Book Review: Fair Play

Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying

Written by James M. Olson in 2006

The Raccoon: James M. Olson’s career as a case officer for the CIA led him to worry that too many vital moral decisions are left in the hands of individuals. In his book, Olson aims to open the discussion over whether the United States should establish rules of “fair play” and what actions are permissible in the game of espionage. Olson first tells his own story, then outlines historical arguments for and against spying, dating back to the Bible, then summarizes the US’ own changing policies and presidents’ outlooks on intelligence.

Following these introductions, the heart of the book presents fifty scenarios of moral dilemmas that the CIA has or could face in the near future. These scenarios range from more familiar issues, such as administering suicide pills, to deeply complex questions, including posing as another country’s intelligence service to recruit a potential informant who is anti-American, feeding an informant’s addiction to drugs or prostitutes, and using dolphins in suicide attacks against terrorists targeting US submarines. All of the stories use fictional details yet have historical precedent. After prompting the reader to consider his or her own answer to each proposed action, Olson has enlisted the help of other CIA employees, soldiers, professors, and students to offer their perspectives.

UNMASKED: I expected Fair Play to be a quick read. The book is not especially long, and its division into individual scenarios makes it easy to pick up for five minutes at a time, without needing to remember any people or facts for more than five pages. However, in trying to engage with the book as Olson suggests, examining my own feelings and logic toward each scenario, I ended up having to work through each page and wrestle with questions, contingencies, and exceptions that are still turning gears in the back of my mind.

The brilliance of Fair Play lies in how Olson steadily walks the reader through just how many variables are involved in a given question, showing rather than telling us that these decisions can never be black and white. For example, following the scenario of bribing an agent with prostitutes, Olson presents another similar case, with the small caveat that this time, the prostitutes are children. Likewise, readers who accept the use of a CIA case officer entering another country undercover as a journalist may not extend that understanding to recruiting a journalist for CIA operations.

For scenarios like recruiting a journalist, I did not initially appreciate the implications of the case officer being exposed. In these more subtly questionable chapters, Fair Play’s commentators prove invaluable, discussing in this case how thousands of civilian US journalists could be negatively affected. I often found that my answer would change two or three times over the course of a chapter due to the varying arguments presented by these other writers. One of the underlying themes of Fair Play is that moral decisions of this magnitude should not be left to one individual, and Olson’s choice to include dozens of other opinions in his explanations of intelligence operations reveals a true commitment to this idea.

Strengths:

• Olson includes extensive notes in a section entitled “Spying 101,” comprising one tenth of the entire book and explaining everything else I wanted to know about US intelligence agencies and particular operations.
• Even including the aforementioned scenarios that come in series, none of the chapters feel repetitive. Fair Play also employs different, relevant commentators for each scenario.

Weaknesses: Other than there being some hard questions to swallow, I cannot find anything wrong with this book.

Rating: 20/20 Romeo operations

Ideal Setting: Would it be morally acceptable to read a book revealing that the US lacks rules or guidelines to stop its representatives from using espionage tactics you would harshly condemn, and not act on it?

Book Review: Uprooted

Uprooted

Written by Naomi Novik in 2015

The Raccoon: Every ten years, the Dragon, an immortal (human) wizard, takes a girl from the valley to serve him. It is the price everyone pays for the Dragon’s protection against the Wood, an ever-expanding, malevolent forest whose power looms over the whole kingdom. When Agnieszka is unexpectedly chosen by the Dragon, she discovers her own aptitude for magic, and both the wizard and his new apprentice find themselves facing a war between two kingdoms, with the Wood pulling the strings on both sides and everyone’s lives at stake.

UNMASKED: It is near-impossible to write original fantasy today; every trope and trope subversion has been written to death. Uprooted nearly falls into the same trap with its predictable beginning, but Novik’s inspiration from Polish folk tales and the unique premise of the Wood lay the foundation for a rivetingly fresh world and plot.

Uprooted maintains a rapid pace from the first to the last page. While Novik never lets up on the action, she takes care to vary the type of tension in each chapter and have the characters’ decisions organically lead into new problems. Furthermore, every wizard in Uprooted uses magic differently, and this variety in spellcasting helps maintain the excitement, even in intimate conversations, and craft beautiful images in fiery battles. Ultimately, the novel is perfect for both long-time fans of fantasy and readers still trying to find the right shallow first step into the deep waters of the genre.

