Tuesday, January 31, 2017
...do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
The pastor of a largely immigrant Catholic church in Queens has a suggestion for his anti-Trump parishioners: Go take a flying leap off the nearest building.
“Show your hate for Trump. Do it for social justice. #JumpAgainstTrump,” read a meme posted by the Rev. Philip Pizzo just hours after he celebrated Sunday Mass.
More by Merton...
A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No [person] can serve two masters. Your life is shaped by the end you live for. You are made in the image of what you desire.
— Thomas Merton, born on this date in 1915
Rosebud...
Your life really does flash before your eyes when you die, a study suggests - with the parts of the brain that store memories last to be affected as other functions fail.
Personal sabbath …
… How the Poet Ron Padgett Spends His Sundays. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
Paterson, by the way, is a very good movie.
Paterson, by the way, is a very good movie.
Something to think on …
Depth must be hidden. Where? On the surface.
— Hugo von Hofmansthal, born on this date in1874
Something to think on …
Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.
— Thomas Merton, born on this date in 1915
A recalcitrance to mastery …
… Ever Green - bookforum.com / current issue. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Green would have hated it in the present, where long sentences are considered stressful, the most insane trivialities make the headlines, and writing for a daily readership means explaining, list-making, fact-checking, annotating, and opining about nothing. "Inexplicable" appears in criticism as some kind of diss (an actor has an "inexplicable accent," a heroine "inexplicably falls in love" with a freak), but if a critic can't explain something, then either the critic is ultracrepidarian or the thing is best unexplained. "If you want to create life," Green said, "the one way not to set about it is by explanation."Anyone who hates the present can't be all bad.
Monday, January 30, 2017
FYI …
ANNOUNCING:
'The International Age of Trump Cli-FiShort Story Writing Compilation''
(not a contest and no winners, but with an important purpose and chance to air your views as a short story writing in this Age of Trump, either pro or con Trump, all views accepted.)
Stories will be published with your byline on a designated Facebook Group Page and on a separate blogspot blog with Twitter announcing the entire list of stories with links to the individual stories by the individual authors.
Story length 800 - 2500 words.
Byline should be your real name.
Copyright belongs to you and you may publish the story elsewhere as well if you wish, but the story should be original and written in 2017 or 2018 in this Age of Trump.
Time frames may be the past, the present, the near future, the distant future. As stories come in, they will be published here and on a separate blog. Stories should be cli-fi in essence and they should use the words Trump or Age of Trump in the text somewhere, perhaps in the title, too.
Again, all POV are welcome so if there is a Michael Chrichton out there who wants submit a "State of Fear" kind of pro-Trump short story that is pro-Age of Trump, that is fine, too.
However, one suspects that most entries will be taking aim at Trump and the Age of Trump and his attitudes toward climate change issues.
Stories may be Time Travel or Current Days or Near Future Days, whatever your imagination tells you to write.
The compilation starts today, and will continue for a year or two or three or maybe 8 years. Time will tell.
Stories may be Cli-Fi Lite, Cli-fi Dark, Cli-Fi Deep, or Cli-Fi Humor. All writers are welcome, all nationalities, all languages, all ages.
Starting NOW! -- send in your stories by email to subject line ''The International Age of Trump Cli-Fi Short Story Writing Compilation'' to this email address: bikolang@gmail.com
Hmm …
… The Image Top 25 Contemporary Writers of Faith List - Image Journal. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Well, I reviewed Richard Rodriguez's Darling and I certainly agree about that. But I also reviewed Marilynne Robinson's Home, which I thought was awful. If religion really were as she depicts it I would run as fast as I could in the other direction. Geoffrey Hill is a good choice, though. Most of the rest I'm not that familiar with.
Well, I reviewed Richard Rodriguez's Darling and I certainly agree about that. But I also reviewed Marilynne Robinson's Home, which I thought was awful. If religion really were as she depicts it I would run as fast as I could in the other direction. Geoffrey Hill is a good choice, though. Most of the rest I'm not that familiar with.
Something to think on …
I think that one is constantly startled by the things that appear before you on the page when you're writing.
— Shirley Hazzard, born on this date in 1931
A good Greek …
… The Classicism of Robert Frost - The Imaginative Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A Different Culture than yours...
