ASK Musings

No matter where you go, there you are.

Daily Archive: 04/01/2015

Sunday

4

January 2015

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COMMENTS

The Last Story by Christopher Pike

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Two Stars

The Last Story

Again, Spoilers. All of them.

So at the end of the last book (book two in a three-book series), Shari/Jean was pushed from a balcony by Peter/Lenny. But she survived. In this book, she’s become a best-selling author, and is about to start shooting the film version of one of her hit books. She’s still a Wanderer, and she’s still getting guidance from mystical people from Southeast Asia, so that part’s still culturally appropriative.

What else. Well, here’s the thing – there are some genuinely interesting parts of this book. And then there is another story within a story, which is totally out of place and not really what I’m interested in reading about. There are sharks and shark attacks, obvious villains, and a story about aliens attacking the Earth. Mr. Pike is trying to do too much, which ends up meaning he does none of it really well.

Also, he refers, repeatedly, to a character in a wheelchair as a cripple. Really? In what world is that acceptable?

This one, apparently. At least in Mr. Pike’s version of it. I commented on this and my husband asked when the book was written, and I at least got an answer about why this book and book two seem so much … worse, really, than the first book. The original book, Remember Me, was written in 1989. I’m guessing that there was no real plan to write a sequel; maybe Mr. Pike wanted to write something about the meaning of life and figured he’d just tack it onto this one? Unclear. But either way, book two wasn’t published until 1994; this book was published in 1995.

I really don’t think either needed to be published. As I said, there are parts that are okay, but mostly the book meanders and tries to tell more stories than the book can.

I think I’ll still seek out some of the old Christopher Pike books to see if I really was deluded in thinking they were fun, entertaining books, or if more of them have the subtle bigotry, ableism and xenophobia I’ve seen in these books.

Sunday

4

January 2015

0

COMMENTS

The Return by Christopher Pike

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One Star

The Return

Spoilers. All the spoilers.

This book is not good. But I read it, and I’ll read the next one.

This book continues following Shari Cooper, although now she and Peter (her dead friend who helped her navigate being dead in the first book) are trying to tell us about the meaning of life. The premise is that Shari is to return to earth as a Wanderer, joining the body of an 18-year-old who ‘dies’ (but doesn’t really – her soul just leaves) so Shari can do some good. It’s almost shocking in its simplicity, as though it were written by a ten-year-old who had somehow gotten his hands on an intro to philosophy book. But I digress.

First, let’s talk about how offensive the basic premise is. Shari, a dead rich white girl, needs to inhabit the body of a Latina from south central L.A. named Jean so Shari can help make the neighborhood better. That is some bizarrely fucked up manifest destiny shit right there. Once Shari is in Jean’s body, she comments on how the neighborhood is sad, and that no one really cares, but that she will help make it better. Like people who are economically disadvantaged are all lazy, drug users, and criminal. Good grief.

Second, during the also bizarrely offensive chapters that deal with Shari and Peter in the afterlife, we get treated to ‘Misunderstanding Eastern Philosophy 101.’ Shari’s teacher is OF COURSE a wise Southeast Asian man. It’s like Eat Pray Love for the dead. And during their sessions, her Master (yup, that’s what she calls him) makes comments about other Wanderers (apparently all folks involved in social change are Wanderers) that veer dangerously close to racism. There’s also an inexplicable knock on the Middle East.

There is one pretty entertaining moment in the book – Jean / Shari write a short story that is actually good. As in, I’d read it and enjoy it on its own. It involves a writer whose muse gets fed up with not getting any of the credit. It was a bit clever and although totally out of place, at least made up for some of the other parts of the book.

I could just stop here, but I’m kind of invested, so let’s see if we can get through the third one without xenophobia, racism, and simple tropes. I don’t have high hopes though…

Sunday

4

January 2015

0

COMMENTS

Remember Me by Christopher Pike

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Three Stars

Remember Me

This is the first of three books in a Christopher Pike trilogy. To be able to really review the books, I’m going to need to describe the plots, which means the next two reviews at least will likely contain spoilers.

