129. Travelers

Previous - 128. Well, Everything Is Well

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Vertigo

P53 ...when I am travelling I often feel as Grillparzer did on his journeys. Nothing pleases me, any more than it did him; the sights I find infinitely disappointing, one and all; and I sometimes think that I would have done far better to stay at home with my maps and timetables...

Now I'm thinking of Sebald not in the tradition of novelist but in the tradition of travel writers. He's not Bill Bryson. Bryson has referenced Paul Theroux in the past, but it's been too long since I've read Theroux to recall his style. 

Sebald curtailed his 1980 trip after he had a vaguely unsettling experience in a deserted Verona restaurant. Seven years later he is attempting to repeat and complete his trip but is transfixed by the view of Verona from the train and can't get off, and so continues on to Limone. 

(The young woman sitting next to me at this counter -- having a meeting with another woman sitting next to her -- has a magnificent mane of hair which she habitually flips back so that it hits me. I can't identify her accent.)

Bryson doesn't always end up where he intends, and sometimes changes his plans due to, for example, the birth of a grandchild. But it's hard to imagine him being chased from Europe by a thoughtless restaurant proprietor, or being so transfixed by contemplating something that he misses his stop. 

Who does Sebald remind me of? Mary Elliott from Persuasion? Marianne Dashwood (in the novel version of Sense and Sensibility)? Cousin Charlotte from Room With a View? Not sure.

P57 I hadn’t noticed before that Casanova’s confinement in Venice overlapped with the Lisbon earthquake that was so shocking to Voltaire. The account here gives no indication of why Casanova was detained, but his situation seems to me to be of more moral interest than the earthquake. 

At least twice in this volume, our narrator "sees" a historical figure during the course of his travels. He recently saw King Ludwig II of Bavaria in Venice, and near the end he sees some queen (Elizabeth, the Winter Queen) on a train on his way home to England. This is pushing the unreliable narrator idea rather far.

Candide

"Voltaire at Les Delices and at Ferney" - Gustave Lanson

p98 On the propaganda that flowed out of Voltaire's estate at Ferney ...These "little pot-pies," these portable scandal-sheets easy to read, and continuously exciting, came out of the factory at Ferney for twenty-three years; they emerged in all forms, on all subjects, in verse, in prose, dictionaries, stories, tragedies, diatribes, extracts on history, literature metaphysics, religion, the sciences politics legislation, Moses, snails, Shakespeare, and notes written by a gentleman... they became nothing more for him than a means to an end. Tragedies and verses served to hasten the spread of his ideas.

He repeated himself, he went over the same ground again and again... For he knew that ideas enter the public mind only by dint of repetition. But the seasoning must be varied, to prevent disgust; and at that art he was a past master.

He has all the qualities, with many of the faults, of the journalist...

This passage caught my eye because, just today, I commented to one of the teachers of science I follow on YouTube that nothing was more important to teaching difficult subjects (quantum mechanics, for example) than repetition. I even used a painting analogy... you need to brush or roll multiple times from a variety of angles before you can finally cover the surface. 

Also, wasn't Voltaire trying to create, hundreds of years in advance, what can be done so easily today with Twitter and social media in general? He was propagating facts "alternative" to those of the Church -- both in Rome but also in Geneva. Breitbart can be viewed as trying to undo his Enlightenment using the latest version of the very tools he mastered. 


"Gestation: Candide Assembling Itself" - Hayden Mason

Reading page 100 got me interested in the history of Portugal during Voltaire's life and I ran into the very interesting account of the life of Sebastião de Melo (Count of Oeiras after 1759.) He's certainly a mixed bag. On the one hand he seems to be almost a puppet of Voltaire, and yet also an autocrat. Now I'm curious what Voltaire had to say about him.

p100 ...He tells Elie Bertrand (another of the Genevan clergy)... that the myth of the Fall of Man... is more reasonable in human terms than the Optimism of Leibniz and Pope, which beneath the disguise of a consoling name simply removes all hope: 'if all is well, how do the Leibnizians admit of a better?'... It is the fatalistic quality of Optimism that is so cruel, for it invites man to acquiesce and therefore give up all striving for improvement... To Thieriot he makes a touching confession that he is writing about the sufferings of his fellow-men out of pure altruism, for 'I am so happy that I am ashamed of it' (D6875, 27 May {1756}).

