If you have gone this far with My Final Will and Testament, you will not need the introduction that I have used for the past 9 Reflections. If this is your first visit to my series of fourteen reflections than I suggest that you go back to number one and start there. This link will take you to the first reflection in my series: “Things that I Have Loved in Life.” You will get the background to my thoughts and desires concerning this series of Reflections in this first blog.
Imagine that this is the last day of your life on earth. In the time that you have left, you want to leave a “Testament” for your family and friends.
- These are the Influences (people, literature, and Music) that have shaped me.
There are many categories of things which I could describe that have shaped my life. However, for reasons of expediency I have limited them to three: People, music, and literature. I will briefly discuss some of the major formative experiences in each category. On any given day, I could add or subtract several of these experiences and swap them out with others. The things that have made a difference in my life are like the desert sands. They shift and take various shapes depending on how the winds of my mind are blowing. Because the elements of this reflection are so numerous, I am going to break them down into three parts. In Part 1, I will reflect on the People who have made the greatest contributions to my life. In Part 2, I will reflect on the Literature that has most influenced my ideas and thoughts. In Part 3, I will describe the Music and Composers that have moved my feelings, my emotions, and my soul.
Part 2, Literature
Many of my “Best” friends have been the books in my life. I wrote an old blog about my love affair with books. The title was, (What else?, “Books, Books, Books, Books, Books”). If I have ever loved anything at first sight, it was a book. Perhaps something in a title grabbed me and would not let me go or it might have been learning about the book from someone else who had read it. Hearing about the book, I immediately knew that I wanted to meet the book and when I did I fell in love with it.
I have read so many books, I am not sure where to start. I have had love affairs with genres that have lasted for many years but ultimately have died. I am not sure what caused us to break up but somehow I lost interest and moved on to other genres. Some of my past affairs include the following: Science Fiction, Business Management, Feminist Literature, Native American Literature, Black Studies, Sword and Sorcery, Satire and Black Humor, Marxism, Adventure Fiction, Biographies and Autobiographies, Classic Literature, Religions and Philosophy, Worlds Greatest Books, Self-Help books and Self-Improvement books, Exercise and Diet, and Spy novels.
My current love affairs are with two different, but I think intimately related genres. These include History and Political books. Like Santayana, I do not think you can really understand what is happening in the present if you do not understand the past. History informs and shapes everything we say and do today though most people hardly realize it.
Politics seem overwhelming to many of us. The more I study about politics and the people who shape politics, the less I understand the world. It is like stepping into a pit of quicksand. The more I struggle to make sense of what is happening, the deeper I sink into the pit. Sometimes, I feel like I am about to lose my mind. Other times, I feel that my current passions are starting to drive my friends away. Many of my friends do not share my passions. Some believe that I am deluded in thinking that they will love me back. Philosophers are seldom on the night time talk shows.
I keep trying to determine if I need to somehow escape from the Zeitgeist or Weltanschauung which envelopes me. I once heard a noted speaker say, “Why bother about something, if you can not do something about it.” I like to think that maybe my writings are making a difference, but that stretches my credibility further than even I can admit to myself. Perhaps politics is simply an addictive drug and not a love affair. In any case, here are the books and authors that I most want to note as having had a major influence on my life. The following authors have each had too many writings or books that I have enjoyed for me to list each one, so I am lumping their writings under their names.
Influential Authors
Fyodor Dostoevsky:
Perhaps the first writer that I fell in love with was the great Russian author Dostoevsky. How he could describe the life and soul of another human being is beyond my ability to fathom. I still marvel at his use of language and metaphors. Even more, I admire his journeys into the souls of human beings. The innermost dynamics and emotions that make people what they are. His writings are never easy to travel through as each page requires thought and reflection. Once through one of his novels, it is hard to believe that you will not think differently about life and yourself. Read: The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, or Demons.
Edgar Allen Poe:
To me the greatest horror and mystery writer who ever lived. “Murders in the Rue Morgue” set the stage for future murder mysteries. The “Pit and the Pendulum” was the most diabolical story I have ever read. The “Cask of Amontillado” and the “Tale Tell Heart” had me looking under my bed at night. For me anyway, Poe was the “Father of the Horror Genre.” Later writers like Arthur Conan Doyle, Rod Serling and Afred Hitchcock did not entertain the horror that Poe could evoke but were just as adept at evoking the suspense that Poe wedded to the horror of his stories. I do not read my horror or mysteries these days. The horror genre has become quite cliched and predictable. I still enjoy a good mystery and rely on the infrequent recommendation. Books by Umberto Eco, E. L. Doctorow and Dan Brown will all provide you with some good escape reading.
