Civil War

The American Civil War. 

“Everybody” knows that it was about slavery.

Except for the people who argue it was about “States Rights”.

My brother used to say that. He’s a bit of a Civil War “buff”. 

Well, my response to that argument was “Yeah, some states wanted the right to have slaves.”

So, I was reading Bag of Bones (by Stephen King) yesterday.

It brought up the idea that for many of the participants the Civil War wasn’t necessarily about slavery. Racism was rampant in both the north and south. What many of the northerners were fighting for was the idea that you can’t just decide to not be part of the country anymore. At least, that’s the idea in this book.

Well, why can’t you leave the country? The original 13 colonies decided to not be part of England anymore. And the other states had to decide to join the United States. A state can’t change its mind? Sounds like the mafia. Once you’re in, you’re in for life.

In a sense, we went to war just to maintain the status quo. Maybe sometimes that’s what war is about.

America, love it or leave it.

…except you can’t leave it. Well, you can, but that just means go away; if you don’t agree with us we don’t want you here. 

Ah, yes…the land of the free. 

The Triumph of the Sun, by Wilbur Smith

Maybe a year ago I saw this book somewhere—a thrift store most likely, but maybe a used book store. Several years ago I read 3 books by this author. They were sort of a series; they shared some of the main characters and the setting. But they probably would each have worked as stand-alone stories too. Anyway, this book wasn’t part of that series. But I figured if I liked those, I’d enjoy this one.

Well…

I’m about 35 pages from the end of this interminable book. Okay, clearly it’s not literally interminable. It will terminate in about 35 pages. But at times it has seemed never-ending. It’s a bit over 600 pages, and I think it could easily be 500 pages or less, and not really miss anything.

I started reading it last summer, but I put it down for a while a few hundred pages into it, but picked it back up two or three weeks ago. The overall story is interesting, but there are these long passages describing the tedious daily schedule with nothing significant to the story happening. That’s what was going on when I put it aside last year.

But now, toward the end, the author seems to have shifted into high gear. He’s giving us (the readers) a series of shorter scenes which each jump ahead by weeks or months. I think he’s trying to bring all the threads together, but has to cover a certain amount of calendar time within the story. I wish he’d done more of that throughout the book.

The fact that I’m taking time to write this instead of reading to get to the end of the thing just seems to show that I’m not “into” this book. And maybe the book isn’t as tedious to others as it is to me. Maybe my general sense of blah about my life is keeping me from getting involved with the book and from enjoying all the details. Who knows? The cover says Wilbur Smith is a “New York TimesBestselling Author” but it doesn’t say this is a bestselling book.

So, at this point I’m just pressing forward, trying to get to the end. I’d thought about putting it aside again a hundred or two pages ago. But I figured I’d be done with it soon enough. I was wrong. I’m tired of this book. But I shall finish it, perhaps today. And then I’ll read something that (I hope) is awesome. 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

UPDATE: about 2 hours later (12:30pm)

Okay, those 35 pages are done. I wasn’t any more impressed than I was when I wrote that bit earlier.

Right where I started back with the last 35 pages, there was a brief shift to a more historical narration than the author had used in the rest of the book, talking about the British Empire at the time (very late 1800s), politics, war, etc. And from there to the end the style was much quicker, like a synopsis, almost, of how the (presumably fictional) characters from the rest of the book fit into the actual history at that time, and ended up telling what happened to them later—in the Boer War and World War One.

So…I’m not going to be looking for another book by Wilbur Smith to read any time soon. Perhaps if someone I knew highly recommended a specific book by him, I’d consider it.

I think next, I’ll read some sci-fi. 

reading & coffee

This is what I’m doing this morning. I’ve piddled around online a bit, but this is the plan—keep doing this.

Yesterday I finished The United States of Atlantis by Harry Turtledove. It’s the second in a set of three (so far). I liked the first a lot, but this one was so-so. A lot of repetitious dialogue, etc., and a good bit of the time it just seemed like he was setting up the situation for the next book.

If you’re not familiar with Harry Turtledove, he writes mostly alternate history. It’s like historical fiction, except there’s always a “what if” element that creates the setting. Like, what if the South won the American Civil War? Or, in the case of these Atlantic books, what if the eastern chunk of North America—from the east coast to roughly the Mississippi River—were actually a separate continent out in the Atlantic Ocean? And then he writes a story set there. He’ll often use some actual historical characters along with fictional characters. In The United States of Atlantis there are fictional characters who are analogous to various historical characters from the American Revolution.

Anyway... I just started Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. And that’s my plan for the rest of the morning, which, at this point, isn’t very long. So, maybe it’ll also be part of my afternoon—that, and coffee, and being naked.  Whee!

In the Night Kitchen

Maurice Sendak died today.

He was a beloved children’s author, best known for “Where the Wild Things Are”.  He also wrote other things. I remember in elementary school watching “Really Rosie” (music by Carole King).

I even vaguely recall there being some kind of live performance, maybe by the class a year or two ahead of mine. Or maybe I’m remembering that wrong.

Anyway, the Sendak work I remember liking the most was “In the Night Kitchen”.

It’s about a boy who falls (or dreams) into the “night kitchen” and has a little adventure there.

I remember thinking that the cooks looked weird.

They all look the same, which is weird, and they also all look like Oliver Hardy from the Laurel and Hardy comedy team.

(He's the the one on the right.)

I also remember noticing that Mickey (the kid) was naked, and knowing that was unusual for kids’ stories. But I didn’t find it bothersome or perverse.

So, there was also an animated version.

I wish the picture quality were better, but this is all I could find.

The music was composed by, and the narration performed by, Peter Schickele (a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach).

Apparently, the book was really controversial and banned in various places back in 1970 when it was written. According to this article—“The 15 Most Controversial Picture Books” —it remains on various lists of banned or controversial books.

Also, It was a Caldecott “Honor” Award recipient (which is like first runner up).

Well, I applaud Maurice Sendak for having the balls to let his character have balls.