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A Consumer's Republic Lizabeth Cohen
A Consumer's Republic                                                                               Here are notes I took from Lizabeth Cohen's A Consumer's Republic. Some added emphasis from me is bolded.

Chapter 1.

The history of the 20th century consumer republic is the battle between the citizen consumer and the purchaser consumer. The former fought for rights, standards, and fairness; the latter wanted purchasing power. Consumers strove for representation alongside business and labor in the 1930s New Deal programs and agencies. The first wave consumer movement took place in the Progressive Era; the second wave was in the 1930s and 1940s. Women and blacks were the primary citizen consumers. Housewives fought high prices, for instance, organizing meat boycotts in 1935. Blacks in Harlem, the Black Belt, and Chicago organized boycotts with the slogan "don't buy where you can't work". Cooperatives were a way to empower black businesses. Business was predictably hostile towards consumer councils, often red-baiting. Chevrolet was an exception with "From Dawn to Sunset".

Chapter 2.

In WWII the citizen consumer took over. The federal government took action to combat inflation with the Office of Price Administration & Civilian Supply (OPA under the War Production Board), created under the Emergency Price Control Act. This act set up a "General Maximum Price" on 6,000 commodities. The "responsible consumer was promoted to support the war effort. Such a consumer would not pay more than the maximum price for goods. They would conserve and recycle. A promise was made: "Conserve now, spend after the war". Consumer guides were published, pledges and mottos created. Women stepped up to enforce regulations, lead consumer organizations, and volunteer in implementing price controls.

Blacks were still denied access to consumer citizenship. Here we see Cohen's point that the consumer and the citizen are linked. Even black soldiers were denied access. In Harlem, black areas missed out on OPA protections. Civil rights leaders still saw the OPA and price controls as a way of being recognized as consumers and then citizens. Boycotts and protests now focused on businesses that didn't serve blacks, whereas before they were boycotting those that didn't hire them. At the end of the war people wanted to keep the OPA.

As the war ended, labor sided with the consumer movement over fears that inflation could eat up wage gains. Price controls mostly destroyed though. The consumer battle continued in reconversion.

Chapter 3.

After the war, mass consumption was promoted as the key to increased prosperity. This policy of consumption reconciled the difference between the citizen and purchaser. Thrift was now un-American. The citizen now bought instead of defending consumer rights. New house construction fueled a new mass consumption economy. The Veteran's Administration with the GI Bill and the Federal Housing Administration subsidized mortgages. Here we see government directing housing policy. Consumer credit and borrowing went up. The federal government linked mass consumption with political freedom as a way to show capitalism was better than communism. Capitalism was better at creating equality, the propaganda said. (Three such propaganda films were: "Despotism", "How to Lose What We Have", "Destination Earth"). Mass consumption was about creating a bigger pie rather than competing in a zero-sum world.

Traditional roles regain their dominance. The consumer movement was co-opted or red-baited. Women were relegated back to traditional roles. Businesses started targeting men. "Female", since housewives were the leaders, was used to diminish the consumer movement. The GI Bill discriminated against women veterans and helped men more because there were more male veterans. Denying someone full entry into the military is another way of denying them equality. The tax code was remade to favor single earner families, the single earner having to be the male (see page 146's discussion of the tax code).

Unions were more interesting in purchasing power than in having a say in the business (Fordist Compromise, Treaty of Detroit). The Taft-Hartley Act puts shackles on unions. The GI Bill helped the classes of people who were already ahead get more ahead.

Chapter 4.

Blacks returned from the war looking for the "Double-V", victory abroad and civil rights at home. The link between citizenship and consumption opened avenues to fight. They were denied equality of access to markets, worst of all in housing and education.

Chapter 5.

The rise of suburbia created a new market for mass consumption. The home became a mass consumer commodity. The suburbs exacerbated segmentation and inequality between classes and races in the same way the GI Bill did. Property values become important. The FHA and VA favored single family housing in areas with few minorities and lower class families. This means the federal government discriminated based on class and race. It means it engineered a way of life. The government decided that home building was the way to go. Programs created segregated, class based zoning. Localism, where property taxes pay for services, created vast inequalities especially in schooling.

Chapter 6.

Central urban marketplaces shifted to suburban shopping centers by the late 50s. These were the new community centers. Suburban malls could exclude the worst of urban areas - vagrants, prostitutes, poor, minorities, disruptive elements. Shopping centers were feminized spaces but the focus on the family experience meant men were making the purchasing decisions, reaffirming traditional roles again. Helped by cars these centers killed central business districts. Downtown business would try to harness state power with consumption laws and federal renewal money. In the suburbs public space was privatized. Commerce conflicted with community. Free speech may offend customers. Several court cases sought to settle this conflict: Amalgamated Food Employees Union Local 590 vs. Logan Valley Plaza Inc. (1950) and Marsh vs. Alabama (1946). In the latter, the "Marsh Doctrine" gave first amendment rights precedent over private property. Private property can be the functional equivalent of public space. Later, in Lloyd vs. Tanner (1972), leaflets were considered unwarranted infringement upon private property rights. Justice Marshall warned of private space overtaking the public. In Prune Yard Shopping Center vs. Robbins (1980) the court left it to the states but reaffirmed that first amendment did not guarantee access. Though it affirmed private property rights it decreased liberty with respect to the first amendment.

