Observations: The Pent Up Librarian

Did you know the British Library has a Special Operations Division? Well not really. But in the anime R.O.D (Read or Die) it does. It’s where Yokimo Readman aka Agent Paper works. She works in a library and by the by occasionally saves the world. Now this concept of a special operations division in a library appeals to me. It plays to my sense of bookish adventure. The concept of the librarian/adventurer has surfaced in a few fairly recent movies and at least one TV show(Buffy). The Librarian Quest for the Spear appeared in 2004 starring Noah Wyle as a likeable, yet bumbling Indian Jones type librarian. Apparently, the concept was well received and followed by the 2008 sequel, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice. I’m suspicious though that the ratings numbers were artificially skewed by a huge hoard of “adventure depraved vicarious seeking librarians.” Ever seen on of them? Give wide berth. And yes it takes that many adjectives to describe one. Perhaps you think__ “ha I’ve seen one of those” and you think of the demure glasses clad librarian just bursting with pent up erotic potential. Mind out of the gutter please. I’m speaking of the hero/librarian here not the nymph/librarian. The only thing these two have in common is the ‘pent up” factor. A friend once asked me if all librarians were, ‘pent up.” I said, “yes, how did you know” while looking as crazed as possible. He took two steps back. Anyway the concept or even the remote conception of a librarian as a hero seems to have caught on, at least among “pent up librarians.” At first I thought the adventuring librarian concept might be new and novel, a creation of mocking Hollywood script writers, but it turns out that the idea is not without precedent. Who but the man himself, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt, was a librarian. Yes Casanova a book stamping tight assed librarian. Who would have thought? Goes to show ya. You never know what your librarian does at night. I think this is a good thing this new found hero role lets off some of that dangerous “pent up steam” that all librarians carry around bottled up inside.

BOOKS: Baron In The Trees

When I was a boy I always climbed trees. There was a particularly tall one, at least 60 to 70 feet high, that I would climb like an ape and sit at the top for hours surveying the neighborhood. I was fascinated by the ecosystem of the tree__an entire world populated by bugs, birds, small animals and odd flora that ground dwellers knew nothing about. I loved it up there, but eventually I would come down, driven by hunger or an angry parent who thought I was crazy. Several years ago I was caught off guard and surprised when I found a novel by Italo Calvino called, Baron In the Trees. Now here was a book about a boy after my own heart, Cosimo a rich boy of 12, a baron, who annoyed and abused by his insane father, climbs a tree and never comes down. Sounds farcical, like a silly fairy tale. Maybe even a stupid story? But don’t under estimate the great Italian author Italo Calvino. He takes this seemly improbable plot and weaves it into one of the most enchanting novels ever written, a novel full of metaphor, history, philosophy and politics. It’s quite astonishing. Essentially the novel is a metaphor for independence, but it works on many other different levels. Cosimo is like a like an arboreal Robinson Crusoe. The amazing thing is that Cosimo is able to continue a normal life and do things only ground dwellers would do while traveling from tree to tree over a great distance. He continues his education, hunts with a dachshund, is able to get food and make clothing, acquires girlfriends, becomes a scientist and writer, helps a brigand with his reading, and even has an adventure on a pirate ship without stepping on board. But this is the surface plot of this novel, as fascinating as it is, there is more here. The story is a parable about living free without worrying about the constraints of society, of doing what it is you really want to do in life and not caring what others think. How many of us do that? It’s a tale about a boy becoming a man on his own terms. Is it a call to irresponsibility? I don’t think so. It’s just a beautiful fairy tale of a book. Read it.

