"A Quite Different Way of Thinking"

Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar,
Paul Theroux (NY: Houghton Mifflin, August, 2008), hardback, 406 pages;
ISBN: 10:0618418873.

Subverting Global Myth: Theology and the Public Issues Shaping our World,
Vinoth Ramachandra (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, July, 2008),
hardback, 296 pages, including notes and index, ISBN: 978-0-8308-2885-2.

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Two eye-opening books; different, yet similar—The first, Paul Theroux’s noir travelogue, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star; the second, Vinoth Ramachandra’s expose, Subverting Global Myths.

In Ghost Train, Theroux, now in his 60’s, retraces the rail journey undertaken 30 years prior (recounted in The Great Railway Bizaar). In Subverting Global Myths, Ramachandra takes us on thoughtful examination of the theology and public issues shaping our world. Theroux has little use for God, while for Ramachandra, his view of globalization is seen through the lenses of the Christianity of southwestern Asia. Theroux is an American; Ramachandra is a Sir Lankan. Yet, as I read I found striking similarities between the authors’ perspective.

Theroux speaks of making unobservable observable. Ramachandra’s thinking is (following British philosopher Mary Midgley’s lead) “a quite different and much less straightforward way of thinking.” Theroux takes us on a rambling dark journey to urban back alley and dives, places no tourist would ever go, and in the process we see the unseen. Ramachandra subversively connects ideas that rarely are connected, and in the process, as with Theroux, we are challenged to rethink our cherish notions about the world. Neither Theroux nor Ramachandra are limited to urban setting, but the “urban” plays a significant role as both works unfold.

Theroux and Ramachandra, each coming from different perspectives, touch upon terrorism, religious violence, human rights, multiculturalism, science, and postcolonialism.

Both Ghost Train and Subverting Global Myths should be on the “must-read” lists of any thinking individual* who cares about issues that shape our increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. At times we will be provoked and perhaps even angry. Hopefully though, we will be challenged to reexamine our own preconceived Western notions about globalization.

* Please do not let any negative feelings you might have about Christianity keep you from reading Subverting Global Myth. Ramachadra is a different breed of Christian, not Western, and quite sympathetic to other major world religions.

Paul Edward Theroux was born on April 10, 1941 in Medford, Massachusetts. The son of a French-Canadian father and an Italian mother, Theroux was one of seven children. Never much of an athlete, Theroux spent most of the 1950's reading. He never admitted, even to himself, his desire to be a writer and studied premed in college. Theroux now lives in Hawaii.

Vinoth Ramachandralives in Columbo, Sir Lanka and is a noted human rights activist, lay-theologian, writer, and teacher. He holds both a B.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of London. [Read The Matthews House interview (external site).]

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