The Book I Read: Opus 100 by Isaac Asimov

 

Sometime early in March of 2019, I was reading Henry Thomas Buckle's magnificent History of Civilization in England, and it kept hitting me that much of what he was saying reminded me of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, which I'd previously read when I was in high school. (*) Long story short, I broke out the Asimov. 

Which I'd been meaning to do sooner or later, anyway--which is why I had copies of the books on hand.

The Foundation "Trilogy" had grown up in the forty-five years since I'd last read it, though. There were now two prequels and two sequels to the trilogy, so it was actually 7 books long. Unless, of course, you count the second trilogy which was written by Gregory Benford, David Brin, and Greg Bear, which would make it 10 books long. 1 I decided to go for the completion backwards principle and read them all.

And so I went at it. At a very slow pace, as I have lots of other books on my plate already, but they were such enthralling reads that before I knew it (a mere two years later) I was 150 pages away from the end of Book 10. 

At which point I realized that reading this series 2 had reignited my love for the Good Doctor. 

When I was very young, I read a lot of his books...fiction and non-fiction. It's been so long that I can no longer be counted on to remember all of the titles, but I am sure that I read somewhere around 60 of Asimov's books back then. But after that I drifted away from him. I read cooler science fiction writers, for one thing...like Harlan Ellison and his pals. (Ironically, Asimov introduced me to Harlan via The Hugo Winners anthology.) 

I'd poked into an Asimov book or two since then, but hadn't actually finished any of them until my Foundation Experience. But now...I wanted more. 

I've been trying to avoid buying books lately (since my house is filled with books already), so I looked on my shelves to see what was on hand. (I knew there was still some Asimov in there...most of which I'd never read.) And I found a few. I decided to have a go at Opus 100. 

Opus 100 was Asimov's celebration of having written 99 books before it. It has new material in which Asimov talks about his life and stories, then sets up excerpts from some of his first 99 books. There are times when it gets a little tedious, I'll admit...for instance, I don't speak math, so when he gave excerpts that had to do with mathematics, I wasn't thrilled...but when I found myself in a section about which I didn't care much, I just marked my place and flipped to another section, read that, then came back to where I had left off. And by the end of it, I found that I'd really enjoyed the read. Most of it, anyway. I'll confess that in the last section, "Humor," there was a story--"The Holmes-Ginsbook Device"--which I found hard to take. It was pretty much non-stop low level misogyny...stuff like, "I had to pinch the girls good-bye,"...and it not only wasn't even slightly funny, it was (obviously) disrespectful towards women. Of course, those were different times, and I am admittedly more sensitive to that kind of stuff that some folks, but still...it's a shame that the book ended on that note.

But fortunately for me, I had already read that section earlier on, when I bailed out of a math section, so the last bit I read was "The Bible," which I found very interesting. Asimov even touched on Gnosticism 3 a bit, and I'm always game for a bit of that. 

I've still got 100 some pages to go in Foundation and Earth, but Opus 100 has lit my fire, and I am thinking that I'm going to have to read some more Asimov. I have a few more books here...and the library has quite a few...but unfortunately, what I'm really wanting to read is some of his autobiographical stuff: In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920-1954 (which I read a long time ago but no longer have), In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov 1954-1978 (which I read a long time ago but no longer have), I. Asimov: A Memoir 4 (which I read about half of some time ago but never had), It's Been a Good Life, and Yours, Isaac Asimov: A Life in Letters (neither of which I've previously read nor had nor have). The library doesn't have any of these books, alas. In fact, it's hard to find copies of some of these books at reasonable prices. HOWEVER...I've just located the first three listed above for a grand total of about $31. 

Hmmmm.

ANYway...two thumbs up for Opus 100. And I DO have Opus 200 and Opus 300 on hand, so I will no doubt be going there and there in the near future. And as for the non-existent but should exist Opus 400 and Opus 500...well, more on that later.

___________________________________

1 Unless you count the other books which have now been tied in to the Foundation series, which include 5 Robot Books and 3 Empire Novels, which puts us up to 18 books. And yes, it does get worse from there, but thats about enough of that, isn't it?

2  And re-reading the original trilogy.

3 From Asimov's The Egyptians (1967): "During the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, Marcion held that it was the God of the Old Testament who was the demiurge - the evil and inferior being who had created the universe. Jesus, on the other hand, was the representative of the true God, of Wisdom. Since Jesus did not partake of the creation of the demiurge, he was pure spirit, and his human shape and experiences were merely a deliberate illusion taken on to accomplish his purposes." (236 to 237)

4 I think it's funny that both Amazon and Wikipedia insist that the title of this book is I, Asimov, when it is clearly I. Asimov. See:

Just goes to show that a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest, la la la la la la la la la la la la.

