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Derek Martin

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The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (Norton Paperback)

by Avi Shlaim

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Derek Martin said: " This detailed and objective history of Israel from the UN Resolution of 1947 onward completely dismantles any notion that Israel began as a peace-loving nation only seeking to find harmony between migrant Jews and indigenous Palestinians. I want to s This detailed and objective history of Israel from the UN Resolution of 1947 onward completely dismantles any notion that Israel began as a peace-loving nation only seeking to find harmony between migrant Jews and indigenous Palestinians. I want to stress, once again, what I find to be a fairly "objective" assessment of this rather polemical topic. Shlaim deals with the facts the way you expect a historian to do so. Reviews that consider this book biased are basing that opinion on the conclusions he draws, but a historian does need to analyze and draw conclusions. What he needs to be judged on is how inclusive he is of all the facts (i.e. whether he only chooses facts that support his preconceived notions and fits the data to his argument or, on the other hand, shows all the relevant information) and how logically his conclusions follow from those facts. In this, Shlaim seems very fair and balanced. He has thoroughly researched the now released secret documents and communiqués that allow us to see quite clearly the motives, aims and knowledge of the parties involved. Shlaim's aims and conclusions are rather limited, too. This is not a pro-Palestinian, or even anti-Israeli, work (in fact it hardly deals with the Palestinians). The basic point of view is that of the the leaders and decision-makers in the Israeli government and military. What is assessed are the actions taken by these leaders, the reasons for the actions, their motives and, finally, they way they characterize these motives to the Israeli public, the Arab nations, the UN and the international community. Shlaim grew up in Israel, and states in the preface that his chief aim is to counter the official Israeli history taught to citizens and in schools. What I find interesting, as an American, is that this story is very similar to the one I was taught (and whole-heartedly believed). It goes something like this: peace-loving but tenacious little Israel only sought to have peaceful relations with the Palestinians and the neighboring Arab nations, but instead it found hostility at every turn and, unfortunately, was left with no other choice but to respond with force, and, miraculously, out-numbered and out-gunned, it triumphed, but still must continually stay on guard to face the threats that remain. The actions taken, however, and the motives behind them reveal an entirely different story. ...more "

Aug 18, 2012 06:48PM · see review

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Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century

by Greil Marcus

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Derek Martin said: " Still reading it, but it's pretty interesting so far. I enjoy the writing style even though it does jump around a bit. The sentences are complete and coherent, but the narrative exhibits a cut-up type of technique, punctuated by headlines - it does Still reading it, but it's pretty interesting so far. I enjoy the writing style even though it does jump around a bit. The sentences are complete and coherent, but the narrative exhibits a cut-up type of technique, punctuated by headlines - it does remind me of the Aeolus chapter of Ulysses (but it is much easier reading than Joyce). It pays to re-read certain sections once you move a bit further on.

This book glorifies the music and its importance a bit too much at times - but linking the poses and attitudes of early punk with the Situationists and other philosophical antecedents is a great idea that does form some real connections. I love love love the Sex Pistols, it's that dirty guitar tone that gets me most. This book has increased my respect for Malcolm McLaren, the man really was well-read, and so far seems to be the only real link between early punk and the outsider philosophers Marcus discusses. His honesty about the whole thing being a scam is great too, especially since so many people have taken the idea of punk and developed this snobby, holier-than-thou, idiotic, amateurism-glorifying, exclusive stance from it. I like breaking down boundaries and creating new ideas and connections, I like intensity, I like beautiful noise. I don't like attitudes, I don't like exclusive-ism, I am not impressed by willful amateurism. So clearly, there are a lot of things about punk that I love, and a lot of things that I hate.

As I said, this book glorifies the music and the attitude of punk, as well as the stance of willful amateurism, in ways that only a partisan can. Nonetheless, Marcus does recognize that while purporting to expose and stand against the banalities and the insularity of society at large, punk adopted its own set of banalities and its own brand of insularity from the very beginning.

Of course, now that we are living in the days of pop-punk and fashionable, so-called indie rock, it's probably worse than ever. The Harvard Press published this book in 1990, so Marcus had yet to witness to what extent there would be not just ignorant lemmings jumping on the subculture bandwagon so as to make themselves believe they were unique, but also how much the mainstream would co-opt and adopt these stances and fashions so that now you have the musical and philosophical equivalent of Britney Spears and bubblegum pop being presented as punk - pop-punk,emo and indie boy bands and girl bands and the like. Quotes from McLaren throughout this book indicate that he always envisioned his band as teen idols, that the idea of a revolution through a pop culture medium was, even if it could spread the popularity, or at least popular knowledge, of revolutionary ideas, essentially a scam. Nonetheless I would gladly take his teen idols over today's teen idols any day. Even if their cynicism was not well thought out, seeming more like a bratty, negative stance than rigorous social criticism, it was an original stance at the time and one that truly shocked the old guard (for no good reason), which is quite amusing to read about in Lipstick Traces. Also their music rocked. The crappy "punk" bands of today do sometimes get some good guitar tones I will admit - their producers, sound engineers and record company reps must be telling the kids which kinds of guitars and amps to play - but they overlay it with that crappy, sentimental radio-friendly sound, making it unlistenable, and even crappier lyrics, making it vomit-inducing. Then you have hardcore bands, a charade for the most part. There's really not much music out there nowadays calling itself punk that is good. The revolution was swallowed up, as they knew it would be. Every now and then it pops out again, but once it does, you can feel the impending doom. The moment it breaks into the consciousness of the widest set of people, in that same moment opens up the black hole that will envelope it, and before it even does, it manufactures the clones who will replace it, gradually introducing the clones to the mass consciousness, one after the other, until the original spark has been quietly removed and the mass consciousness, none the wiser, is happily sated with the clones who remove any hint of aesthetic or political revolution in the original ideas and use them as mere fashion accessories to dress up the tired, old ideas that the mass consciousness was seeking to maintain all along. I came of age in the early 90s, not too long after this book was released, so I was witness to an excellent example of this cycle playing itself out once more. I appreciate Marcus presenting me with its antecedent, which I have heard a certain previous generation harp on at great length many times (as most older generations are wont to do), and for taking it back even further to speculative antecedents that are now only remembered by devoted students of fine arts, art theory and philosophy.

Thus whatever I may say about the shallowness and insularity of many counter-culture revolutions, or at least of a good number of those who take part in them, whatever the so-called practical-minded will say about the ridiculousness of presenting a new set of aesthetic ideas and ideological stances through a pop culture medium, or for that matter through any artistic medium or any medium other than the earthly plane of existence in the here and now and the political and economic structures which control it, punk rock and its descendants produced (and continue to produce, despite the claims of heritage from them laid by vast amounts of crap) a great amount of variety and interesting ideas and sonic textures. Punk, hardcore, post-punk, new wave, modern rock, alternative - all the weird variants within those. All the intelligence, politics, alluring aesthetics, experimentalism, pounding rhythm and energy that came into music since. There are so many bands and artists that took music to really cool places. They celebrated the amateur the way the amateur should be celebrated, as one who can approach the medium from a perspective free of the set tendencies that institutionalized instruction ingrains, and from that amateur perspective they developed a wholly original brand of virtuosity.

I am inclined to think that in the modern world, where we are understanding through history that bloody revolution will not only mistreat vast numbers of people, but probably won't even achieve our aims, where we are still trying to work out all the snags that catch people's economic, political and psychological conditions in modern society, that perhaps pop culture and artistic culture in general - the vast entertainment industry - really is a great place to wage the war of ideas. ...more "

Jan 29, 2010 09:06AM · see review