Higher Learning #1

Welcome to our very first Higher Learning interview. In Higher Learning, College Guys talk about what they're reading, what they read in high school, and what books are important to them now. Today I sat down and talked to Matt (aka Tiny) at Saints Rest Coffee in Grinnell, Iowa, about books and reading.

Matt graduated from Grinnell College in May 2007 and is headed off to Law School this fall. He was a Political Science major at Grinnell and plans on studying Intellectual Property or Corporate Law in Law School. Matt played football in high school and in college, and lived in Ohio until seventh grade when he moved to Wyoming. Thanks for talking to Guys Lit Wire, Matt!

Kelly Herold: What are you reading at this very moment, Matt?

Matt: I'm reading 1421: The Year China Discovered America, by Gavin Menzies. It's historical Non Fiction by a former submarine commander in the British Royal Navy. He uses his knowledge of physical evidence from the oceans to prove the Chinese discovered the world.

Kelly: Is 1421 typical of the books you like to read?

Matt: Yeah, I tend to read historical Non Fiction. I especially like reading American history through the Civil War. I'm also reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, right now. It's about how Lincoln transformed his political opponents into allies after he was elected. Also, I just read Joseph J. Ellis's Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation which reexamines America's historical myths.

Kelly: Okay, let's go back to Middle School. What were you reading in, say, sixth or seventh grade?


Matt: I was in honors English in Ohio and we got to choose our books as a group. I remember reading The Hitchhiker's Guide the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) which was cool. I was reading a lot of Science Fiction at the time. Going into the seventh grade I read The Time Machine and 1984 over the summer.

Kelly: What was the first life-changing book you read? A book that made you think 'Wow' for the first time when reading?

Matt: Probably The Time Machine. It was the first "real" novel I ever read and it made me want to read good stuff, real books, not like the books we read in elementary school.

Kelly: What about High School? What did you read for school and what did you think about required reading?

Matt: I went to a small high school, so they stuck to the basics: lots of Shakespeare, Brave New World, the Inferno, Kenneth Clarke's Civilization (English was part of a Humanities course). As with all required reading, some of it was good, some of it wasn't.

Kelly: Did you do much reading for fun when you were in high school?

Matt: Between football in the Fall and Speech and Debate in the Spring, I didn't have much time for fun reading. I did have to read a lot of articles for Speech and Debate, so that's what I read outside of school.

Kelly: What do you read for fun now when you're not reading historical Non Fiction. You don't take those to the beach, do you?

Matt: Um, yeah. But I've also been reading Terry Goodkind's fantasy books forever. Those are my fun reading.

Kelly: Okay, last question: Young Adult literature--ever heard of it? What is Young Adult literature?

Matt: For some reason it makes me think of Romance novels. Well, I know there are some sports-like books, like Bleachers (John Grisham), but I've never really read Young Adult books.

Kelly: Thanks, Matt, for taking the time to meet with me.

See you all next month for more Higher Learning.

Do teenage boys need books with weak female characters?

Author Ted Bell has a new YA adventure story out now, Nick of Time. He was on Glenn Beck's show talking about books for teenage boys and Beck makes a point of saying that all books out there for teen boys today are emasculating. He is particularly impressed with Bell's book because the boy gets to be the hero (he goes up against pirates, Nazis, etc.) and - here's the kicker - at one point the hero's little sister is in trouble and she tells the bad guys to just wait, her brother is going to come and get her and they will be sorry. (I've embedded the interview behind the cut.)

In Beck's words, it is wonderful that the girl gets saved by the boy and specifically, that she doesn't save him or herself.

That's what he says - how great for boys that the girl does not do any saving.

There are a couple of things that bother me about this discussion (between two adult men without a teenager in sight by the way). First it is that for a boy to feel heroic he must rescue a girl - and the girl also needs to be rescued. I'm sure the sociologists would have a field day over all this but I can't believe that anyone in the 21st century would believe that such antiquated notions of what it means to be a hero have any place in a worthwhile discussion. Save the world - yes! Save the animals, save the environment, save whatever needs saving in your books. But the girl MUST be saved by the boy for the boy to feel powerful? How do these gentlemen think it makes the girl feel to have to wait to be saved? Have they ever thought about that at all?

