Mark Reece's Blog, page 9

Review- The Nutcracker

When the curtain goes up and the ballerinas of the Birmingham Royal Ballet are frozen in position around a Christmas tree, one knows what time of year it is.

The performance at The Hippodrome in Birmingham has been left largely unchanged, although the sets were re-designed slightly, with the back curtain and some of the drapes now matching the dress of Clara's mother.

A charming and beautiful ballet, with exquisite dancing, sets, and music, this is a performance that one might happily watch annually for a lifetime, as I intend.

Review- Coppelia

The Birmingham Royal Ballet recently performed one of its repertoire of classical ballets- Coppelia. The set and costumes seemed to have re-designed since the last performance and looked excellent.

Tzu-Chao Chou was fantastic as Franz, his dancing perfectly highlighting the roguish nature of the character. The dancers playing Swanilda's friends were also very memorable, showing great virtuosity.

It was surprising that such a major production only ran for four days; one can only hope that public interest remains high in this kind of outstanding work.

Review- The symposium

The Symposium by Plato

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The symposium depicts a series of Athenian public figures, including Socrates, giving speeches on love and desire. As with many of Plato's writings, it is a great work of literature, and the literary context is highly significant to the ideas expressed. For example, the story is told in retrospect after Apollodorus, an admirer of Socrates, was asked about the party. Although he agrees to recount what happened, he cannot remember some of the speeches. This raises the question of whether the speeches are being recounted accurately, or whether they are being told in a partial way, particularly given Socrates' later execution for (in part) corrupting the youth of Athens. Other details of how the dialogue is written also have philosophical importance. For example, at the end of the party, after all the other speakers are too drunk to continue talking, Socrates is depicted as being impervious to the effects of drink, looking after the participants and continuing to debate philosophical ideas. In this way, he is presented as someone more noble than those around him. Such is the quality of the writing, that even the smallest details are highly significant.

Prior to Socrates' intervention, the descriptions of love are simple in nature, often praising the (Greek pantheon) gods in elaborate style. Most notably, one of the participants, Aristophanes, gives a beautiful myth of how humans were once hermaphrodites with four arms and legs before being split in two by Zeus as punishment for their arrogance, forcing each person to spend their lives looking for their 'other half'.

By contrast, the tone of Socrates' speech is much more academic in nature, making it in many ways incongruous with the other speeches, and the tone of the party. Again, this may reflect an implicit defense of Socrates (that he was a serious scholar, in contrast to the more frivolous men around him). Socrates typically maintained that the virtues were unified, that is, that virtue was the true aim of most, or all activities. As such, he sees love as having an intellectual, educative character.

Although it is interesting to examine the arguments in detail, I don't intend to do so in this review, save to say that the type of deductive rationalism pursued by Socrates is clearly limited in light of empirical advances in knowledge; modern philosophy is far richer for incorporating findings from science and other empirical disciples. However, it is hard to imagine a work that more beautifully demonstrates the systematizing power of philosophy than The symposium. As such, it remains a wonderfully incisive and important book, in addition to a beautifully written one.



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Review- Lysis

Lysis by Plato

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In this early Socratic dialogue, Socrates walks home from the academy when he is approached by an admirer and engaged in conversation about the nature of friendship. The discussion follows the typical Socratic format, in which Socrates questions the interlocutor about their views of the subject, revealing their flawed understanding. The dialogue concludes with none of the definitions having being verified, meaning that the search for the true definition continues.

Lysis is a wonderful piece of literature- the scene is evocative and not a word is wasted on the characterization. However, the arguments are highly flawed in places. The main problem is the equivocation in the concept of friendship used in many parts of the dialogue. The word 'friendship' is typically used to mean something like 'a non-romantic and mutually beneficial relationship between two parties involving personal interaction'. The most important part of the definition concerns the 'relationship'; the concept would have little meaning without that element. However, much of the dialogue attempts to establish what is friend to what, that is, if A is friend to B, whether A is the friend, or B. In that context, 'friend' is being used to mean 'liking' or 'desiring', which I don't find useful in a discussion of the nature of friendship, as desiring in that narrow sense is irrelevant to the nature of relationships.

Although I don't think the dialogue is a philosophical success, it is, of course, brilliant in many ways. It raises, or implies, a number of questions, such as whether friendship is utilitarian in nature, whether friendship is tied to need/knowledge/goodness or other virtues, and the social circumstances that allow friendship. In that way, it contributes to the larger Socratic project of developing wisdom to ensure that life is well lived.



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Review- Late bloomer

Late Bloomer: How an Autism Diagnosis Changed My Life by Clem Bastow

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In this memoir, Clem Bastow analyses various aspects of her life in light of the autism diagnosis she received at 36, from her romantic relationships, to her special interests, to her education. Many of these topics are very familiar to the accounts of autistic people who were diagnosed as adults; however, they are told here with skillful writing, meaning that at no point do they feel like tropes.

