16. Fahrenheit 451

16. Fahrenheit 451 - by Ray Bradbury

In an America lulled into comfort by technology and loyalty, firemen are charged with burning books. It is a crime to have books, seen as instigators of inequality and the cause of much suffering. In the meantime the outside world is in trouble: war is a constant threat and eventually destroys the city with a single wave of bombs.

Guy Montag has always taken great pleasure in the fireman code. For him and his colleagues burning is a way to clean the past away using the python-like kerosene pipe to douse everything in flammable liquid and then watch it burn. Fire is a beautiful sight for neighbors, who are often spectators when a house goes up in flames. His wife Mildred is introduced by overdosing on sleeping medication. This nightly ritual of hers plays out while her seashell ear buds play harmonious tunes. Technicians, not doctors, come over to pump out her stomach with machines and reassure Montag’s concerns by telling him this is a common procedure. She remembers nothing the next day.

Clarisse McClennan, on the other hand, is a teenage girl with a wayward family featuring on the watch list of possible book hoarders. She questions the purpose of things – to her teachers’ dislike – and imagines how it used to be from her uncle’s stories. She introduces Guy to a new thinking in which books are fascinating and the status quo needn’t hold true.

The typical entertainment in the new cities is the parlor, which is filled with wall-sized screens that project the “family” and aimless shows. They are noisy, filled with bright, flashing lights and yet make the viewers feel a sort of empty euphoria that they crave when it is turned off. It is not okay to be sad or upset even though suicide is the single largest cause of death.

Guy, perhaps subconsciously, takes a bible belonging to a woman who is burnt with her collection of books rather than just leave them behind. His captain, Beatty, has no problem leaving this woman to her chosen fate, telling Montag that “they” end up committing suicide anyway. Beatty reminds Guy that any fireman who accidently took a book would be able to return it within a day without consequence, that it was natural to feel curious after doing the job for a number of years. However, this isn’t the first time for Montag. He has hidden dozens of books up in the ventilation of his home.

A man named Faber that Montag had met two years ago in the park also collects books and makes an ideal confidant when Mildred is aghast at his hoarding revelation. He retells how firemen came to have this destructive job and how he and others had not resisted when opinion had shifted against books and their ideas. He regrets terribly his cowardice and finds strength in Montag’s audaciousness.

Under Faber’s instruction and with an ear piece to communicate, Montag returns to the fire station to return the book and avoid further suspicion. The initial plan is to topple the system quietly from the inside. When the station responds to a call soon after he arrives, it turns out Mildred has spilled Montag’s secret stash and ratted him out. Montag is headed for prison and Beatty has him burn his own house down. This turns out to be a fatal mistake (or a suicidal intent?) when Montag turns the spewing python on Beatty and then on the Mechanical Hound that leaps at him with its procaine proboscis ready to anesthetize. The same hound which had haunted him earlier and tried to kill him. The hounds are programmed to attack only select people using tissue samples so the earlier attack is a constant source of paranoia for Guy.

The hunt is on for Montag who finds his way out of the city, averting the keen scent of another trailing hound, with Faber’s help and witnesses the destruction of everybody he has ever known in a whistling carpet of nuclear bombs. He and his new found companions, mostly professors, vow to make books available so that a new generation can learn from its mistakes.  

21. The End of Illness

21. The End of Illness - by David Agus

“Our bodies are complex and dynamic systems” says Agus, a pioneer of proteomics and oncology. His approach to the field of cancer research, and medicine in general, is preventive rather than prescriptive. By balancing the forces and biochemicals in predisposed patients, as found by the burgeoning analysis of protein levels (proteomics), chronic disease and health issues can be avoided before their onset.

As with any book of this type, it is expected for scary statistics to be thrown around and Agus shies away for as long as possible. When he can resist no longer, he elucidates readers on the rampant obesity and stress-related problems afflicting the US population. Upward of 65% of the country is obese, even though far fewer would think so, and this is trending upward. This is mostly due to the increased sedentariness of our jobs and spare time. For instance, a famous study on bus drivers and their conductors (the former spends much of their time sitting while the latter walks around on the job) found that drivers are at least twice as susceptible to heart disease and other chronic illness. Off work activities now consist of watching TV and browsing the internet which again avoid physical activity.

Agus also pays special attention to the finely balanced intestinal environment inhabited by 100 trillion bacteria. Studies show that the dominant bacteria cannot be predicted by ethnicity, region or lineage and could be a random colonization that distinguishes our individual vulnerabilities and custom treatments. I found this and studies on sedentariness, irregular sleep and vitamin use particularly fascinating.

