The Upswing

The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again by Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett

America was very individualistic in the gilded age. Then the country came together for the progressive era, then went individualistic in the 20s and together in the depression. Now we are individualistic again. Will we come together?

The books is a mishmash of statistics and conclusions. Social Security is declared a "phantom regressive tax". Different income quartiles are compared at time periods. This is a hallmark of "misleading comparisons". It says nothing about individuals getting richer or poorer, just that the groups are changing. 

The central premise also seems to be a confusing mix of government intervention vs. societal values. There are also some examples comparing the wealth of two Romneys. George turned down excessive bonuses and paid high income tax rates. Mitt received more bonuses and paid lower income tax. the authors acknowledge that this does not necessarily represent the society at large, as they should. After all, if the board offered Romney a big bonus and her turned it down, it does show that society did desire to reward executives handsomely, and he had refused to do so. US government spending is much greater  than it had been in the past. Spending on government welfare programs also uses consumes a significantly larger portion of the income than in the 1950. If we can be in a condition of hyper individuality when the government is spending heavily on the group, it must be time to look elsewhere. How can society be more unified?

Lost Sound: The Forgotten Art of Radio Storytelling

Lost Sound: The Forgotten Art of Radio Storytelling by Jeff Porter

Radio storytelling is a special art. There have been great accomplishments in the past. The form has seen somewhat of a rebirth now with Podcasts. However, most podcasts play it safe while pandering to their audience. Classic radio would serve up popular fare while also taking risks. The bulk of the book presents case studies of innovations in radio storytelling. There are discussions of classic mysteries, sound effect impacts, orchestration of "voices" in arctic storytelling, and the specialist "news" of NPR. This is one book that would be greatly served by a separate production for the audiobook. Significant time was spent describing radio production. It would have been better if these productions could have been played for themselves instead of being described.

Sea of Tranquility: A Novel

Sea of Tranquility starts out with a few seemingly unrelated chapters spanning widely different places and time. Time ranges from a century in the past until centuries in the future. In the future, time travel is a possibility, but it is heavily controlled. A bureaucracy exists to prevent negative impacts of time travel. However, like a good bureaucracy, it defines "negative impacts" as things that negatively impact the organization itself. It them becomes clear how these various episodes are tied together. The book gets better the more you get into it.

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

Rationality explores the history of rational thought and the benefits that rationality provides. It also looks at cases of irrational behavior. Irrational actions can be harmless - until they are not. People can often fall prey to confirmation bias, claiming to be rational, but only accepting facts that confirm what they already believe. The true benefit of rationality comes when you are willing to change when overwhelming evidence presents itself.

The power of evidence can also be challenging. Novelty does get press. Thus we me be presented with many of the rare, but novel cases. This can cause us to feel that the rare is more common. Plane crashes are very rare, yet we hear a lot about them. Car crashes are a much more common way to die, but don't get nearly as much publicity. In science, the novel result gets a lot of press. A confirmation of something common would not. The novel result may have a very low probability that is difficult to reproduce. Bayesian logic would discount this rare items.

We must also be careful of logical leaps of faith. There are often small holes in our logical jumps.

The book ends with a look at the current state of the world. There is a great deal of political fragmentation. Trump and his reality distorting "fake news" mantras gets a lot of publicity for the irrational behavior. However, the left can be equally irrational. Both sides tend to hold on to the studies that favor their point of view, disregarding others. Academia has destroyed much of its credibility with the silencing of dissenting views. Rationality requires listening to all points of view to come up with the correct result. It is possible that what is correct today is not tomorrow. A rational should be willing to accept that.

How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion

Does religion provide objective benefits to followers? David DeSteno has spent time analyzing religious practices and how they provide concrete benefit to adherents.  Many rituals provide concrete provable benefits of themselves. The act of interacting as a group helps the members of the group. Actions such as praying and meditation also have provable benefit. Benefits accrue to those that actively participate and follow a religion. Merely claiming to be a member of a religion is not enough. 

Rituals for moving to different phases of life are also beneficial. Going through a rite of passage helps one to better feel able to take on new responsibilities. The faith in afterlife helps people to better cope with death. (Though one needs to have a strong faith to benefit. Week followers that question their religion tend to have even more difficulty coping.) Even practices such as ritual heelings have shown to help people to recover from illness. (The placebo effect, ritual and belief all help.) 

