Book Review: Talk, Talk by T.C. Boyle

 Talk, Talk

A Novel by T. C. Boyle

Wild Child

A Novella transmitted through T. C. Boyle by

 Dana Halter, the heroine of “Talk, Talk”

(Blogger Note: This review was previously published in The LAMLight, the physician newsletter of

 The Lynchburg Academy of Medicine.

 Wild Child has subsequently been published as part of a short story collection.)

If the caption above intrigues you, well it should.  If you have never read anything by T. C. Boyle, then you have truly missed unique reading experiences.  This author has been called “America’s most imaginative contemporary novelist” by “Newsweek” magazine and “one of the most inventive and verbally exuberant writers of his generation” by “The New York Times.”  In my opinion these accolades underestimate the importance of Mr. Boyle.  He has written wildly entertaining historical fiction based on exceptionally eccentric characters such as Alfred Kinsey (The Inner Circle), C. W. Post and and Will Kellogg (The Road to Wellville) and Stanley McCormick, schizophrenic heir of the farm machinery fortune (Riven Rock).  He has written science fiction (Friend of the Earth) and stinging stories exposing current social dilemmas such as illegal immigration (The Tortilla Curtain).  In Talk, Talk, Mr. Boyle examines the modern phenomenon of identity theft.

The skeleton plot of Talk, Talk is superficially mundane.  A young California school teacher named Dana Halter is stopped for a minor traffic violation and is immediately arrested for several outstanding warrants from adjacent states.  She is caught in a Kafka-esque bureaucracy and spends a weekend in jail.  When it is finally determined that Dana is a victim of identity theft and not the perpetrator of these many misdeeds, she and her boyfriend Bridger Martin, a graphic artist working for a Hollywood special effects company set off on a cross country chase to confront the thief and set the record straight.

What make this story so thoroughly unique and intriguing are the characters.  Dana Halter is completely deaf, a result of meningitis in early childhood.  Her speech is difficult to interpret, often causing strangers to surmise that she is mentally deficient.  She stubbornly refused to consider cochlear implants, preferring to develop her communication skills with other methods.  Her ability to lip-read and sign deteriorates when she is stressed and agitated, which she becomes more of as the story progresses.  Bridger truly loves Dana for who she is, but as their search becomes more frenzied and Dana vents her frustrations on Bridger, their relationship suffers.  William “Peck” Wilson is the identity thief who lives the high life using stolen credit and shell game purchasing techniques.  He fluidly changes his identity depending on the circumstance.  His live in girl friend Natalia is a former mail order bride from Eastern Europe who moves in with Peck (who she knows as “Dana”) and thoroughly enjoys the American consumerism-crazed lifestyle.  Their relationship deteriorates also as Natalia becomes very concerned over just who her boyfriend really is.  She fears truthful confrontation because she does not want to jeopardize her way of life.  How people (couples especially) communicate and fail to communicate in this modern world becomes a main theme.  Dana and Bridger have problems because of Dana’s deafness.  Peck and Natalia mis-communicate because of Peck’s dishonesty and Natalia’s misunderstanding of idioms and expressions.  The other issue which comes full circle in this story is: What is identity in today’s world?  In Bridger’s world he can change the identity of a character in a movie with the click of a mouse, substituting an actor’s face for a stunt double’s and even putting a human face on a futuristic monster or super hero.  Dana can be jailed and have her entire life altered because someone has nefariously used her identity.  Peck can shed the life of a violent lower class criminal and drive the latest Mercedes coupe, live in an opulent ocean side condo and dine at the finest Los Angeles restaurants by doing a morning’s research in the public library and using readily available data to assume fraudulent identities.

