Historical Accuracy or Happily Ever After

While visiting a lover the other day, she told me that she had a book that she wanted me to read, because the main male character reminded her of me. I said, sure, after which she handed me a historical romance novel, Libertine's Kiss, by Judith James.

Being a guy, my normal preferred reading material does not usually include romance novels, but I have read some, particularly to research the occurrences of libertine characters in this genre, which is a fairly common character subtype.

As I took the book from her and read the blurb on the back cover, I immediately had to laugh -- the main character shared my first name. The book's setting is the 17th century Restoration court of Charles II, who could have accurately been called a libertine king. The author's note stated that the main male character, William De Veres, was based on John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, a noted libertine and poet in the court of Charles II. He was also the subject of the Johnny Depp movie, The Libertine.

As this book was classified as a romance novel, however, I already knew how the book was going to end -- in a monogamous marriage, at which time the libertine would cease being one. This is what the romance novel industry calls the "HEA"; the "happily ever after" formula, which is ubiquitous to every romance novel.

Because of this, I knew the book was going to be a disappointment from the beginning, as it could not remain true to history, nor to the real person that inspired the novel's male lead if it were to adhere to the HEA formula. Indeed, I could imagine Wilmot's sardonic laughter if he'd been able to read the book and see the character he'd inspired go completely out of character during the course of the novel.

And not only did the characterization of the male lead deviate from actual history, so did the female lead's view of what marriage should be deviate from 17th century norms in general, which I'll further elaborate on later below.

Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and read it, anyway. The book proved to be an engaging read, with the author throwing in snippets of Wilmot's actual poetry throughout the book. Many times during the book, the male lead expressed thoughts that could have come out of my own mouth; enough so that I wondered if the author had read my blog.

To cite a few examples, when asked why he'd ended up as a libertine, he explained to the female lead that it was simply his nature, which is something I've done many times myself.

In another scene, he proposes marriage to her, knowing that he needed to get married sooner or later if he was to have heirs. He reasoned that he might as well do so with a woman he cared for. When she asks if he would remain sexually faithful to her, he honestly tells her no, respecting her enough to be honest with her. When she protested, he explained that there was a difference between sex and love, implying that one should not be inextricably bound to the other.

And this brings me to the book's flaws. The female lead, who was a widow, rejected his initial proposal because she vowed she would not remarry for anything but love. But such a sentiment would have been far less common in the 17th century than now. People then married much more often for practical reasons and love, if present, was considered icing on the cake, rather than the reason to marry in the first place. A woman of that time would not have demanded sexual exclusivity of a prospective husband, however much she might like it, as random dalliances would have simply been considered the nature of the male beast.

Then there were the trite, cliched plot devices that could have been done away with and still allowed the story to adhere to the HEA ending.

The first cliche was that the male lead was a libertine simply because he was a damaged, psychologically tortured man, having been molested as a teen by his tutor and for having had dysfunctional parents. Rarely in romance novels is a libertine a libertine merely because he like frequency and variety with his sex life. The assumption is that every normal person desires a lifelong, monogamous marriage.

The second cliche that left me rolling my eyes in disbelief was that the male lead immediately lost the desire to have sex with other women the moment he took up with the female lead. He became de facto monogamous at this time, despite his claims to the contrary. This is completely unbelievable, as no person who'd been a libertine his entire would suddenly lose that proclivity at the drop of a hat. Indeed, I would imagine that a libertine who'd made the decision to start living a monogamous life would not lose the desire for sexual variety and would have to work very hard to maintain a monogamous life.

Taken as a whole, however, this book was an interesting read, but I strongly believe the author would have done much better had she written it as straight historical fiction. If she'd done so, she would have been free to write the main characters in a more historically accurate manner, rather than as a romance, where she was hamstrung by the romance novel formulaic HEA requirement.

Indeed, Paula Reed's historical novel, Hester, which takes place along the same time period as Libertine's Kiss, did just that, which served to produce a superior novel. Her libertine character, John Manning, is much more genuine and believable than James' William De Veres.

Just my .02 cents.

Book Review: Hester: The Missing Years of the Scarlet Letter by Paula Reed

Hester: The Missing Years of the Scarlet Letter
by Paula Reed

St. Martin's Press, February 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-58392-7, ISBN10: 0-312-58392-3,
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches, 320 pages,

When Paula Reed asked me to read through a draft of her book, Hester, a couple of years ago, I was at first a bit hesitant that I would be able to give her a useful and informed opinion. I’d never read Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter all the way through, having been put off by his writing style the one time I’d attempted to read it. And despite being a history buff, the 17th century is not an era that I am much familiar with.

Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead and share my thoughts, as the opinion Paula sought from me was whether the character of John Manning, the philosophical libertine who became Hester’s lover and friend, resonated with me. As one who has spent my adult life living the life of a libertine without shame and as one who has always been interested in philosophical questions, this was something I felt I could adequately do.

In our blogs, I’d previously expressed to Paula that I’d like to see her write an unapologetic libertine character who did not change his ways by story’s end. She assured me that she’d remembered these blog conversations when creating Manning.

To answer Paula’s original question, I would say that John Manning’s character did indeed resonate with me. Unlike improbable romance novel libertines, who always, without fail, decide all they ever really wanted was a wife and children by story’s end, Paula Reed’s John Manning rings true to reality as he stays true to his self.

While reading, I often found myself nodding along with things he said, agreeing and understanding exactly where he was coming from. To quote Paula’s own words, John Manning “never changes, never repents, and remains a dear friend of Hester’s even after their sexual relationship ends.”

As well as being Hester’s friend and lover, I saw John as a steadying influence in her life, bolstering her resolve to live without shame or apology, especially during the times when her confidence faltered. He was, to use an expression my father often used, her “BS detector”, just as she was the “BS detector” for everyone else.

What I think I enjoyed most about this book, were the questions about the nature of sin, shame, integrity, and the dictates of individual conscience vs. religion that ran through the novel, which I thought best addressed by Hester’s conversations with John. And, of course, I found it particularly appropriate and satisfying that Manning worked for the downfall of Puritanism.

One thing I particularly liked was how Sir John Manning was eulogized in the Epilogue:

“There lies Sir John Manning,” proclaimed Lady G--- “an impenitent sinner and the only man who never lied to a single woman. Not so much as ‘I shall see thee in the morning.’”

“He may never have lied to one,” avowed Lord H---, “but God knows he lay with more than his share. Can’t hate him for it, though. Many an Englishman benefited by way of a more skillful wife.”

I have to say that I would be quite happy to be eulogized similarly when my time comes.

Though I’m sure that those who have read Hawthorne’s original novel will enjoy this book as a companion novel, it also works well as a standalone for those, such as myself, who did not read The Scarlet Letter. Highly recommended for those who enjoys historical fiction.

Book Review: The Lost Life of Eva Braun

The Lost Life of Eva Braun
by Angela Lambert

Few biographies have been written about the mistress of Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. Many students of World War II wonder how any woman could have loved Hitler or dismiss her as a shallow bimbo who was just as evil as he was.

This book explores these questions and portrays Braun as an average, unremarkable German woman of her times who was no more evil than the average person.

The author covers Braun's childhood experiences, focusing on the typical cultural attitudes of the time and her father's strict parenting style in particular. These experiences molded her into an impressionable 17 year old who was easily susceptible to the charisma of an older man who had the aura of power about him (his election as Chancellor was four years in the future when they met).

Several chapters deal with how their relationship grew and developed, including their sexual relationship, which was perfectly normal, despite urban legends claiming that Hitler was gay, impotent, or into odd fetishes.

One chapter speculates on what, if anything, Braun knew about the Holocaust, with a follow-up chapter asking what could she have done, even if she'd known. Related to these questions is coverage concerns Hitler's misogyny; how he generally disapproved of women being involved in politics and how political topics were never discussed in mixed gatherings; that most high-ranking Nazi women were deliberately left in the dark about the grisly details about the Holocaust and conduct of the war in general.

The book also explores how she willingly chose to share Hitler's fate, despite those around her, including Hitler, urging her to save herself.

In essence, the book shows her life as representing that of many Germans of the time -- of how millions of average, unremarkable, otherwise moral people could be taken in by someone like Hitler, and continue to do so, living in denial, even after it was obvious he was leading Germany down an evil path.

The author relies heavily on the accounts of those who knew her personally, including one still-living cousin who visited her at Hitler's private home, the Berghof.

Overall, I liked this book, with one quibble: The author includes several short segments comparing Braun's life with that of her mother, a German woman of roughly the same age and background. I understood that the author's purpose was to underline Braun's utter ordinariness of how evil is capable of seducing good people, but these digressions are distracting and the author would have been able to make this point sufficiently without these segments.

I give this book four out of five stars.

Nanny State: Book Review

Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotaling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists, and other Boneheaded Bureaucrats are Turning America into a Nation of Children
by David Harsanyi

"The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool...but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog"
--G.K. Chesterton

This quote, at the beginning of David Harsanyi's "Nanny State", succinctly sums up exactly what is wrong with the explosion of "nanny laws" in western society.

