Ten Years Later

Today is September 1st, 2017. It's nineteen years later, and Albus Potter boarded the Hogwarts express this morning, ten years after we all turned the final page.

It's silly, really, to care so much about an arbitrary date in an imaginary universe. It is only a story, of course.

But maybe not. After all: fiction is hardly the same as not real.

Harry's story meant a lot to me as I grew up. In many ways, it defined large parts of who I am today. The books, after all, matured alongside me. As so many have noted, Harry and his friends grew up in tandem with their audience. Harry's trials were my trials. Not the werewolves and the Dementors, but the crushes and the insecurities. The loneliness, the fear of a confusing world. These I could relate to. Harry's story was my Hogwarts, a place I could always retreat to and feel welcome.

Harry's adventures were my escape and my inspiration, an example of what the fantasy genre does at its best. Not only did the books inspire a lifelong love of reading stories, they helped me define how I came to understand my world. By holding a mirror up to our world, the story showed me the insidious malaises of celebrity worship, mob mentality, and economic, racial, and gender inequality.

Harry helped make me empathetic for the world. In the Luna Lovegood I saw my quirky school peers, and wondered who might need a hand in friendship; in Sirius Black, I saw the father figures in my life, and wondered if perhaps the bad guys aren't always the bad guys. After reading Chamber of Secrets, I remember wondering who the "mudbloods" of my world were, and how I could avoid being complicit in such awfully hateful attitudes. These are just a few examples, though I could easily fill a book with ways the books inspired me to an awareness of and a genuine desire to fight cruelty and injustice.

These desires did not evolve solely out of Harry Potter of course. The series was merely one of numerous forces that shaped the person I've become (a mother who predisposed me to empathy, the crippling loneliness and insecurity of the introverted, to name a few more), but I always felt a special kinship with Harry that filled a hole in my soul where nothing else could. This, perhaps, is why the books transcend the medium of mere literature in my mind. Harry Potter represents the first time I found a book and my connection to its world truly magical. Since then, I've found hundreds of worlds such as this, hundreds of characters that feel truly real to me. But Harry was the first. And the first is always special.

Of course, Harry was never my favourite character in the series. Oh no, far from it. Harry was always flawed, frustrating, and often foolish. But he always had good intentions. And don't we all succumb to our flaws sometime? You see, I am not, and never have been, the favourite character in my own story. Yet Harry gave me hope that perhaps I could still bring some good into the world. Perhaps one day I might even become the favourite character in someone else's story.

Harry's story is not for everyone, and many of those who came late to the series have not connected with the stories as I have. In this way, the series' popularity has perhaps been to its detriment. I would no longer consider myself a "potterhead" (a term I have always resisted, much as continue to resist the asinine "Whovian" label). I no longer reread with the same avid obsession. Yet I still pick up my worn hardcovers every now and then, and revisit a part of myself that will never leave me.

For those who understand I need say no more.

All is well.

September 1st, 2017

Reading List: Some Recommendations

Life is busy. Between full time work, summer classes, serious creative projects, and maintaining some semblance of a social life (and also sleeping, occasionally) it’s been hard to find time to read recently. I’ve been told this is part of being an adult, though I reject that notion. I know plenty of adults who continue to devour a half dozen books every month.

Still, making time for reading takes some concerted effort. Even harder, often, is deciding what books to use that precious time on. Nothing is more upsetting than wasting a solid ten hours reading a bad book. As such, here are a few books I’ve recently read and enjoyed.

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

Perhaps one of Steinbeck’s lesser known and most underrated works, Travels with Charley is an entertaining and insightful portrait of the United States. Thoughtful yet accessible in distinctly Steinbeck fashion, the book is a semi-fictional account of a road trip the author make to “rediscover his country” towards the end of his life. Spending several months touring America in a camper van with no company but his dog Charley, the author’s tone is reflective. This book was clearly written towards the end of his life and career, as one sees his growing disillusionment the longer his journey goes on. Such disappointment in the new generation is profound coming from a man who consistently provided a voice for America’s unheard populations.