      This brings us to Wild Child.  Dana teaches high school English in a school for hearing impaired children.  She is also an aspiring novelist and throughout Talk, Talk works on this novella.  It is published in the Spring, 2006 issue of “McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.”   This publication is the brainchild of author Dave Eggers and is bizarre and innovative in its own right.  The Spring issue arrived at my home in a cigar box crammed with extraneous documents such as a 1890s legal services ad, a 1950 air raid defense brochure from the Civil Defense Administration and a 2002 Department of Defense memo authored by Donald Rumsfeld.  The main character in Wild Child is a 12 year old who was abandoned in the wilds of post-Revolution France and left for dead.  He managed to survive and is eventually recaptured by well-meaning peasants.  Attempts are made to “civilize” the wild child and to teach him how to communicate with his fellow humans.  A young scientist makes the education of Victor (as he becomes known) his primary endeavor.  He devotes all of his energies to instructing Victor how to recognize shapes and then letters.  He tries to instruct Victor how to form sounds and how the sounds represent objects.  These lessons take years to reach even rudimentary success.  The frustrations of the teacher and the pupil are documented throughout this poignant story.  Wild Child is a fascinating story in its own right.  Read in light of the themes elaborated in Talk, Talk makes it even more intriguing.  Understanding that T. C. Boyle has written this from the frustrating perspective of a deaf-mute character of his own creation is fantastic.  Each story succeeds independently, but each also enhances the understanding of the other.  These are the works of true genius. 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Peripheral Arterial Disease

The Role of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease

Tom Carrico, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Medical Director, CENTRA Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine

                Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) has been available in our community since April, 2003.  Our chambers are located within the CENTRA Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine on the second floor of Virginia Baptist Hospital.  Our Center is fully accredited by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society’s Facility Accreditation Program.  We are one of six accredited programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the only one west of Richmond.  This therapy has been successfully utilized for a variety of conditions including diabetic foot and lower extremity ulcers, problem healing in irradiated fields and osteomyelitis (as well as other less frequent indications).  So what is the role of HBO in patients with peripheral arterial disease?

 What is Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and how does it work?   

            

                  HBO is the breathing of pure oxygen at increased atmospheric pressure.  We utilize “monoplace” chambers, in which the entire patient is sealed in an acrylic tube (or “chamber”).  We replace the ambient air within the chamber with 100% oxygen and increase the pressure to 2.0 – 2.4 atmospheres.  In comparison, this pressure would be about the same as a scuba dive to about 50 feet of water.  In this environment, hemoglobin molecules are saturated with oxygen and even more oxygen is dissolved into the plasma of the blood.  This allows the delivery of super-oxygenated blood (about 15 times the amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues if the patient were breathing room air at 1 atmosphere of pressure) to the capillary beds.  This has many beneficial effects on wound healing.  These include improved fibroblast function and collagen deposition, more efficient leukocyte function, an increase in the amounts of growth factors in the wound bed, and a synergistic bactericidal effect with some antibiotics.  Oxygen in concentrations achieved in the HBO chamber actually diffuses into bone and also has a bactericidal effect in patients with osteomyelitis.  The most important effect in our diabetic patients and in the patients with wounds in irradiated tissues is angiogenesis which is most likely mediated by stem cell recruitment from bone marrow.  A new capillary bed can be achieved in diabetics with small vessel disease and in patients with localized tissue ischemia from radiation therapy.

 What role does HBO play in acute arterial ischemia?   

              A patient can develop acute arterial ischemia through trauma (crush injury or direct arterial trauma) or from emboli.  After the acute arterial injury or blockage is corrected a compartment syndrome can develop.  HBO can play a role in these patients post-revascularization by reducing edema and increasing the oxygenation of injured tissues.  Often fasciotomy can be avoided and tissue salvaged before frank necrosis can occur.  This usually involves a short course of hyperbaric therapy, sometimes on a twice daily schedule, until edema resolves and all tissue is viable.

What role does HBO play in peripheral arterial disease and tissue loss (ulcer)? 

              Patients often present to the Wound Care Center with lower extremity ulceration and non-palpable pulses.  If the rest of the history and physical exam indicates significant peripheral arterial disease, then non-invasive testing is ordered.  This may include a test we perform in the Center, a trans-cutaneous oxygen measurement (or “TCOM”) as well as the standard lower extremity arterial Doppler study (LEAS).  We would also consider performing a TCOM in a diabetic patient with palpable pulses to see if they have significant small vessel disease secondary to their diabetes.  If the patient has very low tissue oxygenation at the distal leg or foot level or critical limb ischemia is determined on LEAS study then revascularization (either surgical bypass or endovascular revascularization) would be needed before we would anticipate that these ulcers would heal.  Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is NOT going to be beneficial in the patient with critical limb ischemia which cannot be corrected.  Once a patient with an arterial ulcer has been successfully revascularized, then HBO would be indicated to help speed healing when there is also deep tissue involvement, osteomyelitis or persistent small vessel disease after the inflow has been corrected.

