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The Pilgrimage: A Contemporary Quest for Ancient Wisdom
Paulo Coelho
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ASIN: 006251279X |
Book Description
Here Paulo Coelho details his journey across Spain along the legendaryroad of San Tiago, which pilgrims have travelled since Middle Ages. On this contemporary quest, he encounters a Chaucerian variety of mysterious guides and devilish opponents and learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life. The Pilgrimage holds an important place in Paulo Coelho's literary canon.His first book, it not only paved the way for his phenomenal novel The Alchemist , but it also fully expresses his humanist philosophy and the depth of his unique search for meaning.
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Proving prayer to be as valid and vital a healing tool as drugs or surgery, the bestselling author of Meaning & Medicine and Recovering the Soul offers a bold integration of science and spirituality.
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Recounting the spiritual odysseys of an Apache scout known to him as Grandfather, Tom Brown emphasizes the need for spiritual healing of the earth and delivers his own message of healing and redemption to the world.
Customer Reviews:
A powerful book and more powerful message.......2001-10-14
All of Tom Brown's books are written on many different levels. As a just-starting-out naturalist, I read most of Brown's books with interest, but the deeper I go into the naturalist's world, the more powerful messages I get between the lines.
The book offers many insights on modern man- most of all, the notion that if one simply lets the world drift by, with all sorts of damage, trouble, etc. being done (mind you, yourself doing none of the actual damage), the message is clear- Why didn't you do something?
Probably the most powerful message in the book is, "There are no small things." To quote Bruce Lee, if you throw a rock into a pond, you get ripples- soon the ripples cross the whole pond. Every action we do has implications, good and bad. Make your impressions positive and beneficial.
For those lucky enough to attend Tom Brown's school, reading any of his books after taking a class- no matter how many times you read them previously- it's like reading an entirely new book. There are countless messages and powerful teachings in The Quest, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Man's Environmental Holocaust.......2000-11-01
Dear Sirs, I hope you reconsider your decision not to publish this review. On October 7, 1998, the NY Times reported on the biggest Ozone Hole yet seen. To quote the article: "Government scientists said today that the gap in the planet's ozone over Antartica was greater than the size of North America and was the largest ever observed." In addition, on August 13, 2000, a frontpage article in the Sunday NY Times reported on how a formerly benign fungus which has been found in the US from time immemorial was suddenly killing millions of acres of oak trees in California. The article ends on a puzzling note with scientist unable to explain why this disease had become so virulent. However, it is well known that UV radiation affects plants earlier than Humans and one documented effect of UV radiation is a weakening of the immune system. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to theorize that UV radiation may be responsible for this latest plant die-off. I hope you give these issues consideration. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Like many people, I used to read the grim newspaper accounts of environmental destruction and wonder what it all meant. Then, in the late 1980s Tom Brown published The Vision and in the final chapter of that book provided the first glimpse into a future most of us want to deny. Now here in The Quest, he lets out all the stops and makes plain for the first time that mankind may very well be doomed.
Brown reveals that as far back as 1962, Grandfather, his Apache Native American Teacher, had warned that the appearance of holes in the sky would mark the beginning of the end of mankind on Earth. Sunlight would become deadly killing everything it touched. Plants would shrivel up and die, crops would fail and starvation would sweep around the world. People would be hunted like deer for food. Many events would foreshadow the appearance of the holes but finally there would be a time of peace. This would mark mankind's last chance to reverse his endless destruction of the Earth. If instead, he concentrated on material gain, all would be lost and the end would come as surely as the Sun rises.
From this beginning, Brown takes us through a series of personal visions wherein he is transported to the future and sees for himself the horrors that await us. In one account, he visits a city where human limbs hang in shop windows and walking skeletons covered with sores roam the streets. Everything reeks with death and Brown watches as a roving band of armed men hunts down an abandoned child, and without remorse, guts and skins him like an animal. Brown makes it clear that this an America city and not some distant third world nation.
Not all the stories deal with the future. Brown relates his own efforts to deny what he knew and avoid taking up his Vision of teaching the ancient tracking and survival skills. At one point, he witnesses a brutal father rob his young son of a promising future. Grandfather then asks Tom what obstacles will stop him from fulfilling his vision ? The question is clearly not meant for Brown alone and foreseeing an excuse many of us will use to deny our share of responsibility Grandfather points to a graveyard and asks `what will be the measure of your life Grandson? Will it be a lifetime of meaningless toil or one filled with purpose and meaning?'
This is by far Brown's darkest book but how does one sanitize such a horrifying account? There is no science here and those who believe ozone depletion is a figment of some environmentalist's imagination would be better off reading God's Last Offer, by Ed Ayres. Mr. Ayres presents related doomsday scenarios but with the science to back them. To those who are sensitive to the Earth, however Tom Brown's book needs no proof. Its truth is obvious.
