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rhys_thomas_sparey's reviews
20 reviews
Visualizing Nature: Essays on Truth, Spririt, and Philosophy by
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
3.0
This is a pleasant enough response to Emerson's essay, Visualizing Nature. It provides numerous interesting perspectives from a number of backgrounds, some of which conceptualize nature in radical, unique, or subversive ways, e.g. Visualizing nature as language. Others tend towards a new age brand of spiritualism that I struggle to appreciate.
India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765 by Richard M. Eaton
informative
slow-paced
5.0
This took me a lifetime to read, not because it is written poorly by any means, but because I mistook it for a work of popular non-fiction, when it is in truth an academic tome. But what an impressive tome. 'India in the Persianate Age, 1000-1765' is tremendous in scope, microscopically detailing the epic clash of two great civilizations that would culminate in Contemporary India: Persian and Sanskrit.
Two historians pose small but useful criticisms worth remembering when reading it: Katherine Schofield notes that the Persianate Age continued way past 1765 and Karen Ruffle fears that a focus on language as a vehicle of cultural diffusion in characterising India's troublesome Middle Period sidelines religion, which was also hugely influential in determining the prevailing worldviews of the time.
Despite the five-star rating, I share these concerns. Nevertheless, it remains my favourite history of Mughal India yet. It is vivid and immense, improving greatly on deeply racist accounts of the Mughal Emperors as instigators and overseers of an Islamic dark age. In contrast, Eaton evidences how religious diversity thrived and advances made in the second millenium resulted in the sub-continent's global pre-eminence and catalysed its modernity.
Perhaps, this book can form the basis of a narrative of the religious intersubjectivity that no doubt inheres in the interpercolation of the Sanskritic and Persianate worlds and further highlights the absurd and tragic irony of Hindu Nationalism that suppresses Muslim culture in India today.
Two historians pose small but useful criticisms worth remembering when reading it: Katherine Schofield notes that the Persianate Age continued way past 1765 and Karen Ruffle fears that a focus on language as a vehicle of cultural diffusion in characterising India's troublesome Middle Period sidelines religion, which was also hugely influential in determining the prevailing worldviews of the time.
Despite the five-star rating, I share these concerns. Nevertheless, it remains my favourite history of Mughal India yet. It is vivid and immense, improving greatly on deeply racist accounts of the Mughal Emperors as instigators and overseers of an Islamic dark age. In contrast, Eaton evidences how religious diversity thrived and advances made in the second millenium resulted in the sub-continent's global pre-eminence and catalysed its modernity.
Perhaps, this book can form the basis of a narrative of the religious intersubjectivity that no doubt inheres in the interpercolation of the Sanskritic and Persianate worlds and further highlights the absurd and tragic irony of Hindu Nationalism that suppresses Muslim culture in India today.
Dune by Frank Herbert
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is the first book in a long time that has had me hooked from cover to cover. It is exquisitely detailed, explaining everything and nothing more about a universe imagined from scratch, although drawing heavily on an orientalist hodge podge of Islamicate cultures, forming the bedrock of contemporary science fiction. Despite the relative simplicity of the story, even though it may be long and rhapsodic, Frank Herbert frames layers of political intrigue and theosophical experimentation within a highly inventive prose and a whodunnit-esque patina of mystery and tension. With all the trappings of a psychological thriller, and the intimate insights intrinsic to the slow burn of a lengthy novel, there is a sense in the end that the reader too, having followed very precisely in the protagonist's footsteps, has become imbued with similar messianic powers of deduction and reasoning tantamount to prophecy. In that sense, it is mystical and uplifting in the face of chaos, extreme danger, and social upheaval, befitting its reputation as a timeless benchmark for original fiction. If it were not for an implicit white saviour complex, I would have awarded it five stars.
The Music of India by Eilean Pearcey, Reginald Massey, Jamila Massey, Ravi Shanker
informative
medium-paced
3.0
This concise introduction to the (classical) music of India provides a succinct overview of the various aspects and histories of both Hindustani and Carnatic raga and tala. However, it is limited by its brevity and involves outbursts of strong personal opinion, which is surprising in a context of the (academic, non-fictional) genre. For example, the authors detest many Bollywood film soundtracks. Moreover, the book maintains an uneasy balance between reference book or text book. Yet, overall, it is informative and well-written, and leaves readers thirsty for more.