Our community, the trans and LGB community, was worse off, even under the Obama administration, than everyone else. And now, with the new Trump administration, we have to cope with a federal government determined to make us the bleeding edge in this cultural war. Fucking literally — since trans and LGB people symbolize everything that isn’t “Making America Great.” I’d like to at least be safe in my home city, the City of Freedom; of Love for all its People. Because none of us, you, me, my clients, anyone, chose who we are. We have to do as well as we can with it, with us, and each other.LGBTQ&A: Julie Chovanes
Interesting Historical Note...
Around noon on January 30th, Hitler was sworn in.
"I will employ my strength for the welfare of the German people, protect the Constitution and laws of the German people, conscientiously discharge the duties imposed on me, and conduct my affairs of office impartially and with justice to everyone," swore Adolf Hitler.
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Encore …
… R.T.'s Commonplace: Proof of God in mathematics (and elsewhere).
I linked to an article about this awhile back, but it's worth considering again. My prayer life is where I look for God, and it has led me to where I am coming to understand what Jung meant when he said that he did not believe in God, but simply knew that He was.
Hmm …
… How a Christmas Eve tweet roiled a university.
“All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” So the guy claims this was satire, because "white genocide" is "a paranoid racist fantasy." But jokes about genocide have a tendency to fall flat, especially on Christmas (you know, "peace on Earth" and all that). And exactly how am I to understand from his tweet that it is meant satirically? I guess "Off the Pigs" was meant for yucks as well. (Full disclosure, as they say: I am the son of a cop, and the uncle of another.)
The article says he "teaches radical theory and has written on the Venezuela revolution." Is that a radical theory of something in particular or a theory about thinking things down to their roots (radix — root). Oh, and how's that revolution in Venezuela working out, Prof?
Interesting that just about every comment is negative.
“All I want for Christmas is white genocide.” So the guy claims this was satire, because "white genocide" is "a paranoid racist fantasy." But jokes about genocide have a tendency to fall flat, especially on Christmas (you know, "peace on Earth" and all that). And exactly how am I to understand from his tweet that it is meant satirically? I guess "Off the Pigs" was meant for yucks as well. (Full disclosure, as they say: I am the son of a cop, and the uncle of another.)
The article says he "teaches radical theory and has written on the Venezuela revolution." Is that a radical theory of something in particular or a theory about thinking things down to their roots (radix — root). Oh, and how's that revolution in Venezuela working out, Prof?
Interesting that just about every comment is negative.
Typo outrage …
… Cli-Fi.Net -- (the world's largest online 'Cli-Fi' portal for Cli-Fi, a subgenre of sci-fi): A tale of two newspaper styles: The New York Times lowercases the word "earth" when it should be "Earth," while the Taipei Times does capitalize the word "Earth" in the same exact article from the NYT wire service. WTF? ''BOO'' NYT! ''BRAVO'' Taipei Times!
Well, when referred to as a planet, it is uppercase, like Neptune. When referring to compost, it's lowercase. I don't myself get all sentimental about it as my "home," but I don't tend to get all sentimental about anything.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
RIP …
… John Hurt: 1940-2017 | Balder and Dash | Roger Ebert. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
He of course starred in the definitive film version of 1984.
He of course starred in the definitive film version of 1984.
On a contrarian roll …
… The Question the Times Should Have Asked ‘Writer’ Barack Obama | The American Spectator.
Unlike Kakutani, when author Paul Watkins reviewed Dreams for the Times in 1995, he judged the book on its merits. Unaware that Obama one day would become the beau idéal of progressive America, Watkins failed to serve up a single quote the aspiring author could put on a book jacket. The most usable one — “At a young age and without much experience as a writer, Barack Obama has bravely tackled the complexities of his remarkable upbringing” — damns with faint praise. As Watkins understood, Dreams, though lyrical in parts, is not all that good.
Another contrarian view …
… The Enduring Wisdom of Montaigne - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Sounds like more academic BS. I prefer to take Montaigne at his word. Nor do I think he was "the servile conformist to settled dogmas." I think his Catholic piety was genuine.
Philippe Desan’s “Montaigne: A Life” is animated by the purpose of detonating this carefully cultivated image. It is an effort at disenchantment. Montaigne’s informality and transparency, in Mr. Desan’s telling, were rhetorical strategies and triumphs of artifice. Montaigne’s exploration of the private self was not a natural impulse but an adjustment required by the defeat of his considerable political ambitions. Previous biographers, Mr. Desan argues, have piously replicated the self-portrait of the “Essays.” He seeks to drag the solitary genius back into his social milieu, exposing his conventionality.
