Damascus Nights

I finished Damascus nights last Wednesday and decided to wait on posting my final words about the book. I was testing the lasting power of the book's impact on my life. It was a great book. I don't know if it stands up to many of the classics I have been reading lately, but it definitely is worth reading if you ever get the chance.

The story was the perfect amount of fantasy and truth. The way it did this was by placing a very small fantasy plotline into a story of modern living in the city of Damascus. There was very little magic or mystery in the story, but the one magic thing that happened opened your eyes to the stories that Salim and his friends tell. The morals of their stories are sometimes ambiguous and sometimes obvious, but the parables themselves gave me hints of spirituality that made the book incredibly rewarding to read. The characters in the book were all sympathetic and likable. By the end of the novel I wanted them to be my friends, or perhaps for the book to be the first in an indefinite series of books involving these characters.

It is always exciting for me to experience new cultures through literature. I had never really read anything set in the Middle East or written by an author from the region, so this was like a whole new world to me.* The story even touched on that a bit when one character told stories of America and none of the other characters would believe the things he said. The best of that was his story of trying to barter in department store in New York City. As I said before, the stories that were being told sometimes had simple and childish morals that were written to remind you of them in a creative way. Sometimes the stories had larger themes and were focused politics rather than simple morality. Those stories were usually very tragic and affected me in a more intimate way ( i.e. Made me want to learn more or get involved with solving the probles mentioned).

Anyhow, enough Jibber jabber. Great read! Check it out!


*(Funny that I said "a whole new world" because the story of Aladdin and the seven theives is in the book A Thousand and One Nights which is one of this author's main influences. This was done completely by accident.)

Damascus Nights notable joke

"There are these two assassins hiding right outside the presidential palace. They're waiting for the president to come out, and their fingers are glued to the triggers of their pistols. Well the whole day goes by, but this president never leaves the palace. So the assassins keep waiting. The next day comes and goes, and still no sign of the president. Then the third day comes and the same thing happens. By now the men are pretty upset.

'Where the hell can he be?' Asks one.

The other man turns to his companion, full of concern, and says,

'God, I hope nothing's happened to him!'"

Damascus Nights notable quote

"You should use your head and learn: never tell everything you know."

Damascus Nights

While bored at The White Pine today I picked up one of Caleb's books hoping to find something to entertain me on this slow day. The book I chose to start was one called Damascus Nights by Rafik Schami, and it has so far (78 pages) been a very rewarding choice. Lately I have been constantly listening to the latest MeWithoutYou album "It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright!" which has a few very meaningful songs written in the old Eastern storytelling style. Listening to this has caused me to be more interested in reading old fables and parables, so when I saw this book in Caleb's book corner I decided to check it out. The story is about a man who is the town of Damascus' best storyteller. He has a community of good friends who meet at his house every night to hear his stories. One night a woman's voice wakes him from his sleep to tell him that she is his story telling fairy, that it has been her all along that has helped him to be such a great story teller. She then tells him that she has to leave and take his voice with her, and that the only way to regain his voice is to receive seven certain gifts within three months. His friends attempt to find these seven gifts with food, perfumes, wines and many other items. What they finally decide is that the gifts must be stories told by the seven friends to the man who has been telling them stories throughout the years. So far I have read one of their fables and am looking forward to the remaining six that make up the rest of the book.

The first story had a character that not only had lost his voice, but also every method of communication. He sold his entire voice (vocal, gestural, and even his eyes were silent) so to feed his wife, who married him because she loved his beautiful voice. The story then became a three way chase with the man chasing the wizard who bought his voice and the wife chasing the husband whom she still loved. I wouldn't want to reveal too much of the story because it is definitely worth reading for yourself.

What I want to say about this book so far is that it really does illuminate the importance of good storytelling. It is interesting to me to read a story that is written incredibly down to earth, but also completely mythical at the same time. The way the author presents the story is in a way where none of the characters are shocked by or in disbelief of the stories being told. The stories are spiritual and meaningful, yet completely false and impractical. Now, I understand that this is certainly not a new type of writing, and that it is in fact probably one of the oldest forms of fiction in history, but it interests me how little we hear these types of stories as adults. As children we hear mythical tales all the time through numerous types of media, but as adults in our culture we seldom hear these types of parables and take them seriously. Probably most of the mythical stories that Disney has turned into full length cartoons were originally written for adults and children alike, and written to be seriously considered instead of merely enjoyed as a novelty. Obviously the subtle ways we disengage ourselves from the importance of storytelling is a major divide between Eastern and Western cultures, but it is still strange to me how easily we write off the childish fiction of a man selling his voice to a wizard as something to laugh at or a method of teaching children morality. Perhaps if our culture embraced mythology as a core learning tool for all ages we would be better as a whole at virtuous things like honesty and forgiveness, and perhaps learn to value the things we have like our ability to communicate with one another.

