THE DEVIL MADE THEM DO IT!

Brian P. Levack, The Devil Within: Possession and Exorcism in the Christian West (New Haven & London: Yale U. Press, 2013) (From the bookjacket: "In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of Europeans were thought to be possessed by demons. In response to their horrifying symptoms--violent convulsions, displays of preternatural strength, vomiting of foreign objects, displaying contempt for sacred objects and others--exorcists were summoned to expel the evil spirits from victims' bodies. This compelling book focuses on possession and exorcism in the Reformation period, but also reaches back to the fifteen century and forward to our own times.").

VICTORY OVER DEATH

William R. Pinch, Warrior Ascetics and Indian Empires (Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society) (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge U. Press, 2006) ("Today 'samdhi' is understood to refer to the deep meditation that is required in order to achieve union of the self, atma, with ultimate being, or adhyatma. In the premodern context . . ., however, samadhi refers to the yogi's achievement of immortality through discipline--his (and sometimes her) conquest of death." Id. at 14. "From the perspective the yogi, the key objective was victory over death. With a little work this objective can be massaged into a serviceable, and . . . even universal, definition of religion. All living creatures face the problem of death; all sentient creatures reflect, at some point, on the approach of death. Religion is to find a way through death, to cheat its temporal finality and to thereby conquer it. . . . For the yogi, the conquest of death (and by extension, the limitations of time and space) is an end in itself; it is the product of esoteric knowledge and practices, available to the select few. It is a way of self-transformation, elevation, of becoming a god."" Id. at 15. "Yogini" defined: "a ravenous, bloodthirsty female consort of Bhairava, able to confer supernormal powers to those human sexual partners skilled enough to couple with her." Id. at xi.).

BE FREE!!

"I am warm, I am fed, 
With a house just for me.
But a mouse, to be happy,
Has got to be free."

Joyce W. Warren, A Mouse to be Free, illustrated by Jerry Lang (Sea Cliff, NY: Sea Cliff Press, 1973).

SOME READINGS IN HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY

Ian Buruma, Year Zero: A History of 1945 (New York: Penguin Press, 2013).

Dasa Drndic, Trieste: A Novel, translated from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014) (From the bookjacket: "Haya Tedeschi sits alone in Gorizia, in northeastern Italy, surrounded by a basket of photographs and newspaper clippings. Now an old woman, she waits to be reunited after sixty-two years with her son, fathered by an SS officer and stolen from her by the German authorities as part of Himmler's clandestine Lebensborn project." Haya reflects on her Catholicized Jewish family's experiences, dealing unsparingly with the massacre of Italian Jews in the concentration camps of Trieste. Her obsessive search for her son leads her to photographs, maps, and fragments of verse, to testimonies form the Nuremberg trials and interviews with send-generation Jews, and to eyewitness accounts of atrocities that took place on her doorstep. From this broad collage of material and memory arises the staggering chronicle of Nazi occupation in northern Italy." "Written in immensely powerful language and employing a range of astonishing conceptual devices, Trieste is a novel like no other. Dasa Drndic has produced a shattering contribution to the literature of the twentieth-century history." Also see Craig Seligman, "In the Grip of Madness," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 2/2/2014.).

Kay Redfield Jamison, An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (New York: Knopf, 2010.

Jill Lepore, The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (New York Knopf, 2013).

NOT ENOUGH LOVE TO GO ROUND

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, The Householder: A Novel (New York & London: Norton, 1960).

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, In Search of Love and Beauty (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1983) ("Natasha was awestruck: 'He really loves her,' she thought. At the same time, this thought depressed her, for it seemed to her that there just wasn't enough love to go round and never would be--not here, not now--with everyone needing such an awful lot of it." Id. at 249.).

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, A Love Song for India (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2012).

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Shards of Memory: A Novel (New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1995, 1996).

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Three Continents (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1987, 1999).

AN OPEN MIND IS THE KEY

Richard Russo, Straight Man (New York: Random House, 1997) ("[E]ven complex problems . . . often have simple solutions if we keep our minds open. An open mind, I need not remind readers, is the key to a successful university life, and may even have indirect application to those living and working outside Academy." Id. at 215. Unfortunately, I have found an open mind to be a rarity even inside the Academy.).

