Applegater Summer 2015
5
BOOKS & MOVIES
— Books —
Pay Any Price—
Greed, Power,
and Endless War
James Risen is an investigative reporter for the New
York Times who has written extensively about governmental
and corporate malfeasance in our interminable “War
on Terror.” Since 2006, Risen has been pursued by the
James Risen
Department of Justice from both the Bush and Obama
administrations for refusal to reveal his sources. Pay Any
Price will not improve his legal difficulties.
Federal employees and contractors who have tried to
work within the system to expose unlawful and unethical
conduct on the part of our officials have not fared well. They
have faced prosecution, firing, defamation, harassment,
and even physical threats. Standard whistle-blower legal
protections have been tossed out the window. This is why
Edward Snowden chose to go outside the system to expose
unconstitutional conduct by the National Security Agency.
Many of the sources for this book are people just like
Snowden, but who are afraid to follow his path.
Risen’s story is not a pleasant one. It is a tale of manufactured fear, too much money,
and unaccountable officials. For starters, we learn about:
• the story of President Bush’s “enhanced interrogation” program;
• the details behind President Obama’s “killer drone” program;
• unsupervised planeloads of cash that “disappeared” somewhere in the streets of
Baghdad (we’re talking many billions here);
• ruined lives following the Abu Ghraib prison scandal;
• the outrageous fabrication of intelligence that served only to enrich private contractors
with public funds;
• the offensive story of otherwise decent citizens succumbing to raw greed in a secret
flow of never-ending cash;
• unwarranted secrecy that has allowed federal officials to violate the law with impunity
in the pursuit of power and prestige;
• shameful acquiescence by some segments of the military.
After 9-11, sheer panic caused Congress to throw money at our national security
apparatus faster than it could spend it. It was a boon to hustlers. Widespread fear led
to hasty passage of the so-called “Patriot Act” and executive waivers of long-standing
legal protections for our citizenry. It was the start of “anything goes.” And, boy, did it
go! The question now is: Will it ever stop?
In this book Risen states: “America has become accustomed to a permanent state
of war. Only a small slice of society—including many poor and rural teenagers—fight
and die, while a permanent national security elite rotates among senior government
posts, contracting companies, think tanks, and television commentary, opportunities
that would disappear if America was suddenly at peace. To most of America, war has
become not only tolerable but profitable, and so there is no longer any great incentive
to end it.”
The disturbing climate of cover-up, secrecy, and fear has prevented us from having
a true national debate on how to strike a balance between individual liberties and state
protections. It’s time to have that debate—this book is a good start.
Tom Carstens • 541-846-1025
— Miniseries —
The Pacific
HBO 10-part miniseries
Reviewer rating: 5 Apples
1 Apple—Don’t bother
5 Apples—Don’t miss
HBO aired this World War
II miniseries in 2010, but I just
discovered it a few weeks ago when
my wife scored it at a yard sale.
This true story follows the
First Marine Regiment from 1942
to 1945 through the beach assaults
at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester,
Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and
specifically draws on the experiences
of three marines:
• Eugene Sledge, played by Joseph
Mazzello, is the author of a memoir With
the Old Breed.
• Robert Leckie, played by James Badge
Dale, is the author of a memoir Helmet for
my Pillow, and many other books.
• John Basilone, played by Jon Seda, was
the first enlisted marine to win the Medal
of Honor for heroism during the Battle of
Guadalcanal, and became one of the most
highly decorated enlisted marines of all
time. He also was awarded the Navy Cross
and the Purple Heart.
An incredible amount of research
went into this miniseries—the producers
wanted everything to be as accurate as
possible. One of the directors, Tim Van
Patten, said, “[The Pacific] is not about
Martin Marten
Shakespeare and James Joyce and other
literary greats sometimes invented words
Brian Doyle
to express what the native tongue did not provide. Gabriel
García Márquez and various Latin American authors use
magic realism to express the ineffable: a character opens his
mouth to speak, and out flies a tiny bird. Well, Brian Doyle,
in his major books, Mink River, The Plover, and now his
latest, Martin Marten, uses those authorial devices plus his
own personal litany of the peculiar and the poetic.
Martin Marten is in essence a book about communication,
about reaching deep into the self and into the innermost
selves of others to get at the fundamental truths. Even the
trees reach out to each other. As do the rocks: “And this is
not even to consider the ancient slow stories of the rocks
and their long argument with the lava inside the mountain.”