Sounds like more academic BS. I prefer to take Montaigne at his word. Nor do I think he was "the servile conformist to settled dogmas." I think his Catholic piety was genuine.
More dissent …
… R.T.'s Commonplace: Jane Austen - dissenting views.
When I was first read Pride and Prejudice as a 15-year-old working-class high school kid, I found it largely incomprehensible. The world it describes was so alien to me that it could have been written in Urdu. That, of course, is more a criticism of me than of Jane Austen.
When I was first read Pride and Prejudice as a 15-year-old working-class high school kid, I found it largely incomprehensible. The world it describes was so alien to me that it could have been written in Urdu. That, of course, is more a criticism of me than of Jane Austen.
Contrarian viewpoint …
… The Fantasy of Addiction by Peter Hitchens | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This is exactly what I was told by a friend who withdrew from heroin cold turkey (having no choice, since he was behind bars). He described as being like the worst case of flu he had ever had.According to research cited by Hari, from The Archives of General Psychiatry, some 20 percent of U.S. soldiers serving in Vietnam had “become addicted to” heroin while there. The study showed that 95 percent of these men had stopped using heroin within a year of returning home. “Treatment” and “rehabilitation” made no difference to this outcome. As Hari writes, “If you believe the theory that drugs hijack your brain and turn you into a chemical slave . . . then this makes no sense.”Indeed it doesn’t. I could also cite the millions of hospital patients given medical morphine (effectively the same as heroin) during illness or recovery from injury, who do not become dependent upon it. Or I could note the view of Anthony Daniels, who often writes under the pseudonym Theodore Dalrymple. He was for many years a prison doctor, and constantly encountered heroin abusers. He describes their withdrawal symptoms as being similar to a fairly bad bout of influenza.
Hmm …
… on the one hand: Going Orwellian: Party like it's 1984 | NOLA.com. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
… on the other: The Real Lessons Of 1984 Have Nothing To Do With Donald Trump. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… on the other: The Real Lessons Of 1984 Have Nothing To Do With Donald Trump. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The Trump White House's ridiculous attempt to speak of 'alternative facts' wasn't a sign that the Trump White House wishes to close down free thought in America. Why should it want to? Free thought in the USA, as elsewhere in the Western world, isn't threatened. That's because hardly anybody does it and those who do think freely have very little access to mass platforms. On those mass platforms, where news has often become self-affirming storytelling, people are told what they want to believe by their chosen organ of information, and they duly believe it. They want to believe it because they don't want their contentment interrupted by awkward information which might impose obligations on them to think or act. They are cheerfully passive. They have chosen their own passivity, in which they can enjoy the personal autonomy which is now the universal goal.It is, however, nice to learn that the new President will defer to his Secretary of Defense on the matter of torture. The former is of the opinion that torture can have some utility, the latter apparently thinks not. Actually, I am sure that torture does work at times, but just as the best argument against capital punishment is that it is wrong to kill people, so the best argument against torture is that it is wrong to torture people.
Something to think on …
One keeps forgetting old age up to the very brink of the grave.
— Colette, born on this date in 1873
Friday, January 27, 2017
William Trevor
I've just finished the fiftieth anniversary edition of William Trevor's first novel, The Old Boys. I purchased the book shortly after Trevor passed away. I'll be reviewing Old Boys for Rain Taxi, so I won't say much now: except that it's a masterful novel, defined as much by what Trevor writes as by what he omits. This is where it started for Trevor: where he developed that eye for detail, that empathy for growing old. I'd suggest The Old Boys to all, especially in its function as a sort of literary bridge: from Waugh and writers of the first half of the twentieth century to Graham Swift and the authors who took up the mantle in the second. The Old Boys is very well done.
A TLS appearance …
… Nigeness: Wallace Stevens under the Sail of Ulysses.
Nige has been on a roll of late. I'll be linking to more of his posts soon.
Nige has been on a roll of late. I'll be linking to more of his posts soon.
Something to think on …
I don't know; I think I'd be gloomy without some faith that there is a purpose and there is a kind of witness to my life.
