Tag Archives: Essays

BOOK: “Mastering the Art of War” by Zhuge Liang & Liu Ji [Trans. & Ed. by Thomas Cleary

Posted on by
Reply
Mastering the Art of War: Commentaries on Sun Tzu's Classic (Shambhala Dragon Editions)Mastering the Art of War: Commentaries on Sun Tzu’s Classic by Zhuge Liang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Shambhala

This book combines the writings of two prominent Chinese strategists, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji. Both men came after Sunzi, author of The Art of War, and Cleary describes these two works as commentaries on the work of Sunzi.

Zhuge Liang’s piece is called The Way of the General and it collects short essays from Records of the Loyal Lord of Warriors. Like many, I first became acquainted with Zhuge Liang from his novelized personage in the Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which he is called “Kongming” and is a force to be reckoned with in service to Liu Bei of the Shu Kingdom. Zhuge Liang’s ideas are conveyed as short topical discussions, not unlike Sunzi’s work.

Liu Ji’s manual, Lessons of War, is a bit different in that the explanation of the strategy is briefer than in the works of Sunzi or Zhuge Liang, but Liu Ji always includes an exemplary story from history. This makes Liu Ji’s work a little more narrative. It is interesting to see the varied approach to conveyance of the concepts under consideration.

Because the works of Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji are thin, the book has a fair amount of padding in the form of Translator’s Introductions, both an overall Introduction and one per included work. I was happy with how these were done. They do not drone on but rather give some background that will be useful to the average reader without getting lost in the weeds.

If you’re interested in strategy, be it applicable to war or otherwise, I’d highly recommend this book.

View all my reviews

BOOKS: “The Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi [trans. by Thomas Cleary] [w/ Yagyu Munenori’s “Book of Family Traditions”]

Posted on by
Reply
The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword (Shambhala Pocket Library)The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword by Miyamoto Musashi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Shambhala Publications

This edition, i.e. The Shambhala Pocket Library edition, contains two guides to strategy, tactics, and philosophy of combat by famous early Edo Period swordsmen. The titular work is Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings, but the volume also contains Yagyu Munenori’s The Book of Family Traditions. The naming of the book is meant to capitalize on the continuing popularity of Musashi, who remains well-known to this day not only because of his own works and legend, but because of an afterlife in pop culture that ranges from Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel to a recent Netflix animated series. That said, one shouldn’t conclude Yagyu Munenori was some sort of slouch. He was, in fact, a martial arts teacher to the Shogun’s son, and he founded a branch of his family’s martial arts school that continues to this day.

It is interesting to see these two guides back-to-back, being by authors whose lifespans largely overlapped, though – in other ways – their lives were quite different. While there is some conceptual overlap in these guides, the two definitely show two very different minds at work, Musashi the pragmatic eccentric and Yagyu the Zen philosopher of noble standing.

Miyamoto Musashi is probably the most famous swordsman in Japan’s history. Oddly enough, he’s not known for his experience in battle (he lived at the tail end of the Warring States period and was only in a couple battles), but – rather – for his 62 duels. The Book of Five Rings and other works he left behind are certainly important factors in his continuing fame. Musashi was a bit of a renaissance man: painter, poet, and sculptor in addition to a swordsman. He also left behind a school of swordsmanship, Niten Ichi-ryū.

The Book of Five Rings is divided into five parts: earth scroll, water scroll, fire scroll, wind scroll, and void scroll.

The earth scroll provides an overview of martial science and an introduction to Musashi’s school, which is noted for its simultaneous use of both the large and short sword. A section is devoted the rhythm of martial arts, a crucial topic. It also includes what might be considered Musashi’s 9-point budō kun (a list of warrior precepts.)It’s worth mentioning a couple of these:
#7 Become aware of what is not obvious.
#9 Do not do anything useless.

The Water scroll describes Musashi’s approach to swordsmanship. It covers a range of elements of a martial art including footwork, the focus of one’s eyes, physical posture, mental posture, techniques, and approaches to cutting and thrusting.

The Fire scroll deals with the strategic or interactive aspects of the battle.

The Wind scroll explores other martial arts. Musashi discusses martial arts that use an unusually long sword, an atypically short sword, that focus on powerful strikes, and those that focus on many rapid strikes. He contrasts other martial arts with his own on subjects such as their focus with the eyes and their footwork.

The void scroll deals with, well, emptiness. It’s actually a short wrap-up.

Yagyu’s guide is much more philosophical and mind-centric. It’s not that Musashi doesn’t deal with such topics, but he also devotes considerable space to more practical nuts and bolts of swordsmanship and strategy. It’s also true that Yagyu gets into technical considerations such as control of distancing (if in a bit more poetic way than Musashi.) One can get a feel for the nature of Yagyu’s Book of Family Traditions [on the Art of War] by seeing how it is organized into three parts: “The Killing Sword,” “The Life-Giving Sword,” and “No Sword.” The latter two indicating the author’s belief in the importance of not equating warrior and killer (nor winning with killing) as well as not fixating on the sword.

