Moonwalking With Einstein (Joshua Foer)

Jeg ville have læst denne bog allerede da den var månedens bog i Fagbogklubben, men dengang kunne jeg ikke få ereolen til at virke. Nu har jeg læst den 'på bog'.
Foer skriver om hukommelsen, både om dens fysiologi i hjernen og om hukommelsens historie.
At huske noget går ud på, at man skaber en stærk forbindelse mellem det man skal huske med sanselige indtryk. Skal man huske noget kedeligt, såsom tal, så skal man omsætte det til en synæstetisk oplevelse. Hvis man mindes denne, så vil man have talrækken også, Hos nogle mennesker er hjernen indrettet på en måde at de oplever det af sig selv - tal bliver til farver osv. Hos andre mennesker mangler dele af hjernen, enten fordi en emsig kirurg har skåret noget væk eller fordi en  virus har spist sig mæt af disse menneskers hjerne. Disse er selvfølgelig gefundenes fressen for hjerneforskning, da de med deres ulykke kan bidrage til at kortlægge hjernens funktioner.

I Foers hukommelspalast er der mange boliger

Foer skriver også om mnemoteknikken, sådan som den blev brugt i antikken, i en verden, som var afhængig af oral formidling. Plato lader Sokrates polemisere imod skriftligheden. Foer hentyder til ironien - i dag husker vi kun Sokrates' udfald fordi nogen gjorde sig den ulejlighed at skrive det op.
Foers fascination blev vækket, fordi hab overværede en hukommelsekonkurrence. Man fortalte ham, at han med en smule øvelse og nogle små fif også ville være i stand til at deltage i sådan en konkurrence. Bogens story-telling del beretter om hans vej til mesterskabet.
Foer kalder det for metalakrobatik. Det kan være temmelig ligegyldigt, om nogen kan fremsige så og så mange positioner af tallet pi eller gengive ordlister. Det kan være sjovt, men er næsten så underholdende som en abe der kører cykel eller en papegøje der fløjter Nattens Dronnings arie.
Det ser Foer også, derfor har han nogle overvejelser om den praktiske betydning af disse teknikker. Viden om faktuelle forhold er på retur - vi har jo Google. (Jeg mindes Espersens udfald imod 'støvede bøger' i Gotfredsens bog...)
Selvfølgeligt er udenadslæren ikke nok, hvis der mangler en forståelse hvad man skal bruge faktaerne til. Skolen idag tror, at man kan klare sig langt hen ad vejen uden kendskab om faktuelle forhold - og det er et tragisk fejlskøn. Vi skal forestille at være et videnssamfund, men PISA viser det gab der er mellem intention or præstation. Andre dele af verden, Asien især, er derimod videbegærligt.
Teknikker som dem Foer er inde på, kan muligvis gøre læringen "sjovt" for eleverne - man behøver jo ikke håbe på at alle blive god til Foers cirkusagtige præstationer. 

Real Lives in North Korea

North Korea is, arguably, the most horrible country of the world. Sometimes there is a sort of competition which ideology is the worst. Communism must be the champion. While Pol Pot succeeded in killing about one fifth of his population in approximately three years, Kim Yong-il from the so-called DPRK is a long-time expert of starving his people. While he grew fat, he allowed to starve between 800.000 to 3.5 million people to starve to death. North Korea is a dysfunctional state, the next famine probably just lurking around the corner.

How do people survive in such an environment? In Nothing To Envy Barbara Demick gives a voice to those North Koreans who made it to to the south. This book is non-fiction, but breath taking as few.

Dictator Kim smiling to the starving people

We follow the indoctrination of kids from kindergarten onwards. We see how the system litters their brain with hymns in praise of the godly Kims, we see how the ideology prevails all text books and we learn how they are cut off from any information from the outside world.

We also hear about a system of spying and denunciation. Everywhere there might be somebody who might tell if you show symptoms of disbelief in the glorious leadership. Considerable portions of the population are already in labour camps. Death penalty and public executions for minor offences are also a popular measure to tame the people.

We follow also the life of a brilliant student, who in spite of a poor class background made it to the showcase university of the country. His girl-friend also had a poor class-background, so their relationship had to be in complete secrecy. The system discourages intimacy - it took them three years until they hold hands and three years more to something that could be called kiss, but was actually nothing more than a short reaching of cheeks. Victorian Romances were more bold than the lives of these young people. The system of North Korea is not only divided into classes, but highly racist. Not only they apply the notion of "tainted blood" to those who might be potentially critical to the regime, but they see themselves as a race that is far superior to anything else that is living on this planet.

We understand what a difficult decision it still was to leave the country and start a new life after the system had put the virus into their brains - maybe not everything was a lie...? Maybe some of the fairy tales the regime told were right anyway?

The book tells the lives of six persons from North Korea, how they made it through the famine, what made them defect finally. Heart-breaking to read when they realise that they had wasted their lives until now and how they are living now under new conditions.

The epilogue is about waiting. While Kim Jong il no longer disgraces this earth, another fatty ha succeeded him. We will have to wait a long time until the regime collapses. The regime already proved that they don't care much about a million more less to suppress.