"Nanny state" actions are policies such as bans on smoking in public places, high taxes on junk food, bans on recreational drug use, gun control, a legal drinking age or legal smoking age that is higher than the age of majority, political correctness, censorship, certain types of regulations concerning consensual sex between adults, zero tolerance policies, and content regulation. Such actions result from the belief that the state or the local government has a duty to protect citizens from their own harmful behaviors, and that the state knows best what constitutes harmful behavior. The author defines the nanny state as, "a place where government takes a hyper-interest in micromanaging the welfare of its citizens, shielding us from our own injurious and irrational behavior."

Harsanyi believes that government acting as in loco parentis is dangerous because, "the more government feels comfortable subverting our right to live as we wish -- while not hurting others -- simply to create a more agreeable society, the state will feel increasingly comfortable sabotaging our rights on all fronts." In other words, "nanny laws" are a dangerous slippery slope.

He also believes that a nannyistic government goes against the intentions that the Founding Fathers had for our government. Harsanyi points out that it specifically subverts the notion of the "pursuit of happiness". He explains that the pursuit of happiness should be "tethered to the pillars of liberty and responsibility"; which gives us the right to be "wrong, dumb, and irresponsible".

Both conservatives and liberals are concerned about "nannyism", though they define what constitutes inappropriate government intrusion differently. Harsanyi, a libertarian, takes a balanced view in that he tars both conservatives and liberals equally with the "nanny" brush.

Harsanyi notes that there has been little protest against the proliferation in the last twenty years ago of such laws and policies and asks the question, "When exactly did you lost your right to be unhealthy, unsafe, immoral, and politically incorrect? What if I want to be fat, drunk, immoral, and intolerably foolish?"

The author states: "The Nanny State will argue that there is no excuse for government to protect a mentally stable citizen from making his or her own choices and that words and ideas like 'freedom' and 'responsibility' must again be injected into any conversation or debate about laws that affect personal behavior."

In the book, Harsanyi devotes chapters to different types of nanny policies: food/obesity policies aka "The Twinkie Fascists", anti-alcohol policies, anti-smoking policies, zero tolerance policies and other school-related nannyism, "family values" nannyism; i.e. those who attempt to legislate personal morality, anti-porn censorship and other anti-sex policies, policies that hamper those who wish to start small businesses, anti-gambling laws, among others. The last chapter deals with how society pays; what the negative fallout results from such paternalism.

I found myself in agreement with nearly all the author had to say, with the exception of his views of laws designed to protect the welfare of animals. I believe that laws are necessary to protect pets and other animals, as they cannot protect themselves from cruel and/or irresponsible humans. Otherwise, this book is a real breath of fresh air in our increasingly busybody, politically correct, and self-righteous society.

I recommend this book to anyone to cares about personal liberty and the rights of competent adults to live however they wish as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of others to live differently.

Blasphemy: How the Religious Right is Hijacking the Declaration of Independence: Book Review

I recently finished an interesting book: "Blasphemy:How the Religious Right is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence" by Alan Dershowitz. That is, he refutes, point by point, attempts by Christian fundamentalists to rewrite the history of our nation's founding by claiming that the Founding Fathers were all orthodox Christians who never intended the separation of church and state, but rather founded the USA as a "Christian Nation".

This short book contains three long chapters. The first chapter examines the beliefs of the Founding Fathers, focusing on the decidedly not Christian Thomas Jefferson, quoting extensively from his writings. The views of John Adams, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, and others are also covered in lesser detail.

The first chapter also looks at the God-language that was used by the Founders though the lens of Deism, which many of the Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, believed in. Dershowitz shows that the "Nature's God" that is referred to is not the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible, but rather, a "Blind Watchmaker" Creator, who created the universe then stepped back and let nature take its course. He goes into more detail as to how Deism and Universalism differs from today's conservative evangelical Christianity.

The second chapter covers the Religious Right's strategy for making the Founding Fathers over in their image and their plans to turn the US into a theocracy. He asserts that their plan is essentially two-fold. The first step would be a Trojan horse: to lower the wall of separation between church and state enough to allow non-threatening "generic" religion -- God, nonsectarian prayer, multiple religious images into the government sphere. The next step would be to then insist that Christianity is America's only "true" religion, as our nation was, in their view, founded by Christian on Christian principles. This would effectively make adherents of other religions be second class citizens, with atheists and agnostics being officially condemned as immoral, and would no doubt bring back the legality of having religious tests in order to hold elected office.

The third chapter, "What Are the 'Laws of Nature' and 'Nature's God'?", is the most fascinating in the book, in my opinion. In this chapter, Dershowitz compares the concept of "natural laws" vs positive legal enactments. He shows the logical fallacies in the notion of natural law, yet concedes that it is a useful legal fiction that give the legal basis on which to oppose or resist unjust laws that have been properly enacted.

