Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End

Something from Ellen Klages, because I so enjoyed Wakulla Springs...

 

A Steampunk anthology, written by authors around Bristol, because I've read next to nothing in that genre.

 

Paradox - an anthology of stories on the Fermi paradox (why aren't there aliens?) by a collection of UK authors and scientists, from NewCon Press, a UK indie press.

 

The NewCon Press guy (Ian Whates) asked me which author(s) I liked.  I mentioned Ray Bradbury and Clifford Simak.  He suggested I try Strange Visitors, a collection of short stories by Eric Brown.  From the tiny sample I read at the stand, it looks good.

 

The Rhymer is a novel written in rhyming prose, by a Glaswegian author.  I visited the stand 3 times, intrigued.  Each time I tried to get into the book, to get my head around its cadences, its rhythms.  Twice I failed, because other people were yakking loudly, and I couldn't latch on.  The third time, it was quieter, and suddenly it clicked and I could hear the rhythms in my head.  It'll need quiet to read, and maybe I'll actually read some of it out aloud, when no-one can hear me, because it's crafted to be spoken aloud.

 

I also found two collections of short stories by William Tenn, that rare and wonderful author (only one of the books is here on booklikes, the other is "the human angle").  In the moment I wasn't entirely sure they weren't already in my collection, but at £4 each, it wasn't worth taking the chance.  You don't come upon his books often enough to let one slip through your fingers. 

Received a copy of Highway To Hell: The Road Where Childhoods Are Stolen by Matt Roper through the First Reads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review

How can an English tabloid journalist hired by Piers Morgan reporting for the United Kingdom's Daily Mirror to write exploitative editorials have in common with an award winning country music star from Canada? Remarkably it was from the power of the written word that a message crossed international waters that kick started an endeavour to end child prostitution and human trafficking in a country where the government has turned a blind eye. The peculiar characteristic about this country is that since 1970 the population of Catholic followers has reduced from a profound 90% to 65% recorded members in 2010. Even with the second largest Evangelical population in the world you can come to terms with the fact that girls losing their innocence, families living with constant worry and injustice for their exploited children that belief in a God that does not answer prayers is one they have lost faith in and will no longer rely on. Human Trafficking is an issue all over the world, whether you want to believe it or not, but Brazil is one of the main countries that has turned it into an enterprising business venture for poor individuals looking to climb the social ladder.

It is very easy to have two devout Christians take this matter and use it as a podium for expressing their agenda towards the following of God's word. Previously I have read books that have done this and have been put off by their overt preaching, but with Highway To Hell their is a general feeling of individual causation for helping the girls of Brazil. Don't get me wrong, both Matt and Dean are fervent followers of Christ but they don't isolate the reader into believing that God is the be all and end all, they suggest that you too can improve mankind as long as your heart is in the right place. These courageous guys put themselves in potential dangerous situations for the attempt to change one little girls life and they deserve a lot of respect for doing so.

After meeting many lost girls their plan is to assist in curbing the insurmountable feeling of hurt and loneliness by building Meninadança or a dance club which teaches the girls by day and provides a safe house by night. This project is aimed at improving the hope, healing, and justice for a lost generation of victimized girls. Meninadança are pink houses with bright walls, beauty salon demonstration, dance room with wall-to-wall mirrors and inspirational quotes to highlight the value God places in every child. By embracing the inner child and the satisfaction that can bring along with realizing a hope for the future, life on the street will be seen as a distant memory.

My first experience with the Brazilian culture beyond Carnivalé occured while watching the award winning movie Cidade de Deus or City of God for us English speaking folk. The movie showcases the choices available to young boys which include poverty, violence, drugs, crime and gang warfare. City of God is the name of a economically struggling favela in Rio De Janeiro where escape for a better life is not an option. While pre-teen children in Canada are playing with water guns, in Brazil these boys are toting firearms bigger than they are with such familiarity its quite alarming. I bring this movie up because it had the narrative of a young boy's life in Brazil while the book Highway To Hell has a point of view of a young girl, the similarities are plentiful but the end result of drug addiction or death remains the same.

