Dear Professor J,
An invitation to meander? Bless your heart.
"Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life." This may be my favorite quote from the book, but it does seem unfair to compare ordinary men one knows in real life to Heathcliff and Mr. Darcy! I loved the character of Isola Pribby. So wise and ridiculous at the same time. "Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones." How true that is!
Juliet's comments on her failed first marriage amused me. HIS trophies replacing HER books? Clearly the union was doomed from that moment. But then later to think that if she'd let him store her books in the basement they would have all been saved when her building was bombed, what painful irony.
Ah yes, the doctor, Elizabeth, and Dawsey. I felt for the doctor whose actions revealed his character. People are not their governments, or leaders, or powerful sweeping movements. How the good doctor must have wanted everyone to understand who he really was apart from his nationality. Apart from war. The whole world may seem to be going to hell at any particular moment, but can things ever really be hopeless as long as there are people who hold onto who they are, their courage and kindness, the way Elizabeth did until the very end?
You are so right about the complexity of the characters. I loved Eben Ramsey's introductory letter to Juliet, so full of quotes that expose that very thing:
"There are things I like to do of an evening, but for my livelihood, I fish."
"Do you know the sentence of (Shakespeare's) I admire most? It is 'The bright day is done, and we are for the dark."
"Days were grey with hard work and evenings were black with boredom."
Not a bad sentence for a fisherman, had Shakespeare taken hold by the time he wrote it or did he adore The Bard because he instinctively recognized a well turned phrase? Then there is this which summed up so much of the book and the characters:
"We clung to our books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us"
Several of your quotes were from the, ahem...delightful Miss Addison in her letter where she also says: "...the so-called Literary Society is a scandal. There are those of true culture and breeding here in Guernsey, and they will take no part in this charade (even if invited)." How badly she must have wanted an invitation she could have had the pleasure of refusing! I loved her closing, "Yours in Christian Consternation and Concern," I'm guessing heavy on the consternation, light on the Christian concern. ;)
I meant to comment last time on your mention of the farmer, Clovis, learning poetry to win a lady's heart. I don't know if men need to pay more attention to poetry, but I found it charming that he said about his rival suitor "That's no way to talk about a lady, and I knew right then he didn't want the Widow Hubert for her own self, the way I did."
The fact that he wanted her "for her own self" I thought that was the real poetry.
I'll close with this cable from Sidney to Juliet:
NO BLOOD, NO BOOKS, NO POKER CHIPS. JUST KEEP SENDING LONG LETTERS TO ENTERTAIN US. :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Meandering Through
Meander away. This literary diversion is most welcome, and I am enjoying the book and all your comments on it!
I am enjoying these Britishisms (and older ones at that). Examples:
“I’d liked to seize up.”
“Rag and bone man.”
“Alienist who drinks.”
And these, not isms, but just kind of…endearing!
“Talks to himself, which I find terribly endearing as I do too”
“No chores, no gloves, no shoes, no stockings. Spying on decent people through her telescope. A disgrace. “
“I have a few questions, if you’re in an answering frame of mind.”
Fiction is “people who never was doing things they never did.”
I found it interesting that the authors show how complex people can be: where one might think one could find only simple minds and surface thinking, there will be someone who can carry on quite the conversation and delve into quite the thinking, metaphysical and otherwise. Witness the fellow expelled from the Sigmund Freud society.
Another example is the German doctor and Dawsey and Elizabeth. Since, in a sense, it was all European Civil War in that area in WW2, many instances of friendships did arise. Nowhere near all Germans were bad, and most of the regular soldiers acted like, well, regular soldiers.
The inventiveness of the people showed itself by their boiling vegetables/making soup in seawater when there was no more salt forthcoming. Interesting.
Of course, there are flaws in the book. For example, some of the daily letters back and forth had plainly implausibly quick timelines. Maybe today, with email their dates could have been correct, but not then. Between Australia and England wasn’t going to happen that fast, and since they weren’t written in telegraph form, that’s not an out.
I thought it interesting the way that Juliet softly scolded Sophie for being impertinent in her questioning when Juliet had been discreet in return. Sometimes good taste and smart inquiry are a bit lacking, even in the better mannered British society of the time [perhaps for discussion length we’d best not go into the shallows in talking about US society in this time! :)]
Back to you, good Madame!
