writing – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

DIVORCE

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Strangers (A Memoir of Marriage)

Author: Belle Burden

Narration by: Belle Burden

Belle Burden (Author, former attorney, urban planner, socilite, and descendant of the Vanderbilts.)

In some respects, “Strangers” is an unrelatable example of the trauma of divorce. In other ways, it is a testament to divorces’ hardship for women and societies’ inequality. The unrelatable parts are in the difference between divorce for those who are wealthy and those who are not. What is brilliantly revealed is the trauma of divorce and its disproportionate effect on wives and mothers.

Having been married for 20 years and facing divorce is a traumatic experience whether one is rich or poor.

However, women who are not rich face a different experience when their husbands leave a marriage. In most cases, the burden of coping with divorce is more impactful for children and a wife than a husband. Often, as in the case of Belle Burden, a mother faces having to return to a work environment that discriminates against women in ways that diminish their value in society. Women often retire from the workforce when they become pregnant because of the consuming responsibility of raising a child.

As a woman, regardless of wealth, job prospects are challenged by sexual discrimination.

It is worse for women who are poor and less educated than Ms. Burden. The point that Burden makes clear (regardless of her wealth and education) is women sacrifice much of their lives raising their children while husbands are freer to explore economic success. The wealth of Ms. Burden and her education exempt her from the trials of most women in the world. Burden clearly explains the emotional impact of divorce whether one is wealthy or not. Her wealth does little to reduce feelings of betrayal and failure.

Belle Burden exemplifies the emotional toll of divorce.

Twenty years of marriage creates a bond never completely broken. For husbands the reliance they have on a wife’s care of children makes it difficult to offer the care and understanding that children need from both parents. Husbands are often inadequately prepared for relationship building that a mother has with their children. The consequence is a father’s failure to understand how to help their children deal with their parent’s separation. Those who share raising their children are less likely to have that problem, but social convention leaves most American men in the dark about how to take parental responsibility.

Divorce rates in America may be in decline but the emotional impact on parents and their children is the same.

Burden clearly explains the emotional impact of divorce in America, but her wealth diminishes the scope and reality of divorce to the majority of women who have children and are left by their partners. That is not a criticism of Burden’s book but of sexual inequality that exists in most countries of the world.

WISDOM

Levi makes we who follow rather than lead ashamed. “Theo of Golden” shows human value is in the kindnesses we offer other people.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Theo of Golden (A Novel)

Author: Allen Levi

Narration by: David Morse

Allen Levi (Author, songwriter, blogger, former lawyer, University of Georgia graduate.)

“Theo of Golden” offers a view of human society. It seems based on a conversationally gifted businessperson who reaches an age of maturity that encourages reader/listeners to contemplate belief in God and heaven. Allen Levi creates Theo, a name undoubtedly chosen because of its Greek language equivalent to God. The chosen name shows where the author and his main character stand in their beliefs.

“Theo of Golden” is about the value of life.

Theo is an independently wealthy octogenarian who has lost his wife and beloved child in an auto accident. After working through the grief of his personal loss, he chooses to use his wealth and remaining life to influence others by simple measures of kindness. Theo believes in the value of the life people live and the importance of small kindnesses they extend to others. Levi’s story illustrates a belief that even small kindnesses are a powerful influence on society. At the same time, he is setting a table for societal belief in God, heaven, and presumably an afterlife.

American immigrants.

In the age of Trumpism immigrants are treated poorly, bombing another country is acceptable, and wealth is considered a measure of human value. Levi’s story condemns the Trump-s, Putin-s, and Xi-s of the world. The power of national leaders multiplies the strength and weakness of societies. The leaders of America, Russia, and China are in the same age group as Mr. Levi but their impact on society is immense in comparison. Levi makes we who follow rather than lead ashamed. “Theo of Golden” shows human value is in the kindnesses we offer other people.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

This is a well written and fascinating story. On the one hand, it shows the adventurous nature of human beings. On the other hand, it shows the absurdity of a human goal that can kill you with no value beyond personal achievement.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Into Thin Air (A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster)

Author: Jon Krakauer

Narration by: Philip Franklin

Jon Krakauer (Author, American writer, journalist, and mountaineer. Raised in Corvallis, Or., lives in Boulder Co.)