— John Updike, who dies on this this date in 2009
Hoarding …
… Bibliomania: the strange history of compulsive book buying | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Thursday, January 26, 2017
The problem of letters …
… TLSHow poets write letters – TheTLS. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Bishop was by no means the first to bemoan the death of the letter. Each new mode of message delivery, from the penny post to the telegram, has been seen to threaten the art of correspondence. Hugh Haughton, in Letter Writing Among Poets, suggests that Bishop’s inverted commas were a quiet acknowledgement that her statement was already a cliché. The fifteen essays in this volume consider letters written during the past two centuries, and shed light on the state of correspondence today. The editor, Jonathan Ellis, offers a gentle admonition to critics who mourn the “lost world” before the internet (in the words of Rebecca Solnit), a time when everyone wrote at length and thought in depth. The electronic communications disparaged by Solnit and other writers can be seen as a development of the desire to “connect people across time and space”, and one day may seem just as remarkable. Even so, the current nostalgia for letters has given rise to a number of books on the subject, both popular and academic.
Something to think on …
One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that come from trusting solely to the intelligence.
— Lewis Mumford, who died on this date in 1990
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Blogging note …
Hitting the ground running this morning. Much to do. I won't be blogging again until much later.
Something to think on …
Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
— W. Somerset Maugham, born on this date in 1874
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
Pulling no punches …
… Putting Philosophy to Work | Psychology Today. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Interviewers sometimes ask me, “How we can get more women into philosophy?” “That’s the wrong goal,” I reply. “The right goal is to make a person’s sex irrelevant to our assessment of the quality of his or her mind.” So I’m intrigued by recent empirical work suggesting that blinding the hiring process—as I urged decades ago—results in more diverse hires than diversity-training programs and the like.
RIP …
… Mark Schorr, 72, poet who led the Robert Frost Foundation - The Boston Globe. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Inquiry …
… R.T.'s Commonplace: Robert Frost - "A Question" and two books.
The quatrain Tim quotes reminds me of this Frost couplet:
“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
The quatrain Tim quotes reminds me of this Frost couplet:
“Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.”
As for the question posed in the quatrain, my own answer would be yes.
Low Bern …
… Bernie's Right—America Should Be More Like Sweden - Reason.com.
Sanders is right: America would benefit hugely from modeling her economic and social policies after her Scandinavian sisters. But Sanders should be careful what he wishes for. When he asks for "trade policies that work for the working families of our nation and not just the CEOs of large, multi-national corporations," Social Democrats in Sweden would take this to mean trade liberalization—which would have the benefit of exposing monopolist fat cats to competition—not the protectionism that Sanders favors.In fact, when President Barack Obama visited Sweden in 2013, the three big Swedish trade unions sent him a letter requesting a meeting. Their agenda: a discussion of "how to promote free trade." The chairman of the largest Social Democratic trade union scolded the American president for his insufficient commitment to the free flow of goods.
Something to think on …
There is nothing more marvelous or madder than real life.
— E. T. A, Hoffmann, born on this date in 1776
Monday, January 23, 2017
And the winner is …
… Poet Jacob Polley wins 2016 TS Eliot Prize for Jackself, 'a firework of a book'. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
Hmm …
… US poet Anne Waldman at Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2017: Poetry can wake the world up to itself: - India.com. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
The "world" doesn't read. Individuals do. Poetry has better things to do than protest. And there sure in hell is more to life.
The "world" doesn't read. Individuals do. Poetry has better things to do than protest. And there sure in hell is more to life.
Try your hand …
… Burns Night Quiz: Test your knowledge of Scotland's national poet - Daily Record. (Hat tip, G. E. Reutter.)
Yet again …
… Evelyn Waugh Revisited | The Hudson Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I suppose you could claim that this later style was a development over the earlier one that immortalized the stoned fox, the Welsh band, and the Edgware Road, but it seems to me rather a forced, quite awkward attempt to do the highfalutin’, “poetic” manner about romantic love. The five months in which Waugh wrote Brideshead weren’t long enough to bring forth a convincing “serious” style to replace the earlier comic one. Like Charles Ryder’s sudden conversion, it doesn’t ring true to the nature of Waugh’s genius.
Well, it works for me, and worked when I first read it, more than half a century ago, and a few years ago when I read it again. I first read it during the summer between sophomore and junior year in college. It was on a list of novels we were expected to have read before starting a class on the modern novel in the fall. I started it on a Saturday night (for some reason I was at home). I chose it because I had laughed my way through Decline and Fall the previous semester and figured I could laugh my way through this one as well. It wasn't long, though, before I realized that this novel was quite different, and I will never forget pausing and saying to myself, "This is the saddest book I have ever read." My younger self was savvy enough to realize to compare it to early Waugh was to miss the point. In the passage Pritchard is referring to, the operative word, in my view, is death. It is about mutability, not romantic love (except, perhaps, to the extent that romantic love is emblematic of that).
