For the moment, I just want to offer the pictures with no comment. Once I eventually post the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom photos, I'll include some more information about the temples themselves.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Tomb Raider
These photos are actually from two different temple sites: Ta Prohm, which was the shooting location for many scenes from the movie Tomb Raider, and another temple we stumbled across and whose name I don't know.
For the moment, I just want to offer the pictures with no comment. Once I eventually post the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom photos, I'll include some more information about the temples themselves.
For the moment, I just want to offer the pictures with no comment. Once I eventually post the Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom photos, I'll include some more information about the temples themselves.
Bicycling around Angkor Wat
From the 9th to the 15th century, the temple-city of Angkor Wat was the center of the largest pre-industrial empire in the world. At the height of the Khmer Empire, Angkor Wat and its surrounding area had a population of over one million people, with a w. By comparison, the capital city of the Aztec empire had a population between 200,000 and 700,000. The empire's successive Hindu and Buddhist kings built many elaborately carved sandstone temples in the area just north of Siem Reap.
Since the closest temples are about 6 miles outside the city, most tourists hire one of the city's many eager motorized tuk-tuk drivers ($8 a day) to drive them between the various temple sites. Since we like to bicycle so much, we decided it would be more fun to have a more independent ramble through the surrounding countryside.
Smiley Guesthouse was happy to rent us some dilapidated (but quite serviceable) Chinese bicycles:
Here we are biking along the river that leads out of the city. (Since I'm the only one who can take the action-biking shots without crashing, they're all of Jen--which works out well as she is the more photogenic; a nice division of labor).
Here's a map that gives a pretty clear picture of many of the temples in relation to the city. Siem Reap (the city) is the small yellow blotch slightly below the center of the map. The large areas that look like city are actually the temple ruins (as are many of the smaller dots scattered around the map's borders).
We have seen many amazing uses for motorcycles while in Asia, but I particularly liked their use as pig-transport (spotted as we headed out of the city).
One of the nice parts about being on a bicycle is that we could stop and investigate a lot of the smaller temple sites that no one else (seemingly) visits. Here I am next to one of the less-used gates to a larger temple site. Unlike the main gates which were reliably mobbed with people, there was absolutely no one for many of the interesting places we visited.
Further along the road we found this interesting temple--again, completely without other people. (I really liked the guard-lion statue).
Since there was no one around, and no signs instructing me not to, I decided to climb to the top:
There's Jen!
Next up: The major temple sites.
Since the closest temples are about 6 miles outside the city, most tourists hire one of the city's many eager motorized tuk-tuk drivers ($8 a day) to drive them between the various temple sites. Since we like to bicycle so much, we decided it would be more fun to have a more independent ramble through the surrounding countryside.
Smiley Guesthouse was happy to rent us some dilapidated (but quite serviceable) Chinese bicycles:
Here we are biking along the river that leads out of the city. (Since I'm the only one who can take the action-biking shots without crashing, they're all of Jen--which works out well as she is the more photogenic; a nice division of labor).
Here's a map that gives a pretty clear picture of many of the temples in relation to the city. Siem Reap (the city) is the small yellow blotch slightly below the center of the map. The large areas that look like city are actually the temple ruins (as are many of the smaller dots scattered around the map's borders).
We have seen many amazing uses for motorcycles while in Asia, but I particularly liked their use as pig-transport (spotted as we headed out of the city).
One of the nice parts about being on a bicycle is that we could stop and investigate a lot of the smaller temple sites that no one else (seemingly) visits. Here I am next to one of the less-used gates to a larger temple site. Unlike the main gates which were reliably mobbed with people, there was absolutely no one for many of the interesting places we visited.
Further along the road we found this interesting temple--again, completely without other people. (I really liked the guard-lion statue).
Since there was no one around, and no signs instructing me not to, I decided to climb to the top:
There's Jen!
Next up: The major temple sites.
Siem Reap
A short flight took us to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Before a more informative post, we just wanted to show you our new place!
On our arrival, we took a short taxi ride to the Smiley Guesthouse:
We chose it because it was cheap ($6 a night), but it turned out to be a large, beautiful guesthouse with a friendly staff that laughed all the time.
Here's our room!
After moving our stuff in, we walked down the street to check out the local market. Here's the local fish and produce:
The city itself is far less enjoyable than Luang Prabang (it's hot, dusty, noisy and, at times, smelly. The buildings are fairly grubby and uninspiring, and there's a lot of traffic). But we're very happy with our guesthouse and excited to see the ancient temple ruins of Angkor Wat, which is why we came. More on that right now!
On our arrival, we took a short taxi ride to the Smiley Guesthouse:
We chose it because it was cheap ($6 a night), but it turned out to be a large, beautiful guesthouse with a friendly staff that laughed all the time.
Here's our room!
After moving our stuff in, we walked down the street to check out the local market. Here's the local fish and produce:
The city itself is far less enjoyable than Luang Prabang (it's hot, dusty, noisy and, at times, smelly. The buildings are fairly grubby and uninspiring, and there's a lot of traffic). But we're very happy with our guesthouse and excited to see the ancient temple ruins of Angkor Wat, which is why we came. More on that right now!
Last day in Luang Prabang
Here's a few assorted pictures from our last day in Luang Prabang.
First, the huge standing Buddha in the wat across the street from us.