Human beings test themselves in many ways, some of which make little sense. Jon Krakauer is a mountain climber. Why does one choose to climb a mountain? Well, he is a writer and a magazine offers to pay the $65,000 fee required by an expedition leader to climb Mt. Everest in Tibet. At least, Krakauer has a purpose which undoubtedly is to have an adventure to write about that might offer monetary reward. It appears others have other motives but at least Krakauer took the trip for a reason that makes some logical sense. Considering the reward, one comes away from his book with the feeling that no amount of money is worth the trial he experienced and the lives lost in a climb to the pinnacle of Mt. Everest.

Mt. Everest is 29,032 feet high, located in the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet.

Krakauer writes that he idolizes mountain climbers. He believes the opportunity of climbing the tallest mountain in the world seems worth the risk. Mount Everest is 29,032 feet high, located in the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet. Krakauer introduces reader/listeners to Rob Hall, the expedition leader and guide who heads the adventure. Hall, a New Zealander, had created a company that offers mountain climbing expeditions. Andy Harris, who also comes from New Zealand, is Hall’s employee and an additional guide.

Rob Hall (1961-1996, New Zealand mountaineer, led the Mt. Everest climb in 1996 where he and two clients died.)

Scott Fischer, an entrepreneur and guide with his own company has another Everest climbing group. Fischer dies on a descent during the same time as Krakauer’s group climbs Everest. This is a brutal reminder of the great risk being taken by Krakauer.

Yasuko Namba (1949-1996, the second Japanese woman to climb the Seven Summits, the tallest mountains in the world.)

Yasuko Namba, a Japanese climber joins the Krakauer group. Namba is motivated to join the group because of her interest in completing the climbs of the seven tallest mountains in the world. She is 47 years old. Though not as strong as some of the younger climbers, Mt. Everest is the last of the Seven Summits she is determined to conquer. Hall, Harris, Namba, and Fischer die from the climb, either from the exertion, a storm, or their descent from Everest.

Campsites on Mt. Everest.

It is interesting to find there are many Mt. Everest expeditions that occur at the same with different companies. They camp in the same areas as they attempt their ascent. Krakauer writes of Scott Fischer’s Mountain Madness group, a Taiwanese National Expedition, an IMAX Filming Expedition, a South African Expedition, and their Sherpa support teams who aid all of the climbing groups. Krakauer notes how coveted the Sherpa are by companies that are dependent on their skills.

Doug Hansen, an American postal worker who joins the Hall expedition

Doug Hansen, an American postal worker joins the Hall expedition. Hansen dies in a storm before reaching the summit and had to be carried by the group to the summit at the insistence of Hall. Hansen had attempted to climb the peak the year before with a Hall group. Surprisingly, the group leader Hall dies on this 1996 climb from altitude sickness which confuses his sense of direction. He loses his way as they descend from the South Summit. In the descent from Everest, Harris and Fischer die during another mountain storm. The only woman on the trip, Yasuko Namba dies on the descent because of exhaustion and exposure that had killed Hall. Beck Weathers, an American climber survives after appearing to die twice. Weather’s experience leaves him with severe frostbite and requires major surgery after the climb.

Sandra Pittman

The oddest adventurer that Krakauer writes about is Sandy Pittman who is in the Mountain Madness group. Pittman is a New York socialite who is known in the fashion world. In Krakauer’s telling, Ms. Pittman seems representative of the commercialization of mountain climbing. Pittman manages to make the mountain top and survives the storm that kills some of Krakauer’s group. However, Pittman became exhausted during the descent. She requires rescue. She survives but became a symbol of privilege and wealth to some who are offended by those who can afford the extravagance she represents in climbing famous mountains. Krakhauer does not criticize her despite her wealth and privilege because he sees her as no better or worse than every person looking for adventure.

LOVE

True love is made of many parts; none of which make us better than what we are, i.e., love can be unconditional, but it can also be a path to self-destruction.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Idiot

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Narration by: Various Actors

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian author.)

