The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic

Monday, December 29, 2008 2:10 PM
Kevin Black wrote:

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic, by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny. Jackson, TN: Bellevue Literary Press, 2008.

An MSW colleague of mine lent me this. Here is my note to her after I started reading it.

======================================

Dear _______,

I read the book you lent me about suitcases in an asylum’s attic, or at least I read about half of it. Unfortunately that was all I could stand. In case you are considering lending the book to others, especially students, I would like to share my thoughts on the book.

The authors have a stridently anti-psychiatry worldview, and do not admit their own biases. To give one example, after going on for pages about how the hospital was warehousing this guy against his will, they admit the hospital had repeatedly offered to place him out for over a decade and he had continually refused. Another example is saying that none of the patients had tried to kill themselves or others, but even in the stories I read there were patients who struck out at others, had the cops called for threats they made, etc., and they admit one person did try to starve himself. The authors do admit in one spot that there is inherent selection bias in choosing as they did to look at people whose luggage was left there—e.g. it selects for those without families, those who stayed until they died, etc.—but do not appreciate in the rest of the book that this bias could explain a lot of the things that they point out as recurrent themes in these patients. There are a lot of similar examples that I’m not quoting here, but I can bring in my notes if you’re interested.

More importantly, there are numerous factual errors, like saying that there is no evidence that antipsychotics reduce emotional symptoms in people with schizophrenia. That’s just silly—there are many dozens of randomized controlled trials that prove that very point. The authors appear to assume that if one would just talk to the patients, they would get better. They supply no details of how this would be done, and no evidence for the effectiveness of this approach, yet it seems this is one of their main complaints about how the patients were treated. Ironically this also directs attention away from the non-medication intervention that is most proven to work in schizophrenia: family education.

Plus there are repeated insinuations that psychiatrists are motivated mostly by greed and ignorance and paternalism. I’m sure this describes some psychiatrists some of the time, and it does appear that mistakes were made in the care of some of these patients and that some of them could have been sent home (if they had a home). But it is not only factually wrong but also mean-spirited to assume that’s always what is going on. This is frequently accompanied by “scare quotes,” like saying that hospitals wouldn’t release names of patients at their death ‘due to “confidentiality” concerns.’ Additionally, the authors are upset that patients seemed to get no useful treatment, but the book covers only the first half of the 20th Century, and in fact there were no useful treatments for schizophrenia at that point in time, and only one really useful treatment for major depression, and that after about the 30's. The repeated implication is that patients still get no useful treatments today. Similar comments could be made about the authors’ description of unmodified ECT, which hasn’t been used in America for decades now.

Finally the authors endorse some really wacky, out-there stuff, like saying explicitly that hallucinations are to be welcomed not treated. The book repeatedly implies that the patients’ symptoms—which, when described, are often quite serious—would not really be a problem for the patients if the psychiatrists would just stay out of the way.

The stories are actually interesting, and the authors obviously invested a lot of work in researching the patients’ lives, so it is a shame that the book is full of dangerous misinformation and hateful innuendo.

Thanks,
Kevin


Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:08 AM
Kevin Black wrote:

About my comment that there were no effective treatments in the early 1900s . . . it's not quite accurate, though it is true that the first effective specific treatment for schizophrenia was not discovered until the late 1950's. Actually, leaving aside belladonna, opium, magnesium salts, and other naturally occurring pharmaceuticals, chloral hydrate was synthesized as early as 1869. Apomorphine was synthesized in the same year and soon thereafter was tried as a treatment for schizophrenia (marketed today in the U.S. for treating Parkinson disease; it has no pharmacologic similarity to morphine despite the name). Barbiturates were first sold for medical use in 1903-1904. The psychiatrist Wagner von Jauregg received the Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine in 1927 for his fever therapy for neurosyphilis--actually giving people malaria on purpose to provoke bouts of fever, then giving quinine to kill off the malaria. (That may sound nuts now, but if you read the Nobel speeches, available online, quantitative response data were available, and at the time this was dramatically more effective than previously available therapy for this [then] major cause of psychiatric illness. Still, his public health work with iodine therapy for dementia due to dietary hypothyroidism is generally felt to be a more long-lasting contribution.) ECT (for schizophrenia), lithium salts (for mania) and amphetamine (for what we now call ADHD) were all introduced in about 1937. They are all still important mainstays of treatment, though ECT's efficacy for schizophrenia is quite limited and it is now used primarily for treating mood disorders. It is still the most effective known treatment for major depression.

