Nonfiction
Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief: This movie got turned, sort of, into Adaptation, a film I quite enjoyed. The book itself is not postmodern, just a story of a guy who has had multiple enthusiasms in his life. The one that got him in the most trouble so far was his passion for orchids, specifically the rare (and protected) ghost orchid, which he schemed to remove from Florida’s swamps. Basically, he’s a grandiose character, and Orleans occasionally gets swept up in his delusions, along with the mystique of orchids, which for some reason inspire passion in their collectors even though they’re often ugly, hard to keep alive, and even smelly. This is at heart a story of dreams gone sour, potential not achieved, and dreams without the will to make necessary compromises with reality. It left a bad taste in my mouth.
Jarod Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Through in-depth studies of societies that suffered ecological and social collapse, and a few that didn’t, Diamond argues that there are certain key factors that determine a society’s long-term viability, among them deforestation, climate change, interdependence, and culture. The “culture” part is the wild card, and it seems like it was put in to counter criticisms like those of Diamond’s earlier work, Guns, Germs, and Steel, that Diamond’s explanations were entirely deterministic. After I read the book, I read detailed critiques of several of Diamond’s examples - Greenland, Easter Island, and Australia. No generalist can attain the expertise of a specialist, and the responses by the Easter Island anthropologists convinced me that Diamond’s story of deforestation progressively destroying the carrying capacity of the island was contrary to the weight of the evidence. But the Greenland and Australia responses quibbled more with specific details than with the patterns Diamond identifies. We all know that you can’t spend capital - whether economic or ecological - indefinitely, and yet societies have routinely done so throughout history. Their members have often paid the price. Diamond persuasively argues that large portions of humanity are in the same position today, from Australia to Montana. He has few solutions, but at least he’s talking about the problems.
Mark Bowden, Road Work: From Rhode Island Cocaine Rings to Zambian Rhino Poachers, Saddam Hussein to Norman Mailer: A collection of Bowden’s feature writing. He says in the intro to Black Hawk Down that he just told the story he found, and this collection is good proof of that - he doesn’t have anything else like the amazing story told in that book. Most disappointing was an essay on torture, in which he points out that Israel once authorized torture in the most extreme cases, then discovered (surprise!) that torturers routinely found themselves facing extreme cases, so outlawed it again, with the understanding that if the country ever did face a hidden-nuclear-bomb case someone might torture and face the lawful consequences. Okay; but from this he draws the lesson that the Bush Administration is doing the right thing on torture: deny we do it, but do it anyway. Given that the administration has done everything possible to ensure that no one will ever be punished for anything done in secret in the name of national security (or in some other name, since that’s kind of the point of secrecy), the equation of our policy to a formal ban is grotesque and speaks of moral obtuseness. My last foray into his ouvre, I think.
Shari Caudron, Who Are You People? A Personal Journey into the Heart of Fanatical Passion in America: A writer who’s never really been passionate about anything decides to investigate a number of groups of fans, whose passions range from Barbies to pigeon racing to record collecting to Andy Griffith to Josh Groban to strategy boardgames to Star Wars costunes to furry culture. Each time, Caudron discovers that the fans are real people, who can speak engagingly and often insightfully about their fan objects - just like you and me, except for that one mad passion. Given that I am one of “you people,” this was not a surprise.
Jarod Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Through in-depth studies of societies that suffered ecological and social collapse, and a few that didn’t, Diamond argues that there are certain key factors that determine a society’s long-term viability, among them deforestation, climate change, interdependence, and culture. The “culture” part is the wild card, and it seems like it was put in to counter criticisms like those of Diamond’s earlier work, Guns, Germs, and Steel, that Diamond’s explanations were entirely deterministic. After I read the book, I read detailed critiques of several of Diamond’s examples - Greenland, Easter Island, and Australia. No generalist can attain the expertise of a specialist, and the responses by the Easter Island anthropologists convinced me that Diamond’s story of deforestation progressively destroying the carrying capacity of the island was contrary to the weight of the evidence. But the Greenland and Australia responses quibbled more with specific details than with the patterns Diamond identifies. We all know that you can’t spend capital - whether economic or ecological - indefinitely, and yet societies have routinely done so throughout history. Their members have often paid the price. Diamond persuasively argues that large portions of humanity are in the same position today, from Australia to Montana. He has few solutions, but at least he’s talking about the problems.
Mark Bowden, Road Work: From Rhode Island Cocaine Rings to Zambian Rhino Poachers, Saddam Hussein to Norman Mailer: A collection of Bowden’s feature writing. He says in the intro to Black Hawk Down that he just told the story he found, and this collection is good proof of that - he doesn’t have anything else like the amazing story told in that book. Most disappointing was an essay on torture, in which he points out that Israel once authorized torture in the most extreme cases, then discovered (surprise!) that torturers routinely found themselves facing extreme cases, so outlawed it again, with the understanding that if the country ever did face a hidden-nuclear-bomb case someone might torture and face the lawful consequences. Okay; but from this he draws the lesson that the Bush Administration is doing the right thing on torture: deny we do it, but do it anyway. Given that the administration has done everything possible to ensure that no one will ever be punished for anything done in secret in the name of national security (or in some other name, since that’s kind of the point of secrecy), the equation of our policy to a formal ban is grotesque and speaks of moral obtuseness. My last foray into his ouvre, I think.
Shari Caudron, Who Are You People? A Personal Journey into the Heart of Fanatical Passion in America: A writer who’s never really been passionate about anything decides to investigate a number of groups of fans, whose passions range from Barbies to pigeon racing to record collecting to Andy Griffith to Josh Groban to strategy boardgames to Star Wars costunes to furry culture. Each time, Caudron discovers that the fans are real people, who can speak engagingly and often insightfully about their fan objects - just like you and me, except for that one mad passion. Given that I am one of “you people,” this was not a surprise.