What I'm Reading Now -- The Sorrows of Young Werther

I'm pretty sure I've owned The Sorrows of Young Werther since I was in college.  I have no idea why, or even really what it's about.  Based on the title alone, I'm guessing "over-dramatic coming-of-age story"?  I hope it's more that that; I'm past the point in my life where coming-of-age stories are generally meaningful to me.

I suppose that doesn't matter, since it's part of my 2022 Reading Challenge and I'm already 2 months behind.  Hopefully now that I kicked Jack out of the way, I can make some progress.

Jack: A Life Like No Other -- Take 1.5

I don't often quit on books.  I'm 64 pages into Jack: A Life Like No Other, which weighs in at 400 pages exclusive of the notes and index.  I'm really struggling to go on, and life is short, so I'm not going to.  At least not now.

I'm most irritated by the author's own inflated sense of himself.  I wanted to read a book about John Kennedy, not a book about how great Geoffrey Perret thinks Harvard is.  Let me explain.  Early in the book, he discusses how Jack was forever compared to -- and came up short against -- his older brother Joe Jr.  Until he went to Harvard.  "Harvard, greatest institution in the world, was able to look past the poor grades and misbehavior and see the young man for the giant he would become" (or words generally to that effect).  Really?, I said to myself; this guy must have gone to Harvard.  Sure enough, he did.  And he really likes to use every obscure word he knows or can find in a dictionary to show everyone just how smart he is.  For example, "pelf," and a few pages later, "avoirdupois."  Don't get me wrong.  I like words and learning new ones, but in these cases there are perfectly adequate words that don't require a dictionary which convey the same idea.  I like fancy words when they describe something that there isn't a single, easier word for.  Like "palimpsest" or "croochie-proochles."

I'm mildly irritated because the editing doesn't seem great.  It's not riddled with typos, but, for example, there is a description of the young Kennedy's exploits on a bridge in Europe which in one place is described as "fifty feet" high, and in another is described as "more than twenty feet."  Technically, 50 is more than 20, but why the difference?  Just pick one and use the same measure in both the text and the photo caption.

I'm undecided on whether the very long historical background is necessary.  There's a lot about Joe Sr. and Rose, and John's childhood.  Maybe it will all come to something, maybe it won't.  I'm apparently not going to find out.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XX -- SLIFF 2021

I hoped for more from Atlas.  This was the first of only two full-length films we watched.  It profiles a rock climber named Allegra who was in a cafe in Morocco when the cafe was blown up by terrorists.  All three of the friends she was traveling with were killed; Allegra was wounded.  She's now back home in Europe -- physically recovering, emotionally struggling, dealing with the lingering fears, slowly attempting to climb again.  If you're looking for an emotional journey, this may be what you're looking for.  I wanted more Morocco, I wanted more climbing; this movie doesn't really have either, so I was pretty bummed.

The second of our full-length films was My So-Called Selfish Life.  This one was right up my alley, and I loved it.  It gave voice to so many of the different feelings I've had over the last 15 years.  It questions the broad societal assumption that all women want to have children, interrogates why that is the case and why it's bad for women, and profiles several women who elected a childfree life.  This movie is not for everyone -- I get that -- but it was definitely for me.  It's a good, thoughtful reminder.  And I especially loved the closing credits: "no storks were harmed during the making of this movie."

In addition to the features, I watched loads of shorts.  S joined me for some of them, others were just me.

First up was the "Narrative Shorts: Assorted Gems" collection.  In something approximating the actual order in which they were played:
  -- Strasbourg 1518 (trailer) was terrible.  It's an avant-garde dance film, and as soon as we figured out what was happening (or more to the point, that nothing was happening), we skipped the end of it.
  -- The Coupon was weird but sort of entertaining, in its own way.  A wife gives her husband a birthday "coupon," which winds up in the hands of the man the husband backed into with his car.  When the man demands compliance, the wife is reticent.  Then the terms of the coupon change.
  -- Play It Again (trailer) is a broken heart story, cute and funny but bittersweet.
  -- The Danger in Front was a visually fascinating short.  Sort of a satire on a film noir.  Odd, but fascinating in its own way.
I really liked Out of Time.  It takes a minute to figure out what's going on, but that's part of the fun of it, so I won't tell you.  But it's really lovely.
  -- Shower Boys has an unfortunately un-clever title.  It's about two boys, in the shower.  In part it's your standard coming-of-age story with a bit of an exploratory twist, in part it's a lesson in parenting.
  -- The last, longest, and best of the bunch was The Letter Room (though it is not without controversy).  It follows a prison guard whose job is to review incoming and outgoing prisoner mail for objectionable content.  He can't help but become involved in the lives of some of the prisoners once he gets to know them through their correspondence.