I have been looking for Christopher Pike books for a while. I was fairly obsessed with his books when I was in high school; they weren’t horribly written, they were quick reads, and the characters (as I recall) were pretty interesting and dealt with some odd stuff. They were meant for, I believe, high school students, but they talked about things like sex and abortion. No chaste Twilight-level stuff here. At least, not that I can recall.

I found this trilogy (in one GIANT volume) at Powell’s today. 300 pages later and I’m done with book one, Remember Me. I definitely have read this before, as bits and pieces stood out as familiar.

Remember Me follows Shari Cooper. She’s dead, and everyone thinks she killed herself, but she didn’t. And she’s pissed about that, so she’s trying to figure out a way to solve her murder and essentially clear her own name. The killer could be one of many people, including her best friend or her boyfriend. In the end, her killer tries to kill Shari’s brother as well, and that sequence is a bit thrilling but also kind of weird.

There’s obviously a supernatural component to this, but it’s mostly set as much in reality as it can be. And despite the final (seemingly unnecessary) weirdness, I actually really enjoyed this book, and not just because of the nostalgia factor. The writing isn’t horrible. It’s not great, but I didn’t ever catch myself rolling my eyes. I think it helped that the book is written in the first person, so this high school student’s observations actually feel pretty true to what an 18-year-old straight rich white girl might think about her own boyfriend, her best friend, her brother’s girlfriend, the girl who might be stealing her boyfriend, and her parents. She’s superficial, but realizes it.

One thing that is a bit disturbing is how Mr. Pike addresses economic differences. All but one of the main characters comes from a well-off family, and you can imagine that the one who doesn’t is the one who becomes the biggest suspect. Mr. Pike also doesn’t seem to have the best understanding of nuance in terms of how young women relate to each other – are women always just jealous of each other because of men? That perspective is probably not the best thing for young kids to be reading.

The book isn’t ground-breaking, and at times it veers into the super weird. But I still enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to reading book two.

Sunday

4

January 2015

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COMMENTS

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

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Three Stars

midipdodds

Who doesn’t want to start the year with a book about pre-WW II Nazi Germany? I mean, what better way to ease into an attempted double cannonball?

Despite the subject matter, this book is not a challenging read. I read Mr. Larson’s book about the Chicago World’s Fair (Devil in the White City) either last year or the year before and found it to be good but tough to get through. This book flowed better, although it didn’t really end. I mean, obviously, it did, but it felt more like I was reading a very long and exquisitely researched magazine article than a book with a narrative arc.

In the Garden of Beasts follows the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1933-1934. William Dodd was a history professor in Chicago when he was asked by President Roosevelt to serve; he brought his wife and two adult children with him to Berlin. The story follows Mr. Dodd and his daughter Martha as they navigate Nazi German, when Hitler was Chancellor and there was still a President who was ostensibly in charge.

The main point of the book is that Dodd wasn’t the typical old boys club rich kid ambassador and as such was a bit less interested in the economic issues that the U.S. State Department wanted to address and was more concerned with what was going on with Hitler, the SS, the SA and all the players who we now know were instrumental in WW II and the Holocaust. I have not read a book on WW II or the Holocaust since Diary of Anne Frank, so I can’t claim that everything in the book is wholly accurate, but Mr. Larson is known for writing truthful and well-researched historical non-fiction by telling the stories of the people involved, so I assume it is mostly correct.

I’m not sure if I really learned much new by reading the book. I suppose I learned that the U.S. government was primarily concerned with getting back money from Germany as opposed to the oppression and murder of German residents. But I wasn’t surprised to learn that. It sort of matches the priorities the political elite have always had: money first, then people – maybe, eventually, if there is time.

If you like history, and are interested in Germany just before WW II, I’m certain you could do worse than this book. Just don’t expect a real beginning, middle and end. And be prepared, if you get the non-kindle-version, to mark out the swastikas on the cover. I get not burying that reality, but damn. I don’t want to give people a heart attack while reading a book walking down the street that has a few scattered Nazi symbols on it.

