Sunday, August 23, 2015
Europe Blogging
Just FYI, there will be no more new posts on this blog until my first
post from Europe. I will write and publish posts to this blog as I am able to,
but I have no idea when or how often that will be. In all likelihood it will be
like the last trip where I was always several days to a week behind. Like last
time, I am bringing along a notebook in which I’ll be journaling in each day of
the trip, so whatever you read on this blog will largely reflect what I wrote
down in the notebook. My first stop on this journey is Paris, and hopefully I’ll
have a post on it within a few days of arrival.
Saturday, August 22, 2015
Thoughts on Meat Is For Pussies
A week ago I mentioned on this blog that I was reading
through a book titled Meat Is For Pussies
by John Joseph. In my post I stated that although I agreed with much of the
substance of the book in its advocacy for a plant-based diet and healthy
living, I had some issues with the style of the writing. I also stated that I
was considering doing some sort of response to the book to address my issues.
If I went through with it, it would be my first commentary on this blog related
to a book. With my departure for Europe less than a week out and having no
experience since college in doing any sort of literary analysis, I had
originally assumed that I would never get to doing this, however I came to
realize that there’s actually not much to say here. The items I would be
addressing do not require much elaboration, so a lengthy post would be
unnecessary. A short post would also have the benefit of limiting the damage I
inflict upon myself in proving that I don’t know anything about criticizing
literature. With this line of reasoning, and my usual cautionary instincts
strangely missing, I went ahead and started writing, and below are the results.
-----
“Look, I’m not going to preach to you about how you like to
have a good time, because that’s not my thing. I judge no one. What you do for fun is your own business—well, that
is, unless you bring your drunken asshole antics into my personal space. Then
we got issues.” [emphasis mine]
I think it was here, in the opening paragraph of Chapter 2
of Meat Is For Pussies, that I
snapped. The author, John Joseph, had irritated me with his apparent inability
to go a single page without spewing profanity, but when I hit this blatant
contradiction I knew I had in my hands a fundamentally flawed book. I cannot
help but wonder who, if anyone, edited this book, and if they told John Joseph
of the inconsistency between the above statement and the title of his book, as
well as his commentary on the intelligence and worth of those who do not
subscribe to his lifestyle. Although I’m not a vegan myself, I agree with most
of the content about eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle, but
John Joseph has shot himself in the foot with how he wrote this book. Meat Is For Pussies is sadly an example
of an overall solid message dragged down by a poor choice of communication
style as well as the contradiction noted above.
John Joseph writes in a very abrasive, expletive filled,
in-your-face style. As a former violent criminal, convict, and drug abuser,
(among other things) John Joseph’s writing style is understandable, up to a
point. To his credit, in the introduction of his book John Joseph makes it
clear that his intention is to deliver a “… no-holds-barred, New York—style
beat-down on real health and real nutrition.” (Page xxi) This is meant to
convey that he is giving you the hard, no BS truth and not what you’re being
told by society/Corporate America/the government/insert malevolent force here.
I’m guessing John Joseph chose this provocative style because he believes his
audience is ignorant and/or apathetic and they need to be shocked into action.
Certainly there is value this aggressive style of writing, however within it
there is a thin line between being helpful and being insulting, and John Joseph
has crossed that line.
It’s not an official rule, but from my limited writing
experience I do believe that one of the biggest mistakes you can make as an author
is to demean the intelligence of your audience. Even if you really do believe
your audience is clueless or dim-witted, as John Joseph clearly does, you
should still show them the level of respect due all individuals, even those you
hold in low regard. On page 16 of John’s book, while discussing drug and
alcohol addictions, we read “Now let’s take a look at that word for a second: in-TOXIC-ated. The root word being toxic, as in poisonous to your fucking body,
numb nuts.” [emphasis his] There are a number of other points where John Joseph
commits similar sins, but this one clearly demonstrates what I’m talking about.
Even when a person is genuinely misinformed or foolish, this is not how you
speak to them in professional writing.
There is a lot of profanity in Meat Is For Pussies, and the sheer amount of it puzzles me. Why all
the swearing? Is this what people like to read these days? Is this a testament
to what our society’s level of communication has been reduced to? I suspect if
we were to ask John Joseph, he would say the reason for his language is that it
is who he is, and that his writing voice reflects his talking voice. Given his
rough history, there would be merit to that explanation, though it would also
speak volumes to his communication skills. How John Joseph speaks and writes is
of course his prerogative, but how a person speaks and writes has a substantial
impact on the effectiveness in communicating a message. In the case of Meat Is For Pussies, the swearing makes
John Joseph seem less like a serious writer and more like an irreverent
teenager who thinks he knows everything but actually needs his mouth soaped.