One of the ways Bastow reviews her life is examining her romantic relationships in light of her diagnosis. She identified a pattern whereby masking (extensively modifying her intuitive behaviour in light of perceived social norms) made her vulnerable to abusive relationships. In this way, she describes the diagnostic process as being very helpful to improving her standard of life.

Bastow's lifestyle was unorthodox, including working irregular hours and regularly moving. However, for me, the most pleasurable part of the book was the joy she takes in her special interests (subjects that she hyper focuses on and knows a lot of detail about). Topics such as the Ghostbuster films, different foodstuffs, music, and sparkly objects, are described with delightful aplomb. Despite the difficulties Bastow faced in her life, she gives every sense that it has been full and well lived. (As an aside, the book cover is fantastically designed, and is entirely suited to her love of colour).

I'm never quite sure what 'being who you really are' means; this is a theme that Bastow mentions several times without elucidating with much clarity. Nevertheless, on her account, her diagnosis clearly helped her, and this memoir explores the themes that dominated her life with passion and verve in a way that makes it a delight to read.



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Review- Into the music ballet

The Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) under the directorship of Carlos Acosta continues to perform a variety of innovative ballets.

Recently, the BRB performed 'Into the music', which was a set of third short ballets. The first performance was 'Forgotten land', which started with the dancers facing away from the audience, gazing at a stormy backdrop. Celine Gittens starred in one of the principle roles, and the choreography was by Jiri Kylian, a choreographer whose work Acosta recently expressed an interest in being performed more regularly in the UK. The movements in the ballet seemed to invoke a sense of wonder or perhaps loss, as the dancers appeared to explore an island for the first time. It was an interesting work full of evocative movements.

The second ballet was 'Hotel', and was my favourite of the afternoon. Pre-recorded footage was used in addition to live recording by some of the dancers. Images were displayed at the side of the stage and were incorporated into the performance, as the dancers knocked on the doors of 'hotel rooms', interrupting the footage.

The music and dancing of the manager and assistance managers indicated whimsy, as if they were secretly lovers or wished to escape their duties. However, the general atmosphere was one of disquiet, with a curiously dystopian feel. The backdrop indicated sheer stone walls, which combined with the constant surveillance of the recording and the lowly status of the staff created an air of authoritarianism. A very intriguing ballet that could have been full length.

The final ballet was 'The seventh symphony', which did not appear to have any story, but rather highlighted the theme of the three works, which was of the interplay between dance and music. Celine Gittens returned to star in the first movement, but all the dancing displayed the usual quality and elegance of the BRB.

This was an excellent performance, and an interesting counterpoint to the BRB's classical ballets.

Review- Roadside picnic

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In Roadside Picnic, aliens have visited earth, but didn't consider humans worthy of interaction, or perhaps didn't recognize them as intelligent lifeforms. Instead, they left behind 'visitation zones'- vast areas where technology has been abandoned. Whatever happened in the zones made them irradiated and inhospitable to life. At the start of the novel, the visitation zones have been cordoned off, and nearby towns occupied by military and scientific organizations.

Despite their best efforts, the purpose of the abandoned artifacts can only be hypothesized, and are commonly referred to by terms that express how little is known about them, such as 'hell slime'. Despite the danger, there is a thriving black market in items illicitly removed from the zone by 'stalkers'. One such stalker is the protagonist of the book- Redrick (Red), who is coarse and cynical, motivated by getting money for himself and his wife and daughter. He drinks heavily to cope with stress and is aggressive and prone to violence.

The central concept of the novel makes a lot of sense- any aliens with technology sufficiently advanced to reach earth would be many hundreds or even thousands of years more developed than current human societies, and may have a physiology enabling a higher level of sentience. Such a civilization may well not wish to interact with humans; they may simply have used the earth to dump rubbish, or, as the title of the book suggests, to have a picnic, following which, humans gathered around the remaining technology like ants around crumbs of food.

The centrality of Red to the narrative gives the book a strongly noir tone. No one can be trusted, heavy drinking is the only way to get through the day, there are no real relationships outside the family, people don't communicate much other than to give orders or to fight. If the aliens hadn't visited, one can imagine Red joining a mercenary army or dealing drugs. I've heard the novel being described as apolitical, but I think it has more of a conservative tone- nothing can be improved, humans can never really understand things, so the best one can do is look after one's own family by whatever means are available. It is a mood amenable to authoritarian regimes, meaning that in one sense, it is surprising that the novel had such difficulty getting past the Soviet sensors.

Roadside picnic is a very good book- the length is about right, as Red is probably too limited a character for it to be much longer. The writing is terse, and the sequences in the zone- the heart of the book- are evocative and tense. More could have been done with the ideas central to the novel, which would have required a greater range of characters, but as it is the novel has both an interesting backdrop and skillful writing.



