People of the Black Sun is in the genre of historical fiction. Really, a better category would probably be “Mythological Historical Fiction”. All of these labels fall under a much larger one, that one might simply call “Plausible.” Why all the caveats?
Well, for one thing, it is certain that the book hits upon what Native Americans believed and practiced. On the other hand, the only people who can really tell us what they believed and practiced are gone, and so one by necessity has to fill in some large blanks. Sure, there are smaller groups and individuals, but smaller groups and individuals are much different than large groups of people and their tribal, collective, history.
Nonetheless, the “Gears” do a good job inventing and extrapolating mythologies that are likely “close” to what the tribes believed. It is certain that a resource change or a “climate shift” caused the indigenous people of the Americas to have a reason to have inter-tribal conflict.
Our book opens nearly in the middle of the end of such a conflict, and tosses us into the gruesome scene of many hundreds of dead bodies and the kind of mortuary practices that took place to ensure that one’s enemies did not return from the “Great Beyond” to enact their vengeance. Along the way, our story centers on one specific Native American individual who survives a particularly extreme storm and seems to be a kind of Native American Prophet. This character, it appears, can see another woman who he knows, but it is not clear as to whether she is among the world of the living, or the dead. In the meantime, there are sorcerers afoot and witches, and issues with genetic authority and chieftains. The entire civilization is upended in the sense that only something like a book out of Revelation in the Bible can come close to describing.
Much of the rest of the book centers on the subsequent warring between tribes and whether the Prophet is in fact a Prophet, and what the exact nature of the woman he continues to see is. The tribes desperately need to stop infighting and find some manner of unity, so they can face the environmental challenges that are threatening to cause their extinction.
It is always a delicate operation for those that are considered to be “non-native” to undertake any work that concerns Native American history. It is likely that these two authors are “given a pass” to write about the subjects because they have PhD’s. Of course, colleges and those affiliated with college have also not been forthcoming about the actual history of many tribes, and so one is left to wonder exactly how much of the book is based on academic research and how much of it is based upon a kind of mythological fill-in-the-blank.
Either way, the book does well in describing a hypothetical Native American history, and does uncover some of the facts about what has been “forgotten”. This forgotten history is not especially described, but we are left to intuit how much of it is is actually the case and how much of it is “invented”. In that sense, one wishes one had the lines drawn more clearly, so one could “remember” whatever it was that was “lost”. One should not expect either of the Gears, however, to make this clear to them. Instead, one should look at their catalog of books which are “fictional” covering such historical topics. Who is it, that does not want our history remembered or deliberately told? This question is one that People of the Black Sun puts forward with a kind of force that only “Sky Messenger”–the main character in the book, might understand.
Reading a book about Richard Feynman is always a risky proposition. You never know if what you are reading is actual history, embellished history, something Feynman invented as a kind of legend, or some combination of all the above.
It really does not help that most of the world’s intellectual strata see Feynman as a kind of cerebral demigod. Wherever this happens, the “cult of personality” people are never far behind with their own specific legends and stories about the historical character that is the object of their veneration.
Funnily enough, Feynman would have fairly hated people who do this strange “hero-worship” on the basis of perceived authority. Indeed, the entire book makes the case that Fenyman attempted quite hard to avoid responsibility as a lifestyle choice while continually painting himself into a corner that would result in his having to assume the very responsibility he tried to eschew.
This work describes what is likely an accurate picture of the life of Feynman and the narrator of the tale knows when to “provide exposition” and when to back-off. There did not seem to be a sense of the author attempting to accomplish any particular agenda with the story of Feynman other than to relate the tale as accurately as possible while keeping the interest of the reader.
Feynman’s world, it appears, is really a kind of desolation that he navigates in a way so as to make it appear as though a child were innocently perceiving it through a lens of curiosity. Whether this is a coping strategy or merely a personal trait is difficult to tell. What is clear, however, is that Feynman suffered many tragedies–from the death of his first wife–to his probable irradiation from the atomic bomb he helped engineer–to the torturous convulsions of relationships he had to try to cope with what has the earmarks of being the grief of the death of his wife.
