Life, son

Yay! I'm pretty sure I'm going to New York at the end of August with Clare and lenusazul. We'll stay with my Aunt in Albany and then take the trains into the City. She said she would love to see a Broadway show with us, and I'm gonna whine till I get to see at least one freaking museum. Last two times I was in New York, I didn't get to see any of the cultural stuff and I'm bitter.

The Lightning Thief---Rick Riordan

I finished this last night, and for the most part I loved it. Riordan's reworking of mythology is hip and clever. His characters are pretty well drawn and I love his take on the gods. There is a lot in the books that shows that Riordan clearly knows his stuff. In fact, much of it so clever, I wonder at Riordan's educational background.

So, even though I really, really liked the novel, I was still disappointed with Mr. Riordan's jacking off to the idea "Western Civilization". He has his characters at some point yammer about how the Greeks are the flame of culture for the West and yada, yada, yawn. This part was actually the least offensive and ahistorical. Lots of people, myself included, marvel at the Greeks. It's hard not to, and we've been told since the cradle that "we", meaning the Western World, white people in particular, are the direct heirs of the civilization of these ancients. This idea, in and of itself, is questionable; I find it irritating, because I always think, hmmm, what and WHO do you mean by the West? My bet, white people, so now you're a jerk. And then Riordan has one of the characters explain that the gods are still alive because the "West" does not die, it just moves or some such fuzzy, not well thought out shit like that. First it went to France then England then America. Hmmm, he lists no historical periods, but I have to wonder, does he mean France during the Middle Ages? The Rennaisance? England presumably in the Enlightenment? And America now, during the Age of American Jingoism? It's not that I don't think Western history is important, trust me, if more people knew Western Civ, we wouldn't be in the mess we're in. Presumably we would have learned a little something from past mistakes and injustices. But, this sort of Eurocentric, navel-gazing really doesn't do the student of history any good. I'm sure Riordan didn't mean anything by it. In fact, I'm positive he didn't because it was a clumsy, shoved in bit to explain why the Greek gods were alive and kicking it in America. It was not as smart, sassy or well-done as his other bits of mythic story telling and I think that Riordan needs to take a page from the Magical Realists...sometimes, stuff just is, and leaving it without explanation makes the story more satisfying, more numinous. Anyway, back to my original thought. This sort of "progress" of civilization is wrong-headed and, well, not useful. Besides, his "progression" of Western Civilization is problematic. Uh, England, during the Enlightenment wasn't all that enlightened. It's problematic to write paeans to certain periods of history. In fact, it's bad history, it's UNEXAMINED history, and it's frustrating. Because, guys, history didn't just happen in the West, in fact, for the most part, nothing much happened of historical significance in Europe after the Romans (and the Romans, in terms of world empires, are a little overrated. More discussion of empires like, idk, the Mongols, is needed) until pretty much the early modern era with what the printing press (in Europe, because let me tell ya, China and the Middle East had a booming print culture) made possible. And I say this as a loving student of medieval European history. In fact, the "world" really didn't include most of Europe until the early modern period (which is problematic to the story of Western AWESOMENESS, but for the best explanation of WHY read Robert Marks' Origin of the Modern World, and where civilization was happening was in China, India, the Middle East, Africa....I just get irritated with this dated narrative, it needs to die now and a waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less European dominated world history narrative needs to be told. So, in conclusion, I am dork.