Book #17: Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

Seventeenth book I read since May 2008:

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. It's the first non-fiction entry on the blog, and it is a fascinating book. A true must read for anyone who buys the idea that our society is anything close to a meritocracy.

Gladwell clearly and sometimes painfully illuminates the role of luck, societal bias, class, culture, and well... luck, in the lives of hyper-successful people. In our world, the year you were born, the month of your birthday, the genes you got, the random opportunities that present themselves, and the family/culture/region in which you were brought up -- those factors have much more to do with your success or failure than your own hard work, determination, and your ability to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

The author is not a nay-sayer to the American Dream; he contends that hard work is essential to any success story. And in fact, he argues that to improve the lives of people and the overall functions of society we should we provided better, more equally distributed opportunities to all. Then talent and hard work would be rewarded more often and those successful people would make our world a better place by having their talents and hard work rewarded and recognized.

Gladwell does prove that the "self-made man" is a cultural illusion -- a fairy tale we tell ourselves -- that has virtually no examples in real life. Success in our world depends on being born into the right situations, having time to discover and nurture your talents, and getting the opportunities to apply those talents.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone who questions our society or culture and anyone who goes through life without questioning them. It's an intriguing study of how cultures self-select who will become successful, why some cultures have more success in some areas and tend to fail in others, and is far from the downer that this blog entry might make it sound like.

It's a celebration of success, and a hopeful dream that we can make small changes that can result in big success for even more people. And by the way, it's a quick read. I finished all 300 pages in less than a week on the train :)

- Scott

Book #16: Certain Things Last by Sherwood Anderson

Sixteenth book I read since May 2008:

Certain Things Last: The Selected Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson (edited by Charles E. Modlin)

I enjoyed every single minute of this book. Anderson's spare style and simple phraseology make him easy to read and get into, and he pulls a lot of life knowledge from simple things.

His landscape is mostly rural Ohio, and yet his stories plumb the depths of human experience. Frustration, sexual desire and promiscuity, family obligations and limitations, status, artistry, the innocence and lack of innocence of youth, race relations, class distinctions, and even gender bending.

He also portrays his world with simple grace, bringing back visions of old town and slick cities as they moved from the industrial revolution and the great depression. But not the down sides of this transformation but the simple realities those events created for the people who had to survive them. And the yearnings and discarded dreams of those people.

The stories are short but chock full of great writing and vast knowledge. My favorites were Death in the Woods, Virginia Justice, and Fred. Anderson is a thoroughly modern and accessible writer, and I'd recommend these or any of his works to anyone.

- Scott

Book #15:Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

Fifteenth book I read since May 2008:

Tales of H.P. Lovecraft by H.P. Lovecraft (edited by Joyce Carol Oates)

In the end I think Lovecraft spends more time building a scary world than actually scaring you. Maybe it's because of the time he wrote and how much the fright-and-gore industry has grown, but an underdescribed descent into madness that ends in cannibalism or weird stuff that happens after a meteor lands in a New England field just didn't do it for someone raise on Jason the Slasher and Stephen King. King still thinks Lovecraft is brilliant, and he probably knows more about it than me. But if you are like me and haven't studied horror fiction extensively, you're more likely to react to this out-dated fiction the way I did.

- Scott

Book #14: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fourteenth book I read since May 2008:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Now that was one quick read. A lot of fun to get to this after repeated viewings of the movie (the Gene Wilder classic, not that more recent one). some of the differences struck me: more mean-spirited Oompa Loompa songs; no absent father; finality on what happened to the other kids; no Slugworth temptation, etc. And when I read the final scene, the music from the movie was spinning around in my head. Just couldn't help it.

