Musings from Brian J. Noggle

Ah, gentle reader. When I saw ABC Books’ Facebook post about the author having a Thursday night book signing. When I bought a copy of Superstar 2020, I noted his book signings are generally on weeknights, and I learned it’s because he’s from around here but does not live in Springfield these days. As a matter of fact, when he lived in Springfield up until his early teens, he lived in a neighborhood not far from where my beautiful wife and her family would live in a decade later (and, yes, he does include a Brad Pitt story).

The book stems from a series of columns he wrote for an Internet site, basically reviews of old records that he finds at flea markets, garage sales, and other places–including a couple that he has ordered.

He leavens the columns with anecdotes of his life, from his time working in a record store to owning a record store to being a personal assistant on a couple of rock tours, his time in Springfield, his youth in Florida, and so on. He also tells (sometimes) about his purchase or acquisition experience of getting the records, a bit of history of the record’s production, and/or some approving critical appraisal of the tracks.

His tastes tend to run toward classic rock that he first heard new on vinyl when he was a kid: The Cars, Alice Cooper, The Beatles, and so on. Stuff I would have heard on album-oriented rock stations when the songs were but a decade old. He does have a Tony Bennett record, and I do own two records on his list of fifty (Sweet Talk by Boots Randolph and Heart Like a Wheel by Linda Ronstadt, both of which I purchased on May 4, 2019).

I expect our differing tastes in records we collect accumulate (in my case, anyway, as you know, gentle reader, I will buy a lot of things sound unheard for fifty cents, especially if it has a Pretty Woman on the Cover (PWoC)). First, we came up in different eras; although my sainted mother and my father had a few records, by the time I was buying albums, it was on cassette and not on vinyl. Although I did have a brief run on picking up Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, Tin Tin, and Marian Segal with Silver Jade records in college because they were cheap as older collectors moved from vinyl to CD, most of my experience with new music of my growing up would be on cassette. Many of the titles didn’t sell as many copies on vinyl, so they’re not available easily at garage sales, book sales, or even your cheap crates at antique malls or used media stores. And most of the titles he mentions in this book and the classic rockers of the 1970s and 1980s are the very ones that collectors in that Generation Jones and Generation X are snapping up.

SO: My collecting has been buying what’s available, cheep! And that’s been big bands and easy listening music that our grandparents (and some of our parents) would have bought in the 1940s through the 1960s. As I mentioned to the author, most people don’t remember that the charts were dominated by the easy listening artists in the 1960s–Herb Alpert and the had a string of giant records, sometimes several on the charts at the same time. So I’ve been able to find a lot of Andy Williams, Tony Bennett, Boots Randolph, Eydie Gorme, and even older Big Band acts for fifty cents a throw. I’ve also picked up some non-Miles Davis or Ella Fitzgerald jazz–a lot of Dave Brubeck (!), George Shearing, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Diana Washington, and so on. AND! I’ve had the chance to pick up a number of international artists–the Brazilian records I bought in 2016, Mireille Mathieu, Özel Türkbaş, and so on. And when I come across a new artist that has several records available for fifty cents, I buy them all just in case I like the artist.

So, where was I? Oh, yes, this is an interesting book and a good read. I liked it, and although I might have found to enthusiasm a bit forced, I did meet the guy, and I think it’s probably how he really is.

Spread over a year’s worth of columns, the enthusiasm and calling a record a “stinger” would not have seemed quite so rote. But that’s maybe the only knock I could make against the book except noting a few typos.

So I’ll have to dig out that copy of Superstar sooner rather than later. I kinda know where it is in the book stacks which are just as disorganized as the record library which is fuller than it was in 2024.

I bought four of Billy Pearson’s books at a book signing at ABC Books seven years ago. As I mentioned then, Billy Pearson started writing when he was 80 years old and had nine books in print by the time of his book signing. So I have to admire that and to look upon his works with a certain affection even though they’re not very good. I previously reported on his novel The Chemistry of Love in 2019, not long after I bought them. The gap is as much because I have so much to read as more than I’m avoiding them.

At any rate: You know I read a lot of grandma poetry. This is the equivalent grandpa… short stories? The book title says Short Story Adventures, but I’m not 100% sure these are not just reminisciences and memories jotted down. As I said previously, I think he dictates these in text-to-speech and does not read/edit the result. So they’re in the vernacular but also the unproofed vernacular. I didn’t have trouble reading them having just gone through The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, half of which were in a different vernacular, but I got used to reading phonetically and not based on words.

So the… stories… in this book cover a lot about growing up in rural Missouri in the middle part of the last century, so you know that’s catnip to me anyway. A couple of pieces are clearly nonfiction as they lament the current state of the country and particularly one past president (unnamed) who apparently does not love the country. Heaven help us that we don’t come to a time where someone could read the book and think “Which one?” but if that comes to pass, we probably won’t have a country anyway.

