Jedi Trial: A Clone Wars Novel
© 2004 David Sherman and Dan Cragg
345
Continuing in my Star Wars kick this week, I read Jedi Trial. As you might guess from the title, it's set during the Clone Wars. Anakin Skywalker is still the Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi and is anxious about the Jedi Council's lack of interest in knighting him. His anxiety increases when Master Obi-Wan is sent off on a private mission, leaving Anakin to sit on his hands. Advised to put the time to good use in the library, he spends his time there studying and sparring with a disgraced Jedi knight, Master Halcyon. A Seperatist attack on a vital communications hub provides both Halcyon and Skywalker a chance to prove themselves -- hence the title Jedi Trial.
The book is essentially after that point a combat book detailing the battle surrounding this communications up, with a few minor subplots surrounding somewhat interesting characters thrown in. It's readable, but military plots don't interest me much. Anakin's character does develop in this book: it is here that he begins to become the military commander we see in Revenge of the Sith, the Clone Wars animated cartoon, and the Clone Wars movie. It's probably worth reading for Star Wars fans.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Television
© 1985 Neil Postman
176 pages, plus index, bibliography, and notes.
I read a couple of books by Postman during the summer, and both were mind-broadening. Postman is particularly concerned about the technological impact on our culture: in Technopoly he puts forth the idea that culture has become completely subjugated to technology, and to television in particular. This book is particularly concerned with the impact of television on our culture. This is a particularly interesting book for me, because I was raised outside of television culture: the Christian sect that my parents belong to discourages its members from owning televisions, so television was alien to me. Even though I have a television (and enjoy watching it), I don't spend a lot of time watching it and am prone to forgetting to watch it for weeks on end. Thus my perspective is more of an outsider's.
Postman begins the book with a forward that expresses his view that Brave New World -- which, according to him, depicts a world where the truth has become irrelevant and human culture has become completely trivial -- may be coming true. He begins the book proper by writing that through the United States' history, various cities have represented its cultural identity: 18th century Boston symbolizing its intellectual livelihood, late 19th century New York symbolizing the United States' growth as a melting-pot, and early 20th century Chicago representing the United States' industrial might. He then speculate that perhaps Las Vegas symbolized America today: a nation obsessed with amusement. (Interestingly, fellow social critic James Kunstler said the same thing in his lecture at my university back in the fall.) I include this because I thought the comparison apt.
Postman's introductory chapters concern his central idea that technology always shapes culture and that particularly pervasive technologies contain within them programs for changing culture in big ways. This is an idea he's written on in other books under the theme "the medium is the message". The first chapters here are "Medium as Metaphor" and "Medium as Epistemology", where he expands on this idea. Then he applies this idea to an understanding of 18th and early 19th-century America ("Typographic America", ruled by print culture). Postman characterizes print culture and uses examples from this era to back those characterizations up. One memorable example was the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which crowds gathered for hours on end to listen to the two parties discuss their ideas in very (by our standards) formal ways. Postman then asks (and I paraphrase) "Can you imagine a modern audience standing for this?"
In "The Peek-A-Boo" world, Postman describes the impact of telegraphy and photography, which both give people information and impressions about situations far removed from them. This is where the triviality begins, in Postman's view: people are beginning to be barraged by information about people who they don't even know. He applies this to the modern world, addressing people who are hooked on political talk shows, and makes the powerful point that for most people, the political ideas being discussed are utterly irrelevant to their lives. After developing this idea for a bit more, he (in individual chapters) looks at television's treatment of religion, government, sports, art, and education. Education is particularly important for him (being an educator) and he's apparently written several books on the subject.
Postman is as ever engaging and provocative. The book is well-organized and well-developed, and I recommend it if you want your intellectual nose tweaked.
© 1985 Neil Postman
176 pages, plus index, bibliography, and notes.
I read a couple of books by Postman during the summer, and both were mind-broadening. Postman is particularly concerned about the technological impact on our culture: in Technopoly he puts forth the idea that culture has become completely subjugated to technology, and to television in particular. This book is particularly concerned with the impact of television on our culture. This is a particularly interesting book for me, because I was raised outside of television culture: the Christian sect that my parents belong to discourages its members from owning televisions, so television was alien to me. Even though I have a television (and enjoy watching it), I don't spend a lot of time watching it and am prone to forgetting to watch it for weeks on end. Thus my perspective is more of an outsider's.
