Thucydides, book 1

“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to be applauded of the moment, but as a possession for all time.” –Thucydides, 1.22, The History of the Pelopennesian War

I’m currently reading Thucydide’s mammoth book on the Peloponnesian War. What strikes me about the book so far is that it appears to be timeless in it’s story as the conflict between the Athenians and the Spartans is at the same time abstract and particular. I mean it’s particular to the two cities and their allies (or subjects) but the reasons for war, and the speeches given in both support and against are almost the exact same that have come out of the mouths of leaders and politicians from the contemporary era.

Because, I’m cheap I bought the Barnes and Noble version which compiles a great deal of commentary and some small quips regarding the work, this is obviously done so that they can justify charging for a copy of the book that is so readily available for free on the internet. One of the commenters (I forget his name) mentioned that he was assigned the book in grad school during the late 70s and was instructed to read the book as a metaphor for the Cold War. Athens, of course, was the United States while the USSR was to be the Spartans.

While I did grow up during the end of the Cold War, it’s not as fresh in my memory as more recent debates. Nor was I as conscious of the danger posed by the possibility of the Cold War going active. When it’s 1985 and you are six years old, the idea of nuclear war doesn’t really register. Especially when your parents have not given you reasons to be afraid of the Russians (which sounds like a stab at them, but it’s really not, the Russians more than likely didn’t want nuclear war anymore than we did…well maybe under Stalin and Kruschev they did, but since then?). I can’t read the book with the framework of the Cold War in mind, at least not without having to read a whole slew of books about the Cold War in order to attain the mindset necessary.

It’s also hard to maintain Thucydides in light of the current wars in the middle East. Whilet can be argued whether or not we are Athens or Sparta neither of the two cities really fit in with the enemy over there. While there were some minor engagements with rogue operations at the beginning of the Greek wars, they were the exceptions rather than the rule. Everyone knew who the enemy was and why they were fighting, whereas nowadays I’m really hard pressed to understand what it is that Al-Qaeda wants.

What did strike me, if I really needed to read the book as a metaphor was to do so in regards to an ideological difference between liberals and conservatives if you frame Athens as the left and Sparta as the right. Of course, I will probably end up offending some of my right winger friends with that statement so I am going to offer up some proof from book 1 (the whole thesis may change as I keep reading but as far as book 1 is considered I believe that holds up). 

The Spartans are described as being traditional, customary, and exclusive with regard to foreigners. Also, “we are both warlike and wise, and it is our sense of order that makes us so. We are warlike, because self-control contains honor as a chief constituent, and honor bravery. And we are wise, because we are educated with too little learning to despise the laws, and with too severe a self-control to disobey them, and are brought up not to be too knowing in useless manners,”–King Archidamus of Sparta, 1.84

The Spartans are only educated enough for what they need to get by in life. Basically this means war, and what the laws are. They also seek to exclude foreigners from participating in city politics to the point where the Spartan allies are not even allowed to witness the voting procedure on a measure that the same allies brought forward.

The Athenians on the other hand are constantly shifting their customs, find the innovation is a virtue, and pride themselves on their knowledge of the “useless manners” that the Spartan king despises so. “There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbor for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive although they inflict no positive injury.” Pericles of Athens, 2.37.

Athens is represented as the more liberal state, while Sparta is definitely locked into its customs. The Athenian drive for innovation and change is recognized as one of its strengths as they have embraced the newer technology of Naval Warfare which won the Median War (aka the Persian War). Metaphorically the story of this conflict seems to be about the progress vs. custom, new v old, the democrat v the monarchy, the empire v the conservative. The war begins with the Spartans and their allies broke, and unable to compete with the navy of Athens. Then in book 2 the war begins….

Timing is Everything

It’s difficult sometimes to not believe in fate, but Yogi Berra once observed that if there gets to be too many coincidences you can no longer call it a coincidence. Then again maybe luck, our oldest deity, really does govern all things. So here’s what happened in order of occurrence.

Having no luck with email, or telephone I decided that the best bet for myself would be to proceed to UB in person to see what, if anything, I can do to get myself ready for the coming semester. Since I’ve been through this several times already with various schools I know that by getting some things out of the way in the summer means less lines therefore less waiting on Orientation day where the beleaguered workers are dealing with thousands of people. I would rather have a problem with no people in line than have even a small one with that many. Anyone who speaks differently has never dealt with an office of the New York DMV.

So I proceed to the school, getting the first glimpse of the university in about ten years. There was then the obvious difficulty of parking, because I don’t know what is technically legal parking and what isn’t during the off season. I found a paid lot, which I figured was the best option since I did not expect to be there that long.

I easily found the office, which was unusual. Of course no one was around, it is summer so that was to be expected but I did find someone to show me where the two department secretaries were hiding. I shouldn’t say “hiding” as that admits a conscious effort, but their offices are scattered. The department itself has three, one Graduate secretary, who has since retired. Her office was the one that was empty. The other two, were very helpful when it came to showing me around and introducing myself to people. Then we got into business.

First off I wondered if there were any departmental paperwork issues that I could resolve now. They decided to check and we discovered something: I was not in the system, I had no paperwork save my application form, along with that–none of the other incoming graduate students were in the system either! This was bad, and while I had been emailing the previous secretary she had assured me that I was to receive something from the department regarding orientation which I never did. The complete lack of any hard materials was disconcerting, another motive in my stopping by the school itself.