I am enjoying these Britishisms (and older ones at that). Examples:
“I’d liked to seize up.”
“Rag and bone man.”
“Alienist who drinks.”
And these, not isms, but just kind of…endearing!
“Talks to himself, which I find terribly endearing as I do too”
“No chores, no gloves, no shoes, no stockings. Spying on decent people through her telescope. A disgrace. “
“I have a few questions, if you’re in an answering frame of mind.”
Fiction is “people who never was doing things they never did.”
I found it interesting that the authors show how complex people can be: where one might think one could find only simple minds and surface thinking, there will be someone who can carry on quite the conversation and delve into quite the thinking, metaphysical and otherwise. Witness the fellow expelled from the Sigmund Freud society.
Another example is the German doctor and Dawsey and Elizabeth. Since, in a sense, it was all European Civil War in that area in WW2, many instances of friendships did arise. Nowhere near all Germans were bad, and most of the regular soldiers acted like, well, regular soldiers.
The inventiveness of the people showed itself by their boiling vegetables/making soup in seawater when there was no more salt forthcoming. Interesting.
Of course, there are flaws in the book. For example, some of the daily letters back and forth had plainly implausibly quick timelines. Maybe today, with email their dates could have been correct, but not then. Between Australia and England wasn’t going to happen that fast, and since they weren’t written in telegraph form, that’s not an out.
I thought it interesting the way that Juliet softly scolded Sophie for being impertinent in her questioning when Juliet had been discreet in return. Sometimes good taste and smart inquiry are a bit lacking, even in the better mannered British society of the time [perhaps for discussion length we’d best not go into the shallows in talking about US society in this time! :)]
Back to you, good Madame!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Fictional Soul Mates
Dear Professor J,
That greeting is the result of reading this book again, somehow it seems a bit cold to begin simply "Professor J" after reading this collection of charming letters. I feel my writing may be affected. You should hear how I go around talking when I read Jane Austen!
The thing that made me feel as if these characters were kindred spirits from the start was their love and appreciation for books. I had fallen in love with the main character, Juliet, by page 11, when she tells Dawsey "...there is nothing I would rather do than rummage through bookshops." and desperately want her for a friend. She uses the word "snarky". Clearly we are soul mates. Or would be if I believed in such a thing. ;)
How wonderful to have someone contact you because they have "an old book that once belonged to you" as Dawsey did. I own many copies of old books with lovely inscriptions (some purchased for the inscription alone) and how often have I wondered about the previous owner. I have a vintage copy of Auntie Mame inscribed "From Gertrude to Pearl." I can't help but wonder about those two. And how many authors have I read that could lead me to say with Dawsey, " his writings have made me his friend." This is clearly a book written by and for bibliophiles.
Juliet's comments on things distinctly feminine like shopping for clothes, having her hair done, men and relationships throughout the book, read like a gracious, well-mannered, less vulgar version of Sex and the City (while some things change, others do not):
"Do you suppose the St. Swithin's furnace man was my one true love? Since I never spoke to him it seems unlikely, but at least it was a passion unscathed by disappointment."
Priceless.
I adore the letters as a way of telling a story. I love letters, postboxes (which I photograph and sometimes blog about --its a sickness) and books of letters. I'm currently meandering through a book of Flannery O'connor's correspondence and just picked up a copy of The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien at the library book sale over the weekend. So the writers of this book had me from the start.
How correct Juliet is (in referring to letters of Charles Lamb) that they will tell Dawsey more about him than any biography ever could. Of course the private thoughts shared between friends and acquaintances would do that! I felt they did a very good job of making the "chapters" seem like real letters written between real friends, which means that at times in a clever bit of writing we are left to read between the lines.
As for the historical context, it's very nice to be reading along and have a character mention something in passing; like how nice train travel was again without the blackout, or that a whole generation had "grown up without dances or teas or flirting," that lends a sense of the small strains on daily life added to the terror of the blitz and fear of being occupied. How the combined stress of all those things must have worn on people over the years. England during the war has always interested me and the details the authors add brought to mind accounts in a couple of books I've read recently: How We Lived Then and London At War as well as the Masterpiece Theater production, Foyle's War, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it.
