Welcome, gentle reader, to July 2013’s issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine. This time around, our contributors remind us that we can view the universe from various perspectives, including those at many levels beyond or below the human scale.

Staff member and recurring contributor Cristina Deptula illustrates both ends of the spectrum. She looks at the very small with her piece on San Francisco State University’s personalized medicine conference, where scientists attempt to create individual therapies for patients based on their genetics. And at the extremely large, through her piece on a talk on the Big Bang and stellar evolution by UC Berkeley’s Dr. Eliot Quataert at California’s Chabot Space and Science Center.

Regular neuroscience columnist Leena Prasad highlights a current United States national initiative for more detailed human neuroscience research, the BRAIN project, in her July installment of Whose Brain Is It?  This project aims to develop even more sophisticated technologies than today’s fMRI scans, which show greater or lesser activity in different parts of living people’s brains, in order to gain a sense of what is happening in the active regions.

Several pieces this month present the experience of physical, human-scale dislocation.

Wendy Saddler discusses Alison Nancye’s novel Note to Self, where the main character finds the courage to live her dreams in part through a trip to Peru, relating the character’s internal journey to her own personal story of overcoming abuse. The novels Elizabeth Hughes reviews also involve protagonists lost in unfamiliar surroundings: Jeremy Bowden’s protagonists in Bioweapon face an alienating and oppressive government and culture, and Christopher Bernard’s lone wandering male figure in Spy in the Ruins picks his way through a city fragmented by an earthquake and the accumulation of forty years of rapid San Francisco Bay Area cultural change.

Gavin Hillstone, male lead character in Arthur Gonzalez’ sci fi novel The Photo Traveler, reviewed by Fran Laniado, often gets himself literally lost in space and time. His journey is prompted by a deeper sense of alienation from his abusive stepfather, giving him the impetus to explore his past and find out who he really is.

Each of these characters survives the dislocation, to an extent, by reclaiming and recreating their own identities. The individuality of Bowden’s human-robot hybrid characters give them an edge over the conformist mainstream society. The man in Spy in the Ruins recollects his significant relationships and the formative events in his life to stay sane as he picks through the wreckage. Gonzalez’ protagonist Gavin leaves the only life he knows in search of family, and eventually embarks on a hero’s quest to protect his newfound loved ones and defend their shared belief in limits to human power.

Alison Nancye’s main character Beth, like Lukas Clark-Memler and others who travel to reorient themselves and clear their heads, records the journey in a diary that reflects lessons learned about themselves as well as the daily events. Gavin, fittingly, takes photographs to remember his travels.

Bruce Roberts, when reviewing Paul Meinhardt’s The Afghan Queen, considers his own identity as he reads, and compares it to the main character’s very different life. Unlike the late Lela Meinhardt, an art dealer who often traveled alone to pre-Soviet Afghanistan to bring tribal art to Western markets, his existence has been rather calm, rooted as a classroom teacher in one small working-class California town. Yet, teaching junior high can be its own adventure, and reading The Afghan Queen helps him reflect on his own journey through comparison.

Colin James describes the slow death of a once-passionate romance in his “Love Exit,” as James ponders where he now belongs in his significant other’s universes. This piece, focused on intensely personal longings in the midst of an issue where other work explores the evolution of the universe and inter-cultural and international travel and business ventures, remind us that our ordinary lives are, in fact, a real component of the larger whole. Each individual’s joys and sorrows do matter, do play a part in the broader symphony of life’s existence.

Other poets this month expand our perspective by creating distinct, yet archetypical characters, and then linking these individuals to a broader spiritual and cultural context. Frances Varian reflects on the faith and loneliness of women in poet Christina Rossetti’s age, and finds beauty and spirit in struggling people who would otherwise go unnoticed. By ‘speaking even when no one is listening,’ her characters assert their identity and humanity, and approach a kind of beatification through perseverance and dignity in their circumstances.

In a somewhat similar way, Faracy Grouse explores her poetic protagonist’s relationship to our culture’s current paradigm of clinical diagnosis and treatment for mental illness. Here, perseverance and dignity grants her a long-awaited diagnosis, which finally brings some practical help and a way to make scientific sense of the mysteries in her brain. But it cannot bring the redemption she seeks from guilt over past actions, or fully restore her to communion/community with others.

