Book Review: The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art

During high school, I picked up this book at a small shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I remember digging the name, Dawn Treader Book Shop, because of my affinity for the Chronicles of Narnia.  I always read it on and off meaning to study and master the book's material.  As I still am prone to doing today, I started reading it and never finished it.  

But finally over the holiday, I was watching some Metatron videos and I got in the mood.  I took it back off my bookshelf and read the WHOLE thing.  It's a rather short book.  It was ridiculous to not finish it before now, oy.

Anyway, The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art was written by Stephen K. Hayes.  He was the first American to ever study ninjutsu at Japan's "last historically unbroken ninjutsu tradition."  

This book does a good job of being a general overview.  Hayes goes over the long history of the ninja and how they did the jobs the samurai code wouldn't allow the samurai to do.  Hayes tells about his meeting of the Togakure-ryu master Masaaki Hatsumi and about his time at the school.  He goes through fighting techniques and ninja tools and weapons.  He parallels these explanations with stories of his experience learning about these techniques and tools.  Finally, he ends the book with a section on the ninja's psychological tactics and the spiritual side ninjutsu.

I enjoyed all the combat and training related content, but what really made the book for me was that last section.  Hayes does an excellent job at simmering down complex philosophy into a Sunday evening reading session.

For those of you who would like to read a well balanced overview of the ninja, including personal experiences of an American martial artist in the Orient, ancient weapons, and eastern wisdom, then I recommend this book.

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Shema Humata: Tass Sheshco

Titus Livius: Book One: A Brief Review

A Brief Review of Livy: Book 1

I recently read Titus Livius’ first book in his history of Rome.  I was able to read it in bits and pieces during my lunch breaks and a few sessions at the university library.  Ever since I graduated with my degree in history, I have become hungry for the primary and ancient sources.  I should have been obsessed with these guys back during my university days, when I actually HAD to read them.  Perhaps that’s why I enjoy them so much now, since I don’t HAVE to read them.  Nonetheless, I started going to the library of a University near me to make up for my lack of access to my university library.  And found! it has a better selection from that of where I studied.

Anyway, I read book one of Livy, and I quite enjoyed it.  Book one spans the period of Roman history known as the Roman Kingdom.  It begins with Aeneas and his flight from Troy to Italy.  Livy leads up to the founding of Rome by Romulus and discusses his reign.  Livy tells the story of what happened under each of the seven kings of Rome. It ends at the overthrow of the Kingdom after the rape of Lucretia and the beginning of the Republic.

On to the review part:  Well, once again, I very much enjoyed it.  It read like fiction to me.  I got used to the antiquated language rather quickly but I’m used to reading older things anyway.  I like things that are harder to read; they’re more of a challenge and you feel accomplished when finished.  It read like fiction and had plenty of mythical speculation, but was all about true events.  That is the best, when reading a story.  If you read something that is entertaining and engaging and then throw on top that it all happened, you will have the best reading experience.  That’s my favorite part about history.  I like to read history as a great story, because I write fiction.  I love the dramatic development of things.  But then because it is true, I feel like I learned something and didn’t waste my time.

On a historiographical note, certain things included in Livy’s narration were almost certainly myths or legends.  For example: the death of Romulus.  Livy told of a cloud overcoming Romulus during a storm and him disappearing within it, which most likely didn’t happen.  Then he follows that up by saying it was also said that his senators turned upon him and killed him.  He presents the legend first and then says a more likely story.  Once presenting both, Livy continues on with events as if the legendary version is that one that really happened.  It’s as if that’s the only one that really mattered.  But I don’t necessarily disagree.  He is a Roman writing the history of Rome, his country.  To people of the day, miracles or legends of that nature were not unbelievable.  To paint your country in the most positive light, is a benefit to it.  If anyone disagrees with that, you cannot say he didn’t present multiple versions of the same event.  Whether Romulus was divinely whisked away or murdered by his own senators, does it really matter what actually happened?  Especially that long ago?  Rome still went on to a greatness that lasted over a thousand years.  It still conquered the Mediterranean and much of western Europe. It still went on to be one of the most powerful empires in world history.  Therefore, Livy, writing in the context of Rome, being a Roman, and writing in Latin, can’t help but to write in favor of his own country. 

This sounds like one of my university diatribes...Time to digress.  Livy wrote his history well, and he wrote it with an air of romanticism that I tend to enjoy.  The more something real feels like it is fiction, the more interesting it is and the more history is interesting.  At least in this case.  Everyone should read the classics.  Hail Cæsar!

“Mobilis in Mobili” Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Review

“Mobilis in Mobili”

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: A Review

         If you love nautical adventures and have a love for the sea, then you will love Jules Verne’s deep imagery and description of sea life.  This book is a fantastic aquatic journey across the seven seas, full of danger and intrigue. 

         Verne throws the curious, French Professor Aronnax and his humble servant Conseil along with courageous and headstrong Canadian whaler Ned Land into a world alien to any seen before by mid-19^th century man.  Their lot is cast in with the enigmatic Captain Nemo, as they sail around the earth on a grand tour.  Captain Nemo plays by a different set of rules than that of the estranged terrestrial societies, which is demonstrated by his hospitable imprisonment of our heroes upon the submarine vessel, Nautilus.

         Jules Verne’s ability as an early science-fiction writer to correctly predict many aspects of traveling below the sea in such a vessel has made this epic a classic piece of French and English literature.  Numerous film adaptions have been made and is now able to be read in more languages than countries visited by the Nautilus.

         I enjoyed the aspects of the story which most readers enjoyed.  But not to be taken for granted are the scientific descriptions of the diverse sea life observed by Professor Aronnax. Although tedious and a tad monotonous as it was, I earnestly felt its inclusion made the novel more complex.  At almost every new seascape Nemo introduces the castaways to, Verne devotes a paragraph of two to Prof.  Aronnax listing and describing, in scientific terms, the organisms that be.  For those that are scientifically disinclined, I’d recommend having google nearby to search up some Latin fish names.  For the amateur marine biologist deep within myself, I found this aspect a joy.

         The dramas between the prisoners and the Captain, the captain and the navies of Europe, and the Nautilus and the sea, woven together by the voyage and the peculiar situation, and situated upon the wondrous and merciless sea, create an enthralling story that will surely keep you captivated.  When finished reading Twenty Leagues under the Sea, you will feel as though you were on the Nautilus with Ned Land and the others.  It will leave you craving the salt of the sea yourself. 

          Bon voyage!