Something to think on …
If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average.
— Derek Walcott, born on this date in 1930
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Persons …
… First Known When Lost: Unknowable.
The utopian, inhuman worlds of politics and social science are concerned with groups and categories, not with individual human beings. Thus, many of those who are unhappy with the outcomes of the Brexit referendum and the American presidential election have reacted in a way that reveals a great deal (none of it good) about how they view their fellow human beings: they see caricatures and stereotypes, not individual souls. What the unhappy fail to realize is that, by objectifying others, they are at the same time objectifying themselves, and have in turn transformed themselves into caricatures and stereotypes. This is what happens when one becomes politicized.
Vintage commentary …
… Veronica Lueken’s Holy Visions Upset Bayside | National Review. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
It is ironic to watch the churches, including large sections of my own religion, surrendering to the spirit of modernity at the very moment when modernity itself is undergoing a kind of spiritual collapse.
— Irving Kristol, born on this date in 1920
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Words and music …
All true Frenchmen should be immensely proud of these. All the rest of us should be grateful.
Get the original …
… Parsing the Weightiness of Words - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
A Dictionary of Modern English Usage is suffused with the personality and idiosyncrasies of its author, more so perhaps than even Samuel Johnson’s famous Dictionary. Fowler had a taste for risky but amusing generalizations. In his entry on “Didacticism,” for example, he remarks that “men are as much possessed by the didactic impulse as women by the maternal instinct.” By way of usage, he also taught good manners. His entry “French Words” begins: “Display of superior knowledge is as great a vulgarity as display of superior wealth—greater, indeed, inasmuch as knowledge should tend more definitely than wealth towards discretion and good manners.”
Something to think on …
We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.
— George Orwell, who died on this date in 1950
Friday, January 20, 2017
Minority report …
… R.T.'s Commonplace: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" -- a dissenting opinion.
I haven't read the story in more than half a century, so I can't say if I agree or not.
I haven't read the story in more than half a century, so I can't say if I agree or not.
Paging Jeff Bezos …
… David Gelernter and the Life of the Mind - Washington Free Beacon. (Hat tip, Dave lull.)
… since politics over the past few decades has become perhaps the key marker of social class for those who see themselves as the intellectual elite, David Gelernter’s politics mean that he cannot be an intellectual. Unfortunately, he’s undeniably a very smart man, one of the youngest people ever to receive tenure at Yale. A dilemma, yes?Proof that you can be a self-appointed member of the intellectual elite and dumb as a post (even a Washington Post).
Neglected …
… The piety and wit of Monsignor Ronald Knox. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Then there are the humorous essays, one proving that ‘In Memoriam’ was written by Queen Victoria, another exploiting the comic heart of an entirely serious attempt by Prebendary George Townsend in 1850 to convert Pius IX to Protestantism. All Knox’s devotional works of popular theology, like The Creed in Slow Motion, are discounted because they only interest believers.
For those who like that sort of thing …
… Poetry as solace and social commentary: The best collections to read this month - The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I don't myself go to poetry for solace — I'm not sure what I would be seeking solace for — and I certainly don't go to it for social commentary. But that's just me.
I don't myself go to poetry for solace — I'm not sure what I would be seeking solace for — and I certainly don't go to it for social commentary. But that's just me.
And the nominees are …
… Ellies 2017 Finalists Announced | ASME. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Looks like mostly those who are in with in-crowd.
Looks like mostly those who are in with in-crowd.
Something to think on …
The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.
— John Ruskin, who died on this date in 1900
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Losing perspective and lacking knowledge and being a melting snowflake
Blogging note …
I have to head over to The Inquirer in a few minutes, but I'll have my iPad with me and I hope to do some blogging then.
Something to think on …
The totalitarian phenomenon is not to be understood without making an allowance for the thesis that some important part of every society consists of people who actively want tyranny: either to exercise it themselves or — much more mysteriously — to submit to it.
— Jean-François Revel, born on this date in 1924
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
A reminder …
An Afternoon of Poetry
January 21st @ 2 p.m.
Chase’s Hop Shop
7235 Rising Sun Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19111
Featuring Poets
Diane Sahms-Guarnieri, Nathalie Anderson,
Robert Zell, James Feichthaler, g emil reutter
An open mic will follow.
Whither (or Wither) the Democrats?
When President-elect Donald Trump replaces Barack Obama on January 20, the Democratic Party will find itself more removed from power than at almost any point since the party’s creation.