This L.A. Theater representation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Idiot” is less entertaining than the book because it is incomplete. However, it gives one a sense of the author’s characterization of human relationship. The main character of “The Idiot” is Prince Myshkin, a recovering epileptic who has just been released from a treatment center in Russia. In some ways, the dramatization gives structure to what is a difficult book to follow. However, it diminishes the beauty and clarification of Dostoyevsky’s writing.

Compassion.

The main character, Prince Myshkin, is a vulnerable and compassionate young Russian who has inherited wealth from his family. He is released from an asylum meant to cure his ills. One of the first people he meets on a train as he leaves the asylum is Rogozhin, a passionate Russian who can become unruly and violent toward those around him. Rogozhin represents a divided soul; not unlike that which exists in Myshkin but in different and significant ways. Myshkin shows compassion, humility, and spiritual benevolence while Rogozhin is passionate, confrontational, and driven by emotion. They are kindred spirits with one who has reserved emotions and actions while the other fully expresses emotions and often acts in their fulfillment.

Eve Babitz as an example of a beauty like Natasya or Aglaya.

Myshkin meets a Russian beauty named Natasya Filippovna whom he loves in a self-sacrificial way. That acquaintance leads to a tragedy. The tragedy comes from the love he feels for Aglaya Yapanchina, an equally beautiful young woman. The irony is that Myshkin’s emotions attach him to Nastasya out of compassion. That compassion keeps him from expressing his underlying feelings for Aglaya. He cannot abandon Nastasya because of his compassion, even though a more fulfilling love appears likely with Aglaya.

Characteristics of outsiders.

Both Myshkin and Rogozhin are social outsiders. Myshkin because of his epilepsy and social isolation. Rogozhin because of his poverty and emotional instability. Both love Nastasya but in different ways and for different reasons. Myshkin loves Nastasya out of compassion and self-sacrifice while Rogozhin is obsessed with her beauty and sees her as his possession. Both are in love with Nastasya in different but committed ways. Myshkin loves out of goodness while Rogozhin loves out of passion.

Believing in yourself.

Nastasya is drawn to both men but feels she is not good enough for Myshkin. Rogzhin’s attention and love of Nastasya is based on being the object of one’s desire, i.e. a feeling she has felt from all men she has met in her life. The tragedy of Dostoevsky’s story is that Rogozhin murders Nastasya. Rogozhin is sent to prison and Myshkin collapses from the soul crushing murder. Myshkin returns to the asylum as a broken man. Dostoevsky is showing that pure goodness in life is a fiction. True love is made of many parts; none of which make us better than what we are, i.e., love can be unconditional, but it can also be a path to self-destruction.

CONSCIOUSNESS & AI

A.I. is a tool of human beings and will always be a tool. If Pollan is right that human thought originates with emotion, A.I. regulation, and transparency must be aligned with human values of truth, right conduct, peace, and non-violence. If A.I. is used for military or authoritarian advantage, it may lead to the Armageddon of biblical prediction.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A World Appears (A Journey into Consciousness)

Author: Michael Pollan

Narration by: Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan (American journalist, author, Lecturer at Harvard University, co-founded the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, received an M.A. in English from Columbia.)

Pollan is not a scientist, but he is a writer who has an opinion about consciousness based on detailed interviews with scientists and consciousness researchers. He defines consciousness as the subjective experience of being alive. Pollan interviews mainstream and recognized researchers like Roland Griffiths, and Robin Carhart-Harris while avoiding fringe theorists. He interviews scientists who are empirically grounded by experimental testing.

Roland Griffiths (Deceased American psychopharmacologist.)

Pollan also reads the works of Tononi, a neuroscientist who investigates “Integrated Information Theory”, Dahaene, a neuroscientist who researched “Global Neuronal Workspace Theory, and Thomas Nagel, a philosopher who coined the phrase “hard problem of consciousness”. He attacks the subject from multiple angles with experimental research done by plant and animal neurobiologists, AI researchers, and psychologists. What Pollan concludes from his interviews is that consciousness is the felt experience of being alive. This broad conception takes in all life based on interviews Pollan has with many science experts and philosophers who work in broad fields of human, plant, and animal life.