Chapter 7.

Product competition lead to new marketing methods. Product obsolescence became the garment industry's foundation. In the automotive industry it lead to constant redesign. Marketers embraced market segmentation. For example, David Yankelovich divided buyers into types who bought on cost, quality, or prestige. "Lifestyle branding" and "target marketing" aimed to get clusters of customers (sub cultures) rather than selling commodities on the mass market. An example of this was cable TV's rise over "Really Big Networks" that could serve everyone. On page 296:
By the time Thomas Robertson of Harvard Business School published his marketing text, Consumer Behavior, in 1970, he would conclude a key chapter with the statement, "The basic dilemma, in summary, is whether to adopt a policy of market segmentation or aggregation—whether to build generalized or ambiguous appeals into a product so that consumers can perceive it as they choose, or whether to concentrate on a specific segment, thus deliberately excluding a given proportion of consumers. Will 80 percent of a small market segment produce more revenue than 10 percent of a mass market?" The thrust of his book—and other writing of the era—was a resounding "yes." Note that although Robertson still entertained a mass market option in 1970, he acknowledged sufficient variation in consumer preferences to urge mass marketers to fashion "generalized or ambiguous appeals."


This was considered the democratization of the market (pg 309). It gave sub groups more voice but also pulled them into the commercial market and co-opted them. The power structures stayed the same. Social class became a lifestyle choices rather than economics (think rich hicks). Gender segmentation played on traditional gender roles & stereotypes. Age, race, and ethnicity were also targeted. Brand indoctrination sought to target children to get them in early. The African-American was a largely untapped market at the time. New responsiveness from national businesses killed black business. Business decided to create another market rather than trying to incorporate blacks into masses. The connection to modern political campaigning is obvious.

Chapter 8.

Third wave consumerism sought to protect consumers from new products. It wanted safety, informed consumers, consumer choice, and a voice in products. The era saw the rise of Ralph Nader. Twenty-five regulatory laws were passed between 1967 and 1973. With the "Keynesian commitment", demand was backed by government action. The three demands of the Third Wave were to 1) protect consumer in marketplace, 2) reorient government regulatory authority toward public interest, and 3) give the consumer political representation, "binding consumer and citizen ever closer". One and two were helped by the "responsiveness of the courts to product liability suits". Three failed in its attempt to get a cabinet level federal agency for consumers.

Market segmentation was linked to discontent because of more specific desires. If you didn't get exactly what you wanted you were not happy. Segmentation made it easier to mobilize distinct interests and create grassroots movements. This coincided with second wave feminism, civil rights, and war on poverty.

The rise of "consumer entrepreneurial politics" saw pro-consumer, anti-business activists get into the media, labor, non-profits, and congress as politicians and staffers. The plight of the low income consumer was explored by these liberal-minded activists. This is similar to what happened with women and blacks. Getting equal treatment and a voice in consumption was a key to fully realizing citizenship in America.

The broader consumer movement did not question mass consumption and capitalism. It used the tactics of radicals but wanted to enhance, not tear down, the system.

Government policy shifted to deregulation and privatization under Ford, Carter, and Reagan. Carter rejected consumption and the 70s saw demand collapse. Regulation was seen as a burden. The tide turned against the government and faith in the market's ability to regulate itself rose. Keynesian policies aimed at consumer demand were swapped for Reaganonics supply side policies like tax cuts to stimulate growth and investment. These focused on capital investment, not mass consumption, hoping that concentrated wealth would trickle down. The message shifted from the "Consumer Bill of Rights" changed to economic freedom. The Clinton government would view citizens as customers. Despite all of that, there has been a revival of government in financial regulation with the failures of Enron and Worldcom or airport security after 9/11.
 
410 pages
0-375-70737-9
This product was released around 2003 by Vintage
I consumed this around 2006
More: A Consumer's Republic
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 5/5/2010 7:14:24 PM
 
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo                                                                     Stieg Larsson smoothly integrates a message about violence against women into this cold case crime novel. Mikael Blomkvist is a disgraced journalist hired by a wealthy industrialist, Henrik Vanger, to investigate a long abandoned missing person case. Lisbeth Salander is a pretty bad-ass private investigator who ends up working the same case. Blomkvist, a tough financial journalist, has lost a suspicious libel case against another Swedish industrialist, Hans-Erik Wennerström. Salander, an independent but talented social outcast, is intrigued by the case.