Dershowitz shows that human knowledge, from which laws flow, comes from three main sources: discovery, invention, and revelation. Positive law is based on invention, which is an imperfect thing and is subject to amendment and improvement as times and circumstances change. Natural law, on the other hand is based on discovery and/or divine revelation. It is fully developed and flawless and is just waiting for humans to discover/discern it, then to live from thence forward by its unchanging principles.

But the sticking point in "natural law" is the fact that nature itself is morally neutral. Dershowitz quotes Robert Ingersoll: "In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are only consequences." Anatole France concurred: "Nature, in its indifference, makes no distinction between good and evil".

Dershowitz asserts: "Morality evolves with experience, and nature is part of that experience, but not the only part. In constructing a moral code, one should not ignore the varieties of human nature, but the diverse components of nature cannot be translated directly into morality. The complex relationship between the is of nature and the ought of morality must be mediated by human experience".

Rather than the laws of nature or God's revealed word, Dershowitz believes that source of higher morality is human experience -- trial and error. "We are at our best when we recognize our past mistakes and try build a better system of morality to avoid repetition of those mistakes. Rights come from wrongs!" He goes on to say, "Our present system of rights is not based on Nature or God, but rather on a recognition of our past wrongs and a desire not to repeat them -- or do worse".

I give this one five stars and it has earned a permanent place in my library

The Libertine

The Libertine Johnny Depp Date: 2006-07-04 — DVD / VHS product page Rating:

Review of The Libertine

At long last, I finally got around to seeing Johnny Depp's, The Libertine, which covers the last few years of 17th century John Wilmot, The Earl of Rochester's life. Wilmot, who was a poet and playwright, was also a jaded libertine, regularly engaging in various forms of debauchery. The movie focuses on his relationship with King Charles II and that of a mistress, whom he molds into a competent actress. The latter portion of the movie shows his decline and eventual death, horribly disfigured from syphilis. In a bit of irony, the mistress, whose career he enabled, turned her back on him during his decline, but his long-suffering wife, whom he treated with disdain at best, cares for him until the bitter end.

The movie was filmed entirely in sepia tones, which sets the mood for this essentially dreary and depressing movie. The typical filth of cities in the 17th century is shown clearly, with mud and rats abounding everywhere.

I had to pay attention closely to understand the antiquated English of the 17th century in certain scenes; my interest in history paid off there. The movie was choppy, a few scenes making me wonder why he was doing certain things. The sex scenes were blurry, in one instance, literally shrouded in mist, and were not particularly arousing. The movie had an incomplete feel to it; there was a lot of detail missing from this movie that would have made it flow better.

Depp, however, shines in this movie, who deftly plays Wilmot as an unlikable, yet completely fascinating man. Depp's Earl of Rochester is a bit of an over the top character, similar to his portrayal of Jack Sparrow.

This movie will not appeal to a wide audience; it will be appreciated mainly by historical movie aficionados.

America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust, and Liberty

America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty (Sex, Love, and Psychology) Marty Klein Date: 2006-08-30 — Book product page Rating:

Review of America's War on Sex: The Attack on Law, Lust and Liberty (Sex, Love, and Psychology)

America's War on Sex is a look at the various violations of our civil liberties in reference to sexual freedom. The author, Dr Marty Klein, a certified sex therapist, clearly shows that sexual freedom for all consenting adults is an integral part of our rights under the First Amendment.

Dr Klein believes that "those who are trying to 'clean up' America say they're fighting for a number of critical reasons; children, the family, marriage, morals, education, community safety. But this isn't really true. It's a war against sex: sexual expression, sexual exploration, sexual arrangements, sexual privacy, sexual choice, sexual entertainment, sexual health, sexual imagination, sexual pleasure....The public is manipulated into fighting sexual expression, not sexual ignorance or poor sexual decision making."

Elaborating on his original premise, Dr Klein talks about abstinence-only vs comprehensive sex education, the campaigns to suppress and censor pornography, abortion, contraception, attempts to censor the broadcast media, adult entertainment, and the internet. He also takes a look at those involved in censorship and anti-sex campaigns, particularly religious fundamentalists, showing what drives them and how they operate. One chapter is nothing but outrageous quotes by many people who would seek to limit the sexual rights of others.

Most useful is a chapter about sexual privacy, particularly how it related to sexual minorities, which includes examples of how the law discriminates against sexual minorities, which is pretty much everyone who doesn't practice heterosexual monogamy within a legally recognized marriage. In this chapter, Klein focuses mainly on gay people, swingers, and aficionados of BDSM, but what he writes applies to other sexual minorities as well.

Also included are extensive source notes and an up-to-date bibliography.

