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Title: Evil: An Investigation by Lance Morrow ISBN: 0-465-04754-8 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.22 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: "I ask for killer sharks; I get bad bass." Dr. Evil
Comment: Appreciating this book requires the right set of expectations. Mr. Morrow's underlying assumption is that "evil is a famously elusive subject"; "that evil is like black magic," and; that "mind on the level of art" addresses evil more satisfactorily than the disciplines of "theology, philosophy, politics, science -- for all their institutionalized intellectual apparatus.." So, what does Morrow "think/feel" about evil? That evil "is not an abstraction or principle, but is, rather, the world's narrative energy. Evil makes the world go round; goes round the world." The "proof of the existence of evil is in the stories about evil. The reality of evil is in the stories. And nowhere else." Evil,as in the book under review here, excels, not surprisingly, at telling stories. Morrow asks more questions than he answers in these stories (which he thinks "evil" is prone to do anyway), but he is very good at finding continuities across differing scales. For example, he is able to make you think about the possible similarities between evil on the scale of Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia, and the more common place, but often viscious, office setting. (His story of an office secretary, then having an affair with the head of a university department, and her attempt to sabotage the career of a vulnerable, yet talented female faculty member has, he thinks, "the presence of evil in it").
The difficulty with this book is that Morrow seems to want it both ways. On the one hand, he contends that that generalizations about evil are tenuous, because it's elusive and each story is itself unique. On the other hand, descriptive generalizations about evil, or statements that appear that way, are unbiquitous in the text. "Evil is a hermit crab." "Evil is a wandering presence." "It rises like a think black gas between our destructive capacities." "Evil tries to be complicated." "Evil is an absolute." And so on throughout. Descriptive statements that are evocative of evil would seem to presuppose the very analytical understanding that Morrow claims is not accessible -- on what basis are they part of the set "evocative set?" It's possible to argue that to investigate evil is to summon one's artistic mental capacities, which his stories, all well-told by this prose-master, are intended to accomplish. But then there is the problem that Morrow does not want to maintain that "evil is relative."
A reader can lost in these woods. In fact, at one point he maintains that investigating evil is like wandering the dark corridors of a haunted medieval castle. Readers who signed up for a less unsettling tour will be disappointed. Those who do take the tour will find that much of what Morrow conveys is powerful preliminary work for a more rigorous and clarifying treament of evil.
Rating: 3
Summary: Thoughtful, But Ultimately Unsatisfying
Comment: This book has much of value, but ultimately left me unsatisfied. At the end, I empathized with how the person must have felt who heard the blind men describe their encounter with the elephant; each had latched onto part of the reality of the beast, but their individual pieces didn't add up to a coherent portrait.
In "Evil: An Investigation" Lance Morrow offers a series of descriptions of evil at work in our world. He draws on his own experiences--an encounter with Milosevic, as well as on the terrible events that have dominated so much of the human story. Whether it's Hitler, Caligula, or the events of 911, Morrow has interesting observations, elegantly expressed with the same gifts that have graced the pages of Time magazine for almost 40 years. Most intriguing is his assertion that evil "is always a story, a narrative played out in the world." He poses many intriguing questions--such as whether evil can be committed to further the good, or if degrees of evil exist; but the answers are few.
At the core, though, something is lacking. Morrow ultimately asks if we can--or even if we should try--to understand evil. If that's true, than what is the purpose of this work? I came to these pages hoping to find some sort of greater clarity, if not a definitive explanation. That's why I ultimately finished this book with a sense of disappointment.
Rating: 4
Summary: Rambling, But Intelligent and Worthwhile
Comment: This book started out as several essays in "Time" magazine, and there is a certain disconnected quality to it as Morrow rambles from anecdote to anecdote. Eventually he presents a convincing portrait of radical evil in its multiple manifestations. To believe in such a thing as "evil" implies a belief in God, because the very concept of evil cannot exist without the other. Morrow explains that there is an opposition in all things and evil exists in order to provide opportunity for humanity to overcome it. This sounds panglossian, I know; that is, simplistically optimistic. But Morrow is not blind to the horrible price exacted by evil. He provides several hair-raisng examples from history, from "Mein Kampf" to Rwanda, to Bosnia, to the local hermit down the road with a dark secret. Since 9/11, "evil" has come back into public consciousness after a time of peace and prosperity (the '90's) when the idea of it was considered mostly a joke. Morrow provides a good antidote to this moral fecklessnes.
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Title: Evil in Modern Thought : An Alternative History of Philosophy by Susan Neiman ISBN: 0691096082 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Psychology of Good and Evil : Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others by Ervin Staub ISBN: 0521528801 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 21 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Gulag : A History by Anne Applebaum ISBN: 0767900561 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Terror in the Name of God : Why Religious Militants Kill by Jessica Stern ISBN: 006050532X Publisher: Ecco Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Hatred: The Psychological Descent into Violence by Willard Gaylin, Wiillard, Md. Gaylin ISBN: 1586481665 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 15 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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