We’re cooking up
something for everyone!
S ERVING V EGANS
& V EGETARIANS
W E HAVE A TERRIFIC
M EAT H EARTY M ENU
FOR N ON - VEGETARIANS
395 W. 5th, Eugene • Corner of Lawrence since 1979
(541) 342-2075 • TheKeystoneCafe.com
Open Monday-Thursday 7-2 • Friday-Saturday 7-3 • Sunday 8-3
Breakfast all day & lunch Monday-Friday @ 11.
m v D
RING in the Holidays!
R
OBIN M IX – J EWELER
Sterling Silver & 14K Gold
WITH
Sterling Silver & 14K Gold
O NLY A T
IMAGINE GALLERY
5th Street Public Market • 2nd Level Courtyard
Mind Over Music
MUSICOPHILIA:
TALES
OF
MUSIC AND THE BRAIN by Oliver
Sacks. KNOPF, 2007. HARDCOVER, $26.
Music is not necessary for human life
to exist. It has no symbols, images or rep-
resentations. And yet, for all music’s
apparent uselessness, it makes humanity
what it is; we are a species of musi-
cophiliacs. That is, we love music for
what it does to us emotionally, spiritually,
physiologically. But what interests Oliver
Sacks here, as it interested him in The
Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and
earlier works, is the many variations in
how individual brains process internal
and external stimuli (this time the stimu-
lus is music). Time and time again in
Musicophilia, Sacks reaches the same
conclusion: Music seems to transcend
the brain and enrich and enhance our
concrete sense of self.
As is particular with Sacks, he focuses
on case studies, usually patients he has
had over the many years he has held pri-
vate practice. Most have had lifelong mal-
adies, such as John S., a young man with
Tourette’s syndrome whose uncontrollable
tics are tempered by “certain kinds of
music heavy with rhythm,” while others
have had split-second disasters affect their
brains in profoundly curious ways. Tony
Cicoria, a surgeon with no musical inclina-
tions, is transformed into an obsessive
composer and piano prodigy after he is
struck by lightning. But perhaps the most
intriguing and bittersweet case Sacks
describes is that of Clive Wearing, who,
due to an attack of herpes encephalitis,
has anterograde and retrograde amnesia;
he remembers very little of his past and
can make no new memories. Clive has an
attention span of about 15 seconds and
yet, almost miraculously, he can sing, con-
duct small orchestras, play his piano.
Through music, Clive finds a present light
to grasp onto from the brink of darkness.
Sacks’ tome, textbookish in its breadth,
lends creedence to what T.S. Eliot writes in
The Four Quartets: “You are the music /
While the music lasts.” — Chuck Adams
Milton’s Wet Dream
THE SHOCK DOCTRINE: THE RISE
OF DISASTER CAPITALISM by
Naomi Klein. METROPOLITAN BOOKS, 2007. HARDCOVER, $28.
It seems at once absurd and absurdly
low, the price of this new book by jour-
nalist Naomi Klein (No Logo). Americans
26 DECEMBER 13, 2007
aren’t used to spending $28 for a book
thanks to the curious lag in hardcover
prices compared to inflation. And it’s so
painful to read Klein’s book, a narrative
tying torture to economic theory, that
even the hopeful final chapter barely
rouses a flickering flame of optimism.
Who would pay for that? Yet for her
meticulously researched tome, for her
clarity in explaining just how Milton
Friedman and his minions came to domi-
nate world economic discourse by throw-
ing their lot in with the ilk of Augusto
Pinochet, whatever recompense she
earns can’t be enough.
It’s a global view,
her discussion of
shock economics,
and its theory is
clear: Friedman’s
Chicago School dis-
ciples believe free-
market capitalism is
the answer to every
problem. But many
governments try to
regulate or soften free markets. In order
to remake a state for unrestrained free-
market capitalism, the people must be
less able to resist. And that happens
after a crisis — say, Pinochet’s coup in
1973 (and other U.S.-funded dirty wars in
Latin America) or, obviously, Sept. 11.
Klein links the sudden rise in fortunes of
rapacious transnational companies
(Jeremy Scahill’s Blackwater would be
an great companion read) to their ability
to capitalize on disasters. The
Friedmanites don’t cause the disasters;
they’re just incredibly well-prepared to
take advantage of chaos. But, Klein
notes, people and governments in Latin
America are fighting back — and so can
we. Friedman would hate it if you used
the “socialized” library services to check
out Shock Doctrine or if you banded with
friends to purchase it. Small gestures
indeed, but another economist, E.F.
Schumacher, reminds us that small is
beautiful. Or perhaps powerful: Friedman
stood only 5 feet tall. — Suzi Steffen
Attention Must Be Paid
HOLD
EVERYTHING
DEAR:
DISPATCHES ON SURVIVAL AND
RESISTANCE by John Berger. PANTHEON,
2007. HARDCOVER, $21.
This slim vol-
ume of essays and
ellliptically crafted
thoughts alternate-
ly provokes and
reassures. Berger,
most famous for
Ways of Seeing,
addresses with his
characteristic
power everything
from September 11 to the reasons sui-
cide bombers might choose that path. I
found it challenging to stay with him as
he bounced between the 2005 bomb-
ings in London and the outrageous
police state occasioned in Britain by the
War on Terror, but his thoughtful medita-
tions on the despair of the poor (espe-
cially Palestinians) give power to a narra-
tive Americans rarely get to hear.
One of the reasons Berger seems so
provocative, clearly, is that much of the