For anyone who enjoys American literature or memoir, this book is an excellent choice. It blurs some of the lines between novel and biography, fusing elements of both to create profound yet enjoyable book. I also highly recommend the audiobook narrated by Gary Sinise.

On Not Losing My Father’s Ashes in the Flood by Richard Harrison

Calgary based writer Richard Harrison’s latest collection of poetry is a deeply compassionate exploration of grief, marriage, and family relationships. While each poem stands strong in its own right, this collection provides a memoir-like tale of a man attempting to process the loss of his father while realizing his own flawed mortality. Harrison uses the medium of narrative poetry to tell a deeply relatable story. This collection’s combination of insightful observation and profound imagery serves to create a cohesive and accessible whole. I recommend that even those who are not fans of poetry give this one a read.

Favourite pieces: “Found Poem” and “A Poem is a Story that Sometimes Happens to Someone”

Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas by Fredrick Douglas

As much an important historical document as it is a memoir, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas is one of those books everyone should have to read at some point. Describing the author’s childhood (such as he remembers it) and early adulthood as a slave in Maryland, Narrative is one of several autobiographies written by Douglas during his career as an abolitionist in the mid-1800s. Heartbreaking and often sickeningly visceral, this book is not a pleasant read, yet it is a crucial one for understanding the origins modern racism. We cannot forget what happened, and we cannot allow ourselves to forget just how sickening the institution of slavery was. It is important to remember that for every Fredrick Douglas who escaped to tell their story, there were a million men, women, and children left beaten, raped, and starved for the entirety of their short lives.

OK by Kool AD

One of the more absurd books I’ve ever read, Victor “Kool AD” Vazquez’s postmodern novel OK (yes, I read a postmodern novel written by a rapper) is an intriguing series of experiments in form. Any attempt to sum up this novel is largely doomed to fail. The book is bizarre in a unique way that one has to experience for oneself. For many readers, the frustrating liberties OK takes with linguistic and narrative conventions will be a turnoff. But those who can make it through the confusion and disorientation will almost certainly be rewarded. At the very least, the book should provide an entertaining if bemusing experience.

Reading like a bizarre memoir written during an acid trip (which it might well be), OK features rap battles, gigantic eagles constructed from precious metals, literary and musical references galore, existential angst, moral ambiguity, and a lot of drugs. Any plot and character development is vague enough that the reader can draw their own conclusions. Throughout the novel, Vazquez consistently provides us with a series of vignettes arranged to encourage us to ask questions of everything.

Book Review: Between the World and Me

I recently reread this book as part of a travel study done through the University. The theme of the course was "Slavery, Freedom, and Civil Rights," with the goal of understanding the ongoing legacies of racial conflicts. I attempted to synthesize some of my thoughts on Coates' work in an academic review of the book:

Book Review: Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

In his timely work Between the World and Me, national correspondent for The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates examines a black man’s place in a modern world plagued by a legacy of racial oppression. In light of recent high profile events and modern racial tensions, Coates perfectly captures the struggles faced by African Americans in today’s America. Framing the work as a letter to his son, Coates’ prose has a poetic imperfection that lends to the creation of an aching poignancy. The father’s love for his son lives on the page. The fear he feels for his child’s life, the pain he feels at the loss of so many other children, gives the work an intensely personal appeal. Between the World and Me is a deeply insightful examination of how the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow have resulted in a continued economic, social, and intellectual segregation in modern America. In the book, Coates illustrates with painful clarity the insidious dangers faced by black men and women in the Untied States now more than ever.

One part autobiography and one part a defiant reckoning, Between the World and Me is Coates’ attempt to convey to his son a haunting legacy of violence intrinsically tied to their very identity. Taking inspiration from the works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and other African American writers, Coates seeks to succinctly synthesize four hundred years of oppression while capturing a specific modern political moment. His outlook is bleak. His prose is not cluttered by sentimentality, and, unlike many of those who write on similar issues, he does not suggest the inevitability of justice. Between the World and Me is painfully aware that significant progress is neither inevitable nor likely.