Stefano Mancuso (Italian botanist and writer, a professor at the University of Florence and the director of the International Laboratory of Plant Neurobiology.)

Stefano Mancuso explains vineyard-like plants exhibit consciousness in their drive for growth and survival with roots that behave with “swarm intelligence” to detect a pole nearby. A vinery’s root tips communicate with each other and make a collective decision to grow in a particular direction. Though this process is slower than in the animal kingdom, Mancuso’s experiments show vines preternaturally use their root systems to reach out to a planted pole to improve their growth through photosynthesis. The point of Pollan’s observation about plants is that a brain and neurons may not be required to show and sustain life, but plants appear to exhibit intelligence and sentience without a brain or animal-like nervous system. Plants seem to live without thought or emotion.

The easy part of consciousness is observed cause and effect. The hard part is knowing where cause comes from and why it arises in the first place.

Based on Pollan’s interviews of scientists and philosophers, he develops a central argument that animal/human consciousness comes from life’s need to maintain stability. However, his argument is that sentience does not come from initiated thoughts but from emotions that generate conscious thought. The implications of that belief are frightening because it may explain why consciousness leads to futile war. If thought process is a follower of emotion, reason plays second fiddle to action. Current events in the world show Pollan may be right. Fear of nuclear annihilation may be the cause of America’s futile war with Iran. Russia’s fear of becoming a lesser hegemonic power may be the cause of Ukraine’s territorial theft. If Pollan is correct, the futility of war will never end with emotion as precursor to thought and action.

Pollan’s interviews with representatives of the science and philosophical communities strongly implies human thought is as likely irrational as rational and may or may not be concerned about survival. The threat of A.I. is that it is used to reinforce the irrationality of emotion as a precursor to thought and action.

“Burn-In” is meant to reveal how human-machine integration challenges human society, both ethically and pragmatically.

What comes to mind is that A.I. might be able to assuage irrational decisions but A.I. is of no help if human thought is initially driven by emotions. A.I. only amplifies the harmful potential of irrational human decisions with thoughts only initiated by emotions. One comes away from Pollan’s book with fear.

Information is energy in today’s A.I. world., just as steam was in the industrial revolution.

Pollan ends “A World Appears” with a journey through philosophy that is interesting but unique to him. Some may become distracted by his personal journey, but his view of consciousness is enlightening and frightening.

OUT OF CONTROL

Ahab reminds one of a leader who wishes to impose meaning on a meaningless world. Ahab refuses to see the limits of his power over the unknown, a feeling one can see in errant leaders of the world today.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Moby Dick

Author: Herman Melville

Narration by: Anthony Heald

Painting of Herman Melville (1819-1891, American novelist, short story writer, and poet.)

Interestingly, Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” is a reflection of his personal experience on the sea between 1839 and 1844. He first sailed on a merchant vessel in 1839. Between 1841 and 1843 Melville sailed on long voyages seeking sperm whales and right whales on the Acushnet which sailed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He chose to join the Navy on the USS United States and served from 1843-1844. He had an intimate understanding of what he wrote about.

Sperm Whale

An interesting side bar to “Moby Dick” is information about whales. Whale hunting and harvesting is important in the 19th century for the collection of the spermaceti organ in a Sperm whale’s head. Spermaceti is taken out of the organ by men dipping buckets into the head cavity of the whale. The sperm whale roamed the Pacific, Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic, and offshore grounds of the equator. Other whales had spermaceti but not in the quantities of the Sperm whale. Aside from spermaceti harvesting, whalebone is collected for corsets, umbrella ribs, buggy whips, fishing rods, and for the carving arts, for tools, furniture accents, and sailor scrimshaw works. Whale steak, and fried whale scraps became popular for some consumers. In sum, Melville shows how whaling offered the global economy a boost in the 19th century.

Whale spermaceti.

The value of spermaceti is for candles, ointments, and cosmetics because of its waxy, crystalline purity. Spermaceti value declined for two reasons. One, intense whaling in the 19th century killed nearly 200,000 sperm whales and their species decline made it more expensive to hunt and, as it always was, dangerous to kill. Along with the cost and danger of hunting whales, a significant reason for change is that industrial substitutes like kerosene, petroleum lubricants, and synthetic waxes and oils replaced spermaceti’s utility. In 1946, an International Whaling Commission is formed to regulate whaling. Finally, in 1982, the IWC created a global moratorium on commercial whaling.