I haven't gotten us very far, it seems. I'm still in the first 20 pages or so. I could happily camp in this book for a very long time. So unless you are truly intent on slow and measured you'll have to crank it up and drag me along (there may be epistolary kicking and screaming). ;)
That greeting is the result of reading this book again, somehow it seems a bit cold to begin simply "Professor J" after reading this collection of charming letters. I feel my writing may be affected. You should hear how I go around talking when I read Jane Austen!
The thing that made me feel as if these characters were kindred spirits from the start was their love and appreciation for books. I had fallen in love with the main character, Juliet, by page 11, when she tells Dawsey "...there is nothing I would rather do than rummage through bookshops." and desperately want her for a friend. She uses the word "snarky". Clearly we are soul mates. Or would be if I believed in such a thing. ;)
How wonderful to have someone contact you because they have "an old book that once belonged to you" as Dawsey did. I own many copies of old books with lovely inscriptions (some purchased for the inscription alone) and how often have I wondered about the previous owner. I have a vintage copy of Auntie Mame inscribed "From Gertrude to Pearl." I can't help but wonder about those two. And how many authors have I read that could lead me to say with Dawsey, " his writings have made me his friend." This is clearly a book written by and for bibliophiles.
Juliet's comments on things distinctly feminine like shopping for clothes, having her hair done, men and relationships throughout the book, read like a gracious, well-mannered, less vulgar version of Sex and the City (while some things change, others do not):
"Do you suppose the St. Swithin's furnace man was my one true love? Since I never spoke to him it seems unlikely, but at least it was a passion unscathed by disappointment."
Priceless.
I adore the letters as a way of telling a story. I love letters, postboxes (which I photograph and sometimes blog about --its a sickness) and books of letters. I'm currently meandering through a book of Flannery O'connor's correspondence and just picked up a copy of The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien at the library book sale over the weekend. So the writers of this book had me from the start.
How correct Juliet is (in referring to letters of Charles Lamb) that they will tell Dawsey more about him than any biography ever could. Of course the private thoughts shared between friends and acquaintances would do that! I felt they did a very good job of making the "chapters" seem like real letters written between real friends, which means that at times in a clever bit of writing we are left to read between the lines.
As for the historical context, it's very nice to be reading along and have a character mention something in passing; like how nice train travel was again without the blackout, or that a whole generation had "grown up without dances or teas or flirting," that lends a sense of the small strains on daily life added to the terror of the blitz and fear of being occupied. How the combined stress of all those things must have worn on people over the years. England during the war has always interested me and the details the authors add brought to mind accounts in a couple of books I've read recently: How We Lived Then and London At War as well as the Masterpiece Theater production, Foyle's War, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it.
I haven't gotten us very far, it seems. I'm still in the first 20 pages or so. I could happily camp in this book for a very long time. So unless you are truly intent on slow and measured you'll have to crank it up and drag me along (there may be epistolary kicking and screaming). ;)
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Happy Diversion
I do appreciate the book. I find it thoroughly enjoyable. The chapters being not chapters at all, but letters, read a little like James Patterson’s magical modern formula: keep the segments short (his chapters are notoriously short, often even 3-4 pages). It’s enticing, because you think, “it’s only 3-4 pages, I can read another chapter.” Pretty soon, you’ve finished the book!
And actually, given that letters like that are a bit of a lost art, the book is even more endearing. People took a bit more time to collect their thoughts when writing such things, and the authors capture well the feel of all that.
Of course, as an historian, I was really enjoying the historical fiction elements, which I thought the authors did very well on. The occupation of those British islands—main one in particular—is a fascinating, if not particularly well known, aspect of the Second World War.
The part relayed by the famer about learning poetry to win a lady’s heart was amusing. Or perhaps something we men should pay more attention to, eh? :)
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something about the Guernsey cattle, as my dad knew that (and a lot of others) cow type well, which people, if they know the name at all, know that.
The ways the populace resisted—and often outsmarted—the Germans, was interesting, and not uncommon. Populations tend to resist their occupiers when the hand is heavy, and a cat and mouse, counter and counter-counter situation develops.