BOOKS:Four Books of Architecture

Palladio inspired Univ. of Virginia Library

In 1570, Venetian, Andrea Palladio set forth a grammar of architecture that still influences the design of buildings today. His Four Books of Architecture is a lucid testimony to his rigorous beliefs on how he thought buildings should be built__grand, symmetrical and beautiful. I Quattro Libri dell' Architecttura, as it is called in Italian, is a Palladian restatement of classical ideals. Much of what we today consider pleasing to the eye draws its genius from Palladio’s reconfirmation of the classical. That’s why this book is both important and essential to read. If you want to understand the underpinnings of the Western taste for proportion and symmetry, I Quattro Libri dell' Architecttura, should be part of your reading list. Dry reading, you think? Hardly. Robert Tavernor’s and Richard Shofield’s 1997 translation into English is both elegant and readable. The photographs and drawings are a perfect match for the text. In the, Four Books of Architecture, Palladio combined illustrations of ancient Roman construction, which he observed in Italy, with his own drawings demonstrating how the ancient principles of engineering, and design could be applied to buildings of his day. Even today in Europe and the United States you can see Palladio’s influence, especially in public buildings. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of Pallidio’s, Four Books of Architecture and based the design of his house Montecello and the University of Virginia Library on Palladio’s ideas. If you have the least bit of interest in what developed our historical and modern taste in buildings and what heavily influenced our ideals of beauty read, I Quattro Libri dell' Architecttura.

BOOKS: Paradise of Cities, Venice in the 19th Century

Doge's Palace, Venice

Venice has always fascinated me. Seems I am in good company. In the 1800’s Venice was only a shadow of its former self. Conquered by Napoleon, its glory was gone. Yet it still continued to fascinate, to draw people, especially the European upper classes to its shores. It became part of every educated European’s cultural “grand tour, ‘ a must to complete their education, to make them cultured. Why? What is it about this city that so inspired and still does? In Paradise of Cities, Venice in the 19^th Century, John Julis Norwich tries to approach the question through the eyes of some of the city’s most famous 19^th century visitors. Norwich sets out his purpose: “Venice in the nineteenth century was a poor, sad shadow of what she had been in the eighteenth; how, then, could the story of that century best be told?" Does Norwich succeed? Mostly. A few of his chapters get off the beaten path and concentrate more on the person than the city, but overall Norwich’s vignettes of each authors encounter with Venice gives the reader today a sense of its allure. Who are these characters? Napoleon for one, Norwich says, “the city's enduring beauty seems to have been lost on him,” other distractions, perhaps? Then there was Henry James, whose cultural education, Norwich claims, was polished and then finished by the influence of the city. However, you can get a much better sense of James’ love of Venice by reading James’ 1888 novel, The Aspern Papers. Norwich would be remiss if he didn’t include John Ruskin. And he does well with this chapter elegantly describing Ruskin’s passion for the city’s art and architecture. He does less well with Lord Byron. This chapter is mainly a litany of Byron’s love affairs. I guess the reader is suppose to infer that Byron drew his Romantic inspirations from the city. But Byron was romantic wherever he went. A similar rendering is the chapter on Robert Browning, Here the chapter has more to do about Browning’s concern for the restoration of one of the Grand Canal’s great palaces by Browning’s son than with Browning’s own feelings about the city. The chapters on John Singer Sargent and Baron Corvo hit the mark and end the book nicely. Both chapters accurately describe how the city inspired these artists. Should you read this book? Yes, despite its shortcomings, Paradise of Cities, Venice in the 19^th Century is written elegantly and persuasively by one of the most knowledgeable writers on Venetian history.

Beautiful Scapes

Zhangjiajie Mountains, China

iPad Cases Gone Wild

Own an iPad? Time to accessorize. If your iPad leaves the house you definitely need to give it some clothes to prevent the inevitable bumps and bruises__but which one do you choose? The iPad case business is now an industry unto itself. The selection is already bewildering. It seems to me the situation is now out of hand. You could go for Apple’s offering, a nice case, but somewhat staid. My suggestion__fend for yourself. I offer these examples:

iPad the Clutch

ipad Temple Leather

iPad Blythekings iSocket

iPad Majorette iSocket

Skooba iPad Messenger Case

Bacon Anyone?

What Time is It Anyway?