The child councillors generally had a fear of making enemies within a town that had lost the perspective of how unjustifiable child prostitution is. Unfortunately the children councils and many political figures in the book accepted the reality of child exploitation as a part of the regional landscape, but the one thing that stuck with me was the fear the "John's" had that their identity would be made public for the infraction. In the city of Araçi 20% of the men were involved in child exploitation, and within that number 60% of those men are retired and viewed this behaviour as culturally accepted. This was regarded as such a trivial matter that in a popular forró song their is a lyric expressing that "the remedy for an old horse is to eat young grass". With the Brazilian infrastructure viewing this as some sort of economical stimulus, Matt and Dean should start some sort of To Catch A Predator with a Brazilian Chris Hanson investigative reporter to strike fear in the community and the potential shaming for life.

The life of suffering among young girls on the BR-116 in Brazil certainly ends in drug addiction and even death. More often than not for these girls it starts at a young age when they are sexually abused by someone in their immediate family. Where the line between promiscuity and prostitution is quickly blurred, these girls have no chance when every figure in their lives preys on their innocence leaving them a shell of their former selves. Once the girls lose the light in their eyes and succumb to the presence of abuse in their lives their future in prostitution is pretty much set in stone. The only logical decision for them is to at least get compensated for it.

One problem I had with the structure of the book was how the story of all the girls melded together. I would have preferred chapters dedicated to each girl so I would have had a better chance to differentiate each story making it more memorable for me. The two stories that were very impactful were the stories of Leilah aka Leidiane and Mariana. I was also intrigued by Mariana's reference to survival and the black Earth, I wish I would have learned more about the aspects of their lives that people in more developed countries could never imagine to be their own reality.

This book is recommended for anyone looking to gain a better perspective of the troubles facing the young children of Brazil and how two normal guys are working to solve them.

Everyone thinks they understand the concept of inequality, whether based on economic standing, race, education or environment. But do we really understand? When children are enrolled in the same public school system, (theoretically) have access to the same extra-curricular activities and the same social safety nets, why is there still such a discrepancy. Ms. Lareau explored these issues in her in-depth study of 12 third-graders from various racial and socio-economic backgrounds. Ms. Lareau and her team went into the homes of her subjects, followed the children to school, doctor’s appointments and extra-curricular activities. Acting as “invisible” observers of real life they noted the differences (and similarities) in the attitude of the parents, the children themselves as well as the peripheral people in their lives, such as teachers, coaches and social workers. For the purpose of her study Ms. Lareau chose to name her economic classes as “poor”, “working class” and “middle class”. Her findings and conclusions were interesting and sometimes a little disturbing, but truthfully, not all that surprising.

This book is not the type of book I would reach for on a bookshelf, but a friend (whose opinion on books, among other things, I value and trust) posted an excellent review on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/681109783). When I finished reading his review I started thinking back to when I was raising my daughters and began mentally ticking off the study criteria and conclusions he mentioned in his review. That was the reason I read this book … I wanted to see how I “stacked up” to the norm in the parenting department. Or, in other words, how badly I had possibly “messed up”. Going into the book with that as my sole focus I think my impressions of the book are a little different from someone who may be reading this for educational purposes. I understand that this was an ethnological study and thereby needs clear demographic boundaries. According to the book’s definition I am firmly planted in the “working-class” with the occasional dips of my big toe into “poor” and “middle-class” pools. From my perspective I could relate to many of the issues that were discussed in this book and that made it extremely interesting to read. However, when it came time to listen to the study’s conclusions I found myself disagreeing with the author. Not because her conclusions were incorrect according to her study, or because they painted such a drastic discrepancy between the classes of children, but because she was being statistical and analytical and I was being emotional. That could not be helped; I started reading this book with a personal agenda.

I did enjoy the book. It certainly opened my eyes to many aspects of the inequality the book discusses. I am pleased that I read this edition as it had additional chapters following up on most of the original participants into their adult years. Following the first study Ms. Lareau supplied all the participants with a copy of the original publication. In this edition discusses their reactions to her findings. That was interesting reading, as the feelings were so diverse. The only negative comment I have about the book, and about Ms. Lareau as a sociologist, is that she took an inordinate amount of pages to justify why she did the study in the manner she did, and why she came to the conclusions she did. She became almost apologetic (and, if I dare say it, whiny) in her attempt to explain. I found this unprofessional. Twenty-twenty hindsight is fine if she wanted to discuss the “if I knew then what I know now I would have done it this way …” possibilities, but this was her study, her parameters and her conclusions – she should not feel the need to apologize for her findings.

So what did I take away from this study and this book? I certainly have a better understanding of the why’s behind certain behaviors, actions and decisions. And most importantly, I came to the conclusion that I was pretty upper-middle-of-the-road in the mom department and didn’t mess up too badly.

