Cat and Shanmao's blog

Just finished reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck which, if you know me, tells you a lot about the book. Lately, for the past decade or so, my reading of fiction has been in fits and bursts. Usually, I require an extended period of time to disengage from the world and get into fiction however extended periods of time are hard to come by with my schedule.

The Good Earth is set in some 'pre-revolutionary' time with the revolution being the overthrow of the empire and the establishment of the republic. Since the book was written in 1931 Buck would have had to be a visionary indeed to set the book amidst the revolution of 1949.

The tale follows a Chinese peasant from a life lived close to the land, starting in poverty, overcoming adversity, falling into crisis, then rising in social status. We are taken through different phases of his life and see a few different levels of society. The geographic perspective is always local - foreigners are encountered only once in passing, there is a side trip to a larger provincial city to the south, war is a distant rumor, the revolution when it does occur happens late in the hero's life and he is largely unaware of even the most basic details of what the revolution actually involved. There is no mention of any emperor, little insight into the merchant class, no understanding of the complexities of the local town's social structure. His is a very simple outlook. The land and the earth are essential. Tradition is understood and must be honoured.

Buck's writing style is clear, simple, and the narrative and story line flow simply making for a quick read that you can easily re-enter after a break.

Buck's life was interesting. Spending most of her youth in China with her American missionary parents, her second language was English. I'm curious if there are audio or video interviews with her and whether she speaks Chinese in them. I'd like Gui to tell me what her speech is like.

I'm curious about not too distant lost worlds. What was life like for the First Nations (aka Native Americans, American Indians) who used to live where I've lived in Ashburn, Foster City and San Mateo, Candlestick Cove in San Francisco? They lived on the same land, although the land has been shaped and reshaped, and now would be barely recognizable to them, but their memory has been nearly wiped out.

I'm also curious about pre-revolutionary Russian and Ukraine before the plunge into the revolutionary abyss. Interestingly, the Russian festival in San Francisco seems to be a celebration of pre-revolutionary times by people who have been transported via time machine to modern day San Francisco. Not sure where these fossils come from but fascinating to contrast them with those who came directly from modern day USSR/Russia.

And of course China interests me. While controversial, because of a Western woman assuming the perspective of a Chinese male peasant, Buck provides some insight into a life and perspective that is very distant. Most Chinese people and immigrants I know would be from either intellectual backgrounds or urban labouring backgrounds. Modern day peasants are a few degrees removed from my acquaintances. And the century separating us from the characters in the book mean that many of the traditions from the names of the characters, the style of housing, small rituals, and values, are separated from me by several degrees. I'm curious to try reading some of her other books or perhaps a biography or autobiography.

I take a shuttle from the condo where I live to the BART station in San Francisco every workday morning. BART is Bay Area Rapid Transit, a system of electric trains that services the northern peninsula, San Francisco, and much of the East Bay.

One of my fellow shuttlers, Michael, is a Russian immigrant who always wears industrial strength noise cancelling ear muffs as people do on construction sites. This is to protect his ears in BART which can be pretty noisy when going through some of the tunnels.

I eventually started talking with him and he recommended listening and/or watching lectures from the Teaching Company. I looked this up and it turns out it's a company that makes educational materials comprising audio and video lectures on various topics utilizing high quality professors from top colleges. Here's the wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teaching_Company. It was started by a former politician who had a vision that he wasn't able to execute on while in office, apparently due to laws about how government money can be spent. From the earliest days of audio and video, education was one of the hopes for these technologies.

The company's website is located here: http://www.teach12.com

The topics covered range from history, political science, philosophy, science, math, art, music, economics, to literature and more.

The local library system has some of the audio lectures so I grabbed some music lectures. Started with 'Bach and the High Baroque' and eventually also listened to 'Life and Music of Mozart'. The classical music lecturer is Robert Greenberg, who is based in the SF bay area, and is or was a prof at the SF Conservatory of Music. He's an iconoclastic lecturer who injects humor but also knows his stuff. I also sampled 'Yao to Mao: 5000 Years of Chinese History' but found the lecturer had all the charisma of a wet souffle. I've started listening to 'Great Books' and the lecturer is good.

Hoping to explore more topics, especially topics I didn't study in university such as history, literature, and a little philosophy.