Because of this problem I was asked to sit down and wait a bit while the attempt to resolve the issue was made. If that had not been the case I would not have had the opportunity to accidentally run into my adviser. Which was fortuitous as I need some classes. While the secretaries were obviously overwhelmed by the lack of preparation the department had for the new students, they were thankful that they were at least made aware of the situation with a month to go. Something that had I not stopped in they would still be ignorant of.

Which of course never would have happened had my advisor not been out of town for the last month, prompting me to make the stop to begin with. Which then allowed me to make an appointment with him for Thursday because the secretaries needed me to hang around if only to see whether they could get my information in the system. Of course all of that would never have happened if I had been a half hour late (catching the secretaries on their lunch break) or a half hour early (they were in a meeting). The timing was just too perfect. 

The Leak

This is a pretty big deal, but not for the reasons that most people think. By now, you probably now about the massive leak of papers (about 90k pages) regarding the war in Afghanistan that occurred yesterday, but that everyone knew was coming for a couple of weeks. I guess they knew, someone knew…it doesn’t matter they are out there now. I spent two hours yesterday flicking through them trying to find out the big deal about the papers.

I should state firmly right now, that this isn’t the Pentagon Papers that the New York Times released during the Vietnam War. These papers aren’t nearly on the scale of what those revealed, nor is it evidence of a broad range indictment that the President (or the former, I forget who exactly is against this war now) screwed up this conflict.

The release of the papers feels more like someone broke into my apartment and rearranged my furniture. It was done, it’s odd, it’s unsettling, but there isn’t any harm. You have to understand that all of these documents are past tense. They represent secret field reports after incident. Nothing can be gleaned from them by the average person that will say what will happen. Let me say this unequivocally, if the Taliban were anything but below average they wouldn’t be in the fucking Taliban. It’s time we start ridiculing these people.

I’ve read reports on the following: suspected IED device verification, retraction of a request for air support, drone launching, report of an assassination by Taliban forces of some Afghani politician, a successful convoy run, a localized firefight that was “green on blue.” (which I figured out means friendly fire between one of our NATO allies and us, this is all based on the idea that Blue=US, Green=Foreign Allies, and White=civilians or Afghanis the papers don’t provide a vocabulary list). The Pentagon and numerous others have stated that this is nothing new. They are the official reports of what has been already reported.

All of that having been stated there is a danger that Sen. Fred Thompson and former director of the CIA (Hays, or something he was being interviewed on Thomspon’s radio show) were discussing. The fact that this leak represents a lack of the government’s ability to keep something labeled “secret” secret. That’s quite disturbing in itself. Intelligence leaks are unfortunately nothing new, but the size and scope of this makes it much more. Of course if this was 20 years ago we would have to wonder how it was done, but now all of that fits nice and easy into the amount of space allocated to the RAM on my cellphone. Don’t you just love the technology age?

Intermission (The Twilight Walkthrough Pg. 1-266)

With a good chunk of the book behind us, and that I’m actually starting to get followers at the blogspot site I thought it would be a good time to do an overview of what we’ve covered so far. Any new readers that have just stumbled here or have only been paying attention for a couple of weeks this would be a good post to read.

So far this journey through a book that is adored by many, scorned also by many, but due to its prevalence in pop-culture cannot be ignored has been interesting only in that it has forced me to tear it apart. Even though that was not the original goal of the blog. The point of the whole matter was to give it a chance.

The whole thing started as I was watching and reading some of the coverage from the San Diego comic con about a year ago. What I saw were a couple of people carrying signs like this:

I thought these signs were odd. Did Twilight ruin comic con? No, for that to be the case Comic Con would have to have been not ruined prior to 2009 which it clearly was when studios decided that every summer movie remotely related to the interests that comic book fans have needed a giant press junket and panel discussions. Isn’t a comic book convention supposed to be about comic books? What exactly does James Cameron or Tim Burton (when the latter isn’t talking about his Batman movies) have to do with comics? The fact that large studios have encroached into the Comic Con was inevitable and Twilight is only a particular example of it. One might want to believe that director’s like Uwe Boll have had more to do with ruining the comic scene than Twilight. Of course I feel that it’s not even bad comic movies that have done it, it’s the rise of niche marketing appealing to fanboys that will sell out an opening weekend no matter how shitty a movie will actually be. It’s all marketing, how much comic news is actually coming out of San Diego this year?

Then I had some friends of mine, some former students, and former co-workers all talking about the book series. Most of them were talking about it in the negative. That piqued my curiosity. The real nail in the coffin was when I found out that all of this is the responsibility of a first time novelist, an amateur that cranked out the book after having a dream about it (at least according to her, and we have no good reason to doubt her).

After dealing with a insipid and completely incorrect book that tried to catalog the worst books ever written, which actually turned out to be the incoherent rantings of a religious fundamentalist neo-conservative, I thought the walkthrough treatment would be suited for something that was honestly calling itself fiction. So I began.

The method for me has not changed, despite the repeated admonitions of people who swear that once I started the book I wouldn’t be able to put it down. Nothing could be further from the truth, that’s not to say that there have been no times when I really wanted to read ahead but it didn’t grab me like people told me it would. Here’s how I make the posts which appear every Monday.

