Ravenweb Blog

As has been reported and commented extensively, John Updike passed away today. Though I've never been a huge fan and in fact have resented some of Updike's attempts at SF, I felt compelled to comment because Updike's Rabbit novels were very key for me in graduate school, particularly when I wrote my thesis about coming of age and rites of passage in American literature. Like many modern fictional characters, including Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye , Sal Paradise from On the Road, Updike's Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom epitomized the immature adult who is unwilling and unable to articulate or responsibly confront his problems. Rabbit almost gets it of course and Updike's prose is dead on in demonstrating the failed realization: "You don't think there's any answer to that but there is. I once did something right. I played first-rate basketball. I really did. And after you're first-rate at something, no matter what, it kind of takes...

I knew I wanted to read Wicked after seeing the entertaining theatical production inspired by the novel last year . Not suprisingly, the novel was far different from the upbeat and funny musical, darker and brooding, with deeper traces and pathways from the source materials. Maguire's mediation on Elphaba's (the Wicked Witch) formation spans her birth (with green skin that immediately casts her as an outsider) and troubled upbringing, to her headstrong young adulthood when her idealism pits her against the statist propaganda and discriminatory policies of the Wizard, and, finally, to her emergence as the Wicked Witch, when her idealism gives way to cynicism and she becomes no better than those she formerly railed against. I recommend Wicked for anyone who enjoys well-crafted literary fantasy, and, of course, fans of the movie and original story. That said, fans of the musical who are looking for a novel that reads and feels like the theatical production may want to steer clea...

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is lewd, crude, in poor taste, and altogether offensive, but it is also very funny, if I'm being honest. I'd venture that a fair bit of what the author recounted is a stretch or an outright fabrication, but I'm not sure it matters, at least not for the reasons it mattered when James Frey exaggerated events in A Million Little Pieces . To the extent that the stories and vignettes in I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell are entertaining -- and some readers will argue vociferously that they are anything but -- it is because of the author's constructed but authentic-seeming tone and storytelling voice, not the alleged facts of the events he recalls.

Charles Bukowski is one of those authors who I've been wanting to check out for as long as I can remember (probably since the mid-90s) but hadn't done so until last month. I'm not sure why it's taken so long. I've read most of his contemporaries, and -- thanks to Amazon and other resellers -- his works are now more accessible than ever before. Perhaps I've hesitated to dive in because I'd heard that Bukowski engenders very strong positive and negative reactions, and I was wary of my own expectations influencing my reading. As it turned out, I needn't have worried and should have got started reading sooner. Post Office is a first-person account of Henry Chinaski, a man who loves racetrack betting, drinking and women above all else, and who works for the U.S. Postal Service in Los Angeles. What follows is an authentic and funny narrative, in which Chinaski relates his (mostly frustrating and maddening) experiences working for a dull, bureacratic instituti...

We're nearing the end of another year, and I wanted to highlight some of the major posts and blog stats from the past year. Most Popular Posts 1. Scrubs Finale? 2. Configuring a Wireless HP Photosmart C4380 3. Seinfeld 4. Embedded Blog Comment Form Most Popular Book Posts 1. How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill 2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz Most Popular RSS Posts 1. How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill 2. Slam by Nick Hornby 3. Seinfeld

The Sugar Fix: The High-Fructose Fallout That Is Making You Fat and Sick warns of the dangers of eating a diet high in fructose and correlates excess fructose consumption to a number of serious medical conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease. The book covers all aspects of fructose in detail, including how it's absorbed into the body, the relationship between fructose and uric acid, how fructose doesn't satisfy an appetite, and the significance of high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener in which fructose is a key component. One caveat/disclaimer: while the lead author (Richard J. Johnson, MD) comes across as sincere and presents a persuasive argument with ample data and research, he clearly has a vested interest in the success of his argument and even has developed a Low-Fructose diet and submitted several related patent applications. So, as always when at the intersection of an argument and a possible business venture, stay wary ...

Earlier this year, I attended a project kickoff meeting for a large website redesign project. There were many attendees, over two dozen if I remember correctly, from various business units and departments, and a vendor team was also present. One of the recurring themes of the meeting was the importance of diverse groups in large, complex projects. To reinforce the point, the Project Leader distributed a copy of The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki to every meeting attendee. I was interested in the concept presented at the meeting and followed up by reading the book. The Wisdom of Crowds very much endorses the notion that groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them or a single brilliant individual. But not just any group. As Surowiecki demonstrates, not all groups are wise and some become mobs. For a group's collective intelligence to rise and produce better outcomes than a single or small group of experts, four conditions must be ...

I previously blogged about my friend Travis Belrose, who has recently completed The Samurai Poet , a historical novel set in Japan. Since then, Travis has established a personal website containing more information about the novel, and links to further topical reading and images of the Shisendo temple in Kyoto that inspired the creation. Check out the website of Travis Belrose at http://www.travisbelrose.com/ .

