This week I finished:

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: I’m sure I read this book before, but long enough ago that this time was almost anew. I’ve been reading about liberty, freedom, equality, and democracy. I’ve read and written about slavery and the Holocaust.

Soviet / Stalinist gulags are on par, but different, and equally important to understand what a nation, or dominance hierarchy, can devolve into. I won’t try to put into words the world that Solzhenitsyn can and did. He lived it for eight years.

The book conveys a dystopia human beings created for each other. It’s personal and human beyond what history books convey. I’m learning more about the history too. I’m not sure if or when I’ll take on The Gulag Archipelago, but one big lesson I’m taking away: the result this book portrays began with people seeking to create utopias, to overcome situations where people dominate each other. This book shows the results of those dreams.

Do we give up on dreams? I won’t. My lesson is to learn from history. These outcomes can happen in any time and place. We have to protect against the paths to them at all times and places.

Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past: edited by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer: This book was informative as a history book but so partisan it raised skepticism.

It shared something that’s been bothering me about all the Hillsdale classes I’m taking. This book and nearly all their stuff looks critically at its opponents but never critically about themselves. Does each group think it’s perfect? Are people and teams scared to reveal their vulnerabilities? Do they think they will weaken themselves or lose support if they show their faults or shortcomings?

On both sides, why not explore yourself and look at yourself as critically as you look at others? What myths does your side propagate?

I contend you will look stronger for looking at yourself critically and your opponents with empathy.

Again, they don’t understand race. They ascribe to skin color what should go to access to resources, or rank in dominance hierarchy.

The authors of the book’s essays are: Akhil Reed Amar • Kathleen Belew • Carol Anderson • Kevin Kruse • Erika Lee • Daniel Immerwahr • Elizabeth Hinton • Naomi Oreskes • Erik M. Conway • Ari Kelman • Geraldo Cadava • David A. Bell • Joshua Zeitz • Sarah Churchwell • Michael Kazin • Karen L. Cox • Eric Rauchway • Glenda Gilmore • Natalia Mehlman Petrzela • Lawrence B. Glickman • Julian E. Zelizer

Blow Out, directed by Brian De Palma: While learning about Wise Guys last week, I read about Brian De Palma, which led me to this movie.

It takes place in Philadelphia and I remember they filmed part of it near my home in Philadelphia. We went to watch them filming one night, which turns out to be a critical scene. Pauline Kael’s review wrongly says he was outside the city: “Jack, the sound effects man, who works for an exploitation moviemaker in Philadelphia, is outside the city one night recording the natural rustling sounds.” I grew up in the city of Philadelphia, not a suburb.

The movie was engaging. I saw it as a filmmaker (De Palma) creating a visual essay on ways of seeing, hearing, and representing seeing and hearing. People are recorded visually without sound, sound without vision, from above, below, known, unknown, movies within movies, referring to other movies like The Conversation, referring to history like Chappaquiddick, referring to genres while playing them, including slasher and art house, and lots of other references. The characters and plot seemed less important.

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