Those Who Do Not Study History

Books read today: 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism (Ha-Joon Chang), The Wire: Truth Be Told (Rafael Alvarez)

I find it interesting that both these books, which present sharp, accurate and extremely trenchant criticisms of capitalism, find it necessary to pay homage to the prevailing orthodoxy of our time by stating in the introduction that no matter what the rest of the work says, we should rest assured that the author thinks that capitalism is teh awesome!!!!11111!!!!

Ha-Joon Chang's 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism is a further entry in the genre of books on economics for the non-economist, as exemplified by Freakonomics and Paul Krugman's The Return of Depression Economics. The book's message can be reduced to three basic statements: i) Economics is the continuation of politics by other means; ii) Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it and iii) If you want your country to prosper, keep economists (especially those of the free market variety) the fuck away from your economy. 23 Things is a well written, easily accessible text, although, history buff that I am, I found relatively little in the book that was new (unlike Krugman's book, which was both very accessible and very informative about aspects of international trade and the global economy which were previously obscure to me).

23 Things seemed to me a perfect gift for the politically interested adolescent, partly because it is and easy read, and partly because if any adult still believes in trickle down economics or that Africa is poor because Africans are lazy, even the best researched and most persuasive argument in the world is unlikely to change their mind (although perhaps I give both too little and too much credit here).

The most interesting aspect of 23 Things, and the other books like it I have read recently is the lack of a coherent alternative to capitalism as now practiced; Chang does present in his conclusion a list of eight principles (such as "stop believing that people are paid what they deserve" and "manufacturing is not irrelevant") that should be used when reconstructing the global economy, but no mechanism for putting those measures into practice is proposed; how, for example, are we to change a belief? We are living through the greatest crisis of capitalism since 1929, and yet whilst it is apparent to all but the wilfully blind that capitalism has failed, there are no new ideologies waiting in the wings to take its place. We have ideas for fixing partsof the system that failed, or are failing (the Tobin Tax, more regulation, smarter regulation, environmentalism), but there is no popular ideology like the Free Market or Communism that combines these criticisms, and the desire for change, into a single movement. I would guess that some general popular anti-capitalist movement will coalesce in the next few years, but what exact form (socialist, fascist, religious) that movement will take, I do not know.

The second book I've read in the last couple of days, The Wire: Truth Be Told, is HBO's official series guide. I normally don't reading series guides, in the same way that I avoid the commentary tracks on DVDs, as I find that it shatters the illusion I need to enjoy the work. However, this book was a Christmas present, and, as always with the Wire, I was extremely pleasantly surprised, and I found the book was both extremely informative and, precisely because the world of the Wire is so heavily grounded in real life, it did nothing to destroy the illusion necessary for a work of fiction (so if you're reading this guys - thanks!).

The episode guide which forms the backbone of the book is very useful (especially if you are looking for one particular scene), but it is the extras - the interviews and small focus articles scattered through the text - which make the book great. There is, for example, an interview with the drug lord who inspired the character of Stringer Bell, a man named Little Melvin Williams, a mathematical genius who had no other outlet for his talent apart from a life of crime and a brief biography of the original Bubbles (who was denied the happy ending of his namesake). The only things missing here are an interview with Idris Elba (whose stellar performance as Stringer Bell is particularly impressive if you've ever seen him perform with his native London accent) and a discussion of the character of Brother Mouzone, the bow tie wearing hitman from New York.

Reading the description I've given here, it may seem surprising that the author feels that he must apologise for the attack on capitalism contained in the book; but it is precisely the accuracy of the portrait of life in Baltimore given in the Wire that David Simon feels he must apologise for; like Gogol, the writers of the Wire find that any realistic portrait of life in inner city Baltimore must implicitly condemn it. And more than anything else, the Wire showed us the death of the American Dream, whether the dream died by despair, as seen in the dock workers in Season 2, or by being realised; Marlo Stanfield is the American Dream made flesh, and it is abhorrent.

Day 1: A new beginning, a new Kindle, and a very merry Christmas to you all.

Books read today: Kick Ass [Mark Millar] (comic), It's A Jungle Out There [Amanda Marcotte]

Hello everyone. Welcome to the blog. It's 10 O'clock in the evening, it's Christmas day, and whilst the scene outside couldn't really be described as a white Christmas, there is still a little bit of ice hanging onto the pavement, providing an appropriately festive trip hazard and risk to the elderly. The rest of the family are downstairs, watching Xmas television, and I'm sat in my room with my brand new Kindle, starting on a New Year's Resolution a little early, and coincidentally dipping a first, nervous toe into the swirling, chaotic water of the blogosphere.

