Only a few more days of school, a few more days of Hyde Park. Amazing. In honor of my last few days of classes, here are some books I like that have little or nothing to do with school.
Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy
I took a class on the philosophical bases of different approaches to historiography last year, and this book was recommended as a general introduction to western philosophy. I found it very reader-friendly and understandable, though I previously knew little to nothing about philosophy. Its chapters center around selected individual philosophers, and begin with biographical sketches of each. For me this approach enlivened what might have been a series of rather dry expositions of philosophical systems: Durant seems to genuinely like all of these people, he celebrates the good and quirky aspects of their personalities and thinking, and seems saddened when they seem to go wrong either morally or intellectually.
Some of Durant's choices of people to include were surprising to me. I was surprised that Voltaire and Bacon each got a chapter to themselves, since I have never thought of either of them as philosophers. On the other hand, Karl Marx is barely mentioned; and Marxist thought has had a tremendous influence on the social sciences (not to mention politically). The choices Durant made seem to reflect his own personality and socio-political place in the world, which was as interesting as anything else about the book.
Fernand Braudel, Memory and the Mediterranean
Braudel was one of the founders of the Annales school of historiography, which reacted against the predominant "great men" approach which focused on the doings of kings and other prominent individuals. Braudel wants to show us the broad sweep of history, how broad social trends and geological/environmental constraints shape the individual event. The book’s 315 pages cover a vast swath of time, beginning in the Paleolithic and continuing into the 3rd century A.D. Though such broad-brush approaches to history are rather out of vogue now, for good reason, sometimes it is helpful to step back and see how all the different regions and time periods fit together. This book offers a history of the Mediterranean as a region, without the usual distinctions between Middle Eastern, Classical, and European; and describes how diverse people have acted and interacted within this landscape.
Jane Gardam, A Long Way From Verona
This is my favorite book. Its main character is a thirteen-year-old girl named Jessica Vye who is living in England during World War II. I think this book is kind of a feminine version of The Catcher in the Rye, in that both Holden and Jessica are reaching a crisis point: they sense that Something is Wrong, but can't figure out whether this disconnect is the fault of him/herself, or the rest of the world. Jessica finds herself entranced with things other people barely notice; she alternately loves being different and hates not fitting in, but can't change her personality to conform to what her peers and teachers want even when she tries. As in Catcher, we see the world entirely through Jessica's eyes, and even Jessica recognizes that this worldview is subject to sudden seismic shifts. Unlike Holden, Jessica has real problems along with her existential crisis: her town is being bombed almost nightly, while her family undergoes the deprivations of wartime England.
The reader has to pay close attention to this story: Gardam's subtle and frequently hilarious writing style might lead one to think that is just a nice book about the misadventures of a quirky teenager. We are never even told about the major event that provokes a crisis and turning point in Jessica's life; Jessica merely alludes to it in a couple of offhand sentences, and it's easy to miss. Instead of listening to a narrator tell us what is going on, we experience everything along with Jessica, and with her try to grasp and assimilate all of the tragic and bizarre new people, events, and feelings.
This book is about an existential crisis, but I think it rings true for anyone who has ever been a teenager: suddenly, the world appears alien and tragic, while at the same time one's own self is becoming mysterious and quixotic. The thing we all have to eventually do is to find a way to live in this sad and nonsensical world with the rather disappointing person we find ourselves to be. Jessica finally does this, she finds one tiny shred of faith to cling to; and though the war still rages and her family is still poor and nothing in her life has changed, as the book ends she is filled with hope and joy, "knowing that good things take place."
Posted by michele at March 10, 2003 1:37 PM