P.S. Courtesy of eBay and Thrift Books:

There are some advantages to living in the 21st Century, after all. And I'm already 80 pages into The Early Asimov.

Autism, Comfy Chairs, and Correctional Facilities

 My autistic son Joe has been having a hard time dealing with the pandemic lockdown--as have we all, of course--but he's having an even harder time dealing with the "Almost Over" aspect of it. It's the inverse of the Since I Gave Up Hope I Feel Much Better maxim. 

So I've been trying various things to help him deal with the frustration engendered by anticipation: long walks, stationary bike rides, dumbbell exercises, yoga, tai chi, dancing, video games, movies, movie and tv series, changing his medications (with doctor supervision), punching bag, weighted blanket, sensory brushing therapy, loud music, soft music, long read-aloud-from-books sessions. Etcetera. Some of it has helped, some of it it's hard to tell. Some of it has been a waste of time and money.

Today I thought, I wonder if he'd like to have a rocking chair? (Because it's fairly common for autistic folks to like rocking motion.) But not an old person's rocking chair, something cool...like a gamer's chair. They rock, right? (I mean that literally literally, not adjectivally.)

And since I have abandoned Amazon ("My name is Brother K, and it's been 3 months since my last Amazon purchase."), I headed over to Walmart to see what I could find.

I found this with minimal effort:

And it looked like the ticket, really. But I wanted something slightly better, so I looked some more...and found this:

...which looked even cooler. I also found a different variation of the above which was equipped with Bluetooth speakers, which might be a nice upgrade. Strangely, it was $20 cheaper. 

So that's probably what's going to happen...though I'll do a more thorough check on it before I throw the money down.

After I'd found the above, though, I thought that maybe I should cast my net wider and perhaps benefit from the experience of others, so I Googled "home furniture for autistic adults," and got this:

Well...I, for one, wanted to know what "Gamer's Chair" goes for $918. So I clicked on that, only to find...

Hmpf. Well...there are a lot of things to say about that, but I think I'll let you say them for yourself. Meanwhile, though, I have to think that you sure have to be careful about buying stuff, don't you? Unless, of course, $918 is sofa change to you.

P.S. If you have any advice re: gaming chairs, hit me back in the comments section asap.

"New" Richard Wright Novel

Mark your calendars: on April 20, 2021, The Library of America is going to be releasing Richard Wright's never before published novel, The Man Who Lived Underground. 

It's been awhile since I did time with Mr. Wright, and I am really anxious to get my hands on this book. Amazon has it up for $18.49, which is almost 20% off the publisher's list price, but you know what? I think A can take its $4.46 and shove it up the ass. I'm definitely not buying this book from them. It's taken me a long time to figure out that $1 hamburgers & saving money by buying from Amazon are not always good deals. So I'll be looking for someplace local to spend my money.

BTW, Library of America also publishes Richard Wright: The Library of America Unexpurgated Edition, which includes Lawd Today!, Uncle Tom’s Children, Native Son, Black Boy (American Hunger), & The Outsider--all of which had been "expurged and abbreviated" by previous publishers. I've read Native Son and Black Boy previously, but I was going to read them again at some point, and it's exciting to think that I'll be able to read what Richard Wright wanted me to read, and not what his editors thought was acceptable for me to read. 

American

There's a scene in American Playboy Season 1, Episode 3 ("Becoming Mr. Playboy") in which the fledgling magazine is about to launch a variety show on television, and virtually on the eve of its premiere it is told that the stations in the South will refuse to broadcast the show unless the black guests--Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole--are removed.

Well, that looks familiar, doesn't it? A bunch of prune-faced White people holding flags and proclaiming that what they don't like is COMMUNISM. I'm often startled by how little progress we have made as a nation...especially in the past 60 years, all of which I have lived. Turn on the news today and you'll see Southern Republicans working to limit the opportunities for Black people to vote, waving their flags, and proclaiming that Democrats want to embrace Communism.

Well, in the show, Hefner, who is really only trying to run a successful magazine, and who sees the opportunity to do a television variety show as a means to increase his circulation, is told by his staff that they can't afford to lose the South, that that constitutes half of their possible market. Hefner responds by saying, "Fuck the South."

Hefner went on with the show. The Southern tv stations refused to broadcast it because they didn't like the whole Mixed Races thing. But the show still did well enough to get an order for a full season. 

So in this case, at least, Good triumphed over Evil. And Hugh Hefner looks like a hero to me. He put his ideals of racial equality above this financial concerns. 

It seems that nowadays it works the other way, though. In order for Good to win, It has to prove to the Money Folks that they will lose dollars if they don't support what is right. The end result might look the same...but it really isn't, is it. The distance between a company risking its financial well-being to do the right thing and a company doing the right thing because its financial well-being was at risk is several light years in terms of morality.