Here's the problem that Misters Bell and Beck don't give a moment's thought to - sometimes the boy doesn't show up and the girl is all alone. As I wrote last year, remember Dua Khalil, the victim of a so-called "honor killing". This is part of what Joss Whedon had to say about her death:

Because as the girl was on the ground trying to get up, her face nothing but red, the few in the group of more than twenty men who were not busy kicking her and hurling stones at her were filming the event with their camera-phones.

Sometimes the girl is not going to be rescued, sometimes there just aren't any heroes around, and that's why it is so important that we all - male and female - know how to rescue ourselves. That's why no one should have to wait, ever.

Beyond this issuing of rescuing though, I am completely stunned by Beck's assertion that all current books for teenage boys are inferior to those in the past and - I can't believe I'm writing this - emasculating. I am second to none in my hope that more adventurous books for teens will be published (and more mysteries!) but I have read a lot of adventure type books that I am quite confident include strong and heroic boy characters. Just off the top of my head:

Darkside by Tom Becker - werewolves, vamps etc. (sequel due out shortly)
Operation Red Jericho & Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll - pirates, mad inventors, etc.
Corbenic by Catherine Fisher - a fight to save the Fisher King
London Calling by Edward Bloor - time travel back to WWII in London
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson - travel to Faerie to save time itself
The Seiki & Judge Ooka series by Dorothy & Thomas Hoobler - a series of murder mysteries set in early 18th century Japan where the hero goes up against all sorts of greedy devious bad guys

And then there are all the wonderful realistic dramas in which boys do some heroic things not in the grand adventure model, but very significant in many other ways:

King of the Pygmies by Jonathon Scott Fuqua
No Castles Here by A.C.E. Bauer
The Blue Helmet by William Bell
Into the Ravine by Richard Scrimger
At the Firefly Gate by Linda Newberry
Knights of the Hill Country by Tim Tharp

I have not read the Percy Jackson series although it seems like it would fit in here as a big adventure and I'm still reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and Sunrise in Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers, but in both those cases young men seem to be making heroic decisions. It could be that these two books do not fit into Glenn Beck's moral framework however, as they challenge issues of freedom and patriotism in ways that are beyond the classic vision of unquestioning loyalty to "king and country".

But then again, part of the point of the 21st century is just what it means to be a patriot and beyond that, what it means to be a hero.

Does the boy have to rescue the girl and follow the traditional path to be a true hero in fiction? You tell me - please. I want to know what you think.

EDITED ON JUNE 22nd TO ADD: I want to make clear that this larger discussion is about the interview itself and not the contents of Bell's book. In his book it is a little girl who is saved and he is making a big brother/little sister plot point. It could all be fine for this book but that is not what the two men were discussing in this video. Watch it, and you will see that it is generalizations they were making about being a boy, what it takes to be a man, and why weak female characters are a good thing for boys. Their points, not mine.

Watching a Family Fall Apart

Life can be full of troubles. Sometimes these troubles are the result of parents making a mess of their lives—putting their worries, scrapes, fears, and anger on display for their sons or daughters. When a family bond starts to show cracks, very often a person within this shake up learns things about human character that are surprising, maybe frightening. These things one can carry on as burdens, shake off like a bad habit, or learn to endure. Still, it is rarely something forgotten.

In Richard Ford's Wildlife, we read a story narrated by sixteen-year-old Joe Brinson as he watches his parents' marriage and lives unravel. The story takes place in Great Falls, Montana. It's a small town, with not much going on, except for a wildfire burning out of control just outside of town. With smoke on the horizon, obscuring the nearby mountains, people in town go about their day with some normalcy; though, everyone has a tingling sense that something dangerous is nearby. The year is 1960, but there isn't much in this book to place it squarely in that period.