I admit that it is something of a problem, if you believe in God, that life can smash you like a bug at any time. And not just you but entire ant hills of people, like Lisbon. But then again, from a devoutly religious position This Life if nothing special in any case. The victims of Lisbon just meet their maker a little quicker and in a large party.

In part of that paragraph I didn't quote, Mason shows that Voltaire quickly moved from Lisbon to the greater evil of war. (I was going to say that the 18th century was a good time to consider war, but then what century isn't?) So Voltaire quickly returns to the evil in man, where I think his opposition to the Optimists is on a surer footing.

p105 Pennsylvania is the model for Eldorado?!

p108 Unless Candide were virtually finished before Voltaire's visit to Schwetzingen, which appears unlikely, one must view it as written not simply in a state of ambivalent feelings about Paris and Geneva nor as a work of detached irony by a happy man but as a composition of someone who was once more plunged into despairing gloom. When he returned to Geneva he received definitive news from d'Argental that Mme. de Pompadour had declared him persona non grata at Court. Besterman rightly notes: 'it is from this moment that can be dated his spiritual severance from his fatherland'...

p109 ...Voltaire is disheartened by the decline of French prestige and influence in the world. Concern is often expressed about cultural and military affairs together... since the battle of Rossbach 'everything has been in decline in our armies, as in the fine arts in Paris'... The philosophe has long been persuaded that belles-lettre in France were degenerating and that the French were living on past credit...

...He has taken a new decision, to renounce urban life... [after buying his estates at Tournay and Ferney] 'I do not know of any situation preferable to mine'... and that he can now cultivate his garden in tranquility.... 

Finally

After over a month -- and almost a week longer than I can quite justify -- I returned to the gym today. I expect to be sore tomorrow, even though I reduced all my weights. Early on, I heard someone coughing and was happy I waited until I was completely over my illness, but then I found myself struggling with even some reduced weights and wished I had come back a bit sooner. I have my work cut out for me to get in shape by mid-April. The problem now is the weather which continues to be colder than normal (though not today) and there is still more rain forecast.

Next - 130. Proust Was a Neuroscientist

122. Venice

Previous - 121. In which Hegel fails us

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Candide

Chapter 20. Martin the Manichee. I do like Candide's method for choosing a traveling companion and how he spends his time on a long voyage arguing philosophy -- rather like a Carnaval "The Magic Mountain" cruise. Martin seems to be a fairly one-sided Manichee. The whole appeal of Manicheanism is that it reflects the obvious reality that the world is filled with both good and evil. Unless you're a monotheistic theologian, this view is hard to beat. 

I don't think I wrote about Eldorado, It is always interesting to think about what life would be like without the usual economic concerns (lotto fantasies). Did Voltaire make it clear that it was not wealth but the virtue of the people that made Eldorado special? Gold and gem stones had no inherent value in Eldorado. Also, I can't recall why Candide's last "sheep" is red -- right! This is some confused notion of llamas or alpacas which are also supposed to be faster than Andalusian horses. Why not? 

Alas, no. There is very little about the economy of Eldorado. It is merely given that it is a universally comfortable kingdom. Voltaire seems to be content to leave nobility in its station, though he is happy to take down the monks and priests. In short we are given no clue as to why Eldorado is such a fortunate place. Does Voltaire really confuse gold and gems for wealth? I can't really make anything of this account.

Vertigo

p132 ... The opera, said Salvatore [the character's source of information in Milan], is not what it used to be. [He's referring to La Scala] The audience no longer understand that they are part of the occasion. In the old days the carriages used to drive down the long wide road to the Porta Nuovo in the evenings, out through the gateway, and westward under the trees along the glacis, skirting the city, till nightfall. Then everyone turned back. Some drove to the churches for the "Ave Maria della Sera", some stopped here on the Bra and the gentlemen stepped up to the carriages to converse with the ladies, often till well into the dark. The days of stepping up to a carriage are over, and the days of the opera also....


Since opera (along with rap) is one of the few forms of music I have no interest in, this passage shouldn't affect me, and yet it does. And not just because this reminds me just a little of young Marcel's sightseeing of the carriages of his idols in the Bois. At heart I guess I'm just a very conflicted petit bourgeois boy. 

Venice

Both Candide and Vertigo have progressed chapter by chapter since I last mentioned them but now both stories are in Venice. Vertigo hits Venice every chapter or so. Venice had a very unique status in Europe for centuries, until Napoleon in fact. And even after that the city had a special status in Hapsburg Germany until the Risorgimento. And since then, Venice has still had its spectacular charm, growing ever more wabi sabi over the generations.