      

        In summary, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a useful adjunctive treatment in patients with acute arterial ischemia, patients with arterial ulcer and deep tissue involvement after successful revascularization and in diabetic patients with good inflow but significant small vessel distal disease. 

      

        Referrals for wound care and consideration for hyperbaric oxygen therapy or trans-cutaneous oxygen testing can be obtained by calling our Center at 434-200-1800.

Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine Staff - Virginia Baptist Hospital, Lynchburg, Virginia

Book Review: Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan

Emily, Alone

By Stewart O'Nan

     Stewart O'Nan has an incredible ability to elevate the everyday lives of ordinary people and make them reason for celebration.  In Emily, Alone he renders nine months in the life of an average octogenarian and makes them fascinating.  He actually makes this woman's life an epic battle between the human spirit and age, infirmity, depression, disappointment and regret.  This story is reminiscent of the best of Anne Tyler, who also spins great stories from lives of everyday people.

     The book opens with Emily Maxwell wallowing in her widowhood, chagrined over the changes in her neighborhood and home town of Pittsburgh and longing for her younger days.  She is contemplating a Thanksgiving visit from her divorced daughter and two of her grandchildren:

"She could not stop these visitations, even if she wanted to.  They plagued her like migraines, left her helpless and dissatisfied, as if her life and the lives of all those she'd loved had come to nothing, merely because that time was gone, receding even in her own memory, to be replaced by the diminished present.  If it seemed another world, that was because it was, and all her wishing  could not bring it back."

     Emily relies on her sister-in-law Arlene for transportation as well as for moral support.  It is Arlene who listens to Emily's monologues about her underachieving and unappreciative offspring and Arlene who buoys her spirits when they are at their nadir.  Again reminding me of Anne Tyler, this author sets several key scenes within the confines of a car.  (Remember the wonderful car scenes in The Accidental Tourist"?)  Emily frets over Arlene's overly cautious driving and worries for both of their safety.  Then, a funny thing happens at the Eat and Park, a breakfast spot where Emily and Arlene eat once per week (with coupons in hand from the Sunday newspaper).  Arlene passes out in the middle of the buffet line and Emily is startled out of her doldrums.  Forced by Arlene's hospitalization to resurrect her husband's ancient Oldsmobile from the garage where it sat idle since his death, Emily rediscovers her independent spirit and begins to drive.  She finds that she has abilities which she thought were long gone.  She begins to take charge of her life again.

     The visit from her alcoholic daughter happens and Emily makes the best of it.  Emily surprises everyone when she trades her husbands old car for a new Subaru. One whole chapter is spent on Emily suffering from a cold.  This book is not a thrill-a-minute page turner, but the masterful writing and the gradual enlightenment of Emily Maxwell somehow holds the reader's interest and does make you want to find out what mundane occurrence Mr. O'nan can weave some magic into next.  On the night that daylight savings time goes into effect, Emily muses:

" Lying there with the false hour glowing over her shoulder, she reflected on the arbitrary, changeable nature of time, and how, at her age, she was almost free of it.  The idea pleased her, as if she'd discovered something elemental.  Springing ahead was an official admission that no clock could ever measure the rotation of the earth, or the earth around the sun, birth and death, the turning seasons, the thrust of new shoots.  Though she couldn't quite say why it was a comfort, floating in this unmapped, in-between state , she appreciated time being imaginary and malleable, as if, knowing its secret, she might loosen its hold on her.  But in the morning, when she woke, it was still dark out, and she was a full hour behind.  She had to hurry to get ready for church and then was late picking up Arlene."

