American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard
This book was incredibly powerful, but it's also very depressing. After reading this book, especially the first two sections, I almost lost whatever hope and faith I had in human society and wondered if there was really any reason for humanity to exist. It's not like we're a very nice species.
Originally published in 1992, or the quincentennial of Columbus's landing in America, Stannard uses this book to address some of ideas that continue to prevail in schools, most of society and even among many historians. The first two chapters in the section entitled "Before Columbus" appropriately discuss what North and South America looked like before Columbus "discovered" America. Naturally, he can only generalize about a few different areas and societies since there was such a large variety, but he definitely refutes the idea of the empty, unused land that has become rather prevalent in the nation's imagination. Yes, North America wasn't nearly as highly populated as Central and South America (he estimates that Hispaniola alone had a population of 8 million before disease and mass murder basically killed off everyone), but it still had a significant amount of people. And they did cultivate the land and many were rather settled - they didn't become the nomads as seen in the movies until the colonials and Americans drove them off their lands. After all, they were the ones that had to show the Pilgrims and early settlers how to produce food before being thanked by being killed off.
His portrayal of Europe at this time is rather dark as well - while many places in America seemed to have a much more egalatarian society, Europe was definitely a very strict hierarchy of haves vs. have nots. The life expectancy was in the 30s. Most were poor and starving. They were unclean (and then thought the fact that the people in America bathed often) and greedy.
The second section, "Pestilence and Genocide," explore the aftermath of Columbus's voyage. It's one thing to hear about the conquistadors in class and quite another to go through the statistics and numbers as this book does. Millions dead to random killings, diseases and slavery within only a short period of time. Only shortly after talking about the riches and the beauty of this country, the same people then went and destroyed everything just for the phone of it. The utter disregard for human life is absolutely disheartening. And this was just the Spanish, who didn't even intend to commit genocide, it just kind of happened while they were trying to enrich themselves.
In comparison, in North America, genocide was the goal. The Spanish just wanted to get rich and exploited the native people for that reason (the description of the Spanish attrocities still seem worse in a way, possibly due to the documentation or just because much of it happened within a shorter period of time; after all, the expansion in North America lasted over a century); the English and then Americans wanted the land, and the best way to get them off the land was to annihilate them and get them out of the way. Now, Stannard doesn't discuss things such as the Battle of Tippicanoe or other resistance but when it comes down to it, these things didn't justify the American reaction one bit (also, there was quite a bit of propaganda involved in blowing things out of proportion). Wow, the American Indians went on a warpath and killed a few hundred people? Maybe a few women and children, too? Yep, that totally justifies wiping out their entire culture, especially since they didn't kill anyone until they were already on the defensive and being chased from their lands.
It seemed like in history class we always got this idea of the brave settlers that left everything behind to go to a hostile land of uncertainty where they would never see their families or their old country again; however, they were the ones that were hostile and violent and saw it as their duty to kill off the people that originally helped them.
In the final section, "Sex, Race and Holy War," Stannard discusses the religious influences on the thoughts of the Spanish, English and Americans to include their views of sex. He also draws comparisons to other genocides, including the Holocaust since they had their roots in the same historical background and religious cultures. Also here is where it's obvious that this wasn't an abnomaly at all - humans are incredibly violent and intolerant. Between the Crusades, the wars between the Lutherans and the Catholics, blood baths repeat themselves over and over again due to intolerance and ignorance. When looking at those parts of history, it gives a rather bleak view of humanity in general.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Book 6: To Your Scattered Bodies Go
The only reason I even heard of this book (or series to be specific) is because Pajiba posted a trailer of the mini-series (or actual series?) that the channel formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel is making with Helo (yes, I realize that is not the actor's name). I honestly wasn't sure about this novel at first - obviously the premise sounded interesting, both from the show trailer and the set up in the book but it took me a while to decide whether Farmer was an author with a really interesting idea that didn't know how to implement it or if he was actually going somewhere with it.
Partially, I blame this on the book I was reading concurrently with this novel (which will be a later post) called American Holocaust. I think this may have made me slightly more sensitive (than usual even) to sweeping generalizations about races and people. Especially his one or two references to the Mohawks and another Indian tribe that described them as either war-like or slave-seeking. However, I should probably actually describe the plot a little bit here since not everyone of course saw the preview.
The main character is Sir Richard Burton (from what I gathered, I think he is real historical figure since some of the other characters, such as the Alice that inspired Alice in Wonderland, and Herman Goring definitely were). Everyone that has ever died from the beginning of humankind through the 20th century has woken up at the same time next to a river. There are no children under five, and everyone has been reincarnated healthy and young (25ish). They all have grails that only they can open which provide them with food on a daily basis. This river seems endless and all along its banks there are different people from different ages and cultures. Unlike anyone else, Burton remembers waking up between death and finding himself on Riverworld, floating in space surrounded by an endless number of other bodies.
