As I've mentioned, even though it's a short book and the writing is very clear and accessible, it took me a very long time to read it, because it is so disturbing. But it's a very important book.
I believe that those of us who stand for peace, and who will likely never know the reality of war, should try to learn all we can about what it is we're trying to stop. Hedges uses history and literature to illustrate the psychology behind war - for the state that promotes it, the soldiers who prosecute it, and the people who must cope with its devastation. He shows you, as well as mere words can, the gruesome reality.
Hedges is an excellent writer who is making a huge contribution to our understanding of peace and justice. You can read Hedges in The Nation and on TruthDig. His most recent book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America .
Next up, Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss, and the Myths and Realities of Dieting, by Gina Kolata. (This explains why the blog Weighty Matters jumped out at me.) Rethinking Thin is not a diet book, but more of an anti-diet book.
In this eye-opening book, New York Times science writer Gina Kolata shows that our society’s obsession with dieting and weight loss is less about keeping trim and staying healthy than about money, power, trends, and impossible ideals. Rethinking Thin is at once an account of the place of diets in American society and a provocative critique of the weight-loss industry. Kolata's account of four determined dieters' progress through a study comparing the Atkins diet to a conventional low-calorie one becomes a broad tale of science and society, of social mores and social sanctions, and of politics and power.
Rethinking Thin asks whether words like willpower are really applicable when it comes to eating and body weight. It dramatizes what it feels like to spend a lifetime struggling with one’s weight and fantasizing about finally, at long last, getting thin. It tells the little-known story of the science of obesity and the history of diets and dieting—scientific and social phenomena that made some people rich and thin and left others fat and miserable. And it offers commonsense answers to questions about weight, eating habits, and obesity—giving us a better understanding of the weight that is right for our bodies.
Since I don't have a category on this blog for dieting (and you can be sure I never will), I'm filing this book under feminism. Close enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment