Atlanta, day three

( Challenges )

Yesterday also brought several new facts to light. 1) I do have to report for jury duty on Monday at 8 am. Urgh. 2) Another old friend of mine from Atlanta no longer lives here, but is visiting for the weekend, and plans to have dinner with us tonight. 3) Jim needs to stay in Atlanta through at least Monday for work purposes. Although potentially frustrating for him, this means that now our hotel room will be covered by his job for the weekend, not just for Thursday and Friday nights. Thus, our vacation has been further reduced in cost, to my plane ticket (probably - mrpet got a deal on them, so we may get the difference back) and whatever we spend on non-hotel food and entertainment/shopping. So yay.

Today, we're planning to check out another labyrinth, visit a yarn store, and possibly explore a store specializing in vintage punk clothing.

one difficult book

So, I spent about a month slogging my way through Birth As An American Rite of Passage. This was a book on my doula certification list. I found it very difficult to read, chiefly because it was upsetting, but also in part because it was very dense and academic. In general, I haven't read many academic books since college.

The book, essentially, is about the way that hospital birth functions as an act of ritual in our society. It is written from the perspective of symbolic anthropology, which is a philosophy that believes that the things that we do have ritual purpose within our society. In other words, where some people would say that "routine procedures" that have been shown to be ineffective or even harmful are done because of liability, or because of a lag between theory and practice, symbolic anthropology and Robbie Davis-Floyd would argue that we have a deeper, meaning-based reason for continuing to do them. That routine interventions emphasize the power of technology and the institution while devaluing the power of nature and woman, and that witnessing these interventions reinforces those messages for all present. I'm simplifying a lot here, but I recommend that you read this book if you have an interest in birth (although I don't recommend it if you're pregnant right now. Yikes!). The argument is very convincing.

I can see why this book is required reading, but there were times when it made me wonder why I had become a doula in the first place. :( The deck is stacked against those who want natural birth. I've known it all along, but this made it really clear and concrete.

Despite the fact that I didn't enjoy it, I'd give this book five stars. It brought my understanding of how birth works in the US to a whole new level.

two easier books

On the way to Atlanta, I read Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by PB Kerr. This was a recommendation by chiennefolle, and I really really liked it. It reminds me a fair amount of E. Nesbit, who I read and loved as a child. It was funny without being dumb. The children and their perception of the world seemed real to me. Recently, I've often noticed that children's books seem too cynical to me - Artemis Fowl and the Amulet of Samarkand are both examples. I'm glad that this book was different. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series. Four stars.

While in Atlanta, I read Fanuilh, the first book in an omnibus entitled A Familiar Dragon by Daniel Hood. This was a loan from 7j. I haven't completely figured out how I feel about it. I liked the portrayal of the dragon, and I liked most of the characters. I'm interested to see where Hood will go with the rest of the trilogy. Three stars.