The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi by Arthur Japin
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Noblesse de peau, the nobility of the skin, or "the pre-eminence of a white skin over black and of the moral and intellectual supremacy of the white race over all others" is the principle upon which colonialism is predicated and penetrates deeply the psyche of colony and coloniser alike.
The life of Kwasi Boachi encapsulates well the vast, tragic, heartbreaking extent of this duality, a perennial identity crisis in which his friends cannot be differentiated from his foes, in which he is made to turn on the culture into which he was born, in which he forgets his mother tongue, in which his family are pitted against him, in which he is at once made Dutch and denied the Netherlands, in which those closest to him are driven mad and then to suicide, in which even the power legislated to him is subject to the indignation of others, in which the best education in Europe renders him a slave, in which the moment Boachi realises the principle underlying his needless hardship, his fruitless endeavours and his unfair maltreatment is met with little more than the fatigued indifference of a grumpy old man.
Boachi remarked that he regretted more the rejection of love and family until old age.
Arthur Japin beautifully mobilises more than a decade's worth of research in the rich illustration of the lives of Kwasi Boachi and his brother. It is a remarkable microcosm and origin story of systemic racism and the entrenchment of colonialism where it is least expected, the many unnoticed and minuscule actions, occasions, and encounters of daily life.
Moreover, it is an easy read and it is true!
The life of Kwasi Boachi encapsulates well the vast, tragic, heartbreaking extent of this duality, a perennial identity crisis in which his friends cannot be differentiated from his foes, in which he is made to turn on the culture into which he was born, in which he forgets his mother tongue, in which his family are pitted against him, in which he is at once made Dutch and denied the Netherlands, in which those closest to him are driven mad and then to suicide, in which even the power legislated to him is subject to the indignation of others, in which the best education in Europe renders him a slave, in which the moment Boachi realises the principle underlying his needless hardship, his fruitless endeavours and his unfair maltreatment is met with little more than the fatigued indifference of a grumpy old man.
Boachi remarked that he regretted more the rejection of love and family until old age.
Arthur Japin beautifully mobilises more than a decade's worth of research in the rich illustration of the lives of Kwasi Boachi and his brother. It is a remarkable microcosm and origin story of systemic racism and the entrenchment of colonialism where it is least expected, the many unnoticed and minuscule actions, occasions, and encounters of daily life.
Moreover, it is an easy read and it is true!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Racism, and Abandonment
The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Huxley longed to be a scientist but felt relegated to creative non-fiction by the constrictions of his blindness. Thank God! Not because his scholarship is at all amateurish, but because a lack of stylistic constraints imposed by academic publishers meant that his storytelling genius was not prevented from running wild.
The Devils of Loudun is a product both of this brilliant wildness and a cool trend in 50s and 60s sociology wherein profound points were ascertained from fun and whacky subjects (Becker's ethnography of stoners in LA is another example).
Becker, like most writers of his generation put the story second to the fact and theory but, here, from the imagination and freedom afforded to Huxley, the story of possession in seventeenth-century France emerges front and centre.
It is beautiful, terrifying, comical, and tragical in equal measure, but somewhat compromised by long and quite dry tangents about the history of the church, the theology of various denominations, rich biographies of the characters, Freudian rationalisations of their behaviour, and so the list goes on.
Nevertheless, these tangents amount to an interesting philosophy: Huxley defines human nature as a libidinal desire to reach beyond the self, he sees groups as a necessary effect of human nature, he sees mob mentality as intrinsic to groups, he sees the church and state as inevitable manifestations of mob mentality, and he sees their interaction as complex, absurd, amusing, and an indication of the worst of mankind.
Brave New World and The Island demonstrate that Huxley's keen critical insight and powers of description need not be separate. Here, they unfortunately are, which makes for a jarring to and fro between fun and informative.
Anyone who can get over this duality should read this book immediately because, between dated and rigorous explanations, is the Monty Python of the mid-twentieth-century; a light-hearted jaunt through dark-hearted men and women whose tales are at once hilarious and harrowing.
