RADIOCARBON TESTING FOR DEMOGRAPHIC EVENTS IN WRITTEN AND ORAL HISTORY - EDINBOROUGH, ET AL -THE DEAD - JAMES JOYCE -LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE - JOHN BARTH -FRAGMENTS OF AN ANARCHIST ANTHROPOLOGY - DAVID GRAEBER -THE KEKULÉ PROBLEM - CORMAC MCCARTHY -SETTLER SEXUALITY - K'É INFOSHOP
RTFDEIWAOH- Short, fascinating paper nominally about testing a Tsimshian assertion of history. The Tsimshian adawx, the record of the oral traditions, recalls a major series of battles and raids carried out by the Tlingit around 1k years ago that decimated their population. The scientists took radiocarbon data from over 500 sites around the Prince Rupert sound and compared the carbon levels during the time the adawx says the war/raids were happening vs other times. And, sure enough, the story checks out. There is indeed a drop in carbon levels right when the adawx says there should be. Just to double check the technique, they ran the same test on Western Europe during the 1300s which likewise showed a drop in carbon during the Plague years. It’s a cool, clever way to check out some of the history found in oral traditions. The devaluing of oral traditions is part of a larger “Western” campaign to maintain a monopoly on “truth” and paint the parts of the world without a written tradition as lesser and untrustworthy. But doing this is both chauvinistic and stupidly limiting. I remember reading that book A FISTFUL OF SHELLS and thinking how wonderful and interesting it was that the author used griot accounts as primary, historical sources. A reevaluation of these traditions across the globe is sorely needed. A few years ago, I was talking with a Duwamish elder at an event in Seattle when he went on a rant to me about how only recently had scientist adjusted the timeline to have peoples in the Puget Sound at the end of the Ice Age when the Duwamish and Puget Sound tribes had many stories about the receding glaciers and how their ancestors received the Wedgwood rock as a reminder of this earlier age. And he was right, that rock is a glacial erratic, left by a glacier.
THE DEAD- A classic novella/short story that I haven’t ever read. The only Joyce I’ve read is ULYSSES, which the first 80% of this story really reminded me of. It follows a man as he moves through Ireland, preparing for a Christmas feast at a party. It is amazingly well written, able to toggle between the literal scene and the larger implications of what’s going on seamlessly. Ireland is like Russia or the American South in that the writers from these places are typically obsessed with history and the sense of doom and dread that drench these places. Joyce has that line about, “history is a nightmare from which I’m trying to awake,” which sums it up quite nicely. The way questions of Irish identity and how the main character is called out from being on the side of the English and the subtle ways he processes the accusation are well-drawn and don’t hit you over the head with it. But it’s really the ending that takes it beyond. And by ending I really mean the last page and a half where Gabriel, the main character, hears a story from his wife about a boy she knew who died. From there Gabriel considers the role of the dead in the lives of the living, the inevitably of death, the unknowability of our loved ones and how that mystery feeds desire, the nature of Ireland and human life generally. It’s amazing how quickly it expands out how it manages not to seem corny or forced.
LOST IN THE FUNHOUSE- Another classic story I hadn’t read until now. I read the wikipedia about the story afterwards, and I suppose it is fair to mention that, apparently, this story is the 3rd in a trilogy of short stories in a collection of the same name. It seems I’ve missed out on the larger context of the story since all three are apparently about the same thing, just told in a different style. I’m not the biggest fan of stories about writing, it’s somewhat interesting but, for all of us who aren’t writers for a living, it’s a bit of a dead end to me. This story is reflexive and will comment on itself and talk about story structure and point out artificiality and cliches involved. However, while groundbreaking in the 60’s I’m sure, I fully grew up in the world that this story birthed, it is less than shocking to me that a story would have metatextual elements or primarily be concerned with these features. The story is a victim of its own success.