I take the book, a pen, and a small pocket notebook (which actually is the size of a Motorola Android) to begin reading. I read one entire chapter and put the book down mulling over the various events. Then I let a day or two pass. On that day I start over taking notes, this time with a theme in mind for the post or lacking that I just jot down whatever I find interesting. Things of interest usually include either really bad/good writing (it does happen), ridiculous statements, proof of ridiculous characters, or more evidence to some of the long running questions that exist in the book. My average is between five to fifteen pages in the book which amounts to two pages in my notebook (remember it’s a small notebook). On Monday I re-read last week’s post and then I sit down to write the entry this process usually takes between 1-3 hours. Almost everything that you might read in this series is an edited first draft…so I guess that makes it a second draft really. I re-read that, then hit the publish button (I use scribefire for firefox) and the whole thing begins again. I was asked by a friend of mine if I was going to do the movies as well, I figure that once I’m done with the book I’ll do the movie and then move on to the next book.

That’s the process. So far, we’ve learned a couple of things:

1) That author Stephanie Meyer, isn’t as bad a writer as people think. Those people have never graded college essays, I’m just sayin’. Her talent lies in description and setting a tone. In this she’s quite capable, the problem is that sometimes it’s really obvious that this is her first novel but that’s really her editor’s fault.

2) Her biggest flaw is in creating likable characters. The main protagonists of the story are abhorrent. Bella, who is supposed to come off as a shy, intelligent, introvert instead comes off as a pretentious elitist. While Edward who is supposed to be a dapper Vampire gentleman sounds more like a sociopathic abusive boyfriend. Neither of these two characters seem to be able or willing to engage in actual relationships with the world. Bella, especially, as she treats almost everyone of the people that she meets as tool to further her own goals.

3) The book raises some questions that are persistent which normally is a good thing, but not here. The question of why the vampires interact in society is a good one. They claim to try and blend in, but with their stunning good looks, designer clothes, and sports cars one might question if they know the definition of the word “subtle.” Secondly, Bella’s clumsiness is a mystery because it seems to come and go. She constantly reminds us, and other characters of how bad it is, but we’ve never seen it. Even when she was running from her assailants she didn’t fall, it’s chekov’s gun and someone better pull the trigger on it.

4) Finally, aside from the general relationship plot we don’t have a story. It’s just two people we don’t like hooking up. There’s nothing going on aside from that, but we do know that something is coming since the prologue established that. Now it seems as if we are grinding out some details until we get to the real story. In Tolkien terms, we’re still living in the Shire.

Next week we are back with the conclusion of the date, and utter lameness that is “soul mates.”

Wonder Woman

This story has been making the nerd news recently so in lieu of anything else happening that I feel can sustain an entire post (this is the third time today) I thought I would give it my interpretation. Although, as I have said on numerous occasions before I am not a fan of DC comics, never have been. I may own three of their issues, and they are the three that anyone collecting comics in the mid 90s should have, the Death of Superman, the Rebirth of Superman, and the incapacitation of Batman. I say “may” because there are probably several others but they were either gifts or I acquired them at comic shows as promotional items. Note: I don’t count Vertigo as being part of the DC universe.

Wonder Woman as a character is largely foreign to me. I’ve seen her on the old Justice League television show, caught some of the reruns from the Linda Carter live action, and the last time was when Carter donned the costume and ran out of the David Letterman show (many years ago). It’s difficult for me to really care about the character or the costume that many people are feeling amounts to the biggest treachery since a flop eared space monkey appeared in Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. This is nothing of the kind.

The new costume is pretty different. That’s not unsettling though, what is is the reaction of it by people like Gloria Steinmen, “I don’t have a big issue with jeans versus skirt–though jeans gives us the idea that only pants can be powerful–tell that to Greek Warriors and Sumo Wrestlers.”

Obviously she does have an issue if she brought it up. The idea that replacing the flashy poodle skirt with jeans means that you have to wear pants in order to be considered strong is ridiculous. The proof of that is in her own comment, Greek Warriors didn’t wear pants and more often that not the villains that both Wonder Woman and the numerous other superheroes in all comic universes are also wearing pants as well. Redesigning the costume of Wonder Woman is much over due since unlike other DC characters she has remained largely unchanged since 1941 where her costume is essentially the American flag wrapped around her Greek body. Given the fact that any comic character in existence in the 1940s were fighting both Nazis and/or the Japanese she was another symbol of patriotism…back in 1941.

However Steinem has another issue with the pants she’s wearing, “and though in fact, they’re so tight that they’ve just painted her legs blue; hardly a cover-up.”

I don’t know, but aren’t pants more concealing than a loose skirt? Millions of anime fans can’t be wrong (about this, not a great deal many other things) when they clamor for their sex kitten characters in pleated school skirts and really if she’s going to complain about the tightness of the pants she must exist in some negative zone where no other characters exist in comics. All characters are wearing clothing so tight that they have to sewn on. It makes the characters easier to draw since what you are essentially seeing is the naked figure painted.

However, some of the other complaints (also shared by Steinem) are in the changing of the origin story. No longer is there a hidden tribe of Amazons. Wonder Woman is the last, saved as an infant from the destruction of Paradise Island. Which, Steinem, complains gives her no place to form strong storylines and inspire readers. Of course, being able to flee back home when things get difficult to retrain is much much less inspiring than a lost orphan who must learn everything on her own.