The Devils of Loudun is a product both of this brilliant wildness and a cool trend in 50s and 60s sociology wherein profound points were ascertained from fun and whacky subjects (Becker's ethnography of stoners in LA is another example).
Becker, like most writers of his generation put the story second to the fact and theory but, here, from the imagination and freedom afforded to Huxley, the story of possession in seventeenth-century France emerges front and centre.
It is beautiful, terrifying, comical, and tragical in equal measure, but somewhat compromised by long and quite dry tangents about the history of the church, the theology of various denominations, rich biographies of the characters, Freudian rationalisations of their behaviour, and so the list goes on.
Nevertheless, these tangents amount to an interesting philosophy: Huxley defines human nature as a libidinal desire to reach beyond the self, he sees groups as a necessary effect of human nature, he sees mob mentality as intrinsic to groups, he sees the church and state as inevitable manifestations of mob mentality, and he sees their interaction as complex, absurd, amusing, and an indication of the worst of mankind.
Brave New World and The Island demonstrate that Huxley's keen critical insight and powers of description need not be separate. Here, they unfortunately are, which makes for a jarring to and fro between fun and informative.
Anyone who can get over this duality should read this book immediately because, between dated and rigorous explanations, is the Monty Python of the mid-twentieth-century; a light-hearted jaunt through dark-hearted men and women whose tales are at once hilarious and harrowing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
The Man Who Created the Middle East: A Story of Empire, Conflict and the Sykes-Picot Agreement by Christopher Simon Sykes
informative
slow-paced
2.0
A biography written in the same spirit as the Sykes-Picot agreement, with a hopefully less fatal fallout.
This is to say that it is encumbered with the irony of a baronet fortunately endowed with the time and resources to exonerate his grandfather of colonialist mistakes brought about by the British class system generally, and by the appointment of Mark Sykes specifically, alongside various other aristocrats, to positions of power for which they were only tenuously qualified. In Mark Sykes' case, these qualifications constitute a few gap years abroad, which are generously romanticised by his grandson in this volume.
But it isn't entirely uninformative. Most of the book details in story form, and with accessible prose, the events and influencing forces that directed Mark Sykes and his contemporaries to the disastrous colonial and postcolonial positions in which they ended up, which are actually very interesting -- David Lloyd George, T. E. Lawrence, and Winston Churchill all get a mention.
Christopher Sykes can be forgiven in a biography for detailing those aspects of Mark Sykes' personal life that many readers may find irrelevant or uninteresting, but these details do demonstrate (albeit unwittingly) the worrying extent to which much British colonialism was/remains the product of a rigid division of power, status, and wealth.
The most exciting part of this book is an extremely brief epilogue on the titular character's legacy, which could have replaced several chapters, though it surprisingly tries to unburden Mark Sykes of any responsibility regarding the fallout of the Sykes-Picot agreement.
While more reliable accounts exist, they are likely less accessible. Indeed, it is Christopher Sykes' ability to guide the reader through his grandfather's life that gives this book its value.
This is to say that it is encumbered with the irony of a baronet fortunately endowed with the time and resources to exonerate his grandfather of colonialist mistakes brought about by the British class system generally, and by the appointment of Mark Sykes specifically, alongside various other aristocrats, to positions of power for which they were only tenuously qualified. In Mark Sykes' case, these qualifications constitute a few gap years abroad, which are generously romanticised by his grandson in this volume.
But it isn't entirely uninformative. Most of the book details in story form, and with accessible prose, the events and influencing forces that directed Mark Sykes and his contemporaries to the disastrous colonial and postcolonial positions in which they ended up, which are actually very interesting -- David Lloyd George, T. E. Lawrence, and Winston Churchill all get a mention.
Christopher Sykes can be forgiven in a biography for detailing those aspects of Mark Sykes' personal life that many readers may find irrelevant or uninteresting, but these details do demonstrate (albeit unwittingly) the worrying extent to which much British colonialism was/remains the product of a rigid division of power, status, and wealth.
The most exciting part of this book is an extremely brief epilogue on the titular character's legacy, which could have replaced several chapters, though it surprisingly tries to unburden Mark Sykes of any responsibility regarding the fallout of the Sykes-Picot agreement.