Religions have accumulated a long history of actions to benefit their followers. They have also provided a basis for moral behavior. Today, religious adherence has faltered. Ironically, many of the stodgy traditions are what people are seeking in religious practice. Science has shown that having a strong faith is valuable. Many people are attempting to extract beneficial components (like meditation). However, the best benefits accrue to those that take on the whole package.

The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Writing is a complex endeavor. The author has some ideas that they want to communicate to others. However, the words are only symbols for the thoughts created in a specific point in time. A reader may have a different background than the writer and not understand things in the same way as an author. Successful writing succeeds in allowing a reader to understand what the author wanted to communicate. 

There are many literary devices that can both help and hinder communication. Using a language that the audience can easily understand is helpful. Needlessly defining words or defining too much can created problems. (A scientist may frequently use an abbreviation in their work, but a reader would not know what it meant.) Excessive use of flowery language can make a work tedious. Picking words that sound closer to their meaning can make reading more enjoyable.

The English language does not have a governing body. Proper English is the language that people understand. Many pedantic rules or just interpretations by a few vocal people. If you are writing to an audience that is concerned about these rules, follow them. If not, there is no need. Some of these rules, like prohibitions on split infinitives came about by comparing English to Latin. Other arose when the due to poor understanding of grammar itself. Many "rules" from the sticklers will make language sound unduly formal and stilted. There are other common mistakes that do interfere with understanding. Poor punctuation can confuse meaning. (Unfortunately, the rules of punctuation - especially quotes and commas - can result in confusing language.)

The Sense of Style does a good job of focussing on the proper use of style. Pedantic rules often make writing worse. Understanding the audience is key to success. Looking up a word or a rule is the best way to understand whether or not it should be used. Some "poor writing" has near universal approval. Others may be commonly used, but are are obviously malapropisms. The acceptance of stylistic rules is always evolving. A writer can use style guides to help focus a style, but must continue to focus on the current audience.

Rabbit, Run

Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom was the star of his high school basketball team. Now he is in a marriage he does not like. His pregnant wife finally pushes him over the edge with her vices. He decides to leave. However, he has trouble carrying it out. He is self conscious in his drive away. So, he goes to some place of comfort - his basketball coach's house. He ends up spending time with a woman of questionable character, but makes it back to see his wife and return the car. He continues to have some conflicts with his desires and the poor state of his life. A minister takes him under his wing to try to help. (The minister is very "human" with his own family squabbles.) Eventually, he returns home to his wife as the child is born. However, the child drowns in a tub and he is more concerned with his lack of guilt. Though he is an adult, Rabbit has trouble taking on responsibility with the vagaries of life. There are many people that want to help him. He is somewhat willing to accept the help, but still struggles with his own personal decisions. 

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Bowling Alone identifies a significant decrease in civic involvement and social capital since World War II. then it seeks to explain this fall. The book is meticulously detailed an is very dense for a "popular" work. Lack of "social capital" is seen as a bad thing in part because it leads to a lack of societal trust. (The population of lawyers has risen significantly during the study time period.) People that are involved in a socially active society also tend to be happier.

The author first picked a number of measures to identify social involvement. Active church and club membership, voting and sports league participation were some of the measures. The data was analyzed to tease out relative decreases that were masked by an increasing population. Time series data was also analyzed to see the differences. (Often a single population would remain active, but a younger generation would not.) These measures generally showed a decrease, however there were some exceptions. While people were often not members of chapter-based organizations, they did often write checks to national organizations. Evangelic and proselytizing churches also showed an uptick in activity while "mainline" churches were falling.

A number of of hypotheses were chosen to explain the lack of social involvement. Some did not seem to play a significant role. (Liberal politics did not seem to cause a decrease in social capital - however, I do wonder if policies would be enacted in response to a decrease.) Newspaper readers tended to be more socially active. Television, on the other hand, was strongly correlated with decreased social involvement. Suburbanization  was also strongly correlated. People in small towns were most socially involved, while those in metropolitan areas were least involved. The suburbs were in some ways worse than the those in the central cities. The suburbs had connections to many different suburbs. They also tended to have a more homogeneous local government. 