Agus wants us, each and every one of us, to take responsibility and revolutionize the way we are diagnosed. He chastises the traditional approach of yearly trips to the doctor accompanied by a few run-of-the-mill tests and questions. Instead, he implores us to record our own observations on our health and answer a litany of questions regarding how we feel, sleep, eat and fill our time. These could be instrumental in building a dynamic monitor of our health that would aid in predicting possible future illnesses based on our lifestyle and genetics. He sees this advancement as inevitable given the sweeping changes that information technology has ushered in.

His view of the body and health, as he tells the reader early on, is a take on the physics of complex systems whereby one need not understand each part to understand the whole. He gives the example of Galileo being able to predict the movements of the stars without knowing exactly what a star is. In the same way, through compilation of disease and treatment data, it is possible to tailor prescriptions without perfect knowledge of the underlying infliction. He admits the data analysis would be an enormous undertaking.

22. Where Men Win Glory

22. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman -         by Jon Krakauer

In an odd way I was lucky not to have known about Pat Tillman until just a few weeks ago (it’s June 2012). Despite my friends wondering which rock I had been hiding under, being clueless meant I was unhindered by the rumors and conspiracies which surround Tillman. As I would soon find out he is not considered the quintessential American hero by all.

The book thrilled me almost immediately as it described the complexities of warring in the Hindu Kush area of Afghanistan by describing its topography and using precise maps. He is also quick to point out how such an immense enemy arose, with a summary of its progenitors and catalysts, including references to another recent read, The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright.

The Soviets had become stuck in this quagmire for most of the 80’s thanks to Afghan guerilla tactics and support from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia (through Pakistan). Support which included bucket loads of cash and weapons like the shoulder-mounted grenade launcher that turned the fight for the skies over Afghanistan. As per usual, Krakauer is a dispassionate narrator and prefers to hold up events for the reader’s examination rather than tint them with his own light.

The background provided on the region’s history, the events leading up to the twin wars and then the unfolding calamities were superbly detailed and a powerful reminder of our recent history. We forget all too quickly why there are such limited options in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and instead like to tell ourselves –and each other – that “the solution is simple: just pull out.” The reality of it is far more convoluted.

Importantly, and presciently, Krakauer spends a good deal of time running through Pakistan’s role in the Taliban and continued conflict. From the inner make-up of sympathizers in the upper reaches of the ISI (Intelligence Services Agency), Pakistan’s intelligence agency, to the Frontier troops who patrol the “Zero line” dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan, Krakauer examines the chances for a turnaround and finds it bleak. This was written in 2009 so it makes one wonder how on earth relations between any two of the myriad entangled “frenemies” hasn’t erupted. Also consider, as Krakauer points out, that Bush ordered unilateral strikes on Pakistan without prior permission from Pakistan’s government or military. At that point it was thought that troops would be going over and engaging, then came the drones…

Pat’s enthralling tale is heroic and a breaking of the mould. He is not the stereotypical jock even though he is a champion athlete and handsome young man. His pivotal moment is a fight outside of a late night restaurant frequented by New Almaden (near San Jose, CA) high school students. In a rare act of rash rage, he assaults a boy who he perceives to have beaten up his close friend. He pummels the guy to within an inch of his life, ignoring the pleas of the boy’s friends to stop. Afterwards, having not apologized because of his dad’s advice not to admit guilt, he is sentenced to 2 months of juvenile detention. It is life-changing for the graduating football star and almost cuts down his chance of joining a division 1 football team at Arizona State University.

With his life put in perspective by, he begins to better himself through reading and keeping a journal. It is through these that Krakauer is able to reveal some of Pat’s most intimate ideas on life, religion and morality. For instance, Pat writes that is important to have “faith in oneself”, to “do good, influence lives, show truth and right.” He is not scared of death and will “cross that bridge when [he] comes to it.” He doubts there is an afterlife.

Pat Tillman is a truly remarkable human being who deliberately asked not to be revered for the sacrifice he made: joining the army after 9/11 rather than take a $3.6 million NFL contract. In the end, he is killed by friendly-fire in the Khost region of Afghanistan, near the since-named Forward Operating Base Tillman (FOB Tillman), and posthumously used by the army and government to draw attention from the atrocities of Abu Graib. It is testimony to his indefatigable character (and spirited family) that, even after lies and conspiracies were spun around him, he is untarnished and stands as an Übermensch among heroes.