The Year of the Ox Reading 4: "American Tabloid"

This is the second time that I have read this novel. I really like James Ellroy. He writes really gritty fiction. This novel is about the build up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Ellroy paints a picture of life in America in the early 1960's as seen through the eyes of CIA and FBI agents and the criminals they pursue and ultimately ally themselves with.
I like this book a lot but I realized that people in real life don't throw as many phones or punch as many walls as they do in this book. It seems like every other moment someone is doing this. I understand being angry, but how many times can you break your knuckles against the wall. And phones must have been really cheap in the 1960's. I know the Kennedys could afford new ones all of the time (they are also characters in this novel) but the average schmoe couldn't just call Ma Bell everything they needed a new one.
That being said, it makes you wonder how much of this is true. Was there a conspiracy to kill the president? Was J. Edgar Hoover in bed with the mob? Were Howard Hughes and Fidel Castro all involved in some crazy nut case? If the reality is as interesting as the story, then those were amazing times. I am not sure "Madmen" can live up to this violent vision.
Well there is a sequel and a third in the works so you will hear more of those at some later date.

Cleaning up

I have been doing a bit of cleaning up. Mostly trying to pack some things away and toss out things I don't need. Since I have less than 11 weeks to go in Kuwait there is a lot to be done. I have already packed away my winter clothes. Now I am packing up books. Last month I put all of my cds unto my ipod, so that is one less thing to carry to China. I have too many books though. I don't know if I should sell the ones I have read or take them to China and sell them there. Or just keep them. Most of them are history books I can use later.
It seems like I have a ticket already. I leave here on June 12th and then arrive in Shanghai on July 31st. I will spend the summer in Southeast Asia. I am flying into Bangkok and then go to Bali, perhaps. That last bit is still just an idea.
Well that is a little update on me.

The Year of the Ox Reading 3: "How to read the Bible"

I guess this is from a British series on how to read great works of literature. That is how the author treats the Bible throughout. He looks at it less like a work of religion and more as a great work that anyone can learn from. He addresses the work to that group of people who don't worry about if the work is true.
I think that is why I liked it. What if the Bible isn't true? That is an important question. For many it would end their faith. But as I have learned over the years the truth doesn't have to be true in order to speak to a truth that is in us all.
I have read the Bible this way for years and have always been fascinated by the cast of characters inhabiting it. The people in it are real. They do the same stupid things that all of us do; they often fail; and they try to turn to God when they need Him. I think the Jews have always been a persecuted people because they have been so honest in their assessment of themselves. Most people aren't so critical of themselves and create super-humans to rule over them. But not the people who wrote the Bible. You have a doubting Messiah, a horny David, a stuttering Moses, and Abraham, the father of it all who questions God, except when He asks him to kill his own son. (I figure that is why I would have the most question.)
So if you are new to the Bible, pick up this work. It will present it in a way that you didn't imagine. Then you might pick up the real thing.

The Year of the Ox Reading 2: "Strange but true tales from Japan"

I have a lot of books that I have almost finished. This was one of them. It is a series of short writings about some of the weirdness that is Japan. Take for instance suicide. Why is it such an important part of the society? Also, did Japan have an atomic bomb? Who was Tokyo Rose? Why is Japanese food so different? What would it be like to sit in someone's toilet waiting to stick a sword in their backside? Stuff like that.
I remember buying this book in Thailand about five years ago. I was on my first trip out of Kuwait and was feeling Asia nostalgia pretty bad. Japan is my comfort zone, so I remember buying a lot of books on Japan. I had been thinking of fleeing Kuwait at the time. I ended up staying but still miss East Asia. Good thing I am going back.

Returning to China

It is hard to believe but in less than 3 months I will be back in Asia. I am heading to Bangkok first but then by July 31st I should be in Shanghai. That will be awesome. While looking on line the other day I found some photos that reminded me of my time in China. One photo is of the archway that welcomed everyone to my part of Beijing.
It is hard to imagine leaving here. Six years is a really long time to be in one place. But that is one of the joys of international teaching. You meet a lot of nice people and then they leave or you leave. Those are the rules of the game. I am lucky to be going to such a great school next year, but I have also been lucky to have been at this school in Kuwait.
Well I must go. I will try to update more often.

The Year of the Ox Reading 1: "Watchmen"

While in Amsterdam recently I decided to pick up a copy of "Watchmen." I read the individual comics years (nay, decades) ago and decided with the movie coming out to re-read it. Two decades is a long time between reads. Did it hold up? In some ways, yes. It still is a good comic. I am not going to worry about saying graphic novel, since that is just a nice phrase to make comic book geeks feel a little more mature. This is just a more advanced geeky comic (with real sex and boobies for the high school geek to appreciate). The characters are much more developed than in your average comic, but I am not sure that this only makes this a great work of literature. Time magazine listed it as one of the top 100 novels since 1923. But is it really better than "In Cold Blood," "A Confederacy of Dunces," or "East of Eden"? No, to be honest, it is not even as good as "The Swamp Thing" comic that Alan Moore wrote, or as good as the Hernandez Brother's "Love and Rockets" or Frank Miller's "Daredevil" was. It is mostly just a bunch of geeks feeling good about themselves.
That isn't to say I didn't enjoy re-reading it. It brings back fond memories. It is well written, but as one of the top 100 works in the last almost 100 years? Come on. A fanboy can only go so far.
So read this, see the movie, and then move out of your parents' basement and get a girlfriend already.