I do share in the complaint that this story almost exactly the same as Superman’s, but we know the difference right? It’s not as if the character was just a female Superman to begin with, right?

The Date Pt. I (The Twilight Walkthrough Pg. 260-266)

I was hoping to knock this chapter off in one entry. I figured that the two lovebirds are on their first date, they would banter a bit and it would be cheesy, and there would be the reveal about the sunlight thing. I was pretty sure that I would spend most of the post talking about their banter and whether or not it fit with typical high school first dates, bringing to the reader’s attention that Edward should not be having that banter. This was not to be, because of what happened when Edward stepped into the light. In the prelude and on the side bar at the “official” site of the series I have mentioned that I am going through the book page by page, I haven’t read ahead. I only read a chunk of pages until I know that I have enough material, I’m mentioning it because nothing could have prepared me for the effect of sunlight on Edward: “His skin, white despite the faint flush from yesterday’s hunting trip, literally sparkled like thousands of tiny diamonds were embedded in his skin.”

Not only is he dreamy mcdreamy, but his skin looks like it has been encrusted in diamonds? I re-read the line over and over again, hoping that Meyer was using the word “literally” wrong. The best case scenario was that she messed up and really meant to type the word “figuratively” like when people say, “I was literally beside myself with anger.” Nothing in the context of this section can be interpreted to mean that she had made that mistake. It just seems to be too much. His skin sparkles like the vault of heaven beneath the light of the moon?

This isn’t bad for vampires, we have to give Meyer some leeway as far as making up her own world, but I must repeat the question I asked last week, “what is the downside to being a Meyer vampire?” Now that we know that sunlight just enhances its appearance in the eyes of a star struck (that’s a really literal statement now) teen-age girl only the diet seems to be a difficulty but there are two solutions to that: the first being to substitute animal blood while the second would be to live by a different morality and just eat people.

The only downside to being Edward is the contradictory and sociopathic nature by which one must carry themselves at all times. We read description after description of how dreamy and angelic he is, especially in the midday sun. Bella and Edward share an intimate moment laying with each other, with her gently stroking the blue veins on his…hand. Then, like all men on first dates, Edward ruins it by opening his mouth. I don’t know why we think that talking is going to make it better, but we can’t help ourselves. The only trouble is that he’s only loud enough that she can tell he’s saying something, but not what. What is he doing? “But, when I asked, he told me he was singing to himself.”

This is quite ridiculous. Do Meyer’s vampires whither and die unless they are constantly getting attention or is he just really working out that tortured artist side that he should have out grown about 75 years ago? Neither really makes that much sense, the former doesn’t work because they are practically laying on each other in the meadow. The latter is just plain stupid but it would fit in with his character, minus ever actually working on his art. One thing we can be sure of is that his voice is the most beautiful thing that Bella has ever heard, let’s put that aside for a second because we are going to need it.

We then proceed on to the cringe worthy, “what are you thinking?” question. The thing about it is, that while it’s accurate, it’s not something anyone wants to read. People don’t like being asked the question because it causes the hearer to instantly draw a blank on what they were thinking about. It’s like describing someone brushing their teeth, everyone does it but unless you are going to bring something new to the description it becomes trite. This is, of course, a problem for a first time writer which should be exorcised by the second book. The argument could be made that with telepathy this is something new, but since Edward cannot read Bella’s mind so we are back to the couple laying in the meadow.

Bella answer’s Edward’s question about her thoughts with this, [Note to reader: take the voice thing off the back-burner we need it now] “I was wishing that I could believe that you were real. And I was wishing that I wasn’t afraid.” Edward is so good-looking, so perfect, that she can’t believe he is real. Not the fact that he is a vampire, that all vampire literature has essentially lied to her, and that he’s literally shining in the sun; all of that is taken at face value. It’s only that he’s uber handsome which causes her to go all Cartesian on the subject. Bella behaves a lot like my daughter here: everything that can be seen or touched is verified as true ala Irish Bishop George Berkeley, yet her reaction to the physical world–the emotional content in it has to be doubted before it is believed. My daughter does this as well but she’s yet to turn two so I don’t give her a hard time about it. Bella doesn’t have this excuse she becomes some sort of anti-experience empiricist where she doubts the things that should be accepted and accepts the things that she should question.

He’s too perfect for her. Which seems odd given her rejection of other people that don’t quite measure up to the bar he sets at their high school. It’s false humility. No action she has taken has led us to believe for an instant that she thinks herself unworthy of his attention. She’s said as much, but the words don’t mesh as she scorns every other person she knows for not being him or a Cullen. Since day one at Forks HS, she knew that she deserved a place at their table. We are constantly being reminded of how perfect he is, but in being so perfect he actually becomes imperfect. Even Jesus got angry and kicked some ass one day in violation of his principles. It makes him more human, not less which is why I’m sure that little story is included in the Bible.