The only question left open by Brown is when all this will take place? The question is important because many people will shrug off this account as part of some distant future. Although this book does not provide a timeframe a little reading in the scientific press will. It takes thirty years for CFCs to waft through the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer. If all CFC production ceased today, and it hasn't, we would still face 30 more years of degradation. According to NASA, there is already enough CFCs in the upper atmosphere to blow away 70% of the ozone layer. Take a equal amounts of ozone and CFCs, expose them to ultraviolet radiation and one can easily measure the rate of breakdown. The answer you will find is that we have a mere score and ten years left.
Grandfather made it clear that once the holes appear there would be no physical way to heal the Earth. Indeed, Time Magazine writing in the early 90s said that `the entire world's fleet of 747s operating around the clock, 365 days of the year' could not replace a fraction of the ozone that has already been lost. But Brown does leave us with a ray of hope: if enough people become aware of what is happening, combined we can achieve what technology cannot. Brown is a great believer in the combined efforts of many people working together. Seldom does he speak of grand heroic acts. Each of us, doing a little, can achieve a lot. Be forewarned that if you read this book you will never be able to look at your children in the same way again. Most of us adults living today will not bear the brunt of this horrible future but our children and grandchildren will. If you read this book and do nothing, the Time of Peace will pass and you too, like Brown, will have to answer the screams of your children as they clutch at you in the grave yelling "YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"
A unique culteral view of universal truths........1999-11-10
This book presents principles of growth that we find common across time and cultures. Highly recommended both as interesting reading material, as well as an opportunity to reconsider values, meaning (and all that other existential stuff) and our own perspectives through a differant path. In recent popular venacular, "getting out of the box" of western culture.
This book is INCREDIBLE!.......1999-06-12
I read a lot of spiritual books and I've read lot's of Tom Brown's books, but I have rarely been so blown away than I was by The Quest. For one, let me tell you that this book will scare the heck out of you. But at the same time, it is really shocking what Tom learned from the fear he had to face. While reading it, I was dying to be able to sit down and share with someone what I was learning. It will blow your mind and change the way you think about the Earth.
This book has been an incredible help and inspiration to me.......1999-04-04
I first read this book about 5 years ago. I thought it was great but I couldn't grasp alot of it. Then I re- read it after taking Tom's first philosophy class and it really hit home. It is a guide book for walking a spiritual path in modern society-which is one of the most difficult things any of us could choose to do. I've found that I get more from it every time i read it. The lessons go far beyond the words. It is an insiring work that shows the human side of the spiritual path. Thanks Tom. Thanks Grandfather.
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- "A Quest for Life"
- Highly Recommended
- The life of the founder of ecological design, a great read!
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A Quest for Life: An Autobiography
Ian L. McHarg
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Book Description
"Show me any civilization that believes that reality exists only because man can perceive it, that the cosmos was erected to support man on its pinnacle, that man is exclusively divine, and then I will predict the nature of his cities and its landscapes, the hot dog stands, the neon shill, the ticky-tacky houses, the sterile core, the mined and ravaged countryside. This is the image of anthropocentric man. He seeks not unity with nature but conquest, yet unity he finds, when his arrogance and ignorance are stilled and he lies dead under the greensward." Ian L. McHarg Multiply and Subdue the Earth, 1969
"No living American has done more to usher the gentle science of ecology out of oblivion and into mainstream thought than Ian McHargâa teacher, philosopher, designer, and activist who changed the way we view and shape our environment." From the foreword by Stewart L. Udall
Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Harrisonburg, Virginia
A Quest for Life is the autobiography of a man who stands alongside Rachel Carson, Lewis Mumford, and Aldo Leopold as one of the giants of the environmental movement. In a robust and singular voice, Ian McHarg recounts the story of a life that has foreshadowed and eventually shaped environmental consciousness in the twentieth century. Along the way we meet prominent figures in the environmental movement, the design fields, and the government, from Walter Gropius to Lady Bird Johnson, all presented in rich and telling anecdotes.
Early in A Quest for Life McHarg presents us with an arresting image. Describing the view from his boyhood home on the outskirts of Glasgow, he tells us that in one direction he could see the industrial miasma of smokestacks, tenements, and treeless streets, and, in another, the glories of the Scottish countryside. "I was born and bred," he writes, "on a fulcrum with two poles, city and countryside." Confronted with such a stark contrast, the man who was to become "the founder of ecological planning" began at an early age to turn literally from inhumane urban development and toward the beauty and power of Nature.