These two men had great insight into strategy and the tactics of swordsmanship, their guides are worth being read and reread. And the two authors do offer two intriguingly different approaches to a similar subject.

View all my reviews

BOOKS: “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow” by Jerome K. Jerome

Posted on by
Reply
Idle Thoughts of an Idle FellowIdle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg Site

This is a collection of fourteen humorous essays on a range of topics related to human existence. Besides the titular topic of living a life of idleness, other discussions include: love, poverty, vanity, attire, eating, pets and babies. (The latter two being distinct topics addressed in different chapters, though not with an altogether different attitude.)

Much of the humor holds up well considering this book originally came out almost a hundred and forty years ago. That said, it must be acknowledged that some of the humor and a number of the attitudes have not aged well and will not necessarily be relatable.

If you’re looking for a collection of essays on life that are humorous, if not contemporary, this book is worth looking into.

View all my reviews

BOOKS: “Road to Mussoorie” by Ruskin Bond

Posted on by
Reply
Roads to MussoorieRoads to Mussoorie by Ruskin Bond
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Site

This is a collection of essays about Bond’s home of many years, Mussoorie, along with — as the title suggests — the areas one comes through traveling to – and hiking out of – Mussoorie. The book ventures from a straight up travelogue into ghost stories, local gossip, autobiography, and municipal history. It enlightens the reader on the White Woman of Mussoorie, on the death of its cinema, and on the town’s historical involvement in colonial licentiousness.

I enjoyed this short book. It’s humorous and offers one a feel of hill station India.

View all my reviews

BOOK: “Toleration and Other Essays” by Voltaire

Posted on by
2
A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays (Great Minds Series)A Treatise on Toleration and Other Essays by Voltaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Project Gutenberg — Free Access

This collection gathers together eight essays and a poem. The theme that interconnects these works is a petition to avoid petty tribalism and irrationality / superstition in the practice of one’s religion. The titular essay, “On Toleration,” sets the collection’s tone, beginning with its detailing of the murder of Jean Calas on religious grounds and its exploration of many more acts of savagery attributable to sectarian forces in alliance with authoritarian governments. The poem, “Poem on the Lisbon Disaster,” echoes the central idea of “Candide” — i.e. the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds is patently false.

As one would expect of Voltaire, there is plenty of humor and satire throughout these pieces. The arguments are also generally well supported by facts. It is clear that Voltaire possessed a great deal of the knowledge of his day. That said, the reader may well find some factual errors. Most notably, Voltaire tends to attribute a kind of enlightened utopian vision to cultures with which he was likely largely unfamiliar as he builds a case against many within the culture with which he is familiar. This isn’t to say that there isn’t some truth to Eastern traditions being historically more tolerant of other sects than the Abrahamic religions, but the degree to which he extends these idyllic views of those outside of Europe (and the details, thereof) don’t always seem to comport with the historic record.

While some may be inclined to dismiss this book as a collection of anti-religion writings, it is really not anti-belief at all. (Though he does poke holes in many a Biblical myth, so too does he actually provide a deist argument in favor of the existence of a god or gods in the book’s final essay.) Instead, the collection is anti-intolerance, anti-superstition, and anti-authoritarianism. I’d highly recommend this book for all readers. Whatever flaws it may contain are outweighed by the great importance of its message and the cleverness with which Voltaire conveys said message.

View all my reviews

BOOKS: “Teachings of the Christian Mystics” ed. by Andrew Harvey

Posted on by
Reply
Teachings of the Christian Mystics (Shambhala Pocket Library)Teachings of the Christian Mystics by Andrew Harvey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Acquired at Blossom Bookhouse

This book gathers a collection of short writings (mostly paragraph to a few page excerpts as well as a few poems) on mystic Christianity from the time of the Gospels through the twentieth century. While the bulk of the pieces are (if not from scriptures) the work of clergymen and / or theologians, there are some by individuals known elsewise (e.g. poets William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins.) The book is arranged somewhat, but not perfectly, chronologically — enough that all the Biblical excerpts are lumped together at the beginning to form about the first quarter of the selections. While there are a number of one-off contributors, there are several pieces from each of: Gregory of Nyssa, the Desert Fathers, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Eckhart von Hochheim.

One nice feature of this book is that it does include selections from a wide range of sources (Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, and Protestant) over a range of time periods, and from scriptures both canonical and “apocryphal.” So, there are many varied ideas of the mystical experience and the path thereto. The flipside of this fact is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of cohesiveness to the collection. It isn’t always clear why Harvey (the editor) thought a given excerpt was representative of mystic teachings versus of mainstream Christianity. There is a substantial introduction, but otherwise the selections are left to speak for themselves.

Still, it was a quick read, dense with insights, and I found — particularly some of the scriptural selections — to be among the most profound statements of Christian philosophy that I’ve seen.

View all my reviews

BOOKS: “Best Literary Translations 2024” ed. by Jane Hirschfield, et. al.

