Month: May 2007

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards

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The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards, was another book that caught my eye at the bookstore and didn’t pan out for me. I don’t know what I was expecting, really. The plot was as advertised: doctor delivers his own babies, and gives away the one that has Down’s syndrome without telling his wife. From there, though, the novel falls flat. The characters are incredibly two-dimensional, and the standard opportunities for redemption and growth aren’t present.

As trite as it might be, I read novels with singularly depressing plots in order to see the characters dig deep, search their souls, struggle, and rise to the challenge. I don’t really need to read novels with singularly depressing plots wherein characters lash out, bury their anger, wallow in their guilt, take their secrets to their graves, and drink their way through their sad lives. Really, I don’t. I kept reading because I had a desire to know what happened — my Achilles heel when it comes to novels, I just can’t bear to not know the end in the vast majority of books I read. Unfortunately, the part of the story that would have been the most engaging — what each of the characters does with the truth once revealed — was only a minimal and sketchily rendered bit at the end. The rest of the novel is about how the concealment of such a core truth ruins lives and relationships. Which can be the basis of a powerful novel, it’s just not the basis of a novel I wanted to read.

In the end, this novel is a sad story of the type I am trying not to read as much of, perfect for wallowing in the knowledge of how sad the world is and how people’s choices mess them up. If that’s your thing, go to town.

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, by Kim Edwards

Unequal Childhoods, by Annette Lareau

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I had been interested in reading Unequal Childhoods, by Annette Lareau, for some time when it showed up as a donation to the bookstore where I was volunteering. Education per se is not where my sociological interests lie, but Lareau’s study promised to be more than just another study about how the public education system in the U.S. creates bosses from middle-class kids and worker-drones from working class ones. Indeed, Lareau starts with an acceptance of that understanding and moves forward to consider how expectations and norms of interactions within families differ along class lines and support the sorting project of educational institutions.

I have to say that the data itself was not surprising to me. It may be that, in the years since this work was published, the study’s conclusions have already been integrated into a standard way of understanding the role of family habitus in guiding children’s experiences in education. Or, it could simply be that my own family experience bridges the shift from working class norms of child-rearing (in my parents’ generation) to a more mixed approach that incorporates some middle-class norms (in my own generation). I say a mixed approach, because the conflicts that Lareau notes between the ideals of ‘accomplishment of natural growth’ and ‘concerted cultivation’ become much more than theoretical in actual families. I particularly note the tension between an expectation that children will be respectful — as demonstrated by quickly obeying directives and refraining from whining or arguing — and a desire to encourage their reasoning and verbal participation in family interactions.

This is, indeed, the core of Lareau’s analysis: middle-class habits of child-rearing produce young adults who are well-prepared to forge ahead in the race of global capitalism, while working class habits of child-rearing offer children less stressful and more self-directed experiences of childhood. For those families who don’t believe intergenerational mobility will be likely, we would expect to see the provision of a less stressful childhood prioritized above the molding of children into mini-go-getters. To a certain degree, that is what Lareau reports, and we can certainly see the opposite all around us: when the cultural message is that every child can go to college, and college will move you to the middle class and beyond, parents absorb the message that concerted cultivation is the way to go. Of course, as Lareau mentions only as a small aside, there are only so much space for the elite, and as more people gain access to those practices previously deemed ‘elite,’ the markers will change, as they’ve already done around higher education.

I could go on and on about the implications of this work, but an exploration of the fields of sociology of education, inequality, social justice, and culture is not the purpose here. Of the work itself, I can say it’s thorough, creative, engaging and well-supported. The book is quite readable, as ethnographies generally are (although I am perhaps not the best gauge of which examples of sociological research are accessible to the general public).

Unequal Childhoods, by Annette Lareau

learning how to play Plakoto

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This past week, I cracked open Backgammon Games and Strategies, which we’ve had for a few years now, to learn how to play Plakoto.

It bears saying here that I have been playing Backgammon since I was a small child, and it’s always been one of my favorite games. Perhaps it’s one of my favorites because I usually win; it has certainly been suggested before that I most enjoy those games that I consistently win (and most dislike those which I consistently lose). That is, I used to usually win. Nearly ten years ago, at the end of my first year of graduate school, a Turkish friend stayed at my apartment for a couple of weeks. During the first part of his stay, when the semester had ended but our summer obligations had not yet begun, we played Backgammon. He taught me a variation similar to Plakoto, which also involved taking pieces out of play by pinning them in place rather than bumping them back to the starting position.

During the few days, we played nearly 100 games. I think I — maybe — won one. I am quite certain that however many I won, they were entirely at the whim of my friend’s largesse. I suspect that he thought letting me win might end the compulsion; it must have been like playing against a small child for him. Despite being terribly competitive, I didn’t mind losing. There was a certain level of hilarity in our playing; I, who had always been so good at this game, was getting tromped, over and over, by my friend, who seemed to not even be paying very close attention to what we were doing. As soon as he pinned a single piece, the game would be certain to be over. It was some of the most fun I had in graduate school, those few days.