I think I liked the movie better. Some of the songs were similar and a lot of the ideas were in the book. But Roald Dahl's original didn't have "Cheer Up, Charlie" or "Pure Imagination" -- both of which I love. And the visual sense brought to the movie was equal if not better than the descriptions in the children's book. Sort of the same reason I like the movie version of A Clockwork Orange better than the book. Yikes -- bet that's the first time *those* two movies have been mentioned in the same paragraph ;)

- Scott

They Almost Ruined The Matrix

::barely able to reach the keyboard because of shuddering::

Turns out that they almost cast Sandra Bullock as Trinity in The Matrix (OMG Yahoo! link). Bullock said in the story:

There haven't been any roles that I wanted that I didn't get, but there was a movie I wish I had done: 'The Matrix.' At the time [I was approached about it], it wasn't cast with Keanu [Reeves], and I didn't see myself with the person they wanted [in it]. Later I saw the movie and loved it. It was sexy and great because of Carrie-Anne [Moss] and Keanu.

She's right, it *was* sexy and great because of Moss and Reeves. It's tough to imagine how much worse The Matrix would have been with Sandra instead of Carrie-Anne -- which is what left me shuddering. I mean, it's my sixth-favorite movie of all time (link), and not that Bullock would have stunk up the joint, but she lacks the air of mystery and the brute physicality of Moss.

Thank goodness for small favors. I'd like to meet the person who was originally cast for the role of Neo, and buy that man the beer of his choice... just for inadvertently keeping Sandra Bullock out of The Matrix.

- Scott

2 x 6 = enjoyment!

Some of you are no doubt aware that I had a six-word memoir published a year ago. Well, the folks at Smith Magazine are at it again, and they've just released another tome of shorter-than-short non-fiction -- this time with a theme: "Love & Heartbreak." And believe it or not, *I* am at it again, too. I had a second memoir published, one of the few people to be featured in both books.

The first memoir was pretty serious stuff. "Changing mind postponed demise by decades" refers to a few simple decisions that, when repeated every day for years, pulled me out of a suicidal depression. The memoir and accompanying image are here (ninth one in the series), and the back-story was published by Smith Magazine here.

Interestingly my mother and one of my sisters commented on the back-story, both saying they had no idea what I was going through. I know that wasn't true for my mom, but I believe my sister. And it surprised me that she didn't know -- but she was probably dealing with her own demons from the crazed family environment. I didn't really know what was going on with her, either. Maybe someday she'll write a six-word memoir that *I* can comment on :)

Anyhow, the second memoir is on the topic of Love & Heartbreak. Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith from Smith Magazine were in town last Tuesday on the book launch tour. I checked in with them at the event, at the Brookline Booksmith, and got more than I bargained for.

First, the bookstore's projector was missing a cable. Calling on my years of IT experience, I figured out that we could scavenge one from an old monitor and that's how IT Man saved the day (and got his first round of applause!). They got to show a nice presentation with some choice memoirs from the new book, and it was a great way to warm up the crowd.

Once things got rolling, they called me up to talk about the first and second memoirs, the back stories to each, and how I felt about the process. After telling a shorter version of the back-story from the first one, I moved on to the second memoir.

"They all came before they left."

That got a hearty laugh from the audience, and after some banter between me and Rachel, the story I told was basically this. The memoir refers to a string of women who broke things off with me right after I got them to... er, the "promised land," if you know what I mean. I realize that each relationship ended for different reasons, but it was an odd coincidence that they never seemed to fall apart *before* I got to show my mastery.

My friends sometimes joke about my video game fast-twitch fingers, but it did come in handy during that time. Just wish the good times had kept rolling longer. And I sort of felt like Elaine (from Seinfeld), when she helped her boyfriend become a doctor, and he dumped her after reaching that goal. Sure, the goal I helped with was easier, but... well, I felt *used* -- NOT!

The icing on the cake for the evening was that a reporter from the BU daily newspaper interviewed me and included a paragraph about me in her story (link). From the story:

Scott O'Neil, an information technology manager from Waltham, said he submitted his six-word memoir for both books because he enjoyed the project. His six-word memoir, published in the book about love, was "they all came before they left," he said.

"It opened up my emotional life a little bit more," O'Neil said. "It forced me to go back and live through those [memories] and experience them again."

In any event, I just thought I'd write about this a bit, because it was one of the most satisfying projects I've ever been associated with. I've remade connections with past friends and relatives and found new connections with my friends of today. I thank Rachel and Larry for coming up with the idea and Rachel especially for her endless encouragement.

More about this soon.

- Scott