-"...they would admit anyone 'so long as they were interesting - that is, if they had a book under their arm.'" +"...they would admit anyone so long as they were interesting - that is, if they had a book under their arm.'"
This is all very indie. The existentialists were a creative bunch, constantly reading, writing, making music, and dancing. They were the type of people that you can count on having late-night intellectual talks with. I'm in. I wanna hang out with these people. diff --git a/src/markdown/book-reviews/educated.md b/src/markdown/book-reviews/educated.md index 0b5e274..c173156 100644 --- a/src/markdown/book-reviews/educated.md +++ b/src/markdown/book-reviews/educated.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ type: "entry" Tara Westover's childhood is shaped by a ruthless father and acquiescent mother. Before the main text begins, we read a disclaimer that the book is not about Mormonism. But Mormonism is what Tara's father, Gene, draws upon in any of the instances when he shames Tara for being a whore, denies medical care and education to his children, or blames the government for an array of conspiracies against honest, god-fearing citizens like himself. My instinct is that Tara included this disclaimer not to ironically condemn Mormonism, but rather to separate people like her father from those who don't use faith as an excuse for contemptible or illogical action.
-Many of us go through life wishing to be different than everyone else so that we can stand out as an icon in a cookie-cutter society. At least I do. Technological advances brought us social media, which does little more than to make us wish we were one of the people that gets endless validation for everything they do. But as for the people doing all the validating... few of them will every stand out. Tara never had to choose to be different. Her circumstances, built on survivalist and extremist foundations, immediately separated her from any other person she could ever hope to meet. This is why her outlook on dance class is interesting to me: +Many of us go through life wishing to be different than everyone else so that we can stand out as an icon in a cookie-cutter society. At least I do. Technological advances brought us social media, which does little more than to make us wish we were one of the people that gets endless validation for everything they do. But as for the people doing all the validating... few of them will ever stand out. Tara never had to choose to be different. Her circumstances, built on survivalist and extremist foundations, immediately separated her from any other person she could ever hope to meet. This is why her outlook on dance class is interesting to me:
"I loved the sensation of conformity. Learning to dance felt like learning to belong." @@ -35,13 +35,13 @@ In an interview with Tara that I found on Youtube, she said this: "An educated person is not someone that can recite an army of facts and knows a lot of things, but rather it is someone that has the flexibility of mind. Someone that is willing to explore her own prejudice and has acquired a depth of understanding that allows her to see the world through another point of view."
-Interestingly, I also recently came across the other quote from Vitalik Buterin (the created of the cryptocurrency Ethereum), which strongly reminded me of Tara's: +Interestingly, I also recently came across the other quote from Vitalik Buterin (the creator of the cryptocurrency Ethereum), which strongly reminded me of Tara's:
"Education is ultimately much more than simply memorizing individual facts or even learning individual concepts. What matters most: learning how to think, learning how to reason, and learning how to learn."
-It is this emphasis on process over result that I believe individuals to fully reach their potentials. +It is this emphasis on process over result that I believe enables individuals to fully reach their potentials.
Favorite quotes from "Educated": diff --git a/src/markdown/book-reviews/flow.md b/src/markdown/book-reviews/flow.md index 960e537..0dfb9dc 100644 --- a/src/markdown/book-reviews/flow.md +++ b/src/markdown/book-reviews/flow.md @@ -20,7 +20,4 @@ The goal of Flow is to underscore how we may go about decreasing "psych The idea of flow is extremely powerful to me. It drew me to this book, as I desired to understand more of its facets and figure out how it can be leveraged in my own life. M.C. is adamant that the influence of external factors on the quality of subjective experience can be greatly reduced by individuals with fantastic control over their consciousness. This reminded me of Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, from which it is evident that the human mind is capable of prescribing meaning even to horrific events such as the Holocaust. I feel confident in the author's supposition that control over the mind's processes is a skill - like any other - that can be practiced and perfected. Flow is accessible to anyone, regardless of living situation or background, no matter how absurd that may seem.