Postman begins the book with a forward that expresses his view that Brave New World -- which, according to him, depicts a world where the truth has become irrelevant and human culture has become completely trivial -- may be coming true. He begins the book proper by writing that through the United States' history, various cities have represented its cultural identity: 18th century Boston symbolizing its intellectual livelihood, late 19th century New York symbolizing the United States' growth as a melting-pot, and early 20th century Chicago representing the United States' industrial might. He then speculate that perhaps Las Vegas symbolized America today: a nation obsessed with amusement. (Interestingly, fellow social critic James Kunstler said the same thing in his lecture at my university back in the fall.) I include this because I thought the comparison apt.
Postman's introductory chapters concern his central idea that technology always shapes culture and that particularly pervasive technologies contain within them programs for changing culture in big ways. This is an idea he's written on in other books under the theme "the medium is the message". The first chapters here are "Medium as Metaphor" and "Medium as Epistemology", where he expands on this idea. Then he applies this idea to an understanding of 18th and early 19th-century America ("Typographic America", ruled by print culture). Postman characterizes print culture and uses examples from this era to back those characterizations up. One memorable example was the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in which crowds gathered for hours on end to listen to the two parties discuss their ideas in very (by our standards) formal ways. Postman then asks (and I paraphrase) "Can you imagine a modern audience standing for this?"
In "The Peek-A-Boo" world, Postman describes the impact of telegraphy and photography, which both give people information and impressions about situations far removed from them. This is where the triviality begins, in Postman's view: people are beginning to be barraged by information about people who they don't even know. He applies this to the modern world, addressing people who are hooked on political talk shows, and makes the powerful point that for most people, the political ideas being discussed are utterly irrelevant to their lives. After developing this idea for a bit more, he (in individual chapters) looks at television's treatment of religion, government, sports, art, and education. Education is particularly important for him (being an educator) and he's apparently written several books on the subject.
Postman is as ever engaging and provocative. The book is well-organized and well-developed, and I recommend it if you want your intellectual nose tweaked.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Battle of the Labyrinth
The Battle of the Labyrinth
© 2008 Rick Riordian
361 pages
Continuing in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series this week, I read the last book that Riordian has published. The next book will not be released until May. The book begins, characteristically, with Percy arriving at a new school, encountering a monster, and then making a dramatic escape that lessens the school's structural integrity. When Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, he learns that the camp may be in more danger than he and his fellow Olympians feared: the Labyrinth, the ancient structure that once held the Minotaur, may offer the armies of the Titans a direct path to the camp. Annabeth -- the series' Hermione -- is tasked with finding Daedalus, the architect of the maze, and convincing him to deny use of the Labyrinth. At the same time, Percy is continually visited by dark dreams. In the book, the adventurers attempt to make their way through the Labyrinth, which now spans most of the United States at least, all the while encountering monsters, other demi-gods, gods, and plot twists. This book seems to be longer than the previous books and is more engaging than the others.
Unlike other series I've read, the events in this book don't completely revolve around the central character. Other characters are off doing things between books that add to the plot. On a side note, the author explains how Athena -- a virgin god -- has kids. As it turns out, they sprout off of her head, which is what I suspected. That's the way Athena was born. This book is definitely a step up from the others, at least from my view. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to The Last Olympian.
© 2008 Rick Riordian
361 pages
Continuing in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series this week, I read the last book that Riordian has published. The next book will not be released until May. The book begins, characteristically, with Percy arriving at a new school, encountering a monster, and then making a dramatic escape that lessens the school's structural integrity. When Percy arrives at Camp Half-Blood, he learns that the camp may be in more danger than he and his fellow Olympians feared: the Labyrinth, the ancient structure that once held the Minotaur, may offer the armies of the Titans a direct path to the camp. Annabeth -- the series' Hermione -- is tasked with finding Daedalus, the architect of the maze, and convincing him to deny use of the Labyrinth. At the same time, Percy is continually visited by dark dreams. In the book, the adventurers attempt to make their way through the Labyrinth, which now spans most of the United States at least, all the while encountering monsters, other demi-gods, gods, and plot twists. This book seems to be longer than the previous books and is more engaging than the others.
