Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

“I tried to break the spell—the heavy, mute spell of the wilderness—that seemed to draw him to its pitiless breast by the awakening of forgotten and brutal instincts, by the memory of gratified monstrous passions. This alone, I was convinced, had driven him out to the edge of the forest, to the bush, towards the gleam of fires, the throb of drums, the drone of weird incantations; this alone had beguiled his unlawful soul beyond the bounds of permitted aspirations… There was nothing either above or below him, and I knew it. He had kicked himself loose of the earth. Confound the man! he had kicked the very earth to pieces. He was alone, and I before him did not know whether I stood on the ground or floated in the air.” p. 82

Adrift beyond the bonds that tie men to their own world, Marlowe comes to the precipice of edge of the world, and of the known self. Each step along the path, each bend in that vast and winding river, separates him further from the life he understands; one that provides him reference. Cast-off from life's moorings, he comes face-to-face with the shadowy specter of Kurtz, The difference, we are told, is that Kurtz did not flinch to cross the precipice, to step beyond the world and allow himself to become enveloped by the darkness. This primeval, primordial darkness is both an external and an internal geography. Loosed from the bonds of things with which we fill our lives, the human soul is confronted by itself. The blank spaces of the map are places of creation and, potentially, of reinvention.

The difference between Marlowe and Kurtz is that Marlowe appears unable to sever the gauzy threads which connect him. Whether the knitting crones behind him, or the imagined voice of Kurtz compelling him forward, Marlowe draws the linkage between himself, his actions, and the world which he inhabits. He touches the precipice, only to return to his origins; to plant his feet once again in his former world. Yet, as the doctor noted at the outset: he has been irrevocably changed. Kurtz, however, endeavors to become one of the immortals; to exist out of time and space; defined only by himself and in reference to himself. Kurtz seeks to create his own world as he sees fit. He creates his small flickering flame within the darkness. Perhaps this is the answer to his final riddle.

Kurtz claims to have wanted justice - likely a justice of his own creation.Though Marlowe ends his tale with a lie, perhaps in this lie he has given Kurtz the justice he would have desired. Marlowe becomes the single gauzy thread tying Kurtz's last moments to a broader world of association. Rather than shackle Kurtz to this world, Marlowe cuts the cord and sets Kurtz free. Free to drift into the darkness and inhabit the world of his own creation.

Lawrence in Arabia - Scott Anderson

How to uncover the man behind the legend of TE Lawrence? Certainly Lawrence was one of his own most successful mythologists. Seven Pillars of Wisdom casts a critical eye not only upon the "revolt in the desert" but upon the man who would direct it, and who would eventually be undone by it. Scott Anderson's account strives to situate TE Lawrence within the broader theater of the Arab Revolt, which, by Lawrence's own account, was "a sideshow of a sideshow" to the calamitous war which divided the western world. Lawrence is both a man apart and of his time, thus Anderson's protagonist remains somewhat enigmatic to the reader, as he may be to both Anderson and himself. As a historical actor this is one of Lawrence's strengths: he remains a riddle; or even a canvas upon which we may cast the best, and perhaps the worst, of ourselves. His humanity speaks to the reader, urging us to wonder how our own actions and values compare; both as we idealize them and embody them.

Anderson reminds us that this hero, Lawrence of Arabia, for all his outsize accomplishment, was a major player in a relatively minor theater upon the global stage. As was captured at the end of David Lean's masterpiece, once the fighting was over, more seasoned, powerful, perhaps cynical and maybe less informed minds took to the task of carving up the Middle East. As a man of humane letters we are left wondering if more of Lawrence's insight and spirit might have put the region on a less destructive path. Anderson's work centers upon Lawrence and a handful of his contemporaries who sought to shape the region and were largely eclipsed by the political vagaries of powerful victorious nations following the conflict. We are left to believe that the last throes of imperialism remain evident across the Middle East, and that our world is still dealing with the consequences.

But, of course, Lawrence too was an imperial character. His was an imperialism fated to end. Lawrence could scarcely have existed outside of his British upbringing, or been given such a freehand with a region of people while still being largely supported by the vast British military were it not for the imperial world he inhabited. Lawrence's early travels in the regions left him well positioned to play his British and Arab fellows against one another. Though his motives may have seemed noble, we do well to recognize that Lawrence himself wondered whether this was the case. Just as the colonial and imperial system was crashing down in the ruin of World War I, a new world was being born in which the old modes of governance and international relations were being redefined. TE Lawrence was educated and dreamed in the manner of the disappearing world. Yet his time in the Middle East may have pulled him forward into a new world in which these old approaches no longer provided sufficient answers to life's contradictions. As Anderson tells it, Lawrence was unable to escape his years in the desert and was unable to move beyond the lived and dreamed conflicts he saw and experienced within himself. Lawrence's tragedy is the clash of times coming together, as well as those tearing him apart.