Breyer, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution

Monday, December 29, 2008 2:05 PM
Kevin Black wrote:

Well, lots of books under the bridge since that last post, if you'll forgive a mixed metaphor. Most have been forgettable. Maybe I'll add some of them later. Here are a couple of more recent ones.

Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution (Breyer)
I'm still in the tail end of this book but have read and thought about the main exposition of his ideas in the first half. I'd say I am glad to have read this, and I think it clarifies for me how Breyer and those who agree with his relatively activist constitutional interpretation can do so without being motivated entirely by contempt for the electorate and the legislature. Still, I am not persuaded by his main point. I think his argument could be nearly summarized thus: "I'm not saying, ignore the text and legislative context and make the decision that I believe is right; I'm saying, think carefully about what decision I believe will best improve citizen participation in democracy." The problem of course is that "what I believe is right" and "what I believe will best improve ... democracy" are very nearly the same thing. I think the latter is more of a fig leaf for the former than a substantively different approach. But I am trying to be open-minded about it as I read the rest of the book.

Charissa's mission 20081119

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Sicilian greetings...ca tutto va beh...
11/19/2008 4:58 AM

Buon giorno tutti,

So, this week has been wonderful. I only have a few minutes to write thanks to a virus filled computer

Charissa's mission 20081112

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Weekly newsletter from Sorella B and Bé
11/12/2008 4:37 AM

Buenos dias!

Spanish class last week was wonderful, I am really starting to feel more confident. The people are all very humble, kind, and good people. Also 2 of the other missionaries here

Charissa's mission 20081105

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Another letter from Ragusa!
11/5/2008 4:44 AM

Buon giorno!

This past week has been wonderful...last wednesday we went to the Marina di Ragusa to play a little soccer on the beach, and I am constantly amazed by the beautiful world God made for us. Thursday we went to a little paesino called

Charissa's mission 20081029

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Happy Giorno di Moltisanti this Saturday!
10/29/2008 5:34 AM

Buon giorno amici,

So there is no Halloween here, but on all saints day (Nov 1st) everyone goes and puts flowers on graves. Also it is olive gathering time, everyone is out helping people, and it is really wonderful to think about olives and their symbolism throughout

Charissa's mission 20081022

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
How to feel happier...
10/22/2008 4:53 AM

Buona giornata!

I hope all of you have had a wonderful week. Recently, I have been thinking about this idea that if we want to become truly Christlike we need to serve the people around us instead of wanting things for ourselves. As a mission rule

Charissa's mission 20081015

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Ricotta, Albania, Nigeria, Australia...
10/15/2008 4:26 AM

Buon giorno da Ragusa!

It's the start of another wonderful transfer (6 week period of time) here with Sorella Bernabé. I probably will be here until Christmas with her in this wonderful city. For a quick update on life here: It's officially ricotta and ricotta calda time now,

Charissa's mission 20081009

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
A temple is coming to Rome!
10/9/2008 12:38 AM

Buon giorno tutti!!

So for those of you who read the title and are thinking, «a what?» here is a brief explanation. This past weekend

Charissa's mission 20081001

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Today this is coming from sunny Siracusa!
10/1/2008 5:46 AM

Buon giorno tutti!

I am here in Siracusa--today and yesterday we are doing scambi with the sisters here and so I got to meet a few of the people they are working with here, see some beautiful sights of the ocean, and today we went to this greek theater and some other ruins here.

Charissa's mission 20080924

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
4 months into my mission, 2 months in Italy!
9/24/2008 7:03 AM

Ciao tutti!

I promise there is a good reason I didnt write last week. I'm sorry, but hopefully that will be the last missing weekly email for a while. Again, if you are a friend who is emailing me and wants to hear an individual response back, I am happy to write you by snail mail but I need your address.

So last Thursday I was on a train all day and night to Torino; my companion needed to renew her permesso di sogiorno [visa]. In summary the trip was long and exhausting, but definitely beautiful scenery. My favorites were

Charissa's mission 20080910

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
9/10/2008 7:22 AM
update from your amica in Ragusa

Ciao tutti!

So last week we ended up working a lot on Wednesday and only had a bit of time for internet, and sorry but my immediate family gets priority.