Joe's dad, Jerry, is a gifted athlete, despite little dedication to practice. Jerry is a golf instructor, which has led for a somewhat itinerant life for his family. Joe's mother, Jean, has worked as a bookkeeper and a substitute teacher in the past, but she isn't working in Great Falls. She's pretty, and kind to Jerry and Joe, but she is longing for something that seems to be missing in her life. Joe's parents both graduated college, but the choices they have made about work and where they are is a disappointment to both of them. They've just moved to Great Falls, hoping for a little luck to come their way. As the story begins, Joe is okay with where his parent's lives have taken them. He doesn't have any friends in Great Falls. High school is just a place to go, and maybe a place where someday he'll figure out how to find his place. Joe's thoughts about high school and how to navigate his personal life are put on hold when his dad gets fired and his parents start to pull him into their difficulties. Soon, everything Joe believed or understood about his parents will change.

What makes this book such a great read is the quality of the writing, the exquisite details that grab you by the shirt collar and catch your breath. For example, these are Joe's thoughts as he begins to tell this story, thinking back on the years of his parent's difficulties:

The life my mother and father lived changed. The world, for as little as I'd thought about it or planned on it, changed. When you are sixteen you do not know what your parents know, or much of what they understand, and less of what's in their hearts. This can save you from becoming an adult too early, save your life from becoming only theirs lived over again—which is a loss. But to shield yourself—as I didn't do—seems to be an even greater error, since what's lost is the truth of your parents' life and what you should think about it, and beyond that, how you should estimate the world you are about to live in.

There are some books that seem so real, so full of life, that when you read them, you're amazed that a writer can have the power to reveal raw emotion on the page with such clarity. You learn something about life because a window into a character's mind and guts has been opened for you. Wildlife is that kind of book, and Richard Ford, that powerful of a writer. Many other books, in comparison, seem thin and shallow. If you have ever thought about or have experienced a family break up, this book will offer a clear-eyed perspective on how one lives through that kind of drama.

The last part of this book is riveting. You won't be able to put the book down. I can't let you in on the details, as it would ruin the climactic finale. You'll read what goes down and be reminded of how strange, challenging, and sometimes wonderful it is to watch parents navigate their challenges.

Richard Ford is well known for writing books that pulse with sharp realism. His prose is rarely fast paced. Ford writes like a skilled fly fisherman, expert and precise casting, again and again, and then, suddenly, the line snaps with life on the end, and he carefully reels you in to his brilliant point. Ford was born in 1944 in Oxford, Mississippi. He has won many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award (in fact, his novel Independence Day was the first to win both). He now lives in Maine. Read more about him at Wikipedia, the Mississippi Writer’s Page, or a Google search.)

Wildlife is oddly not a well-known book, even among fans of Richard Ford, but it is one that I highly recommend.

Wildlife
by Richard Ford
Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Vintage (June 4, 1991)
ISBN-10: 0679734473

Brendan Koerner on "Now the Hell Will Start"

Brendan Koerner, author of Now the Hell Will Start, spoke with boing boing last week. Here part of his discussion with Joe L. on the treatment of black soldiers during WWII:

JL: Did most black soldiers in WWII get shipped off for work duty and not combat?

BK: Exactly. We hear about the showpiece units, like the Tuskegee Airmen but the vast majority of black soldiers were used as laborers. The War Department bought into the dodgy racial science of the day and believed that black soldiers were biologically unfit for combat. There were all these scientists who'd analyzed cadavers and concluded that black soldiers lacked the necessary heel-bone length to march long distances. Crazy.

JL: And is this something that would have been known to the black soliders at the time? That they were thought to be sub-human? Or at least sub-par for combat?

BK: It was a huge topic in the black press at the time. There were scientists at Howard and other black universities who argued against this faulty science to no avail. The black press also advocated a campaign called the "Double V" for "Victory at home and abroad."

The idea was, if black soldiers fought valiantly they would earn civil rights back in the U.S. So may blacks wanted the right to fight, rather than just toil behind the frontlines.

Koerner also spoke about why the US tried to build a road through the Burmese jungle during WWII in the first place:

JL: Part of what surprised me...and I think it's related to the misuse of black soldiers and their talent in a way is how utterly pointless the Ledo Road ended up being. It's just heartbreaking. Not just for Perry, but for thousands of these soldiers.