The main characters of “Moby Dick” are Ishmael, Captain Ahab, Queequeg, Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, and of course, the great white whale.

Ishmael is like Melville, a novice on a first voyage with Captain Ahab. Queequeg is a native islander whose father is a chief or king of an island from which Queequeg came. Melville describes Queequeg as a calm self-possessed whale harpooner who is a former cannibal who worships (in long trances) a wooden idol called Yojo. He is powerfully built, beautifully tattooed, and graceful in his movement. Queequeg’s character shows generosity and quiet wisdom and becomes a close friend and confident of Ishmael. They become brothers who are neither subordinate nor superior in their relationship.

As the story progresses, listeners become acquainted with Starbuck, Stubb, Flask and finally, Captain Ahab. They sale together on a ship out of Nantucket called the Pequod. Starbuck is the first mate, a Nantucket Quaker who is deeply religious, principled, and brave while being suspicious of Captain Ahab’s behavior. In contrast, Stubb and Flask are mates who follow Captain Ahab wherever and however he leads. Stubb and Flask believe life is “meant to be”, without fear or favor because they are whaleman who obey their orders.

Captain Ahab, as acted by Gregory Peck in 1956, is an imposing, and enduring figure with a scarred face and ivory leg.

Ahab appears later as he comes from his cabin on the Pequod several chapters later in the book. He is pale, gaunt, and storm-beaten with a fierce intensity of purpose. Ahab has charisma but he is monomaniacal and terrifying because of his fierce desire to find and kill Moby Dick, a white whale that severed his leg in an earlier voyage. He views Moby Dick as a malevolent force in the universe that can only be subdued by the American will to conquer, dominate, and transcend the limits of the human condition, i.e. a condition imposed by nature, fate, God, or the inscrutable forces of life.

Ahab, to some, is a symbol of ignorance.

Ahab refuses to recognize his fallibility and the randomness of living in a world over which he has limited control. Ahab finally harpoons Moby Dick but the rope of his harpoon wraps around his neck and drownds him in the sea. He is bound by his obsession for control over a universe’s indifference. Ahab reminds one of a leader who wishes to impose meaning on a meaningless world. Ahab refuses to see the limits of his power over the unknown, a feeling one can see in errant leaders of the world today.

LITERATURE

Serpell has written an excellent review of Morrison’s work as a novelist. It illustrates the great power and importance of literature to reveal an understanding of ourselves and humanity.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

On Morrison

Author: Namwali Serpell

Narration by: January LaVoy

Namwali Serpell (Author, Zamian/American, professor of English at Harvard.)

Ms. Serpell has written an insightful and informative review of Toni Morrison’s written works. Morrison died on August 5, 2019. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She also won a Pulitzer Prize for “Beloved” in 1987. Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 and received a master’s degree in American Literature from Cornell in 1955. Her writing is partly about racism in the United States, but her story telling is about human beings, regardless of their race.

Toni Morrison (1931-2019, American novelist, professor of literature, and editor.)

Serpell explains how one can understand the brilliance of Morrison as a writer of great fiction. Morrison’s reading of literary classics is a part of her success as a writer. Serpell’s explanation of the many allusions in Morrison’s books show how brilliant both Serpell is in her understanding of literature and Morrison’s success as a literary Nobel Prize winner.

Tolstoy and Morrison are among the great writers of their times

What comes through to this critic is how ignorant one can be about what makes a writer great. Morrison is a writer that in someways removes the color of one’s skin from society by creating stories that are true about every American today. The story in “The Bluest Eye” of a father who rapes and impregnates his own daughter is an appalling truth about world gender discrimination and human degradation. It illustrates the brutality and inequality of gender discrimination in society. Societal inequality is not just about the color of one’s skin but in the false belief of racial and gender superiority.

Like Baldwin, Morrison was a voracious reader of books.