Each chapter of this book illuminates key stages in McHarg's life and in the evolution of his environmental awareness. We see him as a youth standing on a hillside beside the impressive Donald Wintersgill who, with the wave of his cane, lays out an entire village complete with lakes and forests, and thus introduces the astonished McHarg to the profession of landscape architecture.
In some of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War he witnesses the magnitude of human destructive capability. Later, when he faces a crisis of conscience over his religious training and its exhortation to gain dominion over life and subdue the earth, he begins to develop a deep spiritual appreciation for the sanctity of Nature itself. His training as a designer and planner in the Modernist Bauhaus tradition, with its neglect of the environment; his bouts with tuberculosis that showed him the link between public health and city planning; his famous "ManâThe Planetary Disease" speech before powerful industrialistsâall stand as emblematic of battles that are still being fought today.
A Quest for Life also chronicles the many triumphs in McHarg's career. It offers fresh insight into the revolutionary design method behind his groundbreaking book, Design with Nature, and explores the development of geographical information systems. We learn firsthand about his work on the celebrated regional plans for Denver and the Twin Cities, as well as the Woodlands new town project. His most enduring contribution, however, may prove to be his four decades of teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. Through the generations of landscape architects, designers, and planners he taught there, his influence has spread around the world and into the future.
As the compelling, first-person story of a remarkable individual who not only manned the barricades against environmental destruction, but helped lay the foundation for the barricades themselves, A Quest for Life is must reading for landscape architects, designers, conservationists, planners, and others concerned with the preservation of our communities and the natural environment.
Customer Reviews:
"A Quest for Life".......2001-09-13
Ian McHarg has written an autobiography that informs while successfully capturing his bold character. Ian McHarg minces no words. He recalls the incident where he gave public testimony claiming that highway engineers seem to "have a deep insecurity as to their masculinity which can only be appeased by mutilating nature", among other similar ventures.
This autobiography informs us how a person of such outspokenness has emerged and gained respect. His childhood outside Glasgow, Scotland at the city's edge where homes met nature made him realize, at an early age, the advantages of an environment outside of blocks of treeless tenement homes. Possessing neither an undergraduate degree nor a high school diploma, he entered Harvard's graduate program in Landscape Architecture by telegraphing them and requesting that arrangements be made for his arrival and entrance into their school. He repaid his department by becoming Student Council Chairman and pushing through a resolution of no confidence in his department. Upset that the Landscape Architect faculty focused on designing gardens for the wealthy, Ian McHarg became an advocate that landscape architecture is for all. Further, he would argue, we all should respect nature.
People familiar with projects where Ian McHarg had a hand will appreciate learning about his eventful life. Among the projects where Ian McHarg was involved include Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the creation of 110 more acres in Manhattan through landfill, the first Earth Day, and his milestone book "Design with Nature". Many credit "Design with Nature" as a major force in creating legislation requiring ecological considerations when planning construction.
People unfamiliar with Ian McHarg's work will appreciate reading of his life's struggles, from combat in World War II, fighting tuberculosis four decades ago when survival rates were much lower, and founding the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania with no faculty, no office, and no students. A fascinating person has written an excellent book.
Highly Recommended.......2000-01-03
Ian McHarg is both famous and infamous. Well-known among environmentalists, ecologists, landscape architects and designers, he is Peck's bad boy, even persona non grata, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, developers, numerous (all?) corporate executives, governmental officials (all levels), and a few university departments. No one believes McHarg to be a benign force, and his autobiography testifies to his lifelong snappish testiness. Born in Scotland on November 20, 1920, he grew up in the thrall of nature and became a Naturist (sic). His long, active, and productive career as a "nature-intoxicated" landscape architect is recorded in this detailed solo cantata, a well-deserved forte encomium of one man's dedication to his own odyssey, his quest for life. It will be a surprise if this tome fails to become a rallying point for future ecological revolutions, for future Earth Days, for a Cult of the Living Gaia. McHarg is 18 months younger than I. Many of us "American" GIs of WWII who grudgingly served a mere 3 or 4 years (1942-1945) must stand aside for our European brothers. McHarg, along with uncounted fellow Brits and other allies, served in sometimes hellish combat conditions for six or seven years, a long period out of young lives. McHarg's account of his war experiences are alone worth reading his story, told in dramatic, gripping terms. Come to realize, so is the entire book. McHarg's besetting sins are his arrogance and his conceptual pugilism. On the other hand, his modus vivendi, that determined his astoundingly productive successes, are his arrogance and conceptual pugilism. As he fights for the right, he generally is right-not exactly a social or political asset. Recipient of numerous academic and civic honors, he includes an impressive bibliography of his publications and works. Design with Nature (1969) is his other important book-to date. A tenacious survivor, he no doubt will yet fire off another volley worth hearing. (Reviewed by Allan Shields in Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000. Copyright © by Allan Shields.)