-There was a small stretch where I was considering labeling this as a two-star book. After the impact of the beginning, where M.C. lays out the framework of his thesis and invites the reader into the world of flow, I got a sense of stagnation for a short while. I had trouble relating to some of the anecdotes about individuals who had managed to find flow in their lives, and I believed M.C. to be disapproving of some things that I would argue can induce flow if received properly. But, just as I was starting to wonder, he pivoted to existentialism and the meaning of life. I felt that he expounded upon these things beautifully, and the book wrapped up in what I felt to be a wonderful way. -
-
-I read this book during a period of significant struggle, and its profundity played a significant role in helping to reframe my perspective for the better. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone, especially if you are enduring hardship. +This book's profundity played a significant role in helping to reframe my perspective for the better. I recommend this book to all, especially those enduring mental hardship. diff --git a/src/markdown/book-reviews/garbage-land.md b/src/markdown/book-reviews/garbage-land.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75a476b --- /dev/null +++ b/src/markdown/book-reviews/garbage-land.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +author: "Elizabeth Royte" +class: "book-review" +coverImage: "book-cover-images/garbage-land.jpg" +date: "2020-09-20" +tags: ["Non-fiction", "Environment", "Science"] +title: "Garbage Land" +type: "entry" +--- + +An investigative piece that examines the lifecycle of waste, Garbage Land serves to elucidate perhaps the largest environmental issue that no one thinks about. Author Elizabeth Royte, a resident of New York City, begins by quantifying her own household trash (for which the U.S. averages 4.5 lbs per person, per day), picking through it to separate the detritus into categories. She then examines, first-hand, some of her city's processes for handling waste as she learns about the more general state of affairs for dealing with refuse. +
+
+I had this book on my list for simply because I was curious about the destination of my trash. I wasn't shocked by too many of the specifics (most stuff gets buried, while what can be recycled is processed in dedicated facilities), but I admit that I had no idea how privatized all of this was. We leave the free market to take care of even the things we don't want: forgotten toys, clothes, decaying food, and even our poop and pee. Of course, this means that industry practices are dictated by what is profitable, not what is most efficient or least impactful on the environment. +
+
+A landfill is a place filled with a countless assortment of items. Some aid the natural process of decay, while others take thousands of years to break down. These dumps release methane into the air and leachate (contaminated moisture) into the soil. There are ways to control these byproducts, but the corporations that control the sites aren't very interested in best practices. They also tend to force landfills on poor communities that they tempt with hefty sums of cash. Citizens of these communities end up with higher rates of asthma and other diseases induced by the pollutants outgassing from the fills. +
+
+People want to be eco-conscious citizens, Royte believes, citing the increased sales of "green" products and services. There are myriad reasons for recycling paper until it cannot weather the process any longer (after about 4 cycles, the fibers become too short to be used in things like cardboard): Trees are not cut, oil is not used in logging, water and electricity are not used for wood pulping, and the materials are not sent directly to a landfill. Recycled metal cuts air pollution 85% and water use 40%. Even sewage can be refined into "biosolids", a nitrogen rich fertilizer. But despite these creative solutions to conserving materials for future use, municipal waste still accounts for only 2% of the national amount. Every 100 pounds of product generates 3200 pounds of waste. +
+
+The "hierarchy of waste", Royte concludes, is **reduce consumption** > **reuse consumer goods** > **recycle/compost the rest**. We should spend less time trying to figure out how to get rid of things, she thinks, and instead not put ourselves in the position of getting rid of them in the first place. The path forward is not towards better products, but fewer products, something that may not be realized without sweeping changes to the structure of this consumerism-fueled country. +
+
+Garbage Land answered many of the questions I had about trash, but a footnote that I'll add is that it was published in 2005. There's the possibility that much has changed since then, so I'll look into it. I also couldn't help but thinking that this book would have been much better as a documentary. I was lost by much of the imagery surrounding machines I didn't understand and operations I couldn't imagine. But, in 2005, before everyone watched Netflix, a book might have been a more powerful way of reaching a wide audience. Much has changed in so little time. +
+
+"Emptiness - cleanliness - was a condition so brief as to be nearly undetectable." diff --git a/src/markdown/book-reviews/nausea.md b/src/markdown/book-reviews/nausea.md index bc1b5ef..64d917c 100644 --- a/src/markdown/book-reviews/nausea.md +++ b/src/markdown/book-reviews/nausea.md @@ -11,10 +11,10 @@ type: "entry" I picked up this book while reading At the Existentialist Cafe: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails (which I also reviewed) because Sarah Bakewell said that it is one of her favorite books. She loved the protagonist Antoine de Roquentin and his pensive wandering about the French seaside, and that sounded like something I would also be into.
