review of the private life of mao

his is an excellent book, an interesting read about one of the most important people of the 20th century. A few of the author's insights are very good: mao was a 19th century man trying to understand the 20th century and the problems of scientific development of his country, he was never really up to it. Mao as a historian of chinese history modelled himself after some of the worse of the chinese emperors, consciously using people's feelings and grossly manipulating those around him to be loyal to him above all else. As i reflect on the book i see it as a necklace of pearls, a group of personal encounters of the author with mao, strung together chronologically with very little analysis or self examination on the author's part. Certainly he regretted his part in the government in his old age, he remarks as his feelings towards mao changes over the years to disillusion, but the book is not about how mao effected him personally. This, i believe is from how he must have written the book, for during the cultural revolution he burned 40 volumes of his notes and journals out of a well placed fear that they would incriminate him if they fell into the hands of the red guards. So what did he use to write the book, his memory over a 60 year period? I think this is why the book has the character of a stringing together of incidents, a pearl necklace of events where his life and that of mao intersected. I don't fault the writing, the facts are probably as true as memory can make them, but i wonder how much better the book would have been if he had gotten those burnt books to someplace safe. To later use them as primary reference to write this book. For history, truth and factuality is most important, therefore i would classify this as a well written memoir rather than coherent purposeful history....but whatever the genre you really ought to read this book, if only to glimpse the heart of a man responsible for the deaths of 60 million chinese...

take a page from alesha's work.....look up all the words you are not sure of. and learn them.

apotheosis

n. (pl. -ses ) deification; ascent to glory; personification of ideal. apotheosize, v.t.


atavism

n. reversion to remote ancestral type; 'throw-back'; recurrence of hereditary feature after an interval of a generation or more. atavistic, a. pertaining to remote ancestor. atavist, n. person or thing marked by atavism.


meliorism

n. belief that world and humankind tend to grow better. meliorist, n. melioristic, a. meliority, n. improved state.

all from _the metaphysical club_ a story of ideas in america by louis menand. amazon

a little bit behind on what i intended to do online since i had to go to maine and get alma's mom here for the winter.

books on the desk, either reading or to be read



• the gate of heavenly peace, jonathan spence---more on china, spence is very good
  
  
• voluntary simplicity by duane elgin
  
  
• the web of life by fritjof capra---to reread quickly
  
  
• a history of the arab peoples by hourani---on pg 113, calvin's textbook
  
  
• freedom by orlando patterson---a library book started but not finished years ago, pg 107
  
  
• dream-working handbook by mclean
  
  
• cheating monkeys and citizen bees by dugatkin
  
  
• introduction to the philosophy of science by klee
  
  
• backgrounds of early christianity by ferguson
  
  
• search for modern china by spence---pg 415, read on the plane to maine
  
  
• eleusis by kerenyi
  
  
• zoroastrians by mary boyce
  
  
• darwin's forgotten defenders by david livingstone
  
  
• open society and its enemies by popper
  
  
• religion and the rise of western culture by dawson
  
  
• writing for your life by deena metzger
  
  
• life and death in shangai by nie cheng
  
  
• the iranians by sandra mackey---book club, pg 204
  
  
• the private life of chairman mao by zhisui li---leftover from china, pg 257
  
  

review of _the origins of the mithraic mysteries_ by ulansey

I bought the book hoping/expecting to read something about the relationship of the mithric mysteries to early christianity. this is certainly NOT what the book is about. if you desire this type of information try _background of early christianity_ by ferguson. but the book was not a disappointment at all, for it reads more like a detective story then anything else, certainly a quick and interesting read. It is about the author's theory that the mithraic mysteries have nothing to do with the mithras of persian origin but rather have everything to do with the precession of the equinoxes. he builds a convincing case for me, not a professional astronomer by any means. the book is well done and at a layman's level requiring little to no backqround in astronomy to understand the arguments. what makes the book rather interesting in itself is that it is a good example of how to do scientific research. particularly how to interact with past theories so as to integrate new ideas without being to dependent on past heroes.