“The Candy House” by Jennifer Egan

I bought this book recently at a bookstore, it has been a while since I read anything by Egan but I really like her works. This book was no different, I really liked the format and how she takes an idea and describes it from several different angles through her different characters.

Largely, the book deals with the outcomes of introducing a sort of social media company where you can upload your unconsciousness and view other peoples as well. So it starts with the inventor of this technology and discusses his family, then moves to the woman who came up with the algorithm behind the social media whose work he basically stole. From there it takes a bit of a turn and focuses on an adjacent individual who becomes a spy for the US and uses technology from this to record her every move, and afterwards has a hard time readjusting to civilian life and thinks the government is monitoring her every move. From there it goes back to the original family and ends on a vignette of them before this technology was ever invented.

Now the book came out in 2022, and I sort of liked that there were a few references to a pandemic around 2020 but nothing concrete was said about COVID. It feels pretty true to what these times are like where a lot of people ignore that the pandemic really ever happened. The whole thing feels pretty prescient by focusing on the social media and the effects/benefits of this time of technology where you have access to anyone’s memories at any given time.

I liked the chapters about Lulu the best as those are the ones that change format. First there’s the narration from a childhood friend of Lulu’s that’s in horrible grammar, you know like a 9 year old would write. Then her chapter is all in second person thought fragment as she records her thoughts as a spy. Then the next chapter is all in emails as she tries to get in contact with her birth father. The change in narration really makes those all stand out and highlight the dehumanizing experiences she goes through as well as the recovery period. The emails also allow the chapter to include more characters’ thoughts, bringing more of them together before ending the book.

I really enjoyed this read, it felt like it was able to speak to what is happening now with the internet and social media more than most things I have read. It is in the same universe as A Visit from the Goon Squad but I read that about a decade ago and couldn’t remember what characters were pulled from that work and which were not. I’ll have to revisit it at some point!

This is Beautiful: John Proctor is the Villain

 This past weekend, my partner and I saw a play on campus called "John Proctor is the Villain." It's going up on Broadway next spring as well! The show was really good, it's about a high school English class in rural Georgia that's reading "The Crucible" and also dealing with the rise of the #MeToo movement with some students starting a feminism club. 

One of the students just broke up with her long-term boyfriend of seven years because he slept with her best friend Shelby, who no one has seen in the six months since then. Shelby reappears though, and then accuses their English teacher of having a relationship with her and having sex with her. So there's a clear comparison between the play where John Proctor is being accused, and this English teacher. In the conversations about the book, the female characters talk about how Proctor is kind of a dick and never apologizes for what he does to the women around him.

Anyways, this was such a good and fun play. The playwright captures the way that high school girls talk to each other and their classmates really well, and I loved the parallels between the play and their high school. There are plenty of really silly moments as well, I loved their classmate Mason who is a high school himbo but learns about feminism over the course of the play. It's a really fun time, I hope many people are able to appreciate it when it goes up in NYC!

“Empire of Ivory” by Naomi Novik

This is the fourth book in the Temeraire series (check out the first, second, and third books) and while I was hesitant going in it has ended up being one of the best installments of the series so far. We get to interact with the original British team from the first book while also expanding the world and in particular advancing Temeraire’s fascination with liberty and freedom for dragons from the previous two installments.

The book opens with Temeraire and Laurence making it back to England and asking about the other dragons. Turns out that all of the dragons are sick with a sort of flu that they haven’t been able to cure and is highly contagious, completely incapacitating all dragons in England. It started with a dragon from the Americas and at first they thought it was just a cold (this got Temeraire sick as well when Volly visited him two books ago) but quickly realized it was more serious. Dragons have begun dying and with Napoleon advancing the situation is becoming dire. Temeraire accidentally ends up in the quarantine area taking down a French spy dragon, but to everyone’s amazement doesn’t get sick. They suspect that when he got a cold last year they fed him a cure from Africa, and so the whole of Temeraire’s flying formation heads to Africa to try and find a cure.

Once there, they try everything they can think of, and make Temeraire sick in a number of ways. The dragons that are already sick continue to suffer though. It’s only once they get their hands on a rare mushroom that they realize they found it! Maximus was on the brink of death and starts to breathe more clearly. They head off to try and find more of it, but the jungle is littered with feral dragons, plus there are the natives that they cannot communicate with. There is a freeman/former slave turned missionary plus his wife that Laurence took with him (there’s a sidenote about how England makes Laurence the face of the abolition movement) that they take along to translate. In the jungle they find a whole cave full of the mushrooms and send the dragons back laden with the stuff to make a ship headed to England. While the dragons are away, a few natives appear. The missionary heads out to talk to them, but he says something wrong and gets a spear thrown at him leading to conflict and the humans are all captured.