Second, some very lovely doors.
Third, a much clearer shot of a Dok So Fa (you did read the earlier wat post--didn't you? =) ).
We caught sunset on our last day from the wat that overlooks the town (up several hundred stairs to the top of the small hill in Luang Prabang's center).
It also gave us a nice view over Luang Prabang itself.
It was a nice way to end our last day.
First, the huge standing Buddha in the wat across the street from us.
Second, some very lovely doors.
Third, a much clearer shot of a Dok So Fa (you did read the earlier wat post--didn't you? =) ).
We caught sunset on our last day from the wat that overlooks the town (up several hundred stairs to the top of the small hill in Luang Prabang's center).
It also gave us a nice view over Luang Prabang itself.
It was a nice way to end our last day.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Queen of the Nagas
When we crossed the Thailand border into Laos, we immediately started seeing this photograph on posters and postcards in restaurants and in gift shops:
The caption usually read something like: "US Army seizes giant river fish. 1973"
When we first saw these photos, we didn't know about Nagas, but it seems very likely the local Lao population thinks that's exactly what's pictured here. I wonder what a Lao fisherman who makes offerings to the nagas and believes they protect the Mekong would make of this photo. It seems to us a fitting metaphor for one stereotype of Americans: healthy, ebullient men who unhesitatingly seize their desires, cheerfully oblivious even to the possibility of respect or deference. I have no idea what the Lao really think, but I could easily imagine regarding this photo with a mix of horror, awe, and admiration at the sheer hubris it might well represent to them.
We found one account of the actual history of the photograph at http://www.thailandroad.com/trevor/naga.html :
A 30-year-old American named Andy Z. claims to be in this photo. According to Andy, it was actually taken Sept. 19, 1996 at the Navel Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California.
"We were on our morning physical fitness run," Andy recalls, "when we came across this huge fish lying on the sand." At 23 feet in length and 4 feet in circumference, it was quite a shocking site for the Navy SEAL cadets. "We called it the AGE fish, because if you saw it underwater you would rocket to the surface, exploding your lungs, hence AGE (Arterial Gas Embolism)."
The caption usually read something like: "US Army seizes giant river fish. 1973"When we first saw these photos, we didn't know about Nagas, but it seems very likely the local Lao population thinks that's exactly what's pictured here. I wonder what a Lao fisherman who makes offerings to the nagas and believes they protect the Mekong would make of this photo. It seems to us a fitting metaphor for one stereotype of Americans: healthy, ebullient men who unhesitatingly seize their desires, cheerfully oblivious even to the possibility of respect or deference. I have no idea what the Lao really think, but I could easily imagine regarding this photo with a mix of horror, awe, and admiration at the sheer hubris it might well represent to them.
We found one account of the actual history of the photograph at http://www.thailandroad.com/trevor/naga.html :
A 30-year-old American named Andy Z. claims to be in this photo. According to Andy, it was actually taken Sept. 19, 1996 at the Navel Special Warfare Center in Coronado, California.
"We were on our morning physical fitness run," Andy recalls, "when we came across this huge fish lying on the sand." At 23 feet in length and 4 feet in circumference, it was quite a shocking site for the Navy SEAL cadets. "We called it the AGE fish, because if you saw it underwater you would rocket to the surface, exploding your lungs, hence AGE (Arterial Gas Embolism)."
After carrying the enormous fish back to the Naval Amphibious Base the SEALs contacted scientist H.J. Walker from The University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Walker identified the fish as an oarfish (Regalecus glesne), a reclusive fish that inhabits the depths of warm tropical waters around the world. Encounters with this enormous fish are rare and not much is known of their habits. The oarfish normally stay down at extreme depths of 700ft or greater.
Walker surmised that this particular fish had wandered to the surface because it was sick or dying, and then perished as a result of a laceration from a boat propeller. Andy's recollection of the fish's condition confirms this hypothesis, and a quick examination of the original photograph supports this conclusion, as a large cleave is apparent just behind the head, and another long gash runs along the bottom of the fish for several feet. The Thai version of the photo has clearly been changed to mask these injuries.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Book Roundup 2
Jen and I got really excited talking about what books we want to read, so we did a little research and made a big Abebooks order yesterday. Here's some of the books we're really excited about!
Atul Gawande, The Best American Science Writing 2006
Since we liked Gawande's essays in Complications so much, we thought he might be a reliable editor of other people's science writing.
Stephen Kuusisto, Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening
I loved Planet of the Blind so much I was thrilled to discover Kuusisto has written other things.
From Amazon: "As Kuusisto recounts further seminal moments and improbable adventures, he presents exquisitely rendered soundscapes that capture aspects of the world most of us barely register, from the storm of traffic to the cacophony of our myriad machines to the songs of trees. As he goes "sight-seeing by ear" in places as diverse as Iceland and Venice, and celebrates the music and literature that sustain him, Kuusisto foregrounds the aural realm and evinces great tenacity and trust in his candid tales of life as an acute and contemplative listener in a loud and hectic world."
Anna Wierzbicka, Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics , No 8)
We are really excited about this one. Here's the idea: Clearly, there are words in other languages that are difficult to translate because they refer to things, rituals, or social practices that English-speaking cultures don't have. The project of Wierzbicka's book is to show how a detailed, systematic study of the meanings of words can also help us understand more abstract elements of other cultures: their characteristic values, perspectives, and ways of understanding life.