If you ever seen a person so beautiful they look fake you know what I am talking about. It’s those imperfections that set us apart from one another, that can make a perfect person even more gorgeous. If it wasn’t for that mole above her lip, none of us would have ever heard of the name Cindy Crawford (who was on the cover of Maxim at the age of 40). Yet Edward’s looks are too angelic, perfect in all resepects, and because he’s a vampire it meant that as a human he looked the same. Becoming a vampire means taking a snap shot at the time of the turning and that is how they will always be. Which means that he must have been the most perfect looking person in the whole 19th century, which could be possible but I doubt it. Making the vampire attractive, in all instances of it in literature is just a cheap way out for the author. It makes it easier for vampires to get prey and fit in. Whereas an overweight or too skinny ashen blood sucker would have some difficulty. It also makes us want to be one. Yet there is no reason for us to assume that being vampire is going to make a fat girl thin, or a skinny guy into the muscular adonis of Edward. The more perfect the description the less perfect the impression, especially since the intended audience isn’t going to be sharing this appearance.

She mentions also that she wishes that she wasn’t afraid, but we don’t know what she is afraid of. Bella remains characteristically and frustratingly quiet on the subject. She always reminds us of the fear she has regarding her relationship with Edward but never what that fear is rooted in. It’s not of Edward, not even that he’s scary-sexy kind of way. Edward tells her, “I don’t want you to be afraid.”

This just pisses me off, because we know that first off, he does want her to be afraid. He’s repeatedly reminded her throughout the story that she should be afraid of him. Secondly, this tells us that he knows what she means but neither of them are explaining it to us. It has to be that because Edward’s following actions make no sense if he doesn’t want her to be afraid of him.

Their faces get close, too close, you know the scene in every romance movie right before the two main characters kiss. Or the scene in every romantic comedy movie where the noses begin to touch and then someone interrupts them, that’s where we are at. This of course is the vampire movie so getting that close to the human is going to bring out his true nature. The movie Vampire Hunter D: Blood Lust, has a good version of it. The vampire Meier Link is being embraced by Charlotte and he looks down. His vision shows the red veins in her neck causing him to shake as he violently represses his being. It works there. Here, the vampire just runs without warning or set up and it comes across as cheap.

Then he goes about displaying his power. He runs around the meadow in seconds, he breaks and shatters a two foot thick branch, all the while bragging about how easily he could snuff out the candle of Bella’s life. He ends such a tired display by saying, “Don’t be afraid.”

It’s just so sad that all we have for their attraction is physical. He’s like the villain jock in an 80s teen comedy, all looks, no brains, and no personality. How about a guy who looks half as good, shows intelligence, and is also keeping the secret of being a vampire an actual secret? It would make for a much better character. You could even keep the Bella character complete throwing in theme of which person is the real predator the vampire or her. That would be a better story and a better lesson as well. But we must set aside hypotheticals because Edward has a point to make.

He could break her in half, she has no hope of out running him, and she should, “Never forget that I am more dangerous to you than I am to anyone else.”

Why is he so specific about his danger to her? It certainly isn’t the fact that they are alone in the woods with no witnesses. It’s not that she not only couldn’t run but also doesn’t want to. It’s not that she apologizes when he almost kills her. No, it’s going to get quite lame even by cliche standards.

Racism?

In following with yesterday’s tirade I have to wonder what exactly is going on with the NAACP and ask the question that will regain some of the trust that I probably lost with my right wing friends, “would their resolution regarding the tea party people (I still don’t know what they want to be called) have been approved (or even suggested) if the president wasn’t black?”

In keeping with my usual cynicism I would like to tell the Tea Party to suck it up, a resolution from a group that can’t actually make you do anything is like a internet petition–better left ignored until something more interesting replaces it lest you grant it more publicity. Having said that though, I’m actually in support of their condemnation of the NAACP’s resolution. It’s tricky to actually make that statement because the resolution in itself is so general I’m having a hard time understanding what it actually means for the tea party.

Checking their website, which I had to navigate around so that I didn’t have to give them any of my information, I came across what I am supposed to believe is the resolution. It’s a generic piece of clap trap that wants you to agree that racism is bad, democracy is good, diversity is fine, and civility is awesome. The word “banal” comes to mind since nothing in the resolution seems to be oriented specifically at the Tea Party Movement, or its members. I only know that this has to do with the tea party because I have been told that it does. Reading it, I would have just thought that it was the pledge that members of the NAACP had to make in order to join the association.

Back to the race thing though, I’m sure that some members of the tea party are racist. Just as I am sure that some supporters of the president are racist as well. Accusing the whole movement of being racist just because of the fringe element seems to be stereotyping. Although I will say that we are ending up as a society where the loudest voice is automatically deemed to be the spokesman for any group. Those shouting racial epithets in front of congress after the passage of the healthcare act were not the norm, and from the general reports of tea party “confrontations” in town hall meetings the screaming psychopaths weren’t the norm either. They just received the most press.

Even the billboard with the picture of Hitler, Lenin, and Obama on it doesn’t smack to me of racism so much as ignorant fear mongering. It’s also pretty self-contradictory either Obama is like Lenin or he’s like Hitler being both doesn’t really work. I wonder why the author took to the picture of Lenin instead of the more recognizable Stalin, but that’s not the point. It isn’t inherently racist, just as all of the idiot fear mongering which produced the images of Bush dressed like a Nazi had nothing to do with race either.

Like the accusations of anti-Americanism in the last decade the cry of racism isn’t constructive to the debate. It’s a conversation stopper designed solely to enrage. Stupid doesn’t mean racist, although the inverse is certainly true.