-Maybe it's because I overdosed on existentialism, but I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. I typically don't read fiction, but I was interested to read some original material from Sartre. This novel makes a hard attempt at being profound (as does most stuff written by philosophers), and perhaps that not exactly what strikes my fancy. I love profundity as much as the next guy, but I enjoy when it is packaged in clever or subtle ways (this is why I love Paul Murray so much). +Maybe it's because I overdosed on existentialism, but I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. I don't typically read fiction, but I was interested to read some original material from Sartre. This novel makes a hard attempt at being profound (as does most stuff written by philosophers), and perhaps that not exactly what strikes my fancy. I love profundity as much as the next guy, but I enjoy when it is packaged in clever or subtle ways (this is why I love Paul Murray so much).
-There isn't a whole lot that actaully happens in Nausea. It's essentially a long soliloquy in which we hear a great deal about Roquentin's depression and struggle to cope with the absurdity of life. Pretty relatable, but it got old for me. I was diligent in taking notes and outlining important passages for the first half of the book, but after that point, I basically powered through until the end because I was ready to move onto something else. +There isn't a whole lot that actaully happens in Nausea. It's essentially a long soliloquy in which we hear a great deal about Roquentin's depression and struggle to cope with the absurdity of life. Pretty relatable, but it got old for me. I was diligent in taking notes and outlining important passages for the first half of the book, but after that point, I basically powered through until the end because I was ready to move on to something else.
Still, this is probably Sartre's most important work aside from Being and Nothingness, so if you dig existentialism, you'll probably want to give it a read. At 178 pages, it is very bearable. Just remember that this is a translation, was written in 1938, and lacks extensive dialogue, so you won't be able to breeze through it like you would with other books of similar length. diff --git a/src/markdown/book-reviews/these-truths.md b/src/markdown/book-reviews/these-truths.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f9a014 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/markdown/book-reviews/these-truths.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +author: "Jill Lepore" +class: "book-review" +coverImage: "book-cover-images/these-truths.jpg" +date: "2020-10-12" +tags: ["Non-fiction", "History", "Politics"] +title: "These Truths" +type: "entry" +--- + +These Truths aims to answer a question originally posed by Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist No. 1: +
+
+It seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. +
+
+In a sweeping and illuminating retelling of the nation's past, Lepore addresses this question in just under 800 pages. She describes the idea of the United States as a post-Enlightenment experiment on liberalism and individuality. The "truths" outlined in the Constitution were interpreted by men like Thomas Jefferson as "sacred and undeniable" (the stuff of religion) and by men like Benjamin Franklin as "self-evident" (the stuff of science). Though it was the marrying of a slew of ideas meant to protect a nascent democracy and its constituents, the signing of the nation's founding document was just the first mover in frustrating history of political discord over its proper interpretation. +
+
+This historical account reveals mostly that truth has a particularly elusive nature. Arguing for freedom of the press in England, John Milton wrote, "truth could only be established if allowed to do battle with lies." In granting the power to discern truth to the people, the United States is a hopeful experiment. The right to free speech and free press, Benjamin Franklin posited, meant that the opinions of men could do battle, leaving the best to win. But winners, even in the optimistic "land of the free", have seldom been been decided by philosophical merit. Winners have been chosen by power. +
+