Charissa's mission 20080903

Subject:	Re: hello from us
Date:	Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:12:39 +0200

im glad you liked us singing. that was the toned down version. bummer we never recorded our gospel version while running down the stairs to go to gym.... :)

aww!!! i seriously love lydia. everyonce in a while when i see kids (there are actually families and kids and babies here now that the festa di san giovanni happened, and school starts in a few weeks)

aww. sounds like everyone is doing great. i would believe some of this stuff more with pics. but not to be hypocritical, because i left my camera at the house today. we have pday half today and half tomorrow because the capi zona are at catania and we want to go to some city around here all together as a district. i love that ill always be with 4 elders, meaning ill never be alone!

so i had this discussion with slla bernabé the other day and she was saying how her family raised her to go to school to learn to love people. that just living life with adults or going to school just to learn was being to selfish. i really lvoe this philosophy. i dont know. i think i want life to be easy, and so instead of trying to understand other people all the time, i wanted to be in school for myself. maybe that is waht other people need to do, but i know that at the end we need to learn how to love everyone, not just people who are smart or whatever. yes the glory of god is intelligence, but at what cost? (btw this is all out of the mouth of her mom) so when she was in school and growing up she was taught that we need to only answer when it helps other people. not brag or show off or want to just read teh textbook in the back of the book. but help everyone around us and not just try to gain knowledge for ourselves. we need to make friends with everyone adn help them come unto christ-realize they are children of god by our example. no one wants to think that the black family are just those smart mormon kids but that we are nice and helpful. i think some of us have learned this already. but i dont know. i feel like i really didnt understand this when for example i was in elementary school and middle and high school. weve all been given these talents so that we can help other people to become better. i hope we can all strive to help those around us and reach out to others.

ah i have no more time to even get out a weekly letter to everyone this week!!! ...

the other day i was really frustrated because here everyone interrupts, and because i cant speak italian fast enough i often cant get a lot of thoughts communicated during lessons and such. but i'm trying to constantly pray for more courage to talk to everyone, remember teh atonement every day can help me, and taht i have been so ridiculously blessed! this work is great, and so are the people, language, weather, food, everything.

... yay 42 ppl we talked to on teh street already and one lesson. yay! but ah, its spanish at home today (alternate with english) and i need to practice so bad...ugh. my brain goes from italian to spanish sometimes, adn inglese to spanish sometimes. its so confused!

love youtons frmo ragusa, charissa

Charissa's mission 20080827

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Spanish? Albanian? Twe? I think I'm in Sicily...
8/27/2008 6:00 AM

Salve tutti,

So I've officially been a missionary for 3 months now, one month in Italy. Its amazing to think how the time passes. I really have come to love Sorella Bernabé and am learning a lot from her. I can almost get around Ragusa, am still sort of scared of talking to people on the phone, my hair is lighter already, and I am starting to feel like this is home.

Charissa's mission 20080820

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
Fresh figs, lots of interested people, and summer sunsets in Italy
8/20/2008 5:11 AM

So this past week I didn't get a normal day off (preparation day) because we had a maxi conference, that is, all of the missionaries in Sicily (1/2 our mission)got together wednesday in Catania (our mission headquarter city). It was great to be able to see

Charissa's mission 20080806

Sorella Charissa Black wrote:
8/6/2008 8:25 AM
It's another beautiful day in Sicily!!!

Hello,

... So basically these last few weeks have been fabulous. ... I don't have much time to write today, sorry. We spent the last few hours in Modica, a nearby town. The history here is amazing. (as are gelsi and mandorla granitas!)

Charissa's mission 20080730

Sister Charissa Black wrote:
Wed, Jul 30, 2008 4:16 am

Buongiorno tutti:

This week has been fabulous! Time sure flies when you have fun, and I am having a lot of it! Before I say anything else, I forgot to mention last week that you can email me at this email address

Charissa's mission 20080723

Subject:
Guess where I am.....Paradise aka. Italy!!!
From:
"Charissa Black"
Date: Wed, Jul 23, 2008 11:55 am

Buongiorno tutti!!!!
So this last week has been completely sopraffatto--overwhelming!!!! I had my last days of everything at the MTC, packed, said goodbye to the younger missionaries going to Milan and Rome, my branch presidency there, my fantastic teachers who are pretty much the coolest people ever, and got ready to go on a bagillion hour journey.

