1984 at the Notre Dame DeBartolo

Every war when it comes, or before it

comes, is represented not as a war but as

an act of self-defense against a homicidal

maniac.

~ George Orwell

I'm so there for the opening night performance on January 22nd...  This version of Orwell's 1984 is directed by Mr. Susan Sarandon... that is, Tim Robbins... Apparently, the play will be updated to relate more with current day events, as if Orwell's version was not timeless enough.   

Playwright, Michael Gene Sullivan, who adapted 1984 writes that:

About seventy years ago, with America in the grip of poverty and starvation, threatened with belligerent militarism from overseas, and a growing right - left animosity at home, a new American President stepped up to the mic and told the nation "There is nothing to fear but Fear itself."

Given the situation being afraid seemed like a reasonable response, but that President knew fear could paralyze a country, and the only ones who benefitted from ongoing, blinding fear were those who spread that fear.

And that is still true today. In the new millennium, with a crumbling infrastructure, a startling and growing gap between the rich and everyone else, governmental cronyism, corporate looting, and privatization of public wealth, there is a need to distract the citizens from corruption at the top. Our country has been attacked before, but never have we been so blinded by fear. Now we are led to believe we all under constant threat from terrorists, foreigners, strangers, the different, the guy at the Seven Eleven, the black kid on the corner!  Every suicide bombing, Osama Bin Gangsta, Radical abusive nanny Environmentalist is out to get you, so please don't notice that the Nation your parents built is being stolen in front of your eyes, and the rights won with a hundred years of blood are being taken. Doubt is treason, and Fear will distract you, so the message has become "Be afraid - be very afraid."

And at the center of this tornado of fearful despair sits a calm, assured - who?

"Citizens of Oceania! Together we will crush our enemies, and our long road to victory will be over!" But until then do not ask questions - the less you know the better. And in a nation at war certain rights must be curtailed to preserve Liberty. Oh, and keep shopping.

Or, as Big Brother says, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace.

Egads.  I've been a bit sentimental lately, but, wow, I get a heart flutter and a bit near-teary reading these words.  In a goodish way.  Before Election Day 2008, this would have been much more bittersweet!

Don't Call Me a Towelhead, Baby

Reading Towelhead by Alicia Erian (2005) was a totally unexpected journey for me. In 2005, Jeff Giles of The New York Times wrote a lengthy review of this book, including the remark that "The violence that ensues would be considered rape by absolutely anyone, with the possible exception of a 13-year-old girl who confuses any form of contact with affection and even the most terrible knowledge with liberation."

Although the plot is very involved (Young Girl, forced to live with father because mom is jealous of the attention her current beau gives to said Young Girl, father inept at raising Young Girl, puberty ensues, sexual awareness explodes, men and boys go wild, oh, and racism is rampant--the main character is born of a Lebanese immigrant father and a Caucasian American mother, and the setting is 1991 American at the start of the Persian Gulf War (voila: the name Towelhead is one of the nicer things said young girl is called).

Young Girl's name is Jasira (her mother chose the name--her father would have preferred a more Americanized name btw). Jasira is, simply put, confused. The reasons for this confusion go beyond the "normal" teenager experience, yet, as the author's tender writing style sets forth Jasira's story, Jasira is very much the everyday "normal" teenager of the 90's.

While I am sure this book would have ended up in my hands at some point, it was recently recommended to me by a friend who had heard that (1) it was coming out as a movie this summer--the movie is named "Towelhead", but it is also referred to as "Nothing is Private" (see the RottenTomatoes movie review here and a movie trailer via YouTube here); and (2) the screenwriter for American Beauty was directing the movie--his name is Alan Ball, and he also created HBO's Six Feet Under which I ADORE.

The book is very "in your face". The sub-title of the movie, "Nothing is Private" is quite appropriate, and had the setting not been during the Gulf War, perhaps the author would have named this book something like that. Towelhead is about growing up. It's about modern life middle-class suburban America and the hypocrisies of this "dream". It's about racism. It's about sexism. It questions the issue of patriotism. It's about holding onto your sanity in an insane world. It's about love. It's about family. It's about the "village" that raises the children and the individuals that make up that village--and the fact the village can be dangerous or it can be a safe haven.