Doyle is obviously very philosophical about all nature, especially the animal world,
demonstrated by Moses the crow (Mink River) and The Plover of that title, and very
much so with the furry piquant marten in this new book. The setting is on the slopes of
Mount Hood in the fictionalized village of Zigzag, peopled with a variety of eccentrics
and good plain working sorts of all ages, genders, and proclivities. The principal characters
are Dave, a 14-year-old boy approaching manhood, his hardworking parents, and his
brainy young sister, Maria. The young male marten of the title saves the six-year-old
sister when she is caught in a massive September snowstorm. He mysteriously beckons
her to a dry haven inside a hollowed tree trunk.
There is romance of every sort, the force—I would impose here—that through the
green shoot drives the flower (taken from the title of a Dylan Thomas poem). “He [the
little marten] was, that day, more than thirty miles from home and filled with some
strange energy that forced him through the woods like a headlong verb in a forest of
crowded nouns” (page 168). Is that not delightful?
Doyle, being Doyle, inserts yet another dimension here and there: he lets the
silent narrator muse to us readers about the process of knitting together a book. Here:
“Hardly ever does a story just stop, right in the middle of the crucial moment like this
one, but we had better do so now” (page 164). And there: “and no man would set foot
in that place again for another twenty years, which is long past the end of this book, so
we have nothing to say of that young man when he does arrive.”
This is not a sugarcoated story of cute animals. All these creatures, including the
human kind, prey upon one another in order to survive, the larger and more agile
frequently making “a delicious meal” of the smaller and slower. The quick and the dead.
There is even a very old bobcat who may have committed suicide at the end of his long
and wily life; he seems to have headed straight down the mountain into a deadly snare.
Who knows? As Mr. Douglas, the resident hunter-trapper of the story frequently reminds
us, “If you think you know for sure….”
There may be those who will feel that this book, with all its depictions of
communication between the likes of rocks and trees, bugs, stream and lake critters, and
among the furry folk of the mountain and the world, is just so much anthropomorphized
nonsense. But most will feel a gentle happiness at having read it, if only for the
compelling adventures of the diverse human creatures reaching out to each other on
our own Mount Hood.
I wonder if the Timberline Lodge will have even more visitors than ever this summer
after this book makes the rounds. I know that I, for one, want to drive around on the
west side of the mountain, poke into any remote general store, and just sit by some log
or stream and see what creatures show up to interact.
Julia Helm Hoskins • 541-899-8470
julmudgeon@aol.com
Julia Helm Hoskins is the author of She Caves to Conquer, a novel set in the American
Midwest and in southern Turkey.
Some glowing words about this review directly from author Brian Doyle: “Ah that is
lovely thank you. You GOT the deep urge of the book—I savor that. I mostly smile at people
who don’t get what I am trying to do (they post online shrieking) but I really dig people who
do. I love good reviews, sure, but more so I like to feel the connection. B”
Voices of the Applegate
America versus Japan. It’s about war, and
how horrific it could be.”
The miniseries won a Peabody
Award, several Emmy awards, including
Outstanding Miniseries, and a Golden
Globe nomination.
The Pacific caused me to ponder
these questions: What did the war do
to its participants? How can one survive
something so horrendous? How can a
viewer watch what these guys did and
expect to just move on with things?
For me this was the most intense,
brutal, in-your-face personal war movie
I have ever seen. It raised every kind of
emotion that my mind possesses.
J.D. Rogers • 541-846-7736
Voices of the Applegate, our community choir, held its spring concerts on
April 10 in The Old Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville and on April 12 in the
Applegate River Lodge. The four-part harmony selections presented a variety of
styles and subject matter from Broadway musicals such as “Kiss the Girl” from
The Little Mermaid; “Let The River Run” from the motion picture Working Girl;
and Pergolesi’s “Magnificat,” a 17 th -century composition with six movements.
We are delighted to have Blake Weller as our director to teach and inspire
us. We have just ended our 14th year of performances. Admission is free although
donations are always welcome.
Our community choir welcomes new singers, whether or not you read
music. Each member pays $55 tuition, which includes remuneration for our
director and our accompanist, our music, our venues and a few scholarships.
Find us on Facebook under “Voices of the Applegate,” where you can listen
to selections from “Magnificat” as it was performed at the Applegate River Lodge.
When you visit our Facebook page, don’t forget to “Like” us!
For more information, call Joan Peterson at 541-846-6988.
