London

The two full days I spent in London were a whirlwind of activity.  The first day I toured the Churchill Wartime Bunkers beneath Britain's Treasury Department, rode in one of the fabled Black Taxis in London, ate lunch at a teeming outdoor market, visited historic Trafalgar Square, took High Tea at the Portrait Gallery and went to see the production of Company starring Patti LuPone at the West End that evening.

Things didn't slow down the second day.  I took a long walk along the Thames to go see all the statues around Parliament Square, visited the Supreme Court building and passed by Big Ben, had lunch at the Temple Gardens Hall, toured the replica Globe Theater, saw an all-female-of-color production of Richard the Secondhand walked by St. Paul's Cathedral when it was all lit up.

This was an exhausting pace but well worthwhile for the limited time we were in London.  There is so much history there, I saw pockmarks from a bomb dropped by a German zeppelin in World War I, a statue commemorating heroic first-responders during the London Blitz, the aforementioned Globe Theatre recreation, Parliament, the Thames and more.

The next morning we got up early to take a 6:30 a.m. chunnel train the Paris, and oddly, we had to show our passport to leave London.  Whenever the Uber driver made a turn or crossed over a street I always felt panic because at first glance it seemed he was driving down the opposing lane with oncoming traffic due to the insane way that British drivers drive from the wrong side of the car.

2013 in Review, Part One.

2013 in Review.

Here are the dozen most noteworthy books I read last year, in the order of their importance to me.

Richard II by William Shakespeare
The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman c1988
A Rumor of War Philip Caputo c1977
Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan by Ronald Spector c1985
Shrapnel In The Heart by Laura Palmer c1987
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown c1970
Gettysburg by Stephen W. Sears c2003
Lost Triumph: Lee’s Real Plan at Gettysburg by Tom Carhart c2005

To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsular Campaign by Sears c1992

Chancellorsville by Sears c1996

Antietam by James M. McPherson c2002

Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias by Jane Velez-Mitchell c2013

One Great Literature (R2), a heartstrings book (Shrapnel--stories on the Vietnam Wall), seven history books (four civil war battle books, a WW2 history, an Indian wars recounting and a Revolutionary War era history), a fantasy (what was Lee's plan at Gettysburg?), an autobiographical sketch (Caputo as a young man in Vietnam) and a guilty pleasures book (sex & murder--true crime).

I don't know why but as you can see, 2013 was a lean year for me in entertainment. I went to no movies and only read seventeen books. I don't watch TV, really, besides some NFL football, a few baseball games and the Military Channel, which endlessly recycles reasons why the Allies won WW2.   My slight curtailment of costs with the cable company removed the other channels I used to watch, the History Channel, Discovery and a couple of other shows.   My 1900 cable channels are a true wasteland.   I don't have an I-phone so I can't claim that I was outside walking around at 2/3rd speed very distracted, riveted to intently watching my palm every second.   I think I'm fretting about acquiring enough money to retire now that I'm in my 60s and it's totally distracting.

The Tuchman book was the most eye-opening because it placed the American Revolutionary War in its proper place on the world stage at the time (Great Britain lost to us but beat the rest of the world by ultimately defeating the powerful French coalitions arraigned against it).  I didn't previously know that the British placed more importance on the sugar-producing isles in the Caribbean than on the querulous thirteen colonies.

Richard II was the most pleasurable reading experience because even though Shakespeare plays take awhile to read, the language laced throughout each one is an endless source of rumination and application.  When my father died after a wasting illness when I was in my thirties, I thought of and found applicability in Richard's famous speech as his own doom approached--I hath wasted time and now doth time waste me--suddenly he saw that, incredibly, he had just run out of time.  That can, and will, be you and me someday.

The Carhart book was the most interesting, speculating that Lee actually had a grander plan to annihilate the Union army at Gettysburg than merely butting against its center, uphill, on the third day.  Perhaps Lee meant to send Stuart's 12,000 cavalrymen around behind the Union lines to suddenly strike the rear of the Union center at the appointed hour, a maneuver perhaps foiled by, of all historical figures, George Armstrong Custer.  There was a spirited cavalry battle to the north of Gettysburg in which Custer's troopers played a prominent role about the time that Pickett charged the Union lines.

The other nine books on my list were various gradations of good to better to excellent (Antietam to Gettysburg to Rumor).  Of the five additional books I read last year that didn't make the cut, two were military memoirs ( a Pacific War remembrance and the WWI experiences of a Canadian) and three were alternate-scenario military posers mostly involving WW2 (Hitler's only chance to win WW2 once he invaded Russia, it seems, was to reinforce Rommel in North Africa, take Egypt from the British, drive through to the Caucus oil fields to secure them for Germany and then perhaps even link up with a Japanese thrust into south Russia or head off towards India).

Richard II

Richard II by William Shakespeare. What a garden of words! wrote critic Walter Pater about the history in 1889. The noted playwright was acquiring the power of language with which he would later infuse the protagonists of his great tragedies, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear and Hamlet, with their heroic personalties, intriguing pathos and complex characters.