Towelhead could be a total downer. However, the author's sense of satire and dark humor is "my cup of tea." What took me most by surprise is not just that I could have been Jasira and in many ways I was Jasira, and in many ways I still am Jasira. Towelhead has been highly praised since it was published in 2005. What jarred me the most is the fact that, apparently, this book has moved people just as deeply as it moved me. Other people must feel they are Jasira, or were Jasira, or know a Jasira.

What moved me the most is the reminder is that I AM NOT ALONE (and neither was Jasira!).

(And for anyone who has the luxury of calling the story unbelievable or unconvincing or flat or improbable or over-hyped, I'd like to extend my opinion that you are quite fortunate to have the ability to hold that view. Other people in this world were not lucky enough to live in the world where this story does not hold some very profound truths. However, I can understand where the inability to relate comes from. The brain chemistry changes when a person is traumatized, especially at a young age, likely making the "reality" of life very much tainted by these past experiences.)

For excerpts of Towelhead, check out the Google Book entry located here.

Deep Caverns Can Fill Empty Children

The following essay was written as part of an assignment for the SLIS course I am taking as an IUPUI distances student (S603 High Tech Learning, Instructed by Annette Lamb, PhD):

Deep Caverns Can

Fill Empty Children

"Modern scientific stupidity masquerades as intellectual knowledge - which it is not. Real knowledge has to be earned by hard and painful thinking; it can't be generated in group discussions or group therapies but only in lonely sessions with yourself. Real knowledge is earned only by ceaseless questioning of yourself and others, and by the labor of independent verification; you can't buy it from a government agent, a social worker, a psychologist, a licensed specialist, or a schoolteacher. There isn't a public school in this country set up to allow the discovery of real knowledge - not even the best ones - although here and there individual teachers, like guerrilla fighters, sabotage the system and work toward this ideal. But since schools are set up to classify people rather than to see them as unique, even the best schoolteachers are strictly limited in the amount of questioning they can tolerate."

--John Taylor Gatto, "Confederacy of Dunces: The Tyranny Of Compulsory Schooling"


John Taylor Gatto, retired teacher and well-known critic of compulsory schooling, in his book, The Underground History of American Education, gives his "recipe for empty children," which essentially outlines fifteen commonly accepted and celebrated practices of institutionally-based schools that Gatto contends results in children who are void of meaningful learning experiences. Underground History aims to expose the genesis, history, and scope of the "new mass schooling which came about slowly but continuously after 1890," (Gatto, "American Education History Tour"). Gatto asserts that traditional institutional instruction in American has four specific purposes. The first three, "To make good people...To make good citizens...And to make each student find some particular talents to develop to the maximum," were existent even before the American Revolution. However, the fourth "new purpose" of institutional schooling, "to serve business and government," (which has been evolving slowly but surely since 1890), could only be implemented under the right conditions (id.):

[The fourth purpose] could only be achieved efficiently by isolating children from the real world, with adults who themselves were isolated from the real world, and everyone in the confinement isolated from one another.

Only then could the necessary training in boredom and bewilderment begin. Such training is necessary to produce dependable consumers and dependent citizens who would always look for a teacher to tell them what to do in later life, even if that teacher was an ad man or television anchor.] (id.)

I suspect that everyone who has experienced compulsory schooling can recall countless classroom situations where the instructor taught in a manner that Gatto would recognize the students as "empty children". In fact, Gatto would argue that this is unavoidable by the very nature of institutionalized schooling. Even the most aggressive school reform cannot hope to address this condition, as the production of empty children is a necessary component of the fourth purpose. In other words, turning out graduating classes of empty children is the ultimate goal within the context of mass schooling. Along this line, Gatto asserts:

School is a place where a comprehensive social vision is learned. Without a contrary vision to offer, the term "school reform" is only a misnomer describing trivial changes. Any large alteration of forced schooling, which might jeopardize the continuity of workers and customers that the corporate economy depends upon, is unthinkable without some radical change in popular perception preceding it. Business/School partnerships and School-to-Work legislation aren’t positive developments, but they represent the end of any pretense that ordinary children should be educated.

