I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy is well known for his portrayal of Spock on Star Trek television series and films. As a Vulcan, Spock is of a long-lived species, and his appearance in the 2009 reboot film and its 2013 sequel (Into Darkness) makes him a link between the new adventures and their predecessors. The actor passed away last year (2015).

I Am Spock is Nimoy’s memoir relating to his career as an actor and a director. Of course, Spock and Star Trek play an important role in that career, though Nimoy does not limit his reminiscence to the franchise.

Throughout the book, Nimoy imagines conversations with Spock. As an actor in a series where writers and directors change, he saw himself as a protector of the character (and suggested that other actors take similar attitudes to such characters). This made him passionate about a character known for being dispassionate. At the same time, he had the reasonable fear of being type casted and being unable to get other parts.

Fortunately, Nimoy was able to move on to other things after the three seasons of the original Star Trek series. On series television, he played Paris on Mission Impossible. He also had guest roles on a number of other shows. He also worked on the stage. One gets the impression for the book that Nimoy had relatively few interruptions in his career after bringing Spock to life, though not always with the steady paycheck that comes from being on a series.

Nimoy became interested in directing and tried his hand directing a few episodes of television shows. He got his chance to direct a feature film with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. This was a success and he was offered the helm of the next film, The Voyage Home. He also had a great success as director of Three Men and a Baby.

As a Trek fan, I’m obviously interested in that part of his career. Even so, I found it almost a relief to break from that and read about Nimoy’s other projects. Though he does not present himself as religious, he seemed particularly to relish projects that provided a connection to his Jewish heritage. Even the distinctive Vulcan salute was taken by Nimoy from a temple ceremony he observed as a child.

The book was published in 1995, so it covers the period up to the sixth Star Trek film, The Undiscovered Country, and his appearance on two episodes of The Next Generation. He gave no hint of imagining that he would reprise the role of Spock 14 years later.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis

Fic by Anne Jamison

The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron

Nimoy, Leonard. I Am Spock. New York: Hachette, 1995.

Billion Dollar Whale by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope

I’m feel stuck in trying to describe Billion Dollar Whale, by Wall Street Journal reporters Tom Wright and Bradley Hope. Part of what boggled my mind is the sheer size of the crime they describe, the theft of an estimated $5 billion dollars. That’s right, billion. The other is the number of corrupt people needed to pull it off. Some were neck deep in the scheme, but a lot of people had to look the other way or squelch concerns in order for this to occur and for it to go on for so long.

 The true story focuses on a man name Jho Low. He grew up in Malaysia. His father made millions in business and sent a young low to be educated in the UK and US (the Wharton school at University of Pennsylvania), where he started making connections at the prestigious schools he attended. While the Lows were wealthy—even in the US, $15 million is a lot of money—he was rubbing elbows with scions of families that controlled orders of magnitude more wealth. He wanted to run in those circles.

 I once read that you can’t con and honest man—traditional cons involved roping a mark into something that is morally dubious if not outright criminal. Low was fortunate to have found many dishonest people who were willing to help him, including the prime minister of Malaysia at the time, Najib Razak, the stepfather of one of Low’s Wharton friends. He also made contacts in the Middle East through Wharton and his British prep school. With the help of Razak and a Saudi ambassador, Low created a Malaysian sovereign fund. Instead of investing the billions of dollars the fund borrowed from investors—with the aid of American banks—Low and his conspirators siphoned of most of the money. He never intended to pay it back.

 Low like to party. This is where the story gets really crazy. His partying led him to contact—and in some cases even friendship—with American celebrities. Low pulled money out of the Malaysian fund to finance the making of the film The Wolf of Wall Street, which is about the huge fraud committed by Jordan Belfort, who was played by Leonardo Dicaprio in the film. (Dicaprio was far from the only celebrity in Low’s circle, and part of the fascination of the book is seeing how he used his access to access these people.) Low’s theft and excesses almost makes Belfort seem like an amateur.

 As the book was published, Low’s scheme had finally collapsed after seven years, though he and some of his conspirators were still at large and had access to at least some of their stolen money in spite of American, Swiss and Singaporean efforts to seize assets of those involved in the scam. It is frustrating to think that he may get away with it. It is also frustrating to realize that billions may never be repaid to investors, the people are Malaysia are stuck with enormous debts that will be a drag on their economy for decades and the truly beneficial investments that might have been made with that money will never occur.

 Wright, Tom & Bradley Hope. Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World. New York: Hachette, 2018.