Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Can You Feel the Holocaust? I went to a friend's apartment last night to watch a documentary about her family. Her great-grandfather owned a factory in Poland that might have been taken over by the invading Germans and made part of the Auschwitz concentration camp, where much of his family was subsequently killed. It's a complicated and fascinating story, and I would strongly recommend seeing the documentary if you can arrange it. While I was watching it, with its scenes on the grounds of the camp and in its museum, I noticed something interesting. Although I did note the surrealism in the scenes (piles of shoes and human hair, a woman walking through the museum lobby announcing in a chipper efficient tone, "Auschwitz tour. Auschwitz Tour."), I didn't find myself feeling the sadness, horror, disgust, or whatever one would expect to feel. Admittedly, I am not as aware of my emotions as most people, but I think the Holocaust as a whole transcends the human capacity for emotion. It is possible to understand what happened intellectually, and it is just about possible to genuinely feel individual and family stories. But I don't think that the whole of the Holocaust (or the slaughters under Stalin, in Rwanda, or in the former Yugoslavia) can actually be felt by men and women. 9:09:15 PM     What do you think? ()

How Many Different Corporations Can You Work For Without Changing Jobs? Eric points out that there's an outside chance that AT & T could force AOL Time Warner to spin off Time Warner entertainment, the owner of HBO and Warner Bros. The reports suggest that this is more leverage for bargaining purposes than something that might actually happen. Instead, it looks like AT & T will take some combination of cash and AOL Time Warner stock. That's not what I'd do. If I were AT & T, I would much rather own piece of the profitable and long-term viable portions of AOL Time Warner than a piece of the whole bloody mess. And as an HBO employee, I would much rather work for and own a piece of the smaller, more productive, and more profitable company. What would it be like to own options that, under actual plausible circumstances, could have a positive value? 8:45:37 PM     What do you think? ()

Does Life Imitate E-Mail? I got an e-mail from a cousin yesterday about the U.S. Navy's proposed use of low frequency active sonar and its expected effects on marine mammals. At first, I assumed that this was the sort of partially informed hysteria that gets good-naturedly passed around the Internet and then ends up in my inbox far too frequently. I did a quick Google search to find what sort of hoax it was, but surprisingly, it turned out, by all appearances, to be real. Shortly after I got that e-mail, I saw the beginning of an ongoing story of 55 pilot whales beaching themselves in Dennis and then Eastham on Cape Cod. I haven't seen any suggestion that this is related to the use of LFA sonar, but the coincidental timing has connected them in my head. 7:00:50 PM     What do you think? ()

What is the Best Place on the Web to Ponder the State of Humanity? I found the Arcata Eye's weekly police log about a month ago, and I have been fascinated with it ever since (thus the link to it in my navigation section). It's addictively readable, even though over time it becomes depressing. How many people have to get caught smoking dope in the Redwood Park parking lot a day before they'll go someplace else? Are there any customers of the I Street food cooperative that don't shoplift? With the police being called to the corner of 9th and H Streets so often, why don't things get better there? But still, I keep reading it. The reason why, and what raises this above an episode of Cops, is Kevin L. Hoover's almost Shakesperian tone of irony. But this police log is not the first or most notable example of great (if unusual) writing in a small newspaper in that area. About twelve years ago, the Anderson Valley Advertiser received a series of letters from someone who identified themselves as Wanda Tinasky. People who are inclined that way developed the theory that Wanda Tinasky was actually Thomas Pynchon, who was believed to be in the area working on his novel Vineland, which was set in that area. I have not read the book of Tinasky's letters, but the scene of the police log sounds very much like the place portrayed in Vineland. Today, Eric sent me a link to a porn store clerk's log [Warning: predictably explicit discussion contained therein]. It's as addictively readable as the police log, and my reaction followed the same progression: from amused to fascinated to depressed to ironic acceptance. It feels sort of like reading about another species, and I'm left to wonder: how have I come to feel so fundamentally different from the unfortunate folks described in those logs? 6:56:57 PM     What do you think? ()

© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist. Last update: 11/2/03; 10:25:12 AM.

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