In the introduction she gives the example of the Japanese word miai, which refers to a custom in which unattached individuals are introduced to each to consider the possibility of marriage. Through several examples she shows that the word (of course) doesn't just refer to the existence of a custom because the significance of the custom implies a particular way of looking at life's important events (which she then goes on to detail in the body of the book). Similarly, she devotes several pages to the Russian word poshlust (unfortunately I don't know how to render it with the proper characters here), and collection of related words, arguing that it represents a characteristic mode of evaluation or judgment that simply isn't part of the English-speaking experience. (Or, if it is, a rare and difficult to articulate one).
Anyway, it looks awesome to us.
Ivan Bunin, Sunstroke: Selected Stories
We recently met some interesting girls from Estonia who strongly recommended that I read something by Ivan Bunin; so I am!
Rachel May, The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English
This is another one I'm pretty excited about. I really loved reading the translator's preface in Pevear and Volokohnsky's translation of Anna Karenina. They discuss a number of examples that illustrate the difficulties of faithfully translating what they consider to be Tolstoy's distinctive Russian prose-style in English--comparing their own translation to existing ones to show what has been lost elsewhere. I really wanted to find more writing like that and I think this book may be it.
From Amazon: "...Rachel May analyzes Russian literature in English translation, treating it less as a substitute for the original works than as a special subset of English literature, with its own cultural, stylistic, and narrative traditions. Using a blend of translation criticism, close reading, and linguistic analysis, the author explores the translator's role as mediator between cultures and among the voices within literary texts. By observing historical trends in translation styles, May shows how translators have tended to mirror and strengthen contemporary attitudes toward Russia and how swings in political relations have affected the texture of Russian literature as it appears to the anglophone public. Focusing on specific stylistic effects and their treatment in translation, the author also demonstrates regular, repeated alterations of linguistic structures which have a profound impact on the way we read Russian literature in English. May's argument is supplemented with dozens of comparative analyses of Russian passages and their English translations, which provide model close readings, focusing on the thematic implications of stylized language."
Sergey Prokofiev, Sergey Prokofiev Diaries 1907-1914: Prodigious Youth
I read about a hundred pages of this while we were visiting Peter and Patty last Spring, and I thought it was awesome. It's like reading a soap-opera about the arts! Prokofiev lived through some difficult political times for artists in Russia (though, from what little I know, he was less affected than Shostakovitch), and I'm curious to read about it from his perspective. Plus, it's a great insider's story of one of my favorite composers!
Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture
This is a book about culture's influence on behavior and communication. It introduces and discusses a number of concepts you can use to understand and navigate cross-cultural communications. For example, Hall discusses and illustrates the differences between what he calls "high-context" cultures (such as Japanese) in which much of the meaning of the communication is implicit in the communicative context, and "low-context" cultures that do more to explicitly encode the communication's significance in language. Mostly I'm just interested in some stories about how other cultures go about things, and in the possibility that a new set of interpretive concepts will give me a new way of looking at things in my own daily affairs. I think (hope) that some of the ideas here might be useful in my teaching, as well.
Magdalene Lampert, Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching
Speaking of. I've read bits and piece of this book already. It's a fascinating book. Lampert's idea is to describe the practice of teaching in all its complexity through an analysis of a year's worth of recordings and student data from her 5th grade math class. It's lively and engagingly written, and really captures the full breadth of considerations a master teacher weighs in her mind while planning, teaching, and reflecting about a class. In reading it, she shows you the kinds of details an experienced teacher notices about students and what they say (or don't say), and the many dilemmas she has to navigate in her decision-making.
I think it's a fantastic book, and I'd love to read more books like it for practitioners in other disciplines.
M. John Harrison, Things That Never Happen
I'm always on the lookout for new fiction, and this description really caught my attention:
"His characters typically live in the margins, or have conspired to live there through the vagaries of fate or experience. They quiver on the edge of discovering a great truth, uncovering a vast secret about the universe, or living a life previously unknown to them. Such characters are often enraptured by a vision or obsession invisible to the rest of us. The painter's precision with which Harrison works and the aversion to cliche and generic detail make his prose style hyper-real even in his most fantastical tales....Wise, unflinching, precise, these stories immerse us in a world we thought we knew but that stands revealed by turns as richer, starker and more complex."
Sounded pretty good!
Udi Manber, Introduction to Algorithms: A Creative Approach
I was reading some advice in an Ask Metafilter thread about teaching (and learning) programming, and this book was spoken very highly of--and when I discovered that it's by Tali dad, that clinched the deal! How could I not check it out?! =) Plus, the Amazon reviews said that it would keep any puzzle lover engaged for a long while, which is just what I'm looking for.
Alton L. Becker, Beyond Translation: Essays toward a Modern Philology
From Amazon.com (somewhat re-ordered):
Drawn from over three decades of studying, teaching, translating and writing about Southeast Asian languages and literatures, the essays [describe]...Becker's experiences in attempting to translate into or out of Burmese, Javanese, and Malay a variety of texts. They describe such things as the building of a Javanese shadowplay, how a Sanskrit story about the language of animals has been used in Indonesia, and some of the profound semantic silences a translator faces in taking an anecdote by Gregory Bateson from English into Malay.
In linguistics, the essays emphasize important kinds of nonuniversality in all aspects of language and look toward a new theory of language grounded in American pragmatism. In anthropology, the essays demonstrate that much of culture can be described in terms of text-building strategies. And for the comparativist, whether in literature, history, rhetoric, music, or psychology, the essays provide a new array of tools of comparison across distant languages and cultures."
Sounds pretty good!
* * *
I can barely wait until February!
Atul Gawande, The Best American Science Writing 2006
Since we liked Gawande's essays in Complications so much, we thought he might be a reliable editor of other people's science writing.
Stephen Kuusisto, Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening
I loved Planet of the Blind so much I was thrilled to discover Kuusisto has written other things.
From Amazon: "As Kuusisto recounts further seminal moments and improbable adventures, he presents exquisitely rendered soundscapes that capture aspects of the world most of us barely register, from the storm of traffic to the cacophony of our myriad machines to the songs of trees. As he goes "sight-seeing by ear" in places as diverse as Iceland and Venice, and celebrates the music and literature that sustain him, Kuusisto foregrounds the aural realm and evinces great tenacity and trust in his candid tales of life as an acute and contemplative listener in a loud and hectic world."
Anna Wierzbicka, Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics , No 8)
We are really excited about this one. Here's the idea: Clearly, there are words in other languages that are difficult to translate because they refer to things, rituals, or social practices that English-speaking cultures don't have. The project of Wierzbicka's book is to show how a detailed, systematic study of the meanings of words can also help us understand more abstract elements of other cultures: their characteristic values, perspectives, and ways of understanding life.
In the introduction she gives the example of the Japanese word miai, which refers to a custom in which unattached individuals are introduced to each to consider the possibility of marriage. Through several examples she shows that the word (of course) doesn't just refer to the existence of a custom because the significance of the custom implies a particular way of looking at life's important events (which she then goes on to detail in the body of the book). Similarly, she devotes several pages to the Russian word poshlust (unfortunately I don't know how to render it with the proper characters here), and collection of related words, arguing that it represents a characteristic mode of evaluation or judgment that simply isn't part of the English-speaking experience. (Or, if it is, a rare and difficult to articulate one).
Anyway, it looks awesome to us.
Ivan Bunin, Sunstroke: Selected Stories
We recently met some interesting girls from Estonia who strongly recommended that I read something by Ivan Bunin; so I am!
Rachel May, The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English
This is another one I'm pretty excited about. I really loved reading the translator's preface in Pevear and Volokohnsky's translation of Anna Karenina. They discuss a number of examples that illustrate the difficulties of faithfully translating what they consider to be Tolstoy's distinctive Russian prose-style in English--comparing their own translation to existing ones to show what has been lost elsewhere. I really wanted to find more writing like that and I think this book may be it.
From Amazon: "...Rachel May analyzes Russian literature in English translation, treating it less as a substitute for the original works than as a special subset of English literature, with its own cultural, stylistic, and narrative traditions. Using a blend of translation criticism, close reading, and linguistic analysis, the author explores the translator's role as mediator between cultures and among the voices within literary texts. By observing historical trends in translation styles, May shows how translators have tended to mirror and strengthen contemporary attitudes toward Russia and how swings in political relations have affected the texture of Russian literature as it appears to the anglophone public. Focusing on specific stylistic effects and their treatment in translation, the author also demonstrates regular, repeated alterations of linguistic structures which have a profound impact on the way we read Russian literature in English. May's argument is supplemented with dozens of comparative analyses of Russian passages and their English translations, which provide model close readings, focusing on the thematic implications of stylized language."
Sergey Prokofiev, Sergey Prokofiev Diaries 1907-1914: Prodigious Youth
I read about a hundred pages of this while we were visiting Peter and Patty last Spring, and I thought it was awesome. It's like reading a soap-opera about the arts! Prokofiev lived through some difficult political times for artists in Russia (though, from what little I know, he was less affected than Shostakovitch), and I'm curious to read about it from his perspective. Plus, it's a great insider's story of one of my favorite composers!
Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture
This is a book about culture's influence on behavior and communication. It introduces and discusses a number of concepts you can use to understand and navigate cross-cultural communications. For example, Hall discusses and illustrates the differences between what he calls "high-context" cultures (such as Japanese) in which much of the meaning of the communication is implicit in the communicative context, and "low-context" cultures that do more to explicitly encode the communication's significance in language. Mostly I'm just interested in some stories about how other cultures go about things, and in the possibility that a new set of interpretive concepts will give me a new way of looking at things in my own daily affairs. I think (hope) that some of the ideas here might be useful in my teaching, as well.
Magdalene Lampert, Teaching Problems and the Problems of Teaching
Speaking of. I've read bits and piece of this book already. It's a fascinating book. Lampert's idea is to describe the practice of teaching in all its complexity through an analysis of a year's worth of recordings and student data from her 5th grade math class. It's lively and engagingly written, and really captures the full breadth of considerations a master teacher weighs in her mind while planning, teaching, and reflecting about a class. In reading it, she shows you the kinds of details an experienced teacher notices about students and what they say (or don't say), and the many dilemmas she has to navigate in her decision-making.
I think it's a fantastic book, and I'd love to read more books like it for practitioners in other disciplines.
