The Garden Party and The Memorandum

My oldest daughter is home educated. Her curriculum has required her to read many of the books that sit unopened on our book shelves. We have a full set of the Great Book of the Western World. I joined her in reading many of these great works. She really didn't need me to follow along, but it meant that she and I would have common ground that would allow us to just talk. As I read them I realized that they were not as difficult to understand as I assumed and that they often contained treasures. Still, when selecting books for myself, I largely ignored these classics. So, I decided that every 5th book I read would be a book that was written at least 100 years ago. When I read 4 books, I dutifully pulled one of the Great Books off the shelf and read.

That pattern worked well for a while. Then, I began parenting two children from the African diaspora; they arrived in home via International Adoption. Their home country is Haiti. I wanted to fill our home with literature from the African community. So, I began looking for an African American or Pan African "Canon," literature that is either of a particularly high quality or had great historical influence. My search didn't yield any results. But, it did make me question my own Western Canon -- books that reflect the thoughts of the ancient Greeks, writings popular in the Roman Empire, thoughts from Reformation and Renaissance thinkers. It made me wonder if there was such a thing as an Eastern Canon. As I searched, I came across A Lifetime's Reading: The World's 500 Greatest Books. If I stay on schedule I should finish this list when I am 96.

Anyway, I just finished reading The Garden Party and The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel. These two plays are on the list of 500 Greatest Books. Truthfully, I didn't think I wouldn't enjoy these plays. These satirical works criticize governmental, bureaucratic inefficiency. Taken out of context, each line might be considered in the genre of nonsense literature. But, together the plays are timeless masterpieces. I was surprised at how familiar I was with the world according to Vaclav Havel.

In The Memorandum a government bureaucracy has begun using an artificial language that is supposed to increase the precision with which we communicate.

"Ptydepe is built according to an entirely logical principle: the more common the meaning, the shorter the word. Thus, for example, the most commonly used term so far known -- that is the term 'whatever' -- is rendered in Ptydepe by the word 'gh'."

As I read that I thought, "Oh, the author must have a teenager!'

But, my mind wandered even farther as I read The Garden Party. I had recently received a rather nasty personal email about a blog entry I wrote in which I shared that I was not a member of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association and that I didn't agree with all of their political views. And I read:

"Stop it, for God's sake! This way we'll never get along together! If you mean to torpedo the friendly atmosphere I've managed to create among you under the guise of an open discussion, and furthermore, to undermine the success of our garden party -- then there's no place for you in the close-knit ranks of our collective! I won't stand for rowdyism here!"

That email was not the first (and I am sure it won't be the last) time I have felt like an outsider around Christians. I don't share their political views. Even my spiritual views lean away from traditional Western Christianity. I used to blog on a site dedicated to Conservative Christian home educators. I moved my blog because I all too often felt as if I had stepped on someone's toes. It is a good thing that I have learned that a Christian follows Christ and not other Christians or I would have left the church a long, long time ago. (Okay, I just started humming 'American Pie.')

Then, just because I thought this was completely funny, reflecting exactly how I feel about mainstream media:

MRS PLUDEK: Hugo is nicely taken care of. Shouldn't we now look out for something for Peter? After all, he too is our child.

PLUDEK: Oh, we'll find something for him. He might go to work for some paper.

MRS PLUDEK: Wouldn't they mind him looking like a bourgeois intellectual? If only he'd stop wearing those glasses!

PLUDEK: They haven't got a single intellectual among them, so they're bound to think better a bourgeois one than none at all. At least he knows which way is up. Did somebody ring?

Well, of course there are some individual news people whom I respect greatly. Paul Harvey, September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009, may you find eternal rest. Good Day!

Anyway, these two plays were fun reads. In fact, I suspect that I will read the 5 other plays that are contained in this book. But, first, I will be starting my Lenten reading.