(Underground History)

Dr. Annette Lamb, IUPUI professor and leader in the field of Educational Technology, reflects on the relationship between the purposes of formal education, the potential use of technology in education, and the philosophies of John Taylor Gatto as follows:

As we explore ways to use new technologies, it's important that we reflect on the purpose of formal education. From mandates like No Child Left Behind to the constant barrage of new educational theories and methods, learners and their teachers are bombarded with conflicting messages about the role of formal education. The skyrocketing technology resources and tools for teaching and learning add to this information overload. With all these opportunities, does the American system of education promote eager thinkers or empty children? How? Why?

Watch the short video titled Empty Children. Some people would argue that formal education systems aren't meeting the needs of today's children. Do you agree or disagree? How can technology help fill the void of empty children or contribute to the problem? Do books like The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto promote misinformation or advocate real alternatives?

(Lamb, "High Tech Learning: Issues.")

After having read much of Gatto's Underground History, I realize that I cannot exhaustively answer Dr. Lamb's questions within the confines of this particular essay. According to Gatto, the issues surrounding Dr. Lamb's questions are amazingly complex and deeply intertwined within America's histories of politics, government, psychology, healthcare, education, economics, consumerism, religion, and beyond. However, just as I asserted above that any person who is a product of the American school system would be able to recognize clear instances of being taught as an "empty child", hopefully each of us has had moments of genuine and insightful learning that arose out of the assistance of a teacher who strove to promote the "whole child"[1], and, whether conscious of the existence of the four purposes of mass schooling or not, committed small acts of sabotage (Gatto,"Confederacy of Dunces") Unfortunately, these moments are all-to-rare and usually happen haphazardly, and cannot possibly counter the power of the fourth purpose of compulsory schooling.

Still, based upon Gatto's "recipe for empty children" (where the recipe for the "whole child" is to do the complete opposite of the empty child recipe), individuals charged with teaching America's children can take measures to try to counter the agenda of the fourth purpose and do so most effectively when they become aware of the genesis of institutionalized schooling as described by Gatto. Some of the major components of nurturing a "whole child" include developing the ability to self-teach, exhibiting self-sufficiency (including working for one's self as an adult rather than under the management of others), meaningfully engaging in private ritual ("such as the rituals of food preparation and family dining"), the learning of useful knowledge ("such as how to build a house, repair a car, make a dress"), the development of the instinct to question authority, and learning for the sake of learning itself.

In her article "Energize Your Program: Collaborating Across the Curriculum," Dr. Annette Lamb presents many specific examples of practical ways in which individuals teachers can do their best to battle the fourth purpose. Along this line, Dr. Lamb explains that:

While reading, writing, and mathematics are tools for expressing and understanding ideas and information, curricular areas such as art, music, health, and physical education inspire students to be active and creative. From books and blogs to GPS and video projects, this...stresses practical strategies for collaborating with teachers across the curriculum to address standards, as well as promote a passion for learning.

* * *
Energizing your program means creating synergy. This can be accomplished by combining resources and designing exciting, inquiry-rich environments.

In this article, and on a complementary webpage entitled "Keeping it Real: Active Learning," Dr. Lamb focuses on ways to incorporate multisensory activities that enhance the learning experience for students, especially those that are technologically-based. Technology-based activities are often more self-paced and are designed for students to work independent of direct instruction from the teacher. For example, Dr. Lamb provides links to virtual fieldtrips to such places as The Great Barrier Reef, Japan and Field Trip Earth, and online activities such as Be an Architect, Create a Sculpture, Symmetry Webquest, and Human Body Atlas.

However, the paradox remains that the distribution of grades will still be a part of even the most hands-on or independent activity (technologically-based or otherwise) that occurs within the formal classroom , which happens to be the 11th "ingredient" of Gatto's recipe for an empty child ("Grade, evaluate, and assess children constantly and publicly. Begin early. Make sure everyone knows his or her rank,") (Underground History). In addition, Gatto warns against the propensity for addition to technology in the 7th ingredient for an empty child ("Addict the young to machinery and electronic displays. Teach that these are desirable to recreation and learning both,") (id. )

Gatto sees the solution to "empty children" as lying outside of the confines of the walls of the institutionalized school:

At every school where I taught, I told kids that as long as they would do 90% of the work, and as long as the idea was there, and as long as they'd sit still for my lectures about the nuances of the idea, then I was willing to be their assistant. The major access road to self-development is raw experience, but schools often deny that to students. Memorizing notes off the board is not real work. Overthrowing a political dynasty that doesn't want a horrible monument to the horrible Lennon in Central Park is real work.