Never on the Offensive

So last night, as per usual, I’m playing XBOX Live. Modern Warfare 2 to be exact. After making a surprisingly adept 9 kill streak I let loose a B-2 strike on the enemy…with no success. Completely wasted effort which was frustrating because I almost never get 9 in a row without dying. My remark at the time was “well there goes 1 billion of the tax payers’ money.” A slight jab at the cost of the actual B-2 Spirit, the most expensive warplane ever built.

One of my teammate’s replies was, “if you think that’s bad Obama’s deficit is now the highest in US history.”

Confession time: even though I’m a left leaning centrist social libertarian I never hated Bush. I was pro-Afghan war, pro-Iraq war, never once thought that either election was stolen (for gods’ sake Al Gore couldn’t even carry his home state), and continue to doubt that Bush will be considered the worst president in American history (I’m going with Fillmore).

The reason I’m making this shocking confession is because I haven’t had the opportunity to really go on the offensive against the head of the executive branch. I was way too young to know what was going on under Reagan/Bush, only marginally interested in politics with the first Clinton term, didn’t seem to understand why the second term was preoccupied with whether or not he cheated on his wife, so I had no particular interest in who won the 2000 election. For a 21 year old college student it just seemed like direct impact on my life was going to be nil, although I did vote for the leading 3rd party candidate.

Whenever I hear some of my right wing friends make a comment about Obama, I get this weird twinge of defensiveness mixed with jealousy. I voted for the current president, I stand by that vote even though certain things have been a disappointment. That’s where the defensiveness comes from, but the jealousy…I just wish I could suspend reason enough to levy polemics against a president for nothing more than party loyalty.

Case in point: an extended family member who blamed Obama for the BP oil spill, and then told me upon my disagreement with her that I “just didn’t understand.” Which still burns me, since clearly I do understand that oil rig explosions aren’t the president’s fault unless he orders them blown up (still waiting for that conspiracy theory) and secondly I wonder what exactly a “better” president would have done in this person’s mind. It also spawned a new rhetorical question that I know ask people, “what exactly would Reagan have done differently?”

All of this rage just reminds me of the lefties (the actual lefties, not me) and their rage against Bush for anything that happened from 2002-2007. Unwittingly they sought to crucify him for New Orleans after Katrina, not realizing that he only took control after the flood whereas previous to the flood it was up to both the mayor of New Orleans while the larger responsibility rests on the governor of Louisiana. Or those that thought Bush caused the Pacific Tsunami, which were the source of some laughably creative conspiracy theories.

I’m not bragging when I say that I need actual clear cut logical reasons for hating an elected official. I wish I could have the emotional involvement that the left did, and that the right currently does, but I’ll have to wait until Rand Paul gets elected to something before I can share in the fun…or maybe it’s better this way because for the most part the only fun looks like shouting.

In the example that led into this post, I was making a joke that was supposed to be completely politics neutral, aimed instead at the futility of me calling in an airstrike that missed everything. Yet, being so opposed to the president meant that my friend had to make it political. I guess the downside is that jokes can no longer be jokes. Which I should have learned from someone else a long time ago when I made a list of how Ohioans should cope with being a blue state and it was a lefty that got all flustered then.

Maybe I’ll just stay satisfied being on the defensive. 

Trepidation (The Twilight Walkthrough Pg. 253-259)

It’s the morning of the big date for Bella and Edward. Bella, having just woken up after purposely abusing over the counter medicine is getting dressed and is full of anxiety. All of which is understandable for a normal first date, and is completely understandable when you factor in that Edward Cullen is more like Ted Bundy than Frank Sinatra. However that isn’t Bella’s concern.

I wish that I had some Twilight fans reading this blog so that someone, anyone, could tell me what is so appealing in his character. It makes absolutely no sense to me, then again I’m in my thirties and a male so it could be an age/gender thing but I’m really hard pressed to find the appeal. With men like Brad Pitt, George Clooney, or Roger Federer I get it. I don’t share in the attraction, being straight, but I do understand why women find those men attractive. With Edward I’m completely aloof to Bella’s infatuation.

Edward shows up at the door, “Yesterday’s fears, seemed very foolish with him here.” I don’t understand why anything is different. This brings me to another problem in the book, and I don’t know if it is bad writing or really good writing for a character that Meyer herself doesn’t like. Bella’s internal monologue runs on and on about her nervousness and fears with Edward. Yet, she never once tells us why she is afraid or why she is nervous. If she were written as something other than an intelligent bookworm* that would be one thing. From teaching I came across a lot of women that were the cheerleader types that could never explain why they felt anything, but that they, ‘just did.’ Bella can’t hide behind that having already read Austen, Shakespeare, and Chaucer; she should have some idea of how to explain her own feelings, especially in her diary (which is what we are reading the story through).

So Edward is standing outside the Swan’s house. As an aside, what I want to know is whether Edward can enter the house. This, is another one of those things that Twilight haters harp upon and that I, for once, am in complete agreement. There doesn’t seem to be any drawback to being a Vampire in Meyer’s universe. Sunlight doesn’t kill them, they can eat, they don’t have to sleep in coffins or dirt, they are pale but not enough to draw suspicion, and given that Edward was present in an Italian restaurant without any problems we can assume garlic has no effect on them. An important drawback to being a vampire is the inability to enter a house without permission. Charlaine Harris makes this a sticking point in her books (as well as the show based on it), it’s not directly stated in Stoker, and Anne Rice’s stories don’t have it but she has numerous other detriments that make up for this lack.