The life of the founder of ecological design, a great read!.......1996-10-01
Ian McHarg is the founder of the field of environmental
design, a branch of or approach to Landscape Architecture.
His book "Design With Nature" opened the eyes of a
generation of planners and architects to the possibilities
of environmentally sane design and planning. McHarg's autobiography makes a wonderful read for anyone who read and
loved "Design With Nature". And is is a first class read!
He has never been a man who pulled his punches, and this book
is full of hilarious stories of his run-ins with the
establishment. I loved it!
Book Description
An ancient mystical experience, the Vision Quest was undertaken by Native Americans as an odyssey of self-knowledge and fulfillment--a spiritual journey into the wilderness and the soul. In this classic account of the relationship between man and nature, America's most famous outdoorsman reveals the secrets of this profoundly moving ritual.
Customer Reviews:
life changing.......2007-10-10
This book it truely incredible. It will make your re-evaluate your life and the way you live it. I think everyone should read this book at least once, if not once every year, just to get grounded again. A definate must buy!
This is the way to do do business.......2007-01-19
I am thrilled with how fast the book arrived and the excellent condition it is in. Will definitely buy from this seller again.
Tom Brown's "The Vision..." doesn't disappoint.......2006-07-16
As a long time Tom Brown fan, The Vision: The Dramatic True Story of One Man's Search for Enlightenment, keeps with the spirit of the previous works I have read. It is my feeling the author has a true message he wishes to impart on our society, one that leads to a better understanding of our relationship with nature and life itself.
This book delves into the author's message of a return to a intimate relation with nature and putting our lives on a natural path of harmony with the planet on which we live and must share with all living entities.
You will not be disappointed in the message, and the paths opened leading one to a better understanding of the way to achieve these goals. I highly recommend this work to anyone seeking these truths.
Completely Amazing.......2000-06-27
This book is simply incredible. Having read "Grandfather" and "The Tracker" before this book, I found myself on an incredible journey through the Vision Quest. I found that it deepened my desire to do as Tom Brown, Jr. has done. The Vision Quest in the cave towards the end was absolutely amazing. It is probably best to read at least "The Tracker" before this one, but it's not totally necessary. A must read at any rate.
Worth Re-reading.......2000-03-13
I have read this book twice now, I enjoyed and learnt it both times. Better the the previous two books, in 'The Vision' Tom goes deeper into his personal spirituality. The book takes you through many of Tom's life lessons building nicely into where the later books will take you. It is the kind of book where you will find something covered which will add insight to your current life circumstances.
Book Description
Be Happy or Ill Scream! is for every married woman who has found just the tiniest bit of disconnect between the image of a perfect family in her headthink The Brady Bunch or The Huxtablesand the evidence in front of her eyes. Instead of darling and compliant rosy-cheeked children and an adorably tolerant husband ready to go along with zany shenanigans, most women are faced with kids who view family outings with all the enthusiasm of hardened inmates forced to bust rocks in roadside Alabama and a husband who would trade every last one of her kooky ideas for just a teeny bit more sex and a hot meal on the table at six. Sheri Lynch is a superb humorist of modern marriage, mores, and motherhood. Her take on what life is really like inside a marriageas opposed to what it looks like on the holiday card versionwill ring both wacky and true for any woman who was ever foolish enough to dream of the perfect marriage and family.
Customer Reviews:
Love Sheri's humor.......2007-08-13
This is a quick read and Sheri's humor is great. I truly enjoyed the book!
If you love.......2007-07-28
to listen to Bob and Sherry, you'll love this book. My mom did and was happy to get it for her B-day. She read it all in like a week.
It's ok........2007-06-27
I love the "Bob and Sheri Show", that's why I thought I would love this book by Sheri Lynch. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. Yes, some places had me really laughing, but not the whole thing.
Poignant, Funny and Painfully Truthful........2007-03-29
In this memoir about life with kids and our crazy desire for perfectionism, radio talk-show host Sheri Lynch gives it up. Whether describing a trip to Chicago, the chaos of a toddler birthday party or the near-impossible task of marital sex, she bares her soul with transparency and humor, encouraging us to laugh with her. Poignant, funny and painfully truthful.
Great Book - great service.......2007-03-19
Recieved product in a timely matter. Just what I was looking for. Appreicated being notified that product was available, because I had ordered similar merchandise.