The remoteness of a conceivable resolution to the case intrigued me. Over the years Vanger became obsessed with the disappearance of his niece, Harriet. Each year he is taunted with a rose from the person he assumes killed his beloved relative. Blomkvist is hired to comb over the four decade old case one last time. I've never been into detective novels but Larsson was able to pull me along with his descriptions of detective/journalistic investigations. The meticulousness of Blomkvist's, and later Salander's, work filled up the text.

Inside this novel is a pretty powerful message against misogynistic violence. The main source of evil in the book is anyone who attempts to use their power to harm women. Salander, at less than 100 pounds, has been harassed by bullies and police alike throughout her life. She is further assaulted by an authority figure during the novel. Her retaliation is vicious though. Some of the scenes are very graphic, physically and sexually. At times I thought the payback made things turn out a little too perfectly but nothing much to the detriment of the book. While Blomkvist may start off as the main character, Salander is given equal treatment throughout much of the novel. The intellect of both is the most enjoyable aspect of the novel. Soon even the development of their relationship turns into another interesting side plot of the novel. Salander, because of her life on the edge of society, has trusted very few people. Her boss, Dragan Armanski, or her former guardian, Holger Palmgren, get close but Blomkvist inadvertently smashes the barrier that has acted as a mask for her past emotional trauma.
 
608 pages
978-1-84724-253-2
This product was released around 2005 by Vintage
I consumed this around March 2010
More: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 4/13/2010 7:23:59 PM
 
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Dracula Bram Stoker
Dracula                                                                                             Jonathan Harker's journey to Castle Dracula is full of unintended dramatic irony. More than a century of movies, shows, plays, novels, comics, games, cereal brands, and mythology have rendered the plot of Abraham Stoker's novel transparent to the world. Rather than unraveling subtle clues the reader is pointing out century old standards of vampire behavior in the text. Let's take a look at some of the mythology the reader encounters:

* Harker's driver to the castle, later revealed to be Count Dracula, is distracted by a blue flame that doesn't seem to illuminate its surroundings. I'm not sure what that means in Vampire mythology but it is certainly an odd scene and probably significant.

* The driver is able to keep wolves at bay. Later, Dracula is able to call wolves to dispatch of someone at his door.

* Dracula cannot be seen in a mirror and has no mirrors in the castle.

* Dracula casts no shadow.

* Harker never sees his host during the day.

* There are no bells in the house either meaning there are no servants in this massive castle (maybe it also means that vampires do not like bells).

* In conversation he avoids many of Harker's questions.

* He is disdainful of the commoners who live in the villages below his castle. A "barren land" and "barren people" as it is described.

* Harker catches him making his guest bed and cleaning up plates, implying his obsessiveness about cleanliness.

* The sight of a crucifix enrages Dracula.

* Villagers give Harker garlic, wild rose, and mountain ash presumably because they think it will repel Dracula.

* Later it becomes more obvious that Dracula is supernatural. Harker sees him crawling on the outer wall of the castle. Finally he finds a crypt where the Count is sleeping in a coffin.

As the story moves back to England the mood gets darker. Dracula stays out of the plot for long stretches but the reader can tell that something is afoot.

* Stormy weather accompanies a ship arriving in England hinting at the evil that is about to descend on the town.

* A dog is the only living thing that escapes the ship, but it runs off before anyone can catch it.

* Later, a bat is seen at Lucy's window on several occassions.

* Lucy often sleep walks, leaving her vulnerable.

Mina and Lucy's encounter with a man, Swales, at the tombstone of a "liar" as he puts it. The deceased was lost at sea so there is no body underneath the grave, like Dracula's many coffins would be. Swales also foresees his own death.

* In Lucy's journal we learn that she has been hearing voices commanding her.

* Seward's mental patient, Renfield, gets increasingly agitated - becoming homicidal at one point - for no apparent reason. Though we see it happening after the arrival of the ship the characters do not put the pieces together.

* Mina notices a great myst about the town giving the whole setting an even more eerie feeling.