Scorned by the same voters who once embraced the New Deal, built the Great Society, and put their hope in the nation’s first black president, Democrats are now locked out of power in Washington and out of two-thirds of state legislative chambers across the country.
Hmm …
… R.T.'s Commonplace: God & Empire by John Dominic Crossan.
I am always on guard when I hear talk of "the historical Jesus." A friend of mine, who has taught courses on evidence in law schools, told me that he broke out laughing when he started reading one of the classics of Biblical historicism. The author, he said, obviously knew nothing about how to judge eyewitness testimony. (As Wittgenstein said, the very inconsistencies and contradictions contained in the accounts of the resurrection are characteristic of eyewitness accounts.) At any rate, the Jesus of faith is not the same as the Jesus of the scholars — or, for that matter, the Jesus of the theologians. Otherwise only scholars or theologians would have access to it, a thought that borders on the risible. I am also skeptical of basing one's geopolitics on one's reading of the Gospels.
Two masters …
… Jazz 'Hot': The Rare 1938 Short Film With Jazz Legend Django Reinhardt Open Culture. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Something to think on …
Is The Wind in the Willows a children's book? Is Alice in Wonderland? Is Treasure Island? These are masterpieces which we read with pleasure as children, but with how much more pleasure when we are grown-up.
— A.A. Milne, born on this date in 1882
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Fatal words …
… Ian Probstein: Three translations of Osip Mandelstam's 'Stalin's Epigram' | Jacket2. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Mark thy calendar ( you have to scroll up) …
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History nuggets …
It's a Book! Sunbury Press has set a release date of Feb. 7 for Embattled Freedom, my history book about fugitive slaves and white allies in northeastern Pennsylvania. Because the story largely centers on Waverly, Pa., the Waverly Community House is kindly hosting my official book launch with an author talk on Sunday afternoon, March 5. I hope you can come, and please spread the word. Also, Sunbury has set up an order page where you can make advance orders. I'm putting an image of the book cover down at the bottom of this email. If your browser won't display it, just go to the order page for a glimpse.
The Southern "Bulldozers." In reading Retreat From Reconstruction, 1869-1879, the other day I was puzzled by a Virginia Republican's reference to Northerners abandoning him "to the tender mercies of the Ku Klux and 'Bulldozers.' " An internet search found several origins for the bulldozer term and one was dead-on relevant. During that woeful postwar period, black people across the South were plagued by gangs of murderous white terrorists. These goons, by using brutal violence like the "bull dose" a farmer might wield against an unruly bull, became known as bull-dosers or bulldozers. When the land-moving machine we're all familiar with was invented a few decades later, a machine of brute force, the name was applied.
"The Fountain of Sin." One shared value that probably helped Waverly's whites accept black newcomers was temperence--disdain for alcohol. Waverly briefly had a Temperence Hotel and its churches had teens sign personal temperence pledges. And the vigilance could never slacken, according to this July 1866 item in The Scranton Republican. "For several months past our village had been very orderly," wrote the Waverly correspondent, a teetotaling Methodist minister. "The former hotel keeper, for conscientious reasons, had abandoned the sale of intoxicating liquors, and as a result our community was almost entirely free from intemperance, and the good people of Waverly enjoyed a short Millennium. But the enemy has again been let loose upon us; a new proprietor has again opened the fountain of sin and misery… Many Abington mothers have wept, and others are destined to weep over the wreck of promising sons. Many such have hopelessly disappeared into the Maelstrom of intemperance."
Something to think on …
Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, if possible.
— Robert Maynard Hutchins, born on this date in 1899
Monday, January 16, 2017
As true today …
… as when it was it was written 24 years ago: Mediasaurus | WIRED.
This leads me to the final consequence of generalization: it caricatures our opponents, as well as the issues. There has been a great decline in civility in this country. We have lost the perception that reasonable persons of good will may hold opposing views. Simultaneously, we have lost the ability to address reasoned arguments – to forsake ad hominem characterization, and instead address a different person's arguments. Which is a tragedy, because debate is interesting. It's a form of exploration. But personal attack is merely unpleasant and intimidating. Paradoxically, this decline in civility and good humor, which the press appear to believe is necessary to "get the story," reduces the intensity of our national discourse. Watching British parliamentary debates, I notice that the tradition of saying "the right honorable gentleman" or "my distinguished friend" before hurling an insult does something interesting to the entire process. A civil tone permits more bluntness.
Appreciation …
Hentoff’s art was to highlight the art of others and he was so successful that he is in danger of being left out of the stories he stepped aside to make room for.