BK: Yeah, it was a project with a noble intention, definitely. I think it's a classic case of what happens when you put decisionmaking power in the hands of people without first-hand knowledge of conditons on the ground. The Army actually sent a major out to survey the jungle and he reported back that the project wouldn't work--or would take many years to complete. But the Army ignored him in part because FDR wanted to mollify the Chinese but also because the generals looked at their maps and said, "Road goes here!" And as the war progressed and airlifts became a more credible option they kept on building the Road because to back out at that point would have resulted in lost face for some very important folks.

The men in the field paid the (ultimate) price.

Calling all Steampunk fans!

Over at Omnivoracious, Jeff Vandermeer has some thoughts on a few new graphic novels, most notably Doctor Grordbort's Contrapulatronic Dingus Directory:

Greg Broadmore has written and illustrated an amazing Steampunk compendium of retro-weapons, along with some stunning visuals of the weapons in action. This might indeed be a Boy's Life dream on the page, but who can resist such insane creations as Ignas Fraunhoffer III Gas Driven Gadabout or Dr. Grordbort's Highly Popular Portable Inertionaut. The concluding section, Lord Cockswain's Marvelous Interplanetary Excursions, is part wacked-out sci-fantasy art, complete with weird aliens, and part send-up of Imperial intent. Yes, there are nice descriptions of the inventions, but the primary joy here is in the intricate detail of the full-color art.

Steampunk lovers should also check out the anthology Jeff and Ann have just edited, Steampunk. Here's a bit from the PW review: "Michael Moorcock, the godfather of steampunk, is represented by an excerpt from his classic novel The Warlord of the Air. In 'Lord Kelvin's Machine,' a fine tale from prolific steampunk author James P. Blaylock, mad scientists plot to throw the Earth into the path of a passing comet, declaring that 'science will save us this time, gentlemen, if it doesn't kill us first.' Michael Chabon's vivid and moving 'The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance' recounts the lives of two young brothers in the aftermath of George Custer's mutiny against Queen Victoria, while historical fantasist Mary Gentle describes a classic struggle between safety and progress in 'A Sun in the Attic.' This is a superb introduction to one of the most popular and inventive subgenres in science fiction."

Conversin' with a Kraken & kickin' mutant cockroach butt...

Let's play a game of Mental Picture and see how things go.

First, imagine two giant monsters throwing down like a couple of WWF wrestlers in a large metropolitan city. Sort of like in a Godzilla movie, with both of these monsters a couple hundred feet tall, tossing each other into famous landmarks and obliterating the skyline. One of them is a genetically cloned T-Rex and the other is a mad-scientist- turned-humanoid- cockroach-mutant.

Are you still with me?

Okay, so the city is London, not Tokyo, and both creatures are the inadvertent results of secret British government funding. There is no radioactivity involved. T-Rex makes his appearance when the funding for his project evaporates and he escapes down the Thames to the sea where he instinctively seeks the Yoda-like wisdom of a nine thousand year old Kraken who is the current Defender of Earth.

Have you cried uncle? But wait! There's more!


When asked by the Kraken if he has a name, T-Rex responds with a line pulled straight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

"There are some who call me... Tim."

Oh yes, and the mad scientist. Well, he was working with nanobots that could deconstruct organic matter at the cellular level, move about as a swarming cloud under mental telepathy, and then recombine it either as it was or modified. When his project is rebuffed by the government he takes it upon himself to take his research to the field, as it were, deconstructing roaches and rats and hapless drunks in the Underground at closing time and recombining them into his own super-self, a god-like being impervious to almost anything that can be thrown at him.

And the scientist has a teenage daughter, Anna. And she's a bit of an outcast. And she hooks up with another outcast, a teenage boy named Chris. And Chris has been chosen to wear a special bracelet that can harness the energy of Earth, energy that can be used by Tim. And...

I'm sorry. Once you get started with a story like this it's hard to know how much is too much. Clearly the author doesn't believe in such restrictions because he tosses everything into the pot. There are times where I would say this is a bad thing because sensory overload eventually kicks in and numbs the brain to the point of boredom, but not here.