The problem is that Bella, being the narcissist that she is, doesn’t invite Edward in anyway. Yet, based on the fact that the Cullens were able to retrieve her truck for her by getting her keys from inside the house we have to assume that they are able to. Part of the appeal of the vampire literature is wondering what it would be like to be one and living with the issues. All Meyer does is make us want to be one without imagination because there is no reason not to be, other than living forever which has drawback you really have to think about to sympathize with.

So it’s the perfect of two worlds: you get to live amongst the people but also be stronger, faster, smarter (in most cases but not here), and have telepathy. Plus you get to be absolutely dreamy as well.

Which brings me back to the first problem I stated in the beginning of this post: why is she attracted to him? Edward makes a joke because they inadvertently dressed the same, Bella laments, “why did he have to look like a runway model when I couldn’t.”

Almost all of this week’s section is filled with comments on how good he looks, “He was too perfect, I realized with a piercing stab of despair. There was no way this godlike creature was meant for me.”

“Each time, his beauty pierced me through with sadness.”

Bella reminds me of a friend of mine in college. This person was obsessed with have sex with a girl of Asian descent. Not Indian or Russian (which are both Asian countries) but of the Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese variety. At one point during our college days he started hanging around with a girl whom I’ll call “Greta.” “Greta” was about as far from a nice person that I have ever met, she was demanding, whiny, and in general a spoiled girl that was infuriating to be around. I would always leave her vicinity because it was very difficult for me to be even civil toward her and a lot of people that we knew couldn’t understand why they were hanging out. They shared a major, so that explained it a little, but I knew. He was so obsessed with this idea that he was willing to put up with a good deal more from her than he was with his actual girlfriend at the time. It only took a month before they stopped hanging out, and it wasn’t him (they never slept together). I assumed that she found a bigger sucker to latch on.

Bella is just like my friend. There is no reason that she should want to hang out with him, much less date him, aside from a raw sexual urge that she is denying. Ok, he’s incredibly good looking but other than that he treats her terribly. He only shows concern for her when he’s the one putting her in danger. Can looks matter that much to this girl? More importantly, do looks matter this much to the intended audience of these books? I have to doubt it, but since millions of fans can’t be wrong I guess this is what matters most to these people. By all accounts Ted Bundy seems like a better date: not only was he considered good looking but he was also quite charming and intelligent. Edward lacking both of the latter qualities does exhibit the serial killer persona as he lures her deeper and deeper into the woods.

Ladies: if you meet a guy and he repeatedly reminds you that he’s only one loss of control away from murdering you, then asks you on a date into the deep woods, and you decide to go with him. Really only half of what happens to you is his fault. Being an idiot is something that goes way too unpunished in this country.

The whole reason for this trip into the woods is so that Edward can explain to Bella what happens to him in the sunlight away from witnesses. After a couple of miles of hiking, which mysteriously Bella never trips or stumbles despite the repeated assurances that she can’t walk without falling down, they arrive in a clearing. The clearing is nice because it reminds us that Meyer is a capable writer when she wants to be. She describes the flora of the setting wonderfully, even before that describing how the olive drab light of the forest turned jade when the sun came out really evokes her ability for description.

Most importantly this is done without anything happening so it’s preserved as being excellent. Just like the tidal pools waaaaay back in the beginning of the book, I’m quite amazed at the contradiction of Meyer’s ability to describe things while not being able to describe likable personalities. I willingly give the end of this chapter my stamp of approval. Especially as she creates tension not based on murder threats or false danger. Bella notices that she is skirted into the field past Edward who is hesitant at walking into the sunlight. This is understandable as he is about to show us actual proof, for the first time, that he is other than human: “Edward seemed to take a deep breath, and then he stepped out into the bright glow of the midday sun.”

The chapter ends there, it makes me want to keep reading. Something that hasn’t happened yet in my experience reading the book. Perhaps next week’s post will be free of any criticism if it continues in this vein.

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*Which she never comes across as being, but we are told that she is one.

On Divination

“On Divination” occupies an interesting place in Cicero’s writings making it very tricky to properly classify it. On the one hand it deals with a unique topic, divination, but on the other it reads more like the second half of his book “On the Nature of the Gods” or “De Natura Deorum.” For example read the following quote:

“If we were disposed to take any notice of you, this would overwhelm us with superstition, impelling us to cultivate soothsayers, augurs, fortune-tellers, seers, and dream-interpreters. Epicurus has delivered us from these terrors. now that we are liberated, we have no fear of the gods, for we realize that they neither create trouble for themselves, nor seek to impose it on another. We venerate with devoted reverence their pre-eminent and outstanding nature.”–De Natura Deorum 1.55,56

The idea of divination is so intertwined with Cicero’s first book that the two are complementary. “On The Nature of the Gods” was a dialogue concerning two questions: do the gods exist, and if so, of what kind are they? This book makes the assumption that the gods do exist since without them divination would be impossible, “My own opinion is that, if the kinds of divination which we have inherited from our forefathers and now practice is trustworthy, then there are gods, and, conversely if there are gods then there are men who practice divination.” (1.5)

Being that the prime evidence for the existence of the gods in the first book was the example that so many people from all over the known world at that time believed in them (despite how weak that proof actually is). The same occurs here. Cicero writes this book, as he does most of his philosophy, in the form of a dialogue between himself and his older brother Quintus. Quintus taking the pro-divination position lays out his argument that divination does in fact exist because there is ample evidence of it being successful. The first half of the book is laden with evidence of proper divination of varying types.