He's preaching to the choir here, but I took one star away for his writing style which is a little strident and over the top. Nevertheless, this is a book that should be in the library of anyone who takes the American ideal of liberty and privacy seriously, especially as how it pertains to our sexuality.

Sperm Wars

I've been doing a lot of browsing at Amazon lately in order to beef up my "Books to Buy" list. One that I put on my list recently was entitled "Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles" by Robin Baker.

The title immediately drew my interest, but the book description clinched it. Baker explores some recently discovered facts about sex that completely debunk some age-old biological assumptions.

Hogamus, higamus
Men are polygamous
Higamus, hogamus
Women, monogamous

It turns out that this old bit of folk wisdom isn't quite so true or wise after all. What is true is that ten percent of children are not fathered by their legal "fathers"; less than one percent of a man’s sperm is capable of fertilization (the rest is there to fight off all other men’s sperm); vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others; and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner.

In other words, nature itself expects people to be nonmonogamous, at least biologically, and has adapted reproductive strategies to this fact. Society may take a dim view of infidelity, group sex, partner-swapping, and the like, but these practices nevertheless may enhance an individual's reproductive success compared with long-term monogamy.

Thoughts?

Conservatives Without Conscience

Conservatives Without Conscience John Dean Date: 2006-07-11 — Book product page Rating:

Review of Conservatives Without Conscience

John Dean, a traditional conservative in the mold of Barry Goldwater, was moved to write this book after seeing the changes in his beloved Republican party over the last twenty-five years, changes, he believes, that betray the principles of classic conservatism.

Dean pinpoints this change to a growing authoritarian mindset within his party, accelerated by the influence of Religious Right.

He gives an overview of the history of conservatism in the United States, showing how earlier generations of conservatives differ from those of today, breaking down and describing various subgroups of conservatives today.

The concept of the authoritarian mindset in covered, especially as it relates to politics, and he gives descriptions of authoritiarian follower and leader types, and those who display traits of both, which he refers to as "Double Highs". After describing common character traits of authoritarians, and how such personality types are naturally attracted to far right ideas, both politically and religiously, he gives several thumbnail sketches of prominent right wing people, from years past and in the present, focusing on how they fit the authoritarian profile.

Dean also is careful not to paint all Republicans and conservatives with the same authoritarian brush. He provides a useful summary guide on how to distinguish conservatives without conscience from conservatives with conscience.

This was an enlightening and useful book, one I hope that voters will read before heading to the polls in November and again in 2008.

Marriage: Mating in Captivity

While surfing the net the other day, I came upon an interesting phrase that turned out to be the title of a book: Mating in Captivity: Reconciling the Erotic and the Domestic by Esther Perel.

Intrigued, because this pithy phrase sums up exactly how I feel about marriage, I went over to Amazon to read about this book.

The author bases the book on these questions:

Why does great sex so often fade for couples who claim to love each other as much as ever?
Can we want what we already have?
Why does the transition to parenthood so often spell erotic disaster?
Does good intimacy always make for good sex?

My first reaction to the book's premise is that Perel is ignoring the elephant in the living room: that monogamy and domesticity itself inherently kills desire. Passion-killing boredom inevitably sets in when the novelty wears off; the old "familiarity breeds contempt" problem.

However, a couple of readers' reviews of the book gave me hope that she might recognize the problem after all.

...she is open minded, accepting, and understanding of the incredible impact that sexual freedom and individuality have had on marriage. She does not sugar coat the fact that monogamous marriage is "dying." She advocates being proactive about ensuring passion and desire within your marriage.

Here's a radical thought: don't do everything together. Cultivate your own set of friends. Create differences, not affinities. "Ruthlessness is a way to achieve closeness" --- ponder that for a while. Monogamy? Great if you can honor it. But it is, statistics show, "a ship sinking faster than anyone can bail it out." Infidelity is a symptom of deeper problems in the relationship? Many believe that. Perel doesn't. She finds life...complicated

This book sounds like it's worth reading, so I'll check it out and see what she has to say.

The Faiths of the Founding Fathers

The Faiths of the Founding Fathers David L. Holmes Date: 2006-05-01 — Book product page Rating:

Review of The Faiths of the Founding Fathers

This book is a balanced look at the religious views of the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) of the USA. It takes the view that while the founders clearly intended the separation of church and state, they were not all of one mind about religion in their private lives. The author roughly groups them in several categories: non-Christian Deists, Christian Deists, Unitarians, and Orthodox Christians of varying degrees of liberality/conservatism.

The first chapter is an overview of the religious climate in the American colonies in 1770, and shows how some denominations differed in belief and practice form these same denominations today. Next, he covers the Anglican tradition, focusing on how this was a common factor in the upbringing of the founders from Virginia.

