Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

Doppelganger

A Trip Into the Mirror World

by Naomi Klein

ISBN 9780241621301

Naomi Klein (author of The Shock Doctrine and No Logo) thought it was a little weird when people started mistaking 'Other Naomi' (Naomi Wolf) for her. After all, although they share a first name, had brown hair and at one time had views that seemed at least somewhat similar on the surface, Other Naomi had since fallen deeper and deeper into the world of right wing conspiracy theories. As confusion about which Naomi was spouting this stuff grew more widespread, and she received nasty comments online and overheard conversations criticizing her for comments Other Naomi had made, Klein became more distressed. She started to think about the doppelganger idea and decided to find out more about what hers was saying and doing. She began to watch and listen to media where Other Naomi appeared, looked through her website and writings, and began to wonder how Other Naomi went from what she was to what she is. As she got further into this journey, she saw patterns emerge that are relevant to all of us and to society at large, making connections between the idea of the doppelganger and how we live our lives online, doppelganger politics, economics, and more. For example, Klein points out that anyone who has an online presence is, in a sense, their own doppelganger. She discusses a 'Mirror World' of conspiracy theories in which genuine issues are given bizarre explanations and there is an attempt to create a false equivalency of victimhood. The ideas in this world are often contradictory--the point is not to create a coherent narrative or to convince anyone who is actually paying attention, but is a tool to distract and encourage denial both inside this world and outside it. 

This book is not a simple criticism of the Mirror World, but also shows the ways in which those outside it, who are not mired in right wing media and conspiracy theories have their own issues-- in the 'Shadow Lands' where people who are critical of the inherent racism of the far right, for example, don't see the ugly reality underneath the comforting mythologies colonial countries like the US, Canada, and others are built on.

Klein is doing what she does so well here--investigating deeply, going where her findings take her, pulling various threads of thought and observation together, and making connections. It's a book full of insight, keen observation, and critical thinking and one that is definitely timely and important. I highly recommend it.

I thank NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital advanced review copy.

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Our Strangers by Lydia Davis

 

I had not read anything by Lydia Davis before this book. I had also not read anything by anyone that was quite like this. My first reaction shortly after starting this book was, 'Wow!' Now that I am finished with it, that is still my reaction. This is a fabulous book of short and very short stories about small aspects of everyday life that most of people would either miss or forget about shortly after they took place. Yet, as this collection reminds us,  these are the moments that make up our lives and they're worth noticing and paying attention to. Some of the stories are several pages long and some are just a few sentences. Even the very short stories leave  traces of larger stories that the reader can fill in in whatever way their imaginations takes them. A few of the stories provide different versions of the same events within them. There are stories that made me laugh out loud, stories that made me feel the awkwardness of a given situation, and stories that are poignant. I devoured this book in one sitting, but it would also be a good book to keep in a handy spot so one can easily dip in and out of it. It also warrants rereading. It may also make readers want to notice the usually unnoticed as they go about their daily lives. I can't wait to read more Lydia Davis and I am thrilled to have discovered her work. 5+ stars.

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a digital review copy.

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A Cat's-Eye View of Japan

For those of you who love cats, here are some videos that I really enjoy watching--each one is about 5 minutes long. I can't share the videos themselves here because NHK Japan doesn't allow viewing off their YouTube page, but here's the link to the playlist.

The cats are fun to watch, the scenery is beautiful, and the glimpse into the culture of each place is interesting. There are subtitles where necessary.

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Wait and See How It Goes

 I've started volunteering at a small local museum that has just reopened after being closed for 4 years. I'm not sure why they closed--it was before the pandemic--and we didn't live here then. In any case, it's open again now and I decided to volunteer for a shift each week. I did my second one today. It's going OK so far, but to be honest, I'm not sure how it will be in the long run. Everything seems very random, haphazard, and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. That's not how I roll. I have decided to wait and see how things go. I'm making conscious decisions to not jump in and try to do too much. As much as I am inclined to try to impose order on what seems to me to be a chaotic, disorganized situation, as I have done in the past (not always successfully), both in paid employment and volunteer gigs, I am going with the flow and accepting the way it is. This may mean that I eventually get so frustrated that I walk away or it may mean that I learn to comfortably operate differently. Time will tell. I remind myself that I am not in my own culture anymore and this is how things are here. It seems to work for them and whether it works for me doesn't really matter. I'm the one who doesn't know everyone in the town, the history, etc. So much is left unsaid because they seem to be used to dealing only with people who have been here for years. For example, I was not given any sort of instruction on what to do when I am in the museum--I still have not even had a chance to see all of it. Most of the exhibits are self-explanatory, but I had to ask for information on some things. Today a couple of people came in and I had to go downstairs to turn on the lights because it was particularly dark in one room. I went to the closet where the switches are, but I looked at the switch box in vain for anything that suggested which switch was for the downstairs front room. Finally I just turned all of them on to see what would happen. It was the last switch, marked 'audio-visual' that I needed. 😐😕 Communication is weird and via a What'sApp group where there are many conversations going on at one time and answers to questions are vague. Maybe this is typical of such groups--I am new to the whole What'sApp thing. In any case, the museum closes for the season at the end of September and I think there will be random events in the months until it opens again in the spring. I can decide what I want to participate in as they arise. In the meantime, I have learned more about the history and culture of the town, both of which I find quite interesting. In the process, I am observing myself, too, and noticing how I react to things, which is also good. More self-awareness is never a bad thing.

