Books
Civilization
Niall Ferguson
Neil
Ferguson’s blockbuster is essentially a more international PPH course (Politics,
philosophy and History – the Birkbeck course I did
for a year before starting the Medieval History MA) with added economics. From
this you will gather that Ferguson is clever, widely read, opinionated and not
overly modest. His approach is distinctly old-fashioned, as he writes
‘narrative’ history, completely untouched by the likes of Foucault or the other
revered masters of post-modernism; he is devastatingly dismissive of Marixm.
For all the obvious
stereotypes, gross generalisations and lack of nuance, the advantage of this
approach is that it is a hugely enjoyable book to read. The other is that his
narrative is serious. Essentially, he states (accurately in my view) that in
the late 15th century, Europe was a backwater of squabbling nations
which looked set to be devoured by the Ottoman Empire which could then compete
with the Chinese as to who was the most dominant civilization. In fact, that
didn’t happen; the Ottomans eventually collapsed (but only after being at the
gates of Vienna – and they should have taken the city but for desperate
incompetence) and Chinese Yongle dynasty never progressed.
Ferguson identifies six
features of Western civilisation which he thinks made the difference. In a
solitary example of striking the wrong note he calls these the ‘killer apps’ of
Western states; I shall assume this terminology was foisted on him by Channel 4
as it seems a remarkably un-Ferguson like.
He describes how the Islamic
cultures stopped regarding science as good thing (someone should tell the US
Fundamentalist right about this) and thereafter atrophied under dominant
tyrannical rulers. China closed in on itself, uninterested in the outside
world and failed to build on their achievements. Weapons saw off the indigenous
South Americans, and so on.
A particularly interesting
section was comparing the Anglo-US ‘New World’ with the Spanish ‘New World’.
Why did one flourish and the other not? Here Ferguson believes it was
property rights and a strong law that makes the difference. Immigrants to the
early US earned the right to own land and nurture it for generations, while the
Spanish settlers went to obtain silver and carry away the riches to the
homeland.
In the final section he
suggests that popular belief in the gradual decline of a civilization is
misplaced, and the real model is the demise of the USSR – which collapsed in
just a few weeks in 1989. There is no reason to think that the hegemony of the
West will gently slip away as the East rises. More likely will be a
catastrophic collapse.
But he has good news as
well; the rise of the Chinese and South American economies has been achieved by
their aping Western norms and being better at them. So our civilization lives
on but under a different leadership.
A damn
good book, very readable, provocative and filled with debate.
Freedom
Jonathon Franzen
The reviews of Freedom – and indeed for Franzen himself, have been eulogistic. Apparently he is the
American writer of the moment and can do no wrong. Despite this, I did restrain
myself and wait for the paperback to see what I thought about this new literary
colossus.
The first great surprise is that it is not an overtly
intellectual book, and doesn’t seem to me to be obviously a critics’ book.
There is none of the pyrotechnics of a McEwan, the
simple writing quality of Roth or the simple cleverness of Barnes. This is, in
fact, a story. The first sentence actually tells the story of the first 400
pages. By the end of page 2 I was completely enwrapped in the tale. If there is
a parallel it is probably War and Peace,
for this is an epic tale of modern American life. And yet, it is also a small
book. It concerns the life of Walter and Patty Berglund, their children and
their best friend Richard. It starts in the 70s when they meet at College, and
it ends in 2010. The book charts the ups and downs of their lives, their
children’s lives and choices and their lovers. The title comes from each
character’s attempts to negotiate their personal freedom.
For their choices are not always good.
Fundamentally, should the Berglunds ever have got
married in the first place, why did Joey settle for his childhood lover, was
Patty right to have absented herself from her parents? But while it is a small
domestic story of a specific family it is always inside the context of America,
American life, American politics. The book almost subliminally charts the ups
and down of the US democratic experience, 9/11 is a mention but always there,
the presidents come and go with support or criticism. When Walter’s lover wants
them to make love in the office Walter sees Clinton and Monica in his head and
can’t do it, while his son briefly hitches his wagon to the Neo-liberal
military industrial complex. But this is never central to the unfolding story,
just a part of the characters’ lives.
