of books, movies, and work

Recently, I spent too much money on scrapbooking supplies. So, while I'm scrapbooking, I watch my netflix movies. I just finished Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both of which were awesome, and am getting La Vie en Rose for tomorrow. I still have Das Boot, but it's so long, I've been saving it.

I also just read The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, and it was excellent. However, I was rather depressed and unhappy about the state of the world and life in general after reading it. So... I guess that's a point in its favor, that I was so invested in the characters I really had a an emotional reaction. But I doubt I'll be reading it for fun anytime again soon.

Lastly, I saw There Will Be Blood and In Bruges in the past few days - if you can see either of these, go for it. In Bruges is meant to be a dark comedy, but There Will Be Blood often crosses that line without even seeming to mean to. Both truly excellent movies.

And, yet again, I am working six days this week. So, it's good for my wallet, no so good for my sanity.

The Constant Gardener Book Review

I originally bought this book because I knew I would have some extra time on my hands here, and it was S$17 for a book over 500 pages, meaning it would actually take a significant chunk of my time to read. I absolutely loved this book. I have no idea what the movie is like, haven't seen it, but have great respect for the folks involved in making it. If it retained the energy and the fury of the book, it must be a good movie.

The basic plot is that Tessa Quayle is killed due to interference with a tuberculosis drug. Her husband investigates, and it is this investigation, of himself, of their relationship, and of her fight against the big pharmaceuticals, that makes up the story. It's tightly woven, well-told, and the characterizations are brilliant. I really enjoyed how John le Carre really made all of the characters jump to life for me. The first time that really happened was when I cried in David Copperfield, and le Carre has done almost as good a job at character development as Dickens did.

I personally love this book because it attacks - justly - those companies that represent what I hate most: millionaire "philanthropists" who are perfectly willing to be "humanitarians" when it serves their own purpose and makes it possible to buy a larger, sleeker private jet. These new arch-criminals aren't going to be featured on Saturday morning cartoons. But they play just as fast and loose with human life and the environment, as though life, precious in all its forms, is here solely for their own personal benefit. May a pox descend upon them all.

If you have time, and, as summer is upon us, I'm sure some of you do - read the book. It's brilliant.

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

Today I read a book called The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (actually, it's supposed to be all lower case and is 1) a tribute to Sherlock Holmes and 2) shows something about how its narrator sees the world). I read it because one of the classes I assist in is reading it, and parts of it looked funny and interesting. The basic plot line is that a 15 year old, Christopher Boone, with Asperger's Syndrome (a high functioning version of autism) wants to discover the mystery of who killed Wellington, his neighbor's dog.

Parts of it were funny and interesting, and it was such a fascinating read that I read it all in one day. There were times when it was so cute, and the things he did were so crazy that they were absolutely hilarious. There were a couple times that I had to stop myself from laughing out loud.

By the end, though, I didn't want to laugh anymore. It wasn't funny. Not at all. In fact, I started crying on the train. One of the functions of Asperger's, and autism in general, is that people with the disorder don't understand human emotion like regular people do. Christopher can understand the meaning of happy, sad, frightened, and safe, but not much else. This is why he likes dogs and cares about Wellington's death - dogs too, only understand these basic emotions, and most importantly, they can't lie since they don't talk. His therapist, Siobhan, tries to teach him how to follow what people mean (since people rarely say what they mean or mean what they say) when they speak, and it's heartbreaking to read about his struggles.

The part that made me cry was his relationship with his parents, especially with his father. Without revealing too much, since you really should read the book - it's absolutely fabulous - the lack of ability to connect emotionally leaves Christopher completely at a loss to understand or appreciate his father's point of view. The book was so well written, I could just about feel the way that Christopher's actions would have been like a knife to the heart that didn't stay put but kept sawing back and forth. Christopher, of course, has no idea of the pain he's caused his father because he doesn't see the world in at all the same way.

It gave me a tiny, tiny window into what parents with autistic children must go through every single day. To have a child, a child you love more than anyone or anything else in the world, be completely incapable of returning that affection would be the most horrible thing in the world that I could ever think of. They all have my deepest respect.

All in all, it was a brilliantly written book, and I disagree with the reviewers on amazon.de who said that the second half of the book trailed off. The second half of the book is when you begin to see how difficult Christopher's understanding of the world is for his parents to cope with. This is when you get out of the "fun" and the "mystery" part of the book and finally see how this child's unique abilities are both a blessing and a curse for the two people who love him most. When you have time, go read it.

Donna Leon fan

I have recently discovered Donna Leon's books. I posted about one previously, about Paola's observations on students - which were spot on - but I recently read two more books which focused on fascinating topics. I think she does what I do: search the news for something interesting to write about.

Anyway, in Blood from a Stone, the topic is conflict diamonds. Because of the date, and the mention of CNN, I'm assuming she saw the documentary Cry of Freetown, because no one else has really bothered to talk about the situation, at least until Leonardo DiCaprio took a starring role in a movie about conflict diamonds.

The second one I read recently was Through a Glass, Darkly, about environmental degradation caused by chemical plants. One of the secondary characters, Inspettore Vianello, observed that even if we changed our habits immediately, we had probably damaged most things beyond repair. Such a cheerful outlook... I personally don't think that - the planet has shown a remarkable capacity for survival. But that doesn't mean that there won't be plenty of scrapes and bruises (euphemism for destroyed climates, extinct species and thousands, if not millions of displaced or dead humans) along the way. Let's hope Vianello's wrong.

But if you're ever bored in an airport, or just want something good to read, Donna Leon = good.

Currently reading....

... Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Description of a singularly dedicated British scientist, J. B. S. Haldane:
"On other occasion, while poisoning himself with elevated levels of oxygen, Haldane had a fit so severe that he crushed several vertebrae. Collapsed lungs were a routine hazard. Perforated eardrums were quite common, too; but, as Haldane reassuringly noted in one of his essays, 'the drum generally heals up; and if a hole remains in it, although one is somewhat deaf, one can blow tobacco smoke out of the ear in question, which is a social accomplishment.'"

Geologist referring to inhospitable environment provided by the young earth:
"'Well, one school of though says it was actually cool then because the sun was much weaker.' (I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as 'the Chinese restaurant problem' -- because we had a dim sun.)"

Ethyl gasoline (leaded gasoline) story:
"As rumours circulated about the dangers of the new product, ethyl's ebullient inventor, Thomas Midgley, decided to hold a demonstration for reporters to allay their concerns. As he chatted away about the company's commitment to safety, he poured tetraethyl lead over his hands, then held a beaker of it to his nose for sixty seconds, claiming all the while that he could repeat the procedure daily without harm. In fact, Midgley knew all too well the perils of lead poisoning; he had himself been made seriously ill from overexposure a few months earlier and now, except when reassuring journalists, never went near the stuff if he could help it."

On Sir Isaac Newton:
"Newton was a decidedly odd figure -- brilliant beyond measure, but solitary, joyless, prickly to the point of paranoia famously distracted (upon swinging his feet out of bed in the morning he would reportedly sometimes sit for hours, immobilized by the sudden rush of thoughts to his head), and capable of he most riveting strangeness. He built his own laboratory, the first at Cambridge, but then engaged in the most bizarre experiments. Once he inserted a bodkin -- a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather -- into his eye socket and rubbed it around 'betwixt my eye as near to [the] backside of my eye as I could' just to see what would happen."

I'm on page 411, and I started reading it yesterday morning. Who knew science could be so fascinating? Anytime math comes up, it still escapes me, though.