So: Okay, quick read, 158 pages of pretty good print. A quick Internet search indicates the author might still be alive. Good on’ ‘im, and I bet he’s still writing if he can.

This book marks the fifth and completing one of the Summer Reading Challenge. I picked it up from the free book cart at church which again has some books on it–the powers that be emptied and closed the library at the satellite church campus and had a mega-free-book giveaway a couple months ago, and that emptied the free book cart as well when the remainder got donated to whereever they went after the tables in the narthex. After I picked it up, it lay on my desk for a couple of weeks because I couldn’t be arsed to shelve it. Which made it easy to pick up.

I called this book a Christian self-help whitepaper, and that’s not far off. The author is a pastor of 13 years, and he has led some research in how congregants characterize their “gifts” from God. So the book is equal parts generic self-help Bible quoting, not far off of what you would get from Joyce Meyer followed by a set of charts and text explaining what the surveys said when the researchers asked churchgoers about their gifts.

The book has a couple of personal anecdotes: One is about how he misjudged the man his mother would marry; about a man who was important as a liason for students on mission trips in Argentina, a large guy with a neck tumor; and a Russian who has been a gangster, but turned his life around (and somehow ended up “running” his Russian town). The anecdotes are pretty high-level and impersonal and don’t necessarily reflect well on the author. And they’re just not that punchy or real like you would get from, say, Norman Vincent Peale whose little personal narrative asides and examples were far more effective.

I mean, I did get some good ideas from the book. He distinguishes “spiritual” gifts from “common” gifts and says that churches tend to over-emphasize and target the former rather than celebrate and share the latter. So I thought about some ways that our church could do some fellowship and neighborhood outreach by focusing on skills-based seminars and knowledge sharing.

But this book, ah, this book, is a pointer to a complete non-profit sales funnel, and wants you to complete its EveryGift survey itself (even before the author whipped out the first chart, I could tell where we were going because it talked about “research” and came up with a copyrightablemanteau for its program). And here’s the Christianeagram where you’ll find yourself:

You have one category for “technical” gifts which, presumably, would cover a hella lotta gifts from woodworking, carpentry, good with animals, gardening, understanding motors and mechanical things, and so on. But most of them are white collar or academic-style gifts, and most of the time when he talks about using your gifts, he talks about art and making music, and going to conferences. Not so much about serving at the food bank or vacuuming the sanctuary.

I dunno. Seems a little upper middle class consultant comfortable to me.

So I got a couple things from it, I guess, but probably not what the author wanted. I did pass it on to my beautiful wife who is more into this sort of thing than I am. AND! I get to take my completed Summer Reading Challenge form to the library to see what my free gift is. I wonder what it will be?

I got this book from the diminished (in more ways than one, apparently) philosophy stack (not plural, and not much of a stack) at the Midtown Carnegie branch of the library recently. Oh, my. I am not sure if it’s a step up or a step down from the British Marxist comic book biographies I’ve read (Einstein for Beginners and Sartre for Beginners). Maybe a step up because it has quotations from the original sources, but maybe a step down because it–I was going to say “just misses,” but it misses on the side of Marxism and embrace of contemporary policies of a certain idealogical (and culturally suicidal) persuasion.

The book has chapters on a variety of topical matters, including life, money, work, happiness, beliefs, you, health, feelings, love, education, politics, and death. Each chapter is mostly the author’s summation of Stoic thought on the topic along with some compare/contrasts with other philosophies and/or religions, but without any actual quotes or citations to back up the assertions. The chapters are leavened by a couple of quotes from Stoic sources, almost exclusively Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca, with several paragraphs of the author explaining what the quote means. The chapters conclude with “Think About” thought exercises and “Going Further” which are ways to put (the author’s view on the) Stoics’ insights into practice.

I considered doing a thoughtful response to it, but I can’t be arsed, so here are some of the quibbles I have.

Ancient Athens was an intellectual melting pot, a Mecca for those who sought to imbibe philosophy at its source, and so drew students from far and wide.

Using Mecca as a metaphor for melting pot where all students are welcome seems, erm, dumb because in reality, Mecca is not those things. Only in common, uninformed idiom is (was) it viewed as a good thing, and generally as a point to aim for, like a North Star.

In her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Japanese author Marie Kondo askes that we apply the simple criterion (the KoriMari method) to each thing we own: is it either useful or does it ‘spark joy’? If neither, then we should discard it.

This is probably a useful exercise for us all, especially book hoarders (yes, I’m looking at you! Ahem…)….

Ah, the Marx/Kondo connection. Prepare your mind for having less. Not what he meant here, but, no, my books remain until a tragic fire or my estate sale, mate.