TWENTY YEARS LATER, REREADING RICHARD RODRIGUEZ

Richard Rodriguez, Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father(New York: Penguin, 1993):

"I take it as an Indian achievement that I am alive, that I am Catholic, that I speak English, that I am an American. My life began, it did not end, in the sixteenth century." Id. at 24.

"I have never looked for utopia on a map. Of course I believe in human advancement. I believe in medicine, in astrophysics, in washing machines. But my compass takes its cardinal point from tragedy. If I respond to the metaphor of spring, I nevertheless learned, years ago, from my Mexican father, from my Irish nuns, to count on winter. The point of Eden for me, for us, is not approach but expulsion." Id. at 29. 

"Taste, which is, after all, the insecurity of the middle class." Id. at 33.

"The poor can live on far less than justice.. But the poor have a half-life to outlast radium." Id. at 95.

"Do you think your story is a sad story?
No, she replies. It is a true story.
What is the difference?
(Slowly, then.)
When you hear a sad story you cry, she says. When you hear a true story you cry even more." Id. at 162.

WAKING SLEEP

Melvin McLeod & The Editors of the Shambhala Sun, The Best Buddhist Writing 2013 (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2013) (From Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, "Not for Happiness": "Millions of people in this world are interested in some version of meditation, or yoga, or one of the many so-called spiritual activities that are now so widely marketed. A closer look at why people engage in these practices reveals an aim that has little to do with liberation from delusion, and everything to do with their desperation to escape busy, unhappy lives, and heartfelt longing for a healthy, stress-free, happy life. All of which are romantic illusions." Id. at 54, 61-62. From Ezra Bayda, "Breaking Through": "The first obstacle to practice is not understanding the magnitude and power of waking sleep. 'Waking sleep' refers to the state in which we live most of the time--identified with, or lost in, our thoughts, our emotions, and our actions. In the first place, we're addicted to our thoughts: believing that our thoughts and opinions are the truth is the veil through which we perceive reality. But we also have difficulty controlling our emotions; in fact, we love to indulge them. Furthermore, we can't seen to stay in the present moment for more than a few seconds at a time; the present is the last place we want to be. Because we are so frequently lost in the obscuring confusion of our thoughts and emotions, we lack the clarity and presence that comes when we are more awake." Id. at 151, 151-152.).

JOURNEY OF REMEMBRANCE AND CHANGE

Amit Chaudhuri, Calcutta: Two Years In the City (New York: Knopf, 2013) ("The 'modern' is man-made; but it's also a way of conferring life upon things. These things, as a result, enter your world organically. What I remember from the Calcutta of my childhood has that living quality--a neon sign over Chowringhee, of a teapot tipping into a cup; tangled clumps of hair--wigs--at the entrance of New Market; the judiciously dark watercolour covers of my cousins' Puja annuals. To these man-made object, modernity, a it governed Calcutta, gave an inwardness and life. This extended to elements of architecture, elements I thought were essentially Bengali--never having seen them anywhere else--but which must have arrived here as Calcutta grew from its contact with Europe." Id. at 11.).

A SPIRITUAL TRAVELLER

Richard Rodriguez, Darling: A Spiritual Autobiography (New York: Viking, 2013) ("If you would understand the tension between Mexico and the United States that is playing out along our mutual border, you must understand the psychic tension between Mexican stoicism--if that is a rich enough word for it--and American optimism. On the one side, the Mexican side, Mexican peasants are tantalized by the American possibility of change. On the other side, the American side, the tyranny of American optimism has driven Americans to neurosis and depression, when the dream is elusive or less meaningful than the myth promised. This constitutes the great irony of the Mexican-America border: American sadness has transformed the drug lords of Mexico into billionaires, even as the peasants of Mexico scramble through the darkness to find the American dream." Id. at 139.).

SUGGESTED FICTION IN TRANSLATION

Thomas Bernhard, The Loser: A Novel, translated from the German by Jack Dawson, afterword by Mark M. Anderson (New York: Vintage International, 2006).

Jeremias Gotthelf, The Black Spider, translated from the German by Susan Bernofsky (New York: New York Review Books, 2013).

Bohumil Hrabal, Closely Watched Trains, translated from the Czech by Edith Pargeter, foreword by Josef Skvorecky (Evanston, Il.: Northwestern U. Press, 1990).