The Story of Philosophy - Will Durant

Durant's has become a classic overview of the lives and thoughts of western philosophers. The men which fill Durant's pages are widely familiar, if, perhaps, not entirely understood. What Durant's work provides is a brief examination of many great minds, bringing these philosophers into conversation with one another, and into contact with the uninitiated reader. That their stories remain relevant to our modern context is the animating spirit of Durant's work; one that remains of import, even if that context is changed since the book's original publication of 1924.

The lives of western philosophers have been treated in thousands of works. Durant's volume is noteworthy for the ethos behind it. Originally published among the series of 'Little Blue Books' Durant's work was crafted specifically for the uninitiated; what historian Carl Becker called "Mr. Everyman." It was the belief of Durant, and of the Little Blue Books' publisher Emanuel Haldeman-Julius, that each person should have inexpensive access to the great works of thought and literature which have helped to define our modern world. That society could be founded upon a working class of liberally educated people, via the medium of cheap printed paperback books, and that this could also be a financially lucrative enterprise, was an idea which stood Little Blue Books in good stead for more than fifty years.

While Durant's work may seem innocuous for its subject matter, many of the implications a careful reader of Spinoza or Kant, Bacon and Nietzsche, could draw from even these brief treatments of their works and lives, in relation to his or her place in the social sphere, are anything but innocent. Durant does not shy away from the difficulties of his subjects, though he does specifically highlight them either. It is worth noting that Machiavelli and Hobbes, two more overtly politically antagonistic western minds, are not emphasized. But Durant's project is not, at least not overtly, political in nature. Yet this work provides the gateway to a broader world of complex philosophical thought - that such is appropriate for "Mr. Everyman" would be a claim almost universally agreed upon today, though widely dismissed in practice as unnecessary. Increasingly philosophy is the garden of the scant few. Our practical efforts favor innovation, novelty, and results. The contemplation of deeper, perhaps more troubling, ideas which have riven the western world - and some might say divide it still - can be seen as enacted in people's lives every day. There is a measure of trust in human capability to believe that a familiarity with such concerns might strengthen the broader social body. It was this cleavage between the power and the danger of ideas which would largely serve to be the undoing of the Little Blue Books.

The question of the education of the people remains vital. We should wonder if our commitment to a broadly educated and thoughtful citizenry is similarly as lively.

Minnesota: a history of the state - Theodore Blegen

A chronicle of the state he always called home, Blegen's history takes on the difficult and unenviable task of encapsulating both the being and meaning of Minnesota as it has grown and changed over time. From the geologic foundations and the coming of the first peoples, to pioneer days and statehood, Blegen has crafted a narrative of the state that is at once broad and rich.

Though he focuses primarily on Minnesota's (and Minnesotan's) successes, rather than their hardships and difficulties, Blegen's picture of the state pays heed to its tenuous foundations and uncertain early years. Perhaps the strongest part of the work is Blegen's ability to interweave the territorial (and then state) story within the broader context of the nation as Minnesota was finding its footing. As the first years of statehood would also see the United States tested by Civil War, striking this balance is a noteworthy feat. How Minnesota grows as both an autonomous entity and one member state among many, is a fluid stream kept close to the reader's attention.

Blegen's work is also a product of its time, and the contemporary reader might wonder at the relative scantiness which the natural environment, indigenous and minority peoples, and the non-agrarian working classes are given. We do well to keep in mind that much societal thinking has changed since 1960, and that Blegen was writing for his time and place, before Minnesota became, or was recognized to be, so broadly diverse. Yet Blegen does not ignore the different strains of Minnesotan identity. His emphasis on immigrations, geographies, and place names, traces the story of a transforming state continuously in the process of becoming. His account is in some ways mythic (not as untrue, but as a type of interpretive rubric), and resonates with certain aspects of the broader mythos of Minnesota.

In focusing on currents and threads, tracing changing actors and transforming landscapes, Blegen has achieved the rare feat of encapsulating the spirit of place. That his work was penned more than fifty years ago should be cause for reflection: how does the past continue to constitute our present, and how we imagine the future?

Ravens in Winter - Bernd Heinrich

Alone in the Western Maine woods, Bernd Heinrich spends the winter watching ravens. Watching, and wondering. The wonder-full Ravens in Winter is a book of field biology through-and-through. It is both a powerful evocation of the care that a scientist can have for 'his' subjects, and the lengths which one must be willing to go to craft a lucid and nuanced scientific argument. Rather than hide his missteps and difficulties, his mistaken hypotheses and failed experiments, it is precisely Heinrich's transparency which communicates that most elusive of scientific matters, the relationship between investigator and subject.

Heinrich starts from a simple premise: why do ravens appear to share food in the winter? Of what benefit could this possibly be in the northwoods where conditions can be exceedingly harsh and food often scarce? For five winters Heinrich sets natural experiments, trying as best the field scientist can to isolate variables, rule out false hypotheses, and remain aware of the role his own lens plays on how he sees the problem. However, what Heinrich recognizes is that, to speak meaningfully about the ravens he follows so closely, he cannot suppose to maintain a type of neutral distance. Witness the lone biologist racing the sunrise to climb a 70-feet plus pine, so as to better understand the formations which the ravens fly in each morning. See, also, how he rears numerous ravens in a hand-made aviary in his backyard, trying different foods, different social arrangements, and different stimuli. Heinrich throws himself into the ravens' world and finds many unexpected surprises.