   Towards the end of the story Emily decides to visit her husband's grave, something she hadn't done in years:

"She knew it was an illusion, the idea that he was here.  Henry wasn't one to linger.  His spirit or soul had flown, off to happily tackle whatever work was needed.  And yet, as she turned the last gentle curve and slowed, pulling to the side, she felt a flutter of anticipation comprised equally of excitement and dread, as if he might chastise her for being late."

     Buoyed by that trek, Emily next travels to her small hometown to visit the graves of her parents.  It is during this visit that Emily has an epiphany of sorts:

"She would be judged by how she lived her life, not how she wished it had been.  She accepted that completely.  She was painfully aware of her failings.  Every Sunday she confessed them, and while by no means clear, her conscience was no heavier than most, or so she hoped."

     Emily, Alone is a character study of the highest caliber.  Emily Maxwell becomes so familiar to the reader that she becomes your neighbor, your friend, your grandmother.  The reader cares what happens next, no matter how mundane.  You feel the pain as she culls her basement for items to donate to the church bazaar and decides to donate her husband's old luggage.  The smell of the leather and the monograms emblazoned on the largest suitcase evoke strong memories of exotic vacations.  You can feel her pain when the suitcases don't sell and are unceremoniously thrown in the church dumpster.  You share Emily's frustration when her long-time physician retires and she has to adapt to her new Pakistani internist.  The reader cares for this lovely old woman, even though most of the people in her world seem not to.  No review of Emily, Alone would be complete without a mention of Rufus, Emily's aging faithful hound dog.  Rufus is Emily's main companion, listens with her to classical music by the fire and pays attention to many of Emily's musings.  Rufus is, in a way, the anti-Emily.  As the months progress, Rufus gives in to his infirmities, spending more time sleeping in the sunlight and having more and more difficulty managing the stairs, both up to Emily's bedroom as well as out to the backyard to "do his business".  Rufus becomes very sedentary just as Emily is discovering her ability to cope with and overcome her physical obstacles. 

     This is a book to be savored, not raced through.  The author treats us to precise and evocative writing which is rarely encountered.  The characters here are believable, likable, entirely human and strangely familiar.    In the end, human spirit does not triumph over age, infirmity, depression, disappointment and regret as much as it learns to peacefully coexist with them.   Read Emily, Alone by Stewart O'Nan.  You will be glad that you did.

Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion, Charlottesville, Virginia

Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples

nTelos Wireless Pavilion

Charlottesville, Virginia

June 12, 2012

     It was with great anticipation that we drove an hour from our home to Charlottesville, Va. to see Bonnie Raitt.  I have been a Bonnie Raitt fan since the early 1970s.  She was very popular in the D.C. area while I was in college at Georgetown University.  It seems that I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had the wrong exam schedule to ever see her in concert.  I was excited to see her career explode in the 80s and early 90s and was glad when she won all of those Grammy Awards.  Her live album 1996's "Road Tested" has been the soundtrack for many a road trip.

      The show opened with a short set from 72 year old Mavis Staples.  Although the set was short, Mavis had the crowd energized and ready for Bonnie Raitt.  Highlights included "Freedom Highway" after which Ms. Staples recounted her father's work with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a funky version of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" and The Band's "The Weight".  The finale was a rousing, stomping, crowd pleasing extended version of "I'll Take You There".  

     Bonnie Raitt hit the ground running with songs from her new CD "Slipstream".  She opened by growling into the first track from the album, "Used to Rule the World".  This was followed by the inspired reworking of the 1970s Gerry Rafferty tune "Right Down the Line".  Her slide playing, long a trademark, was on target from the very beginning.  She then played more familiar tunes including "Something to Talk About".  

     The highlights of the show were to come later, however.  She introduced a young singer/songwriter newly relocated to Virginia named Sarah Siskind.  This young lady has a fine voice and performed a stunning duet on John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery".  Ms. Siskind then played one of her own compositions which I think was entitled "One Day at a Time".  The other two show stoppers were John Hiatt's "Thing Called Love" and the finale: "I Feel so Damn Good (I'll Be Glad When I Get the Blues)".