Later in the novel we get the full explanation of what Dracula is. Van Helsing drops the cloak of secrecy that has been hiding his theories from the group. More than the horrific battle sequence with the Count or the suspenseful scenes when Lucy's life is in danger, this is the most dramatic scene in the novel. The doctor tells Quincey Morris, Aurthur, Seward, Jonathan, and Mina what they are up against. Here the characters swear a pact to eradicate this beast, knowing that only his death can save the infected Mina from the fate that Lucy already met. These passages are the fundamental text of Nosferatu lore. Van Helsing opens up the mystery to all on page 304:
"There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. Even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience, the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples. I admit that at the first I was sceptic. Were it not that through long years I have trained myself to keep an open mind, I could not have believed until such time as that fact thunder on my ear.`See! See! I prove, I prove.' Alas! Had I known at first what now I know, nay, had I even guess at him, one so precious life had been spared to many of us who did love her. But that is gone, and we must so work, that other poor souls perish not, whilst we can save. The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command, he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not, he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow and become small, and he can at times vanish and come unknown. How then are we to begin our strike to destroy him? How shall we find his where, and having found it, how can we destroy? My friends, this is much, it is a terrible task that we undertake, and there may be consequence to make the brave shudder. For if we fail in this our fight he must surely win, and then where end we? Life is nothings, I heed him not. But to fail here, is not mere life or death. It is that we become as him, that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him, without heart or conscience, preying on the bodies and the souls of those we love best. To us forever are the gates of heaven shut, for who shall open them to us again? We go on for all time abhorred by all, a blot on the face of God's sunshine, an arrow in the side of Him who died for man. But we are face to face with duty, and in such case must we shrink? For me, I say no, but then I am old, and life, with his sunshine, his fair places, his song of birds, his music and his love, lie far behind. You others are young. Some have seen sorrow, but there are fair days yet in store. What say you?"
And on pg 306 to 309 he explains it more:
"Well, you know what we have to contend against, but we too, are not without strength. We have on our side power of combination, a power denied to the vampire kind, we have sources of science, we are free to act and think, and the hours of the day and the night are ours equally. In fact, so far as our powers extend, they are unfettered, and we are free to use them. We have self devotion in a cause and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one. These things are much.

"Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are restrict, and how the individual cannot. In fine, let us consider the limitations of the vampire in general, and of this one in particular.

"All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions. These do not at the first appear much, when the matter is one of life and death, nay of more than either life or death. Yet must we be satisfied, in the first place because we have to be, no other means is at our control, and secondly, because, after all these things, tradition and superstition, are everything. Does not the belief in vampires rest for others, though not, alas! for us, on them! A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century? We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the vampire, and the belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base. For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that men have been. In old Greece, in old Rome, he flourish in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chermosese, and in China, so far from us in all ways, there even is he, and the peoples for him at this day. He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar.

"So far, then, we have all we may act upon, and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy experience. The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time, he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living. Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger, that his vital faculties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty.

"But he cannot flourish without this diet, he eat not as others. Even friend Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks, did never see him eat, never! He throws no shadow, he make in the mirror no reflect, as again Jonathan observe. He has the strength of many of his hand, witness again Jonathan when he shut the door against the wolves, and when he help him from the diligence too. He can transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship arrival in Whitby, when he tear open the dog, he can be as bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby, and as friend John saw him fly from this so near house, and as my friend Quincey saw him at the window of Miss Lucy.

"He can come in mist which he create, that noble ship's captain proved him of this, but, from what we know, the distance he can make this mist is limited, and it can only be round himself.

"He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust, as again Jonathan saw those sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small, we ourselves saw Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb door. He can, when once he find his way, come out from anything or into anything, no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with fire, solder you call it. He can see in the dark, no small power this, in a world which is one half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through.

"He can do all these things, yet he is not free. Nay, he is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his cell. He cannot go where he lists, he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws, why we know not. He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day.

"Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things we are told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home,his coffin-home, his hellhome, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby, still at other time he can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide. Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of, and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them.

"The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it, a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead, and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace, or the cut off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes.

"Thus when we find the habitation of this man-that-was, we can confine him to his coffin and destroy him, if we obey what we know. But he is clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to make his record, and from all the means that are, he tell me of what he has been. He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man, for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the `land beyond the forest.' That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the records are such words as `stregoica' witch, `ordog' and `pokol' Satan and hell, and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as `wampyr,'which we all understand too well. There have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good, in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest."


We learn of his background, on page 389:
"I have studied, over and over again since they came into my hands, all the papers relating to this monster, and the more I have studied, the greater seems the necessity to utterly stamp him out. All through there are signs of his advance. Not only of his power, but of his knowledge of it. As I learned from the researches of my friend Arminius of Buda-Pesth, he was in life a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, and alchemist. Which latter was the highest development of the science knowledge of his time. He had a mighty brain, a learning beyond compare, and a heart that knew no fear and no remorse. He dared even to attend the Scholomance, and there was no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay.


I read a little about the anti-sexuality themes Stoker was trying to expound on in his novel. I might not have noticed it otherwise except in one case. On page 272 Stoker lays it on pretty thickly:
It was an answer that appalled the most sceptical of us, and we felt individually that in the presence of such earnest purpose as the Professor's, a purpose which could thus use the to him most sacred of things, it was impossible to distrust. In respectful silence we took the places assigned to us close round the tomb, but hidden from the sight of any one approaching. I pitied the others, especially Arthur. I had myself been apprenticed by my former visits to this watching horror, and yet I, who had up to an hour ago repudiated the proofs, felt my heart sink within me. Never did tombs look so ghastly white. Never did cypress, or yew, or juniper so seem the embodiment of funeral gloom. Never did tree or grass wave or rustle so ominously. Never did bough creak so mysteriously, and never did the far-away howling of dogs send such a woeful presage through the night.

