write this book by the story of a Korean boy who killed himself after his Japanese classmates wrote hateful messages in his yearbook.

Her novel is basically a melodrama of good, innocent, long suffering, hard working, family-devoted Koreans being abused by cruel, perverse, greedy Japanese.  The only good  Japanese are those at the bottom of society - those  whom other Japanese have rejected.  

That structure is a bit tedious and predictable -- as is the author's taste for heart wrenching sorrow.

It's a feel good story as people who were once poor, starving, and abused become affluent through honest hard work and dedication to each other.  But none of them becomes successful at anything other than the pachinko business.

There is zero social idealism, here, outside the firm boundary of the family.            

Ernest Satow : A Diplomat in Japan

This memoir would probably be fascinating

for those familiar with the Meiji Restoration and the characters involved.

For me - it was like listening to the obscure dinner table chatter

of the table next to yours.

(and many good dinners were described in some detail)

It would appear that young Satow,

then working as a translator as he learned the language,

was completely in the dark

regarding the Japanese politics of that time.

He keeps reassuring us that the British had no horses in this race.

But he also seems to favor the Emperor over the Shogun.

The main drama, for him, takes place on a very small scale:

Europeans being randomly murdered by sword-happy Samurai -

for  which the European diplomats would demand justice and restitution.

He is less concerned when the European and American gunboats fire 

on Japanese towns and fortifications. 

Regrettfully, there are no details of Satow's off-duty life.

Eventually he would take a Japanese woman as common-law wife,

so we may suspect that he may have been served by

courtesans as well as geishas.  

But we'll never know.