I wonder if Hong Kong will continue to maintain its independent identity over time? It's my impression (based on very little) that Shanghai still maintains a hint of the identity it acquired before the Communist takeover, so maybe Hong Kong will survive in that sense.

From what I've read, Venice's continued existence as a true city -- as opposed to a tourist destination and resort for the wealthy (like Aspen) -- is also in doubt. But then that, at least in part, goes back to the question of what people in the future will do in an age of robots and AI. But then, when you read about Venice how often do you learn about what the people are doing? Aside from the arsenal and the glass industry, the public face of Venice has always been the service industry.

Candide p63 [Pococurante is dismissing the whole of classical and contemporary art and literature] -Oh what a superior man, said Candide... what a great genius this Pococurante must be! Nothing can please him...

-Don't you see, said Martin, that he is disgusted with everything he possesses? Plato said, a long time ago, that the best stomachs are not those which refuse all food.

-But, said Candide, isn't there pleasure in criticizing everything, in seeing faults where other people think they see beauties?

-That is to say, Martin replied, that there's pleasure in having no pleasure? ...

Which?

There's a point where it's hard to tell if you're being wisely cautious or just procrastinating and being lazy. I want to return to the gym, but then I find myself dealing with some residue (literally) of my cold or I wake up at 7am and it's freezing cold (for here) and going out in my shorts just seems ill considered. 

It will (presumably) eventually get warmer -- this is usually when we have some of our nicest weather -- and then I can throw myself into getting back in shape. It's not like I'm training for a marathon. But I still feel lazy.

Haguro

I've talked about the Pacific War battles that are great stories, but another way of talking about that war is to tell the story of a class of warships. I've sort of done this already by talking about the role of the U.S.S. Independence class (and of the CVEs) in the American victory, but to tell the story of the entire war the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) Myōkō-class heavy cruisers might be the best choice.

The IJN, as a rule, operated sister ships together so that ships operating together would have similar characteristics (speed and armament, for example). In 1942 the Myōkō-class ships were not the newest or most powerful heavy cruisers in the IJN -- all four had been placed in commission in the late 1920's -- but they were fine examples of the superiority of IJN heavy cruisers over the ships of every other navy of the time. If you had been the commander of a USN heavy cruiser, say the U.S.S. Houston serving with the Asiatic Fleet, you might have been a little concerned that the Myōkō-class ships had 10 x 8" guns in 5 turrets vs your 9 x 8" guns in 3 turrets. What you wouldn't have realized was that those 8" guns were their secondary armament. Their main "battery" really consisted of launchers for the amazing Long Lance torpedo. For the first year of the war Allied ships would suddenly blow up and sink and no one on the Allied side knew why.

The reason the Myōkō-class is perfect for telling the story of the entire war is that all four ships of the class worked together during the invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942 and took part in the Battles of the Java Sea where they utterly dominated their Allied foes, and, while having participated in many of the intervening battles and campaigns, all four ships survived into late 1944 when the war returned to the waters of Indonesia and the Philippines. Here they again faced the Allies when roles were completely reversed. Instead of the IJN having all the advantages, as in 1942, in 1944 and 1945 the USN and Royal Navy were dominant everywhere. All four Myōkō-class ships were battered and sunk by the full spectrum of Allied strength: Aircraft, submarines, and surface ships. 

In early 1942 the Allies didn't have a chance. In late 1944 and 1945, the IJN didn't have a chance. The battles in the middle of the Pacific and in the middle of 1942 into 1943 are the most famous because the opponents were evenly matched, but the events before and after are in some ways more revealing.  

Next - 123. Drifting off

119. Catching up

Previous - 118. Evola & the Alt-right

I'm out!

There's a break in our storms and I'm feeling human (and can control my cough) so I'm out at the nearest Peet's. I've decided, based on my personal history, that this is my 40 year cold (like a 100 year flood), and I can live with that. Especially since that would put the next occurrence when I am 104 and I have no intention of living that long. (I'm ignoring the obvious truth that 100 year storms don't fall on the exact year and that, due to age, an individuals natural rhythms, if they exist at all, change radically near the end... rather like a serial novel tends to get very excited near the conclusion, I'm thinking here of a novel by, I think Tolstoy, where in the final chapter or two he killed off nearly his whole cast.)