Christopher Bernard grants beauty and grace to his poetic subjects, who set out in boats crafted from roses, on a violent sea that drowns children and adults beneath its windswept whitecaps. Yet, the strident call in the second half of the piece conveys that these are not pathetic characters, but people brave enough to venture forth and live and love, even though life and relationships will not prove permanent. Performance poet Claire Blotter draws upon historical and mythical perspectives through her fairytale language in pieces about eating disorders, mass murder, addiction, and mental illness. Perhaps, through reaching for other perspectives and paradigms alongside the modern, clinical ways of seeing things, her protagonists can find the healing and reconciliation for which Faracy Grouse’s protagonist longs.

Christopher Bernard also explores folklore’s reflection of personal and social psychology through his review of a recent San Francisco performance of Philip Glass’ opera La Belle et la Bete, patterned after the 1946 Jean Cocteau film. He touches on human issues alluded to through this traditional tale, such as how we define attractiveness, concepts of power and victimization, and social obligations versus personal choice.

Finally, with the remaining two submissions, we return to the dichotomy introduced at the beginning, illustrative of the vast spectrum of the universe, enabling views from a wide variety of perspectives. Returning poet Dave Douglas also examines psychology through his poem “Railway,” shrinking the human mind down to a much smaller scale, and metaphorically viewing the movement of individual thoughts and decisions as boxcars and passengers within a railway system. As with the neuroscience research Leena Prasad mentions, Douglas seeks to understand how the mind selects and processes thoughts, although he looks at it with the tools of poetry and psychology.

Douglas’ small-scale perspective, dramatized with turnstiles, fields of sunflowers, and a derailment, contrasts with researcher and information technology consultant Ramez Naam’s macroscopic view of the promise of innovation to overcome resource shortages throughout human history. Naam presents his thoughts in his book The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet, reviewed by freelance science journalist Charlotte Capaldo.

Please enjoy this issue, we hope that it inspires and enlivens you.

Meteorologist taking air temp and wind readings

Presented within the flow of the lives of real people and fictional characters, this is a monthly exploration of how parts of the brain work.

The BRAIN
by Leena Prasad

“Why a map, Mom?”

“Well, how do people normally use a map?”

“To get oriented to a place and to use that to find their way around.” Brian thinks for a minute. “So, it’s to understand where neurons are located inside the brain and how they are connected?” He pauses. “But don’t neuroscientists and neurosurgeons already know the locations and the connections?”

“They do but the brain has more than one billion neurons–” his mom says.

“–and several trillion neural connections or roads, you can say. Wait, are the neurotransmitters like roads or like cars? I guess they are like cars.”

His mom smiles. “That’s a close analogy. How do you think they will use the map?”

Brian scratches his chin.

“There are many diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinsons that we don’t fully understand,” his mom says. “ Obama’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) initiative will help them develop tools that can be used to not only map the brain but to understand how the neurons behave. So, it’s not just about creating a more detailed map but it’s also about getting a dynamic view of the stuff that happens in the brain.”

“But, how, how exactly? How will they capture the messages, the path traversed by the neurotransmitters, the messengers of the brain? I mean, that’s not a static thing…”

“Good point. The current studies use fMRI technologies to measure blood flow in specific parts of the brain. This helps them locate the place where neurotransmitters are active.”

“Yes, I know that!”

“Well, the idea of BRAIN is to provide funding to create more sophisticated tools than the fMRI, to see both high-level view of the neurons and their activities and to get a more close-up view—“

“—yeah, I get it.” He says impatiently. “But how is it different than the research already happening?”

“It’s not necessarily different. It’ll build on the existing work and provide additional resources.”

“Ah, so we can learn about the brain faster.”

“Yup.”

“Mom, maybe I can get involved with the BRAIN initiative.”

“Yes, it’s a new thing. So, there will be all types of opportunities if the funding continues. But, first if you have to get qualified by studying neuroscience.”

“Maybe I can become a brain surgeon!”

“Sure, but that means you will learn and use what is already known about the brain. You won’t be making new discoveries. So you won’t be part of BRAIN.”

“So, a neuroscientist then?”

“Yes, or both,” his mom says.

“I can be like Oliver Sacks and be a brain-surgeon and a neuroscientist and a neuroscience writer.”

“Yes, you can be. But first, start exercising your brain on the math homework that’s due tomorrow.”

