T-Pac Reading Log

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson I wasn’t aware that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was a novella, or even that it was written by Robert Louis Stevenson. But I saw it in my library and thought it would be a perfect Halloween read. Stevenson was known to write many of his stories from vivid dreams, and draw from his traumatic childhood fear of hell and damnation. Jekyll and Hyde is a telling example of this, with its fixation on morality and distanced storytelling style. Most of the plot is revealed at a degree of removal through Mr. Utterson, a lawyer and friend to Jekyll. And beyond that - many events are described by witness accounts rather than directly, lending to the dreamlike abstraction of the story. I appreciate how this also has the effect of piecing together the narrative, slowly through vague details, until the final chapter’s explicit “big reveal” in Jekyll’s own letter to Utterson. I found this “big reveal” much more disturbing than I ...

  The Prince (1532) by Niccolo Machiavelli  Machiavelli’s The Prince is essentially an outline of “best-practices” for a monarch to maintain their power, with supporting examples in historical and contemporary (European, mostly) rule. This may sound fairly harmless on the surface, but this book is infamous for its many tyrannical recommendations as far as “successful” reign is concerned. To be fair, Machiavelli was very much a product of his environment, in which the pragmatic Florentine government didn’t necessarily shy away from brutality for the sake of self-preservation. And historians debate whether Machiavelli even subscribed to his own beliefs in The Prince, considering his contrasting writings on republics which praised virtue and humanity. I think what it boils down to, is that Machiavelli is a realist in the most brutally honest way. And while I don’t respect The Prince’s “outcome over ethics” principles, I respect that the book doesn’t try to hide the true nature o...

Theories of Truth (1992) by Richard L. Kirkham When I picked-up this book, I was expecting a philosophical deep-dive into the meaning of truth, but what I actually got, for the most part, was a highly-technical examination of the semantics behind claims of truth. Kirkham analyzes several important theories dealing with truth. More specifically, he explains theories of truth as attempting to solve one or more of the following projects: the metaphysical project (identifying the conditions that make a statement true), the justification project (identifying a concrete characteristic to differentiate true and false statements), and the speech-act project (analyzing the grammar and actions tied to declarations of truth). As I see it - these boil down to a philosophical evaluation of truth, a practical evaluation of truth, and a semantic evaluation of truth. Many theories of truth are essentially a struggle against skepticism (the claim that there’s no such thing as a justified belief, regar...

The Vivisector (1970) by Patrick White This is another Penguin Classics book I found randomly on the “free-table” at work, and it turned out to be one of the most uncomfortable novels I’ve ever read. The Vivisector details the life of an Australian painter, Hurtle Duffield, from his childhood, adopted from poverty into a wealthy family as a prodigy-to-be, through his old age as an acclaimed artist, and ultimately (presumably) to his death by a severe stroke. What’s most striking about White’s novel is that he writes everything as Hurtle sees it - that is, through the eyes of a savant artist. So the reader parses Hurtle’s story not through concrete details so much as the artistic impressions and creative emotions that “paint” them. Hurtle struggles his whole life to commit these impressions to canvas - garnering critical success but not personal solace. He is endlessly troubled, and fails in most all interpersonal relationships from his inability to connect on a human level. Hurtle’s c...

  Dawn of the New Everything (2017) by Jaron Lanier This is a book about the development, and the ideologies behind, Virtual Reality. It’s also largely the story of the author’s own life, as Lanier was arguably VR’s pioneer in the 80s and 90s. And Lanier’s life is fascinating - as are his viewpoints on technology in general. He strikes me as a genius - and I mean that in the objective “prodigy of arts and academics” sense. But unlike most people in that category, he has a refreshing and inviting self-awareness that he brings to his creative and computer-science pursuits (which can’t be fully separated from one another). Granted, he vocalizes his cynicism toward the state of technology today, and not without warrant, but Lanier also seems to have sustained a certain childlike wonder about the world’s potential that has never left his viewpoint. The ideological angle he presents about VR is probably the most fascinating aspect of this book. I’d never previously considered VR as more ...

The Castle (1926) by Franz Kafka This translation of Kafka’s posthumously published manuscript follows a man referred to only as “K”, through his misadventures in an unconventional village. Supposedly hired by the authorities of the village’s domineering (yet physically and metaphorically distant) castle as a land-surveyor, K attempts to establish himself to these powers in spite of endless, confounding socio-political red tape. Marred by forces beyond his control or comprehension, and encouraged by his own mix of defiance and deference to various situations, in the end K’s own goals are muddled at best - and just as out-of-reach as ever. The Castle is a thoroughly disorienting book. First of all - because it’s a technically faithful representation of Kafka’s unfinished manuscript, down to the lack of resolved punctuation and stream-of-consciousness flow. And secondly - because the narrative itself echoes a fever-dream more accurately than any other piece of media to ever attempt the s...

  Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck Unlike most people my age, for some reason I never had to read Of Mice and Men back in school - which is a shame because it’s an excellent book. Brief as it may be, the story is powerful, the characters are just dimensional enough to drive it, the themes penetrate every inch of the text, and the writing is beautiful. Steinbeck creates honesty in the dialogue, poetry in the descriptions, and a tastefulness in even the more crass and violent aspects of the novella. I see Of Mice and Men as an exploration of belonging - or more accurately, a lack of belonging, in a world at odds with its denizens. Candy is disabled in a world of physical labor. Crooks is black in a world of oppressive white men. And Lennie is brutally strong and painfully simple in a world so delicate and complex. Their situations are depressingly beyond their control, yet Steinbeck shines a ray of hope through community. He presents the idea that we can all find company wher...