Amazon.com
In the words of Jonathan Weiner, "Time, love, and memory are ... three cornerstones of the pyramid of behavior." While some find it difficult to view humans as mere machines, molecular biologists maintain that most behavior is genetically based. Even skeptics and opponents agree that molecular biology may well change the way we all live in the 21st century. Little-known outside this exploding field, Seymour Benzer, his mentors, and his generations of students have studied the common fruit fly, Drosophila, and discovered genes that seem to have some influence upon our internal clock, our sexuality, and our ability to learn from our experiences.
Weiner (whose last book, The Beak of the Finch, won a Pulitzer Prize) has written an affectionate history about the development of the science while offering charming glimpses of the people involved--trading haircuts to stretch their grant money in the early years, roaming the laboratory into the wee hours, naming the genes associated with learning after Pavlov's dogs. It's not all sweetness and light, however; ethical questions are raised, some of the hype (and hysteria) surrounding the human genome project is dissipated, and the complicated "clockwork" gene "looks less like an invitation to human intervention and more like a cautionary tale or object lesson for anyone who might try, in the 21st century, to improve on nature's four-billion-year-old designs." That said, the scientists in Weiner's tale reveal a very human side of this fast-moving science, and their belief that they'll find answers to important questions is contagious and compelling. As Benzer himself said, "It's a wonderful, fabulous world, and it's been kicking around a long time." --C.B. Delaney
Book Description
"A fascinating history--. Literate and authoritative--.Marvelously exciting." --The New York Times Book Review
Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for
The Beak of the Finch, brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.
How much of our fate is decided before we are born? Which of our characteristics is inscribed in our DNA? Weiner brings us into Benzer's Fly Rooms at the California Institute of Technology, where Benzer, and his asssociates are in the process of finding answers, often astonishing ones, to these questions. Part biography, part thrilling scientific detective story,
Time, Love, Memory forcefully demonstrates how Benzer's studies are changing our world view--and even our lives.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to put down.......2007-03-17
"Time, Love, Memory" is a fascinating account of a group of scientists who pioneered the study of genes and behavior. It is also an interesting history lesson about the development of molecular biology and the development of science in general.
The atomic theory of inheritance - the idea that inherited characteristics are passed on as factors, as discrete units (now called genes) - began with the work of Gregor Mendel. Unfortunately, Mendel's work was largely ignored at the time of its initial publication. At the turn of the 20th century it was re-discovered and it ushered in a golden era of genetics (the period of classic genetics). This work was largely carried on in the United States by Thomas Hunt Morgan and his amazing group of undergraduate and graduate students (Morgan's raiders). Morgan's group found support for the Mendelian laws of inheritance in the breeding of common fruit flies (Drosophila). With the work of Morgan's group, it was discovered that Mendel's factors were arranged along chromosomes (`like beads on a string') and Morgan's student, Alfred Sturtevant, in one eureka moment, created the first ever genetic map of a chromosome. That is, Sturtevant figured out a way to map the order of genes along a chromosome and to calculate spatial distances between them.
However, it was still not known what genes were at the time (Morgan asked the question, `What are genes?' in his Nobel acceptance speech). While the function of genes as carriers of hereditary units was known, they were still abstract entities. The quantum physicist, Erwin Schrodinger, wrote a book called "What Is Life?" in which he tried to bring atomic physics to bear on the genetics problem. He speculated that the hereditary material might be carried in a crystal lattice structure and that genetic mutations might be quantum jumps. Schrodinger's speculations were beautiful, even if they mostly turned out to be wrong, but the book served as inspiration for a large group of physicists to become interested in biology and these physicists-turned-biologists would have a large role to play in the development of molecular biology.
One of these physicists-turned-biologists was Seymour Benzer. He had completed his doctoral thesis in physics at Purdue and was engaged in research on semi-conductors. With a very promising career in physics awaiting him, Benzer got interested in biology. "Within one day...he became instantly induced, transformed, determined and committed to be a biologist." Max Delbruck (another physicist-turned-biologist) became Benzer's mentor and they worked on bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Around this time Crick and Watson (also inspired by Schrodinger's "What Is Life?") discovered the molecular structure of DNA. Benzer was aware of their work and he started to think about genes as rungs of nucleotides twisting along the DNA ladder. Benzer came up with a series of elegant, simple experiments to be performed with a mutant phage (rII phage) and with these experiments he became the first person to begin mapping the interior of a gene. These experiments earned him the nickname of the `atom-breaker of biology'. The Greek idea of the atom imagined it as a kind of tiny, indivisible spherical object. Similarly, many biologists thought of genes as being indivisible at the time, as abstract little beads lined up along the chromosome. But Benzer's work showed that the gene is divisible, that its interior can be mapped.
