Open

Open is the autobiography(largely ghostwritten by J.R. Moehringer) of Andre Agassi, an American tennis legend, who was once ranked number 1 in the world, and won a total of 8 grand slams in his career. In this book, Agassi disscusses, with great specificity and detail, his life from the time he was a small child, until his retirement from tennis. Agassi's book does nothing if not live up to its title. He is willing to talk openly and without censor about many life long secrets he has been burdened with hiding for quite some time. Agassi writes about his hatred of tennis, spawned from a troubled childhood where he was forced to practice for hours, constantly yelled at by his dad. He disscusses his use of crystal meth, which he had previously denied using when he tested postive for it in 1997. Agassi's ability to write so candidly about many delicate and embarrassing subjects is what makes Open worth reading. The reader feels as though Agassi is reflecting accurately and without bias on his life, rather then trying to project a positive image of himself. I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of tennis, or Andre Agassi specifically, as it is an enlightening insight into the life of a great tennis player, and a troubled man.

Atlas Shrugged I

Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand. In her epochal work, Rand applies the ideas of her philosophy of objectivism through her storytelling. Although I have only read a fraction of this epic novel, I can already identify a few of the characters and what they symbolize with regards towards Ayn Rand's philosophy. The main character is Dagny Taggert, who is the vice president of Taggert Transcontinental. Dagny represents many of the ideals which Rand values. Dagny has an independent sense of value, and isn't influenced by the majority's opinion. For example, Dagny orders Rearden Metal, a new type of metal which everyone else has written off as useless, for use in her train tracks despite everyone else's opinion. Dagny's actions are dictated only by her own judgments and values; she is unswayed by any feeling of peer pressure. Dagny is also very selfish. She is concerned only with making decisions that help her and her business, not with doing things for the "greater good" or to help out companies in need. Ayn Rand, who is a believer in absolute capitalism, views this as a great thing. She believes that people should be driven towards advancing themselves and not helping out the less successful. She believes that the great people in society should not have to be constrained by the weak, and punished for their greatness.

Ishmael

At the recommendation of a follower of mine, who shall remain nameless to protect his/her identity, I read the novel, Ishmael, written by Daniel Quinn. Ishmael is a book about a man who sees an ad in the paper for a teacher seeking a student with an earnest desire to change the world. The man goes to see this teacher, and finds himself in an office building room looking through a large glass window at a gorilla. The gorilla then begins to communicate with the man through thoughts, and it becomes clear that the gorilla himself is the teacher. The gorilla, named Ishmael(hence the book title), begins to work with the man by questioning him in order to teach him how to save the world. Through their dialogue, Ishmael and his student systematically figure out the difference between taker(modern culture) and leaver(animals and non-agriculturalists) cultures, and why the taker is destined to fail based on the laws of how one should live. The plot of Ishmael is insignificant, as it serves only as a device by which Daniel Quinn expresses his beliefs and ideas. I found the way Daniel Quinn explained his point of view to be both entertaining to read, and quite effective from the point of view of making a persuasive argument. Daniel Quinn illustrates use of the Socratic method quite masterfully, as Ishmael probes at the beliefs of our culture in order to show their flaws.

Although Daniel Quinn explains his argument brilliantly, I do have a few problems with the argument itself. Firstly I believe that his argument contains a few logical fallacies. The first fallacy is that Daniel Quinn "poisons the well" by saying that anyone who belongs to the "taker" culture is unable to argue against him because their opinions are so distorted by "mother culture". This amounts to saying that anyone who would disagree with him is incapable of thinking rationally. Another fallacy which I believe Quinn uses is the appeal to nature fallacy. Quinn presupposes that what is natural is what is moral or correct, however the two are not necessarily always connected. A third fallacy is the doomsday fallacy; Quinn presupposes that things are getting progressively worse for mankind, and that they will continue to do so, when in fact there is a great deal of evidence to support the opposite of both. People are a great deal wealthier today than they were ever before, in the late eighteenth century, nearly all of the world lived on just under what equals $1000 today(Landsberg S.-27). Incomes adjusted for inflation have been rising at an average rate of 2.3% each year; meaning at this pace in under 400 years, the average income will be about 1,000,000$ a day in uninflated value (Landsberg-S.-28). Additionally, not only are we making more, we're working less; 100 years ago, the average workweek in America was around 60 hours, currently it is around 35(Landsberg-S.-29). Additionally, people are living for longer; the probability that a 20-year old today has a living grandmother is higher than the probability that someone of the same age 100 years ago had a living mother(Landsberg S.-30).

Quinn points to population growth as one of the serious and eminent threats facing mankind because they produce to much and thus their population grows to meet this food supply. However, as I(well mostly Steven Landsberg) have shown, as our population has increased(as it has been doing over time) our quality of life has increased. Quinn points to overcrowding as a possible result of this, however this isn't a an eminent threat to mankind. If you take Texas and split it up into 5,000 square foot lots, and then place a house with a family of four in each, you will have housed the entire population of the world (Landsberg S.-37).


Works Cited
Landsberg, Steven. More Sex Is Safer Sex (The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

I was hesitant at first to read this book over the summer, due to the fact that usually I don't like books taking place in much older times because I find it very hard to relate to the characters who live in such a drastically different world than I do. However, once I began to read, I found myself unable to stop; I was captivated by Oscar Wilde's masterful writing style, and storyline. I am usually a very slow reader, because I enjoy drawing out my enjoyment of a book, but I began reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray" on the plane ride to N.C., and finished it on the plane back two days later. For those who don't know(which I figure you do Ms. O'Brien, but I will tell you anyway despite the fact you are my only follower), "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is a book about a man in the 1800's, named Dorian Gray. Dorian has a portrait made of him by an artist and friend of his. At this time Dorian is a very pure and naive person, but as the book progresses, he becomes more and more corrupted by a man named Lord Henry, who teaches him how to live a hedonistic life, experiencing all he can without abiding by a conventional set of morals. As time passes and his wicked acts continue, Dorian Gray notices that his appearance remains beautiful and unmarred, but that the painting of him begins to look wicked and old.

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" was Oscar Wilde's commentary on society during the late 19th century. Through Dorian Gray's story he expresses how he feels about the way many people live their lives; they are only worried about their own happiness and act with disregard towards any sort of morality. Although it was written over 100 years ago, the message of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" could still be easily applied to society today.