There was a long spell of silence, big, aching, void, and then from the Professor a keen "S-s-s-s!" He pointed, and far down the avenue of yews we saw a white figure advance, a dim white figure, which held something dark at its breast. The figure stopped, and at the moment a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds, and showed in startling prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave. We could not see the face, for it was bent down over what we saw to be a fair-haired child. There was a pause and a sharp little cry, such as a child gives in sleep, or a dog as it lies before the fire and dreams. We were starting forward, but the Professor's warning hand, seen by us as he stood behind a yew tree, kept us back. And then as we looked the white figure moved forwards again. It was now near enough for us to see clearly, and the moonlight still held. My own heart grew cold as ice, and I could hear the gasp of Arthur, as we recognized the features of Lucy Westenra. Lucy Westenra, but yet how changed. The sweetness was turned to adamantine, heartless cruelty, and the purity to voluptuous wantonness.

Van Helsing stepped out, and obedient to his gesture, we all advanced too. The four of us ranged in a line before the door of the tomb. Van Helsing raised his lantern and drew the slide. By the concentrated light that fell on Lucy's face we could see that the lips were crimson with fresh blood, and that the stream had trickled over her chin and stained the purity of her lawn death robe.

We shuddered with horror. I could see by the tremulous light that even Van Helsing's iron nerve had failed. Arthur was next to me, and if I had not seized his arm and held him up, he would have fallen.

When Lucy, I call the thing that was before us Lucy because it bore her shape, saw us she drew back with an angry snarl, such as a cat gives when taken unawares, then her eyes ranged over us. Lucy's eyes in form and color, but Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew. At that moment the remnant of my love passed into hate and loathing. Had she then to be killed, I could have done it with savage delight. As she looked, her eyes blazed with unholy light, and the face became wreathed with a voluptuous smile. Oh, God, how it made me shudder to see it! With a careless motion, she flung to the ground, callous as a devil, the child that up to now she had clutched strenuously to her breast, growling over it as a dog growls over a bone. The child gave a sharp cry, and lay there moaning. There was a cold-bloodedness in the act which wrung a groan from Arthur. When she advanced to him with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fell back and hid his face in his hands.

She still advanced, however, and with a languorous, voluptuous grace, said, "Come to me, Arthur. Leave these others and come to me. My arms are hungry for you. Come, and we can rest together. Come, my husband, come!"

There was something diabolically sweet in her tones, something of the tinkling of glass when struck, which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another.

As for Arthur, he seemed under a spell, moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms. She was leaping for them, when Van Helsing sprang forward and held between them his little golden crucifix. She recoiled from it, and, with a suddenly distorted face, full of rage, dashed past him as if to enter the tomb.

When within a foot or two of the door, however,she stopped, as if arrested by some irresistible force. Then she turned, and her face was shown in the clear burst of moonlight and by the lamp, which had now no quiver from Van Helsing's nerves. Never did I see such baffled malice on a face, and never, I trust, shall such ever be seen again by mortal eyes. The beautiful color became livid, the eyes seemed to throw out sparks of hell fire, the brows were wrinkled as though the folds of flesh were the coils of Medusa's snakes, and the lovely, blood-stained mouth grew to an open square, as in the passion masks of the Greeks and Japanese. If ever a face meant death, if looks could kill, we saw it at that moment.

And so for full half a minute, which seemed an eternity, se remained between the lifted crucifix and the sacred closing of her means of entry.

Van Helsing broke the silence by asking Arthur, "Answer me, oh my friend! Am I to proceed in my work?"

"Do as you will, friend. Do as you will. There can be no horror like this ever any more." And he groaned in spirit.

Quincey and I simultaneously moved towards him, and took his arms. We could hear the click of the closing lantern as Van Helsing held it down. Coming close to the tomb, he began to remove from the chinks some of the sacred emblem which he had placed there. We all looked on with horrified amazement as we saw, when he stood back, the woman, with a corporeal body as real at that moment as our own, pass through the interstice where scarce a knife blade could have gone. We all felt a glad sense of relief when we saw the Professor calmly restoring the strings of putty to the edges of the door.

When this was done, he lifted the child and said, "Come now, my friends. We can do no more till tomorrow. There is a funeral at noon, so here we shall all come before long after that. The friends of the dead will all be gone by two, and when the sexton locks the gate we shall remain. Then there is more to do, but not like this of tonight. As for this little one, he is not much harmed, and by tomorrow night he shall be well. We shall leave him where the police will find him, as on the other night, and then to home."
Notice that "voluptuous grace" is evil that only the crucifix can repel. Sexuality has turned her into a Medusa, a dangerous monster.
 
