I started the day with book reviews from The Guardian. That was around 7 AM.
Ask Not: The Kennedys and the Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan review – a lacerating exposé
Not been that much of a Kennedy fan, this has not changed my mind.
The Unwilding by Marina Kemp review – dark family secrets
Novels about the writing of novels carry some risk. They can be self-regarding, they can be bewildering, and they can be slyly exacting, forcing the reader to retrace their steps in pursuit of objectivity while gleefully manipulating the only truth: that is, that this is all made up. Kemp – who was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writers’ award in 2020 for her debut, Nightingale – deftly avoids the first two of these pitfalls while triumphantly embracing the last.
Soemthign to think aobut for us writers.
Kafka: Selected Stories, edited by Mark Harman review – the master who never wasted a word
In utterances such as this – indeed, in every one of his published utterances – we see the truth of the declaration he made to Bauer: “I have no literary interests; I am made of literature; I am nothing else and cannot be anything else.” Even in the extremes of anguish he could not write without a stylish flourish or a touch of melancholy humour. Towards the end, he and another lover, Dora Diamant, devised a madcap scheme to emigrate to Palestine where they would both work in a restaurant in Tel Aviv, she as cook and he as a waiter. He related the fantasy to yet one more of his lovers, Milena Jesenská: “If I’m never going to leave my bed, why shouldn’t I go at least as far as Palestine?”
More to thinka bout - I know I have never thought myself made of literature. Too much the Midwestern Protestant to think like that. Which is why I write like Theodore Dreiser, not Kafka.
How far is Labatut able to follow his subjects into the weeds of number theory or the Schrödinger equation? Does he actually understand the ideas in his novels of ideas? “I cannot teach my 12-year-old daughter simple mathematics,” he says. “I know nothing about mathematics. But I think a writer’s mind works with sympathy, not with understanding.”
“What fascinates me most is things that remain mysterious, things that are unsolved. In my books I like to invite people to go down again, to go back into darkness to enjoy this rare pleasure of being in the presence of something that as Grothendieck said is enormous and very subtle; that is quiet but, you know, raging.”
“I’m not a serious thinker,” he continues. “I’m a writer: that’s very different. I think a writer’s intelligence has to be alive, has to be incomplete. It has to carry contradiction. It has to be sort of haphazard and amateur.”
***
“But, but …” I say. Voice, character, feelings, love, friendship, career – haven’t these been the basic stuff of fiction since its 19th-century heyday? “If the writing is great, it doesn’t matter,” he concedes, before unexpectedly turning his disdain for the tradition into a gesture of humility. “OK. I’m just not that good of a writer – so I have to write about interesting things. If I was a wonderful prose writer, if I was a stylist, sure: I’d tell them who I had sex with and what I had for breakfast. But because I have never considered myself to be that good, I have to write about the most profound and confounding things out there.”
I have been hearing about Benjamín Labatut this past year, but this is the first interviwe of him I have read. Inspirational. I wish I were young enough to do something worthwhile with the inspiration.
Song for Sunday morning:
Dishes washed, onto the email.What we’ve seen in the last 17 years, basically since 2008 and the rise of the Tea Party movement, is that there’s increasing polarization in the U.S. And the worst part of this polarization is that the American political system became dysfunctional in the sense that we are forcing out any politicians and policymakers who are interested in collaboration with the other side. That’s one thing. Second, people delegitimize leaders who are willing to collaborate with the other side, hence, presenting them as individuals who betrayed their values and political party.The third part is that people are delegitimizing their political rivals. They transform a political disagreement into a war in which there is no space for working together to address the challenges they agree are facing the nation.When you combine those three dynamics, you create basically a dysfunctional system where both sides are convinced that it’s a zero-sum game, that it’s the end of the country. It’s the end of democracy if the other side wins.If both sides are hammering into people again and again that losing an election is the end of the world, then it’s not a surprise that eventually people are willing to take the law into their hands and to engage in violence.