M. John Harrison, Things That Never Happen
I'm always on the lookout for new fiction, and this description really caught my attention:
"His characters typically live in the margins, or have conspired to live there through the vagaries of fate or experience. They quiver on the edge of discovering a great truth, uncovering a vast secret about the universe, or living a life previously unknown to them. Such characters are often enraptured by a vision or obsession invisible to the rest of us. The painter's precision with which Harrison works and the aversion to cliche and generic detail make his prose style hyper-real even in his most fantastical tales....Wise, unflinching, precise, these stories immerse us in a world we thought we knew but that stands revealed by turns as richer, starker and more complex."
Sounded pretty good!
Udi Manber, Introduction to Algorithms: A Creative Approach
I was reading some advice in an Ask Metafilter thread about teaching (and learning) programming, and this book was spoken very highly of--and when I discovered that it's by Tali dad, that clinched the deal! How could I not check it out?! =) Plus, the Amazon reviews said that it would keep any puzzle lover engaged for a long while, which is just what I'm looking for.
Alton L. Becker, Beyond Translation: Essays toward a Modern Philology
From Amazon.com (somewhat re-ordered):
Drawn from over three decades of studying, teaching, translating and writing about Southeast Asian languages and literatures, the essays [describe]...Becker's experiences in attempting to translate into or out of Burmese, Javanese, and Malay a variety of texts. They describe such things as the building of a Javanese shadowplay, how a Sanskrit story about the language of animals has been used in Indonesia, and some of the profound semantic silences a translator faces in taking an anecdote by Gregory Bateson from English into Malay.
In linguistics, the essays emphasize important kinds of nonuniversality in all aspects of language and look toward a new theory of language grounded in American pragmatism. In anthropology, the essays demonstrate that much of culture can be described in terms of text-building strategies. And for the comparativist, whether in literature, history, rhetoric, music, or psychology, the essays provide a new array of tools of comparison across distant languages and cultures."
Sounds pretty good!
* * *
I can barely wait until February!
Book Roundup 1
I thought I'd take a moment to share some of the books we've been reading for the last month:
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
We really loved this one. The project of this book is to identify major factors that can contribute to the collapse of successful societies by studying past examples including the Maya, the Easter Islanders and the Greenland Norse. Since we haven't really been in analytic-problem-solving-mode recently, we mostly enjoyed it for its great storytelling. I didn't really know anything about the Norse before, and it was packed with interesting details about their culture and lives. Anyway, there's a lot here to appeal to all kinds of readers and we definitely recommend it.
Howard Marks, Mr. Nice: An Autobiography
This is a good airplane sort of book. It's the story of the antics and wild adventures of a lovable rascal of a dope-smuggler from the 70's....you know, if you're into reading about that kind of thing. Good light reading if you're looking for tales of crime, intrigue and adventure.
Stephen Kuusisto, Planet of the Blind
This is one of the best books I've read for a long time. It's the memoirs of Stephen Kuusisto's struggles, both physical and psychological, growing up blind. The detail of his storytelling makes the book good--what makes it exceptional is his poetic and evocative prose. The imagery and immediacy of his language is unlike anything I've read for a long long time. It's a wonderful and unique book and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Ira Glass, The New Kings of Nonfiction
In the past I've had nothing but bad experiences with the "Best of American Nonfiction" types of collection. I noticed that this collection was edited by Ira Glass, however, and since I have a deep faith in his judgment I decided to give it a go. I was not disappointing. Almost every essay told a compelling story that connected to interesting larger themes, in a well-written and easy to read style. Jen and I also highly recommend this one if you're looking for thoughtful snapshots into interesting corners of lives you don't often think (and may not have known about).
Anthony Burgess, The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy
We wanted to try and read novels set in the places we've been traveling, so we chose this one because it's set in Malasia, and because we like Anthony Burgess so much. I would rate it "pretty good" to "quite good" if you read it while in Malaysia. It's similar in tone to E.M. Forrester's Passage to India (which I also read just recently), but with a slightly more modern prose-style. It has a large cast of comic characters that do a good job capturing many details and idiosyncrasies of Malaysia (or so it seemed to us). It drags a little bit in places, but definitely has its moments. And since Burgess wrote it, there's a great playfulness and attention to detail in his language use. All that said, it's hard to say how good it would be if we didn't read it while traveling in Malaysia. That said, maybe it's worth it after all since there so few comic literary novels and this is certainly a good one.
Karen Armstrong, A History of God
I'd heard good things about this so I thought I'd check it out. Her project is to explain the different ways people throughout history have conceived of God, and the different roles religious belief and practice have played in their lives (restricting herself to monotheistic traditions, and particularly Christianity). It had a lot of interesting information, but wasn't quite what I wanted. I was looking for one of two things. First, I would have liked a very careful historical account about what we might infer about different people's religious beliefs and experiences at different times with a particular focus on different possible interpretations of the textual accounts we have. Armstrong did some of this, but she wasn't nearly careful enough for my taste. She was telling a story instead of trying to analyze and weigh the merits of alternative interpretations. I also would have liked a "varieties of religious experience"-type approach, focusing on making descriptive sense of the different ways in which people can experience the sacred or the divine. There is some of this as well, but I would have liked a more thorough and descriptive focus on what the experiences feel like and how they shape the rest of someone's understanding. All that said, it was definitely a good first-pass on the topic and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in such things.