486 pages
0-14-043406-2
This product was released around 1897 by Penguin Classics
I consumed this around January 2010
More: Dracula
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 3/20/2010 10:47:03 AM
 
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Is Our Children Learning? : The Case Against George W. Bush Paul Begala
Is Our Children Learning? : The Case Against George W. Bush                                         I was cleaning up my bookshelf a while ago when I found this book. My wife had read it an entire decade ago so I decided to thumb through it a couple of pages at a time. As you might expect coming from a Democratic political staffer, it's red meat. Begala tears into Bush's past business dealings, specifically the fact that connections rather than merit propelled him. On politics Begala notes Bush's weak record on education, the environment, social security, social safety nets, the poor, health care reform, and the death penalty. His foreign policy knowledge was embarrassing. His support of corporate buddies discouraging. Though not a racist, he failed to lead on race matters. Even on a position of his I support, gun rights, Bush's record is pretty extremely against any gun control. He touches on Bush's service in the Air National Guard in Texas (which he commends) and that in Alabama which helped him avoid Vietnam (which he doesn't commend). Dick Cheney's ultra-conservative record is exposed. The text is peppered with disparaging remarks towards Bush's intelligence under a veneer of playful language. Make no doubt about it, Begala may say he likes the man but his disdain for his policies is on full display.

Ultimately this book doesn't really stand the test of time. The facts hold up but 10 years later it's not really interesting. It's a booklet that was written during the campaign and came out later that campaign. These days it's a "Don't Vote for Bush" blog. At best it's good for a 135 pages of cringing as you realize America voted for George W. Bush ... twice. At least in the second election there was a war going on and Bush was the incumbent. It's hard to understand how Bush got past the first election.
 
135 pages
0-7432-1478-1
This product was released around September 2000 by Simon & Schuster
I consumed this around February 2010
More: Is Our Children Learning? : The Case Against George W. Bush
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 2/16/2010 6:57:45 PM
 
22
The First Men in the Moon H.G. Wells
The First Men in the Moon                                                                           Mr Bedford stumbles across an eccentric scientist, Dr. Cavor, who is trying to develop a substance that blocks out gravitation much like a wall will block out radiation. Cavor, only interested in the discovery, is urged on by Bedford, who sees the economic implications. Somehow with helium Cavor succeeds in producing "cavorite". Instead of finding ways to make money off of it, Cavor convinces Bedford to build a sphere with blinds that turn the cavorite on and off so that they may travel to the moon.

Bedford and Cavor arrive on the moon to find a desolate landscape. However as the sun comes up on the moon an atmosphere thaws out giving life to the surface. They find rapidly growing plant life that rises and falls in the two week span that is the lunar day. The scene of the moon's surface coming to life is fantastically fictionally 100 years after its publication. It can't be taken seriously as hard science fiction almost half a decade after humans walked on the moon. It's a look back into the old vision of space adventure in science fiction.

Eventually (chapter 10) they come across huge worm-like "mooncalves" that are herded by the subterranean "Selenites", the moon's intelligent life. I can't help but thinking The First Men in the Moon is a dig on colonialism. Bedford and Cavor, lost and hungry, first encounter the Selenites right after eating an intoxicating fungus. Angrily they decide that the Selenites have wronged them. There is no indication that the Selenites want to fight or even know of the humans' presence yet with drunken bravado Bedford and Cavor decide to assert their dominance. They are fairly easily captured at this point and taken down below into the fantastic subterranean world the Selenites inhabit.

After learning a little about their bug-like captors, in chapter 13 - "Experiments in Intercourse" - Bedford, Cavor stumble along with the Selenites as the two species try to communicate. Soon though the failure to communicate comes to a head. Bedford and Cavor mistake what we later learn to be harmless actions as an attempt to send them to their deaths. The inability to connect proves fatal as the scared humans lash out and destroy the physically inferior (due to the moon's weak gravity) Selenites. They are chased through the caverns and tunnels of the Selenite land. Finally, chapter 16, they make a stand and, in a scene of sickening violence, utterly demolish a group of Selenites workers in an industrial zone.
For a minute perhaps it was massacre. I was too fierce to discriminate, and the Selenites were probably too scared to fight. At any rate they made no sort of fight against me. I saw scarlet, as the saying is. I remember I seemed to be wading among those leathery, thin things as a man wades through tall grass, mowing and hitting, first right, then left; smash. Little drops of moisture flew about. I trod on things that crushed and piped and went slippery. The crowd seemed to open and close and flow like water. They seemed to have no combined plan whatever. There were spears flew about me, I was grazed over the ear by one. I was stabbed once in the arm and once in the cheek, but I only found that out afterwards, when the blood had had time to run and cool and feel wet.

What Cavor did I do not know. For a space it seemed that this fighting had lasted for an age, and must needs go on for ever. Then suddenly it was all over, and there was nothing to be seen but the backs of heads bobbing up and down as their owners ran in all directions. ... I seemed altogether unhurt. I ran forward some paces, shouting, then turned about. I was amazed.

I had come right through them in vast flying strides, they were all behind me, and running hither and thither to hide.

