i've been travelling a lot on plane lately, and i always read when i do. my most recent plane reads were jelinek's lust, hosseini's the kite runner, campana's orphic songs (which i've read several times before), coolidge's on the nameways, and pelevin's omon ra.
i just finished pelevin's novel last night. quick read. pelevin explores an ailing soviet union's attempt to present an image of itself as being victorious in its space pursuits no matter what the reality is and no matter what the cost to individual human life and rights. while i am interested in russian history, i couldn't help reflecting that a similar covering over of our american myth of military might is in process by the current administration. they focus on the assumption that freedom can be spread through military might. they suggest that such a policy is working in iraq. can our brand of democratic freedom be purchased with a gun before people are ready for it? i doubt it. (i can't help thinking back to the enthusiastic spread of democracy in latin america at the beginning of the 19th century and to what horrors it lead.)
lately i've been pushing away issues of life with travel, reading, and movies (batman, m). i like to call my summer a vacation from my strenous teaching career, which coincidently picks up again next week, but really i'm avoiding confrontation. thoreau says, "if i devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, i must first see, at least, that i do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders." i see so many shoulders underneath my feet that i do not know how to step off or where i would land if i did. i know the buddha says, "sorrow cannot touch the man who is not in the bondage of anything, who owns nothing." i am not that man, but am a bundle of desires and fear. (obviously from the logic of this entry, i'm also a jumble of fragments)
i just finished pelevin's novel last night. quick read. pelevin explores an ailing soviet union's attempt to present an image of itself as being victorious in its space pursuits no matter what the reality is and no matter what the cost to individual human life and rights. while i am interested in russian history, i couldn't help reflecting that a similar covering over of our american myth of military might is in process by the current administration. they focus on the assumption that freedom can be spread through military might. they suggest that such a policy is working in iraq. can our brand of democratic freedom be purchased with a gun before people are ready for it? i doubt it. (i can't help thinking back to the enthusiastic spread of democracy in latin america at the beginning of the 19th century and to what horrors it lead.)
lately i've been pushing away issues of life with travel, reading, and movies (batman, m). i like to call my summer a vacation from my strenous teaching career, which coincidently picks up again next week, but really i'm avoiding confrontation. thoreau says, "if i devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, i must first see, at least, that i do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders." i see so many shoulders underneath my feet that i do not know how to step off or where i would land if i did. i know the buddha says, "sorrow cannot touch the man who is not in the bondage of anything, who owns nothing." i am not that man, but am a bundle of desires and fear. (obviously from the logic of this entry, i'm also a jumble of fragments)
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