* * *

Let's shift to the world of business and work for a moment. Grades and gold stars in school prepare people for pay raises and promotions on the job, don't they?
They're BS. I'm against those things. But don't make me look like one of those romantic people who are against them because I don't want to see kids compete with one another. Grades don't measure anything other than your relevant obedience to a manager.

(Pink, "I'm a Saboteur.")

Further, in his presentation "A Map, a Mirror, and a Wristwatch," Gatto states:

[C]ertain basic tools of self-knowledge like mirrors, maps, clocks, and so on are kept away from children - at least in any classroom you would care to visit in New York City. Other basic tools aren't around either, like hammers, chisels, saws, glue, telephones, calendars, typewriters, paper, pens, scissors, rulers. They just aren't there, at least not in accessible places. Schools are stripped bare of effective tools, not because of lack of money but because the autonomy that tools confer works against the collective socialization logic schools are about.

Tools constitute a curriculum of power. This seems something too fundamental to belabor. It is hard to make tool-competent people into a proletariat. Did you ever wonder why kids don't do the cooking and serving in a school, or the glazing, wiring, plumbing, roofing, and furniture repair? I've wondered about that often. At any rate a malaise follows the withdrawal of tools from common life. Of 62 functioning classrooms in my intermediate school there is a clock in exactly one of them. And it's been years since I saw a student wear a wristwatch. What could be going on? Something spooky I can tell you.

A few months ago, as I was driving to work, I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR. Diana was interviewing Marietta McCarty, the author of a book called Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids . McCarty's book stems from the central premise that children are natural philosophers and includes 15 chapters, each one dealing with a specific philosophic concept and each concept being connected to two philosophers (for example, the concept of Nature is explored through the philosophies of Lau Tzu and Baruch Spinoza.) Little Big Minds is meant to act as a guide for sharing philosophy with children, whether you are a teacher, a parent, a relative, a mentor--basically the sky's the limit as to your role in the child's life. The "program" can be followed step-by-step, or simply whenever a teachable moment arises.

McCarty sets out a list of teaching techniques, including starting each structured session with quiet time: "Children gradually experience the benefits of becoming still, realizing that being calm makes clear thinking possible. Simply sitting in silence reduces mental clutter in any life, and kids find it curiously powerful to settle themselves," (xviii.) I can't help but think of the fact that the types of self-directed activities that technology makes possible are generally quiet ones, requiring calm inner reflection.

McCarty also points out the importance of using various mediums for investigating the various philosophical concepts, including art, music, poetry, and literature. I think that many of the activities suggested throughout Little Big Minds, therefore, would be well complemented from the wealth or resources available on the internet or other electronic materials.

Rather than by grading, McCarty suggests that a sense of completion in the form of a philosophy journal gives children a sense of satisfaction. Gatto would appreciate this aspect of Little Big Minds. Like Gatto, McCarty stresses the importance of the practicality of knowledge:

The best way to give philosophy staying power in the minds and hearts of students is to be sure that they can directly apply the philosopher's theories to their everyday lives. I frequently remind little big minds that the point of studying philosophy is to use it as a means to improve the quality of their lives. With clear thinking, young philosophers can discover how to become an important part of the world.
(xxiv.)

Admittedly, I decided to explore the work of John Taylor Gatto because I do tend to agree with much of his criticisms of compulsory schooling. During the brief time that I taught in a public school system, the same barriers that he described clashed with what I felt to be authentic learning. Moreover, I felt that being a teacher within the public school system stunted my own ability to feel passion for learning. With the technology available now, perhaps I would be able to use these tools to more effectively teach in the spirit of what Gatto and McCarty are advocating. However, formal grades and standardized testing are two of the biggest issues I struggle with most, and there simply is no getting around these things within the institutionalized school.

