It’s been a while since I’ve done a “what I’m reading” roundup. (It’s getting harder and harder to schedule since the weekly newsletter.) But today I want to know if you’re like me, worried about the state of the world and eager to find answers in books—or at least a way to escape from looking for answers.
Some of this meant reading works that were new to me, including “Small wars, big data: the information revolution in modern conflict” By Eli Berman, Joseph H. Felter, and Jacob N. Shapiro.
Covering the war in Gaza inevitably brings to mind other conflicts, including U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If, as the old saying goes, history doesn’t repeat itself but it always rhymes, then the battles for control of Mosul and Helmand are like previous couplets in a long, brutal poem that now includes Gaza City and Rafah. I picked up this book to put past conflicts and others into perspective.
One passage from an early chapter in the book seemed particularly apt. (For context, “asymmetric” warfare is warfare fought between groups of widely varying sizes and capabilities, often involving guerrilla warfare against more traditional national armies):
In asymmetric warfare, what is at stake is not territory at all, but people, because people hold the key information, even more so than in symmetric conflicts, where the ability of the stronger side to exploit any particular information is always very high, and where holding territory is not enough to ensure victory. The stronger side in an asymmetric conflict can always seize territory at short notice. But holding and governing that territory is another matter entirely—as many would-be conquerors have learned.
I also love to reread a book I read long ago, not because I long to rediscover familiar words, I suppose, but because I feel the need to go back and examine the now-unfamiliar self who read the book so long ago.
The first time I read “Berlin novel”, the book that inspired me to write the musical Cabaret, after I saw a particularly fascinating performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at university. (Oddly, when I looked up the book, I realised it was Broadway shows now playingstarring a young Eddie Redmayne, but I had no idea—he was just a regular guy, not an internationally famous star.)
The Fringe Company’s production of Tomorrow Belongs to Me, a beautiful folk song that was later revealed to be a Nazi anthem, was one of the most memorable experiences I’ve ever had with a play. At first, the song was a beautiful melody sung by smiling young people, and I remember smiling and wanting to hum along, not realizing what was going to happen next. Then in a later scene, the actors in the audience sang the song in an uglier, more aggressive tone.
From what I remember, they did the Nazi salute and encouraged the audience to sing along, but I’m not sure if that was the actual choreography or just the overall vibe. However, I do remember clearly seeing another audience member absentmindedly pick up a small flag that was on the table in front of her and start waving it to the music before suddenly realizing there was a swastika on it and throwing it away in horror.
It was such a powerful, emotional experience that I bought Berlin Stories to further immerse myself in Isherwood’s story of Weimar Berlin. Reading it at the time, I remember thinking it was an interesting exploration of ordinary people’s self-deception and complicity in the rise of the Nazis. But I didn’t see any particular parallels or warnings to my own world. I thought that Germans in the 1930s might have absentmindedly waved the Nazis in, but that wouldn’t happen today.
Rereading the book today, it feels a bit like stepping into a time machine and confronting myself, who once believed that the arc of history would bend in the right direction. It’s not that I see the Nazis returning to power imminently. But I’m no longer as convinced as I was when I was younger that such a risk is past.
Further reading
Sometimes I just want to read to escape from reality. I have a playbook on my bedside table right now.”Matt and Ben” is a very funny play written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers that launched Kaling’s career in 2003.
Next up is Plum Sykes’s Wives Like Us, which deftly exposes the ills of England’s wealthy and fashionable Cotswolds, just as her previous novels, The Bergdorf Blondes and The Debutante, did with New York society. Sykes has also recently written Interesting works Writing for the Times Style column about the rise of the “executive housekeeper,” she has a Nancy-Mitfordesque ability to satirize a scene like an outsider while also providing the details that only an insider, or at least close to one, can provide.
What are you reading?
It’s been a while so I wanted to know what you were reading!
I’d like to hear about things you’ve read (or seen or listened to) and recommend to the wider Interpreter readership.