Let's be more like Hef, huh? Let's be real Americans again.

Louis

 It's been a week a little over a week two weeks since my friend Louis died. I've tried to write about him several times...and what I wrote seemed too paltry to put into the world. Seemed too paltry to serve as any kind of tribute to a man I loved so dearly, who had been such an important part of my life.

And although I didn't think it consciously, I realized yesterday that I had quietly resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to write anything. Because I didn't have the words to do justice to my friend.

But then it hit me. There wasn't going to be a memorial service for Louis. He had taught thousands of students over the course of his career as a high school teacher, but all of the grieving for him was going to be solitary.

So I knew that I had to try to say something. Even if only a few people were out there to hear it.

So I'm going to tell about the last picture that I have of him and me together.

We're standing outside of his church, King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church. Pre-pandemic. I'd gone to visit his church, along with two of my other dearest friends. I think this was the first time I'd ever been more dressed up than Louis. At school, he always wore a suit. Which is one of the reasons why I started wearing a suit when I taught. After the picture was taken, Louis told me and my friends that we should probably leave after the offertory, because the service was pretty long. I was in the midst of My Church Year--I had resolved to visit every Archdiocesan Catholic Church in Louisville--and it wasn't uncommon for me to go to two church services in a day, so I was feeling a little smug about that: of course I could handle a long service. An hour and a half later the offering was taken up, and my friends and I hit the door. Louis laughed when we talked about it afterwards, and when I asked him how much longer it went after we'd left, he said just a couple of hours or so. He loved that church. Spent a lot of his retirement hours there...even after the pandemic had closed the world down.

But Louis always kept it real. And he always had my back.

I'm thinking about how he would talk about growing up in the South, and having to miss school to go out into the fields to pick cotton. I'm thinking about him asking me to write a recommendation for him when he applied for the Kentucky Teacher of the Year award, and how he won that award. There are a lot of miles between that cotton field and the State Teacher of the Year award. I don't think there are very many people who could walk those miles.

And I'm thinking about how once Louis was talking about the old "Forty Acres and a Mule" promise that been broken so long ago, and Louis dismissed it by saying, "What do I want with some damn mule? Where would I put it? On my balcony?" It's hard for me not to hear echoes of Cedric the Entertainer in Barbershop when I remember that.

And then I just run out of words. Well, no, I get choked on my words. I miss Louis, and talking about him is just really painful right now. So I wrote a song for him. I'm sorry that it's not a better song, but it's the best that I had in me for now. 

I miss you, Brother Louis. I thought we had more time.

https://phonynoam.tumblr.com/post/646469704659140608/rip-louis-bryant-your-memory-is-a-blessing

The difference between Great Britain 1942 and the United States of America 2021:

"There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise."

Winston S. Churchill

The Second World War

Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate

Kamandi Watch

It's now been a full year since I last set foot in a comic book shop. For awhile I was keeping my habit in check by methadoning ComiXology e-comics. But then that Amazon Thing happened, and my only resort was to go to the public library website. Which is great, and I appreciate it mightily--they have saved me hundreds of dollars. But you don't get NEW comics there, do you. So I supplemented that fix with checking out previews on ComiXology. And that helped. For one thing, there are quite a few comics of which a cover picture and three pages are quite enough, thank you. Until I saw this:

And by this, I really mean this:

Oh, Kamandi. Oh, oh, oh.

Of course, I've been fooled before. Remember that Justice League arc wherein they made it look like Kamandi was a star player, when in fact he was just sitting on the sidelines looking stupid in the few scenes in which he was included?

So I looked at the preview pages. First page, six panels. Kamandi is in six of them. Second page, two page spread. Featuring Kamandi and Prince Tuftan. Third page, seven panels. Kamandi is in four of them. It wasn't hard to decide that I needed that comic book.

My first thought was that I would just let Amazon (and hence ComiXology) back into my life. That was the easiest way, wasn't it? But 💩, y'know? Then I thought about going to visit The Great Escape. I'm fully vaccinated, after all. It'd be cool, right? Well...they're still not sure if you can carry the virus after you've been vaccinated, though. And I have a daughter who hasn't been vaccinated who's with me pretty much all of the time. Nope, it wasn't worth taking a chance. 

Then as I was farting around, the ante got upped:

A thing called Generations Forged. And once again Kamandi was on the cover. Clearly I was going to need to find a way to get these comic books.