Unlike other series I've read, the events in this book don't completely revolve around the central character. Other characters are off doing things between books that add to the plot. On a side note, the author explains how Athena -- a virgin god -- has kids. As it turns out, they sprout off of her head, which is what I suspected. That's the way Athena was born. This book is definitely a step up from the others, at least from my view. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to The Last Olympian.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Colonization: Aftershocks
Colonization: Aftershocks
© Harry Turtledove 2001
488 pages
And so after a lengthy break, I return to Harry Turtledove's Colonization series. The series is a sequel series to Worldwar, in which an invasion by reptilian aliens interrupted World War II. The aliens -- who term themselves the Race, and who are called by humanity "Lizards" came anticipating a medieval world, finding instead -- to their immense displeasure -- an industrial one with economies centered around war. Despite their technological prowess, the Lizards lacked the resources to fully annex Earth -- and humanity lacked the technological resources to completely thwart their plans. The result was a divided Earth. The Colonization series, set in the 1960s, concerns the way human cultures and Lizard culture have and are shaping the other. Political strife between human countries and between those countries and the race is growing. In the last book, relations between Nazi Germany and the Race fell completely apart, leading to a short-lived nuclear war that left Germany and parts of the Greater German Reich devestated by fallout.
Aftershocks picks up at that point. Nazi Germany has been humanity's strongest defender against the Lizards, for various reasons: the Reich's economy was strong and war-centered, and its militarisitic state lend it to playing a large role in humanity's defense, in both series. The ideology of the Nazis, however, leads it to making rash choices and squandering its opportunities, leading to its ruin. What happens to Earth after the downfall of the Nazis? In this book, Turtledove continues several themes: cross-cultural effects, exosociological efforts by Sam Yeager and Tstomalas, the ecological impact of the flora and fauna that the Race have introduced to Earth, and so on. We also see the results of a thread that was woven throughout the first two books, Sam Yeager's discovery that the United States is being naughty.
There's a lot to this book: it's very cohesive. Storylines and characters begin coming together. An example of that is the Warren Commission, a comission the Lizards set up to investigate the motives of President Warren in a particular matter that I can't reveal. (The title of that comission is one of Turtledove's hat-tips to real life.) This is a big story, but it works well. My interest never lapsed, which is more than I can say for the Worldwar series. That is to be expected, though: I like social history and sociology, not military history. This series has been quite enjoyable, and I look forward to Aftershocks.
An aside: whenever I read about the Race, I have one of three images in my mind: either this, this, or this.
© Harry Turtledove 2001
488 pages
And so after a lengthy break, I return to Harry Turtledove's Colonization series. The series is a sequel series to Worldwar, in which an invasion by reptilian aliens interrupted World War II. The aliens -- who term themselves the Race, and who are called by humanity "Lizards" came anticipating a medieval world, finding instead -- to their immense displeasure -- an industrial one with economies centered around war. Despite their technological prowess, the Lizards lacked the resources to fully annex Earth -- and humanity lacked the technological resources to completely thwart their plans. The result was a divided Earth. The Colonization series, set in the 1960s, concerns the way human cultures and Lizard culture have and are shaping the other. Political strife between human countries and between those countries and the race is growing. In the last book, relations between Nazi Germany and the Race fell completely apart, leading to a short-lived nuclear war that left Germany and parts of the Greater German Reich devestated by fallout.
Aftershocks picks up at that point. Nazi Germany has been humanity's strongest defender against the Lizards, for various reasons: the Reich's economy was strong and war-centered, and its militarisitic state lend it to playing a large role in humanity's defense, in both series. The ideology of the Nazis, however, leads it to making rash choices and squandering its opportunities, leading to its ruin. What happens to Earth after the downfall of the Nazis? In this book, Turtledove continues several themes: cross-cultural effects, exosociological efforts by Sam Yeager and Tstomalas, the ecological impact of the flora and fauna that the Race have introduced to Earth, and so on. We also see the results of a thread that was woven throughout the first two books, Sam Yeager's discovery that the United States is being naughty.
There's a lot to this book: it's very cohesive. Storylines and characters begin coming together. An example of that is the Warren Commission, a comission the Lizards set up to investigate the motives of President Warren in a particular matter that I can't reveal. (The title of that comission is one of Turtledove's hat-tips to real life.) This is a big story, but it works well. My interest never lapsed, which is more than I can say for the Worldwar series. That is to be expected, though: I like social history and sociology, not military history. This series has been quite enjoyable, and I look forward to Aftershocks.
An aside: whenever I read about the Race, I have one of three images in my mind: either this, this, or this.