Additionally, I am an inquisitive person, however, I was not taught how to be a lover of learning by having completed my education within the public school system. It is self-directed learning and exploration that motivates me. By self-directed, I mean that in order for me to be motivated, I find some component of whatever it is that I set out to learn and seek to find some aspect that will improve me as a person. For instance, I realize that I've gone a bit overboard with this particular essay in both the length and depth of my exploration of John Taylor Gatto's philosophies. I tend to do this with most things, granted I have the time to do so (and sometimes even when I really don't!) I simply do not enjoy "going through the motions" to merely complete an assignment and achieve a decent grade. In fact, it's hard for me to get motivated when I'm presented with tasks that don't allow me to be challenged me in some way. I'd go so far to say that in many instances, I resent "busy work".

I think this arises out my day-to-day life experiences growing up, and to a large extent it is influenced by the challenges I faced as a child raised in a family that was dysfunctional to the extreme. I had a handful of mentors, some of which were guerrilla teachers, that inspired me (Gatto, "Confederacy of Dunces.") However, it was not the content or subject matter that these adults shared with me; rather it was the manner in which they showed respect towards their fellow human beings in a consistent, caring, and authentic manner. Additionally, I turned to books to take me away from the harsh realities I was often forced to endure. While I am fond of saying that books saved me life, I honestly don't believe I am exaggerating. In any event, the influence that books and the experience of reading had on me as a young girl cannot be overstated. Gatto verbalizes the value of books nicely as follows:

Real books are deeply subversive of collectivization. They are the best known way to escape herd behavior, because they are vehicles transporting their reader into deep caverns of absolute solitude where nobody else can visit: No two people ever read the same great book. Real books disgust the totalitarian mind because they generate uncontrollable mental growth - and it cannot be monitored!

Television has entered the classroom because it is a collective mechanism and, as such, much superior to textbooks; similarly, slides, audio tapes, group games, and so on meet the need to collectivize, which is a central purpose of mass schooling. This is the famous "socialization" that schools do so well. Schoolbooks, on the other hand, are paper tools that reinforce school routines of close-order drill, public mythology, endless surveillance, global ranking, and constant intimidation.

(id.)

The deep caverns of absolute solitude were exactly what I needed as a child, and since I desperately needed an escape, I was lucky to have found them. Working in a downtown urban public library, I see children everyday who are not so lucky. Gatto has given me some additional insights on how to do my part in helping these future adults.

Footnotes:

[1] Gatto uses the term "whole child" as the polar opposite of the "empty child," (Underground History).

Sources Consulted:

"Be an Architect." Sanford-artedventures.com. Sanford, a Newell Rubbermaid Company. 19 Aug 2007 <http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/play/arch2/index.html>.

Boyle, Deron R. "Sophistry, Dialectic, and Teacher Education: A Reinterpretation of Plato's Meno." Philospohy of Education 1996 102-109. 19 Aug 2007 <http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-Yearbook/96_docs/boyles.html>.

Bruce, Adrian. "Symmetry Webquest." Adrian Bruce.com. 19 Aug 2007 <http://www.adrianbruce.com/Symmetry/>.

"Create a Sculpture." Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: Education: Art Interactive. Smithsonian Institute. 19 Aug 2007 <http://hirshhorn.si.edu/education/interactive/flash.html>.

"Diane Rehm Show: Marietta McCarty: "Little Big Minds" (Rebroadcast)." Wamu.org. 28 May 2007. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/07/05/28.php>.

"Diane Rehm Show: Marietta McCarty: "'Little Big Minds'" (Web Stream)." Wamu.org. 15 February 2007. 19 Aug 2007 <http://www.wamu.org/audio/dr/07/02/r2070215-12659.ram>.

"Downloads: Search Results: John Taylor Gatto." Altruists.org. Altruists International. 19 Aug 2007 <http://www.altruists.org/downloads/search/?restype=0&rescategory=0&resauthors=John+Taylor+Gatto&restitle=Enter+Keyword>.

"Field Trip Earth." Field Trip Earth.org. North Carolina Zoological Society. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.fieldtripearth.org/>.

Gatto, John Taylor. "A Map, a Mirror, and a Wristwatch." SKOLE: The Journal of Alternative Education 11.22 (summer 1994): 48-69. 18 August 2007 <http://www.altruists.org/f871>.