Throughout the ordeal, Feynman, it seems, is simply trying to “have a good time”. Sometimes it seems his idea of “fun” borders on the cruel–particularly with his relationships after his wife dies up until his second marriage. Other times his idea of fun is the same novelty anyone feels when they are inquiring about how the world works. Feynman’s brand of magic–for that is really the best description of how he went about describing the world around him–happened to be mathematical modeling and calculation. This tool he wielded with a singular kind of honesty that we seldom see in science today–put differently–he knew the limitations of the tool that he held. He never moved beyond the ability of what the tool was he used to attempt to describe something that the tool could not know. If the model described how molecules moved as a statistical average–that was what it described and to try to say anything more of what that meant was a meaningless question that might possibly be unknowable.
This perhaps “ruthless” persistence on epistemological implications did not bode well for philosophy which was the chosen career of one of his children for a time which produced the kind of friction between them one would expect. Likewise, religion fared no better, as to be Jewish during the time Feynman was trying to make his career was seen as a handicap at a university level since universities had “caps” on how many Jewish people they would accommodate. Eventually, Feynman becomes alien to his own Jewishness as what might be described as a kind of sacrifice to the altar of the secular university. This sacrifice was of course willingly made because Feynman believed faith and knowledge could not co-exist as knowledge would cease to be developed as people assumed faithful answers to potentially knowable things.
Throughout the narrative there are many clashing ideas or propositions pulling at Feynman and he always seems to reconcile them. If he makes a viscous review of your work as a fellow scientist, he asks the publication to hold on to it since he wishes not to hurt their feelings. If he breaks up with a lover, he seems to write them letters of recommendation. He does not always come out a hero. There are times, for instance, where he is paying for what appear to be abortions due to potential pregnancies. Eventually, one former flame tells him that when one seeks pleasure, it is always the “innocent” who wind up paying the price for the “fun”. Of course, this is so because the guilty, no one asserts, should be excluded from having to pay a price. Indeed, the atomic bomb was an implement where many people paid with their lives and surely not all of them were guilty of the same sins which Japan was. It is also true that Feynman had “fun” making the bomb. He is not touched in the same way other makers of the bomb are with a sort of remorse. Indeed, Feynman often times cannot remember which hand is his left hand, or his right hand. There is a curious neutrality to his morality.
All in all, Gleick brings all these details about Feynman to the forefront in a masterful way. He avoids making any judgments on Feynman deftly, and allows the story to tell itself, which is often a difficult task when making a biography of any person. We learn to feel rather sorry for Feynman in the sense that he endures many tragedies even though Feynman probably would not want us to. By the end, when Feynman is asked to testify before the government with NASA concerning the space shuttle “Challenger” exploison, we can better understand his reaction: “You are trying to ruin my life!” He simply cannot seem to get away from explosions and science and agendas and having to be the lone wolf who discovers the truth.
For that truth, Feynman has to pay quite heavy prices which eventually include his own life due to a series of cancers of a somewhat unexplained origin. Of course, the natural explanation is that it was the radioactivity from the bomb tests. A better explanation, though, may have been all the hell Feynman lived through. Genius, as a whole, does an excellent job–allowing us to go through that life with its ups and downs, sorrows and joys. If a copy of this book comes your way, and you are looking for some reading that will both deepen your understanding of some rather modern science, and explore a curious character who was at the forefront, it is well worth your time and investment.
The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump is a book where there is no mistaking the voice. In its pages, we are thrust into 1980’s New York upper crust social scenes complete with all the turmoil and corruption that backdrop entails. Trump does not allow us much time to adjust as we move straight into his agenda for the day which includes meetings for–you guessed it–business deals of varying kinds.