S also joined me for "Doc Shorts: Secret Histories":
  -- Restrictions Apply (full film; trailer) is a story we know well; St. Louis is famous for its history of restrictive covenants excluding black folks from owning property in certain areas of town, and we discussed it at length in my property class in law school.  Perhaps because we know the story so well, S saw this as very much a "white savior" narrative.  I can see where he's coming from; it's a bunch of white folks campaigning for the removal of restrictive covenants from the properties they own.  But I don't have a good sense of how well-known this story is in other parts of the country or outside of the legal community, so maybe it's good that the story is getting out there.  Changing the covenants has to come from somewhere, even if those people are white, right?
  -- Street Reporter (trailer) follows a formerly homeless woman who reports on homeless issues, and the way homeless people are treated (which is primarily to say displaced).  While she is reporting on other people's homelessness, she is simultaneously struggling with homelessness herself.
-- Red Horizon profiles the founders and students at a flight school which focuses on training young black students to be pilots, dedicated to keeping the memory of the Tuskegee Airmen alive.
-- The infiltration of FBI agents into the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement is the focus of The FBI's Secret War (trailer).  The whole operation, called COINTELPRO, was broader than just the VVAW infiltration; it was the name used more broadly for all groups through the 50s, 60s, and 70s that the FBI deemed subversive.  I guess I always assumed that there had been some amount of this going on, but I didn't quite realize the extent of it.
-- The Queen of Basketball we skipped.  It was pretty boring and not a topic I have much interest in.
-- Memory Lanes I have no memory of.  I think maybe this one didn't end up being included in the program (which sometimes happens).

I watched the "Doc Shorts: Growing Old" while S was busy with other projects one day.  Here are my thoughts:
-- Come on Time was not great.  Another one of those ones that was pretty "blah," to the point that I hardly remember it. 
-- The Hairdresser was a very sweet French film about a hairdresser who does the hair of elderly people living in a home so that they can have some little glimmer of their prior life back.
-- Strikers was cute.  It's about the inter-old-folks'-home Wii bowling championship in one town in Illinois.  Who knew there was such a thing?
-- Testimony of Ana is terribly sad.  Ana is an elderly woman in India who was accused of witchcraft.  She was exiled from her village and deals with the consequences of being an outcast.
-- Senior Prom celebrates the elderly LGBTQ generation, finally able to have all the fun they weren't able to when they were in high school.
-- Heurtebise honestly I really don't remember. So I guess it can't have been that good.

Last but not least were the "Doc Shorts: Honest Work" selections:
-- A Broken House was a sad but sweet story about a Syrian immigrant who can't go home to see his family because of his visa limitations, so he builds a tiny reproduction of his Damascus neighborhood to feel closer to home.
-- The Neon Craftsman was a neat little short film about a guy whose business is making neon signs in a world that uses fewer and fewer of them.
-- The Seeker is the story of an Amish man who has had to leave his community after a crisis of faith.
-- Eric and the Bees is -- you guessed it -- about Eric and his bees.  Beekeeping became Eric's therapy after he left the military.  It gives him purpose and helps him deal with the trauma of his combat history.
-- Lines of Exile is a black and white animated film, but I forget what it's about.  Something about education or immigration or the like.
-- Takeaway is a "day in the life" film about a carry-out food delivery driver in Beijing.
-- Joakim and Mutha & the Death of Ham-Ma-Fuku I truly don't remember at all.  Sometimes it happens that a film which is originally slated to be part of a series doesn't end up being shown.  Probably for licensing reasons, but I'm sure there were others too.  That might have been the case here.  Or it's also possible that I just didn't finish this series before my viewing license expired.