I found the names entertaining and memorable. And the characters! As you said, you actually would enjoy meeting them, even the old Miss Addison. Well written her letter, but what an elitist! Although, I suppose, many people would agree with her today here in America on “lack of humility,” and “the decay of standards is the cross of our times.” :)
In a departure from the insufferable long-winded treatises I’ve been cranking, I believe I will take it slow and measured, and pick it up more next time. Back to you Madame!
And actually, given that letters like that are a bit of a lost art, the book is even more endearing. People took a bit more time to collect their thoughts when writing such things, and the authors capture well the feel of all that.
Of course, as an historian, I was really enjoying the historical fiction elements, which I thought the authors did very well on. The occupation of those British islands—main one in particular—is a fascinating, if not particularly well known, aspect of the Second World War.
The part relayed by the famer about learning poetry to win a lady’s heart was amusing. Or perhaps something we men should pay more attention to, eh? :)
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention something about the Guernsey cattle, as my dad knew that (and a lot of others) cow type well, which people, if they know the name at all, know that.
The ways the populace resisted—and often outsmarted—the Germans, was interesting, and not uncommon. Populations tend to resist their occupiers when the hand is heavy, and a cat and mouse, counter and counter-counter situation develops.
I found the names entertaining and memorable. And the characters! As you said, you actually would enjoy meeting them, even the old Miss Addison. Well written her letter, but what an elitist! Although, I suppose, many people would agree with her today here in America on “lack of humility,” and “the decay of standards is the cross of our times.” :)
In a departure from the insufferable long-winded treatises I’ve been cranking, I believe I will take it slow and measured, and pick it up more next time. Back to you Madame!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Definite First Word on a Temporary Literary Diversion
Professor J,
"Possibly temporary last word"? Sounds so decisive! ;)
The idea of happiness and what makes us happy (or what we think does) is one that fascinates me, especially as it relates to spending and accumulation. Sometimes it seems as if we understand so little about ourselves. The material things we "invest" in break, become obsolete, or we tire of them. Our experiences create memories, enrich our lives, and make us who we are. I saw an interview with Ali MacGraw many years ago in which she talked of starting over and only taking her rugs (beautiful Southwestern ones) and her books. I loved that. Such freedom of spirit displayed in holding on lightly to things.
Having also suffered from both food poisoning and the flu I agree with you about Jordon. It seems a near super-human feat to me!
Switching gears from our recent discussion is more difficult than I thought except for the fact that so many of these ideas and topics are recurring themes on this blog. However, I did see the words "...on to the wrap up" so I'm taking my cue and introducing a temporary diversion in novel form.
Our readers may be surprised (and perhaps relieved?) that in a bit of a departure for us a lovely piece of fiction is up for discussion: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. One of the most endearing books I've read in a very long time, I'm so glad you suggested it! I haven't read anything since that I've enjoyed as much. I had just finished it for the first time before leaving for Italy a couple of years ago and was recommending it to everyone. Good books are powerful, aren't they? Oh, but I'm working on the assumption that you appreciated it as well.
It is full of characters that I thought I'd like to know in real life, which is nice considering that in too much fiction I've read recently I find myself wishing the characters would drown themselves in the nearest river, either because they lacked any redeeming value or were just so poorly written.
I like that it is written in the form of a series of letters; what an appropriate work for us to discuss on our similarly formatted blog. Truth be told, I liked nearly everything about it, and I learned a thing or two, always a nice bonus.
Well chosen. Now, you my friend, can begin the discussion in earnest. :)
"Possibly temporary last word"? Sounds so decisive! ;)
The idea of happiness and what makes us happy (or what we think does) is one that fascinates me, especially as it relates to spending and accumulation. Sometimes it seems as if we understand so little about ourselves. The material things we "invest" in break, become obsolete, or we tire of them. Our experiences create memories, enrich our lives, and make us who we are. I saw an interview with Ali MacGraw many years ago in which she talked of starting over and only taking her rugs (beautiful Southwestern ones) and her books. I loved that. Such freedom of spirit displayed in holding on lightly to things.
Having also suffered from both food poisoning and the flu I agree with you about Jordon. It seems a near super-human feat to me!