Hans Keilson, Life Goes On: A Novel, translated from the German by Damion Searls (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012) (From the 'Afterword' (1981): "Literature is the memory of humanity. Anyone who writes remembers, and anyone who reads takes part in those experiences. Books can be reprinted. The fact is, there are archival copies of books. Not for people." Id. at 265.).

Natsuo Kirino, The Goddess Chronicle: A Novel, translated from the Japanese by Rebecca Copeland (New York: Canongate, 2012) ("But once Izanami had died, the value of the pairing was lost and she became associated only with the dark half: earth, woman, death, night, dark, yin and, yes, pollution. It might be presumptuous of me to suggest it, but what had happened to her was not unlike my own fate. On Umihebi Island, I had been assigned the role of yin, and was named 'impure'. I understood Izanami's anger and bitterness." Id. at 130. "It was Iznami's task to select who would die--a thousand people every day. And whenever she set about it, I was always at her side, waiting to serve her, silently watching a she scattered the drops of black water over the map." Id. at 135.).

Ma Jian, The Dark Road: A Novel, translated from the Chinese by Flora Drew (New York: The Penguin Press, 2013) (See Emily Parker, "Signs of Protest," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 8/4/2013.).

Henning Mankell, ATreacherous Paradise: A Novel, translated fro the Swedish by Laurie Thompson (New York: Knopf, 2013) ( "I live in a black world in which the whites use up all their energy deceiving both themselves and the blacks, she thought. They believe that the people who live here wouldn't be able to survive without them, and that black people are inferior because they believe that rocks and trees have a soul. But the blacks in turn fail to understand how anybody could treat a son of God so badly that they nail Him onto a cross. They are amazed by the fact that whites come here and rush around all the time in such a hurry that their hearts soon give way, unable to cope with the never-ending hunt for wealth and power. Whites don't love life. They love time, which they always have far too little of." "What kills us off more than anything else is all the lies, Ana thought. I don't want to become like Ana Delores who really is convinced that black people are inferior to whites. I don't want it to say on my gravestone that I was somebody who never appreciated the value of black people." Id. at 315.).

Dacia Maraini, The Silent Duchess, translated from the Italian by Dick Kitto & Elspeth Spottiswood, Afterword by Anna Camaiti Hostert (New York: Feminist Press at City University of New York, 1998, 2000).

Dacia Maraini, Train to Budapest, translated from the Italian by Silvester Mazzarella (London: Arcadia Books, 2010).

Dacia Maraini, Women at War, translated from the Italian by Mara Benetti  & Elspeth Spottiswood (New York: Italica Press, 1988).

Andre Maurois, Climates, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter, with an Introduction by Sarah Bakewell (New York: Other Press, 2006, 2012) ("But our fates and our wishes almost always play to a different rhythm." Id. at 367.).

Herta Muller, Traveling on One Leg, translated from the German by Valentina Glajar & Andre Lefevere (Evanston, IL: Northwestern U. Press, 1992, 1998).

Amos Oz, Between Friends, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) (From "The King of Norway": "Luna said, 'Why do you take all the sorrows of the world on your shoulders?' And Zvi replied, 'Closing your eyes to the cruelty of life is, in my opinion, both stupid and sinful. There's very little we can do about it. So we have to at least acknowledge it.'" Id. at 1, 8-9. From "Esperanto": "Then he took off the mask and said, 'Man is by nature good and generous. It's only the injustices of society that push him into the arms of selfishness and cruelty.' Then is added, 'We must all become as innocent as children again.' From where she stood at the door, Osnat replied, 'Children are spoiled, cruel, selfish creatures. Just as we are.'" Id. at 153, 160.).

Jose Saramago, Raised From the Ground: A Novel, translated from the Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012).

Snorri Sturluson, Edda, translated and edited by Anthony Faulkes, introduction, bibliography, indexes and textual editing by David Campbell (North Clarendon, Vt: Everyman/Tuttle Publishing, 1987, 1995).