And, that was the end of my SLIFF 2021 adventure!  See you next year.

Weapons of Math Destruction -- Take 2

I finished Weapons of Math Destruction a while ago and didn't realize that I hadn't written about it.  Unfortunately, due to the delay and my terrible memory, the finer points are a bit fuzzy.  But my general thought follows:

This book was horrifying.

First, let's start with her definition of a model which becomes "weapon of math destruction." She describes three components:
1. Opacity - is it clear to an outsider what goes into the statistical model, or is it opaque?  Or, worse yet, is it completely invisible to the people being modeled?  Are people made aware of the results or "scores" they get?
2. Scale - how large of an impact does this model have?  Is its use widespread?  Is it easily scalable to cover ever-larger groups of people?
3. Damage - does the model (at least have the potential to) negatively impact the lives of the people it's modeling?

Statistical models aren't inherently, or at least don't have to be, destructive.  Not every statistical model becomes a WMD.  She uses the now-well-known idea promoted by the book and movie Moneyball as an example of when a model works well and is not destructive.

But many statistical models -- even if they didn't start out that way -- do eventually become WMDs.  They are opaque, widespread, and destructive.  The author illustrates many of them in her book; there are chapters on the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, online advertising, applying for jobs, getting credit or insurance, and others.

Though she does attempt a hopeful ending, I just don't have faith that we collectively will get to a place anytime soon where we are prioritizing people (and their privacy) over profits.  That seems unlikely.  Statistically.

Levar Burton (and other Heroes) and Speculative Fiction

Levar Burton is up there among the national treasures we should all treasure.  He's up there with Fred Rogers, Bob Ross, and Alex Trebek on my list of good folks.  (Who did I forget?)

I have, of late, binge-listened to several seasons of his podcast, "Levar Burton Reads."  In each episode, he gives a little intro and reads a short story (for adults, the kids -- including me -- got years of Reading Rainbow).  After the story's over, sometimes there are author interviews, but I far prefer the episodes where he talks about what the story means to him.  Through it, you get glimpses into his history and current life.  He talks about his background, his family, and his career.

I have learned, through listening to those codas, that he got into science fiction as a kid because he couldn't find many books with protagonists who looked like him.  His podcast, accordingly, has a lot of science fiction and speculative fiction.  (Plus I've learned other fun facts, like that he was born in Germany and at one point was going to become a priest.)

Prior to listening to this podcast, I'm not even sure I had heard of speculative fiction, let alone would I have been able to define it.  According to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia for Literature, it "has three historically located meanings: a subgenre of science fiction that deals with human rather than technological problems, a genre distinct from and opposite to science fiction in its exclusive focus on possible futures, and a super category for all genres that deliberately depart from imitating "consensus reality" of everyday experience."  So, yeah.  That's what it is.  It seems to me that mostly when my friend Levar uses it, he's talking about the first category.

I'm not sure I would have listened to a heavily sci-fi podcast if it had been read by someone other than Levar.  But wanting to hear him read stories encouraged my marathon listen, and the marathon listen gave me an appreciation for the creativity demonstrated by speculative fiction writers.  It is incredible what strange and clever things their brains come up with.

Two of my favorites had very similar story lines:

One was a story about a man who bought a coat at a secondhand store.  It turns out it was God's coat, and his pockets are always filling with little fortune-cookie-sized slips of paper containing the prayers of the people who are near him.  Concisely titled, "A Fable with Slips of White Paper Spilling from the Pockets," by Kevin Brockmeier.

The other was called "Chivalry," by Neil Gaiman.  An elderly British woman buys a cup at a secondhand store, and it turns out to be the holy grail.  Galahad, clad in armor and arriving on horseback, arrives at her house on his apparently never-ending quest to locate the grail.

And no mention of speculative fiction would be complete without Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie."

All this is by way of suggesting that, if you -- like me -- have written off the whole sci-fi section of the bookstore or library as "not for me," you might want to reconsider it.  Have a walk-through when you next have some time to kill and see if you can find something that strikes your fancy.

