The Cat in the Bag by Howard Towt
Ekot Lit Review
American politics is hard to follow. Even for political junkies, there seems to be endless paradigm, perspectives, and comparisons. In The Cat in the Bag, Howard Towt fairly well describes one way to look at modern American political landscape, through the prism of a cultural observation. He described how, during the 2004 presidential campaign, he noticed a lopsidedness that he couldn’t explain, except to say that our elite culture was anti-Republican Party.
Ekot Lit Review
American politics is hard to follow. Even for political junkies, there seems to be endless paradigm, perspectives, and comparisons. In The Cat in the Bag, Howard Towt fairly well describes one way to look at modern American political landscape, through the prism of a cultural observation. He described how, during the 2004 presidential campaign, he noticed a lopsidedness that he couldn’t explain, except to say that our elite culture was anti-Republican Party.
Towt, a former Vietnam War pilot, informs his reader in a unique way. He compares the presentation of political news in this country as cultural attributes. As such, media portray things through the lens of a culture that assumes the Republican Party to be against all that is good.
In one example, he relates how the environmental policies of the George W. Bush administration were explained on a television program in somewhat scholastic terms by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, then followed by accusations that Bush was the worst environmental president.
He points out many such themes in our popular culture: “Republicans are homophobic, harming our children, stealing from our seniors, and shredding the Constitution.” He shows how political novices can detect the themes, and look for obvious bias in their presentation in mainstream media.
The Cat in the Bag is short, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Towt paints the picture in bold colors, claiming that the Democrat Party misrepresents reality in favor of its own radical agenda. But he departs from more common analyses of our culture war, in that he doesn’t retaliate in a tit for tat fashion, or promote an ideology or policy preferences. He is more like a disappointed spectator of politics as sport, reluctant to invest more into an obviously unfair game.
The media comes off as the real bad guy, using abstractions to describe their enemies (in the Republican Party,) and framing debates in the friendliest terms for the Democrat Party. He encourages readers to look for the presentation of a “false consensus,” or “bipartisan support” (one liberal Republican on a panel full of democrats, around Democrat Party issues.
The media comes off as the real bad guy, using abstractions to describe their enemies (in the Republican Party,) and framing debates in the friendliest terms for the Democrat Party. He encourages readers to look for the presentation of a “false consensus,” or “bipartisan support” (one liberal Republican on a panel full of democrats, around Democrat Party issues.
The book is currently listed at $11.95 on Amazon.com, and is a very quick read. There is not a lot of new information, but it is presented in a unique way. If you lean conservative or are agnostic, but enjoy political debating, you will find The Cat in the Bag a worthwhile read.
Visit Howard's Blog, Anti-Republican Culture, for more on his political views.
Visit Howard's Blog, Anti-Republican Culture, for more on his political views.
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Ekot Lit Review
Most Americans take for granted that our soldiers are well-trained. Rich Stowell’s book, Nine Weeks: A Teacher’s Education in Army Basic Training describes just what goes into that sacramental rite of soldierhood: Army Boot Camp.
The author was in a good position to analyze and explain, too. He had left his teaching assignment to join the Army, and immediately saw similarities and differences between the drill sergeants’ ways and his own.
Nine Weeks is, above all, informative. How the Army trains so many kids and so quickly is an amazing thing to contemplate. That these young soldiers learn hand to hand combat, medic skills, marksmanship, and all manner of advanced weaponry is remarkable.
Yet it seems frustrating, too. Stowell candidly broaches a broad swath of emotions that most soldiers must feel. They weren’t allowed to talk to family members but once every two weeks or so. They couldn’t question or complain openly, and they were routinely punished as a group for the sins of a few.
“Abuse took two forms,” Stowell writes in Week 4, “physical and mental. Physically, the PT sessions were very trying for me. I was 11 years older than the average private in our battery, and recovery time seemed to correspond with age. I was a full-time athlete in high school, and a recreational athlete since, and I always considered myself able to handle any reasonable amount of physical activity. Drill sergeants were eager to prove otherwise, and they relished the opportunity to break us. Creative and punishing workouts were devised and both Jackson and Robertson vied for the reputation of giving the toughest, engaging in a showmanship that broke the mind, spirit and body. What they failed to achieve in intensity they made up for in duration.”
The book was also funny, the humor coming from the reality and authenticity of the “characters” in his platoon. From the drill sergeants: mean and tough; to some of the younger privates, who were innocent and good hearted; the people in his basic training added to the fun. Stowell recounts the story of Vadney, who fell asleep while standing during a formal inspection. Despite having landed in a bunk, injuring his eye, he was ridiculed on the spot. The platoon didn’t pass the inspection.
The author and protagonist is a deeply sympathetic character. He is well educated and has an interesting perspective, but he is also extremely self-critical, pointing out how the grueling basic training regimen exposed some of his own flaws and weaknesses.
Now at a reduced price, and available on Kindle for under $10, Nine Weeks: A Teacher’s Education in Army Basic Training is well worth the money.
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Everybody endures hardships in life. But the deploying Soldier experiences one of the starkest examples of prolonged adversity that is at the same time, universally recognizable. Gabriel Tolliver’s Embrace the Suck: 366 Days of Strength, Courage, Inspiration, Wisdom, and Hope is a collection of writings meant to help one in such a “life-altering experiences,” as the author states it. Essentially, Tolliver compiled 366 different sayings—one for each day of his deployment to Afghanistan.
We tend to be taught to make lemonade from lemons, to find joy in the dreadful. Yet the Soldiers who coined the phrase in Tolliver’s title Iraq were more realistic. Some things aren’t joyful, and embracing the awfulness of it will help one overcome. As I read the quotes, I was taken back to the difficult days of my husband’s deployment and realized that perseverance involves much less than enjoying one’s pain, yet one can always grow and learn from it.
Surprisingly, there seemed to me to be a lot of anti-war sentiment, which made me question the author’s motive. However, there is just as much “war is a necessary evil” thought to convince me that Tolliver is an objective collector of wisdom that sometimes pertains to war, sometimes to life, and always to the metaphors where the two intersect, like this bit from Erwin Rommel: “Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives. Brains saves both.”
During life’s “suckier” moments, Tolliver offers words of strength, courage, inspiration, wisdom, and hope, as his subtitle suggests. Here is a rundown:
Strength: “Tougher times never last, but tough people do.” Robert H. Schuller.
Courage: “Better to fight for something than live for nothing.” George S. Patton.
Inspiration: “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass.
Wisdom: “When one door closes, another one opens, but we often look so long and regretfully at the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.” Alexander Graham Bell.
Hope: “Believers look up—take courage. The angels are nearer than you think.” Billy Graham.
The compilation has no obvious ideological or religious bend. Quotes from Maya Angelou, Henry David Thoreau, and El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) are interspersed with ones from George S. Patton, Robert H. Schuller, and the King James Bible.
For $10, this book is a wonderful addition to any bookshelf. I suppose Tolliver had the Soldier in mind when he wrote it, as each page is dedicated to the quote, with the author of the quote listed at the bottom. Anybody on deployment could pick it up and read a page or two each day before heading out of the barracks. But Embrace the Suck is so much more than a Soldier’s quote book. It gives practical advice for everybody. I particularly thought of how young people would truly benefit from taking to heart the messages therein.
Whether it’s on a college student’s bookshelf, a suburban coffee table, or in a servicemember’s hooch, Embrace the Suck is a worthy read.
About the Author
Gabriel Tolliver is currently serving in the US Army as a 46 Romeo (Broadcast Journalist). He is known as a "Creative Mothership" across media platforms of film / TV / new media and publishing.