Midtown Comics to the rescue. I went online to see what I could do about getting these comics sent to me, and found that at Midtown Comics, not only did they have both comics...but they had the much preferable alternate covers (which I've shown for Generations Forged, because the regular cover barely showed Kamandi...and he didn't look anything like Kamandi, to boot:

Although the Dark Knight Returns figure was kind of cool. Oh, the Generations Shattered alternate cover? Sure. Here it is:

And another bonus: the books were discounted, so even with shipping it was pretty close to what I'd have paid at the stand.

I placed my order on February 26th. They arrived on March 6th.

And hey, I just now realized (with this side by side set-up) that they are the same cover (-ish). 

Now the big questions: was it worth it? Was it worth it?

Our survey says...

Generations Shattered #1 was kind of interesting. It's one of those Cast of Thousands vis-à-vis the art chores (20 different artists!), but only three writers, and that kind of held things together. Also, for the most part the artists weren't really all that different from each other, which made for a more cohesive feel than might normally be the case. (Though it was pretty easy to pick out the John Romita, Jr. pages). 

I was a little confused by the story. From the get-go it's obvious that we're going back to the Crisis on Infinite Earths (from 1985 - 1986), and I didn't know if I had missed something set-up wise or if DC just had a flashback. Wikipedia let me know that it was a bit of both: there were some precursors...Wonder Woman #750, The Flash #750, Flash Forward TPB (collecting a six issue mini-series), and Detective Comics #1027. (If I were still doing ComiXology, I could be reading all of those for $41, by the way. On the other hand...I just checked the Public Library, and they had everything but the Detective Comics, so there's another bundle of bucks they just saved me.)  But from what I can discern (to be amended once the library comes through for me, perhaps) is that this is pretty much a BOOM! time to reboot the universe again thing, and since the Dan Dido plan had been deep-sixed, Dan Jurgens decided to go this way.

But it wasn't really all that confusing if you're familiar with Crisis on Infinite Earths. Which I am. More or less. I mean, I haven't read it in 35 years, but I still have the gist of it. And the good news is that Kamandi actually does play a central role in the action, and he's not just a dumbass standing around and occasional shooting someone with his pistol (hello, Justice League). In fact, he's actually the central figure in that it is left to him (for reasons which I shan't divulge, though it happens pretty early on in the book) to hop through time collecting heroes to try to stop The Crisis. And did I mention that this is a big old fatty of a book--80 pages, and no ads? I'd have to say that if you're a Kamandi fan, this is worth your $10. 

As for Generations Forged #1...again there's a large cast of artists (11 this time, quite a few of them who also appeared in Shattered), but the three writers are the same...and I think it's pretty clear that Dan Jurgens is leading the show. Which I'd have to say is a good thing--not just because it means there's one guy in charge, but because it's Dan Jurgens, who might not be a Hot Name like _____ (I don't know who the hot names are any more...but whoever is the Now equivalent of the Then Frank Miller, Howard Chaykin, John Byrne, etc.), but who is a really good writer who has handled some amazing (and complex) storylines, like The Death of Superman and The Reign of the Supermen, both of which I thought were top notch stories. (Man, I can still remember the fervor I felt whilst reading Reign of the Supermen. I really wanted to know which one of those motherfuckers was the "real" Superman!)

Anyway. The story here was actually better than the Shattered story for a couple of reasons. One, there was a Framing Sequence which we went back to several times during the course of the story, and that gave it a very cohesive feel. Two, there were some really good character bits in the writing. For instance, this was the first time I've ever read a Superboy story in which Superboy seemed like a boy. And once again, Kamandi was a key component of the action. And oh, I forgot to mention...OMAC shows up for this story, too. And we even spend a little bit of time in Electric City, so there's a nice Jack Kirby vibe running through this. As for the resolution of the Crisis plot...well, you know. It was fine. A few twists on what you'd expect, at least. Again, I'd have to recommend putting your money down for this thing. Let's see, both issues would put you $20 in...but you do get 160 pages of story. That's close to 50% more buck bang than you get on regular comics these days, isn't it? Or you could wait until it shows up at your local library.

Meanwhile...I heard a rumor that there's a mini-series spinning out of these two one-shots. Could it be so? Could there be (gasp) more Kamandi coming my way?

Time and I will tell.

☮📤

☮ in  So Blogger has a symbol for an outbox, but not an inbox? That seems illogical. Anyway...since then ↑, I got my hands on all of the "precursor" stories mentioned above. 

Short Version: it wasn't worth it, and I'm really glad that I didn't spend any money on them. 

Long Version: 

"A Brave New World" in Wonder Woman #750: This is an 8 page story--one page of which is a one panel "pin-up." The art is ostensibly Bryan Hitch, but he must have been in a hurry, because it is way below his usual level of quality...so much so that I would not have known it was Bryan Hitch without the credit line--and I'm still not sure that I believe it. It's a story about Wonder Woman emerging as a super-hero...the first*...and so far as I can discern it has nothing to do with the Generations storyline. There's also no appearance of nor even a reference to Kamandi or his world. If I'd paid $10 for this, I'd be really mad. Hell, if I'd paid $1 for this I'd be mad.

