Book Review: Gods Behaving Badly

I recently finished reading Marie Phillips' book Gods Behaving Badly. Not bad for the first time out of the chute. In this tale Ms. Phillips brings us up to date on what happened to the Greek Pantheon. Seems that after losing the limelight to that young upstart Jesus and the spread of Christianity, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo and the clan have done a reverse "Beverly Hillbillies" and moved downmarket from Olympus to a tumbledown house in modern day London. It seems that, for reasons only alluded to early in the book, the gods have lost most of their powers, able to barely perform their assigned tasks (or in D&D terms, oversee their portfolio). Apollo can still make the sun rise and set but to work on on television as a TV psychic he has to rely on tricks having lost his ability to prophesy. Poor Demeter can no longer cultivate plants. And Zeus seems to have disappeared completely (you find out where he is later). Mankind is represented by Neil and Alice, two rather ordinary people who go about their lives. Neil is the typical nerdish engineer and Alice works as a cleaner who winds up taking the job of cleaning the townhouse of the gods. Due to squabble between Apollo and Aphrodite the lives of Alice and Neil are turned upside down as they learn what happens when mortals interfere with the gods (or at least those of Greek mythology whose historic exploits are marvelously updated by Ms. Phillips for those who never read Edith Hamilton's works).

Is this a tome for the ages? No, but I did come away with some thoughts particularly in the area of the power of belief (or to "religify" it, faith) and the concept of myth. Let me try to tie the two together without creating too vulgar (in the sense of undeveloped and not that of profanity) an analysis. What Phillips shows her readers (or at least those who care to look) is the consequences of a people who forget the myths and narratives of humanity. Modern man carries on actions without any meaning or context (some of the Christian existentialists like Gabriel Marcel immediately come to mind). In the book Artemis talks about dogs becoming docile and forgetting what it means to be a dog. Sex becomes common to the point where Aphrodite works as a phone-sex operator. Dionysus runs an underground club where he dispenses his special wine. In mythology the gods embody the meaning, the "why" of various human activities. As belief in the gods wane man carries on but there is something lost, the activities become hollow when separated from their raison d'être. For the existentialists this is part of what is referred to as an inauthentic life (for some wonderful analysis I really do recommend Marcel's Man Against Mass Society).

So, is this a "must buy"? No, but if you enjoy anachronism and the figures of myth as I do it does merit consideration for your hard-earned dollars (thanks for giving this to me Eugenia). Ms. Phillip's easy writing styles creates a breezy book that can, if one wants to, make you think and if not you come away not regretting having picked it up. I'm looking forward to seeing what she does for an encore.

Tying Two Books Together

Well, I just finished reading Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam Is Destroying The West From Within. All the while I was reading this I was reminded of a section in David Frum's most recent opus, Comback where he strongly encourages the next Republican president (and I would say, the next president regardless of party affiliation) to strengthen ties with whomever we consider allies in the east (particularly India) because it may soon be the case that we as a people who love freedom of expression and who enjoy a high level of personal liberty to live our lives as we see fit can no longer count on many of the countries of Europe. Why? Because of the massive growth of radical Islamists in those countries. This is happening because of two major trends. First, after World War Two, the birthrate of Europeans has declined to about 1.45 per couple, well below the rate of 2.1 needed simply to sustain a population. Birthrates to Muslims living in Europe tend to be much higher, about three times as high according to The Council on Foreign Relations. The second trend is that of what are called "fetching marriages" where young Muslim women are betrothed to Muslim men in other countries. The marriage will allow not only the husband but his entire family to emigrate to most European countries. These combine to create a situation of high concentrations of Muslims in many European cities. In a 2005 report the Pew Forum On Religion & Public Life:

they make up at least 25 percent of the populations in
Marseille and Rotterdam, 20 percent in Malmo (in Sweden),
15 percent in Brussels and Birmingham, and 10
percent or more in London, Paris and Copenhagen.
Over the next few decades, a number of large European
cities will likely become majority Muslim.