The Sociopath Next Door is a fascinating study of individuals who seem to be born without a moral conscience and make up 4% of the population. Author Martha Stout describes the defining features of sociopaths, including superficial charm, deceitfulness, impulsiveness, and a lack of remorse, and offers three examples of such people. In the final analysis, the text is interesting and arresting, and provides telling insight into sociopaths and some of their common behavioral patterns.

I've gone ahead and incorporated the new Blogger feature that puts the comment form at the bottom of each post page, instead of on a separate page. I hope the enhancement adds to the usability of this blog and makes it easier to comment. For those of you who are fellow Blogger users, you can read more about the feature here .

It was great to be an American tonight.

Vote.

There's only one logical choice, of course .... Photo by Drew Friedman from the New Yorker.

If you're angling for a frightening read this Halloween, instead of picking from the Horror genre, let me recommend Bad Money by Kevin Phillips, a long and hard look at the realities of our economic plight. Phillips examines everything from our mounting public and private debt, the collapsing housing market, the link between oil and our economy, the rise in financial services as a portion of our GDP at the expense of manufacturing, and the hubris and failures in the financial sector. Though written in late 2007, the book might as well have been authored today, as Phillips clearly saw the consequences of the housing bubble on the overall economy. Phillips' predictions for the future are grim, and he argues that the likely end of American domination of world markets parallel the declines of previous leading world economic powers, notable especially the Dutch and British.

I've comes across two interesting websites that project the upcoming presidential election in very different ways: FiveThirtyEight.com - A monster polling tracker and aggregator, FiveThirtyEight.com accumulates and analyzes polling and political data and provides keen assessments of the likely outcomes of upcoming elections. Iowa Electronic Markets - The Iowa Electronic Markets are small-scale, real-money futures markets where contract payoffs depend on economic and political events such as elections. Perhaps the most popular IEM markets are the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election Markets, where contract payoffs will be determined by the popular vote cast in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election.

Updated on 2009-11-16: It's been over a year since I wrote this, and lot of people continue to find this page from Google, which leads me to believe that people are still having problems with their HP Photosmart C4380s. For the record, over a year later the workaround I detailed here is still working for me. If you have something to add that might help others, please feel free to add to the comments. The original post follows below. ##   So, we bought a wireless printer. After some initial back and forth, we settled on a wireless HP Photosmart C4380. I thought we did a fair bit of research before purchasing the product, but apparently not enough, as there were many issues and surprises that we discovered only after we setup the device. I'm posting this to relate the significant difficulties we encountered setting up the printer and post workarounds I've implemented for the benefits of others who might be considering this product or who may have already purchased it ...

I read a lot of books, and sometimes even manage to comment about them here. More often that not, I enjoy most of the books I post about. This is probably because (admittedly) I look for books by authors I already know or that I have an inkling -- from word of mouth or reviews -- that I'll enjoy. Still, you never know when you're going to read a book that you really like or that makes others pale in comparison. The Chaneysville Incident is such a novel. I came to read The Chaneysville Incident after asking for suggestions for a big book for my long flights to and from Japan. One of my work colleagues suggested it, and though I'd never heard of it or author John Bradley, I decided to give it a try. I'm really glad I did. On the surface, the novel is a well-honed and affecting story of historian John Washington's attempt to discover what happened to thirteen runaway slaves in Chaneysville, Pennsylvania. The protagonist's efforts to reconstruct the past elevate ...

Bad Monkeys was my first introduction to Matt Ruff, and I was pleased. Ostensibly a thriller about a self-confessed member of The Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons, Bad Monkeys is somewhere in between a parody of a thriller and an actual thriller. Ruff treads the line pretty well, and the result is a fun and weird concoction.

The McCain campaign is characterizing Palin as a leader on climate change, but with a record like hers, they no doubt meant that she's a leader on accelerating climate change and species extinction . After all, in this time of environmental uncertainty, who doesn't want a vice president who denies that climate change is man-made, disputes the findings of scientists, blocks moves to list animals as endangered species, opposes ballot initiatives to protect species from industry, and is beholden to big oil and development. Sources: Environmentalists can't corral Palin (Associated Press) Palin's "toxic" environmental policy would even make President Bush blush (Newkerala.com)

Travis Belrose, one of my best friends, has recently completed a historical novel set in Japan. The Samurai Poet follows Ishikawa Jozan, a man who turned away from the samurai to a contemplative life of poetry and calligraphy. Travis has uploaded the first chapter of the novel at Authonomy , a new community site for writers, readers and publishers, by HarperCollins. I've been in touch with Travis through all stages of this creation, from the early drafts to the final edits, and I can state emphatically that the book has truly been a labor of love, meticulously researched and well-crafted. Check out The Samurai Poet and Travis's author profile at Authonomy.com.