The Essence of Style

Yes, I admit it. I read this book by Joan DeJean. But, it is not all fluff as some may imagine.

Let's start at the beginning. DeJean's thesis is that what we know as "style" today is really French and was for the most part invented during the reign of Louis XIV. This might seem a bit of a stretch when you first hear it, especially in how things are globalized today, but after reading the book, I think that she may be right.

DeJean dicusses the usual suspects - clothes and shoes and things like that - which was a little dull for me and I would imagine a lot of guys, but she also brought up the importance of the introduction of street lighting and the folding umbrella. These last two made things a little more mechanical and male friendly, but were also shown (surprisingly to me at least) to fit in to what she was trying to show overall quite well.

She also describes the development of the mirror, champagne and the diamond trade among other topics which made for interesting reading as well. I did appreciate her attempt to place a value on things in today's money so that readers could get an idea as to how expensive things were back then - some things we take for granted today like mirrors were outrageously expensive. (It seems clear that the French nobility was really asking for the Revolution given what they were spending and how they were living compared to the common people who were really financing what were often very frivolous lifestyles - not that I am a communist or anything like that.) DeJean also throws in a lot of French phrasing with helpful English translations; this proves amusing at times, especially if you understand a little about the French language.

I do have a few issues with the book. There were not enough pictures of things she described that are difficult to understand, and the pictures she did use often did not clearly show the things she claimed were in them. Her language got a bit vague in places. She also breezed over some topics that should have been taken up in more detail. For example, I would have liked to know more of the techincal details on making many of the items she described. So many books today are too long, but this one was too short.

Give it a look if this sort of thing interests you.

The Pagan Christ

This is a book by Tom Harpur. His premise is that Christ is basically an ancient Egyptian concept that has been borrowed many times and that Christianity went from being esoteric and right to literal and wrong. That being said, I cannot recommend this book.

First, the writing is very repetitive (annoyingly so) and not always clear. Some judicious editing would have helped a lot.

Second, the leaps in logic cover some long distances. It seems like the author left out some very important pieces to his story. I wanted to toss the book out a few times, but it was like seeing a car wreck and not being able to look away.

In fairness, the author introduces some interesting concepts and expresses some nice and occasionally profound sentiments here and there, but they are not tied together into any cogent argument.

It is also a bit of a shock to hear the Jesus Seminar being criticized for not going far enough. The comments on George Bush were really uncalled for as well.

If you decide to take a look anyway, don't say I didn't warn you.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

This is a book by Deepak Chopra. It is in many ways along the lines of Dyer's Power of Intention that I wrote about several months ago, but it brings out other points of interest.

The discussions of all the seven laws are interestingly presented, but that of the first and last made the biggest impression on me.

The discussion on the first, the Law of Pure Potentiality, makes the point that we must avoid "object-referral". That is, we should not concern ourselves so much with getting the approval of others, control or external power. This is based on our fear and is ego driven; ego being as opposed to the true Self. Chopra recommends silence, observation of nature and non-judgment as ways of finding the Self and becoming self-referred instead.

The discussion on the last, the Law of "Dharma" or Purpose in Life, gives a procedure on finding one's purpose. In it, Chopra says first to ask yourself what it is you would do if you had all the time and money in the world so that these were not issues. Then ask, how you can best serve humanity. I guess that gets right down to it, doesn't it?

Perhaps these seems obvious/too simple, but one should ask oneself, am I really putting this into practice? I am trying, and it is not that easy in many respects.

If you get a chance, take a look at this book. The other five laws are worth learning about too. Let me know how it works out for you.