John McPhee, Coming into the Country
This is one Jen is reading (I haven't yet). It's about Alaska, and we got it because it's written by the author of the excellent book The Control of Nature which we read last year. It's a kind of rambling story about the author's impressions of Alaska and its people; and, according to Jen, does a fine job for what it is (though it seems a little bit dated at times since it was written in the late 70's). I may not read this until we actually go to Alaska, whenever that actually happens.
Dr. Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
This is another book both Jen and I unreservedly recommend to everyone. Atul Gawande has a degree in philosophy, has had a career as a science writer and a public policy advisory, and late in life got a medical degree from Harvard medical school and became a surgeon. This is a wonderfully well-written collection of his reflections about the practice of medicine. He's particularly interested in the nature of expertise and practical judgment and their role in medicine--how do they work, how are they taught and learned, what are their dangers and how might they be avoided, what do they feel like in action. He's also interested in the differences between the public images and myths about medicine and the details and realities of his everyday practice. It's a truly amazing book, and you certainly don't have to have a particular interest in medicine to learn things from his insightful reflections.
Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
This was another surprisingly excellent read! It's a short, beautifully written book with a simple, direct style, lovable characters, and innumerable small details that paint a portrait of life in Botswana--all told through a series of engaging and heartwarming mysteries confronting Mma. Ramotswe's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. This is another one we recommend for everyone--even if it doesn't seem like it's your kind of book.
* * *
We hope you all are finding interesting things to read wherever you are as well! =)
Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
We really loved this one. The project of this book is to identify major factors that can contribute to the collapse of successful societies by studying past examples including the Maya, the Easter Islanders and the Greenland Norse. Since we haven't really been in analytic-problem-solving-mode recently, we mostly enjoyed it for its great storytelling. I didn't really know anything about the Norse before, and it was packed with interesting details about their culture and lives. Anyway, there's a lot here to appeal to all kinds of readers and we definitely recommend it.
Howard Marks, Mr. Nice: An Autobiography
This is a good airplane sort of book. It's the story of the antics and wild adventures of a lovable rascal of a dope-smuggler from the 70's....you know, if you're into reading about that kind of thing. Good light reading if you're looking for tales of crime, intrigue and adventure.
Stephen Kuusisto, Planet of the Blind
This is one of the best books I've read for a long time. It's the memoirs of Stephen Kuusisto's struggles, both physical and psychological, growing up blind. The detail of his storytelling makes the book good--what makes it exceptional is his poetic and evocative prose. The imagery and immediacy of his language is unlike anything I've read for a long long time. It's a wonderful and unique book and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Ira Glass, The New Kings of Nonfiction
In the past I've had nothing but bad experiences with the "Best of American Nonfiction" types of collection. I noticed that this collection was edited by Ira Glass, however, and since I have a deep faith in his judgment I decided to give it a go. I was not disappointing. Almost every essay told a compelling story that connected to interesting larger themes, in a well-written and easy to read style. Jen and I also highly recommend this one if you're looking for thoughtful snapshots into interesting corners of lives you don't often think (and may not have known about).
Anthony Burgess, The Long Day Wanes: A Malayan Trilogy
We wanted to try and read novels set in the places we've been traveling, so we chose this one because it's set in Malasia, and because we like Anthony Burgess so much. I would rate it "pretty good" to "quite good" if you read it while in Malaysia. It's similar in tone to E.M. Forrester's Passage to India (which I also read just recently), but with a slightly more modern prose-style. It has a large cast of comic characters that do a good job capturing many details and idiosyncrasies of Malaysia (or so it seemed to us). It drags a little bit in places, but definitely has its moments. And since Burgess wrote it, there's a great playfulness and attention to detail in his language use. All that said, it's hard to say how good it would be if we didn't read it while traveling in Malaysia. That said, maybe it's worth it after all since there so few comic literary novels and this is certainly a good one.
Karen Armstrong, A History of God
I'd heard good things about this so I thought I'd check it out. Her project is to explain the different ways people throughout history have conceived of God, and the different roles religious belief and practice have played in their lives (restricting herself to monotheistic traditions, and particularly Christianity). It had a lot of interesting information, but wasn't quite what I wanted. I was looking for one of two things. First, I would have liked a very careful historical account about what we might infer about different people's religious beliefs and experiences at different times with a particular focus on different possible interpretations of the textual accounts we have. Armstrong did some of this, but she wasn't nearly careful enough for my taste. She was telling a story instead of trying to analyze and weigh the merits of alternative interpretations. I also would have liked a "varieties of religious experience"-type approach, focusing on making descriptive sense of the different ways in which people can experience the sacred or the divine. There is some of this as well, but I would have liked a more thorough and descriptive focus on what the experiences feel like and how they shape the rest of someone's understanding. All that said, it was definitely a good first-pass on the topic and I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in such things.
John McPhee, Coming into the Country
This is one Jen is reading (I haven't yet). It's about Alaska, and we got it because it's written by the author of the excellent book The Control of Nature which we read last year. It's a kind of rambling story about the author's impressions of Alaska and its people; and, according to Jen, does a fine job for what it is (though it seems a little bit dated at times since it was written in the late 70's). I may not read this until we actually go to Alaska, whenever that actually happens.