Posted on by
Reply
Best Literary Translations 2024Best Literary Translations 2024 by Jane Hirshfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site

This “best of” annual celebrates the unsung translator. Many of the original works are recent but some are old or even ancient; it is these translations to English that are in all cases recent. Spanish and Arabic translations are well-represented, but with respect to the twenty or so languages included, almost all are the sole representative for that particular source language. Poetry makes up the bulk of the collection (including prose poems,) but there are several pieces of short fiction and a piece of creative nonfiction or two.

Among my favorites were: “Grazing Land” (Greek,) “The Snail’s Spiral” (Spanish,) “The Lion” (Kurdish,) “Deterioration” (Persian,) “Graceless” (Chinese,) “Our Village” (Tigrinya,) and “The Sea Krait” (Tagalog.) But, as one would expect of a carefully curated “best of” collection, there were no stinkers in the batch.

If you enjoy literature in translation, this book is well worth investigating.

View all my reviews

ESSAY: “Tradition and the Individual Talent” by T.S. Eliot

Posted on by
1
Tradition and the Individual Talent: An EssayTradition and the Individual Talent: An Essay by T.S. Eliot
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read for free at the Poetry Foundation

Amazon.in Page

While this is a controversial essay and I don’t accept it wholesale, myself, I would wholeheartedly recommend it as required reading for poets (and other artists.) What is Eliot’s controversial thesis? It’s that poetry should be less about the poet. That broad and imprecise statement can be clarified by considering two ways in which Eliot would make poetry less about the poet. First, Eliot proposes that poets should be in tune to the historic evolution of their art and — importantly — should not be so eager to break the chain with the past masters. He’s not saying a poet needs to be a literary historian, but rather that one be well-read in the poetry of the past. Second, Eliot advocates that a poet avoid packing one’s poetry with one’s personality, and – instead – let one’s personality dissolve away through the act of creation.

A quote from the essay may help to clarify — Eliot says, “Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not an expression of personality, but an escape from personality.”

One can imagine the accusations of pretension and dogmatism that Eliot received in 1919 from the mass of poets who were moving full speed ahead into poetry that was suffused with autobiography, was avant-garde, and which was free of meter, rhyme and other compositional elements that had once been seen as the defining characteristics of poetry.

I don’t see this essay as being the map to our new home, but rather as the catalyst of a conversation that could move us to a more preferable intermediary location. I have, too often, picked up a collection by a young poet that was entirely autobiographical and (also, too often) of the “everybody hates me, nobody loves me, I think I’ll go eat worms” variety of wallowing in personal feelings. And I always think, when I want to read something depressing, I’ll read something from someone who has lived tragedy — e.g. a Rwandan refugee, not something from a twenty-four-year-old MFA student at some Ivy League school.

So, yeah, maybe we could use more connection to the past and a bit less autobiographical poetry from people who haven’t lived a novel-shaped life.

View all my reviews

Five Wise Lines from In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

Posted on by
Reply

Have you never felt a sort of fear in the face of the ageless, a fear that in that room you might lose all consciousness of the passage of time, that untold years might pass and upon emerging you should find you had grown old and gray?

But our thoughts do not travel to what we cannot see. The unseen for us does not exist.

This was the genius of our ancestors, that by cutting off the light from this empty space they imparted to the world of shadows that formed there a quality of mystery and depth superior to that of any wall painting or ornament.

I wonder if my readers know the color of that ‘darkness seen by candlelight.’ It was different in quality from darkness on the road at night. It was a repletion, a pregnancy of tiny particles like fire ashes, each particle luminous as a rainbow.

Whenever I see the alcove of a tastefully built Japanese room, I marvel at our comprehension of the secrets of shadows, our sensitive use of light and shadow.

BOOKS: In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

Posted on by
1
In Praise of ShadowsIn Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Tanizaki’s essay on Japanese aesthetics doesn’t just show the reader the simple, rustic, and weathered traits of Japanese beauty, it fully submerges them in an otherworldly place ruled by different principles of seeing. So enamored with this pre-modern Japanese aesthetic was Tanizaki that we are convinced he would give up all present-day conveniences to see the world this way (but, alas, he recognizes the impossibility of maintaining a household or business in today’s world that way.)

While the book is principally a tour of this Japanese shadow world, moving from architecture to toilets to lacquerware to Noh plays to skin tones to hotels (with other stops along the way,) it is also a critique of modernity, and particularly a modernity shaped by the West by virtue of Western countries building a lead in a number of key technologies. The most crucial of these technologies, and the one Tanizaki most decries, is electric lighting, which does away with the artistic beauty that derives from the interplay of varied toned shadows (and occasionally a little bit of light.) [I should say, he’s not bashing the Western technology or ways, but rather how poorly they work with maintaining Japanese aesthetic ways.]

I’d highly recommend this book for all readers. If you’re interested in aesthetics, art, architecture, culture, or “things Japanese,” then all the more so, but I can’t remember the last time description pulled me into a book as hard as this one. The essay can be a bit rambling and shifts from euphoria to rant and back, rapidly, but that is part of its magic.

View all my reviews