Why?

I wonder why I bought this book? It is called "WHY" by Charles Tilly. It was recommended by Malcom Gladwell on one of his New Yorker articles on his blog site. I thought I would order it and give it a try. I mean this book is about: what happens when people give reasons...and why.

The first couple of lines are: "Did you ever wonder why people give the reasons they do for what they have done, for what others have done to them, or more generally for what goes on in the world? Idid, and ended up writing this book."

Catchy huh? Well, as I began to read the first couple of pages, I found myself asking why did I buy this book? I guess it is going to take me a while to get used to this guy's writing style, but I think he is too confusing at times. On the first three pages I ran accross these words:

- incessant
- plaintive claim
- soliloquies
- pragmatism
- lineage
- whimsically
- stilted language
- avowal
- concomitant

What? Hizzle-me-shizzle here bro! Also in the first two pages, he quotes and refers to the following "famous dudes":

- John Dewey
- George Herbert Mead
- Kenneth Burke
- Aristotle
- C. Wright Mills

Slow down there C. Tilly! Take a chill pill! Here's a good idea...how about quoting C. Wright Mills on the second page! To make the preface even more confusing, see if you can honestly read this Mills quote and understand what the hell is going on:

"In much more stilted language than he used in his hard-hitting and widely read critiques of American life and government policy, Mills argued that:

"' The generic situation in which imputation and avowal of motives arise, involves, first, the social conduct of the (stated) programs of languaged creatures, i.e. programs and actions oriented with reference to the actions and talk of others; second, the avowal and imputation of motives is concomitant with the speech form known as the "question." Situations back of questions typically involve alternative or unexpected programs or actions of which phases analytically denote "crises." The question is distinguished in that it usually elicits another verbal action, not a motor response. The question is an element in conversation. (Mills 1963: 440)'"

Got that?! Ya right! If you can honestly read this above quote and understand it the first time around (or the second!), more power to you. I think I will at least give this clown a shot past his preface, but if all I have to look forward to is his elite-'hey I'm smart'-attitude...this book will become some trash can's move-in buddy!