The process of welding language and thought into a single entity was well begun in Richard II, first performed in 1595, noted critic Richard D. Altick in 1947. The play, about a weak king addicted to flowery speech as the personification of life who ran headlong into a cold, calculating realist who stole his throne, is the tragedy of betrayal as well as that of fallen royalty, noted critic Derek Traversi in 1958. Altick observed that the play centers upon the violation of the laws of blood descent, Henry Bolinbroke’s usurpation of the crown of his cousin, Richard II, in 1399, which led but to the spilling of precious English blood, the coming decades of internecine warfare known as the Wars of the Roses.

The play is a riot of speech. Shakespeare’s kings are an eloquent lot, Pater pointed out, and in "no other play perhaps is there such a flush of those gay, fresh, variegated flowers of speech," depicting Richard as an exquisite poet if he is nothing else.

The play contains several references to reverenced England: a scept’red isle, earth of majesty, seat of Mars, other Eden, demi-paradise, fortress built by nature, none finer than that described by John of Gaunt, Bolingbroke’s father, Richard’s uncle:

This precious stone set in the silver sea
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. II.i.46-50.

Bolingbroke, who becomes Henry IV by his deposition of Richard, is banished from the realm by the rightful king in the beginning of the play yet treasonously returns to stage a successful mutiny. Bad a king though he is, Richard notes that:

Not all the water in the rough rude sea
Can wash the balm off from an anointed king III.ii.54-55.

The right of linear descent disordered by Bolingbroke’s actions, the usurpation, will beget:

Armies of pestilence, and they shall strike
Your children yet unborn and unbegot III.iii.86-87.

The Bishop of Carlisle prophesies that as a result of Bolingbroke’s intrusion into the natural order:

The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act IV.i.137-138.

Some in the play, however, are honor bound, and in the finest homily Shakespear offers on the concept of honor, Mowbrey states upon also being banished at the play’s outset:

Mine honor is my life, both grow in one;
Take honor from me and my life is done. I.i.182-183.

Mowbrey honorably heads into permanent exile saying:

Then thus I turn me from my country’s light,
to dwell in solemn shades of endless night. I.iii.176-177.

But the deposing of a rightful king occurs after Bolingbroke collects an army upon his return and ultimately triumphs over Richard’s forces, dispirited by Richard’s ennui. The strange king knows that ultimately there will always be sad stories of the death of kings, for kings live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief, need friends:

And nothing can we call our own, but death
And that small model of the barren earth
Which serves as paste and cover to our bare bones. III.ii.152-155.

And when the new king states to the present Richard in the deposition scene that he thought Richard was willing to resign, the former king reveals a bit more of his pathetic, poetic character when he speaks back:

My crown I am, but still my griefs are mine:
You may my glories and my state depose;
But not my griefs; still am I king of those. IV.i.190-193.

Richard reflects cynically upon human crassness:

Showing an outward pity: yet you Pilates,
Have here delivered me to my sour cross,
And water cannot wash away your sin. IV.i.239-241.

He has already earlier vilified his former subjects, so readily loyal to an usurper as dogs so easily won to fawn on any man, to Scroop his treasurer, who thereupon characterizes the true nature of blissful love turned to blind hatred:

Sweet love, I see, changing his property,
Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate. III.ii.135-136.

Richard cannot live, for alive he presents too much danger to the usurper, and when the natural order is no more, and when time is broke and disordered, and the sounds of the clock striking are clamorous groans which strike at the heart, Richard famously utters his sorrow at his wastrel life.  Indeed, it is commentary on the end of anyone's life:

I wasted time, and now doth time waste me. V.v.48.

Richard is murdered in his prison cell but first, perhaps for the first time in his life, he manfully rises up and kills some of his assailants. Henry IV faces down Richard II’s murderer, Exton, who did the deed pursuant to words he heard from the new king’s own mouth ("Have I no friend who will rid me of this living fear?"), and the regicide king says,

They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee; though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered. V.vi.38-40.

Richard, formerly taking his last leave of his wife, speaks a truism relevant here:

So two weeping together make one woe. V.i.86.
　

Do you still read?

Every year since I started blogging in 2007 I have listed a different set of five books on my Profile as my favorite books (not to be confused with Recently Read Books). The categories are, well, Shakespeare (Othello, King Lear, Macbeth), American Classic (The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Great Gatsby), Enduring Classic (L'Etranger, Waiting for the Barbarians, In the Lake of the Woods), History (Hell In A Very Small Place, Black Hawk Down, Breakout) and Biography/PoliSci (Growing Up, U.S. Grant Personal Memoirs, Goodbye Darkness).

This year I'm listing Hamlet (Alas Poor Yorick!), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (how did Huck miss the Ohio?), The Catcher in the Rye (Goodbye Holden!), Plagues and Peoples (nature will win) and Sherman: Fighting Prophet (you'll discover how and why the Union won the Civil War in this excellent biography).