Strengths:

• “The guards were firing arrows at us. One tore through her cloak and hit her back. Another landed just beside me and stuck into the side of the boat, quivering. I snatched the feathers off the arrow-shaft and threw them up into the air above us. They remembered what they’d once been and turned into a cloud of half-birds that whirled and sang, covering us from view for a few moments.” Again, each feat of magic is resourceful and personal, making use of the environment and tone of its surrounding pages and the character’s values. The overall effect is that Novik’s descriptions of magic feel far more natural than any other spell-slinging scenes I have read.
• Agnieszka’s best friend is equally well-developed as a character and undergoes a parallel yet entirely different arc.

Weaknesses:

• Novik crosses the line from magic armor to plot armor a few times.
• It takes half the book for the reader to completely understand the political situation between the two kingdoms.

Rating: 18/20 corrupted cows

Ideal Setting: Do not read this while sitting under a tree.

Book Review: The Coddling of the American Mind

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Written by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt in 2018

The Raccoon: The Coddling of the American Mind explores a series of interrelated epidemics that have emerged on college campuses in the past few years: anxiety, depression, protests against controversial speakers and against free speech, trigger warnings, and socio-political witch hunts. Lukianoff and Haidt provide specific anecdotes and data to outline the extent of the issues and introduce what they believe to be the three Great Untruths that allow these problems to proliferate. The authors then analyze the Great Untruths from the perspective of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and discuss the six societal trends that helped spread these problematic mindsets. Finally, the authors outline paths to reform our society and reverse these trends on the personal, parental, educational, and governmental levels.

UNMASKED: Needless to say, this book is comprehensive. ‘Coddling’ is incredibly well-researched and elaborates fully on every idea proposed, as well as opposing views and data. Lukianoff and Haidt argue a major cause of today’s polarity and violence is the tendency of students, professors, liberals, and conservatives to attack the weakest point of others’ arguments; in doing so, they set a standard for themselves to handle their book’s claims and proposals without bias, and they deliver on this promise. By the time I reached the last page of ‘Coddling,’ every loose end and question I had come up with had been answered, and, if another reader remains unsatisfied, the authors include extensive additional material to corroborate and expand on their information.

As for the actual content of the authors’ argument, ‘Coddling’ is uniquely effective at uncovering every angle of the mental health and free speech crises. In particular, the authors discuss evidence that the quality and quantity of children’s free play has decreased in the last decade, and that this negatively impacts not just their development but also our understanding of conflict resolution, subtly changing the political dialogue; I was enthralled by how far these consequences can reach and how I could recognize some of that deficit in my own behavior. Due to this depth, although the book concentrates on college campuses, everyone can benefit from an understanding of the forces shaping Millennials and “iGen” as their future coworkers, fellow citizens, and voters.

Strengths:

• The book’s language is not as dense as my own descriptions. ‘Coddling’ is difficult to summarize only because it contains so much information, but the authors take care to outline their ideas and repeat the more abstract claims.
• ‘Coddling’ does not preach or speak of an ideal future until the very end, when the author’s tallest beliefs have secure foundations building to those same heights.

Weaknesses:

• The anecdote at the very beginning of ‘Coddling’ is so facetious and poorly-written that I nearly snapped my Kindle in half before even learning what the book was arguing for. The parable unfortunately cannot be skipped, as it introduces terminology that the authors use throughout the book, so I urge you to grit your teeth and push through it.

Rating: 19/20 forced resignations

Ideal Setting: Read this immediately--regardless of your position in life, some chapter will resonate with you--and then keep the appendix list of cognitive distortions and biases handy for daily use, both to catch yourself and to bother your friends and family.

Book Review: The Adventure Zone

The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins

Written by Griffin, Clint, Justin, and Travis McElroy and Carey Pietsch

The Raccoon: Adapted to a graphic novel from the podcast of the same name, The Adventure Zone follows a portion of the writers’ Dungeons and Dragons campaign, in which a human fighter, a dwarf cleric, and an elf wizard embark on what appears to be a simple rescue mission. The heroes quickly themselves in over their heads in a conflict larger than they had ever imagined.