Coates attempts to convey this harsh reality to his son, in order that his son might safely navigate a world that resents his existence. Though at many points Coates tends towards poetic abstraction, he centers his letter on a physical theme of the body. The brutal reality that Coates confronts can be seen in this motif. As Coates puts it, amongst all the economic, social, and historical issues, it is the physical, worldly vessel that suffers. Here, we see the titular implication, that the black body and the world around it are entirely separate. In a sense, there is something solidly between Coates and his son, and the world around them; thus, because they are not truly a part of the world, they are inherently endangered by it.

Coates’ bleak but realistic outlook is seen in this theme of physical danger, and illustrated poignantly in his discussions of the issues of domestic discipline and police brutality. For African Americans, both matters are inherently physical problems informed a multitude of factors. These physical problems are illustrated by the high profile killings of black men such as Treyvon Martin and Tamir Rice, to name a few. These deaths, Coates says, are emblematic of the systematic devaluation of the black body, both economically, socially, and, ultimately, physically. Simply put, it is less costly for a police officer to accidentally kill a black man than a white man because the world values one body over the other. This suggestion is the lynchpin of what Coates tragically conveys to his son. He wishes his son to understand this reality, so that he may best protect himself in the wider world. Indeed, Coates suggests that this is all that African American parents can do in a hostile world: prepare their children for how best to deal with that hostility. As Ta-Nehisi Coates painfully illustrates, the black mother beats her child so the child knows how not to be beaten by the police. Such brutal illustrations abound in the book.

Framing the work as a letter to his son is, perhaps, the most effective literary choice made by Coates. This gives the reader a sense of Coates’ personal investment that might otherwise have been missed. The theme of childrearing and parental love is a widely accessible one, and provides the author a method of reaching those outside of his frame of experience. This stylistic choice is one way Coates attempts to reach an audience outside of the African American community. Indeed, it is one way in which he attempts to bridge the gap to which the work’s title refers, between himself and the world.

However, the intensity of Coates’ investment should give the reader pause. It is important to acknowledge that, as poignant and effective as the work is, it is ultimately a conveyance of Coates’ own opinions. These opinions are, of course, coloured by the biographical details that Coates mentions. As such, the book cannot necessarily be read as an introduction to the study of race relations. Coates is not a neutral voice, and his own biases seep into how he addresses these issues. Once this fact is understood, however, Coates’ biases ultimately work towards the book’s purpose. Between the World and Me is an attempt to capture a unique perspective. To understand that perspective, one must understand the historical and social connotations it entails. In order to appreciate the work fully, the reader must be at least somewhat familiar with the subject of race relations. If the reader is well informed, Coates’ biases matter little, as he does not try to hide them. Ultimately, Between the World and Me is an attempt to illustrate the experience of a specific segment of the American population and convey that experience to an audience largely incapable of understanding it.

My Top Reads of the Year

So, I think most of us can agree that 2016 has been a pretty awful year for the world. On the bright side, I’ve read some good books over the past twelve months. Here are a few of them, in no particular order.

Best of 2016

Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan

I knew from the moment I read it that Michael J. Sullivan’s Age of Myth would be right up there on this list. Though technically a prequel to his other works, Sullivan ensures that the book is understandable and entertaining for all. Case in point, I’ve never read any of the author’s work before, and I absolutely loved it. The book is perfect for fans of fantasy and adventure, Tolkien, or anyone who enjoyed Game of Thrones but was confused by all the characters.

Not Alone by Craig A. Falconer

This is one of the best “first contact” stories I’ve encountered. The book starts off a little cartoonish, but quickly becomes a very realistic depiction of how the world might react to such a scenario. With an endearing cast of characters and a realistic and unpredictable plot, this sci-fi is definitely worth checking out. If you’re a fan of audiobooks, I’d strongly recommend the audiobook narrated by James Patrick Cronin.

The View From the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

In The View From the Cheap Seats, fantasy’s most perceptive author regales us with his opinions on everything from books and comics to current events. At times, part memoir, at times part journalism, and at others somewhere in between, this collection of essays is a must read for any fans of the genre, and indeed anyone looking for a perceptive lens through which to view the world. Gaiman’s greatest strength as a writer has always been his empathy, and that shines through here. This collection of essays illustrates why his fiction is so effective, and how exactly he articulates ideas we all sense even if we don’t understand them. If you’re interested, check out my full review here.