They are brought to a cave and are made prisoners. Temeraire, Lily, and Nitidius (three dragons) manage to break them out and they find that the ports are all out war between the natives and the colonizers. The natives drive everyone out, and the missionary’s wife decides to stay as the tribe that captured her ends up being the one she was captured from. They head back to England and the dragons are well on their way to recovery, but they encounter huge mounds of dragon graves as well. There, Laurence learns that they released the French spy dragon in the hopes of infecting all of the dragons on the mainland. Both Laurence and Temeraire are appalled at that, and they steal some mushrooms to bring to the French. The book ends with Laurence heading back to England to face his punishment for committing treason.

Alright so many things happen in this book, and a lot of it has to do with Africa at the time of the Napoleonic wars. Slavery has been previously been mentioned, with it being clear that Laurence is against the practice, although he doesn’t do much. In this book he takes a stronger stance, propelled along by Temeraire who has learned enough to see the whole thing as awful. The book deals with this rather well, Laurence does not get away from the native tribe by insisting that he is not part of the practice of slavery as his whole country clearly is.

The one issue that I did have with the portrayal of the Africans is that they immediately kill the missionary. It is revealed that the missionary is from a tribe that they are currently at war with, but it felt very cruel to have him slain instantly when he clearly was not with the rest of his tribe, and had not for years.

It was also quite interesting seeing a new perspective on dragons. To the Africans, dragons are their ancestors reborn. The characters witness a sort of ceremony/celebration where they are talking to an egg as an old friend, and see the dragons treated with reverence and as leaders in the tribe.

I was skeptical of the disease at first as Temeraire clearly was sick earlier, so I assumed Novik was going back and changing the disease after coming up with a better idea for it. The addition of the cure was quite creative, and allowed us to actually revisit these characters that I loved so much from the first book finally. I was thrilled that we got to see Maximus and Lily again as well as their captains.

I am excited for the next book and how they deal with Laurence’s treason, personally I am hoping for us to spend a little time in England without expanding the world too much. But we shall see!

This Is Beautiful: Working From Home

 Stayed home all last week because I didn't have a reason to go in and also I didn't want to haha. It's nice to give myself a bit of a break and just focus on what I need to do from the comfort of my own home. I don't remember the last time I just sat down in the middle of the day and read for instance. It was a nice break and I'm almost (not completely) glad to be going back into work this week. 

“Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System” by Alec Karakatsanis

This was a book that I happened to get for free from my student union. I mostly picked it up because, hey free book. I’ll almost never turn that down.

The book consists of three different essays, all looking at criminal justice and constitutional rights. They vary wildly in length and format, but there are several themes that they have in common. One is that a disregard for human rights is the norm in criminal justice, especially if you are poor or a person of color. And another is that lawyers get used to the harm that they perpetuate with their job.

This was an interesting look at how criminal justice working in the United States. Karakatsanis clearly knows what he is talking about, as every fact and figure (and there are a lot of them) is cited and quantified. The figures themselves are so stark that it really opens your eyes and makes you question just what is going on here. How does the US hold a quarter of the world’s incarcerated people? How on earth did that happen?

Unsurprisingly it is a very relevant read at times. There is a whole section dedicated to so called “progressive prosecutors” such as Kamala Harris (who just lost her bid for president). The book was published ten years ago, its amazing that these same names keep popping up. Just goes to show that not much has changed.

I would highly recommend this, especially to others that are not familiar with the criminal justice system broadly. It really makes it clear just how far we have to go in this country and fires you up to make that change and get us there.

This Is Beautiful: Teaching

 Gave two lectures this week, the first one focused on Jacques Monod and how he was a scientist that played a big part in the French Resistance, and another talked about the complicity of scientists in things like eugenics. I am going to keep this up, and I'm interested to see what impact this has on the students, but I am not sure yet. There is a fine line I'm trying to walk here, and while I am not personally worried about my job security right now, I would love to not get fired from a part time lecturing gig lol. Regardless, this is keeping me going because I feel like I am actually making a difference here, this is the class that I wanted when I was in school back in 2016.