His argument though is circular and not only that it is also an incomplete circle. Cicero makes a mistake between his two books, in the first book he is claiming that belief in the gods and belief in divination proves that the gods exist. In the second book he is claiming that because the gods exist there is divination. That’s reasoning that symbolically doesn’t pan out: a->b, b->a= b & a. It’s an all or nothing argument but there is no reason to logically accept either a or b. Secondly, the problem is that if we accept that the gods exist there is no reason to accept that there must be divination.

Does this then mean that the practice of Divination is false? Not necessarily, just that the proof offered so far isn’t as convincing as Cicero would have us believe. Cicero’s ample supply of evidence works better here than it did for proving the existence of the gods, “I will urge only this much, however in defense: the oracle at Delphi never would have been so much frequented, so famous, and so crowded with offerings from peoples and kings of every land, if all ages had not tested the truth of its prophecies.” (1.19)

Bringing out the Delphic Oracle as his prime piece of evidence is a shrewd move. The importance of the Oracle cannot be overstated in the ancient world. No major moves in the bronze age were made without a consultation to the Oracle. Herodotus records numerous examples of the prophecies uttered by the Oracle and how they all panned out to be true from King Croesus,* to King Leonidas**, and Athens.*** It is the most famous of the ancient sites and Quintus is astute in bringing it out.

The problem with the Oracle is also two-fold. The first is that while we know of the successful prophecies there are not any examples of the prophetess failing. Not one. This, in itself proves nothing as it could very well be that the vapors were compelling true divination. Yet, the second problem, is that the Delphic Oracle falls victim to the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. This fallacy is completed when you find a desired result and then draw the bullseye around it, it’s post hoc ergo propter hoc all over again.

This is how Nostradamus is always so accurate. The only time that the Frenchmen ever gave a specific date he was completely wrong, “In the year 1999 and seven months…” It is addressed by Cicero directly, “For it was clever in the author to take care that whatever happened should be foretold because all references to persons or time had been omitted.” (2.54) It’s quite too bad that no one on those many many history channel specials ever explains that one time when the old physician was not only clear but specific. After all, why should they? It would collapse the entire cottage industry.

Adding to that the often cryptic nature of the Oracle nothing can really be told beforehand. The famous example of King Croesus is obvious, either one kingdom will die or the other, it’s not like there was a middle ground in the old days.

Cicero’s problem also lies in the fact that he is a victim of his time. Astronomy and Astrology is roughly the same discipline but the division is beginning. He points correctly to the Miltean Philosopher Thales who accurately predicted an Eclipse, while this might be foresight it’s not anything supernatural.

Ultimately though Cicero will defeat his brother in the argument. Astrology is dispensed with by showing that not everyone born on the same day is the same as the planets’ and stars’ influence would have to be the same. Yet it is logic that defeats the process. If divination is the foreseeing of chance events then we have an ontological issue.

If something can be predicted with certainty than that something is not a chance event it is a necessary event. Chance by definition is something that occurs randomly it cannot be predicted. The very nature of divination is such that it is to predict random chance events. Anything that can predicted can not, by definition, be claimed to be “random.”

Only the Stoics can readily accept this Ontological quandary and still be consistent in claiming that there is divination. The only problem is that while Stoicism was an accepted school at the time they are not represented in the dialogue as they were in “The Nature of the Gods.”

At the end, it seems that Cicero rejects divination just as it seemed he did reject the interference of the gods in the day to day affairs of people. No type of divination is reliable enough or consistent enough to be considered trustworthy. If all of the civilizations who relied on it so greatly really did have the voices of the gods warning them about mistakes, why did they all fall?

The fault lies in the gullible swindled by fortune tellers into believing that a bird’s liver means one thing, or that a thunderbolt arcing to the west means another. The masses would fall for such tricks as long as it pays off once in awhile, Guillermo Savonarola in Renaissance Florence used such thunderbolt omens in ranting against the church. The masses were utterly convinced. “But,’ you say, ‘all kings, peoples, and nations employ auspices. As if there were anything so absolutely common as want of sense, or as if you yourself in deciding anything would accept the opinion of the mob!” (2.39)

The final question on the subject has to do with the fortune tellers themselves, do they admit to themselves? If the James Randi Foundation prize is any example, then no they do not. What about each other? Does John Edwards (the psychic not the politician) laugh at Sylvia Brown…or as Cicero puts it himself, “But indeed, that was quite a clever remark which Cato (the Younger) made many years ago: ‘I wonder,’ said he, ‘that a soothsayer doesn’t laugh when he sees another soothsayer.” (2.23)

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* “The winner of this battle shall destroy a great kingdom.” [Croesus of Lydia misinterpreted the oracle and was defeated losing his kingdom]
** “Either a king of Sparta shall die or all of Greece will.” [referring to the Persian War]
*** “Flee to a bulwark of wood…” [The Athenians abandoned the city and relied on their wooden Navy to defeat the Persians at Salamis]