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June 07, 2005
Summer Reading: Behold the unit-shifting power of the O!
Now that I don't have to worry about trudging through hundreds of pages of case law every week I can actually stand to read something that requires more than Teevee-watching attention and brainpower. For the last couple of weeks I've been trudging my way through Millennium by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.
Trudging probably isn't the right word if it is in fact a word because it's been a pretty enjoyable read. It's a history of the last thousand years written as if the reader were a galactic museum keeper thousands of years in the future. That view gives the reader a different perspective on human affairs. Some things that seem like tremendous events now shrink when taken in the context of the millennium and long, slow emerging patterns come more into focus.
It begins with Japanese court intrigue at the time Th e Tale of Genji, a book many consider to be the first novel, written by a woman of some means in imperial Japan with Jane Austen-like perception and wit. Much emphasis is also given to the monolithically steady and bend-but-not-break empire and nation of China and of course, the conflict between Christianity and Islam. He also draw a parallel between Catholic and Shiite and Protestant and Sunni, respectively, based on whether the religions give authority to the church and its leaders or the scripture. I'm not sure it means anything but it's an interesting parallel, nevertheless.
The last few chapters have focused closely on the commerce of European powers in the Far East and demonstrate just how tenuous some of those trade empires really were. I'm up to the period right before the American Revolution so I'm moving at a pretty good pace and I'm looking forward to my next read.
My next read will be those three Faulkner novels that I've started many times but never finished, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying and Light in August. If the Oprah Book Club can do it, so can I. I have finished Absalom, Absalom, Sanctuary and The Unvanquished so I think I can make it. Seriously though, who else but Oprah could push a three volume set of Faulkner to #2 on the Amazon bestseller list. The estate of William Faulkner thanks you, Oprah, but it probably owes a bigger thanks to Sonny Bono.
Posted by Half-Cocked at June 7, 2005 08:12 PM