Trump lets us know by his agenda that he is busy and he is rubbing shoulders with some “very important people” which are likely the sort that you will never, yourself meet. These personages are dealing in dollar amounts that you will also probably never see in your lifetime. This is, for certain, a calculated 1980’s ‘business executive dream’ or wish fulfillment kind of voyeurism. The details of course, are interesting since one wonders how people that have the kinds of money at this strata of living make decisions. What are their days like, exactly?
In reading the book through, one discovers that mostly it is about making money and lawsuits. Urban development is a war zone complete with boards that deal with air right-of-ways, competitors, and city planners who all basically are obstacles, at least from the point of view of New York in the 80’s Donald Trump. Quite probably, this is the most accurate picture one is likely to get from someone in a position such as Trump. While it is true that the view is laced with the self-promotion that Trump is famous for, it is also true that he really, even at this point in his development, is calling the situation as he sees it.
Does this endear him to the reader? No, not really. That does not appear to be the function of the book. In most all scenarios, Trump wants you to know that he gets things done, and he is not shy about the fact that he is the best at doing so. Along the way, however, we do discover that he has certain guiding moral principles he is not willing to budge on, which is a tribute to his character.
Most often in the book Trump is discussing his ability to finish ambitious projects. To get these projects finished requires, in his words, “Leaning on the Contractor”. While this is likely true in his experience, it is also true that if you happen to not be a billionaire that this tactic might leave you contractor-less. The expectation of future work is a hidden kind of leverage that Trump is using quite effectively to get what he sets out to do to get done. He also is able to do much of this because his companies are private and where he has partnerships he usually buys out the other party so that the only person he has to answer to is himself.
Trump is fond of glamour and he wants everyone to know that he lives large. He is not hiding what his tastes and accomplishments and way of living are in this book. If he wants a bedroom the size of a small football field, he makes it and that is that.
Where Trump strikes a more sour tone is when it comes to developing some “older apartment complexes” that involve rent control. Here, he has a dialog about how he wishes to “help” the homeless by giving them apartments temporarily in a building he is hoping to tear down. He says that his motivation is purely charitable, but he also wants the renters who are under rent control out so he can tear the building down. He admits that he somewhat delights in the idea that the rent control people who take advantage of the situation would be actually near the disadvantaged, but the passage seems to be tone deaf. Trump, and his life, at this point according to this book, are about as far removed from the poor as it is possible to be. That this charitable extension is only temporary and “sort of” suits his aims at the same time is not especially a flattering view of his morality.
On the other hand, there are things he does do such as assisting a widow to burn the mortgage to her farm after her husband committed suicide hoping his insurance would help keep the farm out of financial trouble. They burn the lease in Trump tower, but everything has a certain showman aspect to it such that it is hard to tell if what is being shown is entirely Trump or just a glamour that he likes to project.
New York in the 80’s was a hard place, and there is little doubt that one needed to be a bit “tough” to do well there, especially among the types of people with which Trump is keeping company. Likewise, it is certain that people tend to “mellow” as they age, and so the Art of the Deal might best be thought of as a kind of monument to 20th Century America. It may not win any “Mother Theresa” awards, but then again, Trump is a business man and making money and building the tallest, largest, most expansive buildings are “his thing”. Whereas an artist might paint a portrait well, Trump dreams about buildings and then does what few of us can–he makes those dreams realities. In his book, he wants you to know that he has fun doing it, and if you try to screw with him, he will fight you with everything he has. He is a man accustomed to getting his way. When it comes to business books, that is really the bottom line of any executive’s desire.
His political ambitions are beginning to take shape here as well, as he fights with the mayor of New York, Ed Koch. To his credit, he appears to be correct about Koch–there is a type of incompetence and corruption that results in no one getting anything done on time or on budget. Trump, on the other hand, delivers. One might say he does so because he is a kind of “lone wolf”. He has fewer complications to navigate.
While it is doubted Trump is likely to ever encounter this review of his book, he makes it clear that when it comes to critics he wishes they would give him a chance to reply. Though this is a review and not so much a critique, the line becomes blurry when one considers any given work. Should he wish to give a reply, it will be published as an addendum to this interview without editing in full.