I felt an enormous astonishment at the evaporation of the great fight into which I had hurled myself, and not a little exultation. It did not seem to me that I had discovered the Selenites were unexpectedly flimsy, but that I was unexpectedly strong. I laughed stupidly. This fantastic moon!

I glanced for a moment at the smashed and writhing bodies that were scattered over the cavern floor, with a vague idea of further violence, then hurried on after Cavor.
The Selenites are like blades of grass to Bedford. He has no connection to them so he squashes them like the bugs he sees them as.

When finally Bedford is back on Earth it is Cavor who is able to establish communication. He is captured but never turns aggressive. There was no way that the humans could have established communication with the lunars in their earlier attempt because they had come as conquistadors under Bedford's influence. The application of Cavor's well meaning science by Bedford's greedy imperialism spells disaster for the Selenite culture. Bedford, when times are tough, curses science for not preparing them for their journey (pg 77) and for not having a purpose (pg 116). It is obvious though that it is Bedford's drive for money, fame, and power that has set them on this course. While science contributes to their predicament it alone could not have lead them anywhere.

The final five chapters are a bit anticlimactic as Bedford is relaying transmissions from Cavor. He describes the infrastructure and technology of the inner moon. The culture is very segmented. Each being has a specific task that their bodies are bred for. Some have arms for fishing. Others herd mooncalves when they are needed and fall into a drug induced sleep when they are not. Some are raised like veel (pg 159) so that they can fit in and power appliances. There are dozens, maybe hundreds or thousands, of other types of Selenites all fitting into different niches. None of the citizens of the moon clamor for a better job or more power. All "know their place". In a jab at his industrial homeland Cavor quips:
That wretched-looking hand-tentacle sticking out of its jar seemed to have a sort of limp appeal for lost possibilities; it haunts me still, although, of course it is really in the end a far more humane proceeding than our earthly method of leaving children to grow into human beings, and then making machines of them.
Finally there is the ruling class, a group whose brains have grown far beyond the size of normal Selenites, are broken into three groups:
The unlimited development of the minds of the intellectual class is rendered possible by the absence of any body skull in the lunar anatomy, that strange box of bone that clamps about the developing brain of man, imperiously insisting 'thus far and no farther' to all his possibilities. They fall into three main classes differing greatly in influence and respect. There are administrators, of whom Phi-oo is one, Selenites of considerable initiative and versatility, responsible each for a certain cubic content of the moon's bulk; the experts like the football-headed thinker, who are trained to perform certain special operations; and the erudite, who are the repositories of all knowledge. To the latter class belongs Tsi-puff, the first lunar professor of terrestrial languages. With regard to these latter, it is a curious little thing to note that the unlimited growth of the lunar brain has rendered unnecessary the invention of all those mechanical aids to brain work which have distinguished the career of man. There are no books, no records of any sort, no libraries or inscriptions. All knowledge is stored in distended brains much as the honey-ants of Texas store honey in their distended abdomens. The lunar Somerset House and the lunar British Museum Library are collections of living brains...
The lunar king eventually sees the danger in allowing more humans to arrive so, despite his culture's awe of Earth, he squelches any further communications.
 
176 pages
none
This product was released around 1901 by Berkely Highland
I consumed this around January 2010
More: The First Men in the Moon
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 2/6/2010 11:39:56 AM
 
333
Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky
Crime and Punishment                                                                                Dostoevsky's Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the most infuriating character I have ever encountered. Throughout the novel I just wanted to reach into the pages, grab him about the neck, and say "just lay low, calm down, and this will all pass over". Raskolnikov is an impoverished ex-student who sets out to kill a pawnbroker for the duel purpose of robbery and ridding the world of her pernicious presence. Almost immediately after the murder Raskolnikov's mental state, never a serene lagoon, gets choppy. The guilt over the deed engulfs his mind and forces him into betraying his culpability to detective Porfiry Petrovich. He makes himself a suspect when there was no reason for him to be linked to the crime. Never have I followed a character whose mind has gone to such lengths to confess a crime. The "punishment" the title speaks of is the tax Raskolnikov's "crime" puts on his mind. It is only when he atones, with the guidance of the prostitute Sonia, does the mental anguish start to subside. Siberia with a clean conscience seems like a welcome respite to his pre-confession mental state.
 
449 pages
1-5661-9432-6
This product was released around 1866 by Barnes & Noble Books
I consumed this around 2003
More: Crime and Punishment
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/31/2010 12:20:03 PM
 
333
No News, or What Killed the Dog? Ray Bradbury
No News, or What Killed the Dog?                                                                    A family deals with the death of their dog. I couldn't really focus on this story. It didn't catch my interest. That's the problem with short stories, if they don't catch your interest early you miss the whole thing.
 
10 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: No News, or What Killed the Dog?
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:09:11 AM
 
1
The Dwarf Ray Bradbury
The Dwarf                                                                                           A dwarf frequents a carnival house of mirrors because it makes him look bigger. The two owners of the attraction try to intervene in their own opposite ways, both backfire.
 