The next two chapters deal with Deism, the first being an overview of this philosophy and its relationship to the Enlightenment. The second covers the varying degrees of influence Deism had on the founding fathers.

The next six chapters cover the religious backgrounds and later beliefs and practices of several founders: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, none of whom could be categorized as orthodox Christians.

The eleventh chapter covers the religious beliefs of women close to the founding fathers: Martha Washington, Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, Abigail Adams, Martha Jefferson, Martha Jefferson Randolph, Maria Jefferson Eppes, and Dolley Madison. This chapter also discusses why Deism was less common among women during this time and why orthodox religion may have been more appealing to most women.

In the twelve chapter, there is a guide on how to distinguish a Deist from an orthodox Christian when reading material about people from this time period.

Chapter thirteen covers the religious beliefs of three prominent orthodox Christians of the time: Samuel Adams, Elias Boudinot, and John Jay, comparing and contrasting them with the founders mentioned above.

The book concludes with thumbnail sketches of the religious backgrounds and beliefs of Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush senior, Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and George Bush junior.

I enjoyed this book immensely, subtracting a star only because the book could have gone into more detail.

S is For Silence (Book Review)

S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries) Sue Grafton Date: 2005-12-06 — 16.98 — Book product page Rating:

Review of S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)

I found this book on a lover's nightstand and took it home, as I'd not read a mystery in a good while.

This book is part of a series of mysteries all titled with letters of the alphabet, featuring thirty-something PI Kinsey Millhone. Though the series contains progressive elements from one book to the next, each book can also read comfortably as a stand-alone.

In this book, Kinsey is hired by a woman whose mother had disappeared over thirty years previously, when the woman was seven years old. The case had never been solved by police and the woman wanted closure; to find out whether her mother had deserted her family or had met with foul play.

The missing woman, Violet Sullivan, was a free-spirited libertine living with her abusive husband and daughter in 1950s small-town California, when she disappeared on Independence Day, 1953. The chapters alternate between the book's current setting in 1987 and 1953; from Kinsey's perspective and that of various key people who knew Violet at the time of her disappearance. The transition between time periods is smooth and the reader learns pertinent details from 1953 before Kinsey discovers them in 1987. We hear from Violet's husband, her lovers, the teenage girl who babysits for Violet's daughter, along with others in the community, each adding pieces to the puzzle.

The book is fast paced and I finished it overnight; a definite page-turner. We find out Violet's fate well before the end and the rest of the book is devoted to discovering how it came to be. It kept me guessing until the very end, as I considered several suspects, none of whom turned out to be the right one.

Good book. I intend to read more by this author.

When Sex Goes to School: Review

When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex--And Sex Education--Since the Sixties Kristin Luker Date: 29 May, 2006 — $16.35 — Book product page Rating:

Review of When Sex Goes to School: Warring Views on Sex--And Sex Education--Since the Sixties

This book, while it covers the history of sex education in the schools since the early 20th century, is more about the players on both sides of the issue, about how and why they believe as they do. Luker frames the debate as one between conservatives and liberals, though, in my view, I'd say it's more of a debate between libertarians and authoritarians, as this topic doesn't always fall neatly along a liberal/conservative continnuum. But for the purposes of this review, I'll use Luker's categories of liberals and conservative.

Liberals advocate comprehensive sex education; that is, providing matter of fact information about the "plumbing", contraception and abortion, and alternative sexual lifestyles. Conservatives, on the other hand, are for "abstinence only" sex education; that is, providing basic information about the "plumbing", with no information about contraception, abortion, or alternative lifestyles, stressing that one must be abstinent until they are legally married.

In general, sexual liberals:

• Believe that sex is "natural"
• Are pluralists; that marriage is one of several valid sexual options, along with alternative sexual expressions of various kinds
  
• Believe that moral sex is consensual and careful (safer sex)
• Believe in contraception and legal abortion
• Believe that sexual pleasure is worthy in its own right
• Believe that more information is better; knowledge is power
• Believe that morality is relative, adaptive, based on context
• Believe that a moral person takes responsibility for their actions
• Believe in egalitarian relationships between men and women

In general, sexual conservatives:

• Believe that sex is "sacred"
• Are exclusivists and believe the only proper place for sex is within a legal, heterosexual, monogamous marriage. They believe homosexuality in particular is a threat to the idea of "sacred sex within marriage"
• Believe that moral sex is only within marriage
• Are against abortion; and contraception for unmarried people
• Believe that sex should be reserved solely for expressing love within marriage and that its primary purpose is reproduction
• Believe that too much information too early confuses children and teens
  
• Believe that morality is absolute and unchanging, without exception
  
• Believes that a moral person obeys the rules
  
• Believes in heirarchal, "traditional" relationships between men and women

This book is valuable not only for information about sex education in the schools, but is even more so for giving us a detailed look in how liberals and conservatives, sexual and otherwise, think. Luker conducted interviews with many people on both sides of the issue to properly present both sides of the story.