Charissa's mission 20080716

Charissa Black wrote the following to family:
...
I love you all a ton.

i just saw melissa barazza and said hi to her ( a girl who was my neighbor last year and now works here ) ok guess what. a few days ago

Charissa's mission 20080708

Charissa Black wrote:
7/8/2008 5:44 PM

... This week has been another wonderful week at the mtc. I cant believe i leave 2 weeks from yesterday, i'm so excited!! 4th of july was fun, we had a fireside where we played patriotic songs on chimes and then we went and watched the fireworks from the mtc. last tuesday j richard clarke emeritus 70 spoke to us and it was way amazing!

Perry, Tathea

Saturday, July 05, 2008 2:32 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
A reader review on I think amazon.com commented on the dichotomous distribution of reactions to this book--loved it or hated it--thus: "'The Book' (a major focus of the novel) was supposed to divide people and families. I think Anne Perry's book does the same."

I read this book over the past couple of weeks and I loved it.

This is a book that is meant to provoke thought. Many of the negative comments essentially could be summarized as "it is boring to think about theology for 522 pages." Many of the remaining negative comments complained that Perry's heroine is "too good"; that you never expect her to actually succumb to temptation. Ironically this is a major theme of her work: that philosophies and works of art are insipid and, more, evil, if they paint Good with all sweetness and light and ignore the struggle with Evil.

Although it is very different from Orson Scott Card's Saints, I think it rivals it for Best Mormon Novel. In my opinion Card is more skilled, perhaps especially at the balance of describing scenery and characters' thoughts versus moving the action, but Tathea is written passionately and I think its more intense discussion of theology is a strong point in its favor.

Interestingly, I am now in the middle of George Eliot's Adam Bede, and I just read the title character's extended comment on his pastor at the beginning of Book Two. Eliot essentially argues through Bede for turning away from doctrines (cf. "of tenets thou shalt not talk," Doctrine and Covenants 19:31) because (a) people don't want to hear it so in the end it is ineffective, (b) it tends to hypocritical judgment of others, (c) it misses the point of charitable kindness toward your neighbor, and (d) it is hubris to think we mere humans can claim to be right about doctrine. She says that mere thoughts don't motivate a change in behavior; emotions including awe and love do. Perry couldn't agree less. Tathea is an argument for the central nature of doctrine in the Christian life. "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior" (Boyd K. Packer, “Little Children,” Ensign, Nov 1986, 16). Without the true doctrine, one would not know what to be passionate about. The fact that no one wants to hear the watchman cry out in the middle of the night does not relieve him of the responsibility to cry out (Ezekiel 33:2,6-7). Without true doctrine, one would judge wrongly what is kindness and what is smothering, cloying paternalism.

I read a very insightful review in something like BYU Studies or on the AML site that summarizes the plot and points out comparisons with the Book of Mormon. I can't find it at the moment but will add the URL if I find it. [See below.]

I think this book is worth your time.


1. Saturday, July 05, 2008 4:08 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
That review pointed out for instance that the book has the same # of pages as the current English edition of the Book of Mormon.

One theme in the book, exemplified on p. 412 in a discussion of other more commonly mentioned traits of good leaders: "... who has the strength to tell the truth when it is hardest to hear, even to be hated for it, and not turn aside."

P. 437: "'He loved the beauty in it above everything,' she replied. 'Even above the truth. On his lips, little by little, it grew softer in the telling. The hard edges of price because blurred and finally so dim as to be ignored.' ... 'We twisted mercy into a softness of the soul that denied the existence of sin. ... We made too few demands. We did not want to exclude anyone or drive them away because we asked more than they wanted to give. We thought they would be unwilling to let go of their old pleasures, so we changed the faith to accommodate them.'"

2. Sunday, January 04, 2009 1:32 AM
Kevin Black wrote:
The review that pointed out the number of pages, and the comparisons mentioned above, was by Richard Cracroft and can be found on pages 159-168 of Dialogue, Volume 32, Number 3, Fall 1999.

He felt as I did that she succeeded in her attempt. A contrary but thoughtful view is given by Darlene Young.

various books

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 8:04 AM
Kevin Black wrote:

The Hot Zone, A Terrifying New Story, by Richard Preston. Anchor, 1994.
This book is a fictionalized nonfiction narrative that teaches about Ebola virus by describing the cases of the apparently benign (in humans) Ebola Reston variant found in Virginia in 1989. I liked it. It was a page-turner. A few facts about human disease and monkeys were a little off but by and large it should provoke discussion at any dinner table . . . as long as you leave out the rather florid descriptions of death and dying the author seems fond of.