As a result of this, Burton is less likely to believe that this was done by some supernatural being. Many religious are in fact disappointed that this is not the heaven they were promised. Despite the fact that everyone has enough to eat and the climate is rather temperate, people quickly make weapons to defend themselves, and others are waging wars of expansion and creating slave states. Not exactly a hopeful look at human nature. While some just try to enjoy themselves, others feel this might be their second chance at salvation. Burton on the other hand is on a quest to find out why he has been revived and brought here, and wants to get to the end of the river to find answers.
As I said, I wasn't sure about this novel at first - it was published in the early '70s, and while I definitely see how it would be difficult to write characters from different times and cultures, I was less than impressed with his description of people and their interactions at first - especially the women. Alice was just annoying at first. In fact, once the novel gets away from Burton and Alice's relationship and starts focusing on Burton's quest, it becomes much more interesting (I understand that some of the issue is not only was Farmer writing in the '70s which would affect his gender views, but he was writing women from the 19th century, so obviously they might be viewed and portrayed as needing protection and so forth). I've already taken a look at the second novel on Amazon, and it seems like it focuses on entirely different characters so it sounds like the series will get rather involved before finally giving the answers Burton wants.
Book 5: Infected
Only a very few people in the US government know about the link between a few people that seem to have gone crazy and then died. In fact, it looks as if they had an infection of some sort that made them go on a crazy killing spree before killing themselves or being stopped somehow. In the first few scenes of the novel, Dew Phillips witnesses one man's reaction to the infection: the government desperately needs someone who is alive to do research on because the bodies disintegrate within a very short time after death. They have determined that one man may be a candidate based on a phone call made to a radio station, and once inside this house, Dew finds two dead bodies, and a man with tourniquets tied around his legs. In front of Dew, he proceeds to cut off both legs, saying that ''they can walk there themselves'' and then burn himself alive.
As Montoya uses the remains in the few hours she has before they too are simply rotted away, the reader starts to become aquainted with Perry Dawson, a former college football player living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It quickly becomes apparent that he has been infected or become a host, and Sigler uses him to show the progression of the disease including the blue triangles. Montoya makes a few discoveries with the charred remains she has, while Dawson demonstrates how exactly they might affect a person. For example, the parasites/virus/whatever one may call it, uses the host's own DNA to create what it is they need to survive. They also increase the body's production of natural painkillers and hormones causing paranoia (explaining all the murderous rampages that have recently come to the government's attention).
Dawson's reaction to the invasion of his body is in ways typical, and in others, very unique. He, too, becomes paranoid. On the other hand, being afraid of doctors and coming from a family that taught tough love, he also believes in handling things himself and actually cuts out on of the infected areas towards the beginning, before they have matured and mutated. However, even this doesn't stop him from continuing to try to get rid of it. In fact, as Dawson demonstrates, the people that have been going on killing sprees and then committing suicide are actually the people that are strong enough to fight against the voices and their bodies being taken over rather than simply submitting.
The government at first suspects terrorist activity, but Montoya soon begins to doubt this as the technology is too advanced for this to be man made. She wonders if it might be natural and considers a few other options. This novel is obviously the first a series (I don't know how long a series), and the second one is available in paperback next month. The novel was good but it also left me wanting to know more, so I'll definitely be reading Contagious when it comes out.
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Book 4: The Pact
This is the second novel I've now read by Picoult, and while I wouldn't add her to my favorite authors by any stretch, she does a good job of creating engaging stories that make me want to keep reading. Of course, I've noticed I'm not exactly discerning when it comes to books - while I don't often react with ''Oh my god, I loved it,'' it is also very rare for me to say I disliked a book. In general, I tend to have reactions of ''I liked it.'' This might be because I'm easy to please or I generally know how to pick books that I will like - who knows.
Having said this, after two novels, I can already see some general themes with Picoult - in a way, it seems like her audience is very much the kind of middle class, white housewife that talk shows like Oprah are aimed towards. They tend to very much revolve around the husband and wife with 2.5 kids kind of household - the perfectly normal, loving family who have everything going for them except for that one big tragedy or issue, be it cancer (My Sister's Keeper) or teen suicide (The Pact). Despite this, her characters are engaging and seem well-developed. The other thing I've noticed is that her writing isn't exactly subtle - how exactly does that saying go - if there's a gun revealed in the first or second act, it will go off by the third act? Yeah, her clues in her novels can be rather obvious.