The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson

There isn’t much I can say about Brandon Sanderson that hasn’t been said already. This book is the third in the Wax and Wayne segment of the Mistborn saga, itself only a portion of the larger Cosmere sequence. If these words confuse you, don’t worry. I’ve read most of Sanderson’s books and still don’t entirely understand what’s going on. If you want to read Bands of Mourning, I’d recommend catching up with the rest of the Mistborn books first. If you’ve already done so and you’ve read Bands of Mourning… HOLY SH!T ENDING??!?!?! Something Sanderson does incredibly well is addressing the macro (the grand happenings of the universe he has created) without forgetting the micro (character interactions and the realistic problems faced by individuals). For anyone who’s a fan original and innovative fantasy, I’d really recommend giving Brandon Sanderson a read.

Other books I read in 2016 (not published this year)

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Another fantasy entry on this list, Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor is detail-heavy. The amount of world-building the author managed to place into a relatively short volume is quite impressive. The plot isn’t always the most exciting, but it’s a slow and meticulous study of a fantasy society that questions the nature of power, race, and the class system. Think Game of Thrones with a few less heads being crushed.

14 by Peter Clines

I stumbled upon Peter Clines a year or so ago while browsing through Audible, and I’m very happy I did. The second of his books I’ve read, 14 introduces an interesting shared universe that mirrors our own. The books each contain their own cast of characters and are loosely connected by interspersed cameos and a growing threat in the background (remember how Marvel slowly introduced us to its Cinematic Universe?). By combining likeable characters with an interesting mystery, 14 is an easy read with something more for those who care to look.

                                      Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

An incredibly timely book given the problems plaguing the United States right now (as though there was a time when race wasn’t an issue in the US). National correspondent for The Atlantic Ta-Nehisi Coates examines the question of a black man’s place in the world in light of recent high profile events. Framing the work as a letter to his son, Coates’ prose has a poetic imperfection that lends to the work’s aching poignancy. Coates’ love for his son lives on the page. The pain he feels at the deaths of so many others, and the fear for his own son’s life, is like a punch to the gut. Between the World and Me is not a fun book to read, but it is an important one.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Set in Nigeria during the 1960s, Half of a Yellow Sun follows three major characters as they attempt to deal with the onset of the Biafran War. Steeped in historical details and based on the firsthand accounts of the author’s relatives, the book is a heartbreaking portrayal of the costs of war and the legacies of colonialism. The book provides an intriguing examination of how intellectual ideals and harsh realities often clash. This is a great book for fans of the works of Khaled Hossieni.

The Sculptor by Scott McCloud

This graphic novel is quite unlike anything I’ve ever read. Scott McCloud manages to tap into something all creators, writers, and artists inevitably feel but cannot always articulate. Over a few hundred pages of beautiful and slightly impressionistic artwork, McCloud tells a beautiful story of love, life, and the struggles faced by all those who create. The last hundred pages is quite possibly one of the most powerful things I have ever read. At two in the morning, this story’s conclusion left me in tears yet ultimately hopeful.

A Life With Words by Richard B. Wright

Similar to The Sculptor, Richard B. Wright’s memoir provides us some beautiful insight into the life of a writer. Chronicling his young life and the struggles he faced – both internal and external – while breaking into the Canadian literary scene, A Life With Words speaks to the insecurities felt by all those who think deeply about the world around them. This is a unique memoir in that the author refers to himself in the third person. Some might call this pretentious, but I found this detail spoke to the distance we often feel from the world, something most writers struggle with at some time or another.

For a full list of books I’ve read over the past few years, many of which I’ve reviewed and commented on, check out my Goodreads profile.

A review of Neil Gaiman’s The View from the Cheap Seats

As someone who occasionally dabbles in words, I appreciate good writers.

Not just people who understands word choice and syntax (an important and often undervalued skill) or the mechanics of plot, but individuals who understand the unique power that words and stories can hold. In just a few marks on the page, writers have the power to change lives and alter realities, create worlds from nothing. Worlds that are very much real.