This Week at the Library (26/1)
Books this Update:
Next I continued in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series with The Titan's Curse. The book starts off slowly -- the author doesn't really connect it to the previous book and I was left wondering what was going on -- but picks up from there. As usual, the ever-growing threat from the reviving Titans affects Percy's life personally and he has to go off on a quest -- official or no. We see a few new gods arrive in this book: Artemis, Apollo, and Athena all make their first appearances. Percy and his friends - some old, some new -- must journey to San Francisco to do a bit of rescuing, stopping off at the Hoover Dam to fight some undead hordes. Fairly enjoyable despite the slow start.
Breaking the SF line with some philosophy, I read Stoic Warriors: the Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind. The author, in her words, "uses the contemporary military as a lens through which to study and assess Stoic doctrine." She introduces the reader to Stoicism in the first chapter through the story of James Stockdale, a Vietnam POW who used it to strengthen himself and others, and then explores the application of Stoicism in life, using military examples. She touches on fear, bodily control, grief, anger, and so on. She draws on Greek history, Greek literature, Greek mythology, and philosophical movements from the Greeks on to the modern day. I was impressed with the book. It was an enjoyable read that limited its use of esoteric terminology. It strikes me as well-organized and well-written: definitely worth my time.
I finished the week off with Demon in my View, a vampire story by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I found Atwater-Rhodes when I was in high school', which incidentally is when she published her first book, Tiger Tiger. That book introduced a fantasy world of vampires with an approach that I liked. Her vampires are more believable: they can move in the sun, they are unbothered by religious symbols, and so on. The first book was dark, but in a really enjoyable way. I don't really care for horror -- Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire mostly bored me -- but I do enjoy Atwater-Rhodes. The same is true of Demon in my View, the story of a human writer who writes vampire novels -- her first being Tiger Tiger -- who is seemingly drawn into the world of her own creation. It was a quick and enjoyable read.
Quotation of the Week: "It's always easy to avoid other people's vices, isn't it?" (Yoda, Dark Rendezvous: a paraphrase because I returned the book already.)
Pick of the Week: Yoda, Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart.
Next Week:
- Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, Sean Stewart
- The Titan's Curse, Rick Riordian
- Stoic Warriors, Nancy Sherman
- Demon in my View, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Next I continued in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series with The Titan's Curse. The book starts off slowly -- the author doesn't really connect it to the previous book and I was left wondering what was going on -- but picks up from there. As usual, the ever-growing threat from the reviving Titans affects Percy's life personally and he has to go off on a quest -- official or no. We see a few new gods arrive in this book: Artemis, Apollo, and Athena all make their first appearances. Percy and his friends - some old, some new -- must journey to San Francisco to do a bit of rescuing, stopping off at the Hoover Dam to fight some undead hordes. Fairly enjoyable despite the slow start.
Breaking the SF line with some philosophy, I read Stoic Warriors: the Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind. The author, in her words, "uses the contemporary military as a lens through which to study and assess Stoic doctrine." She introduces the reader to Stoicism in the first chapter through the story of James Stockdale, a Vietnam POW who used it to strengthen himself and others, and then explores the application of Stoicism in life, using military examples. She touches on fear, bodily control, grief, anger, and so on. She draws on Greek history, Greek literature, Greek mythology, and philosophical movements from the Greeks on to the modern day. I was impressed with the book. It was an enjoyable read that limited its use of esoteric terminology. It strikes me as well-organized and well-written: definitely worth my time.
I finished the week off with Demon in my View, a vampire story by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I found Atwater-Rhodes when I was in high school', which incidentally is when she published her first book, Tiger Tiger. That book introduced a fantasy world of vampires with an approach that I liked. Her vampires are more believable: they can move in the sun, they are unbothered by religious symbols, and so on. The first book was dark, but in a really enjoyable way. I don't really care for horror -- Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire mostly bored me -- but I do enjoy Atwater-Rhodes. The same is true of Demon in my View, the story of a human writer who writes vampire novels -- her first being Tiger Tiger -- who is seemingly drawn into the world of her own creation. It was a quick and enjoyable read.
Quotation of the Week: "It's always easy to avoid other people's vices, isn't it?" (Yoda, Dark Rendezvous: a paraphrase because I returned the book already.)
Pick of the Week: Yoda, Dark Rendezvous by Sean Stewart.