This is the book that recently helped solidify my thinking behind the Big Dumb Book. Just as there are Big Dumb Movies that you can enjoy on a purely entertainment level, so are there books that just carry you along, like surfing a wave on absurdity. As a break from all the other required summer reading -- you know, that stuff like broccoli that's supposed to be good for you -- here's a bit funnel cake from the county fair to prevent the brain from calcifying.

Bonus time! Check out this illo to be bound into the hardcovers! (Click on image to see better resolution and full shot of Big Ben getting dunked!)


Do you know a teen boy who can appreciate action-packed fiction, Python-esque humor, and the occasional absurdity of comic books? Bingo, here's their next book.

TIM! Defender of the Earth
by Sam Enthoven
Razor Bill / Penguin 2008

More Than Super-Heroes

I’m going to come clean with you right from the beginning: super-heroes are my favorite. I’ve been reading comic books and graphic novels since I was four-years-old. I’m much older than that now and I read these things professionally as well as for fun and, still, nothing speaks to me quite the way your average super-strong guy in a mask does. Why? Because they fight, of course. I don’t mean they just punch each other a lot (which is great), but rather that they are always struggling to make things better – or at least to keep things from getting worse. Read anything – humor, sports, adventure, biography – and I bet if you think about it, it’s the fight in a character (or real person) that makes him/her interesting or engaging.

So, if you know this, you can probably guess my favorite among the heroes has got to be Spider-Man. He’s the quintessential super-hero, see, because his whole life is about fight. He’s got some powers, naturally, but it’s always just a little too hard for him. The bad guy is a little too big, too strong, too fast, too mean. The situation is too dangerous, too scary, too sad. His whole story is about reaching down inside of himself and struggling to match up. Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 1: Power and Responsibility (by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley) is an excellent example of this. You probably know the story: high school outcast gets bitten by super-spider, uses powers for personal gain until tragedy strikes, then resolves to own up to his responsibility (just like Uncle Ben said). Probably though, you haven’t seen it quite like this: written so you get into these people’s heads, drawn so the characters practically burst from the page as they’re kicking each other in the teeth. And a little bit sad in the end, too. You won’t remember this one just because it had good action.

Maybe Spider-Man isn’t your favorite. Practically every super-hero in the Marvel Universe appears in Civil War (by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven). Seems that some amateur super-heroes just blew up a small town by mistake and the government has had it. Now super-heroes have to register their secret identities and work for Uncle Sam or they are considered criminals (remember X-Men 3?). One group, led by Iron Man, understands the need for registration, another group led by Captain America thinks once you let one man (or one government) tell you who to beat up, you’re not really a super-hero anymore. Who’s right? Problem is, everyone’s right. And no fight is ever as fierce as when everyone knows they’re right. You will not believe the size of the action in this one, or some of the things that guys you thought were heroes are willing to do to each other to win.

It gets bigger still. Kingdom Come (by Mark Waid and Alex Ross) is about the heroes from the other company (DC – they do Superman, Batman, Flash, etc.). It’s years in the future and the heroes we know have retired. New heroes have taken their place, except they’re as bad as the so-called “criminals” they fight. When these guys leap to the rescue, as many innocent people die as are saved. Superman can’t take it anymore. Older, less certain of himself, he returns to try to set things right. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees with his philosophy about what’s right. That includes old friends like Batman and Wonder Woman. Before you know it, pretty much everyone shows up and takes a side, including old time villains like Lex Luthor and the Joker, who work to manipulate things from behind the scenes.

Civil War and Kingdom Come are Big Ones, pretty much the final word on gigantic super-hero action with an interesting question at their centers.

Tired of super-heroes? Fair enough, even I don’t read them all the time. The truth is, there’s so much great stuff out there that isn’t about super-heroes, it’s sort of hard to stick with the flying, swinging, punching types all the time anymore.