One of the benefits of wealth is that it allows us to help others. In 2009, the philosopher Peter Singer (1946-) published The Life You Can Save, which argued that people living in affluent Western countries have a moral duty to help those living in poverty around the world.

Again, the Stoic direction to non-attachment means send your money to nonprofits, have less, and Elon Musk should not be a trillionaire (implied, and probably on his Twitter feed even now). Citing Peter Singer is a nice touch.

Utilitarianism (at least, in its original form) is mainly concerned with happiness in terms of how certain outcomes make us feel.

Okay, cog. Serve others and die when your utility is spent. That should make you happy.

We should try to treat others fairly and live within established legal codes (justice).

Legal codes != justice. C’mon, man.

I don’t want to presume as to what views you currently hold as to the nature of life, the universe, and everything, and nor do I want to prescribe what those should be.

42, of course. But I’m pretty sure if he doesn’t want to prescribe justice via legal codes, he’d be happy to nudge you in a behavoral economics way to his preferred viewpoint.

But what do we do when we feel overwhelmed, or sense the creep of unwelcome anger, lust or depression [sic–he is so egalitarian that he doesn’t use the Oxford comma because it’s elitist, one presumes]? Aside from false judgements [sic–have an extra E in that word since there’s no room for a U], we should do our best to avoid, prevent or suppress the growth of the harmful passion. Your partner has left the toilet seat up (again) or done a shoddy jb with the dishes; your boss continues to ignore your worthwhile contributions while favoring the pretty new recruit; your racist auntie has again outlined her views on asylum seekers… you get the idea.

Strangely enough, like Marx, asylum seekers are mentioned more than once in a positive light. Stoics should love them!

The problems most of us face in the matters of love is that they often stir up negative emotions. Drawing upon and developing existing Greek concepts, Christianity divided love into four main types: érōs (sexual love), storgē (parental and familial love), philía (love for one’s friends), and agápē (unconditional love for God and one’s fellow humans). As you can see, apart from agápē, all the other forms involve potential conflict. Sexual desire can lead to lust, deviancy, jealousy and envy; familial relations between children and parents can lead to grief, betrayal, coercion, resentment; even friendship or a feeling of communal belonging can create rifts and internal disputes or animosity towards those we consider ‘other’ or outside our group or tribe. It is only selfless universal love that avoids these issues.

So, basically, a good Stoic is a liberal who prefers asylum seekers to his auntie.

What fooking balderdash, mate. Also, someone press him on what he defines as deviancy, and we’ll see whom he offends.

Applying this in more practical terms, we may break it down into two main concerns: conmtrolling the passions and eradicating prejudice. We must guard against the power of erotic love to overwhelm our reason and will, and we must try to extend our concern beyond the borders of our own family, tribe and nation.

You see, he meant it.

This wonderful quote reminds me of a Zen Buddhist parable, where the teacher is pouring a cup of tea for his student. When the tea reaches the top of the cup, the teacher continues to pour, causing the student to point this out. “It’s a bit like you, isn’t it?” says the teacher.

I came not to say “What an intellectual yob,” but to point out this is the third book this year that has included this parable. The other two were Be Water, My Friend and The Secret Power Within: Zen Solutions to Real Problems.

There are countless small ways in which a citizen might do this [help out in the polis]. Neighborliness is a good one–offering to mow the lawn of the old coule who live nextdoor, or pick up their prescriptions, helping someone mend a fence or move furniture. The same obviously applies to colleagues, friends, and family. You might write a letter of recommendation for your boss’s niece to help with her application to university, or volunteer to help an asylum seeker deail with intimidating government bureaucracy.

No, seriously, fook you auntie, mate.

All these incidents [Stoics falling on their swords] emphasize not only the Stoic belief that death is nothing to be feared, but also the idea that, if done at your own time and choosing, it is possible to have a ‘good death’ (which is the actual meaning of the modern term ‘euthanasia’).

All righty, then. Stoics thing Canada’s MAID idea is a good idea (perhaps especially for your auntie to make room for some asylum seekers).

Ah, gentle reader. This book almost let my passions rule me in my, erm, disagreement with the author (but, as he does not know me, he loves me more than I love him, I must acknowledge).

This book is unnecessary and probably counterproductive, seeking to introduce people who are curious about Stoicism into Stoicism as Liberal political thought. The original sources, at least in good translations, are easily accessible and don’t need exegesis, especially of this sort.

On the other hand, it did make me want to go back to the primary sources. My oldest and my mother-in-law have started working their ways through the Marcus Aurelius. And I did “just” (three years ago) score a paperback copy of Seneca’s Letters from a Stoic. I should definitely look for that once I get my current chairside accumulation of in-progress books under control.

And it did make “Taylor-Swift-Loving British Pseudo-Stoic” into my new go-to insult, and when I use it here in the United States, I fully expect it to be fighting words.