Now Bawer is NOT some ranting ultra-right-xenophobic writer but a pretty liberal gay man with a Ph.D. in English who left the United States in 1997 to live in Europe and currently resides in Norway. The accounts he describes in the book are a mix of both personal (such as his partner being attacked by a small gang of Muslim youths for being gay) to those of how the European press handled the attacks of 9/11, 7/7, 3/11, up to and including the 2006 uproar over the publishing of cartoon images of Islam and Muhammad which lead to the deaths of about 100 people by the "peace loving" radical followers of Islam. The accounts of how European "leaders" and "intellectuals" submitted to the terrorists are tale of legend. I didn't have time to track down all of the quotes (I do have a day job) but those I did find made me ill and seriously question how we can trust them if push really comes to shove. Shades of Neville Chamberlain... the only question is which city will be the modern version of Munich? Interestingly, Bawer, no huge fan of religion, says that one of Europe's problems in dealing with what is happening is due to the fact that the marginalizing of Christianity has left a vacuum in the souls (and apparently heads) of Europe's intelligentsia. Since they have no place for religion in their own lives they simply do not understand the power religion can have in the lives of others.

One of the largest hurdles to any hope of integration is that most European Muslims seem to not view themselves as citizens of the country of residence but to hold primary allegiance to the greater global Muslim community. Why do they get away with this? In large part it is because rather than trying to be a "melting pot" like the United States, European countries approach immigrants like one would a patchwork quilt where you are not only encouraged to keep a separate identity from your new home country, but often though subtle (and not so subtle) societal pressures made to keep yourselves distinct from the true "native born".

Now some of the gutless wonders of Europe are calling for the implementation (or at least allowance) of Sharia legal system. Technically this is supposed to apply only to Muslims, but as one site promoting religious tolerance says "sometimes this is not the case". Two interesting sites to read about what implementing Sharia would mean can be found here and here.

I know that many of you do not have the time to read Bawer's book, but I do urge you to read his commentary 9/11 Five Years Later: A View from Europe.

Harry Potter Spoiler (Not Really)

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: J K Rowling cures cancer after appearing in a photo shoot for Vogue Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

Summer Reading Book Review #3: The Forever War

I will admit I am not all that much of a science fiction fan (more into fantasy literature) but Joe Haldeman's The Forever War was a wonderful read. Originally a collection of stories in 1972-1973, "The Forever War" was first published in book form in 1974 and has stood well the test of time. While one can see obvious references to the Vietnam War the journey of William Mandella (who explains that his name is even more strange when spell correctly) fits well into our current state of affairs. Young man, reasonably intelligent, is conscripted and serves a tour of duty against an enemy that is not understood (truly alien) returns home to find Earth so changed that he cannot function in "modern" society (which is interesting since a good part of the story covers the current real time year, 2007), returns to service, is injured, tries to retire but is brought back one final time. Each time out he feels more and more removed from his "home" in such a way that the corp becomes the only place he seems to function. Yet this is not a spaceships and blasters kind of book (though there is some of that). First and foremost it is a story about people, in particular one William Mandella, someone who was in the corp at the start of the conflict and survives the 1143 year war. And that provides one of the most interesting twists in the story. As ships travel at near light speeds, time for the crew "flows" differently than for home world, so two months ship travel time can cause years to pass outside the relative field of the ship. Not only does this account for some of the time shift, but allows for situations such as finding the enemy has created much more advanced weapons than they had when the mission started (after all, for a global economy in military mode weapons advance quite rapidly). For me there were three rather emotional pivot points in the novel:

When Mandella is assigned to a different point from the love of his life, Marygay. I almost cried when I read Mendella's feelings of her departure. They were together at the beginning, both returned to earth decades after their mission to find it nearly unbearable. In Mandella's own words, "I wasn't just losing a lover. Marygay and I were each other's only link to real life, the Earth of the 1980s and '90s. Not the perverse grotesquerie we were supposedly fighting to preserve. When her shuttle took off it was like a casket rattling down into the grave."

Finding out the reason for the war (I'll leave that to you to find out).

Mandella's feelings about having survived over a thousand years and being alone, a relic (remember that time for him has flowed differently than for Marygay so her survival at this time is beyond the realm of the fantastic... but read the story).

If you like reading fantastic literature, especially one that lends itself to intelligent discussion, I highly recommend this book to you.