Next Week:
- Colonization: Aftershocks, Harry Turtledove
- Jedi Trial, Daniel Sherman and Dan Cragg
- The Battle of the Labyrinth, Rick Riordian
Friday, January 23, 2009
Demon in my View
Demon in my View
© 2000 Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
176 pages
During my high school years, while roaming through a bookstore, my eyes fell upon a book titled Tiger, Tiger. That sounded similar to William Blakes' "The Tygre", which is one of my favorite poems, so I picked it up. Tiger, Tiger was a vampire novel, the first I had ever read, and I found its story to be incredibly interesting and well-written. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire let me down compared to it. Although I'm not usually much for horror, Rhodes is so readable that I decided try another book by her -- albiet many years later.
Demon in my View, like Tiger, Tiger, is named after a line in a poem -- although this is not one I recognize. This book is the story of Jessica, the teen author of Tiger, Tiger and another vampire book, both of which she has penned under the name of Ash Night. Although she is becoming a literacy success, she is an outcast at school and most everywhere else. Then one day a new student arrives and seems remarkably familiar to her: it's as if a character from her novel has become alive. She is drawn to him -- both out of personal attraction or attraction to the character he reminds her of.
The explaination for this is interesting, and I'll leave it hidden for those who would be interested in reading the book. Jessica is drawn into the world of her own creation while witches attempt to protect her from the vampires and her own self. I predicted the conclusion, but not with any confidence. What I enjoy most about Atwater-Rhodes' books is that her world is different, and somewhat more believable. Her vampires do not scorn the sun, nor do they sleep in coffins or fear Christian symbols. They can change their form at will, generally live apart from humans in their own towns, and hunt humans as prey. Like predators, they all maintain a territory and conflicts arise between powerful vampires. Their predator/prey mindset dominates them to the point that vampires see one another as either their inferiors or their superiors. Only one vampire has even hinted that he has an equal in the two books I've read. Her witches are likewise different: two of the three witches in this book are "good" people, and all three are concerned with protecting humans from the vampires who hunt them.
Demon in my View was a quick and entrancing read, and I wouldn't mind continuuing with the rest of her stand-alone books. The only issue I would have with this book is its length: 176 pages goes by fairly quickly.
© 2000 Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
176 pages
During my high school years, while roaming through a bookstore, my eyes fell upon a book titled Tiger, Tiger. That sounded similar to William Blakes' "The Tygre", which is one of my favorite poems, so I picked it up. Tiger, Tiger was a vampire novel, the first I had ever read, and I found its story to be incredibly interesting and well-written. Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire let me down compared to it. Although I'm not usually much for horror, Rhodes is so readable that I decided try another book by her -- albiet many years later.
Demon in my View, like Tiger, Tiger, is named after a line in a poem -- although this is not one I recognize. This book is the story of Jessica, the teen author of Tiger, Tiger and another vampire book, both of which she has penned under the name of Ash Night. Although she is becoming a literacy success, she is an outcast at school and most everywhere else. Then one day a new student arrives and seems remarkably familiar to her: it's as if a character from her novel has become alive. She is drawn to him -- both out of personal attraction or attraction to the character he reminds her of.
The explaination for this is interesting, and I'll leave it hidden for those who would be interested in reading the book. Jessica is drawn into the world of her own creation while witches attempt to protect her from the vampires and her own self. I predicted the conclusion, but not with any confidence. What I enjoy most about Atwater-Rhodes' books is that her world is different, and somewhat more believable. Her vampires do not scorn the sun, nor do they sleep in coffins or fear Christian symbols. They can change their form at will, generally live apart from humans in their own towns, and hunt humans as prey. Like predators, they all maintain a territory and conflicts arise between powerful vampires. Their predator/prey mindset dominates them to the point that vampires see one another as either their inferiors or their superiors. Only one vampire has even hinted that he has an equal in the two books I've read. Her witches are likewise different: two of the three witches in this book are "good" people, and all three are concerned with protecting humans from the vampires who hunt them.
Demon in my View was a quick and entrancing read, and I wouldn't mind continuuing with the rest of her stand-alone books. The only issue I would have with this book is its length: 176 pages goes by fairly quickly.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Stoic Warriors
Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy Behind the Military Mind
© 2005 Nancy Sherman
242 pages
This semester's schedules give me a lot of gaps between activities that lend themselves well to spending a few moments in the university library, where I do a little reading -- or napping, as the case warrants. Here I read books unavailable in the public library system, like Stoic Warriors. I picked this one up out of curiosity and found it quite readable. The author, in her words, "uses the contemporary military as a lens through which to study and assess Stoic doctrine." The book is divided into seven chapters: "A Brave New Stoicism", "Sound Bodies and Sound Minds", "Manners and Morals", "A Warriors Anger", "Fear and Resilience", "Permission to Grieve", and "The Downsized Self". There's no concluding chapter, which I found a bit odd.