Primarily an account of scientific research, Ravens in Winter builds to an adventure of the mind and spirit. We learn about Heinrich's home in the woods, and, indeed, about the biologist himself from the ravens which he has come to study. As his work is to tell the story of these birds, the ravens, also, tell a story about how a biologist makes sense of his work. While his methods may be occasionally unorthodox, what is clear is that Heinrich cares for his work. It may be suggested that it is precisely this care which allows him to speak so meaningfully about these mysterious and wonderful creatures.

Inferno - Dan Brown

Another of Robert Langdon's breathless adventures through a historic European city and their famous art. This time we are taken on a whirlwind tour of Florence (the home of Dante), Venice, and, moving a bit further afield, Istanbul (spoiler). With Brown and Langdon we know what we are getting ourselves into and, though he throws us a bit of a monkey-wrench this time through, the eagerly expectant reader will not be disappointed.

As usual, Langdon is more or less a vehicle to tell Brown's story and obliquely deal with a larger point of social morality. This time over-population is on docket - don't worry, Malthus gets his fair share of air time. Brown appears to be a close scholar of art (from my own grossly under-informed perspective). The same cannot be said for his treatment of the population conundrum. Admittedly we get a one-sided perspective of the issue from the deranged antagonist, but within this world of circulating elites, doctors, and professors, we cannot help but wish for at least one slightly more nuanced conversation about such a complex, and charged issue. Brown is, once again, asking us to reflect on our daily exercise of unexamined moral issues. However, in this case, overpopulation reads as too much of a rhetorical crutch. This, along with Brown's other normal hooks, do not quite come together. The reader is left waiting for the big unifying moment. Left waiting.

By the end Langdon's adventures truly are a sideshow to Brown's fetish for a type of illusive truth which our modern world misses. At heart his stories are broadly declensionist treatments of the modern situation and how voices from the past would or can speak to them. Brown's juxtaposition of modern technologies against classic works of art and poetry suggest a critique of the contemporary state of grand human endeavors. Once again technology is the weapon and the creations of yesteryear provide the map to our hoped-for safety. The popularity of his stories might suggest something profound, and perhaps profoundly troubling, concerning our modern condition.

The Unitiarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy, 1801-1865

During the early years of the 19th century, the Unitarian intellectuals represented one of the preeminent voices of progressive American social and religious thought. Perhaps most famous for giving birth to the Transcendental movement of Emerson and Thoreau, the Boston community of Unitarians was, in the early years of the American republic, a driving force in its own right. The ministry of such men as William Ellery Channing, Henry Ware Jr., and Levi Frisbee, along with their relationship to America's leading light in education - Harvard University - brought a galvanizing voice to that much needed American position which held religion and reason hand-in-hand.

Forged and tempered in the philosophical schools of Burke and Locke, and broadly educated in the liberal arts, the Harvard trained Unitarians sought to reconcile nature and intellect, empiricism and aesthetics within a unified, coherent, thought system. In the face of a not inconsequential rise in Calvinism, this community often provided a starkly contrasting voice concerning the issues of the day. This is not suggest a base relativism or simply liberal heterodoxy. This community of preachers and writers was secure that the foundations of their faith were strongly constructed. Their conception of the holy was not undermined, but rather was strengthened, by contemporary developments in the sciences. In one of his most famous sermons, Unitarian Christianity, William Ellery Channing would proclaim his faith that, "God never contradicts in revelation what He teaches in his works." Channing's faith was grounded in his conception of the perfect Divine, and he would not let an overbearing Calvinism, nor a type of anything-goes universalism of the Transcendentalists, pervert what he saw as a unification of the intuitively understood and immediately apprehended experience.

While Howe's work paints a clear picture of the Unitarians, it is less clear why the Transcendentalists and Unitarian's differences proved insuperable. While it is true that the universalist thread of transcendentalism has become inextricably linked to much of American Unitarianism, it would be incorrect to assume either that such was fated, or that those who fought against the eventuality of this transformation provided a reason and faith system that was either incoherent, or that was easily discarded. While the relative conservatism of the mainline Boston Unitarians struggled to adapt its views to the slavery question, or to the type of radical social democratic thought that would come to define much of American protestantism and liberal political discourse, the conceptual worldviews held by these broadly educated and deep-thinking men provided real alternate conceptions of moral leadership in a democracy. The questions which they struggled  with, how to reconcile liberty with order, and how to bring reason and conscience to bear upon the problems of society, are with us still. As clear voices for a modern bourgeois values system, the Unitarians provided insight into the world approaching the coming generations of Americans.