----. "American Education History Tour: The Business of Schooling." The Odysseus Group: Challenging the Myths of Modern Schooling. 2003. The Odysseus Group. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/historytour/history4.htm>.

----. "Confederacy of Dunces: The Tyranny Of Compulsory Schooling ." Speech presented at the University in Austin, Austin, TX. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.spinninglobe.net/condunces.htm>.

----. The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling. New York: Oxford Village Press & The Odysseus Group, 2001. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm>.

Lamb, PhD., Annette. "Energize Your Program: Collaborating Across the Curriculum." Activate: The Journal of Technology-Rich Learning 6.1 (winter 2006) 18 August 2007 <http://eduscapes.com/sessions/energize/index.htm>.

----. "High Tech Learning: Issues." Eduscapes.com: High Tech Learning. 2006. Eduscapes.com. 18 Aug 2007 <http://eduscapes.com/hightech/overview/legal/index.htm#0>.

----. "Keeping it real: Active learning." 2006. Eduscapes.com. 18 Aug 2007 <http://eduscapes.com/sessions/real/real1.htm>.

"Human Body Atlas." Discovery Health.com. Discovery Communications. 19 Aug 2007 <http://health.discovery.com/tools/blausen/blausen.html>.

"Kids Web Japan." Web-Japan.org. Web Japan. 18 Aug 2007 <http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/>.

"Little Big Minds." Little Big Minds.com. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.littlebigminds.com/index.php>.

McCarty, Marietta. Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids. New York: Penguin Group (USA), 2006.

Pink, Daniel H.. "I'm a Saboteur." Fast Company 40 (October 2000): 242. 18 August 2007 <http://www.fastcompany.com/online/40/wf_gatto.html>.

"Virtual World: Great Barrier Reef." National Geographic.com. National Geographic. 18 Aug 2007 <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse/reef/reef1_flash.html>.

The Never-Ending "To Read" List

In the last month, I've added at least 20 books to my "to read" list.
Three that I'm looking especially forward to are “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard, “The Man Who Melted by Jack Dann”, and “Stolen Voices: Young People's War Diaries, from World War I to Iraq” by Olara A. Otunnu.

A co-worker and friend recommended her favorite book of all time, Annie Dillard's “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”.

The title doesn't appeal from me--it sounds very wholesome and
“Little House on the Prairie”-ish. However, my co-worker assures me that Pilgrim is quite beautiful and doesn't conform to any type of label that she can describe. That's enough for me to be intrigued. However, in looking a little further, I came across
Sandra Stahlman's webpage on “The Mysticism of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”. In her essay, Ms. Stahlman concludes that:

Annie Dillard grapples with age-old questions with the knowledge and energy of a 20th century thinker. She is not limited to one religious point-of-view, and has at her disposal information from numerous fields of study. Sometimes it's as if she is burdened with the facts; knowing so much, she cannot take anything at face value, but looks from every angle, fitting the pieces to together to form a coherent picture. The nature of God, and of the human condition, does not escape her scrutiny. Annie takes the information she has acquired from her schooling and through reading many books, and mixes that together with the images she finds in nature. The result is Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - a poignant look at the mystical relationship between God and nature, and an attempt to synthesize the duality between suffering and beauty.

(My emphasis.)

I'm interested to see how far Dillard takes the “coherent picture“ and whether she sacrifices some of the mysticism in favor of establishing a sense of order.

Another day while I was circing (rhymes with working), Stolen Voices: Young People's War Diaries, from World War I to Iraq compelled me to take a second look. R. Krithika of The Hindu eloquently states that:

Given the number of conflict-ridden areas in the world today, war has become a fact of life. Iraq, Sri Lanka, Somalia are perhaps the major war zones today. Countries like India, Pakistan and Indonesia also have areas that are prone to violent conflagrations. What is forgotten often is the impact of war on the common man. How do people live in the middle of war zones? More importantly how do children cope with the violence in their lives? Adolescents and young adults already face a tough time; what does war do to their crucial growing up years?

