Week 39, book reviews

Madame Butterfly

by John Luther Long

This book probably has inspired many people. Firstly, Puccini's opera, Madame butterfly, a commercial disaster. However, the Greek Maria Kallas took it over, and now if you know Maria, you know very well Puccini's opera and, by extension, the original short story of Cho-Cho-San, a beautiful, fragile Japanese Geisha.

I suspect that Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, with her famous CoCo Channel number 5 perfume, named it after her. Of course, the French could believe what came out of the words Ko Ko Ri Ko. Who can believe that? Ko Ki Ri Ko is a Rooster's sound incompatible with a female. At least for me, Cho Cho Sha must be the root of the CoCo Channel brand name.

The Geisha concept is rather complex to explain; the fact here is that she was 15 years old and treated like an object. In ancient Greece, we had a similar woman for confort concept called ετα?ρα (π?ρνη τη? αρχαι?τητα? που εκτ?? απ? τι? υπηρεσ?ε? πορνε?α? δι?θετε ευρε?α μ?ρφωση).

Her dreams, hopes, and everything in between were destroyed. There are many movies about USA Army soldiers or sailors having wives abroad and dropping them relatively quickly when they go home. Perhaps the last such phenomenon occurred in liberated Germany in the 40s.

So even though she was a Geisha, the collapse of the dream of a young woman's soul could be devastating. Money and status should not influence love, and using those to "obtain" a young wife for me was a despicable act. Nevertheless, let's not forget that the Casts systems produce Geishas like women destined to become comfort women. From that point of view, feelings should be ignored as they are culturally acceptable to be used as an object. Such are the systems humans develop and are socially acceptable in many countries, hopefully not anymore.

As a last thought, the story of Maria Kallas and the greek shipping tycoon Onasis fits precisely the story of this book. To me, Maria Kallas not only played the book as an opera but also in real life with Onasis.?

Maria Kallas, a Greek and Italian Puccini, immortalised this young lady in the best possible way!

Highly recommended reading!

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The Early History of the Airplane

by Orville Wright, Wilbur Wright

Wright brothers, what can one say about those two amazing brothers? Millions of people fly every day becouse two bicycle repair mechanics, poor people, had a dream, and the goal was to fly. And they did it, but how? This book explains the early thoughts and experiments that lifted them above the ground and made them immortal among us.

Greek Ikarus's story probably discouraged humanity from trying to fly earlier. In the story, Ikarus flies high enough, and the sun burns his wings. The story is more of a metaphor for being too arrogant and not listening to good advice. In reality, people probably think that flying is impossible and dangerous. The Wright brothers had no such fear.

Only a few people in recorded history tried before the Wright brothers to fly; the second famous is Leonardo Davinci. All of them are stories, illustrations, or dreams; the Wright brothers did it, but how? The secret straight from their minds is written and unveiled in this book: PRACTICE.

There were experiments by others during their century, but their experiments were limited in time. So they thought if they wanted to fly, they needed to expand the experiment's time and practise until they could make it.

Instead of 5 hours of experimentation, they decided to invest 500 hours. They got a biology book about birds flying; they studied the previous experiments and their findings. They connected a plane to cables so they could remote control it and practice, practice, practice until it was stable for a human to come on board.

After that, everything else was easy. Even today, we dont know all the details of how a plane flies. Not all physics are understood, nor all maths are clear, but somehow we fly becouse we have solved 99% of the overall problem. Wright brothers didnt solve all of the issues; they didnt invent everything around navigation, thrust, etc. Their most outstanding achievement is their relentless will to try and try again until they can fly.

On December 17, 1903, a historic day for all humanity,? the Wright brothers managed to fly for a bit. After that, they never stopped practising again and again to perfection.

This book is a magnificent testament to their intellect, will and passion, written by Orville Wright. So if you are ever feeling low, read this book to understand what a bit of stubbornness and lots of observation can achieve in the long run.

Forever grateful to those American heroes!

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A HUNDRED VERSES FROM OLD JAPAN - 100 verses with notes from the Hyaku-nin-isshiu: 'Single Verses by a Hundred People'

100 verses from old Japan is the title, but that's not the truth; that's the English translation.

The correct title is 100 verses from 100 poets, meaning that a different person created each verse. Therefore this is a collective effort of Japanese poets combined, crowdsourced, I will say. It starts from 690 AD, and one poem is added each year until completion, so it's also progressive.

Claimed to be one of the most known books in Japan, they even have a memory card game for it that is popular, like our UNO. No wonder the Japanese live long and are healthy; they memorise poetry that projects beauty, so their cognitive function is proper even in old age.

I can see the same thing with my Aunt here in Cyprus, who can recite many old Cypriot songs, and despite her old age, she is still sharp and balanced as a senior person. Thus, I must conclude that Poetry can be used to smoothen the heart and cognitive function.