Switching gears from our recent discussion is more difficult than I thought except for the fact that so many of these ideas and topics are recurring themes on this blog. However, I did see the words "...on to the wrap up" so I'm taking my cue and introducing a temporary diversion in novel form.
It is full of characters that I thought I'd like to know in real life, which is nice considering that in too much fiction I've read recently I find myself wishing the characters would drown themselves in the nearest river, either because they lacked any redeeming value or were just so poorly written.
I like that it is written in the form of a series of letters; what an appropriate work for us to discuss on our similarly formatted blog. Truth be told, I liked nearly everything about it, and I learned a thing or two, always a nice bonus.
Well chosen. Now, you my friend, can begin the discussion in earnest. :)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The Possibly Temporary Last Word on This Particularly Focused Subject
Well said thing or two! :) I especially liked what you had to say about investing in an experience. And indeed it does seem insanely illogical to knowingly enfeeble your children by wealth, but then again, everyone always thinks that THEY AND THEIRS will be the exception (this applies to a lot of things too). And yes, a society that would provide opportunity for all—such positivity that would gush with such a thing!
You have brought to mind one of my favorite athletes: Michael Jordan. Here was a man who did not merely coast on his talent, but took incredible talent and then went out and exerted enormous will to not only make that talent better, but to translate it into results. How did he do it? Examples: The first to come to practice and the last to leave. Playing 44 minutes with strickening food poisoning or severe flu and still carrying his team to a win (having had both strickening food poisoning, and severe flu this is all the more amazing to me). Staying focused and willful when all others had lost their focus or morale, and then by force of will and example, infusing others. Getting up from time and time again failing, and yet still wanting to be the one to go to when it was all on the line.
Yet we do carry a lot of cultural myths around with us, and “self-made” is one of them, as you’ve said.
Ah, onto the wrap up! Obama’s lack of executive experience (little different from McCain’s lack) has been telling. He keeps wanting to govern, adapt, be flexible, compromise. He has taken some stances, but then done a poor job of communicating about them, and especially not done a blitz. At other times, he has given way when a stance would have been better. He has seemed to have little focus. His ideas from his book? Well, the most generous thing that could be said is that he has done a poor job of translating them to action.
He gives off a little too much of being the figurehead of a regime whose power is soon to be shattered, its dominance ended. Here’s a really small example: Saccharin. It was being held up in government because while the industry-dominated FDA had approved it, the EPA was holding it up for several concerns. Obama overruled the EPA. Who is he serving, since the EPA’s questions were not answered?
And leadership in this budget crisis? Not too much seen. Hard to believe that just over a decade ago, the worry was that we would pay down the debt too fast, in Obama’s words “limiting the Reserve System’s ability to manage monetary policy.” (187, and a whole ‘nother topic!)
But to round out the picture: “We were told by our President that we could fight two wars, increase our military budget by 74 percent, protect the homeland, spend more on education, initiate a new prescription drug plan for seniors, and initiate successive rounds of massive tax cuts, all at the same time…all while pork barrel projects increased by an astonishing 64 percent.” (187)
I am hard on Obama, and he deserves it in droves. But something he doesn’t deserve is the magic wand expectation. His Republican detractors say to him, every time he brings up the Bush years: “Get over it. It’s your responsibility now, no one else’s. What are you doing to make things right?”
Well, to quote the Church Lady: “How convenient.” People of that administration and their allies did criminal things to this country. Since people can’t seem to identify with what happens to their country as a whole very well, here’s an analogy put in personal terms:
Would you just “get over it,” and just “get to work,” if, while you were away overseas:
All the money (and you sent home everything you made) was confiscated by the bank you sent it to, with no explanation. Your house was then seized by the bank, and the police evicted your wife and 2 kids (one a baby) with no notice. The police then raped your wife repeatedly, shot your baby to death and then tortured your little girl, who screamed pitifully and horribly for hours. Then they beat her to within an inch of her life, and so damaged her she became a vegetable. Arsonists hired by the bank came and burned your car and former house to ashes, and only they could collect insurance money since the cars and house weren’t yours anymore. As soon as word reaches you of all this, you are abruptly fired from your job, and with no money, it takes many months for you to make it back, and upon getting back, you find that you still owe on the house you no longer have and aren’t allowed to declare bankruptcy. The bank will lend you some more money, but are coming to collect pretty soon. Your find your wife so traumatized she is mentally delusional and is in an insane asylum. Your vegetable daughter is being cared for by her grandmother, your mother-in-law, who has no money and has to work at Walmart. The courts have already issued a ruling that any present or future cases by you are invalid. Amazingly and cruelly enough, you find upon getting back that a great many people hate you and blame you for what has happened, and ridicule with hate and contempt everything you say. Many family and friends, to your shock, have turned their backs on you. You find among your remaining family and friends some combination of fear, denial, or despair, even while some of them are in similar situations.