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Review- The doctor who fooled the world

The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield's War on Vaccines by Brian Deer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Brian Deer carried out outstanding investigative journalism with the Andrew Wakefield story. This included learning a lot of medical terminology/methodologies, patiently researching disparate documents from many different sources, gaining the trust of numerous witnesses, and showing personal fortitude, necessary, for example, when he was sued by Wakefield and his confederates. The public service Deer rendered is considerable- some of the details revealed in this book are incredible. For example, Wakefield et al carried out various medical examinations on vulnerable children that they knew were unnecessary- a shocking abuse of power. The motivation for this was money. For all the talk by the anti-vaccination movement about 'big pharma', what is telling is that Wakefield, before being discredited, was given massive resources to research his ideas- in once telling instance, he rejected the offer of funding, as it would have forced him to follow proper scientific methods.

The MMR scandal highlighted flaws in the way that people draw connections between events, particularly when they are stressed. Many of the parents in the now discredited research carried out by Wakefield gave high prominence to the alleged temporal correlation between their children being vaccinated, and their educational and social problems. This ignored problems with assigning causation, and placed too high a regard on their ability to accurately recall events. 'I know what I saw' can be a dangerous attitude given how flawed one's memory and sensory perceptions can sometimes be.

The book has become relevant again in recent years as the anti-vaccination movement gained influence after the Covid pandemic. The leaders of that movement deserve all the exposure and scorn that a book like this provokes. They lie to vulnerable people and harm children for money- a more degenerate and repulsive group is hard to imagine. What was particularly striking when reading Deer's account is the attitude towards neurodiversity on display from a disturbingly large minority of the population, many of whom believe that it is preferable to risk their children dying of infectious disease rather than being autistic. This belief is supported by depicting autism using the most disabled autistic people available to create grotesque propaganda- one of the leaders of the anti-vaccination movement is claimed to have said that they understood why parents of autistic children might want to kill their children.

Unfortunately, Deer's view of autism isn't wholly unproblematic either- there are several points in the book where he creates a dualism between 'really autistic' people, i.e. those who are severely disabled, or have intellectual disabilities, and 'trendy autistics'- at one point, he makes a sarcastic aside about advocates wearing badges. This is unfortunate, as it seems likely that the MMR scare would not have had the power it did without toxic attitudes towards neurodiversity.

The writing style of the book also grates on occasion. Its curiously tabloid style seems unnecessary when considering the inherent interest of the subject matter. Bit part characters in the narrative are given strange potted histories that are often unintentionally funny. For example, Wakefield's first wife, who has no relevance to the events in the book, is described as 'a diet conscious, blonde-haired Zelda to [Wakefield's] Scott'. Eh? The editing is often poor.

Despite these flaws, I would recommend this book, both for those who want to learn more about the MMR scandal, and for an insight into contemporary anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.



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Review- Books burn badly

Books Burn Badly by Manuel Rivas

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Books Burn Badly spans twentieth century Spain, with the narrative of much of the start of the book based during the Spanish civil war, where the nationalists/fascists carried out ritual book burning. The majority of the rest of the novel is set during the time of the Franco dictatorship, with a few paragraphs at the end set in the post Franco era. There are a lot of characters, including some that recur. The boxer Hercules spans many eras, a man with democratic sympathies who was only allowed to fight once. Later on, much of the narrative focuses on Samos, a judge, and Ren, a censor, who form part of the power elite of the dictatorship.

The language was often beautiful and evocative, with many images that stick in the memory, such as the books that don't burn properly, including a treatise on electrical engineering, which has periodic significance thereafter. The sections that focus on specific characters were the ones that worked best in my view, particularly those around Samos, detailing his obsessions with trashy novels, and his worries that his son won't be accepted because of his stutter.

However, I found that the overall structure of the book was too diffuse. There were too many characters for them all to be easily recognizable, and in some chapters, it was not clear who was speaking. This also made some of the themes hard to follow; some of the events seemed anecdotes on first reading, although if copious notes had been taken, perhaps I would have taken a different view.

There is a grandness about the book, both in the scale of the story and the evocative of the language that mean I would recommend it (some pre-knowledge of Spanish history would help comprehension). It would likely benefit from re-reading, although that it not an exercise that everyone will undertake.



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Review- Empire of ants

Empire of Ants: The Hidden World and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors by Susanne Foitzik

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A good overview of numerous aspects of ant biology, the influence of Wilson and Holldobler on the author was evident, meaning that it was no surprise to read that she was his doctoral student at one point. I've read numerous books on ants but picked up a variety of new information here, despite the book having an introductory feel, with chapters written around various aspects of ant behaviour, such as slave making, and efforts ants make to control disease.

The tone is annoying on occasions; the author regularly uses cutesy language as if expecting the book to be read by the easily distracted.

There is a comprehensive bibliography that gives the reader an excellent starting point to find out more about myrmecology.



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