Sunday

4

January 2015

0

COMMENTS

What I’m Reading – January 4, 2015

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Policing

– “One of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are pressured to make large numbers of arrests, and it’s easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on innocent people,” said Gabriel Sayegh of the DPA. “The drug war inevitably leads to crooked policing — and quotas further incentivize such practices.” Stephen Anderson, Ex NYPD Cop: We Planted Evidence, Framed Innocent People To Reach Quotas (h/t @Pundit_acadEMIC)

Cultural Appropriation

– “What Azalea does best is mimicry. She might have adopted mentor T.I.’s sound, but she, unlike him, can’t trace her flow to the place she grew up or the specific culture she grew up within.” The Cultural Crimes of Iggy Azalea (h/t @FeministaJones)

Sexism and Nerd Culture

– “Hi there, shy, nerdy boys. Your suffering was and is real. I really fucking hope that it got better, or at least is getting better, At the same time, I want you to understand that that very real suffering does not cancel out male privilege, or make it somehow alright. Privilege doesn’t mean you don’t suffer, which, I know, totally blows.” On Nerd Entitlement (via @PennyRed)

Homelessness

– “What the city is saying is that it refuses to provide affordable housing, but it does not tolerate people living outside,” said Sandy Perry, an organizer at the Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County, who has worked with San Jose’s homeless population since 1991. “This is a willful, wholesale violation of human rights.” ‘Some sort of hell’: How one of the wealthiest cities in America treats its homeless (h/t @SarahKendzior)

Transgender Issues

– “By scheduling tumblr posts, #LeelahAlcorn defeated measures by her parents to defame her legacy, her life, herself.” Leelah Alcorn (via @Unit0053)

– “When we talk about “politicizing” an issue like death threats, the presumption that the problem is a localized, personal problem and that publicizing it makes it political. But what if we’re in an environment where threats are endemic and constant? Where the force generating those threats is a widespread, self-sustaining, and virulent social movement? When the problem is already political, when the intolerable situation is the status quo?” Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It’s About Ethics in Suicide Journalism (h/t @Sarah_LNX)

Racism

– “Arguments about race are often heated and anecdotal. As a social scientist, I naturally turn to empirical research for answers. As it turns out, an impressive body of research spanning decades addresses just these issues — and leads to some uncomfortable conclusions and makes us look at this debate from a different angle.” Racial Bias, Even When We Have Good Intentions (via @NYTimes)

– “In August, the Pentagon reversed a decision that banned certain hairstyles that just happened to be the ones that worked for hair that just happened to belong to African-American women. That was widely welcomed as a just result. After all, even the Congressional Black Caucus had called the regulation discriminatory and pushed for a change. But try telling that to some people, like commenters on this military forum, who said, “Oh come on…there’s nothing wrong with these new regulations. I just hate how some people use racism to whine about things they don’t like,” and reasoned like this: “No white dudes get high fades unless they are in the military either. It’s not racist.” 17 horrible things people said weren’t racist in 2014 (h/t @deray)

Rape Culture

– “But we now know enough to be appalled by how Florida State University and the city of Tallahassee handled this entire ordeal. We know that police refused to investigate the original accusation of rape for months and that the school did not interview Winston about the incident for over a year. We know that the police—eventually pressured by the press into investigating the incident—had financial ties as security workers for the Seminole Boosters club.” A Reality of Their Own: Jameis Winston, Rape and Seminole Fandom at Florida State (via @EdgeofSports)

Reproductive Health

– “So I went to see a specialist in reproductive psychiatry (I live in New York City, don’t you know)—and again, believe me, I know exactly how lucky I am to be able to do that. She met with me during a four-hour consultation and at the end told me that whatever possible, minor, and even as-yet-unknown potential side effects my medications might have on my developing baby were completely dwarfed by the significant, major, and enduring effects my depression would definitely have on my developing baby. I was floored—I’d never before considered that my depression could hurt a baby I was making, but indeed, the doctor told me that they can test children even at three or four and still find significant differences—and not good ones—between children whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy and those whose mothers were not.” Taking Medication While Pregnant: I’m Not Sorry