+Between 1600 and 1800, 1 million English settlers brought with them 2.5 million African slaves. This was but the first example of the few ruling over the many. Today, 1% of Americans possess about a quarter of the nation's wealth, and many of the destitute are black individuals still suffering from the echoes of the institution that wrested their ancestors from Africa. Unfortunately, the lust for power at the base of this atrocity has been repeatedly reflected in the political status quo of the nation. +
+
+The nation's politics have shifted endlessly since its birth, when the all-or-nothing dualism of the fight between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists likely spawned the two-party system. Political lobbyists and consultants, which emerged as industrialism lent itself to the rapid spread of information, realized that short, emotionally charged messages were highly persuasive. These disparaging messages, intended to promote or defeat legislation, have also polarized Americans by inspiring fear and panic. +
+
+Today, political movements originate in the ultimate manifestation of Franklin's battle of ideas: the Internet. In the Information Age, users are alone responsible for validating purported facts. The ultimate test of democracy will be whether or not it will succumb to the growing power of technology. The concerning possibility illustrated in These Truths is of an electorate that serves technology, not technology that serves the electorate. +
+
+Lepore's history of the United States is a far cry from the feel-good stories many of us were taught in school. It is a history of a land that was conquered and taken from the peaceful tribes which first lived here. It is the history of a nation that operates on what it wants to believe, regardless of whether these beliefs are well-founded. And it is a history that celebrates individuals and movements that, out of empathy and selflessness, upend those beliefs when they turn out to be hostile. Revering the truth can be a dangerous game when it isn't difficult to push falsities on others. Perhaps, instead, we ought to revere those that are willing to question the truth and to cultivate the humility needed for an honest pursuit of knowledge. +
+
+The American experiment had not ended. A nation born in revolution will forever struggle against chaos. A nation founded on universal rights will wrestle against the forces of particularism. A nation that toppled a hierarchy of birth only to erect a hierarchy of wealth will never know tranquility. A nation of immigrants cannot close its borders. And a nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, of the meaning of its history. - Jill Lepore diff --git a/src/pages/blog.js b/src/pages/blog.js index 9944180..c42366d 100644 --- a/src/pages/blog.js +++ b/src/pages/blog.js @@ -1,5 +1,4 @@ import React from "react"; -import AOS from "Aos"; import { Link, graphql } from "gatsby"; import Head from "../components/head"; @@ -8,8 +7,6 @@ import Layout from "../components/layout"; import "../styles.scss"; import "./styles/blog.scss"; -AOS.init(); - const Blog = ({ data }) => { return (
{node.frontmatter.title}{" "}
— {node.frontmatter.date}
diff --git a/src/pages/index.js b/src/pages/index.js
index 003c79a..ffca233 100644
--- a/src/pages/index.js
+++ b/src/pages/index.js
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
import React from "react";
-import AOS from "Aos";
import { IconContext } from "react-icons";
import { BsCodeSlash, BsMusicNoteBeamed } from "react-icons/bs";
import { BiRun } from "react-icons/bi";
@@ -9,11 +8,8 @@ import Layout from "../components/layout";
import "../styles.scss";
import "./styles/index.scss";
-import "aos/dist/aos.css";
import FluidImage from "../components/utilities/fluid-image";
-AOS.init();
-
const IndexPage = () => (
@@ -25,12 +21,11 @@ const IndexPage = () => (
- Hi! I'm Ben, a software developer
- originally from Phoenix, AZ. I have been living in Los Angeles
- since I started at Loyola Marymount University in the Fall of
- 2015. After graduating, I moved to the sleepy beach town of El
+ Hi! I'm Ben, a software developer originally from Phoenix, AZ.
+ I have also spent several years living in Los Angeles, first at
+ Loyola Marymount University, then in the beach town of El
Segundo.
This website serves as a way to keep track of my thoughts from
time to time. You can view the source code for it{" "}
@@ -46,14 +41,10 @@ const IndexPage = () => (