 

This would be yet another book I own that I can't quite place where I first bumped into it. I had discovered the story of Augustus Hare somewhere - the words eccentric and horrible childhood sum up a lot - and then tracked this book down. I enjoyed reading it and somehow haven't come around for a reread until now. (Now that I think about it, I think it may have been cited in an article about the Unfortunate Events books and real life bad childhoods in literature. Or perhaps it was an article/book review of Peculiar People.)

 

This edition of Hare's biography is the edited version - Gutenberg has the three volumes of the original The Story of My Life here. Where you'll also find copies of Hare's other works: Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth (two volumes) and Walks in Rome. So you can hop over to those if you feel the need for an immediate sample.

 

I should also add that this version (the edition I'm reviewing that is) contains Hare's drawings - if you get one of the ebook versions check and see if there's one with illustrations. And the preface of this book is really worth it for setting the scene and explaining Hare's accomplishments. According to it, The Story of My Life in the original form was six volumes long - the first three came out in 1896 and the next three in 1900. No idea which three are in the Gutenberg version. Also helpful is the family trees which take up two pages, because there are two families involved and who's who becomes a bit cryptic at times.

 

I'll probably quote a bit much from his childhood, which is only one part of the book, but it's because his childhood is so awful that you can't help focusing on it. It's worth remembering that psychological abuse isn't stuck in one time period, nor physical abuse. But then the Victorians didn't view children or childhood the way we do now. Hare also notes that servants were liable to have their ears boxed just as children were "and would as little have thought of resenting it" and that "people were not so tender in those days as they are now." (p. 28) Very different times.

 

His godmother writes Hare's parents and offers to raise him - the Hares had five children. Their reply:

p. 9:  "My dear Maria, how very kind of you! Yes, certainly, the baby shall be sent as soon as it is weaned; and if anyone else would like one, would you kindly recollect that we have others"

    ...There the formal exchange took place which gave me a happy and loving home. I saw my father afterwards, but he seldom noticed me. Many years afterward I knew Mrs. Hare well and had much to do with her; but I have never at any time spoken to her or of her as a "mother," and I have never in any way regarded her as such. She gave me up wholly and entirely."

 

Whenever he uses the word mother he always means his godmother Maria. When he refers to his biological family he makes sure that we know who is "real" and who is not.

 

Much is made of Hare's childhood disobedience and his fussing over lessons - his knuckles are hit with a ruler, and when he's very naughty his uncle uses a riding whip on him. And what exactly are these lessons? (Make sure to note Hare's age.):

 

p. 18:  "After breakfast I began my lessons which, although my mother an uncle always considered me a dunce, I now think to have been rather advanced for a child of five years old, as beside English reading, writing and spelling, history, arithmetic, and geography, I had to do German reading and writing, and a little Latin. Botany and drawing I was also taught, but they were an intense delight."

 

Granted education was much more advanced in those days (it wasn't odd to be started reading at a young age, and on adult material), but still, it's actually hard to get any five year old to sit still and continuously intake knowledge on any subject.

 

The hardest part to read is those where Hare is disciplined because of something his godmother (and uncle) believes she sees in him, or interprets as selfishness and greed. It's one thing to see this in his scuffling with a cousin whom he hates when that cousin takes his toys or hits him first. It's another to see selfishness in wanting to play with nearby neighbor children, and then denying that so the child will learn by not getting anything he wants/wishes for. There's something sadistic in all this, and it's all because the adults are interpreting something as "the way Christians behave" in a really illogical, unfathomable way. We know this because Hare explains an incident, and then includes his godmother Maria's journal entries on the subject, so we can be fairly sure that this isn't all a product of Hare's interpretation.

 

Example:

 

p. 24:  "From my mother's journal, Lime, June 18 [1839]

...Augustus would, I believe, always do a thing if reasoned with about it, but the necessity of obedience without reasoning is especially necessary to such a disposition as his. The will is the thing that needs to be brought into subjection."

 

The concept of having a young child undergo (adult-imposed) self denial is really difficult to read about. In much of this it seems that it is his Uncle Julius and family (the Maurices) that are especially encouraging of Maria raising Hare in this manner. And the heavy duty religiosity probably has a lot to do with the fact that Uncle Julius is a minister.