Dr. Atul Gawande, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
This is another book both Jen and I unreservedly recommend to everyone. Atul Gawande has a degree in philosophy, has had a career as a science writer and a public policy advisory, and late in life got a medical degree from Harvard medical school and became a surgeon. This is a wonderfully well-written collection of his reflections about the practice of medicine. He's particularly interested in the nature of expertise and practical judgment and their role in medicine--how do they work, how are they taught and learned, what are their dangers and how might they be avoided, what do they feel like in action. He's also interested in the differences between the public images and myths about medicine and the details and realities of his everyday practice. It's a truly amazing book, and you certainly don't have to have a particular interest in medicine to learn things from his insightful reflections.
Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
This was another surprisingly excellent read! It's a short, beautifully written book with a simple, direct style, lovable characters, and innumerable small details that paint a portrait of life in Botswana--all told through a series of engaging and heartwarming mysteries confronting Mma. Ramotswe's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. This is another one we recommend for everyone--even if it doesn't seem like it's your kind of book.
* * *
We hope you all are finding interesting things to read wherever you are as well! =)
Today we rented bicycles, chose a direction, and biked out of the city. Our road took us past the airport (a single runway--I think there was a building also....more on that in 2 days), past their beautiful university (some of the newest looking buildings in town), and out into the countryside.
Jen had been searching for a fresh produce market and we finally found it--about 10 minutes out. (Most of the produce was further in).
As we continued to bike, we passed a lot of farm land, some grazing land with buffalo, what appeared to be some kind of lumber plant, and this very still but beautiful gravel pit.
We biked through many small villages, where virtually everyone would stop what they were doing and smile and wave to us. Often a small group of children would run out to the street to wave and say sabadi! They were literally ecstatic when we would wave and greet them back.
We also passed many roadside stands, mostly selling food, but this one selling woven baskets of all kinds was my favorite.
After about 2 hours, we turned around and headed back. I had forgotten my sunscreen and felt like I was starting to burn; we also thought we'd make it back in perfect time for lunch. As neared town again, we joined up with a bunch of kids biking back to school. It's very common to see people on bikes and motorcycles with umbrellas for the sun, as you can see in this photo:
Our way back took us back across the bridge spanning the river where bicycles and motorcycles alike sorted themselves into a single-file track.
Back in town, we got our favorite spicy tofu sandwiches for lunch, and commiserated about being so sunburned.
Jen had been searching for a fresh produce market and we finally found it--about 10 minutes out. (Most of the produce was further in).
As we continued to bike, we passed a lot of farm land, some grazing land with buffalo, what appeared to be some kind of lumber plant, and this very still but beautiful gravel pit.
We biked through many small villages, where virtually everyone would stop what they were doing and smile and wave to us. Often a small group of children would run out to the street to wave and say sabadi! They were literally ecstatic when we would wave and greet them back.
We also passed many roadside stands, mostly selling food, but this one selling woven baskets of all kinds was my favorite.
After about 2 hours, we turned around and headed back. I had forgotten my sunscreen and felt like I was starting to burn; we also thought we'd make it back in perfect time for lunch. As neared town again, we joined up with a bunch of kids biking back to school. It's very common to see people on bikes and motorcycles with umbrellas for the sun, as you can see in this photo:
Our way back took us back across the bridge spanning the river where bicycles and motorcycles alike sorted themselves into a single-file track.
Back in town, we got our favorite spicy tofu sandwiches for lunch, and commiserated about being so sunburned.
Wats of Luang Prabang
In the 18th century Luang Prabang had over 65 Buddhist temples, called wats. Most of them were damaged or destroyed when the Chinese Haw Black Flag marauders sacked the city in 1887, by a typhoon in 1900, and during US carpet bombing in the 1960's and 1970's. An ongoing wat restoration throughout the 20th century has preserved 33 of the city's originals.
This one, a few blocks from our house, exemplifies many of their common features.
All the wats we've visited are enclosed by this style of wall. Sadly, an hour's worth of internet research failed to tell me anything about it.
What my research did reveal is that Luang Prabang has its own unique architectural style. This style is characterized by a high-pointed tile roof with multiple tiers, each representing a different cosmological level in Buddhist doctrine. In the very center of the roof, you can see a metallic ornament called a Dok So Fa (literally: pointing to the sky). These are common in much Southeast Asian Buddhist architecture, and are supposed to represent the universe.
Serpentine creatures called nagas are another ubiquitous architectural ornament of the wats. Here, a 7-headed naga spews from the mouth of a larger one whose body follows the stairway leading to the wat.
The word naga comes from Sanskrit (for a deity taking the form of a great snake), and depictions of nagas are common throughout the Buhddist and Hindu world. According to wikipedia, Thai and Lao people living along the Mekong River believe nagas protect it, and revere them as sacred creatures. It is common for those who make their living on the river to make offerings to the nagas for protection. Several other bloggers related anecdotes told by locals who attest to the reality and power of the nagas. (For example: you aren't supposed to work the day after you dream about a naga (!) and a man who ignored this custom was killed by falling rocks the next day).