BOOKS: Education of a Wandering Man

I never was much for Western fiction, so the books of Louis L’Amour were never on my “radar screen.” However when I came across his autobiography, Education of a Wandering Man, I was taken by surprise. I thought I find the story of a shallow fellow want only to watching old black and white Westerns. But nothing could be further from the truth. It turns out, L’Amour is quite a Renaissance man, one of great learning, who’s advise most people would be wise to take. I would even go as far to say, if I had to recommend just ten core books to read, the Education of the Wandering Man, would be among them. Strong recommendation, I know, but I stand behind it and if you read it you will see why. Foremost L’Amour was an avid reader and traveler from early childhood. Books were his passion__Western’s your thinking, perhaps, but there was much more, He read and knew Gibbon’s, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and knew it well, liking to revisit it many times. He had a particular like for Sansom’s, History of Japan and books such as, Boswell’s Johnson, Schliermacher’s, Soliloquies, Bertrand Russell’s, Marriage and Morals, Eric Hoffer’s True Believer, Polybius, Histories and Voltaire’s, Candide, were all regular companions. But these books only scratch the surface; his reading list was a deep one, and from it he drew his stories, combing this book knowledge with an innate ability for storytelling. L’Amour was more than an avid reader. He had a prodigious memory and could easily summon up a quotation from Shakespeare, Kipling, Yeats, Shelley, Plato or Oscar Wilde, all in the same breath. But what makes L”Amours autobiography so special is not his reading list, but his willingness to share how he was able to read all he did and how he was able to achieve the stupendous success that he achieved in his life. His advice is good, solid and worth emulation. And this is the core of the book. It’s what makes it worth reading. L’Amour describes his book as “an adventure in education.” Read it.

BOOKS: Silent Spring

I'll Get that Bug!

Yesterday I noticed a “Chemical Lawn” truck pulled up in front of my neighbor’s house. A gentleman in a blue suit, brandishing a thick hose, sprayed a layer of chemical cool-aid all over my neighbor’s trees and lawn in an attempt to kill everything, especially the worst enemy known to a green lawn__ crabgrass. Since I am a librarian this distressing scene made me immediately think of a book. Yes this is how a librarian thinks. “See that thing over there? There’s a book about that.” So I thought of Rachael Carson’s, Silent Spring with an immediate urge to anonymously slip a copy into my neighbor’s mailbox. After the urge passed I found my old copy and had a look. Silent Spring was the book that changed the world's perspective on pesticides__DDT in particular. It’s the book that started the Environmental Movement. Silent Spring was unique for its time because it combined natural history with social criticism, a genre that is somewhat out of hand today. It seems that it is difficult to find a modern book about the environment unless it takes a political stance, which makes sense since that’s where environmental policy is affected. However it would be nice to see more books not tainted by politics. Carson’s book, although critical, was different because you could sense she loved natural history, especially marine biology. She wasn’t running for office. She had genuine concern and you could feel her love for nature in her writing. Her other books are full of this wonder for nature, notably, The Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea. Actually read these books before you read Silent Spring. That way you will get a sense of where she was coming from. As for my neighbor he can sleep soundly tonight__ his crabgrass is dead.

Books: In Search of the Trojan War

According to the Greeks, Troy stood on the Dardanelles, that romantic strait of water that along with the Bosprous connects the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. When I was a boy Troy and the Trojan War seemed very real to me, I never had a doubt. Homer said it and I believed it. I was easily caught up into the drama of both the Iliad and the Odyssey. It wasn’t until when I entered college that a skeptical professor of dubious credentials told me that the myth of the Trojan War was probably a bunch of rubbish, despite the discoveries of Schliemann. Professor Block, as in Block Head, went by the tenet of presuming that anything written in Homer was a fake until proven otherwise by archeology. Again I sited Schliemann. Block was not impressed. “Mere oral tradition coupled with Schliemann’s exaggerations” he said. I was disappointed. There must be at least a kernel of truth in the legend I thought. It seemed to me that the historical paradigm of the day was: if it wasn’t proven by archeology if wasn’t true. Then Michael Wood entered my life__well not exactly, but in 1998 he published the book, In Search of the Trojan War, which was a companion book to a PBS special. Wood audaciously seemed to be presuming that the legend was true until it could be disproved by archeology. At least to me that’s what he was saying. Looking at the book more soberly recently, however, what Wood was saying was that the story of the Trojan War had not been disproved by archaeology, a slight difference. Either way the book is a superb marshaling together of the archaeological and poetical evidence of Troy for those who want to believe in every detail of Homer’s grand account. Although not an archaeologist, Wood has the unique ability to pull a compelling story from the mass of archaeological, literary and mythological sources. He gives a well-rounded portrait of both the historical and the legendary city and then goes on to discuss Schliemann’s discovery at Hisarlik, the Homeric epics themselves, the Hittite empire and the importance of the legend in Western culture. Did the Trojan War actually happen? Disappointingly, Wood gives no definite answer, but he does provide a lot of hope for us believers.