The Republicans are reaping what they sowed, in my opinion. It's odd that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts thinks it will be the liberals who will make the right-wing revolution bloody. Read Leader of the pro-Trump Project 2025 suggests there will be a new American Revolution. Now, some nutjob has played into their hands. I heard some Republican speaking on NPR this morning saying that the Left calling Trump a fascist helped cause this murder attempt. (For more Republican blaming of Democrats, go here). Perhaps, their candidate should not be saying he wants to be a dictator. Maybes, The Heritage Foundation should not be pushing a fascistic plan.
Also from The Indiana Capital Chronicle is Democrat delegates nominate Destiny Wells for attorney general.
In a showdown between the old guard and the younger faction of Hoosier Democrats, party delegates chose Destiny Wells as their nominee for attorney general in a 1,067-475 vote while also easily nominating former state lawmaker Terry Goodin for lieutenant governor.
Wells enlisted in the Army National Guard at 19, working her way up to lieutenant colonel, and attracted party members seeking to take a new direction while White, a longtime politico currently leading the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking, had steadfast support from traditionalist Democrats.
“I think this was the conclusion of that rebuilding,” Wells said about the party. “This vote was about moving into the future and folks seeing younger candidates and saying,’ Let’s give them a chance.’”
I think Rokita embarrasses Indiana with his grandstanding for his own gain. We need an AG that will represent Hoosiers, not his ambitions.
Back from the laundromat, working at the table I set up before I left. This may help the output - a little more ergonomic.
I did a little sweep of the news. Trump is still alive, the shooter is dead. Cancer finally got to Shannon Doherty: Shannen Doherty, ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ and ‘Charmed’ star, dead at 53. Say some prayers for her. Say some for Trump, too. Shelly Duval and Richard Simmons, also.
I am a nut for archeology and Mysterious Maya underground structure unearthed in Mexico pushed all the right buttons.
Unncanny Magazine has a Kickstarter going, click here to contribute. There are not many science fiction magazines left, are there?
On the bus yesterday, coming back from Walgreens, a woman on the bus started talking about Walgreens shutting down one of its Muncie stores. We talked for a bit about all the businesses that have gone: Red Lobster, Ponderosa Steakhouse, and Country Buffet. We all have different landmarks. To me, and a lot of people, the chains, those trademarked names that we grew up with, are landmarks in our popular culture. Big Lots is supposed to be closing. Damon's, Mr. Steak, Sambo's, Laughner's Cafeteria, Shakey's Pizza, Village Pantry, Marsh Supermarkets, Matthew's Grocery, Longhorn Steakhouse, Ryan's Steakhouse, and Indiana's Waffle House are all gone, all had a place in our lives. Not that I want to bathe myself in silly nostalgia. Things change. Businesses die like people die. Maybe their replacements will be better; maybe there will be no replacements. They have become history, and so will we.
Although the clothes have been put up, this table is on its legs, and there is still too much stuff needing to be organized. Oh, well. I plan on calling CC and see if she wants to come over for brownies. Then, too, I have places to submit my stories. I think this will do for now.
They are remaking Barbarella? Why?
Having seen the trailer now, I cannot imagine who would go see it. The original was silly, this sounds pompous. Why not remake the movies that failed because of the Hays Code or the tech wasn't there instead of just latching onto a title for marketing. did not Denzel's Magnificent Seven teach them nothing?
My song for this post-thunderstorm, muggy afternoon:
DM sent me this what seems like weeks ago, but it still might be of interest: America's drinking water is facing attack, with links back to China, Russia and Iran.
The rising cybercrime wave targeting key infrastructure led the Environmental Protection Agency to issue an enforcement alert warning that 70% of water systems it inspected do not fully comply with requirements in the Safe Drinking Water Act. Without quantifying an exact number, the EPA said some have "alarming cybersecurity vulnerabilities" — default passwords that have not been updated, vulnerable single login setups and former employees who retained systems access.
sch
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to comment