Take sports, for instance. Any really great sports story is also a human drama at the same time. For example, The Golem’s Mighty Swing (by James Sturm, also available in the collection James Sturm’s America, along with a bunch of other excellent stories not about baseball). Back in the 1920’s, various minority groups, including African-Americans, Jews and women (not actually a minority group, but still not seen playing baseball too much) formed various teams and swung the bat in small towns throughout the country. One such Jewish team was called the Stars of David, and times were getting tough for them (less interest = smaller audience = less money = trouble). What can you do? Well, the team’s manager/captain realizes the only way to lure in the audience is to play to the mystery that surrounded minority groups at the time, and he dredges up a monster from old Jewish myth, the Golem (sort of a Jewish Incredible Hulk) to play on the team.

In a completely different genre (humor), comes The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey (by Steve Sheinkin). Elk Spring, Colorado is an Old West town without a sheriff. And instead of your run of the mill, gun-slingin’ tough guy, they wind up with Rabbi Harvey, humble and soft-spoken, but smart as a whip and awfully funny. You think the only way to stop a marauding outlaw is to shoot the gun out of his hand? You think the only way to get the best of a greedy old biddy is to haul her into the clink? Turns out some old Jewish wisdom works pretty well, too. Sounds like a strange combination, I know, but there’s more laughs per minute in this thing than in your average Judd Apatow movie. Seriously. There’s a sequel, too (Rabbi Harvey Rides Again, also by this Sheinkin guy).

Finally, maybe have a look at Houdini: The Handcuff King (by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi). Houdini wasn’t exactly a super-hero, but he wasn’t exactly not a super-hero either. I mean, as far as real people go, he must have come about the closest. Catch him here as he prepares and conducts one of his greatest escapes: diving into the freezing cold Charles River, naked and handcuffed. Just seeing that stuff is pretty great, but seeing the little things that made Houdini the man he was makes this one the treasure it is.

Okay, so that’s a good beginning. Hopefully there are a couple reads here you haven’t seen or heard of yet. In the future, I’ll probably talk about just one or two books at a time, some newer, some older, plenty of super-heroes, but plenty of the other good stuff, too. Heck, I might even throw in something that isn’t a graphic novel here and there.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy.

Teaching the "language of hope and inspiration"

In a NYT Op-Ed last week, science writer Brian Greene has some thoughts on how educators teach science wrong:

But here’s the thing. The reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional. To be able to think through and grasp explanations — for everything from why the sky is blue to how life formed on earth — not because they are declared dogma but rather because they reveal patterns confirmed by experiment and observation, is one of the most precious of human experiences.

As a practicing scientist, I know this from my own work and study. But I also know that you don’t have to be a scientist for science to be transformative. I’ve seen children’s eyes light up as I’ve told them about black holes and the Big Bang. I’ve spoken with high school dropouts who’ve stumbled on popular science books about the human genome project, and then returned to school with newfound purpose. And in that letter from Iraq, the soldier told me how learning about relativity and quantum physics in the dusty and dangerous environs of greater Baghdad kept him going because it revealed a deeper reality of which we’re all a part.

It’s striking that science is still widely viewed as merely a subject one studies in the classroom or an isolated body of largely esoteric knowledge that sometimes shows up in the “real” world in the form of technological or medical advances. In reality, science is a language of hope and inspiration, providing discoveries that fire the imagination and instill a sense of connection to our lives and our world.

The "language of hope and inspiration"; have you ever read something so wonderful? Science matters; expect to find many books on science here at Guys Lit Wire.

John Carter Of Mars coming to a big screen?

Hmmm. No idea how true this rumor might be, but supposedly Andrew Stanton is writing the script for Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic seriesJohn Carter Of Mars. This is interesting for a couple of reasons, Stanton is famous for writing Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and other Pixar classics and John Carter...well, he is not a cartoon. Here's the publisher's description of the first John Carter book, A Princess of Mars:

Virginia gentleman John Carter, unexpectedly transported to the perilous red planet, Mars, finds himself captured by the loveless Green Men of Thark. As Carter struggles to win his freedom—and the affections of fellow captive Dejah Thoris, princess of the rival clan of Helium—the fate of the entire planet hangs in the balance: warring Martian tribes collide and the beleaguered Atmosphere Factory grinds to a suffocating halt. Ray Bradbury, reminiscing on the enduring thrill of Burroughs’s Martian adventure, writes, “I stood on the lawns of summer, raised my hands, and cried for Mars, like John Carter, to take me home. I flew to the Red Planet and never returned.”