Trojan War Buddies

Achilles tending Patroclus' wounds from a red-figure kylix by the Sosias Painter from about 500 B.C. in the Staatliche museum in Berlin.

Don't Make Them Like This Anymore

Bridge, Ronda, Spain

Breakfast!

BOOKS: Counterfeiters

Counterfeit Person

With all the hubbub about Apple’s release of its latest product, I got to thinking about the actual intrinsic value of many of the products that are released and hyped ad nauseam. Yes I have nothing else to do! And nothing against Apple, I love Apple’s products. Any way this all made me think of Andre Gide’s novel the, “Counterfeiters.” That’s quite a leap I admit. But I had recently reread Gide’s complex and intricately plotted novel, mainly because a friend had made reference to one of its many characters, Edouard, and I could not recall the significance of Edouard in the scheme of things. Stunned by my friend’s pompous literary allusion I retrieved my copy from a box in the basement. My friend was appalled that I had put Gide in a box, but that’s another story. Now it turns out that Edouard is important. He’s not the main protagonist, but he’s central to this rambling post. Edouard is a novelist inside a novel__that is__he’s part of Gide’s plot, Edouard is writing a novel entitled, The Counterfeiters. The underlying theme of Edouard’s novel as well as Gide’s, as I see it, is that a counterfeit, coins in this case, is assumed real if it is accepted as authentic. Therefore the value of something is only a matter of perception. The counterfeiters of the coins in the novel, school boys, thus represent people who put on fake personalities to make their way through the world. We accept them because we perceive their character as genuine, although they me actually be counterfeit and be of much less value morally, ethically, or socially etc. In other words, they are faking it. Think you know anybody like that? This great French novel brings this theme to the fore with a complex menagerie of characters who are all remarkably related to one another in some way. That all being said__ many people have different takes on what this novel means and the book is full of moral and ethical implications. Take a shot it. See if you can figure this book out. Even if you can’t at least you will be able to throw around some pretty impressive literary allusions.

All Dressed Up...

Cool Outfit

Observations: Awesome Bookstores

BOOKS: Growing Up

Baker signs his autograph__via Stowe Vintage

Ever find a gem? I did. Ever hear of Russell Baker? You should have. Baker is a gem; a gem of a writer, a funny witty man, a master of the well written essay. Baker is kind of a gift, give it to yourself. If you like humor he’s your man__not comedy that’s something different, but humor. Humor is something of a higher order. Humor is P.J. O'Rourke, H.L. Mencken, James Thurber, or P.G. Wodehouse. There is a certain subtle cleverness about humor not found in comedy. Comedy is usually devoid of the subtle. A lot of current humor relies on shock. Humorists will shock you, but in a clever way that strikes a chord with the human condition. In addition to Baker’s many essays and satirical newspaper columns, Baker, wrote, “Growing Up,”(1982) a touching coming of age autobiography of his life in rural Virginia and suburban New Jersey during the Depression years and WWII. The New York Times described “Growing Up” as, “magical.” And that it is. Baker takes material that is so sad and turns it into something so warm and “subtly” humorous that he manages to create a whole new form of “biographical art.” One moment you will laugh and then a few paragraphs down a lump will be in your throat. The most shocking thing about “Growing Up,” is that it bears a suspicious resemblance to life. And it is this aspect that resonates most with the reader. In the book Russell’s mother, Lucy Elizabeth, tells the young boy, after he brings home a 7^th grade essay, "Buddy", "maybe you could be a writer.” Best advise ever from a Mom, I say. Ultimately, “Growing Up” is a tribute to Baker’s mother, always there throughout the book helping him, urging him on. Tragically in the end, overcome with senility, she can’t even remember her own son. Read this book if you haven’t, even you have read it again as Mother’s Day approaches.

Russell Baker Quotations__A Sampler:

“Americans like fat books and thin women.”

