Ron’s #11: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart tells the story of the Ibo tribe in Nigeria around the late 1800s. Okonkwo is one of the leaders in the tribe, admired for his strength and courage. He has many negative characteristics as well, particularly through our twenty-first century eyes: he is prideful, impatient with his son’s “manliness,” and he is violent to his wives. The main story is how the tribe reacts when European missionaries come to the village on their “iron horses” (bicycles). Okonkwo is faced with either acceptance or violence.

One of the most powerful scenes occurs early in the book when a slave boy from a neighboring village is captured and comes to live with Okonkwo and his family. After three years, Ikemefuna is treated as one of the family, even calling Okonkwo “father.” The Oracle tells that it is time to kill Ikemefuna, so the tribe takes him outside the village. Okonkwo is told not to, as this is his adopted son. After the first blow lands, Ikemefuna cries to Okonkwo for help, and Okonkwo runs to him killing him with a machete, just so others would not think him weak.

I taught this novel for the first time recently, and I was pleased at how students seemed to enjoy the story and discussions. There is much to discuss in this book: colonialism, culture differences, gender roles, and religion. Overall, it was a good experience. However, there was a disturbing part of having taught this. During discussions about Okonkwo’s beating his wives or killing his son, I heard over and over again, “Who are we to judge?” and “That’s their morals” and “We can’t force our morality on others.” I was stunned to see relativism so deeply ingrained at such a young age. We are training a generation of young people to think that it is wrong and America-centric to consider some actions as more correct than others. This may be true if we were talking about style of homes or clothing or television shows, but we are talking about something far more important than that. Some students in my classes could not admit that it is universally wrong to treat women like property or to kill your innocent son. They begin their objections with that pseudo-intellectual start, “Who are we…”

You are a human being, that’s who you are. As humans, we must address these universally wrongs: killing the innocence, enslaving others, abusing women and children. This is a good list with which to begin.

If you don’t agree, perhaps Okonkwo can come to your house and try to change your mind. A few minutes with him, I’m sure you’ll be quick to say how many universal crimes against humanity he commits.

JRF's #10 - King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

This book, written in 1885, is dedicated by the fictional narrator, Allan Quartermain, "to all the big and little boys who read it".

H. Rider Haggard's classic is exactly that - a book for men, boys who hope to become men one day, and perhaps for women who long for the days when men were still men.

This book has it all: adventure, romance, exotic locales, big game hunts, treachery, epic battles, crazy old witches, one eyed savages, ancient diamond mines, bloody beheadings, graphic dismemberments, and side-aching hilarity.  Often times I found myself thinking of Indiana Jones, Michael Crichton, John Huston movies and the like (but not The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - an abomination of a movie and a total misfire of the character of Quartermain!). Yet I had to remember that these stories and films were derivative of this, the quintessential adventure story, not the other way around.

Of course having been written over a century ago there are many elements of the book that are outdated.  These outdated elements are both positive and negative.  The negatives include the underlying racism as well as the unrestricted exploitation of the animal resources of Africa, both common in Haggard's day.

The positive outdated elements I think are what make this book such a great adventure story.  Absent is the bleak cynicism of current literature; characters that could be described as "metro-sexual" or effeminate are no where to be found; and gone is any sense of moral ambiguity.  Instead the values of honor, romance, nobility, courage, hope, brotherhood, chivalry and faithfulness are on full display.  This is a land where men kill what they need to eat, where they will die to defend their honor, and where they will fight evil mano-a-mano. I conjecture that  it is no coincidence that the generation that was raised on the romanticism of the late 1800s was the same generation that was able to lead a nation through two world wars and a global depression.  Of course there were and are flaws in this kind of romantic outlook on the world, but I believe that there is a vital connection between holding to these values and everyday living that has been lost in our present age and that we would be better off if we rediscovered - and for those who know Christ, redeemed.

"There is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it."  p. 49

"Suddenly, with a bound and a roar, they sprang forward with uplifted spears, and the two regiments met in deadly strife. Next second, the roll of the meeting shields came to our ears like the sound of thunder, and the whole plain seemed to be alive with flashes of light reflected from the stabbing spears.  To and fro swung the heaving mass of struggling, stabbing humanity." p. 146

"'a sharp spear,' runs the Kukuana saying, 'needs no polish;' and on the same principle I venture to hope that a true story, however strange it may be, does not require to be decked out in fine words." p.8

Mark's #49 - Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison (268 pages)

I enjoy reading true stories from people who live different and interesting lives, or who go on adventures I would never think of going on.  Thus, when I stumbled (kindled) across this book, the title and the reviews got my attention.

As the title suggest, this book is a compilation of stories from African safari guide Peter Allison.  His writing style is engaging, insightful, and at times humorous. Along the way, I felt I got a sense for what it would be like to be a safari guide and have some frightening encounters with wild animals such as lions, snakes, wild dogs, hyena, cheetahs, elephants, and cranky tourists... During most of the stories, I was glad to be reading them from the safety of my couch, admiring Peter from a distance.  Though I must admit, having read the book, I have more of an appreciation for the African safari and a desire to go there myself  (as my wife has already done).