Serpell reveals the many allusions to classic literature in Morrison’s work. From Shakespearean drama to the modern literature of Eliot and Joyce, Morrison draws on behaviors, and social strategies that shape her stories. Morrison gives the same depth to Black life as all human life. Serpell shows Morrison draws on singular heroes and forces that have driven the characters of other famous and successful writers.

Morrison’s Published Books

The Bluest Eye (1970)
Sula (1973)
Song of Solomon (1977)
Tar Baby (1981)
Beloved (1987)
Jazz (1992)
Paradise (1998)

In the last chapter of “…Morrison”, Serpell visits a memorial to Morrison. Serpell explains that reading Morrison is like developing a relationship with her. The author notes Morrison did not shy away from the truth of discrimination. She explains Morrison looks at monuments to discrimination like the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, VA. and believes they should be left in place to remind society of stories that show how unjust inequality is to humanity (the statue is removed in 2021). Morrison is shown to be a great Black writer with a clear understanding of what it is to be an American.

Toni Morrison Memorial.

Interestingly, Serpell is highly critical of Morrison’s poetry. Serpell suggests Morrison has great poetic power in her prose but fails when she tries to write poetry. (Not being a follower of poetry, this reviewer is no judge.) What one can read in Morrison’s prose shows an imaginative density that seems the equal of what people say about poetry. It is somewhat surprising that Morrison could not be a good poet. In any case, Serpell has written an excellent review of Morrison’s work as a novelist. It illustrates the great power and importance of literature to reveal an understanding of ourselves and humanity.

COMPATIBILITY

What one finds in “Funny Story” is that human relationships are always works in progress. Nothing in a long-term relationship is without conflict.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Funny Story

Author: Emily Henry

Narration by: Julia Whelan

Emily Henry (Author, American writer of NYT’s bestselling romance novels.)

This is a “Funny Story”, written with the same skill that is noted in a previous review of this author’s writing in, “Great Big Beautiful Life“. “Funny Story” reminds one of human relationships when one is young and unattached. Of course, it is written from a woman’s point of view, but it reveals some truths about love, partnering, and marriage.

Every life is a world. Paulo Coelho’s The Winner Stands Alone magnifies the ephemeral nature of money, power, and fame.

For some people, living life alone is liberating but emotionally unfulfilling. Living with or marrying someone is like placing a bet on a roulette table. It can reward or deprive you of some level of joy. Henry’s story begins with a single woman, with modest ambition and little money, who falls in love with a wealthy, handsome man whom she marries. The woman’s name is Daphne. Her new husband, Peter, buys a house but soon chooses to leave and divorce Daphne to marry another woman. The other woman, named Petra, is a childhood friend raised in a family of similar wealth. Petra had been living with a male lover named Miles, a working man of modest means who is employed at a winery. Miles is a friend of Peter and sexual partner of Petra but is yet to meet Daphne.

Love and marriage.

Once one knows of the relationships between the main characters, the story moves along with the jilted wife, Daphne, and Miles’s becoming housemates after the abrupt departure and divorce by Peter who believes he is in love with Petra. The author creates a “Funny Story” with an odd arrangement with Daphne becoming a house mate with Miles because she is broken hearted and too broke to be able to live on her own. One can quit listening to the book because the table seems set to show the jilted wife will fall in love with Miles and live happily ever after.

One who believes “birds of a feather flock together” presumes two wealthy families are more likely to have offspring who marry each other because of their similarities of experience and wealth in their families’ backgrounds. One may either quit the book or keep listening to the story in expectation of a “happy ever after” ending.

What “Funny Story” says about life is that marriage between people of similar backgrounds is more likely to be happy than marriage of people with different backgrounds. Of course, this is not a hard and fast rule. Good relationships or marriages can be based on complimentary ways of dealing with life where two people make each other more complete human beings. The accoutrements of similar wealth and education aid compatibility but are not sole determinants of intimate relationship success. A listener/reader stays with “Funny Story” to find out which social relationship the main characters achieve, i.e., complimentary partners, partners in misery, or single unattached loners.

What one finds in “Funny Story” is that human relationships are always works in progress.

Nothing in a long-term relationship is without conflict. Those who recognize their complimentary compatibility are more likely to remain attached through marriage, partnership, or long friendship. Those who have too much in common and too little that complements their differences seem more likely to part company.