* So apparently political correctness has now met revisionist history for DC Comics. That's a shame.

"Generation Zero" from The Flash #750 and, according to Wikipedia, from the Flash Forward trade paperback as well. First off, that's not true. The story which appears in The Flash #750 is entitled "Flash Forward: Epilogue," and is 12 pages long. The story in the Flash Forward trade paperback is entitled "Flash Forward: Epilogue: Generation Zero," is 19 pages long--the first 12 pages of which are identical to the story in The Flash #750. I know that's picking some nits, but I like to get things right, so I'll be moving over to Wikipedia to try to do some editing in a few moments. (For the record, though, this is now:

See addendum below for my update.)

"Both" stories are pretty bad: sloppy, crowded art with garish coloring, a "story" which is actually just Flash (Wally West version) sitting in a chair (albeit a Möbius Chair) ruminating, and yet another attempt to reconcile the conflicting elements of DC history. So at least it really is a lead-in the the Generations storyline. On the other hand, there's no hint of Kamandi, and that's what I was here for. So again, if I'd spent the bucks (about twenty of them this time) to read these pages, I'd have been seriously unhappy. 

"Generations: Fractured" in Detective Comics #750: I wasn't able to get this from the library. I made a half-hearted attempt to buy a copy for cheap on eBay, but big surprise, the bidding went from 99¢ at the start to More Than I Wanted To Pay in the final minutes. But (shhhh) I did find a video on YouTube of a young fellow talking about, reading, and showing the panels of this story. Yeah, I know. Sorry. Anyway....

Getting Closer

Reading The Unknown Paul McCartney by Ian Peel (Coming Soon to a Blogpost Near You) has been a lot of fun. Reading it on Kindle is ideal, because when Mr. Peel mentions a song (which, as you might guess, he does on a regular basis), I can highlight the song title, hit Web Search, and give it a listen courtesy of the You Tub. And I've done that frequently, hearing many things for the first time, most of which I'd never even heard of before. (For instance, the last recording Paul did with John Lennon, a thing called (I shit thee not) A Toot and a Snore in '74. I can't say that it is worth your time (28:46), as it mostly consists of a seriously stoned John Lennon bitching about this and that, but I'm still glad that I have it under my belt. 

Reading the aforementioned book has also made me want to go back and listen to McCartney albums that I haven't listened to in years. Which was a bit of a problem. My love for McCartney has never waned, but my album collection--which once had every Paul McCartney release from McCartney to Pipes of Peace--has, as during some lean years I sold off a couple hundred of my precious vinyls. So when Ian Peel started talking about some of the outré aspects of the Back to the Egg album, I couldn't pull out my vinyl copy of the album and give it a spin. But I could go online and hear it in its entirety. Slightly more than its entirety, as it turns out, since the version I landed on included the extra tracks "Daytime Nighttime Suffering" (which I hadn't even realized was a non-album single, though I did know that it wasn't on the original Back to the Egg), "Wonderful Christmastime, " and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae." (I also found a thing called Back to the Egg Sessions which is 2:33:43 long and includes various different takes on songs, extended versions of songs, and songs which weren't put onto the album...quite a treasure trove. I haven't worked all the way through it yet, but I believe that I shall do that in the near future.) And not only was I impressed with the things that Ian Peel had pointed out, I also re-discovered how much I liked this album. Before being re-introduced to it, my only memory was that I really liked "Rockestra." On giving the album (+) a spin this time, I remembered that I loved every track. And I was especially fond of "Getting Closer."

Paul McCartney sometimes writes stupid or banal lyrics. (And yes, I think that has gotten worse on the later albums.) But he is sometimes just completely out of left field brilliant in my humble, and that is one of the reasons that I love "Getting Closer." Check this out: 

Keeping Ahead Of The Rain On The Road,
Watching My Windscreen Wipers.

Radio Play Me A Danceable Ode,
Cattle Beware Of Snipers.

I mean...WHAT? And then after a round of the chorus--in which he refers to The Object of His Desire as "My Salamander," by the way-- he goes here:

Hitting The Chisel And Making A Joint,
Glueing My Fingers Together.
Radio Play Me A Song With A Point,
Sailor Beware Of Weather.

Yeah...that's how you do it, man. The high point for me will always be "Cattle Beware Of Snipers," but I love all of it. And on top of that, this is a really snappy little song...with a pretty decently hard rockin' edge to it.

Here, give it a listen and see what you think:

 

Mmm-hmm? 