     My only gripe was with the venue.  We were "greeted" by the concert Gestapo who refused to let us come in with a camera.  Let's make this clear: I'm a sixty-something and not one to cause trouble.  I'm a blogger and an amateur photographer and I take a camera everywhere.  I use a Canon SX20IS which is a glorified point and shoot.  It has a long zoom capability which makes it perfect for taking pictures at concerts (please see some of my other concert reviews).  I never use flash and no one has ever complained about the camera.    The people at the gate were rude and told me to go back to my car with the camera.  I contacted the venue the next day and they told me that the "no camera" policy was at the artist's discretion, so I guess this was Ms. Raitt's fault, but a simple explanation from the gatekeepers would have been nice.  Secondly, I re-learned a hard lesson from previous trips to this venue.  The 200 section seats suck.  There is a restaurant section which is flat and between the 100 level seats and the 200 level seats.  People stand in there and yack at their friends, some even with their back to the stage, making it impossible to see the artist perform.  This particular show was a benefit for the Charlottesville Free Clinic, so I guess the 100 seats were sold through the Clinic because none were available just minutes after the tickets went on sale.  My desire to see Bonnie Raitt over-road my apprehensions about the 200 level seats which were available.  Finally, at the risk of sounding like a total old crank, the people around us were intolerable.  The row in front of us talked loudly and laughed through the whole performance.  The only reprieve from their boorish behavior was during their frequent trips for beer and subsequent trips to the bathroom.  Moral of the story: If you want to enjoy the show, get 100 level seats for this venue or wait for the concert DVD.

    It was great to finally see Bonnie Raitt perform.  Her voice is still splendid, as is her guitar playing.  It should be mentioned also that her band, consisting of Mike Finnigan on keyboards, George Marinelli on guitars, bass player "Hutch" Hutchison and drummer Ricky Fataar, was worth the price of admission by themselves.  Finnigan was a wizard on the Hammond B-3 and electric piano, Fataar kept all of the syncopated and reggae type rhythms perfectly as well as added perfect brushes to the softer songs (not an easy task to switch gears so drastically), Hutchison played the electric bass as well as an upright and Marinelli was the perfect complement to Bonnie Raitt's slide playing.  I wished I could have had a better "concert experience" and I wish I had some photos to share with you, but, all things considered, I'm glad we went.  Next time we will be at this venue will be for Crosby, Stills and Nash and fortunately we have Level 100 seats.  I hope this band allows me to bring in my camera!

Books Into Movies: The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games

By Suzanne Collins

Movie Directed by Gary Ross

(Also discussed in this review: What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes)

“I am by nature warlike.  To attack is among my instincts.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

     Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you probably know the basic story line of The Hunger Games.  The book is the first of a young adult trilogy written by Suzanne Collins and set in a futuristic North America.  The country of Panem has a capital city in the Rockies.  The extravagant and self-indulgent citizens of The Capital City are supported by twelve districts which are held in captivity and forced to send the majority of their resources to The Capital.  The citizens of the districts live in abject poverty and the elderly often starve to death while younger adults and children do their best to survive.  This is the perfect recipe for revolution, which indeed occurred 75 years prior the time of this story.  The Capitol City prevailed, and as punishment and as a reminder to the Districts as to who is in charge, the tradition of the Hunger Games was proclaimed.  A male and female child (called “Tributes”) is chosen annually from each district to fight to the death in a contrived battle zone concocted and manipulated by the Game Masters in The Capital.  The one surviving Tribute brings great glory to his or her district as well as increased rations for the following twelve months. 

  

       The main character is Katniss Everdeen, an older teen who is fiercely independent and protective of her younger sister Prim.  Katniss has held her family together, hunting for food in the forbidden zones using her advanced archery skills and psychologically supporting her despondent mother.  Katniss lives in District 12 which was formerly Appalachia.  District 12 supplies coal and minerals to The Capital but still is one of the poorer Districts.  Katniss’ father was a coal miner and died in a mine accident.  When the time comes for the annual “Reaping” (selection of Tributes) Prim’s name is drawn but Katniss volunteers to take her place.  The male selected from District 12 is the son of the local baker and has a romantic interest in Katniss.