North Korea

As Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. North Korea is a case that proves the point.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

In Order to Live (A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom)

Author: Yeonmi Park

Narration by: Eji Kim

Yeonmi Park (Author, North Korean defector)

Yeonmi Park has written an interesting story about North Korea’s general conditions before she and her mother defected. In 2007, at the age of 13, Yeonmi and her mother escaped North Korea. They crossed the border from Hyesan, North Korea into China. They ventured into Mongolia and escaped to South Korea in 2009.

North Korea is a dark place in many ways.

The picture Yeonmi paints of North Korean life is one of famine, and chronic hunger that is exacerbated by a state-controlled food assistance policy. She reveals a North Korean environment that is hypervigilant about ideological control of its citizens with a system of informants about any criticism of North Korean rule or government belief. She notes human trafficking exists for North Korean women who cross the Yalu River to China. She suggests her mother is a victim of that abhorrent trade in order to escape North Korea. This illicit form of trade is corroborated by other North Korean women who crossed the border to China.

Border between China and N. Korea.

To survive in North Korea, Yeonmi’s family is involved in black-marketing between North Korea and China. Her father participates in a network of bribed officials in the black market to improve their family’s living conditions while in North Korea. Yeonmi explains her father becomes intimately involved with another woman in his North Korean activities which undoubtedly encourages her mother to defect. Another incentive for her mother’s decision is Yeonmi’s older sister who had crossed the border into China at age 16 and lost communication with her family. Presumably, the older daughter wished also to find a better life.

Naturally, Western’ listener/readers want to believe everything Yeonmi writes. In the context of what others have written about North Korean life, one is inclined to believe much of what she recalls in her book. Many North Korean citizens want a better life while women are coveted on the border because of the sex trade. Yeonmi notes her mother is sexually assaulted by a trafficker during their escape into China. She infers the assault is a combination of coercion and violence, not a transactional choice.

This illicit trade is a reminder of the so-called “comfort women” of WWII but with Japan as the culprit.

Women’s exploitation is a worldwide issue. Yeonmi paints a picture of North Korea’s and China’s border trade, and risks that are entirely believable in the context of other critics who have written about the illicit trade between North Korea and China. Just like the illegal drug trade between Columbia, Venezuela, Mexico and the United States, North Korea and China run an illegal trade in human beings. At the heart of this corruption is the money and power it gives those who choose to support or ignore it. Sex, like drugs, victimizes the innocent and lures corrupt citizens in all cultures.

1990s famine in North Korea.

Yeonmi writes about the chronic hunger, famine, and food scarcity in North Korea’s 1990s that is corroborated by UN reports and Non-Government Organizations research and other defector testimonies. The same UN’ and NGO’ reports refer to North Korea’s repression, use of surveillance, and ideological indoctrination. North Koreans that have escaped reinforce reports of indoctrination, the fear of being informed upon and the propaganda about the “Dear Leader” that rules their forsaken country. Many defectors have reported the harsh punishments, forced labor, and border violence (shootings) they have experienced or seen in North Korea.

A picture of Yeonmi Park’s family in North Korea before the mother’s and youngest daughter’s decision to defect.

Yeonmi Park’s story may not be entirely true or objective but enough of her story is corroborated by other organizations and writers that give credence to her story. The inhumanity that has been created by the leader of North Korea turns one’s stomach. As Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely”. North Korea is a case that proves the point.

SCHIZOPHRENIA REDUX

The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Best Minds (A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions)

Author: Jonathan Rosen

Narration by: Jonathan Rosen

Jonathan Rosen (Author, Yale graduate, writes for The Jewish Daily Forward, and the Free Press.)

As a person who has lived through the same generation as Jonathan Rosen, his story is interesting partly because it tells what it is like to be born a Jew in America. In many ways, one finds life as a Jew is no different than it is for any American. Most Americans are born into a family that cares for them and influences who they become as adults. Children are born with innate abilities that are either cultivated or ignored by their parents. Some parents are too busy with their own lives to offer care a child may benefit from with more attention. It appears Jonathan Rosen is born into a family that cultivates his abilities despite their busy lives. One wonders if that is a matter of ethnic tradition or inherent nature. One suspects it is a little of both.