Your mother-in-law says she found a police bullet by your daughter’s bed one night, and so she has said nothing. She was able to get a friendly intern to do an evaluation on your daughter, and he says with expensive surgery, your daughter might recover.
To recap: Everything has been stolen from you. You have no job, no money, no place to live, no car, few friends or family, lots of people despise you or hold you in contempt, your wife is a victimized mental patient, one child is dead and your remaining child is a vegetable who has been obviously threatened to keep you or those who care about her from doing or saying anything (and what could you do or say that would matter anyway?).
Go ahead. “Make things right. Make things better.” But here’s the precondition: You can’t try to hold anyone accountable but yourself. Go.
This is why it is far easier to degrade, wreck, or pervert parts of government, and/or loot the taxpayer, than to actually try to get something positive done or hold the powerful accountable.
You have brought to mind one of my favorite athletes: Michael Jordan. Here was a man who did not merely coast on his talent, but took incredible talent and then went out and exerted enormous will to not only make that talent better, but to translate it into results. How did he do it? Examples: The first to come to practice and the last to leave. Playing 44 minutes with strickening food poisoning or severe flu and still carrying his team to a win (having had both strickening food poisoning, and severe flu this is all the more amazing to me). Staying focused and willful when all others had lost their focus or morale, and then by force of will and example, infusing others. Getting up from time and time again failing, and yet still wanting to be the one to go to when it was all on the line.
Yet we do carry a lot of cultural myths around with us, and “self-made” is one of them, as you’ve said.
Ah, onto the wrap up! Obama’s lack of executive experience (little different from McCain’s lack) has been telling. He keeps wanting to govern, adapt, be flexible, compromise. He has taken some stances, but then done a poor job of communicating about them, and especially not done a blitz. At other times, he has given way when a stance would have been better. He has seemed to have little focus. His ideas from his book? Well, the most generous thing that could be said is that he has done a poor job of translating them to action.
He gives off a little too much of being the figurehead of a regime whose power is soon to be shattered, its dominance ended. Here’s a really small example: Saccharin. It was being held up in government because while the industry-dominated FDA had approved it, the EPA was holding it up for several concerns. Obama overruled the EPA. Who is he serving, since the EPA’s questions were not answered?
And leadership in this budget crisis? Not too much seen. Hard to believe that just over a decade ago, the worry was that we would pay down the debt too fast, in Obama’s words “limiting the Reserve System’s ability to manage monetary policy.” (187, and a whole ‘nother topic!)
But to round out the picture: “We were told by our President that we could fight two wars, increase our military budget by 74 percent, protect the homeland, spend more on education, initiate a new prescription drug plan for seniors, and initiate successive rounds of massive tax cuts, all at the same time…all while pork barrel projects increased by an astonishing 64 percent.” (187)
I am hard on Obama, and he deserves it in droves. But something he doesn’t deserve is the magic wand expectation. His Republican detractors say to him, every time he brings up the Bush years: “Get over it. It’s your responsibility now, no one else’s. What are you doing to make things right?”