Thank you, You Tub. Sure wish I still had that album, though. It's like Holden Caulfield said, "Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." Except with albums.

The Second World War by Winston S. Churchill

The Second World War 

by 

Winston S. Churchill

Volume I The Gathering Storm

Volume II Their Finest Hour

Volume III The Grand Alliance

Volume IV The Hinge of Fate

Volume V Closing the Ring

Volume VI Triumph and Tragedy

The Second World War by Winston S. Churchill (6 volumes): Volume IV: The Hinge of Fate

 

Day 1 (DDRD 1,222): March 7, 2021

...which is also Day 40 for Volume III. I only had a dozen pages left of III, which I finished early in the a.m., and that just wasn't going to be enough Churchill for me for the day, so I went ahead and started Volume IV. I think this is my first Official Daily Devotional Reading Crossover in the (almost) four years I've been doing this. Woo-hoo!

This looks (and feels) to be the biggest Volume yet. A quick check: yep, it's 917 pages long including the Index, and there are xxii pages preceding the text of the book, so I'm calling it 939 pages long. That's hefty. If I hold to the 20 pages per day which has been my usual since I started this series, that means I'll be with this Volume for 47 days...which would put me at April 20th for a finish date. That's a lot...but the longest reading journey begins with a single word, so here I go.

And...read the xxii Introductory pages and to page 10 of the text. Looks like we're going to be spending a lot of time in the Pacific Theater...though I checked the Index, and we do get to Stalingrad around page 650 or so.

As for the Pacific Theater...well, I guess it's about time for me to watch Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, isn't it? As it happens, they've both been sitting on my dining room table for a month or so....

Day 2 (DDRD 1,223): March 8, 2021

Read to page 30. I was wrong about the Pacific Theater shift--we're back in North Africa with Rommel kicking everybody's ass. Wow     --1942, and the Germans are still winning. Imagine how grim things must have looked to the Allies back then.

Day 3 (DDRD 1,224): March 9, 2021

Read to page 50. Spoke too soon last time--we're back in the Pacific. And Australia is really Pissed Off at the Brits. I guess we're going to be quick switching between the two fronts.

Day 4 (DDRD 1,225): March 10, 2021

Read to page 70. 

Here's a good bit to chew on: 

"There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away. The British people can face peril or misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, but they bitterly resent being deceived or finding that those responsible for their affairs are themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise."

I posted the first sentence of that on Twitter under the comment "That was then, this is now."

I also liked this bit of Churchill admonition: 

"...no one need be mealy- mouthed in debate, and no one should be chicken-hearted in voting."

And all I can say is if only.

Day 5 (DDRD 1,226): March 11, 2021

Read to page 90.

So...Rommel is kicking ass in Africa, and the Japanese are kicking ass in Singapore...and I just had to wonder...how did these two relatively small nations get the manpower to do all of this damage? So I took a look. According to Wikipedia, Germany had about 80 million people in 1939, and Japan had about 70 million. So...a lot more than I would have thought, actually. Great Britain was only about 46 million, and the U.S.ofA. 131 million. Pretty easy to see why the US's entry into the war was a game changer, then. But how the hell did they pack so many people into Germany and Japan?

Day 6 (DDRD 1,227): March 12, 2021

Read to page 110. 

Day 7 (DDRD 1,228): March 13, 2021

Read to page 130. Also started watching Greyhound (2020) with Tom Hanks. Also, I was surprised to learn, written by Tom Hanks. And also also, as I was surprised to learn, based on The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester. Anyway...by coincidence, this setting for this movie in early 1942, Atlantic Ocean, U.S. ship escorting British ships to England, danger of attack by groups of submarines who use jamming signals to disrupt the Yanks' radar. And guess what I just finished reading about in The Hinge of Fate? Churchill writes about early 1942, Atlantic Ocean, U.S. ship escorting British ships to England, danger of attack by groups of submarines who use jamming signals to disrupt the Yanks' radar. So that was well-timed. And Churchill's writing is vivid and exciting (and highly recommended), but I've got to admit that watching Tom Hanks bark out orders while the ocean bitch slaps him is a bit more exciting and vivid. (Only halfway through the movie at this point, but I'm pretty sure it will end up being highly recommended as well.)

Day 8 (DDRD 1,229): March 14, 2021

Read to page 150.

I'm thinking hard about this illustration--

--in which every one of those dots

a ship that sank, many lives that were lost. Sometimes human life seems so fragile, so ephemeral...so worthless. 

Day 9 (DDRD 1,230): March 15, 2021

Read to page 170. 

