Naipaul, and Jacobs, and, and

Great article/interview in the NY Times Book Review today about Naipaul.
I don't agree with a lot of his comments, but Donadio, in talking with him about his books that deal with Islam, succinctly summarized the questions Naipaul was posing in his writing, and they are questions that are prescient and profound, questions I've been trying to study and respond to but have only come up with barely half an answer. I'm sharing those questions, just because they are brilliant concepts to deconstruct and reflect upon.

"The books raise but don't necessarily answer deep and vexing questions: Is secularism a precondition of tolerance? Does one necessarily have to abandon one's individual cultural and religious identity to become part of the West? Why do people willingly choose lives that restrict their intellectual freedom? What becomes of modern societies founded on Islam, whose strictest aherents long for a return to the time of Muhammad?"

Also, started and finished this book by Jane Jacobs today, Dark Age Ahead. I've long wanted to read The Death and Life of Great American Cities, because I find urban re/development studies absolutely fascinating, as well as its related fields of architectural planning, ex/sub-urban sprawl growth, etal. This book has inspired me to actually purchase and read it. (Note, another plug for On Paradise Drive, David Brooks' book, now in paperback. Also, it also reminded me of a fascinating article from the March 14th, 2004 edition of The New Yorker about mall culture entitled "The Terrazo Jungle", written by Malcolm Gladwell, which is so worth your time.) I witnessed and followed with great fascination the Plan of Nashville and related projects like The Gulch when I was in Tennessee, and long to see their implementation. I think urban redevelopment is one of the few jobs I would wholeheartedly enjoy.

Anyway, Jacobs. She is arguing about cultural decline, from a perspective that I have long shared but seldom written of. This is one of the best books I've read (although slightly disjointed) that is an appeal to Democratic values and arguments (which I hear none of anymore). But bottom line, it is fascinating. It reminded me of my need to finish reading Guns, Germs, and Steel. Go, read this book of hers.

Speaking of cultural criticism, I've also gotten about 65 pages into Craig Seligman's book Sontag & Kael, Opposites Attract Me, and I've fallen in love. After she passed away, I read quite a bit about Sontag and her ideas (I remember very vividly reading a piece of hers from about 4 years ago on the NYT Op-Ed page, and being utterly blown away by her) and started investigating her work. I've not had the time up to now to get into those works of hers I bought, but I will certainly make time for her now, as I, while reading this book, find myself identifying more and more with her life, perspective, and thought process. Plus, her prose is orgasmically gorgeous. The idea of packing every sentence with a new idea, something she perpetually strove for, is something I desire to achieve on such a fundamental level, in both my writing and my painting.

Signing off now, but also note Donadio's piece on the triumph of Non-fiction over the novel. More on this later, need to re-read it and then will discuss. I've got a four long flights ahead of me in the next week (going to Colorado), so I will read and write on the plane. Cheers.

I miss Nashville.

Posted: Sunday - August 07, 2005 at 03:25 PM |