A Bend in the River
Author: VS Naipaul 416 pp
My rating: 4*
Started June 10 2009, Finished June 15 2009.
At once an homage to Heart of Darkness, a portrait of recently post-colonial Africa and an exploration of one of Naipaul’s major themes, the lot the descendents of Diaspora Indians, this novel partially compensates for lacking the humor of Naipaul’s other masterpiece, A House For Mr. Biswas, with an unrelentingly ominous tone. The characters are not as fleshed out or human identifiable as those in Biswas, but the prose is more forceful -- at times I felt like I should underline the entire book. The book seems to be set in a fictionalized Congo/Zaire in the period just after that nation and most of sub-Saharan Africa became independent nations; it is notably depressing to think that the nation which in the book is depicted as almost completely non-functional and on the brink anarchy, has gone steadily down hill since Bend was published..
Though Father Huismans knew so much about African religion and went such trouble to collect his pieces, I never felt that he was concerned about Africans in any other way; he seemed indifferent to the state of the country. (90)
Who wanted philosophy or faith for the good times? We could all cope with the good times. It was for the bad that we had to be equipped. And here in Africa, none of us were as well equipped as the Africans. (105)
This was how the place worked on you: you never knew what to think or feel. Fear or shame -- there seemed to be nothing in between. (112)
In a strongly Kurtzian echo, Raymond says of the president, “He is a truly remarkable man.” (198) In HOD, Kurtz is referred to at least five times as a “remarkable man”.
Bringing to mind Marlowe’s “inconclusive experiences” in HOD, Salim remarks “our interview ended inconclusively”. (214)
Indar’s interview in London brings to mind Marlowe’s in Brussels. (218)
It isn’t that there’s no right and wrong here. There’s no right. (286-7)
You mustn’t think it’s bad just for you. It’s bad for everybody. That’s the terrible thing. It’s bad for Prosper, bad for the man they gave your shop to, bad for everybody. Nobody’s going anywhere. We’re all going to hell, and every man knows this in his bones. (408)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Eating the Sun
Eating the Sun
Author: Oliver Morton 2008 412 pp
My rating: 3.5*
Started April 7 2009, Finished May 12 2009.
This book is primarily a history of human understanding of photosynthesis, though it also is substantially concerned with how photosynthesis has shaped the planet. I thought too much of the book was devoted to the scientific personalities in the arena and not enough to clearly and simply explaining the intricacies of photosynthesis itself; the author tends to explain a breakthrough then cover many pages discussing various tangential issues leading up to the next big discovery which caused me to lose track of the what was important and greatly diluted my understanding of the fundamentals. Despite the fact that reviews state that the scientific explanations are directed to the layman, I still had a hard time keeping everything straight, but then biology was always a weak subject for me. Nonetheless, I understood enough of the details to realize that the unlikelihood of a system as complex as photosynthesis developing randomly is so great as to prompt even an affirmed non-believer to consider the possibility of a greater power pulling the strings. The end of the book addresses human induced climate change which the author indicates is beyond dispute and if left to its current trajectory, will have a severe negative impact on the sustainability of human society; he doesn’t feel the situation is hopeless though, envisioning Manhattan Project type effort to engineer new photo-synthesizing, carbon-sequestering organisms.
Extinctions may remove species and shapes and behaviors, but they do little if anything to biochemical possibilities. (266)
Today’s carbon-dioxide level is 381 parts per million. Bob Berner’s Geocarb model suggests that the carbon-dioxide level was more than three times that for almost all the time the dinosaurs walked the earth. (282)
The average duration of a mammalian species in the fossil record is just a million years. (310)
Nitrogen fertilization is largely responsible for increases in average cereal yield from 750kg per hectare in 1900 to 2.7 tonnes per hectare today. (353)
Author: Oliver Morton 2008 412 pp
My rating: 3.5*
Started April 7 2009, Finished May 12 2009.
This book is primarily a history of human understanding of photosynthesis, though it also is substantially concerned with how photosynthesis has shaped the planet. I thought too much of the book was devoted to the scientific personalities in the arena and not enough to clearly and simply explaining the intricacies of photosynthesis itself; the author tends to explain a breakthrough then cover many pages discussing various tangential issues leading up to the next big discovery which caused me to lose track of the what was important and greatly diluted my understanding of the fundamentals. Despite the fact that reviews state that the scientific explanations are directed to the layman, I still had a hard time keeping everything straight, but then biology was always a weak subject for me. Nonetheless, I understood enough of the details to realize that the unlikelihood of a system as complex as photosynthesis developing randomly is so great as to prompt even an affirmed non-believer to consider the possibility of a greater power pulling the strings. The end of the book addresses human induced climate change which the author indicates is beyond dispute and if left to its current trajectory, will have a severe negative impact on the sustainability of human society; he doesn’t feel the situation is hopeless though, envisioning Manhattan Project type effort to engineer new photo-synthesizing, carbon-sequestering organisms.