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Creative Mind

by Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

I wanted to read a book about the creative mind, how it works, how creativity arises, and how one could be creative. They say that creativity is rare among humans, but why?

Ernest believes everything starts and ends with God; this book is preaching about God, then answering my original questions. As Christian Orthodox, I can understand why God is important in creativity. Firstly in the "my God" belief system, God is not one thing but is composed of 3 coequal, coeternal elements: the Holy Trinity. In essence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Im not getting technical explaining the heterochromosome that will always define the gender of a newborn child. Im not doing that becouse it will require a bit of Freudian analysis on the primary driving forces of humans: sexuality. Im going to concentrate on the Holy Spirit, which is not mentioned by Ernest, but for me, is part of the foundation of creativity in his One God system. As proof, just remember how the Apostoles learnt many languages in a single night; Bible claims intervention of the Holy Spirit.

From Judaism Ruach ha-kodesh Hebrew: to Islam Holy Spirit (Arabic: ??? ????? Ruh al-Qudus, "the Spirit of Holiness") to Hindu Advaita Vedanta (/?d?va?t? v??dɑ?nt?/; Sanskrit: ?????? ???????) and Christianity we all agree that there is such Holy Spirit, a force of creativity.

Therefore, since this book didnt explain rightly and specifically the part of God that enables creativity for me is not worth reading. However, please read the book if you like stories about the man in the sky with a long beard that sits up here and sends random creative thoughts to people. It is a story anyway, and you might get inspired somehow.?

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Philosophy Four: A Story of Harvard University

by Owen Wister

The book starts with the following dialogue:

“By starting from the Absolute Intelligence, the chief cravings of the reason, after unity and spirituality, receive due satisfaction. Something transcending the Objective becomes possible. In the Cogito, the relation of subject and object is implied as the primary condition of all knowledge. " Plato never–“

“Skip Plato,” interrupted one of the boys. “You gave us his points yesterday.”

No, my rich friends, you cannot skip Plato! This book is about rich boys trying to pass Harvard University by hiring a poor teacher to help them out. One lives frugally, the others in style and money. One truly understands the essence. The others are superficial. The book is full of Greek philosophers and Latin writers, so it was refreshing to hear synopses of their ideas and thoughts.

It is a good overview also of the early Harvard University facilities, schedule and faculties.

It has humour but is not sarcastic; it is a very light novella highlighting the mentality of wealthy students at prestigious universities. Did the mentality change 100 years later? I dont know; I need to go to Harvard one day and report back...

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The Tosa Diary

by Ki no Tsurayuki, William N. Porter (Translator)

The Tosa Nikki (Tosa Diary 土佐日記),? is a poetic diary with significant literature value. Why? Written by a man in a woman's language, meaning it was written phonetically.

I was surprised to learn that Japan "discriminated" language against women and men, but they did. Woman's language means that he practised Kana 名 and not Kanji 漢字, the one corresponds to one sound or whole syllable, and the latter corresponds to a meaning (logogram). Kana is easier to learn, while Kanji is more sophisticated, and you need to know old Chinese.

This short poem, written by a man in a woman's language, contains layers of information within the words used. In essence, he plays with the words; therefore, the poem can be read in multiple ways. Of course, that is not my knowledge, but the book contains many footnotes explaining the author's clever wordings.

It is about a 55 days journey by boat returning home. They make a lot of stops and are full of old traditional Japanese superstitions and religious practices. The "woman" that supposedly wrote the poem lost a child, so it reminded me of our approach in my country, 40 days of sorrow for the soul of the dead. So perhaps the 55 days journey, the poem has another layer beyond the technical grammatical and wording issues, a more symbolic one on how hard the trip is to forget someone you love. In this case, it is done not with words full of sorrow but proudly as a Japanese will do and purely metaphorically.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Japanese; the footnotes are a bit treasure and give an excellent insight into the richness of their language.

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Memory How to Develop, Train, and Use It

by William Walker Atkinson

How do you keep good memory at an older age?? One could learn a new language, get a PhD or learn how to improve your memory with a book like this.

To my surprise, the first chapters of the book are about a Greek guy called Simonides of Ceos Σιμων?δη? ? Κε?ο?; c. 556–468 BC. This fellow is so significant, and I had no idea about him. Why significant? First of all, he added to the Greek Alphabet (allegedly) the letters ω, η, ξ, and ψ.

An inventor, a sage, a poet, an ethicist, an early scholar and perhaps the inventor of what we call Mnemonics. I say this probably becouse of all the old stories from the Iliad to Indian Mahabharata, all verses were memorised, and poets will walk the streets and recite them in exchange for payment. Therefore, the technique of remembering large amounts of data was invented before Simonides; he just systematically formulated and documented a theory and practised it.

Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene (1976), gave us the term MEME; he claimed that he borrowed the Greek word for mīmēma μ?μημα, but the science behind it is very similar to what Simonides of Ceos introduced.

The practice? Association. In a very simplified form, if you are trying to memorise something big, then the best way is to visualise something else and ASSOCIATE object A to object B. Something like what the Chinese say about a picture worth 1000 words. Precisely that, but for a purpose (memorising). The most absurd the association is, the easier it is to recall the data behind it.

Now I have to try to practice memorising this book to remember more data in the future.?

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Among the Tibetans

by Isabella Lucy Bird

Dont get confused with the book's title; a better title could be the road trip to Tibet. It starts from Kasmir. The Ancient Greeks called the region Kasperia, which has been identified with Kaspapyros of Hecataeus of Miletus (apud Stephanus of Byzantium) and Kaspatyros of Herodotus. Kashmir is also believed to be the country meant by Ptolemy's Kaspeiria.

The first observation is that while this book is 100 years old, the Kasmir issue between the Indians and Pakistanis (they were not called like this back then) existed. At the start of the trip, Isabella mentions the daily discussions of the locals. The community was divided between Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. Muslims were complaining daily that the region's administration was under the hands of their Hindu brothers. I say brothers becouse in this book, their characteristics are not different, only the religious part.

I wondered if the issue of governance was created as a buffer between 2 opposing religious cultures. Meaning that Buddhists had, have and probably will remain in control of a buffer zone between the Holy Place of Tibet and a predominantly Muslim country. Perhaps, but the point remains that the Kasmir dispute is five times older than the Cyprus issue between Christians and Muslim brothers.

The descriptions of the region are unique, the Lamas, the production of Kasmir fabric, the isolation of the people during the winter, and the harsh environment but also the beauty of it. As she went uphill toward Tibet, she found German Christian missionaries trying to convert the local population to the Gospel of Christ by teaching them manufacturing, production, and commerce. She describes how the locals were touched by the dramatic story of Jesus and converted to Christianity and the number of sox and other clothes they produced to finance the Christian mission.

The Germans had the best houses in the region due to their knowledge of architecture but lived like locals. She also praises the British empire for the infrastructure projects that created roads to enable transportation.

Overall, the landscape descriptions are excellent, but did I learn much about how to live among Tibetians? Not much, but I enjoyed everything else.

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Bushido: The Soul of Japan. A Classic Essay on Samurai Ethics

by Inazō Nitobe

?I loved this book and the Bushido code; of course, I am a? tremendous admirer of Japanese culture and people, but the more I know, the more I love them.

Bushido code can be summarised like this:

Sincerity - do not lie, do not be insincere, do not be superficial

Responsibility - do not be obsequious

Frugality - do not be greedy

Politeness - do not be rude, do not slander

Modesty - do not be boastful, do not be arrogant

Loyalty - do not be unfaithful

Harmony - be on good terms with tranquillity - do not be overly concerned with events.

Compassion - show concern for one another, be compassionate, with a strong sense of duty.

Bushidō (武士道) is a Japanese word that means "warrior way" but is not aggressive teaching; the base comes from Buddhism and Confucious teachings. It is the moral code of the Samurai, and you can imagine something like a western Monk holding a sharp knife, ready to defend the law and his belief system without hesitation.

Bushido is in decline nowadays, the state and courtrooms have replaced the need for Samurais, but still, the teachings are deeply embedded in Japanese culture. One example is that sometimes you might find Asians rude; compared to our fake smiles and polite ways, they reject all sugary behaviour as deceitful.

The chapter covering suicide and revenge finds me against their logic, but the argumentation is well structured and very well articulated. He claims that Socrates, for example, did make, in a way, a Harakiri 腹切りby drinking voluntarily the poison against the wishes of his students.

The author is very well educated, and every chapter will offer a comparison of Classical Greece and Jesus (he believes in his teachings but not in Christianity, he claims). He argues that Japan could never become a Stoic country and proudly proclaims that no foreigner ever influenced the soul of Japan. Still, it insists that Japan has "imported" all western goods and used them to benefit.

Here, of course, the author makes a big mistake, in my humble opinion, becouse he is using a line from a poem by Koizumi Yakumo. The error is that Koizumi Yakumo is the Japanese name of an Irish-Greek man named Πατρ?κιο? Λευκ?διο? Χερν, Patrick Lafcadio Hern, from Lefkada Island of Greece. He changed his name to Koizumi Yakumo in 1890 when he fell in love with a Japanese lady that eventually married her. After that, the Greeks wrote so many poems that he was officially recognised as the National Poet of Japan. On the other hand, yes, he was imported, but it sounds arrogant to claim that he was used and not contributing becouse he loved Japan, perhaps more than I do.