Any way you want to look at it he was prolific. There are many strands of Nat Hentoff, which, in both scope and depth, are hard to wrap your head around.
Q & A …
… This Week in Fiction: Elif Batuman on Writing Fiction vs. Nonfiction - The New Yorker. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Tomorrow evening …
THE GREEN LINE CAFE POETRY SERIES
& POETRY IN COMMON
PRESENT:
WHAT DOES PHILADELPHIA
POETRY MEAN TO YOU?
With: CHARLOTTE BOULAY,
CHARLES CARR & FRANK WILSON
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
This event will be a discussion and reading.
The poets will read poems written in Philadelphia,
written about Philadelphia, and poems by Philadelphia poets
(past and present). They will discuss how they see
the Philadelphia Poetry Scene, how Philadelphia has
been a home to them and their poetry, how they came
to choose Philadelphia, and how it has been good for
their poetry (or otherwise).
There will be an audience Q & A.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017 7 PM
45TH & LOCUST STREETS,
Philadelphia, PA
Please Note The Address –
There Are Other Green Line Cafes
http://greenlinecafe.com/
This Event Is Free
Charlotte Boulay grew up in the Boston area and attended St. Lawrence University. She earned her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she taught composition and creative writing for five years. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, The Boston Review, and Crazyhorse, among other journals. Foxes on the Trampoline is her first book, and was published in April 2014 by Ecco Press/HarperCollins. She lives with her husband in Philadelphia.
Charles Carr from Philadelphia was educated at LaSalle and Bryn Mawr College, where he earned a Masters in American History. Charles has worked in social and community development services for 44 years. Charles has also been active in raising funds for various missions and organizations serving the poorest of the poor In Haiti. In 2007 Charles was The Mad Poets Review First Prize Winner for his poem “Waiting To Come North”. In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. In January 2014 Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poems was published by The Moonstone Arts Center. Charles’ work has been published locally by the Painted Bride Review, Apiary, Fox Chase Review, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets, Philadelphia Stories, Moonstone Poetry Anthology, Poetry Ink as well as The Blue Collar Review and Generations of Poetry. Charles hosts the Moonstone Poetry series at Fergie’s once per month He has been a guest host for the Philadelphia Poetry Festival and a guest co-host for the Green Line Poetry Series in Philadelphia. In 2014 Charles read poems in The Garden of Remembrance in Dublin Ireland in honor of Poets for Peace. In 2017 he will host Philly Loves Poetry a monthly broadcast by Philly Cam which will focus on the various organizations , poets and venues show how people in Philly love poetry.
Frank Wilson Introduces Himself:
Assiduously following the course of least resistance has been the key to Frank Wilson’s success. Admirers have attributed this to his mastery of existential jujitsu, detractors to indolence and inertia.
Either way, it has served him well. Faced in college with a choice between his principal interests, medieval history and English lit, he realized immediately that the former would entail a mastery of Latin and other languages that could be had only by an effort he was disinclined to expend, while the latter required only an already demonstrated facility with his native tongue. English lit won hands down.
Through a process of elimination he went from being book critic of his college newspaper to arts and entertainment editor to editor. He had a well-paying job as an editor lined up even before graduation. Things were looking grand. But then, thinking life as a college professor might suit his laid-back approach to life, Wilson decided he should put in some time in graduate school. Unfortunately — or perhaps not — he realized that the tedium and toadiness of academe were not for him.
Thus began his years as a kind of 20th-century Goliard, delivering a lecture here, placing an article there, editing books for the likes of Philadelphia’s venerable J.B. Lippincott Co. and others, even landing a column in a local weekly. It was not to last. Publishers began cost-cutting and editing contracts dried up. The weekly went belly-up.
Happily, a friend got Wilson a job at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Less happily, it was at the ground floor, doing things like the racing charts. But the pay and benefits weren’t bad, and the work was hardly onerous, leaving Wilson time to review books, write poetry and pursue his lifelong interest in world-class partying.
The partying took its toll, however, and he was forced to give that up. At last he seemed as staid as everyone else, so naturally he was promoted, first to the copy desk, where he won a first prize for headline writing from the Society of Professional Journalists, then to book editor. He had come full-circle, doing what he had done in college, but also what he had always wanted to do. Unfortunately, it proved to be an ongoing — and eventually losing — battle with space cuts, budget cuts, and managerial obtuseness. In February 2008 he retired. Now he just blogs away at Books, Inq. — The Epilogue and writes — articles, reviews, poems. Oh, and he also has time now for that best of all activities: life itself.
