Books and Ideas (29)

I read for ideas. Here are some of the ideas I have found in books.

Tales of the South Pacific. James Michener.
Why read it? What won WWII was superior planning and organizing. Series of short stories based on incidents experienced by the author when he served in the South Pacific during WWII. The theme is waiting, the endless waiting, to see action. The waiting occurred because the islands leading toward the Japanese mainland had to be staffed and prepared for the string of attacks on islands nearer the Japanese mainland. In fact, the planning, including the medical planning in anticipation of certain types of wounds, is absolutely amazing. Of course, the stories of men and women at war are the focus of the book.

Memento Mori. Muriel Spark.
Why read it? If, as a young person, you think old people (over 70) live out their old age serenely, reflecting comfortably on their positive experiences over the years, this novel depicts a very different existence—fretful, self-absorbed, worried about trivial circumstances, hyper-critical of other old people, noting their mental instability, reflecting on affairs and embarrassments during the years, using their wills to retain influence over people looking for their inheritance, problems with their bladders, taking pills, no longer valued for their knowledge and as important individuals, wildly suspicious and swiftly dying off because of medical and other causes, including violence and car collisions. Spark writes with a dead-pan, expression as she states matter-of-factly what the characters think, say and do. The result is hilarious—and irreverent—and true to life.
Quote: “And if the book does nothing else, it demonstrates how hard it is to approach tranquility at the end of a long life marked by the deceits, subterfuges and willful departures from ordinary decency that plague all men at all times.”

Bring Out Your Dead: The great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793. J. H. Powell.
Why read it? The anatomy of a crisis. How this particular crisis—the yellow-fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793—was dealt with. It was not resolved by human effort, but by nature’s change of seasons, the frost that killed the real culprit, the mosquito. But to some degree heroic people, known and unknown, did alleviate the crisis.
The first need was firm leadership, in this case, the mayor of Philadelphia, Matthew Clarkson who did not desert his duties or the city. Second was the need for organization—to identify the many complicated problems within the crisis and then to set out to deal with them in an organized and efficient manner, from picking up and burying the dead to managing a hospital, Bush Hill, away from the city. The need to deal with the many excuses or obstacles to getting things done. Ultimately, the greatest need was to give hope and confidence to both victims and survivors. How to deal with panic.
Quote: “There are heroisms unrecorded, great moments of beauty and courage that have left no trace, unknowable human experiences that could teach wisdom and understanding…. But history is always full of gaps.”

Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle. Washington Irving.
Why read it? The years are 1802 and 1803 in America. The commentator is Jonathan Oldstyle, an older man, a conservative, someone who does not like innovation on old habits. He sends letters to the editor, commenting on the fashions of the young, on the foppishness of young men, on the habits of playgoers, most of which modern readers will recognize in the moviewplexes of today—except for cell phones—and on the contemporary methods of dueling when pistols replaced swords, and other modes of dueling (like Abraham Lincoln’s use of cow flop), designed to assure that no one is seriously hurt. It’s all in good fun.
Quote: “Nothing is more intolerable to an old person than innovation on old habits.”