Stolen Voices: Young People's War Diaries from World War I to Iraq is a collection of extracts from the diaries of youngsters — teenagers to those in their early 20s. Youngsters whose lives changed suddenly through no fault of their own. This is a book that takes us right into the heart of what it means to live in the middle of violence - the fear of losing loved ones, even parents; no access to essentials like food and water; the gut-wrenching fear as you live through shelling and bombing...

I can't imagine living in this type of world as an adult. As a child, however, I find this beyond comprehension.

The cover of “The Man Who Melted” by Jack Dann caught my eye while checking in books in my capacity as a Circulation Associate. Thomas M. Wagner of SF Reviews.net writes:

The Man Who Melted is all about the secrets that hide beneath surfaces. It's about the way people deal with the collapse of everything that has defined their lives, and more specifically, the lies they tell themselves to avoid confronting terrible truths. Its future is one that has not fully recovered from the Great Scream, a global outbreak of collective
madness that saw millions of rioting lunatics — normal people who, as one character puts it, could not adjust to a "dysfunctional society" — come within a hair's breadth of destroying all society. But how can society be dysfunctional unless its people are dysfunctional first? The novel paints a future in which the inability of the individual to reconcile himself with society has resulted in an epidemic of schizophrenia that taps into the collective unconscious; the ironic result is that emotionally isolated individuals finally come together through
insanity and mob violence.

(My emphasis.)

OK, Mr. Wagner, you've hooked me. Bring it on.

So, what does David Bowie read?

On 17 January, 2007, BiblioTech Web drew attention to the fact that Art Garfunkel has an ongoing list of books he's read over the last 3 decades. Scott Pfitzinger (the author of BiblioTech Web) attributes the discovery of this gem to “Steven Cohen at Library Stuff who got it from Jessa Crispin at Bookslut who got it from David at Largehearted Boy.”

Check Mr. Garfunkel's Library out for yourself! Of note is the fact that his top 5 favorite books are:

1. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Confessions, 1781, 606 pp. (read in Jun. 1968)

2. Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving, 1956, 146 pp. (read in Jun. 1968)

3. P.D. Ouspensky, In Search of the Miraculous, 1949, 389 pp. (read in Oct. 1968)

4. L.N. Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1869, 1444 pp. (read in Feb. 1969)

5. Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint, 1969, 274 pp. (read in May 1969)

Along this line, retired librarian, Glenna Nowell, is the editor of the “Who Reads What?” reading list, which began in 1988. This list features books that famous and influential people have read. In 2004, Today Show celebs Al Roker and Anne Curry were reading “Devil in a Blue Dress” by Walter Mosley and “The Once and Future King” by T.H.White, respectively. In 1994, Lamb Chop's mom, Shari Lewis, commented that, “Generally, the book I'm reading at the moment is my favorite--however, my all time fave is Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. Great tragic strong female character, bucking the social mores.”

So, my original question was, “What does David Bowie read?” His lovely letter to Glenna Nowell says it best:

“Dear Miss Nowell:

I was so delighted to have been asked to contribute to your list as I am an obsessive reader, and, it seems to me, I spend half my life recommending books to friends--and to complete strangers at times!

However, actually putting my short list together nearly paralyzed me with indecision. I read something like three books a week, so trimming down became an exceptionally daunting prospect.

These few are works that really stayed with me and I can assure the reader of a jolly good time with any of the following. Fifth Business, The Manticore, and World of Wonders by Robertson Davies. These books form a trilogy so read them in order. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. Wonderfully surreal. Money by Martin Amis. Funny, bitter, extremely British. Brazzaville Beach, by William Boyd. Caring, poignant and terribly romantic. The Viveroy of Ouidah by Bruce Chatwin. One of the greatest writers of this last twenty years. Libra by Don Delillo. Alarming and American.

I should also note that if you like any of these books please don't hesitate to read the rest of the works by any of these authors. Their entire output is just great. I'd love to hear your opinion.

Please ask me for another list next year as I keep remembering works that cast their spell on my sponge-like mind.

Kind regards,

David Bowie”

Although I've only recently started, my own reading list contains books I've read, books on my “to read list”, and books I think my husband would enjoy. The service I use is called Bibliophil. I like the feature of looking for readers with similar tastes to my own where I can get even more ideas on books to add to my wishlist.