The 5000 Year Leap

This was a book that my dad wanted me to read. It was about the founding of the constitution and how the establishment of that document and the 28 principles it was founded on has given mankind a technological and sociological leap of 500o years. Basically it seems that it was written as a text book for people who want to believe that the founding fathers of the United States were gods among men and staunchly conservative politicians and that the U.S. is God's country and other things I completely don't understand. I have many problems with the book, one of which being his writing style, yet I am glad I read it for the sake of knowing the political perspective of many of the people in this area. I don't really want to write a response to the book, I just wanted to cement the fact that I had read the book in my blog for historical purposes.

Cat's Cradle

Another recently read book was Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle. This was another novel about the nature of human beings. It focused on the two subjects of modernized warfare and politicized religion. The creation of the atom bomb (also of the fake substance ice-nine) is completed by a character that has no interest in any normal social behavior. He is a scientist that cares only to tinker with things and play, and not with the repercussions of his actions. The U.S. military takes advantage of this by giving him ideas to tinker around with until he invents something that can benefit their cause. Hence the creation of the atom bomb and the creation of ice-nine, a substance that was made because the general of the Marines was tired of his men crawling around in the mud, but didn't realize that solving the problem of mud would in essence be the end of the world as we know it. As we explore the mind of Felix Hoenikker through the narrator's interviews of people around him, we also learn about the government of San Lorenzo and the history of that nations political and religious system. The government was founded by two men who wanted to create a sort of utopia for the people there. They first invent a religion based on lies (lies that are admitted lies that you can better your life through believing) and then attempt to spread it together. When they realize that religion is best practiced under persecution one of the founders is "chased" into the jungle and the other places a ban on the practice of said religion (Bokononism). Because of this Bokononism is accepted by all who live on the island as their religion. At the end of the novel, the sons and daughters of Felix Hoenikker give away their inheritance of ice-nine for personal gain and it is used by one of those to whom it was given. After it is used the world is introduced to a new ice age, where bokononists are encouraged to end their sufferings by eating the ice-nine that surrounds them.

I have really enjoyed all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels that I have read and this one was not an expection. His ability to reflect reality in a ridiculous and humorous way while still giving a highly refined and sensitive perspective on life is something that reaches me on levels much higher than true religious or socially sensitive works. The critique of modern science was dead on and the idea of religion being a lie, yet worth it for the qualitiy of life, is actually a great reflection of how I can sometimes view my own spirituality when I am in doubt. Not that I completely give in to my doubts, but that I am comforted by the idea that even if it all turns out false in the end, I am a better person because of my faith.

It is hard for me to reflect on a novel when I have so few criticisms, so I would say that how I feel about the book is completely communicated within the pages of Cat's Cradle. So if you are interested in how I summed up the book, you should just read it.

Candide

I recently read the short novel Candide by Voltaire. This was a unique story about the nature of mankind written by a very pessimistic philosopher. In the story the main character, Candide, goes through numerous ridiculous and depressing situations, losing friends and family and lovers along the way. All through these situations Candide believes that everything that happens is good and providential because that was what he was taught by his mentor. "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." is his and his mentor, Pangloss'es motto. By the end of the book each one of his friends is thought to have been killed by some tragic end, but then discovered to have survived whatever incident had befallen them. By the end of the novel everything seems to have turned out the way Candide had wanted it, but it is concluded with Candide being unhappy and unsatisfied with the perfect life of which he had dreamed.

The story was very comical and I enjoyed reading it, but I cannot claim to agree with Voltaire's position of the human condition. It seems in the end that he believes that life is just a series of unfortunate events that we were merely placed into and are expected to live through. Although Candide and his mentor are both unwavering optimists, by the end of the book you see that they are both fools that cannot be believed. Even Candide himself resigns that their motto that all is for the best is not truly the case in this or any other world.

Candide was written as a response to infamous "the problem of evil", and leaves the reader just as confused and indecisive as any college course on the subject would. My personal beliefs on this subject is that we don't see "evil" in it's proper form. Pain and death are not evil, they are natural. What we should be questioning is the nature of man and how we are the creator's of pain and suffering through selfishness and ignorance. This could be a world that doesn't have evil if all could realize that our purpose on life is to love one another.