Mark Twain:
Twain managed to write funny stories that had morals bigger than life. He wrote many great stories and books that could be read by children as well as adults. His writings have been criticized of late for not being PC by fools who want to forget the past. Huckleberry Finn was an adventure story and a story about friendship and racism. To change the language in the story is an insult to the history of literature as well as the author. Twain skewered people and social conventions, but he did so in a way that left people laughing rather than angry. Read: Letters to the Earth, The War Prayer, or A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court.
Kurt Vonnegut:
On the way to my basic training, I picked up two books in the Newark Airport which had profound influences on my life. One was by Lenny Bruce and was called “How to Talk Dirty and Influence People.” It was not at all what I thought it would be like. It was sacrilegious, blasphemous, and full of great insights into the hypocrisy around religion. The other book was by Vonnegut. It was titled “Cats Cradle.” This book which some call “Black Humor” led me into a plethora of similar books by authors like, Anatole France, Joseph Heller, Terry Southern, Evelyn Waugh and Hunter Thompson. I went on to read almost all of Vonnegut’s books until my love affair with sarcasm and social criticism ended.
Influential Books:
I will give you the “abridged” version of several books which influenced my life.
“Out of the Crisis” by W. E. Deming: Taught me that most of what I learned in business school was wrong. Taught me how business should really be conducted.
“The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy” by Tolkien. Perhaps the greatest fantasy adventure that has ever been written. I wished I had been with them.
“Judgement under Uncertainty” by Kahneman and Tversky. They would latter go on to win a Nobel Prize for their insights and research into human cognitive limitations. Reading this book was like taking a Ph.D. in how to think more rationally and avoid biases.
“The Autobiography of Malcolm X:” My foray into Black Studies began with this book. I began to see the systemic racism that Black people in America still face and the efforts by many White people to discount this racism and pretend it does not still exist. The story of a courageous man who was not afraid to speak out for a better world for Black people. Malcolm gave his life to the cause.
“The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers.” by Will Durant. A journey into the greatest philosophers of history. There can be no better education than studying what the wise men and women of history including, Socrates, Plato, Rousseau, and many others have argued, written down and sometimes gave their lives for. Durant takes on a difficult task to summarize and provide us with an overview of the core teachings of some of the world’s greatest philosophers. It is an effort which should lead the reader to regard this book as a simple introduction to the great thoughts of history. There are many other great philosophers some women and some from Eastern cultures who are not included in this book. Read “The Trial of Socrates” by I.F. Stone.
“Against Our Will” by Susan Brownmiller. Many of the feminist authors that I read or attended conferences with taught me that the world I see is not the same world that many women see. I thought of myself as a fairly enlightened (if recovering sexist) male, but this book showed me that I still had a way to go. I had thought rape was a crime of passion and I started out disagreeing with much of what Brownmiller was writing. Halfway through the book, what she was saying started to make sense. Rape was a crime of control. Passion, short skirts, nice breasts had nothing to do with it. It simply involved men wanting to either hurt or dominate women. I would advise anyone interested in feminist studies to read this book.
“In a Grove” is a short Japanese story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was first published in 1922 and has been given awards as one of the ten greatest Asian stories ever written. The story had a major impact on the way I view truth and fact. The story involves a fight and murder as described from four different perspectives. The truth should be based on the facts given by the eyewitnesses, but the facts differ so much that it is impossible to declare what the truth is. Anyone reading this story will understand that the metaphor of truth and facts applies to our lives. Perspectives and opinions will vary greatly from person to person and even by the same person as time always influences memories. I have used the premise of this story for many of my own stories and teachings.
I have probably long exceeded your tolerance for my ruminations. I am grateful for any who have made it this far. I swear I have left out many other books and stories that had some degree of impact on my life. It is not easy sitting at a keyboard and trying to resurrect books that I read more than fifty or so years ago. The big problem was that once I started putting my mind to this effort, the number of books grew exponentially. With a concern for your patience and butt muscles, I have limited this list. I must also apologize for some of the too succinct and perhaps inaccurate reflections on the books and authors noted above. I hope if you are a devotee of any of them, you will forgive me for any abuses that I have done to their literary credentials.
Next blog, I will publish Part 3 of my reflections on the Influences that have shaped my life. More specifically, Part 3 will deal with the “Music and Composers” that have shaped my thoughts and behaviors.
Aging Capriciously 