Saturday, July 05, 2008 8:32 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
Smithsonian Magazine review of _The Hot Zone_, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/book_0695.html

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (1814).
I read this book by accident, thinking it was another book from the same period that had something to do with psychiatry. I can't hope to say something new or profound about such a famous work, but here are the things that stood out to me. 1. Characterization. Even the dull Mr. Rushworth becomes more real at the end. 2. Reality. I don't know how to say this except that it reminded me of an essay by Orson Scott Card about Book of Mormon authorship. He pointed out that much science fiction says things like "he waved his hand clockwise so that the motion-sensing door would iris open, powered by the small fusion generator," whereas no one in real life ever thinks about how to open a door. A book would instantly sound false if it said, "he grasped the waist-high doorknob, twisted it a half-turn clockwise, and pulled, so that the door swung open on the hinges that held it to the frame along one side." Anyway, even though the world she describes is almost bizarre to a 21st-century reader, the narrator is steeped in it and makes it feel natural. 3. Even though the plot, if summarized in a few sentences, would sound boring, and even though you expect that in the end true love will prevail and all that, for some reason after I'd started I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened, and in fact the outcome was not at all certain until near the end.

Other junk I read on vacation:

= Lost City, "A Novel From THE NUMA FILES", by Clive Cussler

= some single-author collection of scifi short stories that was fairly forgettable; one of the short shorts was about some alien culture that visits earth and inspires people with hopes of sharing the alien technology, but soon bores everyone with their ceaseless and somewhat incomprehensible door-to-door proselytizing. Then it gets worse when another alien culture visits, shooting down the boring missionary aliens in the name of their own religious fervor. The Common Man In The Street character closes the story with words to this effect: "I thought it couldn't get worse. We had the Mormons. But now it's the Muslims." (Disclaimer: I know this is politically incorrect, it's not about Islam per se, but radical islamist elements, etc., but after all the thing was written something like 50 years ago.)

= Scent of Magic, by Andre Norton
A typical fantasy novel, okay except for the unsatisfying ending.

Rudd, Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930

Tuesday, July 01, 2008 7:35 AM
Kevin Black wrote:

Pure Religion: The Story of Church Welfare Since 1930, by Glen L. Rudd. Salt Lake: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, c1995.
The irony is that this book sat on my desk at church for the last couple of years of my tenure as bishop--unread. Much of the history was somewhat dry, but Bishop Rudd includes 3 chapters that by themselves are worth the price of admission. Chapters 11 and 14 contain numerous quotes from Church leaders, gleaned and carefully stockpiled over a lifetime of welfare work by the author. A number of them were new to me, and every one was useful. Examples: "The principles of the welfare plan, when applied, will lift us out of this worldly life. The welfare plan is the most spiritual program in the Church. It is the final program and preparation for us to live. If and when properly lived, it will usher in the millennium." (Marion G. Romney) "The poor may be poor in spirit, manner, habits or lifestyle. If they are given money, food, or clothing, they may remain poor. They have difficulty handling their money or managing their homes. They are usually remiss in their church attendance. Their needs require assistance from compassionate people, and even then, a long healing process is often required. ... The poor of the Church need leaders who are understanding and patient. Charity, the pure love of Christ, must be in the heart of every bishop and Relief Society president." (Glen L. Rudd) "It is better to feed nine unworthy persons than to let one worthy person--the tenth, go hungry." (Brigham Young). "Men and women of wealth, use your riches to give employment to the laborer! ... embark in enterprises that will give work to the unemployed. . . ." (Lorenzo Snow). "The welfare plan is a permanent plan for the purpose of extending temporary assistance to the individual, so far as his temporal needs are concerned, but permanent benefits so far as his spiritual welfare is involved." (J. Reuben Clark, Jr.) "The love of work is an attitude that members of the Church must develop. Every family should have a plan for work that touches the lives of each family member. . . ." (M. Russell Ballard) "Members who receive Church welfare assistance should be expected to work to the extent of their ability for what they receive. Bishops who do not provide this opportunity or fail to expect it do the recipient a disservice in terms of retaining their industriousness, maintaining their self-respect, and increasing their ability to be self-reliant." (Robert D. Hales)
I opened Chapter 13, "Welfare success stories," with jaundiced skepticism, imagining that they would all say "this poor hard-working chap just needed a chance and now he is a CEO." Rather, these stories almost all started with, "so-and-so was a welfare failure story--had been given numerous opportunities and lots of help but refused to do anything for himself." Yet they are true success stories. Oh, how I wish I had read this chapter 5 years ago!
Strongly recommended!!