The author begins by introducing the reader to Stoicism through the story of James Stockdale, a Vietnam-era P.O.W. who uses Stoicism to help strengthen himself and his fellow prisoners. Here we are introduced to Stoicism's tenants and its most well-known practitioners: namely Epictetus, who was less concerned with "theory" and more concerned with the practical matter of living and behaving rationally in an irrational world. I've been studying Stoicism since the end of last year when I decided to figure out the context of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus' works, both of which I've read here. There's a lot to it. I wouldn't want to try to sum up the whole of the phiolosophy here, but this book is really focused on the more practical side of it, and so that's what I will comment on. Epictetus said in his Manual for Living that happiness begins with the realization that some things are under our control and other are not -- and that we should only be concerned with that which we can control. This is something I realizing myself during the summer, perhaps infering it when I re-read my favorite parts of Aurelius' Meditations.
The next chapter, "Sound Bodies and Sound Minds", almost acts as a prolonged introduction in that the author uses body-training disicipline as a way of showing how our rational minds can exert control over our bodies. The same situation provides a warning against valuing disicpline for disicpline's sake. The next few chapters deal with their titular topics: morals, anger, fear, and so on. The author references Greek literature to provide cultural context while citing generously from Seneca's plays and the writings of Cicero, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The author also connects Stoic ideas with other philosophical works of the period and even beyond the period -- referencing philosophy from other periods of history. While she is doing all this, she uses examples from the American military to illustrate and point out the usefulness of Stoic ideas (as well as their limitations, particularly in later chapters).
I was impressed with the book. It was an enjoyable read that limited esoteric terminology. It strikes me as well-organized and well-written: definitely worth my time.
© 2005 Nancy Sherman
242 pages
This semester's schedules give me a lot of gaps between activities that lend themselves well to spending a few moments in the university library, where I do a little reading -- or napping, as the case warrants. Here I read books unavailable in the public library system, like Stoic Warriors. I picked this one up out of curiosity and found it quite readable. The author, in her words, "uses the contemporary military as a lens through which to study and assess Stoic doctrine." The book is divided into seven chapters: "A Brave New Stoicism", "Sound Bodies and Sound Minds", "Manners and Morals", "A Warriors Anger", "Fear and Resilience", "Permission to Grieve", and "The Downsized Self". There's no concluding chapter, which I found a bit odd.
The author begins by introducing the reader to Stoicism through the story of James Stockdale, a Vietnam-era P.O.W. who uses Stoicism to help strengthen himself and his fellow prisoners. Here we are introduced to Stoicism's tenants and its most well-known practitioners: namely Epictetus, who was less concerned with "theory" and more concerned with the practical matter of living and behaving rationally in an irrational world. I've been studying Stoicism since the end of last year when I decided to figure out the context of Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus' works, both of which I've read here. There's a lot to it. I wouldn't want to try to sum up the whole of the phiolosophy here, but this book is really focused on the more practical side of it, and so that's what I will comment on. Epictetus said in his Manual for Living that happiness begins with the realization that some things are under our control and other are not -- and that we should only be concerned with that which we can control. This is something I realizing myself during the summer, perhaps infering it when I re-read my favorite parts of Aurelius' Meditations.
The next chapter, "Sound Bodies and Sound Minds", almost acts as a prolonged introduction in that the author uses body-training disicipline as a way of showing how our rational minds can exert control over our bodies. The same situation provides a warning against valuing disicpline for disicpline's sake. The next few chapters deal with their titular topics: morals, anger, fear, and so on. The author references Greek literature to provide cultural context while citing generously from Seneca's plays and the writings of Cicero, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. The author also connects Stoic ideas with other philosophical works of the period and even beyond the period -- referencing philosophy from other periods of history. While she is doing all this, she uses examples from the American military to illustrate and point out the usefulness of Stoic ideas (as well as their limitations, particularly in later chapters).
I was impressed with the book. It was an enjoyable read that limited esoteric terminology. It strikes me as well-organized and well-written: definitely worth my time.
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