Summer Reading Book Review #2

Well, I finished Harold Kooden's book Golden Men: The Power of Gay Midlife. Overall I found it a good read and very useful in my own personal journey having reached the "ripe old age" of 44. This book is part memoir, part guide/workbook to facing the issues of gay men who are hitting those middle years of their life (the chronological age can vary a bit as Dr. Kooden demonstrates in certain client profiles but the focus seems to be on men in the mid-forties to late fifties). The book is divided into three large sections: Body, Mind, and Soul. For me, the first two sections were of great interest because they address issues I find myself struggling with, namely how to deal with being older in a youth-oriented society, dislike of my physical appearance, and self esteem. Throughout the book there are short but poignant exercises aimed to getting us to try to examine ourselves objectively, to remove many of the negative subjective thoughts we often have of ourselves. Some of them that struck me and got me to think a little differently about things (with the help of my therapist who always seemed to be a session ahead of my readings... which provided for some good reinforcement between sessions):

Do you believe that if someone does not find you sexually attractive, his response is a statement about whom he finds attractive, rather than a negation of you? (For me, the answer is no, it tells me I am not an attractive person... issue for me to work on)

If you knew for a certainty that gay men would continue to find you attractive and would continue to be interested in you sexually, do you think you would be as concerned about aging? (For me, yes I still would... which has caused my relationships to suffer)

What prevents you from saying exactly what you think and/or feel? (I have far more issues with this on a personal level than I care to think about... but the purpose of therapy is just that)

A major part of the book is dedicated to dealing with what the author calls our "hologram", that image we present to the world to get people to like or accept (or at least not despise) us. Starting with being a gay child in a predominantly heterosexual world we learn to hide certain aspects of ourselves that others tell us are wrong. This hologram manifests itself in many different ways as we age and until we learn to shed this false image it will be very difficult to "age gracefully".

The author's title comes from the opening of the text where he discusses how current gay society seems to lack "tribal elders" or "golden men". He presents various reasons, from the AIDS crisis that decimated a generation of men who would be reaching their 40's and 50's now, to our own community literature that seems only to focus on buff shirtless men in their early 20's. The author tries to tell us older gents that we should strive to become active parts of the community, to wear our age and experience as badges of honor and to give back through the sharing of our resources to those who might benefit. Good advice, and a nice sentiment, but we have a long way to go bridge the age gap. Still, if you don't try it will never happen. At least it is better to say you did your best, even if the results fall far short of the ideal.

Summer Reading Book Review #1

I just finished my first book in my summer reading list, Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth. I loved this book. Stein and DeMuth inject enough dry humor to make what would normally be a dry reading an actually entertaining AND informative reading (quite a difficult act). One of the most interesting things they did that I had not seen in these types of popular books was their use of Monte Carlo testing of their proposed investing strategies as well as comparing their method to other methods (and pointing out where other methods might be more advantageous). The book is divided into three parts:

1. The coming crisis of the coming "baby boomer" retirement tidal wave.
2. Figuring out how much you REALLY need to save.
3. What you can do if you are behind the eight-ball.

While providing a lot of analysis and custom tailoring options the main points can be boiled down to the following:

Most people are not saving enough and most financial planning people are misusing commonly know statistics NOT to the advantage of those looking at retirement.

While sophisticated investors have some options, the best investment strategy that the relatively uninformed lazy investor is the "couch potato" portfolio: invest half of your money in a broad market index fund and half in an medium-long bond index fund.

Save as much and as long as you can into this fund.

When it comes time to withdraw in retirement, withdraw based on whether the market is overvaluing stocks. If yes, withdraw a larger amount from the stock side. If it isn't, withdraw from the bond side (their Web site provides the indicator for you).

Rebalance every five years.

Now there are a lot of details that I, with my mathematical background, absolutely loved (such as rather basing your withdrawal rate based on a combination of comfort level, probability of outliving your investment, etc). The numbers, statistics, and theories are all there but bundled in such a way that if you don't want to read them you are allowed by the authors to skip them and just hit the "What do I do", but anyone serious about retirement should make the effort to plow through the analysis to get an excellent education about what investment and retirement planning should really consider.

Great work guys! I'm definitely getting your other books!