Charissa's mission 20080701

Charissa Black wrote:
01 July 2008
Greetings from the MTC, week 6!!!

... as for mail in italy i've been told that it takes about a week and a half, but that you shouldn't send anything of worth because every so often stuff gets stolen from packages. anyway...that would be totally sweet. i cant believe i'm leaving 3 weeks from yesterday!!!

Charissa's mission 20080624

Charissa Black wrote:
Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:41:16 +0000

So this past week has been another great week in the MTC. I really have totally loved everything. I have been studying _Jesus the Christ_ a bunch, and the gospel stuff a lot. I really am feeling more comfortable with everything here.

Charissa's mission 20080617

Charissa wrote:
6/17/2008 5:29 PM

Hello family,

so life has been pretty great here as usual. i am totally loving being a sister missionary still. ... i can't believe i'm already half way done here!!

Charissa's mission 20080610

Charissa Black wrote:
Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:45:07 +0000

Ciao tutti. i totally am loving it here and hope life is going well back at the ranch. I love teaching the lessons, getting to meet new people, hearing cool people at devotionals and firesides (Mary N. Cook taught RS--so cool person!!) ...

italian is going great, i'm trying to speak spanish to our hermana roommates, and i'm loving teaching here. the food isn't that awesome, but the environment is. I totally am enjoying the intense gospel study. its weird to see how it really only matters if you get the spirit there. so i went to the rc last night (every monday night) and it so totally rocks!!! i loved talking to people, even though i got like a million wrong numbers and busy signals ( i was doing outbound confirmations) and then i did a few chats too. i talked to a few receptive people and i'm calling 2 back and chatting w/ another one. i just love being a sister missionary!! we rule!! ...

some favorite bits of scripture stuck together, from rev 2:7, 1 peter 1:7, acts 28:28, and heb 13: 24-5. here it is: "to him that overcometh will i give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of god. that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory and the appearing of jesus christ. be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of god is sent unto the gentiles and that they will hear it. they of Italy salute you, grace be with you all. amen "

Charissa's mission 20080603

Charissa Black wrote:
Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:03:41 +0000

Hi,
It's so awesome to hear from you!!! I love mail!!!! ...

Jon: thanks, i love you a ton too man, i miss going to the pool!!! you are so amazing!!!

Rose: sounds like you're having a ton of fun. i hope the last day of school was fun.

Sister Morrison: well, sort of I get bored living in my classroom, but it's okay. we do as much as we can outside or in the halls.

Will: good luck teaching sun school! you'll be awesome in swim team!

Katie: where's your email?? i love you a ton too. don't do anything stupid!

ari: you're so great. how was project graduation? how was real graduation? you're going to totally love it here at byu.

Dad: it's so sweet to hear all your adventures. tell everyone else i want to hear what they're doing too!! haha about it being quieter there [at our house, since she left]. our district played this game this week to practice irregular verbs, if your team didnt finish the verb first they picked someone on the other team to 'wound'. and they picked me to not be able to talk--hardest 25 min of my life! ....hmm interesting discussion [we had] on bruise his head/her heel...

oh sad the tollestrups and robisons are leaving. i'm gonna miss them. stl jubilee? sounds fun.

i'm not doing the advanced italian thing, i need the review anyway, and it's fun. i've been either running or playing volleyball for gym. our teachers are awesome!! being in the choir is fun, the [CCTV] zoomed up on me and my companion for like a half a verse of lead kindly light (mack wilberg arrangement ... fyi i totally love singing in italian w/ the zone, it's so fun!! we do it pretty much every night. also, since i got picked out as someone who can play piano i've been doing that on sundays and at LGM"s and stuff. the TRC rocks and last night at the RC we had a LOT of chats that went really well! yay for IMing!

Supposedly pretty much no sisters ever go to malta, only one set of elders. and also most people never do anything in dialects because they're stigmatized, like slang or ebonics is here.

So being a sister missionary is the coolest. you are automatically awesome here, get to know all the other sisters...its just great. although i can't wait for food in italy and doing stuff there

I love the MTC!!!

