This is Women's History Month, an annual celebration of the contributions that women have made throughout history to make the world a better place to live. As a man who has always loved and worshipped women, I have been upset with recent activity this month in the United States Congress to try to make bodily decisions for women. And let's not even mention a certain Radio Mouth and his sputum. Haven't these clowns read history... One of the current political candidates even feigned amazement that women had somehow been allowed to vote. I would recommend that these guys take the time to read the play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, and learn that it is not wise to treat women as though they don't exist.
While thinking about this, I remembered that I had not yet read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. The Swedish title was Maen som hatar kvinnor or Men Who Hate Women. I had bought a paperback copy of the book sometime ago and had read the first couple of pages and it didn't hold my interest, so I put it aside for a rainy day. Well, it was a rainy day so I decided to give it another try. I stuck with it for 5 or 6 pages.. and then, 400 pages later, I finally put it down!
I suggest that you not go to Wikipedia to learn about the book until you have actually finished reading it.. otherwise, you will not feel that full effect of the twists and turns of the many plots. While you read, you may get the urge to BOO HISS the villains and cheer YOU GO GIRL! for the main female character. As the Swedish title suggests, the author shows us several men who hate women.
He states at one point: "Eighteen percent of the women in Sweden have at one time been threatened by a man."
He also states: "Forty-six percent of the women in Sweden have been subjected to violence by a man."
Larsson is very explicit in depicting such violence; he is also very explicit in depicting the "comeuppance."
The book starts out with a family tree for the Vanger family. I found myself checking it over and over as the characters were introduced or discussed.. a lot like reading a Dostoyevski novel, but not as cumbersome. Most of the Swedish place names were completely unfamiliar to me. Elaine has visited Sweden and knew about some of the locations. This was helpful to know, but not really needed to enjoy the story.
My record for guessing who the main villain might be remains at 100%, although I guessed it from a minute clue that I now believe was tossed into the mix and I think I missed the real clues. As I said, I literally could not put this book down until the main villain got that "comeuppance" that I mentioned. The rest of the story reminds me of that scene in Amadeus where Mozart comments on a piece of Salieri's that, in effect, the main tune is nice, but the rest is "predictable".. I think that Larsson should have not gone on for 100 more pages, but wrapped it up more quickly.. I think readers would have predicted the outcomes on their own. I could be wrong.
Bottom line:
Women need to read this book to HISS and CHEER.
Men need to read this book to look inward.
Everybody should read this book to enjoy a marvelous mystery story.
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Sunday, March 25, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
A Fiend Unleashed.. Addendum
My previous blog entry under the title shown: "A Fiend Unleashed".. talked about Hitler and his attempt to build "the master race" by killing those he thought were "inferior"..
It dawned on me that some younger readers might not have taken my observations seriously.. "surely you exagerate!" Perhaps additional information is needed to drive the point in.. that Hitler and also his right-hand men were indeed "fiends", and not worthy to be called civilized human beings.
The following is extracted from a book published by a good friend of mine from the Social Security Administration. He served as a Military Policeman in Europe during World War II, while he was just a teen-ager. His first-hand war observations during 1944 and 1945 are published in a book titled: My Private Military Odyssey by Harry J. Wade, and I would recommend it to you highly.
"We arrived at Dachau in August 1945. The camp had already been liberated and was being used as a PW (Prisoner of War) camp...The building containing the crematorium still contained the bones of some of the recently cremated people...In the basement there were piles of bones and a bone-grinding machine. There were also clay pots into which the powdered bones were placed, and sometimes a bar of soup made from the human fat was placed on top of the clay pots...
There were so-called "showers" to which many were led to take showers. Instead, they were gassed to death... We were told that, at times, so many people were crowded into the "showers" that the bodies were still standing after the people had died from inhaling the gas...
Others told of experiments on internees at the Dachau camp hospital. One such experiment involved immersing a person in very hot water and then quickly dunking them in ice cold water to monitor body temperature changes. Still others told of lampshades made from human skin..."
The German neighbors of the Dachau camp, as did the neighbors of the Auschwitz Camp.. denied that they knew what was going on there. They claimed that they thought the disgusting smells that issued from the smokestacks was caused by the burning of garbage.
What can be worse than man's inhumanity to man?!
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It dawned on me that some younger readers might not have taken my observations seriously.. "surely you exagerate!" Perhaps additional information is needed to drive the point in.. that Hitler and also his right-hand men were indeed "fiends", and not worthy to be called civilized human beings.
The following is extracted from a book published by a good friend of mine from the Social Security Administration. He served as a Military Policeman in Europe during World War II, while he was just a teen-ager. His first-hand war observations during 1944 and 1945 are published in a book titled: My Private Military Odyssey by Harry J. Wade, and I would recommend it to you highly.
"We arrived at Dachau in August 1945. The camp had already been liberated and was being used as a PW (Prisoner of War) camp...The building containing the crematorium still contained the bones of some of the recently cremated people...In the basement there were piles of bones and a bone-grinding machine. There were also clay pots into which the powdered bones were placed, and sometimes a bar of soup made from the human fat was placed on top of the clay pots...
There were so-called "showers" to which many were led to take showers. Instead, they were gassed to death... We were told that, at times, so many people were crowded into the "showers" that the bodies were still standing after the people had died from inhaling the gas...
Others told of experiments on internees at the Dachau camp hospital. One such experiment involved immersing a person in very hot water and then quickly dunking them in ice cold water to monitor body temperature changes. Still others told of lampshades made from human skin..."
The German neighbors of the Dachau camp, as did the neighbors of the Auschwitz Camp.. denied that they knew what was going on there. They claimed that they thought the disgusting smells that issued from the smokestacks was caused by the burning of garbage.
What can be worse than man's inhumanity to man?!
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