While many mediums achieve this goal, writing is uniquely collaborative in the way it does so. Without the input of the reader, writing does not work. The reader is imperative to the creation of a written story, and, as such, each reader’s experience with that work will be different. Middle-Earth would not exist without Tolkien, but neither would it exist without readers to interpret his words and bring his world to life in their minds.

No two readings of a novel, short story, or poem are the same.

When a reader engages a piece of literature, they bring to it their own experiences, their own biases, their own preconceptions. The reader cannot divorce themselves from the context in which they are reading, just as the words themselves cannot be divorced from the context in which they were written. The written work, as it exists in the writer’s head, is not the same as it exists in the reader’s head.

The true nature of the written word, any writing, is in constant flux, existing somewhere between the intentions of the author, the interpretation of the reader, and the context in which the words are written and read.

Neil Gaiman understands this fact better than most.

The View from the Cheap Seats is like an extended conversation with Gaiman, one of those discussions that ranges far from the original point, but from which both parties emerge with a far deeper understanding of one another.

In these essays, introductions, and speeches one is given the impression of knowing Gaiman intimately. He ruminates on all aspects of life, from writing and art, to the power of love and death. Rarely does he state his opinions and beliefs outright, yet they come through loud and clear. Gaiman does not condescend to his reader by assuming that they will share these beliefs; he is an observer, merely explaining the world as he sees it.

Incredibly astute in these observations, Gaiman puts things in terms that are often startlingly simple, yet all the more profound for that simplicity. What shines through in all these pieces is an incredible compassion for and insight into the world around him. Gaiman understands people, what drives them, and the profound power of art and writing.

Gaiman understands the potential of story, and he understands the power of words. Indeed, his particular love of writing, driven by a passion for art in all forms, is the message behind all these works. His understanding of art and life’s intimate love affair is unrivalled.

For those wishing to understand the creative mind, this book is perfect. For those wishing to know that they are not alone the world, this book is perfect. In many ways, this book is perfect, one that everyone should read.

Read Gaiman, and be inspired.

A review of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

My hopes for this book were actually fairly low; I wasn't expecting to be knocked off my feet as I was by To Kill a Mockingbird. Unfortunately, I nevertheless found myself disappointed with Go Set a Watchman.

The book was marketed as a sequel but, in reality, it's pretty much an earlier draft of Mockingbird. Rediscovered in the last year, it seems to have been published as it was found, with little or no revision. As such, there are many inconsistencies with the original book, including the outcome and significance of Tom Robinson's trial. Because of this, the book is less a sequel than it is a reflection and examination of Mockingbird's themes from a different perspective.

I knew all this going in. I knew how the character of Atticus was going to be portrayed, I knew the novel was going to have a far less optimistic tone than that of Mockingbird. Going into Watchman I was hoping for an alternate story that would serve to compliment and shed new light on Mockingbird, which remains one of my all time favourite books.

In part, Go Set a Watchman succeeds: it sheds new light on the characters and themes of Mockingbird, challenging them and revealing a way things could have been. Unfortunately, the manner in which it goes about doing so is incredibly clumsy. Go Set a Watchman reads like a first draft. The messages are delivered rather ham-handedly; the subtelty and elegance that made Mockingbird so powerful is almost entirely lost. Characters progress in haphazard ways, and there are stretches of incredibly stunted dialogue, not to mention pages and pages of poor writing.

All of these problems can be owed to the fact it is an early draft. But, then, that's the biggest problem with the book: a first draft should never be published without extreme revision, all the more so if it's going to be held up against a book like To Kill a Mockingbird.

I knew before I started it that the novel would lack one of Mockingbird's finest aspects: a young, idealistic Scout as the lead character with an older, retrospective Scout as narrator. Unfortunately, I don't think I was prepared for how much that absence would reflect on the quality of the story. I think, perhaps, that To Kill a Mockingbird succeeded only because of that character and narration, the window through which the story and its universal themes are viewed. With this in mind, Go Set a Watchman was always doomed to fail.

That being said, there were a few very enjoyable and very insightful passages, particularly during the last third of the book. Jean Louise's conversations with her uncle and her angry tirade against her father were quite powerful.