“Yes  Mom.”

Leena Prasad has a writing portfolio at http://FishRidingABike.com. Links to earlier stories in her monthly column can be found at http://WhoseBrainIsIt.com.

Josh Buchanan, a UC Berkeley graduate, edits this column with an eye on grammar and scientific approach.

References

The divide between literature for older children and literature for adults has gotten much smaller than it once was, in the past decade; and the gap between books intended for adults and those intended for teens is smaller still. In the sci-fi/fantasy genre it is perhaps at it’s smallest; with adults devouring the latest Harry Potter,/Twilight/Hunger Games books along with their kids. The Photo Traveler by Arthur J. Gonzalez is a novel that is classified in the YA (young adult) or teen genre. Why? It has a teenage protagonist, certainly (and one who actually acts like a teenager as opposed to many of his counterparts in other books who act 17 going on 45). But if the character were to be written ten years older, the only really notable change would be that he would (hopefully) be a bit more mature and less impulsive. All of the other circumstances could be altered slightly to fit an older hero. What I am getting at here, is that The Photo Traveler is a novel written for teens and about a teen, but it’s one that could just as easily be enjoyed by adults.

Our protagonist, Gavin Hillstone, initially finds himself in a situation that no child should have to face. His parents were killed in a house fire when he was just out of diapers and he has no real memory of them. He was legally adopted by his foster mother, a kind woman, whose murder he witnessed in a convenience story robbery gone wrong. Living with her drunken, abusive husband, Gavin’s only escape from the ugliness in his life is photography. However, one day, Gavin learns that his paternal grandparents are still alive and across the country in Washington DC. If he had living relatives when his parents died, why was he in the foster system? Why would his grandparents willingly put him up for adoption? In search of answers Gavin runs away to DC, where he meets Bud and Estelle, the family he never knew he had. Bud and Estelle claim that that gave Gavin up so that he would be safe until he was old enough to learn the truth about himself and his family. His family is the descendants of a group of explorers who found something enabling them to travel through time and space via images. If a picture is of a real person or place, Gavin can go there by uttering a simple chant. At first he uses this ability the way a teenage boy would use it: recklessly. But he soon learns that others are after the power that the Photo Travelers possess and more besides. As a holder of that power Gavin has tremendous responsibility to use it wisely.

YA novels with boys as narrators are rare, and when they are written (often by women) the boy is sort of a fantasy version of a male teenager. The Photo Traveler’s greatest strength is that Gavin feels like a 17-18 year old male. In other words, there are times when he can be intelligent, charming and endearing, and there are times when you want to throttle him! For example, he shows kindness and generosity during the Great Depression, but when he sees a photo of his friend’s beautiful cousin who died years earlier, he naturally decides to steal some pictures of her so that he can go back in time and start a relationship with her. Surely nothing could go wrong with that plan, right?

Of course things do go wrong, there and elsewhere. Gavin is warned that with time travel he has to be careful of “the butterfly effect”. He can’t influence past events. But he’s not aware of the secrets that exist within his own family. It is these secrets that make his trips to the past more dangerous than he realizes, and make him wonder who, if anyone, he can trust.

If you’re a fan of any genre, there are times when you know where the book is going more or less. That’s true here as well. But there are times that the author throws you curve that leaves your head spinning. For me that happened about ¾ of the way through the book and again in it’s last few pages. I had been enjoying my journey with Gavin until that point, reading the book at a fairly quick pace. However, then something happened. There was a very definite point at which I stopped being able to put it down until I’d finished. Even finishing the book didn’t leave me satisfied, because as I turned the page following a giant cliffhanger I learned that I could keep an eye out for the sequel. Well, now I’ll have to. I’m hooked! Like Gavin, once the reader gets started on a journey he/she will need to see it through to the end.

Fran Laniado hails from New York, NY and may be reached at fl827@hotmail.com. 

Arthur Gonzalez’ Photo Traveler may be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Photo-Traveler-Series-Volume/dp/0988891646

The Afghan Queen—a Review

For 35 years, I was a teacher. My life revolved around one school, one classroom, a multitude of kids and lessons. It was a good life that allowed me to be creative and watch the eyes of 7^th graders light up with learning. It was a life very successful–within narrow parameters.