Anyway, the sun is shining (periodically) I'm enjoying iced tea and an oatmeal, wheat germ, chocolate cookie I've never tried before (good, but not quite as good as I was hoping -- this isn't Tartine), and I'm writing. Which is not to say I haven't been writing the past three weeks, I have. But I haven't felt up to organizing and editing and deciding what to publish. It's been a bit like being drunk, but without the intoxication, or inspiration. 

I'm keen to return to Candide and Vertigo and to start integrating my Books for Living notes, but first I want to say a few words about illness. After all, if life gives you illness the least you can do it think and write about it.

Unfortunately, this ties in really nicely with some ideas in Will Schalbe's Books for Living, so it's going to be tricky to bring these two conversations together in time. In a few words, the central idea of Schwalbe's book, and this comes from his fondness for Lin Yutang, is that there's a good deal to say in favor of being lazy -- of not rushing through life like a good Calvinist. 

This is an easy sell for me since I've always believed people were in too much of a rush to get someplace for rather unexamined reasons. Still, I had a bunch of plans for this month. I was going to paint a wall in my apartment. I was going to convince my HOA to let me paint the remaining unpainted surfaces in our entry/hallway. I was going to go into training mode at the gym in preparation for the start of greening season in April. None of these things have happened because life gave me a seemingly endless series of heavy rain storms and then stuck me in my apartment feeling like shit and coughing in such a way that the inhabitants of Hans Castorp's Berghof would have been complaining to management. One of the reasons I'm out today is to get a better idea if I'm ready to return to the gym tomorrow (no). 

As rarely as I'm sick, and as much as I hate being sick, I've always felt that illness was an effective way to "reboot" the system. (Fainting, can have a similar effect.) The first week I continued to do the exercises I usually do at home -- mostly stretching and core strengthening -- but eventually I embraced the "holiday-from-my-routine" aspect of being ill and today I did my exercises for the first time in at least a week. (It's pouring rain out the window right now.) And today I didn't feel any different doing my exercises and, I'm surprised to say, my back has been, if anything, better these past several weeks. 

That doesn't mean I'm rethinking my exercise routine, but it does argue for taking a real holiday from that routine periodically. I've intended to do that, but found it very difficult to "lose ground" by not exercising for a week or two. Well, my cold took care of that. I'm pretty confident I will be recharged when I can finally resume my usual fitness routine and when I can get back to things like painting -- assuming it ever stops raining.

Neighborhood update

The cable car over-ride switch has finally been fixed, after about a month of delaying traffic on a major SF surface street. 

(I was wrong about the switch being fixed, it's still broken. The lights must have timed out just as the cable car was leaving the intersection.)

Construction is inching forward at the two buildings on my alley now doing extensive remodeling work. (But the alley is still filled with trucks so I still can't schedule my gravel delivery.) Construction has been complete in our lower level unit since December, but there's still no new tenant... no clue why not. Still haven't been able to schedule a painter to show up and do our little hallway job. 

Salesforce Tower is still taking form on our skyline. It hasn't risen any higher, but it appears they are preparing the "base" for the cap that will push it to its full height in the next month or so. The sinking and tilting residential tower across the street is, last I heard, still sinking and tilting, but not that you would notice from the street. The resulting litigation is more noticeable at the moment.

The seed for the amazing burst of development that has transformed the China Basin/Mission Creek area was the baseball stadium (now AT&T Park) that was built by the Giants without public funding. (There were a number of referendums about the City contributing and the public consistently said, "Hell no.") The Giants brought in new ownership, built a great stadium and a great team, and it has just been announced that they finished paying off the stadium at the end of 2016. They are now in the process of developing the area to the south of McCovey Cove which will be transitioning from a periodically used parking lot (I've worked events there any number of times) to our latest new neighborhood with the usual combination of residential, retail, and some commercial development. 

I have to stress this a little, the Oakland Athletics are wandering around the East Bay -- like an immature sea gull begging food from all the adult sea gulls -- trying to get someone to give them money for a new stadium. The Giants built their own stadium, which spurred so much development around the stadium as to make the neighborhood almost unrecognizable for people (like me) who worked there in the early '90s. Now the, previously deserted boondocks, area to the south is also booming and they are going to reap the rewards there with a new development they are also financing themselves. This is the way cities should work, self-funding improvement by adding value to previously marginal lots. Also, since this area is right on the bay, the new development has to anticipate and deal with the rise in sea level. (How effectively they are doing this is open to doubt, but at least it's being addressed.)

Next - 120. A thought experiment