Well, to quote the Church Lady: “How convenient.” People of that administration and their allies did criminal things to this country. Since people can’t seem to identify with what happens to their country as a whole very well, here’s an analogy put in personal terms:
Would you just “get over it,” and just “get to work,” if, while you were away overseas:
All the money (and you sent home everything you made) was confiscated by the bank you sent it to, with no explanation. Your house was then seized by the bank, and the police evicted your wife and 2 kids (one a baby) with no notice. The police then raped your wife repeatedly, shot your baby to death and then tortured your little girl, who screamed pitifully and horribly for hours. Then they beat her to within an inch of her life, and so damaged her she became a vegetable. Arsonists hired by the bank came and burned your car and former house to ashes, and only they could collect insurance money since the cars and house weren’t yours anymore. As soon as word reaches you of all this, you are abruptly fired from your job, and with no money, it takes many months for you to make it back, and upon getting back, you find that you still owe on the house you no longer have and aren’t allowed to declare bankruptcy. The bank will lend you some more money, but are coming to collect pretty soon. Your find your wife so traumatized she is mentally delusional and is in an insane asylum. Your vegetable daughter is being cared for by her grandmother, your mother-in-law, who has no money and has to work at Walmart. The courts have already issued a ruling that any present or future cases by you are invalid. Amazingly and cruelly enough, you find upon getting back that a great many people hate you and blame you for what has happened, and ridicule with hate and contempt everything you say. Many family and friends, to your shock, have turned their backs on you. You find among your remaining family and friends some combination of fear, denial, or despair, even while some of them are in similar situations.
Your mother-in-law says she found a police bullet by your daughter’s bed one night, and so she has said nothing. She was able to get a friendly intern to do an evaluation on your daughter, and he says with expensive surgery, your daughter might recover.
To recap: Everything has been stolen from you. You have no job, no money, no place to live, no car, few friends or family, lots of people despise you or hold you in contempt, your wife is a victimized mental patient, one child is dead and your remaining child is a vegetable who has been obviously threatened to keep you or those who care about her from doing or saying anything (and what could you do or say that would matter anyway?).
Go ahead. “Make things right. Make things better.” But here’s the precondition: You can’t try to hold anyone accountable but yourself. Go.
This is why it is far easier to degrade, wreck, or pervert parts of government, and/or loot the taxpayer, than to actually try to get something positive done or hold the powerful accountable.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Inheriting the Wound
Professor J,
I can't disagree with your thoughts this week on estate taxes at all, which means you are on the verge of getting to have the last word on this entire book discussion. ;)
I have a thing or two to add, however. Would you expect anything else at this point? :)
I like Buffet's boiled down view on leaving an inheritance that he has mentioned in other interviews, which is that children should be left enough to do whatever they want (Given his practical nature I'm sure he means something like starting a business or launching a charity) but not enough to do nothing. We've seen time and again the tragic result of having enough to do nothing.
As we've discussed before (and are sure to again) our culture is incapable at this point of determining what is enough in any area of life. The media and our celebrity worshiping society feed the ridiculous idea that self worth can be found in a six-hundred dollar hand bag or the newest, fastest, shiniest car. Yet studies show repeatedly that happiness cannot be purchased and that if you are going to spend in an effort to buy happiness, it's better to invest in an experience (like taking in a movie, visiting a museum, or traveling).
Once basic necessities of life are met (according to Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University that can be done for about forty-thousand a year) increases in wealth account hardly at all in relation to how happy people are. For those, not only with enough wealth to buy whatever they want, but to know that they could never spend it all (and as you've pointed out you can't take it with you -- how disappointed those Egyptian elites must have been!) to want to hold on to as much of it as they can, can only lead us to believe that at some point it stops being about the money and it becomes about the power, control, and influence that comes with enormous wealth, as you've alluded to.
The Kennedy clan did a better than average job of instilling in their offspring the idea that they were socially responsible and should be involved in public service (most of the credit for that seems to go to the Kennedy women). We are however much more likely to see a Paris Hilton type creature emerge from the posh playroom of vast wealth. I think we can all agree we don't need more of that. Given that the odds seem to be against one's heirs living well adjusted, productive lives when large unearned fortunes are dropped in their laps, one has to wonder why wealthy families choose to perpetuate something that has the potential to be so damaging. Of course all of this is on a personal level aside from the negative results you've laid out for society in general and a democracy in particular.
As for the "luck" involved in the success of a Gates or a Buffet I would refer you and our readers to an interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell (of Tipping Point fame) called The Outliers. He makes a very convincing case for just the combination of circumstances being involved in success as Buffet outlines in his remarks. Here are a couple of quotes:
"The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success - the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history - with a society that provides opportunities for all. "
"Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t."