     

     The remainder of the story, told by Katniss, carries the reader through the preparation for and, finally, the Hunger Games themselves.  Katniss and the other Tributes are fed like royalty and put through vigorous training.  Katniss and Peeta Mellark (the male Tribute from District 12) are coached by the only previous District 12 Hunger Games winner, Haymitch Abernathy.  Haymitch is a bumbling alcoholic and is very pessimistic about the survival chances of the current two District 12 tributes.  He does convince Katniss and Peeta of the importance of providing good entertainment value for all of the citizenry who will be watching the games live.  They play up the romance angle and Peeta and Katniss become known as “The Star-crossed Lovers.”

   

     The Games are dominated by Tributes from the richer Districts, many of whom have been trained since birth to fight.  Katniss uses her unique cunning and archery skills to remain in competition.  Each time a Tribute dies a cannon sounds and at the end of the day pictures of the Tributes who perished that day are projected on a giant screen which takes the place of the sky.  The obstacles to Katniss’ survival go beyond the other Tributes and include forest fires orchestrated by the Game Masters, unpredictable weather, genetically altered killer bees called Tracer-Jackers and, finally, the dead Tributes themselves who are reincarnated as huge dog-like carnivorous beasts. 

     

     The movie is extremely well done and follows the book fairly closely.  Several minor characters and plot lines were not included, but they added a television commentator who narrates the events of the day to TV audience watching in The Capital City and in the Districts.  This character allows a lot of detail to be revealed at a fast pace, keeping the story in motion.  The characters of Katniss and Peeta are played very convincingly by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson, and Woody Harrleson (yes, the same guy from “Cheers”) does a marvelous job as Haymitch.  The cinematography is wonderful and most of the outdoor scenes were shot around Asheville, North Carolina.  Charlotte was used for The Capital City, but I didn’t see a lot of resemblance.

  

     For a 200+ page Young Adult book, this story packs a huge punch and the areas for discussion here are almost limitless.  Much has already been written about the political and social issues brought forward by The Hunger Games.  What can be said for a society which lives of the back of its poorer citizens, each year increasing the gap between the wealthy and the less fortunate?  What can be said about a society which receives thrills from watching the “agony of defeat” on live television reality shows?  This story speaks volumes about the ability of a few to control the many by abusing their position of power by economic means.  Panem is an extreme, but is it really that different from our current culture of greed?

     

     There are also a plethora of religious symbols in The Hunger Games.  There are churches that have started Bible study groups based on a discussion of this story.  There is the self-sacrifice which Katniss exhibits early on, volunteering as Tribute to spare her younger more fragile sister Prim.  There is also the theme of placing the good of a group over individual goals.  The survivor endures a terrible ordeal, but at least for twelve months, the lives of citizens in his or her home district are much improved.  Katniss also makes many decisions based solely on what she thinks is the morally right thing to do rather than what she feels society or others expect of her.  As Krishna states in the Mahabharata, “It is not right to stand by and watch an injustice being done.  There are times when active interference is necessary.”

    

       It is purely by coincidence that I was reading Karl Marlantes’ new book What It is Like to Go to War at the same time as I was reading The Hunger Games.   Marlantes, you may recall, is the author of Matterhorn,   the monumental novel of the Viet Nam War reviewed in these pages a few years ago.  This author is an Ivy League graduate, served as a Marine Lieutenant in the Viet Nam war and has struggled to understand his war experiences ever since.  He notes how societies send their young men (and now women) into combat very poorly prepared psychologically and spiritually for this experience.  Soldiers are trained in the efficient use of more and more lethal weapons, but are never counseled in how to deal with the anguish of violence and killing.    In this new non-fiction work Marlantes calls on Jungian psychology to state that we all have an evil inside of us (a “shadow” person) which under normal circumstances we are able to suppress.  In the extremes of stress, such as in combat, the evil side can surface and enable a human to kill another.  This “shadow” can also explain atrocities such as My Lai during Viet Nam or, more recently, the torture of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib .  No soldier really “gets over” the experience of combat and killing and Marlantes feels this is the main cause of the high rates of suicide and incidence of alcoholism and drug abuse among veterans.  As Marlantes says:  “Warriors will always have to deal with guilt and mourning.  If we perform with a noble heart and dedicate our efforts to some higher good we minimize the suffering of guilt afterward.  This unfortunately will not eliminate the suffering of mourning.   Guilt is different from mourning.”  Even more telling, Marlantes says further:  “To survive psychically in the proximity of Mars, one has to come to terms with stepping outside conventional moral conduct.”