Juan Gabriel Vasquez, The Sound of Things Falling: A Novel, translated from the Spanish by Anne McLean (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011, 2012) ("Adulthood brings with it the pernicious illusion of control, and perhaps even depends on it. I mean that mirage of dominion over our own life that allows us to feel like adults, for we associate maturity with autonomy, the sovereign right to determine what is going to happen to us next. Disillusion comes sooner or later, but it always comes, it doesn't miss an appointment, it never has. When it arrives we receive it without too much surprise, for no one who lives long enough can be surprised to find their biography has been molded by distant events, by other people's wills, with little or no participation from our own decisions. Those long processes that end up running into our life--sometimes to give it the shove it needed, sometimes to blow to smithereens our most splendid plans--tend to be hidden like subterranean currents, like tiny shifts of tectonic plates, and when the earthquake finally comes we invoke the words we've learned to clam ourselves, accident, fluke, and sometimes fate. . . We know it, we know it very well; nevertheless, it's always somewhat dreadful when someone reveals to us the chain that has turned us into what we are, it;s always disconcerting to discover, when it's another person who brings us the revelation, the slight or complete lack of control we have over our own experience." Id. at 222-223. Also, see Edmund White, "Requiem For the Living," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 8/4/2013.).

Jiri Weil, Life with a Star, translated from the Czech by Rita Klimova with Roslyn Schloss, preface by Philip Roth (Evanston, IL: Northwestern U. Press, 1989, 1998) ("I longed to be an animal. From the windows of the garret I saw dogs playing in the snow, I saw a cat creep slowly across the neighbor's garden, I saw horses drinking freely from buckets, I saw sparrows flying about whenever they felt like it. Animals don't have to rack their brains about which streets they are allowed to enter." Id. at 28. "I knew all about the circus... During the intermissions I looked at the exotic animals, animals I didn't know. They looked wretched and sad. I never thought about it, though, because they were always forced out into the arena (I thought they went there by themselves), and then everything was different; they performed only for me. They walked, danced, jumped, and did all sorts of tricks under the artificial lights, to the sound of brassy music and the cries of the tamers. I never thought it was a difficult thing to be an animal in the circus, since I was sitting on a wooden bench with a canvas canopy about me. I looked at the sawdust that covered the floor and at the braziers full of red-hot coals. When I watched the seals pushing a ball with their snouts I didn't know it was a bad thing to be an animal in the circus. It never occurred to me that it was something seals did not usually do. I had also never seen a dog walk on two feet, with a little hunting cap on his head and a gun over his shoulder. But it was amusing to look at him as he walked around the circus arena. The circus was a wonder, exciting place, where things happened that I had never seen. It was thrilling to sit comfortably on the wooden bench an watch the acrobats." "But when I myself was to perform in the circus, I didn't like to remember the sound of the whip and the cries of the tamers. I didn't want to remember the horses running around and around or the dog jumping through a large hoop covered with paper. I wouldn't lift my head to look at the ropes under the ceiling when I myself had to walk a tightrope and look down at the gaping faces." Id. at 104-105. "'There are worse things they've made us do. Not long ago someone at our cemetery said that man was so powerful he could be forced to do anything but that nobody could force a horse to do something. And yet look, they've forced the horses, so why should you blame yourself?' But the miller wouldn't listen. He said goodbye to me. I watched him as he slowly walked beside his horses. I saw that they really did move unwillingly, both the horses and the man." Id. at 167. "It was much easier to believe in being helpless and obey them, to let oneself be driven to death, than it was to stand up to them, face to face, with a gun or without one, It was true that there was nothing to die for, but it was also true that there was nothing to live for... But, still, I had stepped out of line and there was no returning." Id. at 172. "'It's high time you did something about that cemetery of yours,' said Materna. 'You live like a horse with blinders. You'll have to confront things head on, or do you want to duck out again and just wait until they come to get you?'" Id. at 194. "There was no one to ask for advice and there was no one to pray to, because now I had to cross the line." "But at that moment I already knew I would cross it. Because I have overcome death, and it was a good thing to overcome death." Id. at 208.).

Jiri Weil, Mendelssohn Is on the Roof, translated from the Czech by Marie Winn (Evanston, IL: Northwestern U. Press, 1991).

A. B. Yehoshua, The Retrospective: A Novel, translated from the Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman (Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) (See Robert Pinsky, "Screening History," NYT Book Review, Sunday, 3/31/2103.).