Dibs » Current Affairs

THE DIN IN THE HEAD, by Cynthia Ozick (Houghton Mifflin, $24; release date June 2, 2006)

Anneli Rufus — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:35:32 +0000

Admit it — if you aren’t seventysomething yet, sometimes you wish you were, because then you could get away with speaking truth to power whenever the bloody hell you felt like it: either because no one would dare to punch a silver-haired dissenter in the mouth, because the elderly have acquired a lifetime of confidence and wisdom, or because nobody listens to them anyway. Born in 1928, Ozick — who’s always been worth a listen — admits to having been more naive and gullible when she was young. But now in this collection of essays about fellow literary figures, she fearlessly skewers hypocrites, anti-Semites and other shatterers of what we love about Western civ. Susan Sontag is dead, but that doesn’t mean Ozick goes any easier on her for making moral relativism into an international fashion, turning whole generations onto the lethal idea that nothing is better than anything else.

Grade: A

Buy this book at Amazon.

INTELLIGENT THOUGHT: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement, edited by John Brockman (Vintage, $14; release date May 9, 2006)

Anneli Rufus — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:22:57 +0000

The “debate” (and even that term is overly kind) between evolution and the repackaged creationism known as “intelligent design” has been played out on local school boards and in the editorial offices of textbook publishers across the country for almost a decade now. (And for over a century before that under different euphemisms as well.) But there is no debate in the scientific community, where 100% of rational scientists acknowledge evolution as the only viable theory to explain the development of life. Yet this certainty in the halls of academe seems to have little effect on the rough-and-tumble playground of public discourse, where religious fundamentalists and decision-makers with agendas have succeeded in reframing the dispute as a battle of competing ideas. Which of course it isn’t — it’s the battle of an idea versus the absence of an idea. Up until now, the scientific world has purposely refrained from even addressing the absurd claims of the “intelligent design” movement, refusing to grant them legitimacy by so doing. But the strategy has backfired: with no one fighting back, the IDers have actually managed to get evolution out of some schools and textbooks.

Frustrated, and mystified by the eternal lure of this seemingly baseless anti-knowledge movement, the scientific world has decided to take the gloves off and punch back. Hard. This volume of sixteen new, previously unpublished essays by leading scientists utterly demolishes any credibility that “intelligent design” ever imagined it had. With a roster of leading lights like Richard Dawkins, Steven Pinker, Lee Smolin, Tim White and a host of other world-class thinkers, Intelligent Thought tackles every aspect of the conflict, from the scientific evidence to the social rationale for trying to promote ignorance. Of course, no one in the ID movement will ever read this book, as they studiously avoid any stimuli that might upset their world view, but it stands alone as an admirable rebuttal of the obfuscatory claims of creationism.

Grade: A

MY BAD, by Paul Slanksy and Arleen Sorkin (Bloomsbury, $15.95; May 9, 2006)

Anneli Rufus — Mon, 15 May 2006 13:56:56 +0000

From Dolly Parton (apologizing for claiming that Jews control Hollywood) to David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz (apologizing for killing people), this densely packed grab bag — subtitled “25 years of public apologies and the appalling behavior that inspired them” presents transcripts of mea-culpas from famous figures in many fields alongside capsule reminders of what they did wrong. Having affairs, demanding assassinations, calling disabled folks “cripples” — it’s the sort of collection that too many might all too easily dismiss as a cobbled-together birthday-gift book. But it’s not. Actually it’s a valuable history lesson, reassuring in its lest-we-forgetness, riveting in its revelations. Oh, the humanity. Oh, the blunders. Oh, the lame pleading and doubletalk. Its inclusion of apologizers on both sides of the political spectrum — Hillary Clinton and John Ashcroft, Jerry Falwell and Jesse Jackson, and so on — might have been a clever marketing decision but is also a kind of marvel amid the partisan ballistics that comprise today’s publishing world. For facts alone, this book could be handy for anyone studying American history. Or studying rhetoric. Or having a birthday.

Grade: A-

UNSPEAK, by Steven Poole (Grove, $23; release date April 28, 2006)

Anneli Rufus — Thu, 11 May 2006 21:46:34 +0000

“Unspeak” is Poole’s alternate word for euphemisms, which are, as we know, alternate words for other words. Pledging to unravel today’s cleverest and most devious semantic knots while exposing lying liars, the edgy Brit lashes out at those who say, for instance, “tragedy” and “terrorist,” arguing that these are political expediencies rather than true descriptions. But as a contributor to the staunchly liberal Guardian, Poole apparently can’t help but bring a certain bias to the table. The book would have been bolder — and more honestly illustrative of our times, since he says it’s honesty he craves — had he savaged unspeakers on both left and right more evenly. But he doesn’t.

Grade: C+

HOUSE OF WAR, by James Carroll (Houghton Mifflin, $30; release date May 16, 2006)

Anneli Rufus — Thu, 11 May 2006 21:44:36 +0000

With the revealing subtitle The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power, this is essentially an expanded rewrite of Smedley Butler’s 1935 anti-war pamphlet War Is a Racket. Carroll traces the history of the Pentagon, and the entire military apparatus of the United States — working on the fundamental assumption that all of America’s enemies throughout history were either illusory or could have been mollified through diplomacy. As expected, he comes to the conclusion that, well, “war is a racket,” a scheme to make money for armament manufacturers. Unreconstructed peace-at-all-costs-niks will deliriously devour every word and footnote of this 650-page tome; realpolitikos will find themselves snorting in derision and shaking their heads in disagreement. And, jumping on the memoirization fad found in every corner of the book trade these days, Carroll also traces his own personal connection to the Pentagon — playing in its hallways as a child, then growing up to join antiwar protests as an outsider — which actually turns out to be the most interesting part of the book. Otherwise: for hardcore political obsessives only.

Grade: C