& POETRY IN COMMON
PRESENT:
WHAT DOES PHILADELPHIA
POETRY MEAN TO YOU?
With: CHARLOTTE BOULAY,
CHARLES CARR & FRANK WILSON
HOSTED BY
LEONARD GONTAREK
This event will be a discussion and reading.
The poets will read poems written in Philadelphia,
written about Philadelphia, and poems by Philadelphia poets
(past and present). They will discuss how they see
the Philadelphia Poetry Scene, how Philadelphia has
been a home to them and their poetry, how they came
to choose Philadelphia, and how it has been good for
their poetry (or otherwise).
There will be an audience Q & A.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017 7 PM
45TH & LOCUST STREETS,
Philadelphia, PA
Please Note The Address –
There Are Other Green Line Cafes
http://greenlinecafe.com/
This Event Is Free
Charlotte Boulay grew up in the Boston area and attended St. Lawrence University. She earned her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she taught composition and creative writing for five years. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, The Boston Review, and Crazyhorse, among other journals. Foxes on the Trampoline is her first book, and was published in April 2014 by Ecco Press/HarperCollins. She lives with her husband in Philadelphia.
Charles Carr from Philadelphia was educated at LaSalle and Bryn Mawr College, where he earned a Masters in American History. Charles has worked in social and community development services for 44 years. Charles has also been active in raising funds for various missions and organizations serving the poorest of the poor In Haiti. In 2007 Charles was The Mad Poets Review First Prize Winner for his poem “Waiting To Come North”. In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. In January 2014 Haitian Mud Pies And Other Poems was published by The Moonstone Arts Center. Charles’ work has been published locally by the Painted Bride Review, Apiary, Fox Chase Review, The Schuylkill Valley Journal, Mad Poets, Philadelphia Stories, Moonstone Poetry Anthology, Poetry Ink as well as The Blue Collar Review and Generations of Poetry. Charles hosts the Moonstone Poetry series at Fergie’s once per month He has been a guest host for the Philadelphia Poetry Festival and a guest co-host for the Green Line Poetry Series in Philadelphia. In 2014 Charles read poems in The Garden of Remembrance in Dublin Ireland in honor of Poets for Peace. In 2017 he will host Philly Loves Poetry a monthly broadcast by Philly Cam which will focus on the various organizations , poets and venues show how people in Philly love poetry.
Frank Wilson Introduces Himself:
Assiduously following the course of least resistance has been the key to Frank Wilson’s success. Admirers have attributed this to his mastery of existential jujitsu, detractors to indolence and inertia.
Either way, it has served him well. Faced in college with a choice between his principal interests, medieval history and English lit, he realized immediately that the former would entail a mastery of Latin and other languages that could be had only by an effort he was disinclined to expend, while the latter required only an already demonstrated facility with his native tongue. English lit won hands down.
Through a process of elimination he went from being book critic of his college newspaper to arts and entertainment editor to editor. He had a well-paying job as an editor lined up even before graduation. Things were looking grand. But then, thinking life as a college professor might suit his laid-back approach to life, Wilson decided he should put in some time in graduate school. Unfortunately — or perhaps not — he realized that the tedium and toadiness of academe were not for him.
Thus began his years as a kind of 20th-century Goliard, delivering a lecture here, placing an article there, editing books for the likes of Philadelphia’s venerable J.B. Lippincott Co. and others, even landing a column in a local weekly. It was not to last. Publishers began cost-cutting and editing contracts dried up. The weekly went belly-up.
Happily, a friend got Wilson a job at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Less happily, it was at the ground floor, doing things like the racing charts. But the pay and benefits weren’t bad, and the work was hardly onerous, leaving Wilson time to review books, write poetry and pursue his lifelong interest in world-class partying.
The partying took its toll, however, and he was forced to give that up. At last he seemed as staid as everyone else, so naturally he was promoted, first to the copy desk, where he won a first prize for headline writing from the Society of Professional Journalists, then to book editor. He had come full-circle, doing what he had done in college, but also what he had always wanted to do. Unfortunately, it proved to be an ongoing — and eventually losing — battle with space cuts, budget cuts, and managerial obtuseness. In February 2008 he retired. Now he just blogs away at Books, Inq. — The Epilogue and writes — articles, reviews, poems. Oh, and he also has time now for that best of all activities: life itself.
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