The chain in media has caused many different changes in social activity. New telecommunications means are able to reproduce parts of the in-person communication experience, but still lack the immersion of in-person communication. They also tend to advance to a more isolated experience. TV originally had isolated people, but they could socialize later after watching the same programs. Now there are many different channels and on-demand streaming removing that common experience. The book was written in the early days of the internet. A lot has changed since then. TikTok and Zoom provide a for an audio-video experience. However, they are still lacking compared to "real" people. The lack of "general" community involvement has also led to a more polarized society as people can remotely be involved with those that think the same. Getting back our social capital would be extremely valuable, but it is hard work.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces

The Hero With a Thousand Faces combines Freudian psychoanalysis with mythology to present a "universal" of human beliefs. The comparison of different archetypal myths across different culture is appealing. However, the book gets really bogged down in the psychoanalysis. The discussion of myths is interrupted with analysis of dreams (which often seems to show some sexual or maternal feeling.) The analysis of different mythologies has an odd relationship with "non-western" mythologies. They are at the same time referred and treated as inferior. This may just be a symptom of the analysis which seems to bring out the most extreme views that match the thesis. This leaves me wanting more, and stories are often left half-told, ending once they have got their point across.
I was less than impressed with the book. The conclusion and epilogue were especially demoralizing. He was attempting a focus on mythologies and had great respect for the importance in societies. He acknowledged the many different explanations of myths, and laments the lack of myths in modern society. (Society discovered the "light" of science, but lost the "light" of myth.) There was so much potential in a work of comparative mythology. Alas, the actual work got bogged down with the then-modern theory of psychoanalysis that it was not able to provide adequate treatment of the different myths.

Ender's World

Ender's World is made up of a number of essays about Ender's Game. Most are by literary types describing how the novel impacted their lives and writing career. Interspersed with the essays are some short Q&As and other short bits from Card providing details on the book and his writing process.

What I found most interesting was some of the commentary about the end of Ender's Game. One started out describing how he initially wanted to change the ending to keep a strong "action" story. After reading again, he later realized the ending was useful after all and decided to keep it. I had almost the exact opposite experience. I did not care much for Ender's Game. It just seemed to be a lame action story. However, the ending really turned me on. It showed that there was some promise, and lead me to read the excellent sequel, Speaker for the Dead. (In one of the essays, Card mentions that the novel form with its ending was written to set up Speaker for the Dead.)

When Ender's Game was released, I was reading a lot of Science Fiction. However, I have no recollection of the story. Either it had no impact on me, or I never read it. (I'm guessing I never read it, since I did enjoy some of Card's other Mormon humor and Commodore 64 computer writings.)

Did Ender's Game really have a big role on literature and society? One essay talked about the true independent world-changing child protagonist. Previously, children would have things happen to them, but now it seems every story is lead by a child or a teenager. Was Ender's Game really that influential in bringing out the strong-willed child? Or did it just go along for the ride? The Narnia children did a pretty good job of saving the world on their own. Roald Dahl's children lead the narrative. Charlie Bucket may have been dominated by Willy Wonka's machinations, but Mathilda sure enacted plenty of change on her own. Today we have Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, Twilight and Harry Potter. All are stories where a child or teen needs to make decisions to help save the world. Have we swung too far in the direction of strong-willed child? Are adults just not interesting anymore? Do books need to be centered on functional adolescents to be successful?

Another interesting essay was from a military leader who used Ender's Game to train other military officers. I was amazed to hear that Card did not have any military experience. He seems to dive deeply into the experience of a true leader - the person that controls rather than the person that wears the stripes. I can see how the story would be useful in modelling leadership. The "crusty" military are concerned more with their own position and rank, and are more able to sit in an office than fight a war. The "leaders" need to be able to think on their own and value the goal above personal gain. (It is interesting to hear that both Card and the military leader were giddy about their meeting.)

Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe

Where did computers come from? Despite Turing having his name in the title, this book focuses on the roll of John von Neumann. A math genius as a child, he played a central part in bringing about the early computers. There were also other players who helped influence the computer revolution. The recruiting of refugees from Europe to American universities helped get the brain power together. The need to rapidly calculate trajectories for warfare helped to provide a goal (and a source for funding.)

The book suffers from not knowing what it wants to be. At times it is a history of the origin of the computer. Then it switches to biography mode, providing intimate details of the lives and relationships of the people involved. Then it makes another abrupt turn and decides it is going to talk about the philosophy of the digital universe. Perhaps each of these could have made a compelling book. Alas, all three together do not work well.