While more reliable accounts exist, they are likely less accessible. Indeed, it is Christopher Sykes' ability to guide the reader through his grandfather's life that gives this book its value.
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Few books are so affective, and in such a variety of ways.
It seems cliche to review a book for its ability to make a reader laugh and cry, but it is true that Noah's autobiography achieves both. More than that, it is an inadvertent ethnography of the perseverance of racism and misogyny in post-apartheid South Africa, but in their significantly more complex forms, as well as their historic origins in British and Dutch colonialism. Whether it elaborates on the playground politics of suburban Catholic schools or narrates quite matter-of-factly the extraordinary and dangerous lengths to which him and his mother would go simply to survive, Noah's ability to understand the human spirit at its core and convey his experiences as much with comedy as with tragedy is magnificent and I recommend it to everybody.
It seems cliche to review a book for its ability to make a reader laugh and cry, but it is true that Noah's autobiography achieves both. More than that, it is an inadvertent ethnography of the perseverance of racism and misogyny in post-apartheid South Africa, but in their significantly more complex forms, as well as their historic origins in British and Dutch colonialism. Whether it elaborates on the playground politics of suburban Catholic schools or narrates quite matter-of-factly the extraordinary and dangerous lengths to which him and his mother would go simply to survive, Noah's ability to understand the human spirit at its core and convey his experiences as much with comedy as with tragedy is magnificent and I recommend it to everybody.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
Minor: Abandonment
Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
One of the most brilliant and ridiculous books that I have ever been fortunate enough to read!
Its incantation at the beginning frames the time-crushing plot within a neo-Sartrean rage against the machine, against the structures of control that confines and subordinates human behaviour to temporality. It is a remarkable exercise in attempting to give life to fiction, not as a reductive postmodern deconstruction of the real or unreal, or as an elaboration of some multiverse, but as the objectification of a literary interaction with the past, the present, and the future instantaneously in the chronomantic imagining of a weapon that begets piratical freedom. The novel reads linearly and thereby achieves the impossible. By evoking Lovecraft and Libertatia, Burroughs blurs the lines through which time is divided and temporal authority exerted, expanding the judiciary as much to art as to politics. Executed with Burroughs' hallmark sardonicism, distance, and indifference to absurd and hallucinogenic processes of hyperstition, Cities of the Red Night is undoubtedly the first third of his magnum opus.
Its incantation at the beginning frames the time-crushing plot within a neo-Sartrean rage against the machine, against the structures of control that confines and subordinates human behaviour to temporality. It is a remarkable exercise in attempting to give life to fiction, not as a reductive postmodern deconstruction of the real or unreal, or as an elaboration of some multiverse, but as the objectification of a literary interaction with the past, the present, and the future instantaneously in the chronomantic imagining of a weapon that begets piratical freedom. The novel reads linearly and thereby achieves the impossible. By evoking Lovecraft and Libertatia, Burroughs blurs the lines through which time is divided and temporal authority exerted, expanding the judiciary as much to art as to politics. Executed with Burroughs' hallmark sardonicism, distance, and indifference to absurd and hallucinogenic processes of hyperstition, Cities of the Red Night is undoubtedly the first third of his magnum opus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Drug abuse, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Pedophilia, Racism, and Rape
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Stunning. Silly. Amusing. Absurd. Colossal. A sincere feat of literature. Not an easy read, but a rewarding one. To portray four generations of being and their afterlives and their legacies. To narrate the configuration of a continent to its modernity; from the creation of an independent Indian nation, to its partition, to its contemporary political turmoils. To speak to the abstract onslaught of time. To speak to something so localized and universal instantaneously. To frustrate the reader with long-winded asides and have them chortling at their relevance several chapters later. To evoke an ancient Asian storytelling tradition in a modern European context. To write so beautifully and so idiosyncratically for so long. To analogize a serious monumental rupture in the social fabric of the world with the superpowers of the children who lived through it. To resist an occularcentric view of the west with Saleem Sinai's "cucumber nose"-sense of the east ... Salman Rushdie wrote, in a letter dated 25th December 2005, that "if it can pass the test of another generation of two, it may endure." I fail to see how Midnight's Children cannot.
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