Concerning War Movies (prompted by a conversation about Peter Jackson’s movie They Shall Not Grow Old). In J. D. Salinger’s “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters,” Buddy Glass [the author's alter ego] comes across these words in Seymour’s diary [the "sage" of the family who committed suicide]; they concern what Seymour believes to be the […]
Archive | America
RSS feed for this section
Bikes and Women
In Bloomington recently a man was run over and killed while riding his bicycle. A hit and run. It occurred to me that riding a bicycle is like being a woman in the USA. Neither is protected from the brute force of the dominant “cultural form.”
The Great American Anything
Here is a parody of the idea of “The Great American Anything” offered by the character Jerusalem Webster Stiles (who is the “devil” to John Shawnessy’s “Faust”) in Ross Lockridge, Jr.’s Raintree County. One should be aware that Lockridge’s novel was his considered entry into the “GAN” (Great American Novel) sweepstakes. The cynicism of Stiles […]
Bantling Psalms
Hard upon the last entry I remembered that Waldo penned his own “psalm” to the new nation commemorating a commemoration of the Battles of Lexington & Concord (April 19, 1775). I thought it would serve to put that poem in close proximity to Melville’s. Concord Hymn Sung at the Completion of the Battle Monument, July […]
The Custom House: Louis Agassiz with Christoph Irmscher
Episode 2 is now available for download: Agassiz, Inc. Please share far and wide, early and often. Thanks! This week I speak with biographer Christoph Irmscher about the legacy of Louis Agassiz, one of the most influential men in the development of the practice of science in America. Irmscher’s book is called Louis Agassiz: Creator […]
“takers and parasites,” this means you
It is this–more from Matalin than from Romney–that makes me believe the US has “leaders” (oligarchs) entirely capable of a massive “downsizing” of its population. Who would offer to defend the population of the US against its government/oligarchs? Who can “correct” the unmatched military power in the world–the one who has proven more than ready […]
Miseducation of Me
This is my Lauryn Hill: And this: But then again, this is my Matthew Modine (and my Journey): “I haven’t done anything yet…” What have I learned?
Whose Killer-in-Chief?
Does your tribe trust the killer-in-chief? From Gawker…go there, watch the video, and, if you please, come back. Ask the DNC: Is Romney Ready for the Kill List? John Cook As you may have heard last night, Osama bin Laden is dead, has perished from the earth, is at the bottom of the sea, and […]
Paving the Way
The idea that “saving” or protecting aspects of the world actually implies destruction of the remainder–a lack of needing to care about the world in its wholeness. For example let’s take National Parks. Implicit in a law protecting the environment from our destructive resource depletion and waste is the approval for the industrial rapine that […]
Common Core: Drones and Derivatives
Derivatives and Drones–are they distinguishable? Anti-Empathy Education focused on screened presence. CEO and CIA: Barker and Huckster at home and abroad. Institutions of Debt Creation insulate consequences from those who make them happen. Absolution by distance. Look, a keystroke destroys communities in Jefferson County, Alabama and Shabwa Province, Yemen. More similar than distinct: Moguls of […]
Articles
-
Glorifying War Shall Not Grow Old
-
Cutting Down the Clouds
-
Representative Texts from Hawthorne to Dickinson