The Morocco Trip that Wasn't

As many of you know, S and I were scheduled to go to Morocco over the holiday.  Due to COVID, the country closed its borders to travelers nine days before we were supposed to leave for Casablanca.  We had of course bought, borrowed, and read many travel guides, examined maps down to the minutest detail, and arranged our itinerary and excursions.  That was a disappointment.

We had also begun our cultural exploration by watching a few movies set in Morocco.  There is of course Casablanca, which we had both already seen so did not re-watch, but it never gets old.  Such a classic.

We also watched: 

Finding Agnes -- upon the death of his mother, a businessman travels to Morocco to fulfill her last wishes.  The movie was just "eh," and I really wished there had been more scenes from Morocco.  There were a few shots of towns and markets, but I wanted more.

Sand Storm -- two women in a Bedouin village in Israel explore society's limits for them.  Though this movie is set in Israel, there are lots of Bedouin groups living in Morocco, mostly in the mountains.  Obviously there are cultural differences, but we thought it would be illuminating nonetheless.  It had a very SLIFF-style ending, which is to say that it doesn't really conclude.  Sad, but not hopeless.

Hideous Kinky -- I don't know what I thought this movie was about, but it certainly wasn't was it was actually about.  Based on the semi-autobiographical book by Esther Freud, Kate Winslet plays a young mom of two girls who has left her cheating husband in England and moved with her daughters to Morocco.  The kids were pretty cute, but the movie struck me as a bit pointless.  Later reading indicates that perhaps that was the point, following one particular 1970s wandering soul as she wandered the globe.  More than either of the prior two, there were street scenes and a much better sense of place.  And it had a good soundtrack.

Atlas -- see the upcoming post for this one.

I also found several books, at least some of which I intended to take with me to read on our trip.  The list was long -- some of the leading contenders were:
The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca, by Tahir Shah (plus some of his other books, including In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams and Casablanca Blues)
The Moroccan Girl, by Charles Cumming
Tangerine, by Christine Mangan -- I found this one in a library book sale when S and I were in Maine, so it's the only one I own, but the library has lots of the others
The Lioness of Morocco, by Julia Drosten
The Spider's House, by Paul Bowles (as well as his Collected Stories)
Larabi's Ox: Stories of Morocco, by Tony Ardizzone
The Storyteller of Marrakesh, by Joydeep Roy-Battacharya
A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco, by Suzanna Clarke

Any thoughts on any of these?  I may still want to read a few and would be happy to have suggestions and recommendations on these or others I missed!

Random Links

Blogger has, in true fashion, screwed up its sidebar widget where I can normally post links to other cool stuff.  In lieu of using that (again), here are a few fun things I've learned about recently:

Every year, residents of Nome, Alaska, set up their used Christmas trees on the ice to create the Nome National Forest.  They even have a sign and some little fake animals -- plus Santa, mermaids, and a few other creatures -- that get interspersed with the trees.  In the spring, they collect up the man-made pieces, and let the trees fall through into the water as the ice breaks up.  How fun is that?

Minneapolis and St. Paul are famous for their pedestrian skyways, those second-floor enclosed walkways that connect all the downtown buildings, saving folks from having to go outside during the frigid Minnesota winters.  Did you know that, once, several years ago, the St. Paul skyways were the site of a mountain bike race?  I recommend you turn the sound off for this video through the course.

NPR's book recommendation engine, now called "Books We Love" (formerly the "Book Concierge") is a really fun way to find books to read.

Here's some pretty cool human choreography which mimics starlings in flight. 

More news from Minnesota!  Last year, the Minnesota Department of Transportation allowed the public to vote on the names for new snowplows for each of their eight districts.  The winning name was Plowy McPlowface.  Other names for the 2021 plows included F. Salt Fitzgerald, Darth Blader, Snowbi Wan Kenobi, and The Truck Formerly Known as Plow.  The Class of 2022 was recently announced, with Betty Whiteout being crowned the homecoming queen.  Other new graduates/additions to the fleet are Ctrl Salt Delete, Plowasaurus Rex, Scoop Dogg, and Edward Blizzardhands.

Quote of the Day

 "The desert chews its secrets right down to the bone."

     -- Ursula Vernon, Jackelope Wives