While the ending was never clear, it perhaps did
lose a bit of energy in the last few pages towards 600. The protagonists were
tired and no doubt the writer. But this is a page turning classic, a great
story and wonderful portrait of American life.
Babylon Steel
Gaie Sebold
Babylon Steel received a good review in the Guardian and was featured in the Gower
St Waterstones,
which was really nice for Gaie, who is not the
youngest of debut novelists. In fact, I have known Gaie
for about 20 years, since she was a fellow writer at Lewisham’s writing
workshop with Phil Jones. Gaie and I meet
occasionally, usually at a Phil or Charita moment,
turning up at a book launch or some event opening. Being honest,
and I don’t think there is any point being anything but, I was both pleased and
disappointed with Babylon Steel.
Perhaps the first thing to
say is that it is a damned good read, I ripped though it in a few days, and
enjoyed the book. The principal character is the eponymous Babylon Steel,
whore, warrior, good Samaritan and slightly
unbelievable fantasy figure. The world is the Star Wars tavern, one on the cusp
of planes where all races, species and types meet in an atmosphere of money
making and decadence. Babylon runs an up market brothel which doesn’t make ends
meet because she is too kind hearted to both staff and clients. She is sucked
into a complex story involving a young girl trying to make a difficult decision
and go against the wishes of most of her clan and class. There are too many
characters here, too many races and species. And I did struggle with the
dialogue. I am not saying that I could write better banter between a very tall
and gorgeous whore and her reptilian lover, but I suspect less actual dialogue
would have been better!
However there is a second
strand, the story of how Babylon became who she is. I found it a much more
satisfying story. This is the poor and ignorant serving girl plucked by the
Gods to become one of them. But as she learns more of the world of the Avatars,
the less she wants to be part of them. They have trained her as a warrior and a
lover, but she refuses to play the game and tried to destroy these make-believe
gods.
The two stories inevitably
converge, Babylon’s team from the whore house refuse to abandon her as she
takes on the impossible task and all ends (largely) happily.
Overall there are rather too
many good ideas on offer. In this sense it feels like a first novel. I would
suggest that Gaie needs to be more selective over
which ideas to work with, and then make more of each of them. I also felt that
Babylon could have had more moral frailty; I was desperate for her to refuse to
help some suffering misfit and say – Hey, I have a business to run!
However, it should be
remembered that this is hardly my genre – I will be interested to see what
Matthew makes of it, Babylon Steel
was a really good read and highly enjoyable. I look forward to the next one!
See the rave
reviews on Amazon:
For a Night of Love
Emile Zola
I have never really understood Zola. I tried a few
books in adolescence and we suffered a production of the unutterably miserable Therese Raquin
a few years ago and gained no understanding whatsoever. J’Accuse I get, but not quite why
his defence is so iconic so long after the event, so I was not overly hopeful
of gaining insight from three stories occupying just 100 pages. This little
book is greatly helped by a short and insightful foreword by A N Wilson. He
points out that twenty years after these stories were written,
Thomas Hardy was asked to tone down the scene in Tess... when Angel Clare picks up the heroine in his arms and
carries her over a ford in order to spare the blushes of his readers. These
stories, by contrast, are thoroughly modern in their acceptance of female
sexuality and their psychological sophistication. For a night of Love, the story of a beautiful temptress who is also
a sadist who offers a lovesick youth a night of love to collude in her plans.
Complicated, psychological and unpredictable, this is a sexual story of
remarkable modernity. Nantas, tells of a marriage
of convenience leading to extraordinary success made meaningless without love
and sex, while Fasting is an
anti-clerical portrait of a pampered curate and his ambiguous relationship with
his female congregation. This final story a more subtle eroticism wrapped in
satire accompanied by withering observation.
100 pages in total, 100
excellent and revealing pages which do show that Zola was streets ahead
certainly of his ponderous British contemporaries. He is political, sensual,
witty and original. And perhaps worth a measure of revisiting.