If you want a better understanding of how the other side "ticks", this is the book to read. I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Left Hand of God: Review

The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right Michael Lerner Date: 07 February, 2006 — $15.72 — Book product page Rating:

Review of The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right

I wanted to like this book, I really did. Thought the author has some good ideas, he ruined the book with a repetitious and rambling writing style that made it very hard for me to wade through this wordy morass and actually finish it.

The author, a rabbi, challenges the idea that religious conservatives have the corner on spiritual values that are relevant to politics. Religious conservative ideas, which conform to the financial bottom line, are what Lerner calls the "Right Hand of God". He asserts that liberals should not abandon the spiritual perspective on politics to the right wing, and they should reclaim the ethical high ground that religious liberals in the past, such as Martin Luther King, espoused.

Most of his ideas I agree with, such as restructuring the workplace so that we work to live rather than live to work, universal health care, legislation that would compel corporations to operate more responsibly in regards to the environment and in relation with their employees, and so on. And, interestingly enough, Rabbi Lerner agrees with me that the government should get out of the marriage business, though I found his solution of turning legal marriage into "civil unions" for everyone, while "marriage" would be a private, religious matter to be only a partial answer. Still, however, it is a step in the right direction.

Lerner has some good ideas if you don't mind cutting through all the verbosity -- this book could have been edited to one third its length and still retained all the important points. However, I highly recommend that readers pass on buying it and get it from the library instead.

Love the Sin?: Review

Love the Sin : Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance Janet R. Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini Date: 15 April, 2004 — $11.05 — Book product page Rating:

Review of Love the Sin : Sexual Regulation and the Limits of Religious Tolerance

This book tackles the issue of sexual freedom from the interesting perspective of comparing the freedom of sexual expression to that of religious freedom. While the book's main focus is on the rights of gays and lesbians, the viewpoints presented in this book apply just as well to all sexual minorities.

The authors point out that the basis for all state and federal laws regulating consensual adult activity are religious in origin. Civil laws regulating American marriage are a place where religious ideas about the "proper" form of intimate relationships have been enforced as "secular" law.

Marriage was a religious institution until the evolution of civil law. The authors address the question of whether it would be best to offer everyone the right to marry, or does our constitutional commitment to religious freedom actually require that the government get out of the marriage business altogether?

The First Amendment requires both the disestablishment of religion and protection for the free exercise of religion, which includes all religions and the right not to practice religion as well. If marriage is based on religion, it too, should be disestablished, thus protecting the free exercise of sexuality.

The authors also question why religion is considered to be an appropriate basis for public policies concerning sex, but wonder why this religious base isn't extended to other moral issues such as poverty, the death penalty, environmental issues, etc. What makes sex different?

They note that on one hand, sex is seen as a private matter by many people but that it's also seen as having amazing powers that can either make or break the entire nations's well being.

To those who take the second view, it seems logical that sex must be regulated, controlled -- domesticated. Seeing sex as a potentially destructive power justifies to them extensive regulations concerning sex that otherwise go against the high value in which freedom is placed in this country,

The authors point out that by regulating sex, the state also attempts to regulate family life. This is because such regulations actually define what legally counts as family.

Advocates of gay and lesbian rights often appeal to nature, saying that homosexuals are "born that way", in much the same way that people cannot choose their race. The authors assert that it shouldn't matter why someone is homosexual, that to say one is gay because they can't help it is tantamount to saying it's like they don't know any better, as if there's something inherently wrong with being gay.

They believe it is better to link sexual freedom not to race, but rather to relgious freedom. That is, we aren't born any particular religion that we cannot change -- we choose what, if any, religion we will practice and the right to do so is protected by the Constitution. Likewise, people shouldn't have to justify why they're gay in order to enjoy the same freedom in regards to sexual practices.

The authors also discuss the pitfalls of the idea of "tolerance". They point out that "tolerance" is extended to homosexuals on the conditions they become "just like everyone else", such as entering into a monogamous marriage. However, tolerance doesn't include sexual minorities, gay and straight, who don't want to be "like everybody else" and who value and want something else.

These ideas and more are explored in depth in this well written and timely book. It will make many people think differently that will give a new perspective on the gay marriage issue and that of sexual freedom in general.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation

Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation Chris Turner Date: 12 October, 2004 — $16.38 — Book product page Rating:

Review of Planet Simpson: How A Cartoon Masterpiece Defined a Generation

I've been a devotee of the Simpsons for many years now, and when I saw this book at the library, I checked it out, thinking it would have some interesting tidbits about the show.