To wrap up this failed attempt at literary critique, let me
mention two more things I noted while reading the book. First, at the end of
Chapter 2 John Joseph explains that he doesn’t use the word “vegan” because it
has taken on too much negative connotation. Speaking of the vegans who have
given a bad name to the movement, John Joseph states “I personally believe the
negative connotations that have come to be associated with the V-word can be
attributed to the judgmental, self righteous attitudes of a particular subgroup
of individuals.” (Page 23) Living in Boulder, Colorado, I know exactly the type
of people he is talking about, but at the same time does John Joseph not
realize that he’s talking about himself? To be blunt, John Joseph makes the
“preachy” vegans I know seem not so bad, and I’d sooner hang out with them than
him. Second, John Joseph perpetuates the common myth in our society that people
who play video games are obese, sickly losers. It is unfortunately true that
there are gamers who are like this or worse, and these are the ones who get all
the coverage in our mainstream media. But just as there are both agreeable and
disagreeable vegans, there are both well-adjusted gamers and ones that are not
living healthy lives. If John Joseph doesn’t want us to be making broad
generalizations about vegans, he might take care to not be making the broad
generalizations about groups he clearly has no meaningful knowledge of.
Monday, August 17, 2015
An Enviable Problem
As the day of departure gets closer for my trip to Europe, I’ve been
busy trying to tie up various loose ends and make sure everything is taken care
of before I leave. On the whiteboard in my room there’s a list of things that I
need to get done. I’ve been working away at the list since I created it a week
ago and each day I remove a few items from the list. Granted, it seems each day
I remember one or two more things that I need to get done, so the list hasn’t
been shrinking as fast as I would like. There is one item, however, that’s been
on the whiteboard since I created the list and it has proven to be a harder nut
to crack than anticipated. It is the question of Spain; specifically what days
I’m spending in what cities. Spain comes near the end of my trip and I know
I’ll be flying into Madrid from Istanbul but I haven’t yet been able to come up
with a schedule that gets me to the places I want to go to while also making
sure that I don’t show up on bad days when lots of things are closed. As I’ve
been studying this problem and seeking its resolution, I am well aware that this
is a great problem to have; I’m trying to figure out how to spend three weeks
in Spain. Many would love to have this problem. Many more will never have it
because overseas travel is beyond their resources, and I’m trying not to lose
sight of this fact while I ponder this issue. Thankfully this problem doesn’t
actually need to be solved prior to departure, but I’m still going to keep
working at it.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Return to Form
With my trip to Europe almost here, it occurred to me that this blog
will be reverting back to its original purpose. I created this blog in 2012 as a
way of chronicling parts of my Europe trip that year and allowing others to
keep up with what I had seen and done. Although I knew that I would be doing
some additional writing on the trip after my return, I didn’t think the blog
would continue much beyond that. Well, here we are three years later and this
train wreck of an author is still writing drivel for whoever is willing to read
it. Maybe it’s tenacity or maybe it’s foolishness that’s kept this blog going,
but whatever the case, this blog will soon be coming full circle.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
An Unfamiliar Dilemma
I find myself in an unusual circumstance of late. Currently
I am reading through a book titled Meat Is For Pussies by John Joseph. The book
is a manifesto for a plant-based diet, combined with exercise, and as you can
guess from the title, the book written in a rather abrasive and provocative
style. Although I am not a vegan or vegetarian, I agree with many of the points
the author is trying to make in arguing for people to have healthier lives.
What is really irritating, however, is the way John Joseph has decided to
deliver his message. With expletives pervading nearly every page and multiple
instances of insulting the reader, I can’t deny that I’m a bit disgusted with
how this book is written. This brings me to my unfamiliar dilemma; I am for the
first time since I started blogging considering doing a post to comment on a
book. As neither a literary critic nor one with extensive editing experience,
(as is painfully obvious to anyone who has read this blog) I am unqualified for
this task, but this book has riled me enough that I am seriously considering
it.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Fast Food
I am well aware of the health dangers of regularly consuming fast food
and hence I limit my intake. That said, with my trip to Europe coming up in
just over two weeks, I am planning on grabbing a few meals from places like
McDonald's and Burger King before departure. The reason for this is that I want
a point of reference for comparison between American fast food and European
fast food. I am unashamed to state that on my last trip to Europe I ate fast food
a few times and came home convinced that
fast food (from American major chains) in Europe tasted better than the same fast food
in America. However, upon further reflection I cannot hold to this claim too
strongly because I didn’t eat any American fast food in the weeks before or after
the trip, so I had no actual testing of that belief while the memories were
still fresh. Granted, the only way to get close to settling the question of
whether McDonald's is better here or in Europe would be to get two identical
food orders from both places and eat them within a few hours of each other, and
I don’t have the ability to make that happen. Nevertheless, I’m going to do the
best I can and get a burger here in America within the next two weeks and then
try to get the same burger in Europe within a few days of arrival. It won’t be
a perfect test, but I think it will be good enough for me to make a more informed
opinion on this matter.
Monday, August 3, 2015
Formatting Issues
If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ve probably
noticed that a few of my posts have formatting issues. Most of the issues are
with font, line spacing, and spaces between paragraphs. I apologize for these
problems, but please understand that these are issues that I can honestly blame
on Blogger and not myself. For the life of me I can’t figure out why Blogger
sometimes does what it does, and it seems like whenever I fix one problem,
another one mysteriously appears when I publish or update a post (the
immediately preceding post is a prime example). I will always attempt to fix
these problems, but with a few posts I have reached the end of my rope and am letting them stand
if the issues are not disastrous. Thanks in advance for your patience and
understanding on this.
UPDATE: As of May 21, 2016, the Remembering Big O post has been largely fixed. Over the preceding months it seems that many of my formatting issues were the result of Blogger not liking it when I copied text from a Word document, so I've been copying from a basic text editing program instead.
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