The Faith Sector and HIV/AIDS in Botswana: Responses and Challenges

#787
Title: The Faith Sector and HIV/AIDS in Botswana: Responses and Challenges
Editors: Lovemore Togarasei, Sana K. Mmolai, & Fidelis Nkomazana
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Year: 2011
260 pages

An uneven professional anthology, but the unevenness was fascinating in and of itself, since it illustrated both organizational and linguistic differences between academic cultures. Several chapters were excellent, including one on evangelical churches and another on traditional healers' responses to HIV.

Because the majority of religions in Botswana are Christian-based (or Christian-based syncretic), there is little variation in the espoused definitions of sin (even if what constitutes a sin varies slightly). One chapter is from a Muslim perspective, and while better written than some, seemed more dogmatic. It was one of only two chapters, I think, to mention homosexual transmission, and I'm not sure that any discussed IV drug use (though iatrogenic transmission was). The only reference to substances I recall was about disinhibition, not about routes of transmission. This provides a very interesting cognitive dissonance for the reader of US-produced popular press materials on HIV, which historically have focused on men who have sex with men and IV drug users.

I'm looking forward to learning about which faith-based prevention and intervention strategies have worked in this country.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

   #786
Title: The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher: Pantheon
Year: 2008
256 pages


Audiobook.

My bone to pick with this popular stats/probability text is that Mlodinow indulges in the same sloppy examples and logic that marred so many of my math and science classes. If you're going to talk probability, stick with dice. As a nerd from the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, I completely understand the difficulty of generating random numbers on your scientific calculator because the one guy who made polyhedral dice wasn't feeling well and there wasn't a dodecahedral die to be had in all the land. Believe me, nothing pleases me more than an extended discussion of the normal distribution. And I'm happy to hear about Bayesian analysis and its place in the science of probability. False positives in HIV testing? Bring it on. But please, don't confuse the issue with examples about humans and their behavior. To put it another way: Any example that you're going to have to keep qualifying by removing variables isn't a good example. All athletes don't have equal abilities. All of management isn't luck of the draw. The freewheeling omission of factors such as capacity, motivation, and personality doom these examples and muddy rather than clarify the concepts. Mlodinow further obscures his points with anecdotes about writing his child's paper and getting only a 93. What a shocker! In a move repeated throughout the book, Mlodinow confuses two variables. An instructor is not only making a judgement about the excellence of an essay in and of itself, if even at all. In my experience, it's more likely that the instructor is also, or entirely, evaluating whether the student followed instructions for presentation, content, and organization. That's not the same thing. By the way, if I ever catch Mr. Mlodnow's child turning in a paper written by his father for one of my classes, they will find that I regard this less as entertainment and more as a matter for the academic conduct office.

The Innocents Abroad

#785
 Title: The Innocents Abroad
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Modern Library
Year: 1869/2007
560 pages

I gave up on the audiobook about 3/4 in. The narrator's voice has an annoying combination of atonal hoarseness and nasalness that never stopped bothering me.

I enjoy Twain's use of language and dry humor, but had not yet read his travelogues. Since they predate his famous novels, it's interesting to see his early style, which is less assured than it would become but still confident.

I'd characterize this narrative as less racist than xenophobic, though Twain is clearly sometimes truly unhappy and at other times exaggerating for comedic effect. Sometimes the object he's aiming for is to poke fun at the American tourist's narrowness of thought and ethnocentrism.

In the context of the first real pleasure cruise (a side-wheel steamboat, if memory serves), Twain and companions were remarkably adventurous, defying quarantine, for example, and scrambling for hours at night over crumbly Greek hills and through dog-patrolled vineyards in order to see the Parthenon.

Having visited many of Twain's destinations (and many of that number by ship), I thoroughly enjoyed his observations, whether or not I agreed about places, peoples, or cultural quirks.

Aya (Aya #1)

#784
Title: Aya (Aya #1)
Author: Marguerite Abouet
Illustrator: Clément Oubrerie
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Publications
Year: 2007
105 pages

An enjoyable graphic novel that follows Aya, a teen in Ivory Coast, and her friends. It has an initial light feel that becomes more grim, as well as less-overt representation of problematic societal themes, such as corruption and the commodification of women. The teens are realistically portrayed, the action moves alone, and the graphics are colorful and have a lot of motion. I tend to prefer graphic novels that have the same author/illustrator, but this was a pleasing example of a collaboration. I'd like to read the others in this series as well.

Tree of Codes

#783
 Title: Tree of Codes
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Visual Editions
Year: 2010
139 pages

Foer here uses die-cut pages a form of collage/assemblage to produce a story from within a story--"a dream that The Street of Crocodiles might have had," as he says in his afterword. It's not only a dream of that novel, but a dream of the dream, with cut-outs framing full or partial words and phrases from later in the book so that for page upon page, the reader sees below the current text "darkness" or "his eyes darkened and suffering." The effect of this palimpsest is a powerful sense of foreboding.

Tom Phillips played with a similar technique in multiple renditions of  A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel. There, Phillips extracts text by blocking or partially blocking text on an intact page with drawings and colors. As with Tree of Codes, other text is often evident, though in Phillips's work it's the contextual language whereas in Foer's it's only the extracted text to come, and thus more self-referential.

A fun experiment, and a fun "found" text. Its contribution to literature is more in its form than its substance.

99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink

#782
Title: 99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink
Author: Kate Hopkins
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Year: 2009/2010
320 pages

Blogger Hopkins travels to Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the US to trace the development of whiskey. Imagine my envy. Kate and friend's travels are enjoyably documented, the history of whiskey is reasonably well incorporated, and her tasting notes are entertaining.

The book might have warranted another star if it had been edited more effectively. Some chapters are cleaner than others, but there are a number of typos, awkward constructions, repeated words, and incorrect words ("provence" for "provenance," "affect for "effect," etc.) that an editor should have caught. Absent from her bibliography is anything from Michael Jackson, whose Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch is very useful and whose Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide in many ways parallels Hopkins's project.

Hopkins didn't taste my favorite light single malt, Glenmorangie's Cellar 13, nor the one I find most entertaining (Tormore 12-year-old, which tastes of fudge and artichokes). De gustibus non est disputandum.

African Kings: Portraits of a Disappearing Era

#781
Title: African Kings: Portraits of a Disappearing Era
Author: Daniel Laine
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Year: 2000
160 pages

A large format, beautifully photographed collection of portraits of African kings. "King" is a misnomer as they're primarily clan heads and other group leaders, some titular and others actually powerful. The Introductory essay, "Origins of the African Kingdoms" by Pierre Alexandre, is dense but very useful for putting the portraits in context. It's also helpful for understanding the notes on each portrait, which are not well-organized.

It's interesting to see similarities and differences in ceremonial garb, retinue, and other visual details. For example, several wear headpieces with strings of beads obscuring their faces. I'd have liked clearer commentary about how different groups and customs are related, and a map would have helped a lot.