A History of Violence

A History of Violence

By John Wagner

I didn't see this film last year when it came out, which is odd because I love David Cronenberg and violent films. But then again, it isn't so odd when you think about where I live (the east coast of Taiwan) and the selection of films that makes it to my culture-deprived corner of the planet (Hollywood blockbusters and romantic comedies). So when this graphic novel was passed on to me last week I was keen to give it a read.

Living on the east coast of Taiwan provides the bare minimum of western culture. If you don't actively seek it out via the Internet you can easily miss entire years of music, film, television and books. While many of those mediums are well provided for on the internet (I am a big fan of The Big Bang Theory, I loved True Grit and my favorite semi-current band is The Dead Weather) you learn quickly to make amends by reading and absorbing every book that comes your way. Unless you are hip with the Kindle (I'm not), books are the cultural medium most hard to come by round these parts.

But all is not lost. There is a really voracious local reading population that is constantly bringing in new books via online shopping, trips to Taipei or abroad, packages from home or the vast social network of English-speaking people in Taiwan. So over and above the books I accumulate myself, I am always getting something placed in my hands and I'm never want for a book. A History of Violence was leant to me by a friend and co-worker who picked it up at the Taipei Bookshow. I'd have never read it otherwise.

But beggars can't be choosers. I'm always astounded when I'm back in Canada when I walk into a Chapters or Indigo (or any bookshop for that matter) how easy it is to find exactly what you want to read right now. You want to read about 19th century gravediggers? Sure, right over here. The history of the coffee bean? that's over there next to books about the Franco-Prussian War. A biography of Frances Farmer? You bet! After years of reading what I have rather than what I want, I find that sort of choice overwhelming. In my first week back in Canada I invariably find myself whimpering for hours in the literature M-N section at Chapters, a stack of twenty books scattered on the carpet beneath me.

That's not to say the books I read are bad. A History of Violence was damned good! My books are rarely up to date. I doubt I'll read the Booker Prize nominated books for 2011 until well into 2014. But I read a lot of stuff I wouldn't have read back home, which I think, in the long term, is actually good. I would have never, ever read Peter Pan back home. Nor would I have bothered with anything by Margaret Atwood (I've made my peace with Ms. Atwood), Natsuo Kirino, Robert McCammon or Neil Gaiman all of which i have enjoyed. I find my lack of choice in reading material a satisfying lack.

It was this lack of choice that I began hoarding books. Not to keep to myself, but to develop an English library for the 100 or so English speaking foreigners living in my town. Over the past year I have amassed over 700 books for anyone in town to borrow at their leisure. We still don't have much recent stuff, but it is well represented and there is something there for vitually anyone looking for a book to read. It expands on the charity of those in the community who would like to help see the library grow (and from a few overseas donations that have been very, very well recieved.

So here's to the ongoing community of readers on the east coast of Taiwan. We continue to pass books around and ensure each of us has something to read. In a place like this, if you don't work at it, you lose it, and that would be a shame.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

By: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen D. Dubner

Freakonomics is quite the sensation. It's a book. It's a column. It's a blog. It's a podcast. It's going to be a movie? It's everywhere.

While I wasn't as impressed with Freakonomics as I was with the work of Malcolm Gladwell or some of the things I've read about Game Theory it was still fun to watch connections being made in unlikely places. The history student in me was overjoyed.

Until I stumbled upon this article from the column in the New York Times about the Freakonomics of Trash in Taipei City (in Taiwan for those scratching their heads).

This is when I became slightly disenchanted with Freakonomics.

First, I should explain that I do live in Taiwan. I have lived here for almost a decade. Although I do not live in Taipei City I have visited Taipei dozens of times and I can assure you that trash pick up is essentially the same all over the island (As Canadians are often want to say: Canada is more than just Toronto, Taiwan is more than just Taipei). You wait with your trash outside your home for the garbage truck to pass at a designated time. You can tell when it is coming by the distinct music eminating from the truck at obcene decibel levels. This happens every day all over the island.

Dubner gets the basics right. Daily manual garbage pick-up by trucks that play classical music but seemed to leave oh so much out. Freakonomic reader Nick Grisanti wrote to the writers to fill a few more blanks about the system and secondary trash economies that are built around the current system.

Grisanti even takes the time to mention the lack of public trash recepticals in Taipei (I can assure you, this lack of garbage cans is island-wide). The reason being, if public trash cans were available, many households would simple drop their daily garbage in the public bin and cause massive pile-ups of refuse on the streets. Believe me, this has been a point of contention for me in Taiwan since the day I got here and it hasnever really abated. The lack of trash ans simple encouraged most to drop their trash on the ground where it may wash away or get swept up by a shopkeeper, but will most likely sit their for weeks.

But what neither Dubner nor Grisanti address is WHY this system is the way it is. Why doesn't Taiwan impliment a more Western style of garbage collection? Certainly this system is in need to some reform. The answer to this is a much larger social and humanitarian problem: stray dogs. Taiwan has an enormous population of stray dogs roaming the streets of cities and towns all over the island. Any organic trash left unattended would fall prey to these packs of canines looking for their next meal. I've seen what my dogs can do to a garbage bag full of rotten leftovers and thy're tame. Imagine what a pack of ten or twelve strays can do? Without daily pick-up, Taiwan would have a much larger pollution problem than it already has.

But it's not simply that Taiwan has gone to the dogs.

There is a social advantage to the current do-it-yourself situation in Taiwan. Taiwan is notoriously shut-in society. My wife, who is Taiwanese, was startled on her first trip to Canada when cahiers, baristas, fast food servers etc... all idly chatted with her.

"How are you?"

"Nice weather, eh?"

"Have a great day, there!"

In Taiwan, despite the urban over-population, people can go weeks without speaking to another living soul. Trips to supermarkets, coffee shops and restaurants can be done in abject silence. It can be a maddening experience for those not expecting it. Some people would characterize it as being shy or cold. I'm not here to philosophize, but interaction with the community is minimal and usually relegated to the 10 minutes each day when people in a neighborhood stand outside their houses or apartment blocks waiting for the singing truck to come round. It's the time of day when people exchange gossip from their neighborhood and the vast majority of face-to-face social networking is done.

This doesn't even address the Taiwanese propensity for all things new and a general aversion to all things old, while propels the trash economy even more. But that's a subject I don't have the time or resources to investigate. The trash culture in Taiwan is a fascinating topic worthy of more than simply a passing reference by Freakonomics. I was really hoping for something more enlightening.