Cosmopolis

Weird!

The Ethics of Authenticity

What an amazing book! Written by Canadian Charles Taylor, this book changed the way I look at modernism, individualism, economics, and politics. Taylor is truly an advocate of a Buddha-like middle ground where we acknowledge the struggles that go on around us without feeling elation at the loss of power on one side or despair at our own idealogical losses. Brilliant! I'm back to longer posts now, so please excuse the tome, but I have to remember this for class.

Taylor begins his argument by defining three "malaises" that have gripped us concerning the onset and subsequent success of modernity. These three malaises are interrelated and overlapping, but for the sake of clarity, they are:
1. Individualism that slides into a narcissistic outlook on life.
2. The primacy of instrumental reason that promotes the most efficient and economical means as leading to the best ends.
3. A lack of participation in government resulting from a focus on individual contentment that allows the government to become a tutelary power over which the citizens have no control.
According to Taylor, the way to combat these malaises is to rediscover the moral sources from which these ideas come and work toward the moral ideal without getting caught up in the ears surrounding both sides of each argument. And each argument does have two sides!

Just as a side note, I wonder if the casual drop of "ends" and "means" is meant to remind us of Machiavelli who is most often misquoted as saying, "The ends justify the means." Regardless of whether or not Machiavelli actually says this (he doesn't), his book The Prince does support an outlook in which whatever means one uses to reach a good goal are thereby justified as good because the goal is good. This is an obviously controversial argument, but my concern here is how it can be used to explain the problems with instrumental reason. If for Machiavelli, the goal was of primary significance; then for instrumental reason, the means are of primary significance. However, instead of being a much more moral philosophy, this has degraded into a system in which the most efficient means lead to the best result: there is no justification for doing something the hard way, even if the end result is a higher quality product. This is at the extreme of course.

Teaching Adolescent Writers

Another book by Kelly Gallagher. I'm using this one to plan my lessons for ENG 080 and 090, which start in a couple of weeks.

The Princess Bride

I came to this book by way of my dear friend Christy. When we met early in our West Potomac teaching careers, we had plenty in common without discovering that we both loved fantasy and could quote extensively from The Princess Bride film. However, this interesting and probably rather common ability made for great entertainment in the faculty lounge.

Persepolis

Persepolis is easily one of the best books I have ever read. How a graphic novel like Watchmen got on to the 100 Best Novels of All Time when there are stories like this one in the medium, I'll never know. The story of a villified country as told by a young girl, Persepolis chronicles the Iranian conversion to Islamic extremism in a comprehensible way.

Batman: The Killing Joke

I wonder why I insist on calling Alan Moore Michael Moore. This is a mystery to me, except that I think both their faces are obnoxious to me. I suppose this is beside the point.

So, why am I reading traditional superhero comics? I am hoping to go to a conference in Wilmington, NC this October and present on terrorism in comic movies and fantasy novels. I picked this graphic novel up because I wanted

Fables: Legends in Exile (Vol. 1)

Our favorite Grimm characters come to the modern world to escape the adversary who has taken all their lands. Snow White's sister Rose Red fakes her own murder to get out of a pending engagement with Bluebeard.