 

p. 23-24:  "I was not six years old before my mother - under the influence of the Maurices - began to follow out a code of penance with regard to me which was worthy of the ascetics of the desert. Hitherto I had never been allowed anything but roast mutton and rice pudding for dinner. Now all was changed. The most delicious puddings were talked of dilated on - until I became, not greedy, but exceedingly curious about them. At length "le grande moment" arrived. They were put on the table before me, and then, just as I was going to eat some of them, they were snatched away, and I was told to get up and carry them off to some poor person in the village."

 

I should add here that Uncle Julius and (his wife) Aunt Esther didn't have any children of their own. Hare being adopted probably had a lot to do with their treatment of him as well.

 

...That's enough of the unhappy childhood - short version, let's just say that Aunt Esther is completely awful and villainous. Besides seeing that Hare is locked up in various freezing rooms in winter, there's the incident where she takes his pet and has it killed. (Not getting more detailed than that, because it bothered me a lot. Not that there was grossness or detail, just the action was so twisted.) That's something I can't forgive, especially as Hare tells the story. (It's not a lengthy telling, but still the kind of thing that sticks with you.)

 

Hare continues to makes excuses for his mother Maria's behavior in all this, though he does note that her love for him doesn't make her any less unkind. She "gets better" later in Hare's life - there's no suspense there because Hare assures us early on that they eventually have a much more friendly and openly loving relationship.

 

Once Hare is old enough and finishes school his life becomes much more happy, especially once he discovers writing as a vocation and comes to enjoy it. Then the book is all traveling and vising various homes and sketches of various, often eccentric people and their stories. Here and there he tosses in a few lines about a famous author, poet or artist he crosses paths with.

 

One thing that made me absolutely love Hare - besides his gathering and re-telling various ghost stories - are the weird details that are in most of his stories. When traveling he spent a lot of his time staying at the homes of various friends and relatives:

 

p. 124:  "...We are called at eight, and at ten march in to breakfast with the same procession as at dinner, only at this meal "Madame Bowes" - Mary Eleanor Bowes, 9th Countess of Strathmore - does not appear, for she is then reclining in a bath of coal-black acid, which "refreshes her system," but leaves her nails black."

 

Here's a longer description, from his brother who was fighting for Garibaldi in Italy:

 

p. 144:  "...The Contessa della Torre was exceedingly handsome. She wore a hat and plume, trousers, boots and a long jacket. She was foolhardy brave. When a shell exploded by her, instead of falling on the ground like the soldiers, she would stand looking at it, and making a cigarette all the time. The hospital was a building surrounding a large courtyard, and in the centre of the court was a table where amputations took place. By the side of the surgeon who operated stood the Contessa della Torre, who held the arms and legs while they were being cut off, and when they were severed chucked them away to join others on a heap close by."

 

...Lines to remember:

 

p. 35 "...Frequently also the spare rooms were filled by former pupils - "young ladies" of a kind who would announce their engagement by: "The infinite grace of God has put it into the heart of his servant Edmund to propose to me," or "I have been led by the mysterious workings of God's providence to accept the hand of Edgar"..."

 

p. 163:  "...She was warned to evade a damp climate or the use of vegetables."

 

p. 188:  Lady Waterford: "...In our days it was different; young ladies never walked, ate nothing but white meat, and never washed their faces. They covered their faces with powder, and then put cold cream on, and wiped it off with flannel: that was the way to have a good complexion."

 

p. 266: "...Seeing her astonished look, Lady Colin said "Oh, I see you are looking at my snake: I always wear a live snake round my throat in hot weather; it keeps one's neck so cool;" and it really was a live snake."

 

If those sentence don't reel you in then perhaps Mr. Hare is not to your taste. Meanwhile I'm hoping to remember to tell someone that I must "evade the use of vegetables" at dinner some day.

 

From GR's Reading Progress notes:

 

page 26 -  Grannie teaching schoolgirls to sing, wanting mouths opened wide would open their mouths by force "putting her fingers so far down their throats that she made them sick. ...Margaret Beeston bit her violently." And was unrepentant. Way to go, Margaret!

page 62  - I'd forgotten how well Hare describes the eccentrics in his family. Also I'm terribly glad no one's ever tried to box my ears.

page 62  - Apparently once upon a time people threw things out of windows more often. Sewing, dinner, etc.

page 142 - I had forgotten how much of the book consists of ghost stories that Hare has heard and retells - no wonder I liked the book so much. Must put it on ghost story shelf as well."