One might think that this alone would be more than enough to secure Benzer's place in the history of science. However, following his phage work, Benzer became increasingly interested in studying the genetic origins of behavior. He decided to use the Drosophila fly as the model organism, an entry point into the investigation of how genes lead to behavior. The atomic theory of behavior aimed to take apart the behavioral instincts and study their internal clockwork. At the time this was fringe science. As Benzer set up his fly room at Caltech, many people were highly skeptical about his intended research project. However, Benzer's ambitious project paid dividends and did so very early on. Benzer and his group of students injected Drosophila flies with mutagens and then screened them for a variety of behavioral mutations. The book focuses on three main discoveries that opened the way into the investigation of the genetic bases of the fundamental elements of the behavioral pyramid (time, love and memory).
Among these mutants there are flies with damaged internal clocks, whose behavioral rhythms become erratic, or slow, or fast. These various behaviors were found to be controlled by a period gene. Certain nucleotide repeats of the period gene exist in most animals, including humans. There are also flies with no luck in love, who exhibit abnormal courtship patterns. This led to the discovery of a gene called fruitless which controls the wiring of neurons in the fly brain that regulate mating behaviors. And finally, there are also flies who exhibit deficits in learning and memory, the so-called dunce mutants. These flies go on making the same mistakes, over and over again, due to a genetic mistake that interferes with one of their chemical signaling cascades.
Weiner's book is also a cautionary tale - there is all too often a tendency toward simplistic thinking about gene interactions in terms of a simple, linear model. As Weiner points out, "Every gene is a thread that leads into vast skeins of molecular anatomy, and one by one molecular biologists have discovered how easy it is to get lost at the very beginning of the thread." Discovering a gene is only the first step of discovery. Figuring out how it works is a much more complicated endeavor. Genes interact with one another via transcription factors (proteins regulating gene expression) and they also actively interact with the outside world and their operation is best conceived of in terms of massive networks, with each gene as something akin to a cog in a vast clockwork. This leads to complicated loops of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions. Weiner's discussions of these issues are illuminating and by the end of the book the reader should understand why it is simply impossible to speak of `a gene' for such-and-such behavior. Behavior is almost always a complicated manner that is controlled by teams of genes.
Weiner's book is not a science book per se, but a book about science and an avant-garde group of scientists. It is scientific journalism at its best. He interweaves the book with quotes from Benzer, his students and other people in the field. Benzer's story is particularly interesting because he is not well known among the general public, despite his being a trailblazing scientist of the first class. At the time of writing the book Weiner was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton and over a four year span he interviewed about 150 biologists who were, in one way or another, involved in bridging the gap between molecular biology and the study of behavior. This means that he is able to bring a sense of intimacy to the book that makes it very difficult to put down. This is definitely a recommended read.
Cornerstones of Our Existence.......2006-09-23
Time is for clock. Since everything has a clockwork gene, I suppose that in humans it means the biological clock involving procreation and evolution. This book, written by a prize-winning biologist, is more about birds, flys, fish, plants, but hardly about men and women. Disappointed me -- a psychologist would have covered the behavior process for us, I guess. He relates how humpback whales (not males) sing songs which can radiate thousands of miles under the ocean and they change from season to season like the Top Ten Rock Tracks of Chuck's choices. They constantly change courtship songs but never repeat themselves. The songs are always new and never a 'golden oldie' from a decade or two back in time, as humans like to do. The nostalgia radio stations are the most popular now and have been for a long time.
Einstein asked this question, "How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as 'first love?' They don't. It does involve body chemistry and is a fleeting illusion as we seldom marry our first loves, or our last.
Proust said that memory is "a rope let down from heaven to draw us up out of the abyss of not-being." Memory involves happenings from our pasts and that of our ancestors. Here, again, the author used examples of frogs eyes and brains. Here I was, ready to learn about that elusive part of our existence, remembering, when all I find is that these are the cornerstones of our experience, time, love and memory. It's sad that as we age, memory is more fleeting than love. How could he forget so fast to find Sweet Surrender and probably didn't look at all, or his memory is worse than the flys and frogs and plants and things.
Jonathan Weiner won the Pulitzer Prize for 'The Beak of the Finch.' He dedicated this book to his brother, Eric. In his teaching fields, he went from biology to writing. Here, they gravitate from history or journalism to writing. First, you must know the fundamentals of writing for the general public and not textbook information for students before any kind of success is possible. It's okay, CS, we all forget sometimes.