As the novel begins, Picoult introduces two families that have been neighbors and best friends for the past eighteen years - the Hartes and the Golds. Their oldest children, Emily and Christopher, are only a few months apart in age, and grew from being attached at the hip as children into a couple as high schoolers. Within the first few pages of The Pact, both sets of parents get a call about their children being at the hospital. Once they arrive, it turns out the Emily is dead of a gunshot wound to the head, and Chris is alive. The weapon is from the Harte's gun cabinet. Was it a suicide pact as Chris claims or did he kill her?
As the novel progresses, more and more is revealed about the characters, and even though I had a pretty good idea of what happened (thanks to that gun in the first act), I still wanted to know if I was right, and what exactly may have been the motive (for the murder or the suicide). Despite being easy to figure out, Picoult still writes in a manner that keeps the story going. Also, like My Sister's Keeper, The Pact had a lawyer that doesn't want to get too close to his clients as well as the big court reveal. Still, formulaic isn't necessarily a bad thing nor is it uncommon for authors to have stock characters. And I may just have chosen the two novels that happen to have these similarities - it doesn't necessarily mean it applies to the rest of her work.
SPOILERS:
In case anyway is interested, and since I really wanted to mention it, I did want to discuss the whole ''gun in the first act'' thing that I feel gave away the end of the story. Since the novel flashes back and forth between present and past, the reader can see how the relationship between the two families and Chris and Emily develops (some of the issues Emily was having with their changing relationship were rather interesting). Of course many of the vignettes were important to just showing their day-to-day life with each other as well as what may have influenced them but one scene in particular seemed like it was only there to explain later on why Chris may have acted the way he did. His father is a hunter and had a few hunting dogs. One of his dogs became sick enough to need to be put down. Instead of speaking to Michael Gold, a vet, James took the dog out hunting one last time and shot him. As he saw it, it was his dog whom he loved and as a result he owed to the dog, and also this way, the dog would die happy. Given this scene as an example, is it any surprise to see that Chris might associate love with making tough decisions and helping someone they love die? Another point where Picoult's writing wasn't exactly subtle was during a prank involving the guy's bathroom at a fast food restaurant, but I don't really feel the need to get into that one.
Book 3: A Breath of Fresh Air
The novel begins in 1984 at a train station in Bhopal, a small town near an Indian Army base. Anjali, the main character and narrator of this section (most of the novel is narrated from Anjali's perspective but there are also sections from her current and her ex-husband's points of view), is waiting for her husband who is over two hours late to pick her up when there is a gas leak at a nearby factory. Many people die as a result of this, but Anjali survives, though she will have health problems as a result.
From there, the novel flashes forward sixteen years to a day at the market where Anjali runs into Prakash, her ex-husband, the man that forgot her at the train station. She hasn't seen him in years, and this sighting brings out different emotions in her. She is currently in a very loving relationship with Sandeep, a local professor, and they have a son together. However, their life is far from perfect - as a result of Anjali's exposure to the gas, it caused some issues with her reproductive organs, and her twelve year old son Amar is dying of lung and heart problems. Her disapproving sister-in-law lives with her family and money is tight due to all the medical bills.
As the novel progresses, more is revealed about the past and Malladi shows Anjali and Prakash's marriage from both their perspectives. While Prakash was incredibly mad at Anjali when she filed for divorce due to his career, he has since seen how horribe he was as a husband. However, his bad behavior still doesn't excuse her decision in much of society and her parents' eyes: as an Indian woman, she was supposed to stick with her husband no matter what, even if he didn't love her, didn't respect her or cheated on her. Obviously it was her fault for not being a better wife, and not sticking it out. As a divorcee, Anjali is a rarity in her surroundings, and she and Sandeep have not told their neighbors about Anjali's past life. Anjali's decision was incredibly untypical for a woman of her background and upbringing.
As a result, seeing Prakash brings up questions about the decisions she has made - while she is happy with Sandeep, she has still felt the occasional guilt and pressure from society about her choices, and through the course of this novel, she deals with these feelings. I actually enjoyed the novel quite a bit - from the way the novel began, I wasn't sure what kind of relationship Anjali and Prakash had once had, but given Sandeep's occasional self-doubts, I definitely thought it would be different from the one described. There were no miracle cures or anything, so overall, the novel was about people dealing with the choices they've made and the hand they've been dealt, and whatever happiness and sadness that comes along with life.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Book 2: Never Let Me Go
This novel went in a completely different direction than I expected to from reading the backcover. Based on the backcover which mentioned a secluded, exclusive boarding school in England with three students and their relationship, I figured it would be about them growing up together. And it was definitely about that, but there was so much more going on as well.