Most prominantly, it has been said for centuries that one can see small fireballs float into the air from the surface of the river in October, around the end of the Buddhist rain retreat of Vassa. These fireballs are reputedly shot by the nagas that live in the river in celebration of the end of their meditation. According to wikipedia the fireball phenomenon has been verified but its causes are still not well understood. It's been suggested that "the balls are produced by the fermintation [sic] of sediment in the river, which can combust in the particular ... atmospheric conditions of the nights in question." Pretty badly written, wikipedia, but plausible enough.
While not always multi-headed, nagas adorn most stairways and many windows and roof tops.
The walls of many wats also include ornate depictions of scenes from the life of Buddha, ordinary activities of Lao villagers, and elements of Buddhist iconography, such as ornate lotus leaves. (Often these are in gold leaf, which I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of).
Another curious feature of many wats we've been unable to explain is the presence of what appears to be a small monk (though sometimes the figure appears in a more fantastical form) straddling the entrance to the wat's stuppa. Make of this what you will.
This one, a few blocks from our house, exemplifies many of their common features.
All the wats we've visited are enclosed by this style of wall. Sadly, an hour's worth of internet research failed to tell me anything about it.What my research did reveal is that Luang Prabang has its own unique architectural style. This style is characterized by a high-pointed tile roof with multiple tiers, each representing a different cosmological level in Buddhist doctrine. In the very center of the roof, you can see a metallic ornament called a Dok So Fa (literally: pointing to the sky). These are common in much Southeast Asian Buddhist architecture, and are supposed to represent the universe.
Serpentine creatures called nagas are another ubiquitous architectural ornament of the wats. Here, a 7-headed naga spews from the mouth of a larger one whose body follows the stairway leading to the wat.
The word naga comes from Sanskrit (for a deity taking the form of a great snake), and depictions of nagas are common throughout the Buhddist and Hindu world. According to wikipedia, Thai and Lao people living along the Mekong River believe nagas protect it, and revere them as sacred creatures. It is common for those who make their living on the river to make offerings to the nagas for protection. Several other bloggers related anecdotes told by locals who attest to the reality and power of the nagas. (For example: you aren't supposed to work the day after you dream about a naga (!) and a man who ignored this custom was killed by falling rocks the next day).
Most prominantly, it has been said for centuries that one can see small fireballs float into the air from the surface of the river in October, around the end of the Buddhist rain retreat of Vassa. These fireballs are reputedly shot by the nagas that live in the river in celebration of the end of their meditation. According to wikipedia the fireball phenomenon has been verified but its causes are still not well understood. It's been suggested that "the balls are produced by the fermintation [sic] of sediment in the river, which can combust in the particular ... atmospheric conditions of the nights in question." Pretty badly written, wikipedia, but plausible enough.
While not always multi-headed, nagas adorn most stairways and many windows and roof tops.
The walls of many wats also include ornate depictions of scenes from the life of Buddha, ordinary activities of Lao villagers, and elements of Buddhist iconography, such as ornate lotus leaves. (Often these are in gold leaf, which I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of).
Another curious feature of many wats we've been unable to explain is the presence of what appears to be a small monk (though sometimes the figure appears in a more fantastical form) straddling the entrance to the wat's stuppa. Make of this what you will.
More Luang Prabang
For the past 2 weeks we've been staying at the Nama Vong guesthouse. It's just around the corner from the street along the Mekong waterfront. In the 2nd photo (with our guesthouse on the left) you can see the Mekong river through the trees.
Aside from the fact that my sandals were stolen (we think by other guests) on the 2nd day here, it's been very nice. We're paying 70,000 kip (~$8) a night for this lovely room:
Across from our guesthouse is a large Wat, and a little further along the street is this small paper store:
Around the corner from our street is a small one we walk down every day to get to the center of town. On most days, you can see some type of food product being dried on bamboo. We're not totally sure what these are, but we think they're made from pounded taro with sesame seeds.
In many places around the city you can see shallow woven baskets with drying chilies. This one is next to one of the waterfront restaurants, but they're pretty much everywhere. Seeing them reminded me of the first time I tried to make a Thai curry paste at home. The recipe from the internet described the dried red chilis you can buy in the US as "barely fit for human consumption" and recommended buying them fresh and drying them yourself.
There are lots of coconut trees everywhere, but we've also noticed a number of what we think are papaya trees. Here is what they look like, in any case.
Next posts: the many wats of Luang Prabang, followed by our bicycle adventure out of the city!
Aside from the fact that my sandals were stolen (we think by other guests) on the 2nd day here, it's been very nice. We're paying 70,000 kip (~$8) a night for this lovely room:
Across from our guesthouse is a large Wat, and a little further along the street is this small paper store:
Around the corner from our street is a small one we walk down every day to get to the center of town. On most days, you can see some type of food product being dried on bamboo. We're not totally sure what these are, but we think they're made from pounded taro with sesame seeds.
In many places around the city you can see shallow woven baskets with drying chilies. This one is next to one of the waterfront restaurants, but they're pretty much everywhere. Seeing them reminded me of the first time I tried to make a Thai curry paste at home. The recipe from the internet described the dried red chilis you can buy in the US as "barely fit for human consumption" and recommended buying them fresh and drying them yourself.
There are lots of coconut trees everywhere, but we've also noticed a number of what we think are papaya trees. Here is what they look like, in any case.
Next posts: the many wats of Luang Prabang, followed by our bicycle adventure out of the city!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)