Overall, Go Set a Watchman was not a bad book. Unfortunately, it lives under the shadow of it's predecessor. If Go Set a Watchman had been published independent of that shadow, I might have enjoyed it more, though I doubt I would have loved it. People were worried the book might shatter their image of To Kill a Mockingbird, but the simple fact is that Go Set a Watchman is neither well written enough, nor consistent enough with the original book, to be capable of such a feat.

If you're interested, I just found this article that sums up some of my thoughts surrounding the book's quality and the circumstances of its publishing. Worth a read. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/25/opinion/joe-nocera-the-watchman-fraud.html?_r=0

As always, thanks for reading! If you're interested in reading any of my other book reviews, click here

A Review of Heretic by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

I recently read Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Before I read the book, I had never heard of Hirsi Ali, but apparently she is a prominent critic of Islam (I intend to read her autobiography, as her backstory seems interesting). The book caught my eye, as the idea was obviously fairly unusual, and I hoped that the author might have some interesting ideas to put forward in a tactful and thoughtful manner. Unfortunately, I found this was not the case.

My feelings towards this book changed several times as I was reading it, and I've waited several days to write a review, so as to let my thoughts on the book solidify. After a lot of reflection, I stand by my initial reaction. The few intelligent discussion points this book brings up were ultimately consumed and overshadowed by angry tirades and blatantly illogical arguments. I couldn't escape the feeling that this book was written with the specific intention of stirring the pot, making people angry, and creating a bestseller. It quite unsettles me that this book was front and center the last few times I walked into the bookstore, and that there are so many reviews on Goodreads commending the author for being "courageous" and "inspiring".

I consider myself fairly well informed when it comes to politics, religion, and current events. However, there are millions of people out there a lot smarter than me who could argue my thoughts a lot better, and I wouldn't call myself qualified enough to argue the specifics in regards to Islam. However, in regards to the book, Hirsi Ali contradicts herself quite a bit within its pages. She talks of a difference between Christianity and Islam as being the former's progression away from a literal interpretation of their holy book, while Islam, she states, continues to do the opposite. How, then, can she single out specific lines and verses within the Quran when she has just said the only difference between doctrines is the method of interpretation?

This sort of cherry picking facts is present throughout the book. She picks specific verses she wishes to criticize and ignores others. This is hardly unusual, given the argumentative nature of the book. What frustrated me, however, was the overbearing tone in which the book was written. Hirsi Ali condescends to the dissenting reader, appealing only to a very specific demographic (a fact she herself acknowledges). She calls out Western Liberals for branding any critic of the religion as an "Islamaphobe", which is, in some cases, a fair statement. Critical thinking should not be shut down, simply because we don't wish to offend people, and the media and government often go overboard with political correctness. The problem lies in the fact that, so often, ignorant and racist individuals shout with the loudest voices, overpowering those able to make rational and informed arguments. Hirsi Ali seems like a reasonably intelligent woman, and I would not be so critical if the tone and method of her argument did not, ultimately, provide fuel to the fires of ignorant and hatred. She claims to seek rational and reasonable discourse, yet the angry tirades she continually goes on will only serve to invigorate uninformed individuals who think they know what they are talking about.

Hirsi Ali states at the beginning of the book that she won't subdivide Islam. This pretty much defeats her argument from the start. When speaking about a religion that is some fourteen hundred years old, arguably the world's single most diverse faith, how can you not subdivide? It is ignorant and uninformed to make such sweeping generalizations. When discussing the problems in Islamic doctrine, one simply CANNOT compare western Muslim communities in the oppressive Saudi regime, or radicalized groups such as ISIS or Boko Haram. Again, this is an example of Hirsi Ali contradicting herself, as she specifically draws attention to the fact that Islam is decentralized, with many different sects and groups, unlike an organization such as the Catholic church.

I think that Hirsi Ali believes such sweeping generalizations justified because of her personal experiences. I have not read her autobiographies (though I think I will in the future), but her tale is undoubtedly sad and, yes, many young Muslim girls are not afforded the opportunity to escape. Unfortunately, this leads to her book being incredibly tinted by her own anger, to the detriment of her rational arguments. She simply cannot seem to separate her own experiences from her argument, and thus she does not come across as the informed individual she purports to be.