In “The Best Minds”, an important part of being raised a Jew is education that encourages and reinforces Jewish identity through rituals like the bar mitzva.

The bar mitzva and bat mitzva (for girls) is a coming-of-age ceremony at age 13 (sometimes 12 for girls) where a Jewish child memorizes and recites passages from the Torah. On the one hand it reinforces one’s identity with a particular ethnicity. On the other, it is one of many exercises of memory that reinforces one’s ability to succeed academically. Much of one’s success as an accomplished adult is recall of information whether a doctor, lawyer, or merchant chief. From a young age, memorization is an important skill for Jewish children. One wonders how much tradition has to do with the brilliance of Einstein, Oppenheimer, Salk and so many other Jews of the world. This is not to suggest being raised in a Jewish family is not as traumatic and unpredictable as any child born but to recognize ethnic customs make a difference in children’s lives. The great contributions to science and art by Jews makes one wish they might live life over again with more positively ritualized cultivation.

Michael Laudor (Yale graduate, subject of “The Best Minds)

However, there is much more to Rosen’s story. His life is intertwined with the life of Michael Laudor, a close childhood friend who is raised in a similar environment and recognized as a prodigy. However, Lauder succumbs to schizophrenia. This is not to suggest Jews or any ethnicity is prone to psychological imbalance. Psychiatric imbalance is not defined by ethnicity but exists as a potential for every human being. One doubts there is any defense against psychological abnormality whether Jew, gentile, or other.

Laudor and Rosen as childhood friends.

Laudor and Rosen were close friends. Rosen recognizes his friend has a superior mind, i.e., one of “The Best Minds” of Rosen’s high school’ years. Rosen struggles to understand what happened to his childhood friend. Both Rosen and Laudor are accepted at Yale. Laudor chooses law as his course of study. Rosen goes on to California to get a PhD in literature. Their dual biographies make Rosen’s story impactful. Rosen explains how intelligence, ambition, and success can be destroyed by mental illness.

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

Laudor is a wunderkind who performs at a level far beyond his age group. He graduates from Yale and decides wealth is a goal to be achieved. He is hired by an investment consulting firm which offers him an opportunity to become super-rich. Rosen infers Laudor succeeds. From the outside, Laudor appears to be highly successful, but he becomes dissatisfied with his life and quits the firm that hired him. Rosen stays in touch with Laudor and writes “The Best Minds” to reveal what he thinks he knows about what happened to his childhood friend. The beginning of Laudor’s imbalance appears to Rosen when Laudor explains he is being followed, monitored and targeted by unknown malefactors. Before that conversation, the erratic behavior of Rosen’s friend seemed like a matter of burnout from his high-flying experience as an investment consultant. The intensity of Laudor’s paranoia makes Rosen believe something more serious is at the root of his friend’s behavior.

Rosen stays in touch with Laudor–talking to him about what is going on in his life. He tries to get Laudor to see the falseness of his delusions without triggering defensiveness. Rosen avoids contradicting Laudor by trying to be supportive and encouraging him to seek help. On the one hand one wonders what more could Rosen do. How else could he intervene in Laudor’s spiral into what is later diagnosed as schizophrenia? A reader/listener wonders what they would or could have done.

Michael Laudor murders his fiancée, Carrie Costello, in 1998. She is pregnant at the time of her death.

Laudor had grown to believe his girlfriend had become a part of a conspiracy to harm him and that he needed to defend himself despite her trying to care for him. His brilliant mind manufactured a false reality. His delusion leads to the fatal stabbing of Ms. Costello. After the homicide, Laudor calls 911. He is arrested and transferred to a psychiatric facility and later found guilty by reason of insanity. He died in 2022 at the age of 56 in a New York State psychiatric hospital, never recovering from severe schizophrenia.

“The Best Minds” is Rosen’s effort to understand how genius and madness can be intertwined. The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief. Correlation is not causation without objective and repeatable experimental proof.

The question one asks oneself after finishing Rosen’s book is what one can do differently to keep someone from losing their way in life whether he/she is a genius or not?

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