Sorella Black

Charissa's mission 20080527

Tue, 27 May 2008 16:17:12 +0000

Hello,

So I had absolutely no idea I would have email here in the MTC until a few days ago, but here it is! ok, first business. ... if you want you can email me here, but if you do it through dearelder.com it saves time for me because then I can read it whenever. I only get 1/2 hr email on Pdays, and dearelder.com things get to me through regular mail and so i can read them whenever. ...

Books on writing

Friday, May 09, 2008 11:55 AM
Kevin Black wrote:

I have read a number of books on writing. I thought the following three were really very helpful.

The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman. Fireside (Simon & Schuster), 2005.
This book is written by an editor, whose job after all is to reject most submitted manuscripts. He starts with the most egregious errors in the submissions he sees (which, surprisingly, are rather common), and proceeds to errors whose absence reflects more and more skill and sophistication on the part of the writer. I think this book may have taught me more about good writing than all my high school or college English classes together.

78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might, by Pat Walsh. Penguin, 2005.
The author and goal of this book are somewhat similar to those of the one noted above. The style is different but it is also engaging. The focus is partly on the writing but partly on other matters such as finding an appropriate agent and writing in an area you know. I liked it just as well. Note, if I remember correctly the number one reason your book will not be published is because you have not written it.

Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, by Elizabeth George. HarperCollins, 2004.
I think the utility of this book may depend on the personality and style of the aspiring writer. It suited me well. George has written a number of well-selling novels, I think mostly mysteries. She approaches her work as much as an artisan as an artist. She notes that planning and organization are important investments up front that make the writer's job much easier later. She takes several pages to counter the concern that all this work and preparation takes the inspiration and creativity out of the writing process. I think she succeeds. I didn't end up using her exact approach but I found it very helpful, in part in helping make sure the plan for the book was coherent and well-thought-out, but also in helping me do what the paronomastic title suggests and start right away (see the last sentence of my comment on the previous book). (Note, it took me forever to find a chance to use that word.) :)

Charissa's mission

Charissa is serving as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from May, 2008, through early December, 2009. She was called to the Catania, Italy mission (comprising the football and the foot below the ankle on the map).

In the "Ch_mission" category on this blog are selections from Charissa's letters home.

Her permanent address while in Italy is:

Missione Italiana di Catania
Via G. Corsaro, 84/7 Parco Inglese
95030 Sant' Agata Li Battiati CT
ITALIA

She says "I hear mail takes about 7-10 days. Packages still go to the mission home address, but I'll be here probably at least [through late October] and stuff will get to me faster at this address than at the mission home address."

She will also have occasional email access at sorellablack [at] myldsmail [dot] net but she is not supposed to send emails except to her family, so please include your mailing address so she can reply.

— webmaster, a.k.a. Dad

Book reviews, copied from our old blog

Book recommendations
Posted by KJB at Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:52 AM
Categories: Public
(This paragraph added 01 July 2008) The original idea was to keep updating [this] table. That was too unwieldy so lately I've just been adding comments. Scroll down to see more recent books. /kjb

Books we've read (see more below)

Title (Author)	Comment	Added by	Date added
The One Percent Doctrine (Suskind)	A critical though un-footnoted history of the Bush administration's approach to war. Very thought-provoking.	KJB	20 Dec 2006
Foundation (Asimov)	A (the?) classic SF novel; it's our current family read-out-loud book	KJB	5 Jan 2007
The Great Influenza (Barry)	I loved this (my family's tired of hearing about it) — originally the author meant to write about American medicine at a defining moment; it's turned more timely with bird flu	KJB	5 Jan 2007
The Invisible Plague: The Rise of Mental Illness from 1750 to the Present (Torrey, Miller)	I am still skeptical, but wow! this book has a lot of really great anecdotes. My favorite: In May, 1828, the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum opened. "Not a single patient was admitted for the first seven months, despite articles praising it and advertisements for patients in newspapers in Charleston and Columbia" (p. 210). The South Carolina state population was over half a million in 1818. By contrast, in modern St. Louis City we have under ½ million residents, but I'm sure we could fill the place in a few weeks.	KJB	5 Jan 2007
Saints (Card)	I think this is The Great LDS Novel (so far) but some of my good friends disagree.	KJB	5 Jan 2007
Patent It Yourself (Pressman)	Thank you to Mark Mendel for recommending this. Warning: the book has no plot, no characters, etc....	KJB	5 Jan 2007
Heris Serrano (Elizabeth Moon)	Space opera light reading that I actually liked. A little too much of horses and written-for-girls.	KJB	6 Apr 2007
lots more	scroll down for more, mostly submitted by Kevin

