Slaughter House five

The Dresden bombing took place between February 13 and February 15th 1945. The allied forces bombed the German city of Dresden (The capital of the German state Saxony) for 3 days dropping almost 4 thousands tons of firebombs on the city. The incident is considered by many to have been unjustified, and it's the most significant smudge on the reputation of the allies. The reason the bombing was considered to be unjustified is because it did not specifically attempt to bomb factories and railroads, instead it carpeted the whole city with explosives, completely razing the cities center to the ground. The allies’ justification for the bombing is that the city was generally a center of industry and the bombing was sure to destroy the important rail lines which ran directly through the city. The city of Dresden today estimates the death toll at approximately 25 thousand. Dresden has, for hundreds of years, been the center of Germany culturally. For example the Semperoper, an Opera House founded by Saxon kings in 1548, has premiered such masterpieces as Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" and continues to produce Opera's today. Also
http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/hittinghome/hittinghomepg9.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3123512/Dresden-bombing-death-toll-lower-than-thought.html
http://www.semperoper.de/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2004/feb/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview2

Post 10

In this final week of blogging I began to read Miles Gone By, a literary autobiography of William F. Buckley JR. William Buckley was the founder and editor of the magazine “National Review”, one of the leading purveyors of conservative ideals in the print industry. The recently deceased Mr. Buckley chronicles his entire life from his childhood memories of growing up in Sharon Connecticut, to his growth into the man most credited with the creation of the modern conservative movement. Although I am not yet very far into Mr. Buckley's wonderfully written autobiography, it is possible to see, even in his childhood, how much drive and zeal was contained within this political juggernaut. Being a reader of the National Review I find myself becoming almost envious of Buckley as I read his autobiography. To be able to so Immortalize your Ideas and your vision of America is perhaps what I want most in life, and what Mr. Buckley has undoubtedly achieved. I look forward in the weeks to come, to reading more and more about William Buckley's iconic achievements during his time on this earth, and perhaps more about Mr. Buckley himself, the man behind the miracle. When reading about Mr. Buckley's life in conjunction with National Review one thing is clear; although William F. Buckley may have passed on, his soul has remained, in the from of his greatest achievement, in the from of National Review.

Post 9

This week I finished The Fountainhead. Overall I would seriously have to rank it as one of the best books I have ever read, certainly the best one I've read this year. The Fountainhead was riveting from start to finish, never leaving me a moment of boredom as I read almost frantically though the novel in order to see the various plot lines resolved. I wont ruin the ending, doing so would be hard any way as I have so far not elaborated in any way as to what this plot might be, but i will say this. If you, whoever is reading this, actually buys and reads all the way through The Fountainhead, you will be shocked, stunned, even amazed at the excellency of this ending. If nothing else about this novel where superb and only the ending remained in its current state, it would still be such a moment of revelation, and realization such as i have never had before, as to keep the novel as one I would wholeheartedly recommend.
I wonder now, how Ayn Rand would react to the modern political climate, certainly not one she hoped would exist 50 years after writing all her works. Although the ideals of objectivism have not caught on en masse as Rand might have wanted, she can rest peacefully knowing they have sparked a flame in at least one reader, me. I plan now, on reading through some of Rand's non fiction such as Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, or Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, both of which are literally on the way from amazon to my house as I write this.

Post 8

This week I continued to read The Fountainhead. I have really been enjoying this novel more and more as I continue to read on. Although the theme of objectivism is the same as Anthem, the setting for Fountainhead could not be more different. The novel takes place in 1920's and 30's America, revolving completely around the culture of architecture. This setting is chosen I believe because Rand saw it as one of the professions most totally dominated by a drive for conformity, most in need of a giant dose of objectivism. The novel is in face dedicated to architects as Rand writes "I offer my profound gratitude to the great profession of architecture and its heroes who have given us some of the highest expressions of man's genius, yet have remained unknown, undiscovered by the majority of men." Upon realizing that not even in the dedication does Rand lose focus one realizes the true ideological zeal of this great author.
I really like the direction Rand has gone in with fountainhead, forcing on a more realistic background to project her beliefs onto. The novel does as truly remarkable job of making this world seems real, a world which in reality is totally alien to me. I believe the total obscurity of the field of architecture in real life speaks to the truth of this novel, which deals heavily with the battle between architects who wanted to really share their gift with the world, and those that wanted to keep the trade in the background, giving no one man the glory or fame another kind of artist would get.

post 7

This week I started and read through the first 150 pages of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Previous to this novel, I read Anthem, a 60 page novella by Ayn Rand which i loved. Although it was anthem that interested me on to Rand's writing, it is fountainhead that has really made me love it. Given the length of an entire novel, Rand is given time to fully flush out some of the most interesting characters I have encountered in a book. The main character, or rather one of the two main characters, is Howard Roark. Roark is, as is often the case with Randian protagonists, an individualist oppressed by the collectivist world he lives in. That is to say, Howard Roark exists only to serve Howard Roark, and no other. I will not go in great depth into the plot, as the medium of a blog post is in no way capable of doing this pinnacle of written achievement any justice, sufficed to say Roark is the very picture of individualism in human form. Rand's libertarian ideology happens to align very well with mine on many points which has made for an excellent read so far. Not only is the philosophy of individual liberty fleshed out to such an extreme that even the most liberal democrat could come away from this book preaching the free market, but it happened to provide me with some of the most useful quotes for busting out in the middle of an argument, for instance “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” It's just pure gold.

Post 6

This week I finished my second book of the quarter, George Orwell's 1984. As I read on into this novel, I became more and more amazed. The novel, unlike many I have read, does not end in a way I could or did predict./*spoilers*/ Winston's rebellion against Big Brother is the main conflict of the novel. His initial rebellion, the thought "Down With Big Brother" is so small in today's terms, it serves to show the real depth of oppression in Winston's society since this something as small as a thought could not and is not controlled by any modern regime. This rebellion builds throughout the novel, moving from thoughts to actions such as buying a book from a black market, then to falling in love(an emotion heavily regulated by big brother). Eventually Winston and his lover, Julia, join what they believe to be the rebellious organization known only as "The Brotherhood". However, they discover it to be only one more crime deterring instrument of big brother and they are captured. Winston is brought to the Ministry of love, who's sole purpose is torture and punishment, and in a stunning 50 page series of events containing possibly the most philosophy and meta physical reasoning I have ever encountered in a novel, is completely obedient to big brother. The book ends with Winston sitting in a coffee shop and, upon hearing some fabricated peace of news about a presumably made up government military victory, breaks down weeping with happiness, managing only the words "I love big brother."

Post 5

This week I started reading George Orwell's 1949 dystopian future novel "1984". The novel is set, obviously, in the year 1984 and follows the life of a Winston Smith as he copes with the realities of living under an oppressive regime. Although i have not yet much of the novel, I am certainly already impressed with Orwell's absolute mastery of the English language, coupled with some fairly deep and interesting philosophical ideas. The three part slogan of "the party", the ruling authority in Winston's Society, is as follows; "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength". Although this has not been delved very far into yet, a very in depth explanation for these ruling principles has been hinted at several times by the protagonist Winston. Also, Winston himself is actually a fairly 3 dimensional character, who struggles to accept the party's principles while knowing them to be false. In addition to this, Winston's job is, in essence, to help spread the lies of the party by constantly re-writing past publications so as to fix any possible false predictions the party may have made, creating a seemingly perfect government which in reality is radically oppressive. In conclusion, it is the combination of George Orwell's brilliantly descriptive and well developed writing style with his intensely thought provoking philosophical and meta physical theory that has lead to what I believe may be one of the best, if not the best, book's I have ever read.