Bradbury loves it - please don't screw this up Mr. Stanton!

If You Like Chess...

Maybe you enjoy a game of chess once in a while, or checkers or mancala. Maybe you've watched or read the Japanese series Hikaru No Go. I've got a book for you. Okay, five books:

Volume 1: Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game
Volume 2: Learn to Play Go: The Way of the Moving Horse
Volume 3: Learn to Play Go: The Dragon Style
Volume 4: Learn to Play Go: Battle Strategies
Volume 5: Learn to Play Go: The Palace of Memory

Go is called Wei Chi in China, where it originated over 3000 years ago. The Koreans call it Baduk. In Japan, go is the national game, and until recently most of the world's top players were Japanese. Today Korean and Chinese players are some of the dominant figures of go (or whatever you wish to call it), and there are a few westerners who play professionally. This series was translated into English by Janice Kim from the original Korean by Jeong Soo-hyun. He is a top-ranked professional go player and university professor of the game. Volume 5, however, is apparently more the work of Ms. Kim, drawing on what she learned studying in Mr. Jeong's academy. She had fifteen years of professional experience when she published this final volume in 2003.

Go is a strategy and tactics game, as is chess. But it involves capturing territory (The Chinese name for the game translates as "the surrounding game.") rather than a king, so it resembles war more than chess does. Where chess is played on an 8 X 8 grid, the go board is a grid measuring 19 X 19. So instead of 64 places pieces can occupy, there are 361. That many possibilities can overwhelm the beginner. If you are new to the game, it's a good idea to start on a smaller board. On a 9 X 9 board you can learn the rules and grasp the essence of the game. Then, with some experience, move on to the challenge of the full-size board.

Go has a handicap system, so when playing against someone more experienced, winning (or at least a respectable showing) is possible for the less-skilled player. This also helps make the game interesting and challenging for your more skilled opponent.

Reading the first book in the set is enough to get you started and volume one fortunately includes a board and playing pieces (called "stones"). The rules are simple, but the game has so many possibilities that mastering it takes years -- some would say a lifetime. Ms. Kim notes that "The first three volumes are the introductory series, designed to give the reader the most solid foundation possible for quick progress."

"As well as being an interesting amusement, go is also believed by many to develop one's brain power and even build character. One certainly must use one's intellect to play go, but one is also rewarded for awareness, a calm heart, and a sense of purpose. Even though it is not a physical sport, go is categorized as a martial art because of the aspects of self-development involved. That's why go is sometimes called 'The Way of Go' or 'The Teachings of Go.'" (From volume one, page 53)

I host a "Chess and Go" program at our public library. When I teach people to play go, I show them Janice Kim's books. Recently I played against a boy I had taught maybe six months ago. He beat me, which really surprised me. I figure he's been studying Learn to Play Go. Either that, or I teach the game better than I play it. Rats!

Before this set was published in English, Go for Beginners, by Kaoru Iwamoto, was probably the best introduction to the game. I learned the game from it and recommend it without hesitation. But Learn to Play Go is even easier for the beginner. To help the reader, the authors follow instructional chapters with "Test Yourself" sections. When I failed some of those test questions, I benefited from reviewing the material.

My one complaint is that the page layout wastes a lot of space. The series probably could have been published in two or three volumes. That said, Janice Kim has given us an excellent introduction to the game of go.

Beyond the Books

A good way to study the game of go is to replay professional games. An amazing archive of games dating from the eighteenth century to recent championship matches is available for that purpose at http://gobase.org/. As I replay them, I try to figure where the best move would be. Three of the twentieth century's top players were Kitani Minoru, Go Seigen, and Sakata Eio. I like studying their games, especially. Lee Chang Ho is one of today's best. I enjoy studying games he has played against his mentor Cho HoonHyun, and against other 9-dan (the top rank) players. Note that the family name is given first, so GoBase's alphabetical list is searched, for example, for "Sakata," not "Eio." GoBase has other useful resources, as well. It's the best website devoted to go that I've found.