UNMASKED: As far as I know, The Adventure Zone is the only book of its kind to exist, making it difficult to evaluate. The story is an improvisation: while the characters’ quest and setting may have been planned and written in advance by Griffin, any authorial control stops there. The three main characters were each played by Clint, Justin, and Travis respectively, and the outcomes of their every action were created by the combined effort of what they intended to do and Griffin’s interpretation of one or more unpredictable dice rolls. As the four authors initially recorded their sessions for a podcast, The Adventure Zone is further complicated by virtue of it being a transcribed oral history; Pietsch was faced with the challenging tasks of determining which dialogue was crucial and ascribing concrete appearances to images that were different in every author and listener’s head. The fact that this book could be compiled together is in and of itself a miracle.

Despite and perhaps because of these constraints, The Adventure Zone still tells a strong story with distinct, well-rounded characters and entertaining action scenes. More importantly, the book is filled with humor, with each McElroy brother bringing his unique wit to every character choice and line of dialogue. While the book concludes at the start of a new chapter, a sequel is thankfully in the works, as readers will be left wanting more of these crazy heroes.

Strengths:

• Griffin as the Dungeon Master (DM) is integrated well, being featured in humorous moments such as trying to articulate the noise a certain creature makes or encouraging the party to not split up, and otherwise not appearing in the book.
• As a whole, the writers balance their existence as characters in a story and players of a game very effectively, maintaining an immersive but light-hearted experience.

Weaknesses:

• While newcomers to Dungeons and Dragons will still understand the story and appreciate its humor, the book is definitely tailored to readers who are familiar with the game’s mechanics and quirks.

Rating:

Ideal Setting: Read this when you want to journey far away, but not so far away that you would have to study Tolkien languages to get by.

Book Review: Do No Harm

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery

Written by Henry Marsh in 2016

The Raccoon: In Do No Harm, renowned neurosurgeon Henry Marsh takes a captivatingly honest look at his career, exploring the intricacies of the brain and how doctors steel themselves psychologically in the face of crises and catastrophic mistakes. Along the way, Marsh also reflects how a growing bureaucracy, advanced technology, and differences between cultures have come to affect how we approach saving a life.

UNMASKED: In Arrival, perhaps my all-time favorite film, humans encounter aliens who have a completely different understanding of time, which is reflected in their language. The “heptapods” write with circular ink emissions that form parts of multiple words simultaneously until the sentence circle is completely fleshed out, as opposed to our linear method of expressing one word at a time. The end result, however, is the same in both languages, and a complex message is still communicated with either structure.

Do No Harm flows in the language of Arrival. The book lacks an explicit narrative; the story moves back and forth in time and without thematic transition, and, following the first few chapters, which explain many introductory concepts and procedures in neurosurgery, the bulk of Do No Harm could be completely reordered with no consequence. As Marsh’s tone is that of a memoir, it was difficult to remind myself that the book is not meant to be a story, and for readers who prefer organization, this may come as a challenge.

By the end of Do No Harm, however, after a journey that wanders multiple threads and career periods simultaneously, Marsh brings the reader to a complete understanding of the intricacies of brain surgery and neuroscience. His descriptions of complex procedures and anatomy are easy to digest, yet never lose sight of how awe-inspiring the brain can be. Furthermore, his stories about operating in Ukraine, training students and being a student in training, and the range of monumental and minuscule struggles involved in working in a hospital, lend insight on so much more than what is just inside our heads.

Strengths:

• Marsh is clearly an expert on this subject; reading Do No Harm feels equivalent to taking a course in neurosurgery, and it is a perfect resource for anyone deciding whether this career path is right for him/her.
• The book is also a unique exploration of how humans, especially doctors, feel and act in the face of death and seemingly impossible choices.

Weaknesses:

• Marsh provides slightly less detail on a few aspects of his career that he personally found to be nuisances, but which are still interesting to the reader.

Rating: 19/20 aneurysm clips

Ideal Setting: Read this after your next operation, to remain blissfully unaware of your doctors’ fallibility and then to be reassured that they share your anger with how long you were kept waiting.