However, I’ve always admired people who lived very different lives, who never punched a clock, never stayed in one location, traveled the whole world as their classroom. Such a life fills Paul Meinhardt’s The Afghan Queen: A TrueStory of an American Woman in Afghanistan.

This very interesting book is part travelogue, part memoir, part American Dream success story, part political commentary, and all love story. Paul’s wife, Lela, who passed away in 2000, was a wife and mother, a free spirit, a dreamer, a wanderer. Between 1975 and 1979, with the blessing of her supportive family, her dreams took her fifteen times to Afghanistan, where she also developed into an international diplomat and a very successful business woman.

Working as an art importer in the U.S., Lela was very successful, but also frustrated because her supplier was unreliable. Solution? Go to Afghanistan herself, the springboard for all these trips. Often she went by plane to Kabul, via Frankfurt and Zurich and other European cities where she had established business contacts to buy and display the Afghan art she returned with. Often she had to fly on Arianna Airlines, dubbed “Scarianna” by the passengers.

Sometimes though, she traveled via a hippie caravan of Sannyasins, European members of an Indian sect on their way to Delhi, via Kabul. Along the way, she made contact with local artists, while also serving as house mother and auto mechanic for their vulnerable transport vehicles: “We worked out a system to change flats in under 30-minutes. . . . As driver and mechanic, I’d become quite fond of old-lady-bus.” (p. 194)

An American woman alone in Afghanistan is not the safest of scenarios. However, this charming, adventurous lady learned from her contacts how to negotiate in a foreign culture. The key concept was “baksheesh”—flirting, tipping, bribing, socializing to expedite a deal. Her ace in the hole was off brand levis. She kept several pair on hand to give the guards so they could speed through border checkpoints. And to negotiate properly she became like family to the people she dealt with. Thus one contact would lead her to another to another, all stemming from an original contact who liked her style and virtually adopted her as part of the family.

Her main interest, of course, was the art—the art she could sell. That included a wide variety of metal ware: bronze, copper, silver. Jewelry of turquoise, golden serpentine, Afghan amber, and of course, the beautiful blue of lapis, were among her mainstays. But she loved it all, selling folk musical instruments, wall hangings, prayer beads, textiles, decorative camel harnesses and even opium molds. Her wandering inquisitive spirit took her to dealers everywhere to indulge her interest in native art—and profit.

After all her time in Afghanistan, she knew most everyone, and was even invited to parties at the embassys to schmooze with the ambassadors. From these knowledgeable people, she learned that her adventure would soon be over, that the Soviet Union was taking over Afghanistan. That meant she should have the good sense to get out—which she did.

This book will win no prizes for literature. The writing is clear, but simple, with little attempt at artistic writing. However, if readers would like an interesting book of adventures by an indomitable personality to pull them out of their humdrum lives, then The Afghan Queen is the book.

Bruce Roberts

June, 2013

 Bruce Roberts is a poet and schoolteacher from Hayward, California. He may be reached at brobe60491@sbcglobal.net

Paul Meinhardt’s Afghan Queen was published by New Jersey’s Turn the Page, and may be purchased here: http://www.afghanqueen.net/

Baking Mad

They used to call it a nervous breakdown
but now they have more specific names for each part-

acute stress reaction
major depressive episode
delusions
auditory and visual hallucinations

I had them all

Stephen Fry aptly calls it being infested with a demon-
On television he looks like he’s tamed his well

I wish I could do the same with mine
instead of worrying about how deep the despair will be
this time

Textbook bipolar they told the medical student,
it only took twenty years to diagnose

With a litany of past initials, ADD, OCD, PSTD
I thought I was just lazy
unable to get out of bed for weeks

Turns out the grand dame has been with me all this while
and it scares me to now know she will never leave my side.

Living Hell

It will find you

in every beautiful song
in your most flattering clothes
in the scent of your own perfume

it watches like a specter

feeding off the guilt that has infested you

lurking in your memory
waiting for the subtlest trigger
to spawn its leathery web-

Once in its grasp it will strangle every
drop of sense from your mind
until you succumb willingly to
its excruciating embrace-

Hell comes in small doses
over months and years
making sure you can never quite forget
your transgression.

Faracy Grouse is a poet, screenwriter, mother and European traveler, currently in London completing a MFA program. She may be reached at alumine3@yahoo.com