There are so many readings tonight that I’m only going to tell you about the ones I recommend. You can read about the rest—including a slide show of Seattle Times photographs, a “read dating” party at University Book Store, an author that claims to have learned about America through Starbucks, and a book that is “rooted in the wisdom of Lao Tzu”—by going to our readings calendar.
In the University District this afternoon, John Duda reads from Wanted: Men to Fill the Jails of Spokane. This is about one of the first and largest Wobbly protests in Spokane. Anybody who thinks they’re going to be spending a lot of time in Washington state should read up on the Wobblies. They’re an amazing part of our history.
As part of Capitol Hill Artwalk, the Hugo House is hosting a show called “Large, Hairy and Literate: Zinesters and Artists Celebrate Bigfoot.” This is a celebration of all things bigfoot by local writers (and, seriously, the Hugo House has to stop with this “zinester” thing) and artists. It’s less of a reading and more of a drop-by-and-take-a-look sort of thing.
Dr. Gabor Maté reads at Town Hall tonight. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction is about fighting addiction with science. If you’ve made New Year’s resolutions to quit something, you might think about attending this talk. As someone who just celebrated four years without a single cigarette (after twelve years of at-least-a-pack-a-day smoking,) I can tell you that it’s easier to break an addiction if you understand why you’re addicted.
And Pimone Triplett reads at Open Books tonight. Triplett is a fantastically named author of wonderful poems. Rumor is her newest. You can find links to one of her poems and more information about her over here.
The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you’re planning on staying in and you’re looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.
A good twitter account to follow for labor and economic news is friendoflabor – Carrie has some good links there.
Dr. Gabor Mate spoke on NPR this morning. It didn’t reflect well on his book. He talks vaguely about “research” that supports his views on the causes of addiction but all of his evidence is actually based on his own experience and those of his patients. He treats severely addicted HIV-positive people in Vancouver, and his extrapolation of their experiences to general addictive behavior like smoking is a stretch.
Dr. Mate also made several claims that are untrue:
* He says that addiction only started in recent Western societies and there are no examples of addiction in indigenous societies or in ancient Western cultures. Plenty of counter-examples to this: ancient Greek and Roman literature, kava kava in the Pacific Islands, etc.
* He says that vulnerability to addiction is caused by childhood stress and trauma. It’s possible that psychic pain makes one more likely to try addictive substances, but lots of people who had pleasant formative years end up addicted to drugs or to destructive behaviors. There’s a major part of this that is biochemistry. His handwaving around “dopamine” and “endorphins” is so uninformed it’s laughable.
* He claims that peyote is an addictive drug of abuse akin to alcohol and tobacco. Anybody with a shred of a clue knows this is ridiculous even if generalized to psychedelics in general. Sure, they can cause psychological harm if used wontonly but when is the last time you saw a psychedelic fiend wandering around Pioneer Square?
Dr. Mate may have drawn insights into psychology and human nature from his practice but he’s no addiction scientist, and he blows his credibility by trying to be one.