It was partly the memory of these days that led me back to Backgammon. We hardly play anymore, finding the basic variation to be a little dull. Plakoto, advertised by the Tzannes brothers as ‘King of Backgammon,’ where ‘the excitement and tension are superb’ seemed just the thing. Moreover, in reading over the instructions for Hit (Portes), we discovered the following illuminating section:

An incorrect move must be rectified only if the opponent notices it. This, of course, encourages cheating. In the Middle East, cheating in backgammon is not even considered dishonorable. Our advice is to always watch the opponent’s moves very carefully.

They then go on to list the most common ways of cheating:

1. To play the total throw using a single piece, when it is not possible to do so because the opponent has made points (doors) on both positions of the numbers of the dice…. 2. To remove one or more of one’s pieces while the opponent is engrossed in execution of his own moves. Our advice is to periodically add the number of pieces of the opponent to insure [sic] that they always total fifteen during the game, and watch him very carefully when he is engaged in bearing them off. 3. If the board is made of cardboard or plywood, the dice have a tendency to stick…. For this reason, you must insist that the dice be thrown with the opponents’ hands completely off the board.

The section concluded with this gem:

Another acceptable practice, when you feel the throw is suspicious, is to ‘break up’ the throw. This is done by moving your hands inside the board and touching the dice before they have rested on their sides. A player has the right to ‘break up’ the opponent’s throw up to three times on a given throw.

Forget taking candy from a baby; if my friend had been inclined to use any of these strategies all those years ago, beating me would have been like giving candy to a baby.

This past week, we cracked ourselves up by removing our pieces from the board, breaking up the throws, and bumping our pieces down the board while the other’s head was turned. All of which were highly entertaining, I have to say. Well, as long as I was winning.

learning how to play Plakoto

new life birds & hatchling turtles at the pond

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Today was another beautiful day at the pond. I went around midday this time, and saw three more life birds! This is the first time I’ve actively tried to catch species on their spring migration, and so far I have to say it’s been well worth the effort.

Before I reached the pond, I saw a Baltimore Oriole, in the neighborhood about two blocks from the park. This time there was no mistaking its bright orange plumage, especially after seeing the more rust-colored Orchard Oriole the other day.

Once I arrived at the pond, I found the Yellow-billed Cuckoo still hanging around in the trees that were dripping Eastern Tent Caterpillars. This time I got a good look at its distinctive tail (not that there was any confusion, with its equally distinctive beak). I also saw a couple of Cliff Swallows dashing around, which I’ve only seen once before, at a barn in Dexter, MI. They’re relatively distinctive, though, with their dark square tails and light bellies.

About halfway around the pond I accidentally flushed an American Bittern. At least, I think it was a bittern; I peered at it from the other side of the pond, but it was pretty well into the reeds. Its head looked like a bittern, but the coloring could have also made it an immature Green Heron. I’ll look for it again and hopefully get a firmer ID one way or the other.

Back at the pond entrance, I spotted a couple of swallows on the electrical wires, which turned out to be Rough-winged Swallows. At first I thought they were just the Cliff Swallows at rest, and nearly didn’t look at them through the binoculars. I’m glad I did, though, as they had the distinctive dusty color and forked tail.

Besides the birds, I saw a decent selection of the turtles that appear at the pond. Just after discovering the wader, I spotted a hatchling turtle swimming around near the bank. I couldn’t resist plucking it out and taking some photos of it. It was a Red-eared Slider, a lovely little pastel green color. After photographing it and showing it to the two other people who passed by, I plopped it back into the water, where it promptly swam away into the mud.

I also saw at least one adult Eastern Redbelly Turtle, along with several Painted Turtles and Red-eared Sliders. As an aside, I hadn’t realized that Mud Turtles were so small; the ones I thought were Mud Turtles last fall were likely actually Eastern Redbelly Turtles, and the ones I thought were juveniles were likely actually the Mud Turtles.

new life birds & hatchling turtles at the pond

new life birds & repaired lifelist

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This past week has been a full one: I’ve added a half dozen new birds to my lifelist, sighted in or near my town! Over the past few days I’ve spotted a Lousiana Waterthrush, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and Yellow-rumped Warbler, in Wells Run, the creek that runs through University Park. A few weeks ago I also saw a Cedar Waxwing in the tree right outside my house (whose identification was helpfully confirmed by my neighbor).

This morning at the pond I saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (eat those caterpillars, my friend!), a dozen or so Chimney Swifts (I’d seen these before but never confirmed their identity), and a pair of Orchard Orioles. As this list testifies, I’m still really only an advanced beginner: with quite a few common birds out there yet to be spotted, I’m a far cry from jetting around the world chasing rarities. Which is good, because that gets expensive.

The pond also offered two very small ducklings poking around at the bank with their mother. While these are ‘new’ birds, they don’t make it onto the life tally. Sorry, very cute baby ducks. No sign yet of the goslings, but I’ll keep checking back. I wasn’t able to see the actual eggs, even with the binoculars, but I’m sure there must be some, as the goose has been sitting in exactly the same spot on each recent visit.

On a related note, I hadn’t realized that my lifelist coding was fubar. I apologize for that; it’s fixed now.

new life birds & repaired lifelist