However, I never finished the book, as the writing style was boring and ponderous. The author took himself and his subject matter much too seriously. The book was a pathetic attempt to prove how urbane and sophisticated the author thought he was. It was as if he'd swallowed several encyclopedias about popular culture and philosophy, to name a few, and he frequently went off-topic waaaaay out into the tangents of left field.

There were a few interesting points, but they were buried so deep in verbose paragraphs with tortured sentence constructions and awkward neologisms, that I couldn't be bothered to hunt for more interesting parts that might have been there.

Don't bother with this one. It reads as if it were a collaboration between the Comic Book Guy and Sideshow Bob.

I'm No Saint : A Nasty Little Memoir of Love and Leaving

I'm No Saint : A Nasty Little Memoir of Love and Leaving Elizabeth Hayt Date: 03 October, 2005 — $15.72 — Book product page Rating:

Review of I'm No Saint : A Nasty Little Memoir of Love and Leaving

I bought this book because it promised to be yet another memoir of a female libertine. However, this was a book I ended up having decidedly mixed feelings about.

Hayt isn't really a true libertine, but nor is she a traditional woman. And I don't think she knows what she is, either. I found her to be a very confused, materialistic woman. Throughout the book, she came off as a high maintenance phony. I didn't like her much.

However, Hayt is an excellent writer. I laughed out loud at several points and I would read future books she writes if the subject matter interests me.

Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis

Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis Jimmy Carter Date: 01 November, 2005 — $15.00 — Book product page Rating:

Review of Our Endangered Values : America's Moral Crisis

I picked up this book the other day with the gift certificate I'd gotten for Christmas, as I'd been looking forward to reading Carter's take on the subject.

Like many Americans, former president Jimmy Carter is dismayed by the sharp right turn our government has taken in recent years, which has been largely fueled by the influence of the fundamentalist religious right.

Carter critically addresses the blurring of the lines between separation of church and state and covers such issues as preemptive war, women's rights, terrorism, civil liberties, homosexuality, the death penalty, abortion, science and religion, the environment, nuclear weapons, America's global image, religious and political fundamentalism. He contrasts extreme fundamentalist views with that of his own moderate Christian perspective and as one who fervently believes in the separation of church and state.

I found myself in general agreement with his take on these matters, but I could not give it five stars because of Carter's spartan writing style. I thought certain things could have been addressed in more detail and some chapters ended rather abruptly, in my opinion.

Still well worth a read, however.

My Horizontal Life : A Collection of One-Night Stands

My Horizontal Life : A Collection of One-Night Stands Chelsea Handler Date: 06 June, 2005 — $11.16 — Book product page Rating:

As the title indicates, this book contains several anecdotes about a female libertine's one night stands. The author is a comedian by profession, and the book reads like Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum doing promiscuity.

Handler spends more time writing about her hookup disasters, the "fish" she threw back, rather than her successful encounters. This is probably because the book is classified as humor, despite it being also a memoir. Some successful scores are included, of course, written in a non-explicit manner.

Though I enjoyed this book, particularly Handler's writing style, her rampant alcohol and drug overindulgence was off-putting. More than simply being a sexual libertine, Handler is more of an across-the-board hedonist.

The book ends with her predictably reassessing her libertinism, with her speculating that if she keeps on, that eventually that the only men she'd be able to get would be "men like her", which she didn't want. She didn't see that the main source of her problems was her substance abuse, rather than her promiscuity, per se.

Still, an engaging read, and I hope Handler writes another book.

The Inner Circle: Book Review

The Inner Circle T. Coraghessan Boyle Date: 09 September, 2004 — $17.65 — Book product page Rating:

A novel heavily based on fact, The Inner Circle is about the work of pioneer sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Professor Kinsey was the author of The Kinsey Reports, published in two parts in 1949 and 1953. The reports were compilations of a scientific study, the purpose of which was to quantify male and female sexual behavior. Though Kinsey's objective, value-neutral conclusions shocked people at the time, both reports were best-sellers. Indeed, Kinsey's personal opinion was that that the human need for sex is little different from animal instinct, a view with which I concur.

The novel is told from the point of view of a fictional member of Kinsey's inner circle of research assistants, John Milk. Most of the book deals with Milk's conflict between his own libertine impulses and opinions, which were encouraged by the libertine Kinsey, and the love for his wife, Iris, who was frustrated with the amount of time Milk spent away from home with his work. Milk remains torn throughout the book, wanting to please himself, please his wife, and please Kinsey -- and he rarely gets to do all three at once.

I would have given the book five stars, but the ending, abruptly shifts tone and seems as if it was hurriedly written to meet a deadline. However, this does not seriously mar what is a fascinating, fast-moving book.