   

       It is enlightening to read The Hunger Games book and even more startling to watch the movie through the prism of Karl Marlantes’ important work.  I think that what Suzanne Collins has forged is an incredible anti-war statement.   Katniss Everdeen certainly is forced to step outside conventional moral conduct to survive.  The character of Haymitch (again so ably performed by Woody Harrelson) is really the symbol of the prototypical veteran consumed by survivor’s guilt and regret and drowning his later adult life with alcohol.  The evil side of human nature is Exhibit A in The Hunger Games.  There is even one time in the movie where Woody Harrelson’s Haymitch, referring to Rue, a younger Tribute who is following Katniss around The Capital City during training exercises, stares into Katniss’ eyes and says “You have a shadow!”  There is a long pause which seems to me to be a reference to the “self-preservation at all cost” nature hidden inside the outwardly humble and backward Katniss.   Marlantes describes night terrors where he sees North Vietnamese soldiers he killed years earlier.  The demons at the end of the story, the snarling, mad, flesh eating monsters created by The Game Masters from the killed Tributes have to represent the combat survivors’ nightmares. 

  

       Young Adult literature?  The Hunger Games has been pegged as such.  I think that this story deserves a much larger audience and greater discussion.  It succeeds on so many levels.  I recommend the book and the movie interpretation highly.

“Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected.” – Carl Jung, from Psychology and Religion

Big & Rich at Nationals Park - June 2, 2012

   

Big and Rich

Nationals Park

June 2, 2012 

     The first in a series of post-game concerts at the Washington Nationals Park featured a high energy one hour set by country music's Big and Rich.  The duo has been around since 2004 but went their separate ways for a couple of years and have now re-grouped.   They are releasing their first new CD in 4 years in a couple of weeks.

     The show started quickly after the conclusion of a well-played baseball game, a 2-0 Nationals win over the Atlanta Braves.  The stage and sound system were rolled out behind second base and the infield grass was cordoned off to keep folks from trampling the sod.  There was a $20 fee to go out onto the field to see the band up close so there weren't many people at the stage.  The vantage from the upper deck was fine and plenty loud.

     The show consisted mainly of their previous hits, opening with "Coming to Your City" and concluding with a rousing rendition of "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy".  The latter segued through several other songs including, somehow, "Brick House".  The set was a very energetic and percussion driven review of previous hits and one curious inclusion: AC/DC's "You Shook Me", which had sort of a Bakersfield rolling rythm as opposed to the original hard-driving rock version.  The two highlights of the set included "Lost in the Moment" and "The Eight of November", both of which focused more on vocal harmonies than stage theatrics.

     The sound was a little lacking at first, but to the credit of whoever was running the sound board, it was corrected quickly and the vocals shone through.  It seemed that the energy from the band never really transferred to the audience, probably because of the peculiar venue: playing in front of a basically empty infield and a small-ish crowd dispersed throughout a third full stadium.  Most baseball fans, it would seem, were satisfied with the great game and headed to the Metro or to the traffic jam on I-395 after Tyler Clippard, the Nats closer, fanned the third of three Braves he faced in the ninth inning.

     John Rich had some very cool guitars: Custom Gibson Hummingbirds, Songwriters and even a Flying V, all emblazoned with the "Musik Mafia" logo on the fret boards.  The one sort of corny thing was that there were messages on the back of the guitars (like "SCREAM") which would appear when the artist flipped over their guitar.  If the crowd's not that into it, a gimmick like that is probably not the best idea.

     All in all, it was a very enjoyable set by a very talented band and two hyper-kinetic front men.  I'm glad we were there to see it.  I would love to see Big and Rich again in a better venue where their energy would be more contagious.