Extinctions may remove species and shapes and behaviors, but they do little if anything to biochemical possibilities. (266)
Today’s carbon-dioxide level is 381 parts per million. Bob Berner’s Geocarb model suggests that the carbon-dioxide level was more than three times that for almost all the time the dinosaurs walked the earth. (282)
The average duration of a mammalian species in the fossil record is just a million years. (310)
Nitrogen fertilization is largely responsible for increases in average cereal yield from 750kg per hectare in 1900 to 2.7 tonnes per hectare today. (353)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Panic
Author: Michael Lewis 2009 365 pp
My rating: 3.5*
Started May 25 2009, Finished May 31 2009.
This book contains selected articles from a variety of authors and sources covering the boom and bust arcs of the last four major financial panics: the October 1987 Wall Street Crash, the 1998 SE Asia financial implosion, the bursting of the internet stock bubble in 2000 and the 2008’s credit crunch (the last of which, unlike its predecessors, is still unresolved with no recovery as yet to be able to look back with relief from). While book suffers somewhat from a lack-of-effort, slapped-together, greatest-hits feel and the disparate nature of the selections prevent each section from building into a coherent unit, I still found it a useful and enjoyable read, particularly the later two sections. Lewis’ pieces consistently stand out as being more deliberative and humorous. The theme of the book seems to be that each crisis starts with a period of near-boundless optimism (“we’ve entered a new paradigm“) following by a shattering return to earth and a resolve that “we’ve learned our lessons and will never let this happen again” which is quickly forgotten or justified away.
On opening the morning after the ‘87 crash GE’s bid/ask spread was 45/65.
It was striking how little control we had of events, particularly in view of how assiduously we cultivated the appearance of being in charge by smoking big cigars and saying fuck all the time. (38)
The chapter from Lewis’ book about a meeting between Healtheon (Jim Clark’s post Netscape internet venture) management and Wall Street investment bankers is hilarious in a Bonfire Of The Vanities sort of way. The bankers spend the entire session in a state of awed befuddlement, no more so than after hearing the CIO’s incomprehensible explanation of the software development details of the Healtheon’s planned website when theWall Streeters are stunned to silence except for one who impresses his peers by using the word “platform” as tech jargon way when asking a simple question .
And that in the way is the point. If you can’t put one over on Lou Dobbs, who can you put one over on? (240)
Prescient passage from a 2002 Lewis article written after the tech bubble crash: … “Eliot Spitzer gets credit for cleaning up Wall Street, which neither he nor anyone else will ever do. (Just wait till the next boom.) “ (244)
A 2008 NYT article by Roger Lowenstein explaining how the ratings agencies contributed substantially to priming the credit bubble by assigning triple A ratings to CMOs and CDOs based on subprime loans is quite a revelation in that almost every aspect of the process seemed tilted towards inflated ratings.
Author: Michael Lewis 2009 365 pp
My rating: 3.5*
Started May 25 2009, Finished May 31 2009.
This book contains selected articles from a variety of authors and sources covering the boom and bust arcs of the last four major financial panics: the October 1987 Wall Street Crash, the 1998 SE Asia financial implosion, the bursting of the internet stock bubble in 2000 and the 2008’s credit crunch (the last of which, unlike its predecessors, is still unresolved with no recovery as yet to be able to look back with relief from). While book suffers somewhat from a lack-of-effort, slapped-together, greatest-hits feel and the disparate nature of the selections prevent each section from building into a coherent unit, I still found it a useful and enjoyable read, particularly the later two sections. Lewis’ pieces consistently stand out as being more deliberative and humorous. The theme of the book seems to be that each crisis starts with a period of near-boundless optimism (“we’ve entered a new paradigm“) following by a shattering return to earth and a resolve that “we’ve learned our lessons and will never let this happen again” which is quickly forgotten or justified away.
On opening the morning after the ‘87 crash GE’s bid/ask spread was 45/65.
It was striking how little control we had of events, particularly in view of how assiduously we cultivated the appearance of being in charge by smoking big cigars and saying fuck all the time. (38)
The chapter from Lewis’ book about a meeting between Healtheon (Jim Clark’s post Netscape internet venture) management and Wall Street investment bankers is hilarious in a Bonfire Of The Vanities sort of way. The bankers spend the entire session in a state of awed befuddlement, no more so than after hearing the CIO’s incomprehensible explanation of the software development details of the Healtheon’s planned website when theWall Streeters are stunned to silence except for one who impresses his peers by using the word “platform” as tech jargon way when asking a simple question .
And that in the way is the point. If you can’t put one over on Lou Dobbs, who can you put one over on? (240)
Prescient passage from a 2002 Lewis article written after the tech bubble crash: … “Eliot Spitzer gets credit for cleaning up Wall Street, which neither he nor anyone else will ever do. (Just wait till the next boom.) “ (244)
A 2008 NYT article by Roger Lowenstein explaining how the ratings agencies contributed substantially to priming the credit bubble by assigning triple A ratings to CMOs and CDOs based on subprime loans is quite a revelation in that almost every aspect of the process seemed tilted towards inflated ratings.
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