Hirsi Ali claims this book is attempting to insight discussion within the Muslim community itself. I don't really see how she can reasonably hope to accomplish this goal. In terms of addressing western liberals, she hits her target audience. But given that she herself states that change can only come from within the community, how can crafting a western bestseller achieve this change? Everything about the book's surface appearance, from the title and author photo to it's inflammatory tone, seeks to make it a bestseller (I'm sure she's making a nice profit off of her crusade for change). Yet I can hardly see it being widely read in the middle east, where she argues change is needed, and where most of her anecdotal evidence comes from. Pissing off western lefties (such as myself) is a noble goal, but it's hardly going to get people in Pakistan and Iraq having serious discussions.

As I've said, she does have some good points. Talks about the problems with literal interpretation of the Quran, the prevalence of Sharia law in the middle east, the appeal of radical groups and the use of the religion as a political tool. These are all very serious issues, and I found myself agreeing with some of what she had to say on the subjects. If she had focused on these arguments rather than contradictory ones, as well as scaled back her personal rhetoric and been a bit more subtle with her cherry picking, the book might have been a success.

Directly comparing herself to Johnathan Swift in "A Modest Proposal" was, for me, the final nail in her coffin, as her writing continually falls short of Swift's informed intellect and wit. Hubris betrays her, as her self confidence is ultimately empty. I think this is the root of most of my problems with the book. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not as smart, nor revolutionary, as she thinks. Moreover, she is a disillusioned woman with a few good points, overshadowed by a condescending and, at times, whiny tone, complete with sweeping generalizations and contradictory arguments.

A Dance with Dragons

So I'm finally caught up with the Song of Ice and Fire books. While A Dance with Dragons certainly wasn't on par with A Storm of Swords, it absolutely was not as bad as fans would lead you to believe. Also, I'm sick of fans whining about the wait time between books. As Neil Gaiman said, George R.R. Martin is not our bitch. He doesn't owe us anything.

Here's my review for the fifth book in the series
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1257993405?book_show_action=false

First Post and Ex Machina

I've been agonizing  for a few days now over what my first post should be (months, if you count the time I spent procrastinating about actually setting up the blog). I'm usually a fairly quiet, understated person, and I do my best to go unnoticed. For this reason, having a blog does seem somewhat... counter intuitive. Why should people care what I have to say? Who is even going to read it? What would they think if they did?

Then it clicked. I realized it really didn't matter who read it. Why? Because, at least as of right now, there is nobody reading it! The only people who know about this page as of right now are my family (hi mom!).

They say dance like nobody's watching. I say write like nobody's reading. This is the only way to write. As with all art, writing must come from the heart. Write for yourself, whether you're writing fiction, poetry, essays, or blog posts.

Continuing on this tangent, I decided to share one of the best examples I've read recently of a writer following his own heart, breaking many a convention in the process. Jonathan Ball's Ex Machina examines the nature of fiction, dissecting the relationship between author and reader. Written in the manner of a choose-your-own-adventure, the book is a narrative poem of interconnected philosophical statements and rhetorical questions that act with the reader to create three separate stories. In Ball's book, the reader is as key to the creation of these stories as the author.

Admittedly, I found it very difficult to discern three distinct narratives. The book is short. I read the book cover to cover abut half a dozen times in one sitting, and found a different story each time. There are hundreds of ways to read Ex Machina. The end result is the same. Ball highlights the inherently contrived nature of fiction, by removing the human element. Deus Ex Machina translates from Greek to "god from the machine". Ex Machina removes the god, leaving us with the machine running rampant; we are given half the story, forced to act as god, fulfilling the missing link in order to create a story.

Ex Machina is an incredibly bizarre and unsettling reading experience, but a supremely satisfying one. In my opinion, anything that draws an emotional reaction in the reader, either good or bad, is a success in my mind. Ex Machina is a short book, one you could easily read several times in an afternoon. Seriously, give it a try. You'll thank me for it.