Gestures Vaguely At Current Situation

 Not sure what I can write at this exact moment, but it feels wrong to not try when that's why this blog exists. Partially I am hesitant because I do not think that I have all of the answers here, and I do not think that anyone does right now. We will just need to give some of this time to figure out exactly what to do, how we got here, and where to go now.

Which isn't to say that there are no answers whatsoever. The Democrats absolutely let their base down by swinging to the right. Standing with Israel means that Kamala had absolutely no chance of getting Michigan at all. I am more convinced than ever that there will never be a female president within my lifetime, let alone a Black, South Asian woman. I am still amazed that people were surprised by this when I could have guessed this the day she announced she was running. Hate comes in both blue and red.

There are some good things. Many states codified abortion, and the first trans Congresswoman was elected. It feels really minimal though when we are absolutely about to lose rights and progress. Personally I'm already exhausted and depressed. I was already doing the work, and I will keep doing it, but I'm so annoyed at having more stuff put on my plate. And I know my energy will come back, but it feels like so much whenever I think of the next four years and what we will have to endure. Because people absolutely will not survive this. That is a fact. And that depresses me in advance.

There are a number of things I'm really hopeful about. This time around I'm a teacher and I will be giving my students the tools to get through this. I've been thinking a lot about the art that got me through the first Trump presidency, and how we can possibly make more of it in these times. There is still good in this world, and it is absolutely worth fighting for.

This Is Beautiful: Traveling

 I'm trying to stay positive about this, I'm at a conference this week. Of course I'm also losing it over the election, but I'm trying to enjoy the change of scenery and all that. It's nice to explore somewhere new, I'll probably write about it soon, and just take an excuse to have a bit of a break!

“Circe” by Madeline Miller

I had been meaning to pick this book up at some point, finally got around to it when I picked it up on a whim from my library. It was a really cool and interesting read, despite my fascination with Percy Jackson I am not the biggest buff of Greek mythology anymore and this was riveting.

Circe follows the story of the titular witch throughout her life, starting with her being born as a nymph to the sun Tital Helios. She is overlooked by her family and actively bullied, until she discovers these plants that have magical powers to transform individuals. She first uses it to transform a man she likes into a god, and then when he favors a different nymph, she transforms her rival into the monster Scylla. After that she turns herself in and is banished to an island. While there, she comes into her own as a witch and bends the island to her will.

The first time she leaves the island she is bidden to help her sister give birth. Daedalus comes to fetch her and they return together. There her sister gives birth to the Minotaur and Circe is able to meet the characters from the myth. She advises Daedalus on how to constrain the monster, and he gifts her a loom.

Then men start coming to her island. She welcomes the first group, but when they learn she’s alone the captain rapes her and she turns them all into pigs. She does this to all crews that come by, until she meets Odysseus. He convinces her to return his crew and they stay on the island for a while. Eventually though, he has to leave, and Circe bears a son as soon as he goes. Eventually, her son wants to leave and meet his father so she sends him off with a poisonous spear for protection. When he returns though, tragedy has struck and Odysseus poisoned himself when trying to grab the spear. He returns with Odysseus’ wife and original son, who stay and get to know Circe. Athena then returns to the island and offers Odysseus’ first son the chance to become a king, he refuses. Circe’s son takes his place. Circe then convinces her father to end her exile and she travels around with Odysseus’ son trying to right her wrongs. The book ends with her taking those original flowers and becoming mortal.

Now the book is a really cool read, it combines a bunch of myths together that Circe witnesses or plays a role in. Because in the original stories, she is only in the Odyssey and even then most of her motives and personality is shadowed. We don’t know why she turns men into pigs, or why she eventually helps Odysseus get home. There are many more beyond the ones I mentioned here, Media and Jason make an appearance, among others. The result is an incredible weaving together of stories, linked by Circe’s life and perspective.

Circe is a very sympathetic character here, we see her bullied throughout her life and we hear her scorn the Titans and the gods alike. When she comes into her power and starts turning men into pigs, you end up cheering her on. Having said that, she is always sympathetic to mortals and is one of the few immortals to actually morn them, so we are predisposed to like her.

My only gripe is with the ending. I do love that it comes full circle and she uses her first source of magic to become mortal, that’s all very nice. But it also says that she then marries Odysseus’ first son and they have kids together and just. Ewww? Like she gave birth to his brother, I know that these myths play fast and loose with all that but the book also very much uses modern morals throughout it. And that is just a little too much for me.

It was a fun read, makes me want to read The Song of Achilles by Miller as well. Hopefully I get around to it eventually!