“In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses.”

“Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories; those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.”

“Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.”

“The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.”

“The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work, and that writing didn't require any.”

OBSERVATIONS: Good Eatin

BOOKS:Insectopedia

Attacked by the Bugs

When I was a boy of 12, I frightened my parents by telling them I wanted to become a “gentleman entomologist.” “Ya know mom, insects.” However, she couldn’t understand how any gentleman could even be remotely associated with bugs. But I assured her that many well-dressed English gentleman prance about in meadows catching bugs and sticking pins in them for display in well paying museums. I knew this for a fact. I had seen it in a movie, which I can’t recall the name, and in it an English gentleman dressed in a tweed suit, swung his a net to a fro, all for jolly good fun. Looked delightful to me. But somewhere along the career path I made a wrong turn and wound up a librarian. But that’s another story. So it was with great excitement that I laid my hands on Hugh Raffles’ new book, “Insectopedia.” Now before you become revolted by the thought of reading a book about creepy crawlers, you might want to give Raffles book a read. “Please can a book about pests be interesting?” Yes and really interesting. No one believes me on this one. I recommended this book to a friend and he told me he rather buy a can of Raid and a flyswatter. Ignorant man! But seriously this is one good book. Raffles does a fine job telling a riveting story about creatures that are reviled and ignored by most. The publisher describes the book like this: “A stunningly original exploration of the ties that bind us to the beautiful, ancient, astoundingly accomplished, largely unknown, and unfathomably different species with whom we share the world. Hmm, yes really the book lives up to the billing. Insectopedia is an alphabetical collection of memoirs, meditations and essays, an exploration of not only insects, but of economics, anthropology and philosophy with a few biographies thrown in. But somehow I think Raffles main mission here is to dispense with speciesism. Come on you bug haters lighten up. We’re outnumbered 200 million to one. Even so this book is filled with interesting stuff. Did you ever hear of Chinese cricket fighting? Did you know what Chernobyl did to flies? Mutation__ a la sci-fi. There’s even an artist who is dedicated to painting these mutant flies, whose legs grow out of their eyes! But Raffles’ book is more than interesting tidbits, it’s a meditation from a man whose talent lies in the ability to draw the reader into a fascinating world and help him see it with child like wonder. After this read you will never looked at a bug the same again. Oh by the way, Raffles is not an entomologist, but an anthropologist. I do wonder if he is a gentleman though.

Gratuitous Star Trek Pic

BOOKS: The Portrait Of W.H.

In 1609 just whom was Shakespeare addressing in those “love sonnets?” Was it William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke as many have theorized? Hmm. And was it he who is the subject of that mysterious dedication to Mr. W.H.? Speculation has run rampart for the past 400 years. Who really was the fair youth with whom Shakespeare was so smitten? Scholars are no where near certain although many assert otherwise. Well… leave it to Oscar Wilde to venture a guess. Wilde throws his “literary opinion” in the ring with a wonderful and little read fictional work called, “The Portrait of W.H. In a clever and twisting plot Wilde theorizes that W.H., the actual subject of the first 120 sonnets was not Pembroke, but a beautiful boy actor named Will Hughes. In Wilde’s story a young Cambridge scholar and actor Cyril Graham makes this startling discovery. However no one else shares his conviction, but Graham is so convinced that he forges a portrait of Will Hughes who he depicts as leaning on an edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets and the plot moves on from there…No spoilers here. However, The Portrait of W.H. is more than a clever story. Wilde uses it as a thinly veiled declaration of his own love of beautiful young men. Every line drips with suggestion and innuendo and it’s fascinating to see Wilde become so bold in his declarations in what was considered at the time a scandalous work. “Portrait” is a quintessential read for understanding the Aesthetic movement of the 19^th century, the love of art and the literary life with its opium like obsession that it can cause. Wilde worked on it while he was incarcerated and the manuscript disappeared for many years and then turned up in 1921 in a personal collection. (Original NY Times article, published on June 17^th 1921) of its discovery. Hesparus Classics printed a nice edition in 2003 and it can be found on Amazon for about $14.00 or if you’re cheap for free on the Internet.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.