10 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: The Dwarf
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:08:38 AM
 
22
A Wild Night in Galway Ray Bradbury
A Wild Night in Galway                                                                              Three friends wanting a wild time get more than they asked for.
 
5 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: A Wild Night in Galway
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:08:10 AM
 
22
Unterderseaboat Doktor Ray Bradbury
Unterderseaboat Doktor                                                                              A German U-boat captain escapes away to America and becomes a psychoanalyst. His periscope becomes a "psychological kaleidoscope" in which his patients' problems are kept.
 
11 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Unterderseaboat Doktor
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:07:35 AM
 
22
Another Fine Mess Ray Bradbury
Another Fine Mess                                                                                   Bradbury's fascination with Laurel and Hardy mainfests itself again in this light hearted ghost story. Laurel and Hardy haunt a familiar place until they are made aware of their significance to the lives of the people they haunt. To tell them is, sadly, to vanquish their ghosts - a them seen in Bradbury's "That Woman on the Lawn".
 
8 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Another Fine Mess
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:06:58 AM
 
22
The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair Ray Bradbury
The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair                                                                    As the title suggests, a relationship is sparked by a mutual love of the comedic duo of Laurel and Hardy. It isn't enough for one so the other walks away in pain. Years later, their lives diverged, they still have their original connection. Bradbury's love of Laurel and Hardy is seen in several of his stories.
 
7 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:06:24 AM
 
333
One For his Lordship, and One For the Road! Ray Bradbury
One For his Lordship, and One For the Road!                                                         A selfish, greedy, rich man dies. Instead of passing on his wealth - as measured by his extensive wine collection - on to the common people he decides to "take it with him". The law not on their side though they find a clever loophole around his lordship's disdain.
 
8 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: One For his Lordship, and One For the Road!
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:05:45 AM
 
4444
February 1999: Ylla Ray Bradbury
February 1999: Ylla                                                                                 I first read this as a chapter in The Martian Chronicles. A Martian wife, Ylla, dreams of the arrival of a human explorer, Nathaniel York. Her husband, Yll, jealous of her interest in the mysterious creature, York, does what he can to discourage her. The story is full of anticipation as we wait for the realization of Ylla's dreams.
 
11 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: February 1999: Ylla
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:04:52 AM
 
333
Banshee Ray Bradbury
Banshee                                                                                             Banshee is another one of Bradbury's subdued but terrifying horror stories. In a large house out in the country one friend tries to scare another with stories of a ghost outside. What could be more frightening than looking out into the cold dark quiet and wondering if there is something out there approaching, waiting, watching?
 
12 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Banshee
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:04:17 AM
 
4444
That Woman on the Lawn Ray Bradbury
That Woman on the Lawn                                                                              The ghost of a lost love visits the front lawn of a man in the middle of the night. He welcomes the haunting but determines that as soon as she realizes why she is there here hauntings will end. I didn't get much from this story. Lost love is a well trod theme in Bradbury stories, as are ghosts.
 
12 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: That Woman on the Lawn
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:03:40 AM
 
22
The Wind Ray Bradbury
The Wind                                                                                            A man in haunted by a howling wind he encountered in the Himalayans. It chases him back to American where he locks himself in his home, calling his friend for support. Eventually he succumbs to the wind. His friend on the end of the line, never believing "the wind" was an actual danger, is affected by what happened. Fear is destructive and contagious.
 
9 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: The Wind
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:03:04 AM
 
22
Remember Sascha? Ray Bradbury
Remember Sascha?                                                                                    Maggie and Douglas Spaulding return as a couple having a baby. They name it "Sascha" and pretend to have conversations with it.

At first I thought they had lost a child earlier and were fearful they would lose "Sascha" again.
...he had threatened to arrive a few months after their marriage to destroy their economy and scare off the novel, but then he had melted away, leaving only his echo of a threat.
Rereading the story though this quote only indicates they thought they may be expecting.
 
7 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Remember Sascha?
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:02:32 AM
 
22
Junior Ray Bradbury
Junior                                                                                              An old man calls up three of his past loves to come see his return from "dormancy". The return is fleeting though, as it was the first time around.
 
6 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Junior
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:01:48 AM
 
333
Lafayette, Farewell Ray Bradbury
Lafayette, Farewell                                                                                 A World war I veteran is haunted by his actions in the skies over Europe during the war. Even though what he did was just run of the mill war he cannot forget the lives he ended when he shot enemy planes out of the sky. He is disturbed mostly at the youth of his victims and the thought of the long lives he took away from them.
 
8 pages
978-0-06-054488-1
This product was released around 2003 by Perennial
I consumed this around September 2009
More: Lafayette, Farewell
Posted by: Jeff Egnaczyk at: 1/30/2010 11:01:08 AM
 
333

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