GOOD BYE TO JOHN DONNE AND ALL THAT?.......2005-02-15
This is a very accessible blending of a biography of Seymour Benzer, the most renowned Drosophilist (fruit fly geneticist), with many anecdotes and quotations, and a fascinating history of fruit fly genetics and related molecular biology. However, I was brought up short by one passage in it, on page 244 -
"It is already possible - in fertility clinics it is done every day - to screen the DNA of a set of eight embryos at the eight-cell stage and let the parents pick the one they want to implant in the mother's womb. The more genes there are to screen and the better these gene complexes are understood, the more wealthy parents will select not only the healthiest but also the best and brightest embryo they can, designing the genes of their children....(O)ver the next few centuries whether governments legislate for or against it(,...t)he rich will pick and choose the genes of their children, the poor will not. The gap between rich and poor may widen so far in the third millennium that before the end of it there will not only be two classes of human beings but two species, or a whole Galapagos of different human species. These human species could be prevented from interbreeding by the genetic engineering of chemical incompatibility, so that the egg of one would reject the sperm of the other."
I can't help questioning Weiner's prediction that the wealthy will be able to select genes of their offspring while the poor will not "....over the next few centuries, whether governments legislate for or against it."
Toward the end of Marlon Brando's autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, that wise and wonderful man summed up his life's learning as attaining a visceral understanding of how much mankind is driven by group instincts, and how much every group requires outsiders to feel superior to. In the paragraph in Time, Love, Memory following the one quoted from above, Weiner quotes E.O. Wilson saying, "Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become....What lifts this question beyond mere futurism is that it reveals so clearly our ignorance of the meaning of human existence in the first place." At least, we know what John Donne's reply to Professor Wilson's musing would be.
Hopefully, there are Drosophilists looking for the genes whose sequences determine the proteins for the animal behaviors Brando referred to as "group instincts," and under what conditions their outsider-requiring aspects may be turned off, in order to ameliorate the dystopia of wealth-created castes to which we already belong as well as to prevent the potential dystopia of wealth-created species to which Weiner alludes. I'd call these our "Group-or-Gandhi" sequences, and as fine as this book is, I would have welcomed something in it about Drosophilists' thoughts about them.
Incredible........2005-01-23
The most beautiful and inspiring nonfiction I've read. I intern in a molecular biology lab, so the science wasn't new to me. The story, however, was breathtaking. I've recommended this to many people--the same goes to you, Amazon reader!
Timeless.......2001-07-06
An evocative and wholely compelling portrait of one man that illiminates some of the most significant insights in 20th century biology. Marvelously done. An excellent introduction to molecular genetics. Literary, insightful, witty and precise.
Customer Reviews:
Refreshing, natural, and well written.......2002-09-24
A real page turner. I recommend this book as a good summer read on the beach (though you run the risk of an erection)or a serious study of how life really is like for a gay man in a Muslim country. I found the normalcy and erotic semsitivity of the sex scenes to be charming and real. My big complaint was that I finished it too quickly. As I finished, I wanted to learn more about the charming Dick, and how the transmutation of life was proceeding. In other words, I wanted more! A sequel! More sex, more pompous analysis. More!
Too much sex and not enough substance.......2001-06-03
But I guess that is what gay men want to read. As a Muslim, I was really hoping for more insight on Islam and homosexuality. Instead it's just the tales (many of which, the author notes in the introduction, are fake) of an oversexed man and his sex life. Probably most American gay men who have ethnic fetishes will find the book titilating, he does go into great detail of his sex life (ex. seducing the servents in his home, sex on vacation, when he moves to San Francisco). I on the other hand wish there was more to it than that.
what a find!.......1998-12-07
A friend suggested I read this book, and I must say it is one of the most interesting books I have read in a long while. My only complaint is, it should be longer, his style of writing is engaging and a pleasure to read, and the subject matter is handled from a wide range of perspectives. This is the first book written BY a gay Pakistani that I have read, and I hope Badrudding writes some more. The book is satisfying, entertaining, provocative, and just plain fun to read.
Extraordinary.......1997-12-08
Wow! What a find! This is the first book of its kind, and well written too! The book describes in first person the authors experiences, growing up Muslim and gay in Pakistan....but beyond that, it also includes striking commentary on what it means to be "gay" in North America, from another point of view, and a very educated one at that. I enjoyed the writing, and read the book at one (very long) sitting...couldnt put it down...it is a bit specialized, though, but a must read if you are interested in cross cultural issues
Searng honest account of being gay, Muslim, and omni-exiled.......1997-12-07
Although VERY sexually graphic, this book is an acute analysis of the confusions first of being Pakistani and attracted to males, and then of being a gay Muslim in Anglo North America (New York, Toronto, San Francisco). There are too many adjectives for some tastes, and more will cringe at how the author treats servants and other sex objects. He is more honest than most of us dare to be--particularly about the marriage he permitted his family back in Pakistan to arrange for him. One friend who accommodates his homosexuality to marriage and family in Pakistan and one who cuts his cultural and family ties to live entirely in a New York gay world provide contrasts of other possible paths and a (rather coldly academic) afterword by the author of ISLAMIC HOMOSEXUALITIES draws out other comparisons of gay Muslim lifeways.