FRAGMENTS OF AN ANARCHIST ANTHROPOLOGY- This is technically a short book, perhaps it merits its own entry in EVERY BOOK REVIEWED but I printed it off at work and read it in one long sitting so I suppose I’ve regulated it to whatever the non-fiction equivalent of a novella is (a manifesto? A screed? A proposition or position paper?). Recently, I read an interview with Graeber where the subject of Mark Fisher came up. Apparently, Graeber and Fisher did overlap with one another, teaching at some English college though Graeber says they didn’t talk in any meaningful way. I bring up Fisher since this book, though published before it, seems to answer, or at least hint at answers, for the questions that CAPITALIST REALISM highlights. Specifically, modern life (postmodern capitalism, neoliberalism, late capitalism, choose your term) posits itself as the only possible way to live, our choices are the status quo (and here they distort history into a teleology that dead ends where we are now) or a sort of noble savage back to nature life. Anyone who’s ever had a discussion with someone who dismisses any other possible way of living (say, one where we aren’t openly calling for grandparents to die to raise the DOW) as impossible, pie-in-the-sky stuff or listened to a presidential debate is familiar with this dead end. Graeber points out that Anthropology is uniquely positioned to refute that. There are, in fact, an infinite number of ways to live and organize our lives and one another. Hundreds of these have been described and researched in the Anthro literature, it is our heritage as humans. Short little manifesto-y book but real good. Plus, there’s a short rant against “policy” that resonated deeply given my work.
THE KEKULÉ PROBLEM - Some science writing from the great Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy has spent the past several decades working at the Sante Fe institute, which as I understand it is basically a clubhouse for smarty pants. A sort of desert version of the Institute for Advanced Research. I’m not sure if they have other humanities/arts people besides McCarthy, all the other Santa Fe stuff I’ve seen is more on the hard science end of the spectrum. Irregardless, if these nerds choose McCarthy to be their arts ambassador, they picked well. This short essay is, of course, super-humanely well-written and very engaging. It basically seeks to understand why dreams use symbols to convey meaning instead of words. You sort of need to take for granted that dreams and your subconscious are “trying to tell you something” which I’m not sure I do, but McCarthy does have a good explanation. He posits that the unconscious is so much older than language, it simply doesn’t know how to use it. The Unconscious is something that McCarthy ascribes to some animals and early man, while language itself is much more recent. Intriguing theory, good to know that McCarthy is getting to spend his last years with geniuses discussing the nature of dreams. May we all spend our twilight years such.
SETTLER SEXUALITY - I have been hearing about the devastation faced by the Navajo/Dine (recently, I have seen it suggested that Diné is the preferred term but I do not know enough about this issue, tho of course peoples should be choosing their own autonym). I wanted to donate some masks but also wanted to find the local organization most in line with my political beliefs to focus the efforts. I found this anarchist/feminist info shop which seems like it will do the trick. They also publish their own zines so I downloaded this one about sexuality and colonialism. I would recommend it. It’s short, only a pamphlet, so I wouldn’t say it was long enough to really get into some of the issues that are most fascinating about this subject. It isn’t a book so it isn’t super in-depth, I would recommend SUN MOON AND WITCHES for a more complicated look at these issues. I would quibble with the dichotomy that the pamphlet sets up between Western and non-Western lifeways. It makes it seem like the choices are merely “The West” or “Indigenous ways” which are always better. I would say that both lifeways are one of literally thousands of possibilities when it comes to understanding gender, some of which were better (I’d agree that most is fair), some of which were worse. The issue is that The West is saying that anything else simply isn’t possible. I worry slightly about idealizing (noble savaging) pre-Columbian Amerika. Think of environmental issues, obviously most indigenous communities had a much more sophisticated view of this than Europe at the time and America now. However, some (say, the classical Maya) did not. The issue is not that everything indigenous is better, it’s that the West has stolen our ability to even have a choice. But these are slight quibbles I would recommend it for a teen.