I'd been thinking about a video I saw on the DC comic book story arc Generations, and how in it the host had kept pronouncing the name of one of the heroes, Kamandi, as CuhMUNdi. I knew that was wrong, because in the story's first issue (way back in October 1972, and yes, I was there, as a matter of fact) we were told that Kamandi was named after the bunker in which he and his grandfather lived, Command D. And as I was doing my Daily Devotional Reading today, my mind drifted a bit and I started thinking about all of that, and when I came back to focus on the book I was reading this paragraph:

So there's that.

Day 10 (DDRD 1,231): March 16, 2021

Read to page 190.

There was a mention of Gandhi. Mostly just that there was a fear that if his faction came to power and India became free of British rule that they might seek to become neutral with respect to Japan, which could endanger the Allies (since India was providing a large number of troops to The Cause). I didn't really get the sense that Churchill thought of Gandhi as anything more than a politician...and not one that Churchill had a great deal of admiration for.

Here's a thing FDR said to Churchill about the Press which I thought was apropos for today:

"Neither one of us is much plagued by the news stories, which, on the whole, are not so bad. But literally we are both menaced by the so-called interpretative comment by a handful or two of gentlemen who cannot get politics out of their heads in the worst crisis, who have little background and less knowledge, and who undertake to lead public opinion on that basis."

That probably deserves a Tweet.

Day 11 (DDRD 1,232): March 17, 2021

Read to page 210.

Day 12 (DDRD 1,233): March 18, 2021

Read to page 230.

Here's an interesting thing to think about:

After describing a battle which occurred on June 6th, 1942--six months, almost to the day, after Pearl Harbor--Churchill reflects on the factors which enabled the American forces to be victorious in several key Pacific battles. One of those factors is identified as being that "The American intelligence system succeeded in penetrating the enemy's most closely guarded secrets well in advance of events." (226) Hmm. I guess they made huge strides in decoding messages in six months, then.

Day 13 (DDRD 1,234): March 19, 2021

Read to page 250.

Churchill talks about a device (called "Gee") which uses radio pulses to determine an aircraft's position. He notes with implicit enthusiasm that "it could fix [an aircraft's] position within a mile." (250) Wow. We've come a little ways since then. Like 5,279.75 feet. 

Day 14 (DDRD 1,235): March 20, 2021

Read to page 270.

Day 15 (DDRD 1,236): March 21, 2021

Read to page 291.

Day 16 (DDRD 1,237): March 22, 2021

Read to page 310. 

Day 17 (DDRD 1,238): March 23, 2021

Read to page 330.

Day 18 (DDRD 1,239): March 24, 2021

Read to page 350.

Day 19 (DDRD 1,240): March 25, 2021

Read to page 370. Which means I start Book II: Africa Redeemed tomorrow.

Day 20 (DDRD 1,241): March 26, 2021

Read to page 390.

Day 21 (DDRD 1,242): March 27, 2021

Read to page 410.

Day 22 (DDRD 1,243): March 28, 2021

Read to page 430.

Day 23 (DDRD 1,244): March 29, 2021

Read to page 451.

Truth be told, though I'm still enjoying this book quite a bit, I just haven't had the spirit to write about it since my friend Louis died. I'm hoping to get back to it any minute now...but my lack of commentary shouldn't be seen as lack of involvement or interest in the book, which remains excellent. In fact, just having the "obligation" to read 20 pages a day is quite a boon to me...though it undoubtedly sounds silly, it gives me a sense of purpose beyond the daily chores of maintaining existence. It's just that words have failed me. It's like Ophelia says about the flowers after her father's death: "I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died." I would give you more words, but they withered all when my friend died. In fact, I haven't even had the words to say that until today.

Day 24 (DDRD 1,245): March 30, 2021

Read to page 470. Churchill visits Egypt. It's been awhile since we heard anything about the Pacific Theater.

Day 25 (DDRD 1,246): March 31, 2021

Read to page 492.

Churchill refers to Mark Clark and Bedell Smith as the American Eagle and the American Bulldog. He then notes that if you check their pictures you will understand why. So I did. And I do.

Day 26 (DDRD 1,247): April 1, 2021

Read to page 510.

Churchill was talking about all the defeats that Britain had suffered in the first years of the war, and how it was surprising that he hadn't been dismissed from his post. He also noted that if he had been dismissed, when the fortunes of Britain began to rise, all of the success would been a would have been ascribed to his successors . He concludes by saying, "All this shows how much luck there is in human affairs, and how little we should worry about anything except doing our best." (494)

Yep.

Day 27 (DDRD 1,248): April 2, 2021

Read to page 530.

Do these lines--

"I am not unduly disturbed about our respective responses or lack of responses from Moscow. I have decided they do not use speech for the same purposes as we do." (FDR to Churchill 28 October 1942)

--make you think of any particular political party?

Yeah, me, too.