The narrator, Kathy, explains that she is a carer helping donors. I figured I'd get an explanation as the novel progressed but basically thought that meant she was a nurse who specialized in working with organ donations and patients or a nurse that helps terminally ill patients. She said she even was at the point where she was allowed to choose her own patients, and had lately chosen to deal mainly with people from Hailsham. From other comments she makes and descriptions of her patients that aren't from Hailsham, I got the impression that Hailsham was a very exclusive boarding school but also seemed to refer to possibly the upper crust and a rather well to do part of society. Ishiguro uses assumptions people would normally make about private boarding schools so that he doesn't even have to mislead the reader - my own preconceptions managed to do that for me.
However, there soon seemed to be something rather odd about this school: all the students are encouraged to be ''creative,'' making life for Tommy rather miserable since he has no artistic talent. His inability to draw leads him to be somewhat ostracized for a while. It made it sound like a school whose goal was to create well-rounded individuals but then there was also the issue of the gallery: their best pieces were taken away. This actually made me wonder if this was going to go into Vonnegut territory. Perhaps the school was part of a society where they want everyone to be well-rounded but no one to be better than anyone else. I was wrong about that theory. There are no red herrings in the novel, everything pulls together and makes sense but not in a way that was necessarily expected at all.
I'm not sure how much more I can get into it without giving away the larger twists but in addition to all that, at its heart, the novel is a story about three friends growing up together: Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. Their relationships are very much what one might expect from a novel about boarding school but so much more complicated. Ruth is the queen bee while Kathy is more or less her loyal follower. Tommy matures from the teased boy to a person Kathy appreciates as honest and warm. The novel explores their relationship while also taking a look at something much larger involving ethics. It kept me reading because I wanted to know what would happen next and yet I would also describe it as rather peaceful despite the turns it takes.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Book 1: Company of Liars
I read about this on either Bibliolatry or Books for Breakfast (I can't actually look up which of the two at the moment), and thought it sounded interesting. It takes place in medieval England, 1348, and concerns a group of people that end up traveling together. They are all strangers, and all of them have something to hide (hence the title). Additionally, they are trying to avoid the pestilence, or plague, that is currently beginning to sweep the country. Their first destination is a shrine in the hopes that it is too far inland and north to be affected. Also, given the occupations of the travelers, they hope to make some money off the pilgrims. With the setup, for some reason, I was expecting something reminiscent of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (not that I've read much of that beyond excerpts). In fact, the different characters do tell each other a few stories but other than that and the time period, it definitely wasn't like that.
Since the last novel I read was Antony and Cleopatra set in Rome/Egypt from 44-26 BC, it was shocking to see the differences between 1348 London and BC era Rome. The Romans seemed so much more advanced! Medieval England, in comparison, was steeped in superstition. Obviously this isn't exactly a new revelation but reading the two novels so close together to compare just made it all the more apparent. There is talk of werewolves and vampires (who were believed to be people that were killed by werewolves in those days) as well as various other superstitious rites. For example, in one village the travelers come across a cripple wedding - the villagers chose two people in the village to marry each other in order to ward off the plague.
The narrator is Camelot, an old man that sells relics to the unsuspecting and gullible. He has a huge scar on his face and only one eye - at separate points in the novel, he claims it was due to the Crusades and werewolves. Of all the characters, he reveals the least about himself and his past to others. The first to join him in his travels are Roderigo and Jofre, two Venetian entertainers, in search of a new lord. They soon pick up Zophiel, a magician, a young married couple who are about to have a child, Pleasance, a healer, Narigorm, a young child that reads runes and is kind of creepy (or at least in the eyes of our narrator - while I trusted the narrator, others might find him less reliable and think he is crazy by the end) and finally Cygnus, a young story teller. All of them have no desire to dwell on their pasts too much, and some are much more sympathetic than others. Despite their differences, they decide to travel together - protection is much easier in a group, and it is easier to find food when they pool their sources. Still, it is incredibly difficult to find food in England that winter, and they feel the effects. (I may have misspelled some of the names since I can't reference the novel right now.)
The detail in this novel was amazing, and all the historical tidbits definitely made this worth the read. For example, while I was just in Venice and noticed that there was an island called Murano famous for its glass making, I didn't realize that the glassblowers in Venice had at one point all been forced to that island. Venitian officials wanted to preserve the secret of glass-making in order to continue to make a lot of money off of their glass (Venice definitely seems to have liked segregating people - they may not have been the first to segregate the Jews, but they were the first to call the place the Jews were confined to the ghetto). Some rich would buy old monk robes to be buried in to trick the devil, etc. As I said, they were very superstitious. While I was expecting a literary novel/historical novel, there may be a slightly supernatural aspect to it. Depending on one's view of the narrator, things are either completely natural and normal or there might be something more at play here. Either way, Narigorm's rune readings tend to be rather accurate - deadly accurate in fact, as misfortune befalls the travelers repeatedly throughout the novel.
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