Before we give historical accidents and society too much credit however, another major theme of Gladwell's book is that the individual who would seek to achieve mastery in any skill from playing the violin to playing at Wimbledon had better plan on putting in a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. That, he says, is the key amount of time necessary for the kind of success that launches one ahead of the pack. That kind of dedication indicates an intense passion for whatever the activity is. Stellar success seems to be an almost magical (and certainly rare) combination of circumstances and desire.
I wonder if "the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made" play a weightier role in our American psyche than other populations. One too many Horatio Alger stories in our collective, yet sternly individual fantasies?
As you've ended your post with a Franklin quote, and a wise one at that, I can't help be reminded that he is also credited with saying:
Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
I can't disagree with your thoughts this week on estate taxes at all, which means you are on the verge of getting to have the last word on this entire book discussion. ;)
I have a thing or two to add, however. Would you expect anything else at this point? :)
I like Buffet's boiled down view on leaving an inheritance that he has mentioned in other interviews, which is that children should be left enough to do whatever they want (Given his practical nature I'm sure he means something like starting a business or launching a charity) but not enough to do nothing. We've seen time and again the tragic result of having enough to do nothing.
As we've discussed before (and are sure to again) our culture is incapable at this point of determining what is enough in any area of life. The media and our celebrity worshiping society feed the ridiculous idea that self worth can be found in a six-hundred dollar hand bag or the newest, fastest, shiniest car. Yet studies show repeatedly that happiness cannot be purchased and that if you are going to spend in an effort to buy happiness, it's better to invest in an experience (like taking in a movie, visiting a museum, or traveling).
Once basic necessities of life are met (according to Daniel Gilbert, professor of psychology at Harvard University that can be done for about forty-thousand a year) increases in wealth account hardly at all in relation to how happy people are. For those, not only with enough wealth to buy whatever they want, but to know that they could never spend it all (and as you've pointed out you can't take it with you -- how disappointed those Egyptian elites must have been!) to want to hold on to as much of it as they can, can only lead us to believe that at some point it stops being about the money and it becomes about the power, control, and influence that comes with enormous wealth, as you've alluded to.
The Kennedy clan did a better than average job of instilling in their offspring the idea that they were socially responsible and should be involved in public service (most of the credit for that seems to go to the Kennedy women). We are however much more likely to see a Paris Hilton type creature emerge from the posh playroom of vast wealth. I think we can all agree we don't need more of that. Given that the odds seem to be against one's heirs living well adjusted, productive lives when large unearned fortunes are dropped in their laps, one has to wonder why wealthy families choose to perpetuate something that has the potential to be so damaging. Of course all of this is on a personal level aside from the negative results you've laid out for society in general and a democracy in particular.
As for the "luck" involved in the success of a Gates or a Buffet I would refer you and our readers to an interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell (of Tipping Point fame) called The Outliers. He makes a very convincing case for just the combination of circumstances being involved in success as Buffet outlines in his remarks. Here are a couple of quotes:
"The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success - the fortunate birth dates and the happy accidents of history - with a society that provides opportunities for all. "
"Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung...We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play—and by “we” I mean society—in determining who makes it and who doesn’t."
Before we give historical accidents and society too much credit however, another major theme of Gladwell's book is that the individual who would seek to achieve mastery in any skill from playing the violin to playing at Wimbledon had better plan on putting in a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. That, he says, is the key amount of time necessary for the kind of success that launches one ahead of the pack. That kind of dedication indicates an intense passion for whatever the activity is. Stellar success seems to be an almost magical (and certainly rare) combination of circumstances and desire.
I wonder if "the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made" play a weightier role in our American psyche than other populations. One too many Horatio Alger stories in our collective, yet sternly individual fantasies?
As you've ended your post with a Franklin quote, and a wise one at that, I can't help be reminded that he is also credited with saying:
Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
Monday, April 4, 2011
On the Move...
Well, Dear Reader, our fearless professor is once again roaming hither, thither and yon. The gallivanting tables did not stay turned very long, did they? We are in the process of wrapping up this discussion...no, really...we are. :) But I think Professor J has one or two more things to say on the current subject before moving on, so I'll not switch gears just yet.
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