Day 28 (DDRD 1,249): April 3, 2021

Read to page 550. Churchill tells us that in a major battle (vs. Rommel) in North Africa, 80 tons of bombs were dropped on an area that was a total of 6 square miles in 2 1/2 hours. That's a lot of cheddar.

Day 29 (DDRD 1,250): April 4, 2021

Read to page 570. Quite a bit about a fellow named François Darlan, who seems to have been quite a traitor and a collaborator with the Nazis...though there are moments when he seems to go another way. It's a bit confusing, but I think my conclusion is that he was a man devoid of honor who did whatever was most favorable to him. You know, like the Republicans.

Day 30 (DDRD 1,251): April 5, 2021

Read to page 591.

Churchill is speaking about this Vichy France here, but it seems like good advice in a much more general way: "...it would be very foolish not to try to understand what is passing in other people's minds, and what are the secret springs of action to which they respond." (575)

At the end of chapter 35, Churchill gives a bit of a eulogy for Darlan (boo, hiss), which concludes, "Let him rest in peace, and let us all be thankful we have never had to face the trials under which he broke." (580) Pretty generous, given the context.

And when I read this--

"...it would seem...that the sum of all American fears is to be multiplied by the sum of all British fears, faithfully contributed by each capital Service." (584)

--I was struck by the  "sum of all" bit,

so I Googled around,  and finally came up with  this:

“You may take the most gallant sailor, the most intrepid airman, or the most audacious soldier, put them at a table together—what do you get? The sum of their fears.” (16 November 1943)

I'm not sure if this is something I missed in The Hinge of Fate, haven't gotten to yet, or if it's from another volume of this work or from another work, but it is a Churchill, so that's nice.

Day 31 (DDRD 1,252): April 6, 2021

Read to page 610. 

Day 32 (DDRD 1,253): April 7, 2021

Read to page 630.

Day 33 (DDRD 1,254): April 8, 2021

Read to page 650. 

Day 34 (DDRD 1,255): April 9, 2021

Read to page 670.

Day 35 (DDRD 1,256): April 10, 2021

Read to page 690.

Churchill says "We have got to be hitler...and this is no time for quarrels and charges." He is referring to the fact that the Polish government has accused Russia of slaughtering 15,000 Polish officers and men in 1940, which had recently been revealed. Churchill even notes that Russia's claim that the Nazis did the deed (the territory was first held by Russian, then taken over by Germany) is unlikely.

15,000 murdered and their remains found in a mass grave. Seems like a bit more than a quarrel, doesn't it?

Day 36 (DDRD 1,257): April 11, 2021

Read to page 710.

Day 37 (DDRD 1,258): April 12, 2021

Read to page 730. And the text ends on page 743, so starting tomorrow it's Into The Appendices Universe once more. Speaking of, there was no textual "link" to the appendices, so no opportunity to flip over to them per se.  There are 130 pages of appendices, so looks like one more week...which would put me just a little bit ahead of my predicted finish time of 47 days. Woo-hoo.

Here's a rule for you:

"When one wakes up after daylight one should breakfast; 5 hours after that, luncheon. 6 hours after luncheon, dinner." (727-728)

And you know, when I checked that against our eating times...6 am for breakfast, 11 am for lunch, 5 pm for dinner...guess what? A perfect Churchill. I found that a bit surprising, actually.

Day 38 (DDRD 1,259): April 13, 2021

Read to page 750.

Day 39 (DDRD 1,260): April 14, 2021

Read to page 775. Read a few extra because I now have fewer than 100 pages to go. So there's that.

And now, this: In a letter to the Minister of Aircraft Production, encouraging said Minister to address the shortage of aircraft, Churchill says, "Get at it and bite at it."

Day 40 (DDRD 1,261): April 15, 2021

Read to page 794. And a mere 80 pages to go. 

Day 41 (DDRD 1,262): April 16, 2021

Read to page 814. 

Some wisdom: "The maxim 'Nothing avails but perfection' may be spelt shorter: 'Paralysis'. (808)

Day 42 (DDRD 1,263): April 17, 2021

Read to page 834.

Day 43 (DDRD 1,264): April 18, 2021

Read to page 917. Which means I finished Volume IV. Not as impressive as it might appear (83 pages in one day!) since it was really just the usual 20 pages plus an extra 20 pages and then the Index. And the extra 20 pages were mostly lists of the boys in charge of government during these years. And by the way, the were ALL boys. Which is pretty amazing, isn't it? A dozen pages of the heads of state, and not a single woman.

Well.

On to Volume V, then.

DDR Day 1000 to Day 2000:

(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 +  43 + ___ days, 4,379 pages  Total: 6,970 pages...more than 1/2 of my first 1,000 DDR days