You can tell a lot about a blogger from his or her Profile.

Confusion now has made his masterpiece.

I just finished reading Macbeth again for the first time since high school. Shakespeare sets the mood of this tight, short tragedy by having the witches announce in Act 1, Scene 2 that Fair is foul, and foul is fair. In other words, nothing is as it seems in Scotland.

The valiant but murderous Macbeth gets it in the end from Macduff, who was not of woman born, but only after Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, the castle where Macbeth holes up after the death of his scheming wife, she of the Vaulting ambition, which o'leaps itself. Act 1 Scene 7 line 27. She set the course where Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles. Act 5 Scene 1 line 80. As the Doctor notes, More needs she the divine than the physician. Act 5 Scene 1 line 82.

The play is chock-full of little thought-provoking aphorisms.

Dealing with adversity:
Come what may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 3 line 147.

For the faint of heart:
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 3 line 36.

Death puts life in proper perspective:
Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 5 lines 23-28.

But perhaps the life cut short was worthy and someone dear to you:
Your cause of sorrow must not be measured by his worth, for then it hath no end. Ross, Act 5 Scene 9 lines 44-45.

On peace:
God’s benison go with you, and with those that would make good of bad, and friends of foes. Old Man, Act 2 Scene 4 line 40.

Have you ever been anxious to get the hell out of somewhere?
Therefore to horse, and let us not be dainty of leave taking. Malcolm, Act 2 Scene 3 line 150.

Did you ever tell a white lie?
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 7 line 82.

Does love have you down?
The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, Which still we thank as love. Duncan, Act 1 Scene 6 line 11.

How about the immutability of life:
Things without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done is done. Lady Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 2 line 11.

Don't you just love Shakespeare?

What's done is done. Books.

As the second month of the new year rolls in, it's past time to change the favorite books section on my profile page. I actually look at the profiles of bloggers I read to try to discern things about them because, after all, I actually know very little about most of the bloggers "I know."

Books are important to me. Recently I started reading again after a desultory period where I wasn't reading much. I finished a 700 page book on the Korean War. (Does that sound like fun reading or what?)

It inspired me to begin an eleven hundred page book on the Korean War. It's exciting! The green U.S. forces have just gotten the bejeezuz kicked out of them by the North Korean army but the day of reckoning is coming for the overconfident Commies. But what is the saying about pride? Watch out, Mac!

I'm thinkin' that the U.S. doesn't "win" the war in this book either.

I always list a Shakespeare book in my profile as a favorite, and change it every year. Two years ago it was Othello, because it is my favorite Tragedy. I love the Moor's profound words about peace:

Keep up your bright swords, for the dew will rust them.
Good signior, you shall more command with years
Than with you weapons. I:ii

If only W had the wisdom to know that the threat of shock & awe is so much more efficacious than actually delivering it, because when delivered its future effect is dulled it through its use (attrition) and, having withstood its onslaught, the recipients realize that they survived it after all and they start looking for weaknesses in the deliverers. (As in the dolts in charge. "Bring 'em on!")

Last year I listed King Lear, my second favorite Tragedy. Anyone who knows my personal situation (3 estranged sons for whom I paid every cent of support, am furnishing full college tuition and fees for, and who don't deign to speak to me or any of my relatives) will see the irony and truthiness in this quote:

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. I:iv

(Hey, Danny, please meet me at Elevation Burger in Falls Church at noon on your birthday later this month and I'll buy you, and whoever you bring [your brothers maybe] a burger and a malt.) (Mmm. Elevation burgers.)

Macbeth is my choice for this year. "What's done is done." III:ii

Furthermore, I always list a war book. Man's history seems like a miserable liturgy of wars. Two years ago it was Hell In A Very Small Place, the Siege of Dien Bien Phu by Bernard Fall, the best war book bar none. Last year it was Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, the best small unit combat book bar none. This year it is Breakout The Chosin Reservoir Campaign Korea 1950 by Martin Russ.

Its jacket says the book is The riveting saga of one of the most heroic battles in American history. It is that indeed, and more. The book masterfully tells of the beleaguered First Marine Division's breakout from the clutches of practically the entire Chicom Army, as the divison travelled precariously over 90 miles of a solitary mountain roadway back to the safety of the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet's guns at the port of Hungnam (North Korea) in sub-zero temperature. The Marines mauled seven elite Chinese divisions in the process. Thank you Oliver Smith (a Marine general). Boo on you Ned Almond (an Army general).

The Marines, in this epic battle, with their successful fighting withdrawal (they brought their casualties, and their dead, out) provided the one shining moment for American arms in the Great Bugout from North Korea that Johnnie Walker's Eighth Army engaged in when the Chinese entered the Korean War, stunning the overconfident Americans and routing our forces. This disaster greatly dimmed General Douglas MacArthur's (Army--Old Soldiers Never Die, They Just Fade Away) final legacy.