« Mind Boggling | Main | Katrina Disses Upper Cumberland »
August 28, 2005
Paradox
As I was sitting outside the laundrymat today, reading "Pathologies of Power" by Paul Farmer, another laundry patron tapped at the window to get my attention. The middle aged, fairly non-descript man, a sharp contrast to the normal male clientelle pointed to my book as if to ask what I was reading. I held the book up so he could read the title, he then held up the paperback book he was reading. I didn't recognize the title, but could tell from the picture that it was a frontier-type fictional story. I laughingly waved his book off, and he shrugged his shoulders as if to say "it was worth a try".
Returning to my reading, I thought how different the perspectives of our books, and yet how much they had in common. Mine, a real-life expose of human rights violations due to what the author terms "structural violence", anything other than entertaining, yet none the less gripping. His, a fictionalized account, but no doubt making entertainment of human rights violations carried out by our ancestors against the Native Americans they encountered while expanding their hold on this country. While we all know the feeling of victory that comes with watching the good guy (in the white hat) mercilessly annihilate the "evil" indigenous people, can there be any feeling of victory while reading of Russian prisoners, hoping to be cured of their multi-drug resistant tuberculosis? What about impoverished Hatians, working for anywhere from seven to fifteen cents a day, denied effective treatment for HIV because it is not "cost-effective"? Not likely to become a blockbuster movie, at any rate.
No, thank you, I'm not interested in trading books.
Posted by Anna at August 28, 2005 6:08 PM