Monday, April 14, 2008 4:01 PM
Kevin Black wrote:
More books I've read recently:

The Echo Maker, by Richard Powers. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
A book about Capgras syndrome, behavioral neurology in general, and a thinly disguised or maybe just renamed Oliver Sacks. Didn't like the ending but it was well written and is the closest thing I've found to the genre of what I'm trying to write. Still different.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey. Viking Press, 1962.
Never really wanted to read this but being a psychiatrist I guess I figured I had to eventually. Fortunately this place has no real resemblance to anywhere I've worked. For that matter, most the patients have little resemblance to most of the patients I see. Insightful about relatively healthy people.

A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. (UK): Warne, 1905
Delightful book we are reading aloud as a family on Ariana's recommendation.

Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:35 AM Kevin Black wrote:

1. We finished A Little Princess. I absolutely loved it. After reading it I am not surprised that Ari is the one who recommended it.

---

Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:33 AM
Kevin Black wrote:

The Madman's Tale, by John Katzenbach. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.
Hm. Well, it is a book where the Good Guys are trying to find a Jack the Ripper type, but set within an insane asylum from the 1970s.
Pros: a gripping page-turner, and the author manages to talk about killings and maimings and whatnot without lingering over the gore. The character development is good and the characters are nuanced. I liked the two aides.
Cons: the protagonist and the two other main characters on his side actually are fairly believable, but the other folks who are described in any detail are often too sane for the place. (However, the main character manages to write a coherent story when really crazy, and that's just nuts. No pun intended.) Plus, although the psychiatrist is not the stereotypical Evil Psychiatrist and the character has some balance, he is definitely not an ad for psychiatry. Sigh. Also the book has the social worker giving people shots, and the pharmacology is way off base.
The book doesn't teach much that is both meaningful and true about the serious psychiatric illnesses. Of course that is not its aim. It is about the story, and to some extent about the main characters.

---

Monday, April 28, 2008 11:46 AM
Kevin Black wrote:
The Boy Detective Fails, by Joe Meno. Chicago: Punk Planet Books, 2006.
[Note: These last several books are selected from a stack of books recommended by a helpful librarian at the Tesson Ferry branch of the St. Louis County library when I asked for books that might be close to my intended topic.]
This is a very odd book. It is odd in format. One chapter is blank under the chapter heading except for this sentence: "It is embarrassing to admit, but Chapter Fourteen has been stolen. We truly apologize for this." There are messages for the reader to decipher with the Boy Detective Decoder Ring which is printed on the inside back cover. There is another long message spread out over the footer of each page with a clue in the front material.
It is also odd in content. There are characters right out of a Dick Tracy comic book, like the strongest man in the world, the evil professor (think Moriarty, but now largely ineffectual due to dementia), and even the protagonist, who reminds you a lot--until his sister commits suicide--of Encyclopedia Brown. In a world that is mostly boringly normal, there are ray guns that make people disappear and disintegration bombs that make whole bus stations disappear. There are very unlikely plot turns.
But there are also people. The title character is neurotic but somewhat lovable. All of his buddies and even some of his enemies draw our compassion.
There are also a few good quotes. "Billy lowers his pencil for a moment and wonders: 'Without death, there is hardly any threat strong enough to truly appreciate human life.' He thinks: 'I am as good as dead--too afraid to live, only waiting, never taking a risk--I am as good as dead already'" (p. 262).
"... finally, I come to this conclusion--everybody is unhappy for the same reason. Somewhere in their scrawny little brains, they all know they're already dead. They're working some two-bit job, they're married to someone who ended up a bigger disappointment than they could have ever dreamed, they owe bills they can't pay--so I figure what these people need is a new start, a whole new beginning. That's what we're really selling here, Billy: a cheap version of hope. ... some reason to believe what's going to happen next is going to be better than what they've already seen" (pp. 281-282).
"The boy detective thinks, 'The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes.' He reasons, 'But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.' He takes a deep breath, grasps the trusty flashlight, and hurries back into the night."
I suppose even the quotes are odd in that some of these sound a lot like echoes of more famous prose.
Anyway, overall I liked this book, but the weirdness was too much for me to really love it.