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If It Must Be

 If we must have summer, then I want more summers like this July has been! We had our heatwave earlier in the season. By that I mean an Irish heatwave, which is quite mild (even if too hot for me) and would feel quite cool for millions of people right about now. I am no fan of bright sunny days and hot temperatures, but I am mindful of the fact that so many are suffering in dreadfully hot conditions right now. We don't get that kind of thing for which I am eternally grateful.

What we do get is rain. It has been pretty rainy for the month of July. There were a few mornings that felt like the edge of autumnal, at least for a few hours. I sat in the conservatory, sipped tea, and just enjoyed it. Today has been a rainy day--the kind I love. Rain, rain, more rain, and then it rained some more, sometimes heavy showers. You can't see the rain very well in this picture, but it was lashing down at the time--it's just visible in the top left and bottom right corners. 

More rain is expected through tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night--yay! The downside is the increased levels of various sorts of fungal spores. As usual at this time of year, I have a scratchy throat with an occasional tickle which makes me cough, fatigue, and other issues as a result. But here we are, in what seems like the blink of an eye, staring down the end of July. 

It's cool enough that people have their fires burning--they do love their open fires here and stores sell various sorts of fuel year-round. Whatever the neighbourhood fire is being fueled by tonight, it smells gross.

Whatever the weather in your part of the world, I hope July has been a good one for you and if it's roasting, I hope it cools off soon!

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The Lost Supper By Taras Grescoe

 The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past

by Taras Grescoe

Published by Greystone Books in partnership with the David Suzuki Institute 19 September 2023

ISBN 9781771647632

In The Lost Supper, Taras Grescoe takes us on a journey as he describes his attempts to 'deindustrialize' his diet and to make the case that the world can benefit from traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). To do this, he takes a deep dive into foods of the past, travelling around the world to educate himself about what people ate in the past and what remains of that food today. He speaks to archaeologists, growers, chefs, and those who harvest various kinds of food. It's a fascinating and highly readable book. It's no secret that industrial food and the standard diet of most people in wealthy nations in not healthy for people or the environment, but the facts as he lays them out are still startling. For example, in his Prologue, he says that 9 out of 10 gallons of milk in the US 'now comes from freakishly productive Holstein-Friesian cows, all of which are descended from only two bulls.' He also makes the point that our diets are far more limited now than they were in the past. 'At a single 23,000-year-old site in Africa's Rift Valley, archaeologists have found evidence that Paleolithic foragers feasted on 20 small and large animals, 16 families of birds, and 140 different kinds of fruit, nuts, seeds, and legumes, a diet drawn from wetland, savannah, woodland, and desert food webs' (also from the Prologue--there were no page numbers in my copy). Obviously, the human diet is far less varied today. Grescoe is not making the argument that agriculture is bad, nor is he saying the 'paleo diet' fad is good. Industrial agriculture as it is currently practiced is problematic and the Paleo diet has nothing to do with the reality of what Paleolithic populations ate. Rather, he is making the case that we need to expand our options and take lessons from what and how people ate in the past for our own health and that of the environment in which we live. What he found in his travels, though, was a mixed bag--sometimes the stories were hopeful, but sometimes they were not.

He went to Mexico City to discover and taste some bugs that used to be a staple food, but now, due to development, the bugs are hard to come by and very expensive to buy, thus putting them out of reach for those without the money to spend on such delicacies. When he visited his hometown on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, he talked to the indigenous population who have been denied access to their own Native foods for centuries. One man dubbed this 'food warfare' which is a good way to put it. Without traditional Native foods, people became reliant on empty calories, white flour, sugar, etc and health deteriorated. This is a common situation worldwide. On the more hopeful side, he visited some cheese makers in the UK who were building a successful business making cheese that is good for people, the cows, and the land. These are just a few examples the author focuses on--there are many more, each one quite fascinating.

I loved this book. Not only did I learn about foods I'd never heard of, but also about the locations where these foods thrived--the geography, environments, cultures, and prehistories/histories. I think these things are worth knowing, even if only for the ideas they can bring and the lessons we can apply to our lives today. I do not think that even the successful enterprises he visited will be a solution to current and future food problems. There are too many people on the planet and as these food entrepreneurs pointed out, high quality food is more expensive. Many people cannot afford it and many of those that can, don't want to pay more. We cannot recreate the past, but we can learn from it. 

This is a fine book that is definitely worth reading if you're in any way interested in food, food culture, history/prehistory, cultures in general, and food history.

I receieved a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a review. I thank them, the publisher, and the author.

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Bold!

 Last night, I finished a pair of socks. Today, I have happy feet. Love, love, love! 

Details:

Yarn is King Cole Zig Zag sock yarn in the colourway Butterfly. It's 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon. A skein is 100 grams/460 yards/420 metres. Created with a size E/3.5mm bamboo crochet hook. Crochet design is my own. There is an afterthought heel, which means that when that wears out, I can cut it off and make a new one, thus extending the life of the socks. My socks always wear out on the bottom of my foot at the heel end, so this is good. 

They're extremely comfortable, fit my feet perfectly, and I love the bold colours which make me smile every time I look at them. And I have a fair bit of the yarn left, so I will be able to use it in a future scrappy project. At least some of it will be used on my triangle pin loom--I am really looking forward to seeing how it weaves up on that.

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