Book Description
Providence is Quinn's fascinating memoir of his life-long spiritual voyage. His journey takes him from a childhood dream in Omaha setting him on a search for fulfillment, to his time as a postulant in the Trappist order under the guidance of eminent theologian Thomas Merton. Later, his quest took him through the deep self-discovery of psychoanalysis, through a failed marriage during the turbulent and exciting 60s, to finding fulfillment with his wife Rennie and a career as a writer. In
Providence Quinn also details his rejection of organized religion and his personal rediscovery of what he says is humankind's first and only universal religion, the theology that forms the basis for
Ishmael.
Providence is an insightful book that address issues of education, psychology, religion, science, marriage, and self-understanding, and will give insight to anyone who has ever struggled to forge and enact a personal spirituality.
Customer Reviews:
Answers a few more questions, gives a few more insights.......2006-01-02
Quinn details his spiritual journey towards his current beliefs and takes us along with him. An interesting tale about the personal journey of the author of the revolutionary book Ishmael.
Take It or Leave It?.......2005-09-26
X-cellent read if your tired of what life has to offer Daniel Quinn helps you think about what's wrong with what you're trying to take
A BRIEF MEMOIR.......2005-02-06
What are the forces that shaped and molded the man Daniel Quinn to write such works as Ishmael and other moving texts of how life is to be lived? Quinn partially addresses that question in this brief tome of reflection. Quinn takes us on a backward look at the man that he was and the man that he became through two major incidents of his life; a dream as a six year old and a flirtation with the monastic life in a Trappist monastery.
Providence is funny, conversational and holds nuggets of information about a life of low self-esteem, questions about one's sexuality,failed marriages and trying to achieve perfection. Daniel Quinn paints a picture of a young man struggling to accept himself for whom and what he is. If you are a fan of Quinn's previous works this book will further affirm your loyalty to his books.
If you have read Quinn, appreciated his works and were looking for more depth and insight about the author, Providence will be disappointing. His memoir doesn't deal with any significance about his life under alcoholic parents, a indifferent brother and his formation under Catholicism. You will spend much of the time reading about how Ishmael came into being and less time knowing how Quinn came into being. Is Providence a great spiritual memoir rivaling that of other spiritual questors? No. Quinn needs to provide more depth. It is a good read but don't look for anything profound.
Providence by Daniel Quinn.......2004-04-25
Having read and loved, Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael, The Holy, After Dachau and Beyond Civilization I found this book to be a bit of a bore. Maybe this is because it is an autobiography, I don't know. Quinn is still an excellent author and visionary. We need to spread the word.
A New Level.......2003-05-10
_Providence_ takes _Ishmael_ to a whole new level by explaining what you can do with yourself after _Ishmael_. Quinn explains that the reason for this work is to fill the void that _Ishmael_ leaves: if it shattered your beliefs (in a good way, of course), _Providence_ gives you something to take its place.
After reading Quinn's first four books, this was welcome, because for me, it fills the void that _Beyond Civilization_ tries to work into, but somehow fails. Many people complain that Quinn never tells you what to do wth these new ideas in his books, and here, he gives the reader ways that he has made them work. I found it very easy to take them and mesh them with my own interests. To find out Quinn's entire argument for saving ourselves and our planet, it's really necessary to read his five major books - if you read this one last, it brings the whole argument together nicely. He just doesn't give you an easy way out. You have to find it for yourself.
Books:
- The Power of Face Reading (2nd Edition)
- The Samurai's Garden: A Novel
- The Secret Garden: Dawn to Dusk in the Astonishing Hidden World of the Garden
- The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
- The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
- The Secret Garden (HarperClassics)
- The Trellis and the Seed: A Book of Encouragement for All Ages
- The Ultimate Pool Maintenance Manual: Spas, Pools, Hot Tubs, Rockscapes and Other Water Features, 2nd Edition
- Versailles
- Waiting for Wings
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Food & Wine Magazine's 1999 Annual Cookbook
- United States V. George W. Bush et al.
- Shakespeare, from Stage to Screen
- State of a Union: Inside the Complex Marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton
- The Last Days of Krypton
- Why Is It Always About You
- The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It
- Risk Management, Speculation, and Derivative Securities
- Stochastic Optimization in Continuous Time
- Executive Treason: A Novel