The aim here is fairly simple: I will list all the books I read this coming year, and try to review at least most of them. This is primarily for my own benefit (I doubt anyone is anxious to read my musings on any subject); I'd like to impose some discipline on my thoughts, and organising them into a form that (theoretically, at least) other people will read strikes me as a good way to do this. Hopefully it'll also inspire me to read some more Serious Literature, to supplement my usual diet of history, politics and science fiction.

I guess I should introduce myself (although if you're reading this, you almost certainly already know me). As you could gather from the title, my name is Tom, I'm a graduate student in the Theoretical Chemistry department at Oxford and I have a strong interest in politics (although after some unfortunate experiences, I'm no longer politically 'active', and confine myself to shouting from the sidelines [i.e. at the TV]) and in history.

So today's reading: Kick Ass, the graphic novel the film (which I have not seen) was based on, and a Christmas present from a friend of mine (which, if you're reading this, was very much appreciated). The second book, It's A Jungle Out There (subtitled The Feminist Survival Guide To Politically Inhospitable Environments) is the first book written by Amanda Marcotte, who is one of my favourite bloggers. It's also one of the first books I've put onto my new Kindle.

Kick Ass is an interesting piece, about a lonely and inadequate teen who decides, having read one too many comics books, to don a cape (well, a wetsuit) and, like a modern day Don Quixote, vanquish evil from the land. Realistically (and, again, much like Don Quixote) the boy quickly finds himself in deep over his head, and dealing with a sharply rising body count. Unfortunately, there is no Sancho Panza here, and without a more grounded, saner foil to the inspired madness of Kick Ass (the name adopted by the would-be superhero) his section of the tale is somewhat dull and ultimately unsympathetic. The issue here isn't that the lonely, inadequate and bored make poor heroes, but rather that unless we sympathise with the protagonist (or if not the protagonist, at least some major character), it becomes very difficult to care for them; there is a great deal of pathos to be had in the lonely and inadequate, either in those heroes (like Neo in the Matrix) who transcend their mundaneness, or in those (like Chichikov in Dead Souls) who end up consumed by it.

Unfortunately, the protagonist (who's name I have already forgotten) lacks the character development that enables us to see (and sympathise with) the human being behind the sordid adolescent angst. This could well be part of the intended message of the comic - that only the damaged or deranged would dress up in spandex and decide to fight crime (an argument made very well in Alan Moore's Watchmen, and perhaps slightly less well, although far more (hilariously) violently, in Garth Ennis' The Boys). Unfortunately, that message falls flat, precisely because I find myself unable to care what happens to the protagonist - a mistake neither Moore nor Ennis falls into.

A far more sympathetic, and much more interesting character is Hit Girl, the coke snorting, swearing ten year old killing machine with "Kevlar down to my underoos, dickhead". It has been said in every review of the movie I've seen so far, but it is true: she should be the hero. Hit Girl is just more interesting, and it is the first (and more or less the only) requirement of a protagonist that they be interesting. Plus Katanas are cool (\geek). There's not much to add to what's already been said there, and it's getting late, so I'll move on.

It's A Jungle Out There reads a lot like a series of blog posts (Marcotte* being a blogger, this isn't surprising), being composed of short chapters, divided into even shorter sections, each with it's own heading. I found the book fascinating reading, although obviously I'm not really a part of the book's intended audience and most of the tips, whilst interesting, aren't really of practical use to me (for example, I think the chance that I'll ever have to try and buy a sex toy whilst deep in the Bible Belt runs somewhere between very slim and none). I would never describe myself as a feminist, partly because I feel I haven't the right, partly because although I agree with a lot of feminists about a lot of things, I also disagree with a lot of feminists about a lot of things, and partly (possibly primarily) because I've noticed a strong correlation between men who stand around at parties proclaiming themselves to be feminists and sanctimonious hypocritical arseholes**. Labels aside, I generally find that Amanda Marcotte is one of the few modern intellectuals (Paul Krugman being another) that I genuinely enjoy reading, even when I happen to disagree with their position on the issues. The book is easy reading, being partly serious advice to the curious feminist, and partly a fairly detailed (and always humorous) overview of the more common varieties of misogyny to be found in contemporary American society. I found the book to be more of cautionary tale than anything else: it is a reminder of what can happen if you let the libertarians and the religious fundamentalists crawl out from under their rocks and take over your political parties. It is unfortunate (for me), although probably inevitable that the book is so focused on the American feminist experience, as I would be interested to read a British perspective on the same issues (something to look up next time I feel). A final curiosity: the repeated use of the word "spastic" to describe musical style makes me feel that the word must have a different meaning on the other side of the Atlantic.

* I will try to be consistent and refer to authors by either their surname or full name; I don't know any of them personally, and I won't pretend that I do.

** Apologies to those self-described feminist men who are neither hypocrites, nor sanctimonious, and not arseholes.